Economic Blackout TOMORROW February 28

 

In case you haven't heard, there is an economic blackout tomorrow, February 28th.  The blackout is ideally for everything, so no purchases, but especially no chain purchases: no Amazon, no Target, no Walmart, no McDonalds, no credit card payments.

If you have to buy something, try to make it local and cash only.  Our grievances are with the corporate behemoths who are kowtowing to the corrupt administration and setting examples for the rest of our capitalistic society.

So if you have something to buy, try to buy it tonight!  Tomorrow, try to get through the entire day without making a purchase, if possible, but if you can't do it, buy local and pay with cash.

Let's vote with our wallets and show them we won't support immoral businesses or immoral government policies!

Amazon Alternatives

***Remember, if you're switching to a different ebook provider, today is your last day to download your Kindle library to your computer!***

My last few weeks have been filled with things like finding new sources for all of the things I used to buy at Amazon and Target, and finding alternatives for things like productivity tools that Google used to provide for me.  Seeing as how Amazon is making a significant change that hampers users' ability to switch away from Kindle without repercussions, I wanted to get this post out there ASAP.

If you're as dependent on Amazon as I was, they're a tough one to replace.  Half my life came from Amazon: what I read, what I watch, what I listen to, where I get business supplies, and how I get dozens of products I use delivered to my door.  With Amazon, I could think of something I needed at the last minute, and it would be here within a day or two most of the time.  It was convenient and also somewhat of a crutch.

That's a difficult dependence to break, but I'm pleased to say we have only ordered from Amazon a couple times in the last month, and those were all planned orders while we search for alternative sources for a few more things.

My criteria, as I've been looking for replacements for Amazon, has been to prioritize first companies that are supporting DEI, and secondly, companies that haven't rolled back their DEI but also haven't made any statements either way about where they stand.

Here is a list of ideas of where to get the things you used to buy from Amazon.  Starred companies have made public statements standing up for DEI and supporting them should be our highest priority.

• Groceries: Costco*, Kroger
• Electronics: Costco*, Apple*
• Pharmacy: Costco*
• Pet supplies: Costco*, Petco

Okay, seriously, at this point I should just say outright that if you are serious about boycotting companies that no longer support DEI, you NEED a Costco membership.  Not only are they awesome for standing up to the pressure to roll back their DEI, but they are a fantastic source for a lot of things that you probably used to get from Amazon, Target, or Walmart.  And don't think you have to be a big family to shop there, either.  My single mom shops there just for herself, and so do my husband and I for our two-person home.

But back to my list:

• eBooks: Kobo, Apple*, OverDrive
• Music streaming: Spotify, Apple*
• TV/movies streaming: Netflix*
• Office supplies: Office Depot
• Beauty products: Ulta*, Sephora*, Sally Beauty*, e.l.f.*
• Clothing: Old Navy, TJ Maxx, Costco*
• Discount shopping: Dollar Tree
• Craft supplies: Michaels

Special shoutout to Ben & Jerry's.  Most of us probably aren't buying ice cream from Amazon, but support this amazing company anyway for their fiery diatribe on how important DEI is.

It's not a comprehensive list, but it should be enough to start breaking your Amazon dependence in favor of companies that are holding the line on DEI!

2025 Weekly Challenge, Week 8: Difficult Times

I feel like a lot has gone on since my post last week.  It wasn't necessarily stuff that I recorded in Toggl, but I feel like I've been very busy.  Part of it might be that I babysat both days over the weekend.

I'm hoping for a little more progress next week, but for now, a quick rundown on my goals:

Writing

I worked on my novel two days last week instead of the three that I was hoping for.  I blogged and posted to my author Instagram twice, plus I worked a lot on another blog and social media post that I'll get up this week.

Decluttering and Organization

No progress.

Dolls

No progress.

Lessons Learned

Despite the lack of progress toward specific goals last week, it felt like a very full week.  I'm working toward a new writing goal that might be more in keeping with my current focus right now, which is politics.  I will still maintain my other goals, as I have schedules I want to or need to keep, but implementing my new goal might make me feel a little more like I'm accomplishing something.  More on that soon.

Download Your Kindle eBooks Before February 26th

A few days ago, news broke that Amazon was going to remove a feature that allows us to download Kindle ebooks to the computer.  The feature was intended for sideloading ebooks for older Kindles that didn't have the ability to download wirelessly, but of course allows users to back up their ebooks to prevent Amazon from sneakily removing books from your library, which they have done before.

Being able to download your Kindle library to your computer is also useful if you are, say, switching to Kobo to protest Amazon's rollback of their DEI policies and their founder being all buddy-buddy with the billionaire administration.

Supposedly you'll still be able to pull ebooks off your Kindle directly, but newer Kindles use a different format that makes it more difficult to strip the DRM so that you can read the books from any e-reader.  Which may, in fact, be why they are discontinuing this feature.  Is it possible the boycott is hurting them enough that they are trying to stop people from taking their ebook libraries and jumping ship?

Regardless of the reason, if you want to liberate your Kindle library for reading on any device, you'll need to do it before Wednesday.  Visit this article for detailed instructions on how to download your Kindle books to your computer.

BEWARE! Todoist Pro Scam UPDATED

I mentioned in my weekly goals post on Monday that I had found a new system for managing my tasks and calendar.  I also canceled my Todoist Pro subscription on Monday after making sure all my tasks were switched over, so imagine my surprise when I was charged for another month tonight.

Making it difficult or impossible to cancel a subscription is a lowdown, dirty scam.  No honest company operates this way.

Avoid Todoist at all costs.  There are much better task management apps out there anyway.

I'm working on a more detailed review of my new system, which I will post soon.  But in the meantime, consider yourself warned about Todoist.

UPDATE: Todoist responded quickly, I'll give them credit for that.  I've already been refunded for the charge, and they "canceled" my subscription (again?).  But I shouldn't have had to go through this.  And what if I hadn't noticed?  If I didn't have a tight budget, or if I paid via credit card, I might not have.  How many months would they have gotten more money from me before I realized?

Years ago, there was a scammy freelance writing job board that charged a subscription fee.  They had a low cost trial subscription for you to decide whether you wanted to commit to the full-cost subscription.  It wasn't very good and most people tried to cancel once they found that out... except typically they weren't able to.  The company made it very hard to contact them, and even when you did, it was very difficult to get them to follow through with canceling your subscription.  Some people would even have to change their bank account information in order to get the charges to stop.  The scammers made tons of money just off of people who were trying to cancel their subscriptions.

About a decade ago, I had a similar experience trying to cancel MoviePass.  It started out as a valid service that I used for several years, but toward the end of their run, they were having issues with their contracts and stopped having any good movies.  When I canceled their service, they kept charging me.  I wasn't able to get them to stop by contacting them directly, so ultimately I had to call my bank to block future payments and refund what I'd been charged.  But again, how much money did they make just by making it difficult to cancel?

I kinda hate this world we're in now where absolutely everything charges a subscription, but I hate even more that it's making it easy for companies to make money off of us by being negligent and not canceling subscriptions when they're supposed to.

Keep an eye on your finances after canceling a subscription, friends.  Make sure this doesn't happen to you, and act quickly if it does.

2025 Weekly Challenge, Week 7: Overcoming Difficulties

It's been a rough few weeks, but I finally feel like I'm starting to make progress.  I'm still feeling like I'm struggling with the political climate, but I'm clawing my way out of the hyper-fixation hole I had dug for myself.  I still need to figure out how to do balance attentiveness to the situation without letting it consume me, but I'm getting there.

Amusingly, I realized I was such a mess last week that I numbered the week wrong, calling it week 5 instead of week 6.  That has been corrected in the post now, although the URL is sadly stuck as a second week 5.

One thing I worked on a lot last week that won't count toward one of my goals, even though it contributes, is switching over my task and calendar system to a new app.  I wanted to move away from Google products after they ousted their DEI programs and jettisoned holidays such as Black History Month, Women's History Month, and Pride from their calendar.  I'll write more about that soon as I think others will find the new apps I've found very helpful as well.

Writing

I worked on my novel three days instead of one, wrote a couple of blog posts, and posted to my author IG a couple of times.  I still want to get to the point where I'm working on my writing nearly every day again, but this is still an improvement and I'm pleased.

I didn't count it as working on my novel, but I also worked on that writing, revising, and publication schedule I set up recently, refining it and getting it switched over to my new task tracking system.

Decluttering and Organization

I didn't get anything done in this category, unfortunately.

Dolls

Nothing accomplished here either.

Lessons Learned

I didn't improve across the board, but I'm pleased with the progress I did make.  I feel like even small progress should be celebrated here, and hopefully I will do better in this coming week.  I'm also looking forward to exploring some of these new, non-Google tools, which I will blog about soon!

Celebrating Small Successes

Yesterday I reported that I had started feeling a little better toward the end of last week, like my focus was returning.  I'm happy to report that yesterday actually was a fairly successful day.  Not only did I get done the blog post and author social media post I'd hoped for, but I also tuned in to a couple of webinars throughout the day (one career-related, on the book launch process, and the other politics-related, on bystander intervention).  And at the end of the day, I actually succeeded in writing for about an hour and a half, pumping out nearly 2,000 words — well over anything I've managed to write in about the last month.

The productivity yesterday did cost me a little, and I felt the effects of what I call a "productivity hangover" today — basically, feeling sluggish and unmotivated the day after a lot of productivity.  It happens almost every time for me.  Sometimes I can push past it and sometimes I can't.

This blog post is me trying to push past it today.  I have a few other things on my list for the day too, some of which are more important to me than others.  Yes, working on my novel again (can I get two days in a row and start a new streak?) is one of them.  Hopefully we'll also be able to make it to our weekly Tuesday evening write-in, as that will help with my plans to work on my novel again today.

Balancing my own life and goals against staying informed about political events is going to be tough to achieve in the coming weeks, months, and years, but I guess I'll be getting some good practice at it.