Tomorrow I run off to Hollywoodland to sit through the two-day seminar on getting films funded. To prepare, I’ve gone out and bought the necessary supplies to ensure I had the tools to cover the occasion. These essentials will actually be appropriate for most journalistic events, so whatever the occasion may be, here’s a good starter pack. My survival kit includes:

1. Pocket Notepad: The kind that’s spiral-bound on the top and fits inside an inside coat breast pocket. These two facets are important because first, the spiral lets your flip pages quickly and easily without having to move the hand holding the pad, and second, the small dimensions lets you tuck the pad away discreetly. You don’t even have to flip the pad shut when you put it away. That way you never lose your place. Plus, the spiral bind can hold your pen in a pinch. Just slide it in from the side. It’s the ultimate holstered weapons for any journalist.
2. Pens: Have at least three of them; one in your coat pocket and two in your bag. Test your pens before you leave. Last thing you want is a pen that won’t write when a literary agent or producer is giving you her number.
3. Legal Pad: Or at least a bigger pad. It’s nice to have a large writing area when the occasion allows you to sit down and listen to someone, like during press conferences, roundtable interviews or seminars.
4. Recorder: Digital recorder, preferably. This is especially important for one-on-one interviews. When you have a recorder, you can have a more natural conversation with whomever you’re talking to, rather than having your face buried in your pad, scribbling furiously. For all other events, it really just makes the experience that much more meaningful for you when you can actually take a moment and absorb what the speaker is saying, knowing that you have a recording of it in case you don’t want to forget it. Combine the recorder with note-taking by using your notes to highlight key points. Digital recorders are the most convenient since you won’t have to worry about flipping cassettes around or swapping them out when the tape runs out. My Olympus WS-100 acts as a USB storage device so I can just plug and play when I need to transfer the recording to my computer.
5. Camera: Hell, a camera is useful anywhere you go. You never what you’ll need a visual of. Don’t worry about lugging around something that requires a telephoto lens. Just bring your point-and-shoot that fits in your pocket.
6. Extra Batteries: Keep your recorder and camera powered when you need them most.
7. Bottled Water: Some places/venues *cough* Hollywood *cough* will charge you upwards $6 for bottled water. Bring your own. Plus, it’s nice to have a wet whistle when you need to start asking questions.
8. Cash: $40 should do it. It’ll buy you lunch, pay for parking and cover enough gas to get you home.
9. Business Cards: I haven’t actually followed this guideline until now, but I see the folly of not having had business cards for networking purposes. Now I try not to show up without them. You never know who you’re going to meet, so be prepared with your contact information.

That’s all I have for you. I hope this was useful and hope to see some of you there!

Man, I hate being sick.

I came home on Monday and started sneezing like crazy. That isn’t too out of the ordinary, since I have allergies, but the way I was sneezing definitely struck me as odd. It was a very deep, chest-cleansing sneeze.  Sure, it was odd, but nothing I didn’t think Claritin and a bit of nasal spray couldn’t handle. The following morning wasn’t pretty. My head was stuffy, my nose was runny and my sneezes were still in full force. I stayed home and laid low, but, ever the trooper, I went back to work the following day. This is usually a mistake. If you have the good fortune of working someplace that doesn’t grill you over your sick days, then take advantage of that and stay home and rest when you need it. Typically, you’ll just make yourself sicker and infect those around you. Throughout the day, I could actually feel the cold virus blooming inside me. By closing time, I was shivering even though it was 80 degrees outside. Needless to say, I didn’t go in to work today. I’ve also developed a very solid, phlegmy cough.

I did, however, receive some good news today. The actor I gave my screenplay to got back to me and he really enjoyed the read. His management is setting up a meet with some bigwig directors who’ll remain unnamed for now. Yes, I’m excited, but I’m still keeping calm. These are the first steps on a very long journey and there’s no use in celebrating right now. More truthfully, I have so much faith in my screenplay that people liking it is almost a foregone conclusion in my mind. I hope that doesn’t sound arrogant. I just think I’ve put together a very nice, commercial package. Anyway, I’ll let you know how things go.

As far as my Web site is concerned, I noticed that one of my nav bars would go MIA on certain pages. I’ve fixed that by altering some PHP code, but I’ve also discovered that my sidebar disappears on IE6 when looking at anything other than the home page and a handful of other pages.  I’m telling you, these are the cross-browser hells that make Web development truly suck. I wish everyone would just do me a favor and download Firefox or at least upgrade to IE7.

True to my word, I’ve been working on a few site changes. As you can see, I’ve moved the Recent Comments, Recent Posts and Subscription area to the top and added a snazzy background. I saw a similar design on someone else’s site and thought I’d incorporate it. It kind of pushes the content down, which sucks, but it’s not so far down that you can’t find it before the pagefold on 800×600 screens. Hm, actually, I guess that depends on how many toolbars you have at the top of your browser. Oh well. Let me know if you hate it.

And let me know if anything looks broken. The IE6 renderer I’m using appears a little buggy and I can’t be sure if my site is actually broken or not. I appreciate the help.

At the time of this writing, I’m a little under 2 hours into my 29th year of life. Every birthday, I always take a moment to reflect on the past and wax philosophical, trying to find the meaning in life. I think I’m old enough to understand that there is no meaning. There’s just life. And you only get one so spend your time wisely. That, I think, more than anything else leaves me a little disappointed and a little bitter.

I’m disappointed because I look back on the things I’ve done that didn’t bring me joy. To a small extent, I include work in that, but not completely, because you can’t really escape a day job, so I’ll let it slide. I’m talking more about the things that I had a choice in doing, and instead of taking the time to evaluate the action, I just went with the flow and ended up wasting my time. Let’s not forget all of the other times I was “relaxing” or “decompressing,” telling myself that I needed that time to myself, when in reality I was just anesthetizing myself from responsibility and effort.

Then there’s the bitter part, which includes the times that I did try my very best, played by the rules, followed the sure path to success. Yet, it all led to failure. How is that fair? It’s not. It’s that simple. But that’s life. Just when you think you have it figured out, an exception comes along and craps all over your rules.

I wish I was farther along in my writing career.

I’m also thinking about some slight modifications to this blog. I wanted it to be my professional site where you could come and read my work, but I also wanted it to be useful: a tool other starting writers could use to learn a bit about the craft. At this point, I feel like it’s more personal stuff than professional.

I want to change that.

Well, that’s it for me. I’m taking the day off to get my driver’s license renewed and have lunch with my mom.

Well, this is a particularly tough transition from the weekend to the work beginning since it’s Daylight Saving Time (three weeks early, no less ) and that means getting up for work an hour earlier. The morning’s going to be rough. I can already tell. I’ve been trying to get myself out of bed earlier so that I can work out in the morning, but it usually ends up with me getting up just long enough to walk across the room to turn off my alarm and then diving back into bed. Alas. I better delay brew some coffee while I’m still up tonight.

Anyway, this weekend has just put me in high spirits in terms of my writing career. Not that anything substantial has happened. I’m still waiting to hear back about my screenplay, by the way. Hopefully it’s good news. I’ll keep you posted. I’m feeling good about my career because I’m out there trying to make stuff happen: setting up meet-and-greets, writing reviews, networking, what have you. For my fellow writers who have to maintain their day job, I think that’s really the key to keep your creative career from stagnating: keep the future full of things to look forward to.

As for me, I’ve just registered for a two-day seminar in LA for getting financing for films. The seminar is aptly called Get Your Film Funded 2008. It looks like it’s going to be chock-full of insight into a part of the industry that I think most writers - if not most everyone - are particularly clueless about. Of course, there’s a pretty hefty registration fee ($250 - early bird discount/$350 - regular admission), so I was a little wary about signing up. But, as I was telling someone on a writing forum I pop by on once in a while, networking with another aspiring filmmaker who gets discovered and takes me along would definitely be worth the price of admission. Also, I was telling one of the VPs at work about it and he offered to chip in half my cost. With that, I really had no excuse not to go. It’s at the end of this month, so I’ll fill you all in with what I learn.

If you decide to go to this thing, drop me a line. I’d love to network with you.

Until then, keep writing.