Climbing Out of Debt

I got my first credit card when I was 18. Or maybe I was 19. I’m a little fuzzy on the age, but I do remember having just started college and it was one of the credit cards that are supposedly “geared for students.” It had an $800 credit limit. I was going through a deep depression and working a barely-above-minimum-wage job in directory assistance at the time, so it was no surprise that I relied heavily on this seemingly “free money” to anesthetize myself regularly with cigarettes and video games. I maxed out that baby, right quick.

A couple of years later, working another Job of the Damned in retail, I applied for a Discover card. Surprisingly, I qualified. Even more bewildering, they gave me Platinum status with a $6000 limit. The first thing I bought was high-end graphics card for my computer. The spending power was amazing!

A couple more years later, I relapsed into another depression. This one was pretty bad — probably the closest I’ve ever been to suicide. (I have a creative non-fiction piece about it.) I just let everything go to hell, stopped paying my credit card bills. Why pay if I was going to kill myself, right? Anyway, I eventually came to my senses and decided to be responsible again. By then, my Discover card was beyond maxed and they decided to slap me with a 30% APR.

Long story short, I finally paid that sucker off. Well, I’ve mostly transferred the bulk of the balance to a credit that has no interest, but as far as Discover is concerned, they’re paid in full. What I enjoyed were the frequent mailings of “courtesy checks” there towards the end, trying to bait me into spending. Seriously, I was getting them every other week. Anyway, I haven’t closed the card yet, but I will in a few days. I want to see how far they’re willing to reduce my APR in order to keep me as a customer.

Film Shorts

My buddy Danny Boy is looking to shoot a film short here in Los Angeles in the coming months. He’s got himself a screenplay, a crew and working on a producer. He’s asked me to come on board as both a screenwriter and script supervisor. I guess he’s not completely happy with the script and just needs another pair of eyes (that he trusts) to give it another once over. I’ve read the script already in a previous version. It’s not bad and it has the spiritual angle that I know Danny Boy is into, so I’m sure it’ll be a labor of love for him. I’m excited to be part of this project. I just hope I can get the vacation time off from work during the production. I’ll have more details as they arise and I’m free to share them.

I’ve also recently networked with a horror film director through Facebook. (If you use the service, feel free to add me. Just let me know how you found me.) Since I’m still sitting on my 5-minute horror short, I asked him if he’d be interested in directing it. He said he’d take a look, so I forwarded him my screenplay. Apparently, he’s got a feature in the works, but if things fall through or get stalled, he might be itching to do a short just to stay occupied. Best of luck to him, but for my sake, I hope his project gets pushed back.

Professional Movie Reviews

I gotta tell you, Online networking kicks ass. I guy who worked at one of the SEO firms I was at found my site and me through LinkedIn. He liked my movie reviews and asked if I’d be interested in writing for his Web site. He runs a service similar to Moviefone, providing film screening times around the world. I’d be the resident movie reviewer. Now that would be pretty slick. Since they apparently have a huge readership, that’d be the perfect angle to pitch to PR firms here in Los Angeles to have me invited to screeners and whatnot. I hope this one pans out.

Ready for Monday

Well, that’s all that’s new with me that’s worth noting. Spent this weekend mostly relaxing and catching up on video games that I haven’t finished. Made a mad dash there at the end tonight to get just a little organized. Went through my mail, did some light grocery shopping, washed and folded laundry, cleaned up the kitchen and discovered a delightful colony of mold cultures growing in pot of fetid water that I neglected to dump.

Classic bachelor laziness.