The Monday Read

Listening to old music edition

Been listening to a lot of music from my yoof this week. Kind of weird to think that it’s all 20-30 years old. Eeek.

I started doing this simple workout every day in the morning, and my lower back pain has mostly disappeared. Huge quality of life boost.

Hope everyone is doing okay out there.

This week’s links

  1. Don’t think there is much point to this unless they make it a lot easier to get tested: Japanese government to release coronavirus contact-tracing app in May
  2. This made me very happy for a few minutes (my favourite is the doctor one): Twitter thread of bad jokes
  3. Lots of little facts and thoughts about our current problem: CORONALINKS 5/18/20: WHEN ALL YOU HAVE IS A HAMMER, EVERYTHING STARTS LOOKING LIKE A DANCE
  4. Agree with the last paragraph: Foreign residents stranded abroad by Japan’s coronavirus controls
  5. I love the simplicity of this: What’s in my portfolio (and how I manage it)
  6. I hate this idea. Spend the money on people in Japan, tourists will come back on their own when it’s safe (they should probably stay away for now): Japan Plans To Subsidize Holidays To Reignite Tourism
  7. I don’t really care about sudoku but this was riveting: Puzzled man solving ‘miracle’ sudoku becomes YouTube sensation
  8. Fun read (especially as I bought Uber for the first time this month): Doordash and Pizza Arbitrage
  9. A resilient life: Create a Stable Life, not a Stable Job
  10. I’ve been enjoying this blog recently, and this post is stellar: What we leave behind
  11. Philip Brasor, solid as usual: Media Mix, May 24, 2020

I’m quite proud of this week’s links. Nice mix, not too many, some real gems. My favourites were #2 and #7 (the ones that have nothing do with personal finance).

This week’s books

9 Responses

  1. Hi Ben!

    Recently I like listening to music I enjoyed in my “youth” too (from when I was in college and in my 20’s). It brings back good memories, and reminds me of the person that I was (in a good way) — helps me get back in touch with myself. So I totally relate!

    Stephanie

  2. Louis L’Amour is one of my favourite authors. I especially loved the Sackett Series.
    His autobiography is cool and in the beginning he has some greats views on education I agree with.

    1. Hmm, I’ve since seen galloway on the news talking about higher education and its situation in the COVID era. He was quite critical of it (decrying its ‘branding’), but was at least more coherent than the blog post at #10. There’s a similar youtube of him on “The College Implosion”, but it seems not to be viewable here.

  4. I especially liked this quote from #3 and it should be tried (bwahaha):

    “I appreciate how much pressure there is on governors to open up churches, but they should be very careful about this, unless churchgoers can promise to stay uncharacteristically silent. I realize how bad it will look to say that golfing and rock concerts and orgies are allowed but churches aren’t. Still, governors should swallow their pride and stand firm.

    (Or they could just troll people. I understand Muslims pray quietly facing the ground, so how about ordering that mosques are allowed to reopen but churches aren’t? Then sit back and watch the fireworks.)”

  5. I enjoyed #8, but I have to agree with the (very unpopular) opinion of ‘Benjamin’ in the comments: what they did sounds like a fraud to me.
    I understand that the precise definition of the crime differs by jurisdiction, but where I am from, their action fell well within the realm fraudulent behaviour.
    I am surprised that Benjamin copped such a bashing from the majority for mentioning it.

  6. How about a playlist? Would like to see what your music choices are to see if any new songs I would like?