I was reading a paper from a copywriting place talking about how 27 years ago, let the Internet go beyond a research/non-profit platform. Amazon, eBay and PCWorld all got started that year.

That was in 1995. The year after I started MUDding. It doesn’t seem like it could be that long.

I’m listening to a summit on copywriting. In the summit, they’re talking about Web 3.0. Eighteen years ago, they were talking about Web 2.0. I remember the changes that were made to web design.

Heck, my blog is an example of it, since it hasn’t changed since 2007. (I went back and figured out when I started this blog.) The design on this blog is an example of how we designed when I was working for the web design company in 2000. It is so far out of date.

I’m working on updating it, and it should go live around the time that I move my sites to SiteGround where I can have a security certificate and get rid of the ‘not secure’ warning that everyone sees when they visit my site.

Yet, 27 years ago none of this existed.

Now, no one hardly has time for anything. Short snippets of information.

Blogs should be one line or two lines of sentences in each paragraph. Never more than 4 lines. I get it, it makes it easier to scan, but it’s still just… different.

I also get it because I don’t have a lot of time myself. I’m almost ready to publish my fiction book. I’ll link it here once I do. I’m really just stuck on a title. I’ve got 7 different books outlined. That’s just for the first series.

I’ve been uploading books about marketing businesses online. I had planned on just 4, but after the writing summit today, I need to write one more. I’ll probably wait until after I start uploading my fiction books. That one is going to take longer because I’m going to have to do a lot of research.

Anyway, I’ve got work and job hunting to do.

Laterness.

I recently set up a playlist on Spotify. It’s an interesting mix of songs, some one-hit wonders from the ’80s and ’90s, some Weird Al, some country, and some contemporary Christian. Every once in a while I add other songs. I might need to add We Don’t Talk About Bruno. It’s one of those earworms from Disney+

I think I got a wake-up call today. I’ve had a headache for 2 days and finally figured out that my blood pressure was a bit high. Or at least high for me. I listened to a meditation track on YouTube, but I might need to find something to reduce my stress.

Not that I have much to be stressed about.

My stepson’s grandmother died last week. Less than 3 months after his mom died.

I’m still job hunting.

My daughter is out of town until Saturday for a Robotics competition. She’s on the marketing arm of the Robotics team.

My dog is hit or miss with eating lately, which is very unusual. She’s about 40 lbs. overweight, so she usually doesn’t miss meals. She turns 9 this year, so I worry.

I’ve got my marketing second book almost done. I’m about 4,000 words short. I have to have it done by Friday so I can upload it. I’m playing musical names on the ones I’ve got in pre-order. I had originally uploaded them under a pen name. I’ve decided I’m changing it to my real name. My fiction books will sorta be under my real name as well. It’ll be under the name I grew up with, which isn’t the same as I use now. My daughter keeps saying I’m doing too much. I guess they never saw how much I did when I was working. There was a reason that I worked 45 hours a week, I always put my all into my work.

Anyway, my marketing book isn’t getting done with me posting here.

Laterness.

My daughter has been getting headaches at least 3 times a week in December. I had her wear her old glasses to see if that was the cause. Of course it was.

So off to the eye doctor. He said she had a slight astigmatism. She asked what that was and I explained about the spikes from the street lights in the dark and other signs. She looked at me and asked ‘you mean that’s not normal?’

We had a talk about what each of us saw around the street lights when I brought her home last night. Today was her first day with her new glasses – I’m not sure why they took so long to come in. She said no headaches.

Between job applications, I’ve been writing little non-fiction books (like 65 pages) about things that I have researched as I’ve written for various sites over the years. I’ve accumulated a bunch of PLM books about these subjects as well. I’m combining my knowledge with anything in these books that’s still relevant and uploading them to Amazon.

At some point, I need to do a 2nd draft on my fiction book and outline/write more of them. I guess once I exhaust my knowledge for the non-fiction books, I can start publishing those. We will see because the fiction ones take longer, though I might be getting better at that the more I write.

I really have other things to do, but I’m fighting anxiety since my severance runs out at the end of this month. It’s easier to focus on writing when I am like that.

I saw this on Facebook the other day and sent it to one of my kids – probably my son since he’s in middle school. I do find it entertaining when I remember that the author of the above book used to teach middle school. I’m not sure if he still does after over 20 best selling kids books.

And this my daughter sent to me. 😀 Maybe my son isn’t the only one who has my sense of humor. We always say she takes after her father until she agrees with me on something, then he calls her my mini me.

Anyway, it’s just about time for bed. The kids may or may not have school tomorrow. We will find out by 6:30 am

I started another book. It will be a different series until I hear back from my advance readers.

Now I need to focus on getting an income. I’m not sure what I will find, but I know there’s something out there.

We’ve been watching Night Court lately. Some of these episodes wouldn’t pass today. Some of it is nostalgic.

Just a short post tonight. Happy Valentine’s Day all.

Laterness and g’nite

I finished the book last night. I’ve sent it to someone for their opinion and I’ve started outlining the next one(s). Doing this keeps my mind busy, and I’m not letting it interfere in the job hunt.

So far I’m still applying for work from home jobs. There’s nothing available here that I qualify for in town unless I go fast food, hotel, or general labor in a plant.

Anyway, back at it. 🙂

It appears that trying to write more often isn’t working as well as I planned. LOL On the other hand, I’ve got my book within 5,000 words of completion. I am hoping to have it done tonight. I’ve got a couple of people I’m going to send it to for opinions while I start on the next one. If people like it, I’m going to go ahead and upload it to sell on Amazon. I don’t expect to make a lot of money, but even a couple of sales would be a hoot.

I also have at least 2 more books outlined, though one is a short story that I may (or probably will) give away on my author website. I have to figure out how to do that part as well. It should be interesting.

I’m still looking for a job. The book writing is to distract me from getting discouraged. It’s been almost 3 months, and all I keep getting are ‘We decided to go in another direction.’

I’ve gotten to the point where I’m looking at freelancing.

Anyway, back to see if I can finish the last 5,000 words tonight.

Laterness & g’night.

Since I have so much time in my hands, I’ve been working on some of the books that have been in my head for years. They’ll probably be only about 25,000 words or about 90 to 100 pages long.

I’m about 8,000 words into the first one. So far, I’ve gotten everything mapped out in what I want to have happen, I just need to get it on the screen. I’ve been writing on Google docs, and I find I’m liking it better than all of those times I wrote on paper. I can go back and change things and move them around so much easier on the screen.

Unfortunately I was up late last night working on it, and time to get the kids up for school came way too early. After I’ve had my caffeine, I’ll look at jobs for a bit before starting back on the writing. I’ve been using a timer and getting a lot more done than I expected.

If I like the stories and how they turn out, I may self publish on Amazon. I already have ideas for 4 more. The 4th will be the easiest, since I’ll be repurposing a story I wrote for National Novella Writing Month.

Off for my caffeine for the day. It’s days like this that I wish I could stomach hot coffee – especially espresso. Since I had gallbladder problems in 2014, hot brewed coffee doesn’t sit well in my stomach. I don’t have any cold brew on hand.

I do like The Boomtown Rats, though 😉

I’m still working on redesigning my website. I offered to pay my daughter to update my logo, since she’s in graphic arts at the local Votech, but she hasn’t. I guess I’ll just have to do it myself. It’s all good.

I’ve published a couple of no-content books on Amazon – like a debt payoff tracker and a gratitude journal. I have some other ideas, but I’m not expecting much out of them, since I don’t know that they sell very well. On the other hand, since I’m doing all of the designing and putting them together myself, it’s not costing me anything except time. I can do it when I’m watching TV with the kids, especially since my son is repeating series in order. He just finished the Dragon Prince, now I think his plan is to watch Glitch Techs, though last night we watched a movie called Middle School: The Worst Years of my Life.

I wonder if he was trying to give me a hint? He has one more year of middle school. He’s not allowed to be that old already. I know he’s been complaining he’s bored in school. I’m not sure what I can do to help with that. He was in gifted in elementary school, but they don’t have such a thing in middle school, and for some reason he couldn’t get into the advanced math class this year.

I might need to talk to the teacher during the next student led conferences.

Anyway, I have a timer set to start job hunting.

Laterness