PP#1 – People with no peripheral vision. I think that I try hard to be aware of people around me. I think I’m conscientious and courteous. Some people though, they just have on the horse blinders and walk right into me. And then comes their awkward apology.

Last night we went to see Adam Sandler at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis. It was our 14th wedding anniversary present to each other.

Rob Schneider opened up for Adam. He was great. Sandler was hilarious too. It was a great show with lots of little creative songs sprinkled here and there. He’s such a goofy guy. It’s hard not to like him and laugh at the silly crap he does. It’s also hard to believe that this is the same guy who gave a masterful performance in Uncut Gems.

I keep forgetting that I saw him perform at WIU back in 1998 or 99. He didn’t do any standup then, it was all music with his band. I had a couple of his CDs. I listened to him nonstop for a while there, with my friends and my brother. Good times!

One day I was thinking about all the old people I know, like all the old ladies in my neighborhood. I was thinking about all the old of men in my town. I wondered where they were and what they would be doing. Then I realized that they’re all deceased. Then I realized that I am them; I am the “old” person now. 😬

It’s funny. The older I get, the older “old” becomes. When I was a kid I thought 20 was an old age. You would be a full fledged adult by then. Then in my late teens I saw that 20 year olds were still finding their way around the world. So I thought 30 was old. 30 year olds had kids and mortgages and such. Then in my 30s I thought that late-50s was old. People are nearing retirement at that age. Now that I’m 47 I don’t think any age is old. You just live your best life until the end.

I love this particular town that I live in. I was born and raised here. I went to school here. I’ll probably die here. I know that sounds like a bad country song but it’s true. I lived in other towns and cities, and I feel like I’ve satisfied any desire to live somewhere else. So that made it easier to come back to my hometown to live.

Someday I may lose my job and we may have to move far away. But I will always love my hometown. To the outside observer it’s probably no place special. There’s no big single draw or any natural landmarks to speak of. It’s a town like thousands of others in the US; small population, one larger employer, and so on. For me the special part is the people. It’s the relationships that I have with others in this town that make me want to stay here. I could see where it would be hard for a newcomer to come into a small town and ingratiate themselves. Small towns are full of conservative and weary people. They want to make sure that someone is going to fit in and mesh well with others before they open their arms and welcome someone into the extended family.

It’s also this conservative nature of small town folk that keeps one in line. If someone deviates too much from normal accepted practices then they relegated to the lower social class. I personally grew up in this lower class and I’ve made great strides (or, more honestly, my wife has pulled me up) to enter the “higher” class of citizens. This is a class where money and opportunities are more prevalent, but erratic signs of emotions are discouraged. This is a class where discretion and self-control are valued traits.

I’m not in this higher class to prove my worthiness to others, rather I’m in it to prove my worthiness to myself. I look at the other people in this class as mirrors, and I like to see myself reflected positively. Sure, there are some people in this class that are superficial and somewhat phony but for the most part it’s a good group to be in. It’s a group that I’ve always kinda felt like I should belong to, but my upbringing and own lack of self-confidence had told me that I wasn’t good enough. My wife is different. She grew up just as lower-middle-class (if not poorer) than I did, but she slid right into the higher class with grace and dignity, without shedding of her integrity in order to “fit in”. She is still the same down to earth person as she’s always been but she mingles and merges with this higher class without any trace of difficulty. In a way, she changes the behavior of others around her instead of herself being changed. That gives me a good grounding in feeling that our current elevated lifestyle is “real”, like there’s nothing phony or pretentious going on. Our wedding anniversary is Saturday and after 15 years of being together I’m still in awe of her and how far she’s come given her childhood. She’s my inspiration.

So getting back to small towns, I could see how someone would move if it’s for adventure or job opportunities. But I don’t understand people who grew up in our town and then move to a similar surrounding town, and then drive here to work. Maybe they’ve damaged their reputation here and would never be accepted? Maybe they’re racist? They’re probably racist.

When it comes to things I like I tend to take it to the extreme at times. My tastes get more and more refined, I get snobby about my hobby (hey that rhymes!). I was something of a pen nerd back when I went to college. I would go to the bookstore and try out all the different pens to fine The Holy Grail, one that was perfect for everyday use.

I finally settled on Jotter pens by Parker about 10 years ago and I’ve been using them exclusively ever since. They have a great feel and weight, the ink flows great and they are easily portable.

I would buy them by the pallet if I could. I bought a batch on eBay one time but something was off about them. I discovered that there are good Parker pens made in France, then there are cheap Parker pens made in India. I use a pen so much during the work day. I can tell the difference. Viva la France!

When I was growing up I loved watching MTV. I would anxiously await a World Premiere Video from just about any band or artist. It was amazing, this youth, urban culture sent straight to my young brain that resides inside my body that lived in rural Cowtown USA. Then MTV started to change. It began with the game shows, then the talk shows, then finally the reality shows. I guess there wasn’t enough money to be made in just showing videos.

When I was older and started working in the cable TV business I was able to get a Cable Box for free for my house. The box got all the channels that we offered. I was fascinated by all the above-and-beyond channels that I would normally have to subscribe to. One of these channels was called VH1 Classics. They showed nothing but videos. No shows, not even commercials. It was beautiful. They showed all the old videos that I grew up with. More importantly they showed a lot of heavy metal videos for songs I knew but have never seen a video for. This was before YouTube was the video juggernaut we know today. VH1 Classics had me hooked.

Eventually VH1 Classics started to change. It started showing commercials. Then it started showing hosted video shows. Finally it turned into nothing more than an overflow channel for other Viacom-owned properties (MTV, VH1, etc.). It was part of the sad truth about growing up, which is Everything You Love Will Be Monetized.

It wasn’t enough that I liked videos on MTV. If you pay for a cable subscription then you’re already subsidizing MTVs existence. But then they started showing commercials, to make more money. Then they started showing me stuff that they wanted me to see, not what I wanted to see. Ah, but for a small additional monthly fee I could subscribe to VH1 classics to see what I originally paid MTV to see. So videos, like any other service or product, will eventually raise the cost to me to find my pain-point: They point at which, if they charged just one dollar more, I would leave. They were out to extract maximum value.

I get it. I get what they’re doing and why they do it. I try to extract (near) maximum value for my labor from my employer. I love the USA, and to love our country it’s easier to love capitalism too. So I have nothing against capitalism. It’s great, it lifts people out of poverty, it creates labor saving devices and new technologies and all that jazz. I just remember stuff like watching videos and I look back on the transition from young doe-eyed idealist into world-weary realist.

This is why my son plays baseball for an organized team that travels to tournaments to play other organized teams. He loves baseball, and I love to watch him play baseball. It’s not enough to just play Little League. There is additional league above and beyond this in which he can also play, for a small fee. Everything You Love Will Be Monetized.

My son doesn’t care about economics. We’ll, he’s 12. He does care about it but not consciously, yet. He’s bright though. He will put all the pieces together as he gets older. But for now he just wants to play ball. And he’s good enough to play with the travel ball team, so he’s got that going for him. I suppose it would be different if, instead of anyone being able to pay for VH1 Classics, that we had to audition to prove our worthiness to watch the channel.

I’m glad that travel ball exists for him as an option to play. But I also loved my time helping out with his Little League team, at every practice and every game. I was surrounded by kids who were way less privileged than my son. For some of these kids Little League was maybe the only positive activity in their life. I had one kid tell me during a game that his mom was out-of-town and he had nothing to eat. I told my wife and by the end of that game she had showed up with a basket of food for this kid to take home. I don’t think this situation is going to pop up during a travel ball game.

1. At age 16 start putting a set amount every week or two into ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) that track the whole stock market. The low-cost Vanguard VTI fund is great for this. Use a free site like eTrade to buy a share of VTI when you have enough money transferred in.

99% years of the time you will not beat the average return on the whole stock market by picking individual stocks. Warren Buffet proved this when he bought index funds and out-earned an actively managed account.

2. Keep putting in a set amount regardless of how the market is performing. If the market goes up, good for you. Your portfolio is up. If the market is down, good for you. You get to buy stocks more cheaply. If the market is way down, good for you. You’re young. The market is going to average a 6% return yearly over your lifetime. Things will and do get better.

The only time you should change your weekly investment is when your salary goes up or down. Adjust your amount accordingly.

3. Turn on DRIP. Activate the Dividend ReInvestment Program with your brokerage account. This will insure that all the stock dividends you receive are reinvested. Compound Interest is one of the most powerful forces in the world. Make sure it is working for you and not against you (in the case of debt).

4. Ignore the stock market for 50 years. Go for a walk. Smell the roses.

5. Profit! If you invest $2000 a year when you’re 16, increase it by 3% a year for 50 years, and get a 6% yearly return on the market, you will have $1,000,000 at age 66.

Note: I am not a professional financial advisor. The above statements are made in good faith, to the best of my knowledge as an amateur economist having an MBA with a financial emphasis.

I’ve been to a few airports in the US, mainly for work. I love airports. I like the hustle and bustle, watching people and thinking about all the busy schedules they’re on, or maybe great vacations they’re going to (or coming from). I find that airports also provide a quick snapshot of the type of working-class people that make up the host city. Also I like the idea of being in one place, getting inside a metal tube, taking a nap, and then waking up in a completely different city, time zone and climate. It’s almost an instant stimulation to the senses. I’ve been on long roadtrips, like > 24 hours straight, and when you reach your destination you feel it in your bones. You’ve been through all the terrain changes, time changes, climate changes, etc. You just feel tired when you finally stop driving. Flying is the way to go.

I was 30 years old before I flew for the first time, to Miami. Previous to this I’d taken my older brother to the St. Louis and Chicago airports many times, and picked him up as well. I was always fascinated by what lay beyond the security gate, since it was a world that I could not go into.

I’m 47 years old and still feel like I’m making up for lost time, vacation-wise. So going to many airports is part of my plan (or psyche).

Almost 20 years ago The Mars Volta’s album Deloused in the Comatorium was released. I’ve been listening to it a lot lately on Apple Music. It is still my favorite record ever, from beginning to end.

I never bothered to listen to anything from At the Drive In (their previous band) or any subsequent album. I don’t know how this record worked it’s way to me in the first place. But it is an absolute sonic masterpiece. It’s a fever dream of music, meant to be listened to while driving alone at 3am, going too fast on an interstate three states away, swerving around semis, with way too much caffeine coursing through the veins. Not that I would know.