I Gotta Work Tomorrow?

D'you know how hard it is going to be to go to work tomorrow?

I've been off now for nearly two full weeks and I have no desire whatsoever to continue my career shilling movies.

Not that I have anything against Blockbuster, just it's Blockbuster. Even though they're giving me a raise and I don't have to work that many hours, the store is way across town, I don't have a car full-time yet and have never been a fan of Public Transportation Systems and, well, yeah, I'm a slacker!

I would much rather sit at home, watch afternoon baseball games and type away on this here computer, providing you with witty goodness and self-righteous opinion like yesterday than say, receive next week's rental and once again listen to people ask me for that movie starring that guy that was in that film with that other guy...

Thing is, it's not that I don't like work in general; I do, when it is work that I see a purpose in and a point to doing. Shilling movies, while it provides a couple hours of entertainment for each paying customer, isn't really what you call rewarding.

It's like my friend Jeff Woodrow, who quit his well-paying job doing what he went to school for to start making t-shirts. Today, that t-shirt idea is a growing company that is gaining national and international attention (including an article in the latest issue of Passion penned by me) and giving Woody the opportunitity to do work that he enjoys. Isn't that what it's all about?

For me, it is and it will be, just I don't have the ability to walk away from a job right now. I've done it too many times before and need to ensure that the cash continues to flow into my bank account. I have responsibilities right now and I intend to honour them.

One of these days though, things will work out. A few more freelance jobs will fall into place, the money will start to get better and better and I can get on with doing what I want to do...

Grab a bag a chips and a can of Coke while I kick back and watch the ball game!

* * * * * * * * * *

Help change the world one t-shirt at a time... Visit Joy T-Shirt and order your own today!

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Worth The Wait

A week has passed since the rest of Canada could scoop up Passion Magazine which means it has finally landed on the shores of dear, old Newfoundland. As you would expect, hitting Chapters was the lone objective of the day.

Thirty minutes after I dragged my lazy hindquarters out of bed, I was standing in Chapters, sucking back a Venti Cinnamon Dolce Latte, leafing through the January / February 2008 Issue of Passion Magazine.

I gotta say - it was worth the wait.

My piece is one of the five mentioned on the cover, adjacent to Natasha Bedingfield's hair-covered forehead and the Sarah Cole Studios photo me inside looks pretty solid, considering I was sporting a pair of basketball shorts on the lower half and the black backdrop is actually a blanket on our futon affectionately known as "The Stinky"...

Piece looks great - like the layout of the "Ready for a Rebound" section and the pictures Chris & Hammer secured are perfect.

Even more surprising is that I already one piece for the next ish written and ready for review - a profile on my man Jeff Woodrow and his incredible business venture The Joy T-Shirt Project. Check it out now and read about it in two months time...

Coincidentally, I put in my notice at The Block on The Rock yesterday, as I'll be heading into London a little early to set up shop and get established and am looking to this latest article as a jump-off point for turning my writing from a hobby that makes a little change on the side to the full-time job that makes a little change on the side.

Irons are in the fire and you're all in the loop. When something happens, you'll know about it.

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The Joys & Pains of Being a Writer

This writing thing isn't as easy as it looks.

I know what you're thinking - if a half-wit like me can make a go of it, a set of trained chimps hammering on a bunch of typewriters should be able to churn out something mildly entertaining in no time. Sadly, no one has gotten that to work for them as of yet, so I still come off looking somewhat talented.

Anyway...

Yesterday was one of those good day / bad day dichotomies that occasionally pop up in my writing life where a whole truckload of things go really well, but one thing goes piss-poor and spoils it all. Ironically, it's that the one thing didn't go at all that put a damper on an otherwise outstanding afternoon.

First of all, a day without Blockbuster is automatically great. Nothing personal to those of you from The Block who happened to work yesterday, but I love my time away from there more than almost everything in life. I'm sure you all understand.

Second, I smashed out two posts yesterday - the soundtrack piece below and a little fun piece about an idiot on the San Diego Chargers who should have kept his mouth shut over at Epic Carnival. Any time I can manage to actually put together two well received pieces in one day is pretty sweet.

Adding to the sweetness, I did an interview with a guy I went you university with who is trying to change the world one t-shirt at a time.

His name is Jeff Woodrow and he runs his own t-shirt company. I'm not going to go into great detail - (1) so you'll buy the issue of Passion a couple months from now that features the interview and (2) because I want you all to go to his site and find out about it for yourself. As with most things here, you'll thank me for doing so...

Long story short, I hadn't talked to Woody in a long time and it was wicked to reconnect and talk to someone of like mind who has given up everything to chase his dreams and try to make a difference.

But of course, since everything was going so wonderfully smooth and I was in such a great mood, something had to come up and ruin it. As I said before, it's actually that it didn't come up that made me mad.

Yesterday marked a full month since I hurriedly put the finishing touches on my next article for Passion, a feature (2000 words!) on Celebrity Comebacks for the January/February edition. This is the piece that I had to put together and submit while we were home on vacation, you know, when I was supposed to be relaxing and enjoying my time off.

So, d'you know how many emails and pieces of correspondence I have gotten since being told I needed to have the piece in pre-Christmas as the next issue was going to be put together before New Years? I'm pretty sure you can make a good guess...

ZERO

As my man Smitty said to me back last month when I bitched to him about the suddenly sprung deadline, it is quite amazing how someone or a collection of someones needs a month or more to layout my words. I know it is a much harder task than I actually think it is, but here's the rub:

I haven't even got back a "Article looks great, here are the corrections / edits we need you to make" email as of yet. Either I wrote a perfect article (Not effing Likely) or we're still not at the editing stage which makes me wonder why the hell I needed to get that piece in so goddamn early in the first place?! I could have spent another week easy doing more in-depth research than I did and would have had an even better article. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's great and you're going to love it, but I know it could have been even better.

ARGH!

The one silver lining to all this is that the one email I have gotten from Passion Magazine in the last month was a request for a photo and professional bio for the next issue's Contributors section.

That's right - a picture of me and my mohawk all up in the next issue - plus a shout out to B&C and a mention of a little blog project too...

I'm done whining... thanks for listening.

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