Little early Christmas present
Tuesday
Dec. 23
7:19 a.m.
Gotta run out and have blood drawn for my upcoming doc’s appointment and for the approval on my new insulin pump. More mumbo jumbo and paperwork to be filled out for no good reason, and I’ll rant about the new pump after Christmas. Don’t feel like wasting timewith that, too busy a day ahead of me.
Gave myself a little early Xmas gift, in that I’ve begun cutting more bullshit out of my life. This has actually been going on for the past few months, as I move towards 2009 and all the new projects I have going. (In fact, another freelance for a client landed in my lap yesterday afternoon, so January is already looking up, while I have a video client working closely with me on a bigger shoot in the springtime that I am looking forward to doing. Liz, my editor, is going over footage now from the training video we shot for an online college, and we turn that job in in January too, so the first month of next year and the following few all look to be shaping up rather peachy.
More big things are coming too, and I’m not just talking about shopping my crime novel or stuff like that. Much bigger things, and in reviewing what is coming up, it’s made it a lot easier to trim out the hassles, headaches, troublemakers and the like who I needed to put on the sidelines. I’ve got a good team of people in my crew who are, for the first time in a long time, all interested in working towards the same goal, which kicks major ass. Having everybody on the same page instead of running around scatterbrained is a weapon. Having everybody focused and motivated is keeping ‘em hungry and keeping the distractions from derailing things. The new short film is shaping up great. Already begun working on the shot list, and even that task, which I often find tedious because of all the going back and forth, back and forth, is progressing well. Got my feedback from Frank Wales on the script and he’s very gung-ho about it, and he had an excellent suggestion that has simplified a bit of an issue I had with a single shot I wasn’t sure how to get around. In The Bunker, I could get away with a faux nude shot with my lead actress, but in this short, I hadn’t yet figured a way around a similar problem. Frank proposed a solution that should probably work just fine. (Thanks, buddy!) Been speaking on a regular basis with Eric, my DP and main camera op, whose first interest is always to take a look at what I want and see if it is doable, as opposed to cutting corners and giving up because something is difficult or challenging. This occurred regularly on the medical training video shoot, where we spent a lot longer on setting things up right, as opposed to just giving in and moving to something we would have to settle for. And settling, I’ve been doing far too much of the past year. Being able to cut that kind of crap out is like cutting the cord attaching the albatross ‘round my neck.
This week is all lay around and chill out and party for most folks, and I’m not gonna deny doing my share of that, too. But I’ve got high-gear pencilled in for at least four days between Xmas and New Year’s, because hitting 2009 hard means already being on the ground running before the bells toll, ringing in Jan. 1.
Should be a lot easier to run the 2009 race without some of the drag that turned 2008 into a molasses-impaired trudge. This year bogged down back in April and hasn’t really ramped up since in any way except for my personal productivity (the novel, my freelance gigs, securing my first commercial video client, being invited to contribute to a new fantasy anthology, finishing the outline on a second novel, getting the new Gardens of the Dead portfolio project rolling, etc.) Personally, I’ve been as productive as hell. But that hasn’t been the case where all of my projects are concerned. So it’ll be nice going back to steering my ship without the anchors dragging in the water in 2009.
Should’ve given this present to myself months ago… But it’s Christmas, right? Better late than never.
For everybody reading, for all the loyal blog visitors and newbies just stumbling onto the site(s), for all my friends and folks I consider dear, enjoy a happy and healthy holiday. Christmas, Hanukkah, whatever you celebrate, may you and yours have the best of the season and carry that over into 2009.
–Joe Monks
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Currently listening to: By The Waters, by Rotersand
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As you can see, the tees are up, available for sale (hopefully, all the click-thru links work for each design, but if not, drop me a note via the Sightunseenpictures.com web site contact form or the ChantingMonks.com contact form and I will personally process your order and hook you up.
