When life happens…
August 28th, 2006
Over the last two months I’ve had the pleasure of stepping into the world of freelance contracting and in turn have moved to starting up my own company (more on this later) which I am over the moon about. At first I was a little scared of what the future might hold but I am very passionate about what I do so had confidence in the fact that I could make things happen and my hard work has paid off so far.
This is all fine and well but what happens to your blogging when life happens? I am not making excuses here, I am a busy man these days and writing my thoughts etc has had to take a back seat for a couple of months and I guess to a certain extent life happened…
I love this site and all of the people that have taken the time out of their lives to actually say hi and contribute whether it be with a joke or joining in with comments on one of my posts. I love my family and the benefits of having been about for the entire summer holidays so have had time to play with the kids doing things like water skiing and trampolining. I love the fact that I am getting the chance to actually forge my own future and take control of what happens when and where…
Life is happening! For a while I felt that I was maybe stuck in a life rut, I had a good job, a beautiful family but all I seemed to do was be working towards something. I spent a lot of time bashing away on my keyboard, carving a little bit of my own name on the web and having fun whilst doing it but after moving away from friends to go to my new job I think I was left with a bit of a hollow spot.
Since taking the bull by the horns and deciding that I was now in charge and that I was going to do things for myself I think I have possibly grown up a bit, I don’t know if it is that or the fact that I have had the chance to bond a bit more with the ones around me who perhaps I had neglected a little whilst keyboard bashing. I know that I have a happy, bordering on satisfied feeling about me at the moment. I have plans!
Life moves at an incredible pace and sometimes you need to catch up, too many people can get caught up doing one thing, I know I have lagged from time to time. Now that I have had some time out, I think I have had a chance to analyse where I want to be going, I went from 4.5 years in one job to finishing on the Friday, moving 150 miles away over a weekend and starting a new job on the Monday. Whoa… CATCH UP!
Since I started this blog, I have met a lot of wonderful people and I want to continue to do so, when I got into 9rules I was over the moon about getting to mingle with some very talented people. I wanted to give something back to a community that I have enjoyed over the years, I wanted to get up to mischief, I wanted to continue carving my name on that web tree and still do 
I haven’t been 100% on the ball with that but truth be known I am still living the rules even if I ain’t talking on there lol… Work hard, Play Hard… Right now it is work hard!
If I don’t work hard then who benefits? Nobody. If I don’t work hard I can’t afford a house, if I don’t have a house I can’t plug in my PC, if I can’t plugin my PC then I can’t have internet, if I can’t have internet I can’t blog, nor can I do my work… vicious circle or what??
So where does that leave me? Well I am working hard and thankfully still have a roof, PC, internet, my blog and most importantly I have my family around me and a business that looks to be getting off the ground, I would say that is a good thing. I am writing just now because I want to, I have something to say and am going to say it, I hope you continue to keep coming past and enjoying the site because it ain’t going anywhere and I have lots of ideas I want to implement as soon as I get some more business stuff out the way.
Anyway, life is happening, I am loving it and I hope you lot don’t feel neglected… take it easy, and watch this space!
karmatosed Author Comment
August 28th, 2006
Having gone back to freelance in May I know pretty much the feelings you are going through. I keep on every few weeks it seems coming up for air and as the time goes by it’s starting to become days not weeks inbetween. I had kept on thinking about my readers too - my joining 9rules was exactly at my freelance turning so was about as bad timing as I could have aimed it - although in retrospect it seems to have been good timing. Doing it for yourself is such a great motivator though and helps to polarise and prioritise your life. Taking time for the offline is one thing you can also do now - it’s something that I am finding is one of the better parts of freelance for me.
Alan Author Comment
August 28th, 2006
You seem to do pretty well, you are one of the most active members from round 4, I dunno how you manage it but you do
I guess I have gone through one of those turn off all distraction things so that I can get stuff done. Bye bye RSS, bye bye forums, bye bye non essential mail…
I haven’t been perfect with the ignoring everything but I guess it is my perogative to choose when to do it.
I used to have http://www.netvibes.com as my homepage with all my RSS but I canned that quite quick, very dangerous! Now I am using http://www.notcog.org after reading about it in an RSS feed (how ironic). The difference this time is it is pretty pictures and cool stuff to look at which in contrast is probably a little quicker to do.
I do miss reading everything but in some respects I don’t need it… what is it they say about cutting out the stuff you don’t need when it comes to getting things done?
karmatosed Author Comment
August 28th, 2006
Now I do, you should have seen me May lol. I guess, it’s more balanced now for me as for 2 years I was also doing freelance and a full time job - that was hell and I was never anywhere. It’s the peak times now that get me. Like now, I have been sat all day on and off at the powerbook. We’ve got a new puppy and today I’ve seen him for about 2 hrs on and off. I just look forward to the end of the week or when I am going to be having a day off to recharge back the time the net takes. I find having wifi and a powerbook helps. I can ‘appear’ to be social even though I am online lol. My husband is used to seeing me on the sofa and chatting while surfing - woman’s abiility to multi-task there
Alan Author Comment
August 28th, 2006
Bah… women and their multi tasking… us blokes never hear the end of it
I hear what you’re sayign about the switching off at weekends though, I never used to be able to switch off but I am now making the effort to do so… Gives you more variety in life if you go out and do other stuff 
Tiger Author Comment
December 3rd, 2006
Such lovely writing.
Alan White Author Comment
December 10th, 2006
Hey Tiger… such lovely words
Thomas Hansen Author Comment
March 12th, 2007
Having such a category (”Life, the Universe and Everything”) without having at least the recipe for the “Intergalactic Gargle Blaster” or a couple of words about WowBagger is BLASFEMY!!
.t
Alan White Author Comment
March 12th, 2007
I would have posted a recipe for the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster but in the words of Douglas Adams himself…
“Unfortunately there are a number of environmental and weapons treaties and laws of physics which prevent one being mixed on Earth. Sorry.”
http://slashdot.org/interviews/00/06/21/1217242.shtml
Also seeing as you have asked for a couple of words about Wowbagger, I think you will find these quite suitable… Infinitely Prolonged!
Thanks for coming by
Sonja Cole Author Comment
November 13th, 2008
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