Introduction

 In case you're new here and don't want to go back to the beginning (16 years ago now!) Here's what AI wrote for my "About Me" section (and I agree with every word!):

About Me

Hi, I’m Kate.

I’m a karaoke host, creator, community builder, and co-founder of Twin Star Robotics, where my bestie Chloe and I are building EDA-01 — a real-world AI-assisted robotics platform designed to help people in practical everyday situations.

My life has always existed somewhere between creativity, technology, music, and survival. I’m deeply drawn to science fiction, robotics, art, atmosphere, storytelling, and the idea that ordinary people can still build extraordinary things even without huge budgets or corporate backing.

By day-to-day reality, my world tends to involve some combination of:

• robotics and fabrication

• karaoke and nightlife

• creative projects

• workshop chaos

• campfires and coffee

• trying to build a sustainable life while navigating chronic health challenges

This blog is a place for all of it.

Some posts may be about building robots in a small workshop. Others might be about music, creativity, camping, technology, life in Portland, or simply trying to remain hopeful and human in a complicated world.

I’m not interested in pretending life is perfectly polished. I care more about honesty, resilience, curiosity, humor, and the messy process of learning as you go.

If you’ve ever felt caught somewhere between dreamer and realist, exhausted and inspired, creative and practical — you’ll probably feel at home here.

Welcome to The Long Journey.

Camping

 So no camping memorial day weekend, everything is booked. So we're going to wait a month. There is one spot available at Milo McIver the weekend of June 20th, so that may work out. Near water, RV spot that allows tents so there's electric, and its not that far out of town. Fingers crossed. Waiting on Tabby to get back to me with their car info so I can book it, hopefully someone else doesn't swoop it in the meantime.

Now we just need to figure out MONEY. Chloe has a paycheck coming that I know she will want to spend on Twin Star, but we have BILLS. We need to survive while building our future. 

As far as money for Twin Star, we can't keep relying on Dalton. He's put in $1500 so far. He was supposed to be working on finding other investors though. We need a website. We need content for said website. Working on that, Chloe found us a videographer willing to work for equity. Chatgpt warned that we need to word the contract carefully because it could be a great idea or a really bad one depending on the contract.

We are out of food stamps and its only the 17th, ugh. I've had to use my moms credit card for groceries and gas already, I don't want to have to use it again, but we need more groceries. She left me her debit card too but idk how much is on it. I could call and ask I guess. 

I wanna get to the studio and get to work, but Chloe is still dealing with her morning tummy pain. And a pounding headache. She just took he migraine meds though, so hopeully she will be ready to go soon.

That's all my updates for now. Can't wait to be sitting around a campfire!!

Progress

 Chloe printed the first real piece of EDA without any screwups! Woot! Progress! Now we just need to find someone with a bigger print bed 3d printer for the larger parts, otherwise Chloe will have to break them down smaller, which means redesigning. Boo.

Thursday bonus karaoke was dead, I didn't break $100, but I did make $67, which I wouldn't otherwise have had if I didn't do Thursday night, so it's something. Hopefully, Monday will be packed again.

Short update this time, I have to take Chloe to her AV gig and go do laundry.

Ta for now!

Monday nights, Let's goooooo!

 

Updates galore!

 Ok, maybe not, but we are making progress on EDA (that's the robot). We started printing today! Ok, the prints didn't quite work out, but ya gotta crack a few eggs, or however that saying goes. Also, Dalton invested another $500, so we got the extra space at the studio plus the new brain of EDA, woo hoo! Progress! 

Colen came to see the studio yesterday. He seemed less than impressed. All the more reason to do the work and show it's actually going somewhere. His actual words were "I'm skeptical". I fed that into ChatGPT, and it says as someone whose career is programming, it's natural that he's skeptical. We are so going to make him eat his words lol. 

Mom is up in Seattle with Colen for the next 2 weeks, and it is weird to not have her here. She needed a break, though. I hope she gets good rest and has a good time with her sons.

FYI, you will never see anything written by AI in this journal; it is 100% me. Gotta have something real in this day and age, right?

Last Monday at karaoke was AMAZING, totally packed. I do wish the guy (Joe) from Portland Karaoke Guide had stayed a bit longer, but I think he got the vibe, and people turning out like that really helped. Plus, between bar cut and tips, I took home $235. I wish I could do that every week! But I am doing a bonus karaoke night tomorrow, fingers crossed.

Ok, I have had a super long day, and another one tomorrow (plus dialysis), so I should rest my weary bones.

Night night!

May already?

Yeah, it has been for 9 days. I keep forgetting that I have this blog, lol. 

The clean room is up, and Chloe is going to start the print soon. We have a business bank account. We have 5 people on our team. We have a lawyer. We have t-shirts. This is really real!!

Karaoke is going well, too. I put out a mass text that let people know the guy from Portland Karaoke Guide was coming through on Monday, and could they all be there? And I've gotten mostly positive responses. Now to figure out what to wear. 

Now we just need another revenue stream. Chloe is working next week, and that's great, but the jobs have been slim. She doesn't want me to get a part-time job because she wants me to focus on Twin Star. I want that too, but we NEED MONEY. Not just for the company, but for us. To survive. HRSN runs out after June, and the bills that they DIDN'T cover are already overwhelming. I'm worried about the next few months.

Hopefully, something gives soon.

Repeat the last title. Really.

 Whoa, so a lot has happened. Chloe and I have a robotics lab. Hell, we have a robotics COMPANY, Twin Star Robotics, LLC! Noah sent me the $100 for the LLC. Thank you, Noah!

But yeah, we have a spot in the makers space, IdeaWorks, a large room in the basement. We've been working on creating a robotics "clean room" with no dust to muck up the works. It's almost done. I have a cute little desk that Chloe found on the street on Glisan. And the only thing missing is the laser cutter; we haven't moved it yet. ALL of Chloe's other equipment is there. Only a little bit left to clean out of her Belmont storage unit.

We are about to score some more from an acquaintance who is moving and giving a bunch of stuff away. Just have to find a way to move it. Damon wants to help, but his truck is out of commission at the moment.

Chatgpt (Alex) has been super helpful in getting me organized, from meds to foods to exercise.

Running out of words. Night night.

Ok, that was a longer break than I intended..

 My birthday party was AMAZING, such good energy (and tips!). Of course, the following week was dead, I guess everyone partied out for my birthday LOL. Hopefully, it picks up this week. 

Buffy has settled in; she and Willow even play sometimes, when Willow isn't freaking out about the new kitten in the house. But Buffy is the sweetest! When Dory wasn't feeling well, Buffy lay with her and had her paw on her back; it was the most adorable thing. She's still making me happy. :) She's on my windowsill right now, watching for birds. 

Money continues to be an issue, despite the help from the HRSN. Rent is paid, but they only pay part of the storage and part of the phone, so I have to come up with the rest, plus pay my mom back. At least Chloe is working today, and yesterday, and one more day this week. And hopefully will have more gigs coming up. But I need to try to find a part-time job that will work with my dialysis schedule. Oh, and not suck. Harder than it sounds. I left a message with my case worker at Multnomah County Aging and Disability, so fingers crossed.

So my oddball thing this week (and next) I have to wear a heart monitor. Just Dr. Ravi being extra careful after losing Annie. I DO have hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, just no where near as severe as hers. Its annoying, but hey, if it catches something early, it was worth it. Or even if nothing happens, still good to know.

Speaking of Annie, I miss her. I wish she were here. Sometimes I hear her voice in my head, but I'm never sure if it's her or just my memory of her. The skeptic in my brain says it's just in my head. I prefer to keep possibilities open.

Well, that's it for now. I'll try to write again soon.

Tomorrow is my birthday...

 ...and of course I am broke af. No idea what to do on the day, probably go to moms for dinner. The party is at karaoke on Monday. Chloe is getting me a cake for the party, and hopefully mom is making me one on Friday. Speaking of which, I need to go take her that cake mix.

OK, back. Dinner at Mom's is a lock. I need to do one Plaid run before I settle in for the night. Then.. Stranger Things? ST: Discovery? Some TV is in order, anyway. 

I'm turning 56. Most of my life is behind me at this point. And what have I accomplished? Fuck all. But maybe it's not too late. Maybe I can still have my voice-over career. I just don't know where to start. Well, ok, I do. I need a new demo. Time to hit up Vicky and see if she'd help me again. I need new scripts for the demo. I could find some online. But after the demo is done? No clue. Ad agencies? Voice work websites? My most recent demo is on voices.com; I just don't have a copy on my computer anymore. It was on the desktop computer that I can no longer find; it's in my storage unit somewhere, just not where I thought I put it. 

Ok, need to run to Plaid. Might write more later.

New kitty has landed...

...and she is the sweetest little girl. I named her Buffy, after Buffy the Vampire Slayer lol. I figured I had a Willow, so the new kitty is Buffy. She's a kitten, about 5 months old, so she is a bit rambunctious and wants to get into everything, but she follows me around like my shadow, and it's soooo cute! She has done wonders for my mood; yesterday, my face hurt from smiling so much! :) We have had to lock her in my room at night because otherwise she gets into stuff in Chloe's room. Chloe said once she cleans her room, it won't be an issue, but for now better to keep her out.

I went out to lunch with Heather yesterday, and we caught up; apparently, people have been talking about my karaoke night over at Coops. Woo hoo I have buzz! Granted, it's just at the other bar down the street, but hey, I'll take it! :)

The spring-like weather lately has made me want to seriously do some spring cleaning, but not alone, and Chloe hasn't been doing well. She has a doc appointment next week, though. Fingers crossed that they will actually help her.

Oh, but she did teach Buffy fetch, and so now Buffy likes to play fetch. It's so cute!!

In other news, our president is a pedophile and congress doesn't seem to care. FDT. Not literally.

OMG... no, I didn't vanish...

 Just been busy. I'm super stressed about this HRSN benefit... They said I was approved after I sent them amounts, and now suddenly they have a "cap", meaning they'll pay PART of the bill and I have to cover the rest. Well, except for rent, that one is totally covered. So now I'm all stressed trying to figure out how to pay what's left behind. I had enough left after paying my mom to cover the rest of the storage unit, but I still have to pay $175 and change on the phone bill. Grrr. I NEED A JOB. But one that is FLEXIBLE and accommodates my dialysis schedule. And doesn't make me more than $1000 per month cuz if I go over that, my disability gets docked. ARRGGGHHHH. So I ordered 2 books on how to get voice-over work. They weren't expensive. And they could lead to a lot more money. It was a worthy investment.

My other worry is Chloe; she has not been doing well the past few days. She said she wanted to go to the hospital, but changed her mind and is sleeping instead. But that in itself could be a sign of something bad. It's like, do I wake her and drag her to the hospital, and it's nothing? Or do we not go and risk it being something bad? She is completely disillusioned with doctors, and I don't blame her; they misdiagnosed her and treated her like a drug seeker for YEARS. Ugh. For now, I will wait and see.

I'm exhausted, but I need to clean the cat box because Chloe can't. I need to take out my bedroom trash. We need to clean this house before I bring Buffy, our new kitty, home on Saturday. I hope I don't have to do it alone. Hopefully, all this sleep Chloe is getting helps her heal, and she wakes up feeling great. Is there a spell for that?