The Fluffbucket Diaries

Running late with the newsletter thanks to issues with a new laptop setup. Also, my back hurts and sitting is painful, which probably could count as a technical issue.

Will get the newsletter written and out probably later this evening.

Watching baseball for the first time since the Padres lost Game 3 of their last series. I’m a little sad about it, but it’s nice to watch and just enjoy the game without that horrific sense of dread that rooting for San Diego often has for me.

I’m building quite the zine collection these days. This is a whole new fabulous world! Now I totally want to make a zine.

I uninstalled the MLB app from my phone, so I had to Google the game. Thanks for brightening my afternoon, Google. 😬

Time for a bit of weekly Substackery reading.

Yes. Yes, it is.

Welp, the federal government has shut down. As a federal worker with an unclear fate, C will be filing for unemployment.

(I worked for a federal contractor that laid off 350+ people this past spring.)

I never thought we’d be a his-and-hers-unemployment household, but here we are.

Meanwhile, I’m pivoting toward rebuilding my freelance editing/proofreading business. If you know of anyplace that needs a hand with polishing copy or academic papers or other published material, I can put my 30+ years of editing experience to work for them.

Quite a year, 2025.

Fifty-six books listed on eBay as of this writing. Head over to Fluffbucket.biz for the links to my eBay and Etsy listings.

Caved and restarted YouTube TV so I could actually watch my Padres in the postseason. I hate being shackled by Big Cable and Big Baseball.

I got a few zine ideas during Mass. Plus I wish the homilist had pointed out the fact that Jesus named the poor soul in the bosom of Abraham (Lazarus) but not the rich guy who blew him off in this world and ended up in “the netherworld.”

Down 13.6 pounds since I started on this weight-loss app 2 weeks ago. Blinky the Simple.life whatsis is very proud of me.

Finally started listing stuff on eBay. It’s gonna be quite the long slog to add all the books, collectibles, and destash craft materials I’d like to post.

I have to keep reminding myself as I press forward with all these e-commerce ventures: It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

Totally feeling this today.

Had a weird dream where I accompanied Ellen Degeneres to the Emmys as a platonic date and then went home to my old apartment in Raleigh. Then my late parents and late sister came home with groceries.

This is a day after I dreamed that I was dating a Padres pitcher. What the hell is going on with me?

My daughter is a high school senior. F wants to go to art school and become an animator – or maybe a voice actor. Or both. She founded the Dungeons & Dragons club at school. Her report cards are largely dotted with As and Bs.

F is also autistic. Proudly so. She attended a district preschool that specializes in working with special needs kids, and she flourished with early, non-ABA-type intervention there. She has learned over the years how to manage her time and energy and not burn out under the kind of academic pressures she and her classmates face, even though she’s been in honors courses throughout high school.

The more we learned about autism, the more we saw that (a) it is not a death sentence, and (b) it is hereditary. C and I realized that we are likely both neurodivergent, sharing multiple tendencies associated with ADHD and autism. My late sister often mused that she was probably ADHD and possibly autistic; the latter part of her life bore that out as she struggled with severe overwhelm and basic living. None of us have been officially diagnosed, but our experiences align with those of actual neurodivergent people.

And yet. Here we are in 2025 and we have to hear this administration screech about vaccines and – horrors – Tylenol causing autism, and that everything villainized in relation to autism must be stopped because the president and his anti-science flunkies have “very strong feelings about autism” and say it must be stopped.

Fact is, autistic people have always been around; they’ve just not always been identified as such (and often were institutionalized before – or even after – scientists first identified autism). This so-called epidemic stems from greater awareness of autism and expansion of diagnoses beyond the stereotypical white males long identified with this neurotype. (Also, it should be noted that autism was first diagnosed in 1943; Tylenol was invented in 1955.)

It’s deeply unsettling to know the president and his ilk don’t believe people like my daughter should exist or are not fully human. She and all autistics deserve to live their lives as they see fit with the love and support that all people should have.

I just noticed there is Y2K nostalgia on Taco Bell’s menu. It just triggered my sciatica.

Belated Padres 11th inning video link. #clinched

More art. #ArtistTradingCards

One of the biggest conundrums of my job before I was laid off. It was no fun being sacked, but it did free me from this prison.

Catching up on some art. #ArtistTradingCards

I’ve applied for dozens of jobs since last spring. That’s not counting the scammer who approached me and had me jump through a few hoops before asking me to purchase a $15,000 Mac setup to begin working as a contractor.

Maybe I should have applied for far more positions since I was laid off in March. But, I realize now, I’ve spent much of that time recovering from severe exhaustion and overwhelm from the managerial job I lost.

I hate what happened to me. But maybe it saved me; at least now I have a chance to pivot to a healthier way forward.

I don’t turn off the news spigot entirely these days, though God knows I’ve tried. Another good reminder here from the ‘stack.

I appreciate having this space for Substack encouragement notes that might be useful for others.

I think I’ve found a new purpose for this space. My compulsion to collect useful info has found a new place to harvest in Substack.

Okay, I went and got all Substacky. Find my first publication here.