Goodbye, 2021.

Stick a fork in 2021. It's done. Isn't it so great to be done with this year? Yes. Yes, it is. I'm ready for 2022. What could possibly go wrong in the world next year that's worse than Covid, super volcano? Don't answer that.

There's been some progress on the internet front. I've mentioned the broadband utility boxes for fiber that have been going up around me but not here. This week saw one of these appear:

The thing about this that concerns me is that this is the electric pole at the road. There's another one between the road and the house that has no green box. Is another one coming later? Are these wireless? We'll find out. I'd hate for them to skip me because I'm not close enough to the road, but I'm concerned.

How soon will broadband be available? I asked about that at one of the power company offices, since they're the ones who own these boxes. If you're not sitting down, this would be a good time. I was told that once the service is ready to use, I'll be sent a letter in the mail to sign up for it. After I sign up, it'll be 12 to 14 weeks before it's hooked up. What? Three to 3.5 months for somebody to flip a switch? Wow. The minimum speed is 200Mbps, though. I'm currently using my cell phone for internet at 5Mbps after dumping my old ISP that only offers DSL here at 1.5Mbps. There's no timetable on when the service will be ready where I am. The 3 to 3.5 months can't even begin until then.

There's some good news on the Forex trading front. As mentioned before, I've been doing a trial for that that will hopefully lead to a side gig, but after a glitch with a trade, it looked like I wouldn't meet the money goal. I didn't blow the account, but I didn't meet the goal in the allotted time either. I expected an email to let me know I'd failed. There wasn't one. Either it's lost in the holidays or they've given me an extension. We'll see what happens..

Have a great weekend.

Holiday Greetings

Merry Christmas!

Have a great weekend.

Trial Basis 3

Still no fiber internet, though more crews were working on the trees along the road this week where the power lines are. I assume, once they're done, that the fiber installation crews will be back and begin installing the rest of the infrastructure they didn't finish. I hope it's this year.

It was a down week on the Forex trading front. I never really recovered from the glitch I mentioned last week. I've been trading defensively. I've tried to make adjustments. It's not really working. I should have stuck more closely to my original strategy. I haven't blown the account, but I'm currently not on pace to pass the trial.

It turns out the glitch may not have been because of 4G LTE internet like I thought, though I certainly have enough of those. I was about to make a trade this week and noticed the ask price was way higher, about $200 higher, than the displayed price. The ask price is the actual sale price regardless of the displayed price. So, it's possible and likely probable that, instead of an LTE glitch, I may not have noticed a massive price discrepancy between the ask and the bid. Normally, they're quite close, within $10. If that's the case, then it was an inexperience mistake.

Next week will be the last week of the trial. If I don't pass, I can always redo it. Of course, I would take a break and do more paper trading between trials as well as studying more. My plan for next week is to stick to what works when I paper trade and try not to get distracted with doubts and nerves. Reaching the price goal might be difficult, but closing above break even would still be a consolation win. I'm concerned about the holidays. The market has felt sluggish this month compared to last month. What will it do right before Christmas? I've been thinking all month that this was the worst month to try this. If I end up having to redo it, I'm definitely waiting until after the holidays, including New Year's.

As for the demo account I opened with a broker, I set that up in TradingView this week. For some reason I'm not allowed to set a take profit price or a stop loss price when doing a market trade. With paper trading, setting those works like a dream. I can set it all up ahead of time and just click a button to make a trade the second I see a setup. I do it while paper trading "real" trades and also to do small trades when I get tired of waiting on a setup. I can snipe little $30ish to $50ish trades between setups. Four or five of those later and I can have $200 extra in my paper trading account. It's not easy to do, but it's super easy to set up and execute small trades.

I don't know if not being able to set a take profit and a stop loss is a broker rule or if it's because I'm using the free version of TradingView. That's something I need to look into more this weekend. I couldn't find it this week. If it's a broker rule, that might be a deal breaker. That would make it even harder to work with than Metatrader 4, which is a steaming pile to use.

Have a great weekend.

Trial Basis 2

There's still no fiber internet here, though work crews have been clearing all the brush and trees between power poles. It's gone like this. First, they cleared brush and small trees. Second, they cleared low tree limbs. Yesterday, they cut branches high up in the trees. Next to power poles in the area, I've seen some more of the green broadband utility boxes for fiber internet that I've mentioned before. There's still not one at my pole yet, but maybe now that the tree guys seem to be done, it'll happen. Hopefully soon, because I need a solid internet connection.

The sales job that I'm on a trial basis for is trading Forex. That's why it's taken so long to get going with it. It's a complicated field that requires a certain amount of study and preparation. I didn't jump into it. I had to study a lot first, and I still need to study a lot. Also, I've successfully dabbled at trading stocks in the past, so I was already familiar with the fundamentals. You can see why I haven't mentioned it before. It's one of those things that people fail hard at. If it didn't look like it was going to work, I was going to sweep it under the rug.

So, last week was a good week. This week was a bad week. I'm down from where I started. Remember how I have 4G LTE internet that is not "always on" the way DSL is? For ordinary internet, I usually can't tell the difference. However, when hundredths of a second count, I can. I placed this one trade, and somehow I was immediately $100 below where the price should have been. I didn't handle it the way I "should have" and ended up in a hole. I made nervous mistakes. That was near the start of the week. I've been slowly recovering ever since. Since that LTE glitch, like the first week, I'm on an upward trend. I've had other glitches, but fortunately, those were paper trades. I desperately need always on internet.

Whether I can reach the price target(details mentioned previously) I'm supposed to is now in doubt. Even though I'm recovering from the glitch, it's been slow going. Part of the problem is I'm being forced to use free Metatrader 4, which is user unfriendly because they make their money selling automated software tools for it. Before this, I was paper trading with the free version of TradingView, which is so streamlined and friendly compared to MT4.

With MT4 you have to input all the pricing numbers manually. With TradingView you can input dollar amounts(pips) and let the software input the pricing numbers for you. So, I have price signals that I wait for, and then I make a trade. The problem is that the signals don't always work. I wait to make sure the price is going the right direction then hit the buy or sell button. With TradingView, it's automatic. With MT4 I'm missing hundreds of dollars in trades because the price moves too fast for me to manually input more than one trade. While I'm dithering waiting to make sure the setup is right or finding the price numbers, trades are getting away from me. For example, I missed about $200 today on two trades when I got an "invalid parameter" error when I hit the buy button. By the time I fairly quickly diagnosed the problem and changed the numbers, the trades were gone. I think what happened was that, when I set the trade up ahead of time trying to be faster, the price moved too far from my original numbers too fast. In TradingView I can make 3 or more trades for every one in MT4. I'm hoping that I'll get faster over time after I've been using the software longer and get more experience.

Another problem this week has been psychological. After that glitch, I've had to be super cautious, and that's making me miss trades, too. I find myself afraid to commit to trades. I overthink trades and setups. As my balance has crept up, I've calmed down. Next week should be better.

The good news is that I'm getting better over time. Honestly, I should have paper traded a week or two longer for the practice. Nevertheless, I'm getting the experience now. I haven't blown the account or dropped low enough to fail the challenge. I've learned another trade setup, although it doesn't always work. I have until the last week of the month to hit my price target. Next week should be a pivotal week that will tell me how it's going to turn out.

If I hit the price target in this phase, I'll move on the phase 2, which is a lot easier. I've also started a demo account with a broker that works with TradingView. I haven't started trading on it yet, but I will next week. If I can be successful with that, I'll almost certainly open a real account. It would be small, but it would work with TradingView.

Have a great weekend.

Trial Basis

There was no blog last week because there was no internet. The 4G LTE data for my mobile hot spot stopped working, a problem I've blogged about before(Verizon).

Still no land-based broadband, though a company was out yesterday and the day before, trimming tree limbs around the power lines. I saw another green broadband utility box for fiber not far down the road. I'm now between green box installations. Hopefully, once the trees are trimmed enough, they'll install a box here and get the internet connection running. They don't seem to be in a big hurry.

I'm closer to starting the part-time job. I'm working on a trial basis for a company. In phase one, if I can make $800 in profit within 30 days, I'll move to phase 2 in which I'll only have to make $500. If I can pass both phases, I'll join the team. I'm just over 20% toward the $800 goal with three weeks to go. I should be at least up to 25%, so I'm behind. Nevertheless, I'm learning a lot. I'm running late today. I plan to have more detailed information next week.

Have a great weekend.

Still No Broadband

There was no writing this week. It was another stretch of education for the new part-time job I'm trying to get going. I'm feeling a little burned out and wanting to take a break from it, but I keep going forward.

There's still no movement on the internet front. Some green broadband utility boxes for fiber internet have sprung up very close to me. My driveway is between two installation points. The land has been cleared where I live, but there's still no green box. It's brutal. I've been having connection problems lately with the 5Mbps 4G LTE internet I have now. I'm actually having one now. It's taking forever to get anything done online, and Blogger can't update. Hopefully, it'll clear up enough to post this.

Have a great weekend.

Learning Can Hurt. True Broadband Internet?

Sometimes, my brain gets tired. I've been continuing my educational push for a part-time online sales job in a complex field. As mentioned before, I had to pivot into a different product in the same field, which delayed things. I've been trying to cram months or more of learning into weeks. I think I'm almost to the point that I can start on a trial basis. If I get through the trial phase, I'll be up and running with the job. Once that happens, I'll be able to get back to writing. If I didn't need the money so much, I'd never be doing this.

Some green, plastic boxes have been springing up near some of the power poles near me. I did a web search. They look almost just like the broadband boxes in this story. The ones in the story are for fiber optic internet. I live really close to a fiber trunk. Coincidence? I hope not. Stay tuned! It looks like I'll be able to get true broadband service for the first time ever. I used to  have Windstream, but they only offer 1.5Mbps here. I've been using a 4G LTE cell phone for internet for over a year, but it's being throttled to 5Mbps. With fiber, the slowest speed is 200Mbps. Anything more would is too expensive right now, and I don't really need it. Unless I got a 4K television or something, which would be down the road who knows when.

The land is being cleared out under the power lines and around the poles. I'm waiting for a green box to spring up at my pole. If and when it does, I'll let you know.

Have a great weekend.

Still Chugging Along

It was yet another week of education for a part-time, online sales job I'm trying to get going. As stated last week, I had to pivot from the one I originally wanted to do. It's set me back some. Assuming things go well, I think I'll be up and running either next week or the week after.

Have a great weekend.

Still Learning

It was another week of education for what I hope will be a part-time(or better) sales gig. The niche I was looking at wasn't as profitable as I thought, so I've had to pivot a bit into a different niche in the same industry. They're similar enough that it's not starting over. It's adapting to a related skill set. As I've mentioned before, it's commission not salary. I was hoping to have started this week, but it looks like next week at the earliest. The product is complicated.

I'm having internet connection problems sending this. If this sales job works out, I'm going to look at Starlink.

Have a great weekend.

The Goal is in Sight

It was another week of training for the part-time sales gig I'm about to start. I'm still not finished with the book learning part of it, but I did try a sample sale this week and made 93 cents. It wasn't spectacular, but I learned more from it than just reading or watching training videos. Speaking of training videos, I'm still going through the 20+ hours I mentioned before. It's like trying to cram more than a full college semester into a few weeks.

Nevertheless, I believe I've nailed down a niche in which I can start selling, hopefully, in a few more days. I need to learn more about the fundamentals of the sales trends for it first. It's taking time away from writing, but if it works out, it'll give me more time in the long run. If I didn't need the money, I wouldn't be doing it.

Have a great weekend.

More Course Work

My internet connection is flaky this afternoon. To recap, I'm on 4G LTE. For the past 20+ months, Verizon, I assume, has been working on the network for 5G. I've had outages every Saturday, sometimes Sunday, occasionally on a holiday Monday and rarely on Friday. This is one of those Fridays. I don't mean spotty coverage. I mean 8 or 9 hours with no internet and spotty phone service. If you're reading this, it means I've gotten enough of a data window for Blogger to work. A speed test a few minute ago was about 0.5 Mbps up and 0 Mbps down.

So. This was another week of no writing, as I work on training videos and reading material for a part-time online gig. Progress has been too slow. I've spent hours reading through legal agreements for web sites I want to use. The one that took the most time is the one I ended up not using because of this one fee. As I said last week, it's commission not salary. If it works, I'll be  happy to talk about it. If it doesn't, I'll quietly let the subject drop.

I'm guessing it's going to take another couple of weeks to get through this initial training material. I've almost narrowed down the web sites I can use, so at least I won't be reading through much more legalese for that.

Have a great weekend.

Part-time Gig

It turned into a no writing week. I need more money, so I spent hours and hours researching an online gig. It's commission not salary. If I can make money with it like I hope, I'll be happy to share more about it. If it doesn't, I'll probably never mention it again, and we could pretend like it never happened. I have 24.5 hours of training videos to go through. I started last night and got just under an hour watched. I have relatives in town this weekend. Maybe I'll get a little more watched tomorrow night. I'm hoping Sunday night is more productive.

Have a great weekend.

Nothing to See

I need to run.There's not enough time to do much with the blog today. And that's okay. There's not much to report on the book front. In other news I switched email programs to Thunderbird. I bought a small SSD drive for my most-used programs. So far so good. I need to build a new computer, but prices are up because of the supply chain problems. I have some side projects I hope to be able to report on in the long term.

Have a great weekend.

Dairy Fat is Good for You

Progress on the writing front this week isn't not worth mentioning. The good news is that I got a small SSD drive to take some of the pressure off my hard drive. I've moved some of my most frequently used programs to it and deleted others. I really need to build a new computer, but after seeing some of the prices out there, I see the chip shortage in real terms now.

There's good news on the "pandemic" front. Covid cluster outbreaks could signal pandemic is nearing end. This is in line with the typical duration of a pandemic, which is two to three years. If it follows the normal pattern, it should be over between by the end of this year and the end of next year. 2020, 2021 and 2222 are almost three full years. One sign that the pandemic is ending is that the world government has shifted attention from Covid to "climate change". One of the vaccine companies stated this week that the pandemic would be over in a year if everyone took their vaccine. Right. It's ending anyway. Perhaps they saw the story about the cluster outbreaks and were trying to get ahead of it. They'll probably try to take credit for the end of the pandemic, too.

There's even more good news. Dairy Fat from Milk, Butter, and Cheese Could Boost Your Heart Health. A quote from the article, "We found those with the highest levels actually had the lowest risk of CVD." CVD in this context means cardiovascular disease. The article explains the way old studies were done, relying on the memories of test subjects' food intake, versus the modern way of taking measurements from the blood to get actual data. Nearly all my life, I've "known" that milk and cheese were bad for me. Now, I finally know better. Pizza could be a health food.

Have a great weekend.

The Fear Campaign

First the billionaire space race. Now maybe a billionaire longevity race

I've seen an avalanche of scare tactic headlines regarding Covid-19, such as the nurse who coldly, callously tells patients, "It's too late," as they lay dying and begging for a vaccine. I decided to copy all the ones I saw this week. Here's a list of them. These are only the ones I ran across. I'm sure there were more I didn't see. The hateful tone has calmed down a lot compared to the last few weeks when there was an all-out push to scare people into getting a vaccine. The main component to these is using fear and/or abusing/shaming the unvaccinated. Whatever happened to my body my choice? I can't do anything about the formatting problems. I need to dump Blogger.

I don't have a link to the story, but an Israeli scientist(?) or politician was caught in a hot mic moment telling someone else that Covid passports have nothing to do with science. They're to force people to get vaccinated.

Saturday 

Doctor says 'death is imminent' for a woman on a hospital bed in Michigan who refused the COVID-19 vaccine 'adamantly' 

2 unvaccinated parents left 7 children behind after dying within hours of each other from COVID-19

Sunday

A customer who refused to wear a mask in a Wells Fargo bank waited in the parking lot to violently ambush the manager at the end of his shift, report says

Delta variant: Unvaccinated and vaccinated people 'are not in the same ballpark' of risk, doctor explains

Unvaccinated are 11 times more likely to die of COVID-19, CDC studies show: Latest updates

 ‘It Took Her So Fast’: 4-Year-Old Texas Preschooler Dies of COVID Within Hours of First Symptoms

 

 Monday

California couple dies of covid, leaving five kids behind. Their newborn is three weeks old.

 Veronica Wolski, QAnon supporter at center of ivermectin firestorm, dies of COVID-related pneumonia at Chicago hospital

 Texas Embalmer Shares Nightmare COVID Experiences: 'Unlike Anything I've Seen Before'

  3 Things You Should Say to Someone Who’s Hesitant About the COVID Vaccine (& One Thing You’re Better Off Keeping to Yourself)

 Ky. school endures death of 2nd staffer from coronavirus. 2 more hospitalized

Tuesday

Canada's ‘hospitals are building barricades’: COVID-19 pandemic reaches ugly heights with anti-vaxx protests

Howard Stern Slams Joe Rogan for Taking Ivermectin and ‘Sh–head’ Anti-Vaxxers

The Covid spike in highly vaccinated Israel holds grim omens for other economies

Fauci warns of possible ‘monster’ variant of COVID if pandemic isn’t stamped out with vaccinations

Israel’s Top COVID Truther Claimed COVID That Killed Him Was ‘Poison’ Attack

Letters to the Editor: I've tried reasoning with very smart anti-vaxxers. It's pointless

Woman had life-saving surgery pushed back because Tennessee's hospitals are overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients

NC school board member who once voted against masks requests prayers after getting COVID

He almost died of COVID. Now Ky. airline pilot spreads the word on vaccine.

My beloved uncle is in the ICU with Covid — and I’ve changed my mind on vaccines

 

Wednesday

Our School Board Refused To Mandate Masks. Now Things Are Bad. Really Bad.

A pregnant woman hospitalized with covid miscarried her baby. Her husband regrets that they weren't vaccinated.

 

Thursday

Mum who nearly died of COVID vaccine side effects vows to let daughter have jab

Unvaxxed Teen Councilman Who Attacked Mask Mandates Now Battling ‘Terrible’ COVID Pneumonia

Her father died from COVID-19. Now she's grappling with her family's church supporting religious exemptions from the vaccine.

‘The situation is dire’: Idaho activates crisis standards statewide over COVID-19

Kentucky bride-to-be who was concerned about COVID vaccine dies of virus at age 29

GOP lawmaker in New Hampshire becomes a Democrat, saying anti-mask 'extremists' pushed him out

Friday

France suspends 3,000 health staff as Europe targets vaccine refusal

 Right-Wing Activist Laura Loomer Has ‘Brutal’ Case of COVID After Claiming It’s No Worse Than Food Poisoning

 2 fringe doctors created the myth that ivermectin is a 'miracle cure' for COVID-19 - whipping up false hope that could have deadly consequences

 U.S. passes grim milestone as 1 person in every 500 has now died of COVID, as a debate about the need for booster shots heats up

 Column: Why do unvaccinated people in Florida — land of predictable tragedies — keep dying from COVID-19?

 Another COVID Orphan, Another Dead ‘Hero,’ and Now More States Forced to Ration Care

 Hawaii has first confirmed maternal death due to COVID-19

 

So.

Have a great weekend.

Slow Week

I didn't see it myself, but I heard about the kerfuffle regarding the mainstream media trying to brand ivermectin as "horse de-wormer". That's disinformation. Ivermectin can be used for horses, but it's not a strictly horse medicine. Ivermectin has been used to treat over 4 billion people since 1981. The FDA approved its use in the U.S. in 1987. The guys who invented it received a Nobel prize because it's helped so many people with various problem such as head lice, etc. The mainstream media is against any non-vaccine treatment, which is baffling. As long as it works, does it matter which treatment is used? Don't they care about people? Why does the answer always have to be a vaccine? Why are they playing politics with people's lives?

Israelis scientist says Covid-19 could be treated for under $1/day. "Double-blind study shows ivermectin reduces disease's duration and infectiousness * FDA and WHO caution against use" "Nearly 72% of volunteers treated with ivermectin tested negative for the virus by day six."

When almost 72% test negative for Covid after 6 days, that's a great treatment. It sounds a lot like a cure for certain people. The article has more information about the type of patients being treated.

I'm not an anti-vaxxer. If people want to get vaccinated, that's their business. There's enough information out there for them to make that decision, although sifting between rabid anti-vaxxers and dishonest, vaccine-only media outlets is tricky.

It was a bad week on the writing front. No Man's Sky had a major update and put out an Expedition, too. It was kind of a perfect storm.

Have a great weekend.

The Writing Part

This week saw the end of preparing for finishing book 3 and the beginning of getting to the writing part. I've been going through the part that's already been written and reached the end of that last night. The next step is to take my notes and such and get the rough draft finished. I'm estimating that'll take at least a month. That assumes a word count of 2,000 words per day and that nothing gets in the way.

Tropical Storm Ida passed through this week. The lights blinked a couple of times, but the power didn't go out like it did for the last tropical storm the other day. It turns out the Ryobi 300W power source I linked last week will not power my computer. I found a video in which a guy hooked up a 174W blender, and it took two starts for it to run. When certain items power up, they use a surge of electricity. I'm pretty sure my PC would blow 300W away. However, I did find an APC backup with extra battery pack that should run it for a while if the power went out. Sadly, it's well over $300. Normal backups start below $100, although they're for shutting a computer down safely not running it during an outage.

I'm thinking about getting that Ryobi power supply anyway. The power goes out for large storms on a regular basis. Even if I couldn't run the computer, I'd still have light to read by and cell phone charging and perhaps enough juice for an old 24" television. It would also let me use my Ryobi battery and keep it active.

Have a great weekend.

And on to Book 3

Work on Book 3 of the B'vellah War series began this week. I'm still going through the part that's already written, doing a little cleaning up for minor things. It wasn't a great week in real life, so it's been going more slowly than I wanted.

A tropical storm passed through one day. The power was out three different times for varying lengths of time. The longest was going on 5 hours. The shortest was ten or fifteen minutes. That got me to looking at backup power options. Every time the power goes out, I can't use my computer, and I have no lights except flashlights. Ryobi makes a 300W power source, among others. It's $79.97 for the bare tool battery not included. I already have a Ryobi tool that has a 40V battery that I could use. I'm not convinced it would power my computer, but it might for a short period of time. It would certainly power lights and charge cell phones. It should run a small television. They have a $799 one that would run the refrigerator, but I've seen cheaper ones. The number of products out there for this problem is high. Finding the right solution is going to take way longer than it seems like it should.

I've been looking at backups for the refrigerator, too. It might be cheaper to forget all the battery stuff and get a gasoline generator. The problem with those is that they're so loud. A neighbor has one that's thousands of feet away. I can hear it indoors when the power goes out. Brutal. I don't want one right outside. It seems I have a lot more looking to do.

Have a great weekend.

Continuing Prep Work 3

This was another week of preparation for the last B'vellah War novel. Part of that involved editing on book 2. Some things got in the way, and I didn't get as much done as I'd hoped. I still got a fair stretch done.

There's a lot that has to be crammed into book 3, the rough draft of which is already about half written. I've been thinking about that as I've been going through the first two books. On the one hand I'm a little concerned that there's too much going on. On the other hand that's not a bad problem to have. I don't have to worry about the saggy middle problem novelists face. I don't have to agonize about plot points and idea brainstorming. The main worry is pacing. It can't be too fast or too slow. I also have to make sure that key events at the end happen close together instead of being dragged out too far.

This week should see better progress, especially if I can get a head start this weekend.

As a side note, the Facebook changes I've commented on the past couple of weeks have disappeared with the exception of the censored photograph. I protested the censorship but haven't heard back. I view Facebook as a short-term company, so I'm not too concerned.

Have a great weekend.

Continuing Prep Work 2

Like last week, this week was preparing for finishing Book 3 of the B'vellah War series. I didn't get as far as I thought I would. I've been going through past books, looking for foreshadowings and minor details I may have forgotten. As part of that, I've ended up doing some light editing work on book 2 and some mostly comma corrections in book 1. This coming week "should" see that completed, although I have about half of book 3 already finished. It may need some work as I go through it.

Last week I mentioned that I'd posted an anti-CRT article on Facebook and that one of their woke[sic] employees seemed to have racistly changed my recommendations of People You May Know to nearly all blacks and Muslims.

This week someone did a deep-dive review of everything I've ever posted. The result was that one picture I posted in 2016 was censored. Of everything I've ever posted on Facebook, only one thing was deemed offensive. It was this picture:

 

 

Too close to home, I guess? Yes, too close to home. It's not my fault that the Democrat party and the National Socialist Party share core, common values. Pointing that out is not offensive. It was a warning that our democracy was in danger. It still is. The more the left caters to radicals the more like the National Socialist Party they become.

Have a great weekend.