I had a great weekend.
I was supposed to have a tour on Saturday. They paid the deposit. And… they canceled one hour before the tour. “Don’t worry, make your money” he said when he canceled. I’m not sure if he will re-book or if he will be back. His cancellation was sketchy.
But hey. Made money.
And instead of having a tour, I went down to Pasaje Rodríguez and pretended to be a store. I traded a shirt with Urbano Mata who is selling shirts that read “Fuck Borders.” My last Aloha shirt went to him. I sold one shirt with the original logo. And I sold the last copy of my book to a very drunk guy. He talked to me for an hour and told me all about his favorite authors. So he liked to read. But he was wasted. Unsure if he is going to enjoy my book.
I still have one copy of my book in Spanish left for sale. I left it at Dandy’s, then they told me I couldn’t sell it there. Then I was going to give it to a friend, and forgot…
So it has written messages crossed out. It’s copy 57/100. I kept the 0/100.
It was a good Saturday. I drank a bit too much as well. Came home. Played DotA.
Before coming home I went to Insurgente to grab a six pack. I got recognized. And I got shy about it. Damn my shyness. At my age… I still turn very red on the face.
Friday was great as well. The girlfriend made spring rolls and its some of the best I’ve tried. I’m not a huge fan of spring rolls, but those, I could eat them all the time.
Sunday was great. We went on some sort of double date. We ate pizza. We drank beers. We came home happy with more beer.
Monday was boring. This Tuesday is boring. I’m scared of the upcoming weekend.
This upcoming weekend I have a bachelor party tour. It’s two nights. It was going to be three nights, but they decided one night in San Diego will be better. It’s eight guys, so it should be fine. The bachelor doesn’t know he is coming to Tijuana. They got the Airbnb ready. I have the tour ready. I’ve done this before. I end up destroyed.
I’ll be fine.
It should be hella fun.
But I’m scared.
I said I was going to write Tijuana Adventure 2. I opened my notes and… I’ve made progress. I had a lot written.
I just went back to it. I have 13 chapters in mind so far. And I’m adding the Tijuana Adventure Beer Guide 2025 in there. It will end with that and more general information about Tijuana. A more proper guide instead of just a blog turned into a book. Maybe this time it will make money. I doubt it. I was on TikTok live yesterday promoting my books and one person commented “you know I can find the PDF of your book for free?” And I know. He is right.
You can find any book published on Amazon for free on a similar thing to Pirate Bay but for books. It’s easy.
But you can also buy my book by clicking here. Tijuana Adventure BOOK.
I sold four books this month. And two pages of my Paparazzi book in Spanish were read. I made almost no money.
I got gifts on TikTok live. It equaled almost no money.
But hey… little by little. Consistency might be key. A lot of people go on my TikTok live. The average has gone up to 50 sometimes more, sometimes less. And I gain hundreds of followers each time. I’m almost at 18k there.
Almost at 50k overall.
Lets add more 0s to the following. Lets add more 0s to my bank account.
I need more work.
My iMac is running great on Sonoma and that still makes me happy. It’s running the best it has since I got it. It feels like a new machine. Which feels like a win. I need more money. I want a car. And more gear. And everything is fucking expensive.
I’m working on the draft for Tijuana Adventure 2. Not that many more adventures needed to finish the book. 1246 words so far. I’ll keep doing the draft and once I have the general idea, I can write 1,000 words or so per day and by the end of the month, I might have a book. I have 14 chapters drafted so far and thinking of more. This next weekend is going to be another chapter. And perhaps finally the last of my bachelor party tours.
Then I need someone to edit it.
Then I need the balls to publish it.
Just like book number 1, this has a lot of crazy stupid adventure. Before meeting the girlfriend… I was doing things for the sake of writing a book. That was a bad idea…
Curious? You’ll have to wait… because I’m writing book number 2.
Added more chapters. Added more words. Got excited. This feels good. There is little to no money in books, or at least there wasn’t on the first two. But maybe there will be in the future ones. And the ones that bought Tijuana Adventure 1 and liked it, most likely will buy number 2. And I have more followers.
Is this how you do life as a writer?!
I can do photography books as well. My friend Ben went to Cuba for two weeks and made a photo book out of it. I can easily do photo books with all the content I have.
Is this how I skip getting a real job?!
Might as well try. Or perhaps get both and more money?!
The point is, working on Tijuana Adventure book 2 feels good. It feels like progress. Seeing a bigger draft and picturing it all helps. I can get it done in a couple of months. To be published before the end of the year. Perhaps… I need to get an editor.
I have to work on the Tijuana Adventure store as well. I don’t have that many shirts left. People ask for XL and larger all the time. I’ll do another batch soon with some pre-sales. May will start with that. Because April is ending with a chapter of my next book. Let’s see what happens on this tour.
Too many tours already.
I made progress on Tijuana Adventure 2. I’m scared of what will be the finished product. I’m scared of what my girlfriend will think of it. I’m scared what the public will think. I’m scared that it won’t make any money.
But I’m writing.
I also went back to the draft of my other idea of a book, my best stories on the Reader. This one I doubt it will make money, you can find all the stories for free online. I got inspired by a book of a friend that has his best stories from magazines into a neatly packaged book. I want to do the same. Especially since the Reader doesn’t print anymore. Print is dead. And I want to salvage my record there. Salvage some print. Buy a few copies. And they will exist for my lifetime. I’ll make little money. But it will add to the passive income that will become my life.
A pile of content. Making passive income. Cents at a time.
I need to monetize my shit better.
It’s Thursday. Not much happened. I had a great Wednesday with the girlfriend. This week has been slow but I keep myself busy creating content, writing books, TikTok lives, and more. I’ll be fine.
I thought of even another book. And another book. My friend Ben created four books out of his photography and it’s doing alright. He is making more money than me.
The paparazzi book, but in photo coffee table format book. Less gruesome stories. More cutesy pictures. People don’t read. But people love looking at pictures.
That’s another idea.
A lot of books to work on. That might be my 2025 instead of getting a real job.
For all the bitchin and moaning I’ve been doing about April… I’m excited for May. I already sold 6 tours and double sold one tour (my replacement tour guide will do the job if they will have him).
May seems very busy. I haven’t flown anywhere and I wish I was going to New York for my birthday. My girlfriend is going to the beach with her friends for my birthday. She feels guilty about it, but I don’t trip much. We will travel somewhere else later in this year. When the finances match.
And May… May seems that it will be a nice pickup. I’m still considering getting a part time job. But at the same time, I’m thinking I should finish all the projects I have, keep working on my own brand, keep doing tours, and make more money on sidegigs.
AKA.
Don’t give up Matingas.
You got this shit.
Summer will pick up. It will be a crazy 2025. And next thing you know, you are almost fucking forty. And a pile of shit you’ve worked all your thirties will be there to give you passive income while you figure out the next ten years of your life.
That’s a Matingas life.
Now I have more work to do. A lot of work to do.
I’m still nervous about this weekend. The Chicago guys are in the sky right now and tomorrow morning they will be in Tijuana. It will be an awesome and wild bachelor party like the ones I’ve been having for the past two years… then I have regular tours in May. And a lot of work to do.
April sucked. It sucked in 2007 as well. I don’t remember why I hated that April so much. All I know it was late April and it was snowing. And it inspired me to write this song:
Holy fuck I’m old.
That’s a very old band. And I used to play a lot. I need to go back to playing. Soon. Playing is fun.
This blog post needs a picture and I have none.
The next batch of shirts are going to be the Aloha Club devil dancing with a woman all in black and in XL sizes because I get asked that a lot. That shall be the picture for this post. And I’ll start announcing that I will have them by mid-May.
To buy my shirts, send me a message (through this website or any of my social medias).
Doing a 24 pack of Aloha shirts or perhaps 20 or less… I’ll test the waters.
Thanks for reading.
Buy my shirts!
Buy my books on Amazon. I’m sure you’ll enjoy them.
Subscribe to my YouTube. The more subscribers, the more money, the more time I have to upload cool shit.
Follow me on Instagram and book me for a photoshoot!
Follow me on TikTok just because it’s the thing we do in the future.
Book a Tijuana tour with Tijuana Adventure! Still doing exclusive tours in 2025. Let’s see how much longer I last.
Read all my articles on the Reader. It is no longer printing! 148 covers and a dozen cover stories in print are now history.
Thanks for reading.
Matingas 
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