I forgot to mention last week I was contacted by a guy that worked for a company that specializes in optimizing SEO (search engine optimization) for YouTube channels. After vetting his work and having him tweak one of my existing videos I agreed to pay for his services. He said it was $75 a month. My thought was if the tweaking he does helps the growth of the channel and subsequently the income it produces by more than $75 I would be ok with the service. In order to do this I had to give him edit access to my channel which meant he could tweak titles, descriptions and tags but could not do things like delete videos. I was skeptical but willing to give it a shot.
So the guy gets to work, optimizing 20 of my videos to increase their SEO. He showed me the before and after SEO scores which was a big difference. I told him that was great but I I now needed to see if it changed the views or money output of them. He said he could do another 50 videos for $100. That was when I slammed on the brakes.
I told him that his services were presented as a monthly service where he would go into a new content I posted and do the tweaks. Instead it had now mutated into a per video pricing structure. I told him I did not appreciate the games. He tried to say that he was not misleading but he obviously was. I removed his edit access and blocked him.
The interaction however did open my eyes more to things I could be doing to make the channel perform better. I have signed on with a site that contains tools to do exactly what this guy was doing for way less. We will see if it bears any fruit.
Originally I had planned to try to ride Victoria Park last night but skipped it because my knees were feeling shitty. In retrospect I am glad I did because I got a report that the place was absolutely mobbed. Riding wheels with wall to wall people is never a fun time. Instead I got some more stuff done around the house.
One of those items was cleaning up the install of the new RGB lighting in the office. I wanted to hide the power cable that runs up the wall. I had some left over cable track that I used when I first moved in which was just about perfect for the job. I really like the final visual of the lights. It looks very cool, IMO.
I also installed some replacement front handle/bumpers that I 3D printed on my Patton. The replacement set allows me to add color as well as functionality as it is higher and gives better access to the charging port. I am not all that pleased with this shade of orange though. I have a darker variety coming which I will reprint these in. I also am trying to dial in how to minimize supports that are needed for these prints as they do not detach cleanly, making the area where they supported look sort of shitty.
This morning I made a last minute decision to ride my V13 to work. I did not wear a costume once again this year but I thought if pressed I could put on my helmet and say I did. It is a very orange wheel so I thought it fit the theme.
Finally, somehow last night I stumbled across this old picture of my brother and I. If I am not mistaken I think this was taken at his wedding. If am not mistaken again, I think we both had been drinking heavily when the picture was taken. This was in the early 2000’s
I have been feeling in one of those downward sections of the roller coaster also known as life. I described last week my self perceived happiness level as being a solid 5 out of 10, not a great number. I think there are various components to this.
First off the issues with lower body pain, most noticeably with my knees is lingering on. Today despite being on three Advil I basically limped my way to the pickleball court and had poor mobility once I was on it. It’s frustrating. A couple months ago my body felt like it was holding up much better than it is currently. Right now it seems like I am being held together by rubber bands and bubble gum.
I have talked forever about the mental and/or emotional struggles that have rolled through my life for quite awhile. I think the most frustrating part is a lot of it can be boiled down to a lack of discipline on my part, something that I normally try to adhere to in most areas of my life. In very simple terms I think there is too much of me doing too much, without the reciprocity required to maintain any semblance of balance. The fault however for this is squarely on my shoulders, it begins and ends with me with what I am willing to do and/or accept.
Does writing these feelings/thoughts out fix anything? No, only actions tied to these words matter. Bottom line is I have not been feeling all that great and nobody is coming to save me except me, myself and I.
I have been in the middle of a unique layaway style sale of my Sherman S for the last 2-3 months. The buyer has sent me a total of three checks over that time period with the last one arriving yesterday. I chose to not cash any of the checks until I received the full amount. I boxed the wheel up last night which was a bit of a challenge as it weighs 113lbs. It will get dropped off today to be shipped to it’s new home in northern California. I have never done a wheel transaction in this manner. It is only viable for those with patience, trust and a lack of urgency for the money.
I also set up two different RGB gamer lights that I bought on a whim several days ago. I set them up on the wall by the door so they will be visible when I live stream as well. I am a fan of RGB lighting, as you walk through my house that becomes very clear.
Set up of the lights was not very difficult and of course I connected them to my Alexa so voice control is possible. I just need to do a little wire management and the project will be complete. I like how the wall mounted light looks like a flux capacitor. Yes I am a geek to my core, always was, always will be.
Obviously the ride at Victoria Park did not happen but tonight is another night.
Last night I had my first HOA board meeting since I was recruited to be the HOA secretary a few months ago. As secretary I am still not all that sure what my job exactly is although I was given the HOA bible, a huge 3 ring binder that is stuffed with documents covering at least a decade if not more. My hope is to make more of the position digital instead of relying on binders of paper. The roughly one hour meeting went fine where planning was done for the annual meeting next month which is open to all residents. On the agenda will be a substantial dues increase next year because of a number of repairs and expense increases that have come up over the last year. If you asked me if I ever thought I would be on the board of a HOA five years ago the answer would have been a definitive no. It just goes to prove that you never really know what sort of twists your path is going to take.
Am I alone in being really tired of filters that are used everywhere in our digital existence nowadays? I mean it seems like everyone is applying filters to themselves to change their appearance, some in a minor way but some in a drastic manner that borders on impersonation. Technology has advanced so far that filters are now applied real time easily on video as well. Even my streaming platform has a filter to smooth out someone’s face to the point where lines, blemishes or wrinkles no longer exist.
Hey I get it, everyone is vain to some degree so if you can put a refined, thinner or more handsome/beautiful version of yourself out there on the internet with a couple clicks, why not? My question would be more along the lines of, why? Although filters have improved a lot it is still pretty obvious when somebody is utilizing one so you really aren’t fooling most people.
This is nothing new of course, for decades pictures were doctored and modified that went into print media but that required some careful manipulation with imaging software that was not used by the masses. Today’s point and click insta-filters make it stupid easy. I guess this is sort of like complaining that the sky is blue and the grass is green. Social media is all about putting your best face forward in most cases, even if that face/body is heavily digitally modified. Hey it’s a free world, do what you want, I just don’t need to understand what it actually accomplishes. Happy grumpy Tuesday.
I skipped happy hour on Friday and instead got Costco and my regular grocery shopping knocked out. By the time I got home it was around 7:30 and I was hungry. I threw one of my just purchased Costco frozen pizzas into the oven which was my meal.
Saturday morning I had another session of pickleball on my rusty knees. My knees held up ok, my IT band on the right side actually was the thing that hurt the most by the time I was done playing. It’s been aching ever since. I did play a couple more games with the Temu paddle. We were playing some people that were a few notches below skill-wise so I figured handicapping myself with the cheap paddle wasn’t a bad idea. I did an official review of the paddle later in the weekend.
Saturday afternoon I decided I would take on redoing the office. My original thought was I could just pull my desk out, slide the existing 6 foot workbench to the right and then slide my desk into the corner that was now open, at an angle. I did some rough measuring and thought this would work, it didn’t. My desk was crammed in with both benches partially blocking me on the side. It wasn’t viable. So, as is often the case I came up with a new plan on the spot.
I took the workbench and turned it 90 degrees, pushing it against the right wall. I then moved the left work bench as far away from that corner as I could while still allowing the closet door to open and close. Doing these things allowed me to get the desk positioned more or less where I wanted it. I now had to move onto phase two of the project, adding a third 32 inch monitor to my set up.
I bought the monitor at Costco on Friday and I had already ordered a special stand that is designed to hold three monitors. It didn’t take long until I encountered more roadblocks. The way the desk was designed the C clamp mount for the monitors would not work as is. My solution came in the form of a piece of scrap 2 x 10 I had in the garage. I attached it to the top shelf of my desk and then attached the monitor mount to that. It actually worked well and provided a strong base to support the screens.
Assembling the mount and positioning the screens took a lot of trial and error as I messed with different layouts. I eventually decided on doing three horizontal which gives me a nice cockpit feel. It was a lot of work but I’m happy with the end result. It will take a little getting used to. My new monitor which I have in the center is a 4K monitor so I have been running it at it’s native resolution which is twice that of my existing Samsung’s. It definitely allows me to get a lot more on the screen although good eyesight is required. I did a video that outlined the work.
Saturday night I went to go see Venom with a friend of mine at the Cinebistro. Before the movie I was at the bar testing out the margaritas, they appeared to be on the strong side as I was definitely feeling it when we went into the theater. The movie was good in classic Venom style. I would give it a B+. I did not stay until the post credit scene however.
Sunday I did not feel like digging into any significant tasks. I did some more minor tweaking in the office which will probably require some additional tweaking in the future. One of the tweaks I did was toss my Quest 2 VR headset. I loved that thing when I got it and did a lot of content on it. However it was a thing I used to do a lot with Cindy. When I was cleaning stuff up in the office I looked at the headset sitting on the bench and realized that I had not used it a single time since I moved. Into the trash it went without anything resembling remorse. These sort of sudden disposals of items is something new that has only developed in me over the last couple years. If it isn’t serving me it is far, far easier for me to dispose of something than it once was. It’s an attitude that would serve me well in other parts of my life if I applied it properly.
I watched the Eagles/Bengals game. This is hard to believe but the Eagles had not beaten the Bengals in 25 years. Now they don’t play that often but still, that is a hell of a streak, plus this game was in Cincinnati. During the first half the Bengals definitely were outplaying the Eagles but the second half was all Birds. They wound up walking away with an easy victory, a rarity nowadays, breaking the 25 year winless streak.
I did not feel like making dinner so I decided instead to go to Tacos N Tequila. As always I sat at the bar. Sundays are nice because house margaritas are two for one and I took advantage of it. I had a total of six margaritas to go with my two tacos, chips and salsa as I watched the Washington/Chicago game.
Towards the end of my time there the cute female bartender plopped a slushy looking drink in front of me with no words, I just looked at her confused and smiled. When she came back around I asked what it was, I didn’t know if someone bought me a drink or what? She said it was a mango margarita. She made one for someone else and had extra so she gave it to me. It was actually quite good. I know her name and she now knows mine, making it the third female bartender I am on a first name basis with in my area. I’m not sure if that is a good or bad thing.
I popped another three Advil after work to prepare myself for playing volleyball last night. Even with the ibuprofen flowing through my veins my knees still were not great, I could hardly jump but I was able to move around at least. My team won more than they lost and I served very well. During the one game I served 10 or 11 points in a row. I came out of play not much worse off then I went into it so I will call that a win. A couple days earlier I would have placed my odds of playing at all this week at close to zero.
Last night I quickly opened up my box that contains the $35 pickleball paddle from Temu. My initial impression is it felt/looked like a $35 paddle. I am going to try playing with it today. If it sucks that’s fine, this paddle can be the one I throw in disgust as needed.
This weekend is shaping up to be a busy one. I want to tackle rearranging my office where the desk splits the two work benches instead of having it pushed against the wall. This will even out the layout and give me space to potentially add a third monitor to my setup.
I also have intentions of renting a commercial carpet cleaner to see if I can get my dingy looking carpet refreshed a bit. It’s something I have wanted to do since I moved in honestly. Replacing the flooring in the bedrooms/office with either new carpet or vinyl plank is on my list of improvements I still would like to do on the house but down the road a bit. My hope is a good cleaning of the carpet will buy me some time.
I am going to see the new Venom movie Saturday night with a friend of mine which should be fun. I also have pickleball tomorrow, the Eagles game on Sunday as well as maybe squeezing in a ride somewhere along the way.
Yesterday an old friend of mine I hadn’t communicated with much recently reached out. One of the questions he asked me how my overall happiness level was right now. I responded back that on a scale of 1-10 I would give myself a solid 5. Am I being conservative in that rating? Maybe.
I mean I have a lot going for me. First and foremost I still have my health which really is one of the most important things to try to preserve and maintain as time marches on. Sure I have chronic joint issues but I have learned to live with and work around them. I have a good job that is setting me up for a good retirement in half a decade. I’m stable, responsible and have the ability to do pretty much anything I want to do. All of those things should add up to more than a 5 if I look at it logically.
I read a quote from Hemmingway recently, “Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know” I’m not claiming to be a genius but perhaps the way my mind works, which in many ways has benefited me in my life, is also a roadblock when it comes to feeling a sense of true happiness. It’s far too busy overthinking situations, problems, and relationships to have time to bask in the glow of happiness.
As mentioned previously my knees have been very painful since last week. When I got up yesterday it was the same story. My left knee was especially a problem where I would get a sudden jolt of pain doing nothing other than just taking a normal step or so it seems. Despite waking up that way I maintained my reservation to play pickleball with my lunchtime crew later in the day.
The shots of pain continued throughout the morning but I downed three Advil and headed to the courts anyway. Even as I got out of my car at the courts there I was still feeling it yet somehow, I played. I played the entire session without a significant issue which was extremely surprising to me.
Late yesterday afternoon I was invited to play again last night with my friends that I have not seen or played with in awhile. In my mind I knew that I already had pressed my luck by playing at lunch, playing for a second time would be foolish, yet I agreed. I took my second regimen of Advil and played another 90 minutes. I had some mild pain here and there but for the most part was ok. I don’t really know how I was able to play twice on the same day where I woke up with sharp pains in the joints. I’ll just attribute it to good fortune. I plan to push my luck once again tonight by playing volleyball. After play last night the four of us had dinner at Bruninas. We sat at a table instead of the bar which felt very foreign to me. Meaghan wasn’t working last night so it wasn’t a huge deal.
Yesterday my pickleball paddle from Temu finally arrived. I have spent a ton of money on paddles since I started the sport, paying as much as $330 for one. I bought this paddle as an experiment. Some people I play with have bought these paddles and have said good things about them, saying they are basically the same thing as name brand paddles without all of the markup. I paid less than $40 for the paddle. The box that it came in was as generic as generic could be. I will definitely be doing a video documenting my thoughts about this one.
Last night I made my first attempt at getting the tubeless tire centered better on the rim to get rid of the thump I am feeling at higher speed. At first I tried deflating the tire to less than 10 PSI and then just rolling around as I sat on it which proved unsuccessful. I then totally deflated the tire and massaged it by hand trying to eyeball the tire to determine if it is seated evenly. After several reinflate and test ride cycles the annoying thump was still felt. My patience reservoir had expired by that point so I shelved the task until another time. I have to get it corrected as riding the wheel when it feels this way just isn’t enjoyable.
Last night for some reason I went back and watched the Warcraft movie which came out in 2016. The movie was greatly anticipated by the millions of Warcraft nerds like me but it received pretty negative reviews. When I first saw it I recall thinking it wasn’t bad. When I went back and watched it last night I felt it was even less bad. Maybe like fine wine, it has improved with age.
Again last night I had a weird sleep sequence where I passed out sort of suddenly while watching TV in bed and then woke up with all the lights on at 11PM. This is a sequence I hope to not be repeating for long as it makes falling back asleep extremely challenging for me. My mind fires up about whatever it is concerned about at that moment and it feels like a 1000 gallon tub of water can’t put it out. I’m still going Unisom free, hoping that natural exhaustion will take over.
I did have a weird set of dreams last night that I only remember fragments of. One of them involved me quitting my job. I remember having a number of people question the wisdom of doing so as I was so close to receiving the full 30 year pension. I don’t recall why I did so or my response to the naysayers.
I have been using AI to produce summary “podcasts” of my live streams for a month or two. This last live stream was so long online transcription engines would not digest the file unless I was willing to pay a fee. I am resourceful however and eventually found a way to get the stream converted into text. I fed that text into Google’s NotebookLM and got a 20 minute recap of 330 minutes of content. The output was a bit glitchy as it repeated itself a couple times but overall AI did a decent job of interpreting what was a HUGE amount of conversation.
Last night I did another stress test on my newly tubeless Master V4 that was suggested by a channel viewer. I put the wheel up onto the tailgate of my Tacoma and then let is fall down as I guided it to the driveway 3 feet or more below, putting significant stress on the tire. The wheel/tire survived the test. Tonight I hope to be able to get the tire properly seated so I no longer feel a thump while riding.
I got a couple of my 3D printed stands assembled as well last night so I have some inventory available on my store once again. As I was assembling them an idea entered my head regarding the layout of my office. I am thinking about putting my desk in the corner opposite the door and then have workbench’s flanking it on either side. Doing this would not only look more symmetrical but also give me an opportunity to add another monitor to my set up, for a total of, gasp, three.
As I was watching Tulsa King later on I had an extreme wave of sleepiness hit me. I almost felt like I was drugged. I woke up about an hour later. Because of the timing of the nap it made it difficult for me to fall back asleep when I actually wanted to. Quality sleep is something that I no longer rely on and am instead surprised by.
I have been doing some recollecting lately of where I was in life last year at this time. It was a place of make believe where I was investing so much of myself into a situation that in reality was not worth lifting a finger for. It’s concerning to me that I allowed myself to fall into such a place. I hope to never find myself in such a state again.
