The causes are varied.
#1 - My trusty thumb drive, the one with a ton of invaluable whatnot about my freelance work on it, died on me last week. Since I hadn't copied over the data since the end of April, I'm missing 60 days worth of information--some of it pretty significant. Sigh.
That's the aggravation that's really been preying on my mind the for the last week.
#2 - Due to circumstances beyond my control (sometimes you have to just be at peace with the idea of interruptions) (disinterest and disinclination were also factors) I haven't done much to manage the 'Nut campaigns in the last couple of weeks. I ran one reports this morning and there are red flags all over the place. Fortunately, it's the busy season right now, so I'm not getting enraged phone calls, but I'm determined to spend the next three days getting caught up. Sigh.
Only three days, though, because after that I have to do month-end reporting.
#3 - I've been in the middle of a project of trying to get my bedroom actually organized and tidy. (I believe I droned on about the dumping of that last plastic bookcase a few months ago.) What I need now are two more of the more expensive wood bookcases, but having just spent $900 on a new mattress, I'm having trouble giving myself permission to go ahead and buy them, so I can move ahead with the project.
- #3a - But there's a different bookcase that I saw this weekend that attracted me and I'm thinking of getting it instead. The shelves fold up when they're empty. That would be very useful on the bottom--it would make cleaning under it much easier, no need to completely unload the thing and try to move it--just empty the one shelf. I really like that idea. Sadly, I don't like the look of that bookcase nearly as much, and I'm not at all convinced it won't look cheap and nasty next to my other one.
I'll probably stick with my original selection and keep using a long-handled gizmo to get under them, but the image of myself just flipping the shelf up and swizzing the vacuum cleaner into the space lingers on.
- #3b - Part of the Great Room Reorganization is the Great Closet Clear-out. I'm shocked and astonished to have to report that I actually found another giant garbage bag full of "stuff" to throw out this past weekend. I'm long past understanding where it's all coming from.
#4 - Bernie still refuses to be fired. I billed him a week or so ago for the first few weeks of the work with the Funhouse gang and he paid me - I got a check on Friday. Since I used to work for him, I know that he normally pays invoices only on the 10th! His promptness this time was very suspicious.
I did almost no freelance work this weekend. I had intended to do a number of things, but Residual Aggro over the behavior of the Funhouse gang left me largely disinclined. (Also, yes, I got all distracted by cleaning, laundry, and throwing out trash, all of which I did in a big way. I think I can now officially declare Spring Cleaning as done. I can honestly say that that apartment--at least, the parts of it I'm responsible for cleaning--has not been this clean in a couple of years. Clearing out some clutter so I could get to various nooks and crannies to clean them was very satisfying.)
#5 - I bought some new jeans a while back--maybe six weeks ago. I may have to throw them away. In spite of repeated washings, they smell. They're fine in the washer and when they come out of the dryer, but then a few hours later there's a weird smell--the R.C. thinks it's like gasoline, but it smells like fireworks (gunpowder) to me. I searched around online--a number of people have posted about this in the last five years and the general consensus is that it gets less obnoxious in a few years, but never really goes away.*
Last night I got my PJs out of the closet where they'd been hanging next to the jeans and I realized that the PJs had picked up Smell from the jeans.
I'm really not comfortable going around smelling.
#6 - When I arrived at the office this morning, I immediately noticed that all the doors have fancy new deadbolts on them. (Must remember to get a key.) Clearly that conversation I overhead a week or so ago, between two people from a different office suite, about breaking in to offices was not just random chat. If that's what happened, it's the second break-in this building has had in the last two or three months.
It's sort of peculiar--there are no retail or cash-based businesses in the building and no pharmaceutical offices of any kind. I can't figure out what someone would break into this building for. If there had been wholesale removal of, for instance, computer equipment, I'm sure word would have gotten around, but I haven't head anything like that. (In fact, I've heard nothing--I hate it when there are Unusual Happenings and I'm left in the dark.)
It's possible, of course, that this is related to the previous d-e-a-t-h threat event.
4:00 p.m. update
For anyone who cares? #2, above? I got through 3 campaigns today.
What prevented me from working today, you ask?
30 minutes lost to a follow-up project from last week's issue of the 'Nut News.
An 11:30 lunch I forgot I promised to attend (Obligatory Coworker Bonding) that I got free from at 1:15.
Then a 2:00 conference call--I appeared on time and waited 15 minutes, only to be told it was being rescheduled to 2:30. At 2:30 it was rescheduled to 3:30. At 3:30 one guy dialed in and chatted about his personal life until 4:00 when he and NewBoss Anais decided the remaining participant wasn't going to appear and we' d have to reschedule it for tomorrow.
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* No one knew the cause, although the obvious culprit is the particular dye being used. Personally, I suspect some sekrit government project to experiment on us all. Or, you know. some kind of border fumigation/extermination process.
Posted by AnneZook at 04:02 PM | Comments (6)I am having far too much life these days.
'Nutwise, we continue to suspect serious problems with data collection for the new websites. Unfortunately, the guy primarily responsible for the code is off on his honeymoon, so all we can do is to collect questions until he returns. Things are going to the wrong place, winding up in the home office because the system can't figure out where else to send them, or seeming to disappear into thin air before magically reappearing hours later.
I'm helpless without the reporting tools I need. Things might look wrong, but if I can't get the data I need, I have no way of figuring out if they are wrong. This is a very seasonal business. Are the performance changes we're seeing related to seasonality or are we a disaster ticking toward total meltdown?
I really don't want to think about it.
Also 'Nutwise, me taking on the Ontarians campaign has proven to be a problematic suggestion, involving political and financial complications I was previously unaware of.
Because the 'corporate' office for our northernmost neighbors found it easier to pay for the advertising themselves than to convince the Ontarians 'Nuts to kick in, the individual Ontarians have come to view lead generation as SEP. They expect a magic flow of free and constant leads.
Because said corporate office is now tired of funding the advertising, they're reluctant to keep paying.* They want us to take it on (and, not incidentally, make the Ontarians pay for their own advertising from now on).
Because the whole northern set-up is quasi-independent, we don't make as much revenue from the Ontarians as we do from the Stateside 'Nuts, under the best of circumstances. That means we will need to charge a slightly higher campaign management fee for the Ontarians than we charge the Stateside 'Nuts. This is a problematic suggestion to a group of people who aren't even paying for their own leads, much less for campaign management.
But--and this is where the migraines start--the new website structure means the Ontarians campaign is now driving traffic to the Café's .com website, instead of the original .ca website. That means that their poor quality scores and poor campaign performance are, for the first time, having an impact on what I do. A very unsavory one. The campaign cannot be left as it is. Someone has to start actually managing it.
I've had little or no time for routine campaign management for my own 35 campaigns in the last 30 days. Website issues and other 'Nut-related projects are taking up almost all my time. I logged in and glanced at a few campaigns yesterday and found my own quality scores in the basement, headed toward the sewer. (The affect of the Ontarian campaign now sharing our domain name, yes.)
I really don't want to think about it.
In the land o'Bernie, I haven't heard from him in two days. That's fine. I spent all weekend trying to explain to him that this account was doomed before we started, because of the client's "I don't know what I'm doing but do it my way anyhow" approach and I'm still not sure I got through to him. Now that the entire account is garbage, he's convinced the client to stand back and let me manage it--with the unexpressed but clearly implicit assumption that any failure from here on out can be blamed on me.
I haven't touched his campaigns since Sunday--just didn't need to be depressed that badly--but I do plan to glance at them today. I have my fingers crossed that some of Sunday's massive changes are producing performance improvement--no matter how minor. The campaign was pretty much in the sewer, so any change in performance would almost have to be an improvement.
I really don't want to think about it.
I had little time to manage Gidget's campaigns this past weekend. Haven't really heard from her this week (or last) that much, either. A few requests for data that I pulled and emailed. Must find time to see/chat with her this week. She wanted me to set up a lunch date with DiamondGirl, but neither my work day nor my brain are leaving me the freedom to do that at the moment.
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* Also, their campaign is appalling. The first commandment of campaign management is, "Thou shalt not leave a campaign unmanaged." As far back as I bothered to check the data, they've been breaking that one almost daily.
That's a colorful colloquialism that deserves wider usage. It's so apt.
I, myself, have been UtMYiA for the last week or so.
First, the final push to get the new 'Nut website live. I think I blogged (using my alternate persona of a h8r) about that last time. Mostly minor squabbles with the design company. Yes, do we want what we asked for. No, it is not okay if we do not get what we asked for. Yes, we do need our data. No, we do not need to justify to you why we need our data. Yes, we need the functionality we contracted for. No, doing without that functionality is not okay. In the end, we got most of what we needed with the rest "coming soon." Sheesh.
NewBoss Anais showed up at my desk at 3:30 yesterday afternoon, saying happily that the company was ready to go at that moment.
Since I've been making it Very Clear Indeed that redirecting the ad URLs for all of the campaigns was something I needed 8 hours to do (and that was not something that could be done a week or two in advance), I was less than thrilled. Of course, I dropped everything and worked on it for the next two hours, logged in late yesterday evening and worked on it, then came in today and worked through the rest of it, eventually getting it all done at 10:30 this morning, but still. (I had time to do everything but double-check the URLs. I'm activating them now and hoping for the best.)
Then we flipped the switch and it was time for link-testing. On the section of pages I was assigned to test, the first six pages I clicked on each popped an error message. That inspired a great deal of confidence, I promise you.
After 30 minutes of testing, when I realized that none of the test submission forms I was creating were going through, I was even more impressed by the designers' competency. (Our initial email of inquiry was met with, "I dunno. It worked when I tried it a different way in a different environment." So professional.)
Then, of course, there's Bernie. The Freethinker's campaign isn't live, I'm not sure where we are with that one, but the other one (which I've now decided to identify as the Dollar Funhouse) is raring to go. The Dollar Funhouse actually consists of two separate products. One is the Dollar, the other is the Funhouse.
Bernie emailed me on Friday that they wanted the Dollar to go live this Wednesday and to email him over the weekend (he knows I work mostly weekends) with any questions. I sat down on Saturday morning, did as much as I could do, sent Bernie my questions, and didn't hear back from him until Monday. I had a big tired on yesterday evening, from all the 'Nuttery, so I didn't get it done.
Reminder to self: I need to email and let him know I'm out of town all next week and that the Funhouse can't go live until some time after I get back to town.
In the midst of this, a client of Gidget's is abruptly ready to have their campaign go live. They want it live--wait for it--yes--Wednesday! Since I have received none of the information I need to actually create a campaign (audience, services, budget, etc.), Gidget promised to send me all of it today so I could build the campaign tonight.
As it happens, this client is a Special Category, I can load the campaign, but I'm at Webstrainer's mercy when it comes to getting the ads to show. I'll file for an exemption, but if Doittoit (Worst. Nickname. Ever.) does not, in Webstrainer's eyes, qualify as Legitimate Business, there may be trouble. There shouldn't be any problem--they are legit and I see similar businesses being advertised, but who knows?
I'm a little grouchy, yes. I watch television one evening a week--Tuesday evening. Between building campaigns, loading campaigns, and checking 'Nut campaigns to see how the new pages are performing, tonight is going to be hell.
I was going to blog about the party I attended on Sunday and the seminar I attended last week and the new books I bought (work-related) and my upcoming vacation, but I've already spent more time on this post than I really had to spare today. We have a couple of Prospective 'Nuts coming in for a meeting to learn All About Internet Marketing at 8:00 tomorrow morning, and I really need to do some prep work.
Up to My Ass in Alligators
Posted by AnneZook at 02:47 PM | Comments (2)Many emails today. First, the Freethinker wants right of refusal on everything I do to reorganize his campaign before it goes live. At the moment, I'm working out in my head the wording of the necessary email to Bernie. If the client demands the right to "help" build the campaign, then my billable time estimate for the project has to go from 8 hours to 16 hours. (Bottom line? If he had any idea how to do it, he wouldn't be handing his mess of a failed campaign over to me. Second-guessing what I decide to do and making me spend two hours explaining each detail to him should cost him money.)
Also? I would not have quoted 8 hours for the job if I'd known he was going to decide to abandon his search network advertising and spend his 42 cents a month on content network advertising. Back in the middle of February when I did half the research on this project, I focused on search because that's what he said he was going to want. The idea of digging through six months worth of garbage (really) in the hopes of finding some quality content sites does not attract me.
Second, Bernie's other as-yet-un(nick)named client has decided to move ahead with advertising. These are the people I attempted to talk to a couple of weeks ago--I blogged about the day when just getting oxygen was so much work that I was babbling and drooling on the phone during a client call with Bernie, right?
Anyhow, it seems he was right not to be concerned. They want to get going. Software. I've never tried to sell software, but if nothing else, a product-driven campaign will be a nice change from service-driven campaigns. I hope.
Gidget!
After a (so far) unexplained seven-day silence, I got two emails from her today. She tried to set up two campaigns (Webstrainer and Yippee) and they're both now just laying there, stinking up the internet. Why she tried to do this herself instead of just handing it all over to me, I don't know. (Maybe it all happened while I was sick.)
Anyhow. That means tonight's agenda is set. Between working on the Freethinker's campaign and fixing (I hope) Gidgt's Webstrainer and Yippee campaigns for her new client, that's pretty much my whole evening.
All of which reminds me that I have got to remember to bring the laptop with me tomorrow. I need to swing my MicroCenter on the way home and take advantage of my extended warranty again. The power cord died. (Join me in hoping it's part of what my warranty covers.)
Other!
I mentioned that Webstrainer is about to add me to their list of Mother's Little Helpers on their forum, right? I finally had a chat with the relevant Webstrainer employee last week (or maybe it was the week before) and I got the bio information written and sent to her on Monday.
I'm not a bit aggravated that she's hasn't gotten back to me yet. When you've dropped the ball or missed a deadline, it's always nice to confirm that you're not the only person that happens to.
I'm a bit aggravated that I checked the Gidget Co website again yesterday and the ugliness in the formatting I saw before seems to still be there. DiamondGirl did tell me she wasn't able to duplicate what I saw, so I may have to screen-cap it and send it to her.
As my brain continues to swim back toward functionality, I realize a few things have been happening in Anne's World besides a runny nose.
I found another (small) project for DiamondGirl. The Gidget Co.'s website is a gross mess--Gidget's strong point not being html coding, not even the limited amount you need to use a content manager. We're offering DiamondGirl a modest payment to go in and clean it up for us, so we look more professional.
I'm going to be able to hand off a chunk of the Freethinker's projects (I think there are going to be two) to Gidget so, paying her for a change and she has to do the bit I think of as "boring" but she likes, so, good for both of us. (Did I mention that the Freethinker thing is a 'go'? I'm not sure if I did. I think the official word came a couple of weeks ago.)
Around that same time, when I not only didn't have brain but when trying to string four or more words together caused severe oxygen deprivation, I had to sit in on a meeting with another client of Bernie's who is going to want miracles produced for 50 cents a month. (At least, they did when the meeting was scheduled. After listening to me gasp and wheeze and mutter incoherently, they may have changed their minds.) That's another project I can probably hand some of off to Gidget.
I feel so much better! Even though the weather is supposed to be ghastly, I'm looking forward to a weekend when I have the energy to do more than just roll out of bed and sit in a chair.
That will teach me to go around spreading bad karma, won't it?
Gidget IM'd me this morning, telling me to stop putting time and effort into the Senior Central accounts. It seems that, having failed to spend the $75k they spent on a new website wisely, they now have to spend $50k to fix it. They're replacing her with a different agency. (I'm not sure how they have money for the different agency when they say they're letting her go because they can't afford her consulting services any more, but maybe the agency has their own tech staff to write code, which our little company does not offer.)
That's a big hunk of freelance work to lose. I wouldn't care so much if it weren't for the fact that Gidget was doing a lot of work with them that didn't involve me--and getting paid for it. Losing them makes a serious dent in her own income and, unlike me, she's trying to live on what we're bringing in from The Gidget Co.
I must focus on the Woofmen's accounts this weekend--they still love us (her) and I need to figure out how to make them successful on $4 a day when none of the accounts have any of the tools I need to measure success--what's working and what isn't.
Today's minor good news--my alarm clock went off when and how I needed it to. I'm very sure of this--I woke up at 6:45 and waited for it to go off so I could check it.
Today's second minor good news--the big storm that was supposed to move in last night is still coming, but did not arrive in time to mess up the morning commute. This means the major part of it might not move in until after tonight's rush hour, when the R.C. and I are both already safely at home.
It's not supposed to be huge, they're only saying 5" - 10" in the city right now, but big enough to make a mess. I can always work from home if I wake up to a winter wonderland tomorrow, but I'm not sure the R.C. can, especially not on a Wednesday, which is Big Meeting Day in her office.
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P.S. Personal note to Rapunzel: I blame you! It's been over a year and Harvest Moon continues to eat my life. I started over on Cute last night but I think Island of Happiness will always be my favorite.
That's a good word. It implies something more interesting than a mere problem.
After many years of not writing (and intermittent whining about it), I'm dabbling in writing again. Many of my recent weekend (and evening) activities have been chosen specifically to encourage this state of mind. The results are--less than impressive, but I knew it was going to take time to get back in practice, so that's fine.
The problem, of course, comes in the when. If I could turn the creative part of my brain off from 8-5, M-F, that would be good. (And from 7-11 on weekends, since that's when I do most of my freelance work.) Arrange that for me, 'k?
Bernie called this morning. He passed my comments to the Freethinker and now the Freethinker is asking, 'what next'? Bernie wanted to know what we should do (and how long it would either take me to do it, or to teach Lorna, his Harried Helper, to do it). I hate questions like that. Questions about teaching someone. I am a horrible teacher* and I am honest enough to admit it
Lorna, his Harried Helper, hasn't done anything to me--I've never even met her. Why should I inflict myself on her in a role I'm completely unsuited for? Also? This is not a "beginner" project. This is not a project for someone who has never even seen the software.
I sympathize with his desire to have this work done in-house, so he doesn't have to pay a free-lancer for it. I support the idea of me not being responsible for the potpourri of random clients he has coming on board. He and his Harried Helper can, as I've told him more than once, log in to the free online lessons and learn. But I don't teach.
I don't mind reorganizing the Freethinker's stuff for him, though. (Even though it means I'll actually have to go read his web pages.) Anticipating that this would come up, I already have copious notes on what should be done. Organizing is much more fun than management and the check should cover the last of my travel expenses from the end of February.
The next leaf in Bernie's potpourri is Portuguese And wants to advertise in that language,. I tried--I did try, to explain the difficulty of this to Bernie but I don't think I got through. I know--the numbers are the same, but the words matter.
Crazy man.
Also, he told me that I'm in first place in our brackets group--we had a fifteen minute conversation about games that I assume must have taken place in the last week or something and have I ever mentioned on the blog how much I hate having to fake my way through in-depth conversations about teams and players I've never heard of**--but I can't figure out how to go look at it all to see how this strange thing happened, so I can't explain it.
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* Seriously. "Here's the stuff. Just do it. If you have a question, search the web for an answer." That should be enough "teaching" for anyone.
** Some day I'm going to get caught doing that and someone's feelings will be hurt. (By the way, brackets are about basketball. Did you know that? I'm not sure I knew that before today.)
Posted by AnneZook at 02:22 PM | Comments (4)Under the heading of "killmenow" is this morning's freelance adventure, when I logged into a new campaign I activated a week ago and discovered that the client went in to it secretly last Monday and loaded 600+ new words, all of which had really low quality scores.
The campaign is now trashed, all of the minimum bid estimates have gone though the roof, even on normally "good" keywords, keywords in multiple campaigns that I've slowly been coaxing into better performance have crashed and burned, and I'm starting off this beautiful, sunny Sunday in a really bad mood.
Posted by AnneZook at 09:54 AM | Comments (2)I am poor (I've spent all my cash and haven't had a chance/remembered to swing by the bank this week and alone (I arrived in the office at 7:40 this morning. One other person was already here but so far we're the only two. Very sad.
This week has been both aggravating and annoying.
1) The diet is good, the diet is wise, the diet is pissing me off. Needs some adjusting. I've got to start bringing more food with me to work--even as sedentary as I am, it's tough to make it through the entire work day on 500 or 600 calories. (I'm not deliberately starving myself--I didn't cook anything for lunches last weekend and have been making do with whatever was in the refrigerator all week.
2) Gidget is happy and returned to full health and driving me a teensy bit nuts. The amount of work she needs from me is starting to exceed the 8-10 hours a week I've been willing to give The Gidget Co., and, what's worse, she's starting to need things between 8-5, M-F, when I really should be focusing on the Argonut Café's problems. I don't mind the occasional occasion when a client needs a phone conference, but two fifteen-minute calls this week is, IMO, excessive. (And, yes, I know that most people live about 50% of their personal lives on company time--taking and making phone calls from/to parents, spouses, significant others, children, day care centers, hair dressers, etc.-- but I've never really done that and I've always been a bit holier-than-thou on the subject.)
3) That could be because time has been in short supply since I got back to town. Over 50% of my hours at the Café have been spent on special (i.e., non-campaign-related) projects and, at last count, during the remaining hours I've been interrupted on the average of once an hour, every hour, by NewBoss Anais who seems to have missed me and to have lots of problems she wants me to help solve or at least have input on.
4) Yesterday, when I'd finally carved out an entire three hours to spend actually thinking about and focusing on what I'm supposed to be doing, she came over and wanted to chat about the bonus plan. I don't care about the bonus plan, okay? I honestly don't. They have, without actually announcing it, clearly decided not to reinstate our lost pay. Instead, we're all going to have to "excel" so we can get "bonuses" in order to get back some small percentage of the low-level salaries we were making before the economy crashed.
5) In the meantime, both Gidget and Bernie keep coming up with new projects and Bernie urgently wants to know when I'm going to quit the full-time job so I can take on more of the clients he's got lined up. I haven't had a chance to review the BunnyHouse campaign in three weeks, I suspect that I'll wind up with the Freethinker's campaign in my hands, I brought three new campaigns up for Gidget last weekend and there are four more waiting in the wings. I have not, as I've said already this week, actually had time to do the work on her campaigns (or Bernie's) that I really should be doing.
6) There are a variety of solutions for some of these problems. For the freelance ones, the first thing I need to do is get wireless internet access on my laptop, so I can work during the evenings during the week more conveniently.
I've been dreading that--fighting the battle to get a wireless router that can be configured to bypass C-*-m-c-*s-t's determination to block my $120/month+ cable/internet service from servicing my actual internet needs, but it's starting to feel like it's time. (Also, my sketchy research indicates that they're coming around and starting to offer wireless. Must call them.)
7) Also, I could work while I'm at work. It's 7:59 - time to get started.
I've been back at work for a whole week and haven't had a chance to complain yet. That's so wrong. Since I got back, I've done month-end reporting (12 hours), six "special projects" taking from 15 minutes to 4-1/2 hours each. I've had to do two conference calls and have two more scheduled for today. One meeting. Two data projects for the new website, four hours total. What I have not really had time to do is my job. (Oh, I've had an hour now and then when no one wants anything or comes over to "discuss things", but that just allows me to glance at accounts and make notes for which ones need work done--it doesn't allow me to actually do the work.)
I did work over the weekend, Saturday I sat down to Gidget's stuff, where seven hours was barely enough to scratch the surface. Mostly I just, again, made notes about what needs to be done. I'm planning to work this coming weekend again to try and get some of it actually done.
Sunday morning, I was on to the account analysis for the Freethinker. Six hours and 95,000 lines of data later, I had what I hope was wanted. Recommendations. (Work with me, people. Let's all send hopes that I am not asked to manage this one. Senior Central, the Woofmen, and the BunnyHouse are as much or more than I have time for already. I can't be adding gawd to the mix. There is only one of me.)
The report reflecting what people actually typed into the Webstrainer window was interesting. I mean, aside from the bazillion irrelevant searches his too-generous campaign settings allow, there were quite a few searches for his actual book/foundation.
The word c-u-l-t came up quite a lot. Queries around jeebus's children came up with frequency. Also, a-l-i-e-n-s. I'm not really certain if this b/f postulates a-l-i-e-n intervention in jeebus's life or if it was the movie A-l-i-e-n R-e-s-u-r-r-e-c-t-i-o-n those people were searching for (r-e-s-u-r-r-e-c-t-i-o-n is a high-traffic word for the Freethinker). At one point I was almost tempted to go read the Freethinker's website, to see what, exactly, I was being asked to facilitate the marketing of, but then I realized that I didn't really care. I trust Bernie's assurance that the Freethinking isn't advocating violence of any kind against anyone. That's about as far as my interest in gawdliness goes.
On the Webstrainer forum I hang around, I answered someone's question yesterday and today they're demanding that someone else verify that what I said is correct. I feel dissed.
I'm rambling on about random, uninteresting things because of what I'm trying not to think about, but it's the main reason I logged on to complain today, so….
MadBoy is back. Yes, the beast has resurfaced. The good news is that he'd like to sell his corner of the Argonut Café and so we might someday be rid of him entirely. The bad news is that, in the interim, it did occur to him that his corner would be easier to sell if it was actually making some money, so he's decided he wants a new Webstrainer campaign--managed by me.
He's willing to commit to about 1/3 as much money as it would cost to be successful, is demanding that we block the highest-traffic sources of leads we have, and doesn't want calls or emails from people before nine or after five, Monday through Friday. I just do not get paid enough for this level of stupid.
Although, seriously, I was going to try to work up a head of steam about it all, but I don't find that I really care that much.
Yesterday was the Café's monthly all-staff meeting, wherein I announced that I'm seeing an inexplicable but frightening drop in the number of inbound leads so far this month. I've glanced through all of the accounts--there are no problems, and there's traffic. There just aren't any leads. I've been wigging out about it for the last week (in my spare time) but no one in the meeting seemed to care.
"You'll figure it out," CEOJason said. "You always do."
Whatever
And then later he had the brilliant idea that all of the 'Nuts spending enough money to be successful will be moved to outside management and the lame duck, whiny baby, and incompetent moron accounts can all stay with me. So, you know, the fact that I'm not really famous for giving myself a lot of pats on the back (I tend to assume that success is become of something/someone else's work and failure is my fault) is probably good because I'm likely to have many fewer opportunities in the future.
I've been back on the diet for the last week. I've lost 1-1/2 lbs but I've also lost my sense of humor and most of my patience. Today I visited the junk food machine on the first floor and bought two bags of chips. And I ate them both. Now I'm eating chocolate.
The world is starting to get brighter!
I mean, I don't really know or care from Mardi Gras, but I have got to jolly myself back into a better mood.
Yesterday's chores: bank (cash for my trip) and pharmacy (prescription refill). Today, I will potentially go to both the grocery store (almost out of coffee), and apartment management office (to refill my laundry card) on my way home. (Possibly I was a little too laid back and relaxed over the weekend--there seem to be a lot of things I didn't get done.)
Had a conference call with Bernie and Freethinker, the potential new client, Monday afternoon. In a complete reversal of what I expected to see, the Freethinker's website looked great (visually--layout--I didn't read anything during the meeting) and the ads I saw in his Webstrainer campaign looked, really, very good. Generally these things, especially good ads, are where DIY advertisers fail. It was nice to see a campaign where someone did it right.
Everything else was appalling, so, no surprises there. I mean, the guy did seem to have a vague idea of the potential of it all, but without defined goals (Bernie asked three times during the call and got three conflicting answers) and without some structure he isn't going to be able to tap into the potential.
I won't go on and on. I'll just say that if you open your account page and it's covered with red warning messages? Telling everyone how well you're doing it is--less convincing.
The Freethinker was pretty vague throughout the entire call, so I'm not sure if Bernie strong-armed him into agreeing to have someone evaluate his campaign or if it was his idea, but that's not my problem. I don't mind earning two or three hundred bucks for reviewing what he's got and making some suggestions. That's all I'm committed to right now.
Because I'm a moron, I just now realized that my 8:30am flight on Friday means I should be on the road and headed toward the airport by 6:30, at the latest. Since it's my vacation, there's snow forecast, and I'm not at my best before dawn under any circumstances, I'm almost thinking I should book a shuttle or something--get someone else to drive, somehow.
On the other hand, shuttle companies are insane any more. They refuse to pick you up any later than 4 hours before your flight. The odds of me getting out of bed, pulling myself together, and being downstairs, luggage in hand, at 4:00am are surprisingly small. Maybe I'll be wasteful and spend $50 on a cab. (Maybe I'll stop being such a baby and just drive myself--the stupid airport is only 30 minutes away.)
Today's excitement includes the stupid 'Nut Newsletter. We're on draft #6 right now. I only read one sentence (I'm getting very good at coding without reading) but it was ugly enough that I was unable to resist sending TeamChaos an email asking (after the fifth draft) if they were seriously going to leave it in the newsletter. NewBoss Anais emailed back and offered to let me rewrite it, but I refuse to take the first step down that slippery slope. I'm just going to decide to be Over it. Over it, over it, over it.
You'd be proud of me. They've been requesting additional bolding dropped in here and there, huge chunks of text in italics, more white space so titles can 'float' unconnected with the accompanying stories, and other random weirdness and I haven't said a single mean thing.
Over it, over it, over it.
This morning, as I struggled to untangle myself from my bed, I realized I was arising from a dream where I'd been sitting at a computer, doing some Webstrainer research.
This must cease! I refuse to work in my sleep!
Also, I demand to know why my bed is never as welcoming at night as it is when the alarm goes off in the morning. Last night I accidentally sat up until midnight (reading) and it still took me over an hour to convince my brain and body to knock off for the day.
The day started with a latte from the Sekrit Starbucks I now know is a mere four blocks from my office. Hooray for milk-drenched espresso!
Then a 75-minute conference call where, much against my will, I found myself--wait for it--explaining a Webstrainer search results page to an audience of otherwise reasonably intelligent people. It seems that I've been vastly overestimating everyone's understanding of how and why ads show up when you search for things.
Talked to Bernie today and heard myself agreeing to take on two more accounts. Before you shout at me, one of them was the one we had the conference call on a week or two ago, so I'd already half-promised that one.
The other will be--hmmm. How can I put this that won't 'out' the client's name or attract sp*mbots but that will nevertheless amuse me?
Well (she said delicately), I'm not religious (although I'm not inclined to care if others are), so I don't precisely pay attention to the latest developments in the field. Imagine my surprise when Bernie explained that an otherwise extremely successful business person of his acquaintance is apparently starting--well, I don't know. So far it's some books and a website or two, but I suspect he has delusions of secthood.
Apparently there's a (and now I have to be extremely delicate) sort of a crossroads where concepts introduced in a certain late-60s SF television show (spawning three sequels and half a dozen movies and earning its place in the mythology of the planet) meet the major spiritual denomination of most of this country. (Hah! I defy any sp*mbots to untangle that!) At that crossroads, exists the place where our potential client, hereinafter referred to as the Freethinker, visualizes a new set of beliefs.
Hoping that's enough to disguise the subject from random searches, I have to admit that there's a certain amusement value in the idea of running a Webstrainer campaign for the guy. I don't like strangeness, but I know Bernie's pretty New Age and so any client of his is likely to be Very Left. I am not, in short, in danger of finding myself selling the Inquisitional beliefs of any denomination, organization, or movement.
Bernie was a bit hesitant to ask me to take this one on. Seems he had to ask three developers to do the coding before he found one willing to be associated with the project. Subject to my reviewing the material and making a better-informed decision, I assured him that, Inquisitions, purges, and demon-hunts ruled out, I have no particular prejudices. Peace, love, and understanding--I can deal with those, regardless of the wrapper.
While I had him on the phone, I took the opportunity to point out that my original project (which I may and/or may not have named but have now decided to rechristen BunnyHouse) is gorgeous, is lovely, is running like a sweet dream but is producing nothing in the way of actual sales inquiries.
Proving that I'm sometimes unjust to him and that he is, actually, listening when I talk, he responded that it's the client's fault for not spending the $$ the project needs, we sent at least one highly qualified lead and the sales person never bothered to follow-up on it, and that it's not my fault the market is still in the middle of a huge meltdown.
I'm feeling very much in charity with Bernie at the moment. I think I'll send him a bill this evening.
Those of you who know me reasonably well (which includes everyone who reads this blog), know that I'm prone to occasional, pointless wigouts. I'm thinking of having one today. Try not to take it too seriously--in a previous life, I may have been a drama queen.
A whole slew of Gidget's campaigns need work--the idiot client revamped their website, which we knew about, but they swore that no URLS would change, which turned out to be a big, fat lie since all the URLs changed. For the last few days, I've been grabbing an hour here and there wherever I can find one, to get their ads redirected before Webstrainer notices that we're bouncing ad traffic around. I'm going to take an actual "lunch" break today, drive home, and try to get the last few reloaded.
The campaign I've been working on for Bernie is humming along like a well-oiled machine. Stats look good, search queries are relevant, ads are all performing well. (One of the best-performing has a typo, but I'm afraid to fix it because I don't want to rock the boat.) The campaign just isn't producing any actual leads for Bernie's client. My wits, they are at an end for what the problem is. I know zilch--maybe double-zilch about real estate. Webstrainer likes the ads and shows them. When people see the ads, they click on them. I've decided that my responsibility ends there.
I sat in on a call a week or so ago--I think I told you this--with another potential client for Bernie. He sent me an email yesterday saying he has yet another potential client who wants online advertising--maybe two more.
His idea, of course, is that I should quit my full-time work and focus on maximizing my free-lance work, but since his idea is also that he can grow his company to a substantial size by signing up clients and free-lancing out whatever actual work needs to be done, he would feel that way, wouldn't he?
It's not that I've gone off the idea of The Gidget Co, because I most emphatically have not, but the whole Bernie deal is a separate issue and I have to wonder just how much I want to put my future in his hands, you know?
I've barely done any work on the 'Nut campaigns this week--not for lack of interest but because I need to wait a few days to evaluate ads and the rest of the campaigns are performing well enough to sort of worry me. (I'm not well-equipped to deal with success.)
I have to get on a plane next week and then again the week after that. Flying is such a hassle any more. I'm very excited about both trips, but the actual travel part is going to be a drag.
I'm stressing. For no particular reason, but I am. Feeling pressured.
That's probably why I started writing again. I originally started when I was massively stressed--I used it as an escape from work problems and pressure I was getting from the people in my life. It worries me--just a little--that I'm back to that level of stress for the first time in 10 years, when I'm working at what is arguably the lowest-stress job I have ever had.
I tell myself that maybe I just don't have the stress tolerance levels I had twenty years ago, but that's hardly a cheerful thought.
Posted by AnneZook at 11:10 AM | Comments (2)I like arriving in the office in the morning, opening my email, and finding some nitwit shouting at me because I haven't "fixed" something I told him was out of my control.
Yeah. I like that.
Next to that, I like opening the next email on the page and finding that someone else who doesn't understand the problem has promised that I'll "fix" it today.
Yeah, I really like that.
That was how last Friday started. Fortunately it got better after that, but I seem to be having a little trouble getting over it.
Today started off with me pouring soup on the kitchen floor when I tried to pack my lunch. I had to stop and mop up, which made me 20 minutes late to work.
I'd feel guiltier about that if it wasn't for the fact that I wasn't the last one in, not by a long ways. This place is pretty casual about that sort of thing. Whoever is covering the reception phones is supposed to be in by 8 or before but the rest of us straggle in as the mood takes us. Since I don't consider punctuality a particularly interesting or worthwhile 'virtue' I like to work places where there's a lot of -ish to that 8 am start time. I'm reasonably capable of arriving at the office around 8-ish.
This irritates the heck out of the R.C. She feels that if the official start time to a work day is 8:00, then you should be at your desk, computer booted up and bright smile pasted on your face by at least 7:55. Me, I say that if you look back two weeks ago on Tuesday and you can't remember who came in "on time" and who was either five minutes late or five minutes early? Then it's not really important, is it?
Today we also had a little fire drill here at the office. Not exactly a drill, since the alarm sounding was neither planned nor expected by any of us, but nevertheless it went off and we trooped cheerfully outside to soak in some sunshine. Ten or fifteen minutes later we were still enjoying the sunshine because the firemen hadn't arrived.
Someone called the building management company (I don't know why they didn't call the firemen, so don't ask) who apparently contacted the fire department to tell them there might and/or might not be an actual fire and that we'd all appreciate it if they could fit us into their apparently busy schedules.
Obviously, since I have the time to blog about soup on the floor, there was no fire. I don't know what triggered the alarm. They didn't show up because no one invited them to the party.Turns out that some essential connection between our alarm system and the fire house wasn't working and the firemen didn't know we'd been alarmed.
To do them credit, once they got here, they cleared the building for us all to get back to work in about five minutes, but still. Most of them weren't even very cute, which has to be against some kind of fireman regulation, don't you think?
Bernie called yesterday and I promised to take a look at a potential campaign for a potential new client. He gave me a chance to bail out--to say I didn't have time. I didn't take it. Temporary insanity or something, I don't know.
Anyhow. With luck, he won't close the deal--this one is in a completely different industry than the last one and these stand-alone campaigns are a lot harder to make successful than my other ones are.
Hey, I meant to blog today! How did it get to be 4:45 already? For a Monday, today whizzed by pretty quickly.
First, let's wish the R.C. a happy-happy-happy birthday today!
Hooray!
Aside from that, if I'd had time, I'd have blogged at boring length about these things:
#1 - Gidget signed on another location for one client, so we both got a tiny free-lance income raise this month. Hooray!
#2 - Apparently Bernie is serious about wanting me to quit my job and take on free-lancing full time, including a lot of work for him. He paid the rest of the balance on the outstanding invoice!
#3 - Shopping! Last week I dared to walk a whole half mile or so (in the entire day) in my newish blue sling-back pumps and wound up with bandages on my poor toes for the rest of the week and the weekend. Thus, this weekend's haul - two new pairs of shoes. I bypassed the fabulousness of the Zappos site in favor of two pair (black, blue) of plain pumps for half the price or less at DSW. All I want out of life (at the moment) is shoes that don't hurt my feet.
#4 - At 4:16 a.m. last Friday morning, we had a power outage. It was the last straw for the ancient (6-7 years old) desktop in the living room, and nothing we could make it do would get it to boot up. Saturday morning, the R.C. and I took the old box to Micro Center to see if any data recovery was possible,
#5 - I drone on and on about the whole Six-Month Frugality Plan quite a bit, but it feels like I also blog quite frequently about shopping splurges. In the not at all a splurge category--an additional weekend investment was a new keyboard and mouse. Strangely enough, when I opened the packaging for these new peripherals, there was a new computer in the box! (I wonder how that happened.)
Computers aren't that expensive any more if you don't need a monitor and we didn't. And while we bought 'up' somewhat from the bargain basement model the R.C. was inclining toward, I don't regret it. Computers are practically obsolete in a year these days and since we do tend to keep our home desktops for half a decade or more, I think it behooves us to spend a few extra bucks for a higher-end model. (rationalize-rationalize-rationalize)
Anyhow. Between the shoes and the PC, I think I spent all of the free-lance money I was paid last week.
It was a good weekend.
Weekend: Glorious. Weather smashing, temperatures moderate, sunshine intermittent but golden, rain scarce, food delicious. Shopping: successful. I frittered away $8.00 in a wild splurge on a single new book. Later that same night I frittered away a little more (online) for some new (ahem) underthings.
Etcetera., etcetera., etcetera.
That makes two lovely weekends in a row.
I'm glad I enjoyed them, because I have to stop taking the weekends off.
Starting about 3:00 yesterday, when I foolishly checked my email, I've been embroiled in turmoil with Bernie.* His client's campaigns are performing 30%-60% better (depending on what you're measuring) in the last 2-1/2 weeks and have been generating a steady stream of (qualified) leads. So, naturally I found a string of ohmigod the sky is falling emails in my inbox, wherein he frantically demanded to know what I'd done that destroyed the campaigns so thoroughly.
Fourteen emails later I figure out that he was confusing organic and paid search, had no idea that leads were coming in, and that he was assuming I was continuing to manage the campaign in spite of his failure to, (a) tell me he wanted me to, or (b) discuss hours and payment with me.
Now I remember why I was so glad to stop working with him. It's not his irrationality--many people prefer to ignore reality--it's that hair-trigger panic button.
I had emails from Gidget complaining that she didn't understand how to edit something she did online (click the "edit" button, I said) and wondering how to make a link (click the "make a link" button, I said).
In my next life, I'm being one of those mountaintop hermits and if anyone climbs my mountain and tries to talk to me, I'm throwing a goat at them.
___________________
* The first person who says Itoldyouso gets smacked.
August 14
The R.C. also got hatemail from the credit card company (I hadn't realized before that we actually have cards issued by the same organization), slashing her credit by 40%! Unlike my letter, hers didn't try to pretend she was a deadbeat (you could eat off her credit report). No, what they told her was that they pulled her credit report and decided she didn't need all the credit they were extending to her. Times is tough, they told her. Not everyone is payin' their bills.You are, though. We hate you for that.
I feel badly for her. It's bad enough for me, someone who has, from time to time, had the odd late or missed payment. But for someone who's never paid a bill late in her life? What a slap in the face.
Because I do have a certain pity for her, I'm going to forego my planned blog entry, which featured large amounts of RC mockery. (Short story even shorter. She borrowed some software from her office. Tuesday evening, she spent an hour and a half with it--reading the installation manual. What kind of gomer reads installation manuals? I mean! 90 minutes! And then she never actually got the product installed!*
There was going to be mockery.)
August 17
I take my eyes off of Gidget for a few days and you know what happens? She breaks a finger (What was a woman with her current health problems doing moving rocks anyhow?), faints from the pain, falls on the rocks, and breaks two ribs. Good grief.
My weekend was uneventful. I took the entire weekend off. I hadn't had a day off in over three weeks, so I felt I was due.
Although. Now I'm feeling guilty because I didn't get the last of Bernie's project finished. I need to do that--I should have had it finished last week. After I get the last bit done, I need to do a write-up for the client explaining my changes. Then I can bill Bernie.
I turned in my expense report for the seminar I charged to it (for work) and when I get that reimbursement, that's going against the card balance. So is Bernie's money. I am so close to being debt-free--the balance on Credit Card Of Doom is under $2k--I can almost smell it.
August 18
Well, I finished Bernie's project and sent him an explanation of what I did. Because I'm a tad compulsive, I've gone back into the campaign a couple of times and made some edits, primarily to ads where the first version wasn't performing well. I figure I'll give him 48 hours to respond to my note. If I don't hear from him, I'm sending the bill.
Last weekend I went mad and spent $30 on a new pair of slacks. Now I'm wishing I'd bought them a size smaller. (I guess that's not a bad problem to have.) They're not unwearably large, but definitely baggy in the backside. I'm back on the diet and with 7 pounds still to go, I figure the problem will only get worse. Next payday, I think I'll treat myself to a new pair, in a smaller size.
I need new shoes. Really. I need these shoes, but I'll probably wind up with these shoes because they're more sensible. These appear to combine comfort with a reasonable heel height but I don't know if I'm ready to have all that ugly hanging off the ends of my ankles. On the other hand, these seem to combine the best of a loafer with the best of a medium-heel pump.
Amazon bought Zappos! That could turn out to be expensive for some of us.
August 19
This is turning into a ridiculously long serial blog entry.
In my final note for the entry, I'm feeling a tad smug. The outside "experts" that TeamChaos hired to run some test campaigns, with the idea that this agency would replace me in the hearts and minds of--well--everyone? Came hat in hand yesterday to beg the favor of my ads.
Turns out the ads written by the in-house experts were failing to perform. (I ask you--who doesn't just try something different?)
There's little that's "secret" or proprietary about what I do, but what there is, is mostly around ads. Ads are the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Any dinkhead can handle the bidding and organization part of running a campaign. What separates the pros from the wanna-bes is the ability to write an ad that draws clicks. Takes nerve to ask someone to hand over their ads but more than that, it's an admission of defeat.
Huh. I'm better at this than people give me credit for.
___________________________
* Turns out? It's been so many decades long since she actually installed a piece of software that she didn't know that installation wizards are more-or-less standard any more. She was expecting to, you know, have to know things. Software doesn't require you to know anything any more.
There are days when my life needs a little zen.*
Yes, I worked Saturday. But only three or four hours. After that I indulged in a three-hour shopping orgy, during which I'm impressed to report that I spent less than $30.
And then--Sunday. My day started at 8:15 am because I was determined to keep my word and get the Bernie project done "by the first of the week" and I knew it was going to take a whole day to do. Ignoring the temptations that the best kind of Colorado summer day can offer (not too hot, no rain, a little cool breeze), I plowed through the work--analyzing, adjusting, writing, rewriting, etc.
Picture my expression when I remembered, at 3:56 that afternoon, that I had, in fact, taken Monday off to do that exact, same work.
For a while I was aggravated but then it took me five hours on Monday to actually finish (the bulk of) the work, so maybe it was a good thing after all. (I spent the other three hours of my day off lunching with Gidget and playing a new game my generous but time-sabotaging niece, Rapunzel, just loaned me.)
Today I came in prepared to deal with whatever the 'Nuts threw at me. So far, nothing but a brief power outage that did me no harm because (hooray!) I'd just saved.
On the drive in today--a tortuous winding through side roads to avoid the accident blocking all lanes of the primary commuter route in this neighborhood--I was actually feeling pretty good about the status of my various free-lance effort. (I should--for the second weekend in a row I did 12 hours or more of extra work. When I say I'm a "recovering" workaholic, I have to admit that some months I'm more recovered than others.* *)
But, self-indulgent and random whining and complaints aside, I don't think I've ever had a job where management and 'clients' spent so much time leaving me in peace to actually do the work. At least, since the last round of layoffs when management got rid of anyone and everyone in the building who actually understood what it is I do.
Basically, no one left knows from nothing. I can come in and work hard on the nuts and bolts of everyone's campaign, slog through the thankless gruntwork for hours on end and no one will notice.
I can come in with a creative idea to improve--or maybe destroy, time will tell--someone's campaign and put in eight hours on the project, ignoring the claims of the other 29 campaigns. No one will ever have a clue.
I can blog, read news sites, peruse online comics, even take in a couple of chapters of King Solomon's Mine and no one will know the difference.
My point, and I do have one, is that with this much peace to work in, there is really no excuse for me to have made a weird and major change to a poorly performing campaign last week without documenting, for my own reference, precisely what it was I was trying to accomplish. It took me an embarrassing half hour this morning before I could sort of mentally retrace my steps and figure out what my goal had been.
And now, lunch (chicken curry) and a few news headlines.
_____________________
* A word that means anything I want it to mean at the moment I use it. Get over it.
* * It's for a good cause.
I got one of those "you paid your debts and now we hate you" notices from my credit card company on Friday. Now that I've paid off 80% of my balance, they no longer want to know me and they cut my credit limit by about 40% They offered one of those brain-damaging "we don't give credit to people who don't have a lot of debt" excuses. Apparently not drowning in debt makes me a bad credit risk, never mind my history of paying four or five times the minimum each month on time or even early, along with the regular acquisition of new charges (automatic bill payments).
In some fashion that no sane person could be expected to understand, using the card regularly, paying their Shylockian interest rate without so much a hateful note, and paying them hundreds and hundreds of dollars more than the minimum each month adds up to the profile of someone not to be trusted.
A friend suggested that I transfer my balance away and close the account, but I'm passive-aggressive. I'm going to pay off the balance and then leave the account open. They'll have the expenses associated with an open account but not a dime of income. (At least, until I get bored of getting their junk mail.)
Posted by AnneZook at 12:58 PM | Comments (6)I do seem to spend a lot of time moaning about how I'm just so over it all these days, don't I? Sorry 'bout that. I certainly don't want anyone to get the idea that my life is a wasteland or that I'm drowning in a sea of dark despair* or anything.
Diet, Day Two: So far, so good. 28 hours into the program and I've only cheated twice! *sigh* I'm going to tell myself that a slice of cheddar cheese and six crackers aren't that bad.
Six-Month Frugality Plan: 16 months and going strong. Three more cc payments and I should be essentially debt-free! (Aside from a not-inconsiderable chunk of change I owe the R.C., whose savings we lived on during the Great Unemployment of '07.)
In fact, aside from the midnight patio-party-hearty group living just outside my bedroom window, I don't have any real problems at the moment. (Granted, that may change after my annual physical next Wednesday.)
As we all know, trauma and turmoil make more interesting blog material than peace and prosperity. Sadly, as today's high point so far was the moment when I ate a cracker, I'm trauma-free.
I have to keep my hands off of the 'Nut campaigns for a while. I'm not only caught up, but so up-to-date that I just realized that I've spent a significant amount of time this week trying random weird things just to see what will happen. I should back off, before I actually break something.
Although, of course, the fact that nothing is actually broken hasn't prevented a handful o'Nuts from contacting me this week in a panic over various imagined problems. One person couldn't see their ads at 4:07pm yesterday, when they were ego-surfing. That wasted 90 minutes of my morning today. Another 'Nut screamed that they hadn't had a lead in a week. When I emailed back, pointing out that they've gotten seven in the last four days, they just said, "thanks for checking." I mean, what's that about?
In other sad news, Bernie did not reject my proposal out of hand. In fact, he didn't seem to choke on the number of hours I quoted for the job at all. This worries me. He wrote today to approve the proposal and ask my hourly rate, so I provided it. We'll see if that chases him off.
If it doesn't.... Well, I guess I can tell myself that $600 is $600. And that fixing the unholy mess they've made out of this client's campaign will teach me a lot about Webstrainer.
Gidget wants me to focus on improving the stats on The Gidget Co.'s client accounts. As though that's not what everything I do it designed to do, but one location in particular is complaining. As so often happens, this client, a member of Senior Central, already has the highest-performance campaign of any of his group. Sheesh. Basically, there are no locations among either the Senior Centralites or the Woofmen who are spending as much money as they should be, so I'm going to have to try and figure out how to get around that. And how to drive leads when they're not using any measure that counts leads, so I can't tell what's working, or when.
Anyhow. What I'm saying? This weekend looks like there's going to be a lot of free-lance working and very little playing. Frugal, yes. But not all that fun.
P.S. I'm sitting here, starving of the hunger and wondering if my determination to lose some weight will keep me on the Diet Path until lunch time, when I notice that it's 1:30. Maybe I need a little dinger to keep on my desk, so I'll know when it's time to eat?
____________________
* Paraphrase from, IIRC, Helen's Babies.
Today's 'Nuttery so far includes one guy wanting month-by-month report of all the searches people have used to find his campaign this year. 3k+ lines of data that it only took me ten seconds to decide to pass along "as is." I can't find myself getting excited about spending two hours formatting data that's of no use to me.
Another 'Nut called to complain that he's not seeing any data in the dashboad his outside agency gives him to use to monitor his campaign. You'd be impressed by how kind I was when I explained that it's an outside agency and he has to call them if he has questions.
NewBoss Anais IM'd and then came over in person to argue about our monthly spend. First, she had "spend" confused with "budget." Then she had a number in her head from last year--before we lost ten locations and the national campaign was slashed by 60%.
I think, though, that most of the communication confusion was caused by my complete inability to care.
My weekend was uneventful. But frugal! I spent no money, except on food.
But I did spend $30 on food. Fresh fruits and a few ready-to-eat treats. I decided that the Six-Month Frugality Plan would probably survive a single indulgence. I mean, one must eat, right? Anyhow, unless there's some kind of wild and crazy emergency, I should be done digging myself out of credit card debt in 90 days. (A mere 18 months after the debut of the Six-Month Plan!) (Although - $2,500 worth of work still needs to be done on my car, so that's probably another hit the card will have to take.)
We had something of a storm Monday night. As of Tuesday morning, 25k+ people were without power on the western side of the city. Many folks woke up to piles of marble-sized hail. Tornados, wind, rain, and all of that.
I, myself, was awake for the first round of sirens and for the start of the rain, but then a cool breeze swept through my room and I fell into the comatose state that passes for sleep with me. (I'm not a complete moron - I got up to check the weather strip and saw that the storm was on the west. Since we're very far east, I figured we were reasonably safe.)
Bored, bored, bored. I spent Monday, yesterday, and this morning rewriting 'Nut ads. I'm sick of ads.
I got Bernie's first account analyzed Monday. It was pretty funny. I mean, when he told me they were "managing" the campaigns by reviewing the website statistics, I knew I was going to find some problems, but I did at least expect to find campaigns set up by someone who had the ghost of a clue. (I studied data for three hours Monday evening and I still don't understand what they were trying to accomplish in some parts of the campaigns.)
Anyhow. I did a write-up and submitted a proposal to him for 25 hours at $25/hour. Since I know his limited imagination can rarely go beyond four hours for any job, and paying more than $10/hour gives him ulcers, I expect this proposal will be sufficient to get me off the hook.
I mean, I don't precisely want to burn the bridge. I just--want traffic kept to a minimum, you know?
Now I have to go rant about a story I saw in today's news.
Howdy, folks! What's new with you?
Mmm? Yes? Really! Mmm-hmm. You don't say? Well, gosh. Wotta story!
Me? There's so much going on here I can barely organize my thoughts to complain about it all.
Here at the Argonut Café, a previously unnamed 'Nut is about to close their doors. Yawn.
After hustling for two weeks to get it all ready, I sent out six-month performance reports yesterday. Within an hour I'd heard back from eleven 'Nuts whose combined requests for more detailed data and explanations are going to take me, at a conservative estimate, 16 hours to produce.
(Sigh. When I say, "I think you should do X because of Y" they should just email back and say, "Okay.")
I just had my second call (one of the Bowery Boys) and the guy had zero interest in reviewing the numbers he asked for or discussing the information he made me prepare. His idea was that I was going to walk him through looking at his campaign, so he could decide what keywords he should have. As I tried to explain, three times, the keyword list is not "fixed." Words rotate in and out constantly as we try new words and delete nonperforming words. What I wanted him to concentrate on was markets--which of the markets he currently advertises does he want to keep advertising. He didn't want to talk at that level, which means the two hours I spent working up all that data was time wasted. (Not to mention the 30 minutes for the phone call.) (If he didn't want all of that junk, why did he ask for it? Getting older by the minute, people!)
I've sent follow-up data to four other 'Nuts and am waiting for them to decide when they want to talk on the phone. The remaining five--I'm losing my enthusiasm for this project, so I'm ignoring them at the moment.
Further, in the good news/bad news department?
Another heretofore unmentioned 'Nut has a friend in need of online mktg expertise and is going to share my contact info. (Hey, a small, one-time job is still a dab of income!) Sadly, the project is too small to run through Gidget's company (if it comes to pass) because it's about $50 or $100, but from little acorns....
Gidget is getting 'scoped tomorrow in another effort to identify the source of her ongoing aches and pains. As soon as she finishes, she's on a plane to her mother's bedside as the relevant medical authorities say that this time, it really might be the end.
As we agreed on the phone earlier today, "expected" is not the same as "okay."
I tremble to share the next piece of good?/bad?/good? news.
It's Bernie. He's ba-a-ck! Apparently choking on the sheer volume of new work he's got and in need of my personal expertise in the mktg arena.
Or, not.
Because while he mentioned Webstrainer and whatnot, what he kept providing details about was using open source software for website optimization (SEO) which is a different color of elephant entirely. (And one where, in The Gidget Co, Gidget would handle words and I'd handle interface/tech.*)
Of course, Bernie's not likely to pay enough to hire a "company" when he thinks he can get me, for ten cents and a baloney sandwich, to do the same work. (No, we didn't discuss payment yet. It's tacky, to say the least, to discuss payment before you've actually heard what the work is.)
From what he said, "choking on work" isn't much of an exaggeration. If only half these projects reach the reality zone, that's enough full-time work for three or four people. (Or maybe five or six.) I know he has one employee (although what her actual duties are these days, I do not know) and himself. He mentioned two free-lancers, both of whom I know to be very good but who presumably also have other projects. And then there's me, with a 40-hour (50-hour) a week job and 15 hours a week on top of that for The Gidget Co already.
And. You know.
Bernie.
The man who nearly drove me psychotic when I worked for him--bidding twenty-five dollars for a five-hundred dollar job and then complaining bitterly when he had to cut a fifty-dollar paycheck to cover my hours. The man who hired me with the promise of reinstating (soon!) the 20% salary cut he handed me with my new job, who then laid-off the programmer/network administrator and expected me to magically grow that set of skills, and then moved his office halfway across the state and expected me to commute, all the while not only not delivering on his salary increase promises but hinting that I should be willing to take another pay cut.
Yeah. Him.
Why is my professional life full of people fixed in the belief that if they just ignore reality hard enough, it will change for them?)
And! As I mentioned last week, Gidget may have rounded up our third major client already and if she has, then I don't have the time or the energy to take on another 15-hour a week free-lance project--at least, not until I get out of having a full-time job.
The big question, as it always is with Bernie, is whether or not he's pitching these jobs to the clients for at least as much money as it's going to cost him to do the work. We're lunching tomorrow, and I do intend to ask him, point-blank, if he can afford my services.
But, you know, depending on how much of it actually comes to fruition, I might actually be in a position to wave bye-bye to the 'Nuts, come September 1.
Will we all be glad or sad if I no longer have a cast of coworkers to abuse?
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* It's occasionally sort of odd for me to spend so much time with people who think of me as a "tech person." Who think of me as someone "not good with words."
Mostly, it's because they think of me as a "tech person" and it's a little scary to realize how little someone has to understand technology for me to look like an expert.
Gidget, it turns out, is gallstone-free. The ulcer is still a viable possibility. She's giving her stomach a bland diet, and hoping for the best while she works to get her latest two projects underway.
One of our clients, hereinafter referred to as the "Woofmen" because I'm obnoxious that way, is starting up a second arm next month. Services similar to what they already do, but different enough to justify a stand-alone business model. Once they roll out, that's the third client leg (lots of body parts today) we've been wanting!
The other client, hereinafter referred to as "Senior Central" because invention is failing me at the moment, wants to branch out into "social networking" in a big way and, later this year, is going to pay Gidget to manage their overall "social network" presence.* * (I, of course, will be doing the actual work. I'm not sure Gidget would know a social network if one invited her over for tea.)
Fingers crossed for these two projects, folks! They're the last building blocks needed in The Gidget Co.'s "we just want to pay our bills and fire our crazy bosses" concept. Between these two and the "increase in the cost of services rendered" notice Gidget delivered to Woofmen last week, we are this close to our goal!
Yesterday I lunched with Gidget and Vela. I shared what little 'Nut gossip I've gathered, Vela dissed her crazy new company, and Gidget bemoaned the incestuous tangle of business relationships and politics (turns out that a VP of Senior Central runs a PR agency on the side and this agency handles the PR for Woofmen) that's currently causing stop-and-go traffic jams on her road to financial independence. No matter where you work, there will always be Issues.
Today's lunch indulgence was a mélange* of smoked turkey, 1/2 slice of cheese, dill pickle slices, and brown mustard. Without precisely being back on a diet, I'm making an attempt to cut down on the fat and increase the nutrition in my diet. Should I find myself in danger of starving to death in a couple of hours, I have six crackers I can eat to keep body and soul together until dinner time.
No, not my most scintillating post. My head is broken. Even if you're borderline obsessive-compulsive, I maintain that there are times when your brain just can't deal with any more bits of stuff, and this is one of my times. If I have to spend one more minute trying to figure out how to raise some statistic from 0.99% to 1.01%, I may run mad.* * * (This, yes, is why you're getting two blog posts from me this week.)
Boring story short--there's a pair of Eastern 'Nuts we'll call Tom & Jerry. Tom & Jerry were part of one of the shared marketing cooperatives with another 'Nut until they decided it was a conspiracy to steal all of their leads. Two weeks ago they asked for info on their new campaign's performance, I sent data showing that it was improving every week, and they requested a conference call for a more in-depth discussion. Today, an hour of my life I'll never get back again, boiled down to, "it looks good."
Why, I ask (in vain), why do people feel that wasting the precious hours of my life by forcing me to read them simple lines of text is okay?
I provide ten lines of data. For each line, I include the analysis, "This is from X. This number is up. Up is good." Or, "This number is down. Down is good."
How can they have the nerve to call me up and say, "What does it mean that this number is up? Is that good?"
I hate people.
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* It might not be. But it's a good word.
* * Don't even get me started. "Success" at social networking has to be achieved before you try to make a buck with it. Unless you have the world's sexiest new teenager product. Why can I not get anyone to understand these things?
* * * I mean, I know how. But it involves running two reports and breaking the resultant data down into four groups, each of which has about fifteen subgroups and then you check the numbers individually and in context with each other to decide which bit of what to change and I just can't face doing that one more time this week.
Posted by AnneZook at 03:56 PM | Comments (0)The emails are coming in. People seem concerned at the long silence.
My apologies. Not dead--just busy. Working for Gidget as new clients keep coming on board, struggling through end of month reporting for the 'Nuts, facing yet another 'Nut News deadline, and a touch of food poisoning (Monday and yesterday) that just had me feeling ick.
So, on a more (or maybe less, take your pick) cheerful note, what's new at the Argonut Café? Well, I'm still light on gossip because I never know what's going on, but Gidget* attended a party of Vela's a couple of weeks ago and found out that our controller, Fun Bobby, is seeking new employment. Rats deserting the sinking ship* * is one thing, but when the Money Man starts packing for an exit, that's pretty serious.
NewBoss Anais came to my desk to talk about the S'Swest 'Nut and his Nor'East 'NutNeighbor and I told her, "I'll do whatever you decide. I'm over those two." And she said, "I'm over them too.
The S'Swest 'Nut (see June 10 entry for a reminder of this situation) actually let me manage his campaign for two whole weeks before he made me shut it down because it "wasn't doing anything." (Apparently improving performance by 400% in two weeks is nothing.) Now he and his his Nor'East 'NutNeighbor are being forced (by Jason) back into a marketing marriage and since they're both more interested in blocking the other's business than they are in getting leads for themselves, I'm doubly over them.
Y'all remember PeaNut? Well, add PeaNut's name to the list o'Nuts who are taking our toys and going off to play by themselves. For those of you keeping score, that's four locations who have quite illegally taken our (comprehensive) training and our business model and gone off on their own, leaving tens of thousands of dollars of debt owed to the Argonut Café. PeaNut, if gossip is correct, owes more like hundreds of thousands.
Anyhow. I don't have massive plans for the upcoming long weekend. I'll probably work on Gidget's campaigns all day Friday, by way of a change from working on 'Nut campaigns. At some point, I plan to go out to lunch (a usual "payday weekend" treat. And I indulged myself in a little Amazon.com splurge, so I have two new seasons of Corner Gas* * * to watch. (Hooray!)
Aside from that, I'm just plodding through the days.
Sneaking in bits and pieces of extra work for Gidget during the day as she continues to find herself unable to tell Vela, "You gave me $400 and then turned around and handed me a $4000 job. This does not entitle you to $4000 worth of our time."
Forcing myself to the computer at home late in the evenings to slip in the odd half hour or hour of work on Gidget's campaigns. I really should put in at least 16 hours a week on them. There are eighteen of them now. I mean, the 34 'Nut campaigns require about 50 hours a week, at a minimum, and they're not "new" and in need of major adjustments on the fly. I do have evenings and weekends, of course, but I'm having a certain amount of difficulty making myself put in the time. I may have to allocate an hour or two a day, as soon as I get home in the evenings, before I have a chance to get too relaxed.
As much as I love Gidget, I have to admit that money is part of the issue. Carving 16 hours a week out of my "free time" for the grand sum of $100 a month doesn't excite me. I know we're currently on "introductory" terms with these two new clients, but I had a heart-to-heart talk with her about charging people for what a service is worth.
"Start as you mean to go on, because you never get a second chance to lay the right foundation."
It seems to me that I can hear the echo of my voice saying that over and over and over again but no one listens.
Anyhow. Short week and I just lost 30 minutes of it typing this, so I'd better get back to analyzing data.
________________
* Gidget, frighteningly enough, got the flu last week. And now her doctors are saying there's "something wrong" but that they don't know what it is. She's got me, her family all worried again. Months have gone by but she cannot be said to be actually "out of the woods" yet.
* * The rat in this case is me. I'd desert if I could get out of here.
* * * The RC finally expressed a mild interest in seeing the show and I showed her the first episode last night. She wasn't impressed.
I don't think I never figured out how to describe it to her. It's sort of like Andy Griffith only Canada instead of the US and for the 21st century. Gentle, you know? Edgier than AG (my Favorite Show Ever) because it's a more sophisticated world, but the same, essential gentleness. Possibly she was expecting that something would, I don't know. Explode. Or at least happen. It's very much character-driven, and you have to give a show like that some time.
Via email, the L-i-K-S gave me to understand that my incoherent rants about the stupidity of the 'Nuts and the insanity of the Argonut Café in general have been--well, incoherent.
Brief recap, for those not following along at home:
April -08 Two Café employees leave (one from my department). Management proves strangely slow about replacing them. Remaining staff parcel out duties (I am awarded the 'NutNews) and life continues much as before.
Jul-08 Jason decides he needs "experts" to implement the marketing changes described in Gidget's Next Level Plan, so he outsources. (He apparently feels that she is smart enough to teach him what needs to be done, but not smart enough to actually do it.) $40k, paid in advance, for new content. (New content subsequently rejected as "not working" although never actually used.)
Aug-08 For reasons I still don't understand, six months later, TeamChaos decides that the company providing 50% of all of our sales leads, across the entire company, is outrageous in increasing the cost-per-lead by $1. TeamChaos cancels the contract. The lead flow (costing approximately 25% of what we pay for leads from every other source) ceases. Two weeks later, the 'Nuts Afield begin complaining about the drop in leads received.
Oct-08 Jason decides that in-house location sales should be outsourced. New company hired ($35k, IIRC, paid in advance) but since the affected ChaosManager is on maternity leave, her position is safe and her salary continues. (60 days later, outsource company informs us that there's no market for our product and, one assumes, laughs all the way to the bank.)
Nov-08 During the Regularly Scheduled Monthly Meeting, TeamChaos stresses the "hard times" motif, blaming the economy, and discusses, in detail, cost-saving measures. We are informed of a change in health care coverage, the new plan being about 80% as good as the previous, only adequate plan. And that we are now all required to contribute toward the cost of our health care from now on.
Dec-08 First round of layoffs. Gidget goes, leaving this department 40% down on staff and 75% down on knowledge, company history, and job expertise. Simultaneously, 50% of the revenue-generating positions in the home office are eliminated. Apparently, making money costs too much. Less happy, but still cooperative, the remaining staff parcel out duties and start cramming in the hours.
Jan-09 During RSMM, the "hard times" motif reappears. We are all informed that we must take a 15% pay cut and extra duties. (I take on no additional tasks. Any spare energy I have is tied up in survivor's guilt around being employed while Gidget, who got me the job, is out of work. Which, in turn, is exacerbated by the news of Gidget's near-demise and continuing serious health problems.) (Also, Jason dreams up a truly catastrophic new approach to making money and it sucks down all of my and Vela's time for the next six weeks.)
Mar-09 After spending tens of thousands on the all-new, poorly conceived, badly designed plan to generate revenue for no cost and no effort--a plan doomed to failure and which would have enriched everyone's life had Jason just burned the money and saved us the stress--the remaining home office revenue-generating positions are eliminated, including the national sales person who was bringing on a new national account every month. Half of TeamChaos also gets the boot.
And, not incidentally, I get the boot, except I get a two-week grace period so they can actually transition my job to, well, someone who knows how. Because it finally occurs to Jason that some kind of proven sales lead generation could be considered a good thing.
In the meantime, Gidget is climbing back toward reasonable (not "good") health and starts interviewing potential clients. She signs one and I start helping her out in my spare time. Mostly just advice and consulting.
Apr-09 My lay-off is confirmed but my two weeks is extended to six weeks, due largely to protests filed by 'Nuts Afield. Many of them who complained loudly about my work over the last year now decide I am the Bee's Knees and the Cat's Pajamas.
Gidget signs another client and seven locations need campaigns created and activated.
May 09 Although confirming my lay-off, in the latter days of last month, my two weeks is extended early this month, at the annual conference. The lay-off is not cancelled - it's just that the effective date is now "indefinite."
I neither hear the announcement nor receive from Jason the invitation to chat about it that he promised NewBoss Anais he would deliver. In fact, he is clearly avoiding me as the month goes on. NewBoss Anais confirms that they continue to interview replacement companies to handle all the (as it turns out) necessary work formerly done by the now-defunct marketing department.
Gidget requests campaigns for another five locations and, unable to watch her struggle with the job, I also take on the management of fifteen active accounts.
Later in the month, after pricing what it would cost to replace me, my ChaosManager tells me I am fabulous and asks me to remain indefinitely, providing caviare-level service at my current pigs-knuckle salary.
*cough* Sorry. Ranty today.
The L-i-K-S also said that Rapunzel is feeling sick. Poor girl. Take a moment to send her some healthy vibes, okay?
This weekend I had occasion to go in and try to clean out my email inbox. I found an invitation to a party from a friend who is now probably former and who will never speak to me again. I found a notice telling me I owed a tenner to the guy who won the basketball brackets thing I was involved in, what was it, two months ago? I found a form from my insurance agent that I was grateful to realize had not gone unsigned and unsent. I found coupons for bookstores, invitations to shop at sales, demands that I protest this or that government (or opposition) idiocy. I found interesting conversations I could have participated in. I could have connected with people via twitter, linked in, blog, journal, or forum. There was information I promised friends that I never sent, lists I mean to resign from still sending me mail, and causes I would have donated to if I'd seen the notices in time.
I have got to get a better handle on my life.
Work seems too hard today. I'm trying to come up with some new creatives (ads) and stupid Outlook pop-ups keep reminding me that I have tasks not related to my Real Job that need to be done. Then I waste time being aggravated, start back to work, realize I'm editing a creative that's already successful, have to revert all of my changes, stop to be aggravated again, and then eventually get back on track. Right about then, another stupid pop-up interrupts me.
I'm not entirely focused today. I suspect I may need more sleep.* Maybe I'm not sleeping well, who knows? The problem, as I told my doctor last Friday, is that when you sleep alone, no one tells you if you snore drastically or toss and turn all night.
Sigh.
I wish they would unemploy me today. It's 85 and sunny outside.
But, no. I have to go into the database of addresses for the 'NutNews and start deleting the emails of people who no longer work here. Bert is whining at me to get that done. The emails of everyone no longer here get routed to his in-box and he got, like, ten copies of the 'NutNews last week. Made him grouchy.
If anyone cares, I've seen Jason three times this week (some kind of record!) and not once has he even hinted at his conference-inspired decision to keep me on "indefinitely." Heh. If he had the courage to talk to me about it, he could relax, knowing that I understand that by "indefinitely," he didn't mean "long-term." A coward dies a thousand deaths....
Gidget IM'd me today with good news She's in talks with a third large client. If they say yes, then the Gidget Co is good to go! Not one, but two former ChaosManagers are now at organizations that could use the Gidget Co's expertise. (Networking rocks.)
In the meantime, she sent me the info on two more campaigns for loading. I must remember to sit down and do that as soon as I get home this evening.
_____________________
* Maybe I'm becoming a geezer? Geezers have sleep issues.
I went to bed early last night. It was only 11:15. Since I don't roll off my pillow much before 7:30 (I have a fast morning routine), I should be bright and chipper today. Some old people don't sleep much, but maybe I'm going to be a sleepytime geezer?
Oh! And a stupidgeezer! I almost forgot to tell you that I was outside on the balcony last night, around 7:30, watering my plants, when I glanced at my car and realized I had left my headlights on! The poor R.C. had to come out and let me jump my car from hers, then I had to go drive around forever to recharge the battery.
While I was out, the R.C. signed me up for AAA. She's been wanting me to join for years. Somehow I was under the impression it cost hundreds of dollars, so I never go around to it, but now I'm a card-carrying member! (Or, you know, I'd be a card-carrying member if I'd remembered to put the membership info she printed for me into my purse Stupidgeezer!)
Pursuant to my impending unemployment, I tried to pin NewBoss Anais down last week--after the Conference euphoria had passed for all of them--not for a final date, but at least for a date when we could actually discuss the date. She avoided the topic, saying she would be "grateful" to have me "as long as I felt able to stay."
??
Excuse me? I've been given three different "good-bye" dates. Unless I'm on the wrong kind of meds, I'm pretty sure that's a strong indicator that they would not, in fact, be grateful to have me around in the future.*
Also? I know that they're still interviewing companies to replace me, so she being very polite, but not helpful.
I'm not trying to be hard to get along with, but I do need to know if I'm outta here next week or next month, okay?
The R.C. says I work in the Hotel California. I've checked out, but they won't let me leave.
Me, I say it's even weirder. The hotel management came to my room and requested me to check out. Now they're holding my luggage hostage and claiming they think I'm a wonderful addition to the décor.
Short of assuming that they're stalling while someone in the back is rifling through my bags and stealing my Fabulous New Panties**, I don't know what to think.
In any case, I loaded up three new campaigns for Gidget's clients last Thursday, and sweet-talked her into letting me manage all of her current campaigns for at least a week or so, so my Next Big Adventure is taking shape in the wings. Now that I've been laid-off three times by this same company, the only thing I need to do is actually become unemployed and she and I can focus on getting the new company really rolling.
eek!
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* Jason's announcement to the 'Nuts Afield last week, notwithstanding (another great word). Never forget that his main goal in life is either to stop the whining or to get it migrated to some outside vendor, so he can say, SEP!
** My apologies to the male portion of the audience who would rather not hear about what goes on under my clothes.
Little to report on the 'Nut front today. An incredibly brief conversation with NewBoss Anais yesterday afternoon revealed the fact that she would be "grateful" if I would continue showing up for work next week. Beyond that, she knoweth not, but she promised to find out in today's management meeting. Her best guess is "a couple of weeks."
Gidget has come to me with about ten "how do I...." questions already this week and is grousing because I'm not yet unemployed :-) and available to do this stuff for her.
I continue to reside in a world where no one can pay me but everyone wants my services. Flattered but homeless, that's me. *
I've done a fair amount of work today, including one "monthly" project that I realized had not been done since early November. I even returned a call from a 'Nut, which is normally against my policy. (I reached his voicemail, though, so I didn't have to talk to him. Since he's one of the Bowery Boys, that made my day a little brighter.)
Yesterday's HairMan appointment passed without incident, unless you consider having to have my color done twice to cover the stubborn gray an incident. I've been dyeing the gray since I was 22. I was trying to add up last night just how much I've spent over the years, but I finally gave up. A lot, anyhow.
Last night's outing cost me a cool $100. When I made the appointment, it was under the assumption that I would be sending out resumes and (with luck) going on interviews and that it would behoove me to look my best (youngest). I can't afford to have it done again for a long time and now I'm thinking I should have rescheduled.
Oh, well. HairMan is also suggesting he might be ready to move ahead with his website project and that maybe in the future we can trade some of my expertise for his. I know the feds hate it when you barter instead of trading easily taxable cash, but who cares? * *
Bored and boring today, aren't I?
Oh, and I talked to Gidget again and she decided we can take on some of the 'Nuts on a freelance basis--as long as we pick and choose. So, you know, another step toward making her fledgling company profitable and creating my own new job! Pursuant (such a fabulous word) to paragraph #2 above, she can't wait to turn all of the "stupid software junk" over to me so she can spend her time talking to clients and being creative.
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* If it weren't for gross exaggeration, my day would have no drama at all.
* * For the record? I support their taxation of money. They print the money. It's thanks to them that we have an easy, portable way to transfer value and I agree that they're entitled to a cut. Like a royalty.
But I've never agreed with them trying to tax the value of bartered goods and services. They don't own me. My time, knowledge, and abilities are mine, not theirs. If I choose to trade my time for a pizza instead of the $5 it would take to buy a pizza, that's my business.
And, yes, I know I'm not on firm legal, moral, ethical, or logical ground here, but that's what I've chosen to believe today.
(My morals are flexible if I need a haircut? How pathetic is that?)