#Being a Substack Master

[mehmetyildizmelbourne-blog]

Section 14: Why to Add Interactive Educational Programs to Your Substack

Summary of my Udemy Course “From Zero to Substack Hero.” Image source from the video location Purpose of this Series for New Readers This is a new series upon request from my readers. I recently developed a course titled “From Zero to Substack Hero” and published it on Udemy and shared it on Content Marketing Strategy Insights owned by Dr Mehmet Yildiz who kindly allowed me to use his Substack…

[inkedwingss]

I can't explain why, considering they are radically different platforms, but I feel like Substack has the same DNA as Instagram, and that's the reason why I can't keep using it. It doesn't work for me.

[badolmen]

The satisfaction of finding an efficient way to clean up your data frame without using your advisor’s working but unannotated code…effervescent

[malusokay]

What's the point of a diary if you're not lying in it?

On Anaïs Nin, literary self-mythologizing, and why personal writing should always be slightly dishonest. (from my substack)

If you’re not lying in your diary, you’re just journaling, and journaling is for people who don’t know how to edit.

A diary is not a record of events; it is an act of creation. The best diarists know this instinctively. Anaïs Nin knew it better than anyone. Her diaries were not mere confessions but performances, half-lit mirrors where the truth shimmered, distorted but no less real.

Nin understood that life is not lived in a single register. Her diaries are a study in contradiction—one moment, she is in love; the next, repulsed. She is independent yet wholly consumed by those around her. But contradiction isn’t falsehood; it’s literature. She rewrote and edited her diaries, sculpting herself into the character she wanted to be. And is that really so dishonest?

People love to be outraged by the idea of a diary that is not entirely factual. But fact is not the same as truth. Diaries, at their best, are emotional truths, shaped by mood, by desire, by the need to impose a narrative on the chaos of daily life. Nin was not interested in being objective—she was interested in being immortal. She once wrote, “We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospection.” But why stop at tasting? Why not rewrite, reshape, embellish? If we can curate the lives we present to others, why should we not do the same for the versions of ourselves we leave behind?

Nin herself was a master of this. She edited her diaries before publication, removing, refining, turning herself into a protagonist. She blurred lines, shifted timelines, made herself more alluring. She called it shaping reality. Others call it lying. The truth, of course, is that all personal writing is selective. Even in confession, there is curation.

The danger, of course, is that history will take the performance at face value. That the diary, once private, will harden into biography. But this, too, is a kind of truth. A diary is not a static object. It lives, it breathes, it deceives, but always in service of something larger than the mundane details of existence.

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

Good Omens graphic novel update: January 2024 ❤ 🐍😊

A toast to the new year, courtesy of your favourite angel and demon. Let’s start off 2024 with a preview of some new artwork from the Loot Packs, this time courtesy of Mark Buckingham: 

Our updates will, naturally, become more packed as the year goes on, and for January it’s a fairly swift one, but we promise from here in, there will be lots to cover. 

An update from Colleen

For those of you who missed it, Colleen Doran, our ineffable artist, has posted an update over on Substack detailing her 2023 working on the graphic novel, but also her own journey with various health issues and looking ahead to 2024. As she mentions, but it is worth reiterating: the Good Omens HQ team sends all the good wishes and support to Colleen, now publicly as we had previously done privately. The graphic novel is more than worth the wait. You can read Colleen's full post here.

Some admin...

Final reminder: Cameos 

Thanks to everyone who has submitted their photos. We’ve collated everyone’s excellent pictures for the various tier levels and been in touch if there are any issues, but we have to issue a final reminder for those who backed a cameo tier and have yet to submit. We have sent several individual chases to anyone outstanding and we want to make sure everyone who backed the tier gets their cameo. A final deadline of Friday 9th February 2024 has been set; while we will share any images submitted with Colleen beyond then, with the graphic novel significantly underway, we cannot guarantee inclusion beyond the deadline. 

Addresses

We’ve been messaged a lot about this, so to put minds at ease: we’ve not yet asked for addresses, and this will be done via PledgeManager when it launches later in the year. If you’re moving house, or have moved since backing, don’t worry! All is fine, and can be updated down the road. If you’d like to add more items, this will also be possible there. We’ll notify backers when it’s live, but you can also sign up for an update from PledgeManager if you’d like. 

A Masterful Masterpost

If you'd like to dive more into the behind the scenes of the graphic novel, there's a great masterpost to check out courtesy of @captainfantasticalright. You can view that on Tumblr and TikTok.

Pins? Pins! 

We’ve heard you asking for updates beyond the pins and while we’re working on getting a number of the items to the final stages for production and photographing to share with you, and plan to have some for next month’s update (wait until you see the socks that have just arrived), we’re not quite there yet. So, for those fans of “how many times can you say pins in an update”, here’s a first look at the bookshop pin from the mystery pin packs:

Pins are being notoriously shiny in photos, but exciting nonetheless. Here’s the first(!) delivery of pins that have arrived at GOHQ: 

Safe to say, we have a lot of pins. How many times have we said pins so far? One more for good measure: pins. 

A surprise!

(x) Until next time. 

[livingasaghost]

the dangers of being seen

"the summer palace" by c.s. pacat / "unfold" by marié digby / happy place by emily henry / "girls against god" by florence + the machine / evenings & weekends by oisín mckenna / love, theoretically by ali hazelwood / the terror 1x8, “terror camp clear” / #39 by tiya on substack (@soulmvtes) / sza for Behind SZA's 'SOS' Album & Tour with Apple Music Live / "to be seen" by searows / "other people are allowed to run wild, so why not me?" by jenna clare/ masters of death by olivie blake / "the archer" by taylor swift / alone with you in the ether by olivie blake / “what does it mean to shift a vibration?” by fariha róisín / d.w. winnicott / you exist too much by zaina arafat / dark heir by c.s. pacat

[glowettee]

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[sapphicscholar]

I have other Agatha All Along fics I want to write first if/when I get the time over winter break BUT while I get the appeal of professor Agatha Harkness (see below), might I present a slightly more in-the-world and (I think) fun/interesting vision of an academia AU than prof Agatha with everyone else from the whole cast turned into grad students?

Agatha: visiting distinguished faculty with a 1 course load over her 1-2 year term; she’s got power by rank with absolutely no tether to the university community, and she’s paid more than most, which stirs up plenty of resentment…especially when the dept has been insisting for years that they simply don’t have the money to fund other faculty’s research projects and speaker series

Rio: chair of the board of trustees who can recite Robert’s rules of order by heart but knows just how to break them at pivotal moments for best effect; knows Agatha from way back when at Agatha’s first university job where she got denied tenure in a splashy, overly publicized case (no knows exactly what happened except Agatha, and she’s not telling—not even when every version of the story to emerge is worse and worse); even though the vote happened behind closed doors, Agatha blames Rio (after all, she wasn’t fucking the other trustees now was she? Or was she?)

Jen: tenure-track faculty whose office was stolen to give to Agatha (at Agatha’s request/demand); she’s beloved by 90% of her students (with a couple vocal critics), and shes far better at public-facing scholarship than most - you know she’s got a recognizable brand on academic twitter, and she was one of the first to monetize her substack

Alice: dept admin; had been in the department’s Ph.D. program, but a string of bad luck and family emergencies cut short her grad school experience, so she mastered out and got hired back because people in the dept liked her enough to want to keep her around; she quite enjoys Billy (see below) despite how much he annoyed her when he first started, and together they know more gossip than anyone else in the dept

Billy: undergrad major who works in the dept admin office and is besties with the all the admin staff and therefore feels himself part of the dept despite being 20-40 years younger than most of them

Lilia: executive assistant to the Dean of the college (could be to the university president, but she’s have much less reason to interact with the others then); seems scattered, still using WordPerfect, but has been there long enough to know more than you’d ever realize or even think to ask about

[turquoisedata]

There's a new episode of Tortoise describing Scarlett Pavlovich's lawsuit against NG.

You can listen at their website for free (and just for the record, all their episodes have always been freely available on their website and Spotify and I believe apple podcasts, despite the constant early reports that their podcast and therefore the allegations were paywalled).

It's good to hear Scarlett and Caroline talk. As the victims who were reliant on him for housing they have always felt particularly vulnerable.

Interesting to hear Rachel Johnson do another episode though given that Jon Ronson published an interview with her on Substack on 31 January in which she said:

It looks like he’s been canceled, and how do I not feel kind of responsible for that? I've got to say, I’m uncomfortable with #metooing people. Is that all right to say? I don't believe in cancel culture. We all do bad stuff and we all do good stuff and he's done good stuff and he's done bad stuff and he is now regarded as an evil monster. I think the women who accuse him would say he hurt them, but that’s a female-male dynamic that unfortunately happens to be incredibly common.

Ok Rachel.

31 Jan: i feel responsible for him being cancelled 😭

18 Feb: anyway let me tell you all about the lawsuit Scarlett is bringing against him!! 🙃

Also: given the way Edendale Strategies are attempting to drown out the allegations online, I find it EXTREMELY interesting that Jon Ronson is the author of So You've Been Publicly Shamed which, as described by Wikipedia:

".... includes a long section about how people can "hide" their negative Google Search results via legal and creative IT mechanics."

I first heard of this tactic years ago in an episode of Reply All (on apple podcasts) in which the hosts interviewed Jon Ronson and the woman he engineered SEO for.

Anyone else feel like the juxtaposition is interesting? Just me???

(link to reply all edited because Spotify are twats)

[onwriting-hrarby]

for you — rivamika fanfic notice

Dear everyone,

Knock-knock—is someone there? I truly hope so because my mind has been wondering about this story for a while. So, first things first: Hi, this is Hera, the author of "For You."

Because yes: a new chapter is coming. It has been coming for the past ten months, but now I only have 5 mini-chapters left to write and a 30- page chapter to revise. Let me break it to you: 2024 has been... eventful. In a letter in April (I believe) I told you that I needed to focus on my original novel for a while because I aimed to finish it after summer, and I did. In the process of completing the novel, I celebrated becoming a 30-year-old, I had a future crisis, I decided to take a master's, I submitted a proposal for a children's book, opened a Substack, bought myself a car (and I'm indebted for the rest of my life, probably) and basically, life happened. Which is exhausting but also nice. Being offline became my priority: I deleted my personal Twitter account, and dumbified my phone. I have so many inputs in my life that I didn't need any more.

September came, the 5 mini chapters still left to write. I got my first "no" for my original novel, but I got a "yes" for the children's book submission—so, happy to say that I'm going to be a published author! (If all goes according to plan. I do not celebrate before I have the book printed in front of me.) I am also in the middle of my teacher's practicum but still juggling with my ordinary job, so I'm dealing with quite a lot. However, as I was telling you, this story hasn't left my mind. I know some of you have been wondering, giving me courage through the comments, and I appreciate this so much. Whenever I think about the relationship of Mikasa and Levi in this fic I grow worried that I'm not going to have enough time to explore all the nuances and pain that comes with motherhood and love—but I need to tell myself that this is fanfiction, that Mikasa and Levi aren't going anywhere, and that it is fine in just trying.

I also had worries that no one was here anymore. But I read a Zutara fanfiction in May in which the author did several hiatus. The writing spanned during five years or more and it made me think that fanfiction shouldn't be a timing burden. I think a lot about the relationship of my online and offline persona and how it doesn't differ that much—I'm still the same imaginative, self-pushing, perfectionist girl—and this fanfiction told me that it's alright: I have a story to tell. I hope it finds someone. And even though I take time, I hope for that someone to come back here when they want and find the story again.

I need to submit the children's book by the end of January, and my master thesis by April (although I will have a lot of work from my master before and after too). But now that the life work is lessening, I hope I can finally sit in front of the computer and finish Chapter 4. I am envisioning this story to have 9 chapters in total, but we will see.

So, this story is coming. My goal is for it to come on the end of December or beginning of January—but it will come. If you want to know when I upload a chapter, you can subscribe to the fanfiction and you will receive the notification on your inbox, which is a cool feature. In fact, I have begun finishing Chapter 4... but god, my English is rusty. I take long.

Anyways. Hope to see you soon. Thank you for your comments and encouragement—it has made the offline Hera very happy, too.

—Hera

[lesmisletters-daily]

Fauchelevent Becomes A Gardener In Paris

Les Mis Letters reading club explores one chapter of Les Mis��rables every day. Join us on Discord, Substack - or share your thoughts right here on tumblr - today's tag is #lm 1.5.7

Fauchelevent had dislocated his kneepan in his fall. Father Madeleine had him conveyed to an infirmary which he had established for his workmen in the factory building itself, and which was served by two sisters of charity. On the following morning the old man found a thousand-franc bank-note on his night-stand, with these words in Father Madeleine’s writing: <i>“I purchase your horse and cart.”</i> The cart was broken, and the horse was dead. Fauchelevent recovered, but his knee remained stiff. M. Madeleine, on the recommendation of the sisters of charity and of his priest, got the good man a place as gardener in a female convent in the Rue Saint-Antoine in Paris.

Some time afterwards, M. Madeleine was appointed mayor. The first time that Javert beheld M. Madeleine clothed in the scarf which gave him authority over the town, he felt the sort of shudder which a watch-dog might experience on smelling a wolf in his master’s clothes. From that time forth he avoided him as much as he possibly could. When the requirements of the service imperatively demanded it, and he could not do otherwise than meet the mayor, he addressed him with profound respect.

This prosperity created at M. sur M. by Father Madeleine had, besides the visible signs which we have mentioned, another symptom which was nonetheless significant for not being visible. This never deceives. When the population suffers, when work is lacking, when there is no commerce, the tax-payer resists imposts through penury, he exhausts and oversteps his respite, and the state expends a great deal of money in the charges for compelling and collection. When work is abundant, when the country is rich and happy, the taxes are paid easily and cost the state nothing. It may be said, that there is one infallible thermometer of the public misery and riches,—the cost of collecting the taxes. In the course of seven years the expense of collecting the taxes had diminished three-fourths in the arrondissement of M. sur M., and this led to this arrondissement being frequently cited from all the rest by M. de Villèle, then Minister of Finance.

Such was the condition of the country when Fantine returned thither. No one remembered her. Fortunately, the door of M. Madeleine’s factory was like the face of a friend. She presented herself there, and was admitted to the women’s workroom. The trade was entirely new to Fantine; she could not be very skilful at it, and she therefore earned but little by her day’s work; but it was sufficient; the problem was solved; she was earning her living.

[vickyvicarious]

(In order to not derail op's thread, and jic they've not finished reading the books, hope this is ok) The madness/mental illness discussion between Laura and Jonathan made me think about the in-between of Jonathan leaving the hospital and then being validated!

One thing is, pre-Hawkins death, Mina states to Lucy that Jonathan has been working hard, but that he is weak still and placid, and also that he has nightmares. It tells on them both, because Mina cannot get a full night's sleep due to him waking up screaming and she needs to soothe him. Journal aside, Mina says she is so worried about his nerves that she doesn't communicate with him about how tired she is herself. It reminds me of Walter wanting to protect Laura from distress.

Post-Hawkins death, Jonathan gets worse. "He says the amount of responsibility which it puts upon him makes him nervous. He begins to doubt himself. I try to cheer him up, and my belief in him helps him to have a belief in himself. But it is here that the grave shock that he experienced tells upon him the most. Oh, it is too hard that a sweet, simple, noble, strong nature such as his—a nature which enabled him by our dear, good friend’s aid to rise from clerk to master in a few years—should be so injured that the very essence of its strength is gone."

Not a very traditionally ''manful'' picture, but Mina never goes there. Still, he throws himself into work. Mina says her belief in him helps Jonathan believe in himself. Maybe Laura would have benefited from being believed in.

What prompts Walter to do something drastic is when Laura weeps in her sleep. What prompts Mina to break the seal later is when Jonathan faints in public and loses the memory of it.

The way Mina treats Lucy and Jonathan in illness seems equal. She keeps their secrets upon their request too. Walter and Mina take similar active roles for their spouses, though Mina isn't necessarily masculine for it.

An interesting imho comparison could also be when Mina chooses to consult Van Helsing while Jonathan is away for his first work trip and how they communicate throughout it, and Walter with the sisters.

Aside, when she asks Van Helsing to help Jonathan, he says, "I promise you that I will gladly do all for him that I can—all to make his life strong and manly, and your life a happy one." Van Helsing promises to make his life manly, though Mina had asked to make him "well again". So he kind of made it about gender, though it wasn't for Mina.

(I also wonder if we can call Jonathan ''cured'' really, as he doesn't actually return to his former self, but it'd get too long!)

(Tagging @animate-mush because the WIW substack has ended now, hopefully you're all caught up... but regardless no spoilers past where we were last week.)

Anon, you sum up my thoughts incredibly well: "Maybe Laura would have benefited from being believed in."

I think that is perhaps the most major difference between the recovery period for the two of them. Because while they both have remarkably similar symptoms, and both their spouses hide stuff from them for a while... when things come to a head Mina chooses to believe in Jonathan. Not just in supporting him as he goes back to work (which you're right, he has little choice about doing - an external gendered element there, where societal pressures/norms mean Jonathan kind of has to get to work and Laura is never expected to at all); Mina trusts Jonathan with information, with an important role in what follows.

There's obvious contextual differences. Jonathan knew he could access his lost memories and explicitly didn't want to unless it was necessary. He put the power to decide that in Mina's hands (and it was his request but still her choice to share in his ignorance until she needed more information). When she reads his journal, she's trying to better help him within parameters they have both agreed to. When she eventually tells him everything is true, she's trusting that this will be validating for him and help him heal, help him be more "well again" (though you're right both that he never returns to his former self, and that Van Helsing is the only one who brings gender into it with his assumption that Mina's looking to make Jonathan more manly).

Laura never had an equivalent - both in terms of a discussion with the ones leaving her out for the sake of her mental health, and in the sense of some record she knows she can fall back on. She didn't have a hidden journal when she was being drugged or in the asylum. Most of the information Walter and Marian gather is from other people.

I think there is a period where both Jonathan and Laura have information hidden from them for their own sake. And I don't think that was inherently wrong or anything; in fact I think it was somewhat needed. Jonathan got the chance to explicitly ask for that period of ignorance. We don't quite have any such dialogue from Laura, but the narration still tells us that there were certain topics that were very confusing to her or which she didn't like to linger on (and her experience with Mr. Fairlie even after getting out of the asylum can't have helped), and there's that scene where she says she will "try to get better", showing recognition of how unwell she currently is. I think they both need this time to focus on recovering, and their spouses/loved ones want to support them so they can do so. Again, the societal gender role divides them here: Jonathan has to work and in fact has to take on new/more challenging work, while Laura doesn't and can devote more time to rest and recovery. There's benefits and drawbacks to both of those, in my mind. Jonathan got support from Mina and reassurance that she (and Mr. Hawkins) believed in him, which was helpful. On the other hand, it stressed him out more and he was still suffering from his nightmares, etc. Laura got more time to take it easy without having other stress added on, which was helpful. But on the other hand, she didn't get the same level of trust and belief in her ability to, if not 'return to normal,' at least to be productive and helpful in some way.

Yeah, I'm talking about her drawings. I think that is where the big divide comes. Because when she wants to contribute and help with the household, Walter decides to lie to her and play-act that she is bringing in money. I get that he's trying to avoid letting her stress over money, but it feels so condescending. He's treating her like a child rather than being honest with her - right after she asks him not to treat her like a child. Maybe being honest would just be telling her that she's not well enough to work/that it wouldn't be safe, and that he has the money handled. Maybe they'd come up with some other way she could chip in. At least she'd be involved in the discussion as she clearly wanted to be. And while I don't think she would be involved in the hunting down different accounts or confrontations that follow at the end of the book any more than Marian was, I think they should have told her what was going on. That doesn't necessarily mean giving her all the nitty gritties especially if they're triggering to her; but giving her the chance to speak for herself, to add her thoughts, even to ask to be left out if she thinks she can't handle it. She never gets that. There's no reevaluation later on.

Both Jonathan and Laura were denied validation in a way that made them doubt their sanity. Jonathan's experiences were supernatural and he fears he lost his mind. Laura was lied to and gaslit about her own identity, outright told she was suffering from delusions. Revealing that the supernatural things he remember are real was validating for Jonathan in itself, even as he still had all the accompanying trauma. Laura's (official/public) validation isn't possible until after the villains are defeated and everything is over, which in a sense stretches out that middle period. Similarly, Jonathan getting the information leads right into him getting a change to assuage his feelings of guilt and seek revenge, which could be cathartic for him. Laura probably wouldn't have the same opportunities or even desire to do so, and so maybe looping her in wouldn't have been as helpful. But it feels cruel to me never to give her the option. After a certain point, it's no longer just trying to spare her from distress, but it feels like believing she isn't capable of handling any at all.

I guess that's what feels most gendered to me. Walter, and to an extent Marian too, don't treat Laura like an adult or an equal after her experience. This does happen throughout the book, but it gets so much more egregious after she's rescued from the asylum. Marian talks about women/is kind of treated like an exception to women in general, and Walter is leaving both women out in key moments. So given how women were typically seen as less capable, to me it feels somewhat bound up in that rather than just being about her specifically (I think she handles/is capable of a lot more than she's given credit for). Mina doesn't do really that, she doesn't really bring gender into her treatment of either Jonathan or Lucy in the same way. And while others in Dracula do, it's shown to be more of a mistake.

[gd-rd-me-of-gd]

Comments:

@/aalekiaa: "What do u mean by il n'y a pas de rapport sexuel"

@/gd_rd_me_of_gd: "It's a quote from Jacques Lacan, which translates to "there is no sexual relation." In Lacanian psychoanalysis, this formula basically mean that recognition is always just out of reach."

@/aalekiaa: "I speak french but i don't understand like why is recognition always out of reach? I need to read his stuff lol"

@/gd_rd_me_of_gd: "oh i see, it has to do with his pessimistic reading of unconscious processes. Like it kind of in the context of this post is something im using to say “we are each alone in our experience of the world” and there is no total merging between two people. But he would extend the formula many topics, including the always-impossible attainment of any object of our desire, because he believed desire in itself springs from an unfillable anoriginal lack that we nevertheless try and fail to fill. For example, he talked about how in terms of gender identity, totally being any one gender is actually impossible for humans. He also says that many peope seeking a world without masters and domination fail to recognize the reality that revolution is a constant process, not a linear one-and -done. He even extends this sense of perpetual misrecognition to self-recognition, saying that is all begins in a moment in childhood when we realize that the ‘me’ i see in the mirror is not me but a reflection of something i can never actually see (and similarly with the perpetual inadequacy of self-concept—i can never fully be my own idea of myself because all language at least partially fails to translate reality). Like i said, pessimistic and humbling! In my work as a theologian, im trying to sometimes incorporate his insights in the style of Zizek because i very much feel the inadequacy of theological language. But i also really like thinking about i and thou relationships in the style of martin buber, and i think there’s ways to draw out whats on this slide more eloquently eventually."

@/aalekiaa: "oh my god thank you so much for this detailed explanation!! I just got "the object relation" and i think i wanna incorporate some of those ideas in my dissertation on identity after psychiatric trauma. Do u have any other reading recommendations in that vein?? Thank u again so much and i love ur substack xx"

@/gd_rd_me_of_gd: "aww thank you! I vibe with the book The Monstrosity of Christ as an interesting discussion starter, and a feminist take on specifically artworking-through trauma is Bracha Ettinger's work in the book Matrixial Subjectivity, Aesthetics, Ethics."

[darkmaga-returns]

By Eric Zuesse Eric’s Substack

October 30, 2024

24 October 2024, by Eric Zuesse. (All of my recent articles can be seen here.)

When a soldier willingly risks one’s life for one’s country — for example: “Give me liberty, or give me death”, said Patrick Henry on 23 March 1776, advocating for Britain’s Virginia colony to go to war against the British Empire — it’s because this person believes a life in slavery to be worse than no life at all. It is to choose serving one’s country (or else country-to-become), over serving an evil foreign master. When those are the only two options that are left, a person whose conscience is even larger than the person’s fear is, will revolt, and serve one’s conscience.

A person of conscience does what that person thinks to be right, even when one knows that this will probably lead to one’s death. A person of expediency does not. This is an important difference in human motivation, and so persons who are on opposite sides of that divide might have difficulty in understanding each other.

During the third U.S. Presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, on 20 October 2016, Clinton said, “There is about four minutes between the order being given and the people responsible for launching nuclear weapons to do so.” Vladimir Putin too knows this, and he behaves accordingly, as will here be explained.

The country that has by far the border that is the closest of all to Russia’s central command in The Kremlin in Moscow is Ukraine, which is less than 317 miles — a mere five minutes of missile-flight-time away from him. This means that if Ukraine joins NATO, America’s anti-Russian military alliance, then, just as happened when Finland, which is the second-nearest to Moscow at a mere 507 miles or 7 minutes of missile-flying-time, joined NATO and was required by the U.S. Government to allow it to place American nukes there, Ukraine would also be required by the U.S. Government to allow it to position its nukes anywhere it wants to in Ukraine — and Russia, which is a Patrick Henry type of country — fiercely independent — would then do a Patrick Henry type of thing against the UK/U.S. empire: it would be for Russia then to initiate World War Three (WW3) against the ever-expanding UK/U.S. empire, because 317 miles is way too close “for comfort,” for any Russian, and Russia would then respond preemptively in order to avoid becoming beheaded before the major exchange of nukes starts between the two sides.

[inexplicablymine]

Hello Beas!! I would like to know more about “Models do indeed have brains”??

Yes!! So very happy to give you more on this one Sara, so models do indeed have brains is a formula something like this

Alex is a world famous model ~ think Lucky Blue in his hayday, if Cindy Crawford, Iman, Linda Evangelista, and Naomi Campbell all decided to have an even more famous male protégé ~ that is Alexander Claremont-Díaz. Famously dropped out of college after being scouted from the background of some accidentally viral street photo. He had the looks but word on the street is there is nothing in his brain.

Henry Fox, of the Mountchristen-Fox media empire, is an English literature major’s wet dream walking. With a few anthologies of poems, three global best sellers, and now working on some fourth secret project, he is the global media darling of the family’s booming empire ~ of which they own a stake (majority of course) in most major magazines. The very magazines that Alex is featured on so often.

Henry thinks Alex has nothing going on, and is happy to keep up their more than satisfactory fling if it means getting his rocks off with someone that attractive never mind that he doesn’t stick around enough afterwards to even know if Alex can put 2+2 together.

Instead Henry languishes the days away reading Gabriel D’s Substack, an up and coming newsletter that has more subscribers than most traditional news media conglomerates and nobody even knows who he is.

Henry has been tasked with getting in contact to buy/bring Gabriel’s blog into the fold and he is having a moment about it.

The thing is… Alex never dropped out of college, he has a masters degree from Columbia and a Law degree and has been running a substack newsletter so popular it is starting to rival some of his modeling contracts.

Now we have a mistaken identity AU of bumbling epic proportions, established FWB no friends involved, and a lot of FUN to be had

If you would like to ask about one of my badly explained WIP’s my inbox is open!!

[righteousdelusions]

All in all I'm definitely improving

I think it's easy to lose your mind when you're almost unemployed (I have a few patients but like, five to six patients does not a thriving practice makes). I'm not writing as I thought I would but I updated my substack. I wrote in my journal today. I have two weeks of finally waking up before 9 am.

Yeah maybe going back to writing it's difficult when I'm worried about money and it's hard to not see what I'm doing as "nonsense that will give me no money". I understand writing should be a practice where you don't expect money (because you're in for a disappointment). But well, it's hard.

I don't want to pick whatever soul crushing job there exists. I'm thinking of virtual assistant on a specific platform, but they check your internet connection and mine is really shitty (thanks vzla). So I'm waiting for a better internet connection, which should come soon.

I need to be able to be patient and open but I'm a very action oriented person. I always saw life as a series of complicated decisions I had to keep making constantly without thinking much about it. That brought me... So much pain. But waiting makes me nervous. It's difficult to separate being idle from just thinking things through. No one is pressuring me to work or make money. My deadbeat father now sends me money, which is enough to survive. Not to thrive but at least I won't starve.

Actually, scratch that. My family is disappointed in me. My mom's side. I was always smart and I was supposed to work to make the family better. And a part of me thinks that well, I don't have to follow that. Fuck them. But the problem is that I do want to follow that. I like when my grandma asks for something and she says take my card and I say I don't need that. I like to buy groceries, I like to pay for services.

Being autistic makes full time jobs very complex to me. But high thinking jobs like being a psychologist are also a different kind of hell that I know is not sustainable in the long run. People all around me thought that I wasn't going to do that, because I'm obviously not cut for it. Some fellow psychologist giggle when I say giving therapy is the easiest option of what to do with the degree. But it's so hard to get patients! Isn't working on a company easier? Easier for whom? I would fucking hate that environment. Working on an uni was already soul crushing when they made me survey and follow students with "issues". It was really gross, and it came from a place of 'helping the students'. Imagine coming from a boss that will legit put money above all. Also, getting patients is a thing of word of mouth. You talk with people and they see your demeanor and will send you people and you will get patients. How is that not easier? Yeah it's annoying that any person that meets you speaks about the potential of being your patient but. You see my point. It is easier. You're doing what a psychologist "does".

Someone asked me why I'm not in investigation then. Sure, I don't know anyone? I'm starting to hate psychology, which is a clear way of not knowing how the fuck to get into those conversations. Like going for investigation is easy.

I do have an analytical mind and I'm a good writer. But academia in the uni I went to is tough and I ended up hating my uni for all the trauma I had to endure there. So yeah, being a researcher is not on the table right now because I. Just. Wouldn't know how to start. I was crashing out hard when I did the undergrad thesis, just going through the motions with my partner.

Also, because of the aforementioned HELL of a uni my grade sucks ass. Everyone's. Because no teacher in that hell uni was content unless everyone passed with the minimum note. So the idea of going to a master's degree interview (the easiest way to keep of the research track) and having to explain my plans (I don't have any) how am I going to contribute to psychology (I fucking hate y'all) and why my grades suck (I graduated in hell) it's just... So hellish it makes me a bit sick in the mouth

Everyone could see this result. Everyone also pushed me to finish my degree because well "after you finish it at least you'll have something"

Ok. Thanks I guess. Doing 70$ aprox. a week is more than I'd make working on a store I'll give you that.

But I have like. Dreams and stuff you know? I wanna cry. I know someone with my qualifications is winning much more money than I do. But I'm so exhausted. And that exhaustion doesn't let me work on my writing, which is the only other thing I've ever wanted to do (well that and learning languages, but I learn languages so. At least I'm not letting all my dreams die).

I've thought about giving English lessons but I hate children 😭 they make me awkward, I don't know how to speak with them. When they like me it is actually worse because they always scare me when they hug me (because they are small...). I also know that if I liked children there would be many many jobs available to me. I know so many things, I could teach young people. Oh, but I can't.

Anyways. Maybe I'm just a lazy privileged autistic that doesn't want to grind. But today I pulled my hair again. I don't like that. Im anxious, I'm really worried about my future about the things I want to do about the passage of time. And I keep. Avoiding the document.

It's difficult for me to write without clear ideas. In college and in my fanfics, I always wrote in my mind before putting stuff to page. Now, it's like I wrote everything easy and there's a fog that doesn't let me see what's missing. The mc other story. The resolution of a romantic side plot. The segway to that conversation I already wrote (I'm not afraid to kill my darlings, but I just feel something is missing).

I don't need to write. I just need to reread the whole thing tomorrow. I guess if I put that as a goal, it shouldn't be difficult. 🥲

I'm slowly getting back to my senses. But it's, so so slow. So slow I'm getting desesperate. I wanna push myself harder, faster. But I stop myself. We cannot go through this again. It cannot be through the mechanisms that got you into this prerogative. You will survive. You will thrive. You will write from a place of love for the craft. It will come. You just have to be patient.

Just as you're managing to wake up earlier now, you will manage to make writing a habit. You just need time. Something to change. A feeling, a better place. A sudden shift. You will find it.

Just be patient and try new things.