next phase

I've done a lot of video-watching (Skillshare... but there's a lot more to do, especially regarding my new camera) and site-setup up to now, so the time has come to move into the next phase: content generation. My assumption, at this point, is that I can't rely on my former boss to have a startup ready to go in a timely manner, so per the song, I'm doing it my way. I now have Substack publications that are ready to be subdivided and populated with content; I've got a Shopify store that needs more than one item in it; I've got an Amazon store where I can sell more ebook material than my one little booklet. So now, it's just a matter of putting in content everywhere. Per what I wrote in my little book (and this is not my idea, but one I stole), I therefore need SMART goals to get through personal and work goals in August: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based.

So hold me to this: by the end of August—

1. (personal goal) I'll be down to 105 kg. (I realize that that's not "down" for most of you.)
2. (personal goal) My A1c will be at 6.2 or below. It's at 6.8 right now, down from a shameful 7.3 at my last hospital visit.
3. (Substack) I'll have populated my regular paid Substack with part-of-speech content.
4. (Substack) I'll have prepped a month's worth of free content (grammatical critique of memes, poor online English, and poor English from my favorite novels) for my regular paid Substack.
5. (Substack) I'll have prepped all of my comma posts for my Dirty Grammar paid Substack (paid subscriptions only! this one is R-rated).
6. (Shopify) I'll have at least one more item to sell on Shopify, even if it's just a single original painting sold to only one person. (My own personal Etsy.)

Meanwhile, starting in August, my scheduled posts on this blog will roll out every day until the 31st (as they've been doing), and I'll intersperse those posts with original content. After August, things will be a lot quieter as I switch almost entirely to original content. And come late September, I can start lengthy outdoor walks again, so you can expect me to write more about that. This summer, I've mostly been trapped inside with my stepper, but I might step out tonight before bed.

Enjoy your final day of July. Time flies, doesn't it?