june1999's Blog

So Orange Hair chases me with a whip and I realized I haven't blogged a whole month, indeed.

As most of you know I have started working freelance in March and going with it full time in July. I didn't walk into it blindly but there are still some myths about freelance writing out there that were crushed during my first few months doing it full time.

It is easier than 9 to 5 job
If only I did have someone who told me this before... because I would like to have someone to beat up. But nobody told me and I didn't think it was either, only I didn't know it would be this hard.

The race to get clients and line up projects are not something you can take for granted. I am lucky I have a steady client with whom I have a steady, pleasant relationship. She doesn't pay much but if I work quickly enough I can make enough for my daily needs.

The thing is I still need to juggle another client or preferably two more with the rates I'm going now and it's still a daily battle for now. But things are looking up so I can't complain :)

It is a glamorous job
Freelance writing, at least these days, is mostly about creating content for website or blogging for companies. There is a demand for creativity but not the kind of creativity a literary writer would normally unleash.

Slogging on may create a chance for jobs writing for more lucrative openings like best selling magazines or high traffic news sites - but the rise is slow and the fight is harsh.

It is a nice suit for slackers
That was what I thought and boy, was I dead wrong. You don't work, you don't get paid. That's it.

I love the fact that I no longer have to jump outraged at the sight of the clock showing 7 am and I still cherish it. I also love the fact that I no longer have to wear the stupid uniform I had to wear in my previous job, nor did I miss having to follow frivolous rules even dinosaurs would laugh at.

But still, with this job there are a lot of things to do. You are the boss, the marketing, the admin, the receptionist, the accountant, the guy who actually works etc etc. And when you slack a minute, you lose the 1/60 of your hourly rate.

There is no need for working long hours
It is usually what they have as slogans when they look to hire freelance writers: Write on the topic of your choosing, at your own pace. Sure... and make $10 a month.

It takes long hour months and for some people years before freelance writing can turn into shorter hours and better pay. I am willing to work for it though - I just have to bear the first many months of gruelling work.

--

All in all, it's not that bad because I just realize it again how much I love writing. I don't mind not being literary, there is challenge in this kind of work, challenges I like facing.

Just want to blog about it... because otherwise Fabio lover will nag me. Here you are, Shinigami! I'm sending you an invoice. I am a professional blogger, after all.

It's been in my head for a while.

I have noticed that some successful people have egos bigger than the planet but I have never heard of any writers, successful ones, who do.

Or perhaps I am just not that well versed in the world of good writers. After all I only read fiction, ocassional biographies and history books and... well, I read many things but my main interest is definitely fiction.

But I do believe that most writers are usually either shy or quiet or ordinary people with the gift of eloquence. The writers I like I have found to be self deprecating or else, if they talk about how great they are, it is in the spirit of mock exaggeration.

So, are there good writers with humongously enormous ego? Because I have seen, oh God have I, plenty of mediocre writers talking more than writing, if you know what I mean.

I had lunch with my sister today and I asked her about this heated discussion going on at her Twitter timeline with her fellow translators, editors and writers.

Apparently there was this local fiction writer who attacked a reviewer giving her a bad review by saying, "...well, it takes people with prime brains and tastes which enjoy Panthom of The Opera to appreciate my work."

I could hardly believe it. "She said this in a public forum?"

"Yes," said my sister. "Worse, she said it on her public blog on the internet where things are archived for eternity."

I went to this writer's blog and I really didn't know what to do. Fall out of my chair laughing, scratch my head or just stupidly stare and read as the young woman spills self serving observations of herself.

She brags about her English but unfortunately the posts are not 100% English so I can't refer it to you guys... But if you would like to take a look, go ahead: http://memory-and-destiny.blogspot.com/2010/07/profiling.html (I've chosen the one where the percentage of English is pretty high.)

I realize it sounds like I am having a case of petty jealousy so feel free to have at it. I have no aspiration of writing fictions (no imagination whatsoever!), but if there is a publisher out there wanting to give me an advance, by all means, please!

I was just really, really amazed that there are people who, from what they wrote, have been around the block and yet have no idea how the world works.

There is a Chinese saying I like and remember since I was a tiny little girl: Above the mountain, there is a sky. It means that no matter how great you are, there is always someone who is better.

Cow avatar, Siggy avatar and all fan requests dry up. Zero.

Some random pretty chick avatar and lo and behold, all the requests come pouring in.

New month, new avatar.

It has somehow turned into a habit... so I present you guys with July avatar.

I know, I know - it's a bit out of my usual choices but you know where I'm going with this, right?

Anything to freak Siggy out.

*cue evil laugh*

UPDATE (July 13, 2010):

Plan failed miserably. Siggy didn't freak out, instead he approved, giving me thumbs up and - wait for it - a smile! Aaarghhh... it was me who was freaked out.

Grr. I gotta find another way. Suggestions are more than welcome.

I should kill this Google Doc.

First it cost me a good paying project right when I could use the money most due to their upgrading what was already a good thing..

And now it is taking forever to download a word document to a computer.

Argh...!!!

No more fans once the creepy cow's back! How could you guys.. >__<



Now, I think I am going to wait a while before I upload Fabio for my avatar to get Shinigami69 to show up, mwahahahaha..

So G was buried Tuesday. As my friend said, it was all so surreal until we saw his name on the cross at the graveyard.

He was just our age, a little older in his early thirties. Strong as horse, never a day of illness. Hard working, always ready to help - with a quick, pert tongue that never fails to make you fall off the chair laughing.

Sigma07 knows of him a little, as well as LordVoldemort as I believe she was the only one who read a very old story when I talked about G, lol.

G was gay and to keep at bay his oblivious parents' request to get married, he had once declared that he would only get married when he found a girl with her a$$ on the front.

It was one of the many crazy things only G could come up with.

God, I am going to miss him a heck of a lot.

Thus, in honor of my crazy friend, I am going to change my avatar (as it also due - it's a new month already!) to the silliest in my collection. We're going to celebrate you, G! So long, thanks for the friendship!

My heart goes out for those touched in any way by what happened in Fort Hood. It enrages one to feel blindsided and helpless, to stand and watch such thing took place.

At least that was how I felt. When bombs exploded in downtown Jakarta and sent us back to those years of terror and uncertainty just a month before my country's Independence Day.

This year though, my fellow countrymen didn't take it lying down. We have said we hate terrorism and all that but up till this year we hadn't taken any action. And then somebody started the We Are Not Afraid movement and suddenly we're in the fight again. We're doing something in a positive tone and heading toward something real, instead of blind hatred.

I believe it's a different story with Fort Hood, please don't mistake me - despite what some people are trying to do; placing blame on a certain ethnic or religion. (Ugh, what some horrible people do to get ratings or fulfill their own agenda - but that's my opinion.) What I'm trying to say is I hope my friends in America can turn this into something positive, starting from Kimberly Munley - the police officer who ran towards the gunfire and took down the shooter.

She does her job and tries to make things better. Sometimes that's all we need to do.

I was asked to attend a training session yesterday. It was a Saturday and the training started at 7 am.

Anybody who knows me knows better than to tell me to do something like that but I had my own evil intention and I think my boss knew that as well. So she asked me to and off I went.

There are times I have to hold my tongue and stop myself from telling someone, You have no business being a teacher/trainer. I never said it in fact, as it would be against everything I believe in.

But for some time now, I have been harboring a deep dislike towards this woman who sets up gatherings or seminars like this one and then call it a training. It is very irresponsible and damaging and I do know that some of people on top are getting weary of such practice.

Anyway, I could be wrong but I couldn't help but finding myself liking her less and less each time I heard her spoke.

She was supposed to be the MC or something, so she would round up all session by telling us what was wrong with us and then extolling her own virtues or what she has done.

The last session was where each group sent its representative to give a presentation for five minutes and the last straw was when she concluded the session by telling people off for choosing a topic that was out of their working field. "You are all fantasizing."

I blinked and for a short minute there contemplating throwing my phone at her. Criticism I can tolerate - most of us teachers get the itch all the time to try and tell people what they are doing wrong. It is very difficult to be constructive without pointing out people's mistakes. But to flat out sneer like that? And calling yourself a trainer?

I would like to share this on one of the many groups about songs here on EP but I knew I wouldn't be satisfied if I couldn't post the video.

I've been posting videos on my profile too but as you know, you can't blab as much over there :)

I've recently re discover this guy, Ronan Keating. I knew of him from back in his Boyzone days and I thanked God that he branched out and decided to sing solo. He has a sexy voice and great song choices.

Yesterday, this guy at work played me the song This I Promise You and I was stopped in my tracks. It was so beautiful but I won't go into that for now because it's just how I remembered that I liked Ronan Keating so much.

And I love how this song is so cheerful and talking about how love is so much about chance and luck too, among others.

 

Power failure two days in a row and I couldn't go on EP.

Another earthquake and then the triumphant Batik Appreciation Day.

Power failure prevented me to go online yesterday, right when I actually took a day off to binge on EP. I guess the gods are on rojblake's side. I couldn't even stray from my EP Diet, roj!!!

And then I couldn't log in earlier today because the place I frequented messed up and blew their fuse. Grrr. Good thing my cousin was still around and she picked me up and off we go for some coffee. (I had hot chocolate though, no way I'll be up all night after this tiring week.)

Another terrible earthquake happened yesterday, less than a month since the one we had in Jakarta. It was now in Padang, a city in the west of Sumatra, a big island northwest of Java, where I am. It was devastating, being 7.6 in the Richter Scale, epicenter being right there inland. The one we had before had its epicenter all the way down in the depth of the sea so even if it had the potential of tsunami, some of its power had been held back by the water.

But a little bit of good news... Unesco declared today, Oct 2, 2009 that Batik is indeed an original product of Indonesia, disputing other claims made recently. Indonesians being Indonesians, we proceeded to make today a celebration. Everywhere in the streets I saw everybody's wearing batik. Some people say it was like a wedding reception attended by the whole city - batik being the chic traditional clothes one usually wears to glitzy event and formal weddings.

 Ah well, all's well that ends well.

EP has been soooooooo slow these past couples of days I have fallen into the practice of spamming friends and strangers.

Or at least that's what Achilles1989 said. (Ha, I put you in hot water there!)

I'd go back to my Recent Activity and see I've placed the same comment three or four times in stories! Argh. And then I have to go back to the story and click Delete and then Refresh and then Delete again and then Refresh again...

It's the Devil's Circle. There was this one time yesterday when I saw I've placed a double comment and went to work deleting one of them only to Refresh and see I had three comments! Whaaaat...

Sigh. I need to work on this elusive virtue called patience. My apologies to those I have spammed.

I was in store A when the earthquake happened and I was pretty bummed that I wasn't even in the whole excitement!

I was out buying snacks for the office party which would be held later that evening and only felt a bit of a tilting when we stopped at a red light. "What's that? H, stop moving around, we're swaying here!"

When the car drew up the loading dock all of us were surprised to see sales staff, SPGs, SPBs and a heck of a lot others milling around at the entrance. I was about to go out and yell Get back to work, what do you think this is, stand around partying when there's no English class?

And then I got even more riled up because there was an earthquake and I wasn't there to experience it. Only when I heard about all the pipes going loose did I keep my mouth shut. Especially after we went and turned on the TV to find out it was 7.3 on the Richter scale. Adoi.

Anyway, today was my schedule to teach at store B. The HRD manager at B is this explosive, short tempered kind of guy who is also very funny. He went all out when he told us the story about how he was in the middle of a meeting and had to take a phone call from this extremely fussy person who refused to listen to his plea to cut the conversation off.

"David and Kun had poofed completely and here I was, swaying like crazy, having to persuade this guy, 'Sir, I gotta go, I have an earthquake over here!'"

And then there was this poor SPG who was in the elevator alone when it happened. So she was shaken like mad inside that big, barren cargo elevator and finally got out only to see a lot of panicky people running towards the emergency stairs. Confused and dazed, she didn't follow and went into the selling floor instead. Finding it completely deserted, she decided to pass out there!

Mr T, the Ladies Wear manager got all excited about it, "What the hell? Why couldn't she choose to faint in the melee? Why in the middle of the empty store?!" LOL. This Mr Perfection was teased to no end having been the only one to remember putting on the emergency, bright orange jacket. "Don't worry sir, of course we're not going to lose you." We assured him it was not because of his height (or lack of it) that got everybody worried about being able to locate him!

Adoi... A lot of new fans. I want to be able to add all of you but I don't know. I have trouble keeping up with my circle now.

 

They'd say that this girl..

..likes to dance even when the music came out of her own mouth. In the middle of the night. During heavy rain.

Sometimes she forgets to eat but when she's hungry, boy...

She reads too much, sometimes way past the healthy bed time.

She speaks to herself a lot when it comes to politic news and all silent and fascinated when it comes to celebrity gossips.

She has a lot of pillows with her, with occasional books peeking out of the pile.

Sometimes she sings along to the CD she remembers to put on because most of the time she just throws her bag at the end of the day and go to Book Land.

Every other evening her best friend would ring her up and they'd talk for about an hour.

She's not a pretty sight early in the morning and she could certainly do more of those floor sweeping but at least, she didn't stick foreign objects to our faces!