Bitchin' & Skitchin'
Hey friends. Today’s entry isn’t very long, and it’s being sent out a few days after I generally like to publish my free post for the week. I apologize if anyone’s been anxiously awaiting some reporting about a weird ad campaign from 40 years ago or whether the Chester Cheetah video games are any good. I remain committed to getting to the bottom of this shit, but I’ve had a lot going on lately and wanted to acknowledge that.
The biggest reason for this week’s potentially underwhelming output is that I was asked to return to a job I’d left when I went full-time at Hard Drive a few years ago. It’s a remote job doing closed captioning for TV and movies. I love it. I used to always say that I had quit my second favorite job of all time (captions) to do my favorite job of all time (writing for HD).
Well, the Hard Drive thing all went to shit, and thankfully they took me back at my second favorite job. The fact that they’ve always treated me with respect and paid me on time technically vaults it to my favorite job ever, but I digress. It’s good news, a welcome opportunity to get paid to do something I love (watch awful TV shows and movies). It’s great to be back, and it can be difficult, detail-oriented work, but truthfully I really enjoy when the things that stress me out at my job are stupid things like wondering whether the titular dog from Blue’s Clues is ‘barking’ or ‘squeaking.’
Going back to captions after a few years off involved not only retraining but also learning new software that the company switched to while I was away. Doing this remotely proved to be more challenging and time-consuming than I’d anticipated. Between that and a handful of appointments this week, suddenly it was Thursday and I had nothing started for the newsletter. I have a lot of ideas for posts I want to write about, that’s not the issue, but making the time this week was something I fell short on.
Skitching the Elephant isn’t slowing down, I just need to dial in and show some increased discipline. It’ll be ok. I used to try to aim for a free post every Tuesday and a paid one on Friday. If you’re paying attention, first of all, thank you, and second of all, you may have realized that I missed those deadlines a few times recently. I will still aim for those goals, but will also allow myself to publish when things are good and ready.
That said, StE is always going to be (at least) two posts a week. First one’s free (I’m like a drug dealer) and the second one will be exclusive to paid subscribers. I’ve begun work on this week’s paid exclusive, a look back at State of Emergency, Rockstar’s follow-up to Grand Theft Auto III that is set in a 24/7 riot.
Lastly, I just wanted to thank anyone who is reading this. Leaving a successful website that I co-founded and poured my heart and soul into was easy in a lot of ways (you’d understand if you met the owner) but also an understandably difficult decision to reach. Having an outlet to channel my energy and focus on something positive in the aftermath was so much more valuable than I realized it would be. Thank you for reading my dumb bullshit. Talk to you real soon <3
Bless you, and may whatever lord is relevant in this situation protect you.
Congrats on going back to a job you love, Mark! Definitely take the time you need, I love what you’ve been doing with StE and any changes to the posting schedule aren’t going to change that.