Well, maybe not the first. Some dude in Uzbekistan may have a video blog. But is his about the trials of being laid off in the worst economy since my grandfather was a teen? And the subsequent, daily trials of trying to secure gainful employment in the advertising business? I think not. Our Uzbeky friend is probably blogging about this year's barley crop. To each his own.
So the idea was to film my last days at my former agency. You see, I was told in October that I was being laid off at the end of the year. How nice, right? It gave me time to get my files in order, contact all my friends, my friend's friends, and complete strangers to tell them that I'm soon to be a free agent. This blog was going to help to that end. I was going to capture everything I could think of. Phone calls with leads, meetings with prospective employers, random thoughts throughout the day, and most definitely my last day at work.
I got the okay from HR to film my last day. So I borrowed a video camera from my, now, sister-in-law (I recently got hitched to a beautiful girl from Memphis). On the last day at work, the creative department was quite empty – end of the year and all. So I shot myself packing up my work space. I had my former partner, Lisa help me shoot this one scene of me pulling a dolly down a long hallway (would have been a good time-lapse scene, I thought). She continued to follow me as I wheeled my belongings to my car. Sure, we captured a shot of me outside of the office building, looking up to the 15th floor, then giving it the requisite bird. But the coup de grace was my exit interview. Yup. I was filming my exit interview.
Now you might think I was filled with anger. I wasn't. You see, This shit happens. I understand. Like Hyman Roth said to Michael Corleone in The Godfather Part II, "This is the business we've chosen." Ok, so no one is getting whacked, here. We're only getting laid off. But sometimes, it kinda feels the same. Not that I know what getting whacked feels like. I'm sure it hurts a little bit more physically.
Now I'm not a technophile by any means. I assumed my sister-in-laws camera would work. And it did, to some extent. It shot well. But when I tried to transfer the material to my computer, I couldn't figure it out. Upon reading the owner's manual, I found that it wasn't compatible with Macs!
Awesome.
Now what?
Well, I would have bought a video camera. But knowing I was soon going to be unemployed, and being in the middle of planning a wedding, I thought the purchase was unwise. So I put my video blog on hold.
Shortly thereafter, I secured a freelance gig for a couple months leading up to my wedding in March. Only thing is, it was in Maine. I was in Atlanta at the time. But if you get to know me, I hate not working. So I packed up some things and drove to Maine. My blog would have to wait a little while longer. I was working again.
For two months I braved temperatures ranging 3-33 degrees. It was tough. But invigorating.
After two months, I moved back to Atlanta for 2 days. My fiancee was helping me pack my stuff, and I was moving back to Memphis. We got married that next weekend. Spent 6 days in Mexico.
Now, I'm in her living room, writing thank you cards, organizing our presents, merging our belongings, donating things to Goodwill, planning a garage sale for bigger items (anyone want a sofa? Washer and dryer? Good price. Anyone?), and trying to cohabitate. I'm out of practice with the whole roommate thing.
Anyway, I thought this would be the best time to start up my blog. Seeing how I have some free time. So if you got through this verbose post, wow, you must be bored. But thank you. What do I plan for this space? I really don't know. Maybe some musings that are longer than the 140 characters Twitter allows me. Maybe I'll throw up some work I like. Maybe some work I don't. Could this blog morph into a critique site? Possibly. We'll just have to see, won't we.
Thank you all.
1 comment:
I'm sorry the video thing didn't work out - would have been, um, "cool to see"? (does that sound right?). I guess our camera wouldn't have worked either. Scrabble?
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