Adie & Allen Save the World 2: Bullet Journals, Cauliflower, and Blogging (Oh My!)

Behold! Another installment of Adie and Allen Save the World with Allen T. St. Clair of Das Midnight Goose! If you missed the first installment, click here to give it a read. You won’t be disappointed (or maybe you will; I’m pretty disappointing).

This week, I posed such thought provoking questions as why cauliflower won’t leave my favorite foods the fuck alone, and what’s up with bullet journals, anyway? We also mused over the state of blogging today. When you’re done reading, be sure to click the link at the bottom to read Allen’s half over at Das Midnight Goose!

Adie: My first topic is thus: Bullet Journals. Thoughts, opinions, experiences? Because these things are a struggle for me.

Allen: Ya’ know, I don’t think you’re alone. Bullet Journals/Planners seem like such a great idea, but I find that they become one more chore each day. Fun at first, then a burden. LOL Also, every time I try to do one, I end up feeling worthless because I keep thinking: “Why isn’t mine as pretty as his/hers???” LOL

Adie: Right? I tried BuJo-ing for a while, but… I mean, if I have the time to sit down and draw a layout or something, I probably don’t need a planner to manage my time lol!

Via Giphy

Allen: BuJo-ing? That sounds like a new sexual act/fetish. I am going to ask Jodi if she wants to BuJo later and see what happens.

Allen: Update: I just asked JoJo if she wanted to BuJo and her response was “Ya’ know, I’m at a place in my life right now where I’m going to have to say ‘no’ and I don’t want to pull at that thread.” LMAO

Adie: HA! Honestly, planning kind of is a fetish for so many people, so it’s not super far off. I’m sure there are people who finish drawing their layouts for the week and then just go to town on their significant other. All properly scheduled, of course.

Allen: I totally have a newfound respect for BuJo-ing. Also, I have to say, for someone who has the handwriting of a serial killer and the art skills of a kindergartner, it just isn’t something I can ever see making me happy to do. But I really want to BuJo like a pro, if that helps.

Via Giphy

Adie: Yea, I’m the same way. I can’t draw to save my life. I’ve spent a small fortune on stickers and shit, too, but then I never want to commit to sticking them on anything. They sell BuJo stencils, to make “drawing” your layout easier, but that takes all the creativity out of it, right??? Like, at that point just buy a regular planner? I always try again every few months though lol! I have a problem.

Allen: I say if you need stencils just use the calendar app on your smartphone. I mean, you paid hundreds of dollars for it, make that bitch work, right?

Adie: Seriously. That’s pretty much what I do. I mean, I write things down in a regular planner, but if it’s important, that shit goes in my phone, because I don’t always check my planner every day. I lack discipline.

Allen: Same here. Of course, I’m also the freak who tells myself to jot something down or type it into my phone and I only succeed 30% of the time.

Adie: Lol! Okay, moving on, this second topic grates on me. I know I’m hardly the first person to post this question, but WHY IS EVERYTHING GOOD IN LIFE BEING REPLACED BY CAULIFLOWER?!

Allen: 😂🤣 Don’t even get me started on this shit. I could go on for days. Just eat fucking rice and regular pizza crust and shut the fuck up. Or eat your bland ass cauliflower and shut the fuck up. No one gives a shit.

Adie: Let me tell you two words that should never be used together in a sentence: Cauliflower Waffles. I wish I was joking!

Allen: What??? That is a sin before God.

Adie: It was the most horrifying thing I’ve ever seen. This recipe book that came with my mini waffle iron (because I like eating mini foods; I feel like a giant; don’t judge me) had a recipe for “cheesy cauliflower waffles.” I was like, “Ya had me at ‘cheesy’ and lost me forever at ‘cauliflower waffles,’ bruh.”

I’m haunted

Allen: LOL. That is just fucked up. That’s right up there with the time I heard about “Cabbage Steaks”. Yes: Cabbage. Steaks. I have nothing against veganism, but, like any other religion, some of their people rub my ass sideways.

Adie: Ugh, I saw someone do cauliflower steaks on an episode of Guy’s Grocery Games. Like, no, that is not a steak. A steak is made of beef. That is just a chunk of grilled cauliflower, which is fine if that’s your jam, but don’t call it a steak you lying sack of lying liar.

Allen: That’s the thing, though, isn’t it? I like cabbage. I like cauliflower, I like steak–but let’s not pretend one is the other. Eat a steak or eat cauliflower/cabbage. And then shut up.

Adie: Fuck right?? And it’s put out there like it’s a ~*~super healthy alternative~*~ but 90% of the time they have to add so much other shit to make it taste good, whatever health benefits you get from cauliflower (or cabbage, or whatever your vegetable substitute of choice is) are completely negated. Cauliflower waffles sounds like a healthy, if abominable, alternative to regular waffles. But in order to make it taste good you gotta cover it in greasy, fatty cheese! It wasn’t even low carb. The recipe called for bread crumbs, so I’m not sure what diet they were trying to appeal to.

Allen: Hm. Maybe there’s a conspiracy theory here about cauliflower farmers trying to inundate the market or something? Or we’ve strayed too far from God by letting hipsters stay on their bullshit?

Adie: Cauliflower is the new corn. There’s corn in everything. We eat so much corn, you can actually find it in our DNA.

Allen: Look, I’m not going to have the Epic Corn & Potato Argument revisited, so you just calm the hell down. LOL

Adie: HA! How about we move on then? My last topic is kind of serious and inspired by the hilarious post Katie did in February about getting rich blogging. She made a joke about bloggers being the only people who actually read blogs anymore. Do you think that’s true? Are we all just a bunch of folks in a circle jerk who will never reach anyone outside of the blogging community? Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing, but…

Via Giphy

Allen: Ya’ know, I often have this thought about both the blogging and writing community. Sometimes I feel like I’m on Twitter adding my voice to the cacophony of people screaming “READ MY BOOK” “READ MY BLOG” “GIVE ME MONEY”. I mean, I have writer friends and blogger friends who are actually making a living at it, but every day does feel like a hustle sometimes where you wonder if anyone is merely just a reader and not someone within your profession/community.

Adie: That’s the feeling! I mean, don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t trade my blogging fam for the world. I’m happy to have found all of you. At the same time, we’re all a bunch of broke ass bitches trying to hustle with each other and it reaches this point where it’s basically a vacuum. One of the most prominent blogging tips is “Comment on other blogs to find readers!” But if all the readers are also writers, they know those tricks.

Allen: Same. I love my blog family, too. Even if I haven’t blogged in nearly two weeks. LOL However, it’s a struggle to make blogging a primary source of income. But I think that blogging has gotten a bad name because everyone has a damn blog. And a lot of those people don’t give a damn about the quality of their blog. It’s just crap and more crap on top of more crap, so people are leery about reading a new blog they haven’t read before.

Adie: For real. It seems like blogging has become so over saturated, it’s a dying art. So many of the most quality blogs I ever read have stopped posting, or only post once a month, or even longer. And a lot of it is because there’s no money to be made in it because it’s the same hundred people going back and forth between each other’s blogs and it’s a tit-for-tat thing.

Like, I buy your books, you buy my mug, and that’s basically the same $20 going back and forth between us. Economic vacuum. It’s fun. I love your books. I hope you like the mug. But neither one of us can pay our bills with that, yanno? Lol!

Allen: I’ve come to the conclusion that if you blog, you also have to be a writer and side hustler. Unless you’re Jenny Lawson–who totally deserves her success–blogging just ain’t payin’ the bills. We’re all playing pass the $20, like you said.

Of course, even Jenny Lawson side hustles. She has her books, her adult coloring books, her merch, her speaking engagements, etc. If Jenny Lawson has to throw that ass in a circle, the rest of us do, too!

Adie: Right. And even Jenny, I’m sure she probably didn’t make a lot of money from her blog in the beginning. But she turned it into a book deal and now her blog is also her author website and I’m sure it makes money because people pay her to advertise on it, instead of just going with the same Google Ads or WordPress Ads (which are always so unappealing and look like phishing scams, I don’t know who actually clicks on those–and no clicks means no $$).

Google Ads be like…  (via Giphy)

Allen: Truth. I mean, I plan to keep blogging because I enjoy it and I love connecting with folks, but it ain’t paying TXU, so other things will get more of my focus and energy.

Adie: Exactly. I mean, I’m not trying to shit on blogging, of course. Even if it doesn’t pay the bills directly, it’s a great networking tool. Especially if you’re a writer. It’s a portfolio of work you can direct people to when looking for paid jobs. “Here’s a sample of my writing!” Although, I personally wouldn’t do that, unless I was applying for the angriest, sweariest writing job on the planet lol! But you get what I’m saying.

Allen: Yeah. I’ve had actual family members tell me they don’t recommend my blog to people because of my language and how honest I can be at times. LMAO Also, a content writing job I picked up asked if I could be an anonymous contributing writer due to that. LMAO

Adie: LMAO!! I know my mom reads and enjoys my blog, but I don’t think she’s ever recommended me to anyone for the same reason. My blog is so personal, it would be awkward (for her AND me) if people she/we actually knew read it.

And that content job asking you to be anonymous thing is why I’ve seriously considered closing my blog completely. I won’t lie, and I think I’ve mentioned this in the past, but I hate that FAWL kind of accidentally became a mostly mental health blog. I never wanted to be a mental health blogger. I really don’t want potentially employers (in or out of the writing industry) to see my blog and be like, “Ehh…” But I’m an attention whore and I hated being anonymous LMAO!!

Via Giphy

Allen: I really debated either rebranding or just shutting Das Midnight Goose down because of it, but for the most part, it doesn’t really cause problems. Also, I don’t want to help contribute to the feeling that people can’t be real on their blogs about mental health and other issues and not be valuable members of the working force. I have depression and anxiety. I’ve never not worked since I was 15/16. I don’t miss days due to my depression and anxiety, I don’t cause problems, I’m a hard worker, and I’m skilled–so eff you pay me, bitches.

Adie: Lol same, but at the same time people are assholes. I figure since I don’t use my last name on my blog I probably won’t have any issues with employers finding it, but I’m also paranoid.

I don’t want to stop blogging about mental health, but it does bother me that it’s the only thing I blog about, these days. Stress, depression, anxiety, bleh, blah, blerg. Cliché as it sounds, there’s more to me than my mental illness lol!

Allen: Same. I mean, we both know it doesn’t take up a lot of blog space on Das Goose, but if I feel like I need to write about it, it’s gonna happen. LOL Actually, anything that comes to mind will probably end up on there and I really won’t give a damn. LOL

Adie: That’s what makes your blog great! It’s relatable!

Allen’s blog is so relatable, in fact, that he has his own installment of Adie and Allen Save the World posted–and while being on hiatus, too! What a guy, huh?! You should go check it out if you haven’t already! You get to see one of my weirdest online purchases and find out just how much of a freak I really am! Whoo!

I love you all.

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