What do Steak, Rangers and MLB all have in common?

        Wow... It's hard to believe that it was over a year and a half ago when I started my journey. I have taken a few breaks in between to right myself and my goals and to realign myself with my original purpose, which was to take care of my family. I truly believe that I have honored that purpose with this journey as of late. I want you to know that I am not one... BUT TWO steps closer to acquiring my bass boat!! I am so close I can taste it! You'd think it would taste good, but it just taste like dirty lake water... I LOVE IT!

        So about a month ago I got a call from a good friend of mine. She wondered if I still had my viola. Fortunately for her, and you know this if you read my last entry, I had un-traded my viola and had it back up for trade. Her son plays in a VERY prestigious strings group at his High School and knew someone who was looking for a nice viola that would take her to musical places she had never been before! We set up a time for this lovely young lady to come try it out and ¡VOILA! (pun intended) she fell in love with it. It made BEAUTIFUL melodies and WARM harmonies... It didn't matter that it was missing a string and hadn't been played in 6 months... it was MUSIC! She had to have it. She looked at her mom with her big blue, brown, green or hazel eyes and said, "What are we going to trade the big man?" Mom thought for a second and said, "I think I have the perfect thing." I let her take the viola home. She called me up the next day and told me that she had talked to her husband and despite his war against the idea, she had convinced him to trade me some of his sports memorabilia! I had no idea what it was or what it could be worth so I visited with him for a while and came up with an awesome combo.

      When my dad was a wee lad, he was all but aware of the value of things... If he could get his hands on it, it was a toy :) Dad if you're reading this, I have no hard feelings toward the story I'm about to tell. My dear sweet granny, in her younger years, owned several rental properties in Alvin, TX and the surrounding area. She had one house in particular that has become a topic of conversation on numerous occasions throughout the years. I don't know how it happened... I don't know why he chose this particular house, but my guess is that he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that the house he was about to rent from my sweet little ole granny would someday be the center of a great tale of tragedy... Who is this man, you ask? Let me ask you a question... If the Ryan Express was comin' down the tracks, would you get out of the way? Who had the most epic knock out on the mound in the history of MLB? Who can have delivered to your house a perfect steak in under 20 minutes? If you guessed Randy Johnson...! You'd be way off... If you guessed the absolutely wonderful, incredibly talented, house-hold name of Nolan Ryan...!!! DING DING DING!! You'd be spot on! Nolan Ryan rented a little house at the end of a cul-de-sac in Alvin, TX. It was the early 80's and he was playing for the Houston Astros. He had been in the game professionally for some 14 years and was about to hit the highlight of his career playing with the 'Stros! I'm a little shaky on the details, but Mr. Ryan and his wife moved out some time after their stent in Alvin, but it's what they left behind that is the real story. In a box in one of the rooms, there was about a dozen soft leather, perfectly unscathed, ready for the display case baseballs, several of with a genuine Nolan Ryan signature inscribed right in the sweet spot. These were discovered by my dad and his brothers when they were in their teenage years and knowing the little information about baseball that they did... get ready for it... they played with and destroyed every...single...one...of those baseballs. Let us take a moment of silence for those, the fallen pieces of baseball history ......................................................................... ..................................................................... ok. When our family realized what they had had their hands on, the ridicule began and has never stopped! So, Nolan Ryan's name then became a topic at the dinner table, family get-together's, and whenever else we could squeeze it into conversation.

       So when the opportunity came to trade my viola for MLB memorabilia, I had no option other than to trade for a select pair of pieces. Here they are! First, I chose a 1970's Topps Baseball Card in one of his most famous and coveted poses. It has DNA Authenticated Signature on it and is in a hard plastic case for safe keeping. Secondly, I chose an autographed baseball from around 2005 that also has authentication documents.

The total value of these items was around $400! If you're thinking I got the raw end on that one think again. Sometimes you have to trade down so that you can trade up big! I am going to take a short break and when I post my next blog you'll understand why I made the swap. I had the perfect person in mind to get me to the next level, and sure enough... It happened. STAY TUNED TO FIND OUT WHAT I TRADED MY NOLAN RYAN BALL AND CARD FOR!!

So Close, But Yet... Well, Really Not That Far

Here it comes... the moment of truth. Is this thing really about to happen? Am I really this close? It seems so close that I can feel the throttle pulling me forward as I begin my venture out on the lake; the cool mist hitting my face as I try to spot the prime spot to make my first cast. I can smell the engine as it warms up and can see the smoke against the dark cool morning sky. I can feel the steering wheel in my hands; the endless possibilities of where to go, what to see, how to best experience. It's all at my fingertips. It's so close and so far all in the same moment. It's like having my favorite dessert dangling temptingly in front of my nose after two weeks of fasting... It's time... To. Do. This. Thing.

Alright! Enough of that sappy, poetic junk! This is NUTS! I am SO CLOSE! I wanted to thank all of you who helped spread the word about what I need at this point. I cannot do this without you! The only reason I'm even this far is because you all of you. Just a few stats before I get into my big news:

To date, I have had:

-over 400 unique visitors to my site
-nearly 4200 page views
-and visitors from at least 10 different countries!

How sweet is that?! And it's all because of you, my faithful readers.

So now, the moment you've all been waiting for... Drumroll please...


I have found my boat! Skeeter Edwards of Red River Boats in the Dallas area has made me a proposition I can't refuse. He is willing to make me a trade to help me reach my dream... a real life bass boat!! Can you believe it?! I'm one trade away!

Here's how you can help. He wants something very specific, something very sought after, and something that won't be easy to find. He want a 4, 5, or 6 weight Sage SP+ fly rod. These are the absolute top of the line fly rods and this particular one has been out of production for some 10 years. Skeeter is an AVID fly fisherman and this would not only add to his fishing stock, but would also allow him a great collector rod that will only increase in nostalgic and fiscal value. I am dead set on find this rod and making the trade so that I can in turn, trade for my bass boat. It's so close, I can taste it! I'm already working out so that when I do my "master commander" pose, my arms won't look flabby...

I digress :\

If you would please do me a HUGE HUGE favor and ask anyone you know who knows anything about fly fishing where I might be able to get a hold of one of these coveted rods, you would be my absolute hero! If you so happen to read this and have one of these or can get one of these and would consider trading it to me, I would buy you... something awesome!!!... Like whatever flavor ice cream you want! And 10lbs of it if you wanted! (you can hold me to that)... If you need to contact me for any of the above reasons, please feel free to call or text me at 432-288-foursevenzerosix. You can also email me at cag04f@acu.edu.

I can't wait to get to post my triumphant post about the day I finally get my bass boat! Stay tuned!


Until next time...


-SBSB

I AM THE MASTER COMMANDER!

Okay, so I am not a morning person, but this morning I rolled over in bed and opened my eyes to see that the clock said 6:30. I groaned to myself and thought I'd try to go back to sleep. However, my brain had other plans. You know how sometimes you just can't get that thought out of your head; how it nags at you and pulls you from unconsciousness to being fully aware of everything going on around you even when you want nothing more than to drift back into sleepworld and dream of landing a 17lb post spawn bass that would have broken the lake and state records had it still been full of eggs, in 14-16 feet of water on an underwater hump on a Strike King 6XD THROUGH THE TREES ON LAKE FORK!!!!... man I need a nap... (honest to goodness that's what I was dreaming about). But even though sometimes it doesn't go exactly how you think it should, you just have to roll with the punches and swing for the fences, to kill two cliche birds with one stone. Man my writing is deep.

Hopefully you're still with me cause here's where it get's interesting. As I was lying in bed, eyes stapled open for all intensive purposes, I had a realization about my journey. It started out with a vision... No it, wasn't one of those flashes in your mind where you see a murder and save the person who's about to die... But it was equally important in my mind (okay maybe not quite). I saw myself standing on top of a bassboat in someone's driveway with my arms up in the air "Master Commander" style, so pumped up that I had completed my journey, and suddenly it hit me. I have been stuck at this level for 9 months, hoping to trade away my website developing work that I had acquired from my good buddy Bubba, and it seems that there is little interest in someone trading for something they can't see or trust is going to be there when the time comes to utilize it. So here's the moment you've been waiting for... the big revelation... Sometimes you have to take a step backwards, so you can take a step forward. I know! Life-changing. However, my disclaimer is that this is not the case every time or in every situation, meaning the key word in that sentence is "sometimes". I don't want the drug addict or alcoholic reading my blog thinking that they have to slip back into old habits so they can beat this sucker! Stop that! (like I really have that much pull anyways)

So here's what's going's down's. I was given the privileged of keeping my viola after trading with Bubba as he simply wanted to help me achieve my goal. It is time however to take that step back and try again to trade my viola for something tangible. So below you will find a description of my viola!

"It is a 1998 A.R. Seidel German made, 15" viola. If you haven't heard of a viola, it is the much unappreciated, lesser known cousin of the violin. It is known for its smoother, fuller sound compared to the sometimes shrill nature of the violin. It's the alto version, if you will. From what I have been told, there are about 10 violins in the world for every viola. So, what that means to me is that they are harder to get a hold of, thus, in higher demand.

It retailed new for over $1,700 according to this document that I found on Google. And that's just for the viola itself! This one comes with a hard case, bow, music stand and all the necessary stuff for maintenance and upkeep. Altogether, in the condition that it's in (which is immaculate), and given its age, it is priced at around the $800-900 range.

Here's a little history on this beautiful viola. Kim, the wonderful woman who traded me this for my serger, purchased it in 2000. She was a double major in music and theater and needed to learn a stringed instrument. She claimed it was the perfect instrument for her because she has small hands and it wasn't a strain to try to reach what she needed to in order to make beautiful melodies! She enjoyed it so much that she bought it after her class ended so that she could keep learning. As many of us understand, when life gets crazy, some things get re-prioritized. For Kim, that meant that her dreams of being a professional violist had to be put aside for now. So it has not been played for quite a while and is in DIRE need of someone to put it to some good use. For sure, I am not the one to do that so I need to trade it away to someone who can as soon as possible. :)"

Nostalgia kicked in a little this morning and I went back and read some of my prior blog posts, and I realized that I was setting myself up for a tough ride trying to get to $10,000 worth of something to trade for a boat. All that to say, my goal at this point has lowered slightly and is now to get something that floats and that works. It doesn't have to be anything extravagant with all the bells and whistles (unless it just so happens to have them), I just want to be able to fish out of it. :) It does need to be a "bassboat" by definition and I would prefer something bigger than 17' with a motor with 100+ horsepower. With that in mind, I think a more attainable goal will be to look to finish out this journey with a boat that is closer to the $300-5000 range. There are a million nice boats out there in that range. Trust me. I've looked.

I am more determined than ever to conclude this journey! I have a bass fishing tournament coming up the end of April which gives me two months. I am going to hit it hard, going door to door if I have to, so that when the time comes, I can raise my hands up, and in the words of the great Olan Rogers scream, "I AM THE MASTER COMMANDER!!"

If you have read this blog and are interested in helping me along my journey, I would be greatly honored if you would get in touch with me so we can work out a trade. my email address is cag04f@acu.edu or you could even call or text me at 432-twoeighteight-4706! I can't wait to hear from you!!

Until next time...

SBSB out!

The World Wide Web

Alright! So, here's where we are! I just got done posting my craigslist ads and I'm ready to get the trading under way! I was able to trade my viola away to a very good friend of mine. You know him as the one and only Michael "Bubba" Stallcup! Yes, the same guy who traded me the wicker fish for my stickers! Before I tell you exactly what we have here, please note... this is about to get AWESOME! Bubba is not only a masterful collector of wicker products, but he also is trained in the skill of Website Developing!

 I am currently waiting on some samples from him to post on here and my craigslist ads so you can see just how awesome he is! So as to the amount he traded me for... he traded me $2,000 WORTH OF WEB DEVELOPING! How AWESOME it that! That means that for any business out there who needs a website for your LLC, I have the PERFECT thing for you! You get a professional website for absolutely $0.00! All it takes is trading something just a little bit bigger and better than what I am offering. If you have that company vehicle sitting around there that no one uses any more, or that golf cart you got on a whim that is not as feasible as you once thought :), whatever it may be, please consider helping me get to where I am going!

The coolest thing about this particular trade is that the next one does not have to be in Texas! It can be anywhere in the US! If you are in need of a website, NO MATTER WHERE YOU ARE, this is the deal for you!!!

So, now I leave it to you! All I ask is that someone out there will trade me something a little bit bigger and better. The options are wide open! If you have something you might want to trade me, feel free to email me at cag04f@acu.edu. You are also welcome to call or text at a decent hour. My number is 432-twoeighteight-four7zero6!





 Saga LB-33V Full Size Pernambucco Viola Bow with Ebony Frog (Google Affiliate Ad)Saga LB-31V Full Size Pernambucco Viola Bow (Google Affiliate Ad)Cecilio VAC-600 Deluxe Oblong Viola Case (Google Affiliate Ad)
 Experiment! Website Conversion Rate Optimization With A/b, Split, and Multivariate (Mv) Testing By Mcfarland, Colin (Google Affiliate Ad)
Summitsoft Website 8099847 (Google Affiliate Ad)

Full Force!

Hey there readers! If I had to guess, it has been a while since you have been here and because of that, let me say Welcome Back!! For those of you who have been checking back frequently for an update, thank you for your support and consistency. As I said before, I am going to see this thing to the end.

To quote Unknown Author in their quip "One Step", "Foolish people with all their other thoughts, have this one too: They are always getting ready to live, but never living. Your success will start when you begin to pursue it. To reach your goal or to attain success, you don't need to know all of the answers in advance. You just need to have a clear idea of what your goal is. Don't procrastinate when faced with difficult problems. Break your problems into parts, and handle one part at a time. Develop tendencies toward taking action. You can make something happen right now. Divide your big plan into small steps and take that first step right away. Everyone who ever got where they are had to begin where they were. Your big opportunity is where you are right now.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. Take it."
 ~http://www.inspirationalstories.com/10/1089.html



It's time to get this done. I am going to push to the end, but it starts with taking the next step! If you have been with me from the beginning, I applaud you and I need you! If you are joining me on this journey right now and this is the first time you have seen anything about this, know that this journey is being pursued because of a love for my family.

I have a question for you. Do you have something worth starting that you are hesitant about getting going on? Let me tell you from experience: Get going! There is no better time than right now and there is nothing more rewarding than setting out to obtain the seemingly unobtainable and getting closer and closer with each step you take! It is worth the hardships of the moment. It is worth the ridicule... and you know why? It's because at the end of the day, because God was with you the whole way, you did it! Not only that, but for every person who dogged you along the way, there were 10 people who loved and encouraged you. If I have any encouragement for you today it is this...

and this is where I want to be...  "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing." 

...in everything you do, do it for THE GLORY OF GOD! He will bless you efforts! God is good... ALL THE TIME!

Sobaticle's Over... Back to Business!

Good Morning from Odessa! I know that some of my readers out there are probably wondering where I've been the last month. This post will be solely to fill you in on what is going on with my trading and where I'm going from here.

About a month ago, a friend of mine helped me realize that I was spending a crazy amount of time and energy on things that, in the spectrum of importance, should fall to the wayside. Fishing is a passion of mine. As I said in my very first post, because of the example my father set for me, my goal for my family is to put them first. This whole project was to avoid spending money on a boat that should be used to benefit my family. And while that is still the goal, my dream blinded me from what was right in front of me, in reality. My family. I was spending hours and hours on my fishing projects a day and in many ways, neglecting to give my wife the same amount of attention. I decided that it was important for me to take a break from everything fishing. Fortunately, as the seasons change and only last for a short time, this passion has been released to me. My wife and my God are now my first priorities above all else.

NOW! I am very excited to get back to business on my trading up. At this point, I still have my viola. I met a woman this last week who teaches orchestra at a local junior high school, but more importantly, she specializes in Violins and Violas! Go figure! My plan is to have her play my viola and I'll record it and stick in on here so you all can hear it! I imagine someone looking for a viola that can't play it themselves (if they live too far from Odessa) would be tentative to offer a trade. But if they know and can hear that it's a quality instrument, it should make it easier.

I have actually gotten two offers for my viola in the last few weeks. One was from a web design company based out of the DFW area. She offered me a quality web design for someone to trade for my instrument. This is what I have been waiting for! I think this kind of thing will allow me to get to the next level of item! Who knows how many small businesses there are out there that need a website and have an old company vehicle layin around?!?! How cool would it be to get something like that?! I think it would make it so much more real for me. My other offer was for a VERY cool antique piggy bank. The gentleman didn't even know what was inside of it! Maybe some really old collector coins! Funny story about that though... I hope he reads this and gets back in touch with me... My phone was running very, very slowly. A tip I heard was to delete all your old text messages. I had text messages that dated back for the last 3 years! I was trying to be intentional about not deleting important ones, but I found out the hard way that when you delete it... it's gone... there's no getting it back. And sure enough, I hit the delete button, not realizing who's texts I was deleting. Now I have NO way to get in touch with this guy! He said that this piggy bank could be valued anywhere from $2000 to $8000!! AGGGGHHHHHHH!! So, sir, if you are reading this, please shoot me another text. I promise not to delete you this time!

So this is where I'm at. I want to honor all those who have traded me by completing this journey! I just have to make sure that I always put God and my family before all of my goofy hobbies... they are clearly more important. However, this is fun and I can't wait to see this come to it's exciting conclusion! If you would be interested in trading me something and you live ANYWHERE in Texas, please feel free to get in touch with me. My number is 432-twoeighteight-four7zero6! You can also email me at cag04f@acu.edu. What I have learned recently, however, is that you don't have to live in Texas if you want to trade me something like a Website design. That could go to anyone in America! The next trade, unless it was something similar, would have had to be in Texas. Let's see how creative we can get! I'll make sure to let you all know when I get that video put up! Stay tuned for the next excited chapter!

Until Next Time,

-Something Bigger Something Better

No Strings Attached... Well, It's Only Missing One Anyways.

What I love about this process is that it is set up for success. As long as I continue toward my goal and keep at it, I WILL eventually get to my bass boat! Before we dive into my trade, I want to share some really exciting progressions in my story! I got an amazing email from one Tyler Reed who is the social media editor and the BASS Federation Editor for B.A.S.S. inc. He informed me that he had spoken to Trisha, the Texas sales rep for BASS that I told you all about, and they were quite interested in my project! He had visited my blog and decided that it was worth pursuing! They let me know that when I get closer to my bass boat that they would like to do a story on my journey! How Exciting!! We discussed what it might mean to be "close" and I decided to set a $$ amount to shoot for. That amount is now officially $10,000. So, what that means for BASS is when I get to about the $8,000 mark, they will be in touch with me to do a write-up. As if that wasn't incredible enough, they offered to share my story on their twitter page! Needless to say my ratings and views jumped like crazy! Here is a link so you can check it out! I also got in touch with Skeeter Boats. I spoke with a woman for about half an hour on the possibilities of working with them. She was pumped up about the potential for a story that she had me write something up that she could send off to the people who are over advertising to see if they might want to do anything about it! I'll let you know if anything develops on that front.

As most of you know, I have just opened up the spectrum of my trading audience to the whole state of Texas! And because of that, there are going to be many of you who are visiting my blog for the first time, so I'm going to do a quick recap of what we're doing here.

On January 9th, I began a journey to obtain my goal and realize my dream of owning a bass boat! I started with a broken water-pistol and traded up and up with that end goal in mind. In just 5 trades, I obtained a serger sewing machine ranging in the neighborhood of $500-800! In my next couple of trades, I really hope to bust into that four digit realm! AND You can help me get there!!

This trade took a while. In fact, I was sitting on my serger for something like 3 weeks! The longest I had gone before was about a week so this felt like an ETERNITY! All that said, it was expected as I explained it in my blog entry, Here's Where it Gets Interesting. However, it was not for lack of response. I had several offers for my serger, but they just weren't the right ones... until... I got that precious email from one Kim Marr of the Austin, TX area! She's not really as small as she looks... I am a giant! my 6'7", 300lb self makes most normal people look tiny. I had posted in several Craigslist cities that I was going to be in the Abilene, TX area last week and for Kim, that meant a win-win for her. She had some friends who lived in Brownwood, TX that she was dying to see and she had something she was dying to trade me for my awesome serger! So it worked out perfectly! It just so happened that one of the few storms that have hit Texas in the last year decided to try to rain on my parade! But, I wasn't going to let that stop me. I weathered the storm and drove the short one and a half hour drive to Brownwood so that we could make a trade!

 

Previously, Kim had informed me that she had the perfect item to trade me! She had a 1998 A.R. Seidel German made, 15" viola. I know what you are thinking... Did he mistype viloin...? And if not, what the heck is a viola?! Well, it is the much unappreciated, lesser known cousin of the violin. It is known for its smoother, fuller sound compared to the sometimes shrill nature of the violin. It's the alto version, if you will. From what I have been told, there are about 10 violins in the world for every viola. So, what that means to me is that they are harder to get a hold of, thus, in higher demand. Fortunately for me, I happen to know about 7 or 8 violists who hopefully can help me get hooked up with that next trade! Right now is the perfect time to try to trade it because UIL competition is getting ready to be underway and some people are going to be looking for a viola for their kiddos! 

Anyhow, after a little research, I came to the conclusion that this was going to be a good trade. It retailed new for over $1,700 according to this document that I found on Google. And that's just for the viola itself! This one comes with a hard case, bow, music stand and all the necessary stuff for maintenance and upkeep. Altogether, in the condition that it's in (which is immaculate), and given its age, it is priced at around the $800-900 range. It was not a big price jump for me, but what it provided me with is something that I can hopefully trade up quickly and for something awesome! It is missing a string which I will get replaced soon. In my next post, I will hopefully have a few more pictures and a video or two of someone playing it so you all can hear how beautiful it sounds!

Here's a little history on this beautiful viola. Kim purchased it in 2000. She was a double major in music and theater and needed to learn a stringed instrument. She claimed it was the perfect instrument for her because she has small hands and it wasn't a strain to try to reach what she needed to in order to make beautiful melodies! She enjoyed it so much that she bought it after her class ended so that she could keep learning. As many of us understand, when life gets crazy, some things get re-prioritized. For Kim, that meant that her dreams of being a professional violist had to be put aside for now. So it has not been played for quite a while and is in DIRE need of someone to put it to some good use. For sure, I am not the one to do that so I need to trade it away to someone who can as soon as possible. :) 

I have a couple of questions. Do you think a YouTube channel would be helpful? I was thinking about starting one so that I can show everyone exactly what all of my trades can do; how my viola sounds... how the serger would have worked... show you all how good the picture on the flatscreen will be... and how well the awesome giant pick up will sound when you crank it up... and finally, how my awesome bass boat runs! Let me know what you think in the comment box! 

So, now I leave it to you! All I ask is that someone out there will trade me something a little bit better than my viola! The options are wide open! If you have something you might want to trade me, feel free to email me at cag04f@acu.edu. You are also welcome to call or text at a decent hour. My number is 432-twoeighteight-four7zero6!

Thank you all for making this so exciting. To date, my page has received over 2500 hits from 10 different countries including Canada (maybe that's Kyle MacDonald of oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com coming to check out my progress)! Before you close out this page, I encourage you to subscribe to this page so we can keep in touch! Thank you again so very much! I'll keep you posted on all the excitement to come! Until next time... 

-Something Bigger Something Better