Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion: Countdown to Halloween 2025 Introduction

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We’re going to countdown to Halloween this year with a list of 31 of Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion happiest haunts. The Haunted Mansion has 999 ghosts from all over the world, but there’s always room for one more.

Most of the posts will be here on penguinate.com. A few will be on our Patreon page, and they will all be linked to our Facebook page. If you love Halloween and Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion, this is a countdown, you’ll want to be part of.

Sign up today and don’t miss the spirit of the countdown. Which of Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion ghosts is your favorite? And will they make the list? Leave a comment below, and Happy Halloween!

Need more haunted mansion and hauntings? Check out “The Haunted Mansion Is Creativity” and “When Hauntings Collide.” (Affiliate links to my books.)

‘When Hauntings Collide’ Make Choices Book 2 Now Available

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“When Hauntings Collide” is now available at Amazon. The eBook version features links to take you from decision to decision as you decide what you want to do in the haunted house. You don’t even have to go in if you want to avoid the triple dog dare.

“When Hauntings Collide” is the sequel to the wildly successful “When Childhood Stories Collide.” The two interactive books that put you as the lead character are connected. That means you could find your way from one book to the other as long as you have both books!

If “Choose Your Own Adventure” books (affiliate link) were favorites of your childhood reading days, the Make Choices series is meant for you. I loved being able to be the main character in my story, no matter how many times I died or how many fingers I had to use to make sure I was making the “right” choice.

If you want more of this type of book, you’ll need to pick these up right away and rate them 5 stars! Thank you.

SPOILER ALERT!

I like surprises. I can’t wait to see or read what the creator has put into a story to make it different from other stories like it I have read. Where are the Easter Eggs? What characters did they fit in? Which characters did they vaguely reference? It’s part of the fun.

I avoid trailers for movies and reviews for movies and books when I can. I block people on social media, who for some reason have decided that it’s okay to reveal the secret plot twist of a movie even two weeks after the movie had come to theaters. In short, I don’t like spoilers. If you’re like me, do not read any further. Instead, right click this link to purchase the Make Choices books, open it in a new tab and when you’re there, close this tab. But far be it from to tell you what to do. You have a choice. If you continue reading this article, take note: THERE BE SPOILERS AHEAD and maybe a trip to Davy Jones’ locker… Wait, that might be a different story.

DO NOT READ: SPOILERS!

I’ve warned you all I could, and if you haven’t heeded my spoilers warnings, then you will definitely want to get “When Hauntings Collide.” You’re exactly the type of person that would spend a night in a haunted mansion. The only question that remains is are you the kind of person that would survive the night in the haunted mansion?

Dummies, alien plants, happy and not-so-happy haunts, blood and gore (but stylistically PG -rated), a tiger or a woman, a leprechaun… There are so many things that could be a part of this spooky tale. Which will you be able to find and which will you survive? Only you can choose. Pick up “When Hauntings Collide” today.

Wants Vs Needs: Financial Education for Children

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This Wants Vs. Needs article began as an assignment for a job I applied to. I wrote this first part, reread the requirements and decided that it didn’t work. So, I wrote a second article, which I really thought of as an extension of the first article. To really make this type of post successful in a banking situation, you would want to start with a core document and build post that link to and from that core document.

Wants Vs. Needs: A Parent’s Primer for Teaching Kids

As a parent, you likely hear “I want…” from your child 10 to 12 times a day. With the amount of media children are exposed to every day, they are sure to see things that advertisers and influencers have put out there to entice them to buy. Now, is the time to start teaching your children about needs vs. wants.

What Are Needs?

To teach your children about needs vs. wants, you need to be able to define them for yourself, especially if you were never taught the difference. It’s not as easy as it might seem. Your conceptions of needs and wants is going to be based on your values. However, there are a few categories you can use to help define “needs.”

Food, clothing, and shelter are the three traditional needs. Many people would add physical, emotional, and mental health to the list. For others, education and spiritual well-being are also on the list of needs. You might even find yourself adding transportation to your list, especially if you have to commute to work. If you are unsure of what your needs are, make a short list of broad topics.

Once you have your list of needs, you’ll likely see that many needs require money. Even if you own your shelter, you probably need to pay property taxes or utilities.

What Are Wants?

Wants are everything that is not a need. Again, that’s easy to say, but the reality is more difficult. Is a banana a need or a want? You need food, but you don’t have to eat bananas. Are a pair of $75 dress shoes a need or a want? You could buy $30 dress shoes, but they won’t be as comfortable or durable. You need transportation to and from work, but you want a convertible to arrive in style.

Wants Vs. Needs

Fortunately, when you’re dealing with children, you don’t have to get into the nuances of needs vs. wants. Many times, it is better to start with a simple explanation, and as they grow, look at the nuances between the two.

The Real Wants Vs. Needs Article

As a parent, you know it’s important to start teaching your children the difference between wants and needs early. You won’t be able to avoid all the “I wants” a child has, but with some easy activities, you can give your child critical thinking tools to help decide whether something is a need or a want.

Define “needs”

First, you’ll want to define needs for the child in an age-appropriate fashion. Generally, people start with the three basic physical needs: food (what you eat), clothing (what you wear), and shelter (where you live). This offers easy, tangible items the child can see and touch. As they get older, you can have more difficult conversations about needs and wants.

Show Me the Needs Game

After you have explained the basic needs, you can test your child’s knowledge with some easy games. One easy game to play is to have the child show you the needs in the house. Start in any room and ask the child to find what items you need. This works for children who may be non-verbal because they can point to the items.

Wants and Needs Flash Cards

Flash cards are a good way to test knowledge, and you don’t have to buy them. You can cut pictures out of a magazine and paste them on to 3×5 cards. Or if you’re feeling adventurous, you and your child can draw them together. You’ll need pictures of needs and wants. Hold up two cards and ask which is a need. If the child picks the card you think is a want, ask them why they chose that card.

Color the Needs

A wants and needs coloring page can also be a helpful tool. Again, you’ll want to understand why the child chose to color certain items as needs if you think they are wants. Once children know what they need, they can make wiser decisions with their money. They can also recognize that saving their money for a want is a good idea.

How I’ve Made Ends Meet While Unemployed the Last 6 Months

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While I have applied to 93 jobs and made 150 direct contacts, all of that work doesn’t pay the bills. If you want a longer explanation, join my Patreon, where I talk about creativity, social media, and the things Jenya (my wife) makes.

I am nearing the end of my financial resources. These are the things that have kept me afloat for this long:

  • Patreon – Thank you.
  • Asgard Alaska – If you haven’t visited the website and read about Vikings, I highly recommend doing so. Creativity wise, knowing more about Vikings will give you more experience to draw from. (I’m the writer Ivar.)
  • Bearly Entertaining and StudyFocusBeach – We’re still working on getting this to a profitable place, but if you need some royalty-free background music for your store or you just want some unobtrusive music for events, StudyFocusBeach is the place to start (Like, Comment and Subscribe; it will really help me out). Bearly Entertaining also has a podcast of gentle, fun stories. I’m working on the SEO portion of their website and YouTube channel as well as general web consulting.
  • Kimber’s Safe Haven – My sister’s dog passed away about the same time that someone abandoned 11 cats on her property. Some of them were pregnant, so she’s ended with over 30 cats. To honor Kimber, she decided to pursue opening a pet rescue. Apparently, there is no rescue in Dallas, Oregon. I’ve been working on the gofundme campaign and trying to help with the website, which isn’t ready, yet. There’s also a Facebook page and a YouTube channel, but the YouTube channel isn’t getting much use at the moment.
  • InboxDollars – It’s a pittance for the amount of time I spend on there, but this month I got $100 and that came in handy! I have written about InboxDollars before.
  • Unemployment – Covers the rent and utilities and that’s about it. Still grateful it’s available.

Job Hunting: The First 5 Months

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June 17, 2025 – I was informed of my layoff on Jan. 16, 2025. Since then, I have navigated the waters of unemployment benefits and job hunting. In Oregon, you are required to meet with an “employment specialist” from WorkSource, a nationwide company that helps people find jobs. I went in after uploading my writing resume. When I got there and talked with the employment specialist, he asked some questions, said my resume looked good, and mentioned I could take classes on how to write a resume or do an interview.

AI and Job Hunting

One thing the employment specialist mentioned was that every time I applied for a job, I needed to change my resume to match the keywords in the job announcement. Companies are using “AI” to weed out resumes that don’t meet the job’s specifications. However, if the programmer put in “must have event planning” and my resume states that I have organized and executed a donation benefit gala for the American Red Cross of Alaska, AI won’t read that as “event planning.” It will just kick my resume out of the queue never to be seen by a real person who could make the connection to “event planning.” Resumes were supposed to be mass produced. Now, they need to be tailored to the machine.

Companies Banking Candidates

The other thing that the employment specialist mentioned was that companies will post jobs that aren’t available in an effort to build a pool of possible candidates if the person currently in the position decides to leave or gets fired. So, some of the jobs listed on job boards may not be real or available, even if the company is having people apply for the position as if it were.

Stats and the Job Search

I got on Indeed and started looking and applying for jobs that would allow me to use my writing and/or banking skills. As of yesterday, five months after I was informed of my layoff, I have applied for 56 jobs on Indeed and have made a total of 101 contacts. I have had two phone interviews, one essay question request, a couple of multiple-choice tests (that shouldn’t take longer than an hour) and one in-person interview.

A head hunter contacted me from LinkedIn. She was in charge of a job search for a company that had the same position open for a long time. She wanted to see what they were willing to give up in order to get a candidate into the position. She thought I had the skills to get the job. I looked at the application and was missing the requisite manufacturing skills; I’ve never worked in a factory. I could supervise people and have experience with OSHA regulations and hazardous chemicals. It took four emails and an application to find out I wasn’t the person the company was willing to compromise for.

Additionally, I was contacted twice by scammers. They were going to pay me $45 an hour for editing. That would be amazing, but other red flags popped up. I wrote about it here and about the second contact here.

Last night, I got an email that said I would not be considered for the Bank Teller position at a local credit union. That should’ve been a slam dunk. I have a year of experience as a teller and five months as an instructor in the banking industry.

Goodwill Job Connections

I went to Goodwill Job Connections because it’s a couple of blocks from my home. At our second meeting, she looked at my resume and said it looked good, I should just remove the dates, so it’s more difficult to guess how old I am. She was surprised that I’d be willing to take an entry level position. She was also surprised that I had applied to about 50 jobs when I had talked to her. I’m supposed to go back if I want to practice my interview skills… when I get an interview scheduled.

No End in Sight

And that’s where I am with trying to find a job. I have two remote, contract jobs (Asgard Alaska and Bearly Entertaining), unemployment benefits, and help from my sister to make ends meet. We also have our Patreon supporters, book income from Amazon, Jenya’s creative arts on Etsy, and InboxDollars. If you know anyone who needs a blog written, send them my flyer. Thanks.

Scam Job on Indeed Comes Back

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When I published the scam about the proofreading job, I thought that would be the end of it. I had blocked all communications I had received. I was wrong. The scam job on Indeed came back again.

Kristen sent the text message, just like she sent the last one. This time, however, she told me to contact Robert Eldred at Omegahm. I decided that I would look up the information for fun. The first Robert Eldred I found was a CFP, but the name appears to be fairly common. This time the email was missing an “s” omagehms is a legitimate website.

In the end, I texted back telling them to stop scamming people. I’m sure that text won’t change anything. Now, I have to remember how to block a number on my phone again.

This illustrates why scammers win. There’s a good chance that these text messages are automated. They send them out to hundreds of thousands of people. They only need a couple of people to fall for the scam and they can make thousands of dollars. They can steal money and identities, and the identities are probably worth more.

I am fortunate; I worked in educating people how to avoid scams. I didn’t fall for the first one, and I didn’t fall for the second one. That’s the problem, though. Scams aren’t about people for scammers. They are about numbers. At some point, I fully expect I will fall for a scam despite my suspicious nature and relative expertise.

Scammers know how to emotionally manipulate people. Once they have you running scared, your logic will turn off, and you’ll be ripe for the pickings. You will feel bad afterwards. You shouldn’t. They found the right buttons to push on a day when you weren’t at your best. It happens. It sucks. But IT IS NOT YOUR FAULT.

If you see a scam, even if you fall for it, you need to shout it out from your social media platform. Help others avoid the scam. Make the scammers come up with something new. None of us can be the Beekeeper (affiliate link), but we can all do our best to smoke these reprehensible scum out and cut off their revenue. The scam job at Indeed will come back. Stay vigilant.

Job Scam at Indeed

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When I saw the job ad for a Proofreader/Copy editor for “Landscape Services,” I applied. I proofread and copy edit books, and I’ve got a ton of experience in SEO writing for landscaping companies. It would be a great fit. More importantly, the job was listed at $41.33 an hour, was remote, and could be part- or full-time. I also at that point in my savings where if I don’t find some work beyond what I have in the next six weeks, I’m going to be begging on a street corner. I’m feeling the pressure, especially because I’ve only had three interviews for two jobs.

The application took about 90 minutes.

Then I got a text from Kristen. I don’t know Kristen, but it’s about a PROOFREADER job. “Please confirm your interest and email with peter@ehrinpractices.com.” Because I have a dumb phone, I go to my laptop and type in the web address first. Nothing comes up. I don’t think anything of it. I’ve been having problems with my computer, and I figure that it must be that or maybe it’s the browser. Who knows? So, I go to InboxDollars and use their search engine: ehrinpractices.com.

The phrase is so generic that nothing tangible comes up. So, I highlight my search and go to Google. (Yes, I know, but Google is still the best search engine available.) Google shows me ehrinpractice.com. Not “practices?” I need a job, and this one seems like a great fit that would allow me the opportunity to be anywhere I want to be. Maybe, it’s how their email is set up, I rationalize. I look at the website. They produce software and guides, so they could likely use a copy editor. I go to my gmail account and email Peter.

Peter Fasolo gets back to me about 3:30pm and says can we do an interview tonight or tomorrow at 10am? Otherwise, I have availability all next week, Monday to Saturday from 10 to 6pm EST. Here’s the Teams link. Please checkout the job description and the company culture before we talk.

The pdf pulls up in my browser. I click on the link to the teams meeting and get Peter’s name. I send him a message that 10am EST would be fine tomorrow (Saturday). I shouldn’t have done either of those things. I could’ve ended up with a virus or ransomware or worse. At the time, I still didn’t think I was getting scammed. The company seemed legit. I had applied for a proofreader job with about the same pay rate: $45 in the job description. Why did I start feeling queasy?

I’ve had and I’ve given a lot of fraud and scam training. It’s easy to spot fraud when it’s not your emotions and your personal situation. A lady once told me that someone she never met offered her $50,000 for every script she wrote. The woman was in her 80s and had never written a script in her life. She was adamant that the job was not fake and she just needed to cash the check to get the equipment. I’m a writer; there’s no way anyone would offer her that kind of deal. She didn’t want to hear it because she needed the money, it made her feel like she was doing something to help herself, and it gave her a sense of identity and belonging.

That didn’t click in my brain until much later. I just felt like something was off. I told Jenya I thought I was getting scammed, and I asked her to look at it. We spent 40 minutes researching the job, the company, Peter Fasolo. These are the discrepancies we found:

  • Why was the original job posting listed as “Landscape Services” and the email from and EHR company?
  • Why was the offer for more than $40? Don’t get me wrong, a good editor can do wonders for your site, and I am completely worth that kind of money, but it seemed a little excessive, especially when they bumped it up to $45. My thought process said they wanted to keep the people they hired, and the company was in the UK.
  • Why was the website “ehrinpractice.com,” but the email was “ehrinpractices.com?”
  • Why didn’t Peter have his picture in teams?
  • Why weren’t there any people listed on the website?
  • Peter Fasolo was an HR person for Johnson and Johnson until 2024; Kristen (Mullholland) replaced him.
  • Why were they scheduling an interview on a Saturday for a job that’s Monday to Friday?
  • The text came from an 833 number, which have a high propensity for use in scams.

Any one of these on its own isn’t necessarily fraud. Add them up, however, and the probability is distinctly higher. Jenya and I decided that this was a scam. I blocked Peter on teams. I blocked the phone number. I reported the job listing to Indeed. I blocked the email account.

There’s still that doubt in the back of my mind. I spent three hours on dealing with this “job.” It could be real. It was definitely what I was looking for. What if I’m paranoid? What if I’m wrong, and I just gave up the opportunity of a lifetime? I won’t likely ever know.

And I still need a job. With every passing day, that pressure grows, and I become more susceptible to taking a job that isn’t legitimate.

Join our Patreon, where I talk more about creativity.

More scam articles.

The Most Expensive Flowers I Ever Bought

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Jenya, my wife, likes to get flowers. When we started dating, she said she didn’t really like cut flowers because they would be dead in a few days. That’s changed. She likes the beauty that fresh flowers can bring to a home, and they elevate her mood. I was working one of part-time, on-call jobs at Fred Meyer when I saw that they had flowers in the bargain bin.

$2.64, to make my wife happier? That’s easy. I picked them up, realized I didn’t know if they would be cat-friendly, and decided to get them anyway. Surely, Jenya would know.

I brought them home. Jenya enjoyed them. Sima ate some parts of them, not a lot, but she’s a cat. That’s what cats do. They sat on our counter overnight.

The next morning, Sima got up with us but then went back to bed. She slept most of the day. It was overcast. I blamed the weather.

The next day, she vomited and went to the bathroom five times in one hour. Even though she was in the bathroom, she was only leaving little balls of mucus, and only one or two at a time.

The third day, she vomited again. For the briefest of moments, I thought about waiting until I pre-arranged appointment a week from this incident. But I decided that I didn’t know enough about anything to make that decision. I called the vet to see if we could get her in.

We went to the vet the next morning. Sima was running and jumping and behaving normally, but I had scheduled the appointment. Sima didn’t want to go, and she told us loudly that she was fine. We went anyway.

The vet examined Sima and looked at a photo of the flowers. “What are those?” We didn’t know, but the vet tech used her phone to google the types of flowers. “They’re lilies. They could be Peruvian or they could be white. It’s hard to tell. Let’s go ahead and do some bloodwork on Sima, check her kidneys. Some lilies cause renal failure. Some aren’t that bad. I’ll go look up the flower.”

The vet went to look up the flower, and the tech took Sima to do the bloodwork. When they returned, the vet said it was difficult to say which flower was in the picture. We’d need to wait 15 minutes for the blood results. When she returned again, she said everything looked normal, except for her renal measures, which were a little elevated. The vet wasn’t too worried. We’d arrived too late to provide any mitigating treatment, anyway. So, we would need to come back in a week’s time to do some follow up testing.

$447.74 for the vet visit. Those are the most expensive flowers I ever bought. When I messaged my sister, the first thing she asked was if I needed money.

To have to reduce this situation to the monetary stress it caused sickens me, even if I’m trying to make light of it. I had to take my kitty in to get help. Now, rather than rejoicing that she’s likely to be okay, I have to hope that I’ll have a job within the next month, so I have the money to pay the bill.

Bring out the Facebook Troll or Be Kind

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Almost every session of me scrolling through Facebook ends with some sort of negative experience. Sure, politics are a big part of that, even when comedians are the ones joking about it. (I mean, I guess you can either laugh or cry, maybe both.) However, what really bothers me is the need for people to rip on others for their appearance, and let’s face it, it’s usually men ripping on women. It’s disgusting and sad. Most often, it’s not true. These men are just trying to say something they think is funny and criticizing someone’s appearance is one of the easiest ways to do that.

Sometimes, it makes me wonder if I should harness the child I was in middle school. That kid put everyone down. He made adults cry. As he got older, he learned how to insult people in such a way that he didn’t need profanity. A subtle barb would fester in the room waiting for the wounded person to realize what had just happened, leaving others in stitches. Release that kid on the Internet, and man, Facebook would be responsible for a lot more emotional issues than it has already caused (sometimes on purpose). But that attitude and those words were a part of growing up Gen X. You had to be tough on the street, and if you weren’t big, you better make sure your words were cutting enough to earn the respect of the bullies. Sticks and stones could break your bones, but words would leave you crushed, despite the saying to the contrary.

At some point, my freshman year of college, I decided I didn’t want to be that person anymore. I had just verbally destroyed someone at lunch. Everyone was laughing, but I didn’t feel good about it. I didn’t want to hurt people anymore. It didn’t seem right.

Yet, now it seems that Facebook is full of those type of people – trolls trying to cause anguish to garner views and likes. Someone might even say, “it takes a troll to hunt a troll,” and part of me thinks I could do some good by doing some bad.

But I look at the other Gen Xers that are posting about their childhoods and what they loved about growing up Gen X. They all say pretty much the same things: in before the streetlights come on, forced to be outside during the day, drinking from the garden hose… rarely do they mention the war of words that was a part of childhood then. Sure, they’ll talk about “You’re mama,” but that’s as far as they go. When confronted with a troll, they don’t call on their inner 12 year old and load that troll down with harsh words. Instead, they’re reliving their fondest memories. They’re reliving the best parts of a life that is so far gone, and they’re reliving parts of that life they didn’t get to live when it was happening.

And then there are the people who are trying to make Facebook better: a song, “It’s to be kind,” the aforementioned Gen Xers, the folks at Mr. Rogers, Levar Burton… These are the people that are trying to create a healthier social media ecosystem, and there are hundreds more.

So, let’s try to aspire to their level of kindness, joy and wonder, and not sink to place of trolls. It may not be easy to be kind, it may not garner as many views or comments, but it’s better for you.

Author’s Note: I have not included any links to Facebook because it’s probably better for us to not be on it. However, as long as it’s the easiest platform to use to reach my friends, family and new readers, I’m still going to be posting. Please like, comment, and share. Also, feel free to leave a comment on my blog post, maybe we can build a better social media without the trolls…

The Paradox of Choice and Me in April 2025

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This article contains affiliate links. If you click on a link and it takes you to Amazon or InboxDollars and you order something or sign up through that link, I will get a small finder’s fee. Whatever you order will not cost you more than what you normally would’ve paid. Not all the links will go to Amazon. Some will go to pages that are a part of our online footprint, including Etsy and Patreon.

Read more: The Paradox of Choice and Me in April 2025

It’s been a while since I read The Paradox of Choice, and the book is packed away somewhere, so I’m not going to get the exact statistics and examples right, but they will be close enough. In The Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz looks at scientific studies involving work insurance offerings. The scientists found that when a workplace offered a few choices in insurance, people would sign up. When the business offered lots of choices, people were less likely to sign up. Businesses would offer 100 different insurance options and a high percentage of people wouldn’t choose any of them, even though the insurance was supposed to be a part of their compensation package. The business saved money this way, and people were left without insurance because they couldn’t process enough information to make a good choice.

Paralysis in Decision Making

One factor in the paralysis in decision making comes from the fear of making the wrong choice. You choose an insurance with a high deductible because it also covers overnight ER visits for free, but you never end up in the ER while have to cover the deductible because of other medical issues. You can’t know what’s going to happen in the future, and many people would rather not make a decision than make a wrong decision.

Everyday Choices

The medical side of it is sort of an extreme example because this paradox of choice occurs any time there are choices to be made, and we make choices from the moment we get up, and sometimes before. Am I going to hit the snooze button? Am I going to hit the snooze button again? What should I wear? What am I going to have for breakfast?

When we go to the store we are faced with an aisle of cereal choices, soup choices, and other food choices. What are we going to get? Will it be the best deal? Do we decide based on per ounce cost or gross cost? Most of us develop routines to avoid having to make all of the decisions all the time. We run on autopilot. We have favorite brands because we refuse to deviate from them, even if another brand would be a better value or offer a better experience. I have my clothes set up, so I can grab the first thing available in the drawer and wear it. I tell myself, no one cares what I’m wearing, why should I?

How Do I Make Money?

However, the one place where I have problems every day is in the decision on what to do. For those who haven’t been following along, I got laid off in January. I had moved to Eugene, December 16, for a job promotion. I was always taught you move to where the job is. I paid the moving expenses, maxing out my credit cards and depleting my savings, and signed a 12-month lease. On January 16, my job told me my position was eliminated. SURPRISE! Now, I have to scramble to figure out how to make money to pay my bills.

The question I’m faced with every moment of every day is “What can I do right now to make money?” There are a lot of options. Unfortunately, they all seem relatively equal in how much I will make and the amount of effort and time they take.

Previous Experience

I have had previous experience in having to make this type of decision back when I had chosen to be a freelancer. At that time, however, I had a steady income from an SEO writing gig that I could do whenever articles were available, and they were available a lot. I paid a lot of bills through that job because I knew I needed to average eight articles a day to meet my financial obligations. I didn’t have insurance or retirement benefits, but I was younger and toward the end I lived in a country where everyone had insurance, citizen or not. Once I had those eight articles written, I could do whatever I wanted, and I didn’t have any monetary pressure on me. They changed their business model during COVID, and now, I don’t have that cash cow anymore.

What Are My Choices?

Here is a quick list, in no particular order, of what I could choose to do to make money today:

These are all things I could work on to theoretically improve my financial standings. Let’s break each choice down.

InboxDollars

Earlier this year, I published an article about InboxDollars and how to use it. Since then, they have changed the way they payout their cash option. It used to be you could cash out every $10 through Paypal. Now, there is a 30-cent fee. It’s hard to make 30 cents at InboxDollars when you’re just doing the minimum. The 30-cent fee doesn’t change if you cash out at higher levels, but you might just want to get a gift card of some sort and avoid the fee altogether. Waiting until you have accumulated $100 to cashout seems like an eternity. In 2024, it took me about six months to make $100 with InboxDollars.

I have found some deals to speed up the process. They offered $50 if I deposited $20 into a Sofi account. The payout isn’t immediate, but it’s better than double my money. I chose Disney stock for my Sofi account, so it’s not like I spent it (unless Disney stock goes below $0).

I’ve been grinding at the games I can download to my smartphone. (I don’t have a plan; it connects to Internet.) The thing is: These are a grind. I can spend all day pushing my finger against the screen thousands of times and only be in the process of making money without having made any actual money. (And I have.)

Golden Hearts Games and Clubs Poker

These are two gambling sites I found at InboxDollars. If I deposited a certain amount of money, I would get more back. (I don’t recall the exact offer, but it was probably something like deposit $20, get $30 back.) I tried it on Golden Hearts Games first because I was relatively new to InboxDollars. I played the games required, got paid out at InboxDollars, and then got paid out at Golden Hearts Games. I go to Golden Hearts Games every day to get my free spin. I play that money on Old School Jacks or Better, and that’s it. When my counter fills up to $50, I get to redeem for cash. (It used to be $25.)

At Clubs Poker, I play the Great Pigsby. This site requires $100 in credits before it will payout. Again, I don’t spend any of my own money. They offer 50 cents a day for games. You have to play those coins before they can go in the redeem pile.

Both sites offer free coins to play with, too. However, if you have a gambling problem, these sites aren’t for you. Personally, I recommend you finding out if these two offers still exist on InboxDollars before signing up through the links I’ve given you.

Write for Penguinate.com

Penguinate.com is my own website and where this article was originally published. I make a few pennies every month from content I’ve already published. The website has never paid for itself, and I need to hit the $100 mark for my first payout. Currently, I am at $20.97, which includes my highest month of December 2021 at $1.06. Looking at these numbers, I should probably just stop writing, at least for my website. But there’s always the possibility that something I write will go viral. All I need is to serve about a million ads to make it to about $83… Still, I keep pulling that one-armed jack that is blog posting.

Publish on Patreon

I have a small and dedicated group of supporters on Patreon. If I wrote more and put it on Patreon would I be able to grow that audience? I’ve written various posts about Patreon. The quick version is: Patreon allows people to support their favorite artists and creators. I would write with the hope that people would want to support us monthly for my writing and Jenya’s plushie creations. I have already added a way for people to get a free month at the $1 to see what the future of Patreon and creativity look like (Valid until June 29, 2025). I will be releasing one post a month and I have them scheduled through June, but I could write more of them for future months.

Plushies on Etsy

Jenya is making some really incredible plushies and putting them on Etsy. There’s this beautiful, vintage-inspired bunny, some bears, and a penguin or two. Do I need to do more work on advertising that shop? The problem is that we can’t charge enough to cover Jenya’s time for her handmade plushies. The bunny took five days to knit and finish. You can’t charge $500 for it. Maybe we need to come up with something else, but that will mean investing time to learn the new thing and money to get the materials to make the new thing. Seriously, though, if you haven’t seen these new plushies, you should head to our Etsy shop now.

Amazon Affiliate

I am an Amazon Affiliate. I’m not going to rehash the information in the very first part of the post to explain what that means for you. What it means for me is that I could write a bunch of posts on products and use the affiliate link to sell those products. I don’t like doing it, but it may be the only way to get people to use those affiliate links. Right now, I use them for my books and some other odds and ends. My mom has been good about ordering things through the links, but it ends up being about $10 every three months.

Look for a Job

Looking for a job has changed, especially since I’m in a place where I don’t have any contacts. It used to be you could go from business to business, drop off a resume, and get an interview. Until recently, an interview was all I needed to get hired.

Now, you need a cover letter and resume for every job that matches the job description word for word. Businesses aren’t even reading them anymore. They run them through “AI,” and if AI is looking for “managed special events” and the resume says “organized fundraisers,” AI will say that the resume doesn’t match the job description and no human being will ever see the resume. (This is because AI isn’t AI; it’s a mathematical algorithm and a series or preprogrammed responses. AI is incredibly complicated, but it hasn’t mastered the learning part of intelligence.) This means that every resume needs to be done again for every job.

It takes me four hours to do this. That four hours does not include the time it takes to find a job on Indeed, where I have to sift through postings for nurses, physical therapists, mechanics, teachers, even though I told Indeed I do not have the qualifications for those jobs. I also have to sift through jobs that don’t offer benefits or don’t pay enough. I’m too old to take a job that doesn’t offer health insurance and retirement. If I take a job at $17 an hour, I’ll need to work 54 hours a week to make ends meet. In the words of Danny Glover, “I’m too old for this…” I have 20 years until I turn 73. I have $10,000 in my retirement account. There’s no way I can afford to take job that doesn’t offer some sort of 401k. Additionally, there’s no reason I should have to work 54 hours a week to afford food, rent, and a modicum of entertainment.

I know there are some people who are perfectly fine with me taking a job for $5 an hour. It’s a sacrifice they’re willing to make. However, those jobs only put me deeper in debt. We gotta do what we gotta do, but f…

Looking for a Job II

I’m sorry. I got distracted. I have had one face-to-face interview for the hours of work that I put into finding a job. There’s no guarantee that if I find and apply for a job that there will be any benefit at all. I will just have wasted my time.

Contract Work

Luckily, I have two contract jobs I love and one I was trying to get away from. (When I took the bank promotion, I was happy with the idea that I would be able to cut down my workload to one job. I guess I should have been specific about which job.) The one job that I have that actually pays per hour is inconsistent, pays $17 per hour, and offers no benefits. The last two weeks, I had no hours. This coming week, I will have between eight and 12 hours. I’m glad I didn’t give it up when I moved, but it’s not a long-term solution, even if I do get my own regular assignment soon.

Working for Asgard Alaska is great. (You should sign up for their newsletter.) I’m helping friends realize their dreams for a Viking village. I’m learning tons about Viking life. The job is super flexible. As long as we have content for two posts a month, I can do the work I want. They pay well, too. It’s not an endless source of wealth, yet. There’s a limit to how much I can write in a year. Still, it’s nice work if you can get it, and I’m glad I have.

I have a new contract with Bearly Entertaining and their related YouTube channel, StudyFocusBeach. (You should subscribe to their YouTube channel.) Again, I’m going to be helping friends, who are helping me by sending work my way.

These three jobs add up to about 50 hours a month. I would need to find another 150 hours of work to start to feel comfortable financially again.

Write a Book

There are two parts to this, and they are very different. I could spend my time writing another book. I have several ideas. I even have a couple started through 4,000 words. I have one book formatted and ready, except it needs a cover. I have another book that needs formatting and a cover. It takes about a week to format. However, writing a book and getting a cover made (which may or may not have a cost, depending on how I do it), do not mean that the book is going to sell. The last book I published sold 10 copies.

I need to learn how to market my books. I do best when I’m able to sell them in person, but best means 10 books in six hours. There’s got to be something that I’m missing in my marketing piece until I find out what that is, I’m going to be stuck pulling the one-armed bandit lever that is book publishing.

DraftKings and FanDuel

I almost forgot about these two gambling sites. You don’t need to deposit any money, just participate in their free contests. They don’t work in all states. Some contests only offer bonus cash that you then need to use to gamble.

On DraftKings, I’m able to do their pools on Sportsbook and whatever they decide to do on their Fantasy site that’s free. On Fanduel, I will get bonus cash and then play their NBA “Everyone Wins” contest. If you have a gambling problem, these sites are not for you.

I haven’t followed any professional sports enough to know who’s going to be good. I do read the articles each site presents for the game I’m playing. It’s mostly like playing the lottery. You may or may not win. One weekend I wound up with $13. There have been several weekends where I ended up with $1. The payouts are almost immediate and go to my Paypal.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line is that none of these options, outside of the contract work, is guaranteed to make me any money, and my current contract work isn’t enough to live on. Even if I were able to build enough contract work to make $4,000 a month, it wouldn’t be enough to cover health insurance or retirement. So, how do I choose amongst all these things?

Is Making Money the Only Thing?

Of course, another part of being unemployed at home is that I have other choices to make. Do I take out the trash? Do I sit with the cat? Do I go for a walk because it’s sunny out? Do I read the really interesting book that I want to finish? Do I need another cup of coffee? (Probably yes.) Do I help fold the laundry? (Also probably yes.) How much “work” do I have to do to justify spending time with Jenya, my wife? None of these things will make my bank account healthier. Will they help me destress or will I continue to stress because it appears I’m not making the effort to improve my situation? All of these activities break the flow of any other activity I might have been engaged in, but that’s part of the paradox of choice. Any other choice interferes with the choice you’ve currently made.

What about Stress?

Everything that I need to do takes motivation. There’s no habit built, yet, and that means stress can throw me out of planned day of anything. The news, the economy, what’s happening with immigrants, what’s happening with government employees and their unemployment, my vertigo, my cat gets sick, getting turned down for a job, anything that causes the day to go from okay to awful can make it almost impossible for me to write, to apply for jobs or to do much of anything but sit despondently in fear about the future. I can’t move forward on those days when I’m stuck in the Swamps of Sadness. Even on good days, I question if I’m moving forward at all.

What Choice Should I Make?

I don’t know the answer to that question. I can tell you what I generally do when I’m not wallowing in self-defeat and despair about the state of the world and its politicians. I get up, give my cat Greenies, go to my gaming phone, and start grinding for the next level. I get my casino games out of the way and set up my NBA games and pools if available. I go to InboxDollars and try to get my daily goal met. This could mean cycling through 10 or 15 surveys until I make $1 or maybe a little more. I look at Indeed for jobs and save the ones I’m slightly interested in. I have lunch with Jenya. We go for a walk. I come back and try to apply for jobs, but by this time, I’m usually out of motivation. I try to do something productive. I backslide, and it’s time for dinner and a movie. Between 8pm and 9pm, I come back to the laptop hoping for some good news. Between 9 and 10pm, I head for bed where I read. However, throughout the day, I am constantly second-guessing myself and that energy never returns.