This Week
- The first week I got two YouTube videos out.
- What happened after my van battery died again.
- How my workouts have been now that I’m doing them first thing in the morning.
January 2025
| Su | M | T | W | Th | F | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 1/1 | 2 | 3 |
| 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
| 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
| 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
Where In The World Was I?
- 🚐 Denver, Colorado
Metrics From The Week
Snaps From The Week
Business
Reels, YouTube videos, coaching.
Reels are going okay, not pulling views like they used to, though some are. I’ve been mainly just clipping reels from my YouTube videos. And I’m starting to get overwhelmed with how many clips I have. I think I got ~15 clips from the first video, 11 from the second. I’m like I can’t even post this many in a week 😂 so some days I’m posting multiple. I figure the algorithm will figure it out and just show it to whomever wants it.
For YouTube, the first week I’ve gotten two videos out! Been wanting to do this for a while. I’m not sure how long I’ll sustain it, but figure more volume > less volume right now.
I’ve been using this new Copilot plugin inside my Obsidian vault which allows me to chat and easily drop in notes, as well as use a feature where it’ll sift through my vault looking for notes related to what I ask. I’ve been using it for content and video brainstorming a lot and finding it super useful.
I’m now reaping the rewards of documenting journal entries, ideas, struggles, problems, and basically my entire life inside my Obsidian vault. 6,000 notes and counting.
This content is not ready to be made public yet.
Click-Click-Click
In last week’s update, I expressed some confidence that my van not starting that one morning was just a one-off and that I’d obviously manage it but believed I would be fine.
I wasn’t fine.
Another morning a couple days later, I drove ~10 minutes to the gym, did my workout, maybe 1.5-2hrs, came back out, key in, click… nothing.
And it WASN’T on a cold day and I didn’t just drive 4 minutes, which was the original theory. The weird part here was that 12.25V is like 65%, well within the green for being able to start the engine… but it didn’t.
So I took out my battery jumper again and started it up…
I drove about 20 minutes to a coffee shop further north, so that it’d have plenty of time to recharge the van’s battery.
I did my coffee shop’ing, then came back out to drive to a park to eat lunch.
Click-click-click…
Oh boy…
THIS is where I started to panic. We’ve completely broken down my original hypothesis. It’s not cold, no short drive… but still having red-alert errors.
I did some AI chatting, some researching, some debugging, trying to figure out what was going on. I started to wonder, “maybe it’s actually not my battery but my alternator that’s failing, because it’s just not charging up my battery enough… and THAT is not good.”
I jumped it again, but this time I turned OFF my B2B charger as I drove to the park, ~10 minutes.
For the engineers following along trying to understand, my alternator is a 150 amp alternator. It’s pumps 150 amps into the van’s battery, which is quite a lot. Then I’ve got wires hooked up to my van’s battery running back to my “house” electrical compartment into a little box called the B2B charger. This is a 50 amp charger, which, when it detects the van is running and the alternator is pushing amps to the van’s battery, will pull 50 of those amps to recharge my house batteries.
I chilled in the park, worked, walked, did some more research and debugging and understanding how to change the van battery on the Transit.
From the videos I was watching, it seemed easier than I originally though, and possible to do DIY. The questioning came because the van’s battery is actually located underneath the driver’s seat, it’s not in the engine bay like most cars. So you’ve got to take apart the whole driver’s seat in order to access it. THAT uncertainty is what I was worried about.
About 4 hours later, I got ready to leave and head straight to an auto parts store.
I took out my phone to record the van doing it’s “click-click-click” while I turned the key…
Except it started right up.
No jump start needed.
After sitting for 4 hours.
I thought, “wait… what?”
I drove to the Auto Parts store (B2B charger off) and checked the voltage and it was like 12.6V which is ~100% charged.
I sat there, now doubting myself… if I was missing something. I went back through my options, chatting with AI, and determined that maybe it’s not as bad as I expected… I’d probably still need a new battery, but something about the B2B charger was causing the issues.
I decided to skip changing the van’s battery and give it one more night, just for double confirmation. I’d check the battery voltage in the morning to confirm just how much was leaking so I knew for certain I should change it.
So still in the parking lot of the auto parts store, I put my key in, turned it and… click-click-click
😂😂😂😂
“Welp fuck it I’m just gonna change it now,” and I got out and walked in the store 😂
The guy there was super nice, I asked for a ratchet to get the bolts off for my seat and he just let me borrow the store ratchet instead of having to buy one.
I soon discovered that the videos and toolset I’m supposed to use is NOT what I needed to use because the previous owner who built out the van put in swivel seats. So, I was flying blind figuring out how to take it all apart and what tools I needed, but I found the right size ratchet and hex wrench (left=previous; right=new).
Getting the terminals off was a huge pain in the a$$ but I somehow managed to do it. Then went in and bought a new battery.
The guy said the one I had has a 5-7 year life expectancy, the new one I bought has a 10-14 year life expectancy. Nice.
Then it was just a matter of putting everything back.
Et voila.
Start-to-finish, took me about 2 hours all in. And returned the ratchet about 5 minutes before they closed. Phew!
And can confidently say I’ve had no starting issues, B2B charger works fine, and it sounds a bit better when it starts up as well. Nice.
My first battery change! Can cross that one off my “life skills” list.
Socializing
Got coffee with another traveler this week. It was fun to chat about traveling, places in the U.S., abroad, camping, life, work.
And one day I was leaving a coffee shop when this other Transit van pulls into the parking lot, but doesn’t look like a camper. The guy comes over to me and waves. I roll down my window and tell him I like his van.
He asks me how I did the solar panels on the roof of my van, turns out he converts vans and food trucks. We had a laugh and a little conversation. A nice little experience.
Feeling
I’ve really been pushing the workouts a lot more lately. Now that I go first thing in the morning, I don’t miss it… So I’ve been a lot more intentional.
And I’ve been adding a lot more cardio, Zone 1 walks/stairmaster, Zone 2 runs, some fast running here and there, mixing into my strength training workouts. It’s showing up in my Strain on Whoop that’s for sure.
So I’ve been a bit more tired from those, but I can find I’m still able to work after, though I’m a little bit more intentional now about rest days and what I’m layering in.
Partly related, but not fully related, I’ve been also noticing my screen time usage climbing in the past week or two. My evening down time and time while I’m eating is being eaten back up by watching videos on my phone, scrolling. So I’m working on getting that back under control as well.
One evening I switched to listening to the Diary of a CEO / Tony Robbins podcast and it was super refreshing to listen to someone talking about growth and sharing value. I’m starting to feel the effects of not being surrounded by other digital nomads and people pushing themselves like in Bali.
Other Stuff
Trying out a new skincare product, adapelene gel 0.1% retinoid. It’s been purging my face and this isn’t even the worst of it so far.
Come back in a couple weeks/months and in theory, I’ll have skin like a baby’s bottom, er, something like that I don’t really know what I’m doing 🤷♂️
What’s Next?
Last full week in Denver… for now ✈️