Blogger Blather

Wow, 2009 is about 2/3’s gone.

At the beginning of the year, I made 3 New Year’s goals.  (See the original post here.)

Let’s see how I’m doing…

1. Be published by a magazine that I have not appeared in before.  (DONE)
   I wrote a feature article for Oz magazine and it’s on newsstands now. Yeah.  One goal down.
2. Create a piece of art (in any media) that I am proud to display.  (DONE)
   I don’t know how proud I am of it, but I did paint a canvas a couple of months ago and it is on display in my kitchen.  (Check it out here.)
3. I couldn’t come up with a third goal on my own, so I asked for input.  Hollis suggested that I strive to “Have sex with a professional soccer player.”  Instead I opted to complete one of my poor abandoned screenplays or manuscripts.  So far, this is NOT DONE.

I’m still having a little trouble focusing on writing.  One day I’ll be gung ho, and the next day I’m ho hum.  But, I continue to try…

So, how are you doing with our New Year’s goals or resolutions?  Do you even remember what they are?

Are you a writer with folders full of unfinished and/or unsold work?

A filmmaker with an unfunded project?  Boxes of footage that you never finished editing?

Or a creative freelancer who finds themselves squeezed by unemployed cube dwellers who are saturating your profession while they look for their next full time job?

Then welcome to my pity party!

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Filmed with a Sony HDR-UX10 High Definition Handycam Camcorder using normal room lighting.  Audio captured with a Sony ECMHW1 Bluetooth Wireless Microphone.  (Am I the only one who thinks the audio sucks?  This is a new mic — maybe I’m not using it correctly.) 

Last week I spent a few days in New York City.  I asked my friend, Tom, what he wanted as a souvenir and he replied, “A photo of the Naked Cowboy.”

Even though I haven’t been to NYC in ages, I knew exactly who he meant.  For 10 years, Robert Burck (aka the Naked Cowboy), has been 100% focused on building his personal brand — and lining his grippies with cold hard cash.

He can be found strolling Times Square in his underwear and strumming a guitar.  Why would anyone do this?  Maybe because tourists love to take photos with him and he nets $1,000 in tips A DAY.

On July 20, Burck announced his candidacy for Mayor of NYC.  His campaign is founded on the mantra that, “No one knows how to do more with less than yours truly, and that’s the kind of thinking I plan on sharing with my fellow New Yorkers when you elect me.”

I’m sure Burck isn’t running for Mayor because he wants the job — he’d be taking a serious pay cut — instead, it’s a genius publicity stunt.  When I Google Naked+Cowboy+Mayor I get over 1,000 news stories from the last week.

What I took away from NYC and the Naked Cowboy is that persistence DOES pay off.  In fact, for Burck it paid off big last year when he received a hefty settlement from M&Ms after they used a candy likeness of him in a commercial without his permission.  Can’t you see the resemblance?

Today I had a “cupcake epiphany” — NO MORE WORK FOR FREE!

I was super-busy last week — and almost all of it was filled with “freebies.”

When I had steady gigs I didn’t mind helping out a friend or an organization every now and then — but now all the free work is still there and all the paying jobs are gone.  I am officially done.

I call it a “cupcake epiphany” because my friend Hollis for like a year was making cupcakes and selling them at a couple of local coffee shops.  She would give the money to her daughter as allowance.  But a couple of weeks ago she made like 100 cupcakes and then she said she just looked at them and thought — this is ridiculous — and instead of icing them she tossed them all in a garbage bag and put them at the curb.

So, the cupcake epiphany is when you realize that the effort you are putting into something isn’t worth what you are getting out of it.

If you’ve been getting pro bono/freebie/gratis work out of me.  It stops now.

I think what brought on my cupcake epiphany was that out of the blue I’ve had two requests to screen my movie at public events.  It’s like I suddenly remembered I deserve better than the discards that have been coming my way.

My life and career were going along pretty well for several years (and I felt really proud of myself) and then all of a sudden it’s like someone pulled the emergency brake and all my forward movement stopped.

Gotta get that car in drive again!  No hitchhikers allowed!

My freelance gigs picked up for a while, but things have gotten slow again.  As much as I used to complain (because I do love a good gripe), I miss the steady corporate work that I had for years and years.  The money was great, it wasn’t too stressful, and it was reliable.  Lately, it seems like every month I’m scrambling around to cobble together an income.

Got any leads on freelance or contract gigs in Atlanta?  If so, drop me a note.  (You’ll be rewarded with a dose of good cosmic karma.)

My area of specialty is copywriting, web content management and HTML emails.  Back in the day, this was all in demand, but now my writing portfolio is up against hundreds of former AJC and Creative Loafing employees who were recently axed in cutbacks.  I’m trying to think positive, they say the economy is improving.  Right?

Okay, gotta go.  My Chrysler needs an oil change (and a bail out).

My Dad, Louis Patrick Lamousin, Sr. during World War II.  He was a Marine – Semper Fi.  Happy Memorial Day, all.

I don’t know what’s going on, but I have been in the best mood for the last week.

Maybe it has something to do with my current daily routine.

This is how my day breaks down: I get up around 8am and take my time getting dressed.  Head to the coffee shop for a couple of hours of internet/facebook/phonecalls/and general malingering.  Then lunch with a friend.  Then a nap or reading or both.  Then errands.  Then dinner with a friend.  Then watch a video and enjoy a glass(es) of wine and bed.

All is well with the world right now.  Just wish I could figure out how to get paid for this.

Me deliriously happy (or possibly drunk).

No need to make resolutions since I don’t have any bad habits (ha!), instead I decided to set 3 creative goals for myself in 2009.

1. Be published by a magazine that I have not appeared in before.
2. Create a piece of art (in any media) that I am proud to display.
3. Help me out here — I feel like I should have a third goal — does anyone have a suggestion?

This Friday, Jan. 30, my contract is ending with the interactive agency I’ve doing doing in-house work for.  I wanted to leave behind a fun resume so they can contact me for other projects, so I’m working on a “word cloud” design.  It’s still in the early development stage, but check it out below — kind of cool, huh?

The point is to highlight key words that encapsulate skills.  Then if someone wants to learn more they can visit my website for additional info.  When it’s done it will be more focused, plus I need to make sure the contact info pops.  I know it looks jumbled right now, but I’m working on it…

BTW, I’m using http://www.wordle.net/ to generate ideas, then plan to make a vector version on my own.

I’m sitting here in Atlanta working a contract gig for an interactive agency.  When I first signed-on it was for three months — from mid-October to mid-January.  Then, when mid-January came around, we extended the contract for another month — till mid-February.  But today the account I was working on went belly-up, so it looks like I’ll be leaving shortly.

I’ve been having to come into an office every day and punch a proverbial clock (which is not my usual modus operandi), so part of me is relieved to be free again.   But part of me is apprehensive since I don’t know what’s next.

Kittyboy Creations headquarters, circa 1997 (per the timestamp on the photo file).  This is my office (i.e. desk and computer) that was located out of the second bedroom of my condo on Roswell Road.  Back in the day I was uber-confident and landed some amazing gigs.  I gotta get my groove back!

In addition to having to go in-house and work all week, I had to work all day yesterday and all day today on two other freelance projects. From a monetary perspective I’m not complaining because I need the cash, but I am tired and not very happy.

So today while I’m working I have CNN on and they are talking about the fact that now is not the time to make any type of major life change. Don’t change jobs, don’t change your living arrangements, don’t even change relationships. I swear they said this. That everyone should “be nice to their boss” because times are tough and we all need to just try to keep everything even keel in our lives.

On one hand I’m thinking well I should feel fortunate that I’ve had this sudden dump of work on me — because I get paid by the hour/project and I have a lot of hours/projects ahead of me in the next few months. But on the other hand I just leased a studio in Atlanta and I’m taking on more financial responsibility because of the added rent and expenses — including travel to go back and forth from Baton Rouge to Atlanta. So am I following this advice or not? Is this even good advice?

Oh, and speaking of traveling I made my plane reservation to go to Baton Rouge for Thanksgiving. The ticket went up over $150 while I waited for my client to “approve” my travel dates. Again, gotta just suck it up for 3 months. Not used to someone telling me what to do 8+ hours a day, but at the end of this it will be worth it (I hope).

I got no new pics to share. Too tired and lazy to upload anything. Instead I’ll just share a funny photo someone sent me. Don’t drink too much this Halloween or this might happen:

I drove 500+ miles yesterday and arrived in Atlanta around 6:30pm. It took me almost 2 hours to unload my car and get settled in at the hotel. My studio won’t be ready until November 1, so I gotta kick it at the Holiday Inn for a couple of weeks.

Today was okay at my new gig… I was pretty optimistic about the assignment in the morning, but a little late day stress (not my fault, I swear!) left me cautious about the assignment. Hope this doesn’t blow up before I get a chance to actually do some work.

No pics. Too tired to bust out the digital camera. Actually, I’ll swipe a logo from the Holiday Inn website so it’s not such a sterile post. Here…

The last few days have been unbelievable stressful. First, my beautiful blubber-butt tabby cat, Fatso, got very ill. On Tuesday afternoon he had a heart-attack at the vet’s office and died. It was really horrible. I was totally unprepared and there’s definitely a void at my house without him.

Mixed in with all that sadness I was having interviews for a 3-month contract job in Atlanta. Somehow I managed to hold it together and not break into heart-wrenching sobs during my 3 different phone interviews. I was offered the job yesterday afternoon and I have to start Tuesday morning. My studio in Inman Park isn’t going to be ready until November 1, so I’ll once again be staying at the lovely Holiday Inn Express in Buckhead until I can move in my own place.

Orange Cat and Sweet Stuff are staying in Baton Rouge and Sharon (and I hope Tom — I need to call him) will be cat sitting.

So, Baton Rouge friends I will be around for Thanksgiving and Christmas, but other than that I won’t be in BR for an extended period until after mid-January. And Atlanta friends I guess I will see you next week.

I’ve been super-busy this week, but not much blog-worthy to relay.

I have four different projects going on right now so I’m just trying to juggle it all and hit my deadlines.

One interesting thing is that the screenplay treatments I’m co-writing with an author are still happening. I should have more news to share on that in a few days.

I got the check from my insurance company today for my hurricane/hail damage. So, that’s good. But, I’ll probably hold off on getting the roof replaced until next year. It’s not leaking (yet) so it’s not a priority. But, getting a new desktop computer, paying rent on my new studio in Atlanta, going to the dentist, and a million other expenses are priorities so that’s what I’m going to use the insurance money for. Hopefully my billings will continue to be strong and I’ll be able to replace the roof in the spring.

Lots going on, so let’s just jump in shall we…

HURRICANE DAMAGE AND MY INSURANCE

I filed a home insurance claim because my roof is toast after Hurricane Gustav — or so I thought. The adjuster from Safeco came out yesterday and said the roof was shot, but the damage was caused by hail. (Remember this post?) So, I have to get a new roof. This roof was just put on in 2002, so it stinks that I have to shell out $1000 (my deductible) for this. Money may be tight this Christmas, so I hope everyone likes bottle cap magnets and beaded bookmarks

STUDIO SPACE IN ATLANTA

I made a quick trip to Atlanta last weekend and while I was there I leased studio space in Inman Park. It’s a little apartment behind a luxe home and it’s right on the park. Literally, it’s the first lot next to the park. How cool is that? Because of holidays and family birthdays, I’ll be living in both Atlanta and Baton Rouge during November, December and January. Then I’ll spend February till May in Atlanta so I can (hopefully) take on a multi-month work contract. After that, we’ll see…

NEW CLIENTS

Food is following me around these days. For several months I’ve been working as a project manager for an online cookbook and today I was hired to build a site for a television cooking show.

HOORAY FOR HOLLYWOOD

I’ve been asked to collaborate on some screenplay treatments for two major Hollywood production companies. Seriously. The person who approached me has the connections and has already had pitch sessions. They’ve been instructed to now submit treatments and wanted to know if I was interested in collaborating. I was like, “Shit yeah!” I couldn’t get any play in Hollywood on my own, so I have no problem with being second banana if the top banana has connections.

PC IS REALLY DEAD

I tried to reboot my desktop computer again today. It’s even more dead than before. Now I can’t even get past the first screen. With the roof, the deposit on the studio, plus the extra costs of running households in two cities, I just can’t afford to replace it right now. So, I’m a laptop girl for the next few months. This thing is giving me carpal tunnel…

My friend Hollis Gillespie was in town over the weekend and I think she left behind some good karma because I had 3 freelance prospects contact me today. It was very fun to have her visit Baton Rouge. Whenever I get around Hollis’ creativity and unconventional attitude it motivates me.

The weekend broke down as follows:

FRIDAY

- Crappy dinner at Mi Padres
- After crappy dinner coffee at Books a Million – my Hurricane Gustav refuge

SATURDAY

- Lunch at Drusilla Seafood followed by a book signing for Hollis
- Shopping at Perkins Rowe
- Matinee of the movie Ghost Town
- Dinner at Kona Grill

SUNDAY

- Visit to Irene
- Ogled hurricane damage

Here’s a photo of Hollis loaded down with all kinds of swag from the luncheon. It was sponsored by Heart of Louisiana, a writers’ group I belong to.