Perk at Work

Cal’s Five Points

Jason — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 07:00:00 +0000

Cal: Five Point Perspective Q & A

Q: What are your vital statistics when it comes to:

Age? A: “Thirty-five. My mom thinks I should have a family and all that by now. My dad calls me lucky to still be single. I think they’re both right sometimes.”

Height? A: “Six-three.”

Weight? A: “I aim to stay under two hundred. When I get close, I start to push it at the gym. Sure, I could bulk up but I like the agility of a lower weight.”

Q: What kind of work do you do and do you like it?

A: “I”m a freelance copy writer. Most of my work involves press releases for corporations, boring stuff like that, but it pays good. I like writing for magazines. They don’t pay as much as the dry stuff for corporate outfits but it’s more fun. I’ll get with an editor and submit an idea for an article and, if he likes it, he’ll let me run with it. I like writing for guys’ magazines. That’s a blast because I can write about good night spots to hit or exercise regiments. All those articles are mostly freelance. That’s the stuff I do. I love it. Especially clubs. I’ll call up the owner and tell him I’m writing a piece on clubs and I want to check out his place to see if it’s worth mentioning is such-and-such magazine, and usually they give me the royal treatment. Yeah, I dig that.”

Q: What is your home life like?

A: “I have a condo, a nice place. You’ve gotta keep your digs up to snuff. You never know when you’ll be… a-hem… entertaining.”

Q: What are some of your likes and dislikes?

A: “I like women. That takes up a good amount of my time – they deserve our time and attention. If you’re communicating with more than two chicks at a time, you’ve gotta keep track. They know the score, they know I’m talking to other girls. I tell ‘em. But, at the same time, when I’m with one girl, I’m with her. It’s a matter of focus. They pick up on that. So, yeah, women are in the ‘likes’ column. I also like outdoors stuff: biking, running, skiing, you know, all that. As for dislikes, well… I don’t dwell too much on stuff I don’t like – I discard it almost immediately. There’s no hard and fast rule as to what I don’t like but, when it rears it’s ugly head, I lop it off.”

Q: What’s something embarrassing about yourself that you don’t openly share with people?

A: “Ghosts scare me. Ghosts and people with pointy teeth. I went out with this one chick with pointy teeth. That didn’t last long at all.”

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Finger Food

Jason — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 07:00:00 +0000

People’s fingers were much dirtier in the dark ages.

I know this because I watch movies set in that time and their hands are always disgustingly dirty.

It’s probably because they didn’t have proper wipees.

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Creative Work Conundrum

Jason — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:56:09 +0000

Why must someone be a “starving artist”? Sure, not all artists are starving, but most go through a “starving” (read: poor) season in their life. I’m starting to find out why.

Artists, by nature, create. Creation takes time. It’s not just a matter of cranking out a widget, there’s thought that’s involved, there’s skill that has to be acquired, there are mediums that need to be mastered, etc. There’s no pay for all the learning part. Perhaps an artist may have the benefit of help along the way, and that’s a good thing, but at some point, that dry season will hit.

Where the creative stuff happens.

Artists usually aren’t the best salesmen either. We either value our work too low or too high. And promotion? There’s where the time crunch comes in. If there’s no pay for the creation part, then money has to be generated by other means. Talk to any artist and you’ll hear stories of jobs taken on “to pay the bills.” If one works all day to pay the bills and comes home and creates, where is the time for promotion? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it can’t be done, I’m just making an observation.

Side jobs for non-artists are easy to come by. One can mow lawns after work and make a few extra bucks, maybe even start their own lawn mowing business. Here’s where things get goofy with artists. Most artists will go crazy if they cannot produce their art. Who cares if they can make extra money or become a millionaire with a lawn mowing business, it’s not what they want to do. Actually, if they do that, they die inside and can’t put the effort needed into their business. So they “starve.”

I’ve got lots of ideas on how to make extra money, and I’m working the ones I can, but I simply cannot work all the money-making ideas or no works would be created. But it is just for a season. Soon I’ll have some products to sell and I plan on hitting some conventions in the near future. Until then I’ll “starve.” But don’t cry for me, I’m still eating well. Where I live, Mexican food comes cheap and tasty.

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