Top 10 tips for 2025
When you think of Daytona Beach, you probably think of a tourist trap beach town, with nice hotels and resorts. But actually, most of the physical space and population of the city are completely different, and forgotten about.
On Tuesday, I rode 10 hours to the city to serve a church in the heart of this neglected area. We first helped this church fix up their building a little bit, because they had some damage from the hurricanes last year. But the real highlight of the trip was walking around giving out bags with cleaning supplies and gift cards and talking to people in the neighborhood. It is basically like the projects, very poor, neglected, and forgotten about. Nobody goes to Daytona to visit this neighborhood, and all the money coming into the city goes to build up the really nice tourist areas (which we stayed in).
The residents were not the class of people that I regularly interact with, and I bet most people on this site would feel the same way. There is a lot of physical need there, and people were completely willing to open their doors and even invite you into their homes. That’s the complete opposite of my town, where basically everyone is affluent, and it’s almost considered an invasion of privacy to knock on people’s doors.
The trip really gave me a new perspective on serving the people that are physically near me. The pastor at this church walks the blocks near the church on a daily basis, and knows everyone. Meanwhile, at my church we don’t do anything for the houses that are directly behind the church itself.
I’m back from a mission trip to Daytona beach. I’ll tell some more about what happened later.
Today my homeschool group class was allowed to go off-campus for lunch, so I was able to sell people drinks from chick-fil-a and I made $5
The reason I thought of this was I was thinking of my worries about college, and about my future, what job I’m going to get and such. I wanted to be sure I got a job that was well-paying and enjoyable. But I realized I wanted to get such a job only for my own pleasure and enjoyment.
Something interesting I thought about today: If I’m being honest, I could get a job as a Burger King worker making $11 an hour and get my daily needs cared for, just barely at least. But I want to live more comfortably and more enjoyably, so I worry about getting into and paying for college. I make college a priority for the wrong reasons.
My priority is on getting more opportunities so I can get more money to live more comfortably. I think everyone should agree that just living for your own comfort won’t last and is not a good long-term goal. Instead, college should be a tool to get more opportunities to serve others, make a positive impact, or something similar. And if you aren’t going to be able to do any of those things better by getting a university degree in a certain field, it’s probably not best to get that specific degree, because then you’re just seeking your own gain.
For example, the sigma grindset jobs that many influencers support in which you grind 80 hours a week with no free time just racking up more money for yourself are not very helpful to anyone else but you. In the same way a college degree that just lets you get more for yourself is not good either.
This was something I was studying and thinking about today to teach on in a couple of weeks, but I just thought it was interesting enough to share here.
Something interesting I thought about today: If I’m being honest, I could get a job as a Burger King worker making $11 an hour and get my daily needs cared for, just barely at least. But I want to live more comfortably and more enjoyably, so I worry about getting into and paying for college. I make college a priority for the wrong reasons.
My priority is on getting more opportunities so I can get more money to live more comfortably. I think everyone should agree that just living for your own comfort won’t last and is not a good long-term goal. Instead, college should be a tool to get more opportunities to serve others, make a positive impact, or something similar. And if you aren’t going to be able to do any of those things better by getting a university degree in a certain field, it’s probably not best to get that specific degree, because then you’re just seeking your own gain.
For example, the sigma grindset jobs that many influencers support in which you grind 80 hours a week with no free time just racking up more money for yourself are not very helpful to anyone else but you. In the same way a college degree that just lets you get more for yourself is not good either.
This was something I was studying and thinking about today to teach on in a couple of weeks, but I just thought it was interesting enough to share here.
Now that Syria is stable for the moment, this might be possible
I’m super productive until my brain comes up with a random idea. Well, at least I now know how to drive from Europe to Israel.
I was thinking about this, but I think for now it will be too much with my schedule. Maybe in the summer.
Hey guys, I’m interested in running a new version of @b4us/@b4ca/@b4eu. The last games were not incredibly fun because it was solely based on land area. I want to make it based more on the real world, and strengths and weaknesses of each place. It’s definitely gonna have a little bit of a D&D style, so it won’t be just stats though. Some questions:
What region do you want to do? I’m thinking America and Canada, or maybe Europe.
What statistics and data should be used to give each state its strengths and weaknesses? It can’t be too complicated. I’m thinking it should be limited to 3 different stats (like population, industry, and terrain), that we use to balance each state out.
How should it be more fun?
How should it be more strategic? In the last game, every place you invaded was basically equal, so there’s no reason to go in any specific direction over another.
Most importantly, would you play this?
I took the SAT today. It was pretty easy, except for the very last math section. I had to guess on three of those. I had a homeschool friend in the room with me, so that was fun.
I have smart lightbulbs in my room, they’re not very good if I’m being honest. If I ever want to have mood lighting, I can do that though. I also have a HomePod mini that never works, somehow it can’t connect to wi-fi.
also i live in like the least smart home unintentionally. our TV is over 10 years old, so it doesn’t any smart features, and pretty much every machine in the house is single purpose. kinda neat. apparently our airfryer has an app though.. i have many questions
i love my watch. it’s a casio g-shock something something, and it tells the time and date, accurate to the second, and does literally nothing else. no notifications, no “take a moment to breathe”, it’s literally just a simple non backlit display that tells the time.
i think this is also the experience people have with mechanical watches but for me, time is not fractions of a circle, it is a number. i can’t read analog clocks 
Hey guys, I’m interested in running a new version of @b4us/@b4ca/@b4eu. The last games were not incredibly fun because it was solely based on land area. I want to make it based more on the real world, and strengths and weaknesses of each place. It’s definitely gonna have a little bit of a D&D style, so it won’t be just stats though. Some questions:
What region do you want to do? I’m thinking America and Canada, or maybe Europe.
What statistics and data should be used to give each state its strengths and weaknesses? It can’t be too complicated. I’m thinking it should be limited to 3 different stats (like population, industry, and terrain), that we use to balance each state out.
How should it be more fun?
How should it be more strategic? In the last game, every place you invaded was basically equal, so there’s no reason to go in any specific direction over another.
Most importantly, would you play this?