This morning I packed and shipped 3 eBay items, shaved my face and brushed my teeth, had a Zoom call with my therapist, walked 4km, installed my A/C unit, showered, and found it strange that I didn’t need to shave my face or brush my teeth afterward.
“ooh, this is different.” I thought to myself.
I added a layer of reflective bubble insulation to the window in which my air conditioning unit resides. I’m blockin’ out all the radiant heat this year!
I watched Better Call Saul last night. Episodes 1-4 I believe. I think it’s a brilliant spinoff from Breaking Bad. Who woulda thought?
I suppose it makes a lot of sense. Saul Goodman from Breaking Bad was one of the best characters in the show. I wasn’t seeing Bob Odenkirk acting, I was genuinely seeing Saul Goodman. It’s probably Bob Odenkirk’s best role. I really only know him from Tim and Eric Awesome Show: Great Job. In that show, he’s all goofy, but we never see a serious side to him in T&E. He really steps up the acting in Better Call Saul.
I don’t know what I’m talking about, LOL. Odenkirk could’ve had some amazing roles at other times, and I’m just not aware of his discography or whatever it’s called in the acting scene.
My DHL package is out for delivery! I’m so stoked to receive it and sift through the contents. SO. FUCKING. STOKED!
I keep checking the delivery page for updates. This weekend was brutal having to wait while the package was delayed in Seattle. I went through my head various scenarios which would cause the package to be delayed. I settled on my hypothesis that there weren’t enough DHL packages destined for Spokane on Friday for them to cover the cost of a cargo flight to GEG. Instead, they locked my package in a shipping container where it would stay until Monday when there were more packages to go out.
I have a good visualization of what it would be like, because I had the pleasure of working UPS at the GEG cargo ramp a couple years ago. I figure my package was in one of those ULD or UDL or whatever they’re called. Big, aluminum framed containers with plexiglass sides, designed to lock into the rails of cargo airplanes.
I remember there were a few trailers always parked overnight on the adjustable platform called the CPC. I think sometimes ULDs would get locked inside them where they would remain until the next shift. I imagined my packaged inside a ULD inside a trailer.
I haven’t been this excited for a package in a long time. The contents aren’t even destined for me! The contents will be counted, sorted, listed, stored, before being mailed off to their final destination– the dedicated anime otaku.
I appreciate the Otaku! I just sold a $30 card this morning. It belongs to a Weiss Schwarz set of which I have no knowledge of. Caroline I believe is the anime name. I haven’t received the payment yet, so I don’t know which lot I acquired it from, but I’m pleased to know that I’m one sale closer to breaking even on that acquisition. Who knows, maybe that $30 sale was enough to put me in the black for that acquisition! Either way, I’m pleased and I’m grateful for my customers.
Cooking some garbanzo beans. I’m trying the oatmeal instantpot setting, after which I will switch to keep warm on HI and let it simmer for 5 or 6 hours. They should be done just in time for dinner.
I was thinking of going to the grocery store on Wednesday, but I’m having second thoughts now. I really want to stay frugal. Perhaps I’ll make a trip there but I’ll budget only $20, spending only what cash I have on hand. Extreme frugality is required to make my small business work out!
I did a good job on that window insulation. Part of the work was from over a year ago, when I precisely cut some wood boards to cover the entire window, save for the place where the A/C sticks through. Compared to yesterday, I already feel cooler in here. I don’t feel any heat coming from that window, which is exactly what I wanted!
I’ve been going to therapy for 6 months now. Today we went over my original goals and the problems I described when I first started going to therapy. I think it’ll be interesting to go back and read all the journal entries I’ve made since November. What a night and day difference it would be, between then and now.
My goals have changed. When I started going to therapy, I wanted to overcome my depression and social anxiety to the point where I could get a job. Now, I think I’ve overcome depression, but I still have a lot of work to do on my social anxiety.
I no longer want to get a job. Back then, I was looking to fit in and conform. Today, I celebrate me, my individuality, and my quirks. I have a job, and I love every minute of it.
I still want to work on my social anxiety. Meeting new people, groups, and interacting with strangers are still my greatest fears.
I want to work on my shame resilience. My patterns of servitude and not taking care of myself come up often when I interact with others. I have people pleasing tendencies that I want to work on.
There’s an advanced down dog in this video that got my pretty worried for a second. I have this fear that my elbow or wrist will blow out when I’m doing downdog. This advanced one handed downdog is probably not something I will do again, because I was feeling a lot of pressure on my elbow and I freaked out for a second. I’ll just do regular downdogs for now, thank you very much!
Today’s plan. What is it?
- Relist PD/SE22 which I sold 1 of this morning. (I only list qty 1 to create artificial scarcity)
- Modify LOVE LAB booster pack listing to qty 1. Create a second listing with a booster 3pack.
- Add a kanban card to show reorder point on mailing envelopes
- Reorganize letter envelope area & stamps
- Receive DHL package and add products to inventory/sort
- Photograph new inventory
- Study Japanese
- Set up a temporary monitoring solution for products which have QTY 1. Either Monit or Zabbix.
I want to explain that last bullet item. I was walking this morning and I remembered that I sold a Weiss Schwarz Project DIVA booster pack this morning, without relisting the product listing. I have somewhere in the neighborhood of 12 booster packs in inventory, but there’s no way an eBay shopper can purchase right now, since I sold the 1 booster pack that I had listed.
I guess this is a somewhat common sales tactic, where sellers will say they only have one item, when they actually have multiples. This creates extra incentive for shoppers to buy now, because they item they want might not be in stock the next time they look for it!
Artificial scarcity! 3D Sellers has a feature where they have two separate inventory fields. The first is inventory, the second is warehouse inventory. When all the inventory is sold, the warehouse inventory will automatically replenish the inventory and relist the eBay item.
Inkfrog has a similar feature, but theirs seems to offer a little more control. Inkfrog lets you delay the item from being relisted by whatever period of time you want. For example, I could configure Inkfrog relist the item 5 hours after one is sold, or I could wait 5 days. Pretty cool stuff.
Eventually, I would like to purchase a subscription to something that lets me do this. Right now, the eBay seller fees are high enough to where I can’t justify getting a third party subscription.
Right now, I’m either doing without, or implementing the needed feature myself using the eBay developer API.
The first barrier to doing it myself is to improve the Node.js eBay library to where it has the actual endpoints that I need. Right now, the node.js eBay library is lacking a whole lot of endpoints. It’s even lacking OAuth which is required for the latest versions of the API. I’ve dabbled a bit on that, but it’s hard to justify spending a lot of time on that when I could be doing sales operations manually and making more money.
So that’s a side project.
For now, I have a different idea. When I create an item which I need to remember to re-list, I’m setting up a web check using happyapps. This doesn’t scale, because the free version of happy apps only gives me 3 checks. I’m already at my limit.
Going forward, what I’m going to do is run my own instance of Zabbix. I used Zabbix a little bit when I worked in IT. Eventually my co-workers and I decided to use Nagios because it had better phone app support, but Zabbix is like Nagios on steroids.
Zabbix is a pleasure to work with. It has a sleek UI, loads of documentation and beautiful graphs.
I’ll hide my nerd boner for now. The bottom line is that I’m going to save $148 a year by running Zabbix rather than subscribing to 3D sellers.
Fuck, maybe the $148 is worth it… It’s probably worth it, but again, I’m just getting started and I can’t spread my measly capital thinner than it already is!
I’m going to set up a web check in Zabbix or monit which ensures that the important listings are always live. I’ll configure checks to alert me if the item is sold, and that’ll give me the reminder I need to keep that item live and available to sell.
Yep! That’s what I’m gonna do for now. I don’t have co-workers to remind me when something isn’t listed, so I’m employing a computer to do it!
It feels really nice in here. I’m glad I set up the A/C.
CoDA stuff!
What attitudes and feelings are reflected when we use avoiding behaviors?
CoDA 30 questions Question 8.3
Attitudes? The attitude is that, “I’m not going to deal with it.” The problem remains. Someone else might have to be the one to deal with it.
Feelings? Fear. I think avoiding behaviors are a symptom of being afraid and wanting to hide.
I wonder if my daily target word count is preventing me from writing quality articles?
Articles.
I said articles.
I’m not writing articles. I’m writing journal entries! I rant and rave, talk about my bowel movements, and what gets my peepee hard. These aren’t articles! These are my unsorted, innermost thoughts!
I write to get my ideas on paper. I write to sort out what I’m feeling. I write because it’s therapeutic and necessary. I write because it’s the only way I progress. I write because it’s the best way I process my emotions.
I write because I’m alone. I write because I’m not alone. I write because it’s a discipline. I write because I’m in recovery.
I am alone in a lot of ways. I think I will always be alone in some ways. I’m alone here in my head, save for what I can express through my words and my deeds.
I don’t think I’ll be around for brain to brain communication. Elon says 5 years for Neuralink, but my estimate is 150 years. I think pieces to the puzzle that is human consciousness are missing, and won’t be discovered for a century. I’m just thinking of past predictions for commonplace flying cars and robot maids for the year 2000 which were incorrect. I think consciousness, deep AI, and brain interfaces aren’t going to be something that happens anytime soon.
I think the internet is the greatest invention that I’ll get to live to see. I hope I’m wrong though! There’s a bunch of cool shit from SciFi flicks which would be mind blowing to see.
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.
24. I am happy with who I am.
I expressed gratitude for my customers earlier in this post. I just want to say it one more time, and emphasize my gratitude. I wouldn’t have such high hopes for my future it if weren’t for my customers. My customers keep the lights on… figuratively. My financial success is because I work hard, my customers send me their money, and I send them a fun new thing. It’s an intricate dance of wants and needs, supplies and logistics. I love the dance and I appreciate my customers very much!
I’m grateful for my health. I am happy that I can try new yoga poses. I’m grateful that I’m gaining strength and muscle mass. I’m grateful that I am improving my self care in the area of fitness.
I’m grateful that I’m aspiring to improve my nutrition. I’ve got a wonderful Buddha Bowl recipe that I am dying to try out! Just waiting on that May 18th foodstamp restock!
Excelsior!
