Saturday, February 18, 2012

The Vertex Fighter/ scam/ hospitals

Feb. 8 The Vertex Fighter:

Jocelyn Brown: Today is my day off, so I emailed the writer-in-residence Jocelyn Brown on my Rain script. She was supposed to send me her notes on it.

LinkedIn: I also went on LinkedIn and worked on my profile a lot more. It's mainly for these reasons, I listed:

1. To get an office assistant position.
2. To get a writer's job for a magazine or an office.
3. On my side project to get The Vertex Fighter script produced.

Producer: I added the producer Benjamin Ross Hayden on LinkedIn, and he confirmed it. I then emailed him to thank him, and to pitch The Vertex Fighter.

Feb. 9 Swim Faster Productions: I was on microbusiness.ca and found out that they helped build a TV production company called Swim Faster Productions. The student is Joel Abrahamson, who went through the training course to be an entrepreneur.

Feb. 13 Rain script: It was so cool last week. The Writer in Residence (from the Edmonton Public Library) Jocelyn Brown actually read my Rain script that I sent her. She read the first 10 pages. The pros were that she thought the pacing was really good because the story moved fast. The Grant MacEwan Writer in Residence Lynn Coady said that too.

The cons were the dialogue. A lot of writers and producers always said to me that it doesn't sound like real people talking, and that the characters sound the same. I'm working on it.

Characters: The comment I didn't get before is Brown said that my Rain character is more of a type, than an individual. She did say Eddie is the strongest character because he has the most personality. I remember the other EPL Writer in Residence Chris Craddock saying Eddie was his favorite character.

Scam: A few weeks ago, my dad picked up the phone and he didn't know what the woman was talking about. He passed it onto my brother and it's something about getting on the computer. You have to do something on the computer. My sister comes out of her room and asks: "Who is it? Hang up."

She told dad that he was stupid. She calls everybody stupid. She tells my brother and then later me: "If you get a phone call where someone says there's something wrong with the computer, and tells you to get on it, don't. It's a scam. They could put a virus on your computer. Nobody from Microsoft would ever call you about it."

Maybe it's the law of attraction, but a few days after that happened, I read in the Edmonton Journal about that scam. There were several complaints. They interviewed this woman who said: "It sounded so real. As soon as he mentioned he needed $400, I hung up."

Personality: Prior to it, I got those phone calls too. I remember one time, the guy said he needed for me to turn on the computer. I was upstairs, and then I would have to go downstairs to turn it on. It was off for 30min, and I wanted to keep reading my newspaper. So I said that I was going to take the computer to get fixed. So my laziness helped in this case. lol.

What if I was on the computer and he called? I would still say the exact same thing because if I had to go and do all these things like go on the hard drive,etc., I would be taking time out of my job search. So my time management and prioritizing helped in that case.

Projects: I have a question. I know in office jobs, there are projects like getting a proposal prepared to woo a client. What about projects outside of work? What is a project outside of work? Like renovating a room in your house? Taking a cooking class that's not related to work?

I was thinking about this when reading newspaper articles. It asks questions like: "Do you ever start a project without finishing the first one? How many projects do you have going on right now?"

What are your projects? Mine would be getting The Vertex Fighter script. My second project is working on the Rain script. I don't make a lot of progress on both as of late. That's because I have to focus on the top priorities like working at my job, and looking for an office job.

Feb. 14 Get more energy: Jennifer Lynch sent me this article "10 Ways to Make it Through the Day Without Caffeine." I would still drink coffee, but this is a good article. There are tips to get more energy like get more sleep the night before, stretch, and drink more water. What I haven't heard before is to increase your magnesium intake like eat bran muffins and spinach.

1. Get more sleep the night before.
2. Drink more water.
3. Increase your magnesium intake.
4. Eat small, frequent emails.
5. Listen to music, while you work.
6. Stretch.
7. Take a walk outside.
8. Socialize.
9.  Exercise in the morning.
10. Take a power nap.

Mylife.com: I saw this on TV at work. It's called mylife.com. The commercial said: "Do you want to know who is looking for you on the internet?" It could be family, friends, old co-workers, people from the past. So I looked it up. You have to pay though. Either $15.95 for 1 month or 12 months for $83.40.

Feb. 15 Cellphones and dating: I got this through Job Boom, and it's not totally related to work. It's "What you cellphone says about your love life." If you use an iPhone, you're an office romantic. If you use an Android, you're the seducer. If you use a Blackberry, you're a drunk dialer.

http://blogs.canoe.ca/affection/general/what-your-cellphone-says-about-your-love-life/

Feb. 16 Hospitals: I need to write about it, to get over it. I was talking to my friend Sonia about applying to hospitals. I applied to hospitals two weeks ago, and I applied to them yesterday. In 2010, I got hired at Restaurant #1 after I was unemployed for 8 months. The jobs I did get hired at, I was mostly dismissed shortly.

I was working at Restaurant #1 for a couple of weeks when I got a call from a hospital cafeteria. They asked for an interview and it was during my working hours. I said I'll call back later. I didn't call back. I thought about it because I liked Restaurant #1. Also it's been a rough year for me. The months of unemployment has had a major effect on me. I had lost some confidence in myself because it was so hard to get and keep a regular job.

If I quit Restaurant #1 and worked at the hospital, I could end up getting dismissed from the hospital, and I would start at square one all over again of being unemployed. Fortunately, I do work at a big company so there's job security. I can pick up extra shifts.

So now, I'm going and applying to hospitals again. Now that I've written about it, I feel better now.

Confidence: Confidence can be hard to come by. I had to keep working at my current job for months to gain back my confidence that I can get and keep a regular job. In 2011, I sent at least 100 resumes a month and did like 50 interviews, and only got 1 temporary holiday job.

Confidence comes from knowledge and experience. You have to read job interview books, learn some computer skills, read the business section of the newspaper, and job articles.

Feb. 17: I didn't really feel low about myself last year. Though I experienced a lot of rejection and disappointment, it's because I was working all year long and making money. In 2010, I wasn't really working and earning money.

Stress: I read a question in the Globe and Mail Life section: "Do you feel more stressed out last year or the year before?" I think like 50% (majority) said: "About the same." I would say the same.

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