Good morning crickets. Welcome to day number two-hundred-twenty-three of Operation Achieve Anything. It's five in the morning, I can't get back to sleep so I figure why not just get to work on my blogging obligations in order to get everything done early, freeing up the rest of the day for some fun. Granted that fun will probably be getting ahead of my SNL reviews to rebuild my backlog so that I can get back to the point where I'm at least one review ahead of my daily deadline.

I'm contemplating taking on two more hours a day at my day job and being ahead of the game will relieve a large chunk of stress from not having to do a same day review. Hopefully, this plan will work because if I'm able to pull off the extra hours each I'd see a fifty percent increase to my paycheck. This will allow me to speed up the process of fixing up my place to make it nice and cozy before switching to saving mode.

Originally, the plan was to live with the hand-me-down furniture that I've accumulated until I could save up to move, but now I'm thinking that I'd prefer to actually settle in for a while. My new hope is that by making my living space more cozy, I'll feel a stronger sense of inner peace while I save up for a new abode that I would need to save up to refurnish anyway. I feel that the next time I move there will be no coming back so I may as well fit in as much family time as I can since I have no plans of staying in this city.

Speaking of family, the first assignment from yesterday had me note something that I did throughout the day to help others and not just myself. Even though I barely even saw anyone at all, I feel like I did this by putting in the effort to kill a feud that's starting to brew between my sister and one of our new neighbors. 

These neighbors moved in a couple weeks ago and have kids around my nephew's age, only I think these kids grew up in an area with more families because these kids have a bit of freedom to wander. They hit it off with my nephew right away and now all that they want to do is come over. The problem is, my sister has shut in tendencies like myself so she sees these visits as invasions and is getting upset with the kid's parents for letting them be so free.

Meanwhile, there's no need for all of this stress. These seem like pretty good kids and from what I've witnessed they all get along as the play. It's not even like how he plays with his cousin where every ten minutes the bounce back and forth between being besties and best enemies. I get how she doesn't want company but I wish she would see that this was not about her but about getting this only-child some kids his age to give him a break from all of the boring adult play where all we do is tell him to calm down.

It doesn't help that the other parents seem super passive as well considering it took them three days of sending their kids over alone to finally drop by for an introduction. This awkwardness met by more awkwardness is what created the rift and now all of the communication goes through the children causing more chaos from the misinterpretation of the information that is being communicated by kids who just want to play.

Like the other day, the kids came over and said, "Our dad said we're supposed to play and not just watch TV." This got my sister outraged from thinking that this guy was trying to make the rules, instead of looking at it like how when she sends my nephew out to swim with me and tells him that he need to get away from the video games and TV. It was probably a rule for the kids that was shared through the child's interpretation as if it were a rule for the house.

It's driving me nuts how all of the adults involved in this situation are making it such a hurdle for these little people to get along. Normally, as a nonconfrontational person, I'd just let this slide but this time I decided to put in a little effort to help my nephew break the family chain of introversion. My good deed for the day was to actually reach out to make an effort to nip this building annoyance in the bud by trying to get my sister to see that it's not about the parents, it's about the kids instead of fueling the fire and feeding into her paranoia. 

I actually didn't really do all that much and just said something in passing but at least it's a start to my effort to help settle this situation. I feel like a crazy person because of all the people involved, I'm the only one who never really wanted a family, yet here I am seeming like the only one thinking about creating an actual community. Keeping in mind, I have no plans to get out and meet the neighbors around me, I'm just hell bent on wanting peace in the world around me, even if I'm not actively involved.

For today's assignment, I'm supposed to do another positive act of kindness while keeping in mind that whether or not the outcome is the one I wanted or expected, as for the others involved are concerned, the effort is more important than the outcome. Again, as a shut-in this will be a tough one, especially considering it's Saturday where I usually stay locked away in my room.

We'll see how I manage to handle the task when I check in with tomorrow's update. Until then, it's now time to wrap this thing up as usual by saying, good day and good luck to you and all of your projects. 

Talk to you soon.

Sincerely,

The Wicker Breaker

P.S. Below are links to my novel, which I plan to promote as part of Operation Achieve Anything, as well as a link to where you can buy the book that is providing the structure to this project in case you would like to purchase it in order to play along.