My first no-pay
When you're a freelance writer who does everything from blogging to website copy, you're bound to come across the occasional person that doesn't want to pay. I was lucky for many years and never had a problem, but then my first no-pay arrived.
He was a carpet salesman who had his own store on the coast and he was looking for some website copy. I found him through Craigslist, a common source for writing work, and after a few e-mails back and forth I took the job.
My first job with a client is always paid in advance. Once I know they pay and have the capability, I tend to simply bill them after the job. Everything started out fine and after my initial job wanted me to continue on doing a few others.
He was able to pay and I thought there wouldn't be a problem. The second job bounced, but after a few days of back and forth I ended up getting paid. He blamed it on a banking snafu. My third job, $60, was never paid.
I completed the work and send him the bill, but never received payment. He stopped responding to my e-mails and eventually his inbox got so full that my messages started getting returned. I was angry, but $60 wasn't that much money and the job itself took only a couple of hours. I knew there wasn't much I could do, so I let it slide.
I sent a final e-mail stating that I would not be working with him again and that I could have called his place of business, but instead choose to cut ties.
Quantic Dreams' Beyond Two Souls
I've been big fan of Quantic Dreams since the Playstation 2 days and Indigo Prophecy and their newest games seems like a revolution in storytelling. Beyond Two Souls tells the story of Jodie played by the amazing actress Ellen Page.
We follow Jodie through 15 years of her life as she learns more about this entity that is both a blessing a curse. You switch between both characters and the decisions that each makes impact the direction of the story.
Aiden is an invisible entity that has considerable power. It can possess people and control their body's to help Jodie out of certain situations and there is always more than one way for the entity to use its powers. He can possess someone in order for them to kill themselves, have them shoot other enemies, drive a car into a building, etc.
This game has been years in development, which is nothing new for Quantic Dreams. They have only release two other games in the last decade and push the consoles to their limits. For this company, creating the ultimate gaming experience is the true reward and not just money.
Given the videos I've seen and articles I read about this game, it guaranteed to revolutionize gameplay. In a world driven by first person shooters and how many bad guys you can fit on a screen, having the limits push on a story based game is refreshing. You can bet that when it comes out that I'll be one of the first ones out there to get it.
Bringing in the relatives
It's easy to have countless stories about your wife and kids on your blog because they make up the bulk of your family life, but there is an entire extended family to deal with as well. There are barbecues at your brothers' and Christmas at grandma's every year.
These are fruitful areas to pluck for your blog, but you have to be careful. You now not only dealing with your own immediate family, but others as well. Your brother may not like you recounting how his little hooligan decided to spread jelly on the walls or that your children mistook grandma's underwear drawer for a hat collection.
You always have to keep other people's opinions and emotions in mind when you're writing the blog. Will what I write be offensive or cause ill will if they read this? Odds are they may never read it or they could end up with it passed around the office. The best way to fix this is to simply ask them ahead of time.
If you see something blog worthy, then ask the people involved if you can put it on your website. If they say yes, then consider it the green light you were looking for. If not, then move one and pick something else. Your blog is important to you, but nothing is more important than family. A funny blog post isn't worth alienating a family member.
It can cause ripples that may take months or even years to smooth over. You can't get that time back, so make good use of it.
I nearly didn't do it
When I originally wrote the story, it wasn't for anything in particular. I admit that contests and anthology descriptions help direct my muse when it comes to my writing. I don't usually just come up with stories and go with them.
My most recent story just came to me and I wrote it up, thinking that I would just try and sell it to a magazine or something. It was while I was around my second or third draft of editing that I came across a contest that I had never entered before.
The deadlines was coming up on October 31 and it was a general horror contest with no special instruction. It had an entry fee and I had to cut my words down by a few hundred to make it fit the word count limit, but I did it and now I anxiously await the end of the year when the winners are announced. Will I win? I doubt it, but at least I tried.
The funny thing is I almost shrugged it off. The 31st was here and there was only a few hours left and I almost didn't do it. I was a little on the fearful side and I was disappointed that another anthology I was wanting to get into was going to pass without me having my story done in time.
I mustered up my courage and took the plunge. It wasn't easy, but as I spent that $20 entry fee and put my story on the roster of entries, I felt a sense of accomplishment. Who knows, I just might win. You never know.
The Netflix difference
There was a time when the only place to watch an uncut R-rated movie was at the movies. When cable reared its head, suddenly we could watch R-movies on television, but they were mostly rehashed moves from the theater.
The theater is nearly devoid of R-movies these days, but streaming sites like Netflix have a treasure trove of moves that you've likely never even heard of. I admit that when I first started with Netflix, I stuck pretty close to that main page. They have a bevy of choices that they think I'll like and they were generally right.
It wasn't until I began exploring the site that I realized exactly how many movies they had. Sure, it's not nearly as much since Starz dropped them, but it's still pretty good. There are tons of R-movies in the horror, science fiction, drama, action, etc. that I never heard of. Many of the are bad and I mean really bad, but there are definitely a few diamonds in the rough.
These are movies that you aren't likely going to see on either any of the paid cable channels or in the theater. Some of them aren't even rated because...well...that would have cost too much money. I love surfing the Netflix menus for those odd movies that I will most likely spending the whole night laughing at and then making sure to tell people about it on Facebook.
R-movies in the theater are a dying breed, but they are alive and well on streaming sites.
Who does this blog work for?
When I first started my blog, it wasn't in any sort of attempt to become the next big thing in mom blogging. I simply wanted something that was just mom. As a stay at home mom, I felt like I'd somehow lost touch with my individuality and became a breast-pumping, spill-mopping, short-order cook.
I thought blogging would be a great way to be myself and reconnect with those who knew the pre-mama me. And, at first, that's exactly what I did. I wrote about whatever came to mind, which usually had very little to do with my family, but rather centered around some strange idea or stupid human trick I'd pulled that week. My family and friends really dug it, but after a while, I started to get hungry for more exposure to other readers.
That need to get my blog out there eventually lead me down a different path entirely. Being myself was no longer the focus of my content, but rather the need to gain a following, find a niche and attract sponsors and businesses was the driving force behind what I chose to write.
After writing that way for a year, I was successfully working with businesses, but was completely disenchanted with blogging. It lost its flair. It wasn't mine anymore. It was all safe and vanilla so as not to turn anyone off. In short, it was “me” anymore.
It was then that I realized I needed to make a decision about what was important. Did I want to be the next big thing in mom blogging, or was I more interested in connecting with a readership that really gets me? Ultimately, I chose the latter and it's rekindled my romance with the blogging world.
Do you write for yourself or your audience?
Experience with bullying
When I was a small child, I didn't have to deal much with bullying in my school. It wasn't until high school that bullying really got bad and quite honestly it made my high school years miserable.
I was one of the nerdy kids who spent all his time in science classes and was an easy target for the other kids. I'm older and now I have my own children in school who have to deal with what is seemingly a far more mean group of children.
My oldest is in first grade and has been in school for four years if you include preschool. He's been around the same group of kids and developed his own group of friends. Recently, he told me that one of the students on the bus was picking on him.
This child was one of his friends, but I believe jealousy over a girl's affections brought out his mean streak. I debated what to do. Should I have my son tough it out? Should I get the school involved? Should I contact the parents?
After a few more days with no change, I decided to take the matter up with the boy's parents. It was apparent when I showed up at their door and told them what happened that they weren't surprised. I noticed the boy was bullied by his own older siblings and I can only imagine the punishment that he received.
My son hasn't had any problems since, but I can't help but feel sorry for the bully. It was obvious that his behavior was learned and that in his heart the boy was very good. I hope I was able to stop a bully before he ends up growing up into a bigger bully.
It's all about the Benjamin
Other than a few flashback, we haven't really seen much of Dean's Purgatory savior Benny, but the latest episode shines a light on this vampire's motives for getting back into the world.
Benny has an agenda and it's to avenge the human love that his maker and nest took from him. He was part of a group of vampire pirates that bled the rich and let the sea wash away their victims. That was until he met free spirited Amelia who was traveling the world.
Benny ends up running away with her and his maker tracks him down, kills him and vows to drain Amelia. His first business when he came back was to avenge her death by killing his maker. A nasty fight leaves him injured and he calls Dean in to help him out.
Dean ends up helping him, but Benny finds out that his maker didn't kill his love, but turned into a vampire and has now become second in command. She helps Benny have the tools necessary to kill his maker, but when its all said and done she's no longer the free spirit.
Dean ends up cutting her head off and Benny is left with a crisis of conscience and purpose. Benny isn't like most vampires and only drinks from donated blood and not from live humans. He's also not evil and Dean respects him. We find out that even though Benny considered Cas a liability, he still saved his life.
I really ended up liking Benny's character by the end of the episode and felt sorry for him.
The Craigslist Files #172: Taking it in stride
Craigslist, a place to buy crap, sell crap, find a job or a date (or an illicit encounter), a place to propagate your spam and a place to voice your discontent. And sometimes, when we’re lucky, it’s a place where people tell the world the worst of their day while making it all feel a bit lighter. Some people just have a talent for taking it in stride and sometimes they air the worst parts of their life in a humorous way. It can be cathartic for them and entertaining for the rest of us. Personally, I think we all owe them a hearty thank you for making our own lives look a little less grim.
For today’s installment of The Craigslist Files I collected up some posts that show exactly how people manage to make the best of things. They range from the serious to the completely ludicrous, but all are indicative of that strange human ability to roll with the punches. So without further ado, let the funny begin.
The first is a person who has suffered through what is one of the worst storms to hit the United States in recent history - Hurricane Sandy. The East Cost took quite a beating and a lot of people are dealing with some serious crap over there. Here’s one individual who found the time and the will to make light of their own situation.
Lost, window. Found, Big assed tree.
Yeah, it kinda sucks being a New Yorker at the moment. Hurricane Sandy's fucked up our commute for the next month. Coney Island beach has decided to extend itself all the fucking way to Surf and Ocean. The bodega's closed and I'm out of cigarettes. It's a horrorshow.
But I'm not here to talk about that. I'm here to ask you if any of you has lost a REALLY FUCKING HUGE TREE recently. Maybe it slipped out of your pocket while you were securing the plywood on your windows. Maybe you misplaced it while you were frantically updating your Twitter account about the encroaching tides and the lack of power in the East Village. Either way, I've found your tree, but I seem to have lost my window. So if you've seen a window anywhere and lost your tree, I propose a trade.
Your tree for my window. You see, my house is surrounded by trees. I have quite enough of them. I don't however, have enough windows anymore, because, well, one of the trees branches sort of appeared in place of my window and sent broken glass flying everywhere.
As you can probably tell, my cleanup is hectic enough without my having to put out lost and found signs for your displaced tree. So I'm just trying to cover all my bases.
The next is a guy that seems to have had a bit of a bad day, or at least bad as far as he can remember. Still, he manages to hold out hope that he may be able to reconnect with that someone special he met while in a drug-induced haze.
Dolores Park around noon - m4w
My day began pretty normal. Wake up, eat cereal, pull on jeans, call in sick to work and head to Dolo. Turns out my roommate (that lackluster ass-hat, dirty water, dick-lipped, anti-poon waste of sexual organs and air) decided to break up edibles in my cereal in hopes that I would eat it and then go to work super high.
It worked, I was high. Really high. So high I could taste colors and touch emotions. Up was happiness and left was pink. But, unlike the joyful acceptance that comes from willingly doing drugs, un-willingly doing them is much different. I didn't know how I got high, which lead me to think I was having a stroke or that I had died and this was some weird limbo. Ultimately I decided that I was still dreaming. This was a mistake.
Accepting the fact that I was lucid dreaming, I got half naked and pissed myself while running down Guerrero street (don't judge me). I arrived at the park with a half eaten Mexi-pop and 1 can of PBR (if you know how I got these things please let me know and if I robbed a store, I'm sorry and I will repay you.) I saw you almost immediately and tried to make my move. You were beautiful. Eyes more beautiful than a tinfoil wrapped Cancun super burrito and skin graffitied like a side street mural. I would go vegan, fair-trade, local, organic for you. But, things didn't work out in my favor. As I approached to drop my finest pick-up lines, I tripped. I must have hit my head on a rock because I woke up in the grass facedown and you were gone. If you remember seeing a clumsy boy knock himself out, I'd love to take you to dinner at Gracias Madre. Also, if you know who went through my pockets while I was unconscious I would really appreciate that too. I'm missing an iPod filled with Celine Dion's greatest hits.
In the big city, encountering crazies is a natural part of life (see my YouTube Nation post for more details on that particular subject). Some people prefer to bitch and complain or say that the city isn’t doing enough to keep the “decent” people protected from those who are a little odder. This guy takes it in stride and instead makes it into a joke.
Naked on the 6 train: - m4m
You were naked on the six train screaming racial slurs. I was holding a cell phone and filming every moment of your beautiful insanity. For a moment I was sure you locked eyes with me (albeit crazy eyes). You asked me to "get off this fucking train" with you at Hunts Point Avenue, before removing the final shred of your clothing for me and unveiling your beautiful body. I did, but the cops carted you away before I had a chance to say anything. Now I'M crazy thinking about you. I love how body confident you are and I wish I'd said something sooner. Get in touch, I could pay your bail and we could talk equality politics and get naked on any train you want. Maybe you could even turn me on to your acid dealer.
The final entry comes out of Craigslist in Cairo. It’s quite a bit older, nearly two years in fact, but I thought that it would be right at home here. Back then, Egypt was having more than a few problems with civil unrest (you do watch the news, right?). This individual was so fed up with all the bullshit that he had to deal with that he turned his cynicism into humor.
New Government
We are looking to replace the government of Egypt. Please submit your resume for this exciting opportunity to serve under our great leader Mubarak!
Required Skills:
- Restoring order
- Talent for hollow platitudes and self deception
- Willing to wear blinders at all times
- Ability to swiftly say the word "yes" to any and all requests
- Experience handing tear gas launchers and shotguns
Salary and compensation contingent on experience and brown nosing. All new hires are given free government issue blinders!
Interviewees are recommended to come prepared for the interview by wearing running shoes and fire resistant clothing� just in case.
So remember, when things are going bad, you can always laugh it up. And if you feel so inclined, you can put together some humorous ranting and post it on Craigslist. If you’re lucky (and funny enough) you’ll end up in the “best of” and other people will be able to enjoy your misery.
The Handbuilt Home
One of the benefits of being a DIYer when it comes to furniture projects around the home is the amount of money that can be saved. In tough times, this is even more important, but there is one major obstacle that stands in the way of many people: skill.
Those have no experience with woodwork or with the handling of power tools are often intimidated by the learning curve. That is where a book like The Handbuilt Home comes in handy. Not only does it have a selection of projects for a DIYer to attempt, it provides instructions for those who are entirely new to the hobby of woodworking.
Author Ana White starts the book out with a list of the many benefits that a DIYer can get from their furniture projects including customized furniture, and then quickly moves on to the tools that will be needed to get started. The expense of woodworking tools may discourage some would-be DIYers from taking up the hobby, but the tools White lists are all basic and readers should find that they either have them already or are able to afford them.
They include pliers, a tape measure, a hammer and a drill. She also provides the reader with basic safety instructions for handling their equipment. The book includes instructions on everything from basic shelf-building to guidelines for more advanced projects like Adirondack chairs and picnic tables.
The Handbuilt Home is perfect for those who have always wanted to go into woodworking but lack knowledge of the basics. It provides the kind of from-the-ground-up instruction that can turn a beginner into a skilled woodworker as long as they are willing to put in the effort.