"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. - Theodore Roosevelt

Travis Tritt. Boots for Troops. Magnolia, TX

How cool is this? We swam this turtle yesterday.

Whenever I want to add a strongly worded and derogatory reply to someone’s asinine response I find it is easier just to block them. I’m not paid by X nor do I need the friends or the engagement. So INSTABLOCK!!!!!!

The Big Deal and his best girl. This is what it’s all about fam.

Listen to me. You know what the goal is? It's not rich. Rich is a treadmill. The goal is the position of fuck you. A place where nobody owns you. Not a boss, not a bank, not a bookie, not the market. That's the only position worth fighting for. And here's the part nobody believes: fuck-you money is a lot smaller than you think. A roof you can afford. A truck that runs. Income that shows up whether you get out of bed or not. Money set aside so a bad month is an inconvenience and not a catastrophe. That's it. That's the whole list. Once you're there, you get to say it. Fuck you to the job that's eating you alive. Fuck you to the deal that's too good to be true. Fuck you to the guy who needs you to need him. And the hardest one: fuck you to the voice in your own head that says one more bet, one more raise, one more zero. That voice is the house. And the house always wins, because the house never says enough. I spent twenty years in uniform taking orders. I earned the right to stop. I know my number. I hit it. And every dollar past it is just risk wearing a nice suit. So stop trying to win. Get to fuck you, then walk away from the table. Spend the rest of your life on the people who'd still show up if the money was gone. That's the position. Get there, and stay there. My take on John Goodmans Gambler speech.

So you think it was all for nothing. The chasing, the stacking, the watching the numbers go up and down. Let me tell you something. It's just money. It's made up. Pieces of paper with pictures on them, so we don't have to fight each other for something to eat. That's all it ever was. And it's no different today than it's ever been. 1929. 1987. 2000. 2008. 2020. Every few years the music stops, the same people panic, and the same people swear it will never happen again. It always happens again. We can't control it. We can't stop it. We can't even slow it down. We just react. But here's what nobody on that trading floor will tell you. The game never ends because nobody ever decides they have enough. There's always a bigger number and always somebody with more. If you play that game, you lose, even when you win. I stopped playing it. I know my number. I know what my family needs, what the next ten years cost, and what I want to leave my kids. Past that, money is just a scoreboard for people who forgot what they were keeping score for. So yes, it's made up. That's the good news. It means you get to decide what it's for. Mine is for time with my wife, a front-row seat to my kids' lives, and a few good trips with people I love. The percentages stay the same, winners and losers, fat cats and starving dogs. But there's a third group nobody talks about: the ones who know when they have enough. Be one of those. My rewrite of Jeremy Irons speach.

When you start messing with peoples rice bowls they will fight to the death to keep them. Examples: Politicians and DOGE Unions and Robots Mathematicians and SI Democrats and immigrants Democrats and USAID Democrats and gender transition Democrats and Medicare fraud Democrats and Learing center fraud Democrats and …. You get the point.