So, yesterday evening The Girls were both home and very excitedly called me out of my office to see what was happening in the back bedroom. A little bat had decided that the screen back there was a good place to take a nap. Now, we're a good 500ft up in the air here, so that was a LONG way for this bat to come, so I'm not surprised that it needed a nap, I'm just amazed that it made it up this far. Needless to say, the cats thought this was a wonderful opportunity to let out their inner hunters, and were exhibiting an amusing mix of being peeved and relieved that we weren't opening the window to let them investigate any closer! (click on the pic for a bigger version)I had an "interesting" weekend. One of my associates/clients was in town on a Saturday (unusual for him) and had asked on Facebook for suggestions of what he should be doing. I said "you should make a sign about X, and go down to the NATO protests" ... always looking for ways of getting free publicity. This semi-snark offhand comment turned into a crusade, however, and I spent all day on Saturday developing fliers for hand-outs, press releases about the event, and even a banner for them to unfurl. Then I got suckered into coming along to shoot pics and video ... so Sunday morning we were out in front of the Wrigley Building (public property, right across from the Tribune, not in the middle of the chaos), where I'd seen other groups had been demonstrating on-and-off. It turned out that this was also a staging area for the Police ... but they'd "staged" and dispersed before our scheduled 10am "flash mob" time. We figured doing a "flash mob" was probably our best bet, thus avoiding most questions on permits, etc. You can see the release and check out the other materials (including the little video I produced from what I'd shot down there) here: http://ning.it/LqhtwY
What's been really bugging me about this is that it's EXACTLY the sort of thing that I'm good at and should be getting paid for. Not that I'm bitching about doing this "pro bono", it's just that I can't figure out WHY nobody else in the whole frick'n universe seems wiling to hire me! In this case, I developed a concept, researched, designed, and printed distribution materials, designed both print and digital letterhead and crafted a press release, created a suitably "demontration-esque" 2x6" banner, organized an event, and "directed", filmed, and shot promo images of the whole thing within a 24-hour period! Sure, it took me a bit longer to get the video edited, but the entire cycle of this, from initial suggestion to having the video posted and web site updated with everything was under 36 hours. In this I used skill sets from social media, graphic design (both digital and physical), basic PR, writing/editing/publishing, web development, video production, still photography, and, hell, even "business strategy" in the planning and debriefing meetings involved. Are you telling me that there are NO companies out there who could use a guy with that much talent who's able to "turn on a dime" and get a major project out the door in a very compressed time window? Because the experience of my past three years of looking for work would suggest that's the case. WTF?
No, really, WTF???!
Bleh ... I get so angry when I think about what a WASTE my life has been of late. Figured I'd share/vent.