Overtly commercial thoughts

I haven't written about what I am doing for a considerable period of time, mainly because I attempt to keep this blog on the topic of what has been referred to as simple, organic church. Another reason is because, for the past few years, I have considered myself to be unemployed due to disability. To be more specific, at one time, I put a lot of time into flea marketing, which spread out into selling via craigslist and eBay. A couple of years ago when I couldn't handle it, my son took over the eBay portion of it, and I did the stuff that had to be done during normal business hours when he was at work.

He had to make a decision last fall as to whether to stay in the Navy, and chose to leave as of this fall. His decision, along with it, was to begin an auctioneering business. To that effect, I went to auctioneering school a couple of months ago. He took two weeks of leave to go to auctioneering school the past two weeks.

Therefore, I wish to state that we have begun the business, which is named Prestige Auctions, LLC. We are beginning with an online auction of collectable coins, which is running via www.proxibid.com. We have 300 lots of mainly U.S. Coins, which will close as of May 1^st. If that is something that interests you as a hobby or use collectable coins as a matter of investment/wealth preservation, I invite you to visit it. To that effect, we have a website for the business, www.prestigeauctions.us , and are on Facebook as Prestige Auctions, LLC, Norfolk, VA. Www.facebook.com/prestigeauctions .

I guess that, slowly, but surely, I have built up a job. Disconnected from the auctioneering business, which is a corporation, we have another business, called Savvy Thrifty, which sells all kinds of items. Its items appear on eBay under the store name “navygamer”. Certain items which do not ship easily or cost effectively are posted on craigslist in Hampton Roads/Norfolk which can be looked up by the key word 7577353639 (my phone number). If you live in the Hampton Roads area, these items are available by contacting me by phone or text. I just recently got texting turned on on my phone. At first, I found it irritating, having to type what I wanted to say. I also found that almost everyone contacting me on these items texted, instead of phoned. It actually turned out to be helpful. Some of the items I have had for weeks or months, so I haven't thought about them for a few days. With a text, I could take my time, refresh my memory, and give a more thought out answer to any question the person had. That may sound strange to you if you have been using texting for years, or it may sound strange if you use texting for personal communication, but while beforehand I really couldn't see a business use for it, now I can see it clearly.

Because of whatever, I haven't felt like reading for about the past 15 or so months. I got a book at a yard sale yesterday, and, in one sense, can hardly wait to finish reading it so I can write a review about it. It isn't a book that I have heard mentioned in simple, organic church writings, but it definitely ties into the theme of getting around socially-imposed garbage that has been forced on the true church, and getting to the original meaning of scripture, particularly dealing with subjects that I had not previously heard about. More on that later, when finished.

Humorous note: Last week, I had to drive to Columbia, SC from Virginia Beach, about a 400 mile trip each way. In a city I passed, I think it was Lumberton, NC, there was a large factory, about two blocks long, which was closed down. Instead of a real estate sign on the building, there was a banner over where one might walk into the corporate offices which said, “YOUR NAME COULD BE HERE”.

My life and an upcoming coin auction

Mistakes are the greatest renewable resource on earth.

--Danny Meyer, Union Square Hospitality Group

In writings about simple church, one subject that comes up, in part because, unlike theological points, there is no universal answer, and because many of the writers were institutional church pastors, or went through education pointed towards the standard system “occupations”, is how to earn a living. I have not written much about that because my life story includes a feature which halted my path in that direction before I started. Nonetheless, during my senior year of college, my thinking was to get a degree, and then go to seminary. At that time, I was working at a department store, so I stayed there immediately after graduating. Various things happened such that my work career can be summed up as working in retail. About six years ago, some physical problems knocked me out of the work force. That has been a source of some frustration, but gave me time to do the writings that made up the beginning of this blog.

Anyway, one blessing, I perceive, in my life is being able to live in my son's house. He is in the Navy. Last fall, he had to choose whether to reinlist or not, and he chose not to. He decided to start an auction business when he got out, and started planning accordingly. To that effect, about two months ago, I went to auction school, and have since finished, took the state test, and received my auctioneering license, so that I can help him. I write this in that our first auction will be online, consisting of collectable coins. As such, if collectable currency is something you are intrested in either as a hobby or as part of your personal financial strategy, this will be available to you, wherever you are. I will leave more information very soon.

My view from here, and an odd story

            While I have attempted to blog at least once per week, and usually have done more, it has been two weeks since the last post.  The main reason for that is the illness that I have been struggling with for about the past six weeks.

            Over at frankviola.org, 2.29.12 was Shameless Promotion Day.  Why didn’t I mention this blog on it?  I had every intent to do so, and was thinking that I was looking at my email each day, but clearly did not notice that the 29^th was the day until about 10pm (EST) on the 1^st. About then, I realized to what degree that my mind was operating foggily.

            Those of us who read Frank’s blog know that he has been generous on giving advice to bloggers.  Of course, Frank has written many books and appears to do a significant amount of speaking.  His directions, I would imagine, would be near impossible to follow by a person doing an everyday, normal job (and a job in some type of field as being a professor, missionary, or other Christian service job doesn’t, in this instance, fit as being everyday).  As I am to a degree disabled, it is somewhat easier for me, but not all that much.  Feeling ill certainly lowers that ability.  Anyway, in his blog, frankviola.org , on February 26, 2012, he gave a piece of advice of not posting more than one post per day, as it makes finding it more difficult.  That was something I need to take to heart, as, when I started, I posted 100 2-minute radio scripts I had written over the previous two years, and posted them all within one month, with the idea of referring back to the date at the end of the program.  Also, when I posted them, I did not, at the end, leave footnotes as to where I got the information from.  Therefore, it is reasonable to post them again, where each can have a unique date affixed to the writing.

            As for getting them on radio, to my knowledge, I am further from that than I was back in December, 2010, because of what I know of myself.

            A funny thing happened to me about a week ago.  I have been attempting to contribute to the finances of my house by buying self storage units, and selling the contents.  For anyone who has never been involved in this, but has seen one or more of the reality programs based on this activity, it isn’t anything like the programs, but still, some odd things happen.  Part of the oddities come from all the extra bidders that have been produced by viewers of the programs.  Anyway, it was a Friday morning, and on that day, a certain chain had an auction planned at a location to the north of a military base, another, a couple of hours later, at their location to the opposite end of the base, and, a third at a location to the west of the base.  I went to the first one, and there was a tremendous amount of persons.  This may be good for the company, but not for me.  Also, I saw in the paper that there was one at the same time as the second auction on the opposite side of town, but they only had two units available.  I had been to that company before, and knew that it didn’t draw many bidders that last time, so I decided to go over there.  Noon came, and no other bidders showed up!  As the law in my state (according to the owners—I haven’t bothered to double check) was that they needed a minimum of three bidders, they went out into the lot and got a couple of service men who warehoused there to come in and sign in.  Since I was there to bid, and they weren’t planning on it, I got both units, in my opinion, quite reasonably.  Opposingly, one unit was of a major company which had gone out of business, and the contents was all their IT equipment, like 15 year old computer and server equipment.  I find that, as time goes on, I am selling more and more items which, if I had to describe what they do, I could not.  I guess that, so long as I can put a price on an item, and someone will pay it, on enough items, and income is greater than outgo, I’m ok in that regard.  It’s just an oddity of life.