Maybe I've always been here.

Early ,'Objects In Space'


Buffista Business Talk: I wanted simple, I wanted in-and-out, I wanted easy money.

A virtual watercooler where Buffistas in business can talk, share, exchange, bemoan, exult and assorted other power verbs associated with all areas of running/starting up a business. For existing or potential Buffista business owners of all types. Spamming is NOT ON. A list of our Buffista owned businesses is on our links page.


Strix - Sep 30, 2011 3:03:07 am PDT #643 of 1417
A dress should be tight enough to show you're a woman but loose enough to flee from zombies. — Ginger

I was happy to see you there, and I met a local participant at that F2F networking thing I went to on Tuesday.

So that was cool!


smonster - Sep 30, 2011 4:15:11 am PDT #644 of 1417
We won’t stop until everyone is gay.

Yay for Bonny and Erin!!


beekaytee - Sep 30, 2011 6:15:20 am PDT #645 of 1417
Compassionately intolerant

QUICK WORDING REVIEW REQUEST:

It's done!

You know, I'm mostly okay with being dyslexic, but sometimes I just don't know.

Thank GOD by friend was able to look at the text because I did not 'see' one of the questions correctly, after having read it at least 10 times.

She asked why the question was so abrupt. Was it tied to removed text or something on my website.

Nope. The interviewer just asked it out of the blue.

While I appreciate _wanting_ to go from ordinary to extraordinary, I'm not sure I could answer that in two sentences.

Heh.

Now to send it off. (I'm secretly thrilled to be featured on the website of the local mommy mob. The are some hardcore wymmins. No lie. It's great exposure for me.


Toddson - Sep 30, 2011 6:21:42 am PDT #646 of 1417
Friends don't let friends read "Atlas Shrugged"

Penguin wrangling?


beekaytee - Sep 30, 2011 6:30:28 am PDT #647 of 1417
Compassionately intolerant

Yup. I worked at Seaworld San Diego right when they opened the very first Penguin Encounter. I can still hear the theme music and smell the smell of a thousand deadly smells.

When March of the Penguins came out all I could say was "Just thank God it isn't in Smell-o-vision."

Plus? No. I'm all for dramatic effect and all, but Emperors simply do not have personalities. Trust me, there is nobody home in there. For reals.


Strix - Sep 30, 2011 8:07:58 am PDT #648 of 1417
A dress should be tight enough to show you're a woman but loose enough to flee from zombies. — Ginger

Ha!


amych - Sep 30, 2011 11:58:58 am PDT #649 of 1417
Now let us crush something soft and watch it fountain blood. That is a girlish thing to want to do, yes?

You guys!! I had to scroll back 225 messages to find last month's checkins! Because we rock! And I still can't post without exclamation points!

Anyway:

I wrapped up a project today, with happy clients, and a big feeling of YAY DONE. I like handoffs. I like them so much better than finishing up a period of contract work, or a maintenance/upgrade/tweaky jobbie, or whatever else, even if the pay and work were exactly the same. It's like, hey, we made this thing! Look at it all shiny and new!

So after that, I took a two-hour vacation. I mean really took a vacation: walked out of the client's office reeeeally slow on this absolutely gorgeous day, and got myself lunch (out! not at my desk!) and took the slow way home, totally in the moment the whole time, and took a little nap, and THEN got back to hitting refresh on a million different things.

I'm definitely one of those freelancers who does it for the lifestyle rather than doing it to make the big bucks. And I'm pretty good at refusing to let myself get into overcommitment and 16-hour workdays and all that -- I'd rather live leaner but saner, and anyway getting all macho over that stuff is for the birds 25-year-olds. But even so, I carry work with me. If I'm not being productive, I'm still thinking about it, whether it's some project or just angsting about how I'm not being more productive. If I'm on official vacation (as opposed to today's 2-hour kind), I always have the laptop and phone along with me. Y'all know the drill, I'm sure.

So, a bonus check-in question, if anyone wants one: What's your best micro-break, whether it's a few minutes or stealing an extra hour? Can you turn off the "I could be working" nag?

Financially, we're finishing the month fairly flush (well, for us, anyway), and I got my invoices out today. So that's good. I'm finally making my share of the load... although I also think I keep tabs on that way, way closer than S does. Had a slack time in the middle of the month which scared me, but we did a tough reset on our spending, and that evened things out a lot. Still working on the plan to get the reserves built up.

Looking ahead, I need to pick up projects, and soon. Slack times are bad for the soul. Or the anxiety. Or whatchamacallit. I have some better sources now for short-term gigs, and I'm planning to fill in between bigger projects with those, if I can get the balance sorted right.

Still learning so much with this business thing, and still so much to learn.


Strix - Sep 30, 2011 12:25:40 pm PDT #650 of 1417
A dress should be tight enough to show you're a woman but loose enough to flee from zombies. — Ginger

Good job, amych!!

It's hard for me to turn off, but I think it's going DOWNSTAIRS and watching the backlog of Leverage episodes. And strange as it seems, we're having (huh -- I AM having a garage sale next weekend so we can maybe use the garage this winter, clear out some out our and the ex's crap, and maybe get a little money to hold back the wolves. Maybe a wolf. A wolf pup? Whatev.

Money-wise, things are still super-tight, but I am slllooowwwwly bringing in more. I have to keep telling myself "Started in July, started in July, income goes up a little each month so far."


lcat - Sep 30, 2011 1:08:34 pm PDT #651 of 1417
I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.

Help! In a breezy, informal newsletter, I want to include the following phrase:

Think about the problems you solved, the resources you discovered and the strategies you developed...

but I'm pretty sure it should be "you've" not "you". The problem is "you've" sounds weird to me - would using "you" be completely and irrevocably wrong or could I get away with it in this context?


Ginger - Sep 30, 2011 1:28:23 pm PDT #652 of 1417
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda

It kind of depends on the time period you're talking about, lcat.

"Think about the problems you have solved, the resources you have...." implies an extended period of time, while "the problems you solved..." implies a more specific period, like "the problems you solved this week" or "the problems you solved at the seminar."