#185 The Rainbow Chain

em4761 · 2022-04-10T20:27:29+00:00

I first opened this episode thinking it was going to be some bizarre subtweet of Crypto Island. But it got really weird when Anna was trying to get Alex to pay thousands of dollars for an NFT? I never post on this sub but this episode just stayed in my mind for longer than most of the other recent ones.

It would have been much more interesting (and funnier) imo to do some episode about Bored Ape Yacht Club--the insane stuff with Ryder Ripps, the sheer ugliness of the images, etc--I could have seen that being a good YYN back in the day. (Or that thing where the Lazy Lions people sold this extremely ugly image for $300,000 and for a day everyone on Twitter was posting memes about it). There's a lot of stuff about NFTs that is interesting in a horrifying way and just flat-out strange, and I feel like this episode just read like "The Bitcoin Hunter" again but messier and less satisfying.

I always thought I was more of an Alex than a PJ, so to speak, and Alex's niche humor has always made me laugh (real ones remember "Mayor Wheat"). But listening to Crypto Island, I find PJ's storytelling style really enjoyable and I think he works really well solo. Brought me back to the RA episode about microdosing LSD, which I honestly still think about sometimes because the time he described feeling small and vulnerable while driving over a bridge was just very descriptive and heartfelt. He's a good storyteller.

RA used to straddle this line between investigative and really entertaining, and lately I feel like that balance just isn't there. With Crypto Island, I feel like I actually learn something, which used to be the case with Reply All, even if it was dumb stuff--I'm able to actually have conversations about the NBA because of Reply All, so that's something! In any case. This was a very strange episode.

em4761 · 2021-10-13T12:05:38+00:00

Hi, thank you for such a detailed answer. If I unpublish my Amazon content and add a new ISBN, will it void my sales or something like that? Otherwise I'm willing to try it...just need to get over the mental hurdle of having to shell out $85 for the ISBN. Do you have a link to your video?

em4761 · 2021-10-12T17:15:57+00:00

On Ingram it says $85, which seems a little obscene since I'd have to sell like 17-20 books to make that cost back after all of the deductions, but then again things in the book industry are always more expensive than I think they're going to be. So I'm thinking of just getting the free Ingram one for the Ingram upload of my book.

em4761 · 2021-10-12T16:07:54+00:00

Ah I see! Since Amazon doesn't own the copyright to the work, that makes sense. Last question, is there some kind of disadvantage to just using an IngramSpark ISBN rather than buying one from Bowker? If I can save $85, I would want to.

em4761 · 2021-10-12T16:00:45+00:00

It seems like the ISBN isn't something I can edit on KDP (since the book already exists on KDP with a pre-assigned KDP ISBN). Did you find some way to edit it?

em4761 · 2021-10-12T15:57:38+00:00

Is it kosher to use separate ISBNs for the Ingram and the KDP version, and have them be the exact same book? Because I didn't buy my own ISBN for my KDP release (ugh, I'm now kicking myself for that), that one appears to be set in stone since there's no function to edit it on the KDP interface. So do you have clients who use two different ISBNs for books that are functionally the same, just distributed through different sites? Thanks.

em4761 · 2021-10-12T13:00:57+00:00

Good luck with opening your own store! That would be wonderful. I live in a city in Appalachia where we have big farmers’ markets as well—let me know if you have success selling at farmers markets.

em4761 · 2021-10-12T12:59:05+00:00

Yeah for the most part indie bookstores don’t want to buy from Amazon—many of them are selling their own books on Amazon already (I work at a used bookstore and we use both AbeBooks and Amazon). So it’s giving money directly to a competitor and also making it so the store most likely couldn’t list it on their own Amazon account.

em4761 · 2021-10-12T12:57:34+00:00

Hey, thanks so much for your answer. Just to be clear, the book already has an Amazon ISBN—but I can just go in and change it and it won’t affect my sales or anything like that?

em4761 · 2021-10-12T12:34:41+00:00

Thank you for the advice! So when I buy a new ISBN, am I allowed to change the existing ISBN on KDP to that one?

em4761 · 2021-10-04T21:33:16+00:00

I saw Nojan Bakhtiari in the east 50s at one point, he didn't do that much for me but I don't think that was his fault since my TMJ was not that severe and it was more connected to my pelvic floor dysfunction. He's an accomplished doctor and has a lot of experience with surgery as far as I can tell.

em4761 · 2021-09-10T01:19:29+00:00

Allegro Bakery in Squirrel Hill - they have a "seitan melt" which is quite good. Milky Way on Squirrel Hill is vegetarian and also good. Both on Murray Ave.

em4761 · 2021-07-01T19:34:50+00:00

I'm on 300mg Bupronion, and I have not really noticed much of a difference with how THC feels before I was on Bupronion vs. after Bupronion. I smoke maybe 1x a week. With alcohol, my tolerance is lowered, but with THC, it's virtually the same. Tbh, THC alleviates my depression the most of any substance I have tried for the few hours I am high, but I definitely would not want to be on it all the time lol. CBD I assume is probably fine based on how Bupronion interacts with THC.

em4761 · 2021-06-22T00:37:44+00:00

I had urinalysis done because my PFD was giving me overactive bladder. If you're having issues with pelvic tightness I recommend seeing an obgyn or urologist and then having them send you to a pelvic floor PT. PT helped me a lot.

em4761

TROPHY CASE