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 Thursday, January 21,1999 |
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New this week: Chapter
70, in which Jim writes a short story, entitled "Wishing
Well". |
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A couple of weeks ago I reported that Gina was in the running for Lady of the Year, and was even ahead in the polls. Well, since then some hooligans stuffed the ballot box electronically, and they voted for someone other than Gina! Luckily the votes were invalidated, but now they have to have the whole election all over again. Which means that if you want your vote for Gina to count, you need to go vote again. But don't worry: some anti-hooligan software has been installed to keep these votes from being corrupted. Good luck once again Gina! Last October, I stopped doing the part time programming work I'd been doing as a contractor at TSI, in order to pour all my energies into creating a bunch of new gift products in time for Christmas. I haven't had a job (except building this site and stuff) since then. This week, Kristin stopped working as the Information Systems manager at TelSys, in order to escape the cologne and to pour all of her energies into increasing sales and growing the business of Looney Labs. And so, for the first time since being college fresh-outs, we don't have jobs and we aren't sure what our future will hold. What will we be doing in 6 months? We don't know. It's a strange and exciting feeling. Last week, I reported on the status of my job search, and got a lot of feedback via email. One message that really got me thinking came from Steve Sabia, who has been providing me with valuable advice ever since our days at NASA, when he urged both me and Kristin to go skiing with him, and then left us alone to fall in love on the novice slopes while he snowboarded over those cliffs marked with black diamond warning symbols. Anyway, he said: "you ever consider just starting your/our own web/animation/UI gig? there's lots of work there... or are you looking for that steady freddy cash flow?" My initial reaction was that I needed the security of a steady job... but we did a lot of thinking this week, and the idea of taking the plunge into full-blown freelancing instead has become very appealing. Meanwhile, two other things happened. First, I was hired to do some portrait photography, and second, I got paid for an article I wrote that appears in the current issue of Pyramid Magazine. And although the combined profit for these projects was less than a hundred bucks, it still inspired us to think of other ways to make our living through free lance projects instead of full time programming work. So, we have decided to put my job search on hold for a little while, and instead hang up our shingle as a website developer and creative services studio. We figure we've got enough money in the bank that we can try it for a couple of months and see how it goes... I'll look for a job again later if I have to. But with neither of us working a regular job, we have a whole new understanding of the word motivation, and we also have much more time to devote to the work of running our company. So, both Kristin and I will be working full time for Looney Labs for a while. If you know anyone who needs the services of a website manufacturer or other creative services... please send them our way. Can we make it? Good question. Stay tuned...
P.S. - It's my mom's birthday today. Happy Birthday Mom! |
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A sweet little date movie about internet romance; I found it more interesting than Sleepless in Seattle, but my favorite Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan vehicle remains Joe Versus the Volcano. |
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I've
got my camera back! (It was in the repair shop for almost 6 months.)
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