Last night my hands hurt. A lot. The left hand in particular was so painful that I was worried about being able to work today. I used Salonpas on the left hand. This morning, my right hand hurts more than my left, which hardly hurts at all. Salonpas is like magic. I should have used it on my right hand as well, but it didn't seem serious at the time. It's only by comparison with my magically cured left hand that I even notice it.
 
I'm working for only a short time each week for my new Dark Art client, a bruise treatment. I asked for a sample, but got no response. So I ordered some, but it has yet to arrive. I'm hoping it will be as magical as Salonpas so that I can go around the internet talking about it with unbridled enthusiasm.

I added a small job yesterday for a skydiving company and put it out on my calendar. I met my deadline on the blog posts. I cooked a proper dinner. I worked on editing my class Squidoo lens. Today I have more of the class stuff, and my Dark Art clients, and blogs for a variety of people, and paid Twittering.

One of my students is writing her research paper on social media for business. She finds the whole idea odd. But if you do it right -- which is to say, with the same degree of naturalness that you'd know you had to create in person -- it can be very effective. I said to her, "I bet you're good at face to face networking, like at Chamber meetings."

She said something like, "Pshaw," which means, "Heck yeah, but I'm modest."

"So you wouldn't race into the Chamber meeting and start trying to sell people stuff, right? You'd build networks and relationships and notice when someone actually needed what you had to offer. Same with Twitter. And there are people who waste lots of time going to networking meetings instead of getting any work done, and some who really benefit from those meetings, establishing relationships and sharing information and bringing in business.Same with Twitter."

Recently a friend said it was amazing how often I was able to find someone who knew something about the subject I was writing on. It's not amazing. It's because I have an actual network, face to face and virtual. And it's super helpful, too. I try to be helpful back.

I had an email from the Poster Queen yesterday, too. She had just been to a workshop on using social media in the classroom. She may be the first at her school to make a Squidoo lens in her classroom.

Me, I'm going to track down parents of cheerleaders and gymnasts (#2 son is coaching gymnastics at a place wiht a cheer team, so I'm feeling confident) and see what help they can give me on the subject of bruises. It makes a person feel a little sinister, hunting for info on bruises. You so often run into stuff about domestic abuse. I can't see myself marketing to victims of domestic abuse. I think I'll stick with sports.

Sew Intriguing has been making lingerie way faster than I have, and also actually posting pictures.

I would post pictures, but I have mislaid my camera. This is not good, since I have pictures in it that I'm supposed to upload to the class Squidoo lens.

Last night I watched Prince Caspian with my menfolks.We kept seeing resemblances between people we know and cast members, particularly surprising in a film where so many of the characters are talking animals and mythological creatures. Queen Susan looks like the college soccer player #1 son kept company with for a while, and Kind Edmund is a dead ringer for JBeck. Do those of you who've met #1 son see the resemblance to Prince Caspian?

We enjoyed the movie quite a lot. Having been to the Narnia exhibit in KC and seen many of the artifacts up close added to the experience.

The chocolatier asked for a document laying out a timeline and budget to show his business partners when they arrive in the US for the Fancy Food Show, and also asked that the document include some background information about me and The Computer Guy and some indication that we can work well together. "The German people," he said, "are highly skilled and productive, but old fashioned in some ways." They want to put together a team for the long run and need that human element so they can feel confident that it'll be a team with good chemistry and high ethical standards and whatnot.

I've decided not to be offended by the chocolatier's suggestion that this was a European thing which I as an American might find quaint.

Anyway, in the course of creating this document, I discovered that The Computer Guy and I have, if we count WIPs, collaborated on two dozen websites over the past year. I've also built two with The Art Teacher and one each with a couple of other designers, not to mention the very large number I've written or rewritten or otherwise worked on for other people. I'm sort of amazed.

I have a deadline today -- the 20 blog posts I've been working on since last Friday. Normally, I wouldn't be alarmed about this at all, but I've had a startling amount of trouble getting those hours in, so I'm worrying a bit. So I'm going to go do my paid blogging. TTYL.

Yesterday I got the blogging finished, and made progress on my homework and this week's website. I shouldn't say the blogging is finished. I have a situation with that client in which I can only work six hours a week. It's counted on Greenwich Mean Time, so -- since I haven't looked it up -- I'm not totally confident of when the week ends. Since I'm writing 20 blog posts for these guys and tomorrow is the deadline, I knew I'd have to get in all six hours for last week as well as all six for this week, or not be paid for all the work involved. The really horrifying thing is that it took me three days to get those six hours done. Things kept happening, so I actually only did three hours on Saturday, and I was quite sure that there wouldn't be three hours left in the afternoon before midnight Sunday GTM.

So I went to the early service, and raced home to work, spent some time with my family, and then did homework, and laundry, and that was most of the day.

I did go out in the evening to read, but the mosquitoes were too vicious and I had to give up and come back in.
Last week in the gym I read an article saying "It's June! If you didn't succeed with your New Year's Resolutions, it's a good time to start again!"

I don't feel that way about June. School's out (except for folks like me teaching and taking summer classes, but still) and it's summer, and that should mean a more relaxed attitude and a higher pleasure to diligence ratio than usual. Renewing your resolve makes more sense in the fall.

I may feel that way just because I'm so tired of renewing my resolve on things I'm failing to accomplish. I did a good job of increasing my billable hours, but I've only reduced my unbillable hours (if I have -- I'm not sure) by failing to do things. I'm meeting my financial goals, but I still haven't saved up enough for my dental work. I haven't gotten my business systems in place or learned to use all my software well, though I guess I've made some slight progress there. I'm no closer to having a normal balanced life than I was in January. I have, I fear, zero Finished Objects for 2009. I've missed Book Club nearly every month this year -- and I'm only saying "nearly" in case there was a month when I got there and I've forgotten it. I've lost a grand total of five pounds, and make it to the gym only two or three times a week.

It's kind of like confessing your sins. We don't do that in the Methodist church, at least not in a group, but in the Presbyterian church we had a special time during the service to do that, and it seemed to me that God had to get bored and frustrated with us, confessing the same old sins week after week.

God, being God and all, probably doesn't get bored. But I sure do get bored with myself every week when I sit down with my calendar on Sunday night and plan a week including housework and exercise and personal downtime, and then fail to follow through on it.

What's the alternative, though?

So this week I once again plan to go to the gym and eat right, to take care of my household responsibilities and get my sewing project finished up, to read the book for Friday's Book Club and the lesson for Sunday School as well as doing my class homework, to work a reasonable number of hours, and especially not to go around acting as though I'm busier than anyone else and my work is more important than everyone else's.

#2 son has offered to do my filing while I'm at the college today, in recognition of the fact that I can earn more toward his tuition if someone helps out with the unbillable stuff. Since he has only a few hours a week at his job and hasn't found another, this is his plan to contribute. He told me that, if he gives me any lip about it, I should remind him that it's going toward paying his tuition. He also had me make him a to-do list on a virtual sticky note on the computer's sidebar. I was impressed. If he follows through, that should help. I also have the bookkeeper coming back this week to get all this year's data into my accounting program.

And, a point which shouldn't be overlooked, I will not be participating in Back to School this year, except as a mom sending a kid to college. So there may be hope for me yet.

I didn't get my six hours of blogging done yesterday. Other clients needed things, and it was a beautiful day, and I decided to take a break and deadhead some roses. I went to the grocery, and sat outside with a novel for a bit enjoying the day, and then I was astonished to find that it was 6:45, so I made dinner and didn't get back to work. Instead I worked on my sewing and watched Made of Honor.

Right now I'm listening to Harry Chapin. Suwanda gave me the CD to listen to, because this guy is a favorite of hers and she wanted to share it.

I do that kind of thing a lot myself. I think someone would love some book and I force it on him or her.

But this is a CD, and there'll be no good excuse for my not having heard it by the time I see her in church this morning. So I'm listening to it while I drink my tea and wake up enough to get some more of that blogging done. I sure dislike this guy's music. He has a harsh, tense voice and maudlin lyrics, to my mind. Apparently he was very popular once.

We're singing one of his songs at this charity do next week, and I'm supposed to sing a solo verse on it. We're singing mostly stuff I don't like. Have I mentioned that? Singing things you don't like is part of the deal when you sing with other people, so it's not a big deal, but it's also not a pleasure.

He does sound like a nice guy, though.

Okay, I'd better get blogging. I can see whether I can get an hour in before church.

The cleaner came yesterday while I was in class. #2 son says that she looked at the laundry room and said, "Oh my God." This was part of his complaining to me about having hired her. My husband also was pretty negative about it. All three of the men in the house are highly disapproving.

To me, it seems that the fact that the cleaner says, "Oh, my God," is evidence that we need her. We're also talking about $50 a month here, a sum which many people spend in a restaurant each week. I was working on oDesk while they were complaining, so I just responded briefly and grimly and kept typing.

This is what I'll be doing today as well. I have six hours of blogging to do. This is an oDesk client, and I'm set up with him for six hours a week. I agreed to get twenty posts to him by Tuesday, and I don't think I can do them all in six hours, so I have to get as much as possible done before the week ends, or I'll be working for free at the end of the time.

I also have to finish the week's homework for my class, take a quiz, call the chocolatier to discuss the proposal, and get the grocery shopping done.

Last night was the rehearsal for the choirlet. We're working on a set for a charity function, and we made some good progress. It was fun, too. That is a very fun group.

#2 son is also working today. He's coaching little girls in gymnastics. He's been surprised by how much he enjoys it.

This is my classroom, and that's my class in there.

This is the picture for their Squidoo lens, which is coming along nicely. They're writing about 21st century skills, an interesting if arcane topic that's a big deal in education circles.

I like this classroom, since it has multiple computers, but it doesn't have a projector. The last classroom I was in had a projector, but no computers for the students.

In the fall, I'll be in yet another classroom and who knows what will be in it.

This is the picture for their lens, so they don't mind having it online, and I don't think you can recognize anybody anyway. It's that kind of picture.

Each of them is making a module. So far the most amazing one to me is the one on Cell Phone Literacy.I'll link you up when they're through.

I went to visit a client before class, and then spent the afternoon mostly on two projects. The bookkeeper came by for a couple of hours. I don't know what she's been doing, but I assume that she's improving my life. Along about 5:00, Partygirl called. She said she was too tired for a walk, but had a bottle of Tequila if I'd like to come sit on her porch and drink.

I'm not sure whether I would in fact have gone to drink Tequila on her porch, since rehearsal was moved from last night to tonight, but #1 son needed the car to get to work. So I just dropped by briefly to hand over some books and catch up, and came on home and graded papers. Oh, and did my own homework.

Today the cleaner is coming. I'm thinking that I ought to pick up a bit, but of course if I had time to do that, I wouldn't be hiring her. Possibly half an hour of tidying so she can reach the surfaces to clean them. Instead of the gym. Sigh.

But I also have a call scheduled today with the truck people,a dn I haven't called the chocolatier this week, either. I think I'll need to work tomorrow.

A bookkeeper is coming in today to help subdue my paperwork, and a cleaner is coming tomorrow to help subdue my house. Perhaps by Saturday, life will seem simpler.

My students did very well on their first draft this week, and I'm looking forward to seeing their final papers today. Then we're going to make a Squidoo lens. I think this will be a cool collaborative project, and none of them had heard of Squidoo, so they all have a level playing field.

I was surprised by the difficulty they had grasping the concept, though. Squidoo, like Wikipedia and Facebook, with which they are all familiar (and like Xanga, for that matter), is a site with user-generated content. That means that people can go publish stuff there any time they feel likeit. And yet students kept asking, "Do they tell us what to put here?" and "I don't understand. Where's the one on our topic?"

It'll be a new adventure.

I'm also surprised by how small their vocabularies are. Is it the case that students used to know more words and now, because they read less, they know fewer words, or is it mere nostalgia on my part? Maybe I've just reached the point at which I naturally think things beginning with, "Today's students..."

I submitted some homework for my web design class. Basically, in this class we just work through the book, doing assignments and sending them in. Then, presumably, we get a response to them. There's also a lively discussion group -- much livelier than the discussion for the class that I taught. We are required to post five times a week. The sheer volume of required posting increases the chances that we'll have something to say to someone, I guess.

We have an over-achieving kind of guy who talks a lot and starts, "Hey, everybody! What kind of computers are we all using?" kinds of discussions with the "Let's put on a play in the barn!" enthusiasm that it takes to get those discussions going. Maybe I need one of those.

In my face-to-face class, the students turn in their assignments and I give feedback. We also have class discussions and active stuff to do in the classroom. They turned in their second papers yesterday, and practically everyone wrote an A paper. I'm really proud of them. The five day a week schedule is harder for me, but I was afraid that it would be too hard for them, and actually it may be that it's keeping them on track better.

Yesterday before class and after the gym I met with La Bella. I'm teaching during Book Club now, so she was kind enough to meet with me at another time so we could discuss the book, An Ocean in Ohio. I hadn't liked the book, because it was so dismal and depressing. La Bella very sensibly pointed out that having an alcoholic mother who deserted the family might in fact be dismal and depressing.

I like fiction to be cheerful. We have to read nonfiction to be informed, and a lot of it is pretty dismal. Why shouldn't fiction offer a ray of hope?

After class, I visited with a client who has switched from professional hosting to a do-it-yourself platform. She got to keep her well-designed homepage, so that's something, but she's having a rough time with the DIY. I'm going to give her a hand, but she's a Dark Art Lite client, so I really don't have enough billable hours to take care of it for her.

On to the computer, where I looked after my Aussies, and my new clients. The new clients also need and want more than they're prepared to pay for. This video kept coming to my mind.

In the midst of that, I had a message from the CEO of one of the design firms I work for -- I think I gave them the nickname "Allbright" in an earlier post -- asking whether I'd be willing to help him with developing web marketing strategy for their new clients.

Easy question to answer, that one.

I also had an order for another 16 fresh, hot blog posts for one of my oldest clients.

Those things scheduled and the Dark Art stuff done, I moved on to grading papers.

And now we have a new day. Back to the salt mines.

Hardly any additional progress on  my sewing project. Still, I did actually quit working yesterday evening and sit down and work on it a bit. I had decided to use sea-green thread, matching the lace, imagining that it would add pretty detail to the ivory parts, sort of like quilting. I may have been wrong on that.

I did this while watching "The Big Bang Theory." I'm not quite sure why I find this program funny, since it is all about stereotypes of academically minded people. There are four guys in the story, all of them engaged in largely unspecified math and science endeavors, and the whole show is about their lack of social skill and general dweebishness.

#2 daughter IMed me at one point yesterday to say that the new boy she's dating (yes, we're back to having a stream of new boys to keep up with. Say what you will about M. Bassoon, he did at least stay in the picture long enough to make it worth learning his name) had said "the nerdiest thing ever!" It was a bit of math in daily life. Since I was, at the time, engaged in determining whether tissue lysates ought to be classified under cell biology or lab supplies, I didn't agree that it was the nerdiest thing ever.

In fact, the nerdiest thing I've ever heard said was the math prof's part in the following conversation:

Math prof: "How old are you, #2 son?"
#2 son: "I'm four."
Math prof: "Did you know that's a rational number?"

Today I have several meetings, a class to teach, papers to grade, and a few hours of computer stuff to do, including things for a new client. I am of two minds about this new client, frankly, but I guess it's good that I accepted them, because one of my regulars stopped today. I'm not sure I should call him a regular, because he was actually only with me for a month and hasn't even paid me yet. He said he felt that he could get more traffic with adwords.

That's fine with me. I wanted to make sure that they didn't feel they hadn't gotten their money's worth, though, so I did send the guy a report showing that the traffic source I'd worked on for him had shown a 333.33% increase with a 7% conversion rate, while his adwords traffic was down 39%, with a 1.3% conversion rate. and that the conversions from my source were buying his very expensive video course while the adwords people were subscribing to his ezine (which may actually be free-- I'm not sure).

But you know, he's a non-tech guy and may not even read all those numbers. He may think, "That's just the nerdiest thing!"

Little does he know I spend my spare time sewing lacy underthings.

CD and I finished our study on Life@Work: the Art of Balance yesterday. The book closed with questions: Are you satisfied with how much time you spend on your family? Are you doing what you need to do for your community? Are there work habits you need to change? Does your schedule include time for sleep and self-care as well as time for prayer and mediation? There was a bit of discussion about how systems and support can make a difference.

I think we all know that I haven't perfected the art of balance quite yet.

However, I think I may have made some progress since we began that study on Ash Wednesday. Leaving aside the events of my life during that time, I think I've gotten better about schedules and margin. I really try not to have my day set up so that any interruption makes it impossible to finish. I don't leave for class so late that I screech into the classroom at the last possible moment. I've sorted out my clients so that I don't just try to do every job as soon as it arises, but instead I have two or three projects a day. I've been fitting some of the needed unbillable stuff into my day. I'm putting people out on the calendar, and saying no to work that I don't have time for.

I've taken some time off and done some things for fun. I've arranged for someone to come in and clean once a month. This is not a huge thing, but CD has done the same, and she says it encourages her boys to get their things picked up at least once a month, and it encourages her to maintain the cleanliness of the house.

A propos of those two topics, here's the bra I'm working on. I didn't finish it yesterday, but it is developing more bra-like characteristics. It's sitting on my very messy nightstand.

The area where I'm really not doing well is in taking care of myself. But here it is the first day of June. What a great time to recommit to eating right, exercising, and reasonable amounts of sleep and downtime.

In addition to church, a walk, and sewing yesterday, I also watched a movie with my kid, graded papers, and did some more homework for my online class.

We're using deprecated tags and generally practicing some out of date code. I don't understand why; there's quite a bit of online discussion for this class, and the teacher seems smart and knowledgeable. I don't like building bad code, and I don't like practicing stuff that's not right. I thought about going ahead and building the assignment correctly -- it'll look the same, but be more modern -- and then I thought that might seem obnoxious.

I don't want to be obnoxious about it, but I did ask just in one little example why we were using a couple of particular elements instead of the more up to date ones. Maybe I'll get an explanation.

Well, my financial sector IT guy is IMing me, so my workday has begun. Happy Monday to all!