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State of the jmac, 201003
Mar. 9th, 2010 09:40 pmDue to happenstance, all of Appleseed's client projects but one are wrapping up this month - three projects in total. (Well: two are wrapping, and one ran into a wall and exploded. But the less said about that the better, really.) Even though I had delegated away most of the implementation involved with all three, they were still demanding enough of my attention to make my work for the remaining project, with my most long-term client, suffer. (Planbeast crashing back onto my desk, along with my continued Gameshelf ambitions, didn't help.)
I only started really feeling it this month, and the realization bums me out. So, I've resolved to not seek to replace these projects right away. Having only one client can be a dangerous line for an independent consultant to walk, and it's something that's bit me before. But my relationship with this one is such that I feel safe about it.
This sounds like it goes against what I wrote here, gosh, probably only a year or less ago, stating that Appleseed wants to grow. Well, I'm still feeling it out.
This month is gonna be a sore financial pinch for me, between the one project's untimely end, and the fact that my MacBook appears to be slowly disintegrating -- probably due to some coffee I splashed on it weeks ago. (Its keyboard shorted out immediately, and I replaced it, but other narsty hardware problems have started cropping up.) Jury's not quite done deliberating yet, but I'm betting I'll have to replace it. If so, I'll probably get a MacBook Pro as soon as they come out (rumored to be any day now). As much as it's nice to think that I'll be able to play games on the brand-new Mac Steam at full speed, the timing of this expense could have been better.
This is also the month containing a long-weekend vacation to DC, and then PAX here in Boston two weeks after that. These are happy reasons to spend money, but involve money-spending just the same. This month is already reminding me of October 2007, when Amy and I spent a week vacationing in Maine despite the fact that I had no work (having just been curb-deposited by my one client) and no money. And that was one of the most memorable excursions of my life. So, yeah, not complaining.
Given the way March is falling out, with all its surprises, it's looking less and less likely I'll have the next Gameshelf episode done by PAX. To my last-fall self, this seems like a giant fail; I thought I'd be cranking out one show a month by this point. But now, I think I'm OK with this.
I feel called to make my life more flexible, both with work-work and with non-paying projects. I've started seeing the wisdom in working with my propensity to get excited by one cool project idea after another, rather than against it.
Despite my wishes, producing a TV series of indeterminate length on a regular schedule might just be genetically impossible for me.
My experimentation with writing a weekly Gameshelf column is me seeking compromise, seeing if I can't make that my sacrifice on the altar of regularity, but letting all the other unrealized projects bouncing around my skull - video production, game design, web services, and everything else - call their own schedules.
I am bound to be a different person in April, after all of this months' kooky doo doo. It's kind of exciting. Actually.
I only started really feeling it this month, and the realization bums me out. So, I've resolved to not seek to replace these projects right away. Having only one client can be a dangerous line for an independent consultant to walk, and it's something that's bit me before. But my relationship with this one is such that I feel safe about it.
This sounds like it goes against what I wrote here, gosh, probably only a year or less ago, stating that Appleseed wants to grow. Well, I'm still feeling it out.
This month is gonna be a sore financial pinch for me, between the one project's untimely end, and the fact that my MacBook appears to be slowly disintegrating -- probably due to some coffee I splashed on it weeks ago. (Its keyboard shorted out immediately, and I replaced it, but other narsty hardware problems have started cropping up.) Jury's not quite done deliberating yet, but I'm betting I'll have to replace it. If so, I'll probably get a MacBook Pro as soon as they come out (rumored to be any day now). As much as it's nice to think that I'll be able to play games on the brand-new Mac Steam at full speed, the timing of this expense could have been better.
This is also the month containing a long-weekend vacation to DC, and then PAX here in Boston two weeks after that. These are happy reasons to spend money, but involve money-spending just the same. This month is already reminding me of October 2007, when Amy and I spent a week vacationing in Maine despite the fact that I had no work (having just been curb-deposited by my one client) and no money. And that was one of the most memorable excursions of my life. So, yeah, not complaining.
Given the way March is falling out, with all its surprises, it's looking less and less likely I'll have the next Gameshelf episode done by PAX. To my last-fall self, this seems like a giant fail; I thought I'd be cranking out one show a month by this point. But now, I think I'm OK with this.
I feel called to make my life more flexible, both with work-work and with non-paying projects. I've started seeing the wisdom in working with my propensity to get excited by one cool project idea after another, rather than against it.
Despite my wishes, producing a TV series of indeterminate length on a regular schedule might just be genetically impossible for me.
My experimentation with writing a weekly Gameshelf column is me seeking compromise, seeing if I can't make that my sacrifice on the altar of regularity, but letting all the other unrealized projects bouncing around my skull - video production, game design, web services, and everything else - call their own schedules.
I am bound to be a different person in April, after all of this months' kooky doo doo. It's kind of exciting. Actually.
I found my interest in multiplayer online digital games re-ignited last month. This started with my rediscovery of TF2 on Xbox, built itself up with my ensuing seeking out and palling around with certain online communities of mature gamers, and most recently culminated with the surprise re-launch of Planbeast. 
