A duck, drawn by my youngest nephew. This is the kind of quality content you support when you support Coupeville Sports.
How did I get here?
There are days when I ask myself that, and many more when those around me either ask, or at least think the thought, I am sure.
If we believe my birth certificate, and the date on it — April 30, 1971 — I sit 144 days away from turning 50.
I started working, really working, before I was 10, as my dad firmly believed I should learn the family business early — window washing and carpet cleaning — while giving him the chance to pay me less than a real employee.
As in, “You’re helping the family,” so maybe, probably, don’t expect a paycheck…
I think my first “real” job, one where an employer gave a chunk of my money to the state, was when I was a dishwasher at a rest home.
Or maybe it was when I slung beans all over the back room walls at a Taco Time.
You turn on the power mixer BEFORE the blade is down in the beans one time…
I’ve had stellar jobs — most of my years in the video store biz were sublime — and ones that were less so.
Mussel harvesting was one epically stinky, four-month slice of watery horror.
And I survived not one, but two stints, separated by decades, at a local inn where, when you touched the walls, your hand started to sink into the wood.
Through it all, the one job I have held the longest, sort of, is being some version of a journalist.
My first freelance story — a game piece on an Oak Harbor vs. Shelton boys basketball game — hit the Whidbey News-Times in January, 1990.
Since then, I’ve pounded out hundreds of thousands of words, covering sports and non-sports.
I became the Sports Editor at the WNT, and stayed for two years before moving to the mussel rafts (cause, I’m an idiot), then returned to freelancing for decades.
My movie column ran 15 years, and I never missed an issue during that run.
Then, back in 2012, I said farewell to any further connection with corporate papers, and launched this blog in mid-August.
Jump forward to today and I am 15 articles away from publishing #8,000.
I also have a second blog, having returned to my movie review days — Flat Butt Film Fest – One movie, 100 words — where I already sit at 507 articles in less than four months.
My writing isn’t making me rich, that’s for certain.
I like to say, it’s not an official non-profit, I just don’t make a profit.
Which is fine, as I’ve somehow managed, often by the slimmest of margins, to survive on my writing without a “real” job to suck my time away for the past five years.
How long can this go on?
That’s really up to you, the reader.
Being obstinate, I am choosing to remain on the outside looking in, writing for myself and not for other, better-funded, publications.
It’s probably not the smartest choice. But, it is a choice, and the one I’m making.
At this point in time, as I hover ever-closer to being the guy who goes and lives in the woods away from society, it’s what works best for me.
So, Coupeville Sports and Flat Butt Film Fest will continue to be here, free to read. No pay wall, ever.
To those who have supported me financially as I type away at 2 AM, you have no idea how important you have been, and continue to be.
You are the difference between me writing these blogs from my Penn Cove duplex, and me (attempting to) write them from the back seat of my 2000 Nissan Xterra.
Your donations are the lifeblood of this irrational dream, and give me the ink — so to speak — to keep telling prairie tales.
Thank you.
To support the cause, there’s this link:
https://paypal.me/DavidSvien?locale.x=en_US
I can also be reached at:
David Svien
165 Sherman
Coupeville, WA 98239
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