I’m watching a rerun of The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien and All-American Rejects is the musical guest. After watching them for a bit, I have a short message for them:

Dear All-American Rejects,

Phillip

I haven’t posted anything new for a while, to this blog or to my drum blog. I’ve been a busy guy, not that that’s an excuse, but it is a reason. And, as I had forseen, I simply took on too many projects to be timely successful at any one of them.

As of yesterday, I finished my first week as a freelance writer, approved to write for Demand Studios, a content provider for places like Travels.com, LiveStrong, eHow, and others. I was leary at first, but after reading some reviews I decided to go for it. I can’t tell you how many of these Internet opportunities I’ve looked into and, ultimately, decided to pass on either out of a lack of financial security or promise, or because I was just scared I’d get screwed over. Well, this time, I decided that if I want to do things I enjoy to help pay the bills, I’d better start taking some risks. Calculated risks, of course.

Before taking on this venture, I had (and technically, still have) a very part time dayjob at UC Davis evaluating peaches, almonds, their respective trees, and doing basic casual farm labor. It’s not a horrible gig, but it gets old and uncomfortably dirty (not that there’s anything wrong with dirt, depending on the situation). But I, being a late bloomer, have finally started to do more of the things I wish I’d started doing when I was 10 years younger (not that I’m old now). Therefore, in an attempt to do something that more resembles my likes and wants, I applied to be a copy editor and writer for Demand Studios.

I got passed for the copy editor job. I don’t have the qualifications. But, I got approved to be a writer, and that seemed like a good step.

The way Demand Studios works is that there is a pool of assignments of varying topics to choose from, from tips on how to choose a good family camping tent to how to increase the horsepower on a 2000 Chevy S10 on the cheap. You claim one of these assignments, and newbies are allowed to pick up to 10 flat-fee articles and 15 revenue-sharing articles. This number increases as your standing with the Studio gets better.

The articles you write are work-for-hire, which means once your article has been approved, Demand Studios owns it. You no longer have anything to do with it. You’re supposed to get a byline with your articles, though, so you’ll get the credit (of course, depending on what the editor does to it, you’re getting credit for the edited version. I supposed this is typical practice for “journalistic” work). The pay per flat-fee article can be $3, $5, or $15. Revenue-sharing articles give the writer an opportunity to earn royalties on their writing as their articles receive more and more traffic. If your flat-fee articles are approved before midnight on Wednesday (technically Thursday, huh?), you are to be paid for that work late Friday. Revenue-sharing articles aren’t paid out immediately, but rather on a monthly basis and the amount you’ll earn depends, once again, on traffic to your article.

Starting out, I decided to stick with the $15 articles as my goal is to replace the earnings I would normally take home from UC Davis. This is technically not supposed to a full time job. $15 per article is pretty low, considering there’s also research involved and writers must make sure they follow specific style guides and offer up helpful content. Since my Davis gig was part time anyway, and I wasn’t earning a mint, I figure if I can write two articles a day, five days a week, I’d earn $150 a week; Demand Studios pays via PayPal, and I believe PayPal takes out a small fee when transferring money to your bank account. I haven’t done it yet, so I don’t know how much they’ll take from me. In any case, $150 a week isn’t what I would earn in a good week at Davis, but then, it wasn’t the most steady work and there were taxes to consider. With Demand Studios, because it’s freelance work, you only have to worry about taxes in April. Plus, I’m working at home, saving on gas, and as I get faster with my process I’ll have more time to do the other things I need to do. The other part of my goal is to be able to write both articles in three hours, thus, in effect, earning me about $10 per hour. As I get faster with the process, I can attempt to write more, thus earning me more.

My first week wasn’t bad. Some days were quick, other long. I didn’t do anything comics related because I started work right away in the morning, figuring I’d move comics to the afternoon, then onto other things. That didn’t happen because each day I was researching and writing articles for different lengths of time. Next week, I’ll be doing comics first then doing a drum-teaching gig, then the following week I’ll do comics first then the freelance writing as my morning schedule.

Of all the articles I submitted, three were sent back for rewrites, and you only get one chance to do a rewrite before it’s rejected. One was my fault: I pasted the wrong text in an article. Dumb. The other was due to a weird categorization: identifying your iPod’s generation has nothing to do with travel, does it? After some inquiries and advice, I rewrote the introduction to make the article more relevant to preparing for a trip. The third regarded an omission of information on my part. All in all, not bad.

The copy editors look over submitted articles for content and for also spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Unfortunately, my take on grammatical correctness does not always jibe with the editors’; I’m of the school that if a period or comma is not part of a phrase that is inside of quotation marks, the period or comma belongs outside of the quotes, just like a question mark would. A while back, I looked this up to see if this method is correct, and it is… but so is putting the period and comma inside the quotes. I have seen my approved articles where corrections have been to fall in line with the latter. Ah well. A difference in grammatical schools, I guess. Is that the American method? I’m not sure.

The weirdest part of signing up with Demand Studios, so far, is that, when I applied and subsequently got approved, I received no personal contact. Then I had to submit my W-9, and that was a little scary since I never spoke with a live human being, but after taking security measures so I can watch for suspicious activity on my credit, everything turned out okay. I have already been paid for four articles, so everything seems legit so far. I’ve received some professional and friendly responses to my forum inquires. That’s a good thing, too. Never heard back from my email inquiries, though… one of them to the “editor-in-chief”…

I’m hoping that with time, my process will become streamlined and allow me time to pay attention to my other projects. In the meantime, I’m going to enjoy seeing how this adventure works out for me.

Our second restaurant stop in Oregon was in Eugene. We stopped there to visit a friend that had just relocated. Out to lunch we went, heading past the University of Oregon to the 5th Street Market.

Upstairs, there is a pleasant, roomy eating area, much like a ritzy food court, where several different eateries are located: Greek (Café Glendi), an Italian (Noli Italian Café), Middle-Eastern (Casablanca), and fish ‘n’ chips (Go Fish),

There is also the Marché Café, which we all ended up choosing; I was deliberating between that and Casablanca. Marché Café’s steak baguette reeled me in.

From the menu, I could only assume that the place was a French-styled eatery, specializing in soups and sandwiches. If you look at their menu online, you’ll see that the steak baguette is a sandwich with marinated flank steak, caramelized onions, gruyere, and aioli for $8.50. The menu at the café, however, omitted the gruyere and included sweet peppers along with the caramelized onions.

The sandwich was made with a toasted baguette that held the ingredients like a sub, meaning the bread formed the sides of the sandwich, as opposed to being on the top and bottom like a “flat” sandwich. The caramelized onions and peppers were set on top of the sandwich along with a few leaves of arugula, which I took off and added to my accompanied mix of spring greens. Why? I assumed they were supposed to take the place of the traditional sandwich lettuce, except that the arugula actually sat on top and was not included inside. I didn’t feel like opening up my sandwich so that I might bite into the arugula along with the steak, so I added it to my salad.

The sandwich tasted good, but the bread was toasted too much to eat comfortably. Also, because it was a sub-styled sandwich, and the caramelized onions and peppers sat on top, it was a little difficult to eat; the onions and peppers threatened to spill out and I was also unable to have some with every bite (ever have that problem with a taco?). The steak itself was tasty if not a bit over-cooked, making it, of course, less tender than it could have been. The aioli went nicely with the steak.

The accompanying salad was drizzled with a vinaigrette that was light on the vinegar. It was a nice compliment to the otherwise heavy sandwich. The flavor of the greens stood out and the vinaigrette did not overpower.

Being that I had a steak sandwich on baguette, the price was not too bad. However, my wife had a grilled Tillamook cheese sandwich and fruit (the Croque Bébé) for $5.00. I assume that was some spectacular fruit.

I cannot speak to what my wife and friends had, as I did not taste their dishes (well, I stole a French fry – tasty). I do know they did enjoy their food, although the burger was not medium rare like my friends had requested.

That said, here is this review’s rating scale:

	Is this Heaven?
	I crave. Must have more.
	Really good!
	Good enough.
	I do not enjoy eating vomit.

I give Marché Café 3 1/2 stars. The sandwich was very tasty, just a little difficult to eat. The prices aren’t too bad. I think if the meat had not been over-cooked and the sandwich easier to eat, I’d bump up the rating.

During the last week of July, my wife and I set out to Oregon with her sister and brother-in-law. The plan was to hit Ashland and stay in a motel, drive up to the Rogue Valley State Park to camp out, trek up to Eugene to visit a friend, make our way to Salem to visit my wife and sister-in-law’s brother, head out to the Beachside State Park to camp again, then drive on home.

Whew.

On vacation, I like to eat at local places. Even though most of the time you may not get “local cuisine” – because, let’s face it: you’ll find similar dishes all around this here U.S. of A. – you will get to try local ingredients a lot of the time. You might also find that local restaurants make your favorite dish differently from place to place.

So, even though the plan was to make our own food at the camp sites, there were times when we’d eat out. And our first stop was in Ashland at a place called Louie’s Bar and Grill.

Louie’s claims to make Ashland’s best burger. I forget how long they’ve made that claim (11 years?), but suffice it to say, we all had some sort of burger. Not necessarily because of this claim, but because they advertised what they call “The Recession Burger”. By another name, it’s called a “cheeseburger”. That’s right. As a promotion, they’d labeled their standard cheeseburger The Recession Burger because they were pricing it at $4.99 instead of the regular price (which was $6.95, I think). This, of course, appealed to the four of us that were looking for good, cheap, eats.

My wife and her sister had a Recession Burger. The sister’s hubby had a Jack Daniel’s Burger at regular price.

I would have gone for the Recession Burger as well, but I’d had a huge sandwich from a Nugget that was still lasting me (the Nugget was in Woodland, CA, and it was merely average, atypical for Nugget. But that’s another story). I therefore opted for the more-expensive-yet-I-don’t-know-why patty melt.

Overall, the patty melt was very good. The meat was tasty, but the patty was a bit too small for the bread, meaning that the ends of my sandwich was basically buttery toast with some grilled onions. Speaking of onions, they were indeed grilled, but not to the point of ultra-softness. They still had a very slight firmness, which I liked because in this state they retain a bit of bite. There was enough American cheese to make the sandwich moist but not overly gooey. My patty melt was accompanied by a chipotle coleslaw, which was slightly spicy but not necessarily amazing. It was good, and I enjoyed it as a side dish, but it wasn’t anything I would yearn for.

When traveling I also like to try the local beers and wines, to see what the local breweries and wineries are up to. So, while I knew I wanted a local beer, I couldn’t decide between the two light beers on the menu. The server couldn’t really describe either too me, nor make a recommendation (perhaps he was too young to drink). Therefore, I had him surprise me. He brought me a Mirror Pond, which was hoppy, light, and refreshing.

Overall, the meal was very good. The price was a bit much for a patty melt, especially compared to the regular prices of the other burgers, and I don’t really understand this. Is it the grilling of the onions that jacks up the price? The special bread? I don’t know.

While I did not taste the other meals at the table, I can tell you that everyone enjoyed their burgers. The brother-in-law seemed enthusiastic about his time spent with the Jack Daniel’s Burger and wanted another. I did have a taste of their French fries, which were crispy on the outside, mealy on the inside, and very, very lightly salted. It was a French fry certainly meant for dipping.

The service was pleasant. The servers and hostess were easy to talk to and helpful.

All in all, I would recommend a visit to Louie’s Bar and Grill. The food was very enjoyable, the prices were decent, and the service was pleasant. If only someone could explain the high price of a patty melt, then I’d be even happier.

In conclusion, I present this review’s rating scale:

	I must return. The food calls to me.
	Very good. I can still taste it.
	Good. When in Ashland, it’ll be one of the choices.
	It was edible and made my hunger pangs go away.
	If I die from this food, I’ll be sure to let them know.

I give Louie’s 3 1/2 stars. I think if I’d closed my eyes out of ecstasy during that first bite I’d bump it up to 4.

For those of you visiting Ashland, definitely check out Louie’s Bar and Grill.

I just downloaded the WordPress app for the iPhone. It’s a neat idea, if not a little ridiculous; does anyone really need to blog that often? I thought that’s what Twitter was for. Ah well.

Setting up is easy. The one thing I don’t like, which goes for several apps (such as Twitterific for iPhone) is that it saves your password. Since the iPhone is pretty much a computer for our pocket, I’d much rather treat it like a computer and be able to choose whether or not my passwords get saved for each app.

This is my first post using the app, not to mention the longest thing I’ve ever typed out on an iPhone. Not too shabby. It connects easily to my main blog (my subdirectory blog needs to have some reconfiguration before it can connect) and everything is very clean and straight forward. No frills, just the basics. It’s nice. It’s the way it should be for this particular device.

The final test will be the uploading of the post. If you’re reading this without incident or errors, then that means everything turned out okay.