Today is my mentor's (and good friend's) birthday. Oddly enough, we we're born only a day (and quite a few years) apart. I can safely say that up until this point in my career (my executive career in the entertainment industry, not my writing career), everything I know has either been directly from him, or as the result of his encouragement and guidance to learn it for myself. Starting a few years ago, when I was his assistant, I didn't have a lot of money - and he doesn't like to make a big deal about his birthday - so I made him a simple birthday cake from scratch to thank him for everything. Well, it wasn't really so simple... it was a dark chocolate brownie cake with raspberry jam filling and double-chocolate frosting...

But over the years, even as I've made more money and we've both moved on to different jobs, it's become a tradition that I make some kind of homemade birthday cake for his birthday. Last year, I surprised him at his office on one of the movie studio lots with a white chocolate fudge cake... and this year I'm going to continue the tradition. The wife and I are going to go visit his family this afternoon. Just as soon as I can figure out what kind of cake to make!

Keeping the tradition alive... and not sure how I feel about getting older myself tomorrow. heh

 

Well, as the new URL of this blog implies, I made the leap and changed my username. I sent out an e-mail to all of my friends and groups to tell them it's been changed, and so far so good. I only overlooked two things in my transition:

I forgot to make a note of the e-mails in my inbox... I use my inbox as a "to do" list, filing away e-mails or deleting them after I finish whatever I need to do with them. I didn't write down which e-mails were in my inbox before switching over. Oops.

I updated the username tags in all of my group items, forums, etc. ... but I realized that as the editor of the UEN, there are 50+ individual newsletters in the archive that link to my old username, which means that I either have to do a lot of editing, or leave all those newsletters with dead links to my old and now non-existent original username. I think I'll end up transitioning them all... a few at a time until everything's updated.

Other than that, things seem to be pretty good. I feel like the new username (and as a result, the new portfolio and blog URLs) is a little more professional, and I'm sure the kinks will work themselves out. At Jace's great suggestion, I think I'll write an editorial about the process, so other people can read about what all goes into changing a username, from a pretty active member of WDC for whom the change impacts a lot.

 

I'm pretty jazzed today. This weekend, the wife and I saw Up In The Air, Jason Reitman's new film. You know, the Juno and Thank You For Smoking guy, son of the guy who did Ghostbusters, Evolution, Kindergarten Cop, etc. Absolutely fantastic movie, and very topical (especially for someone who just lost his job!). Anyway, after seeing a great movie I came home and started to think about the next screenplay I want to write. It's been far too long since I've written an original spec on my own, and I'm excited about the process again. I've got a killer idea and everything fell into place really quickly. I've got my characters figured out, the twists and turns in the narrative... it's all coming together and I might even be able to start writing as early as this weekend.

Now that would be a great birthday present, wouldn't it? The inspiration to write!

 

So I'm considering re-vamping my WDC account. My seventh WDC birthday is coming up in February (and I won't tell you which real birthday is coming up in December... ), and I think it might be time to make a few changes. You know, freshen things up a little bit and keep it interesting. Here's what I'm thinking of doing:

1. Changing My Username: My current username (ragefire2000) is a relic of my younger days - you know, when combining cool-sounding words was the hip thing to do for e-mail accounts - and I've been thinking about changing it to SoCalScribe, to reflect the handle that I've been using for years.

2. Re-Designing My Port: For the last couple years, I've been using the "house" motif, organizing the folders in my port according to rooms in a house. I've already changed it over to a "city" motif... I figure if the number of items in my port keeps expanding, I should be thinking bigger for the organizational system too.

3. Writing With More Variety: I have over a hundred short stories on WDC, and the vast majority of my port is fiction. Actually, except for items related to the WDC community (groups, sigs, etc.), I think my port is nearly ALL fiction, most of which comes in the form of short story static items. I'm thinking about branching out and trying to do more Interactives, Campfire Creatives, and even exploring the realm of nonfiction by starting to write articles and essays and whatnot.

What do you all think? It is time for me to give myself a makeover... or should I stick with what works and keep a good thing going? And don't tell me that no matter what, you love me just the way I am, 'cause even I can't stand myself that much.

 

So I think I'm finally done, for the most part, with the "NaNoWriMo Write-A-Thon"  for this year. I still have a few lingering MBs to hand out, and I'm just waiting for all of the donations to make their way into the group account so I can distribute them to the beneficiaries of the activity. But I have to tell you, I'm exhausted. I think I need to find a better way to manage this activity next year because I was doing the accounting (word counts, donation calculations, etc.) for three hours last night, and another five hours today.

I realized that the 5% of the activity funds dedicated to prizes (the other 5% being for the winning team) wasn't going to cover all the MBs that were going out, so between my own sponsorship donations and the MBs today, I burned through over 750,000 GPs of my own funds and gave out 54 Merit Badges, all in the span of about an hour and a half.

But hey, it's all in the name of a good cause (or causes), and now I'm looking forward to the rest of the donations coming in and being able to surprise the groups with nice big donations this year. If my math is right (and everybody pays up! ), I think we're looking at about 410,000 GPs per group, which is fantastic.

And I even managed to get an entry for the official Short Shots contest submitted. It may have been at the last minute, but it still counts.



 

So this afternoon, while my parents were visiting for Thanksgiving, they decided to get my birthday (and Christmas) presents out of the way by buying me a computer, which I've been debating buying myself for the past several weeks. For the geeks out there, it's a 2.1 GHz ASUS laptop with 4 GB memory, 320 GB hard drive, and a 16" high-def widescreen. Not a bad deal for $500. It's not the latest and greatest, but I'm not quite the gamer I used to be - at least on a PC. All I really do is surf the internet, write, and dabble in a little graphic design... and this baby will do all that and more. Oh, and it's got a numeric keypad on it, which is awesome!

Perhaps one day (when I'm gainfully employed again), I'll be able to afford that Apple MacBook Pro with all the bells and whistles that I always drool over in the Apple Store, but until then, I'm a happy camper with a new computer that actually runs fast and smooth. No more interminable waiting period for programs to load, or resetting the failing wireless card half a dozen times when it goes on the fritz. I'm back in business; now it's time to get some writing done!

 

I was tempted to go shopping for a computer today and take advantage of the Black Friday sales, but logic prevailed and I decided to maintain my rule of not going out and shopping today. What changed my mind, you ask? Yesterday (Thanksgiving) my wife had a pretty bad allergy attack and since we were out of Claritin-D, I went out to find a pharmacy that was open. And find one I did... right next to our local Best Buy, which already had more than a dozen people lined up and camping out... nearly a full 24 hours before the store was scheduled to open at 5:00AM today.

The deals today may be crazy, but so are many of the shoppers. I'm staying at home today, watching movies, and enjoying the quiet.

 

So I'm caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place. At some point, I'm going to have to give this laptop back to my former employer, and my personal laptop is going the way of the dodo. Not being employed full-time puts a bit of a damper on my usual inclination to go out and buy a shiny new laptop with all the bells and whistles, so I'm conflicted. Do I go out and buy a nice computer while I still have one more severance paycheck coming? Or do I be responsible and buy a cheap computer that will just get me through the next year or so, until I have a real job again and can afford to buy the aforementioned shiny new one?

I think maybe I'll wait for the Thanksgiving Day weekend sales. If I can find a really screamin' deal on a laptop for like $300, I might not be able to pass it up.

 

So I've been thinking a lot about this over the past couple days, but I think it's time to call it quits on my NaNo effort this year. There are a lot of reasons I'm considering this, not the least of which is that I've been really distracted over the entire month of November, with getting laid off the day before Halloween and now dealing with unemployment checks, consulting work for extremely low pay, etc. My mental state is frazzled, unfocused, and - if I'm being honest - more than a little discouraged.

Not to mention the fact that I'm really not enjoying my story. I had an idea I was (and still am) excited about, but I spent so much time preparing the "NaNoWriMo Write-A-Thon"  and working on my NaNo-themed newsletters for the "Unofficial Erotica Newsletter Group"  that I neglected my own NaNo prep. I don't feel like I know my characters or the finer points of my story, and seem to be just rambling on and forcing the words each day, without being invested in them. I guess the easiest way to say it is that I feel like I'm not doing the concept justice by forcing large quantities of words onto the page without enthusiasm.

I know that sounds like I'm just making a lot of excuses and trying to justify bailing out, but the honest truth is that for one reason (or many), NaNo just isn't clicking for me this year. Last year it was one of the best writing experiences I've ever had - fun, exciting, intense, satisfying, etc. This year, it's been a more challenging experience - tedious and not really all that fun for me. Over the past week, I haven't been viewing my NaNo writing time as something I'm looking forward to, but rather as something I'm dreading... just another task that will take another couple of hours out of my day.

I guess my heart's just not in it this year. Which is sad, because I've been looking forward to NaNo since about January or February.

I think the best thing right now is to bow out now and come back to my novel when I have the time to do it right; to develop the story and characters, and figure out a structure that works for what I still think is an interesting idea. So here's my lesson learned from NaNo 2009 - While you can definitely "wing" an erotica novel (my NaNo 2008 entry), it's not so easy to do with an action/adventure/espionage/mystery. If you don't know the clues and puzzle pieces in advance, they're hard to think up on the spot!

I do feel badly about all of the beneficiarie for the "NaNoWriMo Write-A-Thon" , so I think the only fair thing to do is make up the difference in word counts from my sponsors. I made it to about 20,000 words this year, so I'll be donating the balance of the 50,000 word count in the denominations they've noted, out of my own personal funds. It's not fair to deprive all the charities the activity is supporting, just because I'm being lame and giving up.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who's been reading my blog and encouraging me in the struggle to catch up on my NaNo writing. The month didn't start off very well, and never really did get back on track, but I deeply appreciate all of the friends who have shown their support and believed in me. If I were more invested in my story, I have no doubt that your encouragement would give me the inspiration to actually pound out the words. After all, you were all the reason I was able to get 20,000 words in the first place. So thank you, to everyone.

I think I'm going to make the most of the last week of November by writing a couple really kick-ass contest entries and maybe starting on that new screenplay I've got rattling around in my head.

To everyone else who's pounding out the NaNo words... keep up the good work! You're all doing great!

 

Okay, so as you could probably tell from my very sarcastic letter with its very, uh, colorful closing earlier today, I wasn't in the best of moods this morning. But now, it's almost bedtime and I'm feeling slightly better. I wrote almost 6,000 words on my NaNo novel, which still doesn't get me caught up, but at least makes me feel like I'm in the running again. If I can rock a few more 5K+ days, I'll be back where I want to be, which is on the positive side of the Words Per Day graph on the official NaNo site. I've plotted it out and, because of my procrastination, I now have to write 2,666 words a day for the rest of November to hit 50K by the deadline. I told myself my new goal is 3K a day, and so far, so good.

Tomorrow I have lunch with my mentor (and good friend), and also have a chat scheduled with the company I'm consulting for, to discuss how things are going. Given than I've worked 8:30am-7:00pm the last two days, I think we're going to have to have a serious conversation about what they expect of a "consultant" and what I expect to do as a "consultant". I'll give you a hint... my version doesn't involve full time 40-50 hour weeks at 40% of my salary. I actually really like this company, enjoy the work, love the people, and really think this start-up has a great business plan and a good chance of taking off. Unfortunately, none of that makes up for the fact that after factoring in the cost of fuel to commute to their office every day, I'm actually making less than I would be collecting from an unemployment check every week.

Methinks there's some negotiating to be done, or else I might have to say sayonara to the company until they can afford to pay me a little more.

Okay, off to do a few reviews for the Mod Blitz before bed. Last week!

 

Dear Conscientious Motorist:

I don't know who you are, but I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for hitting my car in the grocery store parking lot last night. I really appreciate the fact that you didn't just give my Jeep a little love tap, you hit it so hard it buckled the door frame, which has rendered the passenger side door unable to open any more than a third of the way. My wife, thankfully, has a petite frame, and I'm sure she'll appreciate trying to squeeze through the door every time she gets in and out of the car.

I especially appreciate the fact that you didn't leave a note or any other indication that anything was amiss, so I was treated to the pleasant sound of grinding metal this morning when I tried to open the door and set my messenger bag inside.

With no other avenue of recourse, I can only hope that your vehicle's close encounter with mine left it with a similar impairment that will necessitate expensive repairs. If karma really is on my side, perhaps you knocked out a headlight and will get subsequently pulled over for the infraction, at which point the officer will discover you have three dozen unpaid parking tickets and will haul you down to the station.

Rot in hell,

- SoCalScribe

 

Ugh, best laid plans. Instead of writing my NaNo novel all weekend, I've been playing tech support because our wireless router went down. Finally bit the bullet and bought a really nice Belkin router that will hopefully last a very long time... but I ended up spending more than six hours today trying to get it configured. I was on the phone with Belkin's tech support for more than three of those hours, following their incessant instructions to unplug things, plug them back in, switch cables, change settings, blah blah blah. I finally got fed up and asked the rep (and his supervisor who was on the line by that point), "Do you guys actually know what the problem is, or are you just guessing? Because you've now told me to do the same thing six times."

They finally admitted that they didn't know what the problem was, and there was a very good chance that the router itself was defective. So I should probably return it and get another one.

I went back to Costco and bought the Linksys router that was right next to it on the shelf, albeit $25 more. I brought it home, plugged it in, and was up and running in less than 5 minutes.

So, lessons learned today:

1. Don't buy Belkin routers; buy Linksys
2. Tech support is sometimes just guessing how to fix something
3. For $25, I could have saved myself half a day of hair-pulling frustration and no internet

As I was checking out with the second router, the cashier looked at it and said, "Great choice. I have a buddy who works at Best Buy and he says that Linksys is the only good brand of routers. All the other brands are more trouble than they're worth, even if they're cheaper."

I asked him, "Where were you six hours ago?"

Off to hopefully write something on my NaNo novel today. I start my part-time consulting gig tomorrow, so I need to get something done in case tomorrow is as hectic as I think it's gonna be.

 

I just couldn't sleep tonight. Don't know why. The wife conked out around 8:00 after a very long day at work, so I've had the last five hours or so to myself. I actually made productive use of that time, finishing up six reviews for this week's round of the "Fourth Annual Mod Review Blitz!" , and cranking out 4,000 words on my NaNo novel. Now I'm past the 10,000 word mark and by the end of the weekend, should only be a week or so behind.

I feel good about today. The story is finally clicking into place. I tried something new this year, by telling two convergent storylines, which was tough at the beginning, because I had to keep it interesting and maintain my own interest as I provided details and plot points that I knew wouldn't converge until much later. Now that things are starting to come together, the words are flowing faster and I'm hopefully headed into a situation where I've set up enough story threads that it'll give me plenty to write about in the last half of the novel. Unlike last year, where I only told one very basic storyline, and found myself struggling to find more to write about.

It felt damn good to write 4,000 words today, and I'm hoping that I can do the same tomorrow and Sunday to make up some of the deficit I've created for myself.

Unfortunately, as much as I'd like to maintain the roll I've been on for the last few hours, I finally hit the wall and need to get some sleep. Tomorrow is another day, with another 4,000 words to go.

G'night WDC!

 

So I'm now embarrassingly behind with my NaNoWriMo novel. According to my daily goals, by today (Friday) I should be somewhere between 21,000 and 26,000 words. In actuality, I've just barely passed the 6,000 word mark. I don't know if it's stress over the job situation, lack of enthusiasm for my story and character, not having the structure of a regular schedule to keep me on track, or what ... but I just don't have it together this year.

I'm going to really try to crank out some serious word counts over the next couple of days; if I don't get my rear in gear pretty soon I'm not sure I'm going to be able to come back out of the hole I dug myself. Which would really be unfortunate, since I put together the Write-A-Thon fundraiser to get donations based on how many words I've written.

So I may only surface sporadically over the next couple of days; whenever my poor eyes need a break from the Microsoft Word screen. I may be down right now, but I'm not quite out for the count yet!

 

So fun fact about me... it seems that no matter how well I plan things out, something always goes wrong. Especially when it comes to romantic surprises for my wife. It's certainly not for lack of desire or effort; something just always seems to go wrong in one way or another. The latest was last night.

THE SETUP -- My wife had today (Wednesday) off work. Things have been tough for this first semester of her working full time in her own classroom (long hours, not a lot of time for intimacy between us, etc.), so I decided that I would take advantage of her free Tuesday night and Wednesday by taking her to dinner and getting us a room for the night aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach.

THE PLAN -- She was going to get ready at home, and I would show up with flowers, take her to dinner at Sir Winston's (a 5-star restaurant on board the ship), then surprise her with the room, which I'd previously decorated with rose petals, candles, bubble bath, etc. There were chocolate covered strawberries, sparkling cider (neither of us drink much), etc. You get the idea.

THE REALITY -- When I showed up to pick her up, she was half-asleep from an exhausting day at school. Sir Winston's was out of several of their entrees, leaving only the more exotic items like veal, duck, lamb, rabbit, etc., which my wife refuses to eat. We decided to go to the more casual cafe on board instead. During our meal, the power went out twice, the food was horribly overcooked, and the waiter forgot about us for 20 minutes. We got to the room - a suite with a harbor view that also had wet carpet, no air circulation, and dirty sheets. She fell asleep almost immediately (around 10), only to be woken up every 15-20 minutes by drunken sailors and soldiers shouting and laughing and running in the hallway, who were having some kind of USO party/celebration. We ended up checking out at six in the morning and driving back to our apartment so we could get some sleep.

Thankfully, my wife is a very understanding woman and knows it's the thought that counts, but this kind of stuff always happens. Suave and flawless my plans are not; and things never go as well as they do in my stories! . Tonight we ended up going to a movie she wanted to see and eating at a restaurant she really likes, which was perfect. Maybe I should just stop with the elaborate, extravagant plans, eh? LOL

On a completely separate note, I have to question the choice of venue for a Navy party. A bunch of sailors are on shore leave for the first time in who knows how long ... and the USO thanks them by throwing them a party on board a ship?

 

So I've been employed for a week, and I've already gotten two job offers. They're not great jobs... one of them is going back to being an executive assistant for a former boss... and one of them is a film production company start-up that can only afford to pay me half of my previous salary and no benefits until they can raise another round of financing. That could be as early as January, or could be never.

I'm tempted to go with the start-up. Some money is better than no money, the wife is working now so we're not dependent on my job for health benefits and paying the bills, and although I would be doing a little of everything (including administrative stuff), I wouldn't technically be an assistant as much as a partner in the company. So if it did take off, the opportunities and money would be commensurate with the growth of the company.

I've always been an optimist, and I really believe in this company's business plan. They know their audience, they know what makes a viable project, and one of the principals is a guy I've worked with before who is incredibly smart and very capable. I have every faith in his (and the company's) talent... but not so much in the economy. You just can't find millions of dollars laying around like you used to.

I guess I've got some thinking to do...

 

So today I passed the 1,666 word mark... which means I successfully completed one full day's worth of NaNo work, over the span of five days. At least it's a milestone, even if it's not the one I was hoping for at this point. I guess that means I'm technically only four days behind, and the month is still young, so it's hardly insurmountable. Now that my narrative is clicking into place and I'm starting to pick up speed, hopefully I can knock out a few extra words every day to make up the deficit and get out in front of this runaway train that is my NaNo novel.

On a different note, I spent a good portion of today cleaning the apartment. With both the wife and I working long hours, neither of us had as much time to clean as we would have liked. So I've dedicated one day this week to each area of the apartment that needs it. And today, I'm happy to report that - for the first time in weeks - we can see our dining room table. Now if we decide to have dinner sitting on the couch, it will be by choice rather than necessity!

 

Today I'm feeling better. I went into the office today (on my own time) to hand off my exit memo and give everyone the opportunity to ask questions, go over anything they had questions about, etc. Although things ended on good terms and they were very impressed and thankful that I gave them such a detailed set of instructions for helping with the transition... I had to fend off the company trying to get me to pay the disconnection fee on my company cell phone, the company trying to get me to pay $800 for my laptop which is only worth $300-$400, deal with the boss being over an hour late to the meeting she set to go over my exit memo, AND refuse the company's request for me to do additional work today while I was in the office (they wanted me to negotiate with a vendor and ship some equipment for them).

But the bottom line is that everything is behind me now. I can finally let everything go and know that no matter what happens now, I left the company with my integrity and my reputation intact. I can truly say that I gave them my best effort and all the tools I could think of to make a smooth transition... and if anything goes wrong for this company in the future (which is practically a given), it won't be because of any oversight, omission, or maliciousness on my part. It's all in their court now.

Most importantly, I feel like a weight has been lifted. I can close out this chapter of my life and move onto the next one. After three days of being distracted and unfocused, I'm back in the NaNoWriMo game. I only wrote 500 words tonight, but I'm starting to feel connected to the story again now that I've freed up the brain space to concentrate on it. My goal is to be caught up by Friday and ahead of schedule by the end of the weekend.

It's onto bigger and better things for me now... and while I'm waiting to resolve the job issue, I plan to write like the wind, get back into a regular exercise regimen, and generally give myself the time and space I need to make myself a priority again.

 

So the company won't let me port my cell phone number over to a personal cell phone now that I've left the company. At least not without paying them for the privilege. Sweet of them, don't you think?

Anyway, now I'm getting a new cell phone number and the prefix is 666-. Should I be worried that potential interviewers will think I'll boil their bottles of Evian or make them sell their souls to the devil (even more than they already have as Hollywood bigwigs)?

What do you think? Is a 666- prefix troublesome, kinda quirky, or no big deal at all?

 

So even though my last day of work was technically last Friday, today was the real test - the first weekday where I haven't had to go into the office. It's actually been a pretty productive day. I played video games for two hours this morning (just 'cause I could), spent an hour jogging on the beach, an hour looking for jobs, and two hours cleaning my apartment, which badly needed it. Did two loads of laundry and two loads of dishes... and I have to say that today felt a hell of a lot more productive than most days at work.

Tomorrow, I need to focus on NaNoWriMo, though. I only wrote about half my daily quota yesterday, and nothing so far today (although I think I can get to 2,000 words this evening) ... so the plan is to get caught up over the next couple of days and even try to get myself ahead. I've just gotta get my head out of the job thing and into my novel.

Going into the office tomorrow to hand them my exit memo and take one last meeting to hand things off. I'm not required to do so, but I'm a pushover and can't help but be helpful, even to people who screw me over.

Oh well ... karma, right?