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+--- Thread: The EMPIRE Strikes Back (UMS v.3) (/Thread-The-EMPIRE-Strikes-Back-UMS-v-3)
RE: The EMPIRE Strikes Back (UMS v.3) - Ampersnd - 06-20-2025
Stage 3, Day 27,
Whoa. Stage 3 is about to end soon.
Making improvements on my Jiu Jitsu product user interface; functionality is essentially done.
Might be able to get the latest version on my sales page soon, and start ads up again.
RE: The EMPIRE Strikes Back (UMS v.3) - Ampersnd - 06-22-2025
Stage 3, Day 29,
I've been an interesting combination of lazy and productive.
On Saturday, I got up at 11 am and wound up developing my martial arts tracker until I completed it, and had a full customer version available for download.
But I missed Jiu Jitsu; I skipped other things. I didn't eat from breakfast until about 10 pm, barring little snacks.
On Sunday, I rewrote the sales copy, the banner image design, and a new set of Facebook ads.
But I also skipped my martial arts training, and I haven't exercised all weekend.
Skipped the shower on Friday.
Granted, the weather's been crap all weekend.
But now, I can ease off the gas pedal, since now I just need to optimize my sales copy and Facebook ads.
It's been about 1 hour and I have a click-through-rate of 5.7-7.2% between the two ad versions. Not bad.
RE: The EMPIRE Strikes Back (UMS v.3) - Ampersnd - 06-25-2025
Stage 4, Day 2,
I've had version 3.0 of my Jiu Jitsu tracker out since Sunday. Have been running ads since Monday; have gotten 103.13 CAD with an ad spend of 35.13. That's about 3.0 ROAS. Pretty good; as long as I keep getting sales, which is likely.
The Facebook ad stats are fine; my sales page conversion rate is 0.66%, which is about the same as previous versions, but I'd like to get it to 1-2%.
I've also been vibe-coding a new Google Chrome extension, and it's been coming along decently quickly; with about 2 hours of work, I've blown past my expectations about "hard" it is to get something up and running. Literally, you use the regular Extensions menu and point to a code folder on your computer; that's literally it. From there, you iterate.
RE: The EMPIRE Strikes Back (UMS v.3) - Ampersnd - 06-27-2025
Stage 4, Day 4,
I've made a bit more money from my sales page, and the ROAS is currently at about 2.5, but I know that I can get it higher somehow.
Made a bit more progress on my Chrome extension progress, but I'm bumping up against the inevitable need to link things up to a cloud-managed database for the sake of tracking my progress.
Tonight, I'm finding myself brain-rotting a bit with video games and watching videos. I have a long drive tomorrow, so it's not a huge deal (my usual routine is slightly different)
RE: The EMPIRE Strikes Back (UMS v.3) - Ampersnd - 07-04-2025
Stage 4, Day 11,
As of yesterday, I've hit a new phase of how I'm feeling about money. I'd label it as "Rage Against the Results"; it's an intractable conflict between the positive beliefs about money I'm instilling in myself and the currently immobile set of results I'm observing.
The program I'm following says: "Get emotionally aligned with the feeling of having your results. Then follow whatever practical action-based hunches you feel, then the process and the results MUST come."
I do these things, but then I can't help but notice that the money is not coming in as intended.
In fact, my Facebook ads - and my sales page - are doing WORSE than they were a week ago. As in, no sales for 4-5 days.
One positive aspect is that I'm not abandoning the money-based tasks; I used to make two attempts at something, then get "bored" with it (probably subconscious avoidance) and jump back into intellectual pursuits.
RE: The EMPIRE Strikes Back (UMS v.3) - Ampersnd - 07-14-2025
Stage 4, Day 21,
I've had roughly a week - or more - of feeling demotivated; not even mopey or down, but there was a basic lack of a spark for most of the things I find interesting.
Found martial arts, music, and many other things difficult to launch myself towards. My bathroom has gotten quite messy. Hair's a bit of a mess.
A lot of the negative thoughts and beliefs, that I normally claim to not assume, came top of mind and wouldn't leave me alone.
Right now, it feels like those feelings have lifted, so I'll go and take advantage. Clean up my apartment, maybe cut my hair, and otherwise make my space feel fresh.
Edit: Just pulled up my physical clipboard; not only did I not touch it for the past week+, but my last "to-do" paper was half-filled on July 2nd and 3rd; goes to show what my levels of holistic motivation have been.
In the meanwhile, I've been reasonably productive in building my prototype for a language app; it's based on basic string-matching, and English-only for now, but it's taught me what I need to do for translation's sake.
I'll need to build a client-server architecture, since I'm planning on using SpaCy's large English model (400MB) + the large model version of the foreign language I'm translating from, which far exceeds the basic size limit for a Google Chrome extension (100 MB). First version will be French to English, seeing that I'm knowledgeable enough in French to know that my translations are successful.
RE: The EMPIRE Strikes Back (UMS v.3) - Ampersnd - 07-19-2025
Stage 4, Day 26,
Back to feeling demotivated. I'm working on my language project.
I just don't feel like doing most things.
Feel like I need to be doing much more than what I'm up for.
RE: The EMPIRE Strikes Back (UMS v.3) - Ampersnd - 07-22-2025
Stage 4, Day 29,
I've had two nights where I slept well and woke up comfortably exactly when I should; no real struggle or fight to get out of bed.
Coincidentally, my two days off from subliminals, outside the cycle.
I'm starting to really introspect and wonder what skills I've foregone from the way that I've approached my life; for example, not seeking serious relationships, and running from them when the opportunity arises. I was always looking for something more; a very dopamine-driven approach towards living. Another example is choosing to work from home.
I've severed various forms of extremism and militancy from when I was younger, but I can feel the tugs on my psyche and emotions from videos - such as scrolling Instagram, YouTube Shorts etc. - and I can see how they're contributing in keeping me from my own thoughts.
And even when left alone, those inputs have a momentum of their own; it's self-generative after a certain amount.
Feeling too plugged in; I have my 'work from home' setup, yet that is still a decision that I've made and continue to make.
I feel myself on a trajectory for loserdom, yet I'm not alarmed enough to fight with everything I've got to do (and reach) something different.
And still, I'm not abusing video games - in fact, they're boring me - I'm not drinking more than occasionally, and I'm not numbing myself with porn. In fact, that's fallen off to the wayside.
But especially this past month, I've felt stuck; and this past week, I've caught myself verbally shadowboxing with externalized voices of disapproval of me and my life.
And I'm getting sick of the idea of another yet year like this past year.
Interestingly, I've done a few new and interesting things this year, but I want something beyond that.
It's a strange inflection point.