cellini's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Counting Down the Minutes Gah! Such email today. My last day of my day job and its being taken up entirely with my new job. People asking to sign up for classes. My TV producer sent me a revised copy of the pitch for our show, wherein he and various agents had replaced every instance of the word 'kill' or 'hunt' with 'capture.' It seems a bit rude to me for us to jump straight from 'capturing' something to dressing and cooking it, as outlined in the pitch. That would be one hell of a way to go. The radio producer from NPR whom I have worked with many times also sent me an email this morning. She wants to meet with me today to talk about doing a series for some other radio show about my al1en hunting trip to FL. This could be interesting. I'll probably do it. I also told her about my wonderfully stupid idea to go crabbing in R1chmond tomorrow. She will probably try to talk me into doing a broadcast thing on that as well, although I'm going to discourage it because I don't know that I'm going to see even a single crab. I owe Steve a phone call and I might see if he wants to come along tomorrow. My agent wants a full copy of the treatment for the TV show and I'm realizing that all I have is an earlier draft with typos and shit. My guy in Brooklyn who I cook venison with sent me an email about doing an event there. Some random stranger is emailing me to complain that someone uttered a naughty word in a video I have on Youtube where we are demonstrating some interesting primitive butchering techniques. Seriously, dude. We're up to our elbows in blood, pulling the hide off of a dead deer, and you're going to watch 8 minutes of that to get to the part where someone says the 'S' word and then find that word offensive? And more weird fan mail keep coming in. As difficult as all of this is to keep up with, it is making me feel better about quitting to go full time. I woke up last night at about 3 am and couldn't get back to sleep until around 6 am. I was too consumed with trepidation about this being my last day of having formal employment. This is a scary fucking thing to do. I really feel like I'm stepping off of a cliff. But it really does help to sit down at my computer and see that I'm still in high demand for so many different things, many of which can result in actually getting paid. A few minutes ago I was handed my first stock purchase check. That helps me to feel better. We're ok through September, maybe into the middle of October. By then I need to have some means of scaring up another $1,000 if the other half of my first book advance hasn't arrived yet. The potential delay of that advance scares the shit out of me. If it hasn't come by mid-October then I'm going to have to clear out the sad remains of my SEP IRA to get by until it shows up. I feel like I should celebrate after work today. I want to go out and have a beer or something. I just don't know who I'd do that with. None of my friends have a regular downtown orbit any more. A minute ago I finally got a nasty piece of business out of the way. The 'Dear John' letter to the production company I'd been working with for months, which offered me a contract so shitty that I didn't even want to speak to them, let alone sign it. Weeks ago, I signed with a smaller outfit that offered a much more honest and equitable contract. I hate to burn bridges, but it had to be done. I was polite about it and understated, if anything. I feel kind of bad for the guy I had to send it to. He has a partner he works with, whom I think was the 'bad cop' in this offer. Doing this sort of thing is never fun. Oh look, a reply already. I don't want to read it so I won't. I didn't delete it but I archived it so I don't have to see it in my inbox. It is almost 2:30 pm. I have around 3 hours of employment remaining. Oh, this is so weird. I hope this isn't a huge disaster. This kind of change is really fucking strange for me. I have held this job for exactly 11 years. I have had steady, full time employment for 13 years. There were a few times in college when I couldn't find a job, but even then you could say that my job was going to school. I have been working full time since I was 15. Even when I was in high school I worked evening shifts and weekends while school was in session. When I was 14 I dug ditches and did menial labor part time. This whole concept of not having a job in the conventional sense is foreign and strange and scary. Now its 4:18 pm. Damn, time is passing quickly. I have about an hour left. My snorkling equipment arrived today. I might take it with me tomorrow when I go crabbing. It would be fun to try it out in one of the calmer side pools of the river. Almost all of my stuff at my desk is packed up. Some of these boxes are going to have to come home later this week. They are just too big to all fit in my car. All that is left to do on my computer is to clear and reset Firefox. Then I'm out. 4:18 p.m. - 2010-08-31 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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