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I am working on my 12 day advent calendar. I will start posting on December 13th.

So it will be a 12 day advent calendar followed by my latest attempt at "12 Days of Xmas."

If you don’t know, "12 Days of Xmas" is me posting short stories for 12 days starting on December 25th. And all the stories are thought up and written on the day they’re posted. So they can be a bit raw. Or they can end up being posted at any time of their day, up to 11:59 p.m. if I have a hard time meeting my fill.

If you go back through my previous years’ attempts at 12 Days of Xmas, you will probably see that there have been some years where I haven’t been able to meet my goals. Which made me very sad at the time 😢

Fingers crossed that I manage to create and post all 12 stories for this year’s 12 Days of Xmas.

Anyways, about the advent calendar: It will start December 13th and go through December 24th. Posts will be accessible at 11 a.m. PST on their days. And posts will remain accessible until January 3rd, at which time the calendar will be folded up and put away.

If you want to try 12 Days of Xmas for yourself, I have made a prompt list I will be using this year. In no particular order:

  • silver bells
  • reins
  • mistletoe
  • holly
  • wreath
  • snowman
  • stocking
  • sleigh
  • reindeer
  • snowflake
  • icicles
  • gingerbread

And the way I do it, I think of one of the prompt words until I start getting an idea. And yes, sometimes I find myself being very punny, so that’s an open option for creativity. (Reigns? Slay? Stalking? Or sexy stockings? Missile toe? Snow, man? Reign, dear? Icy L’s?)

And of course, I always have the option to ignore the prompts altogether and do something completely different.

~Harper Kingsley

https://paypal.me/harperkingsley.

https://patreon.com/harperkingsley.

https://ko-fi.com/harperwck.

https://www.youtube.com/c/HarperKingsley.

https://amazon.com/shop/harperkingsley0.
https://www.harperkingsley.net/blog.
https://kimichee.com.

https://harperkingsley.bsky.social.
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/HarperKingsley.

Hogfather at Amazon
Panoply at Amazon

What would you want from an advent work from me?

  • a story
  • a drawing
  • a typing video
  • more notebook pages
  • a screed

STORY: A story subject. I will fill in the details.

DRAWING: A coloring page? Some kind of feelings art; they’re usually colored.

TYPING VIDEO: A little list of topics you would like to know my thoughts on. Bearing in mind that I’m kind of dumb. And I’m lazy in that I don’t want to research a super boring subject to say either “Yes” or “No” about the subject because there’s no further depth to the issue. (Ex: “What are your thoughts on the Some Obscure Issue Name? Are you for or against?” Me, searches up the subject. Am immediately irritated because “Of course I’m against people hunting caged Animal We All Like! That you could’ve ever thought otherwise, hm.”) But like “What are your thoughts on sweet potatoes?” that’s a topic I have SERIOUS thoughts about.

NOTEBOOK PAGES: Handwritten pages, usually notes about stuff and things.

SCREED: Sometimes I have THOUGHTS about things. Topics I’ve found myself going off about before: raw milk, vaccinations, polio, chicken pox, measles, whooping cough, Mars.

I’m trying to put something together for every day until the start of 12 Days of Xmas.

The year has been a shit. It’s good to find some uplifting stuff to gather some life/misery balance. Hopefully next year will be better.

Like, please apocalypse-philes: Simmer down. It’s funner to pretend than to actually live that lifestyle 100%.

I do not consent.

A City On Mars at Amazon

Ugh. I bought some lotion and I think it’s a bad bottle. There’s like 1-1/2 inch gap between the bend in the bottle and the product. And the lotion is gummy and kind of curdled and won’t come out of the pump.

Seriously warehouse workers:

I know it feels like you’re striking back at "Massive Corporation," but really you’re just affecting the lives of everyday people that might not be able to afford to replace the product.

I contacted for a replacement, and it turns out I have to go through the originating manufacturing company, and they have limited hours where they respond to customers.

I just want to be like, "I’ve bought so many things through your company for so very long. I would rather you just send me a replacement and NOT make me have to pay for a return."

Even if they sent a driver around to collect the returned package would be better than all the stuff they want me to do.

I do not have a printer. I have to borrow the use of a printer to print out the return shipping label. One time I printed out the label and it was a not good printout, so when I got to the UPS store they made me pay like $5 for them to print out the label.

And they wonder why people don’t want to depend on them for all of person’s shipping needs.

You cost too much. Stop trying to denigrate the United States Postal Service. They get the job done at an affordable cost.

They should not be making a profit. They exist to serve the needs of the people.

Having predatory capitalists taking over all of our basic needs is a shitty idea.

A normal capitalist would think "Having cheap easy package delivery that people can depend on is good for the money. People will buy more if they get free shipping. They will sell more stuff online if the shipping cost is low. And the money they save on shipping costs will go into the economy and create downstream cash bursts. My stocks will be pumping out dollars!"

But the guys that wormed their way into being in charge are predatory capitalists. They are so focused on lining their pockets as fast as possible so they can make a run for it that they don’t even realize there’s other options to make money.

They are making massive lifetime amounts of money, but they’re blowing up their whole lives for like 10 years worth of lavish living.

I get that a bunch of people believe The End Times are coming and that we’re going to be scrabbling like cavemen in the dust…

But what if that doesn’t happen?

What if it doesn’t have to be like that?

Why are you helping to speed along The End Times-scenarios that are ruining your sleep quality?

If your spouse is making plans to overthrow the system that provides you with your groceries… Why are you continuing to go along with that?

Why are you letting that person help raise your children?

I know when we picture the panic stricken doomsday prepper we imagine a man with camouflage clothes and lots of guns. The kind of dude that shows off his 5 year supply of instant ramen packs and his selection of single-serve packets of powdered creamer and says "And if things get real tough, I know who around here has the best stuff" while fondly stroking his gun.

But there’s also a lot of women that are being panic-fueled by fear of The End Times.

It’s part of why there’s so many hoarding videos going on. And yes. That is hoarding porn.

Dreaming of having all those shelves and clear plastic inserts to help organize everything while your own products are overflowing out of a cardboard box on the floor.

If everyone is terror-buying for The End Times, they don’t have the wherewithal to purchase on a whim.

Stop freaking out consumers. Settle things down and stop trying to cause wars to stimulate your stock portfolio. And guess what?

More people will have money that they are willing to use if they’re not pouring all their money into stocking their bunker.

And I’m saying all this because of my experience with a bad bottle of lotion.

And my suspicion that maybe it was tampered with at the distribution company’s warehouse.

There are so many little luxuries that normal people cannot afford.

If you are able to buy everything you want and need and you still have money leftover and you never have to pause and think "Can I afford this?" while you madly try to figure out how much money you have in your account, then you are somewhat out of touch with what is going on in other peoples’ lives.

People are going to the store to buy groceries and are choosing to not buy bread so they can afford infant formula.

So you better believe that they are choosing to deprive themselves of necessities like lotion. Which means when they buy some, they should receive the product they ordered.

I accept that sometimes product gets damaged in transport. It should easily be replaced by the store it was purchased from.

So from now on I’d rather buy lotions, toothpaste, haircare, skin products and hygiene products from local stores. Places where I can walk in and get an immediate replacement.

~Harper Kingsley

https://paypal.me/harperkingsley.

https://patreon.com/harperkingsley.

https://ko-fi.com/harperwck.

https://www.youtube.com/c/HarperKingsley.

https://amazon.com/shop/harperkingsley0.
https://www.harperkingsley.net/blog.
https://kimichee.com.

https://harperkingsley.bsky.social.
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/HarperKingsley.