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Sep. 30th, 2025 01:49 pmmy mom... bless her heart.
so she's generally cool, but every now and then she'll make a comment about how a family member draws so well, they're so talented that they need to monetize or publish their art, so on. (occasionally she'll make the same comment about my SFW work but i kinda deflect with the 'focusing on work these days') angle since she vaguely knows i split ways with the webcomics publisher due to being burnt out. (i get a similar comment a lot from other people, at least more back when i actually shared i drew a lot as a hobby; i don't tell people that these days. but i also get the feeling it's usually from people slightly insecure that they don't have a monetizable hobby and they fear they've missed the wave on said quick cash. thing is, it's a totally different landscape now.)
anyway, the comment's always slightly bothered me on my family member's behalf, but i want to be tactful in the response for several reasons, both pragmatic in an educational way and "don't be an ass" reasons. thankfully the other day i thought of the perfect response -
- that for some people, art-making is like fishing. (lot of folks down in these parts like to fish as a hobby). the end-result or money or kudos doesn't matter. the real enjoyment in solitude is the point. technically fishing as a skill-to-make-money can exist but it's seen far more as simply a fun hobby that retirees indulge in where you don't have to talk to people. and it's socially acceptable. (she loves to talk, so slightly leaning on the 'some people need their quiet time as a hobby hint hint' shtick also helped there.)
thankfully, when i mentioned that fishing metaphor to her, that seemed to genuinely connect the dots with her -- so. free rebuttal there, for the artists and creatives here, if you get that kind of comment?
anyway, interesting times in my life right now.
the biggest: there's some very, very early-phase life changes with moving to the next place for a decade+. (it's a cool space on paper, and fixes the last major ~quality of life~ issues i have with increasing the square footage of my current space, with no major drawbacks. it's a little isolated but that's fine by me; i kind of want to go in hermit mode / small town mode for the next while, minus some very close family and you usual mutuals I talk to here.)
also that Big work project back in early August that i was stressing about for several months went spectacularly well :D currently in a much-needed lull period with work.
lastly, looking at dedicated System76 servers for a christmas present since I'm getting the feeling I need to start educating myself on fully self hosting a variety of things. :v (bsky PDS, that pi-hole i always wanted to do, cloud backup for the laptop on top of my usual backup system, some secure chat apps, etc. need something slightly beefier than a raspi, you know? and i already trust system76's hardware almost implicitly.)
so she's generally cool, but every now and then she'll make a comment about how a family member draws so well, they're so talented that they need to monetize or publish their art, so on. (occasionally she'll make the same comment about my SFW work but i kinda deflect with the 'focusing on work these days') angle since she vaguely knows i split ways with the webcomics publisher due to being burnt out. (i get a similar comment a lot from other people, at least more back when i actually shared i drew a lot as a hobby; i don't tell people that these days. but i also get the feeling it's usually from people slightly insecure that they don't have a monetizable hobby and they fear they've missed the wave on said quick cash. thing is, it's a totally different landscape now.)
anyway, the comment's always slightly bothered me on my family member's behalf, but i want to be tactful in the response for several reasons, both pragmatic in an educational way and "don't be an ass" reasons. thankfully the other day i thought of the perfect response -
- that for some people, art-making is like fishing. (lot of folks down in these parts like to fish as a hobby). the end-result or money or kudos doesn't matter. the real enjoyment in solitude is the point. technically fishing as a skill-to-make-money can exist but it's seen far more as simply a fun hobby that retirees indulge in where you don't have to talk to people. and it's socially acceptable. (she loves to talk, so slightly leaning on the 'some people need their quiet time as a hobby hint hint' shtick also helped there.)
thankfully, when i mentioned that fishing metaphor to her, that seemed to genuinely connect the dots with her -- so. free rebuttal there, for the artists and creatives here, if you get that kind of comment?
anyway, interesting times in my life right now.
the biggest: there's some very, very early-phase life changes with moving to the next place for a decade+. (it's a cool space on paper, and fixes the last major ~quality of life~ issues i have with increasing the square footage of my current space, with no major drawbacks. it's a little isolated but that's fine by me; i kind of want to go in hermit mode / small town mode for the next while, minus some very close family and you usual mutuals I talk to here.)
also that Big work project back in early August that i was stressing about for several months went spectacularly well :D currently in a much-needed lull period with work.
lastly, looking at dedicated System76 servers for a christmas present since I'm getting the feeling I need to start educating myself on fully self hosting a variety of things. :v (bsky PDS, that pi-hole i always wanted to do, cloud backup for the laptop on top of my usual backup system, some secure chat apps, etc. need something slightly beefier than a raspi, you know? and i already trust system76's hardware almost implicitly.)
