19 september 2026
September 19th, 2026
Hello, journal. It's yet again been far too long since I've written here, over a month! But of course that is still due to me focusing on my blog writing instead.
I am very happy I successfully completed Blaugust and posted every single day of the month. I've returned to my regular cadence of taking a day or two off per week. Of course, I still post too frequently, burning the candle at both ends, etc. But I really feel it's the kind of thing where if you don't use it, you lose it. If I have the ability and time, then why not?
What's next for me, though? Good questionβthat's what I'm asking. It's funny, if you let me get in the weeds and look at my actual earnings on Medium, around 20-30 stories have earned me 90% of my income. That's around 10% of what I've published in total. Most of my 2,000 word essays earn me a few dollars each monthβand sure after writing hundreds of them that adds up, but it is an incredibly inefficient way to earn a living.
But it's not like I have any idea of which writing is going to go viral. My highest-earning article (and also most popular) is about farming and Daniel Quinn, which I wrote on a whim for the IndieWeb carnival that month.
A similar story happens to most bloggers, though typically when they hit the front page of HackerNews, and the result is dozens of callous comments, and no money to be made!
On one hand, it's excellent that bloggers (at least the ones I associate with) choose to have their writing be free and open, and don't ask for anything other than thoughtful responses and the occasional tip. A lot of people do this as a hobby, and it's an outlet for their thoughts.
Meanwhile, the people who are trying to make money just have a completely different vibe. There's a real song and dance involvedβa desperate attempt to pull you inβ and yet there's usually a lack of human warmth that free bloggers have.
And I've been in this weird in-between position the past year, having my cake and eating it too. I'm ridiculously lucky in that sense., I've played with the idea of writing things only viewable behind a paywall, be that Medium or Patreon or whatever, but I've never done so. I imagine there would be quite a bit of goodwill justifiably lost, but really it just feels so antithetical to what I'm trying to aspire to. How could I help make the world a better place if my contributions are inaccessible and for supporters only? It doesn't make any sense.
Of course, what I have now is fragile and precarious. Medium could change their policy or shut down at anytime, and what would my plans be then? I don't know right now, because I don't really plan things. I write through them, I figure things out by the act of writing. I guess that's what I'm doing right now.
I didn't mean for this entry to be so focused on my writing career. Sorry! There are other things that are important that I write about.
Like, for instance, the Alberta referendum. I got a mail-in ballot and, let me tell you, it is alarming. You'd think you'd just be voting for whether Alberta stays a province of Canada, but no. That's only one question of ten. The other nine questions are extremely anti-immigrant, anti-public funding dogwhistles. You can read them here. It is heartbreaking, and I don't think people realize what's going to be asked of them, or how maligned this government has become.
I love people, and I know people are inherently good. But that does not mean good people will act when they need to. As important as reclaiming joy and preserving our hope is towards activism, we need more than that. We need direct action, we need righteous fury to be channelled. We need people willing to sacrifice and risk themselves for the next generation. There seems to be this epidemic of the bystander effect across North America. People need to remember that polite revolution is a non-existent oxymoron.
In better news, my brother Byron has been doing good for himself. He got promoted to a salary position, and is moving out on his own at the start of October downtown. We're watching UFC 331 tonight.
Also, the weather is absurdly beautiful this week. The leaves are still green, and it's still in the mid-20's. I feel like I'm probably the only person in the entire city that wishes it was colder and that the trees were yellowing by now.