Self-employment: Week 1
Since quitting my job last week, I can't tell you how liberated I feel. Aside from some final pay issues to deal with, I really feel like I'm living on my own terms.
I didn't do much of anything Monday except take a walk in the morning with Stephanie and do some grocery shopping. Other than that, I took it easy all day since I've not really had time to chill since January. Today I got back to writing the book, a process now made more official since the publisher sent me the right Word templates and a time line. Oh, and I have an ISBN number! Bummer that I won't see it in print until next spring, but hey... I'm writing a book and that's pretty cool.
I'm glad to see that there's another VS 2005 build going out this week, although it seems like it isn't that necessary with the beta allegedly in the works for next month. The more I play, the more I love it. I'm torn between starting to build stuff and understanding the new features well enough to write about them. I'd like to do both at the same time, but if I do that, my deadline will be upon me and I'll have no book!
With the AdTech conference going on, we keep hearing about the rebound in Web advertising, which is welcome news because that's what's paying my mortgage right now. CoasterBuzz and PointBuzz are both getting nice traffic. Yeah, pop-ups are annoying, but my audience doesn't seem that annoyed because they keep coming back (that and on CB you can buy a membership that kills all ads). I look forward to the inevitable shift to traditional ad formats when IE ships with a built-in pop-up blocker.
uber:ASP.Net is suffering from neglect. I need to get back in gear with that now that I have time. I'd also like to build some kind of volleyball site for kids, parents and coaches in high school or Junior Olympic ball. That one won't ever make much money, but it's something I'd enjoy doing.
That's what I'm up to. More of the things I like to do, and none of that dread that comes from getting up to go to a place I don't want to go.