🪅 A Most Unreliable Narrator 🥳 Issue #200 buttery delight
This week: AMUN marks its 200th issue, NGI news, and why vendors shouldn’t treat their customers like cr4p
Dear Internet,
Damn! 200 issues!
I’ve been steadily writing this here newsletter since July 25, 2020, when I kicked off, “In the Year of our Lord of Covid” with issue #0. The previous issue before that July 3, 2019. However, the very, very first issue of the newsletter was on December 12, 2014 when I was writing over at TinyLetter (RIP). I just fucking lost my place in the endless scroll of AMUN archive but it was in that 2019 issue when I imported all the entries from Tinyletter to Substack where all the cool kids are/were. Substack offered a lot of features, including scheduling, which TinyLetter didn’t have and even better, it was free.
(Yes, Substack is problematic but if I ditch everything that was problematic, I’d be naked living on a beach somewhere. Actually, that doesn’t sound like a bad idea…)
My subscribers are small but mighty. My open rate hovers around 45% where the average is 21.5%. People rarely unsubscribe. My growth is at a snail’s pace because I don’t have a “brand” unless you count that brand as emotional vomit. And I’ve always publicly said, and still agree with, this newsletter will never go paywall. I’ve had arguments with other writers about this because I should get paid for my work. My counter argument is I’ve been writing my online life for nearly 30 years (JFC!) and why would I start charging now?
What’s the future? Oh, same ole same ole. I keep emotionally vomiting several times a week, you keep reading, and in 250 years, I will be portrayed as a genius.
I dropped Issue #4 of Nerd Girl Presents on Friday (one day late). In addition to the weekly Thursday pic and meme, I drop science about the upcoming social media class I’m going to teach, and the social media tip of the week was to not make your users/followers work to find you.
As I was researching on my hard drive for this week’s social media tip, I came across the presentation Kristin and I did 62M years ago (2010) on Michigan public libraries and their online presence, concentrating on social media. It gave a wild hair up my ass to re-do the research and present at the state library conference in 2025 to see how things changed in the last 15 years. I needed a distraction Friday night, so I found a list of (mostly) all the public libraries in Michigan and started the research. So far, as far as I can tell from my small sample, nothing has fucking changed. I get that back in 2010, social media was a baby and we were all learning but it’s nearly 2025! C’mon now. There is no excuse why you either aren’t on major networks or the library is rarely updating. There is always someone in the library social media savvy you can coerce into doing the work for you. Especially TikTok and IG! So far, lots of libraries are posting on but not linking to FB/IG or not listing all their active social media from their homepage. Like my social media tip of the week: don’t make the users work to find you!
Luckily, I have my templates I created for NGI set to go so creating something from scratch wasn’t that difficult.
(When I told Kristin I was going to do this, she said, “Have fun with all of that.”)
Speaking of libraries, the library I sub at is a member of the state association so I’m renewing my membership since I was last a member in 2014 or 2015. The cost has not gone up in a decade. (I cannot believe it’s been a decade.)
Also over at NGI, I got tipped off to an online networking site that was recommended on an unrelated Facebook group. I signed up, fleshed out my portfolio, and started networking. This led to a potential client meeting next week. That person joined NGI’s newsletter and liked NGI’s social networks. I’ve also made another contact on the site I’m going to meet up and have coffee with when we’re back in Michigan. There is also an incubator that meets once a week at a community hub. You go in, introduce yourself, and offer to help and shill your wares.
I had a client meeting last week with the non-profit I’m working with. I spent about six billable hours doing research for him on his competitors and presented it in a nice deck. He was impressed with my research and presentation which is always a good thing! We meet in a few weeks to start hammering out his social media strategy and content calendar.
An idea I’ve been using for other clients’ social media content is to take advantage of holidays such as Indigenous Peoples' Day on October 14 this year. Or Women’s History Month in March. Banned Books Week was last week so across my and clients with related brands socials, I posted a graphic with a quote form Judy Blume on why banning books is stupid as well as a stat about book censorship. That got engagement.
There is so much you can do with social media these days it’s wild to me that businesses (also libraries) aren’t using it as much as they should. Like I said, it’s almost 2025. Shit needs to change.
I had an interesting run in with an owner of a small company back in Michigan a few months ago. I was looking for a service (that I was willing to pay for) and when they found out what I did, they wanted to meet and barter services. Hey, cool by me.
After several weeks of text tag, we settle on a coffee shop.
Turns out, what this guy is doing with his online presence was beyond what I could offer. I don’t know how he did it with his primary job and running a few side hustles and keeping up with the latest news on content creation, social media, and online presence. He clearly did not need my help.
And I asked him that and he didn’t give me a direct answer but hemmed and hawed he was going to send me a spec sheet of his needs and we could go from there. I knew he wasn’t going to do it but I gave it a week and tried reaching out as a follow up. Radio silence.
After two weeks of ghosting, I got an email from them with “thanks but no thanks” and then a date for the service I inquired about happening. I told him in our meeting that if he couldn’t use me, no big deal, and that I was still interested in his wares to pay.
However, I was very annoyed because:
During this six week exchange from first contact to dismissal, he ignored my texts and only responded when I sent profesh, terse emails. (At our meeting, I saw he had hundreds of unread texts which shocked the shit out of me. He said it was clients thanking him for a job well done, so why answer? Okay then.)
It took terse emails to even get a response.
The dates for the service booking were not based on my needs or schedule but his.
They don’t value their clients’ time (see lack of communication and runaround.)
So, after the last email, I sent a terse email that I was going with another company for the service and why (see above bulleted list). I got a near immediate email from them with “it was never our intention here’s a weak apology” and “our meeting was a miscommunication” and “recommended another service to go with” after I fired them.
I’m dropping this bitch because they are heavily active in the freelancer community I’m looking to join and I’m trying to figure out how to handle seeing them. We’ll see.
As for finding another vendor, I was in communication with another company who is going to do the service for free as they want to beef up their portfolio. Their work was decent and hey, when you’re broke, you take what you can get. And if I don’t like the work, it was free and I don’t have to use the service.
Mr. Lisa saw the kidney doctor this past week and he’s healing more rapidly than they expected. His creatinine levels are getting better. The doc gave him orders for two separate labs Mr. Lisa is going to do up in Michigan and then post them to the kidney doctor here in KY. If things continue on as they are, kidney doctor doesn’t think Mr. Lisa needs to come back in. Mr. Lisa also went off the steroids he’s been on for the last three weeks which, thank fuck, because I was about to murder him with his mood swings.
He sees the wound doctor this upcoming week. I change his bandage twice a day and the wound looks like it’s healing well. His wound care can be seen by our GP in Michigan
Now that Mr. Lisa is back on track with his health, we’re set to go back to Michigan this week and I cannot wait. We’ve been pulling items that we are going to take with us like our Instant Pot and Vitamix. Mr. Lisa lost roughly 30 pounds over the last month from his illness and he pulled out his skinny clothes and they all fit him again. I did the same and I also had the same luck! Lots of stuff hasn’t seen the light of day since 2008! We have clothes storage bags that you can slide under your bed which is where our skinny clothes were living. Now that we’ve cleaned out those bags, we’re filling them with clothing to take up north. I’m also using our dining room area as the hold to remind me of items to take up with us. I’ve also got a list on my phone (because ofc I do) so I don’t forget anything.
We were going to split the drive in two and visit my brother and his fam on the way up but with how we’re packing the car, we’ve got too much shit to deal with a stopover.
The Monday after we get home, the blinds will get installed and the new heating stove will also be installed. Pics forthcoming, obviously.
Wonderful Thing
Air Popcorn Popper
Mother loved popcorn and ever since I was a kid, we always had an air popcorn popper in the house. When Mr. Lisa and I lived at Throbbing Manor, he got one for me for Xmas or birthday the year we moved in and I sporadically used it over the years.
Lately, that thing has been getting a work out.
With Mr. Lisa’s pending layoff, we’ve tightened our belts and we’re being mindful about how we’re spending money. Why buy pre-packaged popcorn when I have an air popper at home?
Use it, which would be the correct answer.
So, I have been.
I’ve got a system figured out with buttering and salting the popcorn just right. The cost of a giant jar of kernels is the same as a large popcorn at the movies. I’ve got the good butter and the flavoring salt. I am gtg.
I’ve been making it at least once a day for a week or two now. The dog begs. Mr. Lisa is impressed. And we’re taking it up north with us so I can air pop popcorn to my heart’s content.
(I’m sad because I poured popcorn salt into one of my Fiesta saltshakers and when I went to refill it, the cork stopper broke and then fell into the salt. ☹️)
Orville Redenbacher has nothing on me,
lisa x