Thursday, March 17, 2005
A Nice Little Earner
My body feels back in sync again. All my tiredness and aches have gone despite drinking a couple of pints last night over a game of snooker. I feel much better after what must have been a very deep sleep.
Gail left for London with her pal, flying into Heathrow for a long weekend. I miss her when she's not here - more than she realises. I do like the chance to have some time to myself in the evenings and to spend time with Laura during the day, but when she's not around my body reacts. I find it hard to get to sleep without her next to me. B.K. Birch said in her blog, Pure Grace, yesterday that one of her friends was "NOT getting enough sleep". She was talking about me and I promised I would try and reverse it. With Gail gone, it'll be hard.
I went online and bought my web client's CD. It should be here within a couple of weeks and I'm hoping it will give me some ideas to use in the design of the site itself. I finished drafting up the proposals and the estimate and got the worksheets ready for sending over.
It seems there are technical problems galore in several situations at the moment and it frustrates me that I can do nothing to help. Devon has switched provider and is having some kind of integration problems. She needs reliability - her work is done on her PC and without it her career suffers. My Ed at KIC, is also having problems to the point her computer is totally out of action and there is now a risk to the publication of the weekly e-zines. It never rains!
Speaking of tech problems, I was asked today to do some work on a project that has a legal requirement behind it. One of the developers called me up (not the sharpest tool in the box - I've worked with him before) and demanded I work overnight on a Friday in a few weeks. Naturally the money is good so I want to do it, but it was his approach. No-one demands I take time out on a weekend to work for them.
I said to him, "Well I'll see what I can do. Can't promise anything."
"It's vital this goes in," he said. "Company Name will get fined loads of money and there's just no way round it. You have to work - that's the end of it. My boss says everyone has to come in."
My response; "First, your boss isn't my boss. Second, do you think I give a f**k what happens to Company Name? I'll work when it suits."
And I will work when it suits. The gig got moved to a Saturday night on my request because I have a party that Friday night. Why is this good? Cos it's double the money I would have got had it been a Friday. How can I get away with this? Because 'm the only one in the company qualified to do the work. It's a niche, and a nice little earner.
After Laura was down I worked through and polished issue 58 of Hunting Jack, taking the total word count to over 66,000. I also worked on Bill McCarthy, checking over the grammar etc. but also trying to figure out a better ending. I need a twist, something the reader never saw coming or at least suspected. Originally it was meant to be an 'oh look – what a surprise to see it's you' piece, but that's been done a million times.
I find myself drawn every time into the world of espionage and gangsters - not sure why, but the stories I write with these themes seem to do better when it comes to publication for some reason. Not everything I write concerns those subjects of course; my plots are wide ranging, but sometimes, more regularly than not, I find myself going down that road.
Gail left for London with her pal, flying into Heathrow for a long weekend. I miss her when she's not here - more than she realises. I do like the chance to have some time to myself in the evenings and to spend time with Laura during the day, but when she's not around my body reacts. I find it hard to get to sleep without her next to me. B.K. Birch said in her blog, Pure Grace, yesterday that one of her friends was "NOT getting enough sleep". She was talking about me and I promised I would try and reverse it. With Gail gone, it'll be hard.
I went online and bought my web client's CD. It should be here within a couple of weeks and I'm hoping it will give me some ideas to use in the design of the site itself. I finished drafting up the proposals and the estimate and got the worksheets ready for sending over.
It seems there are technical problems galore in several situations at the moment and it frustrates me that I can do nothing to help. Devon has switched provider and is having some kind of integration problems. She needs reliability - her work is done on her PC and without it her career suffers. My Ed at KIC, is also having problems to the point her computer is totally out of action and there is now a risk to the publication of the weekly e-zines. It never rains!
Speaking of tech problems, I was asked today to do some work on a project that has a legal requirement behind it. One of the developers called me up (not the sharpest tool in the box - I've worked with him before) and demanded I work overnight on a Friday in a few weeks. Naturally the money is good so I want to do it, but it was his approach. No-one demands I take time out on a weekend to work for them.
I said to him, "Well I'll see what I can do. Can't promise anything."
"It's vital this goes in," he said. "Company Name
My response; "First, your boss isn't my boss. Second, do you think I give a f**k what happens to Company Name
And I will work when it suits. The gig got moved to a Saturday night on my request because I have a party that Friday night. Why is this good? Cos it's double the money I would have got had it been a Friday. How can I get away with this? Because 'm the only one in the company qualified to do the work. It's a niche, and a nice little earner.
After Laura was down I worked through and polished issue 58 of Hunting Jack, taking the total word count to over 66,000. I also worked on Bill McCarthy, checking over the grammar etc. but also trying to figure out a better ending. I need a twist, something the reader never saw coming or at least suspected. Originally it was meant to be an 'oh look – what a surprise to see it's you' piece, but that's been done a million times.
I find myself drawn every time into the world of espionage and gangsters - not sure why, but the stories I write with these themes seem to do better when it comes to publication for some reason. Not everything I write concerns those subjects of course; my plots are wide ranging, but sometimes, more regularly than not, I find myself going down that road.
Colin 9:52 am