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I’ve gotten behind on posting again, but to be honest that’s because nothing has really been going on. Kris and I went down to NJ on Saturday and Sunday we went to her grandmother’s for her mom’s birthday. Other than that we’ve both been working hard.

I need to pay my taxes soon, I am waiting (and hoping) that most of the people that owe me money pay me soon so I am all caught up. I am hoping to pay the taxes before the first car payment is due. I don’t know if it is going to hurt us that much, but anything extra going out is never good when you are waiting to be paid.

When we were down in NJ, my dad gave us his old Nikon FE2. I have always loved Nikon’s and while this isn’t exactly the digital beast that I’d love, I think it can be a great start to learning all about manually photography. Plus it gives me a chance to learn to develop film, something that I have always wanted to learn to do, hope this gives me the inspiration to take more pictures and finally learn to develop film.

So we had a nice little vacation over Valentine’s weekend. On the way home we stopped by a few car dealerships and Kris found the car she wanted. She has been going back and forth between a Chevy Malibu and an Equinox for over a year. She finally setled on an Equinox after driving it, so we decided to see if we could afford it. It’s been tight this week, but I have been working hard and hopefully soon it will pay off. It won’t be tight after some payments come in, I may even still be able to pay off some of the revolving debt we have pretty fast, it’s just a matter of having clients pay me. I worked over 50 hours last week and only one person has paid so far, most are backed up for a few weeks, and some only pay once a month, but hopefully things will be caught up soon.

I did relax today, I worked over 12 hours this weekend and today I played some COD: Zombies, and now I am trying to work on LepsLair, I do have some changes and some features I want to implement, I just need to figure out what is next and where I want it to go next. I have an idea, probably more based around some social features that I miss from the big sites. I also want to expand the article area with features, news, etc, I just need to get a clear definition of the titles.

I started writing an entry, but I think it’d be better as an article. I do want to write an entry, but all I am really thinking about is how hungry I am. I am on the train into the city so I think after an hour or so of work I am going to head downstairs for a slice or two.

Kris and I have plans tonight, I think it is either going to be dinner at Bertucci’s or dinner at Friendly’s. I don’t care either way, just because I am eating pizza for lunch, doesn’t mean I can’t have a calzone for dinner, right?

I went into the city today during the eighth snowstorm of the season. The last time I went ino the city during a snowstorm my ipod broke and I have yet to get a new one. I may get one after we come back from our Valentine’s Day getaway, depending on money and whatnot.

So far this year money has been really good, if it keeps continuing at this pace, we should be able to pay off our bed and get our credit cards down a lot within a few months.

As for the January goals, I did do a good job taking some time off, though it wasn’t full weekends at a time and right now it doesn’t look like taking full weekends off is going to be possible with the amount of stuff I need to accomplish, hopefully though that will change and I will be able to either hire someone or just complete jobs and schedule things on different days, I may do the latter in the coming days. As for getting stuff on the site, I have done a lot the last few weeks, a new fanlisting, lyrics, riddles, plus getting my own version of php compiled and working for future projects.

For February I want to focus on more features for members, little things though, like topic subscriptions, not having to type their name and info when commenting. The major feature I would like to have up is member profiles of some kind, even if it isn’t the ideal one that I would like.

Okay, so I am officially all snowed out for this winter. This has to be about the third snowfall of the season and we are getting more this weekend. I have to tell you, frankly, I am sick of it. Basically because of the snow I can’t go to work in the city and I love doing that, I can’t really walk anywhere because the sidewalks aren’t clear, and I am sick of shoveling the snow. I was out there today shoveling and I shoveled three times yesterday, the final time I finished at 1AM and the only reason I shoved was because if I didn’t we’d be snowed in today. My wrist has been bothering me the last few days (a combination of Nintendo thumb, work, and slipping on ice) and shoveling this snow is definitely not helping. Hopefully tomorrow it will feel better.

When was the last time you had a good burger? I have one just about every week, see there are two places up here that serve a good burger, Barefoot Peddler in Green Vale and Taby’s in Oyster Bay. For me a burger has to sit well with ketchup (I love ketchup on a burger), cheese, and most importantly the bun. Taby’s and Barefoot Peddler are equal in different ways, but Barefoot Peddler has something that Taby’s doesn’t, alcohol. Alcohol makes a burger taste that much better, especially if you have a good appetizer before hand, like mozzarella sticks or buffalo wings. If you are ever in the area, you should definitely stop by, since they are delicious.

Where did this rant on good burgers come from? Well to be quite honest, from Regis. Watching How I Met Your Mother tonight on Lifetime, it was the episode where Marshal goes in search of the perfect burger and I’ve been craving one ever since. Now that I talked about buffalo wings I could go for those too, with a nice draft. Craving a burger, wings, and beer late at night is normal right?

Six doesn’t seem like a big number, but it is the number of clients I worked on today. Imagine that, usually one person has an 8 hour a day job, working for one person, I had six people I was doing stuff for, which if I had only worked an 8 hour day it would be a little over an hour a piece. I finished two up today and I hope to finish another up this weekend, but I have 2 more looking to start as soon as possible. This crazy number of clients seem to be working though as I have been making a decent amount of money lately and some of my financial goals may be met much sooner rather than later.

Of course I can’t spend all my time working on other’s people stuff. I did get some stuff done behind the scenes on this site, I also put up a brand new lyrics section. I am all set to start on the next section, which I may start this weekend. Once this next section is up I will be going back and cleaning up things and giving more social options and other things, which include submitting your own recipes, jokes, etc.

Well it’s almost 3AM and I have been up since 11, so I am going to get to sleep, I have a busy day ahead of me tomorrow. I have a meeting in the afternoon and at least 8 hours of work to do. Hopefully I will be able to relax some and kill people in Black Ops.

I was planning on making a post about my resolutions for 2011, but Pamela gave me the idea of doing monthly resolutions since they are more likely to be achieved. I think monthly goals are a much better idea since you have less time to do them in and will hence forth know in 30 days if you have completed your goal or not, that way you don’t need to wait 365 days to know whether or not you succeeded or failed in that regard. Unfortunately I don’t really have any goals that could be achieved before January is up, besides cleaning out the closet, and even that may have to wait until I can get the finances together for boxes and a free weekend where we aren’t doing anything. My other main goal for January is to take every weekend off from doing work. So far I have been able to get enough done during the week to do that for this first weekend, I also was able to do it last weekend with being away. I don’t consider working on my own projects and task list working, but if a project does come my way I can’t say that I won’t be working on it on the weekends if it is good money and I don’t have time during the week.

Here are my longterm goals for 2011:

• Take my debt from $5708.36 down to $4500.00
• Get our combined debt down to $10,000
• Pay off our bed before the interest kicks in
• Pay off at least one credit card
• Get $500 of usable funds onto one credit card
• Move into our own place
• Lose 30 pounds
• Declutter our room
• Get my car fixed or be able to get a new(er) one
• Take more pictures
• Take more videos
• Watch more movies
• Play more video games (I know this may seem weird, but sometimes you need to do more of what you love and be able to relax more)

Since I mentioned my personal projects earlier in the post, here are some things that I want to achieve with this site:

• Gain a better rapport with other bloggers, I have been commenting on some blogs in the last few days and I hope that it will lead to a somewhat mutually beneficial thing, even if that just means we comment back and forth.
• Get some other writers for reviews and articles
• Pull in some more social aspects to the site that would make people want to be members and participate in the forums and such.
• Compile my own version of PHP

I think most of these are possible, though it takes determination to achieve. I do have somewhat of a plan to get these done, it just depends on whether or not I can stick to it and get it done.

Later this year will mark five years that I have been a freelance programmer. Over the course of the last few years I have seen many people try and fail to do freelance. No matter what you are freelancing in, whether it be writing, programming, designing, etc, these do’s and don’ts are pretty much universal and have to do with working with clients.

Take too long to respond. Whether it is a new client or a returning customer, don’t take too long to respond to them. Some say that you should get back to them within 12 hours, personally I try and get back to them within 3 to 4 hours max. Taking too long to get back to clients could cost you a lot of work.

Be as available as possible. Giving clients as many options in which to get in touch with you as possible will work in your benefit. Skype, AIM, Yahoo, MSN, Skype, Google IM are the main chat programs and most of the time you will be able to use them all in one program and not worry about using too many resources on the computer. Giving a client a phone number in which they could get in touch with you will also allow them to feel as though you are more open to those who are just available online. If you don’t feel comfortable giving out your phone number then try using Google Voice since it is free and can be disabled when you don’t want to be disturbed.

Make excuses. A client may be sympathetic that your grandfather is sick, but more than likely you are involved in a verbal or written contract with them and therefor the work needs to get done. If you absolutely need to break the contract then discuss it with them prior to it. Remember to act professional at all times, they are not your friend or therapist.

Make deadlines and stick with them. If you tell them it will take two days to do something then do it within those two days. If you can get it done before hand then your customer will be happy. I can’t tell you how many times a client gave me a bonus for completing a project ahead of schedule.

Start on a project that you have no idea what you should be doing. There is no reason to waste your time and theirs because you don’t have a clear goal in mind.

Ask questions. A lot of times your questions could be ones that the client never thought about and bringing up things that aren’t on their mind could show that you have an attention to detail.

Email previous clients everyday asking if they have anymore work. Annoying people is never a good practice and emailing them everyday will show that you have nothing better to do and that you are desperate for money. It could lead to them offering you less money than they would someone else because they know you need it more.

Sign clients up for a mailing list. Periodic emails wishing clients a happy holidays or shooting out an email every six months reminding them that you are available for work and what your rate is will help keep you in their mind.

Good luck.

Above all else, no matter what you are supplying to the client, you should be professional, kind, respectful, and courteous. Remember a client could always refer you to their friends and colleagues, plus they could have more work for you in the future, but won’t want to work with you if you aren’t professional, just like you wouldn’t want to work with them if they weren’t acting professional toward you.

I hope everyone had a good New Year’s. We had a good time on our mini vacation. From our hotel room we could see fireworks, after midnight there was 3 places that were setting them off, it definitely made the night more special. That plus long island iced teas, Big Bang Theory marathon, and it equaled a really great vacation.

I was back working on Monday, a lot of stuff came in while we were away so I was playing catch up most of the day. There’s a lot of work that I will be doing the rest of the week as well, but if it will result in paying off a big lump of the debt we’re in, then that’s good. We want to move out this year so paying it down is going to be step 1 in moving. I think in the next few months paying off our bed and paying back the credit cards is going to be the top priority.

2011 is starting off right and I hope it continues to go this way. I hope everyone is having as good of a year as I am so far.

After our little separation I think Kris and I really appreciate each other more now and appreciate the little things. Christmas was pretty good, I actually took the entire weekend off, which is something I hardly ever do. Christmas found me playing Red Dead Redemption Undead Nightmare and cleaning while watching the Big Bang Theory on DVD. We got a lot of great presents this year, DVDs and video games are great, especially when they are ones that you can enjoy with your loved one.

The day after Christmas we got pounded with a blizzard. I managed to get out and back before things got really bad, I had some shopping to do to check and see if I had a bad hard drive or what. It was a pretty inexpensive piece, but I held off on buying it until the Christmas rush was over. I figured a blizzard would be a good time since the majority of people would be buying snow shovels since they threw the ones they had last year away and canned goods. I was right.

In recent weeks I set up a task manager on here for my clients and so I can keep track of different things that need to be done for them. I still need to add tasks for this site there, though right now my main task for it is to try and get my own compiled version of PHP up and running for a new project I hope to launch in or late January/early February. It will be kind of like the TGP I launched a while back, only will be updated more often. I know it seems like I have abandoned this site lately, but believe me I am just behind. I do still have big plans.

There’s only a few days until Christmas. This year seems extra busy for us, Thursday we are heading out with some friends, Friday we are going to Kristen’s mother’s house for dinner, Saturday Kris is cooking then Sunday she is having more family over and cooking again. She has to work on Christmas Eve and I am basically working from home everyday except Wednesday. We decided that we don’t take nearly enough pictures, not anywhere near as many as we used to take either, so we are going to try and take some more pictures, starting this week.

The last few weeks I have been able to focus when I need to and do some time management, when I am not working I am not doing anything especially exciting. In the last week or so I was doing Christmas shopping in between doing work. I picked up a new, possibly big client in the last few days, so we will see how that plays out too. Basically money has been tight, but still coming in steadily to the point that if things continue the way they’ve been going we will be able to pay off some of this debt soon after our trip next week.

We are heading away for New Year’s, Kris took New Year’s Eve off so we will be heading out to Ronkonkoma and then having dinner and drinks at Smokey Bones. Then the rest of the weekend we’ll play by ear.

Things are definitely better than they have been and it looks as though we have an overall plan and a few minor plans to meet the bigger goals. It’s going to be interesting to see if we can do what we want, but for the next few weeks it’s just living in the moment, after that I guess we’ll see where we are and when.