These are my Momentos, short personal diary entries I write daily – since 2013 – and publish monthly. Some links are affiliate links.
1
Pleasantly surprised to see that they have a Pride Week here in Tbilisi. But unfortunately there are a bunch of protests against it, and it might escalate to violence. Imagine wanting to beat people up because they love one another. Pure madness.
2
My new thing is watching a movie or TV show and then listening to a podcast about it after. The Rewatchables is a great podcast for movies. And I’m now slowly rewatching The Sopranos and listening to two of the actors recap each episode.
3
I love the mystery of a new book. I’ll often end up disappointed, but every now and then a book will exceed my expectations and shift my view of the world. It happens enough that I get excited each time I crack open a new read.
4
Thinking about depression today. From one of the best articles I’ve read on the subject:
Depressed people always need to be vigilant against a relapse. Depression is like cancer – once you have it, it remits, possibly forever, but you are never “cured”.
5
They had to cancel the big Pride March in Tbilisi. Too many violent protesters, 50+ people beaten up. Imagine being a young gay person in Georgia and seeing your countrymen attacking people like you, simply for being themselves.
6
Spending a few days in this nice hotel up north in the mountains. We’ve been here twice before, keep coming back. Spectacular views all around and good food. We take a couple of hours for each meal, nothing rushed. And the sauna today was like a spiritual experience.
7
They call it the Big Dipper in the US, in Ireland we call it the Plough. Always reminds me of my grandad. I wonder if he ever imagined I’d be here, on the far side of the continent, thinking of him. I wonder where my grandchildren will be someday, and if they’ll think of me.
8
Look up a chap named Leonard Matlovich when you have a minute. Truly a courageous and inspirational person. He’s buried in DC with the epitaph:
“When I was in the military, they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one.”
9
I’ve been earning at least $10k/month for about a year now. Life hasn’t changed all that much. I still enjoy my work, still work full-time. The main difference is a bit more comfort and convenience. Get more meals delivered, stay in nicer hotels, that kind of thing.
10
For long-term living, we’ve been considering countries like Georgia, Portugal, Italy, Canada. Scary to think how we could be deciding the fate of our unborn children. Which language they’ll speak, who their friends will be, what nationality they’ll identify as…
11
I rarely look at my Facebook news feed these days but scrolled through it a bit today. Mostly lifestyle pics and pointless arguments between strangers. I guess those things get the most engagement so Facebook keeps showing them. Pretty shit for mental health.
12
If you have a poor relationship with your father, you might say it’s because he abused you as a child. A cause to explain the effect. Adler’s perspective is that you maintain a poor relationship with your father to achieve some goal, perhaps as a form of revenge.
13
Browsing some competitor sites today, sites that review the same courses we do. They’ve definitely copied design and layout elements from our reviews, some quite blatantly. That’s fine though. It’s not like I came up with all those elements from scratch anyway.
14
Been struggling with this question: what would you do with unlimited time and money? A question like that deserves to be answered with a BHAG, but all I keep thinking about is a fairly quiet life where I feel like I’m a valuable part of a local community.
15
Traffic to our Amazon FBA content is up 90% compared to last month and we’re generating quite a few leads to our top-rated course already. Commissions are lagging but that should follow suit. It’ll be a few months yet before we really start seeing the fruits of our labor.
16
After ten years of sobriety, I went back to alcohol gently a year ago. In my younger days I was a slave to booze, but now I can handle it mature. Ordered a class of 12-year-old whisky this eve, sipped it slow in tribute to an old friend in New Orleans.
17
Published a review last September. Took me almost 14 hours to research, write, edit, publish. Through the end of June it had generated $19k in commissions, or $1,357 per hour invested. On the flip side, I’ve spent countless hours writing reviews that barely earned anything.
18
I have friends and family who I consider “high energy.” I’m not like that. My motor has limited capacity. On days like today, where I push up against that limit, I can almost feel parts of my brain shutting off. I can’t think clearly, have to sit down and tune out all stimulus.
19
Went through a rough patch a few months ago, felt like my life was getting derailed. Back on track now. A few things that helped me get from here to there: journaling; walk-and-talks with friends; weekly talk with a therapist; letting time work its magic.
20
I’ll happily listen to your conspiracy theory. Many of them are fun to think about. But alarm bells ring when you speak about this stuff with absolute certainty, like you’re one of the lucky few who knows the real truth because you saw a few things on the internet.
21
Played basketball with a guy in high school. I was shy and eager to be liked. He was confident and eager to win, didn’t mind ruffling a few feathers. I thought he was an asshole at the time, but he mainly just brought out my own insecurities.
22
I have this recurring fantasy of moving to a nice town in the mountains, buying a cozy house there, retiring early with plenty in the bank, becoming part of the community, maybe starting a local newsletter. Looking at one particular mountain town today. Entirely plausible.
23
Some of these FBA course creators are relentless. Signed up to the free webinar for one course on Tuesday, gave them my email and phone number. Now it’s Friday and they’ve already sent me 15 messages. Not much value in those messages either, mostly a sales push.
24
Consider how many combined hours were needed to create any man-made item. A typical teaspoon, for example. Took humanity hundreds of years of trial and error to figure out how to make that perfectly polished little tool. Try make one yourself from scratch, see how you do.
25
When something doesn’t make sense, too many people nowadays conclude that someone’s trying to trick them, that something foul is afoot. But a far more likely explanation is that the situation is complex, and you need a high level of expertise to make sense of it.
26
We’ve now spent close to 200 hours reviewing FBA courses and collecting reviews from students. All that work had yielded zero income. Until today: first commission came through, worth about $200. That’s how it goes: nothing for a long time, then it starts to build.
27
COVID cases are spiking again in Georgia. Amazes me how many people walk around this hotel with no masks, even content to squeeze into elevators with strangers. It’s as if they feel COVID is something other people get, something they’ll never have to worry about.
28
Watching the sunset over the Black Sea, in these woods near the shore. The fading light gives us rusty trunks, the wind sounds like whispers somewhere over there. We sat on beach towels and took it all in, now standing quiet, saying goodnight to the day.
29
There’s a theory that the Black Sea was once a freshwater lake. Then about 8000 years ago water from the Mediterranean burst through the Bosporus and flooded the area, swallowing up towns and villages and becoming the basis for Noah’s big adventure.
30
Sitting on the balcony, last night here. Watching a girl on YouTube speaking a language I don’t understand, shopping for food I’ll never eat, in a country I’ve never been to. But I may soon call that country home. Going to try visit in a few months, see if it feels right.
31
A young Australian woman went missing in Tbilisi yesterday afternoon, hiking a wooded hillside on the edge of town. Called a friend crying for help, sounded like she was being attacked. They found her body today. What kind of God lets shit like this happen?