Solopreneuring is a wacky ride
That’s my two-floors-down neighbor’s ‘inside’ balcony. Most of the apartment buildings in Taiwan, at least the older ones, have this crazy inside courtyard stretching all the way up to the sometimes smoggy sky.
In like every damn building though, it’s strange.
An apartment might cover an entire city block and yet, wander through the front doors and you’ll find the equivalent of Central Park located inside. I assume it has something to do with the builders/architects of old wanting every apartment to have a balcony.
I don’t disagree with that premise, either. But it sure makes for some funky buildings. I miss living in the rarer buildings that had courtyards full of one of my favorite things in life—swimming pools.
Although, over the years I’ve lived in at least two buildings here with these majestic water buckets—and they were kept empty.
Why?
Between mixed translations and helpful girlfriends, I found out it’s always one of two reasons.
No one uses it (except a wily ol’ coyote like me).
No one wants to pay the extra maintenance fees.
I personally believe it’s much closer to the second reason there. Many of the apartment buildings I’ve lived in in both Taiwan and other countries suffer a similar fate—absentee landlords.
Essentially, an architect firm will buy up some land, plan a giant condominium, and sell sell sell all of the features. In some of the more affluent neighborhoods, this will always include a luscious pool with digitally delicious water filling them up. The investors then come rushing to buy up the next hot property and wait a couple years to move in.
But they never do move in. They bought them as investments.
Renters slowly pile in and take over the whole building. Rules are put in place. Old sleepy guards sit behind their desks offering services like mail, parking management, bill collecting, and curmudgeonry.
Fast forward a year or two later when the annual maintenance fees start piling up, and pools are always the first thing to go.
“No one uses them.”
Because no one lives there. The one are the landlords because they make all the decisions.
And after the pools are emptied for winter and never filled up again, well, the saying becomes much more literal.
“No one uses the pools (because there’s no water), therefore no need to fill them up (with water).”
Ahh, the norms of different places are perplexingly interesting.
At least the beach is nearby!
Can you do me a favor?
I spent a long, long time coming up with a way forward to hopefully start earning a proper living from writing, or at least in 6 months to a year from now.
Towards that end, I decided to start two more Substack newsletters. But unlike my wordly ramblings here, these two have a specific purpose.
The first one is called—A Pryori—where I’ll send out weekly essays on how our world is slowly being enveloped in a flame of greed and masturbatory billionaire egos.
The other one is called—A Pryor History—where I’m aiming to send out 1-2 history articles in my own humorishlish style of writing.
They’re both completely empty for now as I’m officially ‘launching’ next week. But the cool thing is they both already have about 20 subscribers already. Not bad for literally nothing!
Oh also, they’re free!
At least for now. But they’ll stay free for you guys I assure you.
The rest of the world? I need to make them pay…
Queue evil laughter.
JJ’s Vault
(All of these links are paywall free ‘cuz you subscribe.)
I only wrote two things this week after all my work on side projects, ‘the restructuring’, and some long-term client work.
Both are about Meta Medium (sorry):
My long-winded (but fun!) reveal of the new writing plan and why I’m doing it. If you’re a writer it’s probably worth it just to see the logic (or lack of it since I wrote it)
Medium just bought another company. Here’s how it might affect the platform and writers. Yay, I guess. I’d rather they spend a fraction of that on fixing all the crazy bugs that have popped up (or you know, paying the writers properly again)
That’s it for this week! I’m heading up to another city tomorrow to visit some old friends and eat some crazy azz barbecue. Anything to fill the void during my annual Sober November.
Ahh, I miss beer.
Cheers!
J.J. Pryor
Friendly reminder to press the heart button on this newsletter for virtual fake hugs. Or you can share it, that’s worth at least two hugs.
I found this post in my email, and I don't remember signing up for your Substack newsletters. If I didn't, I want to sign up now. I understand the lack of swimming pools or swimming pools without water. We want to be Canadians in the lower 48, have a somewhat similar problem. We have planned communities with an animal called a "Homeowners Association" or HOA. Once the builder leaves this association, it is turned over to the homeowners, who immediately cut costs and lower the monthly fees. One of the first areas that are cut is called "Maintenace." Everything gets old and wears out, except you and I, and others who consume large quantities of PB&T. Pools are expensive to maintain, and many times they are closed to save money.
Sorry to hear about your month of sobriety. I'm a bourbon man, and I find an occasional or more frequent glass or three of Jim Beam helps me to better under my fellow primates. Unfortunately, this understanding only lasts until morning, when I find myself as confused and disheartened as ever.
Cheers!