But Oh, the Synergy!

As yet another part of my recently launched effort to explore new topics, audiences and venues in my writing in order to put myself out there in hopes of landing a paying gig or two and make a few AdSense pennies in the meanwhile, I have just launched the first piece in my newest effort, creating my own content on HubPages. The gist of this community, from what I've gleaned through cursory preliminary exploration, is compiling "hubs," which are user-created pages on literally any topic imaginable; in other words, HubPages embodies the entire purpose of the Internet, theoretically offering an infinite amount of knowledge accessible with the click of a mouse. Many writers go there because of its centralized web advertising facility, maximizing the (admittedly still pithy) possible revenue without overtaking the content.

The site's introductory materials advised writing on subjects on which one has particularly thorough and extensive knowledge, and after some thought I came up with the topic for my first hub, called The High School Senior's Guide to the College Visit (my sister had just come to USC a few days earlier, and I do have a little experience in the arena). I figured it was good timing, and I know from experience how many parents can be about the college application process, especially with first children (such as me); I could see such a guide proving to be somewhat useful and comforting to the moms who sit on the computer for days on end to make sure they're doing everything right, the way my mother did (and thank goodness for that!).

Since it's my first foray into the hub world, if anyone has a minute or two to go check it out (and maybe write a comment or two about how brilliant this D. B. Salter is...haha) it would probably bring you good karma. Just sayin'.

*Pbthbthbth* On Being Poor!

It's official: this whole paycheck-to-paycheck, late bill payment, haphazard grocery budgeting, "I'll be back on track once the next payday comes" excuse for living has lasted far longer than it should have and is a situation that I can and will no longer endure. Blaming certain publishing companies and their unacceptable accounting and payment process, however much they might deserve it, is both unproductive and an inaccurate assignation of total fault when in truth they are not the only culprits.

It's not like I'm spending C-notes frivolously left and right, I should note, although my recent thrift is more the result of actual absence of anything to spend in the first place than the adoption of a more frugal lifestyle. The rare times I do have a positive bank account balance I find that that money is almost entirely spent on obligations like loan and bill payments, not personal things almost without exception. So where is all my money going? I make enough money to pay my rent, bills, and three different loan payments each month and still have a couple hundred to spare, and yet since I moved to my new apartment I have yet to actually go through a month's pay after beginning in the black. The main culprit is actually a repeat offender: I have paid Chase bank enough money in overdraft fees to single-handedly bail out Lehman Brothers, and it infuriates me that in effect that policy has created a quicksand situation and made it exponentially more difficult to return to financial solvency.

ENOUGH!

So how to turn this tale of woe inside out? I have a few ideas that I want to write down and publish as both a checklist and a documented public challenge to myself.

1. After all these years, I am so excited to finally tell WaMu/Chase to kindly fuck off and that I will no longer be financing their corporate retreats. I've been intending to reopen my USC Credit Union account, now that it is part of the Co-Op of ATMs and therefore accessible beyond the campus, which was the main reason I switched to WaMu in the first place. None of this overdraft bullshit packaged as inexpensive short-term loans (although I have used it to my advantage more recently, but only because the stupid system kept me in a position that made it necessary), which means no more excuses for even the occasional imprudent impulse as I will no longer have such an unhealthy option.

Why haven't I done so yet? Because I've been waiting to get a positive balance in my Chase account to transfer it over and meet the $100 minimum opening deposit. But not anymore: the instant I receive my godforsaken paycheck from the publishing company not to be named - or the rebate checks making their 6 to 8 week journey my way - I will not, as originally planned, essentially waste it on the black hole I call my Chase checking account, but rather use it as the opening deposit to the USC Credit Union. The second my account has been reopened, I will switch my direct deposit from Chase to USC, meaning the second paycheck of the month that is supposed to be my rent paycheck can actually be my rent paycheck for once instead of my Chase overdraft fee paycheck. And since I'll then be using the Credit Union for any purchases, I can take my sweet time bringing my Chase account up to zero without incurring any additional overdraft fees. I think they've collected enough extra money from me over the years to be able to survive while my account sits tauntingly overdrawn and inactive.

2. Pay bills on time! This, of course, will be much more doable once #1 has been completed, and I will therefore avoid late fees and other extraneous expenses.

3. Build upon my blog set: I have seen my earnings for the Adonis Complex blog steadily beginning to grow as I continue to post content and spread the word wherever I can (with photoblogs, the archives are as important if not more so as daily updates, and with each daily post the archive grows and with it grows the blog's marketability). I am working on a huge project to really launch my new entertainment criticism and analysis blog, Heckle and Snide, which will hopefully attract its first visitors and cultivate a regular following as well. There are a couple of other blogs on the horizon, but for now I'm focusing on getting those two fully up and running...not to mention this blog as well, which I had intended to serve as a followup to my first LiveJournal now that I've reached an entirely new chapter of my life, a world away from the life I chronicled in the previous journal. For the moment I look at this as my personal yet public diary more than anything else, and time will tell what direction it ends up taking.

4. Explore possibilities of supplemental income from part-time work on nights and weekends or from freelance writing. The buzz has it that Disneyland may finally start hiring for part-time weekend positions next month after nearly a year-long freeze on such positions, so I will certainly be looking into that aggressively. When and if GayWired returns with its new ownership and likely new style and content, I have made clear my desire to be a part of what sounds to me like a much improved publication far more suited to my taste and ambitions with writing. And I don't suppose I have anything at this point to lose by continuing to prod my former editor, who now edits Advocate.com, to take me on in some freelance capacity, especially since I actually really want to write for that particular site (as opposed to merely writing whatever for whomever for the money and exposure). I'd rather be a broken record that gets noticed than deferential, overly polite and ignored.

5. Start saving for various special treats, such as a trip to NYC to witness the earth-shattering diverging of my two favorite human beings, by which of course I mean the upcoming revival of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music, starring...Catherine Zeta-Jones. Because it occurs to me that although unlike some of my friends and acquaintances I do not have the means to pursue my passions wherever and whenever they might occur, there is for everyone that one person or event or place for whom/which a person will do whatever it takes and make sacrifices he would otherwise never imagine. That's only human; just because the only time I've followed a pipe dream like that ended up in incredible disaster doesn't mean all such departures from every comfort zone I have in search of something beyond my limited notions of the possible will have such results. And if that isn't a perfectly legitimate splurge, especially if made possible by my own newfound financial responsibility, I don't know what is.

So there it is: I am officially resigning from eternal poverty, overdraft quicksand and personal irresponsibility, effective just about immediately. My reward, should I succeed, besides of course the bliss of financial stability, will be the love of my life looking out into the audience directly into my eyes while singing "Send in the Clowns." Yep, that'll do for an incentive.