Tbh, the feature of this website I am most interested in is chat, but I am having difficulty obtaining a hub wheel. This week has been great. I'm worried my mil is going to kill my cat bc she is psycho, and everyone in the house being vaccinated and starting to live our lives again shatters her Karen fantasy of being the only one allowed to leave the house and have all the power in her mind. I started dieting bc I finally weighed myself for the first time in a year and I gained a lot over quarantine. Hopefully I will finally get to see my parents for the first time in months on mothers day unless MIL snaps and poisons us all first. My website is getting more page views than ever, but I'm still only making about $200 a month in sales, which after shipping costs and costs of materials actually comes out to like $80 a month. I'm not trying to be a debbie downer, I am actually very excited for the months to come, and I'm not too bothered by the things I mentioned above, I just wanted to talk about what is on my mind. Also I learned this week that tumblr hates Elon Musk... like why tho? People really do not care how much good a person does for the world, if they are on Forbes list they are automatically public enemy and I think it's stupid. I bought a used crock pot on Ebay. I'm gonna try my hand at hot process soap making this week. It'll save a day on waiting to unmold loafs, and I will know for sure this way they are gelled all the way through.
Sometimes on mobile I get that I need to refresh the page and trying again works. It's sporadic and annoying, but I live with it.
Can’t wait till the day I’m vaccinated. But I guess thats gonna take a couple more months. Sometimes it’s good just to write about the challenges you’re facing as a way to externalize it. Get it off your chest! So I guess you’re in the soap making business? Are you selling it on your own website or through something like Etsy?
I have my own website. I'm in some soap maker groups on fb and the general consensus there is that etsy is too difficult to get into these days. There are thousands and thousands of handmade soap shops, and shops that already have reviews get pushed to the top. Also they changed their search algorithm to only look up product names, so if a customer tries to look up your shop directly they wont be able to. Having my own website has presented me with a lot of challenges, but I like knowing that the traffic I get is a sign of successful marketing, and that other people's products wont be advertised to shoppers while they are looking at mine. Hopefully you are able to get vaccinated soon! I didnt think I would be able to as soon as I did, but the national guard stepped in and set up a few mass vax sites in my state and once they were up and running the wait time went from months to days!
Right now I am reading a book called The Start-up Owners Handbook, it's used by Stamford to teach business students, and I am following the steps in there to handle my company. I'm currently in the Customer Development phase, which means not spending money on marketing until I know the exact demographic to pinpoint. I am mostly posting on social media, using lots of hashtags to get attention from potential customers. I'm also going to sell at 2 festivals this summer, to give me a chance to meet customers face to face. This time last year I only had like 1 visitor a month, but I am up to about 15 visitors a day now. My conversation rate is only 5%, but once I identify my exact target demographic I can start pinpointing who I market to.
Well that sounds like a well thought out plan. Good to not spend money until you know exactly what demographic to target. I thought about it before to start a side hustle by selling things online but never followed through, no idea where I’d find the time to do it.
I think badge = promote. mk would have to confirm that receiving a badge would allow for chat use if hubwheel not yet earned.
Looking at cameras again and am heavily leaning towards the Sony A6500 for climbing photography. Currently bringing a Canon EOS 5D MK II with me, which I really like the camera and think it takes high enough resolution photos and environmental sealing. But the thing is fairly heavy and bulky for mountaineering purposes. The A6500 has a higher MP sensor (24 vs. 21), is nearly a full pound lighter (400g lighter), has image stabilization (the EOS 5D MK II does not!), and is just a much smaller camera. Downsides are worse low level light capability and a battery which doesn't last as long. I get that lenses and such also add a bunch of weight, but in reality I'm climbing with a 50mm lens and maaaaaybe a 24-70. So.
I'm impressed that you drag a 5d MK II up mountains. I have my own, much less expensive DSLR, and I barely take it anywhere these days. I think you'll enjoy the mirrorless camera much more. I'm convinced they're the future of prosumer grade photography.
Got my favorite custom-made bass back from repair. (The luthier uses the image of MY bass as the header image on his web site.) He made it for me about 20 years ago, and the trials and tribulations of a number of countries, moves, climates, and playing, the wood of the neck needed some love. It's a wenge fretboard, and the the grain had expanded over the years and left the neck slightly twisted and gaps in the wood. So the nut had to be replaced and re-cut to narrow the string spacing by about 2mm, the gaps in the wenge wood filled, and new frets installed. Mike Lull Guitars did the work. Mike himself passed away last year, but his sons and the luthiers he had on staff are carrying on the torch and doing amazing work. Funny thing is, when I was growing up a metalhead in the Seattle's "Eastside Metal Scene", everyone knew you went to Guitar Works to get anything done on your guitar. That was THE shop to go to for ANYTHING. Turns out that was Mike Lull. Before he started making his own instruments, and making a worldwide name for himself. So. I used my Stimulus Check to pay a second-generation, local luthier, to repair a custom-built one-of-a-kind instrument, so I could continue to make art with it. I can't imagine a more lovely way to spend that money from the Federal Government; on local craftsmen, so an artist can make more art. In the mean time, I made new friends ... of people I have known for decades. AND... because Spencer Lull liked my instrument so much, he went ahead and did a full pro photoshoot and gave me the photos to share with Tony Thompson, the original luthier. Everybody wins.
Truly lovely. I've spent the last little while just drooling over both sites and the beautiful instruments pictured therein. Well done sir.I can't imagine a more lovely way to spend that money from the Federal Government; on local craftsmen, so an artist can make more art.
The trailer build is advancing! Fixed the leaky corners, installed insulation and the wooden backbone. Next step: plug up the last holes from obsolete stuff like kitchen vents, equal out the bumps and put on the first paint layer! Really happy to be out of the destruction phase and building up the place. I can't wait to install the laminate flooring and the wooden back wall. I feel like we've been putting in lots of work on the structural side, and it all moves slowly, but once we start putting in the aesthetic stuff, it will transform from a piece of shit trailer to a nice hangout spot really fast. My life has been really busy lately - but the good kind of busy. A 30h work week is just enough to keep my schedule full and leaves me space for side project (like the trailer and my tiny front garden), seeing friends and family, an extra work contract and the plastic recycling non-profit. If it wasnt for Covid, maybe i'd want to see friends more and I'd have to cut stuff out.
The North American Half Ironman championship was Saturday, and the men's race had what people are calling the best battle in a decade. Watching the race reviews from the competitors is amazing. First and second place went stride for stride for the last 5k with the winner pulling away only in the last half mile. These are guys doing sub-5 minute miles at the end of a nearly 4 hour event. If you're into that sort of thing, Lionel Sanders' video is worth a watch.
It's the week of the nurse according to one of my facilities and they invited me for pizza they're getting for everyone there. According to government ethics rules, I'm not allowed to go. The food inspectors get food from their facilities all the time they legitimately regulate. All I'm doing is telling facilities they can't run mother's day festivities this weekend because they're in active outbreak. Pizza won't bribe me to put lives at risk. They showed me more appreciation in that one act than the county this entire pandemic. Fucking ethics rules. They have their place, but this isn't it.
The pandemic has gotten me down some days but it does give me more time to reflect on my life. I started being more serious about my guitar practice during these last months. Some things that seemed to be impossible a few months ago are doable now so that’s really motivating. I’m thinking about getting some IRL lessons but don’t really know where to find a teacher.
So my presentation did go well but it was always going to be a roll of the dice -- extenuating circumstances have meant I've not got the job I've been waiting 3 years for. I'm not surprised and can take this on the chin as good 'experience' but I think I'm allowed to be put out... This is the end result of years of friends telling me I'm being taken advantage of and that I should move on, so it feels a little bit 'told you so'. I have horrendous flu so I spent most of last night having a fever dream about a second presentation. I'm going to give it a go and put something together as I think my idea is a good one and it would give me a solid piece of project work under my belt if they would actually assign me some responsibilities.