Monthly Archives: July 2011

Calibrating Your Core

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We get buried by our own lives. We’re far too close to our routine to see the flaws, see the compromises, understand the sacrifices we make in conflict deep down. We’re too busy moving forward and surviving to remember who we really are. We forget who we wanted to be in the first place. We misunderstand our goals. And we lose sight of our virtues.

It’s very important to stay in touch with old friends. Old mentors. Family. The people who remember what you said you wanted to be when you grew up. The people who saw you change. The people who can point out what never changed. Members of your past can remind you who you were. Knowing who you are now, you can sift out the continuity. You can identify your core again. You can re-group, re-center, re-align your sights. Remember what’s most important in life. With a little effort, you can find yourself again.

Stay in touch. If you do not, you will lose track of yourself. You will forget who you really are. Life will fall out of balance and your soul will be scrambled. Stay in touch. All it takes is a phone call, a conversation, a visit home.

Do not ignore your past. It holds the key to great strength.

Decide What You’re Worth

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Want to make more money? First, you need to believe that you’re worth more. If you believe it and exude confidence on the subject, everyone else will believe you’re worth more, too. Believe it deeply enough and you may not even need to ask for a raise.

It’s very helpful to know what you’re worth. To the dollar. Not some random number, no abstract figure counts – the exact amount to cover the cost of living the life you think you deserve. Add up your expenses, your lifestyle costs, your health costs, your travel costs. Cover your responsibilities. Price out your dreams and your hobbies. Set a structured savings plan and contingency for accidents. Add them all together over a year period. With simple math, you can conclude your annual salary. That’s what you’re worth. No less.

Be open to quoting that number to others, and do not be afraid to itemize the costs for them. If you can justify every price point and sell your needs, it will be difficult for anyone to argue. Make sure your employer understands this number. If it’s not possible for your company to match, find alternative means to cover the difference (freelancing, for example) – or find a different job.

Know what you’re worth. Believe you’re worth that much. Fight for it if you need to. Do not sell yourself short.

Inspiring Your Team to Do Well [Film Friday]

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Leading a film is a lot like leading an army, except without the discipline. Hollywood is loaded with egos, agendas, and hard drugs. Everyone wants to make their rate, see his or her name in lights, eat well, and live the good life. It is extremely difficult to wrangle all the different personalities and angles. Getting everyone on board is very difficult most of the time, especially in low budget or strenuous circumstances. Even with genuine people, it is challenging to arrest their full attention.

There is one tried and true tactic for getting everyone on the same page. The same tactic will inspire people to work day and night to get the job done. The same tactic may even convince your team to cut, defer, or waive their rate entirely. Very straightforward: tell a great story.

If your team believes in the project, they will fight to the ends of the earth for it. A great story helps make a 20-hour day okay. A great story helps you accept the low pay or terrible catering. Of course, telling a great story is easier said than done. The best way to tell a story is to believe in it first. If you do not believe in it, no one else will. When you do, find a way to communicate to everyone why and convince them to believe in it, too. With enough love and passion, you can inspire others to help you bring the story to life. Perhaps they will fall in love with it, too.

Overtime Pay Is Unhealthy

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Time and a half or double pay was designed to compensate you for working unreasonable hours. Depending on the rate, it can even make extra hours appealing. That’s a problem. Why?

Money does not actually compensate you for the added stress and sacrifices. Money does not buy you your time back. Money does not keep your health in check or award you sleep at night. Overtime pay does not give you your life back. So what’s the point? Just call it a day and go home.

Only work as many hours as you need to get the job done well enough. Do not be seduced by the extra cash to compromise your well-being. You’ll burn out, and it will not be worth it long-term. Cut yourself off, quit for the night, and come in fresh the next day. It is the only sustainable course of action.

The Insolent Stress Multiplier

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Stress is exacerbated by meaningless shit. Forgive my French. But really, we annoy ourselves further when we realize our stress is unfounded in petty problems. Day to day, we face insignificant issues that rile us: spilt milk, car horns, typos, dropped calls, loose change, disorderly management, broken fax machines, failed communication, and missed deadlines.

Few things are life or death; none of these problems are mortal. So why do they matter? Why do we strain our bodies with these issues and preoccupy our minds? Will it really matter in five years?

Learn to laugh at meaningless shit. Turn stress around as soon as you realize it won’t matter long term.

Turn Off Your Cell Phone

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It’s the only way to take a thorough break.

Vacations. Movies. Sleep. Turn it off. Trust me. You’ll feel better.

I need to take my advice more often. You should too.

Cheating Long Disneyland Rides (Part 2)

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Yesterday’s post outlined the values of Disneyland single rider lines. Below is a semi-detailed guide to each ride on which I have exploited the single rider pass.

Note: most single rider passes entail entering through the attraction exit and walking all the way to the front of the line. If you have any questions or additional tips, please share them!

Disneyland Rides:

Splash Mountain
An overrated ride in my opinion, Splash Mountain is hardly worth the average hour-long wait. The first part of the ride is a little boring and the single drop is no Tower of Terror. That said, single riding this baby is a great way to mix up your afternoon and cool off. At best, you’ll ride with one other member of your party in the canoe – but it should not really matter to you unless you need a quality family portrait of the drop. For those who do not want to get soaked, the single rider line always feeds you to the back of a canoe where very little water splashes on your plunge. Quicker, dryer, and a pleasant casual walk-on experience.

Indiana Jones
One of the more popular rides, the wait times can be terrible. With this single rider pass, odds are very high that you will get to stick with your group. Even better, you will probably end up in back where the ride is more bumpy and exciting anyway! The only annoying aspects to single riding here are the safety speeches the staff must deliver to you every time and the ungodly slow handicap elevators that land you onto the loading platform. Well worth these petty hassles though.

California Adventure rides:

Grizzly River Run
One of my favorites and perfect for a hot day. With single rider, it’s really easy to walk on and on again. You rarely ever get to ride with other members of your party (even if there’s room enough on a raft for two or three more, staff is pretty strict here with singles), but it’s always fun to meet the other people aboard. Make sure to dress accordingly (soaked jeans and socked shoes make for an unpleasant afternoon). Added bonus if you are staying in the Grand Californian Resort – the line starts just beyond the hotel’s park entrance. Put on your swimming suit, walk onto the ride, and enjoy four or five round trips within the hour! Certainly beats the kiddie pool slide.

Soarin’ Over California
I almost felt dirty single-riding this bad boy. They send you directly inside, straight to the front, and past absolutely everyone else standing in line. Without question, you will be in the same auditorium as other members of your party (there are 87 seats to fill). You most likely will be in the same side of the theatre, and you may even be seated in the same pod. Do not count on sitting next to each other, but this is not the kind of movie you want to make out in anyway. Enjoy your flight (you dirty cheater)!

California Screamin’
My favorite ride in the park, California Screamin’ is a simple and relatively efficient single-riding experience. You probably will not be on the same ride as your party and you will definitely be seated next to a stranger, but I think you will be more concerned with the twists than your neighbor. There is usually a greater number of single riders here, and it is annoying to take the elevator over and down to queue each time, but it’s totally worth it. You can easily ride this bad boy three times in one hour.

Cheating Long Disneyland Lines (Part 1)

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The most-obvious and least-exploited trick to bypassing many of the terrible Disneyland waits are single rider lines. While not all rides are organized to support this feature, the ones that do are happy to fill the seats and move more people through. The idea is simple: most people want to ride with their family and friends, but some parties have odd numbers that leave a few seats empty. So why not let loners (or those willing to ride without their party) a pass through the line to help fill those seats?

As a single rider, you literally walk to the front of the line. You cannot beat that. But it gets better: more often than not, single riders get to ride together if the Disney staff calls for parties of two or three to fill seats and cannot find groups of that size nearby in the line. Depending on the attraction, odds are great that you will ride with the rest of your group. When three of us went to Disneyland today, we saved at least five hours total standby line time by “single riding” and never once road apart.

Of course, there is no guarantee that you will get to ride together. That’s the risk you’re taking by cutting to the front of the line. Behave, do what you’re told by the staff, be willing to ride alone if you have to, and do not abuse the system more than you already are.

For a detailed guide of each ride where we took advantage of the single rider, click here.

Persistence

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Persistence does not take a break, does not take a nap, does not quit until the job is done.

Persistence is blogging every day for 150 days straight without a day off, even if you’re a little intoxicated and lack insightful wisdom once in a while. Sober or not, I am running 34,000 words strong with 11,481 unique visitors to date. And I am damn proud of it.

Persistence. Give it a shot. It’ll be good for you, I promise.

Production Sucks [Film Friday]

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After five long shooting days, only 16 total hours of sleep, editorial madness, 1.9 terabytes of footage, and three dozen script pages, we’ve finally wrapped the sixth original series I’ve produced in little over a year. Absolute madness.

I haven’t slept in 38 hours. Before I say something about filmmaking I might regret, it’s time for bed.