What I’m Doing Now

This page is meant to be a minimally edited online journal of the projects and priorities I’m working on currently. I’ll update it as often as I can.

September 2023

17 Sep

I just finished up week 7 of my marathon training with a long run of 14 miles yesterday. On previous long runs I’ve been absolutely smoked for the rest of the day. On top of this, my HRV (heart rate variability) has been low which can be an indicator of under recovery. I’ve been seeing more and more that many advise running about 80% of your miles at a slow pace. Thinking this might help my recovery and also allow me to push harder on the remaining 20% of my miles, I tried to run slower yesterday. That sounds easier than it is though, lol. I aimed to run my miles at somewhere between an 11:00 and 12:00 minute per mile pace. I thought I did well during the run. It felt more manageable. And looking at my Garmin, most of the time it seemed that I was in the right range, but every now and then I’d get too fast and need to slow down. But afterwards, when I checked my stats it turned out that my average pace was 10:30. For reference, on previous runs I had targeted a pace of 9:00 min/mile and sometimes I had to push to stay there. Anyway, the end result was that I was worthless for the rest of the day (typically exhausted) so I will try again on upcoming runs to slow down better. If anyone’s curious, I’m following Hal Higdon’s Novice 2 marathon training program.

The running program above is a 4 x’s/week program, but it’s important to me that I keep lifting and trying to get stronger. I started off trying to lift 4 x’s/week as well, but that was unmanageable so I’ve gone down to 3 x’s/week. I’ve been doing a hypertrophy style program with a lot of volume. For the most part I’ve been keeping up with it, but as the miles increase I’m going to start reducing the volume at least somewhat.

Other than physical training, I’m really just trying to focus on building the website as much as possible. I’ve finally finished the Batcave series which has taken way longer than I had originally anticipated. I kinda backed myself into a corner on that one, lol. Anyway, now I’ll have time to write about other things and pursue other things related to UD. I really want to focus on getting more content up on the site (at least 50 pieces total), before turning my attention to other things I want to achieve. Most of the articles have been extremely long, so I’m going to see if I can write some shorter posts to speed this up. That’s all for now.

18 Sep

I have a habit of reading multiple books at one time. It keeps things interesting, but the downside is that I can stagnate and get stuck reading a book for much longer than it would take me were I to focus better. I’m trying to clear out my currently-reading list, so I can start a new stack that contains a healthy dose of non-fiction as well as the next installment in Frank Herbert’s Dune series, Heretics of Dune.

My current reads include-

Becoming a Supple Leopard by Kelly Starrett- This is a well-known standard in strength and Crossfit circles. At times it can be a little dry, as it reads like a textbook, but for the most part it has a lot of insightful and fascinating ideas and protocols for moving better, both in exercise and recovery.

Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger- Another standard, this time in the marketing space. This book has to do with how and why ideas go viral.

Alone at Dawn by Dan Schilling and Lori Chapman Longfritz- About USAF Combat Controller and Medal of Honor recipient, MSgt John Chapman. I had already listened to the audiobook version of this a couple years back. It’s amazing. Well worth the re-read.

22 Sep

Well, it’s been quite the week. After publishing an article on Monday, I spent the next two days painting the master bedroom. My long-suffering wife has to deal with the fact that my attention to the honey-do list is much less consistent than it should be. Nevertheless, I managed to get something done this week. This should buy me some time to attend to other things for a while.

I continue with the marathon training. I’ve done all my runs so far for the week. One of the reasons I’ve decided to take on the marathon is to build up mental resilience. In fact, that’s probably more the reason than anything, and the long runs have been great for this. I get to spend lots of time in my own mental headspace. That said, I’m coming to the end of Week 8, and this weekend is going to be the toughest yet. 15 miles tomorrow, followed by a half-marathon the next day.

In other news, our church had their annual book sale today, which I’ve been looking forward to. If you’ve never ventured out to buy books second hand, I urge you to do it! I am constantly floored by the amazing finds I come across and the incredible value that used book sales offer. Also, you’d be surprised at the condition some of these books arrive in. Many look like they were bought new, stored on a shelf and never read, and then donated. In other words…they’re still in new condition.

An example of a great find from today- Sometimes I’ll buy textbooks. I like to have something I can just grab off the shelf to learn something new, or pick up to reference without getting on the internet with its many distractions. I came across a 9th edition of Campbell’s Biology. I didn’t know it, but flipping through it, it looked densely packed with good info. After I came home I looked it up and found that it is one of the gold standards in Biology textbooks, used commonly in AP Biology or early level college courses. Although there are newer editions available (I think they’re up to 12), this one is still available on Amazon for $113. Used, it’ll still run you $57. Price at the local charity book sale…..$1.

Now just imagine the amount of knowledge, creativity, inspiration, and practical information that is available to you at one of these sales for $5, $10, or $20. It’s absolutely ASTOUNDING. 😀

25 Sep

Well I survived the weekend, lol. I actually didn’t end up doing the half-marathon run on Sunday. Something about that part of the training plan seemed funny to me, so I poked around on the internet some. Turns out, the Higdon Novice 2 marathon plan is available free online and it lists the half marathon as taking place the following Sunday. I cross-referenced the plan in the book and sure enough there is no long run listed for this upcoming Saturday. Super weird. So I think that’s a pretty big mistake in the book. Anyway, half-marathon coming up this weekend and the 15-miler this past Saturday went just fine.

I finished 2 books today and am raring to go for the next stack! 35 completed so far this year. I think I can get to 50 by the end of the year.

October 2023

4 Oct

Hey, new month! I can hardly believe it’s October already. I’m in the 10th Week of Training on Higdon 2. Had an 8-mile paced run this morning. It was kind of a mixed bag. I’m not hitting my pace of sub-8 minutes per mile and that sucks. I finished with an overall pace of 8:14 per mile. At least however, I didn’t bonk like I did in my last paced run. On that one I went out too fast and was in heartrate zone 5 the entire time. I know I can push myself in zone 5 but that’s not ideal for sustainability or speed. I’m focusing on trying to improve my pace while staying in zone 4. Tricky stuff.

My shoes, the Saucony Endorphin 3’s, are pretty worn out now, so I’ve upgraded to the Saucony Endorphin Pro 3’s. They seem good, lighter and more minimal. I don’t know if I’ll be able to tell much of a difference in performance as the Speed 3’s were already good, but we’ll see.

I borrowed a Pre-Algebra book from the library to practice on my own. I want to be able to help my kids with their math homework and keep helping them as they get more advanced. Right now my wife does this (former math teacher), but she’s not always available, so I think it would help them if I can sometimes fulfill this role as well.

I’m currently reading The Education of an Idealist by Samantha Power. Earlier in the year I read The Unexpected Spy by Tracy Walder. Both of these books have got me itching to read more and heavier history and political books. I’ve got some waiting in the wings, but haven’t gotten to them yet. It’s always the case that there are way more books I want to read than I have time to read. My interest in history and adjacent topics was non-existent before this year, but then I stumbled onto the IdeasInHat YouTube channel. If you want a really good source for (mostly) non-fiction books on all sorts of topics, take a look at this channel. It’s top notch 👌.

24 Oct

WOT 13 this week! I’ve already hit the high point for mileage in WOT 11 (36 miles), so after a bit of a break last week, the program returns with 34 miles. Training is going fairly well. I’ve been focusing on keeping my heart rate at around 150-160ish and to me, this feels like the top end of Zone 4. It feels sustainable. When I’m out on a paced run I’m focusing on running as fast a pace as I can while still staying in this zone and I think it’s been helping. It’s toeing the line between running a fast pace and bonking, which I definitely want to avoid. The past few paced runs in order of recency have been-

So I feel like I’m (back) on track, improving little by little. The marathon is just 5 weeks away. That seems crazy that it’s getting close after training all this time, but at the same time I’m ready to get back to focusing more on lifting. Lately I’ve been feelin’ pretty fat and like I’m just not doing enough. With how much time the run training is taking up, I’ve dialed the lifting back to 2 days a week, which I hate. I’ve put on some undesirable weight recently, so I’m going to dial back the calories somewhat, but focus on maintaining the muscle and strength I have.

Other than training, I’ve been focusing on the site. Have published 5 articles this month, so at more than 1 article a week that feels pretty good. I’d like to get to where I am publishing an article nearly every day, but I don’t know how realistic that is. For now, I’m just trying to make the next improvement, so my goal is to publish 3 articles in a week.

I’ve been brushing up on math still and practicing piano, each for about 30 mins a day. It’s nice to be able to help the kids with their homework and to be able to give them a little motivation musically, something to strive for. Both of these pursuits are less of a priority than training and the website, so I have to be careful not get too excited about them and put them ahead of what my most important goals are.

There was another library book sale, a big local one that they hold annually. This stack of books was only about $10. These are just the science books, and that doesn’t include the textbooks I got. Woot.

8 Nov 2023

New month! This is WOT #15 in the marathon plan I’m following. Just 3 full weeks of training left and then it’s race week. Crazy how it’s almost here after all this time. I am ready to be done with this running block though and get back to other things.

I’ve been meaning to start a YouTube channel in earnest for a while to complement this site and I’ve finally got around to purchasing the items and services I need to start crafting videos. I’m pretty excited, but a little anxious as well! Hopefully learning Adobe Premeire Pro doesn’t give me too many fits.

Haven’t really practiced piano in a week and that SUCKS. Progress on an instrument depends heavily on being consistent, so I definitely need to get back to it starting today.

I’m happy with the progress I’ve made with the site in the past few months. Although I always feel like there’s so much to do, I can see the effort paying off when I look at the stats. It’s nice when I go to check the numbers that people are finding multiple articles on different topics, not just the same few I had that were carrying the bulk of the traffic. I’m up to 44 articles published now, so making it to my initial goal of 50 published articles is going to happen very soon.

27 Nov

It’s RACE WEEK! Feeling pretty good about things. I’ve improved throughout training and now I’m just resting and recovering with only a few short run workouts this week leading up to Sunday. Race day. I know it’s gonna hurt, but I’m almost looking forward to it, the hurt that is. I want get in there in the crucible and test myself.

I bought an NSCA (National Strength and Conditioning Association) textbook. I’m going to start slowly going over it after the marathon and will begin studying in earnest sometime next year in pursuit of an NSCA certification. This is going to bolster my knowledge about strength training, particularly with regards to programming over the long haul. I do plan on writing about this topic on the website.

Oh yeah, and Adobe Premiere Pro is giving me FITS, lol. Actually, it’s not that bad, it’s just a very deep program and the way it works is taking some getting used to. And of course it’s taking longer than I want it to.

I don’t think I’ve touched math or piano for 2 weeks, so that has to change this week. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, for those in the U.S., and everyone is getting into the Christmas spirit/Holiday season.

6 Dec 2023

Did the thing on Sunday, completing my first marathon with an official time of 4:03:31. I’ve been processing how things went and although I’m proud of the work I did leading up to it, I feel that my performance fell short of what I was capable of. So it’s a mixed bag.

The Good

• I completed the program, Hal Higdon’s Novice 2, almost perfectly, at least in my eyes. For the cross-training days, I completed some form of weight training even though I think the intention is to do an alternate form of cardio. If this hindered my performance, so be it. This was an intentional choice to remain a well-rounded athlete and I really didn’t want to lose much muscle if any while training. I didn’t skip any training runs and I definitely put out on the paced runs.
• Started off easy for the first 2 miles and then held an 8:30ish pace through mile 11. Last year I ran a half marathon around this pace (or tried to) but bonked towards the end. This year I felt way better through this distance. I’ve definitely made progress in terms of speed and endurance.
• Finished the race strong, after having issues after mile 20

The Not so Good/Room for Improvement

• Sensed some cramping coming on around the halfway point. For me, it’s a deep seated ache in the hamstrings and glutes that kind of feels like really bad DOMS after a tough leg workout. I did experience some of this on some of the long training runs. A new thing I experienced were some wicked charlie horse type cramps in the quads that I felt on walk breaks towards the end. Fun, lol.
• Miles 21-26 were super difficult. I managed it the best I could, but I did take a few short walk breaks, none longer than a minute or so.
• I HATE that I walked. Even though there was a physical component, I feel that this may have been more of a break in mental resiliency, even more so because I managed to run the last mile at a decent pace.
• In retrospect, I really should have aimed more for an 8:45 pace in the first 2/3rds of the race, rather than 8:30. I guess this is a common trap to fall into even for seasoned marathoners. I felt good, so I went a little faster but I probably would’ve had more left later on if I had run more conservatively in the first half.

Even though I could’ve gutted it out more at the end, I feel the main culprit was that the program only built to a single 20-miler. I just was not in shape enough for the distance. I think this particular program is mainly made to get people to complete the distance and not necessarily have them feeling strong at the end. Next go around I will start further out, build up to more mileage in general and for sure if not longer than 20 miles, at least multiple 20 mile runs, so that my legs are conditioned better to longer distances.

You live and you learn. I’m playing the long game here and though this race wasn’t quite what I hoped for it was successful in many ways, and most importantly I’m in a good spot to build on and improve on my fitness now. Plan is to maintain a solid base of running, maybe 20-30 miles a week, and focus back on lifting now. I want to boost my strength numbers up some and then later lean up some more.

21 December

After completing my last article and then the marathon I’ve been taking a much needed break for the past 2 weeks. I have done a few light workouts in there, but nothing too intense or very organized. Bad news is that now that I’m ready to start ramping up again, I stubbed a toe badly last night. It’s discolored and swollen, so I think there’s a good chance it’s broken. I’ll get it checked out tomorrow. If it is broken, it doesn’t mean I can’t train, but I’ll definitely need to modify my plans.

I haven’t had the chance yet, but it’s time to clean up and reorganize the workshop in the garage. Once I complete this, there will be enough of a difference to warrant an update post/article/video on the Dragon Lab. The office needs an update badly as well, but one thing at a time. I’ll be pulling some ideas from the Batcave series to make both of these spaces into the best, most optimized workspaces they can be.

Trying to finish up a book or two before the end of the year. Currently sitting at 41 books read this year. This past year has been the best for the amount of books I’ve read, as well as the quality and diversity of books read. Looking forward to continuing this trend in 2024.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to anyone reading this! We’re almost to the end of the year and I can hardly believe it. I’ll be spending some time reflecting on the past year, but I’m also stoked to think of the possibilities for the upcoming new year as well. If I don’t update this before then, Happy New Year to all as well!

25 December 2023

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Even though today is a holiday I couldn’t resist hopping on to say hello, give a small update, and wish everyone a Merry Christmas. This past week was a really great return to training, just getting used to working everything again on a regular basis. I lifted and hit all major muscle groups throughout the week. After a few days, the aforementioned toe cleared up and I was able to hit a 4-miler yesterday. Felt pretty good.

I haven’t published anything on the site in a while. I do currently have an article in the works, but it’s been difficult to make much progress on it with family responsibilities and the holidays. We have more family coming into town today, so I hope to get it out later this week or possibly next week.

The Dragon Lab reorganization is in full swing! I’m excited about this because it’s long overdue. I’ve got a new piece of storage equipment in place and am now purging and reshuffling so progress is being made in earnest.

I’ve been thinking about the past year, and I’ll probably sit down at some point and work through month by month how my plans and goals have played out (or not). However, I’m more pumped thinking about next year. I’ve already got so much I want to do I don’t know how I’ll fit it all in! Spoiler, I probably can’t do it all and will have to make some carefully considered choices, but I’m stoked to improve, learn, and make big progress next year. I hope everyone else is feeling the same kind of optimism. Also, I’m definitely not waiting till the new year to start. I’m already taking those steps forward that will pay off next year and you should too! Don’t wait!

15 Jan 2024

Wow, Happy New Year! Just wanted to hop on here real quick and wish everyone the best in the New Year. I have big plans and high hopes for this year so it’s an exciting time. Unfortunately, I haven’t been writing as much these past couple weeks as I would have liked, but I’m getting back to work this week. I have the next handful of articles planned out and I’m pretty excited to get them on the site.

I spent a few days last week working on my wife’s van. I’m not much of a mechanic, but it’s been something I’ve always wanted to learn more about, so whenever something comes up, I try to see if there’s an opportunity to learn. The van had been having issues, so we got it scanned and got a print out of things to fix from Auto Zone.

This past week I removed the intake manifold, changed out the spark plugs, an ignition coil, and the plenum gasket. After all that, the van…..did exactly the same thing, lol. Gonna take it in as I’m thinking it may be some kind of leak in one of the hoses. Well, it certainly doesn’t operate any worse and now I’ve learned to do some things I had no clue about before. I also bought and learned to use a torque wrench, so that’s another thing to check off. Pleased with the learning and the doing, not so much the result, lol.

I’m about 400 pages into the first volume of Edmund Morris’ grand biographical trilogy on Teddy Roosevelt. It’s amazing. Roosevelt, although not without fault, was amazing. Highly recommended!

19 Mar 2024

Hey there, long time no see! I haven’t been very present on here lately and for that I apologize. In retrospect, I think now that after the end of last year I was a little burned out, more than I realized. In the time since my last update, I’ve still been getting it in, the physical training that is, just less programmed and less intense, more of a keeping up the habit sort of approach. I’ve also been really getting more into books lately, not just reading them, but collecting them, learning about first editions and their various points, and even beginning to sell them a little on my Ebay page. Here’s my page if you want to check it out- The Book Dragon Rare Books and Records

Really, this is just to kind of bolster my habit of collecting books, but I do plan to start offering some books here on the site before listing them on Ebay. UPDATE – CANCELLED. I have a couple aims with this. One, I’d like to be able to connect readers with books they might not normally be able to get themselves. Or not easily that is. I’ve lived in small towns before and sometimes your available choices are not many. One of the things I like about living in a larger city is the amount of material that is around if you know where to look. Hopefully I can source some unique items and pass those on to those interested.

Secondly, although Ebay is a large marketplace (the upside), the associated fees kind of suck and that inflates prices. I plan to list items of interest on this website first, at a lower price than I would list them on Ebay. This way the buyer saves some, I save some by cutting out the middle man, and hopefully viewers/customers will be able to find some interesting quality used books that they might not otherwise find for very reasonable prices.

Oh, I almost forgot! I just finally went and saw Dune, Part II! Wow, I’m still taking it in, sorting through things. There were a couple minor things that bothered me, but overall it was epic, a great, mostly faithful adaptation from the book and thought provoking to say the least. Go see it if you can.

I continue to have “too many interests” and not enough time. But it’s fun. We’ll talk again soon, so until then I’ll do my best to keep the plates spinning in the air and I hope you do too. 🤘

17 June 2024

Hello again! Since it’s been ages since I’ve posted anything on here, the following will be more of a random dumping of thoughts and happenings rather than any sort of organized post. I’ve really been ramping up my eBay book selling and that has taken up much of my time and attention. This probably sounds sort of lame, but honestly it’s not only profitable, it’s a lot of FUN. Treasure hunting for old books at estate sales is the best, especially when you find a good collection to go through. And then actually selling an item on eBay is really rewarding because it validates that you correctly identified something of value and presented it in a way that someone would want to purchase it at that higher price (higher than you paid for it). And that ka-ching sound that the eBay app makes is one of the best sounds ever. 👌 My best flip so far is a little paperback book I bought for $1 and sold for $200.

This whole buy low, sell high “reselling” side hustle is something that you could apply to almost any niche. And it can be an excellent way to supplement your income or support your hobbies. Books, gym equipment, Youtube and blogging software, etc. don’t come free, so this is helping me support those other interests of mine. I know this topic hasn’t previously been in the realm of what’s on this site, but since being financially healthy is part of being well-rounded and with the aforementioned thoughts in mind, I’m going to put a little bit of content on the site covering this, so others that are interested in a side hustle along these lines can hopefully benefit. So if you’re interested in reselling as a side hustle for that nice side income then be on the lookout for an upcoming article in the future.

Speaking of YouTube- if it wasn’t apparent by my lack of productivity, I’m having to put that on hold for the moment. The kinds of video essays that I want to make will take a lot of time and editing and I just don’t have the mental bandwidth for that right now. This also illustrates something I keep bumping up against that most everyone struggles with from time to time- by saying yes to some things, we inevitably have to say no to others. Book sourcing and selling can be pretty time intensive but it’s also taken up a lot of my mental energy and by the time I’ve gotten my workout in and done family responsibilities I just haven’t had much left to come on here and write for the site. I want to change that and get back to a more balanced approach. This website is still important to me, so I will see what I can do to remedy the situation.

Still training. Currently I’m more focused on strength training and haven’t been doing as much running. I did score a nice used rower though, so it’s been nice to have another cardio option. That also reminds me that I need to do an update on the Dragon Lab, as I think it’s undergone enough changes now to warrant a second walk through. My wife recently tested her one rep maxes at her gym and it reminded me that I haven’t done that for a long time. I’m a shade of my former self, but if I’m going to continue working my way back, it’s probably time I set some benchmarks again.

Before I sign off, I’ll just say that my absence on here has not prevented the site from growing in terms of views and visitors. THANK YOU for that. I am glad that some out there are getting benefit from the site and are enjoying checking it out. Also, to those of you that have taken the time to click on one of the affiliate links for Bookshop or Things From Another World, THANK YOU for doing that. You don’t have to buy through one of my links, but it does support the site and I truly appreciate it.

That’s it for now. Next time I talk to ya’ll will hopefully be in the next article!

7 July 2024

Hey! And just like that we’re into July! The year is flying by and I don’t feel like I’m keeping up, but I am trying. I haven’t been lifting very frequently each week, but I have been consistently improving my numbers on just 2-3 weight sessions a week. Yesterday I hit 3 sets of 225×3 on bench, so that is feeling good and my working weight for RDLs is up to 205. It has been ages since I hit my best numbers and even YEARS since I’ve squatted or deadlifted more than 300 lbs. With my getting older, (I turn 46 later this year) a part of me has accepted that I might not ever get back up to where I used to be, but…….I’m still trying. I feel that a 300+ lbs deadlift is imminent. 🤘 Other than my own lifting, I’ve been teaching my kids some, (re)introducing them to the big 3 lifts and other things and running some with my oldest. We’ve all been enjoying the time spent together and they’ve been enjoying the workouts, so that has been awesome.

I just had my best week yet with my book hustle/side selling business on eBay. Total sales this week were $711 from 10 items sold. Highlights include a book on fountain pens ($149), a nice Easton Press copy of George Orwell’s 1984 ($150), and a neat little vintage commodities trading book ($155) from the 1970s that I found in a closet from the home of a former IBM engineer. I should point out that the total above is GROSS REVENUE and doesn’t include what I paid for the books, eBay’s cut, or what I paid to ship them out. Still, if every week was like this one I’d be pretty stoked.

The above bar graph shows my progress from when I first started selling up until now. I’d love to keep improving at such a rate but I’ve kind of reached a point both with lack of storage and with limited time, that I don’t know how much more I can ramp up and still keep sacred some time for other things such as physical training, learning, projects, etc. My first goal is to maximize this income without the “side hustle” taking over more of my time and my second goal(s) is to split that income between contributing to our family’s household income, and supporting/improving the website financially. More to come on all fronts, but that’s it for now. See you next time!

17 July

Just a brief update today- I’ve tested my current One Rep Maxes over the past week or so and although they’re far from my best, I’m happy with the results for now. These at least give me a reference point and something to build off of. And the best part is I didn’t tweak anything in the process. No small feat at my age 😂

Squat – 275 lbs. I definitely had more to give here, but it’s been so long since I’ve had this much on the bar that I thought it best to be conservative here and not risk injuring myself. I may retest this sooner rather than later.

Bench- 240 lbs. My best is 255 so I’m not too far from that here.

Deadlift- 305 lbs. This is the lift I’ve tweaked something on the most. So…there is a bit of a mental struggle going on here as well. I also felt I had more to give here but played it conservatively.

Surprise ALL-TIME PR!

This isn’t your typical PR, but I just sold my most valuable single book about a week ago. So my new PERSONAL RECORD for a SINGLE SALE is ding, ding, ding!

$457!

It was an unassuming book on antique silver, sold to a buyer in Ireland. This reselling thing is legit and I am here for it, especially with books (although I dabble in other things). If anyone is curious to see the types of things I’m putting in my store you can check that out here- The Book Dragon Rare Books n Things

If you use the filters you can check sold items as well. That’s about it for now. I’ll see y’all in a new article soon!

3 Aug

Had a decent week on most fronts, but still am not getting to everything I want to address. I’m beginning to add a little more volume to my weights workouts. I’ve also started a new running program. Since the marathon last December I’ve kept up running some, but not being on a real program has hurt me some and I’ve lost a lot of the fitness I had built up. I need some sort of structure again, however….I don’t yet want to make the time commitment to preparing for a second marathon.

So, I’m kicking off a half-marathon program. I feel certain I can beat the time from my last one and at the end of this program I’ll be running enough miles that I can properly start to think about marathon prep again. The time involved in training for the half should also still leave room for lifting and other things. I’ve been trying to add back some metabolic conditioning as well. So training is good and well-rounded at this time.

I’m still working on the next article for this website. I think it’s going to be a fun one. It will address a common topic, but in a slightly different way that isn’t talked about as frequently. I’ve started to make a planning calendar for when the kids go back to school, one that makes room (time blocks) for all of my interests and goals (training, eBay, the website, learning, reading, new projects) and balances them across the week. I keep tweaking it, trying to account for everything, such as transition time between activities, meals, family things, etc. It’s getting close to looking manageable, following it is another matter, but it does appear possible that I can fit everything in. We’ll see.

Ebay has slowed down some, but I’m pretty sure I know why. Anytime I back off on maintenance of listings (tweaking prices, ending/sell similar, etc) I think the algorithm deprioritizes things. And when I put in time for that maintenance and also list new stuff, I start getting sales again. It’s good to know what I need to do, but I need to find a routine or way to minimize the time I’m spending on the daily maintenance of the store. I’m not into spending hours every day on it. It’s just one thing I do. Not the thing I do.

16 Aug

Just a quick update here- School is in session! This week I’ve been putting the new Google Calendar to the test. A lot of it has been going surprisingly well this week. I haven’t been crazy about trying to hold to it perfectly because I’m looking at this week as a proof of concept week and this morning I’ve been tweaking things, adjusting things based on how I feel, how long things actually take, etc. It’s nice to see things falling into place, like for instance I now know that my run workouts will be 4 days a week, I know which days, and I know what day my long run will be, all based on the program I’m following.

I’ve also been reading Laurence Gonzales’s Deep Survival. It looks at survival stories and aims to deduce some of the lessons as to why some people survive and others die. One recurrent theme is that those who make it look at their situation as it is, not as they want it to be. When their plans don’t work out they don’t stay married to them. They change, tweak, and adjust. With that in mind, I’m building some flexibility into my weekly calendar. If I for some reason have to miss a run workout in the morning, there is a period in the evening where it’s not too hot and I can fit it in.

I have a Flex block scheduled on Sunday mornings that can be anything I need it to be, so if I missed some important task or session earlier in the week I can make up for it here. I’m also aiming for consistency (a certain number of sessions per week) in any given area across the week, rather than trying to force every day to be perfect. Things are not going to perfect, because we can’t control all things, and schedules start to get more chaotic and unpredictable when you start adding in other people’s schedules and needs as well as unforeseen developments.

23 Aug

Update- Balancing all of my goals/interests across the week is continuing to be a mix of successes and losses. The bright side is it’s because I am trying to maximize my time and energy and not waste it on things that don’t matter to me long term. I’m right on the edge of what I can handle and that’s where I want to be. A success- last Saturday had some conflicts with my schedule that caused me to miss my planned weights workout. Sunday is supposed to be a run. We had a family outing scheduled for Sunday so I was able to move the missed weights session to Sunday morning and got it done before the outing. I did my planned run in the evening, so everything ended up working out.

However, yesterday there was an estate sale that was SHEER MADNESS. I had planned to go because I knew it would be good (and oh boy, was it), however, I didn’t plan on taking so long. After focusing on picking books out (in the heat, as there was barely any A/C) for 4 and 1/2 hours straight, I was kind of worthless when I got home. I didn’t address any of the activities I had planned in my calendar except a bit of eBay stuff later on.

This kind of thing is something that has happened before (and will continue to happen), so I need a way to manage it. I’ve been thinking about this and the other side of things, routines, and will be addressing the juxtaposition of these factors (one time projects vs daily maintenance routines) in a future article. At any rate, I don’t regret skipping nearly everything on the calendar yesterday. 1) it was a planned rest day 2) the sales from previous books I’ve sourced from this estate have already topped $1K so I know it’s one of those events that I NEED to take advantage of and 3) I’m back at it without skipping a beat today. Next week will be the real challenge….

1 Sep 2024

TOUGH day of training yesterday. I pretty much lost all of Monday going out of town for a sale, and that pushed forward all of my training for the week. I mostly made it all up but sometimes had to combine workouts to make it work. There is an option in the Garmin run training programs to reschedule a workout. That has proven very useful, but yesterday the cumulative effect from the week meant I had to combine several different modalities to get it all done for the week. Got it done though and today I’m closing out the week just with the regularly scheduled run workout.

eBay sales have absolutely SUCKED this week. The algorithm, or more accurately my lack of maintaining my listings/details, is definitely partly to blame. I’m trying but I haven’t spent as much time on it as I need to. I’ve dedicated some time towards this in the past few days but it isn’t helping fast enough.

The next TWO articles are just about done. UPDATE: They’re done! I know I’ve taken an extremely long time to complete them, so I’m excited to get them published and out there soon. If you follow my bookstagram account (@batmanreads) you may have seen this already, but this was a super cool find from a few weeks ago. Where are my #financebros !?

7 Sep 2024

Fairly solid week on all fronts. Actually, that’s not quite true. It was a solid week on my top priorities, less so for the other things. I published 2 articles to the website which have been a long time coming, have had really solid workouts this week, both lifting and running related, and although eBay/sales have been lower lately than I want, I’ve definitely been making some strides these past few days to fix that. Sold a really nice Safari Press hunting book a couple days ago for $150.

The things that have dropped off this week or have been non-existent have been any sort of progress towards YouTube, language learning, and saxophone. I’ve reached the conclusion that with the new Fall schedule I am not going to be able to rely on getting any work done after school. There’s a little time in the evenings, but that’s almost exclusively set aside for eBay listings.

I saw a video a while back where a viewer was asking Cal Newport about balancing a lot of goals at once. His response was pretty much that you should keep it to 2-3 goals. One of those is your main goal that you’re devoting most of your time and energy to. While you’re doing that the other “goals” are really just in a maintenance mode. You’re not making progress on them, but you’re doing enough to keep them from atrophying. This is really difficult for someone that wants to be good at a lot of things to hear, but I do see the logic in it. And in a lot of ways, my own experience matches up with this.

I think I’ve come to the realization that my tendency is to lean into the daily work of following a routine and chipping away at things a little every day. That’s what I regularly default to and it’s more difficult for me to commit time/energy towards a one-off project. Part of that is due to my nature, and part of this is due to some of my goals/activities. When I look at what kind of physical attributes I want to have or what kind of musician I want to be, the truth is that there is no end for these goals. They’re never totally completed and therefore never removed from the task list to free up time/energy for other things.

The ONLY way to make progress and then keep that hard fought ground is to devote regular attention to them the majority of days. So when it comes down to me having an hour or two and I deciding what to do with it, it’s difficult to choose some kind of one-time project. It feels as though if I give up my workout then I’m losing ground that I had gained, wasting momentum, and making things more difficult for myself in the long run. So bigger, more unique projects go by the wayside (even though they continue to occupy mental space every day).

This past Monday I finally reached a point where I was bothered enough with my lack of progress on the website that I just sat down and worked on the two articles I mentioned earlier until they were complete. I had been chipping away at these for far TOO LONG and they needed to be finished. So I’m really satisfied that I completed those and got them off my checklist, but I also have a lot of other projects like this that keep getting pushed to the side that need to get done. This conundrum is at the forefront of my thinking and is something I continue to work on. I have ideas and methods I’m using, but I’m still ironing out the details.

The last thing is that the website is finally up to over 50 articles! It was in this month of 2018 that I first started the site and posted the first article. But it wasn’t until more than a year later in 2019 that I wrote the first full-fledged long form article that really sort of laid the groundwork for what I wanted the website to be all about. 6 years later and we’re still here! For the first time ever, I just renewed the website services TOTALLY with money made from my side hustle(s). It feels good to be financially supporting my interests with my other interests, lol. I look forward to continuing to grow the site and my online presence in the future.

30 Sep 2024

Been meaning to post an update for a while now. On my strength training I’ve hit 240×3 on Bench and 345×3 on deadlift in the past couple weeks, so getting to be very near where I was at my strongest in the past. Had been averaging running near 16 miles or so per week also with the half-marathon at the end of October. But, I say had been because last week was kind of all over the place training wise, so I need to return to form this week.

eBay sales are BACK. I may do a post at some point, but in short, it’s all about PRICE. Without realizing it, I had been gradually over time pricing myself out of sales. Now after auditing my listings and making some changes, sales have gotten back on track in a big way, so that’s a definite WIN.

Because of devoting so much time and attention to fixing my eBay stuff, I really didn’t give much time to anything else last week. Looking to fix that this week. Started the 3rd installment of Edmund Morris’s Teddy Roosevelt biography series. It’s SO GOOD. Morris writes well and Teddy….is just so capable and larger than life it seems unreal at times. What an impressive individual, faults and all.

7 Oct 2024

Been pretty motivated lately in strategizing and improving my finances. I’m looking again at my eBay sales and thinking of the best ways to use that capital in order to improve my situation overall. Below is what I’m working with now, although it’s subject to change. Since reading the Warren Buffett book last month, I’ve really been getting interested in companies, emerging trends, and the stocks associated with them. It’s like a much more interesting way to save up your money.

eBay Capital Plan

• 25% towards family income
• 25% towards sourcing new inventory
• 25% towards Roth IRA
• 25% towards “other”

That first 75% is pretty squared away. I’m not quite able to max out my Roth contributions yet but that is what I’m working towards. The remaining 25% will be a combination of a few different things. 1) Paying for needed services for the website/eBay. I group these things together because I look at Upgrade Dragon as the larger umbrella under which The Book Dragon eBay store fits under. So I’m paying monthly for Scout IQ, a book scouting app, and also Adobe for UD. This area also includes book packaging materials, printer ink, etc. 2) I am going to set aside a little each month that goes towards funding a large purchase, one that moves the needle forward in a big way. The first thing I’m looking at is the Freak Athlete Nordic Hyper Pro 3) I will set aside some each month to build up a cushion in the savings portion of my business account for peace of mind, but also so that if a big sourcing opportunity comes up I can take advantage of it.

4) Finally, with whatever money is left each month, I am going to invest directly in growth oriented stocks through SoFi, the banking app I’ve been using. My Roth is a fairly conservative target date fund. It’s the safe play that will grow slowly over time. So my SoFi brokerage account is where I can take a little more risk and invest in companies that I feel will do well in taking advantage of emerging technologies and will take a faster track towards growth.

For instance, one of the first things I began researching was the field of biotechnology, more specifically gene editing. I’ve been extremely interested in this technology since reading The Code Breaker (you can find my review here) last year. Gene editing tech is rapidly changing, and there are some ethical questions around certain potential uses, but without a doubt it is going to be utilized to formulate treatments and possibly cures to some of the most prevalent and debilitating diseases there are.

I’m also really checking out AI and Space technologies, but will make sure to diversify some with some more mature, value-oriented stocks. I’ve got so much to do today! Talk to you all next time.

3 Nov 2024

What’s up everyone? It’s been over a week since I ran the half-marathon I was prepping for. I meant to write an update here talking about it earlier but life gets in the way. In any case I’m here now. Overall, it went pretty well. My final time was 1:50:14 with a pace of 8:24/mile. This was a minor PR. I believe my previous time was around 1:53, although I’m having trouble locating the exact time. I followed my game plan and stuck to a good consistent pace throughout instead of pushing the pace earlier in the race when I felt good. I was able to increase the pace a little the last couple miles but for the most part I felt like I was just trying to hang on. There was no walking either so I feel good that I was able to stick with it when things got hard.

To be honest, this feels like a huge win, mostly because my last 2-3 weeks were kind of bad training wise. Some unavoidable life things got in the way, I was juggling other priorities, and sometimes I even just skipped workouts because I didn’t have it in me. I probably missed 3-5 workouts total over the whole program, whereas normally I aim to complete them exactly as prescribed. It’s okay though. I made progress and also managed to dedicate a lot of time towards getting stronger and I feel that my overall fitness is better and more well-rounded than it was this time last year. I’m looking forward to prioritizing more strength training and some additional time will become available now that I won’t be running nearly as much across the week.

eBay is hit or miss man, lol. I’ve come to realize that sales will go up and down and although you can definitely do things with to influence the algorithm, etc, ultimately you can’t force people to buy.

I had an amazing score last weekend though! I happened to randomly find an auction online with an amazingly curated collection. I focused in on one specific lot and made a good guess at the value, bid live over the phone and won. It was really cool actually, and when I picked up my items I started finding more and more valuable books so I’m pretty pleased with it. Local history, rare books, books on high end speed boats, and more. I’ve started listing some on eBay already. We’ll have to see what things actually end up selling for, but I estimate there’s $3-4K worth of books in this lot. I paid just shy of $400 for it.

I hope everyone had a great Halloween. I had some ideas for articles to write that would tie in to the holiday but alas wasn’t able to make time. Maybe next year. Juggling interests is difficult and a constant challenge. We’ll see you next time!