u/Getting0nTrack

Hey all,

I am finally getting around to starting out a little permaculture project. I am based in South Carolina 8b, and have largely resisted the urge to garden for a variety of personal reasons sight notwithstanding. I used to garden a lot when I was younger with my relatives, all my family in Central Europe have home gardens and I've got fond memories of yellow watermelon in my cousin's village house.

What has kept me from starting a little food forest has mostly been the impermanence of my living situation. I have never felt like I should be living where I do, primarily because despite the population growth objectively speaking I can't be independent here, not to the degree I want to be. The lack of jobs and support is for a different subreddit. Recent changes to my medical situation and a terrible job market have made me think, once again, staying put for a few years isn't so bad. Right now I exist on SSDI and am trying to earn side income (this is not one of those projects). For me, this little food forest idea is about reducing reliance on the grocery and eventually, maybe, meeting 10-20% of fruit/veggie needs in the summer. I am living with elderly parents, so this is all on me.

Because I live in the Southeast and we typically have extremely humid summers, and our house here has maybe a tenth of the land back in Europe, I am not sure where to start. I currently only have one fig tree which my mother got me last week following a successful surgery, it has been therapeutic to take care of the thing.

I have found that there are soil quality meters and all these different cheap drip irrigation systems, but we are talking maybe 1/4 an acre in the back yard. I am not sure to what degree a $100 investment into basic equipment like that could do if I want to plant more than a 5 quart tree pot. I am definitely out of my depth when it comes to dealing with the humidity and consistent heat.

I have been able to get by with tactile markings, judging the soil by feel and using my limited remaining vision, but it seems daunting to go from a handful of plants to, like, an entire box and growing all sort of things you wonderful folks have managed to cultivate.

Hello all,

The basics are that I am late 20s, blind, and a dual US-Hungarian citizen by way of my mother. I have lived for most of my life in the US despite virtually all the family I am close to living across Europe. I am existing on a disability pension of about 1.2k a month (SSDI for the Americans reading).

I have 15k in investments, no student loans, and plan to save 200k by the time I am 50. The inherent hitch is that at some point during this time period I am going to have to return to formal employment and/or build some online business into a reliable generator of revenue. I am fortunate that I qualified for the pension, since I can earn up to 2.8k-ish a month. Sadly, because I do not live in an area that provides any meaningful public services I have been unable to get vocational rehab assistance - the most they can offer me is a job at WalMart or in a sheltered workshop where I would legally earn below minimum wage. I have a degree in political science and have done procurement work for most of my working life. The job would pay very little, and I would get no support for actually getting to the job.. that money would come from my own pocket.

That's where Hungary/moving to Europe comes in. Most of my family lives in CEE, most of my connections are there, and attempts I have made to build connection locally through running or starting social groups just... they haven't worked. I would argue where I live in the Southern US is more provincial than most of rural Hungary, because at least in my small home village we have electric vehicles, public services, the city doesn't look broken down like when I was a kid. My cousin who is similarly disabled (in that he also cannot drive) has been able to find a wife, own a home, and run a successful business.

My US family tells me "oh you should just save and move to Charlotte".. but why not move to Budapest at that point? If I have saved up the money and can work remotely, it is easier for me to go about my life.

I speak Hungarian natively, German, English, and Mandarin. You would think finding a job in the US would not be difficult.. but it has been a struggle getting employers to think beyond the idea of hiring someone with a visual disability. My last job, the boss was fine getting me a screen reader license only to then demand that as part of the job duties I print out and read documents during team meetings... which, you know, I can't. I know that Hungary is in many ways not on the same level as far as life being accommodating, especially socially.. but at least in aggregate I know more blind people gainfully employed in the EU than in the US. I know many who have families, who save, who go on vacation, who live awesome lives. Meanwhile I seem to be stuck in a cycle of near-poverty not for a lack of trying. My parents will not be around forever and I just get this feeling that even if I could theoretically make millions in the US it would be better to live in Eastern Europe and find some place where the basic logistics of my life and less of a mental jigsaw puzzle.

Prior to mass literacy, to the best of my understanding western European countries, used rings and wax seals, however, these fell out of fashion and were made replaced with personal signatures

How did China retain the use of the chop?

I've never quite understood the appeal of using sections in a single publication compared to just creating a seperate publication distinct from the first. I can understand if you have a broad newsletter and want to narrow down focus in a section, but then if there isn't immediate audience overlap why not just makea second publication?

On the mobile app and desktop it seems as though when I click through to a profile via Notes what I get is the profile, not the publication. Meaning, in theory, making two publications is basically the same thing? Unless there is something I'm missing with monetization?

Do you use sections, and if so how do you use them?

My uncle is over for a few days, and I am now realizing why we rarely talk. For all intents and purposes, he is financially set. He has a few properties in VHCOL cities, has made great connections in his industry and I do for the most part genuinely admire the guy because he basically got thrown into the industry he is now working in. At the same time talking with my US family vs family in Europe is much much different.

The issue is, the American side of my family can't take any negativity nor are they willing to extend a hand for me like all our other relatives. My dad was the black sheep of the family, so while all my other cousins had their college paid for and have very successful jobs we had to leave the state and move somewhere with much less opportunity. The only time anyone ever gets together on that side of the family is for funerals and the occasional family call during the pandemic.

This entire week, my uncle and I have talked about his hope for the future with his job, strategies he's asked me to assist with for marketing to those under 40, his hobbies, his next big trip and how it will elevate his career... it's all about hhim.

I am going through a lot of medical issues due to blindness and struggling with the reality that, systematically, there are a lot of barriers to my obtaining employment. I'm in my late 20s and truthfully thought I had until 35 before things got bad, but at 28 I'm in a situation where for the last five years we've gone from serious glaucoma + retina problems to managing them, to "oh hey you need a third surgery".. and this time I am dealing with Medicare Advantage because of living in a rural Southern state that doesn't have good healthcare.

Am I positive on the whole? Sure. But sometimes you just want to vent, or get a third perspective. I told him that I am scared of inheriting the house, of living in a place where I can't just go about my life and with parents who love me yes but won't be here forever. Our mortgage payment is more than my SSDI income, and the area has seen a lot of over building without much infrastructure for people who aren't retired. At least we have good Turkish food now I guess?

I told him this and he said "Honestly cut it out, you keep acting like there's all these demonic systems that keep you from achieving things"... All I did was suggest that the only person who would buy the house in this economy would be Blackrock. Not even in a "woe is me" just a "you honestly think people would buy our cookie cutter house in a rural area compared to a resiliant major metro?", I was trying to be casual about it. Again, I'm not in an area that has a lot of young people.

Attempts i've made to be social are reliant on other people driving me. Employers in the area have told me after we run "you're a great guy, you've got intelligence and chutzpah but yeah I don't see you finding work here", the fuck am I supposed to think after 3 years of functional unemployment?

I talk with my family in Eastern Europe regularly and it often devolves in critiquing the government/wider issues but ultimately workshoping a plan. Figuring out some way beyond very vague suggestions of "work for a charity" or "oh hey AI told me there's this one company that does XYZ" like my uncle does. In many instances not only have I heard of the particular company, I know people that work for them and that the market for their services is built on short term (read: 1 week-3 month) contract work. My Balkan family is at least empathetic and I feel a lot closer to them because of it. They're the reason I started freelance writing and keep trying to push ahead. They got me connected with the editor I've used for several years now, who I wouldn't have found otherwise. My uncle, in the middle of me taking college level courses tells me he's proud of me for going back to school but also "look if you never work again, treat this as early retirement".

Yeah, sadly I don't have the money for that.

This isn’t necessarily a post about USL itself, but I was having a discussion with somebody today when Running about sports and the money that people make. Recently in my home country it was discovered that one way oligarchs were able to hide money was essentially by putting it into U 17 soccer.

In a country where most people make around $1400 a month, these youth sport players on average were making $3000.

I brought this up and the person was like “ oh that’s no different to how NFL and college football players get paid a lot of money by selling their NIL or whatever”… I tried to get them to understand, but actually for a lot of soccer players there is. Is much more ability to go abroad. A good friend of mine wasn’t on the national team, but he wants to Austria and Japan into a bunch of different places before going to University in the US. This person been responded. “ oh well I guess there’s not a lot of people going pro” … at that point I switched the subject because I genuinely did not know where they were trying to go, but it just got me thinking that if you’re gonna have an interest beyond “ oh Luk that guy got a goal”, it would help to understand a little bit of the back room, math?

There’s also I realized in that moment, a much different cultural component that did not translate. My cousin who has worked in pharmaceuticals for well over 15 years barely makes 2200 USD a month and he is basically the equivalent of a regional manager for several countries. Then you have these students who can basically buy a Lamborghini by the time they are 20 if they get signed onto any half decent team.B

That’s why I honestly appreciate scoping around here because you all seem to have a much deeper understanding of the mechanics behind the pitch and it’s always nice seeing such passion.

So my mom hires housekeepers monthly to assist in keeping the house clean because, in large part, she just doesn't have time. They are aware I am blind. One of the women today asked me if I needed water, and I said no. I asked her colleague if I heard that correctly and said if they needed water feel free to get some.

My mom heard about this situation and called me, insisting that I offer and not be a bad host in case I did misunderstand. Well... in the process of walking from my room to the kitchen I walked into a mop bucket. The chemical got onto one of my hands and down my left leg from the knee to ankle. Mild irritation but nothing immediately dangerous. I've worked in hospitality and I could feel it wasnt immediately serious but I still went straight into the kitchen to at least wash my hands thoroughly, then I went to the bathroom and washed down my leg... the bucket was in the middle of the usual path and every piece of furniture was pushed into each other such that even if the housekeepers wanted they couldn't get to the kitchen without playing Jenga...

It's in moments like that where I'm just like... fuck... do I need to use a cane in my own house when other people are around? Am I overanalyzing/overreacting? I probably think I am on some level but its that quiet frustration that kills me.

I feel like over the last two or three years there has been a stark uptick in the number of Westerners interested in China beyond natsec rhetoric. They actually want to, for it seems like the first time in decades, actually understand the country as a country.

That makes me think about all the numerous outlets that have come and gone trying to provide balanced, genuine journalism about China and Taiwan. Most of them, but most notably SupChina run by Kaiser Kuo and Jeremy Goldkorn, didn't seem to last despite many years of providing nuanced reporting. A lot of the stuff they did and I think continue to do now as independents are stories major American press might cover 6-9 months later after the story is "discovered" and the reporter interviews two additional sources.

It just makes me wonder if the reporting was timely, accurate, and something where there's a very clear delay... why did so many of these publications fail? Is it just that people in general aren't paying for news? I know that has been on the decline for a long time.

[supprimé]

In a previous life I worked with a culture outlet that covered music trends in a large Asian market. Typically I would source comments like most people in this space did at the time via social media e.g. Weibo, Red Note, Twitter. I'd run interviews with songwriters in that space, etc. I have been trying to strike it out as a freelance writer in a variety of mediums for a while and a relative who worked in publicity at a trade publication told me "don't do what I did and get into a dying industry". He remarked how one of their freelancers got paid $500 for an article, without mentioning whether travel was required or anything was comped At which point he suggested I "freelance on Upwork or TopTal"... literally used an LLM over dinner to "help me out". Not going to lie I felt slighted?

. At least pre-COVID I remember some colleagues remarking when they did freelance work at least for certain industries having things comped was a given. Not an entire trip, but at least some amount of travel/access passes for a music industry event for instance.

I know that most people don't get their news from magazines and trade shows... but there are podcasts covering various extremely niche topics that still find sponsorships and are what I'd call "trade outlets" such as they exist today. What am I getting wrong here?

I feel like moving into trade coverage would be better on my mental health compared to politics, and who knows it could land an audience.

To preface, I think North Carolina and Georgia are honestly doing a lot better in this regard... relatively speaking. I am living in South Carolina and it truly feels like there's zero consideration for anything beyond car oriented development, beyond building out each little subdivision rather than cohesive regional planning or hell town planning as one would traditionally think of it.

In the last 5 years this area has seen a rapid expansion of housing stock but virtually no industry. They seem to be banking on Boomer money funding everything without consideration for what comes after. Most people I know who are under 35 regret moving here, or are only here because its where their parents retired. I remember speaking with someone at the local permitting office a few years ago during some of the major construction booms who just shrugged and said "how could anyone have seen tis coming?"... What.

This is by no means a unique Southern US problem, but I worked on local issues in the Northeast in a very suburban area, and at least there the NIMBYism gave way to revitalizing apartments and building mixed use developments. There was a recognition that you can't just build homes if there's nowhere for people to work and go about their life. It took over a decade but once they acted it was at least paying lip service to resiliant dense development in an otherwise suburban area. They saw the influx of money from NYC and realized it couldn't last if they didn't plan.

Down here, it took a wildfire ripping through one of the larger private communities for them to build a second exit. On the off chance apartments are approved, they are still fundamentally car dependent. Recently there was this huge project to build out a park, and rather than doing what you might expect - putting the housing directly adjacent or within the complex, the local government only approved housing on the other side of a highway... which still runs through the park? I was there yesterday, there is maybe 1 meter of space between the running trail and 6 lanes of traffic. How nice it could've been to have even a simple crosswalk, but that isn't realistic. The closest hotel is still an hour away but they're touting this as some huge win for tourism.

Meanwhile just 20 miles north they've broken ground on several big box stores and warehouses, clear cutting probably 90 acres of previously forested land.

The way they're "developing" is turning me into a NIMBY and I don't like it.

I am someone with a journalism background originally from a small European country. Two years ago I started a podcast talking about broad historical topics from the region and my country in particular when the mood felt right. Due to a disability traditional employment has always been difficult for me so I went in thinking that podcasting might be able to earn something in good time.

Despite low initial growth I kept going, I figured eventually it would pick up steam. A year and in I still barely cracked 10 downloads on a very good episode. If this had been something like a music or film podcast I may have treated it differently but I eventually figured what was the point in continuing something that no one listened to anyway? I started to go from weekly uploads to twice a month.

Around two months ago I released the last episode in the run-up to an election thinking that it would be the last for a while. On top of the weekly blog posts and podcast I was at this point enrolled in some college classes. I thought it would be good to sit out the election coverage. I just checked last night, that one episode has gotten over 200 downloads.

If I got back into this, how can I do it in a healthy way to avoid burning out or that endless chasing of success upon success?

A part of me wants to get back into making episodes...but I have seen this show before. Something does exceedingly well on YouTube or in podcasting or in journalism and you try to repeat it, basically chasing a high. With those other avenues at least there's a way to measure monetarily how things are going, where you can go from that point of success. A lot of people I know from the region don't do coverage of their own nations because, broadly speaking, the English language market does not care until they suddenly pay attention. That makes it hard to know whether this spike was a one-off, or whether further coverage is worth the time investment. With classes basically done for the summer except one, I have more time on my hands again. I just want to ensure I am making good use of it, you know?

Lately I have relaunched a Substac centering on silver and alternative investments. I figured it had been well over three years since I posted on that page and it was time for a rebrand of some kind.

After a decade of collecting and being in Gen Zed I figure there is some perspective I could offer, especially as those in my generation are looking to alternative investments. It won't all be Pokemon and MTG cards, one would think.

In the last 30 days, I've had about 250 views, posting twice a week

However, my free subscriptions have dropped about 20%

My open rate is between 45% at the highest, 25% at the lowest after 48 hours.

One post got 60 views without any outside promotion or restacks... but there were no free subscriptions generated.

I know you don't want to flood subscriber's inboxes, but is there such I know you don't want to flood subscriber inboxes and that isn't what I'd be trying for... keeping a daily schedule writing 750-1k words would get tiring very quickly for most people not actively monitoring news. My posting cadence has been once every 3-4 days, with a dedicated post on weekends dealing with retail curation.

Is this a case where I've put out too much content in such a short time? Do I need to niche down into an already very small, specialized market? I am trying to attract an audience of folks around my age think 20s-35.

Lately I have been getting back into studying Chinese history and have thought about how much it might cost to have a little collection of pieces from the Warlord era. Ideally included in that would be late Qing silver, but I am not trying to spend rent on a single piece.

The thing I keep coming back to when searching Numista and using Gemini is the sheer amount of variety. I speak Mandarin enough to source from Weibo but a lot of the WeChat groups I'm in say "awesome that you're interested but we can't ship to the US".

Retail platforms like MAShops and VCoins seem to have a nice variety but a lot of the shops are in Europe making me hesitant due to the tariffs. I don't want to pay $125 on two really nice examples then come out with a $40 bill from the carrier after they add in a bunch of processing fees.

Is this an area of numismatics where the difference between a $30 example and a $80 example are worth the jump in price?

If anyone collects coins from China, what strategies do youtypically use to find decent deals? In an ideal scenario I'd try to collect coins from Henan, Sichuan, Beijing, Nanjing, and out west think Gansu, Xinjiang, Tibet etc.

I am not entirely new to Substack but I will admit I never really took the platform that seriously in the past. It always felt like a very niche, insular blogging platform only really reliable for those who already had an audience.

I recently revived and rebranded an old Substack into a page less politically focussed and more finance related, based around my interest in silver and history. I am in a position where turning this into income could radically change my quality of life if it goes well. It isn't the only iron in the fire... but it's one that I am confident that there is a market for.

The trouble is I have found very minimal conversion through Substack notes, posting twice a day for the last week. The open rate on articles is 50% after having not posted in years, so clearly an audience still passively exists even if it is not actively growing. Could increasing my number of posts from 1 a week to twice weekly meaingfully impact growth?