.

Ko-Fi prompt from Isabelo:

Hi! I'm new to the workforce and now that I have some money I'm worried it's losing its value to inflation just sitting in my bank. I wanted to ask if you have ideas on how to counteract inflation, maybe through investing?

I've been putting this off for a long time because...

I am not a finance person. I am not an investments person. I actually kinda turned and ran from that whole sector of the business world, at first because I didn't understand it, and then once I did understand it, because I disagreed with much of it on a fundamental level.

But... I can describe some factors and options, and hope to get you started.

I AM NOT LEGALLY QUALIFIED TO GIVE FINANCIAL ADVICE. THIS IS NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE.

What is inflation, and what impacts it?

Inflation is the rate at which money loses value over time. It's the reason something that cost 50 cents in the 1840s costs $50 now.

A lot of things do impact inflation, like housing costs and wage increases and supply chains, but the big one that is relevant here is federal interest rates. The short version: if you borrow money from the government, you have to pay it back. The higher the interest rates on those loans, the lower inflation is. This is for... a lot of reasons that are complicated. The reason I bring it up is less so:

The government offers investments:

So yeah, the feds can impact inflation, but they also offer investment opportunities. There are three common types available to the average person: Bonds, Bills, and Notes. I'll link to an article on Investopedia again, but the summary is as follows: You buy a bill, bond, or note from the government. You have loaned them money, as if you are the bank. Then, they give it back, with interest.

Treasury Bills: shortest timeframe (four weeks to a year), and lowest return on investment. You buy it at a discount (let's say $475), and then the government returns the "full value" that the bond is, nominally (let's say $500). You don't earn twice-yearly interest, but you did earn $25 on the basis of Loaning The Government Some Cash.

Treasury Notes: 2-10 year timeframe. Very popular, very stable. Banks watch it to see how they should plan the interest rates for mortgages and other large loans. Also pretty high liquidity, which means you can sell it to someone else if you suddenly need the cash before your ten-year waiting period is up. You get interest payments twice a year.

Treasury Bonds: 20-30 years. This is like... the inverse of a house mortgage. It takes forever, but it does have the highest yield. You get interest payments twice a year.

Why invest money into the US Treasury department, whether through the above or a different government paper? (Savings bonds aren't on sold the set schedule that treasury bonds are, but they only come in 30-year terms.)

It is very, very low risk. It is pretty much the lowest risk investment a person can make, at least in the US. (I'm afraid I don't know if you're American, but if you're not, your country probably has something similar.)

Interest rates do change, often in reaction or in relation to inflation. If your primary concern is inflation, not getting a high return on investment, I would look into government papers as a way to ensure your money is not losing value on you.

This is the website that tells you the government's own data for current yield and sales, etc. You can find a schedule for upcoming auctions, as well.

High-yield bank accounts:

Savings accounts can come with a pretty unremarkable but steady return on investment; you just need to make sure you find one that suits you. Some of the higher-yield accounts require a minimum balance or a yearly fee... but if you've got a good enough chunk of cash to start with, that might be worth it for you.

They are almost as reliable as government bonds, and are insured by the government up to $250,000. Right now, they come with a lower ROI than most bonds/bills/notes (federal interest rates are pretty high at the moment, to combat inflation). Unlike government papers, though, you can deposit and withdraw money from a savings account pretty much any time.

Certificates of Deposit:

Okay, imagine you are loaning money to your bank, with the fixed term of "I will get this money back with interest, but only in ten years when the contract is up" like the Treasury Notes.

That's what this is.

Also, Investopedia updates near-daily with the highest rates of the moment, which is pretty cool.

Property:

Honestly, if you're coming to me for advice, you almost definitely cannot afford to treat real estate as an investment thing. You would be going to an actual financial professional. As such... IDK, people definitely do it, and it's a standby for a reason, but it's not... you don't want to be a victim of the housing bubble, you know? And me giving advice would probably make you one. So. Talk to a professional if this is the route you want to take.

Retirement accounts:

Pension accounts are a kind of savings account. You've heard of a 401(k)? It's that. Basically, you put your money in a savings account with a company that specializes in pensions, and they invest it in a variety of different fields and markets (you can generally choose some of this) in order to ensure that the money grows enough that you can hopefully retire on it in fifty years. The ROI is usually higher than inflation.

These kinds of accounts have a higher potential for returns than bonds or treasury notes, buuuuut they're less reliable and more sensitive to market fluctuations.

However, your employer may pay into it, matching your contribution. If they agree to match up to 4%, and you pay 4% of your paycheck into an pension fund, then they will pay that same amount and you are functionally getting 8% of your paycheck put into retirement while only paying for half of it yourself.

Mutual Funds:

I've definitely linked this article before, but the short version is:

An investment company buys 100 shares of stock: 10 shares each in 10 different "general" companies. You, who cannot afford a share of each of these companies, buy 1 singular share of that investment company. That share is then treated as one-tenth of a share of each of those 10 "general" companies. You are one of 100 people who has each bought "one stock" that is actually one tenth of ten different stocks.

Most retirement funds are actually a form of mutual fund that includes employer contributions.

Pros: It's more stable than investing directly in the stock market, because you can diversify without having to pay the full price of a share in each company you invest in.

Cons: The investment company does get a cut, and they are... often not great influences on the economy at large. Mutual funds are technically supposed to be more regulated than hedge funds (which are, you know, often venture capital/private equity), but a lot of mutual funds like insurance companies and pension funds will invest a portion of their own money into hedge funds, which is... technically their job. But, you know, capitalism.

Directly investing in the stock market:

Follow people who actually know what they're doing and are not Evil Finance Bros who only care about the bottom line. I haven't watched more than a few videos yet, but The Financial Diet has had good energy on this topic from what I've seen so far, and I enjoy the very general trends I hear about on Morning Brew.

That said, we are not talking about speculative capital gains. We are talking about making sure inflation doesn't screw with you.

DIVIDENDS are profit that the company shares to investors every quarter. Did the company make $2 billion after paying its mortgages, employees, energy bill, etc? Great, that $2 billion will be shared out among the hundreds of thousands of stocks. You'll probably only get a few cents back per stock (e.g. Walmart has been trading at $50-$60 for the past six months, and their dividends have been 57 cents and then 20.75 cents), but it adds up... sort of. The Walmart example is listed as having dividends that are lower than inflation, so you're actually losing money. It's part of why people rely on capital gains so much, rather than dividends, when it comes to building wealth.

Blue Chip Stocks: These are old, stable companies that you can expect to return on your investment at a steady rate. You probably aren't going to see your share jump from $5 to $50 in a year, but you also probably won't see it do the reverse. You will most likely get reliable, if not amazing, dividends.

Preferred Stocks: These are stock shares that have more reliable dividends, but no voting rights. Since you are, presumably, not a billionaire that can theoretically gain a controlling share, I can't imagine the voting rights in a given company are all that important anyway.

Anyway, hope this much-delayed Intro To Investing was, if not worth the wait, at least, a bit longer than you expected.

Hey! You got interest on the word count! It's topical! Ish.

real sorry about the gamut I’m asking lately, but I am burstin. Can you do a post-Mario SuperMarioLogan parody please?

I think I can, yes. And no worries on your asks. Ask asmuch as you'd like!

---------------------------------------------------

Yang: Ruby! Time for class!

Ruby: Okay, I'm just gonna finish eating my breakfast.

Yang: Ruby, you're not going to eat chocolate chips for breakfast.

Ruby: Well, I'm 18, and I'm going to do it anyways!

Yang: Ruby: You're 18 and attending Signal. Now eat your cat food!

Blake: Yang, don't make her eat cat food.

Ruby: It's fine, Blake! I like shrimp and biscuits!

Yang: See? She likes it.

..................................................................................

Ozpin: Good morning, Miss Xiao Long. I just came by to let you know that I sold your mortgage to the White Fang.

Adam: 'Sup.

Yang: YOU SOLD MY MORTGAGE?!

Ozpin: Indeed I did!

Adam: Do you know why I wear this mask? It's because I missed my mortgage payment, so I burned out my eyes myself to teach myself a lesson!

Ozpin: Excellent. I'll just leave you to talk.

Adam: So where's my money?

Yang: I... don't... have it?

Adam: Well, you better get it, or else I'm going to mucho gracias your tits!

Yang: ...

Adam: This is a nice house. Have a nice day.

Yang: W-What does that mean?!

Ruby: It means he's going to a lot thank you your tits.

..................................................................................

Goodwitch: You have cancer.

Yang: Is it bad?!

Goodwitch: No, it's actually the good kind of lung cancer.

Yang: R-Really?

Goodwitch: No, it's bad. It's cancer. It's always bad.

Yang: What can I do?

Goodwitch: Well, there is treatment, but it's hundreds of thousands of lien, and I know you can't afford that.

Yang: W-Well, what can you do for me?!

Goodwitch: Well, I can give these tissues so you can cry me a river. And since it's you, I'll also give you this hammer so you can build a bridge and get over it.

Blake: (Sobbing) Yang, what are going to do?!

Yang: Well, I'm the one with the cancer and the mortgage, so I think I'm the one who should be crying.

Blake: Oh, right.

Ruby: Don't worry, Yang! You can't be denied medical care, so just let your medical bills go to collections while you worry about your mortgage payments.

..................................................................................

Ruby: Okay, Yang, I got the snitch knocked out and tied up! What should we do?

Yang: What we always do to snitches.

Ruby: Okay! (Drags them away)

Blake: Yang! You're not cooking Dust are you?

Yang: No, no! It's, uh, rock salt! Old Xiao Long recipe and all that!

Blake: Okay, good.

Ruby: (Comes back) Yang, I got the fucker's head!

Blake: (Screams)

Yang: TIE THE BITCH UP!

..................................................................................

Pyrrha: I can't believe Dust is illegal.

Nora: I know, right?! So lame!

Ren: I would pay anything for just one chunk.

Jaune: I've never used Dust so I don't really care one way or the other.

Ruby: Hey, guys, want some Dust?

Jaune: OH FUCK YEAH! GIMME THAT SHIT!

Ruby: You guys are my friends, so I'll give you half the bag for forty lien.

Nora: Sold!

Goodwitch: Hello, class, I'm back from taking a- HOLY SHIT!

Goodwitch: Why do you all have Dust?!

Pyrrha: Jaune bought it for all of us!

Goodwitch: And where did you get it, Jaune?

Jaune: I AIN'T SQUEALIN ON MY HOMIES!

Goodwitch: Fine! Then I'll have to escort you to detention!

Jaune: FUCK YOU, PIG! I'LL USE MY ONE PHONE CALL TO CALL YOUR MOM!

..................................................................................

Blake: (Tied up, Locked away) HELP! HELP!

Goodwitch: (Opens the door) Good gravy!

Yang: TH-THIS ISN'T WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE!

Goodwitch: Look, whatever weird and kinky shit you do is your business, not mine. So I don't want to see it.

Blake: WHAT?! NO, NO, NO! SHE TIED ME UP AND BANGED ME IN THE HEAD!

Goodwitch: I-I don't need to know where she banged. (Shuts door)

..................................................................................

Goodwitch: God damn, did you see that shit?! He fell off the cliff and drowned! Thst was way better than arresting him!

Yang: But... But he had story potential.

Goodwitch: Yeah? So do you. Fuck him.

Yang: Huh. Guess I never thought of it that way.

Goodwitch: Oh, and by the way, I took another look at your X-ray, and it turns out you don't have cancer. That was just my thumb pressed against the screen. So yeah, no cancer. (Leaves)

Ruby: Yang! I sold all the Dust! We now have 4.2 million lien!

Yang: That's great, but we don't have to sell Dust anymore. Our mortgage payment issue is gone.

Ruby: Oh... Well, wanna hit the arcade?

Yang: Yeah, I do!

Blake: ...Yang? ...Ruby? ...Anyone? GET ME THE FUCK OUT OF THIS CLOSET!

On The Couch with Matt Bellamy

NME January 2000

Matt Bellamy of Muse foolishly agreed to be subjected to the psychological rigour of On The Couch before Muse won the NME Premier Award for Best New Band

What song describes you best? "'Blue Valentine' by Tom Waits."

What is heaven? "A Christian ideal of the mind without the body."

What is hell? "I have recurring nightmares about being in a Nazi concentration camp with all my family and constantly being sent to solitary confinement."

What's your earliest memory? "I had a bucket and spade when I was young and I remember spinning around loads of times with it and getting dizzy. I let go of it and it smashed a big mirror and my mum said I'd cursed the family for seven years!"

What is your greatest fear? "Being impregnated by an alien and giving birth. It'd be awful to give birth to a freak so you'd have to hide it away from everyone but still bring it up as your own."

Who is your all-time hero? "The character Al Pacino plays in 'The Godfather'. He takes revenge well."

What's the worst trouble you've been in? "I once got in with a dodgy group of friends and we'd steal shit cars and sell them. We got this Escort from a scrapyard run by the hardest guy in town and he found out we'd sold it to someone for a few hundred quid. He came round to my house and said he'd burn my house down when my family were in it if I didn't give him £500. So I had to give this bloke the tour bus we had at the time."

Who was the first love of your life? "My babysitter. She saved my life when I was choking once and after that I loved her."

What's your greatest talent? "I can understand why people are bad."

Upon whom would you most like to exact revenge? Why? How? "Probably the guy who owned that scrapyard. I'd put him in one of those things that crushes cars!"

What's your most treasured possession? "My suitcase and my passport."

What have you most regretted doing while drunk? "Getting on a ferry in really bad weather the other day."

What can you cook? "Risotto. Loads of rice and chunks of things."

What's the best piece of advice you've received? "I used to do a lot of ouija boards and I asked if there was life after death. Some spirit replied 'He who seeketh knowledge seeketh sorrow'!"

Can you read music? "Vaguely."

If you were invisible for a day, what would you do? "I'd break into Buckingham Palace and torture the lot of them."

What are your three final wishes? "That gravity in the world was lighter so spiders would die and we'd only need one leg to bounce on. That I could be happy in solitary confinement and that artists would no longer require the media as a tool to reach people."

Jason Stackhouse x Fem!Reader

Requested by Anon

Halloween event

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Shutting the door you sighed and leaned against it. The Halloween rush had been insane and you were more than happy to have a few days off. You’d closed your eyes and leaned your head back against the door. 

But when you opened your eyes you saw that the living room was quite literally covered with sweet wrappers over every inch. You couldn’t make out a spot that didn’t have a wrapper on it. You could hear Jason round the corner so heading to the kitchen dining area you went to ask him what happened to all the Halloween candy as there was no way you could get more on such short notice.

“What the hell!” You said slowly. Jason jumped and turned around to look at you. 

“I can explain.” He said quickly.

“You ate all the Halloween candy! You know all the stores are sold out. I literally complained to you yesterday about that lady who thought we had a secret stash of candy in the stock room and we had to call the cops when she wouldn't leave.” You complained. You sounded more whiny and frustrated than cross but Jason still looked worried. 

“There’s no more anywhere else… oh hi (Y/N).” Hoyt said rather sheepishly.

“What’ve you been doing?” you asked them. You crossed your arms and glared at them until Jason relented and went to the fridge. He pulled out a giant ball made up of a wide variety of Halloween candy.

“Seriously?” You said unimpressed with what you saw. Hoyt looked appropriately guilty but Jason frowned.

"I get that you’re mad I melted all the candy for Halloween. But look at the giant candy blob I made!" Jason said rather eagerly and showed you the giant candy again, holding it aloft like the money in the lion king held by the cub at the beginning of the movie.

“What was your involvement in this?” You asked Hoyt.

“I just came over to check in on him and found him making this.” Hoyt said and gestured to the tray, pots and your good pan which were all not covered in this sugary residue or drying chocolate.

“Then you can go.” You said and gestured over your shoulder to the door with your thumb over your shoulder. Hoyt did not wait for a second opportunity to leave and abandoned Jason to your mercy. “Do you know how hard it was to find all this candy after you ate the first load?” You complained and frowned firmly at Jason.

“I’m sorry! I’ll get more.” He insisted.

“How? All the stores in town are sold out. There will be kids here for candy any minute.” You snapped.

“Any minute?'' Jason said slowly as if he was sure you were joking.

“Yes. It’s Halloween.” You answered with more irritation. Jason’s eyes went wide and he nodded slowly.

“It’s Halloween.” He repeated. 

“You’re going to have to rush to the weird store in the next town over and hope they have candy. Apparently, that’s the only place that has any. You better eat that giant candy blob as well. I spent thirty dollars on all that candy.” You said as you went to your room to change into the costume you’d picked out to wear while giving out the candy. It wasn’t anything fancy and you’d still be comfortable while watching a few Halloween movies at home. Jason left and was gone for a long while. He’d chipped off a big chunk of the candy ball to take with him. He managed to make it back just as the first trick-or-treater was hurrying up the path. Jason gave them extra candy as payment for them not telling the other houses that he wasn’t prepared enough. As the candy bowl grew lower the ball of candy Jason was eating got smaller and smaller. He’d almost finished it when he got up and groaned, saying he needed to go lay down. While he went you answered the door and found Sookie holding her candy bucket.

“I heard someone ate all yours and I haven’t had many visitors this year. Figured you might need to stock up. There’s a couple of big groups on the way.” She said as you beckoned her in. She sat with you on the sofa and after a while, the trick-or-treaters arrived. “Where’s Jason?” Sookie asked.

“Laying down. He’s eaten about five kilograms of candy in one day. He probably has a stomach ache.” You said as you opened the door and held out the bucket. There was a cheer as they saw Sookie’s candies. She liked to make handmade ones that her grandma taught her to make. You saw off the group and went to find where Sookie had gone. Jason was laying on the bathroom floor groaning. One hand clutched his stomach while he gnawed on the little piece that was left of the candy blob.

“Jason, if you feel so bad stop eating it! You’re gonna end up in the hospital and you don’t want to do that on Halloween. You’ll be stuck with all the weirdos.” Sookie insisted as he poked Jason’s leg with her foot.

“I’ll get you some water.” You muttered and fetched Jason a glass. He spent the rest of the night laying there until Hoyt came by with dinner as a way to be sure he had made amends for participating in Jason’s holiday antics. 

“I’ll pull him out to the hall and get him a bucket. That way you and Sookie can use the bathroom.” Hoyt said as he pulled Jason out of the bathroom too many objections from Jason who accused Hoyt of being a traitor. Strangely enough once Hoyt dished out the dinner, Jason miraculously recovered, managing to eat two helpings and even complained loudly about the Halloween special that Sookie had put on. Though he was still far too unwell to get up and open the door to trick-or-treaters.

Jason tags:

@stellasblog @deanwinchestersgirl87 @thekayarlene @linkpk88 @babypink224221 @lisainhell @spiderwebs-blog @gryffindorqueensworld @rockyrascal @twerp8999 @alexxavicry @daughterofthenight117 @supernatural-wolfie @alwaysadreamingoptimist

@love1deandra @archaeologydigit @im-eating-rn @bucketbunny

@littlefreakingfangirl @thebookisbtr @gillybear17 @kaitieskidmore1 @prettyplant0

Star Crossing: Animal Valley

Today's Earth object of fascination was: a game. 

Lotor had brought it back—though Kolivan wasn't entirely sure when or where he got it from—and they did have a free day...

So here they were, setting up a device with a small army of adaptors. Surely, that could be simplified, but Lotor insisted it was more authentic this way. Neither were fluent in any of Earth's languages, but they visited their daughter and her family often enough they could open and start a new game without any trouble. The "new game" option always being on top didn't hurt either.

A short animation played before a character creation screen appeared. The default avatar was a stout little thing, with round hands and a large head. Beside is a menu, with several tabs. There were many colors, but few selections of ears. It was a human game, after all, and their ears are rather... standard in shape.

The two ended up making a character that looked like a blend of both of them.

Then they accidentally hit "reset."

—

"So that symbol represents confirmation, the other denial. What does that squiggling one do?"

"Let's see." He clicked it, and a block of text appeared. Between the two of them, they knew about half the words.

He closed it.

—

The screen went dark, and then the character they had finished remaking appears, lying on the ground in a grassy landscape. A creature approaches from the tall grass.

"That one has ears like yours."

"It's not human though."

"I am aware."

Many paragraphs of dialogue passed between the characters. Hopefully, it wasn't anything too important.

—

"Oh, we get a house."

—

"They keep showing that little picture of a crystal."

"We have a counter in the corner."

"Perhaps it's a form of currency?"

—

"I wonder why that text is red?"

—

"How do we owe money? We just arrived."

—

Lotor was muttering to himself, "I'm certain this was labeled as something for leisure. Why would one create a game meant for fun yet start the player off with debt? Is it a sort of teaching device? To warn young ones to be cautious of predatory loan agencies?"

—

They planted a variety of things, mostly around the house. The layout was messy, but it could be fixed later.

—

"A couch? Is that not a leaf?"

—

At some point, a selection of tools had been added to their inventory.

They tried one, and with a click, a chunk of the hill beside them had been removed.

—

There is a pond behind the house now.

—

Another creature appeared, this one very orange compared to the first. They clicked through the dialogue and then the screen went black.

"What did we do?"

But when the screen lit up again, the creature was still there, emerging from a tent, with a small building being constructed behind them.

"I think we got a neighbor."

—

The trees—once just saplings—beside their house had blossomed, and now bore fruit. However, there was something odd amongst the branches.

"What is- that rodent is eating our lemons! Why are you getting out the net?"

"I'm going to catch it."

"It is destroying our fruits!"

"I'm not going to kill it for that!"

—

They decorated a portion of the town before taking a break to explore. At the base of a mountain, they found a cave. They entered, but the only things the screen would display was the glowing outline of the exit and their silhouettes in front of it. They would need some kind of lamp.

—

More colorful creatures joined the town. Some looked almost familiar, but that was probably a coincidence.

—

They found an almost laughably simple way to pay off their debt: a vegetable called "radish" can be sold to a character that randomly appears in the valley for many crystals. Their garden has two rows of them, along with their inventory.

—

There were boards in the center of town, with a character's face and an item. Presumably, the player was meant to retrieve those items. Each had notes, but not many either of them could read in full. Why does that character need so many "apple seeds" though? 85 seems like a lot...

—

The lantern had been crafted; it was time to head into the cave. They descended. Every few levels, the environment changed. First was an abandoned mine, then a natural cave system. Soon, bits of crystal appeared in the walls, that got larger and larger as they went deeper. The crystals started glowing, or at least they seemed to, until they saw the glowing fungi that began covering the passage.

They found the entrance to the next level in the same place it always was, but this time a menu pops up with a bit of text and two symbols: confirm or deny.

They click "confirm."

Yet again, the screen goes dark.

Slowly, a sickly green light swells, revealing a towering fungus, filled with holes where insects fly in and out. It shook, and from it emerged a massive insectoid with sharp mandibles and a pulsing abdomen tipped with a barbed stinger. It noticed the intruders and buzzed with anger. 

Another menu appeared, with pictures of each tool they had obtained so far. One box at the very end was locked—likely the one that would actually be useful.

They paused for a moment to deliberate before choosing the pickaxe. They tried to leave the area as soon as it closed, but the game wouldn't let them.

There was no other choice: they had to fight.

—

It didn't attack directly, not at first. Instead it summoned a flood of buzzing drones from its colony. Frantically, they searched their inventory. Tools were not available, but other items were...

—

They threw a radish at one of the drones. Enraged, it bites the vegetable in half.

Time to start swinging.

—

Thirty seconds later, the drone that bit the radish collapses from the air. The two give each other a knowing look.

—

It took every last one of their radishes, and, if the shaking bar at the top of the screen meant what they thought it did, nearly their life. But they made it out of the cave.

It was morning when they had left, and now the sun is rising over the mountains. They returned to the house, to let the character rest, and passed the orchard, where a rat sits in their lemon tree, feasting. Again.

THE POINT ABOUT SHIVER BEING A CASHGRAB THAT GOT DERAILED

i’m actually semi-qualified this time! i’ve done a lot of research into publishing, bc i want to Get Published, and i happen to have recently written a small essay on maggie stiefvater so i have info about how shiver came to be.

i also have a lot of anger. i will try to contain it. ahem. also i apologize to the person/people who made the cashgrab allegations originally, i am not mad at you so much as at the general world/attitude. patpat. we’re all good buddy

basically, i don’t think shiver was a cashgrab. i try not to have parasocial relationships with authors, but i do think maggie stiefvater is dedicated enough to authenticity to not, like, do that. specifically i remember reading this blog post about author-reader and reader-author responsibility.

everything i’m about to say, unless stated otherwise, comes from maggie’s interview on the First Draft podcast. i’m too lazy to track down links, but i’ll try to at least say where i got things from.

so, shiver is maggie’s third book. the first, she sold to a small publishing house for an advance that was around $2000 that’s small as fuck. the average advance is $25,000, the median is $50,000, and those numbers if memory serves come from a 2021 survey of debut authors.

(average and median, for people who are curious, are so far apart because most advances are on the smaller side, but big six and seven figure outliers affect the median. i think. i gave a speech on this but that was six months ago. i may be getting them backwards, the principle stands.)

so anyway, maggie sells her first book, ballad, buys a mattress, and keeps writing. she sells its sequel, lament, and also happens to have shiver ready at the same time. the house also wants shiver, so the two go together. ballad and lament both come out very quietly. shiver comes out about a year and a half later (i don’t know why, publishing is fickle), and immediately lands on the nyt bestseller list. this was august 2009. mstief couldve very well written it bc of the twilight paranormal romance boom, was probably writing it around 2005, 2006. lament was published january 2008, meaning both books had probably been bought in 2006 or 2007. but we don’t know what her thinking was.

small house, quiet releases, and none of the Peak twilight tropes. somehow i don’t think maggie was aiming for, or expecting, a cash grab.

and i hate this! i hate this assumption. not bc i think a very famous very successful author needs to be defended on tumblr, but because it’s such a common assumption that authors (especially ya, especially fantasy romance) are just out for money. it sucks.

first of all, publishing is almost impossible to make a living in. see those advances up there? they’re split into chunks. right now, usually quarters, each to be paid on a specific milestone of the publishing process. often, when the book comes out an author has not received all or even most of their advance payments. yes, that is stupid. we hate it too. and you can’t receive royalties until after the advance is paid, so that 25k or 50k or what-have-you may take two or three years to get to you. and then there’s taxes and a 15% cut for your agent. @xiranjayzhao (ohgod i’m so scared to tag you if you see this hii) has spoken before about how they could not live off the money from iron widow, despite it being a huge bestseller.

it’s very difficult to make a living off of books. it’s even more difficult to make a living off of books while being honest. people with ghostwriters or ai help or just a lot of determination can churn out dozens of crap romance novels and perhaps make that work. and that’s valid. yknow, i respect the hustle.

but quality and authenticity take time and this industry moves SO goddamn slow that even if you can write a sellable book in a month it’ll be two years before it comes out so what’s the point in writing to the current market?

i don’t care what you think privately about maggie stiefvater or shiver but i DO care that there’s this strange culture that if something is a little bit tropey or a little too much like something popular it has to be a cash grab. that authors are doing this for the money. some are. most aren’t.

maybe i’m just a bit sensitive bc i’m working towards hopefully the final round of edits on a book heavily inspired by six of crows and i agree wholeheartedly with the blog post i linked above. i’ve ranted before about how important authenticity in writing is to me and how much i hate the implication that i value quantity over quality or whatever the fuck.

so here’s a post that is probably too long with a whole lot of numbers to tell you that sometimes people are actually honest. and sometimes people do care about art for art’s sake. and if you don’t like a book, that’s okay, but at least dislike it for accurate reasons, thank you

Helluva Good Time (Maybe) (Pt. 2)

I didn't even really have to wait until Blitz sent me a text message because when I woke up the next morning, he called me. I was mildly panicking when I saw his number pop up across my screen. He told me that he was on his way and told me to wear something casual and cute. Done and done. We hang up shortly after that and I go throw on some ripped jeans and a decent t-shirt with flannel over it. I just barely put on makeup, then got some water & a light snack before I left my house. Right as I step out, there's Blitz, waiting in his van and blaring music. Clearly enjoying himself too, as I see him headbanging and giving the "devil horns" gesture with his hand. I giggle at the sight of it, knocking on the passenger side window. Sort of humiliated, Blitz asked me if I saw anything. I lied in order to humble him. He wiped the sweat from his brow and told me to get in his van. I asked where we were going.

"We're gonna stop over by that HUGE mall here in the Gluttony ring and just enjoy ourselves. Then maybe back to Imp City?" Blitz asked.

"Oh sure! I haven't been to that mall in forever! Can we invite some of my friends?" I follow up.

"Who was that girl in the coffee shop? Caitlyn? Maybe her" Blitz replies, sounding a bit huffy.

I called Caitlyn and asked if she wanted to come to the mall with Blitz and I. She said that as much as she wanted to, she couldn't today. She had a rough day at work during her night shift and needed the day to decompress. "So sorry! Hope you feel better" I said in my usual positive tone, to which she thanked me and hung up. Blitz smiled. "Looks like it's just you and me. Cool, let's go" he said happily, driving away from my house in a heartbeat.

Truly though, we did enjoy the time we spent together. Buying new clothes, seeing different stores and finally getting a moment to just sit down in a more one on one conversation. Based on his body language, I could tell that he was trying to get closer and closer to me. Blitz talked more about his job because I asked him about I.M.P and how it all worked. Then he asked me about myself. My hobbies and interests, all that good stuff. "Are you really interested?" I ask. Blitz nods firmly. I told him that since I was younger, I really enjoyed cooking. When I was back up on the surface, I even opened a side business where I sold decorated cookies and cupcakes.

I also told him that, even though I wasn't very good at it, I liked to sing. Blitz smiled and assured me that I couldn't be THAT terrible, considering all the trash he's heard on the radio. A soft smile crept up on my face, as I felt my face get warm. Was... Was I blushing? Blitz chuckled at the sight, brushing some hair out of my face. Presumably so he could see my blushing face. He gazed at me for a moment, then quickly pulled his hand away, as if he knew he messed something up. I asked him if he was okay, to which he nodded.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. Just thought I saw something in your hair" Blitz replied sternly.

"Probably just loose strands. Tis the consequence of having long hair" I reply, twirling a chunk of my hair.

Blitz nods and keeps talking about cooking related mishaps he's endured, like nearly setting his kitchen on fire while trying to make eggs. "I had to get better at cooking. After all, I got Loona" he insisted, looking at a picture of her. I ask if that's his adopted daughter he mentioned before. Blitz nods in response, showing me a picture of her. She looked vaguely familiar but I couldn't place her. I shrugged this off as coincidence for now and just asked him about work again. He was talking business for a long while, before he asked me about my job and what it is I do.

Truthfully, my job wasn't as exciting as ever. I was in charge of coordinating parties and events for people. It was a lot of work, but I got a lot of money in return for it so it didn't matter. Plus, I do enjoy the feeling of organizing things, especially if they go well. Blitz asked if I helped out with anything major recently. "Yeah, Beezlebub's party actually. She was really chill through the whole thing and paid me well" I reply, showing him pictures of the venue. He looked shocked, saying that he was actually at that party, asking me why I didn't go.

I said it was because the party was on a random night in the middle of the week. I needed to work the next day, which was true. Blitz then asked me if I'd want to go to a party with him sometime. He knew my kryptonite... I agreed to go with him to one that was happening next weekend in his ring. He already looked excited, telling me all the details I needed to know. It was a bit of a larger party, but I could manage it. After talking all of this out, Blitz and I continued on then left after a while. We went back to his place in Imp City and watched some movies until...

I woke up a little while later, my head in Blitz's lap. He was looking down at me, asking me in a sarcastic manner if I was "comfy down there". I laughed in his face, hitting him lightly with the couch cushion. He and I were laughing, not realizing that we were... Also "play fighting". Blitz and I were still giggling, until he looked down over me. Both of us were blushing a bit, and I could feel my heart pounding in my chest a bit. Shit... This would've been a real movie moment if he were to-

It was happening. I felt it. He smiled at me in such a way. It was... Warm. Soft. I could feel his heartbeat somehow. It was fast and chaotic. He apologized for pinning me like that and got up quickly after, hoisting me up.

"It's okay. I do dumb shit like that with my friends a lot. That was fun though" I say, returning the look he gave to me. Blitz blushed a bit.

"Heh, yeah. It was nice-" Blitz replied, placing a hand on my shoulder. "It's getting late though. I should get you home" he finished his thought.

I nodded, putting my shoes back on and waiting for him at the front door. He and I left shortly, rushing to his van. Blitz put on some music for us to listen to on the ride back to my place. For some reason or another, he decided to get bold with me. He placed a hand on my thigh, occasionally stealing glances at me. Once we got back to my place, Blitz said he needed to ask me something. He took a deep breath and then gazed into my eyes softly. He mentioned how he knew that we met not too long ago and that we were mainly talking over texts and "Facetime", but he wanted to ask this for some time now. Blitz sighed and then asked me if I wanted to actually be his date to that party he mentioned earlier.

I suggested that we at least go out on a trial date first. Maybe a simple dinner date on a weeknight. Blitz agreed, saying that he knew a decent place in Imp City, telling me to dress somewhat decent. I agreed and hugged him before stepping out of the van. I felt him hug me in return... It was nice. Then we pulled away from each other and went our separate ways for now. When Blitz got home, we hammered out the details over text. It would be a Wednesday night, as the party was on Saturday night. It would give him and I at least a few days to see if this push in the relationship is what we actually wanted.

Knowing me though... It's exactly what I wanted. I had to become even more desirable to him, so I asked around for advice before heading to bed, having absorbed a bunch of information. I was already counting down the days until Wednesday, which seemed odd. It didn't matter. I had a little sliver of a hope for happiness.

Previous: ( Here ) ; Next ( Here )

Masterpost: ( Here )

Have you played Tears of the Kingdom yet? If so, what are your thoughts?

YEA I DID (haven’t finished it yet tho)

-> this ask keeps getting postponed because when it came in I just started playing for a few days and made a list of some highlights but then I found more stuff while playing and it got longer, and longer…so

TDLR

game good, I keep getting distracted by EVERYTHING, Rauru >>>> Rhoam, I like how they changed all the things that would’ve been deliberately sought out by returning players like the towns or Satori yet kept the rest the same enough to not feel alienating, Zelda‘s voice actor did not need to go that hard on the blood moon clip (though I‘m not playing with English dub since dubs are generally pretty good here which is nice :3)

Also here’s the list:

I miss my ice module anon. I miss her a lot

Also one of the new enemies gave me a total jumpscare. Like, an actual jumpscare, I was just walking around some random cave collecting stuff and then BAM. NIGHTMARE FUEL. They did not have to bring deadhand back like THAT man ;-;

LOVE the new towers, it’s such a cool way to see stuff and travel fast

Not sure if I should hate or love the fire temple- on one hand, the intended way seems convoluted af and I could not understand where I‘m supposed to go with the carts for the love of me- on the other hand, there’s so many ways to go through this dungeon on your own

Surprisingly did not run into any Redeads yet despite doing a good chunk of the maps and 3 dungeons but it can stay that way NVM I FOUND THEM. OH HECK NO.

Whoever decided one of the most horrible enemies of the entire series should be reimagined from undead corpses to the insects feasting on said undead corpses is both an utter genius and I hope they get cursed for the horrors they unleashed upon the world

Also unlike the promo art Gdorf isn’t green in the scenes I’ve seen so far which is…interesting- is that smth they did with the other versions too, and greendorf was just nostalgia bait? Is it censoring? The green just a side effect of the evil goo I haven’t seen yet? All of it?

Speaking of I THINK I JUST FOUND THE FRICKIN OOT SPIRIT TEMPLE!??? I‘d recognize that main room with the stupid middle light anywhere, took me WAY too long to figure out how to get on the middle platform-

Can’t wait to jump into a well and get jumpscared by the goo hands =)

Between Rauru‘s name, the temples, and the whole thing with Ganondorf essentially being the first part of oot all over again there’s lots of ocarinas here for something that mostly referenced skyward sword so far-

RIP Wolf Link,at least even in the Sacred Realm he still gets to hunt and bring insane amounts of meat to Link :(

Where is Kass. Seriously where is he. I didn’t find him on the road or in Rito village is he ok-

F to the Sages of Shadow, apparently they got fired

BOTW DLC ITEMS IN BASE GAME LETS GOOOOOOO

Also the details that‘re here because of botw, like NPC’s recognizing Link or that one town existing, paints a really interesting picture of the "canon“ botw run: mainly that Link did most shrines, talked to every main quest npc, helped with the town, saved his house from destruction and gave it to Zelda (or they took SO long to demolish that Zelda could buy it herself, but the first one‘s cuter)

but also that Link never talked to any other non-important npcs, and that he did the whole thing without buying a single piece of clothing other than the Hyrule set. My man did the entirely of death mountain and the desert purely by chugging potions and eating food. (And a vai outfit lying around somewhere or sold, presumably. So weird that you can sell clothing, does anyone actually do that? They’re so expensive to buy)

Content Warning ⚠️ : drug mention, PTSD, stress and complaining

We officially sold the big car yesterday. There's a demand for used and new cars right now; dealerships have been shrinking in inventory since last summer. So a local dealership was quick to offer us our asking price, which is a godsend, honestly. But I didn't feel any relief or happiness about it yesterday. I know it's going to take a huge chunk out of our bill debt, and I'm incredibly grateful we had the resource to use as needed... But I feel bad. I feel guilty about selling a very generous gift that we only had for a year. I feel stressed that we had to downsize because we can't even afford something as simple as the gas for the big car, let alone should anything happen to it. I'm stressed that we lost a valuable vehicle, as our family is ever growing and genuinely could use the extra space and power (towing, storage, etc). And I'm anxious as fuck about the financial situation still. I've been applying for jobs regularly, and without bias; I had an interview at the most depressing Aldi store I've ever seen in my life the other day. I'm willing to work in service or retail hell to keep us balanced. But I'm honestly not content with the situation. And though selling the car brings in a significant amount of monetary relief, it feels like I've just borrowed a couple more days of uneasy peace, and that nothing has actually improved.

Last night I was feeling so upset, so I took a kpin before bed. I was tired and needed the sleep, but the anxiety and stress were making my body and mind so tense that it felt like I wasn't even lying there, but instead floating out of pure tension just over the sheets lol. I did knock out eventually, but now I'm groggy and just kind of bummed out today. I have a run that I'm planning to get to soon, and that's a nice thing to look forward to. But then it's back to the job grind, taking care of the house/husband/pups, and just trying to keep moving on. I'm out of a lot of core recipe ingredients. I'm out of my DOC (coffee lol); I have black tea, so at least my caffeine addiction is placated. My husband is just as picky as his kids and prefers foods that I don't have or don't have the ingredients to make right now... And my PTSD gives me extreme anxiety when someone close to me even comes off as upset, whoops.

My goal is to just tighten all the belts and just make it through this summer. I don't want the kids to worry or feel pressured about our financial issues. It's not their responsibility or burden to carry. Unexplainably luckily, my sister and mom have offered to help with groceries while the kids are here, so that's one fewer stressor on my mind for the next two months. Granted, they're preteen and teenaged, so they eat like rabid ship rats lol, so I'm not certain how long things will last. But they do enjoy some very cheap and easy meals like pancakes and chicken and dumplings, so that's stuff I can whip up with relatively cheap ingredients. But I'll have to keep looking for work while trying to keep everyone afloat.

It's not very helpful, also, that it seems all my husband wants to talk about or watch/listen to is bad news. I realize everything is awful right now and good news is few and far between, but every day, all day, he just wants to reiterate all the awful things happening around and to us. It's just his modus operandi for processing, I think, but it really wears me down. I KNOW how fucking terrible everything is. I KNOW how corrupt the government and the powerful corporations they shield are, despite the dire needs of the very people and economy that fund their existence. I KNOW the earth is dying and supply chains are breaking down and people are being violent all the time. Even when I try my damndest to ignore anything but good news/content, the realities seep through. And having my only constant human contact and partner constantly reiterating the awful echoes of our current realities just makes me feel so pressurized. There's no true relief to be had anywhere.

Blegh. Sorry if you read all that and are bummed out now lol. I just don't have anywhere else to put this weight. Which reminds me, I'm also supposed to be looking for a therapist right now... ugh. I hope everyone is hanging in there and doing okay right now. 💙

Current Activities in ESO #6

Had to dig for this one. Like Warframe, my last ESO related post was way back in 2014.

My #2 post states my own brother dropped 95$ on the game. 2014 was before I ever ever employed. Jesus.

The origins of Dibbe are revealed. I do remember her still being a dark elf, I still have a screenshot of her as a level 46 being stuck in Coldharbor which eventually drew me away from the game for years after. (I didn't know the guy I had to talk to was just hanging out in the Fighter's Guild there). I've had a pale argonian before on previous games but they were named differently.

Ancient Dibbe. She's hideous!

My number 5 post basically precedes me quitting the game. Couldn't find my #1 or #4 post.

All of that long before the One Tamriel update. Came back to the game some time ago and all of my problems are basically gone. Leveling still feels just a tad sluggish. 3-10 are usually pretty easy but up into the 40's feels like a slog. Generally one of my better methods is counter to what I usually do on MMO's and I level up as a tank or healer for quicker dungeon queues and just bank on that chunk of experience at the end of them.

After becoming unemployed again I will say that my lack of the craftbag drew me away from the game for a long time. However I've developed something of a system regarding that. I am still painfully selling off some of the harder-to-get materials like runes, but I'm collecting stacks of the more common stuff in my bank. Presumeably to be sold on a guild trader at a later occasion. That way I can still dismantle stuff and it will have a purpose later.

My gaming loop has mostly revolved around collecting decent sets for my various alts. I'm not good at making gold passively, mostly just selling motifs that I get randomly. I keep being told that writs are the moneymaker but that's only a few grand at a time. I wonder if they refer to those master writ you get as rewards sometimes because those typically sell well if you're lucky to get the ones that reward a lot of vouchers. But those aren't guaranteed either.

Dib, my main, is on the cusp of crafting mastery so generally she can craft a couple of decent sets for fresh alts but crafting sets are usually for the beginning. Overland and dungeon sets tend to be improved, so part of my gaming loop is the slow grind of transmutation stones so I can make shit there as well. However a big hurdle there now is without my subscription, I'm now locked out of 80% of the DLC dungeons. I have a few, but I thought dungeons came with the zones that they were released with. I was incorrect. Turns out, ESO content is released quarterly. So I've bought a few zones (I'm missing the Reach which makes me sad because I love that zone and Murkmire, which I don't have much of an opinion on but now I can't make the grave-stake set which I've had fun with in the past).

And I certainly need to keep playing the game because if I run out of gold, it usually means I can't outfit my characters! Transmogging doesn't cost much but still. Gold doesn't make itself.

And then I spend my nights roleplaying. I feel the cusp of a sort of golden age of roleplay for me personally, especially regarding my main girl Dib. I've recently developed a "radiant" quest system. Around 8 of my houses are decorated and can be used for various stealth activities. For most of them (I lose out on decor slots without a sub) I can place a variety of those Precursor dummies, little bland robots that can act as like DnD figurines to represent npc's and enemies (not to mention a few houseguests, I can have up to like 15 npc placements if the decor slots allow). I've put this in practice twice now with a few different people and it's really fun. For the smaller homes it also doesn't even take very long, so it can be used for a thief-to-thief RP meet and greet.

I joined the OG <The Thieves Guild>, a player has owned that tag since 2016 but they're recently staging a revival. It still has a pretty small core right now, about four to five of the same faces have attended the last few events.

I generally, absolutely, detest tavern RP as a general rule but I will resort to it when I'm bored or want to watch a podcast or streamer on the side. However a few nights ago a marshland tavern was opened up in Blackwood, where Dib got to meet a lot of her own kind for once.

As an aside: Not that Argonians don't frequent the current RP hub in Evermore, but I spend most of my time in Evermore wallflowering with nobody deeming my character interesting enough to approach. That or the fact that they're all usually up their own asses to greet newcomers. I had Dib try to contribute to a "never have I ever" and she was never directly replied to once. It felt like four people had me on ignore for no reason.

But in Blackwood, everything felt pretty organic. I dressed Dib down from her usual shady attire from this;

To the more approachable this;

So either she was more approachable or the energy of the room let to my own Dib having more incentive to interact. A friend even came along and instead of being attached to the hip we would interact, break off to mingle, swing back to each other, and break off again. Like a real party! There was one particular player whom I didn't know very well who seemed to attach herself to Dib's side but it didn't detract too much. It was a great night. Dib is pretty sure she almost got jumped by a couple of Khajiit because she openly purchased a tome of daedric lore right there in the open. She detracted an imperial priest's claim that she is so clearly a shady sneaker.

"...Charming."

I've posted that around in some discords I'm in but I can't help it. I almost died laughing at my computer. I'm even unclear if he bought it or not but she cut real close about openly admitting daedra worship (she's a Nocturnal simp) but I feel like she managed to pull way from it.

While unemployed I'm generally making an effort to pop in relevant RP events I see scheduled in the various discords I'm in. And I do say relevant. I almost attended a pet show, I wanted to bring a small guar that Dibbe named "Lump" and would emote the fact that there was nothing special about it and that she likely just picked it out of a field somewhere. "This is lump he's wonderful" (this Guar isn't special at all). I decided to go for some other open RP in someone's household. I acquired secondhand knowledge that there was no "show" to begin with. People just brought along pets and everyone just walked around to talk about them. Would still have been funny to have Dibbe and Lump just hanging out in the corner somewhere.

Anyway I've been working on this post for an hour with Dib waiting for me in the background to do a Jester Festival quest.

https://youtu.be/uDx-6pEohE4?feature=shared

The comments on this are so confusing… why are people praising her? Also a comment says she offered miners £30,000 redundancy which I’ve never heard of before x

I've never heard the £30,000 thing before and when I've tried to google it I can't find much to confirm or deny it? So I don't know how much I trust it. What I have found though is that any redundancy that was offered, it was offered as a way to try and break the strikes. The options presented to the miners were basically 1) stay on strike and we'll fire you without pay 2) break the strike (be a scab - this is a very bad, seen as a class traitory thing to do and had crazy real world consequences!!) and you'' still lose your job but we'll give you redundancy.

And when you weigh those two choices up (especially when you consider the men being made redundant were 55+) they're pretty hopeless choices. You're not going to get work anywhere else because your trade is being obliterated and any jobs going will go to younger men.

It wouldn't surprise me if this was one of her methods for breaking the strike, Thatcher's Neoliberalism (basically every man for himself politics) was all about dividing the working class, breaking communities and unions so that the working class masses would feel small/ helpless and like they were actually a minority.

This is probably also why people on that video are commenting positively about her too. Thatcher kind of "invented" the middle class when she split the working class into "work shy don't want to better themselves" poor people and the "aspirational working class" She introduced stuff like "right to buy" which enabled people living in council houses/ public housing, to buy their house from the government for cheap. Sounds great if you're the person in the house, (and so many working class people did benefit from this/ there families still benefit now, especially in places like London and the East where house prices have skyrocketed since the 80s/90s). Terrible however because Thatcher and successive tory governments never built new council houses so now there aren't any left and no one can afford a house. (however theres that small chunk of working class people who benefited massively and so love her now)

She did loads of stuff like that whilst she was in power, she crushed the unions and British industry, sold industry off to foreign investors who provided the work for cheaper (at the time!!) which meant that the already very wealthy got to invest in and make more money out of these deals, but the working class lost all their jobs and local economies suffered. Also like my nan on my mums side of the family remembers thatcher fondly for "freeing us from the tyranny of the unions" she remembers it all really differently and pictures Arthur Skargill (the guy who lead the strikes) as some kind of Tony Soprano/ Godfather type mob ruler who was holding the public to ransom, demanding the public pay more and more money to keep him in business (which wasn't how it worked at all haha) But like, whilst the strikes were going on electricity/ power would be cut to homes because no coal and stuff so the country experienced blackouts and this was blamed on strikers (when like, if Thatcher hadn't been threatening them, they wouldn't have needed to be on strike and would have quite gladly gone to work!)

Essentially what happens when a prime minister is doing as thatcher did, is that the government will pick the group of people they're going to attack (in this instance the miners) and they will run with a story about how the miners are being "intimidated" into striking by other miners (as if the unions were the mob), they split them into "these good honest men who just want to work but they're being threatened" and "these evil work shy men who rule with threats and violence and want to bring the country to its knees!" They build this narrative and run with it, and the strikers had their own narrative too which was much different. But the British public will remember whichever story they believed at the time... So people who lived in those mining communities knew the "truth" (I've put this in commas because many would argue with me) and people who did not believed what they were reading in the papers and hearing from the government.

if you can access this then this is a really interesting article about the link between police violence during the strikes (and how they never got prosecuted for trampling strikers with horses) and police violence at Hillsborough which they also got away with for a really long time. (brits might have heard of this disaster, very famous and the inquiry that got people justice only happened in the last few years) Its a pretty solid and since proven example of how the Government and the police twist the truth and outright lie to construct false narratives and get away with really evil things. (word of warning if you google Hillsborough, its really upsetting, I can't read about it without getting extremely emotional)

Sometimes it really helps to read something totally bias in the direction opposing yours, this is kinda good for explaining why some people fucking love the woman haha

the paragraph at the end about how Britain was confident and empowered by 97 because of thatchers is so wack, Britain was emboldened by 97 cause Tony Blair had presented them with an offer of change and hope lol. The middle/ upper class just got cocky because thatcher had lined their pockets with working class money lol

Also something I've just remembered is that Brassed Off (the film I mentioned earlier) is about the union bands, which if you're a Sam Fender fan you might have heard him mention when he talks about why he likes having those brass sounds on his records, the union bands were like, crazy parts of the community, they got all the men together and like sharing something (not their feelings unfortunately but you know, it was still a vital part of community and support) And idk, that could be a really cool little watch if you're interested in that connection to Sam's music and the north east and stuff!!

MMXXIV

It's the end of 2023. Honestly, I cannot say this has been a great year for me. While I've done my best to try and keep things moving forward, I've been very bogged down by a major life changing event that has caused a lot of negative emotion over the year.

What Happened? For those that haven't heard, my father passed away suddenly in May. And to say it's been anything less than an emotional roller coaster would be an understatement. I've done my best to keep my composure in public and online, but I'd be lying if I said that I haven't been feeling depressed about it the past several months. Although that feeling seems to have hit some in my family harder than others. But we've been doing our best to try and help each other out, and to keep our family traditions, and my father's memory alive.

What does this mean going forward? While I usually like to start off a new year with a bunch of goals in mind, and a plan to get things rolling. This year it means I'll still pretty much have those same goals, but I also have my father's estate to keep up with, which is also going to take up a good chunk of my time.

The story pretty much goes like this. In December of 2000 my father bought a home for himself, his children, and his son-to-be wife and her children. Between 2007 and 2010, he had the house expanded to accommodate all the children that were living there. Unfortunately, he divorced in 2015, leaving him with this now big empty house.

The plan was that he was going to retire this year and my brother and I were going to help him sell and move out of that house, and move into a new house that was a bit more manageable. With my father's unfortunate passing, my brother and I have now inherited this house. And our plan at this point is to do what was originally planned. Sell the house and my brother and I will use the money to buy our own homes. So, we've been spending many weekends at the house cleaning it up, repairing a few odds and ends, and moving anything we want to keep from the house into storage. And this has taken up a huge portion of our time to do. And even still, we’ve got a lot more work ahead of us once the house sells.

Unfortunately, there's still a lot of legal stuff that my brother and I have been dealing with that has yet to be settled. So, my plan this year is to try and get the estate settled by April (so that we can get the taxes out of the way as well), get the house sold and then start looking at nearby homes I can put a down payment on. Truth be told, I don't want to move too far away from my mother at this point, but the way things are, I know I'm going to need my own space sooner or later.

What about any of the other goals? Well, like in years past, I still have other goals in mind for my own personal works. Actually, this kind of goes into things that are happening at work. Not that I want to reveal too much, but some leadership and ownership changes have been taking place. And while I’ve been reassured that my job is pretty much safe, you really can’t be too careful. So, like in years past, I’ve said that I’ve wanted to work on getting a video game demo built at some point. I think that may be the ”kick in the rear” I need to get working on that. Mainly, I’d like to try and get a fully working level of Jamal The Bombardier Bird up and working before the end of next year. If all goes well, that could either be something for Malamite’s and my portfolio going forward, or it can be something we flesh out into a fully working game that we can put on the market.

In terms of artwork, for the past several years I’ve been using Adobe Animate to render most of my drawings. But it’s been becoming more and more apparent over the years that this comes with limitations. Especially when it comes down to things like shading. This month, I decided to look into using raster graphics applications to try and render my Holiday art projects. And I think the results are good enough to continue pursuing the use of applications other than Adobe Animate going forward. That’s not to say I’d be dumping Animate entirely though, as vector graphics are still very useful when it comes down to things such as graphic design.

What about things health-wise? Those that follow me on Twitter/X may have seen that I visited a physician in late July. This is the first time I’d seen a general practitioner since 2008. Mainly in fear of just how bad my overall health is. And yeah, in addition to high blood pressure (which I’ve already been well aware of) it was confirmed to me that I’m morbidly obese, have high cholesterol, and that I’m pre-diabetic. I was asked to drop 5lbs by the end of August, but I was so frustrated that I started heavily fasting and dropped 15lbs. Now at the end of the year, I’m down a total of 30lbs. I’m hoping that by the end of 2024 I can be down another 50lbs which should bring me to around an even 200lbs.

That said, I was prescribed a medication to bring down my blood pressure and cholesterol level, and I refused to take it over concerns I had with the side-effects the pharmacist told me about. I don’t have a great history when it comes down to prescription drugs either. And instead of my physician trying to address some of these concerns, they instead told me that I need to either take the medication or find a new physician. Since they didn’t want my poor health to reflect on their record. So, I cancelled my next appointment with them, and I’ll need to find a new physician after the new year starts.

Conclusion So yeah, I can’t call 2023 a great year. I mean, when you lose someone as close to you as your father, could any of you really say anything different? But out of all the negative things that happened this year, there are many silver linings. And my hope is that going into 2024 that I can turn those silver linings into positive change going forward.

I wish you all a happy new year, and let’s make the best of 2024 as we possibly can!

-Nextsoft Games Happy New Year

Tuesday: 06-05-2023

8,25,41,500

A hell of a day! My morning routine is the usual one, but I just felt waves of happiness throughout the day. Focus was clean, precise didn’t wobble at all. Work started with 2 meetings for Stellar and Dexa. Stellar is a challenge for me, and I love challenges. One of my traits that I adore is my ability to not taking a “NO” for an answer. Either you are with me, or I will pursue you. There’s nothing like NO in my dictionary. The challenge I am facing with stellar is raising the rest of the capital to invest in stocks and bonds. Stellar Capital Management is a hedge fund that I have started, pretty small starting with $1M (Rs.8,25,41,500 INR). The pitch is to provide an annual return of 10-12% but that absolutely depends on the face of the market. Volatility ride is obvious, hedging the market is a tough feat, with already established player with a track record in your competition. But that doesn’t really matter, I always try to learn from my competition, its healthy unless someone is jealous ass. Can’t be around there. So the challenge I am facing is being a newbie, and the only track record I have is my 9 Years of investing experience in both domestic and international securities. I won’t call myself the best trader, but I am pretty good at it. There have been years where I was hitting 12-14% returns, and that’s the only CV I have while raising money. And when you have established competition, and mind you competition in finance is fierce, many prospective clients I pitched, has ultimately refused to work with me. 19 people I pitched have said No to I’ll think about it. And hedge funds are not open to everyone, or the general retail investors, these are high frequency investment engines for the HNI (High-net individuals) and UHNI’s (Ultra High-Net Individuals). I haven’t pitched any UHNI, because simply they won’t even talk with me or book an appointment, they can only be pitched once I hedge the market and perform well my first year. They don’t talk to newbies.  So, these are the cream of this country and also a couple of people from the US. I cannot name them here, but I am fortunate enough to pitch a couple of very wealthy entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley as well and all from my bedroom. I have had a couple of in-person meetings with prospective clients from my own city Majority of them has appreciated my drive and determination, that I am not throwing flashy acts of hiring finance graduates, with a swanky office. None. All from my bedroom. I have always been an advocate of the fact that if you want to pursue something, and you really know your shit? Well you can do it. So the challenge now is raising the rest of the money. And in India to start a fund affiliated with SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) you have to start with atleast Rs.20Crors ($2.7 Million), and to start privately you need to put Rs.50 lakhs of your own money. So I sold an E-commerce store recently and made a major chunk from the sale, and put that all into this fund. Later on, you have to get a SEBI license, and will get that when the time comes.  I don’t shop, although I have enough to, but the money is being aggressively invested into my personal portfolio and building new things. So I control the urge to splurge, but I still spend a lot on buying books every month. But my birthday is next month and I am surely gonna splurge like a madman. Also my new ride will be home around my birthday only. But the caveat - A present to my parents from me. Personal and family expenses are different. I also work as a consultant cloud engineer at AWS, so that gets injected at my house. Dexa will start generating revenue by the end of July, right now, on-boarding events and allowing users to love the product is the goal. It’s BETA now, v2 will launch by December this year. I started Dexa officially after a 3 month internship at Norton LifeLock, in October 2022. I quit a cushy job at Norton as a system admin, afraid but brave enough to risk it. So in short it doesn’t really matter if it’s Tuesday or Sunday, I am putting off fires everyday. And I love it, this is what I always wanted to do, an from here it’s only the way ahead and above.  So then after tackling the meetings, I started coding the AI therapist and did that all day long. My CTO looks after Dexa and provides me a report every night. Evenings are mostly listening to music, podcasts, interviews and reading a book. I have to read VERTEX Pharma’s 10-K tonight too. In short, I am having a blast and I am all grateful for this. I am alive after a long period of abuse and nothing can be much better than what I have now and will have. My therapy session is on Thursday, it has been moved due to our schedules. Grateful for a family who allowed me to chase my dreams What is Dexa? - https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/dexa-3906 https://www.dexa.club Stellar Capital Management: https://www.stellarcapital.info Tech Integrated Inc (My first startup - My background): https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/tech-integrated

Hello Surgy Buddies!

I'm hoping you are all well and going home for the Holidays.

The next time your nurse comes in the room, tell her you demand to speak with your ELF.

Busy, busy, The Holidays coming. Since the house has been redone and looking great, Christmas has Hurled all over the place. Lights, Garland, Tree etc. Even the dogs are confused. I absolutely love this Holiday. I tend to do silly elf like things. Like buying the car behind me at Starbucks their order. Hehe. Looking for the grumpy people around who just need to connect with another person with conversation. Hoping not to annoy them further. LOL

Giddy about the gifts I got for everyone. I like to make things mostly. But don't have my workshop set up as of yet.

Yes, still working on new books, when there's time. Car alternator went out (sigh) BIG COST.

Finally sold my car that had been sitting in the driveway. Taking care of big chunks of to do's on my list.

I've always handled problems in leaps and bounds. But this past year has been very difficult. I don't know about your passed year. Did you have little..very little annoying problems happening often?

Plus being a woman men tend to think you don't know what they are talking about. I love shocking them into reality. Hehe.

I reflect on being away from family and friends. Without the one I adore. Yes. Very much.

The new year brings much more good change. And I hope for all of you too. Those in pain, with loss and struggling. I send prayers.

There's one of my favorite Christmas songs please listen to it. "My Grown-up Christmas List" by Amy Grant or Natalie Cole. Also a very special one called. "Merry Christmas Darling". I adore you and miss you. I cannot tell you how much. Even skipping Dr's appointments to get other things done. I've always believed that if you keep fighting and trying you can beat many obstacles. Sometimes you're exhausted and tired. Please keep trying. I get in my car and scream my head off. It helps to relieve what steam your holding in.

Watch your stress. Especially now. So much we expect of ourselves. Why? Ahh..the "perfect" Holiday. When is the last time your holidays were perfect? Little things, details are really quite beautiful. The small things. I'm sorry but we don't need $300 shoes do we? Try thinking of the most wonderful Christmas you ever had. Keep it warm inside. My favorite gift was a plastic Vet bag. I could treat animals.(symbolically)

I hope to be in here more often too. For all of my followers please stay healthy-safe-and filled with joy this Christmas. I'll be thinking of you. And truly hope you find that warmth inside.

1000 years and Forever I have loved you..my one twin soul"

"I will be here" xoxo

Always,

Chris

🌹❤️🙃

copy pasting this from discord but i had a weird dream i remembered. been havin a bunch lately but always forgettin what they were when i wake up

starts out w/ me being lost in some city(that i kind of recognize from pervious dreams) in the middle of having a parade, eventually passing out or something and waking up in some sort of weird jail cell off a house. wasn't the only one but it was in the middle of nowhere, with some beat to shit looking fence at one end. the cell itself was modernly secure, w/ like a viewing windo wfor the guard to keep track or something. was apparently drunk in public and that's why i wound up here. after some back and forth the guard gets distracted and lets me out, so i sneak into his weird connected house. he starts to search for me, i run past him, then his kid asks if he wants to game which distracts him looking for me and i leave by jumpin the shitty fence. a few hours of wandering through like a marshy(hah) chunk of land i found a house in the middle of a bunch of farmland or something, where a mom was yelling at her kid cause he was bein a little shit. she feels really familiar for some reason but before i can ask about anything the kid runs up to me and is like "santa! wait, you're not fat, you can't be santa." there was a vague flashback to me catching myself in the mirror and looking vaguely like santa, but the mom apologizes and it snaps me out of it. to try and get the kid to behave i go with it, but after telling him he needs to listen or he'll get no presents he gets mad and runs off. his mom and i chase after him since it's dangerous to be runnin around alone, and eventually i'm able to catch him and convince him to behave by promising him he'll get a lot of presents if he does. fast forward and i'm walking down the road trying to find a town, when i find a gas station that points in the right way. i come across a weird police compound scrambling to find me. i end up sneaking through it and could apparently see an alert bar the whole time, but i(pt 1 of dream) (pt 2) make it through without getting caught and head towards town again. along the way i'm like "this scenery is boring!" and construct some weird warehouse tunnel while i'm going. after more walking i end up in some weird desert with monsters, so i start running around it trying to not get got and end up having to jump around a shipyard after. while jumping around the shipyard i start singing a song, and while singing it there's like a line that went "and i sold the entire shipyard just to buy a house" that makes me flashback to a conversation with the mom where she mentioned that she lives in the middle of nowhere cause her dad bought the land and built a house out there, which makes me realize that she's my daughter. fast forward and i'm on a payphone, telling her i might be her dad and she tells me to meet her at some diner in town. i show up to the diner and see her, things start to piece together a little then i woke up.