Ordinary Days.

Trying to bring to life so of the small things in life to help slow down.

[dondremalik]

I think they were trying to destroy the evidence..... (at Glendale, Arizona) https://www.instagram.com/p/CBdjBfCgvoJ/?igshid=z6a2ich0bwbj

[dondremalik]

I haven’t shared in a while. I’m trying to develop a vintage style to my photos. I like the feel and mood that it gives! Let me know how I did.... • • • #photooftheday #sonya7 #sonyalpha #vintage (at Scottsdale, Arizona) https://www.instagram.com/p/CAu8cwrg9fS/?igshid=31wcntjz7lvo

[dondremalik]

Thought of Thursday: What if I took the bite?

In reading today, I stumbled upon a bit of fear.

It was around four o'clock in the morning and I felt very awake. I couldn't think of a thing to do, so I decided to go through a little bit of a workout and hopefully clear my mind enough to pass out on my bed and prepare for work in the morning. Instead, I found myself exhausted from the workout, and now thinking on a much more spiritual level. I took this overwhelming desire to have a deeper contact with God as an opportunity to explore and dive a bit deeper into The Big Book.

As most people who have a religious background probably do, I thought about my favorite verse, John 3:16. If you are not familiar with the scripture or are reading this out of pure curiosity, the verse claims “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that who shall ever believe in him, shall not perish, but have eternal life.” This is one of the most well-known verses that came from the scripture, even given its length. It is such a serious and powerful message in such a confusing time in the Biblical era. It is laid out for us in black and white that if we ask God to be our savior, by believing what Jesus came to Earth to tell us, we will have life forever, yet I still find myself confused about what to do in life to be a better person.

It was at this moment that I realized that my conscious contact with God isn’t as strong as I would like. It was eye-opening that the question to every single one of my questions can all come from the same person. Ironic, right?

I opened my recovery Bible to the first reading and dove in. (The book I read out of is a King James Version Recovery Bible. It breaks down and helps me understand my connection with God and how it can cause me to slip back into my old, selfish ways of life). Genesis chapter one, “God created the heavens and the earth.” It gets me every time I read it. I have to take a step back and ground myself because it is so humbling. Intentionally I’m sure, Moses opens the book in such a fashion. That is quite the way to capture an audience.

Just that single statement had me thinking deeply for hours. I began listening to the online teaching of Genesis by Professor Justin Jackson of Hillsdale College. He began, bringing up very intriguing points that I had never heard before about the early reading of Genesis, speaking directly to the audience so personably. It held my attention and made me think deeply about what was taking place in that garden. So much knowledge was transcribed into a mere 50 pages.

It made me think. what if it was me? Fearing that answer, I began to think. If the serpent tempted me, would I have the will and strength to deny the desire to try the forbidden fruit of The Tree of Knowledge? Of course, this is hypothetical given that we know what events follow.

It did however spark a desire to improve my contact with God, but also study and exlore what and how other religions worship. Let’s see how blown my mind gets after a bit of reading and some critical thinking!

[dondremalik]

Thankful I had some entertainment to get me through the quarantine. I know for some of you, these two people are no one, but to me, they are very talented and entertaining gamers to watch. 

@nickmercs and @fazeswagg took to the battle ground in a head to head duos tournament yesterday, April 15, 2020. They ran through the competition and easily ran into the finals where they were basically handed a $20,000.00 check.

I was so pleased with just the content alone and being able to see some competition in an event that peaked my interest, but they turned it up one step further and did a huge giveaway to their chat groups. With the $10,000.00 check that each teammate earned, they gave twenty-five $100 Amazon gift cards to random subscribers. It was a great way to engage and keep their audience around and happy.

Of course, as any celebration typically does, the two took celebratory shots. While Nick went with his go to Tequilla, Faze Swagg went with some Vodka as he was unprepared for the victory celebration. 

Watching small events like this to pass time is nothing to be ashamed of. If I have learned anything from this quarantine, it is that we should all do what makes us happy because we never know when that event will be stripped from our lives with no warning.

[dondremalik]

Essential- absolutely necessary; extremely important.

Oxford

[dondremalik]

Quarantine

Bryson: What are you doing tomorrow?

Me: It's quarantine...

Bryson: Yeah, so what are you doing?

Me: It's quarantine...!

[dondremalik]

Daily Doses

Ever wanted to just vent and not have anyone give you direct feedback? Well if you’re anything like me, you will enjoy a place tp sit back and just listent to different ways you could’ve handled a situation, or hear some of the crazy reactions to some of life’s daily challenges. 

I am currently working on making Spotify something I do more often. Help make things a lot easier by posting some comments and helping grow the Daily Doses community. 

Let’s talk about jobs, entertainment, social life changes, anything that peaks your interest or alters your day to day life if it changes. Lets roll with the punches together and find an answer to some of the daily struggles that continue to puzzle.

[dondremalik]

Basically where I spend all of my time these days.

I have found that having a place that is comfortable and easy to maneuver around makes this stay at home life a lot more manageable. I have always been a homebody to a degree, but I love having energy to feed off of. That is the codependency that’s I carry around with me all of the time.

Today I managed to work on homework, clean the house, workout and somehow fit in a few hours of gaming with some of my best friend. It is always a blast to just get a group of 10 and play Call of Duty for a few hours. The consistent fighting and animosity is always expected, but never gets old.

It was a good start to the week and I’m hoping that I can continue to maintain perfect adherence to my daily principles and practice them in all of my affairs.

[dondremalik]

10 posts!

[dondremalik]

Daily Quarantine by Daily Doses • A podcast on Anchor

I am trying to pass the time as best as I can by entertaining myself with different things that can be done from home. Whether this is something that you do alone or something that you share with some of the people closest to you. I really want to make the most of these next few weeks and get a bit closer with some of the audience members that I don't typically have the time to connect with. If you want to be featured in the next episode, or you have a great idea of how you can help other people succeed during such a trying time, tune and and share some of your ideas with me using the link below! https://anchor.fm/dondre-bell/message

Stop by and take a listen to my growing podcast. click the link below to share some of the things that you use to maintain sanity during this quarantine. 

https://anchor.fm/dondre-bell/message

[dondremalik]

With the quarantine in full effect in almost all 50 of the United States, the video game has really been the only thing that has stayed consistent and maintained its audience. In fact, the E Game audience has grown of the weeks since physical sports have all been postponed or canceled due to the COVID -19 outbreak.

Being a gamer, I love the idea of more people seeing the relevance and appreciating the gaming community as a whole and what it can give to the entertainment world.

I know how hard being at home all day can be, especially for someone like me who really likes being outside and enjoying activities with some of my closest friends.

Stay tuned to the gaming world and see it blow up with the upcoming weeks of quarantine.

For those of you who do game, what console do you play on? What game to you prefer? Fortnite or War Zone? Let’s get a debate going. Which game has the better mechanics. What else are you guys doing to maintain sanity during such a trying time. 

This is going to get exciting.

I think that gaming and maintaining our health can really benefit the Earth and our society as a whole. 

[understands]

[dondremalik]

When you have a tough day, week, or if you’re like me, a tough year, sometimes you just have days where you don’t know what is exactly going on in your own head.

Today I woke up, felt fine. Until the clock seemed to strike noon. My day turned from average, to more average, yet I just mentally felt overwhelmed.

Life is scary and having faith is even scary.

Faith is really what drives me everyday. Fight that I know my decision is the right one because I was backed by something bigger than any of us.

It might stand out to me as a tough day because it was so normal. My life over the last few years seemed to never be normal. Something always went askew.

Self inflicted anxiety is something that I always tend to give myself when there is any change in the world. I stress myself out about everything. It’s hard to think about what in life can and cannot be changed.

I’m new to the blogging scene, but it is nice to just drop down my mental state for the day and just reminisce on what and why I’m struggling.

Keep your head up is such a cliche way of encouraging us to just keep moving. “Just keep swimming” is something I have to think about when I’m down and feel out. Eventually you’ll find your Nemo, whether it be in the job your chasing, that relationship that you desperately desire or whatever it is in life that gets you out of bed everyday!

[dondremalik]

Well it’s my Monday officially.

It’s weird to think that right now the world has stopped turning. Not literally, but metaphorically.

I’m imaging what it’s going to be like after all of this virus scare is said and done. I’m always curious about the future, but with something that has such a huge impact on life, I have to sit and ponder ideas.

It made me think historically. This isn’t the first time that lack of health has impacted the economy. I started thinking back on a question that a friend asked me, “would you rather live 100 years in the future, or 100 years in the past?”

My answer was immediately the past. I think the past has been proven. We as a species have made it through the past. The future is not a guaranteed thing. We just never know what’s going to happen. It could all be snapped away by Thanos and we had no idea he was even roaming around creating his infinity gauntlet, just to snap us out of existence.

I’m a nerd and thinking wide open is sort of my hobby. I love thinking about both sides of a story and arguing in either direction. Today’s question to think about is just that, are you wide open? Do you think critically or were you the student in 5th grade who answered every question starting with “because”. I am not and I tend to want an explaination.

Would you rather live in the future 100 years or the past 100 years?

[dondremalik]

So in the retail world, we consistently have weekdays as our Saturday, Sunday weekend. For myself, I have Tuesday and Wednesday. I’ve laid out a sort of tradition for those two days because most of the time, weekdays can be boring.

On my weekends I find myself getting physically and mentally tired. I push for 5 days hard and usually take the weekend to just hang out by myself. I’ve grown to enjoy cleaning. I’ve learned to love being alone. I’m a very introverted soul and I’ve learned to embrace that rather than fighting it.

With all this being said, it’s Tuesday morning and I’m awake at 9. I have no sports to watch, very little house to clean, and very few friends that live in Phoenix. Now I have to decide what to do.

And suggestions on what to do when it’s quarantine season?

[dondremalik]

Random thought of the day.

This might only relate to my fellow nerd niche.

I have a blast watching Twitch and Micer streams. I prefer Ninja over most with SypherPK and Nick Mercs in the second spot. Twitch streams got me through a hard phase of my life. It was such a simple thing to turn on and it always seemed to lift my mood. I can’t figure out if it was the witty conversation or the killer game play, but regardless it has a special place in my life.

I was watching the crew of Ninja, Nick Mercs, and SypherPK. Typically this trio would be running a Fortnite lobby, but this day they were playing the new Warzone map created by Activision. It is filled with the Call of Duty play style that we grew up on, with some of that new class battle royal, winner take all server type. It’s a nice fast paced game with a lot to do if you learn the game well enough.

The game play itself is so intriguing and putting some of the most mechanically sound gamers in the business on the same team just seems unfair. It’s something I can literally spend an entire day doing. It’s one thing that is going to help get me through these next few crazy weeks ahead.

That’s a little look at the nerdy side of me coming at you live!

[dondremalik]

So is TGIF still a thing when we are in quarantine? If it is TGIF!

If it is not a thing, be safe and stay prepared.

That is the biggest key to getting through the peak of a recession. Being prepared is everything. I remember learning this when I was at a good age to where I wasn’t too young and could comprehend what was going on economically.

I remember there were 5 of us in the house when the recession hit back in 2001 after the Twin Towers were so devistatingly brutalized. We were on a shoe string budget already, but that just tightened the shoe even more.

I learned how to get the most value at the grocery store, cooking most meals and skipping the lunch line.

I implemented a lot of this habitual behavior into my adult lifestyle early on to save money, so I’m pretty used to budgeting, even if I still manage to find myself left with under a dollar in the bank for a week span.

Getting through is what makes a recession hard. Mentally preparing yourself to stay in and change your weekend lifestyle.

So, it’s Friday. I plan on working the day through (because retail work is still open for essential purposes), watch Ninja play Call of Duty on Mixer and eat frozen cherries on the couch.

Any suggestions to mix it up?