Jay Erickson

Christian, husband, dad.

[Mario Nawfal @MarioNawfal]

🇵🇾🇹🇷 This might be the most unhinged moment of the World Cup so far.

Matías Galarza scores the winning goal for Paraguay… then immediately finds the referee’s lost watch, puts it on, and starts playing with it like it’s a new accessory.

He gave it back a few minutes later.

He left with the goal, the win, and somehow no card for the watch.

Writer: Sol

[Erling Haaland @ErlingHaaland]

This is bigger than football ❤️

[P.D. Mangan Health & Freedom Maximalist 🇺🇸 @Mangan150]

Socialism doesn't exist in the gym.

Every gain is the result of your own work.

It can’t be given to you…

And it can't be transferred to someone else after you’ve earned it.

[Paul David Tripp @PaulTripp]

I have counseled and pastored for many years, and one of the things that has impressed me over and over again is how self-deluded people can be. Including me.

It's amazingly difficult to see ourselves with accuracy. We see other people with a fairly high degree of accuracy, but we don't seem to see ourselves with the same precision.

[Paula Pant @AffordAnything]

There's no freeze on property tax.

There's no freeze on the wages paid to landscapers, plumbers, electricians, drywallers, flooring installers.

There's no freeze on the cost of lumber, copper, baseboard, quarter rounds, flashing, siding, window treatments.

There's no freeze on the wages paid to janitors or porters.

There's no freeze on utilities -- on electric, gas, water, sewer (building-paid utilities in hallways, lobbies, maintenance corridors; most buildings pay water and sewer for tenants).

There are currently 57,421 units sitting vacant in NYC because it's more cost-effective to leave them empty than it is to rent them out.

If you're wondering: "How that could be possible? Wouldn't making anything be better than making nothing?" -- the answer is no, because of the 2019 Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act.

The HSTPA mandated a certain level of renovation for a vacant unit, but did not allow landlords to raise the rent enough to be able to recoup those costs.

If a long-term tenant moves out after decades, the apartment often requires $50,000 to $100,000 in lead abatement, new wiring, plumbing, and structural renovations.

Because the law heavily restricts how much of that cost can be passed to the next tenant.

The HSPTA eliminated the "vacancy bonus" (which allowed automatic 20% rent increases when a tenant left) and heavily capped Individual Apartment Improvements (IAIs).

This means landlords who want a renovation loan would be rejected by a bank, because the landlord would not be able to show that they could repay that loan.

Landlords who pay out-of-pocket would end up losing money, underperforming even what they could get by putting their money in a U.S. Treasury or gov't bond.

Therefore, it's more cost-effective to just leave the unit vacant.

That's why we have 57,421 vacant units across New York right now.

That number is about to get much worse.

[Bear Grylls OBE @BearGrylls]

Do everything in your power to prepare. Train hard. Fight. Win.

Then trust God with the ultimate outcome.

That is the real survival kit.

[Being Libertarian @beinlibertarian]

This is literally how government works

[Secretary Sean Duffy @SecDuffy]

Moments like this remind us why we love TRAVEL ✈️

@SouthwestAir Captain Jim shared his final flight before retirement in the cockpit with his daughter, First Officer Julia.

Captain Jim’s been flying for 43 years, has over 18,000 hours of fight time, and was in the Air Force for 21 years

This is what inspiring the next generation of aviation is all about 👏

[Gareth Harney @OptimoPrincipi]

Russell Crowe on Gladiator 2:

‘They failed, and they failed because they didn’t understand what made the first film so successful: it had a moral core. Here’s the thing, most people want that. On the surface, they might go for entertainment, but if they’re going to love something and keep it with them forever, like that movie? …The love for that thing is because of its moral core. All guys want to be that man who can stay that strong, and all women want a man who can love them in that way.’

[Planet Of Memes @PlanetOfMemes]

I've been using baby gates wrong my entire life.

[Sahil Bloom @SahilBloom]

Major cheat code for life: Master the art of the fresh start. From a bad morning. From a bad interaction. From a missed workout. From a poor decision. The goal isn't to avoid the fall. It's to shorten the time between the fall and the reset. Fast recovery compounds.

[Clifton Duncan @cliftonaduncan]

There are 2 types of people:

1. People who see a trillionaire and wonder how they can innovate and emulate such success

2. People who see a trillionaire and seethe with resentment

Do everything you can to ensure you're always around the first kind of person.

[Bill Ackman @BillAckman]

@Geiger_Capital @SavvyAuntie Worse than nothing. She has done considerable harm to the country.

[Frank Brown @FrankBr05713205]

I teach auto shop at a small high school. We work on students cars, teachers cars, students parents cars and some community people cars. We only charge for parts and not labor, so we saved some people a lot of money last school year. This last school year we did 126 oil changes, 68 brake jobs, 85 alignments, 4 steering racks, 22 tune ups, 32 struts, 20 shock absorbers, 4 transfer cases, mounted and balanced 82 new tires, 4 timing chains, 15 valve cover gaskets, 14 thermostats, 4 radiators, 12 in tank fuel pumps, 8 EVAP canisters, 6 exhaust manifolds, 4 mufflers, 15 AC repairs including evacuate and recharge, 8 alternators, 22 batteries, 9 starters and so much more! Proud of those students I am!

[Sahil Bloom @SahilBloom]

I’m convinced discipline is just the highest form of self-respect. It’s choosing what you want most over what you want now. It’s keeping your word. It’s an act of service to your future self.

[Possum Reviews @ReviewsPossum]

Last night, I read the entirety of C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters. It's a novel told in the form of letters written by a demon to another demon instructing him on ways to manipulate his "patient" to do evil.

This one quote sounded familiar.

[Mario Nawfal @MarioNawfal]

The chances of a deer taking you out at a crosswalk are slim. But never zero.

[Bear Grylls OBE @BearGrylls]

Calm under pressure isn't a personality trait. It is a discipline we build.

[IT Unprofessional @it_unprofession]

My wife and I finally got an offer accepted on a house and hired a home inspector.

I thought he'd just walk around and make sure the roof wasn't actively caving in.

Instead, a guy named Gary showed up with a tactical utility belt, an infrared camera, and the demeanor of a homicide detective.

Gary spent 6 hours meticulously documenting every structural sin committed in the last 50 years.

He handed me a 90-page PDF report that was color-coded by severity.

The whole document was basically just red.

He noted that the slope of the driveway deviates by two degrees, which could cause pooling during a catastrophic hundred-year flood.

I live in a landlocked state.

He pointed his thermal camera at a window and told me I was losing an unacceptable amount of ambient heat.

I told him the window was open.

He wrote that down as a critical mechanical failure.

He took me to the basement to look at the HVAC unit.

He shined his flashlight on a single speck of dust and asked if I was prepared for the respiratory consequences of poor filtration.

I asked him if the furnace actually worked.

He sighed deeply and said it functions, but it lacks the efficiency of a modern heat pump.

We moved to the electrical panel where Gary put on thick rubber gloves like he was about to defuse a bomb.

He told me the wiring was technically up to code but ethically questionable.

I don't know how electricity can lack morals, but Gary seemed very disappointed in the circuit breaker.

Finally, he found a tiny crack in the garage floor.

He used a digital caliper to measure it and informed me the foundation is undergoing micro-settlement.

Every house on earth is undergoing micro-settlement.

We're on a spinning rock in space, Gary.

I asked him for a bottom-line assessment on whether we should buy the property.

He looked me dead in the eye and said the house is technically habitable but still compromised.

I paid him $600 for this psychological warfare.

We're still going to buy the house.

I'm just going to live in constant fear that maybe Gary was right.