#in 2024 i WILL get enough money and a job to fly and meet friends though. im speaking this into existence | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

icantreadthispost · 3 years ago

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TUNNEL VISION

1: NOTHING ENVY

Music: After the Flood - Black Gold

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7jNDppSZ-I&ab_channel=kristengirl200

Nothing seemed to be happening on the sunny afternoon of May 5th, 2024. One whole year after leaving college, and there I was, staring through my childhood bedroom window, viewing the same neighbours, the same street, and the same chalky driveway pothole as I always had. In many ways, the world was different and changing, but I didn’t feel that way. This sort of existential dread is inescapable for most, but to me it was unbearable.

“Please tell me you’ve done something today” my mother barged in with a disappointed look on her face.

I looked back at her blankly.

“You’re 22, barely working, and what do you have to show for it?”

My silence answered her question, but believe me, it hurt to not have said anything.

She let out a frustrated groan before promptly leaving to attend to her daily tasks.

She was a busy woman, a single mother, a nurse, and an immigrant, who came to this country to afford me opportunities that she could have only dreamed of. But in this case, opportunity wasn’t enough.

Remember, this was a year after I left college – who said anything about graduating?

Where did things go wrong? I pondered the question semi-seriously before falling deep into that rabbit hole.

I began to retrace the steps to see which choices my successful peers made that I didn’t.

I wasn’t an alcoholic, but my old friend Mark was, and Mark has a six-figure job in finance. Maybe I should pick up drinking more often given that logic?

My ex-girlfriend Lucy was a trained engineer, attended Princeton for her undergraduate and just started her masters at MIT. Let’s just say her parents were loaded. And I’m not talking about owns a sportscar with a vacation estate in Maine loaded. I’m talking flying out to Paris to meet with Russian oligarchs loaded. I mean, I’m not sure what her parents did exactly because even she couldn’t explain it, but I’d bet that they didn’t contribute much to society given their dubious nature. But hey - if you can get rich off of it why not?

But unlike Lucy, I was not able to afford a private tutor for my years growing up. I had no spoon up my ass and certainly no access to non-commercial air travel. Maybe I just should have picked richer parents? Hindsight is twenty-twenty.

Call me horrible if you want, but there is pleasure to be found in envy – it’s why we do it. And I’m not scared to admit it. Yes, I was given opportunities, but I was never given the luxury of having people believe in me.

Trust me, there’s a world of difference.

2: LEAVE IT BEHIND

Music: Flames to Dust - Shierro

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sm0ok0VxaC8&ab_channel=Shierro-Topic

Wall Street is a brutal place. For those of you who don’t know, let me break it down for you. You are a rat in the rat race with countless other little rats who would bite your head off at the first chance they get.

Mice traps work because the mice don’t understand why the cheese is free. Well, if cheese is money and the mouse trap is the corporate world, then I’m a gullible little rodent.

Surprising as it may be, there’s a certain beauty to the ruthlessness. But you need to cope. I’m currently writing from the 43rd floor of the JP Morgan Chase Building at 1299 Wall Street, where, earlier this morning, we had two interns fired just for checking their phones during trading floor hours.

It’s a love hate relationship; do you love money more then you hate yourself? If so, then this is the career for you.

Let me paint you a clearer picture. I’m 23 now, finished University at 22 and worked two Summers at Goldman Sachs Global Banking before joining my current firm, Jeffersons and Co. My job specifically? Well, you wouldn’t understand, but I’ll do it anyways. I am what’s known as a derivatives analyst for distressed credit. In simpler terms, I make, sell, and purchase investment products that are tied to the debt issuance of financially troubled firms. When those firms’ tank, their ability to pay off debt rapidly declines and that’s where we come in, converting their debt to equity at an extraordinary discount making us money, and society nothing. But that shouldn’t matter for the sake of this post, it may seem all glamorous, but I promise you, the glamour is a small reward for what you end up paying.

“Mark! You Idiot!”

My managing director burst through my cubicle entry with a clenched jaw and tightened fist. I had already screwed up by having a flask at work ( I told you we need coping mechanisms), so I was in no position rebut what he was about to tell me.

“Why are you even at this firm if you can’t even format a basic document? You’re this close to getting the hammer you know… I want this fixed tonight!”

Now, one thing I didn’t mention. Tonight, is the night where I’ll be seeing Lucy Brunell . You know, the kind of girl who you see once but never think you’d ever have a shot with. The type who will occupy your mind for days, weeks, years. I had been obsessed with this girl for two years now, but she only recently broke up with Antony so that she could attend MIT for her master’s program in Engineering. Smart, beautiful, can take a joke, give it, and best of all, humble despite her family fortune. She really has it all, and tonight was supposed to be my chance. I’m not about to lose it all over a mis-formatted document. Love is worth more.

See - when you spend more time in an office than not, you trade your time, health, and romance for money. Then in the future, you try to trade your money back for time, health, romance. This is the price I saw, and tonight was the night where I can recover some of the years lost to corporate America. That lucky bastard Antony, if only I was in his place, I wouldn’t be in such a depressive rut.

“I quit”

3: RICHES TO RAGS

Music: How the Mighty Fall - Counterfeit Junkies

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPEg8gelBKk&ab_channel=BirdZerk01

This is my first Tumblr post. I’ve never really used social media much, always had to keep a low profile, and just never got into it – but I need to vent. I hope that’s okay.

I used to have a perfect life. I was an Ivy league girl in STEM, got out of a stagnant relationship recently, and lived a… well we can call it a comfortable life. But don’t think of me as perfect, this was all a nice, gift-wrapped life to hide what was truly under it. And now, that gift wrap is about to be unveiled. So, I thought I’d do it here to strangers instead before I’m exposed to the world for what me and my family truly are – horrible people about to get what they deserve.

My parents are people that the FBI would label as “politically and financially exposed persons” which in other terms signifies that their power is known to be suspicious. To be clear, we’re not murderers, burglars, or corporate shills; we’re all three.

Dad grew up poor in the declining and then collapsed former Soviet Union, in Donetsk to be exact. You know, the place where this ongoing Russia Ukraine war all started, it’s a mostly Russian ethnic and speaking territory in Ukraine and it’s what sparked civil war in the region in 2015. I’m not going to pretend that TUMBLR is geopolitically informed but for the one guy reading this who is, you’re welcome. Coming the collapse of the Soviet Union my dad managed to get in on the ownership of collapsed formerly nationalized companies now being sold to the public in the form of discounted share offerings. Following that rise to power he met my mother in Brussels on a routine business trip, meeting her on vacation with her sister (my aunt). Put two and two together and then I’m in the picture not too long after. It was love at first sight.

Since then, we moved all over the world, going from London to Panama, Los Angeles to Miami, and by the time I was 14 we settled down in Upstate New York, Rochester to be exact. Dad’s business was growing, picking up quickly and in the ’08 recession he expanded into the US housing market, essentially repeating his post Soviet strategy, buying up discounted property from coast to coast and renting it all out to previously foreclosed buyers. The money came from his Russian conglomerate holdings, namely oil refineries from the Caucuses where he had “taken care” of some business opponents who tried to stop his empire expansion.

Come 2022 and everything was different. Western sanctions crippled the ruble, and the business was deeply troubled. Now, I’m just about to head onto MIT to start my master’s degree and I don’t even know if I can stay in the country. Donetsk is a warzone, and we can’t go to Russia. Putin’s cracking down on people like my father to help fund the war effort and last week we got a secret subpoena from the Federal Bureau where they want us to plead guilty to conspiring to subvert international sanction. If proven so, which he will, my dad will at least get 15 years in prison and everything he owns, seized.

Our house of cards is crumbling, and there’s no going back now. I look back and envy the life of a normal person. My ex-boyfriend Antony had a typical upbringing, and my other friend Mark is coming to a mutual friend’s birthday party tonight and encouraged me to go. But I’m too tired to attend anyways. Maybe next time.

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usnewsaggregator-blog · 7 years ago

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Sunday Morning QB: Jerry Jones vs. Goodell a $14B showdown

New Post has been published on http://usnewsaggregator.com/sunday-morning-qb-jerry-jones-vs-goodell-a-14b-showdown/

Sunday Morning QB: Jerry Jones vs. Goodell a $14B showdown

Even as unwatchable as the NFL product has been this season, how is it that a $14 billion enterprise is so dysfunctional that its two most powerful people are going for each other’s throats?

Jerry Jones wants to stop Roger Goodell’s five-year contract extension and has threatened a lawsuit. Goodell is counter-punching and league owners are threatening to take away the Cowboys franchise from Jones.

It all stems from Zeke Elliott’s six-game suspension for domestic violence, a penalty depriving Jones of his best player for five more games in the toughest part of the season when Dallas is fighting for a playoff spot.

There’s no way Roger Goodell is walking away from commish gig and letting Jerry Jones win.

(Julie Jacobson/AP)

I don’t think Jones would be attacking Goodell if he was a candidate for the Hall of Fame class of 2018 and risk this intense power struggle costing him votes. Instead, after Jones was enshrined in August, he seems empowered by his gold jacket and is using it to shield him from the sparks flying in his direction out of 345 Park Avenue.

Video surfaces of Jerry Jones delivering bizarre wedding message

About 18 months ago, I was told by a member of Goodell’s inner circle that he was having doubts whether he wanted to continue as commissioner once his contract expired in March of 2019. He had already made enough money to last many generations of Goodells and the aggravation and the pressure, especially after the Ray Rice case in 2014, were wearing him down. He had gone so far as to identify candidates in the NFL office to succeed him.

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is going after Goodell for NFL’s verdict in Ezekiel Elliott case.

(LM Otero/AP)

Goodell is a stubborn and prideful man. I’ve known him for 35 years back to when he was a public relations intern. If he still was undecided whether to stay, there’s no way he would leave now and let Jones win.

Besides, he’s only 58 years old and even though he’s made $200 million since he became commissioner in 2006, who leaves what is now $40 million a year on the table even if this is no longer the dream job and the only job he’s ever wanted?

I was covering the Cowboys for the Dallas Morning News when Jones bought the team 28 years ago. Immediate impression after the Saturday Night Massacre press conference in the team meeting room at Valley Ranch on Feb. 25, 1989 after Jones fired Tom Landry even before NFL owners had approved his $140 million purchase: J.R. Ewing was no longer a fictional character. Jones is powerful, manipulative and smart and usually gets what he wants.

Jerry Jones threat to Goodell: ‘I’m going to come after you’

The end result of this high-stakes showdown: Goodell will get his extension and Jones will still own his $4 billion franchise. Can you imagine the lawyer fees if either one of these issues went to court? Goodell makes the owners too much money for Jones to get enough of them to overthrow him. This is not the NBA and Donald Sterling and it’s just not realistic that Jones would lose his franchise because he’s challenging Goodell’s contract.

This is not just two rich and powerful men staking out their turf. This is Al Davis (Jones’ hero) vs. Pete Rozelle (Goodell’s hero) nearly 40 years later. This is vicious.

Let’s take a couple of steps back:

On Feb. 4 in Houston, Jones received at least the 80% minimum votes required from the 48-member Pro Football HOF selection committee to gain entry in the contributor category.

Jerry Jones requests meeting with fellow owners, quickly denied

One night before the induction ceremony six months later, Jones tossed himself quite a party at a country club in Canton under a huge tent that took days to construct. Party cost: Many, many, many millions.

Justin Timberlake and The Tennessee Kids provided the entertainment. Imagine JT’s invoice for that one. Huge hamburgers in aluminum wrap, a box of donuts and a bottle of water in a keepsake Jerry Jones gold HOF box were the parting gifts.

The guest list included Cowboys greats and assistant coaches from past eras; Cowboys mascot Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey in his spare time; Warren Buffett, the only person in the room worth more than Jones; the current Cowboys team and coaches; and Goodell, one of Jones’ biggest allies for the past three decades.

Jones stood on a second level that enabled him to survey his A-list guests. Elliott was hanging out with friends in the main room not far from the stage. Goodell was 20 yards away near the hallway that led into the tent. Elliott and Goodell didn’t cross paths.

NFL lays groundwork to remove Jerry Jones as Cowboys owner

The next night, Aug. 5, Jones was glowing in his gold jacket and wearing a Texas-sized smile as he gave his speech at the HOF ceremony. As part of his long dissertation, Jones said:

“As a young man, I always knew why this game was great and why it had such value, certainly individually, for me. As someone who owned a team, I was always thinking how we could go to the next level, how do we make it better. We have a leader today in Roger Goodell who really does live by that standard. We have a group of owners and coaches and players who cherish their opportunity to carry the ball for a while.”

We interrupt this lovefest for this urgent announcement:

Seven days later, on Aug. 11, Goodell suspended Elliott, concluding a year-long investigation. Elliott was suspended despite never being charged in the case. He was suspended even though Jones, speaking with the assurance of someone owning inside information, insisted all summer and as recently as the day before his induction that Elliott would not be suspended.

DN Sports Talk Podcast: Gary Myers on Jerry Jones-Goodell fight

Back in May, the NFL owners voted 32-0 to give the six-member compensation committee the authority to open negotiations with Goodell and come to an agreement on a five-year contract extension through March of 2024 that would not require a vote by the full membership. Jones was part of that 32-0 vote. But once Elliott was suspended, Jones declared war on Goodell. He has said it has nothing to do with Elliott but that things had changed in the league since May and he wants the entire ownership to be able to review the contract and vote on it.

After Goodell informed Jones of Elliott’s suspension before it went public, ESPN reported Jones responded, “I’m gonna come after you with everything I have.”

Jones is the only owner who has threatened his players that he will bench them if they don’t stand for the national anthem. Goodell wants the players to stand but won’t make it mandatory. The protests are costing the NFL fans and sponsorships.

Jones last week asked for a special league meeting to discuss Goodell’s extension. He was turned down and told to wait for the regular scheduled winter meetings in Dallas on Dec. 13. A couple of weeks ago, Jones hired high-powered attorney David Boies to represent him in his fight against Goodell and the league. Boies is an interesting choice because he successfully represented all the NFL owners in the 2011 lockout battle against the NFLPA.

Jones calls report that he could be forced from NFL ‘laughable’

It was reported that Goodell is asking for $49.5 million per year and lifetime use of a private jet at the NFL reduced rate and lifetime health insurance for his family. If he can get that – good for him. But it seems out of whack he would get paid twice as much as the NFL’s highest paid player and receive lifetime health insurance when players who bang their heads against each other for a living don’t have it and then face endless red tape when they file disability claims.

Critics of Goodell blasted him for going too soft on Rice in 2014. Jones blasted him for being too tough on Elliott. Considering what’s going on in this country with the revelations about sexual misconduct, it’s better that Goodell is too tough than too soft.

Jones sees no reason to rush into signing Goodell up right now for another $200 million.

“He’s served about 60%, roughly 65% of his contract,” Jones said on his radio show. “He has 18 months left on there. We’ve got all the time in the world to evaluate what we’re doing. We’ve got all the time in the world to extend him. We just need to slow this train down and have a lot of time to discuss the issues at hand in the NFL and have a good, fair input from all the owners, which we’re not getting.”

Jerry Jones’ war against NFL commish Roger Goodell getting nasty

One night before the AFC Championship Game in January of 2015, Patriots owner Robert Kraft had a party at his house and Goodell was among the guests. The next day was the beginning of Deflategate. A few months later, Goodell suspended Tom Brady four games, fined the Patriots $1 million and took away first- and fourth-round picks from New England

Moral of the story: Never invite Roger Goodell to a party.

FUMBLE!

(G. Paul Burnett/AP)

HAPPY FUMBLE DAY

Giants Stadium: Exactly 39 years ago, Nov. 19, 1978. Joe Pisarcik followed orders and tried to hand the ball to Larry Csonka instead of taking a knee to run out the clock (there were 31 seconds left) with the Giants up 17-12 against the Eagles. The call from offensive coordinator Bob Gibson: Pro Up 65. It was not a clean exchange on the snap to Pisarcik and his attempt to hand it off hit Csonka on the hip, Philly’s Herm Edwards scooped it up on the second hop and took it 26 yards for the winning TD.

BUTTFUMBLE!

Not to be outdone, the five-year anniversary of Mark Sanchez’s Butt Fumble is Wednesday. It happened in the Jets game at MetLife against New England on Thanksgiving Night when Sanchez slipped and his head slammed into guard Brandon Moore’s butt. New England’s Steve Gregory returned it 32 yards for a TD in the second quarter of the Jets’ 49-19 loss.

Josh Rosen vs. Sam Darnold: Giants, Jets scouts await UCLA-USC

Happy Anniversary, Joe and Mark. Happy Anniversary Giants and Jets.

FIT NO BILL

Tyrod Taylor helped the Bills get off to a 5-2 start, but after blowout losses to the Jets and Saints, rookie coach Sean McDermott benched him and will start rookie Nathan Peterman, a fifth round pick, against the Chargers in Los Angeles on Sunday. Taylor was brought in by Rex Ryan, so he’s not McDermott’s guy. He lost his job after he was 9-for-18 for 56 yards in a 47-10 loss to New Orleans last week. He was benched with just under five minutes left and the Bills trailing 40-3 one week after he was sacked seven times in a 34-21 loss to the Jets. The Bills have two picks in each of the first two rounds of the 2018 draft and have the currency to move up for a quarterback. They passed on Deshaun Watson and Patrick Mahomes with the 10th overall pick this year and swapped spots with KC and picked up the Chiefs’ 2018 No. 1 pick. They also own the Rams’ second-round pick for WR Sammy Watkins and the Eagles’ third-round pick for CB Ronald Darby. They traded their own third-round pick to the Panthers at the deadline for WR Kelvin Benjamin. It wasn’t surprising that Taylor was benched as much as it was surprising that he held the job for 2½ years… If Todd Bowles was ever going to bench Josh McCown and give Christian Hackenberg, and to a lesser extent Bryce Petty, a chance to play, it would have happened after the loss in Tampa dropped the Jets to 4-6 going into their bye week. It seems clear that Bowles and his coaches and perhaps GM Mike Maccagnan, who drafted both of them, concede that neither can play.

NFC LEAST

The Giants have four home games remaining, including all three against the NFC East. If MetLife is more than half-filled with Cowboys fans on Dec. 10, Eagles fans on Dec. 17 and Washington fans in the final game on Dec. 31, it will be humiliating for John Mara and Steve Tisch and make it even harder to bring back Jerry Reese and/or Ben McAdoo. The NFC East games are always the most intense and anticipated on the Giants’ home schedule and this year they are meaningless except for draft position… The Giants scoreboard watching is not focused on the Eagles, Cowboys and Washington. Instead, it’s all about hoping the Browns and 49ers can win some games and the Giants can get the No. 1 draft pick. If the season ends with the Browns winless, they would get the first pick for the second year in a row. If the Giants and 49ers each finish 1-15, the second pick would not automatically go to the Giants just because they lost to the 49ers. The tie-breaker is strength of schedule (the won-loss records of the 16 opponents) with the team having the weaker schedule getting the higher pick. The reasoning is they had the same record against an easier schedule, so they are worse. My early prediction is the Giants wind up with UCLA QB Josh Rosen… Even though Darrelle Revis was terrible last year, I still thought at least one team would bring him in for a workout. Cornerbacks are such valuable commodities, especially a guy with a Hall of Fame resume, but Revis’ indifferent play for the Jets convinced teams he was no longer into it… It’s too bad for the Bucs that no more New York teams are coming to visit. After beating the Giants at home on Oct. 1, the Bucs lost five in a row until the Jets visited on Nov. 12.

Tags:

nfl

roger goodell

dallas cowboys

jerry jones

new york giants

new york jets

mark sanchez

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