I've been listening to Adam Carolla for a number of years now. I'm a terrible business person, or at least I hate business, so I've never been able to monetize on any artistic success. Perhaps mostly out of ineptitude, but at least a good portion out of just hating trying to sell things. I want to create original entertaining art, not be a salesman. But I am now forcing myself to accept the truth, that I will never be able to do what I am passionate about for a living unless I also force myself to do the thing I hate the most - business. No company or agent will ever have faith in me and the only possible way to prove myself will be to figure out a way to do everything that is necessary, myself. I'll get back to the Carolla part in a second here.

I'm learning that life isn't about trying to improve the world until it starts to resemble something sane and decent, it's about trying to make as many people happy as possible. When you're raised in a fundamentalist household, separating the good from the bad can be extremely difficult. The Golden Rule turns out to be one of the bad ones. It's not about treating others as you would want to be treated, it's about treating others as _they_ want to be treated. Not everyone wants the same thing. All my life I've searched for truth and tried to impart it on others, because I love it when they impart it on me. I won't give up on mailing truth packages to the world, but I will try to make sure they're artfully wrapped and delivered with free shipping.

So, Adam has figured a way to monetize his podcast by doing live ad reads, subscriptions, and Amazon referrals. This model seems to be working well as almost all the podcasts are now following it. I introduced subscriptions a couple days ago and want to thank everyone who has subscribed so far (and also the donators). This means everything to me, that someone enjoys my work enough to help support it. My family would never do that and my friends would never do that, nor would I expect them to. But doing something fulfilling in life is, to me, more important than life. So, as far as I am concerned you are my true friends and family. You are the supporting what fulfills me and therefore the most important part of my life.

I am still far far away from my from my art supporting me, so from now on, I'm going to use this journal spot to do my equivalent of life reads, in addition to the usual journal stuff. I will post some Amazon links to things that I have tried and enjoyed. But don't worry, most entries will be short, as usual.

Reminder - subscribing is always great way to support the show and so are random donations. Thanks!

Btw, I actually do enjoy the astronomical stuff and physical stuff more than the ethological stuff.