One year ago today: May 22, 2020, some lottery gab.
Five years ago today: May 22, 2016, it’s almost mine.
Nine years ago today: May 22, 2012, controlled by old people.
Random years ago today: May 22, 2009, it’s their rainforest, dudes.
A decision is made, a bunch of money went out the door, and I was on the phone two hours. Before that, here’s the best picture I can present, its this red barn light fixture. From Tractor Supply, it is solar powered. Nice design but not all that great if you are expecting it to give off a lot of light. That’s the day, other than the latest new business, over which you won’t get much more detail just yet. The choice we made involves listening to a series of seminars or you don’t qualify for a refund and neat free merch, so that’s “Internet free”, instead of real free. I’m listening to the first of 8 modules, they call them. So far I’m impressed at the high quality, and for once the people are photogenic. The presentation is going to task me a bit, as the climate has changed out there and standards seem so low.
I’m getting two value sets from the modules. The training of course, you need that, but also real insights into on-line business that I would not otherwise have bothered with. They struggle with the concept that there is a reason we “old guys” don’t borrow money from PayPal at 23% and it ain’t because we are out of touch like they think. I also detect a much worse attitude toward credit than expected. The learning process is largely a series of mistakes and too many of them see that as a weakness. But I’m paying attention, since it was my perspective on money that made my life easy. They could cool off on the angle that the broke and destitute make the best achievers.
I agree with them that money changes everything, but not on how. I’m not that keen on sitting on a beach watching the sunset. Twice a year is good for me. They get off on the wrong track half the time. Giving me $100,000 is not going to make me race down to the red light district and snort powder. Another laugh for me is how they go on about places I was at thirty years ago and I know are nothing today. Club Med (Cancun, Phuket), Borocay, the Hard Rock circuit, you’d have to pay me extra to go there now. I’d rather play golf.
The far left bozos are out to get Rittenhouse, the kid who plainly shot the two BLM AOLs in self-defense. They can’t convict him without proving he did not have the right to protect himself, so the objective is more likely just to stir up as much shit as possible. Keeps the sheeple distracted from what’s really going on. And that is the slow erosion of American freedoms by the cancer of communism.
Somewhere in Kentucky.
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What a day, mostly with the webinar material. Thanks a lot Reb, sticking me with the module part. Again, listen or you won’t get the tee shirt or the $500 rebate. The thing is, I don’t need to confront myself or achieve life transformation. I’m not broke, I don’t have a cube job, there is no dark force holding me back, and I already have control of my life, thank you. I’ve read the list of habits of successful people and around half are bad habits in my book. But I will list the ones I think are good for most people including myself.
1) Read. Don’t watch TV, read.
2) Make frugality automatic, but don’t cheap out.
3) Relaxation doesn’t mean doing nothing.
4) Get rid of stupid people in your life.
5) Keep a budget, even after you no longer need one.
6) Rise early, but only a few times a week.
7) Keep a journal, or a blog will do.
8) Really, really hate a maximum of five things.
9) Don’t be afraid to blame or complain.
Other habits, I’m not so keen on. Some I outright dislike. Here’s some and why.
1) Sharing. Generally, don’t, you never get it back in good shape.
2) Networking. Keep in touch, but quit wasting time.
3) If you have to exercise to keep fit, you’re doing something else wrong.
4) People who need people slow you down.
5) Don’t specialize unless you can already do the entire job yourself.
If I believe the modules, I do plenty of things that waste time. I like crossword puzzles and jigsaw puzzles. This is uber-quality time, the more so with the Reb present. I find a balance is best, I’ve had jobs that paid good money but left you too tired or without time to enjoy it. The casual observer would say I learned to enjoy things that didn’t cost money. Nonsense, I love spending money. What they can’t see is I enjoy things that can’t be “shared” unless I decide to, and such things rarely have big price tags. The narrator is doing a good job, mind you, of pointing out how losers think. Sadly, he does not allow for cases where there are legitimate blockades on what people can do. Fact is, most people cannot overcome every obstacle no matter how much pep talking they get. It’s wiser to learn your limitations.
These modules are going to take a week. I find myself taking breaks to play bass. The lessons give a list of excuses, let me browse it and see which ones I can blame for not ruling the world by now. Moments later, I’m out of luck. I’m not a minority, a woman, in debt, or hang out with the wrong people. What does that leave me? Well, I did have unsupportive parents and I’m not all that charismatic. Time to play bass, or I will begin to let “outside influences” rule my life.
My oath. They have a little barometer in one corner, the one that tracks your progress. And I’m only 1% done. There’s something about this process I’ve seen before, maybe a course I took along the way. You must watch the videos in sequence, I want to get to the one that is going to tell me how successful people act. Another smile, because it’s true about quality of input. At my corporate job, I did the same work as the whole department. But I was working to get ahead, they were working to pay their bills. That was the end of them.
ADDENDUM
Hours later and I’m getting saddle sores. No wonder they say this course takes a week. Fortunately, the videos have an accelerator, so you can listen at up to twice normal speed. I understand they need to allow for complete dough-heads, because that is what you’d have to be to not know getting ahead involves learning a few basic lessons. But learning them involves admitting things most puny egos can’t stand. I’m plugging along with what are behavioral lectures, which aren’t that helpful to me.
From my point of view, I’m already ahead of much of their advice. But do watch the videos because it is eye-opening to point out most people need such basic instructions. I already have a super budget and plans that extend out to 2043. I followed their directions to write down a list of ten things I want, but only came up with seven and outside of the house in Tennessee, six of them don’t cost any money. But money always helps, that’s why they call it money.
The lessons would remind you of college. The lecture hour requirement seems small. In my day, 12 hours per week was considered a full load, I’ve seen nowadays how that has dropped to 5 in some of the diploma mills. Come along for the ride, this first module is a mite over five hours. We also have to attend some Zoom conferences, which my bandwidth may struggle with. I’m just not into streaming porno, Ken.
I thought I had my coffee consumption under control until this came along. I bought a $20 crate of K-cups in anticipation of this weekend. The recordings are comprehensive and amusing. How they quote Newton’s Third, every action has an equal and opposite reaction, then misquote it as input equals output. Shouldn’t that be an opposite output? Just sayin’? Man, I need another coffee.
Last for today, some humor. You’ve heard of sort algorithms, they sort lists and they all make multiple passes. Some guy named Matthew has come up with a one-pass variation called the “Stalin Sort”. You go through the list once, eliminating anything that is out of order. In the end, you have an ordered list.
