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First of all, today's my birthday! Please congratulate me on keeping myself alive for another calendar year!

So plenty has happened since we last spoke -

Comcast laid me off from my full-time technical-writing role on May 12. They did something I've never experienced before where the termination wasn't effective right on the spot - they gave me 60 days starting now to find another job within Comcast.

That period expires July 12, and it's almost a sure thing at this point that I'm not going to beat it. There are some internal rumblings behind the scenes, but who knows what'll come of that.

On May 16, I started interviewing with a new external employer.

It was evidently love at first sight for us both, but the new company's vetting workflow was exceptionally thorough - they said in the job posting their process would be 5 steps.

Ha, nope.

After 6 weeks, 7 interviews, a take-home assignment that took the entirety of Memorial Day weekend, 3 custom writing samples, and weeks of biting my tongue, holding my breath, and pacing around making myself sick with anxiety waiting for them to decide on the next step (and the next step, and the next step), they sent me the ol' chestnut "thank you for your time, but we've ultimately decided..." email this past Thursday night.

Then on Friday, the christofascist forced-birther malicious joke of a Supreme Court bully cult clawed back a series of mission-critical constitutional rights for 168 million uterus end users.

This is the first time in American history a right guaranteed by the US Constitution has ever formally - and on the world stage - been ripped away from the taxpayers of this country.

Giving birth against your will and yeeting any aspirations you have for your health, independence, finances, education, and future well-being is now mandatory under penalty of death by medical emergency or, in some states, prison time on felony conviction!

...Felons can't vote!

You think that's a coincidence?!

Justice Clarence Thomas, godforsaken trashcan that he is, smugly told us all in no uncertain terms they're coming for marriage equality (happy 7th birthday), the right to engage in private sexual conduct, the right to use contraception, HIPAA, and a whole lot of other important TBD stuff next.

FUCK!

I superstitiously braced myself to get Covid just in time for my birthday because that's just the way things have been shaking out lately!

Ok, what now?

Over here there's a lot of shaky and compounding uncertainty as well as horrible CERTAIN outcomes whipping around my head.

Feels bad, man!

I can't fix this federal-level disgusting disaster, and I don't have the remotest faith that any categorically-useless elected official will make the most infinitesimal effort to try. So I'm networking in private channels to plot what direct action I and members of my communities CAN take to help the people who're gonna be screwed over the most from this unfathomably evil legislation.

And professionally, that interview process felt like the end of something and the beginning of a bigger picture that's still obscured and just out of frame.

Since it's my birthday, humor me - as far as the future-earnings thing, this pending "no job" issue is like being presented with a 6-foot birthday cake with something clattering around inside, scratching to leap out.

I have some irons in the fire, but I don’t know if that cake will reveal Margot Robbie in a whipped-cream bikini or if it's a Trojan horse concealing Rudolph Giuliani.

Lessons learned and lessons emerging

I just deleted a vitriolic rant about never again putting trust in anyone with an upper hand on me.

Let's not put that nihilistic energy out into the world on my favorite day.

What a narcissist. I love my birthday, dude.

The new moon is this coming Tuesday, 6/28 - in astrology, the new moon is understood to be the #1 absolute best time to set intentions for what you want to pull into your life and to begin manifesting new adventures.

This new moon in Cancer is described by astrology experts to be an especially critical one for action, ambition, initiation, and abundance.

LET'S FUCKING GO!!

So what do I do with that moon guidance if I prioritize preserving my sanity and autonomy?

Hanging around the Indy Hall community, which is packed with self-employed folks, and the entrepreneurs in the Work In Progress small-business accelerator for the last several years of my life has me making plans to build up a self-employment framework.

You're the sum of the folks you spend the most time with, right? The worldview of these remarkable people I talk to all the time has rubbed off on me.

I have some items on my plate in the next week around researching details about self-employment and freelancing full-time - what happens over the next few months or years is a complete blank page.

The near future could be a benevolent bikini girl in a cake! It could be a malicious monstrosity that could crunch me into wet crumbs like a Cheez-It!

Honestly - maybe it's both!

How intimidating. But blank pages are freedom!

Part of this is positive - I'm trying to build up a sustainable income and create self-directed work.

Look at all these benefits!

Freedom!

Choice!

Autonomy!

Dignity!

Ditching the "security" illusion that employment can't be ripped out from under you!

Never again allowing myself to feel disposable!

Liking my boss!

Playing the long game!

I won't lie, either, a good part of this is also a reaction of the purest rage imaginable at the humiliation of being forced to grovel, beg, bite my tongue, and be infinitely patient to the detriment of my own health for the benefit of overlords who make decisions about my life where I don't get even the illusion of a vote.

I only truly care about 2 things in life: being a good friend, and creating the freedom to do what’s best for me and my crew (always prosocial things!) without having to bend a knee to authority figures who don't give the faintest shit if I live or die.

I swear to GOD I will never again in my life accept anything remotely reminiscent of that hiring process I just endured.

There are plenty of downsides to self-employment, freelancing, and entrepreneurship as a big picture and a daily practice - but now I'm positive about the kind of hamstringing I DON'T have room for in my life.

That's no doubt a starting point.

Anger can spur amazing progress!

This will also be true with providing sustained and meaningful support to Roe vs. Wade refugees!

So I have some items in the works, a lot of which will reveal itself over the next few weeks.

Ideally, I can parlay the free time I have right now into new skills, portfolio items, and value for the mystery life form in the 6-foot birthday cake. And I'll be actually leaving my house to do some abortion-care activities.

Wild times.

I'll keep you posted.

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