I’ve just written the phrase “small packet” 76 times in a row.
To avoid any unnecessary knocks to John’s self-esteem, I should really say it had nothing to do with him.
The most difficult decision of the day: what should be the lead photo story of the day, David Beckham’s new haircut or Lindsay Lohan’s nipples?
Recycle This has really been popular this week - we’ve had links from loads of different blogs after a mention on treehugger and now the Guardian newspaper has mentioned us in an ethical editorial thingy too.
So to say it again, woo!
Recycle This has had its second mention on the Times newspaper’s website, Times Online.
We got a link a couple of months ago on the site’s Eco-Worrier blog but I’ve just noticed that we got a link in their Newsdesk’s blog in their “The web we loved” round-up of their favourite sites in 2006 (in the environmental section) too.
Woo!
(Heh, I’m not really writing about the university - just about what’s going on in my life now - but I couldn’t resist that as a subject line… ;) )
It’s been about seven months since I left the uni now and since 1st July, I’ve officially been self-employed. While I’m not exactly rolling around in banknotes, things are going well and I’ve decided to keep plugging at various projects until at least next May then I’ll review my situation again (I’ve been reviewing things every couple of months up until now).
Financial issues aside, I’m the happiest I’ve been in my entire adult life (and probably for a long time before since a lot of my teenage years weren’t exactly jolly). I haven’t been physically ill at all or depressed in the slightest since I left work. Particularly in my last job at the uni when I had to face the (germ-spreading) public on a daily basis, I was always getting colds and tummy bugs - but nothing since then. And at least twice a week, I remember that I don’t have to go to Work (as in somewhere else and for someone else) the next day, and the sense of relief is overwhelming. Really, like a whole body sigh of relief, even after seven months. I’m not frightened of hard work and I do like being challenged mentally on a daily basis but .. well, I don’t think I’ve consistently had either of those things in any of my previous jobs and over time, it ground me down.
These days, six days a week, I wake up when I want to (usually circa 11) then do about three hours focused work, have a lunch break, then do what I want for the rest of the day. Some days this is seeing a friend, or reading, or knitting, or killing the pixelated enemy but most days, it’s work of some description: writing content for websites, writing stuff for myself, designing new websites or new logos etc for existing ones, proofreading brochures or essays, keeping an eye on all the websites (damn spammers), designing merchandise for ELER etc, coming up with new ideas for new things to try (lots of plans, watch this space)… and dull stuff but essential stuff like accounts and posting out tshirts. I’m not saying all of it excites me (particularly the last two) or challenges me but overall, it’s good. Very good. And I spend most days with at least two cats attached to my sides and that’s good for me (and them) too.
I know I’ve been very lucky regarding a couple of things that have happened during this time and I’m not cocky enough to assume that nothing will go wrong in the next five months or after that (I do have the fear quite a lot - hence regular reviews) - but up to this point, I have no regrets about giving this self-employment lark a go.
Just a quick note: I’ve been fiddling around with the layout and content of this site to make it more up-to-date (and easier to update in the future). Still tweaking the background stuff so it’ll work better in other browsers and haven’t got around to doing the theme for my blog yet so that’s why it doesn’t look the same. Well, “haven’t got around to” is wrong: I tried to change the layout of the blog to match the rest of the site but I got it seriously wrong twice then gave up. I shall return to it at some point. Maybe. I’ll also upload some more recent photos too (maybe).
In actual news, if you checked out the projects page, you’ll see all the fun things I’ve been up to lately. More musings on all that jazz to come at a later date but in the meantime, let’s just say things are going swimmingly and I’ve very happy with my life at the moment. :)
UPDATE: John fixed the blog stylesheet. He’s lovely. :)