What I Do In My Spare Time. By Del Pudding

[DPudding]

Twelve days ago I received a phone call. Not a hot chick....not a bill collector....though the latter seems to call more than the former! Rather...it was my so-called.....agent. I know what you're thinking! Del? An actor? Nah....I'm an author. I write college text books. Economics mostly....well....I have parlayed my extensive knowledge of pie charts and bar graphs over into the finance arena. But....finance is a fickle lover....she never called me back after our first date.

So....I get a call twelve days ago. Del (My name isn't Del, BTW)....can you throw together three chapters.....roughly ninety pages on monetary policy and the role of international lending? In my sleep, baby! You see....the time honored art of writing text books isn't a whole lot different from writing romance...or speculative fiction. Sometimes....the author turns in a stinker. Luckily....you got dudes like me who can clean it up! Well....normally I can clean it up.

I took off this week. Left my nice job in a failing industry and came home to slap together an outline and get started. That was last Friday. It's due this Monday. I haven't started yet. I don't know why I haven't started. I could blame it on basketball...conference tournaments have started. I could blame it on UO. But I've played about four hours this week. So....I'm hoping that admitting the problem is the first step toward resolving it.

It can wait until tomorrow.....

 

[TimberWolf]

no more posting for you until you get 1 chapter done!

 

[DPudding]

Only the outline is due. The writing part is easy. Figuring out what topics you're gonna hit and how long you're gonna stay with them is the hard part. (plus...it has to be approved) Creating sample graphics and making suggestions for the reference media takes longer than writing the text.

 

[Dixie]

I hope you're nothing like my econ prof http://comment-blog.advance.net/cgi-bin/mte/mt-search.cgi?tag=Barry Simpson&blog_id=914

 

[Bob_the_fart_guy]

DPudding, as much as I love your posts...and I love you in return bud. Your job sounds (as impossible as this is) even more boring than mine. Then again, I only have a high school education so a lot of things go over my head.

I wish you luck on your um...project, but I'm more curious of your name. What does the "D" stand for? I think your Stratics avatar is from South Park? Of which I have only ever seen about one and a half episodes. Is "DPudding" a cartoon character in South Park? Just curious my friend.

And for the record...from hearing of what you do for a living I'm quite certain that you have a much higher IQ than me. I am just a painter. So, um, good luck with your project there my friend.

 

[TimberWolf]

Bob, you have never heard of Delbert Pudding?

Famous cartoon character from the Sunday funnies!!

Accounting guy type that never got a break!

 

[Black Sun]

Bob, you have never heard of Delbert Pudding?

Famous cartoon character from the Sunday funnies!!

Accounting guy type that never got a break!

You're not talking about this guy are you?

Cause his name is Dilbert.

 

[DPudding]

Delbert Pudding was what we called my brother when we were kids. He hated it. Couple few years ago....I jumped over to Catskills and was creating a new character. My bro named him. In a strange set of circumstances.....my bro now plays him. I gave the account to him last year....he changed Del's name....and now he won't give the account back! He spent all the gold!!! So...I made a new character named Delbert Pudding. He sucks.

I'm a banker, Mr Fart. Masters in Education. Bachelors in Economics. Bachelors in Political Science. I was supposed to be a dirty, no account lawyer....but I didn't go to law school. Couple years ago...I was on a trip to Chicago. An old college buddy of mine invited me to a Bulls game and I met a friend of his who is a technical writer. We started talking and he asked me if I was interested in looking at some stuff he was working on. I did. A month later he called me and asked if I would help him with a project. I did. After a few collaborations....I started getting calls from folks wanting me to flesh out some stuff....or rewrite entire sections. The thing is....you're actually working as part of a team. And when you finish your section....you get a nod...but the leader of the project is considered the author. It's a nice way to make extra money. But not a nice way to become famous. But considering the material...who'd want to be?

Avatar creator over at southparkstudios.com is pretty dang fun. Everybody should make one!

 

[TimberWolf]

I stand corrected!

 

[Corvak]

Dogbert controls the world. True story.

 

[Scarst]

I hope you're nothing like my econ prof http://comment-blog.advance.net/cgi-bin/mte/mt-search.cgi?tag=Barry Simpson&blog_id=914

I certainly hope that guy isn't your professor because that is a horrible thing.