A pretty rad thing ...

Yup ... life in a small town is just a little more manageable when you hear that the project for which you were the only writer/researcher for seasons 2 and 3 got a GEMINI NOMINATION!!!

Yes indeed, ladies and gentlemen, www.TasteBudsTV.com got a GEMINI NOMINATION for Best Cross-Platform Project - Children's and Youth!!

And even though my name is not on the billing (it's all the producers' names), I am totally riding the coattails even for the nomination.  Spent time updating my LinkedIn profile, resume and Facebook status ... because my claim to fame by association on that is being THE writer/researcher for seasons 2 and 3.  CONTENT, baby, CONTENT ... is king.  So let's be clear now though that I'm not claiming ownership for all things word-related, but at least I can say that there's enough of a contribution there that I'm going to toot this horn until the if/when of a next award.

I know we'd all be jazzed about nominations for the actual show, but the website is (albeit cross-platform because of the brand but) a separate entity, and my absolute FAVOURITE gig in the whole wide world.  I love the team, I love how straightforward the tasks were, I love the positive responses I got for my work (which didn't feel like work because it was mostly fun); I love that I got to work from home; and I love how promptly I got paid compared to some other companies that take a MONTH or MORE.  (Can you tell that I'm waiting for a cheque?)  And I love that I got to speak on a panel.  [Thanks again Sasha!]

Worked on the stop-mo short today and had a fabulous day.  More on that later.

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.