I N T H E N I G H T K I T C H E N 2.26.2001
[email entry sent 2.25.01] Texass On My Mind I keep writing entries in my head but just not getting around to putting them down here. It's probably a good thing as I'm still in angst, angst, whine, angst mode. I feel like I'm coming out of it a little bit which is a real good thing. I'm going to SXSW in Austin in March (anyone else?). This event has become a massive sinkhole of money and is sort of stressing me out a bit for that reason. I was just drifting off to sleep the other night and was jolted awake by panic about the money and what hasn't been finished yet and how it's all going to go. See, I need new business cards and I've been putting that off. I'm not sure now if I can get the ones I want in time. I'd like to have a better-looking site design up (have you guys looked at the front page recently?) And, I think I need some new outfits. I haven't purchased anything new since last summer. I may be going down early to visit with my Texas client and (hopefully) to wrap up the project. They've been a good client (except for that one late payment) but I'm ready for the project to end. I have nothing lined up for afterwards so, naturally, I'm worried but what can I do? The funny thing is that I recently lost a bid on a project where I was vastly underbid. Then not two days later I was asked to re-propose and send more samples of my work for a project where I was overbid by $15,000! Oh, the irony. Apparently, my fee was so wildly divergent from this other bid that they were now suspicious of my skills. I told them that if they would be more comfortable paying me about $18,000 that I would be more than amenable to that. I'm flexible. I still haven't heard back on that project. It's driving me crazy. It's not a lot of money (well, not with my bid) but it would be kind of fun to do. It's Flash work and I need to add to my portfolio. Speaking of, have I mentioned that I'm co-teaching a beginning Flash class? A friend of mine taught it last term and she's going to school and working full-time now and felt that doing it all herself was too taxing. So, we are teaching it together and trading off classes to lead. It's a six-week course, three hours on Saturdays from 9 a.m. - Noon. Ouch. I need to stop partying on Friday nights. Last week, she was at a conference so I taught it myself. I taught them keyframes, motion tweening and shape tweening. It was like pulling teeth but by the end of the class it appeared that everyone had made something. Teaching is incredibly exhausting. The hardest thing is not getting frustrated at those people who lag. And, actually, the co-teaching thing isn't a bad idea. There's 14 people in the class and it's nice to be able to give more individual attention. I have to say, though, that I think I'm a pretty good teacher. I try really hard to provide good parallel examples. Flash has a pretty steep learning curve and I know how frustrating it is to try and get it down. I was so proud of the students and myself that we had all made something by the end of class. Granted, I felt like laying down on the floor and passing out by the end but, hey, maybe I'll get used to that exhaustion. All right... off to shower and maybe go out for breakfast. T. spent all yesterday snowboarding and doesn't seem to move too well today. We'll be taking it easy. 
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