I'm Trying, I'm Trying

To produce more output

Strange Soup’s subscriber count grows unaccountably. I appreciate it, but I hope it doesn’t mean I have to worry about influencing people. I’m NOT an influencer, and I have no intention of becoming one, ever. I think it’s a stupid, unfiltered way of life. There, I said it. I’m not that filtered either, but I don’t hide behind a mask or secret.

I must be one of the very few people who watch YouTubes for entertainment, not advice. Sometimes, I use it for news, but mostly for nighttime boosts to my dopamine. People with ADHD know what I’m talking about. Wallowing in mindless, non-interactive, passive, activities (“passive activities" — that’s an oxymoron, isn’t it? The idea is to stop all “active” behavior and sit like a potato) are proven stimulants of the neurotransmitters oxytocin and dopamine, whose deficiencies are the hallmark of the neurodivergent brain. I also watch technical material on AI, coding, Apple devices, and a never-ending flood of feel good romantic stories, usually voiceovers to a frustrating single photo (the creators, or the AI, don’t bother to create a little movie — I guess they can’t afford the rising cost of AI “tokens” — and animations use up a lot of them. Especially those with “live action” content.

I generally prefer humorous creations (but they have to be REALLY funny, not a composite of tired witticisms), and the creators should be attractive. That’s how I became a booster of the trans community, by the way. My initial contact was through conventionally visually beautiful trans women, but I quickly realized that true beauty comes from having something important to say, and having the kindness toward others, at least as much as I do them. I’ve become an empathetic appreciator of beauty that’s not on the surface and I find that cruelty is not a part of being trans. At least not on the internet.

It’s why I find it devastating to use the law to back People of Difference into a corner, hoping they’ll die without blame. My father escaped the Nazis in 1938, but the rest of the family, mostly from the husk of the old Austria-Hungary empire, perished, just because they were Jewish. What’s happening to trans people is the very same staged genocide.

We are at the genocide by law stage, for gender non-conformity (including ALL women), skin color, heartfelt political kindness, sexual orientation, voting history, immigration status, and just plain old being disliked by the power structure. Take away all their human rights, and if any still remain, imprison them, and when the prisons fill, kill them. That gradual approach hoodwinks the general populace into blindness to ethics, morality, and even facts. It’s always somebody else, until it isn’t.

My kind conscience was a surprising development. I’m more of a curmudgeon, and very introverted. But I just can’t be hurtful to any human being. It hurts me as much as it hurts them, sometimes even more so.

It’s one of the characteristics of my fiction writing — the romance genre, where love, usually between unlikely pairs, conquers all and ends happily, like Hollywood happily. I’m a sucker for movies that make me cry. I always was, especially rom-coms. And I have a healthy level of testosterone, so my flair for the melodramatic is innate. Someday I’ll write a serious literary novel, but don’t hold your breath for it. I like creating characters I can fall in love with, and it even fooled AI. I created a subsidiary character who I loved so much, that an AI summary of the novel indicated that she was the romantic main character. I had given her half-sister far less (and not as positive) coverage in the love story. I wasn’t all that kind to her male counterpart either. I’ll fix that before publishing the novel online.

And that reminds me that I haven’t created another, paywalled channel either. I’ll start with a tip jar or coffee fund, even here, to see if people throw spare change into it. Then I’ll offer paid subscriptions to Strange Soup, but they won’t have any special content or perks. I’ll see if it’s possible to set free as a default in the box where you choose a level of payment. It’s fair. I don’t want to charge by the word, except for actual ebooks or print-on-demand books. That’s a pie-in-the-sky dream. I won’t get rich from my Substack writing, and although the novels often take place in a Hollywood studio, I don’t expect anyone to buy the movie rights to my stories.

I also plan to preface each article with a TL;DR summary, as long as it passes the AI slop test. I won’t alter a word of the text, unless I see a glaring error with my eyes, not an algorithm.

That’s the news from <where I live and write>, whose population of one sometimes forgets to eat.