Reality Me

Month: October 2006

  • Looking to go corp

    I love working for myself. I love working from the house. I have worked the past 9 weeks for free because I was unable to collect on my last two major projects. My business practices have to change to prevent this from happening again.

    There are five companies in the Knoxville area that could woo me back into corporate life: Scripps Networks, Jewelry Television, Bush Beans, SAIC (wow! SAIC IPO’d!), and Clayton Homes. I am sure there are others. I really know my stuff when it comes to ColdFusion. PHP, MS SQL and MySQL. ColdFusion is my love. I learned yesterday that Jewelry Television has a ColdFusion position available and I am applying. Wish me luck!

  • Offering New Service

    The Apple Computer Store offers a service for $99 per year you can go into the store for up to an hour a week and get help on your computer. I have many requests to help people on their computers but I charge $135 per visit with a 5 hour time limit (The Geek Squad charges that much just to come see you then upsells a bunch). I want to add the Apple Store’s model to my offerings to Knoxville area computer users.

    For $200 for a year’s time I will make myself available to you for up to an hour per week for training, computer help, computer advice, and so forth. That’s less than minimum wage! I am charging more than the Apple Store because 1) I will give advice on both PCs and Macs and 2) instead of you going to a store, I will come to you. You must be in the Knoxville area and appointments must be made at least 48 hours in advance.





  • If you need viruses and spyware removed from a computer in knoxville give me a call at 865-382-3080. I also build websites worldwide.

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  • Securing Contacts and Jobs

    I just put a resume out on this one. Sounds fun!

    Duties and Responsibilities:
    – Assist in composing web pages and in creating special sections as assigned by the Site coordinator
    – Work hands-on in the development of web applications (AJAX/HTML/Javascript)
    – Competence creating table-free layouts
    – Prototype, develop, and maintain new features and enhancements
    – Operates as a leader/lead worker among other staff, shares knowledge or training with subordinates and/or colleagues to benefit the entire department
    – Participate in workflow design and analyze existing production and implementation processes in order to insure the overall quality of the sites
    – Maintenance and support of existing templates and content production processes
    – Perform web development, template writing, testing debugging, documentation, and installation tasks for on-line processes in accordance with industry best practices and specific internal procedures and standards
    – Partner with Web-ops to ensure that interactive techniques and technologies translate through to shipping products and services
    [Source]

    One of the challenges of working for yourself is you have to shoot at a lot of barns to hit some work. The problem is barns move pretty quick! Sometimes it is just plain difficult to find a barn. Then the barn’s owner looks at you and may not even give you permission to shoot at the barn in the first place much less give you the barn.

    Playing low budget developer and sales person at the same time can lead to missed deadlines or living with very little sleep. Finishing a project, then turning on sales mode can lead to dry spells where you wonder how you’ll eat. Ideally, you should be working with a sales person!

  • Email Overload!

    My email box on one account had accumulated 6000 emails. I save my emails incase a client ever needs to go back to old conversations. However, much of that 6000 is spam and stuff that should have gone away after the first read. Today I archived all my mail and am starting over with a new mail policy. Deal with it immediately! That means I read it and respond immediately then file it or throw it away. I can’t have stuff missed because I flag it for followup and never get back to it. I am going to work on the same concept in the physical world.

  • Hawii Disaster Declared

    Did someone forget to enter the numbers?! Hawii had a 6.6-magnitude earthquake. So, is the first question you asked, "Was anyone hurt?" or "Did the Lost set get damaged? And is production delayed?"

  • Child Labor is Ok!

    So I pop over to Craig’s List to see if anyone in Knoxville posts jobs that pay rapidly and I find this one:

    …That consists of taking the supplied directory and placing it into a supplied bag, double tying said bag shut and stacking the completed directory onto a skid.
    You will be working primarily unsupervised in a storage unit/miniature warehouse near the Knoxville Zoo. This is an unheated indoor location; therefore you are advised to dress for the weather, it may be chilly in the mornings. … We pay $20.00 per completed skid.

    Each skid holds about 400 books so if it takes you 15 seconds to pickup, bag, double-tie and place a bookdown you are looking at 4 books a minute so roughly an hour and a half or two for $20. Now this is my favorite part:

    While you are welcome to bring your kids to help you, at least one person must be of majority age. Additionally, in such an arrangement, your kids work for you and not us, therefore you are responsible for paying them for helping you. We will pay the adult who responds to this ad.

    It saddens a little to see this because with the cash flow issues I have endured as an independent contractor, I can see how a family would need to submit to such a job just to put food on the table. It is a shame that this company does not pay on the day of work but instead holds the money for a week and a half. I hope that I never have to tell the kids, "today for fun we are going to stand on our feet for 8 hours and shove telephone books into plastic bags." Life certainly has humbled me enough to understand that the poor are not given much opportunity to rise from their circumstances.

  • Need my expertise?

    Anyone needing computers services? I can do physical repairs and on-site work in Knoxville, and can develop websites and software applications worldwide. Email: juggler@gmail.com.

  • Bye Bye Black Sheep

    What’s this? "Baaa. No black sheep." Kristyk turns us onto this excellent photoblog! I really like the puddle jumping.

  • Conundrums – work or play

    It’s a beautiful Saturday. I’d love to play with the children. In 3 hours I have to spend 4 hours helping Noah sell popcorn. I need to prepare dinner, work in the yard, work on the house, work on client projects, work on personal coding projects, and…ugh.

  • Self-esteem – don’t look to the ads

    We should show this to our children, repeatedly.

  • 13 and not firing on all cyclinders

    My daughter has stuck a note for her mother directly on the screen of her monitor with duct tape! Guess I won’t be getting her an LCD panel monitor anytimes soon. I also can’t convince her that her WordPress blog is far better and more powerful than her Xanga blog. At least she improved the appearance of her Xanga a little.

  • Waking on the numbers

    I woke this morning at 4:44. I love doing that! Of course, we are limited to 5 (technically 10) opportunites to wake when the digital clock reads all the same numbers. The day I wake to 6:66 I’m hiding under the covers! (And yes, I know, I really should be more concerned about waking at 6:16)

  • Frustrating but nice

    I love my children. Evan’s "DadaA! hahaha"s are particularly nice. But the responsibilities of adulthood are often fraught with conflict. I have a phone interview in an hour and 15 minutes. I desperately wanted to get an introductory email to the company but have been unable to compose it. I wanted to take the two hours prior to the phone call to calm myself, review my resume, and prepare. Cathy is not feeling well this morning so instead of preparing myself, I am doing the right thing and letting her rest while I watch the children. Honestly, I do not need to prepare for an interview but my wife needs to feel better.

  • Cheap Stuff Now

    WootOff! in progress.