Ailana’s Journal — 2026-01-09 (Patreon)

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GOOD MORNING

I’ve been up long enough to somewhat untangle the hair, make coffee, and wash the sleep from my face. And… this might be my second cup of coffee, but it’s okay—I’m having fruit!

That reminds me of one of Dad’s latest Grammy moments. He was banging his head over this one. She says she needs to watch her sugar intake (new year, new fixation).

“When you go to the store, get me bananas, oranges, and grapes.”

Dad said, “You know those have sugar in them?”

“It’s natural sugar. It doesn’t count,” she replied.

I’ll concede that for some people fructose is probably better than table sugar (sucrose). I’ll let some nutritionist or M.D. explain why, if that’s true.

Next scene: Dad made biscuits and eggs (he does a lot of cooking).

“What kind of jelly do you want?”“Allen, you know I’m watching my sugar. Just give me the honey.”

Facepalm, anyone?

Moving on. The AGI Creative Group… Hold that thought…

You might recall that I mentioned that, starting 2026, Josh and Jason were going to roll their LLC into AGI Stories, LLC. With that merger, and in light of all of the photography and modeling work Naomi is pushing our way, the name of the new company is now officially AGI Creative Group, LLC. It includes my writing, Josh and Jason’s writing and photojournalism, Geoni’s editing services, and all of our modeling and photography.

We realized we weren’t just posting content—we were helping shape stories, campaigns, and ideas. So the new company concept now brings all of our creative work under one roof, and leaves some room on the margins to grow if new opportunities arise.

Back to what I started to say—later this morning the AGI Group (we’ll probably call it that) is having a meeting about some 2026 direction ideas. I’ll share the details, of course!

See you then.

The Storylines are the heart of Ailana Geven Imagines, and they are found in the Collections section of the site.

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All characters in this story are fictional characters, their images generated with AI for AGI Stories. They do not represent any real person, nor is their appearance based on any real human.

PLAN BETTER

Everyone is here except Micah—who I consider part of the team. He’s at his normal job. The topic is setting a direction for 2026.

After we got water from the fridge or made coffee, everyone found a place to sit, and Sasha got us started.

““So, a lot of what we need to think about comes from Jasmine trying to make sense of my somewhat neglected spreadsheet for 2025. Tell them what you said…”

Jasmine looked at Sasha. “Well, I said I don’t really know business bookkeeping, but Micah and me kept our household budget going. I said it looked like AGI kinda cuts things close.”

Sasha then said, “Basically, we really didn’t make much money on most of our adventures. Actually, the whole US-41 thing came out upside down.”

“You made the most per day,” Jasmine added, “when you were on Savannah’s Charm ‘cause you had nearly no expenses…”

“That settles it!” Clay replied. “Time to pack! Sell the condos and get eye patches!”

Sasha rolled her eyes. “Or… or… before we get peglegs, we could… you know… plan better.”

I then said, “Well, we came to be what we are sort of organically. We did a lot of learning and there were long periods where things like wedding plans and honeymoons cut into the income. I’d say we’re lucky that we actually broke even.”

“Granted,” Josh replied. “Call it a proof-of-concept year, and now we’re ready.”

“We’re not going to get way over cost,” Sasha said. “But we can do better.”

She went on to talk about our next outing, using a trip to Korea as an example. She said that before we buy tickets, we need to have a list of content ideas we’ll create. We need to have a list of markets for that content, and we need to plan on keeping our existing work going while we travel.

“And,” I added, “if we can coordinate trips with Naomi Prior, maybe we can tack on a few days of modeling and photography work to bolster the income.”

“Now, that,” Josh replied, “is the thing that will keep us out of the red, for sure!”

So, you can see where things were going. I think it was a great meeting, and it helped set us up for a great year.

See you tonight!

ALL-BUT FINAL by Kirina Yung

The days since Christmas have flown by! Josh Ryan’s family’s investment real estate director has been busy working out the purchase of this once-was furniture store.

This is part of the space I wanted to buy for the Port Isabel location of a second Sea Glass Gallery. It was too large, though.

The solution is great if you ask me. Josh’s family is going to add it to their real estate holdings. I’m going to lease the street-side half for my new gallery/sandwich shop, and AGI is going to lease the back half for a photography studio.

There’s a few (as they say) “I’s” to dot and “T’s” to cross, but Josh texted yesterday that the appraisal was favorable and the inspection was clean. He says if he were me, he’d go ahead and pay the application fee for an apartment— or whatever kind of place I decide to lease.

I’ve looked at a few apartments, but there’s a little house on North Shore Drive that backs up to Arturo Galvan Coastal Park. Eli loves it! He asked me to imagine the two of us sitting on the back porch looking at the bay less than the distance of a soccer pitch away. I told him maybe he should let his apartment go and rent this house. He said, maybe he’ll rent a different one on the same street!

I suppose that sort of sets the stage for things to come. Thank you for being part of all the changes happening to me, right now.

See you next time…

GOOD NIGHT

I know that I just spent two weeks on the beach in St. Croix. This is different, though—this is MY beach! 

I don’t actually own it! It’s just the beach that feels like home. And not just to me…

I think Jason has connected with my love of the waves and the sand. As we came down from Beach Access #7, he took my hand.

“It feels like we’re on the right beach now.”

I know what he means. St. Croix was amazing, but we were visitors. This sand, these waves… The horizon to the east… The lights along the shore north and south of here…

These are the markers that tell us we’re home.

I know what marks home for others might be different. It could be the trains’ horn and rumble passing at certain times each day. Others might see the lights of tall buildings through their windows. For some, it’s the miles of corn alongside the country road between the grocery store and their homes. The sounds of the African savannah might sing the song of “home” to others. The sounds of a cargo ship… Calls of cattle in the field… The free-running mountain stream… The silhouette of a factory smokestack…

Our world is large and wonderfully diverse. But it’s my hope that everyone has a place that truly feels like home.

Good night.

Be your best you!

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