dianaschnuth

A “normal” freelance web designer wouldn’t exactly call three gigs “a lot,” but it’s a lot for me. None are totally off the ground yet, but all are promising, even if not from a monetary standpoint.

Number one is the fellow podcaster who’s having me do time-consuming but relatively menial work for a good wage. He’s been snowed under by work lately (not literally like we have in Ohio, though), and hasn’t been able to reschedule my “training session.” I bugged him this evening via Google Chat, and we’re going to try to make it work for tomorrow or Monday evening. We’ll see how that works out.

Number two is the Frontpage website, referred by my corps buddy. I did some research on his nonworking .asf files, and it looks like he was using deprecated tags that the new IE7 no longer supports. Tonight, I e-mailed him some alternate code and a very reasonable quote (IMHO) for a new website, including three design comps and free minor tweaks after the design process is complete.

Number three is a new prospect. A new/reforming senior corps is researching other corps’ websites, and I basically got a fan letter regarding how the LSM site was designed. The representative of the new corps likes the lack of pop-up and pop-under advertising, the clean look, and the design concept in general. I e-mailed him this evening and gave him the name of our forum software and its server requirements, a run-down of the features of the LSM website, and an offer to assist him with his website research and the design of their new site, no charge. (I can’t bring myself to charge a non-profit. I know corps have severely limited budgets, and they’re gonna need to spend money on webhosting already.)

Add these to my drive and determination to get my portfolio done, and I’m one bad mutha.

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Don’t laugh. That’s not nice. I’m trying to boost my self-esteem here.

In the nearly five years I’ve worked for Sky, I don’t think I have ever had a snow day. An official one, anyway.

Last night, I called work to let them know that I would be under a two-hour delay, and would be in at 10am, barring any further weather developments. This morning, my supervisor called to let me know that Lucas County is under a Level 3 snow advisory, and that Sky is closed — for the morning, anyway. I’m supposed to confirm with our Status Line between now and noon to see whether things have changed, although it looks like we’re still under a Level 3.

I haven’t seen drifts like this in years. A plow came down our street yesterday evening; this morning, you wouldn’t even be able to tell there was a road there if you didn’t know (and if the mailboxes didn’t tip you off). The mail didn’t show up yesterday until 5:30pm, and the substitute mail chick nearly got her mail truck stuck two houses down from us.

If the Status Line says we’re opening for the afternoon, I’m going to call in and use a half day of personal time. Screw that. I don’t even know if the snow emergency will have abated by the time Aaron has to go in to work tonight. I’m glad he stayed home last night; I wasn’t comfortable with letting him go out with the roads the way they were yesterday.

Being that I’m officially allowed to be home from work… this isn’t bad. Once I have to start driving in it again, though, I’m going to lose my Talcott-ish love for the snow and go back to being my typical, winter-hating self.

I’m glad that I’ve finally reached a point in my life where I can summon some anger and determination to excel, where in years past I would have sunk into depression and given up for the time being. This is a step in the right direction.

I’m going to go start working on this now, while I have candles brewing upstairs, preparing to earn a big ol’ twelve bucks for me tomorrow at work. Yee-haw.

When I’m not working on either of those things, I’ll be visiting Cameron Moll‘s site for sources of inspiration influence.

I’m still so fucking fragile. At least I’m dealing with it in the proper manner now.

Update, 8:45pm: The SQL database backend of my new portfolio site is complete, apart from detailed descriptions of my work. I will now use all of my willpower to make it work *before* I make it pretty.

Update, 9:30pm: I’ve got a nice While loop happening now, and I’ve managed to make a dynamic (but unlovely) list of the work I plan to showcase in my updated portfolio. Unfortunately, I completely forgot about my candle wax melting upstairs; fortunately, it wasn’t at a critical point where forgetting about it was a Bad Thing™.

Got an e-mail from an LSM drumcorps buddy today — it seems that he has a friend who owns his own business works for a small business, who has designed his own website in Frontpage, and this page now needs an overhaul. My LSM cohort was kind enough to act as a liaison and suggest my services to him.

I’ve tried this before, and I crashed and burned…
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I think I just got stood up for the one-hour training session for my contract job.

We were tentatively scheduled to have a web meeting at 7pm Central. I never heard otherwise, so I was waiting at my computer with my phone by my side at 8pm Eastern. It’s now 9pm Eastern, and even accounting for confusion between timezones, it doesn’t look like this meeting is going to happen today.

I didn’t want to get myself engrossed in anything important, then have to interrupt myself for something more important, so I’ve been websurfing at my desk for the last hour-plus. Not that that’s entirely a bad thing, but I did have things I wanted to take care of. Like a cardio workout, or cleaning my desk, or podcasting, or administering the LSM forums.

I’m feeling a little put out… but not entirely, because he did say he’d have to consult with one of his coworkers and get back with me for a confirmation, which I never got. Maybe the conference they’re running is a little crazier than they banked on. I’m not really that upset or anything. It’s all good.

I’m going to sit here for another 20 minutes or so, just to be sure, then I’m going to e-mail my contact person and go take a shower. I’m unusually sleepy for 9pm on a Tuesday.

Update, Wednesday evening: Looks like my contact got caught up in putting out fires at the event he’s manning this week. He apologized in response to my e-mail and said he’s going to get with his co-worker and see when we can reschedule. I can certainly relate to getting caught up in taking care of business, so no biggie.

If I feel comfortable quoting a website makeover, I may have even more freelance work on the horizon… I’ve gotta just jump in and give it a go. The worst thing that can happen is that I screw something up and/or don’t get paid, and either case will be a learning experience.