Yo. So last blog post detailed some goals for my trip and stated I quit my job. What's my plan? Why'd I quit my job? Have I gone fully insane? You're going to get bottle on B?! Anyway here some details.

Why I quit my job:

Ok. I repaired laptops and did remote and on site system administrator work at a local repair shop. We mainly focused on phone screens and battery replacements but I did PC and Mac repair. The job was alright. The guys I worked with were all enjoyable to be around. The work I did wasn't exceptionally monotonous or stressful. Having been my first job right out of school it was basically all I could ask for. I was paid a decent salary considering my experience and was respected for my skills.

I'm a good worker. I show up on time, I'm respectful to authority, pleasant with customers, and I know my way around technology. I'm a gritty person and could force myself to stick to a job like this but it was just... boring. I don't have a big need for money right now. I want to be fulfilled with work. Financially I'm well off for a 22 year old. My parents paid for my education and I don't have a car payment or debt of any kind. That kindness and ass busting on the side of my parents give close to $100,000 dollar head start on most students. I've had 3 years of some pretty great summer jobs which essentially went straight into a savings account because of this. I transparently would like to say I understand my privileged position here. A lot of people likely wouldn’t be openly accepted back in a parents house after graduating high school. Some are kicked out before they even make it that far. I rolled pretty high in the socioeconomic lottery of life which I can eternally feel remorse and guilt for or just accept I was not only born a genius hunk but also fairly wealthy... Anyway.. If you can swallow your pride and leverage some hospitality from family or friends to get yourself ahead I would highly recommend it. Again, I have no debts to pay, I lived in my parents basement rent free, I don't have a kid, I don't buy expensive shit. Money adds up fast if you're spending but also adds up fast if you're saving.

My boss attempted to make some win-win arrangements for me to work a few hours a week remotely but I respectfully declined. Door still seems to be open if I reach out. Being professional in dealing with higher-ups in businesses can't be understated. 48 laws of power baby.

Anyway I'm an artist at heart. I want to be my own boss. I'm working to build an income with content creation. If it doesn't work at least I tried.

Removed some dark shit from the end of this but I'll do a post on that some day too. Not the best to lead in with.

Peace

I'm pretty set on making YouTube videos. I have a lot fun watching videos from a huge variety of different creators and think I have something of value to offer *tip tip*. I've made videos in the past but those were mostly technology tutorials. Anyway I have some experience with video editing and the basics to what makes something I'd consider above garbage. Big thing to overcome here for me is to release things in a "good enough" state. I'm terrible at spending way too much time for very little benefit. 80 - 20 rule is going to be brought up a lot I'm sure. I'm also self-conscious about things I make too so with time and releasing a bunch of content hopefully I can overcome that to some degree. I hope to touch more on that someday too.

Social media and brand building is hard but setting goals around these bars seems reasonable. It gets easier and easier to grow as you build a larger following and pick up momentum. I'd put the D5 goal on top for personal satisfaction and Twitch follows for second place there. I haven't moved past the 300 follower mark on Twitch in the last 4 years so breaking that barrier is also something I'd like a lot.

Soft goals/good habits:

Exercise daily. I do have 99 Strength on OSRS (seriously high scores me: downthecrop) but strength training isn't for me IRL. I think I'm more cardio focused. Stairs or a few blocks jogging just until it's uncomfortable should be enough. Habit building is best done by taking embarrassingly small steps forward every day so it might be fun documenting that too.

Meditation. I've read a book on Shamatha meditation and practiced it for a while at work when I got extremely bored driving my forklift in 2016. I never experienced any extreme enlightenment or calmness. From doing more research on other meditation practice I might have been looking for the wrong results. Correct meditation is not a state of relaxation. It's a state of extreme focus. It's not a comfortable or easy task to stop your mind from wandering. If you're curious I read The Attention Revolution by Dr. B. Allen Wallace. I can remember quite a funny chapter where he explained his stay at the top of a mountain. He practiced his meditation for a few months up there but his spot to sit still and meditate had a bunch of red ants that kept fucking with him. Read it here. I don't think it was that great. All the smart fuckers I listen to try for 15 minutes a day. I probably spend 15 minutes a day trying to justify why I don't meditate so why not give it another try. 15 minutes feels like an eternity while you're starting. I'll bump that to 5 minutes for the first few weeks I think.

Making videos gives me more reason to explore new topics and ideas so I'd like that too.

Anyway... I'll be writing here at least once a week. Videos once a week with a summary here and on Reddit. I have plans for a Podcast and I'll be streaming every day for 5 months.

FrankerZ 7

2019 edit: I didn’t do the exercises or mediation but reading this is not as cringe as I expected. Guess my goals haven’t changed much in the last year. Did break that 400 follower mark on Twitch though and started making YouTube videos. Progress. Proud of myself .

Hi. This is my blog now. I'm not much of an author but from what I've been reading on brand building having content that's accessible in all kinds of media is important. At least that's what Gary Vaynerchuk has to say. I have little experience in writing other than a few papers at university and a handful of business related articles and proposals for my last job. I'd expect the first few samples I post on here to be largely throwaways but that's the case with most things. I still haven't had the courage to sit through the first 5 episodes of The Biggest Problem in the Universe because of this. That eerie feeling of second hand embarrassment is likely something you know yourself and avoid. Perhaps you felt it here. My apologies.

Anyway brace yourself. Plenty more slop to come.