renfield7

Business Woes, TV, and Karaoke

Today I met with Timothy Wallace. He is currently doing a couple of jobs with Image Comics and will probably be doing the bulk of the artwork for my brother's Squiggy-Boo storyline for my project (which I still won't name here).

I learned a few things. Which was the point in us getting together, aside from hanging out and throwing ideas around.

I kind of jumped headfirst into creating something that may at the time have been a little bit too big for me. As it progresses though, I am learning a lot about the business. I knew I would have to, and I knew that some of the lessons I learn will have a bigger price than what I may have originally thought, but it's coming along nicely now and I couldn't be happier about that.

We're about to land on our feet from our first big hurdle.

Our Executive Editor is a friend of mine. I admire her and her work. Unfortunately I will have to cut her from the project. It's no fault of her own really. Her current job has her at almost 60 hours a week and she is rennovating a house on her days off. Unfortunately, we just can't come up with the time or ways to make the time for her to do what I need her to do.

The Artistic Director, now this is a doozy. When I first pitched the idea for this business to her she became all gung-ho about it. She set up the domain name and the webspace. She started getting a few people involved including a wonderful "Web Guru" to design the site and all of it's functions for us, which is all way over my head. In January, she vanished. Nothing that was needed on her end was done. It was like a In Box that was piling up and up and over and off of the desk. There was no warning, there was no explanation. However, she spent so much time playing Anarchy Online with my roommate (and now City of Heroes) that I knew she was still alive and well, and that she apparently wanted to spend all of her free time on video games rather than this project.

We've suffered from this. I've been doing my job and trying to do hers at the same time. I'm not even near being qualified for hers. Which means I have to be very very careful. Which means things are going so slowly that it looks like almost no motion at all. Add to that the fact that our web guru found new projects and has dropped ours. If we'd had something for him to do three months ago, he'd have started it and would work to finish it. So now I have to replace him as well. Somehow. If she had been here to do her job, we'd not have to worry about that either.

So I e-mailed her the other day. The response that came a few days later was... interesting?

Something to the tune of, "I'll be back in three weeks but will be moving a week after that so I'll be gone again for a bit."

So let me get this straight. You're going to vanish into thin air with no warning, let everything we've been working on come to a crashing halt for almost three months, and then nonchalantly waltz back in like nothing ever was wrong only to vanish again soon after?

Something about this does not sit right with me, at all.

Plus, I am considering letting her get away with it this time. She's that good at what she does.

Shit.

Our pay setup has the Creative Director (me) and the Artistic Director and Executive Editor splitting a specific percentage of the company's revenue evenly. Why the Hell should I share that money with someone who pulls this sort of thing? How many other companies would have just shit-canned someone after the first or second day of vanishing? How many employers would put up with that crap?

What really sucks about it now is that I have been actively seeking to replace her.

I need to have a serious talk with her.

So this is the first big hurdle. It's a whopper too. If I could do it all myself, I would. But I can't.

...

Today I started watching "Meeting People Is Easy" which is a documentary film about Radiohead. It's very good so far but I cannot watch the whole thing in one sitting.

I'm also on a Farscape kick. When the series first came out I used to watch it but then circumstances kept me from keeping up with it. Now I've got all of Season 1 in my Netflix queue. Unfortunately there are only two episodes per disk, so this will take a while to finish all four seasons plus the movie finale.

...

I finally went to Frasier's on the Avenue last night with my roommate. It's a fun Karaoke place. The sound system is not very good and the selection of songs leaves a lot to be desired. So far the best selection and sound for me has been Johansson's here in Westminster, but they lack the ultra-fun atmosphere that Frazier's seems to have.

...

What else? God, I don't remember. Wasn't that enough?

Cheers!