Did you know that “blog” is a shortening of “web log”?
Like captains at sea, who kept captain’s logs. Or star trek for that matter.
They could have easily called it “web journals”, or “online chronicles”. A “wournal” sounds odd but is it really any stranger than “blog”?
The last few days have been nonstop. I think they deserve an onlicle entry.
Something you should know about me before we get started in earnest — I’m one of those guys with a million business ideas. Actually, that’s not true. 61. I have 61 business ideas written down on my phone (I just checked). All of those I think are viable at least as a side gig. But I’m sure there are a few more that I haven’t written down.
I’ve earnestly attempted to start a business maybe 4 or 5 times. Each time, I learned a little bit more than the last, and the next time, I would get through the beginning stages faster. Each time, I also eventually ran into a problem (or simply lost interest as school demanded more attention) that diverted me from turning the idea into a reality. I’ve probably spent around $500 and hundreds of hours on business ideas that never became a reality. (it’s actually why I have the web hosting that let me create this very wournal.)
The last business idea I had was a good one. Long boarding rental business. It was gonna work. I had it all set up, I had it registered and hooked up to a bank account with a payment processing company — I was ready to go. I even own enough longboards to get started. Then I realized I needed to make a substantial investment in safety gear. Helmets and pads, so that I wouldn’t get sued when someone got hurt. I was (and still am) a poor college student. It made me set the idea on the backburner for the time being — just til I graduate and can pay for it with both the money and time it deserves.
That was maybe more than a year ago. Towards the end of last month, I started getting antsy.
On Saturday, the 28th of November, I decided I was going to start a business. I decided it would be a dropshipping model, and hypothetically, because I own web hosting already, it should be pretty inexpensive to start. I decided on a product (NFC chipped rings for men), and I wrote down an intense plan to start the business in one week. I got the entire business put designed and structured in less than one week, but I hit a roadbump in the web development (mentioned in my bursts of energy post). Well, the website is now done, and I have two orders from very supportive friends, one of which is my brother.
Part of the reason the last few days have been insane is because I promised some people the website would go live on Friday. I gave them discount codes and everything. It was a little optimistic for a deadline, but I stayed up til 3am and finished it.
I woke up at before 9, because I had a webinar to attend. It was a psychology webinar, and he gave an interesting description of addiction: he described how addiction takes place in the midbrain, which handles survival. Long story short, he showed how an urge to smoke is functionally an urge to survive. I wonder how it would change the dialogue around addictive urges if we called them “survival panics” instead of just “urges”. Might help us appreciate the struggle a little more, and help addicts recognize the false nature of the addiction, i.e. “I don’t actually need this to survive, even though it feels like it”.
I then drove to Morgan. I’m a part of a gaming club set up by my brother — it’s basically a book club for videogames that we can find on sale for less than 5 dollars. (Called the Five Dollar Federation, it’s been very fun.) This month’s game is Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga. A true classic. My brother proposed he and I do a 24 hour stream on Twitch where we 100% the game.
Terrible idea. Terrible, wonderful idea.
We started at 6:00 pm, and had a fantastic 24 hours. Seriously such a fun time bonding and reminiscing with my brother, and we had a surprisingly strong audience considering we haven’t streamed in nearly a month. My brother and I have really complimentary personalities on screen, apparently. Most importantly, it was just a crazy story and I feel really close to Matt. He’s moving to Texas with his wife and baby soon, and I’m glad we got to have one last hurrah.
(For anyone wondering, we did not quite 100% it in 24 hours. We got to 93.9%, but when the 24 hour mark hit and we realized we still had to do the super story, we called it quits and decided we’d come finish it later in the month.)
The stream was kind of a rushed trip, because I had church in the morning. This morning, actually. Not only did I have church but I was speaking in it.
My talk was . . . not that well prepared. It had mostly been done in between all the other insanity. But it went well enough. I was terrified before I stood up. Heart-poundingly terrified. But as soon as I got up and started talking, I was able to relax. Delivered a decent little sermon on “The 3 Gifts I Would Give Christ this Christmas”, which was my assigned topic. I actually don’t know if it could be called a sermon. It was more just me relating my process of deciding on three things to give Christ this December. They are:
- Do something kind for “the least of these my brethren” (either a literal homeless person or a friend who is feeling like the lowest of the low)
- Forgive my “exception (I don’t hold grudges or stay angry with people. But I have one exception. Not sure if I’ll go into those details on this platform.)
- Take 1-2 hours and write down all the times that God has come through for me.
I really had two goals for the talk: To impress people in the ward, and to help somebody move towards God. I definitely accomplished the first, which is a relief. I delivered it really casually because my ward is a little young and kinda . . . bro-ey. But it also let my personality show through and I think that was good. If I could have changed the talk to accomplish the second goal I might have made it a little less about me, a little more about doctrine. As it stands, I just have to count on the Holy Ghost to take my story and help the audience apply it to their lives. But the prompt did seem a little about me. I don’t know. It ended up fine and I feel like I did the Lord proud today.
Overall, it’s been a busy but good week. I’ve felt productive and like I’ve accomplished something. It’s a nice change of pace from the enduring boredom and listlessness I’ve been feeling the last few months. Here’s hoping it sticks around.
