Master Of None

Some people need to get a hobby.

Me, I need to drop some.

It occured to me while I was playing Viva Piñata on the 360 tonight, being that it’s a gardening game of sorts, and I’m a real-life gardener… of sorts. My hobbies are part seasonal, part on-a-whim-sical. I especially enjoy outdoor gardening in the spring — but, come summer, I lose interest and miss a few days’ worth of watering and my plants promptly croak. Except the bulbs and the catnip, and I love them for it. Then there’s my winter hobby of candlemaking, and my sometimes hobby of photography, and my hobby-turning-avocation of web design and development. And don’t forget my every-November hobby of writing, and the dozen or so unfinished short stories or novellas on my hard drive. And in my files, from before I even owned a computer.

To think that some people can barely stick with knitting.

Sometimes I feel all enriched and shit — look at me, I can do all these creative things, and I’ve even let some of my talents fall by the wayside (like drawing, which used to be my passion, and music, which used to be my identity). Sometimes I wonder why I can’t be like a “normal” person and only be interested in one or two pursuits.

I wonder if I’m not driven enough to focus on one passion, or if I’m just too interested in everything to pick just one.

Out of the Woodwork

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.

What I Did On My Snow Day

I thought for sure that I’d get *so* much accomplished on my snow day. I had such grand plans.

*sigh*

I made a concerted effort to work on the LSM site, as I appeared to be on a bit of a roll with that. Within the past couple of days, I had locked down the Guest logins so no one can change the passwords on those, or add their own name to the contact info (grrr!). I also made it so that no one can delete an event that already happened, just in case I need to upload photos of that event later, as the photo table relies on the event table to get info about each event. I also adapted the script that displays the available sheet music for download, and changed it around so that my new script (on another page) displays all the board meeting minutes that are uploaded.

I was pretty proud of having done that, so I started working on a couple things this morning. First, I tried changing the upload form to include uploads of meeting minutes, so I wouldn’t have to rename and upload all of them myself. I wasn’t in the groove, though, and couldn’t wrap my mind around all the small changes I was going to have to make. Instead, I thought I’d work on some e-mail forwarding: making a singular e-mail address for the board of directors forward to each member of the board. I tried setting up a mailing list on my personal domain, which was daunting, then went to make sure I could forward an address on the LSM domain to one on my domain. And OMG none of the forwarding I set up would take effect! Not even when I tested it and forwarded the new board e-mail to my personal address. Seriously frustrating. I mean, forwarders don’t need to propagate like domains, do they? Why should I have to wait to see if the forwarding works? At any point, I gave up.

Aaron and I had grilled cheese on 100% whole wheat bread for lunch, then he went outside and shoveled the driveway for an hour. In the meantime, I did the dishes, bleached the sink, swept the kitchen floor, and cleared off the dining room table. And listened to Pimsleur’s Japanese 1 lesson #2, where I learned to say, “How are you?” and “I’m fine, thanks,” along with other things I already knew, like “Good morning,” “Good afternoon,” “Thank you,” and “Goodbye.”

After Aaron was done shoveling, we sat together in the living room while he warmed back up, then I posted some stuff to eBay while he talked to a couple friends on the phone and decided whether to go to work tonight.

After Aaron left for work around 5:30pm, the evening turned into something fairly normal. Made dinner, watched the news and Good Eats, and played on teh internets. And here I am.

Not exactly a vacation day, but not exactly a day full of accomplishments, either. Ah, well.

Snow Day!

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.

Dr. Timothy D. King, 1949-2007

Timothy D. King 57, of Bowling Green, Ohio died Friday (February 9, 2007) at Wood County Hospital. He was born July 3, 1949 in Cheverly, Maryland to Thomas & Annie (Kilburn) King. He was married to Patricia (Brown) on December 19, 1970; they were married for thirty years.

He is survived by his sons, David (Hillary) of Chicago and Brian of Denver; daughter, Ellen King of Bowling Green; former wife and close friend Patricia; brother, William (Patty) of Piedmont, Ca.; and special friend Carol Berman of Orchard Park, N.Y.

Mr. King was the Associate Director of Residence Life at B.G.S.U. He received his BA from Macalester College, Master’s (1973) & PHD (1978) from the University of Minnesota. He was a leader with Cub Scout pack #358 and a member of the Maumee Valley Unitarian Universalist Congregation. He was an avid cook, a loving father and was known throughout the community for his generosity and witty humor.

(read the full obituary at Dunn Funeral Homes)

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