A juggling technophile shares personal stories, challenges, humor and perhaps some political commentary.
The Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in Asheville, North Carolina estimates that in the United States alone, $800 or $900 million is lost in business each Friday the 13th because some people will not travel or go to work. [Source via KnoxViews]
You know, if I could have just a little, tinnie, tiny piece of that….
I really like watching Miss Spider’s Sunny Patch Kids (see also 2004).
Ah! The grass is always greener on the other side. If you are in the corporate world, you dream of working for yourself either as a consultant or having your own business. As a consultant or business owner, you long for the simplicity of an 8-5 job with its predictable income, insurance, and assumed stability. The dream of escaping corporate drudgery to freelance is often envisioned with copious free time, barrels of money, setting your own schedule, recovering vacations lost to corporate deadlines, quality time spent with the children, and cutting the yard while advising your client via cellphone for an outrageous hourly fee. The truth of the matter is that a consultant/freeagent has to plan for 20% more time than a regular employee. Yes, that means working for yourself you should plan for a 6 day work week OR 5 ten and half hour work days.
Attitudes change also. The corporate world might have some flexibility in hours. Some people may work 7-4 while others work 10-6 but the world generally expects the business to be open 8-5. When you work for yourself, the world generally expects you to be open 24/7. The world is also shrinking. Right now I am working on a project for a client who is 6 hours ahead of me. That means their day is over one hour from now and if I want that critical progress payment I have one hour to show them the milestone has been met. A couple of weeks ago, I was working with a client 11 hours ahead of me. I also had a client whose corporate offices were 8 hours behind me while their US offices where 3 hours behind me but I received the work through another office which was 1 hour behind me. If you do not set your business hours then it is easy to be sucked into world time and you can easily find yourself trying to be that 24/7 person (ie. exhausted). As a 24/7 person, if you work from your house, you could find clients coming to your door to interrupt dinner, find you in your pajamas, or sunbathing naked in the backyard. Set hours! Most importantly, respect the hours and keep them. If you declare an 8-5 day, you had better be working 8-5. Setting communication hours for IM, email, and phone will also help your productivity (I don’t follow any of these suggestions).
Now, time to defy the laws of physics and make an impossible amount of progress in the next hour. Thank goodness for the television babysitter!
Apparently I am still not channeling this guy.
Student: Why do I even try?
Master: Nothing changes without effort.
Amy, 5 years old: "I don’t want to die. Dead is forever."
Amy needs some attention right now and all I can give her is "Daddy has to work." I should work while everyone else sleeps.
Thank you Bindlestiff Family Circus for making me have to explain "deep throating" to my teenagers.
Me: "Do you know what deep throating is?"I enjoyed their stark stares of dread as they tried to melt into the upholstery during my explanation. They needed an explanation because it was clear they didn’t understand when they made a dozen deep throat jokes in front of the grandfather between the theater and the parking garage. Of course, I really appreciate the detail at which you explained the proper use of a condom. I have been trying to figure out how to have that conversation with them and now I don’t need to.
Thank you for the interesting date for the first half of the show. I certainly would have enjoyed sitting with Cathy but I suppose this is called a variety show for a reason.
Your show was innovative and right in line with the style I like to attempt in my performances although I’m more G rated. Thank you for keeping the spirit of Vaudeville alive. I had a blast! Of course, Danny would probably like to know that a highlight of the show was having the very Republican father-in-law sit motionless as the theater erupted into its most raucous cheering and applause in response to the very pointed GW Bush jokes.
Student: Too many thoughts!
Master: Pick one.
I am finally settling in to work. Yes, the rest of the Eastern seaboard is heading out to lunch having already worked half their day. However, I’m so mentally worn out that I’m not sure I can accomplish anything. Why can’t I be more like this guy?
Sixty-four-year-old Thai Ngoc, known as Hai Ngoc, said he could not sleep at night after getting a fever in 1973, and has counted infinite numbers of sheep during more than 11,700 consecutive sleepless nights. “I don’t know whether the insomnia has impacted my health or not. But I’m still healthy and can farm normally like others,†Ngoc said.
[Source]
In college, I dated a girl who, along with her mother, went out of their way to lie to her father to keep him happy. I’m pretty sure my sister and mother do the same for my father. Do other people do this? When did happiness, false happiness at that, become more important than truth?
Student: Oh Hell!
Master: No, this is just a preview.
[Source]
Alagad sounds like the kind of company I always wanted to start. If you are an advanced CF developer, and want to work from home with a flexible schedule, this opportunity might be for you!
