More dust settles as the old Chinese curse, 'May you live in interesting times,' rolls on.  It looks as if my spot in the Arieas area of Estoril will become a thing, as I have signed a rental contract.  My self-imposed, presumptive exile has extended to AT LEAST 21 January 2029 starting 20 January 2025.  Thus, I will need a cozy spot to endure such.  A place to write my comics, a place to garden, and a spot where a canine companion or two can cohabitate with me.  If I need a spot to provide refuge for me and mine, that too.  I will need to furnish it and, pending the arrival of my art, decorate it.  My time at the flawed furnished temporary spot to see if the USA would do the wrong thing is ending.  Good riddance.  The location was quite good, but the person in charge of it SUCKED.  The person in charge of said spot had not addressed the problem with the garage door, which was the decisive factor in my leaving, even if that means I may wind up paying rent on two spots for 3 or 4 months.  This is despite the Princess saying I should not move to the new spot.  Her comments were truly clueless ('It's so dark,' HUH?).  

Quite a bit of time has passed since I composed the above paragraph, and oh so much has happened (though admittedly more outside of my bubble than in it).  Hair Furor has proved me right: he is a fascist who is bound and determined to warp the USA into a dictatorship.  I am glad I am not in the USA, nor will I ever return as long as he and his ilk are in charge PERIOD.  In fact, Democracy died in the USA on March 15 when Hair Furor pulled an Andrew Jackson, as his ICE Abteilung flouted a federal judge's order.  I truly fear that when I left the USA on January 16, 2025, it would be my last time 

 

I'm back on this again.  I guess being prescient about Orange Anus not being punished prompts more expression on this forum, which for all intents and purposes, has been for my eyes only for years.  The vain thought of 20 years ago as this being the continuation of my minor, part-time soccer journalism career has long hit the dusty attic.  Anyway,  I'm now face to face with the hard reality of what I decided all the way back in the Fall of 2021: I will never set foot in the United States of America misruled by Hair Furor (I do not give him the dignity of his name unless it becomes this era's version of Quisling).  I AM AN EXILE.  I acknowledge that I am lucky enough to have the means and wherewithal to effect this in relative comfort.  Nonetheless, the prospect of the earliest possible return to Los Angeles after January 20, 2025, is January 21, 2029, is depressing.  That means missing the World Cup & the Olympics in what is my hometown.  

This will probably mean giving up the Princess, as she has shown more than once she wants to stay there, and I will not continue to support her to the same extent as I have if an ocean separates us PERIOD.  Add in that she has been intaking and regurgitating some pretty hateful nut bar right-wing propaganda du jour (the last time we got together included an argument about her embracing anti-trans propaganda to the point of saying she heard it from patients who claimed to be parents who were forced to allow their kids to choose their gender expression).  When I asked her to provide evidence, she refused and told me to research it on my own.  She is either gullible or lying, and neither is acceptable in the long term.  So, I will have to finesse things in such a way that she thinks she's in charge of the agenda, as she could drop a dime on me if she chooses to get revenge.  Part of me would be happy if things get dire enough for her to flee, and I get the wan satisfaction of saying, 'I told you so.'  However, this may not fix the rot at the heart of our relationship.  It began on a pretty corrupt basis, and it still applies.  I got myself into this, and it will be on me to get myself out...and I've begun part of the process (more on that later once it is done).  

Reflecting upon the Princess experience, if I knew then what I know now, would I have done it?  HELL YES.  I had resigned myself to never having the experience of an actual girlfriend for my entire life.  Life threw me a curveball, and I'm glad it did overall.  Does that sound dire, yes, it does, but then that is just part of my social awkwardness.

Another thing that has happened is I, pending the signing of a new rental contract, will be moving to a new residence in Estoril.  It will be a nicer spot in a smaller building that will be Euro 200 more per month, but hopefully worth it.  It will be the place I furnish myself.  That means getting my art here takes on more urgency, especially if I want to be outside of the USA by January 20, 2025.            

 A bit of a more brief missive here.  I'm back from a 2 & 1/2 trip to Los Angeles.  I got a bit more than what I was expecting and some exactly what I was anticipating.  

First, the unexpected: my dental issue was not what I thought it was (a veneer that dropped out).  Instead, it was part of a tooth that chipped off when I bit into chewy bread...and the wreckage went to the nerve.  The dentist was amazed I was not in pain from it.  Anyways, an extraction followed after I was presented the choice of a root canal or an implant.  Considering I've had both, the latter in a mili-second.  Now comes the 6-month wait for the bone and gums to heal from the extraction.  Then will come the implanting of the metal into my upper jaw, then another 4-month waiting period to assess how well the implant takes.  Only then will a veneer be fitted atop the metal stub.  I went through this in 2013, so it is not an unknown thing.  The only wild card is whether will I be getting the implant in Southern California or Portugal.  If Hair Furor wins, the latter.  If Kamala wins, the former.  As I've said multiple times, but perhaps not here: I will never spend another second in an America misruled by Orange Anus - once was quite too much, no fucking thanks.  The second unexpected came from when I stayed at Mike W.'s place in Pacific Palisades.  After I had my first vaguely in-depth conversation about living in Portugal, the next morning, they announced they had decided to move to Europe (the Cote d'Azur, to be exact), and their talking to me had sealed the deal for them.  Ok.  I hope they understand just how much of a thing it will be, especially with two -- one of whom has begun schooling.  In fact, my nephew's situation mirrors mine at that age somewhat...and it did not go well for me at all (though it should be mentioned my reaction was not good).  Mike expects both of his kids to adapt easily.  I tried to explain to him that might not be the case.  Best of luck to them.  On another note, Mike generously let me put my stuff I had at Extra Space Storage in Marina del Rey at his warehouse space in Chatsworth.  I took advantage of it.

The somewhat anticipated other shoe to drop was the Princess revealing more about her attitude towards visiting me in Portugal.  She brought up the hot water supply in the apartment only lasting 5 - 10 minutes, and she needed far longer for her evening shower in order to get to sleep.  I don't know how fishy that is, I guess I will have to discreetly ask about that.  She's been angling for a January or February visit to the Algarve at what will probably be an über expensive spot.  At least, it will not be during the high season.  We also had a tiff: she's been digesting far too much conservative propaganda and swallowing it too much of it far too easily.  Also, when I visited the Druckers in Laguna Beach, Deb reminded me of anti-vaxxer spouting she did on a Thanksgiving Zoom call.  So this is how families drift apart...

Regarding the last line from the prior paragraph, it is starting to happen in my immediate family as well.  Deb & Raph don't speak to Mike & Janini, mostly due to the latter's posting of conspiracy theories that include a dose of antisemitism.  Deb & Mike don't speak due to their Mom, who, despite lying to the latter about who his actual father was, has managed to worm her way into his good graces.  Needless to write, my disdain for her has only increased since her lame non-apology for her inaccurate & inappropriate social media post about my mother's passing.  

Sadly, this sort of drama hit both sides of my family in generations prior.  For a time, I thought our cadre was immune.  Apparently and sadly not. 

UPDATE (since I drafted the text above):  The USA has made its catastrophic choice.  Now, I will follow through on mine.  The only things I have of interest in the USA are my financial accounts and my art.  Bringing the latter to Portugal will not be cheap.  Very soon, I must decide so, and gauge whether or not I need to make one more trip to Los Angeles (with me getting back before January 20, 2025).  I also need to recalibrate my financial life in several ways: 1) Do I move my assets out of the jurisdiction of the USA?  2)  My monthly disbursements to the Princess will change (yes, I've been saying this for years!), but I want to give her a chance to have a conversation about it.  However, I will not wait on her schedule -- I did that via delaying my arrival to Portugal for a year, and it was not wholly positive.  I tallied what I disbursed to her over the length of our relationship, and it has not been cheap.  If she wants this to continue, the agreement as we have had it will change. 3) Part of why the prior has to happen is that if I'm staying in Portugal, I'm going to start looking for a more permanent place to live that I will furnish myself.  Perhaps I will even buy a property.  For that to happen, I need to grow the principle of my investment portfolio to raise the cash for a purchase & still have a healthy base with which to earn passive income that I can live on. 

I moved to Portugal in significant part because the prospect of being subject to Orange Anus again is simply unacceptable.  I had a nagging feeling that the Democrats would not show the required ruthlessness to make sure he would never be in the White House again, and thanks in large part to the dithering of Merrick Garland, it has happened.  I am now an exile.

Thoughts after the Princess visited me in Portugal

 Another periodic missive for this antiquated platform that has become a space for me to express my semi-private thoughts, as the readership for which it was intended – a continuation of my prior, barely-a-career, of part-time, semi-amateur soccer columnist, ultimately faded away.  My musings on the series of sites I had posted prior (MLS review, soccerspot, Teamtalk, a correspondent on Adrenaline radio.com’s soccer show, and finally, a small print fanzine) on were not enough to draw an audience of any sort whatsoever.  Thus this forum in the internet void became a spot for me to post about myself to myself as a diary of sorts.  So with that in mind, here goes.

            Don’t groan at the following that I’ve said here before: much has changed since I posted last.  The most obvious one is that I did it: I moved to Portugal.  And I did it without the Princess in tow.  It was too much to expect her to uproot her life.  She asked me to delay my exit for a year, as I was ready to leave upon the sale of my house in Spring ‘22.  As part of my negotiation with my ex-neighbor, I rented one of his cottages which are two lots away from my former home.  Thus I was in the strange position of seeing a place where I had many memories and which I loved being remade by someone else.  And thanks to acceding to the Princess’ wish, I had to watch.  From time to time, I question the wisdom of selling, but the extra monies from the proceeds of the sale have really helped my boost the principle of my investment portfolio.  

            Another part of the process was to set up Nevada residence, which I was able to do with not too many issues. I did the whole schpiel: rented a Las Vegas apartment, exchanged my CA driver’s license for an NV one, got an account at an Las Vegas mail forwarding service, changed my voter registration from CA to NV, etc.  Thus the Princess’ request I stick around for another year worked out as it allowed me to set up this vital part of my plan.  So my move didn’t happen until early 2024.  

            As for the Portugal end of the undertaking, I hired a concierge relocation company to help me with my move.  They mostly did a good job, but my legal status, an American with an EU passport threw them for a bit of a loop as the vast majority of their clients are Americans, who are treated as 3^rd country nationals by the Portuguese state.  I needed to go to a different office to get an utterly bit of paperwork, a CRUE, that they were simply not familiar with.  Other than that, it was money well spent.  Nonetheless, most everything worked ok in the end once I got the CRUE.  As for the timeline for the move, I did an apartment search trip to Lisbon in December, 2023 (and signed a lease on the day before I left to go back to the USA).  It took about 6 or 7 weeks to get the basics of living in the unit done: utilities changed to my name, internet service, etc.  I did my first trip with 5 bags of stuff (mostly clothes) from late January to late February, mostly to get a better idea of what stuff from the USA I would need to bring over on the second trip.  Said second trip after I stayed just a bit under 6 weeks as a resident of the USA.  On April 17, I left a nearly empty Venice Beach cottage that had been my place to sleep for about 25 months.  I was both ready and sad to go.  Santa Monica / Venice had been my home for 24 of 60 years, and Southern California for 50.  Whether or not I will ever return remains an open question, dependent upon a myriad of factors in my control and not. 

            I rented a furnished apartment in Parede, a beach community amongst the myriad along the Portuguese Riviera.  Parede is not a bad spot, and the location of the apartment is not bad: on a dead-end street just off a major street, a 10-minute walk from the local commuter train station, and quite close to a Continente (a Portuguese supermarket chain) just above an outdoor bus depot.  The spot accomplishes mostly what I was doing in So. Cal., providing my home base while I pursue my comics thing, with a lower cost of living and a badly needed change of scene.  All was mostly going ok until the Princess came for a just-concluded visit.

            I was looking forward to her visit for a variety of reasons: to help familiarize her with Portugal in a small way, have a meaningful conversation or two about what our future is, and see if my provisional plan (provided Kamala Harris wins in November) has some basis to work off of.  Said provisional plan’s second proviso was if I still felt enough for her to continue in some way, but not as had been up to now (particularly the amount of $$ going out).  In short, I still do…and the 36 hours after she left, I really missed her.  I still do as I am typing this out.  

            I hope the visit was mostly successful, though she tends to say what she truly means later on.  The negatives for her were: Portuguese coffee (thanks to Torrefaction), the dust in the apartment (despite my cleaning prior – I need to hire professionals for this), the firmness of my mattress, and jet lag.  However, I hope she liked the other parts of Portugal enough so that it is part of our remaining a thing.

    Next month, I will be visiting Los Angeles for the first time since May when I was there for a week, then did a few days in Las Vegas for Punk Rock Bowling (which the Princess insisted upon crashing, but there was definitely not a wholly good feeling during that sojourn).  I hope we can have some meaningful conversation about us, but I doubt it will happen.  However, there will have to be a reckoning of some sort as I have mentioned to her more than once I am dissatisfied with where we are.  

    It took me a bit to figure out how to access this blog's draft feature, so this entry is 16 days late LOL.         

 Another periodic missive from this relatively antiquated platform.  I sold my house.  Thus part of my plan to exit the USA should the GQP do well in the 2022 midterms has been executed.  The details: I sold it to my neighbor without going through the usual process.  I may have left 100k or more on the table, but garnering the net amount I wanted would've required a sale price at least 200k above asking...and that is never a sure thing no matter what a potential realtor tells you when they want to get the listing.  Thus I did ok and to quote one of my investment types, 'Congrats for selling during an oversold market.'  It is generally better to get out while the wave is near its' crest than when it is breaking, and I believe I did so.  There was quite a bit of mixed feelings about the whole thing.  At one point, I had thought my prior home would be lifelong.  However, events external and internal precluded that.  The quality of my life in the house, especially once Choppy dog had to be put to sleep, really took a turn for the worse.  The pandemic and the creeping homeless thing in the 'hood did not help one bit, though having a veggie garden there helped save my sanity during the depth of the pandemic.  As I posted on social media, 'Goodbye old friend.'  It is helpful my neighbor got around to redoing the place almost immediately, so it will not be around in the same form as a ghost of sorts.  

The relationship with the girlfriend has gotten a bit complicated though.  It seems as if she was merely patronizing me a bit, and did not expect me to go through with it (though she is definitely on board for me selling the house), nor the rest of my long term 'get out of the USA before ReThug fascism takes over' agenda.  There's been a few updates on that front as well that I will address:

1) Australia is off the table for several reasons.  She found out that her notions of getting around that country's highly regulated system was a non-starter.  Thus the $ I had to spend to to do a Zoom session with an Aussie attorney was worth it as it provided the sort of clarity that my second-hand reading of regulations could not (not that she can bothered to do her own research beyond instagram, but that's a whole other thing).  

2) I was also wrong about the EU: I had thought Belgium was the only place where we could go with her as my partner.  Nope, this applies to the entire bloc including the three top destinations: Portugal, Spain, & France.  To repeat, as a citizen of an EU country, Belgium, I have the right to live and work in any EU country, as well as my non-EU citizen partner or spouse (the French use the word 'spouse,' whereas the Portuguese & Spanish use the word 'partner').  All we would have to do is show up, rent a place (which I can do), and then register her within 90 days, DONE.  And for a whole lot less than Australia.  

3) The princess did bring up a cogent point: Czar Putin's invasion of Ukraine has certainly made waiting for events to sort out a good idea.  Europe is in danger from this truly dangerous megalomaniac, especially since not all of his lackeys within the EU like Viktor Orban have not been consigned to obscurity.   Nonetheless, I will be proceeding to take the steps to enact my long term agenda.  At some point, her & I may need to speak with a therapist of some sort as a mediator.

In other news, another long delayed project (artists are the bane of my business existence, as they flake off far too often) is being released May 15, 2022.  I'm really proud of Wunderman Comics' new release, War Medicine.  I also have another project from a query email, where I'm serving as Editor / Publisher.  The latter is requiring a lot of mentoring to the point of lecturing.  

Anyways, with the sale of my now former house, an era in my life is coming to an end.  I emerge from in hopefully better health, physically, emotionally, and financially.   

More than a year has passed, thus comes time for another post.  I usually do when I've reached a landmark of sorts, or have made a decision.  This is the latter.  I have decided as a long term goal to leave the USA.  Orange Anus and his cracker doodle acolytes are carrying out a slow motion coup, and the rest of the American political establishment is unwilling or unable to stop him.  The looming SCOTUS decision that will more than likely give the o.k. to Texas' Taliban-esque anti-abortion vigilante 'law,' along with the ReThugs planting their minions in election boards all across swing states -- an idiot would be blind not to see the handwriting on the wall.  The sole saving grace about this slow-motion coup is that there is time to plan and execute an escape well before the flood arrives.

There are three landmark dates coming up: Election Day 2022, my final trust disbursement in 2023, and Election Day 2024.  If Election Day 2022 goes as badly as I believe it will (the ReThugs retake the House & / or Senate), the die is cast.  By November 2024, I want to be well ensconced outside of the USA, my legal situation to live and work fully sorted out.  Between that eventuality and now, a lot will have to occur.  I will need to liquidate as many of my physical assets as possible including my house.   The idea is to raise as much cash as possible, and invest most of it in something like an index fund (preferably one with a green focus).  I asked the girlfriend about this and she agreed with my assessment that the longterm outlook for the USA is not good -- surprising me just a bit, but ok.  Our sole disagreement is where to go: I want to go to an EU country, while she wants Australia.  Going to the EU will probably be easier, and cheaper based upon my current research into the topic.  Australia wants young, skilled, (preferably in a profession they have a need for...and nursing is one worldwide), educated, English speaking immigrants, and her point total passes the mark.  I do not.  To go the investment route would require investing the bulk of my net worth factoring I net the minimum I want from selling my house for 4 years in three investment funds of the Australian government's choosing.  Not great.  Our optimal Australia option is that she gets a skilled worker visa, and I go as her partner.  Of course, this is the sort of thing one gets professional advice that is not cheap to hire, but the due diligence should be pursued.  Lastly, the application process can take from 20 to 30 months, so the sooner what route can be pursued is determined, the better.

Thus my plan so far is to spend 2022 preparing: selling off or donating as my of stuff as possible, getting experience hours in Teaching English as a Second Language via the LA Public Library (I'm just a bit too young not to have a profession of some sort even if it is not as mobile as that of a nurse), plus waiting and watching.  If November 2022 turns into the debacle I dread...then the next step happens.  The plan to put my house on the market goes into effect.  Thankfully, the lease on my eGolf expires in February 2023.  Around that time would be a good time to prep my house for sale via some touch up work towards putting it on the market in Spring 2023.

Part of my preparation to leave the USA comes from my prior experience as a Gast Arbeiter in Switzerland: California taxes their former residents abroad.  Before leaving the USA, I plan on changing my state of residence to Nevada.  It has the double benefit of no state income tax plus my overseas vote in federal elections counting for a lot more than they would in California (NV has far fewer voters & is a swing state).   I will live there long enough to establish residency, then once a final determination of which overseas option to pursue, be out of the USA by Summer 2024 at the latest.  I will still have to deal with the onerous FACTA requirements (something that was not a factor when I was in Switzerland), but oh well.   If I had my choice, I would not mind getting used to the EU in Belgium where I have family, with Antwerp my favored choice (it has a vibe similar to Amsterdam with real estate costing 25% less), though the overseas family member I have the best relationship with lives in Brussels.  After then, it depends upon whether or not I want to live in a sunny climate or not. 

It is truly sad that it has come to this, but the USA seems hopelessly damaged from within by those whom want it to revert to another Gilded Age replete with Robber Barons luxuriating in a 21st Century version of corporate feudalism.  My ancestors did not survive various pogroms, holocausts, etc., for me to get jacked up by some conspiracy theory nut bar trying to impress the latest Conservative Infotainment Complex media personality du jour.  In the meantime: www.theliberalgunclub.com           

Life in the time of pandemic

Posting again after another long interval, and things have gotten even more cracker doodle as Orange Anus is making Dubya, Cheney, & Co. look competent.  What we hoped would never happen has: a major crisis of a generational scope is going with an absolute narcissistic sociopath occupying the White House.  Meanwhile, my life has gone forward.
On the comics front, the Boogeyman release happened and belly flopped.  Giancarlo Caracuzzo's lack of marketing push was not unexpected, but disappointing nonetheless because I made it a point to emphasize to him more than once.  On the other hand, his hired writer, Massimiliano Grotti, really stepped up and did his part like you're supposed to.  It did make up for Grotti's tortured English prose that I had to edit during the script writing and copy editing stage of the project.  Not surprisingly, Caracuzzo wants to continue with Boogeyman under the same economic model...that will not happen unless the marketplace picks up on the comic (sort of crossing my fingers the Eisners will notice, but I'm not holding my breath).
I am working on a new project with Hannibal Tabu: Native American Shamanism versus Voodoo in the Old West...and the hero is a half Native American, half African American female who kicks ass.  Hopefully, this project will get some traction, but I'm enjoying doing it already.
Personally, the hottie and I are still an item, though it not always the smoothest of sailing.
I've also begun the process of acquiring Polish citizenship (and this time, I let my siblings know...and their response has been silence).  As I thought, it may be possible via my paternal grandfather, who was born in Poland.  One might ask why I am going through this exercise even though I already have American and Belgian citizenship.  Well, until I was 20, I was stateless (I might blog about that in the future, perhaps if I get a Polish passport), so excuse me for overcompensating.  Anyways, over and out!