Order packing going well but slower than originally planned. Have been taking lots of notes on how to speed up. Thx for your patience over this launch crunch, will get orders out asap.

We are about 50% through.

I hoped to be done by this weekend, it’s probably going to be mid week next week by the time we wrap.

We are getting faster but are out of practice. Thank you!

That -347 indicates how many we have printing on next production session (wee hours tomorrow morning or very late tonight).

This is the latest batch.

Of this card alone!!

It’s the on sale one so it has a much higher volume, but wow!!

We expected to sell a few dozen max (laugh) My ghosts and monsters and witches and mermaids, thank you.

We are chomping through this promo, getting these orders out the door, learning and relearning as we go.

The future is bright orange and vibrant green and resplendent purple and hallowed black.

Okay enough rambling coffee is brewed it’s back to work.

Neither would have a ribbon or other.

"Damn. I wish I had thought of that."

to me as an

artist cartoonist writer rambler comedian cranky et cetera

is a sincere way of saying

"I love your work."

and possibly quite often? honestly:

"I love you."

Look at that tower. It’s beautiful! Mail going out to be received and many of the cards to be themselves mailed.

Makes my heart glow. Purple and green with little ghosts and skulls.

The Cold Hearted Amateur Economist Studying the Annual Budget ($113.4 million proposed 2023) for the Chicago Public Library to state "This Is a Stupidly Great Deal."

I am not a professional economist.

To be clear, and to start with, I do not run economic data for real world scenarios for clients or governments or any institutions.

I do run fantasy economic models for fantasy worlds (elves, dwarves, dragons, etc.) for private clients (nerds with more cash than time).

But to be clear I am not a real world economist. So there will be variables I don't know/care about.

The Chicago (hi, I live in Chicago) public library proposed budget

for 2023 is

(source)

Which is a lot of money, objectively speaking, when you look at it as an annual price tag of "I need $113,400,000. For, um, this year. Next year it'll be more."

From the above source, 24.3% (about $27,556,200) is provided by grants, leaving 75.7% (about $85,843,800) to raise.

Still a big chunk of cash.

Damn near $86 million bucks.

That would buy so many zines.

Is it worth it?! LET'S GO BACK TO "I WAS A FORMER GRAPHIC DESIGNER" and dealt with charts and things, a lot, to raise cash for weird projects, a lot.

$85,843,800 (above figure to raise) divided by 365 (sorry leap year, we're being un-generous) is $235,188.49 a day.

Nearly. A quarter. Million dollars. A day.

Wow.

Which means that it is NOT a daily bill to ONE person for $235,188.49. It is a daily bill for for 1/2,665,039 PEOPLE, given the city's population.

(source)

To be fair, not everyone pays taxes, for a variety of reasons.

Since I'm not a professional economist, let's be brutally unfair and guess only 1/3 of the city pays taxes. It's far more than that, but, yknow...

...amateur economist privilege.

2,665,039 x 0.33 = 879,462.87... we'll... just round... up... this isn't SAW.

Resuming the point!

Daily bill of $235,188.49 sent to a collective of 879,463 people whom paying taxes to fund the library using the above math.

(Folks astute in math are going to immediately get my end point that this is cheap)

$235,188.49 (daily budget) divided by 879,463 (people)

is...

$0.26742283643 or rounded up

$0.27 per day.

The Chicago Public Library costs less than $0.30 per day per tax payer to cover the entire city.

Less. Than $0.30. Per day. Per tax payer.

...wow.

You can do similar math by checking your local library's budget and comparing it to your local population and being as ungenerous, or more specific if you wish to get a closer-to-accurate number, when comparing tax payers.

If you want to say "1 out of every 3 people paying taxes is too high" (it's not, but let's just say it is for the sake of furthering my point of "the library is an intensely great deal) and instead... say...

1 out of every 5 people pay taxes

1/5 = 20%, 20% of 2,665,039 people is 533,008 (rounded up, per above SAW rules)

$235,188.49 (daily budget) divided by 533,008 (people in this ultra contrarian numbers formula) is $0.44124757977, or, $0.44 per day per tax payer.

Using 1/3 as a tax payer base is extremely low. It's easier math. I chose it to make a point.

Pushing it further to 1/5 as a tax payer base raises the daily cost by ($0.44-0.27) $0.17.

This is a "I love the library" post sponsored by the library research I am doing for a private client and work that'll be used for future Netherworld Post releases.

overwhelmed by the things that go bump in the night

overwhelmed with the night itself

there is so much majesty wonder delight

kiss me, all of you things called wretched (with hate) by anyone who cannot understand

let me cup your face(s) with my fragile hands let me look upon your beauty with my fragile heart let me love you with my fragile mind

having a Day of it, my fellows

twilight is coming

and i simply cannot wait

Please do not make useful suggestions.

Lust for empire ends.

Building small parcel begins.

When is the time to stop treating yourself like a messenger, cowering at the feet of an uncaring emperor deaf to your news, annoyed at your presence?

The time is now. The time is always now. The past is irrelevant. The time can always be now.

Me to me. Me to you. Hope it helps. Hope if this clicks you begin immediately.

Fantasy Bank / Insurance / Etc. (blog post, free, always + booklet, few dollars, if you want it printed)

Netherworld Post operates in cycles -- "write" / "art" / "do business." The business kinda stretches into a continuous loop these days (hi we're open), and I'm having to recalibrate how I think about things.

I'm about to enter a "write + business" cycle and and my business is SIGNIFICANTLY different these days than when I originally came up with it.

So

We are going to the polls!

This would be offered in two forms, if it launches:

To be clear and explicit THIS IS NOT A REAL WORLD FINANCIAL PRODUCT.

IT IS NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE.

IT IS PURE FANTASY. NOT TO BE USED FOR ANYTHING OTHER THAN ENTERTAINMENT.

MY LAWYER IS EXPENSIVE.

Sorry.

I am inundated regularly with "hey you should launch a fantasy blockchain thing to take advantage of" and I just. Want to scream. Okay that's a rant for another time.

Lawyer if you are reading this I love working with you(r skills) and you're worth every penny (genuine).

There will be optional variants included -- "This is how you can do a crooked bank that robs everyone. This is how you can do a paladin-bank who is Very Lawful. This is how you could..."

I'm asking for a check on interest because this would be a very large project to tackle for each -- bank, insurance, etc. -- and while a lot of fun, I don't want to explore if it's too real for fantasy.

Let me know!

Thanks!

my heart brings the "ramble art advice to help build ideas to people who make things because baby your career was a wild ride" energy to the table that my to-do list doesn't like

In high school, I ran small poker ring for a while.

Decades later, as I pack orders -- keeping careful count greeting cards and envelopes to ensure I ship what was bought -- I'm remembering old tricks, such as specific techniques to quickly count, to layer things to efficiently draw back into a neat pile.

Every 45 seconds saved cuts a 6-hour packing shift to a 5-hour shift.

I can use that time to pack more orders

or make art or

just be a weird person who ran a poker ring in high school and now sells Halloween greeting cards

and is always up to some antic

or

other

(laugh)

if you are at the intersection of "I make cosplay stuff and it's solid quality" and "I want to make money on this" then I highly recommend you contact local television commercial production companies

photographers and videographers too

depending on what you make, possibly wedding planners

this is not a quick project, it is going to be slow and arduous, as is all networking

you're looking for local crews who film commercials for TV -- it is probably worth looking into local ad agencies as well -- start with "junior art director" on their website. If that's not listed, "art director." If that's not listed, "creative director."

Because you're starting out, you need to start at the lower tiers of the creative crew to introduce yourself.

Modify to taste and usefulness.

If they respond (most won't) then reply with your portfolio and relevant experience.

There are eternal debates whether you should include your portfolio with the initial link (saving them time), I personally disagree as it feels too spam-y, I've been out of the industry for awhile, build your own path forward, may you be wildly successful whatever you do.

Keep a record of who you contacted and when. Spreadsheet and/or notebook. Nothing formal, just a way to ensure you're not bombarding a single agency / person too often.

Don't follow up if they don't respond within a reasonable period (I recommend 12 months). Websites are preferable to PDFs (in my experience from ages past), I won't open a random PDF from someone I don't know.

The point is to find people who are constantly looking for something new to photograph and/or film and/or put on display.

You make something they haven't conceived of but will begin chewing ideas how to use.

Figure out at least a basic pricing schedule before you begin this process.

One of your first questions is going to be "how much does something like {portfolio example} cost?"

(Please do not contact me about this.)

(I can tell you upfront we have a few years of non-hire-able work to do before we get to this level. When we get to a level where we have budgets + sets needed, we will reach out)

(So, final note: A soft "no" is not an invitation to solve a puzzle. Unlike movies etc. about advertising, this isn't a trick to get you to think outside the box. It's a business decision. A soft "no" now is not a permanent "no," it is a "not now, we'll be open when we are.")

You can also (probably should) contact local theater companies. They will have FASCINATING projects and NO money that will (probably) be VERY fun to work on, but, again, no money, so proceed as your wallet and/or heart demands.

May you be wildly successful!

In high school, I ran small poker ring for a while.

Decades later, as I pack orders -- keeping careful count greeting cards and envelopes to ensure I ship what was bought -- I'm remembering old tricks, such as specific techniques to quickly count, to layer things to efficiently draw back into a neat pile.

Every 45 seconds saved cuts a 6-hour packing shift to a 5-hour shift.

I can use that time to pack more orders

or make art or

just be a weird person who ran a poker ring in high school and now sells Halloween greeting cards

and is always up to some antic

or

other

(laugh)

Fantasy Bank / Insurance / Etc. (blog post, free, always + booklet, few dollars, if you want it printed)

Netherworld Post operates in cycles -- "write" / "art" / "do business." The business kinda stretches into a continuous loop these days (hi we're open), and I'm having to recalibrate how I think about things.

I'm about to enter a "write + business" cycle and and my business is SIGNIFICANTLY different these days than when I originally came up with it.

So

We are going to the polls!

This would be offered in two forms, if it launches:

To be clear and explicit THIS IS NOT A REAL WORLD FINANCIAL PRODUCT.

IT IS NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE.

IT IS PURE FANTASY. NOT TO BE USED FOR ANYTHING OTHER THAN ENTERTAINMENT.

MY LAWYER IS EXPENSIVE.

Sorry.

I am inundated regularly with "hey you should launch a fantasy blockchain thing to take advantage of" and I just. Want to scream. Okay that's a rant for another time.

Lawyer if you are reading this I love working with you(r skills) and you're worth every penny (genuine).

There will be optional variants included -- "This is how you can do a crooked bank that robs everyone. This is how you can do a paladin-bank who is Very Lawful. This is how you could..."

I'm asking for a check on interest because this would be a very large project to tackle for each -- bank, insurance, etc. -- and while a lot of fun, I don't want to explore if it's too real for fantasy.

Let me know!

Thanks!

FANG (Producer, Netherworld Post): Make progress on existing art projects before starting new ones!

ATTY (Creative, Netherworld Post): A mini midi machine would let me make music for animations

F: You don’t know how to make music and you haven’t animated in like 10 years!

A: John Carpenter made his own music to save money on budgets and we both love John Carpenter movies

F: John Carpenter wasn’t making a greeting card company!

A: Only because he was a filmmaker and not a stationer!

F: Oh my god!

(This is a dramatization... mostly, laugh. I chose a Bob/Teddy image because they bicker, it's always with love, it is never serious. I've been getting ads on Instagram for various little sound machines, I'm so out of the loop I don't even know what to call them, and it's either a problem or "a problem" depending on who you ask)

pov your gf is a witch and/or an artist

This table is special. It is covered in jars, bones, and jars of bones. Please do not touch it, I have it laid out exactly how I want.

Perfect is a Verb

I fold a box half-closed. I am packing small items into slightly larger packing envelopes. I seal the packing envelopes. I fold the shipping manifest, stuff it into a box, close the other side of the box.

A few steps of many.

After several dozen boxes I realize if I adjust the steps slightly, I save about 45 seconds per order.

This is what I love about small business. One of the million things.

It is an action.

Continual.

You're worried your art isn't good enough, your writing isn't sharp enough, your whatever isn't whatever enough.

You're thinking of it as a finalized state.

It's not.

Perfect is a verb. Action. Continual. Every step forward fulfills the purpose.

Do I wish I'd known the above box folding trick on Order #001 instead of #00-whatever? Sure. Am I glad I knew it on #00-whatever instead of #00-whatever + 100? You bet your bottom pancake.

Cheers my fellows.

Back to work for ol' atty.

It is 2:49 in the good ol' a.m. and I've got ghost work to do.

One of the cards. All orders are zipping and zapping out the door, into the post office (the earthly one). Time to clean and prep and make more.

Fell in love with inexpensive Halloween decorations as a kid (don’t we all?) I didn’t realize it until I was much older that so much of my life has been to built up for an inexpensive Halloween company.

Cards at the moment. Small paper goods in general in the future.

Trick or treat.

Here is spooky mail.

Thank you all.