🧑🏭 A New Client
When I moved down to Eastbourne 6 or so years ago, I had the opportunity to work for myself. The Freedom to choose how I spend my time and the Freedom to choose whether I do work for others and if I do, who those people are.
As I've mentioned before, my current level of Freedom is questionable following the birth of my first and then second child and as a result of being a full-time father, I haven't had the appetite nor opportunity to do any "real" work with grown-up companies.
On Tuesday though, this changed.
I travelled back to my home town of Reading to meet a potential new client. A friend of mine had started a new job and thought of me when looking for some help in developing a new website. Whilst I was initially called about just supporting an old man with some coding, their needs were far more wide ranging and we discussed a wide variety of topics.
Whilst I'm not sure I'll be able to work with the old man, primarily due to him not having a clue about web development but being responsible for their IT, I'm excited about the stages prior to that in researching and creating a good site structure and Information Architecture. Initially, by working on their customer segments and creating some Personas.
I thought that it might be quite cool in future posts to provide a bit more detail into what I'm doing - without disclosing anything confidential or making the client identifiable.
The best thing from my point of view though is the flexibility (and dare I say it, Freedom) that this opportunity offers me. My friend knows what my situation at home is. He knows that child care consumes a huge amount of my time and whilst I can (nearly) always answer the phone for a call, my working hours will be fairly random and often unsociable - especially as it's now the school holidays.
So I've committed to 1 day per week (spread across whenever I feel like doing something) which we'll monitor for the next couple of months. My hope is that this becomes a permanent retainer and whilst I have fears about how the site will be coded, for the money and freedom that I'm getting, I think that I can cope and keep my mouth shut.
The big downside though is that whereas previously, I've been spend any free time that I have on Zombie Apocalypse, my priority now has to be real work that earns me real money. So as those of you involved have almost certainly noticed, progress has slowed down somewhat. Hopefully I'll find a way of juggling everything although with the football season starting in a couple of weeks...….
Maybe I should make a little progress now... after I've opened another beer...
I did not expect the gamemaster starving but it’s cool because rl is more important and sounds more cool… 😎
I don’t want to rush the game and I want to put some cool narrative in which looks at your Steemit profile to decide what to say next. Probably unnecessarily complicated but should be fun!
It’s nice to have some real work - my confidence is low so I keep doubting myself which was always my worry having not worked for so long. I’ve started to get my head back into it though and sent something over tonight which I think is decent. Hopefully it is at least ok!
How are you? I keep checking to see if you’ve posted anything…
Please excuse me for replying so late. It expresses a little bit my current commitment and basic interest in this platform.
The game is cool and it's totally nice that you're including a cool storyline! For my current reply, I had already considered writing a whole article. Discarded... My response may surprise you, or it may not.
So glad to hear you're settling into your new job. You put a lot of energy and thought into everything you do - so your delivered project can't be anything but good!
A regular job is a fine thing. It gives structure and if it's also fun, it's exactly what people need - regardless of the payment.
Here now I am a bit at "How are you?" I've been fighting for my (unpaid) job for many weeks, primarily for over 100 sheep. It wasn't enough. The medicines were so expensive, one worker quit without notice - we can't save the farm. By the end of the year, all the sheep will be sold and I can only help to ensure that the buyer is not the butcher. This is very unsatisfactory, I now work only out of extreme love for the animal.
Haha, that's not the kind of post I want to write then either.... ;-) But there is also another, much more important reason regarding Steemit: With a few exceptions (in my community or good friends), I don't read anything here that interests me anymore. I sort shit by smell when I curate. I just don't want to spend my free time with that anymore, and certainly don't want to join to be suspected of being a sc slave (merely because I can write... LOL).
This reply or the one to poor little choose-adventure?
I guess neither reply comes as a surprise, other than the news about your sheep. I’m sorry to hear that - do you need to sell all of your babies or can you keep a few?
I think this problem has been here for a while now and is increasing. I want to curate, I enjoy content but so little catches my attention that it feels like a waste of time even trying. Part of me thinks “if I keep going, maybe more will think the same and try to be original” but it doesn’t seem to happen. There’s too much of a focus on contests and engagement challenges which simply don’t interest me. Outside of that, like you say, there’s the people I like but they’re becoming less active too so there’s less pulling me back in.
I do enjoy watching your escape from Steemit City and I hope you win your fight 😊 I think that the interactions with the people will become the best part of the game.
As far as your comments about sc, I suspect that the person in the team that we liked who would comment occasionally has left Steemit. I could be wrong but the occasional meaningful interaction that we used to have appears to be a thing of the past. I haven’t looked at their comments but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s mostly congratulations for dolphins and alike.
Ja, jener... ;-)
The operation on the farm will be discontinued.
Purely privately, of course, I keep my three bucks. Maybe I will buy another 10-15 girls from the farmer. That depends on how much land he can lease me.
The plans to let Elton become a daddy, however, are canceled for now.
There will be no more cheese production, the farm is broke.
All that will happen now is just a great, time-consuming (and expensive) hobby. I look forward to this with mixed feelings - but at the moment I'm just sad that all the effort of the last few weeks has not been enough for the farm nor for most of the sheep. I'll write more about this sometime.... :-(
Me not either. Nor most of the longtime Steemians. And certainly not people from outside.
Yes, it already is a lot of fun!
I think so too. What else was left to the person, who after all seemed to have had a few ideal ideas?!
What happened is a disgrace. Now we have a pool full of blind beggars who think Steemit is the sc. Argh, better not think about it! Let's rather have fun in Steemit City!
I don’t know how farmers stay profitable any more. Everything is so expensive to keep going and then you’re expected to sell everything very cheap. Perhaps one day you’ll explain so that a simpleton like me can understand!
Maybe another day, you’ll find a way of making your hobby a business again and Elton can “get jiggy with it”.
I don’t know what to think about Steemit now. In many senses, nothing has changed but at the same time, it feels completely different.
It’s a bit complicated since there are a lot of factors.
We had to spend a whole bunch of money (and time, a lot of time) for the health of the animals. Besides food and energy got so expensive. The bills… Well… If somebody blocks good ideas and doesn’t want any solution, there won’t be any…
Oh, Elton will become famous because of the prettiest lambs ever seen one day… 🥰
Steem, well… „All users are equal but some are more equal“… 😉
Sounds like a good piece of work you have picked up
As for the old guy - this should help
I’m really looking forward to it. It should be interesting, I just hope that the old man (the owner’s dad) realises that he’s not an expert… he’s been their IT guy for 5 years and nobody else has a clue so he’s had too long convincing himself that he knows what he’s doing 😭
It’s easy money if I play the game but I don’t like sucking up to idiots!
ANNOUNCEMENT
WOX Community will appreciate you for your help:
https://steemit.com/hive-185836/@stef1/contest-best-promotion-of-wox-helpfund-30-steem-is-winning-pot
Good news!
🥳
I'm glad you found a new project. It's always interesting to distract yourself from household chores :)
It’s cool and I’m not sure if I said but it’s work that I’m interested in too. I’m so short of confidence now though that I used ChatGPT to check I hadn’t forgotten anything 🤣
cheers!