The struggle is real. No, really.

The dismantling of longstanding Western alliances takes a lot out of a gal; also, it's time to rethink the Substack ambitions

Dipper is sick of it all, too.

Resistance is exhausting.

In my case, “resistance” is less a march in the streets — my back and overall fitness won’t allow that — and more of an ongoing exercise in self-education; emails, faxes, and letters to my congressman and senators; a lawn sign for a county board candidate; and a few bucks here and there for campaign donations and activists’ GoFundMes.

It’s not much. But all this — and having a ringside seat to daily fascist shamelessness and the dismantling of longstanding Western alliances — paralyzes the soul.

I’m tired a lot. I mean, really wiped; some days, I’m bed-rotting wiped. I spend what little non-family energy I have on stuff that earns money: freelance work and e-commerce sales. Obviously, I’m overdue to write a little. So, here I am, tens of subscribers — if you’re still here.

Scaling back on the Substackery

I’m still shelving the old, very loose newsletter structure for a while. I haven’t given an alternative format much thought lately, though I do expect to continue randomly listing stuff that has caught my attention over the previous week.

However, I’ve decided to also shelve indefinitely the periodic Tuesday issues and plans for paid subscriptions. I’m also turning off notifications regarding new subscribers, likes, and other stats. I was getting a little too caught up in the numbers game on Substack, and it’s time for me to go cold turkey with the metrics.

(Also, I’m sick of trying to sell myself in Substack Notes. The self-appointed Substack subscription gurus there insist I post a ton in Notes to grow the newsletter, but I just don’t have the time or interest to do anything more than lurk there, make a random observation, and maybe comment occasionally.)

If you want to provide monetary support of my writing, head over to Ko-Fi and buy me a matcha latte. (I’m trying to figure out how better to use Ko-Fi, where I can receive tips and even sell stuff, to support other creative ventures.)

But just having you hang out here and reading is fine, too.

Hey, look: I made stickers that require no artistic talent!

Sticker shock at the Etsy shop

We’re now up to 27 listings in the Stickers section of the Etsy shop — including a handful of text-only thingies, mostly with political themes, that I created.

Most of the sticker inventory, of course, comes from the far more skilled hand of Fluffbucket Finds’ creative director. F was particularly prolific over her winter break, creating fan art inspired by vocaloid music, the video games Deltarune and Project SEKAI, and The Amazing Digital Circus.

My biggest challenge right now is trying to figure out how to convert customer “favorite” ratings of individual stickers — they get lots of eyeballs — into more sales. I’m learning a lot about marketing on places like Pinterest and elsewhere.

If you're familiar with these Vocaloid/Project SEKAI characters, you know way more than I do.

Stamp sales, meanwhile, have skyrocketed (relatively speaking) for some reason. I’m rolling out more topical packets of space, Disney, and transportation-related postage stamps for collectors, crafters, and collagists, even though the biggest sellers lately have been floral, horse, and cat themes.

Also, book sales have picked up a little on eBay and, at last, the new Biblio space. So yeah, I wasn’t kidding about being busy with the e-commerce.

The Bucket List: Typewriters, technofeudalism, and axolotls

The Zen of typewriters. Set aside some time to read this wonderful New York Times piece on a Seattle-area man (gift link) who found his vocation in a cramped Bremerton, Wash., typewriter shop. Paul Lundy left behind a miserable grind of a job and discovered a nonagenarian repairman who passed along his wisdom and gave Lundy a new lease on life.

Coincidentally, I found out this week that there’s a typewriter repair shop a few suburbs away from me. When I can scrounge up a few hundred bucks, I hope to bring my old Smith-Corona to this place and get it cleaned and fixed.

Jeff Bezos owns us. Today’s distressing word is “technofeudalism.” The video below and this interview with the guy who came up with the term, Greek economist Yanis Varoufakis, are mind-blowing. Learning all this stuff is easy; it’s modifying one’s spending habits that’s the real challenge.

Axolotls are taking over the world. I’ve been trying to figure out why axolotls are everywhere. This Guardian piece takes a stab at explaining why the endangered Mexican salamander species is so “compulsively relatable.”

Unlike most salamanders, axolotls reach adulthood without ever metamorphosing. “They grow and grow, and live for over 20 years – but remain as tadpoles all their life,” Rodrigo Albors explains.

At a time when longevity has gone from a fringe and sometimes wacky research interest to a multibillion-dollar industry, the appeal is obvious. In this regard, axolotls represent a sort of fount of ancient knowledge. It is not quite eternal youth, or the philosopher’s stone, but axolotls may be as close as we get on Earth.

In other news, according to a passing reference in this article, Kmart still exists in Australia.

Random linkage

• Opinion: Abstinence From AI Is Not the Answer (Undark). I beg to differ, but this is still worth a read, anyway.

• Nagging Moms Raise Successful Daughters, Says Science (Scary Mommy)

• In defense of jarred garlic (Salon)

• Netflix’s BoJack Horseman is one of the most complex animated characters ever created (The Conversation). Yeah, I know this is from 2018, and that Bojack Horseman ended years ago. But we’ve been watching it at our house over the past few months and enjoy it immensely, even though its many dark turns continue to jolt us.

• How Long Is Too Long to Stay in Bed? (New York Times; another gift link)

• Valley Forged: How One Man Made the Indie Video Game Sensation Stardew Valley (GQ). Another 2018 article. But I love this game so much. Might be time to start another farm to soothe my fried brain cells.

Lord willing and the creek don’t freeze over, I’ll be back next week.