The Stratagem’s Archive

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  • Before You Celebrate Your First 100 Downloads, Read This

    I thought my writing was finally reaching people. My metrics told a different story.

    I’ve been writing on WordPress for about 8 months now — still a baby writer — and in that time I’ve published 7 PDFs.

    Five of them were personal reflections. Two were fitness-related, based on how I personally trained over 280+ weeks.

    Over the last 7 months, I watched my total PDF download count steadily climb to nearly 190.

    As a new writer, I was shocked.

    I’ve never thought anything I’ve made actually resonated with other people online — so seeing those numbers go up month after month felt like proof that maybe my work was finally landing somewhere.

    I let myself feel hopeful.

    I thought:
    “People are choosing to download this.”

    There was just one problem.

    While my PDFs were being downloaded consistently, my blog views, visitors, likes, shares, and subscribers weren’t following the same trajectory.

    If nearly 200 people downloaded my work, why wasn’t anything else moving?

    • No increase in followers.
    • No comments.
    • No returning visitors.
    • No meaningful time spent on the blog itself.

    Just… downloads.

    At first, I told myself that maybe the people downloading my PDFs were just hard to track.

    Maybe they were using private browsers.
    Maybe they were in incognito mode.
    Maybe they were behind VPNs.
    Maybe they opened the PDF offline after downloading it.

    In my head, these were real people — just statistically invisible ones.

    But over time, I learned something I didn’t expect as a new creator:

    Downloads don’t always mean readers.

    Bots crawl websites constantly. They scan pages, follow links, and yes — they can download files like PDFs. Sometimes it’s for indexing. Sometimes it’s for scraping content. Sometimes it’s automated vulnerability checks.

    And they don’t just stop at your blog.

    I noticed that even my Ko-fi page — where I keep my other creative work like sticker designs, D&D story expansions, and concept art — had a few external views that I couldn’t account for.

    Before, I assumed those were curious people checking out my work.

    Now, I’m not so sure.

    Coming to this realization forced me to separate what the numbers were showing me from the story I wanted them to mean.

    So now, when I check my stats, I try to keep a few things in mind:

    • A download is not the same as a read.
    • Traffic is not the same as engagement.
    • And early growth isn’t always human.

    Despite everything that’s happened, my stubbornness would let me pause for a moment, then have me keep publishing. Even when engagement and views are quiet.

    Since I don’t have advanced analytical tools for my blog, I, The Archivist, will never know for sure if anything happened on my blog was due to a person or a bot.

    If you’re a new writer watching your download count rise faster than anything else — celebrate carefully.

    Make sure your reality isn’t running ahead of your assumptions.

    That doesn’t mean your work doesn’t matter.

    It means that when you’re starting out, your metrics can’t be your only source of truth.

    If you’re early in your writing or creative work and your numbers don’t seem to match — don’t immediately assume you’ve failed, and don’t immediately assume you’ve “made it” either.

    Look for signals that are harder to fake:

    Someone spending time on your page.
    Someone clicking through to another post.
    Someone subscribing.
    Someone replying, sharing, or bookmarking your work.

    Even one real person choosing to stay is more meaningful than 50 automated downloads that never read a word.

    I’m still new at this. I’m still figuring out what real engagement looks like.

    But I’d rather build something slowly with honest signals than rush to celebrate numbers I don’t fully understand.

    If you’re building too — keep going.

    Just make sure you know what you’re actually measuring.

    Explore The Archives:

    Here are a few articles about other things I’ve written over time:

    If You Made It to The End

    I support this work myself. If you found value in it and want to help keep it available, optional support is here 🌊.
    I’m making a sticker design based on my Chaotic Life Strong PDFs. This is what the draft looks like as of right now.

    My Chaotic Life Strong inspired sticker draft

    If you’re curious to see what the end result will look like and would like to have a copy, check out my Ko-fi page by waving below. It’s my secondary creative archive.

    Tiny Wave 👋

    No pressure—just a way for me to say thank you for spending time with The Archives.

    Otherwise, I’ll see you all later in The Archives.

  • Introducing “The Quiet Archives”: A Reflection PDF

    Introducing “The Quiet Archives”: A Reflection PDF

    A Way to Say “Hi” Without Saying It

    Some days, I wonder how to say hi without anyone having to say it back. How to share a quiet moment with someone, even if it’s just in passing.

    That’s what led me to create The Quiet Archives, a small PDF of reflections and thoughts I’ve been gathering across my other PDFs.

    It’s not a manifesto, not a guide, not advice — just me putting words down and offering them quietly to anyone who might resonate.

    It’s six pages long, hand-crafted in tone and pacing, meant to be read slowly, like leaving a note for someone who might stumble upon it.

    Inside, I share reflections on endurance, self-kindness, grief, and the tiny steps I’ve tried taking to care for myself in the midst of everything life keeps throwing.

    If you’re curious, you can find The Quiet Archives here and it is yours to read.

    There’s no obligation; it’s just a way to share a quiet space with anyone who might want it.

    Sometimes, a simple hello doesn’t need a direct response. This is just my version of saying hi without having to say it.

    If anything inside The Quiet Archives, and previous PDFs, resonated with you, gave you something to think about, or allowed you to see things from a different perspective, click the Tiny Wave button below.

    I support this work myself. If you found value in it and want to help keep it available, optional support is here 🌊.

    Tiny Wave 👋

  • How I’m Paying Down Debt While Working Two Jobs on a $40K Salary

    How I’m Paying Off a 0% APR Loan Before It Jumps to 30% Interest

    If you’re trying to pay off credit cards or personal loans while earning around $40,000 a year, it can feel like every financial decision is just choosing the least painful option.

    Over the past 7 months, I’ve paid down roughly $6,000 of my personal debt while working a full-time and part-time job on a low income. I’m still in debt—but seeing that number drop has changed how much pressure I feel around money.

    It’s taken me a very long time— as long as The Stratagem’s Archives has been around—but I’ve finally managed to drop my $17,000+ personal debt down to roughly $11,000+. 

    Do you have any idea how much of a relief it is to have that number drop?! I knew that I felt my body was constantly bracing, but I didn’t realize how wound up I was until I let some tension go.

    That’s $6,000 eradicated and the money I used for this debt can be used towards my remaining balances.

    Of course, my material situation hasn’t changed too much:

    • I’m still carrying debt 
    • I’m still earning roughly $40,000/annually with a full-time and a part-time job
    • Rent, necessities, and other expenses still exist

    However, the fact that I’ve been making incremental progress on my low salary, to be able to chunk off so much money from my overall debts, is monumental for me.

    I felt my anxiety, my anger, my resentment almost melt away—enough where my chest wasn’t trying to crush my rib cage with every exhale.

    They’re not completely gone—I still feel anxious, I still hate my situation, I resent past-me for not having as many financial options as present-me does—but it’s enough where I’m not constantly holding my breath.

    I HATE debt; I hate the fact that I owe someone else money because I didn’t have the cash on hand at the time something came up. I hate how I can’t save, invest, or use my money the way I want to, but I’ve always prioritized automatically saving and investing anyways.

    This—seeing how far I’ve gotten from point A to now—gives me a faint glimmer of hope that I’ll be able to get out of debt after all.

    The Debt Lesson I Learned After Years of Using Personal Loans

    I was reliving the same money lesson over and over, spending years stuck in revolving debt.

    It wasn’t just credit cards I had to deal with either. I had to factor in for the personal loans that I took out because I needed money THEN, that present-me is paying for NOW.

    When you earn as much as I do, you don’t have a lot of options when it comes to financial kindness. 

    Not being financially generous—rather being kinder to ourselves. When you’ve weighed every financial option you had at the time, you realize that you had to pick the less painful option.

    Not the most good option; the least painful.

    Why I’m Avoiding Personal Loans Going Forward

    I decided that, before and after my debts are gone, I’ll never take out a personal loan again, if I can help it, just because I lack the money now.

    Keeping as much of my money for myself gives me more agency—both in how I use my money and how I use my time.

    Not just working to pay off debt, but giving myself a chance to imagine life past survival mode.

    If I managed to slog my way out of $6,000, then I’ll be able to slog my way into saving at least $1,000-$1,500 into my emergency funds.

    I used to have almost $20,000 in my emergency fund at one point in my life. 

    However, I made the best decision at the time a few years ago to use around $15,000 to pay towards my $35,000 car loan. 

    It was a smart decision at the time, until a real emergency came up. A Ford truck T-boned my car on my way home from work that my car was unsalvageable.

    I had more expenses piling up than I could pay off and everyday felt like a noose was wrapping tighter around my neck.

    Aren’t You Using The IWT’s Conscious Spending Plan?

    Yes, I am using Ramit Sethi’s CSP from I Will Teach You to be Rich, but in my other blog post, Where Do Frameworks and Tools End and Our Thinking Begin?, I explicitly said that I’ve taken that framework and made it my own.

    Instead of having 4 numbers to track, I keep track of 3: expenses, savings, and investing.

    Guilt-free spending doesn’t exist for me right now because, with my debts, everything falls into my expenses category. 

    I use credit cards to pay for everything. 

    I prioritize ensuring my balances are paid off within my next weekly paycheck. Or at least paid off before my credit card’s closing date to avoid interest being adding on.

    Being debt free is more important to me than spending money on things I would feel guilty spending on.

    My life feels heavier without a small reward every now and again.

    However, this was a choice I made because I would rather suffer in the short-term than prolong my debts.

    Money, or rather my lack of it, was constantly stressing me out. However, I think that I’ll finally be able to have enough money to go somewhere with a deep bathtub and soak in hot water to congratulate myself on taking care of my debts.

    That will be the day where I can experience using my money guilt-free.

    If You Made It to The End

    If this post made you feel seen, or if you recognized your own situation here, you’re welcome to quietly nod along.

    Quietly Nod

    You don’t have to explain yourself—your presence matters.

    If you feel up to it, you can like, share, or subscribe to the Archives. Someone might benefit from hearing about tackling personal debt from someone still working on it themselves, rather than from someone without debt.

    No pressure—just thanks for spending a few minutes with these words. If you’d like to say thanks without words, tap this little button below:

    A Tiny Wave

    Money Related Posts

  • Fitness For Chaotic Human Lives: How to Get Strong When Life is Chaotic

    If you’ve tried to stay consistent but keep feeling like you’re “starting over” because your work schedule, energy levels, or life responsibilities keep shifting — this PDF is for you.

    Why This ISN’T Your Typical Workout PDF

    This isn’t another workout PDF.

    There are exercises inside it, but they aren’t instructions or prescriptions.

    This is a 5 page reflection, including a reflective questionnaire, on how I’ve trained across changing jobs, energy levels, injuries, and mental load — and how I stopped treating inconsistency as failure.

    The goal was to become gentler when things got messy and to not treat inconsistencies, low energy, or injuries as moral or discipline problems.

    Functional Strength, Mobility, and Capability Options You Can Adapt—No Gym Required.

    If you’re looking for something to follow along with step by step, the first Chaotic Life Strong Exercise Flows  may be more your speed.

    It has a few follow along exercise flows inside that can be done between 15-30 minutes, depending on how much energy you have left.

    Although, if you’re trying to understand how to keep your fitness goals alive when life won’t slow down, and your not “starting over,” then this one was written for you.

    Fitness For Chaotic Human Lives PDF

    Fitness For Chaotic Human Lives PDF: reflection and questionnaire for training with inconsistent schedules.

    Tried this PDF? Even a tiny wave lets me know it reached someone. Optional support is here .

    Tiny Wave 👋

    If you found value in it and want to help keep it available, optional support is here 🌊.

  • The Myth of Progress: How Endurance Keeps You Afloat but Never Lets You Thrive

    What If You Were Doing Everything Right And Still Running In Place?

    I’ve been circling this thought for years. The months leading up to now have been brutal — because it goes against nearly every piece of advice I’ve ever been given:

    “If you endure long enough, you’ll be rewarded with progress.”

    But the reason I keep returning to this thought is simple:

    I have been enduring.

    For a long time.

    I’ve done what’s supposedly considered “right”:

    • Automatically saving.
    • Automatically investing.
    • Paying my bills on time.
    • Cleaning my apartment once a week.
    • Working out two to three times a week.
    • Canceling subscriptions that no longer serve me.
    • Cutting out friendships that were dragging more than elevating.

    On paper, this is stability.

    In practice, it’s maintenance.

    Because the thing that keeps dragging me back onto the same treadmill — over and over — is my job.

    I’ve been at the warehouse for four years. It’ll be five soon.

    And no matter how disciplined I become outside of work, it keeps kicking me in the teeth.

    Everyone Else Seems to Be Moving Ahead, Except Me

    My job at the warehouse has been cutting back on hours — our freight volume decreased — and money has become the source of a lot of people’s anxiety lately.

    It’s the same old stories you hear:

    • We’re not making our hours.
    • How am I supposed to pay my bills?
    • Would I be able to get another job?

    But the stories that always cut me the deepest are when coworkers start saying they’re either looking for a new job, today is their last day, or they’re moving into a newer position.

    It felt like someone stabbed me in the head.

    It’s not jealousy.

    It doesn’t feel like envy.

    It’s grief.

    I’m grieving because the coworkers who made work bearable are leaving.

    I’m grieving because I waited for my turn to leave, but I’m still stuck waiting because I was told waiting would lead to progress.

    A Job Process That Convinced Me That Waiting Was a Virtue

    I’ve been trying to get into CBP for two years; I’ve been waiting for the next part of the process after completing the physical and medical exams, and it’s been quiet since.

    As I was undergoing the process — after failing my first attempt with the home exams — I thought I was making progress and doing something else with myself.

    The CBP officers I used to work with at my job told me the government process is very slow and it would take time to get through the next steps.

    Their advice?

    Wait until the process said you can’t continue.

    So, I waited — because I was told that waiting was the reasonable and responsible thing to do next.

    The Waiting is Hurting Me as Much as Enduring Has

    The CBP hiring process is out of my hands, so I pushed the thought of it into the back of my mind and forgot about it for months.

    That is, until a coworker reminded me that I was trying to get into a government job.

    He mentioned leaving to become a correctional officer and that he was taking the test when he got home from work.

    The fact that he was already undergoing the process told me that he was serious about leaving.

    I felt the knife in my head twist sharper.

    What am I supposed to do now?

    Everyone else is leaving, making progress, tackling new challenges and opportunities, and I’m… jogging in place.

    What This Feels Like in a Moving Body Going Nowhere

    When you’re jogging in place, it feels as though nothing you’ve been doing is making things better.

    When progress doesn’t arrive after a long span of effort, even meaningful and creative work feels suspiciously like coping.

    I hate that it feels like that.

    I’ve finally stabilized my life; I made sure my foundations weren’t going to collapse from under me, but now trying to go past the stabilizing phase feels like I’m trying to drag a ton of weight on my back and blaming myself when the weight drags me instead.

    I’ve been paying the price of being responsible, being patient, and everything is showing up in my day-to-day:

    • I get up at 2 a.m.
    • I get to work by 4 a.m.
    • I sleep in my car before my shift to get parking.
    • I barely eat, but it’s canned food or spicy noodles rather than home-cooked meals.
    • I’m still awake staring at my iPad screen or at my ceiling at 11 p.m. – 12 a.m.

    I can’t trust myself to bother trying something new because everything I built would destabilize faster than it took me to stabilize.

    Not because I failed, or didn’t try hard enough; I’ve done all of that and more.

    But each habit that kept me alive, kept me from collapsing from my constraints, became my own self-contained prison.

    And yet my mind is screaming for movement, while my body likes keeping things the same.

    The mismatch between my body wanting to remain in place and my mind screaming, “this can’t be all there is to my life,” wants to move.

    My mind wants evidence that everything I’ve been working on, and working towards, wasn’t for nothing.

    However, I don’t know what my next step is.

    What This Feeling is Doing to Me

    When my constraints and stability have been long overdue for payment, I haven’t been able to see beyond my today.

    The future is terrifying. It has many unknowns, and it could collapse the very floor under my feet if I fail to plan ahead.

    But plan for what?

    Where am I supposed to go next?

    What else could I be doing?

    Too many questions, so few answers, and I can’t even begin to imagine what small step I could take to lift 1–5% of this weight off of my back.

    I’ve learned that showing up keeps the weight from crushing me, but it doesn’t automatically lift it.

    That part is still mine to figure out.

    If You Made It to The End

    If this landed for you in any way:

    You don’t need to explain it or respond.

    Quiet Nod
    Tiny Wave 👋

    Explore The Archives

    Gifts From The Archives

  • Learning Procreate Without a Curriculum: What I’ve Learned, What I Don’t Know Yet

    Note To Know:

    This isn’t a tutorial.

    This isn’t advice.

    This is a checkpoint — a record of what returning to art looks like for me right now after stepping away for years.

    Why I Chose Procreate Over Every Other App

    So, my coworker uses Procreate for her business. She has her own online store, she’s had it for over a decade, and it’s the program she uses to import and export files from the designers she works with. 

    She’s not an artist, she’s more technical than artistic, and that’s fine. 

    Procreate was a program I had used before, and it took away my exhausted decision fatigue to pick a different, “5.0/5.0 ratings, millions of users trust this app, use this app for it’ll be the only thing you need,” program I knew nothing about.

    I’ve already made several sketches after making showing my coworker my design. They’re simple, but functional for my current skill set, and I’m okay with that. 

    Even though my sketches are simple, I kept drawing different things, taking various inspirations or turning thoughts into images, to measure whether or not artistic progress was still doable after time away.

    I’ve Been Drawing For Days to See If Progress Exists in My Late 20’s

    It’s been more than a decade since I last picked up Procreate; the last time I used Procreate had been in University when I had thought that digital sketching wasn’t going to be any better than traditional art—drawing with paper and mechanical pencils— and I was trying out a new app.

    I learned very quickly that using a screen meant that my work wouldn’t have to be smeared by my clammy hands, nor would I need to worry about buying 120+ colored pencils of the rainbow that would cost me an arm and a leg to get.

    I liked making things, but I didn’t want to use my money and become the stereotypical “starving artist” cliche who would die for her art.

    I’m good.

    I’ve mentioned in another article that I picked up Procreate because of an artistic request from work

    and I took up the challenge to:

    1. See where my skills had atrophied.
    2. If I could make something good after a long hiatus.
    3. And to help my coworker out because she asked.

    Full Disclaimer: I wasn’t commissioned, I wasn’t consulting someone on how to draw, I was asked to help with a style design and made my own design from the parameters she showed me after working.

    Technically—this was unpaid— but I agreed to help, knowing my current skills, gaps, and expectations. 

    Making anything and keeping it as a means of, “Hey, I made something after years away, and I don’t hate it outright,” is better than, “I’ll never pick up X because its been too long.”

    “My Wallet, My Say!” After a different coworker told me how to use my money, but without yelling or flipping her off.
    .Early R.O.A.M. (Golem) Design for D&D Story & Concept Idea
    My Dice Tray and D20 as a Potential Sticker or Mug Design
    My favorite so far; for whenever Life knocks me on my face everyday

    An Archive of Proof; Not A Gallery Exhibition 

    You know, even after days later of sketching and making things on Procreate, my mind kept telling me this same phrases over and over again when I returned to drawing;

    You’re not good enough.

    That same phrase had kept me from pursuing a lot of things because I kept comparing my work and skills to people who were far ahead of me.

    Comparison is cruel; it’s a knife that I kept turning onto myself often and I had thought about putting my stylus away.

    Even though I could make things other people said were nice to look at, I didn’t believe I was good enough to keep up the practice.

    That was the trap that I had to rewrite.

    It was simple a simple idea to try, but it wasn’t easy to overwrite years of being told that:

    1. Art can’t pay bills.
    2. You don’t know how to draw.
    3. You suck.

    Or well meaning things, like:

    1. You should make your own comics/animation/game/etc.
    2. Join a production.
    3. Go to school to learn more.

    Those were just as damning because I was no closer to being the next best animator or part of a AAA gaming company.

    Though, a different approach had to take this comparison’s place.

    Instead of creating things and showcasing them like it’s a gallery exhibition, I started making things as archives of proof that I could make and finish projects.

    Let Me Show You What I Don’t Know

    If you look at the examples of the illustrations I’ve provided, then maybe you can visually see where my skills are at.

    I don’t know how to use color palettes, I don’t know how lighting works, I try to use real life objects as my references (for example: my dice tray and 20 sided die), but shapes and line consistency were also a struggle, I have no clue how perspective works, and I have no idea how to make things look like neon signs.

    That’s okay. 

    This is my returning point, not my highlight reel; no one asked me to make the sketches after my coworker’s request, I wasn’t being commissioned, and I’m not trying to “make it big” in an overly saturated creative market. 

    Sure, I made a Ko-fi account—the sketches provided here are what I’ve posted there along side my D&D ideas—but I wasn’t looking to monetize my work. 

    I have misunderstood many things in my life, Ko-fi being another thing to my list, but I learned that trying to force myself to rush and play catch up with other people’s highlight reels poisoned my work.

    It’s a difficult thing to admit that I’m unfinished, but done is better than perfect or impressive.

    If people like the simplicity, gallows humor, and functionality of my sketches, then by all means, thank you.

    Regardless, I’ll keep on making things, just like how I run this blog: on my own, in the quiet hours of the night, when everyone else is asleep and my mind is running rampant, sometimes the things that come to mind provide enough inspiration to try out a new pen, color wheel, or even learn how to make actual shapes without free handing it.

    This isn’t a comeback story.

    It’s a marker — proof that I returned, even quietly.

    Explore The Archives

    Thank You For Visiting The Archives

  • How I Prepare for Strength Training at Home After Manual Labor Shifts

    280+ Weeks of Experimenting, Adapting, and Improvised Movement

    If you’re trying to strength train at home while dealing with shoulder pain, bad knees, or lower back tension from work, your warm-up matters more than your workout.

    I’ve been training at home for over 280 weeks after repeated overuse injuries from manual labor jobs. This is the diagnostic warm-up I use before lifting sandbags, bands, or bodyweight so I can train consistently without making those injuries worse.

    Before Continuing

    In my entirety of writing about my Chaotic Life Strong personal training philosophy and regimen, especially in my Fitness Built For Real Life, By Real Life page, I want to make sure that I keep some truths at the forefront of this video demonstration before we continue:

    1. I am not a certified personal trainer; I don’t have credentials, a clientele, nor a degree in kinesiology, nutrition, or sports science.
    2. What is shown here has been roughly the culmination of 280+ weeks of trial and error and learning from multiple sources to have created my own hybrid process.
    3. How I train is rarely, if at all, documented; unless I’m performing any new exercises and need a visual cue to keep myself accountable. Else, those documented videos aren’t always kept for long.
    4. Everything shown is personal; it works for me, it works with my constraints: my energy, mood, and if I’m up to training the day of. 

    Nothing here is prescriptive, it’s not comprehensive, but if something catches your eye, you want to give it a try, or you don’t want to—it is fine either way.

    The work exists regardless. 

    I just wanted to share my process, why I chose to develop it the way it became now, and not let my hard won insights exist only in my head.

    How I Warm Up

    How I Train in My Little Studio Set Up

    Why I Warm Up Before Strength Training at Home

    My warm-up is diagnostic, not just preparatory. It ensures:

    • My body is ready for multi-planar movement and weighted training.

    • I’m not feeling tension, soreness, or discomfort in sensitive areas.

    • I protect areas prone to injury: shoulders, knees, lower back.

    Common Warm-Up Movements I Use

    • Cat-Cow, Upward & Downward Dog

    • Cossack Squats & Middle Split Progressions

    • Body Twists, Spinal Rotations, Arm Circles

    • Foam Rolling & Mobility Flows, Band Work

    • Animal Flows: Monkey, Crab, Tiger Walks

    These movements are staples for me. I modify or skip exercises depending on my energy, mood, and any lingering aches.

    Especially, in areas where I’ve been injured:

    • Shoulder.
    • Knees.
    • Lower back. 

    These are sensitive areas for me due to being inattentive, from compounding overuse injuries at my jobs, and persistent bad habits at home. 

    I took advice from my dad and previous bosses seriously: engage your core to prevent overcompensation.

    Applying this consistently has reduced chronic pain and made me more aware of how my body moves.

    This warm-up reflects how I train overall: adaptable, responsive, and built around listening rather than forcing.

    What This Is—and Isn’t

    This is my main example of what kind of fitness I train and how it has helped me prepare for longevity instead of chasing goals I don’t personally care for. 

    I’m not making this into a part of many videos; I’m not gatekeeping my training, I’m not hiding “my secrets” behind a paywall, I’m merely sharing something I’ve developed over 5 years because I’ve found something that works for me and my imperfect conditions.

    Just like my Chaotic Life Strong Exercise Flows PDFs:, you can try out what I’ve shared, take what you find useful, adapt it to your situation, or ignore this entirely. 

    How you choose to fitness is up to you, but I’d rather chase being able to bear hug and lift people in my 80’s than live in a broken body at 30.

    Explore The Archives

    Gifts From The Archives

    If you haven’t checked them out already, below are my PDF manifestos:

  • The Stratagems Archive Is an Ongoing Experiment (and It Lives on Ko-fi)

    Separating Thinking and Doing With Different Platforms

    The Stratagem’s Archive didn’t start out to be a business or a promotional thing. 

    The Archives started out as a pressure valve—to get the backlog of thoughts out of my head and avoid rotting me from the inside out.

    During a new point in my day, I was led to explore another platform:

    Ko-fi.

    I made a Ko-fi account on a whim—even made a business PayPal account to keep my anonymity, to feel like I’m making progress in my life.

    Making a Ko-fi account gave me a few questions I wanted to answer:

    • Could external support be possible for the archives if presented?
    • What would I do with this Ko-fi account?

    I chose to separate my creative endeavors—my sketches and expanded D&D content and artistic learning curves—from my thinking out loud writing that exists on my blog.

    It wasn’t as easy a decision for me to make because I thought Ko-fi was a social media account. I still don’t have social media; however, Ko-fi gets discovered through social sharing.

    Thus came my third question to answer; 

    • Could The Archives on Ko-fi be found organically?

    That’s what I’ve been trying to figure out for the last 2 weeks now. I wanted to share that The Archives are slowly expanding and so are my personal skills.

    How My Ko-fi Account Was Really Born

    I’ve been recently presented with an opportunity to tap into my creativity, and I don’t know how to feel about it.

    A coworker showed me a design that looked uneven, she was struggling to adjust it because she’s not used to drawing, and asked if I could help.

    Granted, I told my coworker that I haven’t made anything in years—I’ve mostly drew with paper, colored pencils, and a 0.5mm mechanical pencil—and it had been just as long since I drew digitally on my iPad using Procreate. 

    My artistic skills were rusty and severely lacking; I never formally or informally learned to draw, but I was willing to take up the challenge of helping my coworker out.

    She forgot to send me her blueprints for what she wanted, but I went off of memory and made my own similar design.

    I liked how it came out. 

    My very first illustration of the new year. “A Shaka For a Friend.”

    It was simple, the colors surprisingly popped, it took me 2 days to clean up, but the design was initially completed in 30-40 minutes.

    My coworker was the first person, outside of family and polite acquaintances, who liked my work. I felt a small spark of happiness I thought was dead for years.

    How This Opportunity Gave Me Options to Explore

    My coworker has had her own online business for more than 10 years and she told me that some businesses were looking for designers to make things for them.

    She admitted that she pays $400+ per design she likes and she was looking for a new permanent designer to work with her. My brain perked up.

    Did I volunteer to be her new designer?

    Nope.

    I know my skills aren’t very professional, they’re very basic, and I’m still learning to use Procreate.

    I’ve seen what kinds of things she has in her online store and I definitely am not the best fit for her.

    Instead, I chose to showcase my work online, much like my blog and my writing, just to show it exists.

    I’m not officially building a portfolio; I’m not actively looking to become a graphic designer; I’m not trying to make Ko-fi the thing that gets me out of my current jobs financially or schedule wise.

    I figured Ko-fi was the best place to explore and share the things I’m making online. In my opinion, Ko-fi is like Fiverr, but for very creative minds and works of various art, skills, and knowledge. 

    Both WordPress/Jetpack and Ko-fi are the same containers:

    The work exists; “If my work helped you feel less alone, this helps me keep making it.”

    Thank You For Visiting The Archives

    This space exists because I keep showing up to it.

    Explore The Archives Here

  • Why The Stratagem’s Manifesto 1.1 Exists (and What It Means for Me, and Maybe You)

    Manifesto 1.1 is an Extension, Not a Remake of 1.0

    I’ve been working on this quietly for some time. My PDFs, my manifestos, the book project that I shelved for the seventh time—they’ve mostly existed in the background, supported by my own effort, time, and energy.

    I haven’t relied on anyone else to keep them alive, not from pride, just that this matters to me. And that’s been fine on its own.

    But Manifesto 1.1 is Different.

    It isn’t more polished than 1.0. It isn’t inspiring or comforting. It doesn’t promise answers or solutions or a system. It feels grittier compared to Manifesto 1.0. And it isn’t an upgrade in confidence—it’s an upgrade in honesty.

    Manifesto 1.1 exists because I reached the edge of my endurance.

    Because I realized that surviving, showing up, keeping going—that alone wasn’t enough. I wanted to mark that reality. I wanted to name it.

    And I wanted to test something new: could honesty exist in the wild, outside of my own labor, and be supported by the people who resonate with it? 

    That’s all.

    Nothing more.

    No promise.

    No guide.

    Just a marker— a small experiment in trust and audience connection.

    The pay-what-you-want model with Ko-fi isn’t about money.

    It’s about seeing if people will engage with something that doesn’t instruct, sell hope, or claim mastery.

    It’s about creating a space for recognition without performance.

    I Don’t Know What Will Come of This.

    Maybe it resonates. 

    Maybe it doesn’t. 

    Maybe no one contributes. 

    Maybe someone does. 

    None of that changes the work itself.

    The realizations I wrote, the marker I laid down—it stands on its own.

    This is the first time I’ve tried this. And I wanted to share it because it matters to me to document it, even if the results are quiet. 

    Even if it lands in unexpected ways. 

    Even if the impact is invisible.

    So, Manifesto 1.1 exists. It marks a moment. It tests boundaries. And it reminds me—reminds anyone who reads it—that endurance isn’t enough, honesty is necessary, and showing up counts, even if it doesn’t move the world.

    A Note on Manifesto 1.1

    This PDF is a continuation of Manifesto 1.0 — a record of my reflections and realizations as I navigated endurance, constraint, and stagnation.

    It doesn’t promise solutions or hope. It’s a little grittier, a little rawer, because it names the limits of surviving and enduring for long stretches of time.

    “This is the artifact. It marks a moment. Support is optional. Thank you all the same.”

    Click Here to Read Manifesto 1.1

    If You Made It to the End

    If this PDF or reflection helped you, you can support the archive or grab a small sticker on Ko-fi — optional.

    Optional Sticker Here!

    Explore The Archives

    Below are my other artifacts you can explore freely here on this blog to compare how Manifesto 1.1 evolved from previous manifestos.

    Note:

    The experiment with Ko-fi didn’t fail, I rushed to do this experiment. I figured I had spent enough time online—writing, Canva, Procreate, everything—thinking 7 months later would allow me to try new things and seeing if writing honestly and producing a means to support the archives could co-exist.

    More than a week later, after I made my Ko-fi account, I wasn’t doing much with it. Once I’m able to create enough evidence for myself, make 2 artifacts outside of my PDFs that could be valuable to someone else, then I’ll come back to seeing how to support the archives outside of my own efforts again.

  • Could We Talk About Little Habits We Picked Up From Somewhere and Kept Them Going?

    How a Marine Biology Student Gave Me a 10 Year Old Habit

    Back when I was starting university in August of 2015, I remember sitting in my Communications 101 class, with a professor that was close to retiring that he was pretty lax and was ready to yeet himself out the door, listening to my classmates do presentations.

    One after another, I was bored out of my mind waiting for class to finish so I could go to my dorm to play Vain Glory, this was the Korean equivalent of League of Legends, except one presentation stood out to me that day.

    I remember he was a tall skinny Asian local boy born and raised in the same state as me, except he was a Marine Biology student, whereas I was in Engineering at the time.

    So, there’s a lot of trash and pollution in our oceans and our economy is especially dependent on the ocean for food and for our tourism sights. This Marine Major brought a plastic straw sleeve and a picture of a fish to demonstrate that a lot of fish are found dead because they swallow debris believing it’s food.

    Anyways, the boy demonstrated for his presentation that, if we were to tie the straw covers, then even if a fish swallowed a straw sleeve, the knot would still allow room for water, food, and oxygen to enter through the fish’s maw.

    Therefore, preventing them from getting dying prematurely outside getting caught by hooks and nets and yanked out of the water.

    Why Are You Telling This Story?

    I’m sharing this story because, a decade later, I’m still tying little knots in whatever I can get my hands on because of this boy’s presentation.

    Why did I keep this up?

    That’s a great question!

    I don’t know why.

    I can’t remember why the presentation convinced 19 year old me to make tying knots in plastic my 29 year old self’s new compulsive habit. Yes, it’s compulsive because my brain won’t let me eat in peace or leave the table until I tied a knot in my straw covers or chopstick sleeve, despite them being wrapped in paper.

    Yet, she never got social confirmation that reinforced this habit, nor feedback that this habit of hers was helping.

    It became something she did, that I do, even when meaning is lost.

The Stratagem’s Archive

A living Archives where overthinking expends energy through action, curiosity, and thought experiments.

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