Billing Headaches. Big Telecomms make me Ill.

Hi all. haven't written here in awhile. Sorry for that.
I want to complain about one of the biggest telecoms in Canada.
I won't mention names, We'll call it, Big Red.

See, Big Red throughout the years have not been the best to their customers, and probably not the best to their suppliers either.
Recently, within the past year or so, they implemented a new policy on invoicing.
It's called NET 45
Yes it sounds like another corporate sack of horse bile. And guess what, it is.
They've decided they're only going to pay their suppliers every 45 days.
Let me explain to you what that means.

1)if you have bills to pay, every 30 days or so, and need these invoices filed, you're SOL.

2)By not paying you within 30 business days, Roger…I mean…Big Red earned interest on that invoice.
They saved themselves money while costing you money.  Thanks, Big Red.

3)By changing standard billing cycles, they spit in our collective faces

So, if I hired people to work on a project, and they bill me, my standard practice is to pay RIGHT AWAY. This is the right thing to do. Larger corporations have longer billing cycles due to increased volume of paper to file. I understand that. What I don't get is why would they extend it longer than everyone else's schedule?

On my invoice, I expect payment right away, they failed to comply to the invoice they approved, and are thus in rears. So, next time I bill, I'll add on interest from the previous invoice, and so on and so on until the ends of the universe.

I want to put it in perspective.

If I was a customer of Big Red, and decided I wanted to pay their invoice, say, every 45-90 days, what would happen?
I'm guessing calls from collection agencies and lots of interest, bad credit rating, large men named Vito knocking down your door. Surprise trips in the trunks of random Buick's.

So, what right do they have to set new terms on their payment schedule, ignore the approved invoice terms and conditions, and in general be really scummy about the whole ordeal?

Well, I guess they have billions and I don't.

Well, let's see what people in the world of public opinion feel of that.

Cheers
Jeff

Apple disappoints

Apple seems to be a big bag of Disappoint over the past while.
First, they have not released a new Mac Pro for about 20 years. I think my cellphone can do more complex arithmetic.

Second, they are no longer releasing macbook pros in the 17in flavour. This is ridiculous. I need the extra real-estate when I'm editing and doing graphics. Programs like After Effects are cluttered with Menus and a bigger work area saves the day, especially if we're traveling and doing remote edits.

Thirdly, they are no longer adhering to Environmental Standards due to a design choice.
What is this design choice you may ask yourself? Why, it's stupid, that's what it is.

Apple being a big ol Baby

Check out this link to give a brief overview of the issue.

Primarily, Apple doesn't want us, the average joe user to have any control over the products we buy. We must adhere to their "Secret Garden" or GTFO.

Let's go over the Stupid Choices By Apple List. Or how I like to call the SCAL

1)Their batteries are soldered and or glued in. Meaning, if my battery fails, I need to give it to some Apple "Genius" (ughh) and wait 19 weeks not working because of their ridiculous design feature. Will Apple pay me or should I just buy a PC?

2)Ram Soldered in and Proprietary.  Gha??? So, lets say I order an 8 gig mac and realize, you know, i would like to buy my own ram and upgrade on my own time so I don't have to wait for it to be special ordered from some factory in Thailand. here I go opening it up...oh..wait..look. The RAM... Can not be removed. WTF
Throws Mac into wall. There... now I can remove it.

3)Limited Size. 15" eh.... So, for us power users that use more programs than your shitty FCPX and Aperture, we are SOL? I need square footage. I guess I need to buy a better monitor, which isn't an apple display.

4)Inability to upgrade anything. I used to work on the old Power Macs before they went into those lucite cases. Let me tell you what it was like to replace a drive. Hell. It was terrible. I cut my finger twice trying to remove the layers and layers of metal brackets and impossibly short wires to just get at a single thing. It was a mess. People complained so they made their systems more open and easy to access. Drive bays that popped out. Ram that could be removed Easily. Even the Current Macbook Pros have features I can upgrade. HDD to SSHDD, RAM, New Battery. Whatever.

Now... I can't do shit all.
Screw you Apple.
Tomorrow, I'm going to get an Alienware or higher end laptop with twice your specs for half your price and run your OS, cuz... well its still better than Windows...for now.

Crap, where did I leave my iPad?

Going To Banff! New Website!

I am on my way to pitch some shows to the LA crowd. Updates coming.

In other news, my new website is almost done. I'm going to launch it anyway to at least have it out there.
Rock on.

Updates!

So the police dinner went great, as you pretty people saw with my lovely pic of me and the Chief himself.

The pitch edits are going great. Working on three at once. Waiting for some Voice Over work from one guy, and graphic front ends from my designer extra-ordinaire Emma . Check out her reel folks. shes really good and super great to work with.  Emma's Reel.

More updates to come! SOOO BUSY

Taxes are no laughing matter

I made some mistakes the past couple days. I paid my taxes but I didn't file the paper work properly. So now I have to call the CRA. READ EVERYTHING THEY SEND YOU

Over Worked

I've been overworked and I've been swamped. There is a difference. Over Worked means you are at the end of the line. The stress of deadlines, the worry of making them, it eats at your ability to function properly. Everything becomes annoying.
Friends, family, those you love, especially those you love. Why?
They distract you from finishing your work!!!
Damn you love!
At then end, it's delivered, and you ask yourself, was it worth the effort?
Maybe.
One of my clients requires a fairly simple assemble with a massive 20-30 hour render. ANYTHING that goes wrong, and you've wasted days of render work. This precarious teetering urks me to no end.
Then another client is trying to rip me off by coming back and low balling me after AFTER I invoiced them. 
To top it off, I'm going to Banff to pitch some shows and I'm not quite done the edits needed.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I need better time management.
Back to multi tasking.
AChoo.

Produced the Toronto Police Chiefs Dinner

Hi Ya'll. I've been swamped to high heaven. From making shorts for all my pitches going to Banff, to producing awesome floor shows, I do NOT STOP>
This time it was the Chief of Police Dinner at the Liberty Grande.
What a great event. Barking Mad Media was hired by the always lovely and talented Rachel Woodman who is doing a stint at the Michael Communications.

There were hick-ups which I will talk about shortly, but mostly. it went smoothly. I edited SUPER fast, directed my camera peeps, overall it was good being the producer instead of the camera op.
Now its on to other bigger and better things!

Jeff