Sadly, that was only $30. I've been unemployed for several months now. I work in the entertainment industry which, historically, does well in bad economic times, but this time, it is still trying to get out of the hole it fell into with the writers strike.
It's actually interesting to see, working on the fringe/indie side of the industry as I do, that one of the hardest-hit groups has been independent film makers, but not for reasons you might think...
Indie films are notorious money laundering grounds. Organized crime from around the world dump money into independent, low budget movies knowing that they will make their money back as long as it gets released on DVD worldwide. This was going on all the time. The Polish Mafia funded a film done by a friend of mine.
Suddenly, though, the less-than-legit money dried up. Interestingly enough, it dried up the same time the economy took a nose dive. You know it's bad when criminals don't have the money to invest in films.
Even though I'm unemployed, I maintain a small recording studio/editing suite in Burbank from where I do the occasional freelance project (much less occasional now) and work on my own creative projects. To get there, I pass by the social security office. This morning, an older man in a nice-looking BMW pulled into the office's parking lot. Not a sight you expect to see.
Anyway, I have not made any money in quite some time (thankfully, my wife works), and my bank account was down to $120. Maybe my bipolar disorder shifted me into manic, but I had a sudden compulsion to donate to the campaign right now. There's only two weeks left and I just had to give even though it hurt.
I now have $90 with no jobs in sight, but in the place of the donation page where it asked who employed me, I wrote:
Unemployed- but President Obama will fix that!
We need a man who will save this economy and create new jobs and that man is not John McCain.
Also, as promised, here is a song I wrote recently about zombies. Yes, I am a terrible guitarist.
Well, that's enough of a disjointed ramble for today. I just wanted to say I gave until it hurt and then I gave some more!