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The American world is an absolute trash fire right now, but my personal journey towards getting back to paying all bills and eating food more often than is survivably-required is progressing.

There’s still a whole lotta work to do, and the fact that the news is filled with such despair-worthy events doesn’t help.

So, if you are in a relatively safe place, consider helping those who have need. There are too many people out there that are looking to demonize anyone that doesn’t fit a narrow set of guidelines of who is “appropriate” or not, or fit their “religious ideals” or not, or even just targeting those who upset them, it’s demoralizing at best, and can cost some their everything. Those who stand to lose at this overzealous attempts to make things great again, those people need help, support, real allies, not just those who will mouth the words.

As things continue to deteriorate (with the most recent being federal funding being cast into disarray and police actions happening all over the place and more than a few preventable disasters happening,) there will be more people who need those of us who can do something to do something.

To look at it another way – those who have helped me climb up and out of the employment/economic hole I fell into, and continue to help me, are more valuable than everything.

To quote Red Green, which might be considered heretical/anti-something in my country now, “Remember, I’m pullin’ for ya. We’re all in this together.”

Thanks for reading.

Skåll!!!

Normally I’d go on about the promise of New Year’s Eve, about the chance to improve and make things better and all that.

But it’s been an exhausting year.

From losing my job to trying to create a streaming/podcasting business that fizzled out to scrambling for income to try to avoid homelessness (and still fighting that fight today,) it’s just been a slog.

I even just tried to do a stream for New Year’s Eve, and my Internet connection kept dropping and reconnecting to the point where it was just easier to call it off.

So, dear readers, I’m just going to put out best wishes for your New Year. I sincerely hope it proves better, but I’m not going to hold my breath. I really don’t look good in that shade of blue.

Good luck out there! I think we’re all going to need it.

Skåll!!!

Update on the things – the new job I got a couple of weeks ago just isn’t giving me the hours I need to survive, so I’m back at the hunt.

I’m not bad-mouthing that job, I’m just disappointed that the job search process and experience is like gambling with your last few dollars.

In other news, I haven’t had the peace of mind to really delve into this theme to modify it yet, so that’s also on hold. My podcast and YouTube/Twitch stuff has also been on hold.

So, yeah.

Things are still a bit sparse as I revamp my resume again and get back into it. I don’t know how much longer I can keep playing this game, but I’ve got to try because the alternative isn’t good.

Thanks for reading this short update. I hope life is treating you well, someone should be getting through without the constant worry and struggle, I hope it’s you.

Skåll!!!

All of my other efforts are on hold right now, as I go through training at a new job.

The pay isn’t great, but it is better than nothing and it will keep a roof over the old noggin and hopefully a decent amount of food in the fridge.

I’m still working on many projects in the background, they’re just all things that don’t have a deadline/are easily interrupted as I get this train back on the rails and get things running smoothly.

Once things are settled, I’ll get back to YouTubing and Twitch Streaming (I almost called it Twitching, but that’s a whole different thing, usually amounting to massive amounts of caffeine in a very short amount of time.

Thanks for stopping by and reading. I hope the upcoming holidays will bring you happiness and joy.

Skåll!!!

Hello readers, the few of you who come by, check things out, and leave a comment on the way.

I’ve released my fairy tale reading podcast, as of yesterday at midnight (Eastern US Time), and it’s had me a little wrecked about it all. It’s the most work I’ve put into anything creative like this – with months of work behind it as I researched how things were done, the various “best practices” with the big podcast hosts, the technical processes of handling creation/editing/prepping files and putting it out there, all to put together how to do it solo*.

I’m recording more stories as time progresses, in between recording Let’s Play videos and streaming. It’s coming along, next episode already has a couple of stories ready.

So, please check it out here. And as any serious YouTuber will ask: please like and comment, and subscribe. Let your friends know it’s out there. I can’t afford advertising, either, and Likes/Subscribes/Comments DO matter to YouTube/Google search and recommendations.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope life is treating you well.

Skåll!!!

*Yeah, everything I’m doing is solo right now. I do not have a budget of any kind to pay anyone, much less myself.

So, a week and two days ago, Milton started waking up in the western Caribbean, and by Sunday started alarming people.

Everyone started panicking. Which, by everyone, I mean everyone outside of Florida started panicking. Those of us in the projected path started inventorying our supplies, listing what we needed, and began stocking up. We also started packing clothes in case we needed to leave.

While thousands of online voices told us to evacuate, we prepared. While many asked “Why would you live in a hurricane region?” we reviewed travel routes and evacuation routes, and penciled in plans – no ink yet, because they might change.

While non-local and incompletely informed non-experts started telling us this was the “Storm of Our Generation,” (never mind that Helene was also the Storm of Our Generation,) we kept watching reliable forecasts and governmental sites (like hurricanes.gov and NOAA) to stay informed.

When Milton strengthened and sped up, we triple-checked our supplies, and reviewed what highways we could take to get out if it came to that. We also checked our gas supplies, as gas stations were running low.

When Monday came, they backed their estimates for arrival from Wednesday morning to Wednesday night. We adjusted our plans.

Tuesday saw the track moving further southward. Tampa was still going to get hit, but we were moving from the orange zone to the greenish zone to the dark greenish zone/bluish zone. The colors aside, we went from being in the hurricane to the edge of a hurricane.

When Wednesday morning had finally come, we checked and rechecked what evacuation orders had been issued, rechecked the routes that evacuees would use, compared that to the latest track predictions, and our previously planned routes. We also looked at existing traffic levels. We weren’t going to a shelter, because there are people with medical needs or special considerations that need the space we would take up. We would head for the Alabama/Georgia border, then wait. But the track kept shifting southward, so by midday it looked like we were only going to be on the very edge, so we decided to stay.

Time after this point gets a little timey-wimey, wibbly-wobbly. I probably should’ve kept notes as it went on, but I was occupied keeping an eye on developments, news, and just out the windows. An idea for next time, I suppose.

The storm was intense. I’ve been through two other hurricanes, but neither of them was so close to where I was sitting. At one point I went outside, (on the south side of the house, because the wind was coming from the north-northeast by that point,) to see if anything had been damaged/make sure nothing looked too worrisome. I heard the storm. The wind. The gusts on top of the already fast-moving air. The… extremeness of it. I heard the possibility that it could pick me up and carry me off and no one would ever know what happened to me.

I was seriously taken aback by how small and insignificant I felt in that moment.

And we were outside the edge of the hurricane. It was miles to the south.

I was too well informed to not understand the hugeness of what was going on, and how our decisions threaded this needle, at least so far.

So, I went back inside and played video games, watched YouTube, watched Twitch, chatted with people online, played it down a little because nerves were already pretty high, and gently put earlier thoughts to the back of my mind.

In the early hours of the morning, probably around 04:00, half of a tree cracked off the other half and fell nearby. I didn’t hear it, my brother saw it when he went outside to check things and told me, “Maybe you should take a look at this.”

It fell right alongside a neighbor’s house, branches over the living room extension on their place, but it didn’t land on them. That neighbor came out and confirmed, no damage was visible inside, as of yet.

By Friday daytime everything had settled down, so a team of construction workers staying here worked at cutting apart that huge half-tree and dragging away everything that could be easily dragged away, leaving only the heaviest part – the main trunk – to be cut up and taken away.

The neighbor confirmed, again, no apparent damage was suffered, but they’d do a detailed look as time went on. Most houses in the neighborhood were without power, we were one of the lucky ones to have power.

Saturday stores started opening up again, Doordash only offered pick-up service, no delivery. Fast food restaurants were offering drive-through only as they got their stores running again. Power was restored to our neighbors.

Sunday things were kinda sorta mostly normal. Things started resembling pre-hurricane.

But, remember, during the hurricane, we were just on the edge.

We didn’t get hit that badly, I’m sure there are other areas that just got hammered (I don’t know where, I haven’t looked yet,) but here we are.

And now that normal life has resumed, time to get back to it. Streaming is back online. YouTube videos are queued, but I gotta get to recording them. More stories are waiting to be narrated/recorded, but they’re also queued and waiting their turn.

I have some bills coming due that I forgot to keep in mind because of Milton, so any help any readers can provide is greatly appreciated.

Thanks for reading!

Skåll!!!

Helene came, dropped about a half inch of rain on us, hit us with 30 mph gusty winds, and left after a couple of hours.

The worst part was the small branch cleanup in the yard. That’s covered by the HOA here, but I still collected the ones in my way and piled them next to their parent in the yard.

In other news, I’ve been upgrading and migrating the website for YouTube/Twitch/Audio stuff. All content has been moved, I just have to go through each entry and make small corrections to things that didn’t copy over well.

I’ve also adjusted my Stream schedule, and am revamping offerings. I will be updating my Patreon and Ko-Fi coming in the near future, so please check out the Half a Pound of Pixels site if any of that interests you.

In working on that site and comparing it to this site, I’ve realized I’m going to have to learn Twig templating. That appears to be the “current” fad* in theming across multiple website engines. It doesn’t look difficult, it’s just worth multiple sighs and getting down to work. So, this theme might not be replaced/altered any time real soon. It depends on how quickly I can pick up Twig and run with it.

The job search is/headhunters are still crap, so I’m going to get back to trying to make a living from the Half a Pound of Pixels stuff mentioned above. If you can, please use the Ko-Fi button below.

Skåll!

* “Current” as in, it happened but I was too distracted by adulting to notice until it had appeared, and now it’s been here for a while and now I gotta catch up.