I don’t have any tattoos, but like you, I’ve thought of getting one many times in my life.  The permanence of a tattoo wasn’t as daunting as figuring out what exactly I’d get and where I would put it.  When I was younger I was inspired by the punk emo bands I listened to to get lyrics somewhere on my arm but what lyrics and where??  I could never decide.

Alas, we can’t stay emo forever.

I moved on and cut my metaphorical emo bangs, put on business casual clothes, and stepped into the corporate world.  The next time I thought of getting a tattoo was when I got married.  Technically it was when my wedding ring was misplaced in Mexico…which is a story for another time 😅 But the idea was to get a ring tattooed on my finger so that it could never get lost again...unless I betrayed my Yakuza brothers.  

An alternative I discovered that didn’t actually turn out to work was “permanent” jewelry.  And no, I’m not talking about getting a gold tooth.  But you can’t do rings for reasons I’m about to describe. There’s this whole world of people who get bracelets, anklets, and necklaces that are welded together so you can’t unclasp them - you basically have to cut them off.  

People are buying bracelets that, in theory, they would wear for life.  I personally can’t stand trying to shower and sleep with the plastic bracelet they give you when you go to a resort so I don’t know how someone could get used to having a relatively tight fitting bracelet on their wrist for the rest of their life.  

This week's issue is a 3 minute read:

🛳️ Living the boat life

📈 Remember stonks??

🎬️ Marvel slowing down

Wanna Work On A Boat?

I had an old friend that I bumped into once and we did the whole “what are you up to now” thing.  I gave him the very generic answer of just working, hobbies, living life etc., nothing out of the ordinary.  And then I asked him and he said, “I DJ on a cruise ship”.  And I was like, oh, like those boat tours that go out on the water and people have a party?  And he said, no I live on a cruise ship for 6 months out of the year and just DJ and play music for people all day.  My mind was blown. 

Firstly, how do you live on a boat for 6 months straight?  And secondly, how do you get a job like that?  It turns out if you live in the Caribbean or in the Western Africa nation of Gambia, Royal Caribbean is looking for you.  This year alone Royal Caribbean plans on hiring 10,000 people as they bring 3 new ships to the water.  The company already employs close to 90,000 people as it is.  But people wanna cruise!  And they need staff, A LOT of staff.  

In speaking with some staff that we befriended on our cruise a couple months back, you get paid pretty decently to live on the boat for 6 months at a time.  And they pay for your flight to and from the port when you want to fly back to where ever home is and then they pay for your flight to fly you out to the port your ship is docked at.  And although I know they must be trained to be “happy” while working on the boat, everyone I talked to genuinely loved their job.  The idea of living on a boat, having your meals taken care of for you, and just travelling around from port to port while serving tourists was something they loved doing.  

All this to say, you do have to live on a boat doing the same routine every week for 6 months straight with no days off.  I swear they love their work though!

Pandemic Stocks: Where Are They Now?

Man, the pandemic was such a wild time.  Hate all you want about being locked down but that produced some of the most interesting things to ever happen in our lifetime.  All those video calls, people needing haircuts, empty streets, and the stock wave.  I remember looking at the price of oil early in the pandemic and I was like how TF is it negative??  But it was!  And then all those stocks started to climb - Zoom, Pelaton, Shopify, and basically any of the pharma stocks that produced Covid vaccines.  

Well where are all these stocks at now?

Zoom

We all still use Zoom from time to time but definitely not to the frequency it was being used back in 2020 where the company saw its stock soar 765%.  We all thought video calls were going to be the future - now Zoom is sitting at a fraction of what it once was, losing a good 80% of its value or $77B!  

Pelaton

…was THE hottest thing for a while.  I’d be listening to Scott Galloway talk about it being in the same realm as the Apple’s and Netflix’s of the world during the pandemic.  And now it’s shed 97% of its Covid value, which is around $43B.  Does anyone still use Pelaton bikes?

Shopify

Everyone was starting online businesses during the pandemic and Shopify capitalized on this and then some.  The stock price peaked at $169 in 2021 but all good things must come to an end.  In this case the stock is down 63% since the pandemic days sitting around $62.  

Telsa

It ain’t all dark times for the pandemic-popular companies.  Telsa, which was always in the news, jumped 787% during the pandemic, valuing Elon’s baby at $669B by the end of 2020.  The company is value around $589B these days, which is neither here nor there when it comes to Elon’s net worth. 

Gamestop

And I obviously couldn’t talk about pandemic stocks without mentioning Gamestop.  A stock that typically trades around $18 these days skyrocketed 3000% to over $500/share at one point in 2021.  If you invested $1000 into Gamestop in early January 2022, by January 11th it would’ve been worth over $5000, basically a 400%+ return in a matter of like a week.

What a time to be alive.

Superhero Fatigue Is Real

Earlier this week CEO of Disney, Bob Iger, announced that they would be cutting back on their Marvel releases yearly to a maximum of three movies per year and two TV series.  This is great news for those of us who see all the Marvel content on Disney Plus and think to eventually check it out but then get overwhelmed with how much of it is out there, and where to even begin since the majority of it is all connected in some shape or form.

By contrast, in 2021, Marvel released 4 movies and 5 TV shows all within the year - how was one supposed to keep up with any of it?  Not only that but the quality of the content has been dipping over the past few years.  What was once an exciting time when a Marvel movie came out became another sigh of what super hero did they choose this time and who TF are they - IE Ant-man.

In July we get Deadpool & Wolverine which should frankly be a great movie.  And actually the only Marvel movie released this year.  Bob Iger has his sights set on releasing quality over quantity and then going back to the Avengers in a few years time.  I think that gives us all enough time to finally catch up on what seems like an endless supply of Marvel movies and TV shows on Disney+.