Day 36 Of Delusional Optimist's Guide To Achieving The I'mPossible

Day 36

Yesterday was my first day of housesitting and I was not even close to being as productive as I hoped I would be less than two weeks away from departure for Europe. When I wake up in my tiny studio, there are limited options for what to do with myself so working hard to escape the box is always the obvious option. Now I sit here typing at a table that would take up half my studio, thinking about making hash browns from scratch because I can. Normally I would just eat almonds, toast, or something else super fast. That said, being around all this free food since the beginning of Bumbershoot weekend has shown me how hungry I’ve been over the last month or so. Eating the bare minimum to stay functional so you don’t have to pay for more food is not that tight; food is so good (understatement of the forever). Even though I’ve been broke for years, I’ve never applied for food stamps because I feel so lucky to live the life that I do. I usually make too much money to qualify for assistance on paper but because my bills are so high, the food money is not there and/or I’ve just been prioritizing good credit instead.

Basically, the summary of yesterday was that I ate all the delicious leftovers in the place and now I want to spend all day cooking because I haven’t been able to for so long. It has been over a year and a half since I had daily access to a real kitchen so it is not surprising that all I want to do today is eat. As I write this I hear GaryVee telling us all that sometimes we have to eat shit for a few years so we can eat caviar for the rest of our lives. Don’t get it twisted, I’m not into caviar so for me it’s more like… eat shit for a few years so I can eat enchiladas, vermicelli bowls, and sushi for the rest of my life but the same principle applies. [2 paragraphs in, I’m realizing I should have eaten breakfast before writing this, LOL]

My favorite thing that I did do yesterday was put together my photo portfolio. The bright blue photo album from the 70s is one of the best things I found during my short stint as someone who dug through the by-the-pound bins at the Goodwill Outlet; so good I couldn’t sell it. I have yet to print a few of my best photos but overall, every page in the portfolio is whoa and I cannot wait to see my photos in an oversized coffee table book or framed on a wall… here’s hoping someone else will feel the same way.

Today I will tackle laundry, watching Patreon videos, finish the first layers on my purple coaster set, study 4Culture website, and work on writing my Lisbon travel blog. I’ll also eat tons of delicious food courtesy of my generous sister and brother-in-law; love you guys. Some of it I will do while watching the giant television but I will be more productive if I listen to music instead… as always.

Not everyone can relate to my tunnel vision for my goal and the things I’ve abandoned to make it happen. Ultimately, we have no need for most of the luxuries we currently feel are necessary for life and I have chosen differently than most. Of course it would be nice to have a big fully stocked house but as a single person, I don’t need that much space or that much of a financial burden. As a happily divorced person, I know that same house and the jobs one must work to keep them can feel like a cage if not cohabitating with the right person. Life really is a Choose Your Own Adventure book and mine reads differently than most, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

TODAY’S GOALS

1.     Drink 64 oz. water

2.     10 Minute Stretch

3.     Go For A Walk

4.     2 Blog Posts On Website… Shared (post on all blogs on Medium also) - LISBON

5.     2-3 Instagram Posts Per Account @206liz @TheRingOfDOOM @MyDefOfCool

6.      Finish collaging purple coaster set.

7.       Study 4Culture site and other grant options

8.      Watch too many Patreon videos so I can learn how to make mine better

9.      Do laundry in this house and not in a Laundromat, wooooo!

10.    Work on Lisbon post.

SONG OF THE DAY

Frank Ocean – “Nikes” 2016  I don’t believe I have ever owned Nikes (I know it’s weird but so am I) but now I would buy all Nike everything if I could. Football means nothing to me but Colin Kaepernick is still one of my heroes and I could not support his actions more. In addition to being the best branding move I’ve seen in a minute, the actual photographs of Mr. Kaepernick and Serena Williams used for the ads are beautiful. Shoutout to Nike, Serena, and Colin for inspiring all the best people and reinforcing our crazy dreams to make the world a better place. You amaze me, thank you.

Day 31 Of Delusional Optimist's Guide To Achieving The I'mPossible

Day 31

At 31 days into writing about how I hope to go to Europe and never work for corporations again, I find myself getting ready to go work at an evil corporation’s music festival. On the scale of immoral ways to earn money, working for a corporation is really not so bad (in the eyes of most of the world) and like I said yesterday, I’m actually working for a company contracted by AEG so I can justify it in my brain. That said, I’m gonna have so much fun and have 1000 reasons to smile just on this first day alone. It’ll be a great weekend; very much looking forward to meeting and working with this New York-based video team; the man in charge has worked with Nabil and Hype Williams (wicked awesome).

Yesterday my push to relieve myself of stuff in my storage unit turned into a whopping $10.60 via selling three CDs and one dress. They recommended I head to a different music store because they just bought 800 earlier in the day, that sounds like a task for Monday. I did sell another CD today for $2 on eBay, a still in plastic Luniz CD so I’m that much closer; LOL. While I was out, I brought my large collages into a small art gallery/shop in Ballard and asked them what they thought of my art. He gave me some great advice and told me he thought it was cool; so now I must continue to figure out how to translate that into $$$.

The absolute best thing I did yesterday was actually set up my Patreon. It’s live and ready to go as I write this. I’ll still be making a Patreon specific video but for now I used the Lisbon travel video I finished a few days ago because there’s actually footage of me speaking to the camera. I’m excited to see how this develops and I hope others like the idea of an original collaged postcard every month. I would absolutely love to receive one so it seems like the perfect choice. It’s kind of crazy how confident I am that @TheRingOfDOOM can bring so much joy to people’s lives, must stick with it! All the best people will tell you never to give up on your dreams, it is only those who’ve allowed themselves to be sucked into the system completely that will tell you to take the safe route.

It’s hard to know if I should make a plan for myself if I don’t happen to raise enough money for this trip. I’ve already ditched Plans B-Z, I have a plane ticket, and I can see myself filming @TheRingOfDOOM at Portishead Bay; there is no turning back. Even when I don’t have any, money feels like it’ll be there when I need it most (almost laughable with a mouthful of cavities but I’ve made my choices and I’m okay with them). All of my brainpower should be focused on what I want to do, NOT what I’ll do if Plan A doesn’t work out. At this point, the only way I wouldn’t go is if the government stopped me from getting on the plane for some illegitimate reason. The amount of money I need to make this two month trip happen is minimal because I plan on staying in hostels or cheap Air BNB’s; approximately $5000 would keep my bills paid, have a roof over my head, and eat minimal food. This is approximately the cost of living in Seattle for two months (if I paid Bezosian-warfare rent) and extremely small change for investor types. Since my entertainment is literally walking around the city taking photos, my costs are low. I could not be more excited for this adventure and can’t wait to make art in Bristol.

I’ve linked my Patreon again here and I’d really love to make and send you a postcard from Europe. Thanks for reading, I love you.

TODAY’S GOALS

1.     Drink 64 oz. water

2.     10 Minute Stretch

3.     Survive The Festival via remembering to eat.

4.     One Posts On Website… Shared (post on all blogs on Medium also)

5.     2-3 Instagram Posts Per Account @206liz @TheRingOfDOOM @MyDefOfCool

SONG OF THE DAY

Evidence – “Throw It All Away” 2017   Evidence totally gets it. Here’s hoping we cross paths in Europe as we’ll be there at the same time.

Day 29 of Delusional Optimist's Guide To Achieving The I'mPossible

Day 29

Cassettes I'm selling on eBay at their inflated sentimental rate of $99.99 for the first round because I love them so much. When I debated if I loved them more than I'd love to be in Europe, I listed them immediately.

Happy to say that the only goal I didn’t complete yesterday was to go for a walk. I’ve heard walks are supposed to be for exercise but I much prefer to walk as means of exploration and photography. Going for a walk starting from my studio is not fun anymore because I’ve spent too many years in this area… nothing is new here. At this time when I debate going on a walk, I always just get going on the next work block instead. I do have many more photos and videos to take before I leave Seattle in a few weeks, but I have work to before that happens.

I’ve had the misfortune/fortune to have my surviving credit card suffer from fraudulent use. This is only a good thing because it happened before I leave the country, I have to wait 7-10 days for a new card. It was to help me finish paying for this months bills so today I’ll be scraping together as much cash as I can find to make those payments by the 1st. Still remain confident that working hourly is a waste of time because it could never add up fast enough to be worth my effort. Since I sell mostly inexpensive things, my eBay endeavors tend to be extremely small change but the bonus side of that is that with every item I sell, I have one less thing to leave in my storage unit. Still likely a waste of time but I’d rather list stuff on eBay than serve whiskey to people who should stop drinking.

EBAY PROGRESS AT THIS TIME…

-       I finalized one sale already because someone made an offer for twice what I was asking for some rap cassettes; leaving the studio today to mail it off!

-       3 of my 61 items for sale on eBay currently have bids.

-       9 of my items have watchers

I've been taking hundreds of photos like this lately... feel free to pay me to take photos of your products. I'll make them look cooler, I promise.

As you can see, I have a long way to go but once I publish this, I’ll be heading out into the world to scrape together as much funds as possible to put directly into an ATM. I remain confident that these earthly money troubles are almost behind me but for now it’s time to liquidate my assets (this mostly means media). It is completely obvious to me and anyone paying attention, that my troubles are 100% of my own making but that was my choice to make. Still loving that I’ve allowed myself to go this far on my creative journey and I can’t wait to see how I make this happen.

One of the items I was intending to sell was my Roland SP555. The last dozen times I turned it on, it just shut itself off again but when I turned it on a couple days ago, it was working almost as well as when I first got it. I ended up spending a full 90 minute work block loving what I made on the music machine but I still don’t have the means to extract it from the buttons and onto a computer. The only music I’ve ever made was this collage of quotes from movies/songs that tells the story of my failed marriage. It’s totally a downer but I had to let that story out to move onto the next thing. Now that the 555 works again, I might love it enough to keep it locked up while I’m having adventures but that sounds more stupid every time I say/write it. So much easier to let it go when I thought I’d be able to make a few bucks from someone who knows how to fix them instead of giving up something that actually works.

TODAY’S GOALS

1.     Drink 64 oz. water

2.     10 Minute Stretch

3.     Go For A Walk

4.     Two Posts On Website… Shared (post on all blogs on Medium also) – 2-3 blocks

5.     2-3 Instagram Posts Per Account @206liz @TheRingOfDOOM @MyDefOfCool

6.     Head to storage unit with boxes of stuff ready to store. Sell least favorite books/music at Half Price Books and see if anyone wants to buy any of the clothing I’ve had sitting around. Put money directly in the bank. Look for more items to sell on eBay.

7.     Collage cleanup

8.    Try to sell SmartTV on OfferUp or Craigslist

9.    Coinstar

10.   Spotify work block

11.    Lisbon writeup

12. 90 minute block of setting up Patreon for launch on the 1st.

SONG OF THE DAY

Joey Bada$$ - “Paper Trail$” 2015  You can earn more money but you can never get time back. I know that if I decide to keep my earthly possessions and set myself up for stability right now, I’ll regret it when I’m older. I’ve never been more ready to do something in my whole life (obviously I don’t count financials into this).