edits

content/unemployment/002.md

@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ weight: 2
 
 A lot of that rests on the shoulders of the type of people who wind up in software, though. We're a very needy bunch. We crave the feeling of success that comes with solving problems, and while this is, yes, easy to capitalize on, it's also easy to get addicted to. You wind up with tracked-out veins, living from project to project and hating every minute of it, every bit of yourself.
 
-> Thus you, promising work and yourself that you would take two weeks off over the holidays as an attempt to reset yourself and get more on track with their requirements.
+> Thus you, promising work and yourself that you would take two weeks off over the holidays as an attempt to reset yourself and get more on track with their expectations.
 
 Yes, and thus work, upon those two weeks' completion, wondering why I hadn't gotten more done over the break.
 
@@ -19,4 +19,4 @@ I bought into it *hard*. Why *hadn't* I gotten more accomplished over the break?
 
 Right.
 
-I'd never been fired, and while I think that the record still stands, there, it does so only on technicalities. My contract was up on February seventh, and both work and I agreed that we would not be renewing it. I hated working there, and they hated having an engineer that hated working for them.
+I'd never been fired, and while I think that the record still stands, it does so only on technicalities. My contract was up on February seventh, and both work and I agreed that we would not be renewing it. I hated working there, and they hated having an engineer that hated working for them.

content/unemployment/003.md

@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ Right. The third time, it turns out, was not the charm.
 
 Okay.
 
-I started [Hybrid Ink](https://hybrid.ink) back in 2018 almost on a whim. The idea was to start picking up unique novels that tickled my interest and helping bring them to a light. The mission statement was soon broadened to focus specifically on LGBTQIA+ works, and it seemed like a really good pet project to get working on.
+I started [Hybrid Ink](https://hybrid.ink) back in 2018 almost on a whim. The idea was to start picking up unique novels that tickled my interest and bring them to light. The mission statement was soon narrowed to focus specifically on LGBTQIA+ works, and it seemed like a really good pet project to get working on.
 
 By the time I was getting frustrated at the Archive, I was already toying with the idea of turning it from a pet project into an actual company that I could work for. It'd be easy enough, right?
 
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ I suppose I wouldn't have it any other way.
 
 > So, untangle that.
 
-I say "it'd be easy, right?" with the knowledge granted to me by hindsight that it was not, in fact, easy. It was not easy at all.
+I say "it'd be easy, right?" with the knowledge granted by hindsight that it was not, in fact, easy. It was not easy at all.
 
 My plan was to find a tech job and work there for a year, both ramping up Hybrid quickly and also saving my money to help support me as I delved into a job that would not be making me tech job money. I had it all worked out. I came up with six anthologies that I would publish, staggered across several months. By the time I was ready to leave my next job, the house would have picked up enough steam that it would be able to run on its own right.
 
@@ -43,6 +43,6 @@ And then I started looking at companies I wasn't as fond of. No one was biting,
 
 And then I started compromising my morals. Amazon was an option, right? They're a horrifying company, and I felt slimy and disgusting interviewing there, but a paycheck was a paycheck, right? I could hold my nose for a year or so to get back on my feet, right? I could not.
 
-And then I started digging back into tech jobs. Maybe if I took a more junior position, I would be able to work more easily, That way, I reasoned, I would be less isolated, having to report to someone more senior. My day would be easier to get through without flailing at nothing.
+And then I started digging back into tech jobs. Maybe if I took a more junior position, I would be able to work more easily. That way, I reasoned, I would be less isolated, having to report to someone more senior. My day would be easier to get through without flailing at nothing.
 
 > Compromise is the warp and woof of the world, is it not? Here you are, compromising three times over, racing to find a job during your last few weeks at work, and failing ever downward.

content/unemployment/005.md

@@ -17,13 +17,13 @@ By a lot, yes. Perhaps it's the context shift inherent in couples therapy: it ch
 
 > And so?
 
-And so, given that I'm one of those 40 million unemployed in the US, and given that I've, as of this week, used up all of my savings, and given that I was denied unemployment benefits due to having been an independent contractor, that's featured quite heavily in our sessions.
+And so, given that I'm one of those 40 million unemployed in the US, and given that I have, as of this week, used up all of my savings, and given that I was denied unemployment benefits due to having been an independent contractor, that's featured quite heavily in our sessions.
 
 And so this idea of worth as tied to productivity featured heavily in today's--
 
 > Yesterday's
 
---right, I've been awake for too long. This idea of productivity as self-worth featured heavily. In particular, the idea that I heavily associate my worth as a person with the things that I produce is not new, though it is particularly evident of late, but specifically the idea that I have a hard time asking for help specifically because that would mean that I am, in some way, failing.
+--right, I've been awake for too long. This idea of productivity as self-worth featured heavily. In particular, while the idea that I heavily associate my worth as a person with the things that I produce is not new, though it is particularly evident of late, the idea that I have a hard time asking for help specifically because that would mean that I am, in some way, failing *is*. This is the thing that I am learning. I'm learning that I am failing.
 
 > You are, in a way.
 
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ Right.
 
 > Let me throw that back at you. That **is** my department. Are you worthy of forgiveness?
 
-Of course I am. That's something I can answer immediately on an intellectual level. There is decidedly more hesitation when asked to answer that on an emotional level. And when it comes to that third-of-three parts, that part defined by negative space and shadow and blind spots--
+Of course I am. That's something I can answer immediately on an intellectual level. There is decidedly more hesitation when asked to answer that on an emotional level, though. And when it comes to that third-of-three parts, that part defined by negative space and shadow and blind spots--
 
 > My neighbor.
 

content/unemployment/006.md

@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ The company is in limbo now. I can't afford to pay authors, and yet some are und
 
 That I have failed at running the company has killed my interest in running it any further. Jill's book needs editing and a cover. She's under contract, right? I need to do this and yet, and yet...
 
-> And yet you can't because engaging even with the positive aspects of the company mean facing your failures all the way on the other side. It means recognizing the ways in which you've fallen short.
+> And yet you can't because engaging even with the positive side of the company means facing your failures all the way on the other side. It means recognizing the ways in which you've fallen short.
 
 Yes.
 
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ Yes.
 
 > This is the true failure.
 
-Yes. Not the anthologies failing, not the countless problems involved in running a business, but the complete inability to engage with concrete failures. The concrete failure of the anthologies has lead to the one true failure of being unable to ask for help, even when it is well and truly given, whether by Furplanet or by Scribbles or by JD. It is an abstract failure, and for that, all the more insidious. One cannot escape abstract failures. One cannot solve them through concrete steps.
+Yes. Not the anthologies failing, not the countless problems involved in running a business, but the complete inability to engage with concrete failures. The concrete failure of the anthologies has roots in the one true failure of being unable to ask for help, even when it is well and truly given, whether by Furplanet or by Scribbles or by my partners. It is an abstract failure, and for that, all the more insidious. One cannot escape abstract failures. One cannot solve them through concrete steps.
 
 Unemployment is a concrete problem. COBRA is a concrete problem. Burnout is a more abstract problem, sure, but one with concrete solutions.