What was I thinking?

I find myself saying a lot, "What was I thinking?" this time around, in relation to starting a blog. What was I thinking, truly? I wanted to start a blog site. I dug a tiny bit into that, what would I write about - cats and my day-to-day life. It seemed simple enough. Somewhere deep in my brain, I thought I can write about my cats, my experiences, give advice as I find things that work for a multipet house, etc., and potentially make money on the blog. At no point did I think beyond just HOW you make money on the blog.

So here I am, more than 6 months in, a blog a week with very few readers, no money coming in from the blog. It got me thinking, what was I thinking when I started this blog?! I wanted to try my hand at it, sure, I wanted to write about my experiences; blogging seemed so simple. Granted, it's simple enough, you just have to sit down and type away. Sometimes I have no idea what to write about, and when I find something, I feel I don't have anything to make people keep reading.

Content plays a big part in the blog world. If you aren't putting out content people want to read or hear about, you'll never make it. I'm not quite sure I have the content perfected yet...but there's hope. While I was wondering what I was doing writing a blog, I started to look into how to make money on my blog. It's got potential for sure. But it's going to take a lot more work and dedication than I originally thought it would. (No surprise here...)

I have learned that one thing you have to do to be successful with any type of social media is lots of promotion, lots of posting, and lots of marketing. That's harder than I expected. Not only do I have to make sure I take the time to write the blog and schedule the posts, but I also need to go on various platforms and push that a new blog post is up. This includes using my handy phone to text people who aren't on Facebook or Instagram. While each piece is only a few minutes, it's a few minutes that I have to dedicate each time a blog goes live. I'm slowly getting better at using the various "scheduler" features on multiple platforms - I just have to make time to sit down and schedule those posts!

Just a quick search made me realize that it could take more than a year or two to make $1,000 a month. Now, that would mean writing more than one blog post a week, having exceptional content, and a big following of blog readers. None of which is happening yet for me... My content is so-so, I have about 5 people who read my blog daily, and that's it. So, am I really going to make money on it? Probably not. Do I want to? Yes... but I'm okay if I don't.

I never realized that I would need to be so up-to-date with keywords (terms people use in their web searches). By using keywords, it brings my blog closer to the top of internet results. Who knew?! I guess over time I'll get the keyword thing down, but in the meantime... I'm just going to keep plugging along and doing a weekly post.

Something I recently learned - blogging is supposed to be interactive. I don't know why, but that's not my first thought when I think of a blog. But I guess, bloggers write, people read & comment. Those comments are questions or follow-ups to what they just read. Therefore, pulling the blogger into communication with their readers. As of yet, I have gotten no comments or questions. Maybe one day they will come.

Till our Tails Cross,

Mel

Is AI going to take over?

Straying away from the cats for a hot blog minute. Something that has been trending is AI - it's hard to miss that AI is a thing - it's everywhere! From AI-created images, AI-written programs, and AI-written papers.

I've never been one of the tech-savvy people who need to have the latest and greatest thing that has come out with technology. I fought getting a smartphone for the longest time - I was good with the flip phone that took 20 minutes to write a text as you had to press each key multiple times to get the letter you needed. Now I use my "smart" phone more than Gene does. I still struggle with some things on it, but overall - I use it more than I do a computer.

I always used to say that the technology we have is nowhere close to being perfect or even working correctly 99% of the time, so maybe we should slow our roll on the advancement to bigger, better things with technology and perfect what we have. But what do I know? Granted, there's more money to be made if we roll out new and improved things more often. Sadly, the way of the world is more materialistic than it should be, and people just have to have the bragging rights for the newest thing instead of fixing something; we just toss it and buy a new replacement.

Years ago, when AI was just a murmur on the tech streets, Gene was like, "This is gonna be the greatest thing ever. Robots that do all the work, body parts that are replaceable so we can live forever, what's not to like?!" I was like, you know, that's just taking away jobs - which takes away our financial ability to afford living. More importantly, if we push forward with AI, it's just going to make humans a lump of stupid, non-thinking blobs. We need to be

challenged, we need to think, we need to push our limits. Having something like AI take over is taking all of that away. People will no longer think for themselves, have an opinion, or be able to carry on an intellectual conversation. The world would quickly become a place that I don't want to live.

Now that AI is becoming more prominent in our lives (Facebook with its "Meta AI", TikTok with AI-generated captions, emails/texts with predictive sentencing, Chat GPT (both paid and unpaid), Claude) - it's everywhere and without a choice. Granted, there are some upsides to AI, depending on how you use it and what your intentions are.

I have used ChatGPT (the free version) as a tool to help me brainstorm or get ideas of what to write about, creating unique names, etc. But that's it. There's potential for some really big changes with AI taking the lead in the technical world. Some of it is happening behind the scenes already at medium and larger companies. The average person may not see it, but it's happening and it's a bit scary!

Gene works for a great company and has been there for almost 10 years. He has been on several teams during that time. Recently, he joined a new team - basically the AI division. So he is seeing firsthand how it is changing or has the potential to change things in his company. Gene was excited to be on that team - he is on the leading edge of this new technology, so it is a great experience and looks amazing on his resume. However, the big drawback is the realization that in the distant future, his field of work could be eliminated or cut back to a minimal team of a few people. This was one thing I kept saying: jobs will be taken, and it's not the low-end jobs that no one wants that will disappear. He was adamant that would never happen. Now he sees that the potential is there, and it's scary!

Like most people who have a career in a specialized field, it's terrifying to hear in your 40s that you might not have a job in 10 years. Even though you planned to work until 65, now you're in the "unhireable" group for several reasons: age, skill set, pay rate, etc. Let's also be realistic about the fact that yes, it's discriminatory to not hire based on age - but we all know it happens, and companies find a way to not use age as the reason. That's the last place anyone wants to find themselves. While it's not the end of the world, it sure makes for a stressful time.

Gene and a friend recently got together. His friend, whom we hadn't seen since our wedding, voiced his concern about AI and his job security. He is also in the tech field at a different company in a different industry. Gene is in the restaurant supply industry, while his friend is in the medical industry, but both are on the back end of computer technology. There are no real answers to how likely this is to happen or what will happen to all the people in technical fields. Are they just out of luck and have to find a new field to work in? Will they have to consider early retirement if the day comes when their jobs disappear?

Til our tails cross again,

Mel

Supportive and Loving Husband

As many people know, Gene is less than thrilled about the quantity of cats that reside with us. Sure, he has some great reasons for that. I can't really argue that he truly has allergies to the cats' dander, hair, and litter. That should be his number one reason, but it's closely tied to the expense. Sure, one or two pets in great health are cheaper than raising a child for 18 years. But, honestly - we have more than one or two, several with health issues. We have a handful that are reaching senior age, which comes with more costs and health issues. The other handful are a bunch of younger cats that will all grow old and expensive together.

Nevertheless, he is amazingly supportive of me and all of the cats. Granted, there was a time when he was less helpful. Fast forward many years later, he is much more helpful. There's been lots of compromise (life is truly one big compromise, I guess); he does not do anything with the litter, puppy pads, and cleaning up accidents. He will, if I'm house sitting and can't come home, or am away and he's home and I specifically ask him to deal with something. Otherwise, it waits for me. Which I have accepted - truly hard for me to say it's okay to let it sit. It's time-consuming (I spend a good 45 minutes to an hour a day dealing with the litter boxes/mess). Obviously, the longer the mess sits, the harder to clean and the house smells unpleasant. However, I can overlook that knowing I can clean it up and have the house smelling fabulous in no time.

He cleans up hairballs (probably more than I do), tops off food and water bowls. Usually, this happens when the cats start begging him for food. He is the filter cleaner for the water bowls that have fancy water features. With so many cats, they get clogged daily and need to have a deep clean daily.

Honestly, though, all that is small potatoes in the grand scheme of helping with the cats. The biggest help - he's the medicine man. It's a time-consuming job that requires meds to be given on a schedule. He really didn't want to be the designated medicine person, but when Jasper got diagnosed with diabetes and needed twice-daily insulin shots (12 hours apart) - we had to figure something out.

My work schedule meant that there wasn't a good 12-hour time that worked. I could do either the AM or the PM meds, but not both. Just like too many cooks in the kitchen equals a disaster - multiple medication people lead to missed doses or double doses. He agreed to do the insulin twice a day at a time that works for him. Now we have Clara on a new medicine for her diabetes, once a day but again needs to be 24 hours apart. So he added that to his day. The compromise is that I will be the one to do her urine tests (they are simple enough and only have to be done every 2 - 3 days).

Now we are facing Vera needing a daily dose of medication or an inhaler (to be determined at her upcoming vet appointment). We had previously been told that we may have to administer an inhaler daily for her - which, for a cat who doesn't like to be held in place, will be an entire process. But as I explained to Gene, we are potentially at that point, and he, without question, said - if the inhaler is what needs to be done, I'll do it and work with her to make sure she gets it.

Time stopped for me; I almost fell over when he said that. It means that we could potentially have a lifetime manageable medication for Vera's chronic bronchitis. It will be up to me to find the cheapest place to buy the inhaler and pay for it. As much as I hate to see that cost, it's a good deal! I truly can't wait to hear what the vet says; it'll be nice to not have her coughing and wheezing 24/7. Needless to say, he doesn't hear it enough, and I sure don't say it enough. I appreciate that he steps up and takes care of the meds and minor messes while I'm not home.

So do the cats. Jasper especially loves it, as every so often he gets a kiss from Gene after his medicine is done. The true reality is that each time one of the cats needs meds, they get a few extra pets and love at medicine time - which they all want!

Til our Tails cross again,

Mel