Mark’s Newsletter #2 (Patreon Edition)
Hi!👋
It’s been a little over a week since I last wrote, so it’s understandable that you may have forgot you signed up for this newsletter via Patreon. I’m experimenting with newsletter formats, so this may change from week to week.
I originally posted this over on Patreon, and would like to see if Substack gets better results.
Anyway, let’s get on with this!
In This Newsletter📰
Comic
Post-Halloween
The Home Office (I spend too much time at IKEA)
Behind The Scenes
Art
A Podcast Idea
Life In General
Outro
Comic🗯️
I don’t have anything recent to post because I my home office is mostly cardboard boxes at the moment, so here is an autobiographical comic I made earlier this year.
Post-Halloween🎃
Halloween was a bit of a disappointment this year. We only had 13 Trick or Treaters, and that includes my daughter and her three friends.
Halloween is pretty big in this house, bigger than Christmas. Sadly, we had a lot of outside factors causing unnecessary stress on my wife and I. So we didn’t really decorate, aside from a few painted pumpkins.
We’re feeling better, and already planning for next year. We’re going to go all out and see if we can actually get trick or treaters to stop by, regardless of the weather. If we still see dismal numbers, we’ll just put out a bowl of candy, dress up and both take our kids trick or treating instead.
The Home Office🗄️
I really wish I took a “before” photo of our home office area in the basement. After only one week, it looks like a proper home office with a little meeting area as well. We purchased about 8 units of cheap furniture and I (as of Saturday afternoon) only have one display case left to build. It’s actually starting to look like a proper workspace, which is nice, because I’m going to be spending a lot of time down there this winter when the kids go to bed. My whiteboard is packed with projects and due dates specifically for this Patreon. Which leads me to…
Behind The Scenes🎬
I’ve been brainstorming what I want to do with this Patreon account and some other projects, so I cleaned up the whiteboard and got to work.
It’s broken down into six categories:
Writing
Comics
Side Quests (YouTube)
Newsletters
Patreon
YouTube Main Channel
Above you’ll see a heavily redacted photo of my whiteboard. I have planned out the first full year of Mark’s Side Quests and I am toying with Newsletter formats. Some of the additional content may be paywalled. We’ll see.
Art🎨
Due to the work we’re doing in the home office, I haven’t been able to make any art or comics lately. Just for something to work on, I bought some water pastels. From what I understand, they’re like watercolour pencils, but behave like oil pastels. I haven’t used oil pastels since the 2nd grade, so this could be interesting. I picked up a value pack or canvases from Michael’s, because I felt we needed more artwork on our walls, and something to reduce the echoes on our rooms without carpeting.
So I should have some art to post in the next newsletter.
A Podcast Idea🎙️
I had a pre-interview for a Content Creator role at a local radio station this morning. The odds of me actually getting this job are slim, but I do like the idea of hosting a radio show. I’m thinking of doing one here on live on Patreon (for Patrons) and releasing the edited recording as a podcast. I haven’t done a podcast in years, but I’m really feeling the itch to get back behind a microphone.
Life In General🏡
Back in August we found out my wife’s company was being bought out and a lot of her co-workers were being let go. This caused a lot of stress for us because we didn’t know if she was going to be let go as well. So we booked a table at a bar and met with a bunch of the guys. I worked with them too, but left the company in 2020 to go back to university to finish my degrees. It was nice seeing those faces again, we’re going to have to try to book these get togethers more often.
My wife is a better artist than me. 100%. No question about it. I’ve been trying to convince her to start a Patreon and build up an audience that might want to see her art and sketches. She’s not convinced yet, but I believe having something like this would absolutely ease the stress if he company gets sold again.
I’ve been a stay at home dad for the last year. It’s pretty nice. I get to see my kids more. Walk the oldest to school. Teach my youngest right from wrong. The only downside is that I don’t get paid to do it. I miss being able to contribute to the household financially. This is why I applied for a job at a Christian radio station. They called me for a pre-interview on Monday. “That sounds great!” I said. The only downside is that it is a Christian radio station and I’m not a Christian. I really don’t care if a company is religious or not. I have applied for jobs at religious organizations before, even had recruiters try to poached me for these jobs, but because I’m not religious, I tend to get ghosted the second they find out I’m not baptized. I do hope I get this job, because I’ve always wanted to work in radio. Yes, we will need to find a daycare if I get it (the last one I talked to wanted $1000 a month!😱)
[Update: The pre-interview went well! Waiting to hear if I made it to the second round of interviews.🤞]
My dream job would be an overnight gig at a rock station, and securing this job would be my first step in that direction. If I don’t get it, I remain a stay at home dad and spend my nights focusing on that podcast I mentioned.
Outro🗞️
That’s all for now. I wrote this entire thing on my phone, so the next one will be done at the computer, because doing this on a touchscreen is beyond frustrating! If you read all that and you’re still subscribed, I’ll see you in #3!🖖