Ha! And would say “long overdue blog post,” wouldn’t you agree?
I aim to make up for that this afternoon – let’s jam:
IDK
Huge theme of 2024 was “I don’t know”. Read more about my live or die, work or retire, yes or no year here.
Money Makes Little Sense
I have spent years (arguably since I was single digits saving money for trading cards) thinking about finance. Study, application, saving, investing, spending, and screwing around to find out.
Money still is a black box to me.
I have been lucky with uneducated “I like the stock” and “monk mode” strategies – ask me in person and I will tell you the same.
Yet here I am. Money in the bank and not a lot of time to spend it; even less in 2024 when no expense was too much, no time long enough to spend, no physicality left to enjoy…
What does one do when working-for-pay is more a hamper on the day-to-day than a help? See above: IDK (yet; fishing for insight here).
Know Thyself
Know.
Know what you would do. Know what kind of context will make you do what you would. Know how far the context must go until principles are broken and there is nothing left to do.
Know.
F- Weakness
A thing written in 2025 I ought not write here summed up a general feeling of 2024: f- weakness.
Be better. Be scared to death to die slowly. Never ask for weakness. Never tolerate weakness. Demand the strength to endure and affect change; deny complacency and unintentional ease.
A common understanding in the gym is to never let go of weights to crash on the floor – every moment of rest is better when it is intentional to let down the mill stone.
A last snippet discovered while on a run to be stronger: Society exists because of Law and Order. Law and Order exist because the State reserves the right to enact consequences for breaking Law and Order (i.e. Violence). The State may only enact Violence when it has a people to do so in a Good and Justly. A Good and Just manner only exists when wrong could be done yet is not. The opportunity to do both wrong and to hold-back wrong rests in the hands of a strong people able to do both. Therefore, to be strong (i.e. not weak) is the most patriotic and self-less thing a person can commit to to make for a better society. #rant
Piano on a Wire
Whether a cat in a poison box, the hanging Sword of Damocles, an acme farce of a literal piano on a wire, no one is prepared to die.
Sure, we do this and that to delay the boatman a few moments more, yet those investments are a wish, not guarantee. As a general once put it: Plans are nothing.
But yet, hark to a moment of hope: Planning is everything.
Very few plan to die. Even those that contemplate their mortality cannot ready for the unknown-unknowns that come for their life. I was not, despite years of walking with the though of the end. I venture to guess most folks never are.
I am unsure if there is a way to gird for dying. Perhaps the planning to arrange a fine end? Reminding oneself of heroism and courage? Building the pyramid to be laid to rest in?
Or maybe the best way to prepare to die is to live a wonderous and vivacious life to the very end, surprise or plan. Certainly sounds like a hopeful way to give our oblivion the big middle finger.
Figure Out How to Invest
Money, sure. But too for priorities, a priority’s priorities. Then be ruthless in your decisions and actions thereupon.
For me passing money goals and nearly passing away lets me choose in this order of importance how to exchange my time and attention:
- Health
- Sleep. Food. Exercise. Therapy. Physique. These are daily and the most important needs.
- Relationships
- Friends. Family. Social. Romantic. These are life-long to live a better life.
- Work
- Money. I hope to change this to “Duty”, what I feel I ought do on the daily rather than till for coin. Otherwise at the very least, hope to bonk this down a level.
- Hobbies
- Joys. Curiosities. Explorations. Creativity. Growth. I tinker and toy and play my way all the life-long to add that flavor of life
Invest too in ethics and legacy – ethics seeks to ruin Evil, legacy is immortality. Ethics may spare your life, legacy will guarantee it
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2024 was pretty icky with hard lessons survived learned. Cheers to you and I having a finer 2025 ~
Jimmy Chattin 