Thanks, Facebook!

Today, Facebook, you managed to both annoy and entertain me.  Now that more people are being converted to the new Timeline, I’m getting a bunch of visitors that are friends of my friends (but not friends with me).

For the most part, it’s been pretty uneventful, and I’ve even added a few of them as friends as a result of conversations we’ve had. So, that’s cool.

But

(Isn’t there always a but!)

Every once in a while a friend of a friend is not, well, friendly.

This first happened a couple of weeks ago. A friend of a friend made negative comments about something I posted. We had a brief back-and-forth, and basically, I told him to go away.

Then there was today.

I posted a picture of a truck covered with bumper stickers…I’m not going to post the pic here because I don’t want to take someone’s Facebook life and put it out in the Interwebs…but the picture garnered a decent amount of attention from my friends…

And this friend of a friend. He spent the better part of the day trying to convince me and all other commenters why we were wrong to think/believe what we did. And he was rather condescending about it, not to mention he contradicted himself more than once.

My friends, of course were not going to back down — I even had friends of friends chiming in to argue with him. It was a rather enjoyable scene. So much so, I kept my opinion out of it…for the most part.

I think these types of friends of friends need a name — I vote The Truth Bringers. They come onto a stranger’s Facebook page, and proceed to tell the page owner why they and their friends are wrong. They are trying to shed light and knowledge on the obviously unlearned (and probably unwashed) masses. It is their sole purpose in life to convert us to their ways…

Which means it is OUR purpose to smack them around, then kill ’em with logic until they are forced to utter phrases such as, “I’m not going to try and convince you anymore.” and “You’re all stupid poopy heads!”

Or something like that.

So, thanks Facebook for the entertainment today. I appreciate it, and I look for more to come.

Cuz, I’m sure there will be more.

PS — if one of my friends goes on your page and acts like a Truth Bringer, let me know. I doubt it will happen because I have the COOLEST, SMARTEST FRIENDS ON THE PLANET, but just in case, I’ll take care of it.

It’s Not Supposed To Be Easy

Today has been an interesting day. It seems like every other conversation, every other tweet, every other Facebook status has been someone complaining about a situation — they don’t like their jobs. They don’t have enough money. They can’t get x,y, or z. The gist of it all is: Life is hard.

Well, no s&*^, Sherlock. Yeah, life IS hard. If it wasn’t would you appreciate those brief fleeting moments when it isn’t?

If you had a truly easy life: all the money you ever needed, all the friends in the world, a job you loved…would you appreciate it?

No, you wouldn’t. You would grow to expect it. If you can’t be honest about it, then I’ll have to be honest for both of us, because I know I’d take it for granted.

That’s why, even though it bugs the hell out of me at times, I’m glad I have to work for what I have. Every new skill I gain, every new client I land, every check I cash — I know I worked for it, and I worked damn hard to get it. Nothing has been handed to me…ever.

And if I had to choose between working for it and having it handed to me, I’ll take the work. I don’t want to live on Easy St. Easy makes you complacent; it takes away your motivation and your drive. And when you are no longer motivated or driven, that’s when the rug can get pulled out from under you. Don’t believe me? Reread this.

So, to those who are complaining that life is hard — yep, it is. Accept it and keep pushin’. If it gets easier, find out what else you can do. Cuz, as soon as it gets easy, it can all slip away.

Independence Day

For those of you who know me from Facebook, you know that June was a roller-coaster month, career-wise. Landed my biggest gig ever — just to see it crash and burn because of a lack of communication. My laptop died, so I had to scramble to buy a new one — something I might not have done had it not been for the tight deadline for the new gig — that crashed and burned. Gave up a lower paying client because they refused to understand that sometimes other work might come first, so I would have more time to work on the new gig —

that crashed and burned.

Did I mention the new gig crashed and burned? LOL

I learned a valuable lesson, a lesson I have been preaching to other writers for *gasp* over a decade: Don’t rely too much on one client. It can come back to bite you.

Consider me bit..er..bitten…

Anyway, lesson learned.

Now, to be fair, I didn’t give up all my clients. I still have several others with whom a have a good working relationship. And also in the matter of fairness, the client I gave up was not only low-paying, but dare I say it — was also a pain in the keister. I’ll work for low wages if I enjoy the work and can do it quickly, but don’t act like you’re doing me a favor by letting me write for you and expect me to drop everything for you because you mismanaged your time.

The mistake I made can be summed up in three words:

Forsaking all others.

You can treat your clients like a partnership, but you can’t treat them like a marriage. As soon as you shift all focus to just one client, the others suffer and it’s the same as not having any other clients. That kind of focus is great for a marriage, but it’s lousy for business. And that was the mistake I made. I put all my other clients on the backburner, and now, instead of having one of my highest earning months ever, June has been one of my lowest.

Yes, lesson learned.

Now, onto the reason for the title of this post. I am declaring independence from my old thinking and old ways. I’m going to try and make money from my writing in other ways. Ways that will allow me to write what I want, in the voice I want to use. Snark included. In the coming days and weeks, I’ll post links to my new material as they become available. If you like my Facebook statuses and the comments I share on the links I provide, you will most likely enjoy my new writing venture. I’ll keep you posted.