A day my the life: or "What would you do for $200"
Almost two years ago, I had a dream. You see, I was the editor of my high school newspaper, and started my working career in the newspaper business. Everyone said my personal blog (better known as intimate vomit) was the best thing since fried grits, so I left my job as Webmaster of Gamedaily with a few contacts to try out this freelance thing.
Since then I have patched together an unpredictable collection of $200 jobs. You see, I have to pay $800 a month for one bedroom in my roommate's house, as well as all the other dimes and quarters it takes to live in this freakin expensive city. (I have no idea how the hippys ever survived. None of them were carrying PDA's at Dead show. Sometime in 2000, I moved to San Franciso from Greenville, SC where I had aan awesome 2 bedroom home with a wrap around porch complete with rocking chair for the total price of $350 a month. That was living!
When I was a full-time programmer, money was never an issue. I was so excited that for the first time in my life, I did not have to run to the grocery store and buy a frozen dinner just to write a check for $35 over before my next pay day, only to write another check for $35 over later in order to deposit the first "loan" in my very lonley bank account. (In case you were wondering, God invented overdraft protection especially for me.)
All of the sudden, as a freelance game journalist, I found myself back in some very old and uncomfortable shoes. Don't get me wrong, I don't love money. I can live without it. But man I miss shopping. You know you are poor when you wear your new Splinter Cell t-shirt to a party like it was a $200 Armani sweater, and let's not even talk about the 5" roots in my hair. (I did, however, scrape up the cash to buy Conker, but I won't say anything negative about a non-Ubi game in this blog, so we will leave that alone for now.)
Everything was going to be ok. I had a new brilliant idea. I would live off the cash from this Frag Doll gig and combine it with the millions I made as a freelance game journalist! It sounded like a great idea, until an editor asked for a "pitch".
"What is this thing, "Pitch", you speak of. Can't you just tell me what to do?"
Nope, as a freelancer, you come up with ideas that gamers think would be interesting, then put on your salesman hat, and convince them it is a freakin fantastic idea, and you are the only one who could possibly tell it. Are we allowed to say "crap" in these blogs? Anyway, if you are lucky, you sell enough stories to pay the rent that month. If you are successful, you also buy groceries, and if you are a rockstar, you can actually go shopping. Man I miss shopping.
So I found this awesome alternative. For whatever reason, people thought I would be a great host for TV game shows (ok, so not TV, but shows that you download online). The theory was, gamers wanted to see someone on the screen who knew about games, not some pretty actress reading a script. Man, this was a great gig. With some serious prep work, I was able to rule the mike at these local press events for GTtv. Who knew I was so awesome right?? Then Yahoo! Games asked me to be a host for their new TV show, Repeat.
"Not a problem," I tell the producer "I am a total pro. relax and watch the professional at work." Of course I knew what I was doing. I had two major events under my belt, and a total of 3 months experience. I should ask for a raise before I ever begin taping.
This brings us Tuesday morning, June 28.
My first day filming is at the Yahoo campus in Sunnyvale, CA, and it is freakin huge, man. Do you know they get free coffee? Lattes. I mean, we are talking super duper fancy smancy. Raymond, my producer, decides we are going to adlib everything. Awesome. I took theater at Easley High School. No sweat.
That is until the set was lit, and the cameras were in my face. There was no mike in my hand to nervously grasp. My co-host was a thousand miles away, and I was supposed to "wittily banter" with this kid I could not see without showing the bad side of my hair! As prepared as I thought I was, I sat and missed line after line (after line) until we finally wrapped and I shrank out of the city to my train home.
To all the TV hosts on G4 and Spike who I ever gave any flack to, I apologize.
Since then I have patched together an unpredictable collection of $200 jobs. You see, I have to pay $800 a month for one bedroom in my roommate's house, as well as all the other dimes and quarters it takes to live in this freakin expensive city. (I have no idea how the hippys ever survived. None of them were carrying PDA's at Dead show. Sometime in 2000, I moved to San Franciso from Greenville, SC where I had aan awesome 2 bedroom home with a wrap around porch complete with rocking chair for the total price of $350 a month. That was living!
When I was a full-time programmer, money was never an issue. I was so excited that for the first time in my life, I did not have to run to the grocery store and buy a frozen dinner just to write a check for $35 over before my next pay day, only to write another check for $35 over later in order to deposit the first "loan" in my very lonley bank account. (In case you were wondering, God invented overdraft protection especially for me.)
All of the sudden, as a freelance game journalist, I found myself back in some very old and uncomfortable shoes. Don't get me wrong, I don't love money. I can live without it. But man I miss shopping. You know you are poor when you wear your new Splinter Cell t-shirt to a party like it was a $200 Armani sweater, and let's not even talk about the 5" roots in my hair. (I did, however, scrape up the cash to buy Conker, but I won't say anything negative about a non-Ubi game in this blog, so we will leave that alone for now.)
Everything was going to be ok. I had a new brilliant idea. I would live off the cash from this Frag Doll gig and combine it with the millions I made as a freelance game journalist! It sounded like a great idea, until an editor asked for a "pitch".
"What is this thing, "Pitch", you speak of. Can't you just tell me what to do?"
Nope, as a freelancer, you come up with ideas that gamers think would be interesting, then put on your salesman hat, and convince them it is a freakin fantastic idea, and you are the only one who could possibly tell it. Are we allowed to say "crap" in these blogs? Anyway, if you are lucky, you sell enough stories to pay the rent that month. If you are successful, you also buy groceries, and if you are a rockstar, you can actually go shopping. Man I miss shopping.
So I found this awesome alternative. For whatever reason, people thought I would be a great host for TV game shows (ok, so not TV, but shows that you download online). The theory was, gamers wanted to see someone on the screen who knew about games, not some pretty actress reading a script. Man, this was a great gig. With some serious prep work, I was able to rule the mike at these local press events for GTtv. Who knew I was so awesome right?? Then Yahoo! Games asked me to be a host for their new TV show, Repeat.
"Not a problem," I tell the producer "I am a total pro. relax and watch the professional at work." Of course I knew what I was doing. I had two major events under my belt, and a total of 3 months experience. I should ask for a raise before I ever begin taping.
This brings us Tuesday morning, June 28.
My first day filming is at the Yahoo campus in Sunnyvale, CA, and it is freakin huge, man. Do you know they get free coffee? Lattes. I mean, we are talking super duper fancy smancy. Raymond, my producer, decides we are going to adlib everything. Awesome. I took theater at Easley High School. No sweat.
That is until the set was lit, and the cameras were in my face. There was no mike in my hand to nervously grasp. My co-host was a thousand miles away, and I was supposed to "wittily banter" with this kid I could not see without showing the bad side of my hair! As prepared as I thought I was, I sat and missed line after line (after line) until we finally wrapped and I shrank out of the city to my train home.
To all the TV hosts on G4 and Spike who I ever gave any flack to, I apologize.
