Coffee Protocol

Okay, so I'm putting this out there.

I admit that I'm a little petty about etiquette.  (Like on the train: when seats are empty, people should sit diagonally from you as opposed to next to you.)  But I also think that if there's a standard etiquette-related protocol, people should know about it.

The big thing about this [media] industry is that everyone takes people out for coffee, whether it be for networking, or meetings, or when you're in that awkward stage of just starting your career, and you want to pick someone's brain for their "tips and secrets to making it big."

I've had a few instances now of being invited to coffee for specific industry reasons (by people I didn't really know), and then I have to pay for my own, or in the more unusual case, I'm COMPLETELY left without a beverage.  This happened the other day, and then I realized that it happens to me too frequently.


Here's where I think you're in charge of picking up the entire tab for coffee, especially for someone you don't know that well:

• you're the one who invited the other person out for a specific reason
• you used a phrase somewhere in the initial correspondence (leading to the coffee meeting) such as:
• "I'd like to pick your brain about .... xyz"
• "I wanted to know what you thought about ..."
• "I have this show idea and I wanted to run it by you, seeing how you're a development executive, could you comment?"
• "I'm new to the business and am looking for some advice ..."
• "I was hoping you could walk me through how to ..."
• "I wanted to run something by you ..."
• "I have a show idea and wanted to see if you'd like to work on it with me"

• you're pitching someone on the idea of working on something for free

It's not the cost of the coffee, it's the principle of protocol.  A coffee is a small courtesy for to "repay" someone for their time. 

Summer 2010

Well ...  yes, shame on me for having a blog and then failing to update it.

Truth is, there hasn't been a whole lot of interesting stuff to tell you about.  I suppose I'm keeping up the blog because it's a nice outlet on which to vent (and write things like "Coffee Protocol", see next entry), and people tell me that it's hilarious.  Thank you.  I'm steadily losing followers on Twitter, but I'm wondering if maybe that's because I had a bunch of animal rights' lovers.  Motorcycle Man has been replaced with "Neighbours-Who-Do-Not-Control-Their-Yappy-Dog", and I tweeted the other day that if it didn't stop, that dog might soon become a muff.

Well now, it's hard to pick up sarcasm in 140 characters sometimes.

So if you really want to know what's been going on, I'll tell you.

The Short

My friend Animal (not his real name but close) and I have been working on the neverending stop-motion short that seems to be taking us years.  Lately, we've been getting help from skilled friends who can make tiny prop magic.  It's rather inspiring for being able to work on my own shows later on in life, because there's this truly gratifying feeling of working all day toward something that *I* wrote/created.  Amazing.

Starcraft 2
Yup ... who knew that I would have nerded out and gone gaga over Starcraft 2?  Well ... it's like reliving high school, even though I caught onto the wave a bit late.  The game's slightly varying variables somehow really appeal to my organizational sense and need for order.  Of course, my desk is in chaos most of the time, but I like that SC2 units have certain jobs and functions.  And they do what you tell them to do.

Weight loss
Turns out that Starcraft 2 is a fabulous distraction, pain reliever (I sprained my ankle) and appetite suppressant, which was a great help in the initial weight loss regiment.  I went to the doctor for a physical, and while I think that perhaps the nurse may have overestimated my weight, I pretty much freaked out when the doctor told me what my current weight was.  YIKES!  So I've been using this iPhone/iTouch app called Lose It!, which basically acts like a calorie counter.  You log the foods that you eat and the "exercise" that you do, and you have a handy way to see what your calorie budget is for the day.  Of course, I've been sort of cheating on this thing by programming in regular type activities for which there actually is a calorie loss count, like cooking, typing, loading/unloading the car, shopping, driving, washing dishes, etc.  I suppose the kicker is that I added "playing board games" and while there is no actual moving of physical pieces or picking up anything while playing Starcraft 2, I figure that it raises the heart rate a little, so I think it counts.  Plus, you sort of forget about food while in battle sometimes.


My friend Syd thinks that there's no way I could have lost 8 pounds in 2 weeks (since it's too rapid a period), but overall, I'm sticking to the story that I've lost 11 pounds in 4 weeks.

Cooking
As usual, hubby has been enjoying meals around here.  While it hasn't been anything too exciting, (I usually save that for Facebook updates), here are some of the things I've tried in the past few weeks:

• cornbread muffins
• oven "fried" fish
• chicken korma (using the VH Sauce)
• spaghetti with homemade meatballs (I described it as "spaghetti with homemade meatballs, a thick tomato sauce peppered with fresh tomatoes, sauteed sweet vidalia onions and roasted yellow zucchini; garnished with Parmesan and fresh basil from our front-step 'garden.'"
• homemade herb chicken burgers and homemade fries (which even enticed our friend Mike to drive all the way out here for dinner)
• Chinese beef stir-fry with rice and Chinese broccoli (hubby went for THIRDS!)

Ah, and the culinary highlight of summer was cooking live lobsters for the first time!  Our friends were absolutely delighted, and I was pleasantly surprised that I can get three grocery store lobsters for the price of one in a restaurant.