I received an email at 8:53 last night. The key paragraph read:
OK, that was a bummer, was kind of excited about judging again (in one of my various areas of expertise); breaks up the working-at-home monotony. Ah well, no worries, perhaps I’d judge remotely.
Woke up this morning, checked my email. This had arrived at 7:14 a.m.:
Alright, other top-secret assignment, I had been looking forward to participating, but I can certainly be “on the bench” for a while. Again, no worries.
About a quarter to 10, as I’ve done every Tuesday morning for the past 4-plus years, I logged on to my personal page at Live365.com, to begin final preparations for my weekly internet-radio show. But instead of the normal layout, I found this:
Huh, that was odd. A quick bit of Googling revealed that the company had gone out of business, in the wake of new 2016 rates from the Copyright Royalty Board.
Now that kind of sucked; I really like doing the show. Kind of adds some structure to my week, you know? Over the course of the day, I weighed various options: podcasting, different online host, etc. In the late afternoon, I went to the movies (hey, it is $6 Tuesday), which took my mind off things.
Came home afterwards, checked the mail. Oh, what’s this postcard?
If anybody needs me, I’ll be cowering in the corner with the lights off. Yeah, right…
like somebody needs me.
Gosh, that is quite a confluence of events! Well, I think you’re insanely talented and smart and kind..I know, that and $2.75 will get you a ride of the subway.
I used to look forward to doing a certain “judging” too around this time of year, for one of your past employers (not sure it’s similar to what you’re talking about) and I really enjoyed reading the stuff. I even enjoyed it after they drastically cut the pay to $50 for a day of reading in NYC, and then zero.
Unfortunately, a lot of this is economics. Not much else to say about that. I hope you get great opportunities that replace these, as well you deserve.
Thank you C! I’m not too worried, was just a funny stretch of coincidence. Yes, this is not that same, ahem, art and also, ahem, writing judging, but I had done that for a year or two also. (I think payment was a gift card at the time!)