Jobless

Well, this sucks.

Whelp. I lost the freelance writing job I’ve had since May 2021.

This morning, I woke up to the news that my services were no longer required. It turns out that AI can do for free what they were paying me to do.

Am I angry? Bitter?

Maybe. But mostly I’m preoccupied with figuring out how the hell I’m going to pay the bills.

There is a silver lining.

Now that I don’t have a job, I can devote much more time to Sweet Merciful Zeus.

You’re welcome.

Silver Lining 2: I can stop going to bed at 4:30 in the afternoon to start work at 1:00 a.m.

Admittedly, it is more important to have a steady income than to be able to stay up past five. But at this stage of the grieving process, I need to find whatever silver linings I can or I’ll go mad.

I’m sure most people would respond to getting sacked by getting pissed. As a teetotal, that is not an option for me. Besides, I just lost my job. I can’t afford booze.

Please consider supporting my work here at Substack by subscribing to Sweet Merciful Zeus. As I said, I can commit more time and energy to this project now that it’s my only iron in the fire, so it isn’t as if you’d be paying for the privilege of reading only a smattering of new material each month.

On the one hand, I’m gutted that I lost my steady income. On the other hand, I’m delighted to have more time to write commentary for you.

Nothing improves a writer like writing every day. And while I may not have given two craps about half of the content I wrote in my day job (Cryptocurrency? Who cares?!), the act of writing 60-75 articles a week every week for over three years made me a better writer.

I gained a level of discipline in my writing that I never had before, and improved my style and delivery.

Yes, I’ll be skint. But not for the first time. Before I started this job, I was so far below the poverty level that I couldn’t reach it if I stood on a 6-foot ladder. I know how to live like a monk.

The next few days and weeks will be an emotional roller coaster. I expect I’ll run the gamut — from waking up in the middle of the night in a blind panic to getting surprised by unexpected crying jags while mopping the floor. You know the drill.

Silver lining 3: I always lose weight under terrific stress.

Wish me luck.