Since I returned here in early December, things have been progressing smoothly and regularly.  Bicycling conditions have been steadily improving, and today they were the best that I have seen them since it snowed just before Thanksgiving.  In fact, during today’s ride to the grocery store and library more than three quarters of the trip was on relatively clear roads!

Next Saturday I am looking forward to returning home for a two week Christmas vacation, but I should be pretty busy until then with school finishing a number of classes and with work helping to prepare to close the the books for this year.  Please pray that all goes well, and I accomplish much for the glory of God.

Now, time to get back to studying…

After more than ten hours in transit, I arrived in Portland at about midnight last night (the flight had been scheduled to arrive at about eight o’clock).

Throughout the trip, it frequently appeared that bad weather conditions both in Washington and else where would easily keep me from getting home, but, by the grace of God, everything worked out well.

What a great God we serve!

I am planning (Lord willing) to travel home via Greyhound and airplane tomorrow (Tuesday), but this snow storm could cause a problem.  Please pray that I arrive home safely and quickly!

This week has progressed similarly to last week with a busy combination of study and work!

I have been preparing for bicycling in the cold weather, and I now ride to work wearing a jacket, gloves, and a full-face balaclava (similar to a ski mask).  So far, this combination has been keeping me warm… but the real test is left to come!

At work I have been enjoying more learning, and I was actually disappointed when Friday came.  Thankfully, tomorrow will be the start of another workweek!

Listening to sermons and other lectures online has been a great blessing, and I am very grateful for BlueBehemoth as well as SermonAudio.com!

I have continued enjoying the internship, and I’m currently working toward the goal of handling all accounts receivable as well as shipping.  My college work is also progressing well (albeit slower than I would like), and I have been greatly blessed by listening to a number of messages from BlueBehemoth.com (they generally have one free message per day).

This Friday night, I was pleased to be able to attend Taylor Stockton’s economics class through their online connection.  Getting to see some of you from home was great, and I particularly was glad to hear Daddy’s message!

In all, this has been a great week… and it is also one week closer to Thanksgiving and a short return home!

What I’ve Been Doing At Home

Aside from eight hours of work each day, most of my time has been devoted to study and survival.  Between ordering plane tickets for Thanksgiving, replacing flat tires on my bicycle, and burning cooking food for dinner, I have started my first Louisiana State University correspondence course (Managerial Accounting), read a variety of books and essays (including the Bible), and listened to a few presentations by Doug Phillips and Dr. Baucham.

What I’ve Been Doing At Work

The internship has been excellent so far, and I have been enjoying learning to use Quickbooks, manage inventory, process billing, and complete a wide variety of other assorted tasks.

I am greatly looking forward, by God’s grace, to continuing to grow both as a Christian (most important) and as a businessman!

Lord willing, I will be working for their accounting department (in Moses Lake, Washington) for the next eighteen months.

How It Happened

About a month ago, our family first learned of this opportunity during one of my routine coaching calls.  Having prayed and talked about it, we decided that it sounded like a good opportunity, and I sent in my application.

While waiting to hear back, I decided to find a creative way to show my qualifications for and interest in the position.  After a bit of brainstorming, I decided to create a small “campaign” site encouraging CollegePlus! to “elect” me.  After building the site at www.DesmondForInternship.com, I emailed the link to two of the main decision makers.

Over the next couple of weeks, I completed an online test, a phone interview, and even an in-person visit to their Moses Lake office.

Finally, on October 12, David Craig called from College Plus and announced their final decision… to hire me!

Reasons To Go

While considering the opportunity, my family and I discovered many important reasons to take this internship:

• Pay for college – They will pay for up to $10,000 dollars worth – most likely covering the rest of my education.
• Gain accounting experience – In our competitive business world, internship experience can be invaluable.
• Build a business network – I will be able to connect with many Christian business leaders.

Although being away from my family for the year and a half will be painful for all of us, the internet will enable us to still stay in close contact and airplanes will enable me to return for periodic visits.

Weekly Updates

While I am away, I plan to post weekly updates for all my friends and relatives.  You can subscribe to those updates by submitting your name and email in the sign up form to the right or through this form.

Titled Founders Speak, this 101-page document is a compilation of 190 quotes by our founding fathers in topics such as religion, government, slavery, and more.

The History

I originally compiled these quotes for a different project died early.  Keeping it on my computer, I used this document myself over the past year during discussions about the founding fathers.

A couple of days ago, I got the idea of releasing it on Practical Manliness so that other people could have the benefit of these great quotes.

Yesterday morning, I automated the entire buying process and created a “cover” for the electronic document.

I used…

• PayPal – For the payment system.
• Aweber – For the delivery system.
• MyEbookMaker – For the 3D cover.

Released!

With everything ready, I published an announcement article and started promoting.

So far, I have promoted Founders Speak using the following methods:

• Twitter – Mentioned on my Twitter account.
• Facebook – Mentioned both on my business and personal account.
• Facebook Ads – Ran a short advertising campaign.
• Reviews – Sent review copies to a few bloggers.

In the day that has passed since the launch, I have had only one sale – perhaps because the price ($3.99) was too high.

What I Learned

• Practiced setting up PayPal stores
• Created my first Aweber delivery system
• Worked with other bloggers to get the news out

During this time, we have competed in a total of four debate events:

• one “workshop” (January)
• two “round robins” (February and March)
• one “tournament” (April)

Summary of the Debate Season

During the workshop, we tested our cases and practiced our debate skills, but no awards were given or announced.

The round robin competition in February included four rounds and, for the first time, awards were given.  To our amazement, Maddie and I actually won the first place team award; Maddie won the seventh (I think) speaker award, and I won the third place speaker award.

In the March round robin, we did not win any team award, but we did still get speaker awards.

In the final tournament, we were the top team going into the out rounds, but we lost during the quarter finals.  When the results came in, we won fifth place team award; Maddie won third place speaker award, and I won first place speaker award.

What I Learned

During this debate season, I learned how to…

• communicate my ideas clearly to my audience.
• recognize logical fallacies.
• evaluate the “expertise” of experts.
• ask the right questions to find flaws in arguments.

A Big Thank You To…

My learning and success in debate is due to the influence and gracious time investments of my debate teacher (Mrs. Arp), my parents, my debate partner and sister (Maddie Desmond), the CCNW director (Mr. Engel), and the encouragement and help of my fellow debaters.

Most of all, I owe my success to the blessing of Jesus Christ.  May all the glory go to God!

I have been planning and preparing for this launch for nearly five months, so I am very excited to finally have the site launched.

To celebrate the launch, I have…

• published 13 posts.
• run a giveaway of a Leatherman wave.
• started a Facebook page.
• built my Twitter profile.

Launching this site has been a new learning experience for me.  On my past blogs, I have simply started posting, and the following and traffic have slowly built.  This time, however, I used a splash page to build a subscriber base of more than 100 people… before launch day.

What I Learned…

• Splash pages are a big help.
• Proofreading is essential (If I don’t fix my own mistakes, my readers will).
• Expectations are rarely met (My traffic was good, but not nearly what I expected).

In the future, I have more exciting plans for my website… starting with a manifesto release next month.