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Just got my copy of Return in the mail! It’s so cool, everything I dreamed it would be. I’ve been staring at that cover since (looks like March 2015, I thought it was older) and now I finally get to hold the finished book. It is so awesome sauce. The “error” on the cover, if you will, where I had to cover up is totally invisible. The camera wouldn’t focus on an all black coat so I had to put white tape on it and then edit the tape out and there was still a visible mark left after editing it. It was more visible when I made the black coat blue like it is in the book. But when it’s actually printed on a real cover that editing mark is totally gone!
 
2013 was in a lot of ways the most eventful year of my life (October 2012 - January 2014 are included together into what I call “The Long Year”) and now the book that concluded that year is made manifest and it’s quite the experience.
 
It’s heavy. 500 pages feels heavy.

@UrbanMysticDee  
Scrambled chorizo eggs and coffee

@IvanSatoru  
What is it?

 
Imagine eating this good

@UrbanMysticDee  
Good to hear. I too have settled down at a cozy job after working there as a temp for 3 months. It’s really boring but it pays well, has good benefits, and I get weekends off.

I got the job! I start today at 4 PM. It’s an evening job, which is great for me since I don’t wake up until 10 AM anyway. It also looks like it will be, by far, the easiest job I’ve ever had with 0 stress, which will be great after the last few jobs I’ve had.
 
Here’s the road it took to get here:
 
2016-2018  
262 applications  
25 interviews/phone calls  
5 Hires (3 McJerbs (1 temp), 1 single-day seat filler job, 1 Job)  
More or less continuously employed May 2017 through March 2020
 
2020-2021  
125 applications  
4 in-person interviews (+1 cancelled interview because company suffered from lockdowns and cancelled job)  
6 emails/phone calls  
1 Hire (1 Job)
 
2017 was The Year of Four Jobs, but two were temp jobs. The seat filler job would have become permanent but they needed me to travel between New York and Atlantic City and I’d be spending all my pay and time on commute so it wasn’t worth it.

@UrbanMysticDee  
>These people must be desperate.  
It may be photoshopped, but there’s an image floating around of a McDonald’s somewhere hiring for $22.50 an hour.

Got an interview Monday.
 
That was 3 hours after I applied. On a Saturday.
 
These people must be desperate.
 
Now I should be able to finish another book next year!

The cover is half fixed! At least I think it is. The front cover looks to be fixed, but the back cover is still half yellow, so who knows.
 
Nope, spoke too soon. They’re just showing the kindle cover. The paperback cover is still broken.

I finished the story. I need to write a few notes and finish the making of essay at the end and then it’s done.
 
Here’s a really cool fact: the story is a flashback, so the beginning and the end happen on the same day, and that day is 19 October. That’s today. That’s really cool.

I really like this chapter. It’s so clean and easy and there’s nothing to annotate but a couple of creative liberties I had to take, because if I was reading the book I would notice them, so I thought I should preempt readers like myself.

@Adan Druego  
I had a dream I found a dvd of the newest movie a few days ago.

Oh man, due to all this back and forth with the Spike images, I actually had a dream about Cathy Weseluck.
 
She was a guest on a panel with other cast members and I was hoping to hear her doing her Spike voice, but sadly she didn’t.
 
I’ve always thought it was amazing just how voice actors and actresses switch into and out of characters. It’s an incredible talent.
 
I’m posting this in happy vent because I’d like to have more dreams about My Little Pony.

@Dex Stewart  
I was wondering when you’d get your internet connection back. Good to see that you’re back online.

My Wi-Fi is back!  
Now I can waste time watching old Phelous videos again.

@UrbanMysticDee  
Probably, but I don’t want to count any more coins for a long time. I’ll be counting to ten in my dreams tonight.

@EverfreeEmergencies  
Is there any way we can round this to an even $100?

Had a whole $97 in coins.

I’m gonna go to ciderfest next week

I’m high right now. I’ve been going through a lot of really rough shit lately and I forgot what it was like to be happy. Trees are just so beautiful.

I forgot that you can just get coin wrappers from the bank for free, and I have a lot more coins than I originally thought. Might end up being at least a full gas tank’s worth of money.

Edited 24 pages today. Under ideal circumstances that means I could finish the book in 14 days. Let’s say 16 with the essay at the end and formatting it for Amazon. But chances are I won’t get ideal circumstances because this was the first ideal day since I started two weeks ago.
 
Also, round 2 interviews tomorrow. I’m scared if it goes either way. If I don’t get the job this is the first interview I’ve had in a year so I’m kinda screwed, and if I do get it that means it might take me the rest of the year to finish the book.
 
Maybe if I get the job they’ll let me start in 2 weeks so I can get 90% done with the book.

@UrbanMysticDee  
Do you buy propane and propane accessories?

@IvanSatoru  
And I cook with propane. Gives me nice taste of meat.

 
 
My mesquite tree. Photos are 37 days apart.