Day 1498

I'm perpetually tired these days. I follow the generally accepted practice of compensating for today's declining rates by increasing my work load. Economies of scale don't really work for me unfortunately, since I have nobody to delegate things to. There is only me. The more business I get, the faster I have to work, and the less fun everything becomes. If I didn't detest working with others so much, I would hire a bunch of young, low paid work slaves and delegate everything. This seems to work for some people. I prefer to live under the illusion that I'm an artist, working alone, and doing whatever I want. I'm not really an artist, of course. I just grind out a bunch of crap that other people don't want to bother with themselves.

I identify with what a lot of millennials are going through. They don't want to grow up and become chemical engineers and mathematicians. They'd rather do what I do instead. Hey guys, I don't think there's much future in being me. I've played around at being a documentary filmmaker, an architect, a fashion photographer, and a writer. I never wanted to have a real job, and still don't. I only manage to live pretty well because I got lucky in the 1980's. It remains to be seen whether luck will come my way again. My advice to millennials comes with a note of caution. The world just doesn't need many Peter Pans. If you don't want to compromise and collaborate, be prepared to live in your parent's basement forever.

If you are determined to pursue the creative life when the world is crying out for medical administrators and petroleum engineers, I wish you luck. I would encourage you to leave your parents immediately and learn to fend for yourself. That's what I did. I failed again and again, but learned that failure is no big deal. If one thing didn't work, I would just try something else. If something actually did work, I would run with it until I got bored. I learned that if you are supremely confident, you will survive no matter what you do. I guess I'm still surviving after a fashion, although I feel a bit like Alice after she'd gone down the rabbit hole. The world is a very strange place these days.

I'm glad I enjoy the company of dogs. Dogs keep me humble and dogs keep me honest. When I'm not writing, I'm a faithful butler, attending to the needs of Dot and Dash. Today, we walked, we ate, and we napped a bit. I took Dash to the vet for his antigen shot. I helped Dot up when she stumbled a bit on her morning walk. The dogs tolerate the long hours I spend writing and I tolerate some equally strange habits of theirs. I'm still tired though. There's no getting around that.

Molly is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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