Advice and Beans Updates
So it’s been a week since the event, and I’m as thrilled as I thought I would be! It’s nice being able to get everyone’s shipments out same day for the most part, taking a full day off of the delivery time for over half our customers. Orders for Mylar Bags and Oxygen absorbers have been steady, including some bulk shipments, and I’ve started receiving more comments from those finding their way to the blog, which is very exciting. I hope to post a couple of guest articles here in the near future as more folks share their experiences in preparedness and food storage.
One of the things I’m committed to as a part of working from home is to not turn into the slug I was as a teenager! It’s tempting to sleep in and work at a slower pace, or sit and watch TV or surf the ‘net, and not really take the opportunity to improve all aspects of my life. I have slept a little bit late some of the days since I left my previous job. However, I believe that I’ve been offered a wonderful opportunity, and I won’t squander it. I started this morning with some Wii DDR (Don’t laugh; for those who don’t know that stands for Dance Dance Revolution). I have put it on the calendar that every day from 8-9am I will do something physical…some days that will mean DDR, or the Wii Fit, while others I plan on walking with the dogs. I also plan on getting some hikes in as well, though usually those will happen on Sundays due to the schedule of getting all the orders out. Part of it is to improve my physical condition, part to prepare for my Appalacian hike later in the year, and part to spend at least an hour a day NOT thinking about everything that needs to be done. Sometimes a job, career, preparedness, video games, or anything can absorb us so completely we forget that we all need to breathe. So that first hour of the day will be my chance to do just that.
I’m also using Microsoft Outlook to schedule tasks I might forget about, such as paying the bills, ordering more product, or doing a particular piece of research. I’m pretty unorganized by nature, and I need to use all the tools at my disposal to overcome that handicap!
Other updates: In the near future, I will be commissioning some improvements for the website, to include a clean version of the LDS Food Storage Calculator…this is a project that I’ve been meaning to get to for ages and mentioned last year. I actually have a backlog of ideas that I mentioned ages ago that need to be implemented. Every day is going to include a couple of hours for exactly this type of project. With hope I’ll have something concrete to deliver to folks in the next 45 days.
We also have one huge long-term project on the table that I hope to unveil officially later in the year. Advice and Beans will be spinning off a software development LLC in the next month (also basically run by me, with a small mostly-volunteer development team); with a small bit of venture capital we have a commitment for, as well as a signficant investment by my wife and I, I hope to offer the preparedness/survival community something very special in the next couple of years. More details forthcoming soon!
As always, anyone with stories, questions, comments, suggestions, please feel free to contact me; I’ll always give credit for anything I might post on the site, and I love to learn what others are doing or thinking about!
