The Rollercoaster of Life

We're on it, and we should expect some ups and downs

🌱 Learning & Growing

MyLinks plugin

I have searched before for a replacement for the $144/year I’ve been paying to Shor.by to produce a clean page of links to include in my Instagram bio. I finally found one in MyLinks. I liked it so much that I gave the developer $20 in appreciation, even though the plugin is free.

Here’s the page I made that is now linked on my Instagram account.

The one thing I could not do that I wanted to do was include emojis in the description. I usually put an emoji next to each item in that list. I did contact the developer to see if that was an option.

UPDATE: After I got this working perfectly, I realized the portfolio on my website was no longer working! I love this plugin so much, I’ve been trying to fix it or find an alternative to my portfolio plugin. But there’s a clear conflict with what I have now.

Your Own Personal Cheerleader

Everyone needs a cheerleader and a pick-me-up, so I built a function on the Hugmobile website using AI to tell people how great they're doing. I initially started from scratch using ChatGPT to help me, but then I realized I could download a free plugin that integrates with the Gravity Forms plugin I already use.

Your own personal cheerleader

It’s pretty simple and pretty wonderful. People enter their name and what they’ve recently accomplished or plan to accomplish, and the message that would usually say “Thanks for submitting our form” instead gives an encouraging and complimentary message from their biggest cheerleader. Try it out and share it with friends.

😳 What's Keeping Me Up at Night

Anxiety creeping in

The state of our politics in this country has been getting me down, especially since I live in Florida. But I do feel that for every extreme political action, there is a reaction. And maybe some of that is starting to happen now. I know politics takes time, and I believe karma sneaks up when we’re least expecting it. So, I’m trying to be patient.

I’m also ready for a vacation, or rather a change of scenery and a break from my normal routine. Especially since my summer routine involves a lot of air-conditioned indoor space. I’m ready to be outside exploring. Again, I just need to be patient until next month and hope a surprise hurricane doesn’t pop up that requires me to turn up the anxiety.

Work is also slow. That always gives me anxiety. But I am trying to use the extra time to learn new things and take care of little details that I wouldn’t otherwise. I can’t control the economy or technology or what people decide to spend their money on. I just try to prepare during the slow times to take off running when things pick up.

Lastly, I am thinking about a time when I will move out of Florida. It’s not just the politics. I definitely don’t think DeSantis can sustain his current direction without some incredible backlash. It’s also the heat and the fact that I’m stuck in my current apartment now due to increasing rents. Florida is not a place I would invest in a home again. Between the politics, the heat, the increased cost of living, and being on the forefront of sea level rise and increasingly scary hurricanes, there’s not enough reason to consider this my permanent home.

I’ve been spending more and more time thinking about where I want to land and how I would do that sustainably. I’m still self-employed, so banks still hate me. But I will say this… I will figure it out. I always figure it out, and it’s always amazing. I have some creative ideas for my future, and I’ll be exploring some of those over the next few months.

💩 Corporate Bullshit

I regularly get emails from Microsoft (maybe once a month) urging me, as a business owner, to lobby Congress against certain bills that are being introduced. Now, I know damn well Microsoft does not give a shit about my business, so I know these emails must be trying to convince me that the bills that are really bad for THEM are also bad for me. I never opened them until last week.

This is what their email said:

This August, lawmakers will head home from Washington to meet with constituents, host town halls, and hear what issues are top of mind for the people and communities they represent.

It’s a great time of year to talk to your elected officials and share your story of how digital tools are helping your business grow. To help you get started, the Connected Commerce Council (3C), an advocacy organization representing American businesses, has developed a step-by-step advocacy toolkit for small businesses.

I dove down the rabbit hole and landed on the website for Connected Commerce Council. Here are the issues that my small business is supposed to be worried about: Competition & Antitrust, Data Privacy, Content Moderation, and Online Advertising. Do you know why they are saying I should worry about Competition & Antitrust? Because if the largest billionaire companies get broken up, they might not be able to provide me with online tools anymore. BOOHOO! They mean that they would CHOOSE not to provide me with those tools anymore if they don’t make record-breaking profits off the average American anymore.

What a bunch of absolute bullshit. No, Microsoft, I will not help you lobby Congress for YET MORE special privileges.

👀 Life Observations

Let's talk about THIS meme

I've seen several people I grew up with post this meme. Now, we grew up in the whitest state (Vermont), which was practically isolated from society then. (No internet, long-distance phone charges, no video chats, expensive transportation.)

Honestly, that was not everyone's childhood “American” experience. A lot was going on in the 70s that Vermonters had no concept of. So, it's fine if you want to go back to your childhood, but your childhood was not representative of “America” but more the area of America where you grew up.

Back then, there was no internet, which has caused a lot of division in the world. There were not hundreds of channels of television and 24-hour news cycles. You normally saw what was happening in your local area and maybe some big global issues. You didn’t see every car crash, every crime, and every protest in other places. You didn’t get everyone’s opinion on everything. You weren’t bombarded with divisiveness, negativity, and ads. And that was regardless of where you lived.

Most people are still good, decent people. I’ve lived in a town of 600 people, a city of 17,000, a city of 50,000, and a city of 250,000, and that is true for each one. Just because you are unfamiliar with a place doesn’t make it bad - especially if you’ve only read about it online or seen it in the news. Remember, the news is mostly there to sell ads now, so they tend to show you the worst of everything.

In case you missed it

Here’s something I recently wrote on Facebook:

There is a lot of serious and terrible stuff going on in the world. Big corporations benefit from some of it. When we are divided or distracted, we don't notice them siphoning the money out of our pockets and passing legislation to control our lives and pollute our environment. They've got us too worried about "them" and what "they" are doing when, in reality, "they" are just like us. Average Americans are not causing you pain. Immigrants are not causing you pain. And, for the love of God, drag queens are not causing you pain. They are just easy scapegoats for the people actually causing the pain in your life... people who want money and power. We could have higher wages in this country, but big corporations convince us it would ruin small businesses. We could have universal healthcare, but insurance companies convince us we would get terrible service. We could have cleaner water, air, and soil, but energy companies convince us we'd pay more. We could have laws to keep us safe from gun violence, but the NRA convinces us that would be a violation of our "freedom". What freedom do we have without these things? All of these things have been proven wrong and work in every major country that has them. The difference is that they don't let big corporations make their laws. Why do we let these billion dollar companies tell us what to think and do? When will we wake up and do what's best for our country, our community, our family, and future generations? When will we stop pointing fingers at others and start looking in a mirror at ourselves?

Words from Bernie Sanders

As the 2024 election campaign season ramps up, I’d like to share these words from Bernie’s newest book, “It's OK to Be Angry About Capitalism.”

Instead of focusing on the vitally important questions that impact our society, including the impact of wealth and power on decision-making, corporate media most often focuses on gossip, trivia, and personalities - especially when it is covering campaigns and elections. Is it important for citizens to know about the lives of those who seek public office - their honesty, experience, health, family, and history of personal relationships? Yes, it is. But at the end of the day, elections have to be about a lot more than personality contests. We’re not going to get any kind of progress in this country if the media remains obsessed with the “issues” of who is more “likable” and whom we would most like to have a beer with.

Elections must center around the needs of the people, not the petty personal fumbles of the candidates. The focus on personalities unlinks politics from the major issues we face, dumbs-down serious discussion, and deflects attention from the role that corporate interests and the billionaire class play in impacting the lives of the great mass of Americans. The issues that matter most to working-class Americans - a dysfunctional health care system, low wages, poverty, deindustrialization, the abandonment of working-class communities, and growing inequality - are neglected, and only begrudgingly addressed when they cannot be avoided.

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🌻 One Positive Thing

Last week, President Joe Biden designated a new national monument at three separate sites – one in Chicago and the other two in Mississippi. It’s named the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument. Read more about this heartbreaking piece of American history.

“Telling the truth and the full history of our nation is important,” Biden said. “For only with truth comes healing, justice, repair, and another step forward toward forming a more perfect union. We’ve got a hell of a long way to go.”

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⏰️ Currently

🎟 Saw Oppenheimer in IMAX! Great film. (But it did not register while watching it that that was a NUCLEAR bomb that spread fallout all over the U.S.)

🎫 Saw the Barbie movie! It was pretty cheesy but did have a message of empowerment for women (and showed toxic masculinity in a not-so-great light).

🥵 Have been working too much due to the oppressive heat outside.

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Enjoy the rest of your Sunday! 🌼

Hugs, Elsie