The sequel to, What Gives?.

Hello Everyone,

I do my best to sound chipper despite what I have to say. Not sure if this one will be as pretty as my other painted pictures. I know I divulge a lot, but there is still more to be told, just not so publicly.

I'm doing everything I can to try and make some income; any income. I'm even trying out another site called Gumroad, and now I'm thinking I may have already mentioned that. It's been hard for me to think straight lately.

We've been miserable for a long time, and things are not looking up or even sideways. I'd be happy with sideways. At least for now.

I tried applying for some online writing job, and even though they said they would reply back within a week, it's been going on three without a response. The application took nearly an hour to complete, but I have to assume that the answer is, 'no'. Limbo may be a fun word, but it is not a fun state of being.

Here's another example: My wife and I both signed up with Revolut, which is a neo-bank. We both ordered physical cards to be delivered to the same address. She got hers, while I just chatted with support to make sure that my third attempt at ordering the card delivers.

We also tried ordering some wild lettuce extract. We managed to find a distributor down in Portland, Oregon, as opposed to most of the others being from out of this country. We hoped it would arrive soon for her toothache since she can't take Ibuprofen right now, which is the only pain med that works for her other than strong prescriptions.

Nothing has come in the mail even though the site sent me an email asking to rate my experience. We have asked for a refund.

It's that kind of… stuff. We deal with it all the time. And, no, I honestly don't view the world in a pessimistic manner, nor do I allow pragmatism to upend my vision of the preferred outcome. I am optimistic to a fault. My wife, on the other hand, worries about the worst outcome possible.

Some might say, "Well, maybe you shouldn't try so hard." I'm honestly not trying that hard. I used to be that person, but I'm not anymore. There's no point in trying that hard if the majority of the time it doesn't pan out anyhow.

I honestly can't describe the frustration and desperation I feel right now. Our plan to be out of this crazy place by my birthday at the end of the month is looking to be delayed. We let too much pile up, and now it's like: where do we start?

It really needs to happen soon, though. Not just this slum, but the surrounding area is getting worse and worse.

Just last night we failed to have dinner for our rescued pets. I tried walking two miles to a grocery store that's open late, but got there just as they were letting out their last customer. My hip is still sore, but my wife was too scared to go out on her own to pick some forage. That's not normal for her.

Anywhys, I do want to mention something fun. Nightcafe Studio recently added a fun new tool called, Stable Video Diffusion. It animates your creations into a four second video in mp4 format. To be fair, it does need some refinement, but it does produce some awesome results like with the image above.

Check out my profile to see the others I've done. One of them looks like a shifting kaleidoscope.

Lastly, the aim of this blog is to inform those that care. At the same time, we always need help. Please consider one of the following:

* Leave a tip
* Buy some merch
* Buy a book or two
* Feed our rescued pets

My Linktree has all of those links and more.

Thank you so much for reading. Have a wonderful day….[[|:-)