Stream

Eating out can be quite expensive these days, but the quality family time is pretty unbeatable. I love the time before the food arrives, where we have a number of little games that we like to play together.

Sometimes there is some miraculous productivity hack to solve the problem of having too much to do. Sometimes there’s just actually too much work.

There are a variety of ways to structure your day, and I like quite a few of them. Today I’m in the mood to really just dive fully into a single, fairly complicated project and just make some good progress on it. Sometimes I go the opposite way, and just bounce around from project to project, which can be nice too.

I guess part of me likes this time of year, when the sun sets at the end of my workday and the trees out my window are cast in yellow light as the birds sing and chirp.

Freelance Tip: Any time a client notes a duration of time, double, or even triple it. I learned this long ago with meetings, and especially for little requests (“can you hop on a call for 10 minutes”, which is never 10 minutes). It also applies to projects: “Can you block in two hours next week for us”, which generally turns into three, four, or more, unless you’re careful.

I really need to get out and hike around in the trees somewhere…

I’m always amazed on days that I don’t have to work, how long a day actually is. Imagine what I could get done if I could spend all of that time on the things I wanted to.

I’m loving this rain, but I could really go for a nice snowy day. Probably not going to get that here in San Diego.

Stumbled across the word, “paracosm” today. Such a great word, not only in the way it sounds, but in it’s meaning (used to describe richly detailed imaginary worlds, often created by children, that exist alongside the real one)

It’s difficult, but those small things that make a design nice, really have to come while in the throes of the main project. After the urgency subsides, those things seem to never really get the attention needed.

Sometimes a well-worded email is equal to several hours of work that I currently don’t have time for.

There is something kind of nice about the feeling you get after putting our fires all morning. Just a bit of calm and lightness that wouldn’t be there otherwise.

I’ve started a dangerous practice of starting sentences with conjunctions. And I feel so rebellious.

I read a great article in the New York Magazine — the content was fine, but I really enjoyed the writing style. I need to do a better job of following authors, writers, directors, and other people who create things that I enjoy.

It’s good to keep a design cohesive, but sometimes you need to push some design in a specific area of the site, and let it get a little ahead. It’s ok, the rest of the website can catch up later.

It’s that time of year where I’m starting to get really nice evening light on the trees out my window towards the end of my workday.

Finished Diaspora by Greg Egan. Honestly I was lost for a few segments of it, but I got hints of pretty interesting concepts and ideas. I’ll probably re-read it at some point in the future, now that I have a better overall view of it (and since I found the glossary at the end, once I finished the book. Would have been helpful to realize that was there when I was getting started).

It’s always nice to have some business budget in the bank for those times when you’re not really all that inspired to do real work.

I keep thinking of fall in the northwest. Hiking around lakes, just below treeline. Blueberries and red leaves. Clouds and mist swirling in the trees.

The clouds have thickened today. It’s still pretty warm, but I’m liking the atmosphere (I like when it’s a little dark outside, my workspace inside illuminated with just a little lamp). If it begins to rain, I’m totally making some Chai.

One of the greatest things about about being a freelancer is that I can take an early swerve without clearing it with anyone.