Notes

As long as you're happy with playing your own game it doesn't matter if you can or can't play what others are playing.

While cooling down after a mile run, my wife checked on me to see if I was in the garage. We looked at each other and I opened up to her that I have been having decision fatigue. When I talked about it and how I feel she kind of brushed it off and reached for the door--I hate when she does this because I am discussing a problem that demands a solution and she just gave me a cold shoulder. Not discussing a problem is a problem. I asked her to hear me out. I told her, "I am tired of making decisions lately, both internally and externally. I am overwhelmed by these decisions that we need to make, or do we really have to make them? We've been to these stores multiple times in the past 2 weeks and we spend at least 2 hours each store. I don't want to spend my half of my day shopping! It takes so much of our time and when it's my time to do the things I need and want to do, I don't have the energy anymore! I am tired, I am tired of making these unnecessary decisions that I know we can streamline but choose not to. Are you not tired of making these decisions lately?" She replied, "No, I am not tired." I was surprised that she wasn't overwhelmed with making and changing decisions. What does that mean? Does it mean that I'm the only one thinking…

This week I tried to be consistent running a mile each day whenever I had the chance. Consistency really makes a big difference when you're trying to be better at something. I noticed that I was only able to do this with enough night time sleep and rest. Also, in terms of drive and motivation, tracking your stats helps you to not go back from where you were.

Peace is happiness at rest and happiness is peace in motion. This was articulated really well by Naval Ravikant during his podcast session with Joe Rogan. I've never heard such deep insight regarding this topic. I was skeptic of him at first because he's mainly involved in tech and crypto but now I know why Tim Ferris loves to guest him in his podcast. The guy is a unique thinker.

US politics is so complex that it negates itself. In an election, candidates are only allowed a certain amount of money to spend on their campaign and donations from supporters are also capped. These are one of the guardrails and regulations set up to avoid election manipulation. Sure! HOWEVER, because it's a free country where citizens have their rights to free speech and can INDEPENDENTLY support or oppose certain candidate(s) without their approval as they are at-will supporters, it is, technically, legal. Then we have so many billionaires who can spend outrageous amounts of money to support whoever they wanted in office. Of course they can tilt the balance and influence the election results! Why do they do this, you ask? Well, it's to lobby their businesses and grab these candidates by the balls. It sounds dark and greedy, right? Sure! But what's the solution, you may ask? Stop them from supporting their candidates independently because they can influence the results? But then again going back to being a free country where citizens can freely and independently exercise their rights, they did nothing wrong. Kapuy ani nila. Haha

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCSotUosRLE In this video I am sharing a recent experience about buying a vehicle in the US that prompted me to look back on my previous experience as a new Filipino Immigrant who knew nothing about car buying and the negotiation and process that comes with it. I wanted to spread this information to fellow Filipinos (esp mga bisaya) who are currently in the market for cars and don't know where to start.  Di ta pailad ana ilang mga inigles kay sa iningles ra na sila maayo.

Putting this new "equipment" to test. This is not a hack, this is an essential Adulting transition from slow, deliberate style of cooking to a newly discovered realm of efficient, put-it-altogether way of cooking.  My wife was like, "too bulky", I'm like, well, let me show you what this bad boy can do.  Clutch factor: this machine can cook rice in 12min on low pressure and 5min on high pressure. *drops mic

I noticed that the one thing I could not avoid is to write something about anything My writing may not be perfect but to me it feels like therapy--to extract words out of my thoughts, like an itch I need to scratch. I know early on that I was not good at speaking my mind---when I get anxious I speak fast and when try to speak slowly, it feels like I'm trying too hard. So I opt to writing my thoughts instead--no pace, just a string of interconnected words and phrases. 

A lot of controversy on Starbuck's disastrous quarterly earnings report, but of course, the news is the most delayed indicator and the fact that earnings reports are delayed in itself because it reports the earnings and revenue of the previous quarter. The current report will not entail what's currently happening and in the next quarter/year and so on. I saw this happen on Facebook ($META) before when Mark's competency was in question after they reported a series of terrible earnings after a huge bet (that failed) on VR, the stock was down about 70% from it's high at the time, even I had to sell my long-term position. Circling back, it is undeniable that Starbucks is the only coffee company that has global reach in its industry. It is the figurehead of all things coffee. If you buy a drink from them you say, "I'll get Starbucks", not “I’ll get coffee”. They are, if not yet, the global name-brand coffee. They will still be the same famously known coffee company in the world in the next 5 years, and for this reason, I am still bullish long-term. To humor fellow investors, here's a photo of a Starbuck's cup in a local pop-up store while we were enjoying the panoramic views of mountains in Hoyohoy, Tangub City, Philippines.

The dollar being the reserve currency, it is tied up with global inflation, and to slow it down, the central bank has to strengthen the reserve currency. This means higher demand on owning a dollar because people/institutions would want to own a stronger currency to keep them afloat against inflation. With most commodities priced in dollars, this means that other currencies will continue to lose value if global inflation isn't controlled. For that reason, there are governments and institutions that wanted to break away from a dollar-dominated market hence they're considering digital currencies as a viable storage of value. The ability to move blocks of currencies multiple times without central bank interference is not only efficient, it is also best choice if one wants to avoid scrutiny and asset seizure.