- Doug Stanhope
- Louis CK
- Bill Burr
- Greg Giraldo
Not in that particular order.
[Edit: Added Greg Giraldo.]
Wealth Inequality in the United States
This is a great video on the inequality of wealth distribution in the United States. I already knew that the distribution of wealth wasn’t nearly what most people thought it was or even thought it should be — I have been talking to Ruurd about this for years now. Of course, when we were talking about it, my friends considered me a conspiracy theorist (whenever I mentioned the Rothschilds, for instance) and they even made me very stylish tin foil hats to rub their opinion of my convictions in. And while I loved them for making me the hats, it left a bad taste in my mouth that they didn’t even want to discuss it or even consider the possibility that matters weren’t as they thought they were.
This video hammers home the reality of wealth distribution in the United States in all its gorgeous, infographical glory. It also should finally end the cheerleading that regularly occurs when people discuss the concepts of “exceptionalism” and “meritocracy” in the United States. Obviously, those concepts haven’t been the reality for a long time, if they ever were to begin with. In fact, I believe it’s been part of the propaganda to sell this absolutely grotesque, piece of shit society to us, all over the world, not just in the United States.
Unfortunately, while it seems that according to this video 92% of the American population thinks the distribution should be more fair, those 92% of the peopl can’t seem to get themselves organised enough to actually do something about it. Secretly, everyone still believes that one day they will make it into the top 10% or 20%, to make it big on the stock market, win the lottery, get discovered in Hollywood, invent the new Facebook, be the face of Victoria’s Secret, land a record contract, etc.
Exceptionalism has taught them that they are special and can achieve great things. Meritocracy has taught them that wanting it and working hard will be enough to achieve those great things. It’s a fucking lie. The average IQ is 100 and there’s a bigger than large dose of luck involved. If that sounds bitter, it’s not; I tend to find that I’m much happier living my life with this belief than those people who are out chasing that fantasy.
Rookie Mistake
Last night Lieke celebrated her birthday. Ivo was my date, we were one of the first at the party and one of the last ones to leave. It was fun. I shared a fairly well-laced pot chocolate truffle with someone and waited for it to hit. After half an hour of nothing, slightly disappointed, I made the rookie mistake of having another one. Once it finally started working, I stopped drinking and switched to water, because holy shit did it hit me like a truck. My brother called me at the tail end of his own evening out and joined me at the tail end of mine. I was very happy he did, because he took good care of me on the way back home. :)
Today I woke up feeling a little brak, as we say in Dutch. Not quite hung over, but not quite well, either. Par for the course, I hadn’t slept much. When I finally got around to taking a nap in the afternoon, I was dead tired and could barely keep my eyes open. After waking up from my nap, I laid around in bed for a while, got up, had some left over salad and felt good enough to go for a run. I didn’t set any records, but it was surprisingly easy. Feeling much better now, I think I’ll spend the rest of the evening relaxing a bit.
Social Return on Investment
While I don’t necessarily believe in everything being said in this video — like the notion that the most common ailement is loneliness, or that you can’t control what you’re going to say in a real time, face-to-face conversation — but the general message of the video rings true to me, and is part of the reason why I quit Facebook.
Especially the that people are valuing quantity over quality and as a result choose connection over intimacy, and that people use social networks to brag about their lives.
The first point, that most people end up choosing quantity over quality, is something I was already a believer of before I started Facebook back in the early 2000, so perhaps the video was merely preaching to my one-man choir. I got annoyed at my own satisfaction at passively consuming the details of another person’s life and believing we had a friendship, while not feeling compelled to ever pick up the phone and ask how things were going. Superficially, I felt like it was enough, but upon further reflection it felt so far short of the most entry level requirements for a friendship that the cognitive dissonance never let go of me.
I knew that I was going to have to make a sacrifice in leaving Facebook; there were people on my friends list that probably haven’t even noticed until now that I left. Or felt that I defriended them and never once came asking what was up. Some people may have noticed but not cared enough to see me drop out of sight. I miss out on invitations from time to time, people have forgotten me as an option to hang out, and I certainly don’t get even ten percent of the well-wishings on my birthday, but I am far more aware who the people in my life are that matter, and we always have something to talk about when we meet, because I haven’t read everything on Facebook yet.
Regarding the second point, that people have started using social networks to brag, is something that drives me up the wall. It seems photos are endlessly curated, edited, Instagrammed, Photoshopped and worried over and only the best of the batch make it through to public consumption. Status updates are considered, typed, retyped, edited and polished, while links are hand-picked to reflect the correct interests one wants to portray. How fucking tiring.
It’s like keeping up with the Joneses, only now you don’t have your neighbours to contend with, but everyone you’ve met since going to high school.
The endless self-promotion betrays the self-obsessed nature of our current society. Everyone thinks that what they say needs to be heard and will resonate eternal. It’s indicative of the over-inflated sense of self-importance that most people know about, but engage in anyway. I’m not innocent of it, either, but at least I know that my journal reaches about four regular readers, and perhaps four more sporadic readers who come by when they’re truly bored on a tuesday evening.
Friendship has become less about intimacy and more about networking, looking good and brief social encounters that shouldn’t become too messy. That’s exactly the reason I have started to dislike the expat circle I touch base with in Amsterdam from time to time. They’re all not committed enough, nor interested enough to truly engage. You’re just a person to sell themselves to, get some cheap gratification as you ooh and aah over whatever cool thing they bought or did — “I just got back from spelunking in Thailand where I bought this wonderful scarf from the local inhabitants. I just want to give back, you know?” — and they only want to know what you do for a living or where you’re from. Like those two bits of information, together with how you look is all they need to triangulate your persona and determine whether or not you offer enough return on investment.
Social return on investment. Yes, that’s the title for this journal post.
Health, Running, Weight
After running about 5km together with Moulsari two weeks ago, I felt good in doing a longer stretch and was surprised at how easily I could do it once I had put my mind to it. I decided to ramp up my running just a bit. Unfortunately, I didn’t see a good way of running longer in my neighbourhood, so I decided to do it a little differently.
Next to my apartment there’s a rather long bridge, (Jan Schaeferbrug) that crosses a wide canal and leads to a neighbouring island. It’s a two-lane bridge, flanked on either side by a bicycle path and a foot path. The two foot paths end on both sides at staircases leading down to the embankment, so four staircases in total, plus two extra staircases leading back up on the island side of the bridge. Six staircases altogether.
When I start running, I immediately run up one of the bicycle paths, cross it and go down the staircase on the island side. I run across the island, across another bridge to the other side of the canal, running the length of the island, back to the Jan Schaeferbrug, about 3,5km in total. Now I’ve added running up the staircase, across the bridge to the island side, up another staircase, across the road, down a staircase, up a staircase onto the bridge, cross the bridge and down the bicycle path.
This little added excercise takes me an extra four or five minutes, depending on the weather, my level of energy and my determination level of that day. But this extra few minutes puts such a tremendous strain on my muscles at the end of the run, that I’ve actually had a muscle the first two times I did it. It feels good, and I think I’ll keep it included to my routine as much and as often as I can stomach it.
Regarding my weight — it’s funny — late last week I reached 85,1kg (187.6lbs), which is 100 grams (0.2lbs) away from my goal of reaching 85kg (187.4lbs). Because I’m still losing weight under the current workout regime I’ve set up and the small adjustments I’ve made to my diet, I think I will see if I can go down to 83kg (183lbs) and find a good equilibrium in food and nutrition intake and my excercise regime, going back up to 85kg.
Some spurious math using the NHS BMI Calculator:
While BMI is certainly not dogma, it’s a good indicator if you’ve got an average frame, which I do. Ending up at 85kg would leave me with a BMI of 24,57, which is just below the overweight line. The overweight category starts at 25, which I was well over when I started this at 96kg (211.6lbs).
Currently, I’m steadily losing about 1kg (2.2lbs) every two weeks. Depending on how easily I’ll reach 83kg, I’ll talk to my doctor, get my blood levels checked to see if I haven’t been doing myself a disservice, and check my body fat percentage and blood pressure. If the doctor has no objections, I’ll start stage two. What is stage two? I’m glad you asked.
According to the NHS, BMI’s healthy zone ranges from 18.5 until 24.9, which puts the median BMI at 21.7. The weight you need to reach the median healthy BMI with my height is about 75kg (165.3lbs). I think that’s a very light for me, seeing as how it would mean I would have lost 21kg (46.3lbs) since starting this, but 78kg (172lbs) isn’t unthinkable.
In the end, provided my doctor clears me, it’s proving to be so simple to lose body fat that I might just keep doing it until either my body stops losing weight, or I’ve reached 75kg, whichever comes first. I’m already amazed at what I’ve accomplished and am not about to get addicted to the results. Also, I have to keep in mind that the whole dynamic of my body is going to change once I start doing BJJ and MMA again.