Welcome to the realities of publishing. It will be January 2027 (unless that also changes, which is entirely possible. Publishing!)

Reorganizing the ego shelf (and all the other books) in my office to make some room for the new book (THESE SAVAGE STARS!! OUT JANUARY 2027!!). Got me thinking about how much my view of the world and what I have to say, and where that fits in wider culture convos, has changed in last 15 years.

!!!!!!

Great example of my money anxieties: bought shelf and saw bath items I wanted but didn't need. Asked if I'd rather get that and nothing else until 31st or if I could do it then and SCREAMING ANXIETY MONSTER cried: "BUT SOMETHING HORRIBLE MIGHT HAPPEN BETWEEN NOW AND THEN AND I WON'T HAVE THE MONEY"

Weirdly the opposite because ideas don't really mean anything--it's much more about the execution and how I pull it off. I can write a modern version of Dracula and you can write a modern version of Dracula, but neither of us will write SALEM'S LOT, which was King's modern version of Dracula.

True for a shocking number of female con attendees!! 😅

Trying budget mindset where every dollar has a "job." So, sure, I CAN spend this dollar on THIS, but then the JOB I set aside for that dollar isn't going to happen. I've found mindset shifts work well for me if I repeat them often enough ("sure I CAN drink, but then I'll feel horrible for 3 days).

I once knew a guy who had actually written out a list of all the "big names" he wanted to connect with at a con.

"I knew a lot of these people before any of us was famous" isn't something anyone breaking in wants to hear. 😆 "But how do you know who's going to be famous???" ... exactly.

Had a moment choosing new door handles for basement door where I thought "Don't get one that locks. No one should be locking their kids in the basement." Which said a lot about me, because of course most people want to lock their kids OUT of the basement, not IN it, hence why they'd want the lock.

He's just a baby!

I guess it's time

Bonus holiday joy via my stepmom: Percy is ready to open some presents

Let’s take care of each other today.

Realized I was spiraling because I wasn't sticking to my "take it one day at a time" rule. Something that's kept me at a pretty even keel the last year or two has been not thinking more than about 24 hours ahead at any given moment. The chaos engine is just too volatile right now for that.

This is beautiful

This is legitimately the wildest business and job market I've ever experienced. The instability and uncertainty and chaotic swings - even inside the businesses themselves - are truly next level. But it's the new normal.

Some adorable character writing on the new season of Midsomer Murders.

He's just a baby!

Watching a lot of financial advice videos these days and reminded a big reason I hate it is because it always leads me to think about the 401ks I had to burn down to pay for health insurance in my 20s and 30s and think how much those would actually be worth now if I had lived in a real country

Nothing baffles me more than seeing people who bankrupted their former companies just go on to... Found more companies.

Exactly that

All right: back to work, Hurley.

Going to be struggling with this painful hangover all day. Telling myself I just freed up $800/mo in recurring payments, but man it hurt to see all that cash come in and immediately go out again. Guess I better finish this book 😆

I'm in startup world now and can't imagine asking people for amounts of money startups ask for. But what I keep forgetting is there's no actual horrible thing that happens if biz goes under that's using investor capital. Risk is baked into model. If it doesn't work, folks move on to next venture

It's legitimately an entirely other world that each and every one of us is subsidizing at every level.

I about lost my mind when a celebrity was like "yeah my 10M house had lost value and clearly wasn't a good investment anymore, so I just gave it back to the bank." He just... Walked away. It's not working class people tanking markets.

One of the many painful rich person vs working class person "hacks" I discovered a few years back is that rich people just... Don't pay their debts. They default on mortgages all the time. Credit card debt, etc. When you can pay for everything in cash, your credit score doesn't matter. So why pay?

An important note.

One thing I do for job is create LinkedIn ads (it's a real channel for many cos!). Was going through feed looking for creative examples; had to remind myself that only ads I would ever see were ads tailored to someone w/my job title. Was never going to see what people I'm marketing to will see

A wild deerfox has appeared. 'Tis the season #DogsInAntlers

Catching up on Emily in Paris, the modern Sex in the City, and like that show, I can only take it in small doses. All of this relationship drama is exhausting 😆. I would never get anything done.

The next project is cleaning out the basement. I wonder at what point I just rent a small dumpster 😆

Yup, this is the "good" credit rate. There's no one regulating the buses out here, and shit's getting even wilder

As someone who had a 3.5% interest rate on my credit card in 2007, the current 27% interest rate just blows my fucking mind.

EXACTLY. We were always perfectly aware of what she wanted 😂

People are out here proudly announcing that they intend be authors and that they have no interest in writing, that they deserve a large-audience of readers but they themselves only read to extract from the actual artists they plan to usurp. Baby, the cogs have learned to TALK. Wild times.

We had a dog who we are 100% sure understood every single word we said. We never wanted to train her on the buttons because we suspected we'd get nothing but sass constantly we got enough sass from her without that 😆

This how they did in my team in Jan. They kept them long enough to train bots, then fired them. I'm currently surviving doing work of 4 people, at breakneck pace. If you wonder why I have clear eyed view of where we are with LLMs, this is why. I was ground 0 www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/i-was-forc...

Reading that most Americans say they need $233,000 a year to feel financially comfortable. Makes me feel a lot less crazy for what I feel is an actual middle class salary these days. Inflation, low wages, no safety net, 27% credit card interest rates, housing costs, have mopped the floor w/Americans

Fascinated to discover that my package was out for delivery on the FedEx truck at 4:56am today but back at the delivery hub at 8pm.

Found this cursed object while thrifting this weekend.

Dog tax

This how they did in my team in Jan. They kept them long enough to train bots, then fired them. I'm currently surviving doing work of 4 people, at breakneck pace. If you wonder why I have clear eyed view of where we are with LLMs, this is why. I was ground 0 www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/i-was-forc...

Guess I'm going to have to watch the gay hockey show. 😆

Love it.

He's in House of Guinness on Netflix!

at this point there's a whole other conversation to be had in the creative industries about how the perspective of even the most astute cultural consultant will not absolve *you* from having to seek, learn, & develop a strong culturally foundational base or else shut up about that part of the work.

I find the Granchester guy kind of insufferable in Grantchester, but he'd had a real glow up by House of Guinness. A lot of that is just him playing a more confident and complex character, I suspect. The vicar bores me to tears.