Holy Shit for Breakfast, Batman!

It's A Special Day for S4B

Wow, my vocabulary’s so impressive it’s hard to believe The New Yorker hasn’t purchased one of my written humor pieces yet!

✨Reflections✨

I made this newsletter 2 years ago out of a nostalgia for a weirder, more personal internet.

I was reflecting on the early aughts when everyone seemed to have a blog and we’d all wax poetic into the void like only 3 people were watching (because only 3 people were watching).

The Flaming Lips - “Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, Pt. 1”

Almost all of my peers stopped at some point, seemingly to become respectable adults who no longer needed to copy-paste Death Cab lyrics into their HTML-coded online journals.

But I miss the cheese of it all. I miss the authenticity and the cringe.

Today’s internet feels like scraping your bong piece for residual THC crystals after being subjected to a parade of corporate ads.

I Also Had A Baby, Which is Insane

I’m still processing this.

There’s another Erika, in another timeline, who never had a baby who has way more free time and much less snuggles.

She travels more and hopes less. She’s the same and completely different. Her life is both bigger and smaller.

That Erika will always wonder if she should have had a baby, as the grass is always greener on the other side.

Both timelines are difficult, good, and valid.

The “Shit for Breakfast” Manifesto

I can be a bit of a chaos goblin in my writing, but I have always had a North Star for Shit for Breakfast, which is something I wrote into my “About” section 2 years ago:

“My intention with this newsletter is to be something like a palate cleanser to modern life. I plan to lean into hope; even if that means admitting to personal struggle, often.”

The world today stresses me the fuck out.

*cut to montage of panic attacks*

And a lot of that stems from what’s become of the internet.

Everything’s clamoring for our attention through rage bait, fear mongering, and short-form dopamine blasts and I am so deeply sick of it.

I don’t know about you, but it’s making me lit-erally sick (mentally, physically, aurally— yes my aura is just a brown shit-smudge these days).

I want a safe space online. A place to rest these tired ‘lil crusty eyes.

I am always thirsting for it, but can never seem to find it.

So why not create it?

Writing and running this Substack brings me a lot of joy.

I feel like that dorky, cheesy, teen again while writing these posts.

The only downside is that I have next to no free time these days, so it’s become more difficult than ever to find the tiny little windows to make this happen.

And that is why I would be REMISS to not thank my paid subscribers.

THANK YOU SO FUCKING MUCH, SRSLY, SRSLY, THOUGH, IT MEANS THE ABSOLUTE FUCK'N WORLD. THANK YOU:

✨Ben!

✨Nate!

✨Tina!

✨HumanJazz!

✨Chavaina!

✨Randy!

✨Mdorvill!

A Peek At My Dashboard

Hey! That’s 61 new subscribers and 2 new paid subscribers since last year!

I’m also incredibly grateful for everyone who recommends Shit for Breakfast on Substack.

It’s a huge reason why my subscriber numbers have risen and not fallen.

I would like to make a particular thank you to my buds:

Alex Dobrenko` of “Both Are True” and Michael Estrin of “Situation Normal” who both write deeply thoughtful and fully hilarious newsletters that dabble in the darkness, whilst always providing a complimentary digestif of humor and pathos. Their slice-of-life storytelling will make you feel both seen and humbled by their talent.

I highly (and literally) recommend following their respective Substacks if you have any inclination toward great humor writing, which I hope you do, because if not, I guess you just like my drawings for being cute. Which is fine too.

I’d also like to thank Nancy Whiteman of “Expat in Portugal” for recommending Shit for Breakfast while she did, because she helped me gain 111 subscribers! I also must say with full honesty her newsletter is exactly the kind of safe space I crave online these days. Nancy’s writing is both serene and thought provoking and her accompanying photographs transport the reader even further into her world as an expat in Portugal.

And lastly I’d like to thank ToonStack, the most charming newsletter on the web, hosted by some of my favorite New Yorker cartoonists, who kindly gave me the opportunity to share my, then, ignorance on babies alongside one of my favorite rejected New Yorker cartoons.

This Year On… Shit for Breakfast!…

This coming year I will be writing and drawing many more funny, cheesy, sad, and weird personal essays for you all.

If you feel any wild inclination to support me and my Substack I would metaphorically DIE if you became a Paid Subscriber.

I have some very fun ideas coming up for my Paid Subscribers, so stay tuned for some juicy sillies coming your way.

Comments (Let’s Chat!):

• Please say hello in the comments! I really want to get to know all of my readers!

  • LET ME BE YOUR FRIEND!

• What do you hope to see more of from S4B in the “new year”?

  • And what do you wish I’d stfu about?

    • (too bad, I never stfu, it’s not happening.)

• How would you feel about more video content?

  • I’ve been thinking about recording some drawing/art tutorials.

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Listening to: