Doing OK. Usual ups and downs.

My writing is improving and I'm getting a little traction on my newsletter. Its nice to see people responding and starting to share it. However, it comes at a cost of being in a quasi social media landscape. I promised myself to keep going and make a switch if I can (a) find an alternative space to publish essays or (b) land a gig at a publication aligned with my writing and interests.

My memoir of my early days in specialty coffee moved forward (thanks to everyone who suggested how to tackle a tough section). Almost done. Even got a title. My writing critique group is a joy. Reviews and comments helpful, delivered in a friendly tone. So refreshing after academic journal reviewers were my only critique experience.

Unemployment in my neck of the woods is near 10%. Still struggling with a discourse of "value = career, no job = useless" we Americans were beat over the head with from childhood. But finally getting over the end of academia.

Thanks for reading my rambling update. What a whirlwind! Now, coffee.

Back in March I upgraded Pop OS and after that, weird performance problems started popping up. When trying to play Proton games, weird performance spikes started appearing, frame times were all over the place. This affected also regular software run using Wine, I got audio stuttering with Guitar Pro. I reinstalled Nvidia's drivers and even downgraded the kernel, but nope. I tried all kinds of performance tweaks, but nope.

Then I looked at udevadm's logs, and my computer's 20-year-old DVD drive appeared far too often. I shut down my computer, removed the drive and BAM – all those performance problems disappeared! Even Pop OS booted a lot faster! As the drive is connected through an IDE-SATA adapter, it may have created constant messages to the OS, even if it wasn't in use. That in turn strained the system.

Now I can finally game on my PC again and use Guitar Pro, feels as if a world is opened again.

My work headset mic is broke again apparently. I have to use the mic built into the computer which works, but I don't like it nearly as much. Not sure why the headset mic randomly decides not to work for a month or two and then start working again.

So far, so good. After a couple of weeks basically under the radar with everyone I know, I finally talked with my mom about the financial hole I dug myself with my ex-wife. I basically figured out a way to convert one short-term loan from CashApp into a different kind of short-term loan through them and bought myself another month.

Thankfully, by now I'd revised my argument to the point that not taking out the loan for her would have been the more expensive option overall, given the extra stop at a friend's place by the airport to pick up my gaming rig that he never ended up using. And throwing the cherry on that was "it was an expensive lesson, but with other things going on, it led me to realize this is simply who she's been for the past 17 years, and I can't hope for her to ever change."

And then pointed out we have a couple of weeks before it's due, as interest is assessed at the time of the loan, so early repayment is pointless.

So, Arizona planning that was supposed to happen a couple of weeks ago when I lost it on her was able to proceed apace, and she had more info about her plans (only one, compared with the smorgasbord she'd been planning and thus irritating the fuck out of me with). Sounds more like the trip I'd agreed to than what she'd been trying to turn it into. The hotel in Phoenix is going to be about three miles from the house I grew up in, which in the Valley is basically next door, and that's the mountain where we're spreading his ashes.

No fresh hell has come my way, and we're actually going to get the elusive week Texas never provides: Highs in the mid-80s, lows in the mid-60s, sunny, low humidity. Basically Christmas in Phoenix. Oh, and I get to avoid the stupidity of randomly changing the clock by an hour as I'll be in Arizona for the switch to standard time.