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From Vacation 09 - Check in at DLH

After arriving at the Disneyland Hotel (henceforth known as the DLH), we were of course very tired. The kids were in a bit of shock, I think… and the coolest thing that could have happened, was while standing in the lobby waiting for me to check in, Goofy came wandering by. So immediately upon arrival, they got to meet one of the Disney characters. Sam attacked him with big hugs and they got pictures - click the link under the above photo to go to the album to see the photos.

From there we headed up to our 9th floor room. We brought in all our stuff, changed our clothes and got cleaned up (too many hours in the car!), and then headed down to explore Downtown Disney. Downtown Disney is just a giant outdoor mall, with the centerpiece being the most enormous Disney Store. We had dinner at the ESPN Zone, then walked around looking at the various shops. We closed out the night with a swim at the hotel swimming pool (Neverland Pool, complete with Captain Hook’s pirate ship). Then it was off to bed to get ready for the next 3 days of theme park fun and over-stimulation.

Next chapter - first day at Disneyland.

From Vacation 09 - Breakfast in Vegas

So I gave up on live-blogging the trip because the whole process of photo-sharing and such was going to be a nightmare. So you can get it all in post-trip installments. Click the link above to check out the photo album from Day 1 of our trip.

On the way home from church Sunday, I called a very serious Family Meeting™. It was in this meeting that I sent the kids all over the house finding clues, which ultimately led them to a stack of Disney Admission passes. They were having a hard time getting the clue - until I finally broke and yelled “We’re going to Disneyland, and we’re leaving today!” Zoe actually did not believe me. Her exact words were, “That’s so not true, Daddy”. I was dismayed that my words were so easily brushed off as lies, but pleased that the surprise had been pulled off so well. I showed them the hotel reservation, the tickets, and then ushered them up to their room to pack their bags. At this point, they finally began to believe and much squealing ensued.

We got the car packed up, and headed up the mountains to have dinner with our friends in Gypsum. It was wonderful to see them again, and to spend some time chatting. As it got dark, we figured we should get going, and then proceeded down the western slope of the Rockies and into the desert. This is where having 3 drivers came in handy. I drove to Grand Junction, then Priscilla picked up there and drove to somewhere in Utah, then Nick took over and drove the rest of the way into Vegas. We were crossing the Nevada stateline at Mesquite about sunrise.

With the sun to light our way, we pushed through some Monday morning traffic and drove down the Vegas strip at 7am on Monday morning. The Strip is a quiet place that time of day. We found a place to park (illegally, I think, but suffered no consequences) and went into the Paris hotel where we ate at a little creperie. Nick and I ventured to the sportsbook and considered putting a couple dollars down on the Mariners to win the AL pennant, but we weren’t thrilled with the odds, so we escaped Vegas without gambling so much as a penny. We walked up and down the strip for a while to get the wiggles out, gawked at the casinos, and then hopped back in the car where I picked up driving duties again.

We crossed the Mojave desert, and as we approached Riverside (east LA), traffic started to pick up. It took me a few minutes to get my LA driving skills back in tune, but once I did it was bobbing and weaving at 85mph for the last hour of the trip. We pulled off the freeway to discover it was 105 degrees in Anaheim that day - not what we expected! But just as traffic was getting bad, we found our exit and pulled into the parking lot at the Disneyland Hotel.

Stay tuned for the next photo album and recap - checking in at Disneyland Hotel and exploring Downtown Disney.

There was much squealing, after some initial disbelief.

We are packed and heading out the door in approximately 15 minutes.

Next check-in will be from the Disneyland Hotel.

Here’s how it begins - I have to make it quick because I’m heading off to church in a few minutes.

When we get home from church, I’m calling a family meeting wherein I’ll be informing our kids that we’ve decided to go to Disneyland. Today. They’ll have about 2 hours to get their stuff together, and we’re out the door. California, here we come. Will try to photoblog when the opportunity arises.

I can’t wait to see their faces.

Last month, I wrote an article entitled “What I’ve Learned As A Freelancer“. That was part one, and discussed the importance of communication. That really is part of retaining focus on your client’s needs. Part Two focuses on your needs.

The term “Who’s The Boss” probably brings up visions of Tony Danza in a hopelessly 1980’s northeastern household, or if you’re like me and was a junior high boy in the 1980’s, visions of Alyssa Milano in a denim jacket start to cloud your brain– but I digress.

In freelancing, it’s important to remember that you are the BOSS! Not Bruce Springsteen, but the guy in charge. Really. I know it sounds obvious, but this is YOUR business. It’s YOUR company, YOUR rules, YOUR livelihood. Many freelancers never get out of the corporate mindset. You may have left your corporate job for the freedom, the money, the control, but never really break into the right mindset. What does that mean?

1. It means you don’t have to take every job that comes down the pipeline. You may feel desperate - bills are looming, and you want to take every job you can get your hands on. And to be fair, sometimes you have to scrape for every dollar you can get. But YOU’RE THE BOSS. That means you can assess the hidden costs and turn down a job that appears to costly. Will this client be so needy that you spend 2 hours coddling them for every 1 hour of actual work you do? Will this client be so demanding that you lose your motivation and end up doing a crappy job? Will you have to incur expenses you can’t bill back? Will this client take an extra 60 or 90 days to pay? If you can identify these things up front, you’ll save yourself time and money by either turning down the job, or charging what I call the “high-maintenance tax”… bid it out to compensate you for the headaches you’re about to get into. Not all of these things can be identified up front, but after a few high-maintenance jobs, you’ll learn to spot the signs quickly.

2. It means that when it comes down to it, you set the policies and procedures. If you’re not used to running a business, you might find yourself getting run over by clients. If you set your policies and procedures up front, and are clear about them, don’t be shy about sticking to your guns. A client who CAN run you over, WILL run you over.

3. It means that you don’t have to answer to anyone but your client and yourself. This is the part I’m sure you got down right away - if you need to take the day off, and you can still meet your deadlines and pay your bills, then take the day off. Don’t feel guilty about not being at your desk. Some will say the way to succeed as a freelancer is to treat it like a “real job” - work consistent hours, restrict vacation time, and so on. I say that’s a load of bovine excrement. If you want to treat it like a real job, then get a real job! Me, I prefer the reality of being able to work as much or as little as I need to, or want to, depending on the circumstance. There are times when I spend several days putting in immense hours - which is the price I pay for having days where I work very little, if at all. And dangit, if I want to take a Monday off, there’s no one who can tell me no.

Remember - You’re The Boss. You may not look like Tony Danza, but you get to set the rules. Don’t forget why you got into freelance in the first place.

Next time, I’ll talk about workflow. Workflow is really the other side to the freedom issue - that is, how do you keep the lid on your wild side so that you stay organized and productive?

I’m the kind of blogger that blogs like someone who isn’t really comfortable in a manual transmission car. Lots of hurky-jerky, stop and start. Incidentally, I’m that kind of stick-shift driver as well. Little practice + haven’t actually sat behind the wheel of a stick shift in 15 years means I royally suck at it. But enough of me bringing down the manliness quotient of this blog. I feel a blog-splosion coming on… lots of topics on my mind and I think I need to get them out. We’ll start with a rapid-fire entry, much like the old “Notes from the Monster Files” feature I used to run in the LJ days.

• Work is good. As in, I have some. As it stands now, I could survive with the work I have booked all the way through June.
• The nice thing about freelancing, is that today I just stopped working to go outside and play in the snow with the kids. It was great… I’ll make up for it later.
• We have a big family-palooza coming up in April. I can’t really divulge details just yet… mostly because I’m not telling anyone in the family who is under 5′ tall what the plan is. So no guessing in the comment section!
• Last week, it was 75 degrees most of the week. Yesterday, we got 18 inches of snow over the course of about 30 hours. Now the sun is out again, and it’s melting fast… but a foot and a half of snow (in late March no less!) takes a LONG time to melt.
• Put 4 new tires on the minivan. It’s fun to spend 1/4 of the car’s worth on tires.
• I’m feeling like I want to move to NW Denver. Just move there and work there and be a part of the ‘hood there.
• The Broncos are making me want to throw up at the moment. Ditto for the Avalanche. On the bright side, the Nuggets might win a playoff series, and the Rockies are tied for first with everyone else, at least until the season actually starts.

That’s all I have for now.

I upgraded to WP 2.7.1 - big jump from 2.5, where I was. Broke a few plugins - I’m hoping the new Live+Press actually works right. Most everything else seems to be ok.

So I’ve been reading some articles on the InterTubes about “freelancing”. Now having done freelance work for many years, but really putting hard effort into making a living at it this last 18 months, I have what I think to be a pretty solid perspective on things. I’m talking primarily about my segment of the industry - web design, development, etc, though it could cross into graphic design, copywriting, and the like. The first thing I have to say to most freelancers out there: It’s because of you that I have work. A major source of work for me is cleaning up after freelancers who either have no business being in this industry as designers, or no business being in business as a business owner. Did you hear the work business a lot in that sentence? I hope so, because as a freelancer, that’s what you are. So I thought I’d take some time out from the regular BORE of my blog and write something with some hopefully valuable content. This will be the first in a series. The series will be over when I’ve decided I’ve written about enough lessons. So it could be a one-part series, or this could continue on into 2012. We’ll see how it goes.

The first thing I’ve learned as a freelancer, is I think the single most important key to success: Communicate with your clients. In fact, every other lesson I’m going to write about are things you can avoid learning the hard way, by simply being a good communicator. OVER-communicate. Don’t keep your clients in the dark. Don’t try to ‘put one over on them’. Don’t promise what you can’t deliver, and be sure to deliver what you promise.

The worst thing you can do is avoid communication. When you’re running behind, and you aren’t able to meet a deadline, we tend to build up this gigantic confrontation in our minds (ok, maybe that’s just me). In reality, if your client has been in business for more than 10 minutes, they understand. They probably struggle to meet deadlines just like you do. That’s the problem of having work to do - which nowadays is a good problem. Most clients will understand if you pick up the phone, proactively, and tell them where you stand and what they can expect. What they don’t understand is why they’re paying you good money and they can’t get a hold of you and your deadline is 4 days past. And let’s be honest here - unless the client is paying you so much money that it’s worth it, a client that will verbally abuse you for falling behind isn’t a client you want. Once you can communicate your status, give an expectation that the client can count on. Then live up to it. If your deadline is today but you can’t deliver until Friday, say so. Then DO IT. Don’t say Thursday because they want to hear it, just tell the truth, then live up to it.

Your client will respect you, ultimately. And a client that respects you is a client for life - and a client that will pay more to work with someone they can trust. Almost all my business is based on referral. I occasionally hit Craigslist for a gig or two, but that’s the exception nowadays. A referral by a client who knows you are up front and honest is infinitely more valuable than any other. The reason a company is hiring a freelancer is because they don’t have the expertise in-house to do what you do - they are paying for your expertise. They are looking for a reason to trust you, otherwise they wouldn’t be paying the higher hourly rate. So always give clients a reason to trust you. Be open and honest, and you’ll set yourself above most freelancers. But if you want to be an incommunicative liar, that’s fine too — keep the bar low, that just means another client that is an easy sell for me. But I’d like for our industry to have a better reputation than that.

So that’s the first lesson in Freelancing. Stay tuned for Lesson 2, titled “Who’s the Boss?”. (rumors of an appearance by Tony Danza have been greatly exaggerated).

Inspire me to use a song lyric as a post title. I know that’s not very original - but I do it quite often and have for most of my blogging life. What’s funny, is that I’ve found lately that using song lyrics as blog titles are search engine GOLD. At least 50% of my blog visitors are results of song lyric search queries. I even have tracking data that a few of them came back later! Fun fun. So thank you, Unknown Visitor #143, for your unending quest to find the correct lyric to “Fix You” by Coldplay. I hope the path that led you here continues to be rewarding.

This is a bit of a funky week in business. Lots of customers, none of whom seem all that motivated to pay me … which would be fine, as long as I knew it would all be in by the end of February. But that leaves this week awful tight, and living on the edge and counting pennies is a surefire way to induce an ulcer. So I’d just be thrilled if one of them would go ahead and cut that check today. On the bright side, the end of February bills shouldn’t be too hard to cover.

That being said, it sure provides a hint of tasteful irony that I’m spending most of this week prepping a sermon on the topic of… you ready?… Generosity. Oh yeah. So while I’m figuring out how to inspire our church to give more generously, I’ll be nervously watching the bank account all week. God certainly chooses humorous ways to communicate with us sometimes.

Church things are good — we are slowly starting to put together the details of what our church planting process looks like. I’ll be writing more details here as I have them. Right now there are no details to be had.

Business is also good — I at least have some projects to work on for the rest of this month. I just “launched” my corporate site - www.webacademydenver.com - I say “launched” because there is still a lot of content to enter, but it was nice to finally get the site live, with most of the structure done.

That is all for now. Call this blogging just for sake of blogging.

So the only real meaning in this post title is that it’s from “Dust in the Wind”, and holy CRAP is it windy around here lately. The mountains have seen gusts of 100MPH! Down here in ol’ B-Field, it’s only been sustained winds around 20MPH, but gusts reaching upwards of 50-60mph. The house has been shaking.

So things have been busy enough to curb my already seldom blogging into almost a complete stop. I’ve been blogging now for almost 8 years - since August 22, 2001. So I’ve come to terms with my blogging frequency. It’s remained remarkably consistent. Consistently inconsistent though it may be. That being said, I’m happy that my blog stats continue to stay solid at roughly 125 page views/month. Keep visiting, keep reading, and for crying out loud comment once in a while, eh?

The last month was almost completely overwhelmed with work on a website gig. Between that and just regular life/church/holidays - everything secondary got pushed down the priority list. This site was quite the learning experience. I feel like I learned some harsh lessons in project management. But overall, with Dan’s help, we put together quite the product. It’s a dynamic registration-based site for a national modeling agency based here in Denver - Premier Image Agency. The front end isn’t too much to sneeze at (except the cool little flash flipbook on the media page that Ray did, but the backend is something to be reckoned with. Each model they represent can log on and create their own profile, upload their own photos, and then there’s the whole search and booking engine. It turned into a bit of a time suck - ended up underbidding by probably 40%. But for the first time doing something of that scale, we’re pretty pleased with the outcome.

Now that we’re pretty much done with that, I have a few projects that have gotten backed up on the schedule that I need to wrap up. All of them involve customizing Wordpress in one way or another. Which essentially means that even though I’d really like to finish the redesign and upgrade of this site’s WP install, it probably won’t happen anytime soon.

The holidays were good… very different for our family. It was our first Christmas away from the rest of the family (we travelled back last year - remember?). So we stayed home and had a very quiet, family Christmas. That in and of itself was nice, though we did miss everyone from the NW terribly.

We are really feeling the bug to move down closer to downtown. Pending a successful tax season (we’re still too poor to get hosed by taxes, although that’s getting better by the month), we’re looking seriously to get down there before summer - before spring if the right place at the right price comes our way. The whole church planting thing still feels like something of an enigma right now, but what we know is that we want to live in and be a part of that community - what God does in terms of a church plant, if any, will happen then. It sure isn’t going to happen as long as we’re hiding out in Broomfield. Which is too bad, because Broomfield has been good to us. It’s a nice place to hide out.

I came down to Forza to get a little work done because I was having trouble focusing in the home office. That’s a consistent issue for me. Not having a place to “go to work” is nice at times, but it’s a struggle in other ways. I’m discovering that it’s almost as difficult to focus here as it was there, but I’ve made some progress, thus the break to do a little bloggity-bloggity. Though some of the source files I need I left on my home PC, and didn’t put them anywhere accessible. So I can only do so much here anyway. But another couple hours and I should make enough progress to head home satisfied with my day’s work.

So I’ll be heading back to that. That’s the semi-brief update from Monster-Land.