You know what really grinds my gears? People that thank Jesus for other peoples hard work, or even their own hard work.
There is one individual in particular that continues to frustrate me every time the spotlight is on him. His name is Trey Canard. He is a professional motocross racer. He has had a fairly successful career, and according to him, when it comes to motocross "this is what the lord made me for". From my understanding, Trey chose #41 as his career racing number, because of the movie Ben-hur. In the movie, slave number 41, has to fight an up hill battle, but meets Jesus, who helps him win a race and save his family. Trey's life isn't too far off the plot in a lot of ways. He has had very, very unfortunate, and unlucky incidents happen during his career. He broke his femur twice, and was involved in the worst racing incident I have ever seen, when another rider landed off a huge jump, directly onto Trey. Trey had spinal damage and had to have three vertebra in his back fused together. Every time Trey has met major adversity, he has fought back with astonishing determination to return better and stronger than before. He believes Jesus wants him to continue racing, so he does.
I have no issue with him worshiping god. Many riders do. What irritates me, is that he puts god above everyone else, even people that have directly influenced his life. When interviewed after winning a race, he always likes to "thank the lord above first and foremost."
First off, there is an incredible group of people that help Trey win races. Without them, he doesn't win, end of story. He has personal trainers that keep him in shape, help him recover from injures, and help him eat right. He has a personal mechanic that modifies, sets up and maintains Treys bikes to be the best they can be. Also, he has an entire team behind him, providing him EVERYTHING needed to partake in racing. They supply a semi trailer and mobile home to every event. His riding gear, bikes, food, and accommodation are all waiting for him at each event. Just so you understand, they don't just get the stuff there, they provide it all to him free of charge, including his race bike, which can be worth upwards of $200,000. Also, Trey gets paid somewhere in the vicinity of $2,000,000 a year to ride his motorcycle. So out of all the sponsors, trainers, mechanics, family, and other support he receives, Trey thinks that god is most deserving of gratitude? Trey seems to be under the impression that all this good stuff happens to him is because it's gods will, when in actual fact, it's the hard work of many individuals acting under free will, including Trey himself. People like to think that the lord controls luck, or chance. Having a motorcycle provided to you is not luck, or chance, it's a teams decision. I guess the luck or chance could come on the race track itself, but in Trey's case, luck has not played in his favour often. He has been on the receiving end of bad luck more times than most riders. Even still, the luck or chance people see on the race track is nothing more than one or more persons carless mistakes. Running out of gas on the last lap of a race isn't bad luck, someone just forgot to top up the tank. Being landed on by another rider, someones bad judgement of speed. Winning the race, hard work, and great skills.
Second, god doesn't care. I am an expert on Jesus Christ. I know every fact about him, which is none. No facts have ever been verified about the existence of a god of any kind, so that makes me as knowledgeable about god as anyone else. And what I know, is god has better shit to do than follow Trey Canards life, or any one persons. So many professional athletes thank god for their success, or pray to god so that they can win the next game or race. Well if both teams are praying to the same god to win, how will he ever decide?! All you can pray for is for is god to keep you safe, and one thing I've learned about professional sports, no one is safe, especially Trey Canard. I saw the leader and head rider of "Team Faith Racing" do a prayer service one morning before the first round of a race series. At the beginning of the very first race, he was involved in a first turn pile up. He was the only person injured, with a broken neck. He did recover though. Thanks Jesus? But really, there are people dying all over the world from disease, starvation, natural disaster, and wars. Atrocities happen around the globe every minute of every day. What does gods to do list look like?
1: Prevent major earthquake in Japan
2: Cure Ebola
3: Help Trey Canard with a race
4: Try to remember why I created earthquakes and Ebola
Third, Trey's riding style is sometimes erratic, aggressive and dangerous. This is possibly why he has sustained as many injuries as he has. But more importantly, it has caused him to cause crashes and injure other riders. In the last supercross season, he landed on another rider on two separate occasions. One of the riders suffered a broken collar bone. I believe that Trey rides the way he does because he thinks god will watch over him and keep him safe, or that god wants him to win, even if it means riding dangerously. If you want to believe for yourself, that's fine, but if your belief puts others at risk, that's unacceptable.
Blind faith is exactly that. You're failing to realize the grand scale of things around you. You're giving all your praise to something that hasn't effected you in a single way, when there are people that are much more deserving of your gratitude. You're putting your trust in something that has no bearing in any situation. To be so blinded by faith is to ignore reality, which is disrespectful to the people in your life, which are the real contributing factors. Lets face it, if Treys house caught fire, I bet he wouldn't waste a second praying for the good lord to put it out, he'd phone 911 and let real people do something tangible. The sad thing is, he'd then thank the lord for the fire department, instead of thanking the firemen.
Monday, June 1, 2015
Sunday, April 5, 2015
We are a strange bunch
So I've noticed a trend, that I was going to say was interesting, but it's not, it's just stupid, and very counterintuitive. It's the concept of making sure that the things you like, or at least claim to like, aren't liked by other people, or normal people. Apparently liking common music, common clothes, common cars, common restaurants, etc, is not cool, or "trendy" This doesn't seem very logical to me. You'd think that the most popular places to eat or shop, would be popular because they are the best, and the most downloaded music and best selling shoes would be the most sought after due to the majority of people approving of those things. Unfortunately, the "hipster" mind set is now preventing people from enjoying the things they love.
You can't like mainstream music anymore. The less known an artist is, the trendier they seem to be. You are looked at like an idiot that just "follows the masses" if you admit to liking a band like Nickelback or Eminem, even though literally millions upon millions of people have decided that these artists music is enjoyable.
You can't eat at a chain restaurant anymore. You need to seek out some undiscovered hole in the wall, and report how awesome the atmosphere and ambiance is on Facebook. Sorry, but chain restaurants became chains because of supply and demand. People liked their food and service, they made profit, and opened more restaurants.
I guess I shouldn't mention Facebook. I'm sure that's not acceptable anymore either. Seeing as how everyone is on Facebook, no one will admit to using it, and will mock anyone that does.
Then there's what you are allowed to wear. You can't try to look good. A nice pair of pants, and a collard shirt is out of the question. You need to try your best to look like you don't care, because caring what you look like isn't cool. People will spend hours to look like they put in no effort, rather than a few minutes to look normal.
Even hygiene and self grooming has become a total joke. People will spend time to make it look like they spent no time doing their hair, or will always trim their facial hair to make it look like they haven't shaved in a week. I guess it's cool to not care about shaving, because being clean shaven means you're "working for the man" or "conforming to societies expectations". Does it seem logical to spend the same amount of time to make it look like you haven't shaved as it would take to just shave?
This all reminds me of people that get tattoos of Chinese symbols because it's "different", except it's not different. It's the same as everyone else that got tattoos of Chinese symbols.
If it's trendy to act different, so everyone is trying to not be mainstream, wouldn't that make everyone not cool because they are still all doing the same thing? All they have really done is denied themselves the things they truly like because they weren't "acceptable" to like.
I had a conversation once with a friend of mine, and one of his friends. The topic of rap music came up. My friends friend was talking about how much he liked rap. I said I wasn't much of a rap fan, but I liked Eminem. Both my friend, and his friend went off about how horrible Eminem was and how he had no talent, and he wasn't a real rapper. (Even though I knew my friend liked Eminem, but would never admit it in front of a "true rap fan") It's strange because as one of the best selling rappers of all time, Eminem is clearly enjoyed by far more people than most rappers. So how do you gauge whether someone or something is likeable? The less liked they are, the more likeable they are? I'm going to go with the grain on this one and suggest that maybe people need to accept that things are popular for a reason, and that liking the same thing as someone else, doesn't mean you can't think for yourself. Skinny jean look fucking ridiculous, unknown hippy bands are unknown because they suck, and Sammy J Peppers has awesome steak bites.
Also, liking things that are not mainstream, makes them mainstream, which means you can't like them anymore, thus destroying them. Once it was nice to be able to wear a Fox Racing hat or shirt, then every douche bag started wearing them. Then it was nice to see an Alpinestar hat or FMF hat, but even those became popular, even though the people wearing them had no idea what the companies were! Please, take your John Deere hats off too. You don't live on a farm, you don't own any farm equipment, you don't even own a John Deere ride on lawnmower, but you'll wear the hat like it's the most original piece of clothing ever invented.
It's time to make a decision for yourself, even if it's the same one as the masses.
You can't like mainstream music anymore. The less known an artist is, the trendier they seem to be. You are looked at like an idiot that just "follows the masses" if you admit to liking a band like Nickelback or Eminem, even though literally millions upon millions of people have decided that these artists music is enjoyable.
You can't eat at a chain restaurant anymore. You need to seek out some undiscovered hole in the wall, and report how awesome the atmosphere and ambiance is on Facebook. Sorry, but chain restaurants became chains because of supply and demand. People liked their food and service, they made profit, and opened more restaurants.
I guess I shouldn't mention Facebook. I'm sure that's not acceptable anymore either. Seeing as how everyone is on Facebook, no one will admit to using it, and will mock anyone that does.
Then there's what you are allowed to wear. You can't try to look good. A nice pair of pants, and a collard shirt is out of the question. You need to try your best to look like you don't care, because caring what you look like isn't cool. People will spend hours to look like they put in no effort, rather than a few minutes to look normal.
Even hygiene and self grooming has become a total joke. People will spend time to make it look like they spent no time doing their hair, or will always trim their facial hair to make it look like they haven't shaved in a week. I guess it's cool to not care about shaving, because being clean shaven means you're "working for the man" or "conforming to societies expectations". Does it seem logical to spend the same amount of time to make it look like you haven't shaved as it would take to just shave?
This all reminds me of people that get tattoos of Chinese symbols because it's "different", except it's not different. It's the same as everyone else that got tattoos of Chinese symbols.
If it's trendy to act different, so everyone is trying to not be mainstream, wouldn't that make everyone not cool because they are still all doing the same thing? All they have really done is denied themselves the things they truly like because they weren't "acceptable" to like.
I had a conversation once with a friend of mine, and one of his friends. The topic of rap music came up. My friends friend was talking about how much he liked rap. I said I wasn't much of a rap fan, but I liked Eminem. Both my friend, and his friend went off about how horrible Eminem was and how he had no talent, and he wasn't a real rapper. (Even though I knew my friend liked Eminem, but would never admit it in front of a "true rap fan") It's strange because as one of the best selling rappers of all time, Eminem is clearly enjoyed by far more people than most rappers. So how do you gauge whether someone or something is likeable? The less liked they are, the more likeable they are? I'm going to go with the grain on this one and suggest that maybe people need to accept that things are popular for a reason, and that liking the same thing as someone else, doesn't mean you can't think for yourself. Skinny jean look fucking ridiculous, unknown hippy bands are unknown because they suck, and Sammy J Peppers has awesome steak bites.
Also, liking things that are not mainstream, makes them mainstream, which means you can't like them anymore, thus destroying them. Once it was nice to be able to wear a Fox Racing hat or shirt, then every douche bag started wearing them. Then it was nice to see an Alpinestar hat or FMF hat, but even those became popular, even though the people wearing them had no idea what the companies were! Please, take your John Deere hats off too. You don't live on a farm, you don't own any farm equipment, you don't even own a John Deere ride on lawnmower, but you'll wear the hat like it's the most original piece of clothing ever invented.
It's time to make a decision for yourself, even if it's the same one as the masses.
Thursday, January 22, 2015
The real cost of money is time.
As I'm realizing more and more, old sayings are far closer to the truth than they are given credit for. I guess "time is money" isn't a saying so much as a phrase, but is completely accurate non the less.
I like to view myself as a financially savvy person. Or at least a person that understands money. Not that I'm fantastic at making it, or even keeping it in my bank account, but I have a good concept of how it is used properly, and poorly, everyday, by everybody. A lot of my friends talk to me when they need advice on a big purchase, or need help getting out of debt. The problem is, it seems like none of them seem to take my advice. Is my advice not sound, or is it just that they don't like what they hear? I contemplated writing a self help type book. You know, the ones that go on and on about how awesome you are, and how you deserve anything you want? Except no one would buy mine, because it would be the last thing anyone wanted to hear. People don't want to hear that the best thing you can ever do is stay out of debt, and invest money wisely. People want to hear that they should buy a new car, because they deserve it.
Well I guess I'm going to try one more time here to paint a picture for everyone. It's going to get confusing, so put on your thinking caps and try to keep up.
Time is money. Literally. Keep that in mind.
Everyone makes a wage. It might be a lot or a little. You have your "gross" and your "net" or take home amount. But lets look at it differently. Lets say you have your "gross" your "net" and your "take home". Gross is before tax, simple. Net is after tax. ok. But take home is completely different. Lets say your take home is what you actually take home, at the end of each month, after all your bills are paid. Your "net" income might be lets say $2000. From that you pay $800 for rent, $70 for a phone, $130 for car insurance, $200 for fuel, $100 for cable/internet, $150 gas and electricity and $200 for food. So your actual take home is about $350 a month. This money if for luxuries. Things you want, but don't have to have. Eating out, coffee, going to the bar, new pair of jeans. And lets face it, at the end of the month, the $350 is spent. It doesn't make it into a savings account. When we have money in our pockets, we think that it's because we've done good and we deserve a treat, so we take ourselves out for dinner, or buy a new pair of sunglasses. Now lets take a different person, that has the net income of $3000 a month. That's a third more, so they have way more than $350 in the bank at the end of the month right? Well rent is $1150 because they want to live somewhere a bit nicer, their phone bill is $100 because they wanted the new iPhone. They have a new vehicle, because they can afford it $500. Insurance on a new vehicle is far more money $200. Fuel $200. Faster internet and more HD channels of course $150. Gas/electric $150. $200 for food. So for someone that should have an extra $1000 after all the bills are paid, they actually have the same $350 at the end of the month.
Ever notice that even after you get a raise at work, you never seem to have any more money in the bank at the end of the month?
The question is, what's the game plan? What are you working towards? Ever think about retirement? How much do you need to retire? You work from the time you are 18 until you are 65, and in that time you're supposed to have enough money in the bank, that you can afford to live for the next 30 years without working. Well lets say, you never buy property, and rent your entire life. How much does it cost per month to live when you retire? Well, the same as now I'm guessing. Rent, cable, food, insurance, electricity etc. Those bills won't stop will they? So lets say it's $1650, if you live the cheaper life style. Well you need $600,000 to retire then. We came to the conclusion, that your take home each month, when you are in the 18-65 year range is $350, after all your bills. So even if you put every penny of that $350 in the bank each month, which you don't, it'll take you 140 years to save enough money to retire. That's not good. Unfortunately, I'm noticing that almost all people today, are buying new cars, new phones, expensive sunglasses, going out for dinner, and going on nice holidays. They can't even afford these things, they just finance them. Not only are they not putting $350 in the bank, they are going further in debt every year. They are going backwards, even though, if they were going forwards as fast as they could, it still wouldn't be even close to what they need to be doing.
Now here's what I mean when I say time is money. If you buy a new car, at $50,000. How long does it take to pay that off? I don't mean how long do you make payments on it, I mean, how far back does it set you back finically. If you managed to put $850 a month into a savings account, but instead spend $500 on a new car, and only put it $350 a month, that's 8 years of not putting in the extra $500 a month. If you put the full $850 a month in, after the car is paid off, it'll take you 5 years to get that lost money back in the bank. That's 5 years you are behind. That means retiring at 70 instead of 65.
At the end of the day, the month, the year, we take home very little money. We have so much money we need to pay out every month, just to live. To put money in the bank seems like a near impossible task, and yet every month we spend money on things we don't need. Every thing you buy, costs you time. Your time at work. Time from the 18-65 years. When all you have left at the end of the month is a few hundred dollars, and you spend that on a night out, or a trip to the mall, your spending your entire months wages. You don't take home $2000 or $3500 a month. It takes you all month to bring home $350. You work 160 hours for $350! You're only taking home $2 an hour! You want to buy a pair of fucking sunglasses for $180? That's two weeks worth of work! Everything is paid in time. Don't ask how much something is, ask how much longer you'll have to work to buy it. 140 years and you'll be able to retire, what's 5 more for a new car right?
I like to view myself as a financially savvy person. Or at least a person that understands money. Not that I'm fantastic at making it, or even keeping it in my bank account, but I have a good concept of how it is used properly, and poorly, everyday, by everybody. A lot of my friends talk to me when they need advice on a big purchase, or need help getting out of debt. The problem is, it seems like none of them seem to take my advice. Is my advice not sound, or is it just that they don't like what they hear? I contemplated writing a self help type book. You know, the ones that go on and on about how awesome you are, and how you deserve anything you want? Except no one would buy mine, because it would be the last thing anyone wanted to hear. People don't want to hear that the best thing you can ever do is stay out of debt, and invest money wisely. People want to hear that they should buy a new car, because they deserve it.
Well I guess I'm going to try one more time here to paint a picture for everyone. It's going to get confusing, so put on your thinking caps and try to keep up.
Time is money. Literally. Keep that in mind.
Everyone makes a wage. It might be a lot or a little. You have your "gross" and your "net" or take home amount. But lets look at it differently. Lets say you have your "gross" your "net" and your "take home". Gross is before tax, simple. Net is after tax. ok. But take home is completely different. Lets say your take home is what you actually take home, at the end of each month, after all your bills are paid. Your "net" income might be lets say $2000. From that you pay $800 for rent, $70 for a phone, $130 for car insurance, $200 for fuel, $100 for cable/internet, $150 gas and electricity and $200 for food. So your actual take home is about $350 a month. This money if for luxuries. Things you want, but don't have to have. Eating out, coffee, going to the bar, new pair of jeans. And lets face it, at the end of the month, the $350 is spent. It doesn't make it into a savings account. When we have money in our pockets, we think that it's because we've done good and we deserve a treat, so we take ourselves out for dinner, or buy a new pair of sunglasses. Now lets take a different person, that has the net income of $3000 a month. That's a third more, so they have way more than $350 in the bank at the end of the month right? Well rent is $1150 because they want to live somewhere a bit nicer, their phone bill is $100 because they wanted the new iPhone. They have a new vehicle, because they can afford it $500. Insurance on a new vehicle is far more money $200. Fuel $200. Faster internet and more HD channels of course $150. Gas/electric $150. $200 for food. So for someone that should have an extra $1000 after all the bills are paid, they actually have the same $350 at the end of the month.
Ever notice that even after you get a raise at work, you never seem to have any more money in the bank at the end of the month?
The question is, what's the game plan? What are you working towards? Ever think about retirement? How much do you need to retire? You work from the time you are 18 until you are 65, and in that time you're supposed to have enough money in the bank, that you can afford to live for the next 30 years without working. Well lets say, you never buy property, and rent your entire life. How much does it cost per month to live when you retire? Well, the same as now I'm guessing. Rent, cable, food, insurance, electricity etc. Those bills won't stop will they? So lets say it's $1650, if you live the cheaper life style. Well you need $600,000 to retire then. We came to the conclusion, that your take home each month, when you are in the 18-65 year range is $350, after all your bills. So even if you put every penny of that $350 in the bank each month, which you don't, it'll take you 140 years to save enough money to retire. That's not good. Unfortunately, I'm noticing that almost all people today, are buying new cars, new phones, expensive sunglasses, going out for dinner, and going on nice holidays. They can't even afford these things, they just finance them. Not only are they not putting $350 in the bank, they are going further in debt every year. They are going backwards, even though, if they were going forwards as fast as they could, it still wouldn't be even close to what they need to be doing.
Now here's what I mean when I say time is money. If you buy a new car, at $50,000. How long does it take to pay that off? I don't mean how long do you make payments on it, I mean, how far back does it set you back finically. If you managed to put $850 a month into a savings account, but instead spend $500 on a new car, and only put it $350 a month, that's 8 years of not putting in the extra $500 a month. If you put the full $850 a month in, after the car is paid off, it'll take you 5 years to get that lost money back in the bank. That's 5 years you are behind. That means retiring at 70 instead of 65.
At the end of the day, the month, the year, we take home very little money. We have so much money we need to pay out every month, just to live. To put money in the bank seems like a near impossible task, and yet every month we spend money on things we don't need. Every thing you buy, costs you time. Your time at work. Time from the 18-65 years. When all you have left at the end of the month is a few hundred dollars, and you spend that on a night out, or a trip to the mall, your spending your entire months wages. You don't take home $2000 or $3500 a month. It takes you all month to bring home $350. You work 160 hours for $350! You're only taking home $2 an hour! You want to buy a pair of fucking sunglasses for $180? That's two weeks worth of work! Everything is paid in time. Don't ask how much something is, ask how much longer you'll have to work to buy it. 140 years and you'll be able to retire, what's 5 more for a new car right?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)