2022

Last year I implied that 2020 was the worst year of everyone's lifetime, you know, pandemic and all.  This year started with the promise that COVID-19 vaccines would make 2021 relatively normal.  I should have known better.

With that in mind, I’ll try to be less optimistic on my annual list of things I’d like to see happen next year.  But first, here’s this year’s annual review with comments in ALL CAPS:

A non-pandemic world where people live without fear of contracting COVID-19.

A HARD-ROCK SOLID NO.

A less-friendly social and legal environment for those who help spread malicious propaganda and conspiracy theories.

A SOFT-ROCK SOLID NO.

A Summer Olympics that actually happens.

YES, BUT IT WASN’T THE SAME WITHOUT CROWDS.

Revelations and prosecutions of Trump administration / organization officials who broke laws.

YES ON THE REVELATIONS, NOT SO MUCH ON THE PROSECUTIONS (YET).

More time to read, more time to listen to podcasts.

THANKS TO AN ONGOING PANDEMIC, THIS WAS PROBABLY MORE TRUE THAN NOT.

An easy integration of administration and technology between Charles Schwab and TD Ameritrade.  (A rare professional ask in this annual list.)

THEY DIDN’T EVEN BEGIN THIS YEAR.

A full return of college and professional sports.

THIS IS A QUALIFIED NO, GAMES WERE STILL POSTPONED AND CANCELED.

The Minnesota Twins to break their streak of 18 consecutive playoff game losses.

NO, BECAUSE THEY'D HAVE TO MAKE THE PLAYOFFS FIRST.

Less interaction with people who make every conversation about them.

YES, PROGRESS HAS BEEN MADE ON THIS.

An awesome vacation.

DID MAKE A FUN TRIP TO SOCAL AND VEGAS IN SEPTEMBER.

For 2022, I want to experience this:

More mandates and life complications for the unvaxxed, making more of them get vaxxed.

Cryptocurrency regulations.

Prosecutions and convictions of Trump administration / organization officials who had roles in the 1/6/2021 insurrection.

A Winter Olympics that actually happens.

An executive order, at the least, to loosen federal rules on cannabis.

A top-tier Minnesota Vikings football team.

A loss of market cap and credibility for Facebook/Meta.

Me playing golf at a famous course / resort.

A decline in residential home buying.

A repeat from 2020 – me traveling to the final four U.S. states in which I’ve never set foot.

Denying Math > Denying Science

Mostly due to a former wannabe fascist president, the U.S. is stuck in deep political divide, one that has morphed into a divide on practically every other socio-economic issue.

This politically-driven divide is at its dumbest over the COVID-19 vaccine.  While the pandemic has killed over 800,000 Americans, and the vaccine has killed none, the anti-vaxxer crowd cares more about going along with their like-minded group.  In short, they prefer to deny science in order to ‘own the libs’ by getting sick or dying. 

Every once in a while, though, the anti-vaxxer crowd wants to do more than deny science; they also want to deny math.  This is usually manifested by them pointing out that even vaccinated people are getting infected, then showing some kind of data where the infected vaccinated group percentage continues to increase.

It’s such a stupid, specious argument.

Let’s first establish that the vaccines are between 75%-90% efficacious.  None of the vaccine developers ever said they were curative (although the anti-vax crowd wants you to think that).  The vaccines are meant to reduce the number of infections, reduce their symptoms, and minimize deaths.

Then let's establish that while we don’t have nearly enough people vaxxed in this country or world, that number goes up every day.  As that number increases, and the number of unvaxxed people decreases, it is a mathematical certainty that there will be a higher percentage of vaxxed people who still contract COVID-19.  Taken to the limit, if everyone was vaccinated, then the percentage of vaxxed people who become infected will increase to 100%.

Meanwhile, this anti-vaxxer math-denial belies the fact that the percentage of hospitalizations and deaths will continue to increase for the unvaxxed population, regardless of what the vaxxed people do.

In the end, science and math facts aren’t going to matter to a cult-following group.  If you’re willing to believe someone who tells you the earth is flat, it’s likely you’ll also believe 2 + 2 doesn’t equal 4.

Thanks But No Thanks

In last year's annual list of things for which I am not thankful, I noted how it was never easier to come up with items in the year of a pandemic.  This year, we're still struggling to get back to normal, but with an extra dose of conspiracy cults mixed in.  So again I say, it's never been easier.....in random order: 

Insurrections and insurrectionists

Anti-vaxxers

Facebook executives

Voting restrictions

Paying more than the asking price

Mask mandate prohibitions

Meme investing

Science-deniers

History-ignorers

Math-idiots

Billionaires who don't pay income taxes

Supply chain network problems

Cryptocurrencies

Methane

Pandemic variants and waves

Winning At Betting Without Gambling

In the past two years, some states have legalized sports gambling via apps, which use GPS technology to confirm the device being used is in that state.  I don't have any particular expertise to pass along about sports gambling, but I have plenty to say about how easy it can be for people to make money by simply downloading the apps, without really putting any money at risk.

All of these gambling apps need to acquire customers to be profitable.  For that reason, they all offer specials for new users.  These specials are usually given as an easy one dollar bet at 100-1 odds (ensuring a $100 win), or some form of gambling credit.

The 'free bet' credit is the most typical form or credit, meaning it must be used on one or more wagers.  It's often capped to equal the amount of initial funding up to a certain level.  But it isn't that hard to turn this 'free bet into 'free money' though conservative wagering.  For example, if you have $500 of free bets at $25 per free bet, just find a game with a wager close to even odds, and bet on both sides.  At a minimum, you'll make $200.)

So, here's my quick-step guide on how you (and perhaps a spouse) can make hundreds of dollars while sitting on your couch with a smartphone:

• Download the apps.

• Electronically fund them, preferably to the max amount of free bets allowed.

• Make your easy one dollar bet, or over time, make your free bets, leaving the amount you funded untouched.

• Cash out your original deposit and winnings!

So why aren't more people doing this?  I don't know.  Maybe people are afraid of technology.  Maybe they're afraid of getting addicted to gambling, losing what they initially funded plus a lot more.

Or maybe they just aren't good at calculating the return of making hundreds of dollars for a couple of hours of work.

Best Song Lyrics (Part XXIII)

I've been blogging about what I consider to be the 'best' song lyrics for over ten years now, and I admit it shows my biases.  I've already admitted I don't have enough country songwriters in my entries, and I certainly don't have enough female or minority representation on it either.

I'm going to help rectify that, at least a little bit, by highlighting Alicia Keys.  While their are many other famous black female artists that came before her, like Aretha Franklin or Tina Turner, they and many others are more famous as performers.

Keys is known as much for her songwriting as her singing.  She's either solo wrote or helped to write lots of songs made famous not only by her, but by many other artists.  And to top it off, she's prolific at playing instruments as well, notably the piano.

For my example, let's go with a big hit song she solo wrote and performed, If I Ain't Got You.  In this case, the words don't do justice to the incredible vocal range in her performance:

Some people search for a fountain

Promises forever young

Some people need three dozen roses

And that's the only way to prove you love them

Hand me the world on a silver platter

And what good would it be

With no one to share

With no one who truly cares for me

Some people want it all

But I don't want nothing at all

If it ain't you, baby

If I ain't got you

Some people want diamond rings

Some just want everything

But everything means nothing

If I ain't got you

It Never Rains In Southern California

After a one-year hiatus caused by COVID-19, I just returned from a Fall excursion to some part of the country where I've never been.  This year, it was to the San Diego / La Jolla region of southern California.  My observations:

• It might have simply been coincidence, but the weather was fantastic.  It was in the upper 70s daily, with a cloudless sky.  The sun felt warm, but was offset by the light, cool Pacific Ocean breeze.  It was the stereotypical 'San Diego' weather that makes one wonder why they don't move there permanently.

• Took the high, arcing bridge from San Diego to Coronado Island, which is mostly known for its naval air station and for the Hotel del Coronado of movie fame.  The island is small, and an hour-long bike ride can get you around the entire inhabited area.  It's basically a tourist trap, with a nicely-kept beach.  The hotel itself is a major draw -- a massive, old structure with lots of friendly folks willing to sell expensive items to both guests and non-guests.

• La Jolla itself is a trendy, knob-shaped area with beautiful ocean views.  It's also an expensive place to live -- the median price of a modest residence there was around $2.5 million.  It's also not an exaggeration to say the majority of cars I saw there were luxury models.  There were lots of open-air eating and drinking establishments, most of which had that chill, wine-drinking type of vibe.

• About 10-15 miles north of San Diego, the Torrey Pines area has plenty of trails to walk and sights to see.  Most will stop at the ‘gliderport’ on the cliffs above the Pacific to watch paragliders swoop up and down, and back and forth along the coastline.  It's an awesome sight for those who've never seen it in person.  Many may have seen the gliders on TV during telecasts of professional golf tournaments at nearby Torrey Pines Golf Course, a gorgeous public venue and also a great place for lunch.

• Speaking of cars, the per capita ratio of Tesla models in the San Diego area was stunning.  They were everywhere.  I presume it's a combination of high gasoline prices ($4.50 per gallon was the average) and the feeling of exclusivity one might crave living in SoCal.

One COVID-related item was that California has an indoor mask mandate, and people were very compliant, as you might expect from any area that relies on tourists.  Contrast that with Iowa / the Midwest where I live, where wearing masks isn't encouraged much less required.  The result is that while the Midwest has always considered itself a safer place to live, right now from a pandemic perspective, it's clearly safer to live in California.

Gone Days Of Summer

August has long been considered the primary vacation month of the year in America, especially for those with children at home.  It's the one warm-weather month in which structured summer activities for kids are generally over, but school hasn't yet started (for most).

It seems to me that this year, the second August of the COVID-19 pandemic era has resulted in more time off for more people than ever before.  I'll take it one step further and say it seems a lot of folks simply decided to take the entire month off from their normal work schedules -- whatever that means these days.

My perception is based on an unofficial tally of certain random things being at an all-time high:

• People needlessly bragging about their August vacations on social media.

• Number of 'out of the office' responses I get to work calls and emails.

• No production of otherwise live TV shows, and/or vacationing TV personalities.  (Some of this comes from the Summer Olympics, which generated hundreds / thousands of hours of new content, and kept other channels re-running old material.)

Yes, a lot of people missed out on their summer vacations last year, and that wasn't going to happen this year.  They also probably wanted to compensate for the time and money saved during their stay-cation last year.

But I also get the feeling that the pandemic has changed things to a more European-style, don't-work-too-hard-in-the-summer here.  With people 'working' from anywhere, they have more latitude about when, where, and how they work.

Maybe, just maybe, we have a new summer way of doing things, one I wish we'd had when I was younger.

Full disclosure:  When it comes to this blog, I also took August off!