A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about a spam I received offering me writing services. I thought it was pretty funny, as the sender clearly didn't pay attention to the fact that I am a writer.
About a week ago, I received another spam (again sent through my contact form) from the same person. At this point, I'm seriously wondering whether s/he understands English very well, as evidently s/he (who has an Indian name that prevents me from guessing a gender) hasn't noticed what the copy on my website says.
It doesn't help my impression of the person that the grammar is rather awkward:
We are an on-line service provider for all journalism and publishing related activities - original articles, ghost writing, editing, magazine management etc.
Reliability, maintaining confidentiality and strict adherence to delivery dates is sacrosanct to the organization.
Maybe I should pretend to be a client and try to find out what "the organization" charges. I'm guessing $1.50 per 500 words. What's your bet?
Thursday, November 08, 2007
Organic workloads
Do you ever find that no matter how much (or little) work you have to do, it seems to fill the same amount of time?
It always seems that I work the same number of hours whether I have one project, or five. For example, yesterday I worked my butt off to meet an afternoon deadline, and had nearly met my daily income goal by early afternoon. Today, I've been sitting at my desk for two hours and haven't earned one penny.
It's almost like my workload is organic, and grows (or shrinks) to meet the time allotted for it. That's good in some ways, as it's nice to take your time and slack off a bit when you have the opportunity. The downside is that it also means I never get my work done quickly so that I can enjoy the rest of my day.
Do you ever have this problem?
It always seems that I work the same number of hours whether I have one project, or five. For example, yesterday I worked my butt off to meet an afternoon deadline, and had nearly met my daily income goal by early afternoon. Today, I've been sitting at my desk for two hours and haven't earned one penny.
It's almost like my workload is organic, and grows (or shrinks) to meet the time allotted for it. That's good in some ways, as it's nice to take your time and slack off a bit when you have the opportunity. The downside is that it also means I never get my work done quickly so that I can enjoy the rest of my day.
Do you ever have this problem?
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
NaNoWriMo, here I come...at last!
I was beginning to think that I just would never get started on NaNoWriMo. After starting the outline at the local meet-up last week, I hadn't found time to do any more work on it.
After a highly productive day (I worked my butt off to meet an afternoon deadline), I decided to take this evening off from other work and work on my outline some more. To my great surprise and delight, I managed to finish the outline. Not only that, but I feel great about it! I am getting excited about my novel again, and for the first time in about a month I feel impatient to work on it.
Unfortunately, I can't divert any more of my time tonight to novel-writing: I need to clean and condition Panama's new leather bridle, and then go to bed so that I can be up for our 9:30 training session tomorrow.
I have a lot of work the next few days — amusingly, within 24 hours of posting about my freelancing famine, several jobs fell right into my lap — but I am going to try to get going on my novel as soon as possible. I figure if I stick with my initial goal of 3,000 words per day, I may not be able to reach 80,000 words, but I should still be able to reach 50,000 — technically all I need to "win."
After a highly productive day (I worked my butt off to meet an afternoon deadline), I decided to take this evening off from other work and work on my outline some more. To my great surprise and delight, I managed to finish the outline. Not only that, but I feel great about it! I am getting excited about my novel again, and for the first time in about a month I feel impatient to work on it.
Unfortunately, I can't divert any more of my time tonight to novel-writing: I need to clean and condition Panama's new leather bridle, and then go to bed so that I can be up for our 9:30 training session tomorrow.
I have a lot of work the next few days — amusingly, within 24 hours of posting about my freelancing famine, several jobs fell right into my lap — but I am going to try to get going on my novel as soon as possible. I figure if I stick with my initial goal of 3,000 words per day, I may not be able to reach 80,000 words, but I should still be able to reach 50,000 — technically all I need to "win."
Voting woes
Yes, I'm one of those people who votes even in off-years.
This year my district's election was done solely by mail-in ballots. (I voted via mail for the first time last year, and I loved it so much that I'll never go to a polling place again unless I have to.) Michael and I filled out our ballots Monday night, and dropped them off yesterday evening.
For the most part, these minor elections don't get much attention, either in campaigning or in news coverage. The major exception this year was a ballot question that would essentially have prevented unions and other associations from taking their dues or donations directly out of employee paychecks.
Although there is an implication there that right now these organizations can take money out employees' paychecks without their full understanding or permission, I think that is only part of the issue. The other part is that the city really has no business knowing what organizations their employees belong to.
Unfortunately, the opposition to this ballot question was quite strong. In fact, I would say they went rather overboard: I received well over a dozen calls throughout the month, just from the "Vote NO" folks. At one point, they called me six times over the course of two days — basically, they just kept calling until they got me in person.
When I finally answered, the lady on the other end went into her spiel in a complete monotone. I thought of interrupting or just hanging up, but truth be told I'm too polite for that. Too bad we can't say the same for these folks: When she was done, the caller actually had the nerve to ask me if I was going to vote the way they wanted! I was appalled. Ever heard the term "secret ballot," lady?
I told her that I was going to look into it some more, and got off the phone. Apparently refusing to tell them my vote put me on some kind of list, though, because for the rest of the month I received a call from these folks at least once every few days. I never answered one of their calls again, but they left message after message on my voice mail. Michael, who never talked to them in person (or, more notably, never told them he was "going to look into it some more"), only received a fraction of the calls I did.
That kind of harassment ought to be illegal.
I guess this is just a taste of what is to come as the 2008 presidential election looms.
This year my district's election was done solely by mail-in ballots. (I voted via mail for the first time last year, and I loved it so much that I'll never go to a polling place again unless I have to.) Michael and I filled out our ballots Monday night, and dropped them off yesterday evening.
For the most part, these minor elections don't get much attention, either in campaigning or in news coverage. The major exception this year was a ballot question that would essentially have prevented unions and other associations from taking their dues or donations directly out of employee paychecks.
Although there is an implication there that right now these organizations can take money out employees' paychecks without their full understanding or permission, I think that is only part of the issue. The other part is that the city really has no business knowing what organizations their employees belong to.
Unfortunately, the opposition to this ballot question was quite strong. In fact, I would say they went rather overboard: I received well over a dozen calls throughout the month, just from the "Vote NO" folks. At one point, they called me six times over the course of two days — basically, they just kept calling until they got me in person.
When I finally answered, the lady on the other end went into her spiel in a complete monotone. I thought of interrupting or just hanging up, but truth be told I'm too polite for that. Too bad we can't say the same for these folks: When she was done, the caller actually had the nerve to ask me if I was going to vote the way they wanted! I was appalled. Ever heard the term "secret ballot," lady?
I told her that I was going to look into it some more, and got off the phone. Apparently refusing to tell them my vote put me on some kind of list, though, because for the rest of the month I received a call from these folks at least once every few days. I never answered one of their calls again, but they left message after message on my voice mail. Michael, who never talked to them in person (or, more notably, never told them he was "going to look into it some more"), only received a fraction of the calls I did.
That kind of harassment ought to be illegal.
I guess this is just a taste of what is to come as the 2008 presidential election looms.
Monday, November 05, 2007
The feast or famine of freelancing...
Anyone who freelances knows how it can be a "feast or famine" kind of situation. Some months you are booked beyond belief, and the money just keeps rolling in. Other months you feel like it's all you can do just to scratch by.
Unfortunately, I'm going through a famine type of time right now, down from the feasting I did just a couple of months ago. I worked so much over the summer that I got rather burnt out, and I still thinking I'm working a little slower than usual from that. I haven't really gotten around to finishing my website updates or looking for new work, so I've been dependent on my regulars. And that's just not enough.
All the time that I've been spending with Panama is also coming back to bite me in the a$$. It took me a while to figure out how to juggle stable time and work time. Although there are still some days where I don't get much work done, I'm getting better about it. Unfortunately, in the meantime the well has run dry.
Honestly, though, there's nothing like feeling poor to make you work harder. I worked all day today, only spent 45 minutes at the stables, and plan to work a few more hours this evening. The rest of the week will most likely be similar, but hopefully after that I'll be in a comfortable spot again.
Unfortunately, I'm going through a famine type of time right now, down from the feasting I did just a couple of months ago. I worked so much over the summer that I got rather burnt out, and I still thinking I'm working a little slower than usual from that. I haven't really gotten around to finishing my website updates or looking for new work, so I've been dependent on my regulars. And that's just not enough.
All the time that I've been spending with Panama is also coming back to bite me in the a$$. It took me a while to figure out how to juggle stable time and work time. Although there are still some days where I don't get much work done, I'm getting better about it. Unfortunately, in the meantime the well has run dry.
Honestly, though, there's nothing like feeling poor to make you work harder. I worked all day today, only spent 45 minutes at the stables, and plan to work a few more hours this evening. The rest of the week will most likely be similar, but hopefully after that I'll be in a comfortable spot again.
Sunday, November 04, 2007
How I actually spent my extra hour
Yesterday, I blogged about what I would write with an extra hour each day — a meme inspired by Daylight Savings Time.
Then clocks rolled back, giving us our extra hour. Mine was not spent on writing. Instead, it was diddled away rescuing Michael, and making not one but two trips to the stables as a result.
Michael went on a bike ride this afternoon, since the weather was so perfect: a slightly breezy day with temperatures in the low 70s. I was planning on celebrating the warm weather my own way: by bathing Panama.
Unfortunately, Michael got two flats while on his bike ride. When he got the first, he happened to be near a sports store, so he had them fix his tire. I ended up having to rescue him after all, though, when he got a second flat shortly after leaving the store.
I was at the stables already when I got the call, so I had to put Panama back in his stall and leave without having done anything with him yet. After rescuing Michael, he came with me back up to the stables. During the second visit, I did my usual routine: turning Panama out into the pasture to graze while I cleaned his stall, grooming him and picking out his feet, and turning him out into the arena to get him to run around a bit.
Although it was getting late at this point, and I had used up my extra hour (and then some!), I decided to go ahead and bathe Panama after all.
Due to my bungled afternoon and some pre-existing evening plans, I didn't get the work done this weekend that I had planned. Tomorrow I will need to do some serious catching up!
Then clocks rolled back, giving us our extra hour. Mine was not spent on writing. Instead, it was diddled away rescuing Michael, and making not one but two trips to the stables as a result.
Michael went on a bike ride this afternoon, since the weather was so perfect: a slightly breezy day with temperatures in the low 70s. I was planning on celebrating the warm weather my own way: by bathing Panama.
Unfortunately, Michael got two flats while on his bike ride. When he got the first, he happened to be near a sports store, so he had them fix his tire. I ended up having to rescue him after all, though, when he got a second flat shortly after leaving the store.
I was at the stables already when I got the call, so I had to put Panama back in his stall and leave without having done anything with him yet. After rescuing Michael, he came with me back up to the stables. During the second visit, I did my usual routine: turning Panama out into the pasture to graze while I cleaned his stall, grooming him and picking out his feet, and turning him out into the arena to get him to run around a bit.
Although it was getting late at this point, and I had used up my extra hour (and then some!), I decided to go ahead and bathe Panama after all.
Due to my bungled afternoon and some pre-existing evening plans, I didn't get the work done this weekend that I had planned. Tomorrow I will need to do some serious catching up!
Saturday, November 03, 2007
Panama is wearing a saddle now!
Panama tolerates a saddle now. He lunges with it on, and we're getting him accustomed to jingling noises by fastening keys to it while he lunges.
Doesn't he look so grown up? I'm so proud.
Doesn't he look so grown up? I'm so proud.
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