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For the longest time I said to myself I'd update my journal. But I never do. So now I will! Rawr!

Got some catching up to do.

Last weekend I went to New York to shoot a documentary about getting the word out about Universal Healthcare. Universal Healthcare or Healthcare for Everyone, is kind of like the healthcare systems they have in Canada and the UK, where healthcare is taxed and when you go to a hospital or doctor's appointment anywhere, it's free.

Also no more expensive insurance and such. HR 676 (or 767.. I can never remember which) is the bill everyone is trying to support right now, but since it obviously puts 99.9% of insurance companies, the big rich people of the US, out of business, you can see why you've never heard about the bill.

I left Friday morning and came back Tuesday evening. All days except Tuesday I interviewed various supporters, including congressmen. I got B-roll(that is basically.. scenic images you show while people are talking. For instance, if someone's talking about a red bird, you show a red bird. The footage of the red bird is B-Roll) of the Capitol and legislative building in Kingston, a radio station (WBKNY I think?), and a public broadcast TV Station. I tried to get a Veteran's hospital inside, but they never called me back from the press office(you need permission for these things) so I did the whole guerrilla shooting outside of it instead. I also got two other hospitals on the outside.

I attribute some of the failure for B-Roll to my grandfather, who had all the contacts I was interviewing. He simply didn't understand the concept that you need permission ahead of time. And when I say ahead of time, I mean MORE THAN ONE DAY AHEAD OF TIME. AUGH. He did it when scheduling interviews, as well.

I'm sure part of the blame falls on me for not being gutsy enough to go "Hey gramps, give me the numbers for everyone and I'LL CALL THEM UP" which is what I should've done, I think, but I figured I'd be more likely to get interviews if he called them, since they're basically his personal friends.

Anyway everything was shot in 24p on a Panasonic DVX100, with external Azden AGP-1X shotgun and a Lowell light kit. Needles to say, it looked awesome.
Much better than my 1 chip shitforacam could ever do. Lighting kits help, of course.

So I came back and since I had a field trip wednesday morning, I slept over at a friend who was in my english class's place, since he had a car. Well we got to drinking, and everyone was too hung over the next day to go to the Dali Museum.

Meh. I don't like that kind of stupid-a** art anyway.

Later that week I bought a new domain name and hosting package(stupid) after I got paid by my grandparents as well as 7-11. Perhaps this would've been a smart movie if I had done it earlier, but now it just seems like a waste of money for a matter of convience.

http://khat.us KAY HAT. Not cat. K? K.

Would also like to segway in my little sponsor, 1and1 which has THE BEST domain/hosting packages at THE LOWEST prices. But only if all you want is storage and stuff. You don't get any good deals on MySQL databases or PHP capability or anything like that.

But storage and good all HTML/CSS? Damn awesome.

So that's my little virtual business card.

I also got considered for editing a wedding and some porn. And now I've been contacted to do someone's webpage, as well.

Doesn't change the fact I still need to write one of my PSA scripts, as part of the deal was to "write both and get paid for both, write one get paid for none."

But I still can't figure out how you're supposed to write anything interesting about crosswalk safety and crossguard respect that stays within the limits of what the PBS wants/will approve of. Which just sucks.

I also apparently need to redo The Kidnapping's Title sequence AGAIN because the producer can't make up his goddamn mind. But oh well.

NEXT TIME, I SWEAR TO GOD, NO MORE OF THIS FREEBIE s**t. I was all over the "Oh, I'll use it in my reel and resume" crap, but then I learned that clients(even friends and free ones) have no clue what they REALLY want. So, I'll say, I'll do the first edit for free. But after it reaches edit lock and you come back and say you want something changed, it's going to be at least 10 bucks per change. I know that's super incredibly cheap, but at least it's something, and it's still nothing enough to not drive people away from getting me over learning how to do it themselves(which, in video school, you're supposed to do anyway).

RAWR RAWR RAWR.

I got banned from the Sniper Guild, which was kind of where I spent all my free time. So now... I have a lot more free time. And really nothing to do with it. Again.
I could PM Nymphie to get back int he guild easily, but I'm too proud to do that. I also want to prove to myself I'm not desperate.

I mean, when I got banned, I got on a mule and posted once. Then I kinda PMed people my responses.... Isn't that a little desperate? I mean, admittingly, I didn't reply to A LOT. Just like, 5. But still.

I'm not desperate. Really.

So in order to take up the time I kind of got back on IMVU. But since nobody's on IMVU anymore, I'm stuck doing chat nows or, more frequently, messing around with my avatar. Which is fun. But frustrating. Since I don't have a damn TryIt pass. But I think the frustration is part of the fun. I mean, if I waste credits on things that I didn't want and didn't know I didn't want because I had a try it pass, than I wouldn't be spending as much time figuring out how to get more credits to buy the next thing. And while normally that'd be a bad thing, it's a good thing because I have too much time on my hands.

And I guess I wouldn't have as much time on my hands if I actually did the stuff I was supposed to do, but I have no motivation to do it. So blargh.

And I Only work like 2-3 days a week. So that doesn't even really come into it, either.

WHICH BY THE WAY. I have school wed - fri morning, where I need to get up at like 6:50 to get ready to be on the bus by 7:10 and start class at 8, yeah?
I just said I could work wednesday from 10pm to 5am. (It was till 6 but I negotiated to 5 since I said school started at 6....)

WHY GOD WHY?

I don't know if I said that on the phone to avoid confrontation, or because of the money. Because I need the money, but I don't really care about the money at this point, you know? I guess not.

My last paycheck was 230 USD, about. I only worked like 30 hours. We go by biweekly checks. That seems like a hell of a lot of money to me, for 30hrs/biweek.

But then again, I guess I'm still living in the times where everything was built around the minimum wage of 5.50. I get paid 7.50/hr, by the way.

ANYHOW. Saturday morning I go back to New York with the rest of the family so I can actually VISIT instead of just do documentary s**t. I can't wait. =3
I really like my grandma.

Oh, and for you people saying "My god, if Q can afford two trips to NY in three weeks, he can't be poor!" Well, my grandma paid for the first one, I'm paying for the second... But my grandma secretly paid me to pay for the second behind my mom's back, and I had to beg my mom furiously just to go to NY when she was going, since at that point I had to go two weeks earlier for the documentary... That wasn't a run-on sentence. ninja

So we'll see what happens afterward.
I've stopped the hunt for a card because it dawned on me that $700 isn't going to get me one. So I'm saving more money before starting to look again.

I'm also still up for those random paypal commissions for anything. Because despite having a job and everything, with the way the imports and the exports are going, my lifesavings is still stuck at 2k.