Coffee feels like one of the more notorious metrics for our personal finances. More so the thing than the drink: the signified cup-of-coffee-object. There are whole genres of memes dealing with it. In some, coffee is a symbol for reckless spending that stands in the way of you buying that new car or making your next big investment. I.e., "think of all the money you'd have if not for those damn $5 lattes." But the drink is also deified in other circles. Believers insist that they need it like air – from your Dale Cooper wannabes to people with mugs that read "I'll blow up a school bus if I don't get my morning cup o' joe!" or something along those lines.
It's much more than a caffeine fix. A cup of coffee is status. Probably power in some regard. You've got 4, 5, 6 bucks or so to spend and you spend it on coffee. I definitely do. Maybe it's an affirmation. Comfort. Hot coffee on a cold day, iced when it's warm out. Wakes you up, too. We buy things all the time, especially food. But then there is, in my experience, the occasional introspective hiccup where we try to zoom out into our psyche and see how twisted up it gets over the beverage. How often have I found myself thinking "okay, time to buy a $4 coffee" for a drink that's listed at $4.99? And then thinking, "oh, it's okay, it's a commodity?" And then thinking that maybe I'm bad for thinking that? And then thinking that it's maybe actually okay? And then paying like the whole $6 or however much it is with tax and a tip because I believe in a living wage and whatever the barista is making is probably not that because it's, you know, an American restaurant and all that?
This all happens fairly often, I think.
One specific iteration of the cup-of-coffee price metric that I see a lot is where it's being used to illustrate the relative affordability of a thing. Not ultra-cheap – it's no gas station soda – but sweet and thoughtful without breaking the bank. Websites like Ko-fi and Buy Me A Coffee have capitalized on this specific quality while offering an affordable avenue for people to support their favorite content creators. I'd personally liken my market appeal to that of a Slim Jim or a bag of Funyuns. Definitely something from the gas station. That's only 30% self-loathing in my approximation – the rest is cold, hard, pragmatism and also me kind of enjoying Slim Jims.
It sucks to do this thing I love (writing) and find so few ways to get paid for it and feel good about it. Especially in the midst of my MFA program where I'm trying to be like: "okay, once this is done, I'll be good to go" and also like "wait I need money tho?!" So, yeah, as you can see: I have a Substack now. I’m striving to use it as a way to practice writing for broader audiences before I’m using it as a form of income. Which is also why I’d like to make as many free-to-read articles as I can. But I also need to buy food! So – if you really feel like it – you can pay me $5 a month (which, coincidentally, may or may not be around the price of a latte from somewhere that sells $5 lattes) for exclusive content (or subscribe for free and get everything else) and I can continue writing pure, unaltered cringe. I think there's a lot we can accomplish together.
My qualifications:
· Dota 2 player (retired, peak 2.5k mmr)
· English and art dual major, undergrad (BAD IDEA)
· cryptocurrency assets valued at 37.85 USD at time of writing
· favorite dorito flavor: cool ranch
· 'artsy;'
My newsletter, tentatively named cherry ennui (iykyk, otherwise working title), is going to try and post every Friday at minimum. Hopefully even more frequently. I'll probably talk about a lot of stuff. One of the perks of buying into the exclusive content means that you get to read sneak-peeks of my novel about a lib arts student named John Blossom who insists that people refer to him first-name-last-name so that he can distinguish himself from all the other Johns on campus. It’s also about Albert (who works in security) and Worm Man (who works in the Worm Department) working underground beneath the desert. So mysterious!
I also might work on some fan fiction, like "If Joe Biden Bought An NFT." I'd love to take requests when I can. Expect to see a good bit of criticism concerning things on the internet, art, comics, and video games. For example, my upcoming paid piece is going to talk a bit about the upcoming Matrix and Spider-Man movies, among some other stuff. If you're on the fence about it, I'll probably try to post more snippets on IG. Not to mention that free subscription is still a thing. ok thnx bye! xoxo