BitterSuites

eBay Sales: 2 prints, 1 fandom piece

#MilWordy Update: 110,852 words (4,234 words/day to complete)

I’ve set myself a daily goal of 15 eBay listings a day. If I want to ramp up sales, I have to list more. Which, usually, means you sell more not only because of the things you’ve listed, but because consistent listing seems to bump up all of your listings in the algorithm. That’s eBayer lore at least, and while we know that the plural of “anecdote” isn’t “evidence”, it’s still good to have a firm practice.

I’ve got a business meeting scheduled with one of my business partners for Friday. And while I would love to do it in person, it’s COVID years and that’s not happening.

Managed to get myself an appointment at the DMV for my Real ID. In April. At least that gives me time to gather up all of the paperwork I need for that. You know, birth certificate, SSN card, blood of a virgin, hair of a unicorn. All that. I still have plans to check every day for cancellations and try to get there sooner.

I have been fighting with a new printer install today. I decided to walk away after about an hour. And I’ll need to figure it out before I try to install my mother’s printer. It keeps trying to tell me that it can’t connect with the wifi, but the computer can find it as though it’s connected to the wifi, so the hell?

• Goal: Finish 2 books & 12 short stories — 2 short story complete.
• Goal: Keep a journal, even if it’s only one line per day — Hasn’t happened every day, but better than usual and I’ve actually added time for it into my planner. (Hoping the planner gets me back on track for everything this year.)
• Goal: Take a photo every day and make myself a book at the end of the year. — Almost caught up with this
• Goal: Complete MilWordy. — Progress, but I’ve not hit goal for the day
• Goal: Blog every day. — Cautiously optimistic here.

eBay Sales: 1 tin

#MilWordy Update: 110,447 words (4,216 words/day to complete)

Received 1 story back from beta and have turned it in. So, that’s 2 stories down and 10 to go!

Listed a bit on eBay today. But I am also getting ready to do a local estate auction. That’s going to take some serious prep time. But it will let me get rid of larger items that I don’t want to ship. And it will let me get rid of some glassware that just makes me cringe when I think of trying to wrap it up and ship it. It’s enough trouble keeping it safe in the house!

I’m considering starting a review series that will be posted over on Medium. It will be for casual games — the sort you play on your phone. If nothing else, I want to do something with a consistent format for awhile. It will round out my portfolio. And it will let me get the hang of using Medium before I try to get into the curated section of the site. I’ll let you all know that goes.

Watched a fascinating video over on Wired’s channel about accents in the US. It was especially interesting because it took into consideration Lantinx, African American, and Native American accents as well as white accents. And it discussed a little bit about socio-economic differences in accent as well. I can see a rabbit-hole in my future, but I am resisting the YouTube spiral for now.

Applied for a few freelance editing gigs to supplement my income. We’ll see if anything comes of it. Throw enough spaghetti against the wall and someone is bound to give me a second look. Of course, building a portfolio will help.

I’ve actually created a good schedule for my day tomorrow. We’ll see if I buck against it if I’m the one setting it. I know I get grumpy when other people tell me what to do, even if I don’t show it. 🙂

Well, I’ll talk to you tomorrow.

• Goal: Finish 2 books & 12 short stories — 2 short story complete.
• Goal: Keep a journal, even if it’s only one line per day — Done pretty well on this actually.
• Goal: Take a photo every day and make myself a book at the end of the year. — Caught up with several pictures today.
• Goal: Complete MilWordy. — Progress, but I’ve not hit goal for the day
• Goal: Blog every day. — haha. Nope! I think I’m getting better?

eBay Sales: 2 boxed sets of books, 3 doll outfits

#MilWordy Update: 110,225 words (4,158 words/day to complete)

Sent 2 stories out for reading. One as a final look over, one as a first beta. And I finished up the final edits to another story. That’s still only 1 completed. But that’s better than zero.

It was a relatively busy eBay day.

But I had an appointment cancelled for tomorrow, given that 2-5 inches of snow is presumably a blizzard in this state, which means I’ll have the day to finish listing some more items and packing up the last of the ones to go. And I will be able to finish the edits on another story. It’s currently a reasonable story, but it needs more details to make it really feel right. It works fine as a comment!fic type of thing, but not a proper story. I should be able to finish it sharpish tomorrow.

• Goal: Finish 2 books & 12 short stories — 1 short story complete.
• Goal: Keep a journal, even if it’s only one line per day — Done pretty well on this actually.
• Goal: Take a photo every day and make myself a book at the end of the year. — I’m a few days behind on this
• Goal: Complete MilWordy. — Progress, but I’ve not hit goal for the day
• Goal: Blog every day. — haha. Nope! I think I’m getting better?

eBay Sales: 3 back issues of a magazine, pair of sneakers

#MilWordy Update: 109,979 words (4,159 words/day to complete)

Today was simply a day. I don’t feel that I’ve accomplished much of anything.

I did end up sweeping around my desk because I dropped 2/3 of a bowl of popcorn. I was … salty about it.

Working my budget and suspending/cancelling subscriptions that I’m not using. I still had the DVD Netflix teir, so I dropped that because I have been holding the same three DVDs for months. I paused subscriptions that could be paused and cancelled one. (but I know that I can resubscribe without losing any of my information, so that’s good.)

I have a short story open that just needs a tiny touch to finish it up, so I’m going to count that one as done today because my plan is to pop over to finish it as soon as I get done publishing this. I also have one to send out for beta reading. That’s not *finished*, but it’s a step in the right direction.

• Goal: Finish 2 books & 12 short stories — 1 short story complete.
• Goal: Keep a journal, even if it’s only one line per day — Done pretty well on this actually.
• Goal: Take a photo every day and make myself a book at the end of the year. — I’m a few days behind on this
• Goal: Complete MilWordy. — Progress, but I’ve not hit goal for the day
• Goal: Blog every day. — haha. Nope! I think I’m getting better?

eBay Sales: paper ephemera for scrapbooking

#MilWordy Update: 109,117 words (4,124 words/day to complete)

I started working on a digitization project recently. I’ve been typing in poems and such which have been sitting, static and unyeilding in my file folders. Let me tell you that the nineties were not necessarily a good time for me. At least by the contents of the poetry folder I’ve found. It’s not that it’s bad poetry necessarily. It’s not that it’s good either. Let’s be honest, it’s not my usual format for writing. I also found an article on propaganda in Nazi Germany that I’ve been transcribing. And I am now getting interested in doing some additional research on the topic and fleshing it out a bit more.

So, that might end up in Medium or something at some point. (Yes, I am looking at doing some entries on Medium if anyone’s interested in that. I’ll even blog about my experiences on using the site.) It needs a lot of polishing and I need to resurrect all of the umlauts that didn’t get put into the document because I was using an old Smith Corona word processor. It sounded like a machine gun as it typed and my roommate’s reaction was mostly “is it over yet?” Especially when I was busy printing out the third copy of my senior honor’s thesis.

• Goal: Finish 2 books & 12 short stories — NOT YET
• Goal: Keep a journal, even if it’s only one line per day — Done pretty well on this actually.
• Goal: Take a photo every day and make myself a book at the end of the year. — I’m a few days behind on this
• Goal: Complete MilWordy. — Progress, but I’ve not hit goal for the day
• Goal: Blog every day. — haha. Nope! Two days in a row now though.

eBay Sales: pressure cooker, waterglobe, knife sharpener

#MilWordy Update: 108,785 words (4,107 words/day to complete)

I have been catching up on the pile of ‘zines that I have. So far, I have found 1 that I liked. I have consumed a bunch of bullshit poetry. And I have developed a nostalgia for an era of zines that I barely remember. One that smells of mimeograph ink and smeared slightly. I was never a punk, but I have always enjoyed the aesthetic. And I do remember the days when you had to go out of your way to find zines and get ahold of them. I remember buying from black and white catalogs that had been through too many Xerox machines. And I am disconcerted by new zines that have fresh, good quality printing on fresh, good paper. And there’s no reason to be upset about something that just barely existed in my memory, but it’s like a niggling little toothache. Like I have missed something important.

And zines are an all-age game, but normally it feels like it’s just the young who do such things. Zines were the tumblr and livejournal of my youth. But I was not part of that world then. I was too focussed on doing the things I thought mattered, like getting A’s in school and going to college. And part of me wonders now if I want to try to recapture that weird magic and make my own zines.

What would I put into it? Flash fiction, I think. Shorter than 100 words. Maybe 25 words stories. And simply drawn covers.

Or maybe I’d invent some animals and make a small diary of a “naturalist” researching them. That could be fun.

Or maybe I’d create a DIY documentary of the renovation of my dollhouse. That could be several issues. The problems of getting it stripped, painting it, finding the right moulding. All of the little episodes. Hmm…. I’m suspiciously pleased with this plan.

And yes, I would count all of those words.

• Goal: Finish 2 books & 12 short stories — NOT YET
• Goal: Keep a journal, even if it’s only one line per day — Done pretty well on this actually.
• Goal: Take a photo every day and make myself a book at the end of the year. — I’m a few days behind on this
• Goal: Complete MilWordy. — Progress, but I’ve not hit goal for the day
• Goal: Blog every day. — haha. Nope! But I didn’t procrastinate about it today, so there’s that.