20 Years of Me 8
It is now 12:01am on July 22nd of 2007. Well, no, that’s a lie, it’s actually 9pm on July 21st of 2007, but I’m future-posting this, so shh. However, your reading this means that it is now my 20th birthday. So everyone who reads this (uh, hi, Sissy… and Jim), wish me a good one. :D
What Do Teachers Make? 6
Taylor Mali breaks it down for you.
Amen.
On Freelancing and Clients 6
There’s been a lot of talk recently about clients and freelance work: who clients are, how we sometimes act, how we should act when working with them1, how we shouldn’t care how we act, and general talk. There seems to be a spike in the level of interest in writing about this topic, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to throw my experiences and thoughts on to the heap.
The Clients
Clients are the meat and bones of any freelance business, of course. They can be odd, they can think they’re superior, they can think they know more than you and push you around (but are still, oddly, paying you to do the work they “know more about”), or they can be the best clients you think a person can ever have. I’d venture a guess that 80-90% of all clients people work with are ones that fall into the latter category. The other 10-20% can be bears and make you question why you ever went into the business in the first place.
I feel every person in the freelance business needs to be burned by at least one client in their tenure as a freelancer, just for the learning experience. In my case, it came early. Very early. Before Milk Carton Designs, even2. This particular fellow was bossy, demanding, thought himself better, and didn’t give me enough time to do anything, at all3.
One particular insult of his I think I will always remember: “No wonder all web designers have bad reputations.” This stung, and it still does today; I learned from it, though, and I grew. Today, it serves as a reminder of how far I’ve come and how far I can go. It also serves as a warning to stay away from those who exhibit the same traits and demands, for the betterment of myself and my business.
The Freelancers (including me)
Freelancers can be just as varied as clients. We’re subject to our own personalities, too, coupled with the stresses from work and our personal lives. We can be overloaded and cranky, overworked and stressed out. We’re not faultless. We’re human, too.
Being self-employed as a freelancer is amazingly stressful. There’s no job security, no promised income at the end of the week. One month you could be living comfortably, with some nice, cushy, fat paychecks; the next month, nothing. You’ll have to excuse us from time to time if we seem harried.
Our lives are out there on the internet, one search query away. Most freelancers I know are amazingly transparent on the web, as am I. It doesn’t take much to find out where I live, where I hang out, who I associate with, my thoughts and opinions, or even what I look like. Do I find the need to censor myself for the sake of my business? Not at all. What I say and how I act doesn’t affect my skills as a developer or designer, and I don’t think it should be expected of us to censor ourselves. I, for one, would love to have a glimpse into who somebody is personally, before I hire them.
The Industry
There are three types of people working in this industry: the experienced, the fresh, and the know-nothings. Let me just say this to potential clients to any company: Your 12-year old nephew (in this case, a “know-nothing”) that happens to know a little HTML they picked up from MySpace and will do your site for $10 is not a proper substitute for a professional web designer. Experience, training, and a proven track record should always trump monetary concerns (within reason). You’ll find you’ll get a better product in the end.
With that in mind, this industry is saturated and very competitive. It’s hard to break into, and it’s hard to get your foot into the door. Success is very hard to obtain, but very fruitful once you do.
And when you do find success? Congratulations. You probably deserve it.
Now stop reading this and get back to work.
1 Where “we” is defined as freelance web designers, freelance web developers, and other freelance web professions, but may also refer to anyone who takes on clients for a living as any type of freelancer. ↑
2 What? You think I’m kidding when I say 7 years experience in the field? :) ↑
3 Some of this is to expected. It comes with working for other people; they’re bossy because they’re your boss, I can understand that. However, this fellow took these traits to a new extreme, one I haven’t seen or experienced since. All of this and it was pro bono work. ↑
Metal: The Intelligent Choice 3
The Telegraph recently posted an article reporting that many of today’s brightest children listen to metal as a way to relieve stress and relax.
“Participants said they appreciated the complex and sometimes political themes of heavy metal music more than perhaps the average pop song. It has a tendency to worry adults a bit but I think it is just a cathartic thing. It does not indicate problems.”
— Stuart Cadwallader, psychologist, University of Warwick
Metal to me is a useful tool, as well as something I generally just enjoy. It’s my main music of choice, so I listen to it all the time. When I’m working, it relieves some of the inherent stress. When I’m just lazing around, I enjoy the instrumentation and the words, they help me to unwind. And going to a metal concert is always fun to me.
Being a fan of metal myself (long hair and all), it’s a relief to finally see someone trying to dispell the myth that anyone who listens to metal is either on some kind of drug, dumb, or any of the other silly stereotypes.
Venidici 10
It’s been a long time coming, but the day is finally here.
Silky, version 4 of Milk Carton Designs, has been up since August of 2005. At that time, it was certainly a very valid representation of my skills. However, almost a year and a half later, I’m proud to present to you the fresher and newest incarnation of Milk Carton Designs, version 5 (vV), named Venidici. Venidici is so named from a mashup of the Latin phrase “Veni, vidi, vici.” I got the idea to name this new design from, quite simply, the version number. When I saw what version I was on for Milk Carton Designs and realized “v5″ was “vV” using Roman numerals, it almost came instantly to me. Not much of a story, but I like the name. (And people tell me it may be an Italian word— can anyone verify?)
Not long ago, Milk Carton Designs celebrated its 2nd birthday (as one astute observer noticed). Over these past two years, Milk Carton Designs has become very much a part of who I am today. Through the ups and downs of those two years, I always had this. My knowledge, my work. MCD is very much alive to me, and this is my (belated) birthday present to it, a new skin. I’m hoping this fresh look will usher in a rich, new era for Milk Carton Designs, and for me.
As it stands now, there are still some bugs and unfinished aspects of the design. Feel free, however, to contact me about any bugs you may come across. I’ll give you a shiny star for finding ones I didn’t know about— maybe. Feel free to poke around, however. And please also feel free to leave congratulations, criticisms, accusations, hate mail, and any other form of banter in the comments.
Thank you to all who helped me with this new design, including Sissy, Meaghan, Andrew Krespanis, Jim Whimpey, and many many others I’m sure I’m forgetting. Thank you all.
5 Things You Didn’t Know About Me 38
Mike, the son of a … monkey he is, recently tagged me to do this “5 things you don’t know about me” meme. The bugger. I mean… lovely guy. He’s been bugging me pretty consistently about it, too; so, I’ve future-posted this for 2 days from the actual writing (HA! Take that, sucka).
So, 5 things… Hrm…:
- I’ve an unnatural love for Quizno’s chicken carbonara subs.
- I’m a city-boy at heart. I love the activity, and having everything I need around me. Large suburbs work too (imagine that).
- I love cooking (though some of you know this, most of you don’t). Even though Sissy thinks I don’t make anything normal O_o; … Hrmph.
- I find this meme highly annoying.
- I will spread this meme with no joy.
I like number 4 the best, personally.
The 5 other (un)lucky bloggers: Anthony, Shawn, Tommy, Matt Bob, Steven
A Fine Balance 2
I just finished reading Bryan Veloso’s new entry, and I had some thoughts that I didn’t care to leave in a comment, nor did it seem to really fit the context of the post, so I thought I’d make a post out of it.
So, in his entry, Bryan brought up a point that hit home a bit:
It’s been scaring me lately, that the subject of this blog has slowly begun to straddle the line between design and programmer. I guess that’s not really bad, per se. But it’s like when you give to one talent, you take away from another.
Those that have poked around this site (outside of my blog) know from my resumé and portfolio that I do both design and programming, and those that know me enough personally know that I love doing both. Whether it’s fussing about in Photoshop or mastering the intricacies of the dynamic duo of XHTML and CSS, I love designing, and the same goes with PHP and programming.
While I’m not a well-known designer like Veloso (yet?), and it’s not quite the… identity crisis (for the lack of a better term) it could be for him, I do relate to the issue he’s having in a way. Doing both is a balancing act, especially for services rendered. The two follow different laterals of the mind— one being pure logic, the other being art. So, it’s hard flipping the switch from art to logic. One beats and flows to its own rhythm while the other is structured, organized, precise. In keeping up with one, you risk sacrificing the ability of the other.
I’ve always been a designer first. Milk Carton Designs was not, at first, a service offering web design and development, but just the former. And in being a designer first, I never had any experience with programming until I made a plugin for WordPress (that which became known as Addictions). This led me to realize all the cool things I could do with PHP, which started me down the road of experimeting and learning. I, of course, followed this road until I thwacked into a wall and realized I hadn’t had a single design thought in months (okay, fine, it’s an exaggeration, but you know what I mean). I learned a lot, but I had left what was my design savvy out to dry, and it was extremely hard to get back into the groove of things. I have now, and I’m seemingly balancing the two fine, but I was shocked at what I had done to myself and how easy it was to fall out of the groove like that.
So, kids, the lesson learned? Well, I’m not sure. I’m still doing this balancing act, and it’s a bit straining sometimes, but it’s working for me. I’m better skilled, at least. I guess we’ll see how things work out in the long term, I just hope I don’t sacrifice one for the other, because at the heart of things, I love doing both equally, and I’d hate to cut short my own talent.
Any thoughts would, as always, be appreciated.
Jobs… Galore! 1
The jobs keep rolling in for Milk Carton Designs. More and more projects. I’m busier and busier. It’s friggin’ awesome. More please!
Oh, be sure to check out my revised and updated resumé and portfolio.
Five Years 1
I, like many others, remember when I found out. I first heard a rumor circulating around the lunch room… But it was confirmed afterwards. I was sitting in band with French horn in hand when the principle came on over the PA and told us that the two Towers and the Pentagon had been hit. Our band teacher wouldn’t let us watch the news on the TV in the room. So, I waited for the bell to ring and went to World History I, where I was met with a television already turned on. Our teacher was kind enough to dedicate almost the entire class to answering our questions and letting us watch the news.
I don’t think the gravity of the situation sank in until later that night. I just remember staring at the TV, seeing replays of the Towers falling again and again and again… And not doing my English homework because of it.
They call it flashbulb memory. I can even remember the layout of both classes, where I sat, the images on the screens on TV. It’s scary, but comforting at the same time. I at least know I won’t forget.
For those that were lost that day, may they rest in peace.
Mmm, That’s Love 8
With friends like this, who could go wrong? (The following snippet of conversation took place on AIM)
[2:25:26 AM] Me: I love you, best friend :3
[2:25:51 AM] Meaghan: I love you too! booty man best friend
I do not have a large booty! GOSH!
