Hi. I'm Rusty. Welcome to my little corner of the internet!

Like me, this website is a work in process and subject to change.

About Me:

Dad. Chaotic Good.

My Hobbies & Interests:

1980s

1990s

Books

Candles

Cars!

Christmas 🎄

Collectibles

Cryptocurrency

Domain Names

Farms

Fonts

Gardening

Halloween 🎃

History

Joie De Vivre

Learning Accents

Learning New Skills

Learning New Things

Lithuania

Making Things

Mental Health

Model Railroads

Music

Nature

NFTs

Nonprofits

Paranormal Stuff

Photography

Plants

Preparedness

Running

Sauna

Science

Shirts

Skateboarding

Small Profitable Niche Businesses

Sports

Sprezzatura

Stranger Things

Systems

Weather

Websites

WW2 Naval Warfare

Current / Future Projects:

Build a Sauna

Make an Awesome Pair of Shorts

Nonprofits to Start:

Mens' Mental Health

New Forests

Preserving the Early Internet

Books to Write:

Agency. You Can Just Do Stuff

Bon Vivants

Cars My Dad Owned

How To Be Less Depressed And/Or More Awesome

Japanese Cars Peaked in the 1990s

The Book of Small and Profitable Niche Businesses

The Top 100 Car Wheels

The Top 25 Automotive Floor Mats

The Book of Alley-Oops

My Habitica Avatar: most recent on the left

Level 50 Rogue

Fun Websites I've Made:

Rad Pursuits Blog

Eddie Munson Fan Club

Hawkins High School

Miles Run:

2024 - 129.41 miles

Deep Work Tracker:

2025 Goal: 730 Hours of Deep Work

YTD Total: 2

Stuff I Might Add to This Site:

My Favorite Books

My Domain Names

Completed Projects & Experiments

Discontinued Projects & Experiments

Some of My NFTs

Future Projects I Want to Do

To Contact Me:

Send electronic mail.

Small Bets Writeup

About me: 39. Dad. Husband. Two kids. One kid in daycare and one pre-kindergarten. I take the lead on childcare for when kids are sick, daycare is closed, etc. This happens a lot.CPA. I left a great government job in 2020 and bought a small practice from a retiring CPA. My niche is nonprofits and homeowners associations. It's still alive but it's been a disaster. Too fragile.

Goals:
Diversify income sources. Become less fragile. Improve life. Less stress -> better dad.Reach a point where I don't need the CPA practice and can wind it back a bit.

My biggest constraints are time and energy.

I'm an idea machine and a very curious person; interested in almost everything. This is a good thing and a bad thing.Why I signed up: I'm looking for someone to talk shop with. I mainly talked about business and entrepreneurial stuff with my dad. He passed away in 2023. My wife doesn't want to discuss it. All my close friends and family work for the government and either don't understand or aren't interested.I saw the lifetime deal and said yes.I've tried lots of ideas and experiments over the years. Various levels of effort and a few small wins.Hypotheses, Ideas, and Other Random Thoughts:Start a nonprofit focused on men's mental health. Raise enough funds that I can pay myself a salary for running it. This is one of the ideas I can't stop thinking about.Start a nonprofit focused on promoting American technological development and restoring manufacturing. Raise enough funds to pay myself a salary for running it.Start a nonprofit focused on preserving/recreating the Internet as it was before social media and appification of everything. Raise enough funds to pay myself a stipend. This is more of a fun idea, but I really like it.Apparel brand. Shirts, shorts, etc. Very high quality would be the goal. Very stochastic. This is another idea I keep coming back to.Handmade high quality soaps and candles. Very stochastic.Physical publishing. A magazine or catalog or books.Curation
Newsletters/Podcasts. (time/schedule is the big challenge with these)Very niche e-commerce.Help others. Listening. Coaching.Stuff that inspires me:
Flamingo Estate
Dad gang / Brad Szef
Represent clothing / George Heaton
Minted NY/ Marcus Millione
Period Correct
Simon Sarris
Poolsuite / Palm Report / Marty
Small & Micro brands like Rainier Watch and Get RowdeeI love to listen and talk to people and try to help them.I'm a big fan of the $20dollarconsulting.com idea by Robert Sterling but I don't have an audience for anything like thatWhat I hope to get out of this:
Someone to bounce ideas around with. Someone who can say yes that's a good idea or no that's a bad idea. Someone who can help steer me towards what I should focus on or prioritize.Someone who will challenge me to do the things I want to do.Write a book.
Build a brand.
Help people.
And I really need to build a sauna for my wife!I do have a slight fear of failure now but I'm slowly maturing to where I want to focus on my effort rather than the results. This lessens the fear of failure.I need to make space to build. Mentally, physically, in every way. Backlog on everything, work, house & home, dad's estate.

Small Bets Writeup - Call 2

Small Bet #1
Men's Mental Health Nonprofit
Hypothesis: I can create a nonprofit and raise $100k and use $95k to build awareness and help men in need.
Next step: make a list of possible grants/benefactors.Small Bet #2
Brand
Hypothesis: I can sell 5 shirts, 5 shorts, 5 candles, and 5 bars of soap and through this I can determine if this is something I want to do and if it's viable.
Next step: Start t-shirt designs, make space in the basement for screen printing and sewing, learn how to sew. Small Bet #3
American Technology and Manufacturing
Hypothesis: I can build a web resource for those looking to start manufacturing in America.
Next step: Hash out hypothesis a little moreSmall Bet #4
Write a Book About Agency
Hypothesis: I can write a book full of interviews and stories of agency.
Next step: Landing PageOther Projects:
Make Sauna
Next step: Make space in basement

Small Bets Writeup - Call 1

About me: 39. Dad. Husband. Two kids. One kid in daycare and one pre-kindergarten. I take the lead on childcare for when kids are sick, daycare is closed, etc. This happens a lot.CPA. I left a great government job in 2020 and bought a small practice from a retiring CPA. My niche is nonprofits and homeowners associations. It's still alive but it's been a disaster. Too fragile.

Goals:
Diversify income sources. Become less fragile. Improve life. Less stress -> better dad.Reach a point where I don't need the CPA practice and can wind it back a bit.

My biggest constraints are time and energy.

I'm an idea machine and a very curious person; interested in almost everything. This is a good thing and a bad thing.Why I signed up: I'm looking for someone to talk shop with. I mainly talked about business and entrepreneurial stuff with my dad. He passed away in 2023. My wife doesn't want to discuss it. All my close friends and family work for the government and either don't understand or aren't interested.I saw the lifetime deal and said yes.I've tried lots of ideas and experiments over the years. Various levels of effort and a few small wins.Hypotheses, Ideas, and Other Random Thoughts:Start a nonprofit focused on men's mental health. Raise enough funds that I can pay myself a salary for running it. This is one of the ideas I can't stop thinking about.Start a nonprofit focused on promoting American technological development and restoring manufacturing. Raise enough funds to pay myself a salary for running it.Start a nonprofit focused on preserving/recreating the Internet as it was before social media and appification of everything. Raise enough funds to pay myself a stipend. This is more of a fun idea, but I really like it.Apparel brand. Shirts, shorts, etc. Very high quality would be the goal. Very stochastic. This is another idea I keep coming back to.Handmade high quality soaps and candles. Very stochastic.Physical publishing. A magazine or catalog or books.Curation
Newsletters/Podcasts. (time/schedule is the big challenge with these)Very niche e-commerce.Help others. Listening. Coaching.Stuff that inspires me:
Flamingo Estate
Dad gang / Brad Szef
Represent clothing / George Heaton
Minted NY/ Marcus Millione
Period Correct
Simon Sarris
Poolsuite / Palm Report / Marty
Small & Micro brands like Rainier Watch and Get RowdeeI love to listen and talk to people and try to help them.I'm a big fan of the $20dollarconsulting.com idea by Robert Sterling but I don't have an audience for anything like thatWhat I hope to get out of this:
Someone to bounce ideas around with. Someone who can say yes that's a good idea or no that's a bad idea. Someone who can help steer me towards what I should focus on or prioritize.Someone who will challenge me to do the things I want to do.Write a book.
Build a brand.
Help people.
And I really need to build a sauna for my wife!I do have a slight fear of failure now but I'm slowly maturing to where I want to focus on my effort rather than the results. This lessens the fear of failure.I need to make space to build. Mentally, physically, in every way. Backlog on everything, work, house & home, dad's estate.