My wife went grocery shopping to stock up on staples that we didn’t get on our last giant trip. The total was ridiculous, as everyone knows.
But the thing is, everything we needed was actually there. It’s been years since we could get our full list.
One more small step back to some kind of normal.
Single income with kids for the win. I almost have to try to not get a refund these days.
I know some folks out there will bitch and moan that they shouldn’t have to pay a higher effective rate than me, but to that I say: fuck off. I’m supporting four actual humans here and spent 20% of my income on health premiums alone.
Any and all anger about taxes should be redirected to your local intercontinental conglomerate. Now those freaks – you can bitch about them as much as you want. I’ll bring the torches, you bring the pitchforks.
It’s the most interesting and rewarding part of my job. I don’t get to do these types of projects often, usually only once every couple of years. But they’re the only time I get paid specifically to be a writer. It’s when I feel most like all is right with the world.
“Video” doesn’t do it justice. It’s a 2+ hour documentary. And in typical Dan Olson fashion, it’s thoughtful, thorough, and dryly hilarious even as you feel your soul being crushed.
The topic this time is cryptocurrency, and more specifically the endemic power imbalance in its secondary applications like NFTs. To be honest, his project works better if you already have some familiarity with the software going in, as he glosses over the technical details in favor of spending time on what really matters: why it all sucks. And boy, is he good at pointing out the nitty-gritty. Definitely worth a watch.
We still need better support on that front in this country. Single-payer is the goal, but at a bare minimum, how about Medicaid for everyone under 18. Or fucking anything that’s not a constant garbage fire of poverty and debt.
But sad as what we have is, it’s still better than it was. I remember the days I couldn’t find coverage for anything less than a $400 / month premium that I had to pay out of pocket (after lying outright about my weight, just to even be considered) – and that was in 2010 dollars.
Obama’s term wasn’t the revolution we deserved, but good fucking god, the ACA has helped immeasurably. I literally wouldn’t have a family right now without it.
One of them, anyway. Others are forthcoming.
Always nice to get a big check in the mail.
The bane of my existence for 20 years was all these bullshit fucking articles chastising me for not setting aside more money for retirement, yelling at me for buying fucking coffee when actually the problem all this time was that I simply did not have money.
And now I can look at a variety of investments, short-term, long-term, high-risk, low-risk, and relax. I’ve gotten to a point where I can feed both my family and future me.
Shame on this country for it taking so long. And if any of you motherfuckers wants to give any Zoomers shit about the same, I’m gonna punch you in your goddamn dick.
This week is going to be absurdly busy. I’m expecting to have virtually no free time each evening. As in, I won’t be home from work until right before bedtime for the kids, so I’m going straight to nighttime rituals.
So we’re doing pizza takeout for dinner tonight. We do this often, but the difference tonight is that we have a good excuse. It’s guilt free takeout. Fuck you, credit card – daddy’s gotta rest.
I don’t just mean that in the sense of “I can save myself the hassle and cost of upgrading.” I mean that today’s worth it because my cell phone is a strange little island of contentment in an ocean of anxiety.
My career? I’m terrified I’ll lose it, so I work harder than I need to. My writing? I fear everyone who has given me feedback is lying and it’s secretly all awful, so I doubt everything and seek improvement always. My marriage? I worry that I actually am a stereotypical loser husband, so I take on more domestic duties and beat myself up if I feel I haven’t been attentive enough.
All things around me are competing for time and energy. Life is an impossible quest for perfection, an endless cycle of upward struggle powered by the glimmer of hope that maybe I’ll finally make it.
But not my damn phone, man. That shit’s covered.
I’ll be honest, I’ve never put the effort into marketing my books that I really need to in order to make self-publishing lucrative. The main reason I’ve gone the self-publishing route is because the anguish of repeatedly playing that stupid “Dear sir or madam” bullshit game with queries kept eating away at my desire to write, and I really just wanted to move on with my life every time I wrote a novel. Self-publishing has always been a good way to wrap a bow on whatever I’ve done and start something new.
The problem is that once you put in the effort of paying for a cover designer and getting a book to a storefront, it’s hard not to then start looking for validation in the form of sales. Which, if you’re not actively marketing – and again, I’m not – you won’t see.
So I used to go into this stupid depression cycle where I’d feel antsy that I wasn’t being more productive on whatever I’m currently writing, then I’d check my Kindle sales for everything I’d already published, see that they were still zero for the day, feel mopey that they weren’t already 10 billion, and then, devastated, I’d refuse to put in any work on either marketing or writing, leaving me with nothing to do except check my book sales again. And it’s even stupider because I truly do write for the love of writing, not to be rich, so why the fuck do I even care about sales?
Anyway, I’m not checking that shit anymore. I think I’ve reached a point where I have a system that works for me just to keep the pipeline moving. I might try again at getting an actual agent for my next book, but that’s no reason I can’t keep doing my self-publishing stuff on my own terms. Why the fuck not.
Oh, also, you can buy my books here. I probably should have linked that sooner. I’m not good at marketing.
Today Is Worth It Because... 