I’m at a point in my life where as long as I know I did right by you, I’m okay with walking away when something no longer works. I used to hold on longer than I should’ve because I cared, because of history, or because I wanted things to work out. But I’ve learned you can��t keep carrying relationships by yourself. If I showed up, kept it real, and did my part, that’s enough for me. Whether it’s family, friends, whoever, I don’t force what’s no longer mutual. I just leave it where it’s at and keep moving.
The parking lot attendant at the garage I often use is the most radiant, joyful, and friendly person you can ever meet.
Yesterday he asked me about my Giants hat, so I asked if he was a fan. His face lit up, as always:
"I used to play for the Giants for five years in the minor leagues. I was a shortstop."
He talked about how he grew up in the Dominican Republic, and moved to America to play professional baseball, and said he played with Pablo Sandoval and Alfonso Soriano - but his career abruptly ended.
As I drove away, I couldn’t help but think about how crushing that must be - to get so close to the very top of your profession, to spend your life chasing a dream, and then suddenly watch it disappear.
That kind of loss would leave a lot of people bitter, resentful, or forever wondering what could have been
Not him.
Instead, he radiates positivity, his energy is contagious, and he seems genuinely grateful for the life he has.
I cannot imagine him being happier if he ended up making it to the major leagues.
He fell off a very tall cliff, and chose a life of joy.
NIKE x ADIDAS: A GUERRA BILIONÁRIA DA COPA DO MUNDO!
A disputa pelo título acontece dentro de campo... mas também fora dele.
Nike e Adidas travam uma verdadeira batalha para dominar a atenção dos torcedores durante a Copa do Mundo de 2026.
🎬 As duas marcas lançaram campanhas repletas de estrelas. De um lado, nomes como Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylian Mbappé e Erling Haaland. Do outro, Lionel Messi, Jude Bellingham, Lamine Yamal e até uma versão em IA de David Beckham.
Segundo relatos, a Adidas teria investido cerca de £50 milhões em sua campanha para o Mundial.
📺 No YouTube, porém, a vantagem é da Nike: o comercial da marca já ultrapassou 76 milhões de visualizações, enquanto o da Adidas soma cerca de 7 milhões.
Dentro de campo, a Adidas também lidera em número de seleções patrocinadas na Copa: 14 contra 12 da Nike.
E o negócio vai muito além das camisas. Apenas o contrato vitalício de Cristiano Ronaldo com a Nike rende ao craque cerca de US$ 18 milhões por ano.
A Copa do Mundo também é uma disputa entre gigantes do marketing esportivo.
Qual marca tem as camisas mais bonitas da Copa: Nike ou Adidas?
I was 18, broke as hell, and trying to survive on a sketchy side hustle doing IT support for people who didn’t grow up with computers. Mostly I was setting up new PCs for elderly folks, teaching them the basics, and rescuing them from printer disasters by secretly Googling on their behalf.
One day an elderly Korean gentleman hired me to set up his new computer. I spent a solid hour getting everything running and showing him how to use it. When I was done, he and his wife insisted I stay for lunch. What I thought would be a quick sandwich turned into a full home-cooked Korean meal that lasted two hours.
We sat at the table, eating and talking. He wouldn’t let me leave without paying me and instead of my invoice for one hour, he paid me three times my hourly rate for all three hours we’d spent together. Then he asked if I could come back the next week to keep teaching him.
I ended up going back four times over the next month. Every visit was the same: I’d help him with the computer, we’d eat an incredible meal his wife made, and he’d tell me stories about his family. He was so incredibly proud of his daughter, who was just about to finish her residency and become a pediatrician. His eyes would light up every time he talked about her.
At the end of that last visit, I thanked him profusely for being so kind and for massively overpaying me.
He looked at me for a long moment and said softly, “You remind me of my son.”
He didn’t go into details, but I could tell they were estranged. He just smiled sadly and added, “I hope somewhere out there, someone is being kind to him. I hope someone is sitting down and sharing a warm meal with him like this.”
I didn’t know what to say. I just nodded and told him I hoped so too.
More than ten years later, I still can’t think about that man without tearing up. I hope he and his son reconciled. I hope his daughter is doing amazing things as a doctor. And I hope he knows how much that kindness meant to a broke 18-year-old kid just trying to survive.
Germany v Ivory Coast is the World Cup group-stage match between the world’s biggest cocoa exporter and the world’s biggest chocolate exporter.
Ivory Coast grows more cocoa than any country on Earth by far. Germany exported more chocolate than any other country in 2024.
Stay tuned for more cutting-edge, geography(ish)-based World Cup analysis.