8:35AM. My 8GB of phone data has run out, and the house internet is down. I’m on my phone wifi hotspot which means 0.07 Mbps down, 0.06 Mbps up. This is painful. I’m trying to get a mailing label created for a trading card I sold last night. First card sale of the week!

I’m trying to find my customer’s e-mail. I can never remember which page on eBay contains that information. It finally loaded, like 5 minutes later. It is not order details.

I’m clicking “View purchased item.” not there either. That page seems to be just a regular listing page formatted for printing.

View paypal transaction? I remember that there’s a way to see the e-mail without going to paypal. It might be in paypal, though.

I think the page with the customer’s e-mail might only be accessible from the active listings page, not from the listing page itself.

The Paypal transaction page doesn’t contain the customer’s e-mail. But I did discover that the paypal transaction shows the fees being collected by eBay, which is just what I need to fill in my return on investment spreadsheet.

Found it! It’s the Sales record page, as accessible from the active listing page.

8:44AM. This took way too long!

9:59AM. I just got off the phone with K. We went over question number 3 of the 30 CoDA questions which I answered on Friday.

I had to run back from the mailbox when I dropped off today’s shipments. Slow 2G internet really slowed down my shipping process this morning! I put the two packages and one letter in the mailbox and there were some letters adressed to my family in there. The extra stop meant I had to be quick to make it back in time for the phone call.

I got some new homework. CoDA Question #4 out of the CoDA 30 questions. I have to finish it before next Friday. Again I think I’ll use CoDA on Tuesday as a good time to work through these questions.

Hmm, I’m not sure how I’m going to to eBay today, if both my internet connections are compromised. One is down completely, and the other I’m getting 56K speeds. I guess I just gotta cope with 56K.

The new modem didn’t fix the problem. I think it might have made the problem worse. Maybe we were given an Actiontec modem because of our distance from the CenturyLink hub or whatever. Maybe Actiontec modems have a more powerful transformer, and that was what allowed us to get a connection at this distance. The new modem is a Technicolor something or other. Perhaps it’s weaker transformer does not allow a stable connection at this distance.

This is all speculation. I have no data or know-how to gather the data which would prove or disprove this theory. All I know is that CenturyLink sucks, has always sucked, and will continue to suck.

I could purchase a 1GB top-up for $10, but that’s such a shitty deal that I don’t want to bother. I might do it just so I can play video games with M. tomorrow, but I’ll have to figure out a way to recoup that $10.

This is an interesting paradigm change. I can’t just use the internet for free anymore. To use the internet, it has a real, tangible effect on my personal finances.

Internet is considered a human right at this point. I wonder if I could get free internet somehow.

I got some spam today. I’m starting to think that it might be a good idea to respond to certain spam mails which come from people contacting me because of my blog.

I think it might be good to reply and say, “no thanks!” Or simply, “unsubscribe.” because of the little Robinhood invite link that I have in my e-mail signature. I want to promote the shit out of my affiliate links, because that’s just another source of income. Spammers are people too, right? They’re probably looking for opportunities to make money just like I am. An invite link offering a free stock could be irresistible to them!

Even if they don’t click, that’s a pair of eyes that otherwise wouldn’t have had the opportunity. I want to maximize those opportunities because given enough views, I can statistically expect a certain percentage of clicks!

It’s brilliant. Affiliate link promotion plan, GET!

I think I’m going to give up on my parent’s home internet. It’s a nipple I’ve been sucking on for far too long, and it’s been sour the whole time. It’s my parent’s problem now. I need to move forward now, provide myself with a proper internet connection, and that isn’t something I can satisfy at my parent’s house.

DSL at my parent’s house I mean. I give up. If I were in charge, I could take the lead and ensure we get a proper connection, but I’m not. This is my parent’s house and DSL is an infrastructure that is part of the house. This is not my problem, even though I may suffer when it is down.

I give up. It’s my parent’s problem. If they want my help, I can give it, but it’s not my problem.

I’m hungry.

I made a salad and I’m heating up some Amy’s vegan chilli. I should probably exercise first, but now it’s too late. Food going down the hatch!

Yummy salad. It’s got lettuce, black olives, garbanzo beans, carrots, and cucumber.

Yum yum!

It’s raining. I was thinking of walking to the bank, but that ATM is going to be so infected. I think a better alternative is to pay my rent via electronic bank transfer.

I still need to get some exercise though. I think I’ll go walk out back after I finish writing this entry.

I just watched the movie Haywire. I found it on an old hard drive. I know I have a ton of movies saved somewhere! I used to save quite a bit of movies on my fileserver, and I have all those hard drives somewhere.

I found a bunch of videos I had shot as well. Vlog type videos, and home movies of sibling’s birthdays, etc.

Mini skirts are a curiosity. This has nothing to do with home movies, I’m just changing topics again. Wearing a miniskirt means your underwear is exposed to the air. If our eyeballs were on our feet, we would be able to look up girl’s miniskirts. If our eyeballs were on our feet, there would probably be a trend of wearing cones around necks. Instead of being turned on by flowy miniskirts, people would get turned on by upwards swooping cones.

People would probably hide their faces, because that’s where the naughty bits must be. The nose would be like a penis or clitoris. People would wear coloured caps over their entire head and face, because that would be underwear. Most people would wear a hood over their caps because that would be like pants.

The butt and groin would be exposed normally because that’s where the mouth would be. One eyeball would be on the top of each foot, and people would spread their legs apart and squat down on their food to eat it. The arms would dangle down and shovel food into the groin mouth, and sometimes people wound get into eating their food and they would make a humping motion as they took groin chomps out of their food.

It would be hard to see down girl’s cones because nobody is that tall, and people’s eyes are in the wrong place anyway. Every now and then, someone in a raised building can look down a girl’s cone, and that person gets a lucky pervert moment.

Going down escalators is another moment where girls need to be cautious. They wouldn’t want someone to sneek a peek of their underhood!

God, what a weird world that would be. Infinity suggests that such a world may exist!

I’m really tired. I want to take a nap. It’s 1:14PM. I’m not completely sure what to do in this case. Exercise? or sleep?

In the name of good sleep schedule, I think I will go exercise. I’m going to go right now, before the urge to sleep increases.

Actually, I think I’m going to finish this post. I’m going to sit here and be a stickler and make sure that I actually focus and get this done before I move onto the next thing.

I don’t like loose ends!

That’s a quote from Haywire, but it fits in this case really well!

I enjoyed Haywire. It’s a spy movie but it lacks the typical Hollywood political propaganda that has become so disgustingly prevalent. Perhaps it comes from a vintage where such messages were frowned upon. Perhaps it came from a producer who wasn’t keen on that sort of thing.

Regardless of the reason, I enjoyed it. There are a bunch of fight scenes, chase scenes, and evade scenes where the protagonist is trying to slip away from their pursuers. It makes me stop and think, “would I be able to get out of a pinch like that?”

It’s really well done. There was one element of the movie which I found displeasing, and that was the black and white clips which are cut in to suggest an event that happened in the past. I think the transition to those clips were jarring at times.

I gotta say. Gina Carano is a beautiful woman. Her character in the film is totally not my type, but she is very easy on the eyes. Today I learned from IMDb that she does MMA. It makes sense! There were a bunch of fight scenes in the movie where it was obvious that it was really her kicking, punching, making takedowns and submissions! She did a knee kick in the movie which made me think of Muay Thai. IMDb says that’s totally her thing! She competed in Strikeforce and EliteXC. Both of those organizations are new names to me.

I keep thinking of trying sports betting. It’s probably a stupid idea, especially for me. It’s stupid because it carries an incredible risk. I could lose my whole bet in under an hour. It’s especially stupid for me because I don’t know sports. I should really stick with stocks and cryptos!

There is the allure of betting. I could make a 200% return in under an hour. That isn’t something that can be done very easily in stocks or cryptos!

…Or is it? I don’t know all there is to know about stock trading. I heard a concept the other day called, market makers. I don’t know the details, but I hear that market makers are people who make money when the market crashes. I don’t know how that works. I’m still clueless about people who “short” a stock, and somehow make money on that. It is completely counter intuitive that they would actually make money from a price dropping.

I think there is a lot of money to make in a volatile market. Rudy with Alpha Investments is buying up rare card collections when every other card shop on the scene is backing out. I heard one of Rudy’s latest videos about that, and all I can do is smile and say, “congratulations!” to him. He is in a place where he is financially able to face the storm that is economic collapse. As people’s disposable incomes dry up and people switch to fear and survival modes, Rudy enters the scene and calmly purchases card collections which people are panic selling at bottom dollar.

Well played, Rudy! I salute you and I hope to join you in “evil investor” land very shortly! I say evil investor sarcastically. That’s a term Rudy always uses to describe himself. He says it in jest, poking fun at himself and the angry “Timmy’s” who probably don’t understand economics, limited print runs, or free markets.

But yeah, Rudy is making the right move, given the uncertainty of the covid-19 pandemic panic. He says it time and time again, “stay the course.”

He’s a very good example for me and I hope to have just a fraction of his success in the coming years.

That’s it for today. Wrapping up with the usual affirmations and gratitude!

21. My smile can make anyone feel better.
22. I choose to focus on what I can control.
23. Everything will work out in the end. If it hasn’t worked out yet, it’s not the end.

I’m grateful for AT&T mobile broadband. It’s fast. It’s cheaper than Verizon. It’s got better coverage than T-Mobile. I really am spoiled by it and I appreciate that I can use it. Affording it is another piece of the puzzle, but I’ll get there soon!

I’m grateful for Rudy with Alpha Investments. He is the top, or one of the top Magic the Gathering investors, and he’s got a wonderfully witty personality.

I’m grateful for Spreadsheet software. I have been using LibreOffice Calc for the past few years and I find it to be very useful in calculating things like return on investment, and keeping track of things like card collections. I think I might have said I was grateful for this just a few days ago, so I’m going to go ahead and be grateful for one more thing today.

I’m grateful for bank account electronic transfers. Because of this, I can stay home and lessen my risk of getting an infection, or spreading one. Hmm.. I think there might be a slippery slope here. I think I might not want to go out, and I’m using COVID-19 as an excuse. Wait a minute, I’m supposed to stay inside unless absolutely necessary! There is a PANDEMIC ongoing and the government has ordered a shelter in place mandate.

IDK man, this is a very strange time. My work on my social anxiety in person is on hold, and COVID-19 is the reason, not the excuse. I have no excuse not to work on my social anxiety via calling or inter….

I have an excuse for that too! My internet is down or degraded!

Time to get a better data plan, perhaps?

Excelsior!