the Diva Platform

Whew!  I’m done with a really stressful writing assignment!  Done done.  Not “turned in, but there might be rewrites.” Done.

I’ve started writing for HowStuffWorks.com, which an old colleague of mine turned me onto.  I’m terribly happy to have the gig–not only is it a good move career-wise, the work is also pretty interesting and right up my alley.  Random stuff to learn?  Figuring out how stuff works?  Sign me up!

So far I’ve written three articles–I’m not sure if any of them have actually published yet though (you’ll hear about it when they do).  The most recent was on a specific type of skin lotion called a mattifying lotion.  Basically, these are lotions that help with oil control and give your skin a matte finish.

One would think writing about cosmetics might be fun, but it’s really about chemistry.  Let me tell you, I certainly struggled with this, seeing as how it’s been ages since my high school chemistry class, and my memories of chemistry class involve spending a lot of time at the teacher’s desk trying to get him to explain the material to me.

Back when I was a researcher, if I had to search a topic I knew nothing about, I’d figure out the keywords and eventually find what would help answer the question.  Now, I actually have to read said material and comprehend it–or at least comprehend it enough to write about it.  I’m on the flip side, and sometimes it’s a bear.

For this assignment, it meant stressing out over not finding much information about mattifiers.  I’d find that they were products, but I’d rarely find out about their chemical makeup.  This was incredibly frustrating and stressful, and all I can say is thank goodness for some Dow Corning white paper I found that went through some skin care chemistry.  After reading it about ten times, I understood a smidgen more and was able to locate other information to help me pound out this article.  A field trip to Ulta also saved my ass.  This great guy who worked at the Benefit counter took me all around the skin care section and showed me different mattifying lotions–which included putting some oil on my hand, then adding a bit of mattifier and seeing how the lotion soaked up the oil.  So cool!

Still, the article took me way more time than I’d planned on, and now that I’m finished with the article, my brain has already reclaimed that space where I put all the chemistry information I learned.  I could tell the second I read the e-mail from my editor saying the article passed muster.  She went on to say something about viscosity and methyls and polymers and some other big chemical-y words, and at that point my brain barely registered them as being in English.

Sigh.  Sometimes it’s tough to admit I just don’t get something, and I don’t think I’ll get much when it comes to chemistry.  Still, I’m relieved to know that I’m able to understand enough about it to be able to communicate it to someone.  For that skill alone, I’m glad to have struggled through this assignment.

Well, the vow to not sign up with Netflix until they stop using pop-up ads has been broken.  Not because we wanted to, really, but more because of work.

I got a sweet gig writing a movie review of “The Baader-Meinhof Complex,” a German movie that was nominated for both the Golden Globe and the Oscar that opens in Chicago today, for a website called Films42.com.  The reviews on this site usually reference a few other movies, so I also had to watch “The Edukators” and “What to Do in Case of Fire.”  The woman who hired me said I could get both of those on Netflix.  I decided not to mention that we didn’t have a Netflix account and attempted to get the movies through our mom & pop rental store.  That worked for “The Edukators,” but the video store no longer had the other movie–they’d sold their copy.

Uh oh.

So on to Netflix I went.  I started my two-week free trial….only to discover that Netflix also didn’t have “What to Do in Case of Fire.”  It was in their database, but it wasn’t available.  Not available?  What does that mean?

I asked some friends, and one mentioned that Blockbuster’s Netflixesque service had it, but I’m not a big fan of Blockbuster, so I waited overnight.  In that time, another friend suggested I go to Facets, a Chicago-based indie/foreign film center that also has an online video rental service.

So I sign up for their two-week free trial.  But they have the movie!  The movie that Netflix says is unavailable!  What’s up with that?!

Needless to say, we’re now awash in movies, what with two trials going on at once.  Netflix sets you up in whatever plan you want, so I’ve chosen the 1-movie-at-a-time-for-$4.99 program.  If we watched even two movies a month, it’d be cheaper than mom & pop.  (sorry, mom & pop)  Facets, on the other hand, puts you into a 3-movies-at-a-time program, which is expensive–but the kicker is that at the end of the two weeks, they automatically bump you up to 4-movies-at-a-time, which is $23.99 a month.  Whoa!

I’ve already adjusted the Facets membership to go down to 1-movie-at-a-time for $8.99, which is still pricey, but Facets is a non-profit, and they do have a wide selection of unusual movies that I can’t get elsewhere.  It’s a mom & pop store in a different sense, so I think I’ll stick with them for a couple of months.

It’s not like I’m quitting Netflix though.  I think they do a good job (at least my trial’s been decent), and I like the idea of helping both companies.  They’ll probably complement one another.  Plus, we’ll get through our list of movies we want to watch (which is long).

This means that we have some pretty full movie queues (Facets recommends you put 20 movies in your queue–and I’m fairly sure I saw that when your queue gets under 20, they won’t send you another movie).  We’ve made great use of our free trials–saw 3 disks of “Mad Men” season 2, “What to Do in Case of Fire,” “All the President’s Men,” “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” “The Beales of Grey Gardens,” “My Dinner with Andre,” and more.  I feel we really have gotten our money’s worth, and hopefully we’ll continue to do so.

Well, folks, summer is officially over.  With the lousy weather we had (at least here in Chicago), it hardly felt like summer most days–though I’m not complaining about that when we open our electric bill.  We haven’t had to turn on the air conditioning much lately, which I think is nice.  I like it when the weather is warm enough to enjoy sitting around in shorts, yet cool enough not to have to crank on the A/C and fend off the heat.

Joe Queenan wrote a great essay for the Wall Street Journal this past weekend about what an unmemorable summer it’s been.  Nothing’s been new or fresh.  We’ve been stuck with gladiator sandals.  Again.  Most of the movies out are sequels or are based on books.  Even TV’s been lousy (we just finished season 2 of “Mad Men,” only to say, “What the heck just happened?!”).  We’ve been talking about health care a lot….but it feels like nobody’s really talking about anything.  They’re just shouting based on fears.  I don’t even want to talk about health care reform because I don’t really know the options on the table–if there are any.

Really though, summer’s been ineffective.  Granted, summer is a time to relax, kick back, and enjoy, but it doesn’t feel like we’ve been able to do much of that at all.  Yes, we relax, but then we stress out about finding new gigs and earning some money.  Nothing’s been super special.  Days just seemed to flow into each other, leaving you to suddenly say, “How is it possible that it’s September already?”

I’m hoping that the feeling of fall will help me buckle down just a little bit more.  To be more industrious and focused and really kick it into a higher gear and accomplish more.  Whether that be meeting more people who like my writing or sending out more stories or queries, or even polishing off our liquor cabinets and reading more of our books.  I want the doldrums to be over, and it looks like in order for that to happen, I’m going to have to kick off the sandals and pull up my boot straps.

A couple of weeks ago, one of the Derby refs was kind enough to give me a ride home (it’s two buses and about an hour to get to the current practice space.  Yes, I have plenty to do on the bus, but when I get a ride, it shaves off a good half-hour of time…plus, I get to know someone a little bit better and chip away at that “new kid in school” feeling).  We were chit-chatting about my writing and the fact that some of my work is in the food and alcohol sector.

The ref asked what kind of alcohol, and I replied beer and booze.

No wine?

No.  I don’t do wine because I don’t really know a ton about it.  Every once in a while I go to a tasting or a place where I learn a little more, but I really don’t drink enough wine to really get to know the varietals.  And I really don’t mind that.  The Boy’s not all that into wine, so I’m not trying to drink a whole bottle by myself before it goes bad (either it goes bad, or I go bad.  Neither is a pretty sight).  I also don’t need to try to understand what happened with different grape crops around the world every year.  I don’t have to remember every tiny winery.  I just need to know some decent, reliable wines I can drink when the need arises.

The ref agreed and said that wine descriptions get really far out–if I ever had to talk about wine, I should just say it tastes like olives.  That was an odd enough flavor that would intrigue people, and there’s nothing like the power of suggestion to make people think they’re tasting a certain flavor.

Ironically, a couple of days later in the Tribune’s Good Eating section, wine critic Bill Daley described a Riesling as such–and I kid you not, this is an actual quote:

2007 Schmitt Sohne [sic] Spatlese

From Germany’s Mosel region, a mouth-coating wine lively with contrasts:  spicy and sweet, grapefruit and rubber.  Slightly oily aroma.  Serve with roast pork and apples, German sausages, Asian dishes.  3 corkscrews (out of four), $13

Um, rubber?  Slightly oily aroma?  Two thoughts instantly spring to mind:  Who’s tasted enough rubber to be able to describe wine with that taste?  Who’s running out to buy a bottle with that kind of description?

Is it just me?  I mean, I like the Little German a lot, but this review would not entice me buy it.  If I saw the review on the shelf next to the bottle, Schmitt Soehne had better hope that draw of “funky blue bottle” wins out over “pass on the rubbery taste.”

And if I did buy this wine, I’d take it over to the local playground, where I’m assuming I’d find Bill Daley chomping at that recycled-shoe astroturf, in search of the next great adjective to use for describing wine.

Even though I have a nice list of stuff to blog about, this one has to be just a quick hello because I’m on deadline for a new client.  I know–new client!!

This time I’m working for a publishing services company, and my job is to write company profiles that range from 1-4 pages.  That sounds easy enough, but the source material (interviews, brochures) is mostly in German.  I have a bachelor’s in German, and I did do a little stint with the Firm’s Munich office, so my German is OK.  The profile has to be in English, so this gig plays nicely to my strengths.  Still, I’m still getting used to the format I have to write in (the Germans are precise–things have to be in an exact format), and my brain is getting used to thinking in German again…especially business German (I’m currently wrapping up a profile on a paper recycler/converter, which means there’s also industry-specific vocab to learn).  Getting the hang of this job is going to take me a little while, and like any new job, it’s always a lot of effort at the beginning to make sure you’re doing it right.

Even though it’s fun work, it’s taking up a lot of time, so it may be a couple of days before I’m back to normal.

Whoa, wait a second…..next week is June?  Already?  What the heck happened here?

Suddenly I’m in panic mode…feeling behind in a lot of things, so-so on other things, but mostly I’m in this great flux of feeling like I didn’t quite pick the right fork in the road and I’m now on a journey that I didn’t quite imagine this year being.

True, nobody can really plan out how a year is going to go (and this year’s been a doozy), but I don’t think that other circumstances should totally be responsible for me feeling like I’m off-track with my career.  That’s mostly the reason I feel this way–oh, don’t get me wrong, I’m doing some interesting stuff and I am making progress, but I’m not sure I’m making any real progress in the type of writing that I quit a good job (with benefits) for.  That’s what’s really getting me.

Last year I’d been pretty good at following some of the advice from Getting Your Shit Together, but I can’t remember the last time I’ve looked at my goals and objectives and really made progress in that area.  I’ve felt more of an “Oooooh!  Shiny!” feel toward writing, which has mostly helped me acquire piles of paper I don’t want hanging out on my desk and made me feel like I’m going nowhere fast.

So I’m in a bit of a mess.  Again.  It’s just about June, and I have to, HAVE to reel it back in and try again.  Not fun, but I have to do it.

What about you?  Were there things you thought you’d do by now?  How’s the calendar creeping up on you?

After spending five days going to two conventions, I’m a bit tuckered out.  Sometimes I wonder how sales reps go from show to show, managing their booth, but then they have the people coming to them, not the other way around.  Still, they’re seeing hundreds or thousands of people every day, which still has to be a little bit difficult.

So, some quick observations from the All Candy Expo—I’m still in a bit of a sugar shock, so wittiness is not my forte right now:

• Total weight gained over the two shows:  2.6 lbs.  Not as much as I’d feared, which was good, considering that after day 2, I’d gained 3.2 lbs.  I ended up doing a little more walking and a little less noshing.  Doesn’t hurt that when I eat too much candy, I don’t feel so good.
• I don’t quite understand why candy-flavored sprays would be a hit with the kids, but apparently they are.
• When booths are manned by people who don’t really know the product, it’s frustrating.  I’d run into, “I don’t know, I just work here.  You’ll have to ask him (or her….or no one, for that matter),” with a big pointing gesture.  Most of the time, what I wanted to ask was trivial, so I didn’t bother to wait….I also probably won’t consider writing up these products.
• I wish the American palate wasn’t so sugar-based.  I asked the good folks at Mars why Starburst here has gelatin and doesn’t have the lovely black currant flavor you can find in Ireland.  The Starburst lady told me they did different formulas based on focus groups and local tastes.  My (and the Boy’s) taste just happens to be Irish.  Apparently the Russians like weird things.  Makes me want to find Russian Starburst now.  But seriously, there seem to be a lot of products with extra sugar in them, and I wish we’d get off that kick.  Train our palates back to something normal (and not so diabetes-inducing….seriously, if you eat a lot of stuff with a lot of hidden sugar, you’re going to be in trouble someday).
• The shows were a coming out party for a lot of new companies with new products.  I kept talking to people who hadn’t been around that long and were so hopeful about their company and the products they had.  I loved listening to their stories–some of these products are really good, and the people behind them have a ton of experience, so I hope they’re successful.

It’s been a fun, but massively tiring week.  I don’t know what’s going on in the news, I’m behind on most of the basic housework/errands.  My desk is a mess.  I’m also figuring out a little more what type of writer I am or am not and what type of writer I want to be.  Sadly, while fulfilling a couple of dreams to go to these shows, I think I took a few steps away from where I’d like to be.  Time to focus in again and get back on track.

A couple of days ago I mentioned that I had a new freelance writing client, and I’m pleased to announce that I’m doing writing and editing work for Schools & Agents, an international website dedicated to language schools and agents around the world.

This website recently celebrated its first anniversary, and in that time they’ve managed to carve out a name for themselves and have really become a valuable resource for this industry.  I’ll be assisting the owners in taking their product to another level:  The site’s in English, but that’s not the owners’ native language.  I’ll help edit and refine their words to make a smoother sounding product, and I’ll also be contributing summaries of news articles, as well as some original features from time to time.

I found the job through an online posting, and early on in the application process, I discovered that the site’s based in Malta.  On top of that, one of the team who I’ve been in contact with the most has recently left Malta to return to his homeland of Sweden.  Although I’m really excited about the work, the topic, and the opportunities that may happen within this position, I’m also pumped about working with some international clients.

My old research job was at an international firm, and I quickly got used to working with people around the world.  4:30?  The folks in Sydney might be in the office–I’ll give them a buzz about this question.  You need something sent from London?  Let me send them an e-mail and we’ll have it in a couple of days.  It was really awesome to have a network of people that you could rely on to help you when you needed some international information that you just couldn’t get on your own.  I do miss having that global connection, and I’m happy to be rebuilding that in my new career.

If you have a chance, check out the site, especially if you’re interested in finding a language school, travelling somewhere for a language immersion program, or looking for a job in this field.

Yes, I’ve been navel gazing about my work a bit lately, and today’s entry won’t be much different (sorry, but that’s not even an April Fool’s gag).  I’ve got a new gig, which I’ll talk more about later this week.  On the flip side, I’m feeling like I’m not making much headway in the type of writing I’d like to be doing more of (personal essays, fiction).  The hard thing to remember with this writing is that I usually need to invest the time up front in creating the piece.  Right now I keep trying to either sell things first or apply for jobs that may take me further away from my goals than I intend them to.  I quickly get frustrated by not bringing in money regularly. Even though I do feel like I accomplish something when I plug away at some fiction or an essay, going for several days like that instead of doing work that I can invoice right away makes me feel really inept.

Last weekend I did a bit of thinking because I have to really start making some progress in my career.  In order to do what I want to do, I think I’ll have to stop looking for new work.  I’ll stick with the clients I have, but I’ll start putting more effort on essays/fiction in my day-to-day work.  I just have to start ignoring the little voice that tells me to apply for every random freelance job that sounds interesting.  And that’s going to be hard to do, especially when I’m not really making much money.  I think my current clientele will help me keep my part of the Boy’s and my money bargain, and I can take my non-client time and really finish up some pieces I’ve started.  I’m hoping that if I focus, I’ll get to where I want to be–and not only do I mean in a publishing sense, but also in a money-making sense because I’d like to stop having conversations like these:

The Boy:  I have to get back to whatever it is I do.  What is it I do again?

Me:  You make money so I don’t have to.

After the giggling fit stops…

The Boy:  I’d like to see that on the Diva Platform!

So there it is.  I admit I’m not bringing in much dough, nor do I feel really successful, but I’m laying down some tracks in order to get where I need to go.  The construction is just a long time in the making.

Last week was another rough week for me.  The writing is going well, but I’m frustrated in my ability–or lack thereof–in getting new assignments or selling new pieces.  I sometimes feel like there’s a glitch in my system (that’s a “Matrix” reference, if you’re curious) which is causing me just to falter a bit.  I have the tools and a good product; I just can’t get to where I need and want to be.  And I think this is partially my own doing, but for the life of me, I can’t quite figure out why.

The Boy and I have done a bit of talking lately about where we want to go and what we want to have for our lives.  That’s helped me focus a little bit more and go for things a bit.  Perhaps having some set goals like that are helping me to focus–a “we aren’t going to get this unless I bust a gut a little bit more”attitude.

I hope that helps because I’d like to get rid of the glitch.  I don’t want to dwell on it and have it become my “thing.”  Because revelling in a stupid glitch isn’t really a good idea.  I’d like to get over it and move on to better places.