May Highlights

Showers of Little Surprises

Good thing that I could do more with this month than others. Not just posts other than reviews but expressing thoughts and opening the gates for more funding for The Wire Fence followup.

Which Reviews Stand Out?

With a growing list of subscribers, it really matters how many people open the emails sent to them. These people are definitely interested in what’s being talked about. Helps that a couple of them are the ones who send me stuff to review. Out of 150 subscribers, only a little more than a quarter of them are true fans.

If I have to guess why some reviews stand out more than others, it’s probably which ones I think are must haves compared to things that are just fine. Tighter consistency, saying what I feel to make good hype for payoffs, no comparisons to what came before either. No point hyping up more printings if I just can’t get into the material.

For some reason a little of the traffic sources come from unexpected places. I don’t mean Threads now that I got back onto it. But it does help. I mean Bleeding Cool for just 1%. I call that a win, even if I don’t know the full context.

More Thoughts, Bigger Reflections

Two things that I got more enjoyment out of were two posts. One goes into the Generative AI debate that most people don’t talk about.

So far, Live-Action special effects seems like the only viable path to go forward on with AI. Especially if you’re an indie film maker.

But then again, a translated Turkish horror comic that found its way onto a certain website is a regular best seller. Compared to a couple of others, it’s a bunch of strips with a creepy atmosphere and surprises. Even if I can’t feel like it has payoffs.

I just have to wonder. The way people are going about AI has legs. But there are these nuances and caveats too.

Then there’s this:

Finding out that Stan Lee had co-created a lot more characters after his Marvel days than anyone thought is one thing. It’s another when it leads to a few familiar faces.

Including a rabbit hole I didn’t realize was so deep.

It turns out the whole Toshigawa Universe is a passion project that went through a lot of growing pains. I wanna cover that all one day, but I’m not sure it’ll be one day soon.

Probably because I’m trying to do my own stuff and that’s hard to do now too.

Funding Progress

Compared to last month I haven’t made a lot of announcements on the funding goal for The Wire Fence: Re-Opened’s artwork. But I have made progress even if it’s not what people expect. I’m now adding dividends from my Acorn and Alinea accounts. These put together earn me more money than banks could compare.

Turns out the rewards programs like freecash, credit card cashback, ibotta, Upwork, and even Honeygain take a lot of time. Mostly because I want to achieve the highest possible thresholds. Call me an overachiever, but there’s security in stuff like that.

As for progress:

It’s a decent enough number.

Stop and Go

As for why I haven’t done much in regards to other stories. It’s because I don’t feel like I’m in the best position to deal with the stress.

I’ve been dealing with gastritis for what turned out to be months. Not enough to get ulcers, but early enough that it disrupts how I’ve done things up until now. Including raising money from those cashback apps like Upwork.

And yes I am taking the prescriptions necessary. Finished my first month with them too. While it feels like I am making some progress with the symptoms lessening, it’s hard to tell what’s just wishful thinking.

It’s why I’ve gotta be more careful with what I do. Not just the stuff I drink or eat, but how I manage my health and stress.

I have all of these ideas but I can’t help but feel like I could step on a land mine that could set everything back. It feels restricting a lot of the time.

Read On What Engages

I think that’s why I’ve been focusing on getting through my backlog of stuff lately. Mostly the GlobalComix reads I have in my emails but never got time to actually do. Busy life and time.

I still do Hoopla and non-mobile games. But GlobalComix takes up the most because I’m trying to sort out the stuff I don’t really want from the stuff that I enjoy.

Even found an appreciation for rougher artwork if the story’s good.

Hopes For Next Month

I really hope that I don’t have to keep dealing with these problems. Just trying to make the most out of my time is all I really want.