a free second to type…

so it seems totally contradictory that now that i am home all day i actually have less time to blog than when i was working at albertsons.  that probably says something about my job.  but that also says something about having kids around and being a parent.  and, you know, that part is cool.

so, let’s see.  i’m possibly getting some thinktank webdesign gigs.   (that’s a bit of search engine optimization there…search engines like google use hyperlinks to sites that have text links like that in how they arrange search results for various queries, which is why it’s better to say this site is really purple, rather than there’s a red site here….i decided to wiki it a while back in research for the thinktank stuff since, you know, people get paid big bucks for SEO) one is for the salt lake theological seminary, erin’s dad’s work, and one is for a nonprofit a friend i work with at whole foods works with.  so that’s exciting.  the other webdesign gig is a real time suck.  it’s cool and it’s still fun, but it can be stressful trying to get things in under the deadline (even just the deadline to get invoices in) knowing that my paycheck is riding on someone else and this last week i had 4 accounts all of which were almost impossible to get a hold of anyone.  i guess to make up for it, though, this week i got a 10 page site whose owner is readily available.  i’ve been doing a lot more ecom sites because they’re easier to plow through, we got thrown way off our schedule a couple weeks ago when we all had the flu and had to take a couple days off to recover.

erin is an equal partner in the web design now and, while she may be a bit slower with the technical stuff, is coming up with design concepts that are hawt and stuff that i wouldn’t have thought of.   so it’s good that there’s two of us, and it’s good that we’re both working, and it’s good that we can help each other out, and it’s good that we’re both in the thinktank thing together because if we are ever able to get enough work doing that on our own it means that our sites will be twice as good, and i’m banking on the quality and creativity of our designs being the main selling point.

design tips of the evening:  gradients are good.  bevelling can be good.  drop shadows are nice when very subtle.

so the problem is that we’re literally working all the f’ing time.  especially now that we’re behind.  and when the kids are fussy, it just makes it worse.  meara calls up erin and says “what are you doing?”  “working on websites.”  “so, what are you doing later?”  “…working on websites.”   and that’s seriously what we do.  i try to set a cut-off time and save weekends (or at least days) for weekends, at least one day off, anyway, but it’s tough when there’s deadlines and the utility bills and food ride on how productive we are.   and customer revisions are a bitch.  imagine building something that you’re happy with, and you think is ready to meet the world as it is and having someone say “i really would like it to be a different shade of red” or “can you make it more like this over here?”  and thus begins the long and painful process of revising ad nauseum until the site looks like crap.  it’s rough.

we both are painfully aware of not being able to do things.  like talk to people, go outside, watch movies, blog about the kids, etc, and we both think about it but there isn’t much we can do at the moment.  gavin is doing some cool stuff lately.  he seems to have learned how to read numbers which is pretty f’ing awesome, and he says his numbers and abc’s.  he surprised me one day by opening this counting book we have to the last page and pointing to parts of the page and saying “eight.” point.  “nine.” point.  “ten.”  but he’s done it since and erin says he has done that with the whole book.  i guess the sesame street we’ve been playing is doing something after all.  erin also tells me that there are other older kids that don’t know colors, which gavin’s known for a long time.  among other things.  which pretty much proves the theory we’ve had that he’s really smart even if he isn’t talking a lot yet, it’s just because he’s busy thinking about other things.

like how to read harry potter.

next week i’m going to teach him html and he can help with the web sites and maybe then we can start blogging and posting pictures more.

—————-
Now playing: Soul Coughing – Screenwriter’s Blues
via FoxyTunes


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Comments

10 responses to “a free second to type…”

  1. Randi Avatar
    Randi

    I know that last line was meant as a joke, but I wouldn't put it past Gavin to be able to learn HTML.
    I hope you pay him for his efforts!

  2. Mom Avatar
    Mom

    What happened to your "mood" analyzer?

  3. jazzs3quence Avatar

    after seeing him able to identify numbers, i'm only being moderately snarky with the html thing. i totally expect him to be able to hand code websites by the time he's 5.

    and i gave up on the mood thing cuz i thought it was obnoxious and i always forgot to do it. you think i should bring it back?

  4. Randi Avatar
    Randi

    I know that last line was meant as a joke, but I wouldn’t put it past Gavin to be able to learn HTML.
    I hope you pay him for his efforts!

  5. Mom Avatar
    Mom

    What happened to your “mood” analyzer?

  6. jazzs3quence Avatar

    after seeing him able to identify numbers, i’m only being moderately snarky with the html thing. i totally expect him to be able to hand code websites by the time he’s 5.

    and i gave up on the mood thing cuz i thought it was obnoxious and i always forgot to do it. you think i should bring it back?

  7. Tara Avatar
    Tara

    way to go gavin! Hope all is well.

  8. Mom Avatar
    Mom

    YES!! Bring back the mood thing. I liked it.

  9. Tara Avatar
    Tara

    way to go gavin! Hope all is well.

  10. Mom Avatar
    Mom

    YES!! Bring back the mood thing. I liked it.

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