12:40 PM. Today I didn’t journal right when I woke up. I instead exercised and got packages ready to ship. I had about 10 packages and 2 letters go out today. That’s quite the difference from this month’s trend! I owe it all to the economic stimulus package I’m sure. Lots of people going out and buying shit they don’t need! I am very grateful though.

Wow, that paragraph had way too many topics.

I used USPS pickup service for the first time. All the packages I had ready to ship out were way too voluptuous to fit inside the mailbox. What I did was I put the letters in the mailbox, and the packages on the front patio of my parent’s house. I don’t like using my parent’s patio for that sort of thing, but that’s pretty much the default for where the delivery drivers go.

Oh well, this is a temporary situation where I’m living. I’ve been casually looking at housing options every few weeks. I’d rather not get an apartment because I can’t afford much more than I’m paying now. I pay $400 a month now for my little apartment and my business isn’t sustainable yet. There’s no way I could pay $700 a month which is about the rock bottom for apartments in this area that I think are acceptable. There are lower options but those options are more like a room in a shared house. I’m not comfortable with that option just yet!

I’d like to think that I can move up to that comfort level. Or rather, I’d like to think that I can be okay with the uncomfort. We’ll see how it goes once the pandemic comes to an end and I can get out and start socializing in-person again. Maybe I could meet a friend who’s looking for a flatmate? I think that would be the most desirable outcome. Then I could skip the whole having to search for someone who is tolerable to live with at the same time that I’m looking for a tolerable housing arrangement.

I also have to take into account how I’m going to handle my eBay stuff in said housing arrangement. Will I need a vehicle? If so, it’s probably not going to work out. I am committed to not having a vehicle while I build my business. I can’t handle that expense on my income.

I think I was up at 3AM this morning. I got an e-mail from my good buddy Mindsforge. He was checking in and letting me know that he installed a peertube instance. peertube is good stuff! I had dreamed about a federated youtube replacement in the past, and now it’s coming together! I’d be interested in installing an instance of my own at some point. Perhaps when I get that office space with kickass internet!

I’m pretty much sleeping twice a day. I’m diggin’ it. Naps are so refreshing! I tried to sleep about a half hour ago. Couldn’t sleep. I was thinking about food and daydreaming about eating junkfood. I want salty, peanut butter filled pretzels and Chex mix! Did you know the original Chex mix in the blue bag is accidentally vegan? That’s the one I buy. I bought a family size last time I shopped at Safeway and I ended up eating the whole bag in one sitting! That stuff is so addicting!

I want lots of dried fruit and nuts so I can make bombass muesli. I have some premade muesli from Amazon which was pricey but I figured that it’s actually an okay deal. It’s about $7 for a 40 oz bag. I ate through one bag so far. It tastes so amazing with coconut or hemp milk! I’m all outta that milk though. I’m eating some vegetable curry I made from scratch yesterday. I used the last of my potatoes and canned coconut milk to make it. Tomorrow I’m planning on walking/running to Albertsons. I’m turning it into an exercise and I’m just gonna have some fun with it. Maybe I’ll wear my headphones and jam to some music I haven’t heard in awhile.

I listed 22 items on eBay today. A bunch of rare Miku Weiss Schwarz cards from my collection, and one P-Memories Hatsune Miku starter deck. It pains me to list them, but I’m okay with it because I realized that if I can keep this business up, I’ll be seeing new Miku cards on the regular. I can hold onto them for a time, display them in my Miku shrine, and then let them go. I could list them right away at a high price and bank on them not selling if I want to hold onto them for longer. At the same time, I’d be okay to part with them because someone would be monetarily compensating for my loss!

Eating and writing. The batch of vegetable curry I made yesterday was so good! I think It might have been because I used a little more salt than normal. I also took it easy on the spices which I usually go a little too crazy with– thyme, sage, coriander, cumin. I usually put way too much of that, and the flavors are too powerful and walking all over each other. This time I just put a little dash of each, and I’m so pleased!

Did I talk about yesterday’s Seattle Betsuin live stream? I don’t think I did. I watched a 1 hour live stream from start to finish, and pretended as if I were in a buddhist temple. I didn’t get up, I held in my farts, and I practiced the endurance that is mentioned in Learning the Wisdom of Enlightenment. It’s a free book I got from the Spokane Buddhist Temple. It mentioned building endurance for painful situations or something. I figured that goes along with what Joe Rogan always talks about.

Joe Rogan talks about doing hard things voluntarily. Doing do is a personal challenge that I can learn and grow from. It’s humbling and offers a great lesson.

I think it’s also part of yin or yang. I have to experience suffering in order to experience elation. Dark has to exist for there to be light. Strength has to exist for there to be weakness. Boredom has to exist for there to be fun. That sort of thing.

I didn’t understand half of the service because it was in Japanese, but that’s actually a good experience for me because I want to learn Japanese. Or rather, I am learning Japanese. Trying to put words to meaning by watching a non-subtitled video is wonderful. Listening closely for the syllables of the words and piecing them together is wonderful. I think this is just going to be a new habit for me. If I’m quarantined or I don’t make it to Spokane Buddhist Temple (SBT,) I’ll watch the entirety of the Seattle Betsuin livestream as if I am there.

I studied Japanese today using Ankidecks. It’s a wonderful tool.

And now I’m downloading all the James Bond films so I can binge watch them. I keep trying to get into zombie shows but most of them suck. The walking dead has such shitty characters and ugly actors. I finished season 1 and I don’t want to watch season 2 because none of the characters are likable. Half the cast seem to be domestic abusers. The other half give up even when hope is staring them right in the face. Then there’s so many unrealistic and mindbogglingly dumb situations. Racial stereotypes and bigotry.. People right now in COVID-19 are more friendly that 50% of the people on that show. I think the people who are surviving in a zombie apocalypse would be grateful and working together.

Basically I think the show is a drama and there just happens to be zombies scattered in there. I’m really not a fan.

World War Z and 28 days later are really good. I watched those for the first time recently. Too bad they’re just a movie though!

I started looking for apocalypse tv shows, because The Walking Dead isn’t doing it for me. I found that The 100 is on the top of the charts for apocalypse shows. I watched the first episode and NOPED so hard. I can’t stand shows where everyone is beautiful. Greater society’s idea of beautiful anyway. I find these, “beautiful” people to be hard on the eyes. I can’t look at them without wanting to throw up. The girls have perfect makeup, perfect hair, and tiny noses. The guys have well defined jaw lines, broad shoulders and striking eyes. Ew. Just no.

I see people who look like that so sparingly in my life, that when I see them in movies or tv I can’t stand to look at them. It’s obvious I’m watching a production and I don’t want to watch a production. I want to feel like I’m there with them, and I wouldn’t be hanging with people who look like that. Gimme a cast that looks average or I’m out.

Same goes for personalities. Gimme characters with decent personalities or I’m out. It’s just like real life. I’m not going to spend time with an asshole in real life, so why would I give my attention to an exaggerated, fictional asshole? That’s a loaded question with a false assumption. I wouldn’t give my attention to that person.

So I think it’s safe to say that I’m picky about what I watch. And that’s okay! There are far to many shows out there, more than I could ever watch in my lifetime. In order to be productive and enjoy good films, I will be picky as fuck!

I’ve been enjoying some Steven Seagal movies lately. I just watched Above the Law. I know it’s just an 80s action flick, but there are some scenes which I found troubling. Like the one where the dude’s store got trashed by the dudes who just failed at assasinating Seagal’s character. Or the one where Seagal’s character punched a dude in the chest who was simply concerned about Seagal’s character bullying his friend.

Seagal’s character is supposed to be a cop but he goes around beating people up or killing them. Some of them were aggressors, others were completely unarmed and nonviolent. The violence is supposedly warranted because the people were in the drug trade. I suppose that’s just how the 80’s and 90’s were, with the ridiculous drug war. Maybe I’ll write an article on my distaste for drug wars, but right now I’m not feeling like writing bout that.

Thank goodness these are fictional characters!

3:05PM. Watching random youtube videos and researching disaster.radio. For about $70, I could build my very own disaster radio! I would need two for it to be a mesh network though. Unfortunately that project seems kinda dead. I suppose if there was some natural disaster that wiped out the power grid, a project such as that might take off. It’s clear that COVID-19 pandemic is not the disaster that will make disaster radio take off!

I think it would be cool to build two, and send one to my brother B. It would be cool to see if we could communicate via the radios. I would put mine on a fence post in the backyard! There’s a good spot I know of in the backyard near the fire pit which has line of sight all the way to Beacon hill! That’s 8.74 miles away. B.’s house is less than half that distance, but I don’t have line of sight to his house so it would be interesting to see if that would even be a possibility for a tiny little LoRa radio to communicate between here and there.

Disaster radio might be some really crappy alpha quality product. It’s not like I could just buy it and plug it in, either. There would be lots of setup and troubleshooting for sure! I think a lot of people are without projects right now. I don’t have that issue. I never have that issue! I’ve always got ideas and right now especially I have lots of ideas to work on that can potentially make me money. And I’m so hurting for money that I can’t afford to take time for a project such as disaster.radio. It’s not a free thing that I can just spend time on, it’s an expensive thing and it takes a lot of time and there’s no money to be made!

Oh wait a minute. What if I build a nice quality, fully ready to go disaster radio, and sell it on eBay? Hmm… Hmmm… If I can monetize it, then I could come up with a good reason to invest! I’ll have to think about that some more.

That’s going to be it for this blog post.

69. I can write down my thoughts and take control of my emotions.
71. My hard work is already paying off.
72. I am thankful for life.

I’m grateful for amateur radio. LoRa radio is technically not amateur radio, because there is no license necessary for LoRa. In a way though, it is amateur radio precisely because it doesn’t require a license! The word amateur radio is somewhat confusing. Perhaps I should use the term HAM radio instead. My point is that I appreciate all the projects and the ideas that are circulated and propagated and shared and loved by many!

I’m so tired. I want to sleep. My sentences aren’t making any sense!

I’m grateful for sleep. Sleep regenerates me and makes me feel good. I am going to go to sleep after this!

I’m grateful for Techmoan on youtube. He produces really interesting and unique videos and there’s always a lot to learn from his demonstrations and descriptions.

Excelsior!