Strike Day 46

Here we go again, another day with no real STRIKE activity included. Yesterday, even though there was no picket line, I did go to the Post Office to ship out those DVDs to the tourist family who turned out to be fans of "Sleeper Cell." But today was my first real day completely off from the strike. I suppose it's Holiday vacation time anyway. Tomorrow is my 3 kids' last day of school until after the Winter break ends. A lot of other people are on vacation, why not me too?

I'll tell you why: BECAUSE I'M NEVER ON VACATION!!!

That's right -- N - E - V - E - R.

Never EVER.

It's just one of the things that comes from starting out as a starving FREELANCER -- you are always working, on something or other. Sometimes two or three things all at once.

Also -- in a good way -- it's one of the things that comes from doing a job that you love, or, with slightly more accuracy, from having found away to take doing what you love and turn it into a way to make a pretty decent living.

I know I am an incredibly lucky guy. I am well aware of that fact.

This strike is not going to help my own bottom line, only hurt it. I knew that going in. But this strike is not really for me or my writing-producing partner or the other WGA members like us. This strike is for the staff writers and story editors -- the entry-level and junior writers -- from our TV show writing staffs and for the up-and-coming feature film screenwriters -- and for the kids still in school who want to write movies, and the kids who are out of school, working a day-job 5 or 6 days a week and then going home and writing all night and writing on their one or two days off.

Because if we give away our tiny fair share of profit-participation when movies and TV shows that we write are delivered via the internet, it is not my future we're giving up, it's theirs.