I am bouncing up and down with glee for you, Deb! Congrats, rock on, babe! I'm so happy all this good stuff is happening to someone I know, who totally works her ass off and deserves it!

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Whoa.

Dude.

Whoa.

Daymond is not with the stingy, is he?

Also, what Erin said.

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Nope. NOT with the stingy. The problem is that I'm extremely not with the comfortable taking any of it. I managed to avoid all the perks during the Nice Piano years. This should be easier - it's work, not love - but it isn't.

Eh. I'll deal.

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I hear you about not being comfortable with it, but yeah, it's work. And Daymond gets what he wants out of it (his story told, and exposure and stuff), and he wouldn't offer all this if it wasn't worth it to him. And he's gotten where he is today by his own work, but also by friends and contacts being not-stingy with him, so I totally admire him sharing that karma.

Especially since he's sharing it with one of my peeps! Good man.

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The problem is that I'm extremely not with the comfortable taking any of it. I managed to avoid all the perks during the Nice Piano years. This should be easier - it's work, not love - but it isn't.

It's work, not love is the key. Think of it as redressing the way in which writers are often compensated.

Now, if you were writing for Vibe or Rolling Stone, you would get your airfare, accomodations, and have an expense account. Instead, you are writing for Daymond/Fubu, and they're providing your travel and accomodations.

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Dayum, Deb. Who knew? Not like it's a complete rags-to-riches gig or anything, but when things look up they don't stop at the moon, do they? Wowza.

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Deb, that is all so utterly fantastic! And so very, very richly well deserved. And as to your comfort level with all the perks, all I can do is point up to Raq's post above and nod like a madly nodding thing. You don't refuse when someone's paying it forward; the entire universe will look askance.

Well, one other thing besides What Raq Said: you refused it all in the Nice Piano days, and now you're getting it all back, with interest, not just because of what Daymond's been given, but on your own merits, because you're a terrific writer with a big fierce brain. Whatever absurd kind of gift it all is, it's also one that you earned, every bit of it.

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Wrod.

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Yes.

But also, these cool things (like going to Magic) are expenses that he NEEDS to have, for the project to work. It's not just 'hey, Deb's cool, let's give her stuff' - for you to be able to do justice to this project, you need to go and do the legwork, and the research, and all that jazz. If it was a gazillion dollar project about gutting fish, he'd be spending lots of money sending you around canneries and on freezing fishing boats - it's just cool that the subject is all cool and fun and stuff, rather than fish-gutting. And if you were a suit-wearing businesswoman in, I don't know, advertising or something, and you were researching some kind of project for work, then damn sure work should be financing the travel expenses and the overtime and the hotel accommodation and picking up the tab for all your meals and suchlike - there are millions of people out there asking for a receipt so that they can get their employers to pay for dinner right now.

For this, I really don't think you need to have any sense of guilt, although I can understand the impulse. But don't forget that (1) he can afford to do it, and wants to do it, and (2) you are WORKING for this stuff. It's not freebies.

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Deb, what they all said. Is work, is research, is stuff you need to know.

Therefore, hit it with the Guilt-Be-Gone.

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