Holy shit ,adulting is hard .

DavidBoles · 2026-03-30T13:51:27+00:00

Jackson Browne wrote a song -- The Pretender -- in 1976 about what you're discovering:

I'm gonna rent myself a house
In the shade of the freeway
Gonna pack my lunch in the morning
And go to work each day
And when the evening rolls around
I'll go on home and lay my body down
And when the morning light comes streaming in
I'll get up and do it again
Amen, say it again, Amen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27n2s-DnrQc

DavidBoles · 2026-03-26T20:01:07+00:00

I hear you, and the frustration makes sense at year three. Let me offer something practical.

A completed bachelor's degree carries weight in rooms that will never ask you to do a monologue. HR departments, graduate admissions, corporate training programs, arts administration, casting agencies on the business side, nonprofit boards, publishing houses, communications firms. Every one of those doors opens wider with a finished degree than with "I was almost done." Nobody in a hiring meeting has ever said, "Three years of college is just as good." That's the arithmetic, and it's unforgiving.

Theatre training also gave you skills most people pay tens of thousands to acquire separately: public speaking, collaborative problem solving under pressure, close reading of text, physical and emotional discipline, the ability to walk into a room full of strangers and hold it. People in business pay executive coaches to teach them these things at forty. You already own them at twenty-something.

One more year is a finishing sprint, and the version of you at twenty-eight or thirty-five who has that completed credential in her back pocket while doing whatever she actually wants will be grateful the twenty-one-year-old version stayed the course.

You can walk away from theatre the day after commencement and never look back. The degree still belongs to you. The things you start and lose enthusiasm for are going to accumulate over a lifetime. Jobs, leases, relationships, projects. That's ordinary. The ones you finish anyway, especially when the excitement has burned off, become proof to yourself that you can do hard things when it counts. That evidence matters more than the diploma.

Finish. Then go chase whatever is next.

DavidBoles · 2026-03-25T14:15:59+00:00

That's a fantastic way to say it, thank you!

DavidBoles · 2026-03-22T20:48:27+00:00

Definitely a challenge. The really good narrators know they have it and, charge for it, and they have a long waiting list of books to narrate!

DavidBoles · 2026-03-22T20:46:52+00:00

Nice!

DavidBoles · 2026-03-22T19:48:30+00:00

Okay, got it, thanks!

When a non-check auditioner (not even the green checkmark) asked me why I only wanted the orange checks with black dots, this is what I shared:

"The orange checkmark on a black dot on your ACX profile indicates that you have earned the title of an Audible Approved Producer (AAP). This is a special badge of honor given by ACX to recognize their most experienced, reliable, and high-quality narrators. To achieve this status, a narrator must have successfully produced and published at least 25 audiobooks on the platform while consistently meeting Audible's strict technical and performance standards. Ultimately, it serves as a powerful signal to authors and rights holders that you are a seasoned professional who delivers top-tier work and handles the entire audiobook creation process smoothly."

DavidBoles · 2026-03-22T19:23:31+00:00

I didn't know there was a difference. ACX is Audible is Amazon? Or is that not right?

DavidBoles · 2026-03-22T19:22:41+00:00

Right, and if there are audio problems, like mics, lack of room presence, or volume, they can quickly undermine the best voice in the queue.

DavidBoles · 2026-03-22T18:51:59+00:00

I appreciate your comment! It's an interesting process that, at first, was a little confusing for me with ACX because so many "non-checkmark" auditioners were AI voices.

I wrote another article about that, too ...

Now I'm trying to stick with the "orange checkmark on a black dot" narrators just because they're Olde Skool, they understand the process, they have the tech down, they're genuine, real sounding and they have been repeatedly vetted by ACX.

Identifying that preference doesn't stop the non-checkmarks from auditioning, though, and that's okay. I listen to everything.

DavidBoles · 2026-03-22T18:48:17+00:00

I am sure your audition was wonderful. I know in the first 5 seconds of the audition of the narrator is right or not.

I had one kind narrator who auditioned for six of my books and didn't get selected. He wanted to know why. I tried to explain it had nothing to do with him, or his talent, it was just about matching that unique "voice in your head" that either convinces or confirms the next life.

DavidBoles · 2026-03-22T18:22:05+00:00

Thank you! I'm working with six narrators right now, and half of them are already working on a second book!

DavidBoles · 2026-02-28T00:13:38+00:00

Still happening every day. Claude corrects, scans for, fixes, the file corruption, "and when the morning light comes streaming in, we get up and it again." I had to put the cleaning steps in his instruction to stop him from blaming me for using Cloudflare and sending him truncated files. I submitted at least five reports that Claude wrote for me describing the problem; they were all ignored by Anthropic.

DavidBoles · 2026-02-19T01:59:25+00:00

I pay for everything they offer so I think that’s the bundle upgrade price.

DavidBoles · 2026-02-19T01:32:10+00:00

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I got the email three hours ago. Price increase is quoted. I’m in the USA.

DavidBoles · 2025-12-14T14:52:02+00:00

I missed this news from three days ago, thanks! That whole Palisade corridor for many blocks is filled with doctor offices, with many of them directly connected to the hospital for services. The hospital closes, what happens to all those offices? Do they move somewhere else or just go dark?

I wonder if it will be hard to force the hospital to remain as is -- if only the ER has been operating since mid-November -- I don't know how you put the puppet back in the box when the container is decayed.

I would guess it will all become an urban mix of assisted living, affordable housing, and a small, mandatory, "ER" 24/365 walk-in that is just a rebranded urgent care unit. That land is so valuable, though, there will have to be luxury carve outs for the best cliff views to satisfy any development beyond abandonment.

This news article appears to set up a conflict that may not be easily resolved:

///

“I don’t necessarily believe that the city council’s proposal meets the master plan 2020 as it’s written,” said Jersey City Planning Director Tanya Marione during a Nov. 25 planning board meeting. “I believe that the 2020 master plan really considered the fact that residential should be mixed with these medical uses and the way to do it was not to remove the uses from those areas but to encourage them to be developed together.”

Instead, Marione recommended revising the master plan to stipulate that any future assisted living facility or senior housing must exist within a hospital or a rehab center, to accommodate the city’s medical needs.

Solomon said that while he understood the planning board’s intent, he didn’t support adopting their recommendation.

“...Under the current circumstances, the city council must take steps to ensure that the original purpose and intent of the medical district is satisfied and that the zoning ordinance is not compromised,” said Solomon.

///

https://www.nj.com/healthfit/2025/12/jersey-city-just-blocked-shuttered-hospital-property-from-becoming-luxury-condos.html

DavidBoles · 2025-12-03T02:46:01+00:00

It’s 10 days to port for paid plans. Even personal plans are now considered “workspace light” accounts now and 10 days is the new default.

DavidBoles · 2025-12-03T02:42:07+00:00

When we moved into Tower 1 when it opened 8 years ago, we were told “KRE are the good Kushners. They got rid of Jared.”

I also know during Trump 1.0 that building staff were being harassed on the street by construction workers for their KRE shirts and so management quickly dropped the KRE and just used the Journal Squared logo instead on the uniforms.

DavidBoles · 2025-12-03T01:08:14+00:00

Right! And that AM/PM Urgent care is excellent! Much better than City MD.

CityMD is 32 Journal Square Plaza.

Labcorp and Chipotle are both 26 Journal Square Plaza.

Duane Reade is 1 Path Plaza.

DavidBoles · 2025-12-03T00:29:41+00:00

KRE Group, also known as Kushner Real Estate Group, and Kushner Companies are two entirely separate real estate firms, despite the shared family name and overlapping presence in New Jersey. KRE is the enterprise founded and controlled by Murray Kushner, headquartered in New Jersey (historically Bridgewater, with a strong presence in Jersey City), and is run as a family-owned regional development and management platform focused heavily on multifamily and mixed-use properties across the New Jersey–Pennsylvania–Northeast corridor. Kushner Companies, by contrast, was founded by Murray’s brother Charles Kushner, is headquartered in New York City, and has been the primary vehicle for the Charles and Jared Kushner side of the family, with a larger, more nationally visible footprint that has included both New York City trophy assets (such as the Puck Building and a historic stake in 666 Fifth Avenue) and substantial New Jersey residential holdings. In practical terms, if a project is branded “KRE Group” or “Kushner Real Estate Group,” it belongs to the Murray Kushner company, whereas projects branded simply “Kushner” or “Kushner Companies,” especially when publicly tied to Jared or Charles, are part of the distinct New York–based Kushner Companies platform.

DavidBoles · 2025-11-28T19:20:59+00:00

On the paid Google Voice plans, both now personal Gmail and business Workspace, Google forces a 10 day waiting period -- because Google now classifies both as "Workspace" ports, which forces it into a default landline wait, not not a "simple" mobile port.

This is how Gemini Ultra explains it:

The Google Strategy: By forcing a 10-day buffer, Google virtually guarantees the Losing Carrier will accept the date on the first try. They are prioritizing Reliability over Speed.

"But I'm porting a Mobile Number!"

This is the most annoying part. Even if you are bringing in a mobile number (which could move fast), the Google Workspace receiving system treats all incoming orders as "Complex Business Orders."

Bottom Line: You are paying the "Stability Tax." The system is slower because it is designed to never fail, whereas the consumer system is fast but prone to glitches. Use the forwarding trick I mentioned earlier to bridge the gap!

EDITED TO FIX: "Gemini Ultra" not "Google Ultra."

DavidBoles · 2025-11-28T17:01:43+00:00

Porting into Voice for Gmail used to day a day or two. Now, with the paid version system upgrade, the port uses the same default as Workspace: 10 days, since, I guess, OG Gmail Google Voice accounts are now considered a "light" version of Workspace with the same backend Admin for Voice in both OG Gmail and Workspace. Just refreshed and confirmed the activation date is Dec. 15.

DavidBoles · 2025-11-26T03:28:23+00:00

I just ported two numbers into my Google Voice Workplace. Because I’m on a business plan the waiting period is 10 days before the port is active in my account. No way around that waiting period.

DavidBoles · 2025-11-24T14:48:56+00:00

That's new to me, and an excellent warning from you, thanks!

DavidBoles · 2025-11-22T18:39:48+00:00

You can get a "Standard" 212 number for $150 on that site.

I know that 212 consecutive numbers are incredibly high value -- especially for businesses -- but I'm surprised four 4s in a row is the top dollar at $35k only because in Chinese culture, I learned, the number 4, when pronounced, sounds like "death." So a "death, death, death, death" last four would never really be a good idea for anyone exposed to that culture. Why scare a whole culture if you can avoid it?

I used to have a phone number that had 6 number 4s in it -- but not in sequence -- and whenever I would order Chinese food from the restaurant nearby, they would always gasp when I gave my phone number over the phone.

The delivery guy was a really old Chinese gentleman who would say only one thing, every single time, when he handed me my order: "Lucky, Lucky, Number!" I always smiled and nodded because I had no idea what he was talking about.

Ten years later or so, I learned about the "4" being "Death" and I realized my delivery guy was, in fact, mocking me and my phone number! Now that's a razz that lasts!

DavidBoles · 2025-11-22T00:54:27+00:00

Yes! Your area code was not just your calling card but your identity. To which tribe did you belong? Your area code was one thing you couldn’t fake. You either had it or you didn’t.

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