lwidmer | Words on the Page

Kaboom!

Posted on August 26, 2008 by lwidmer

That’s the sound of my day going up in flames. Got to work early today in order to make what I thought would be great progress on the big project. Microsoft, however, had different plans for me. The file I was able to open and work on yesterday is not “too complex” to open. So…

The Return of 12-hour Days

Posted on August 25, 2008 by lwidmer

One of those promised projects from last week is definitely (?) arriving today. It will mean tons of work in a short amount of time. Also, it means all the projects I didn’t finish last week are now crammed in there with this project, plus with any other must-have project that may mosey in this…

The Friday Crunch

Posted on August 22, 2008 by lwidmer

Let’s take bets, shall we? I received all those calls at the end of last week from clients who needed work done this week. It’s Friday. Despite being out for two days, I returned to see my in box empty. That’s right. Those must-have-it-this-week round of projects have yet to show up. So I’m betting…

The Worse Offense

Posted on August 21, 2008 by lwidmer

Last week we talked about glass ceilings in the freelance world, which to my knowledge are rare. This week a more heinous beast – harassment, cat calls, misbehavior by male counterparts. I’d love to say this is as rare as the glass ceiling in freelancing, but ask ten women and I’d bet about 8 of…

If The Clients Are Calling, It Must Be Nearly Labor Day

Posted on August 20, 2008 by lwidmer

I’m not in today, really. I’m posting this well ahead of time. Daughter is headed back to college and I must drive her across the state lest my car disappears for weeks on end. And wouldn’t you know it – the minute I can’t be around, the clients come calling. In droves. It’s an odd…

More Must-Haves

Posted on August 19, 2008 by lwidmer

Yesterday I showed you my favorite free downloads. Today, I want to share with you the websites I can’t live without. PRN Media. Seriously, if you’re a writer, you need this site. You can get hooked up with experts aplenty just by registering and then sending out a query on your article topic. The ProfNet…

Free Online Must-Haves

Posted on August 18, 2008 by lwidmer

Talking with a writing friend the other week, he expressed the need for a backup drive. He’s talking external drives. I should have one, too. I don’t, but what I have is pretty good – it’s Mozy. Mozy lets you back up your files virtually. You get 2GB of free storage. All you do is…

Bossing Around

Posted on August 15, 2008 by lwidmer

Yesterday’s post included the link to a Yahoo! hotjobs article giving tips on finding a job that fits. The first tip was “Who’s the Boss?” Great question not only for job seekers, but also for those of us who have just taken on client projects. I’ve been on projects that have had a hazy line…

If the Job Fits

Posted on August 14, 2008 by lwidmer

In a recent one-on-one with a potential client, I was doing my best to convince her I was capable of A, B, and C functions. Problem was she wanted D, E, and a smattering of F. We both came to that conclusion at almost the same time. She expressed reservations and then cited the group…

The Aging Office

Posted on August 13, 2008 by lwidmer

I realized yesterday that my ancient tape recorder (seriously, I think I’ve had it more than 20 years) was dying. I could record, but the tape had both the new recording and older ones. At first I’d thought it was the tape, but after about four of them, I figured it had to be the…

Eileen Coale

August 13, 2008

My husband coaxed me into switching from a desktop to a laptop about four years ago, and I’ve been thanking him ever since. We also have a wireless internet connection. I use a MacBook. I do use a wireless keyboard and put the laptop on a stand to raise the screen height most of the time; if I don’t, my mousing wrist starts to bother me.

Our neighborhood is plagued with frequent power outages, and I have spent too many work days in wifi coffee houses that otherwise would have been totally unproductive days. I can and do take the laptop with me on travel.

Best of all, even though I have a fairly nice office, it’s in the basement and gets no natural daylight. So during the school year, when I don’t need to isolate myself from the kids, that laptop goes upstairs or even outside on the picnic table where I can work with natural daylight.

I can’t imagine being tethered to a desk.

Get a laptop. Get a laptop. Get a laptop.

Kimberly Ben

August 13, 2008

What a timely post – my lap top just crashed for the second time this year – faulty motherboard chip. I think I’ll be needing a new one by the end of the year as well.

Like you, Lori, I pretty much only replace things when they break. I’m not terribly tech savvy – I have a desk top, lap top (well, kind of…), printer and I just bought an Alpha Smart Neo wireless gadget on ebay for those days when I’m dragging four small children to and from the dentist, doctors appointments and any other place that might require extended wait times – but I need to figure out how to operate the damn thing.

Lori

August 13, 2008

Kimberly, I feel your pain and frustration! I used to be right on top of technology. But then DOS went to Windows and then Windows morphed from 3.11 into the stratosphere… ;)) I’m also betting you have a Dell laptop. My daughter’s just died. Diagnosis – motherboard problems. Four years old! Sheesh.

Eileen, thanks for the advice. Do you use an external monitor, as well?

Eileen Coale

August 13, 2008

Lori, I do not use an external monitor. I just put the laptop on a stand that raises it about 3″ so that the laptop screen used with the external wireless keyboard are ergonomically beneficial.

If I want to move around the house (or work outside) I carry laptop, stand, wireless keyboard, mouse, and mousepad around in a large basket I bought just for that purpose, and then set up wherever I want to. If I’m not going to be doing too much work in a non-office location, I’ll skip all the paraphernalia and just take the laptop alone. But I try not to, because my right arm will start bothering me without the right setup.

writtenexpressions

August 13, 2008

My friend Skippy is a huge technogeek, and he recently did a lot of legwork trying to determine which laptop to purchase. Here’s a link to his final post about it (there’s a link within this post to his other post on the topic). He gets pretty technical, and not all of it has to do with laptop A vs. laptop B, but hopefully you can glean something useful from it.

Lori

August 13, 2008

That IS useful – thank you!

Nikki

August 14, 2008

I don’t have an office – I know shame on me. Four kids tend to take up a lot of space so sadly I make use of my laptop’s ability to move. I got it last summer when I figured I would use it for school also. I will, I repeat, I will never use my desktop again. That’s for the kids. And I won’t even discuss how old it is or how many modems I’ve been through or other various parts.

I love that I can pack it up in a bag and take it where ever I need to go. Kids irritating and too noisy, unplug and move to another room? Power outages? I’ve got about two hours of batter time with my laptop and I use Firefox so any web pages I was on when the power went out are the first ones I see when I’ve got electricity again because it saves your last session.

At first I didn’t think I would get used to the keyboard or the mouse but after having this for a year, everything else is foreign to me.

My perfect office would just be to have an office.

Be like Nike; Just Do It.

Lori

August 14, 2008

I think I’ll take your advice, Nikki. 🙂

Irreverent Freelancer

August 14, 2008

Okay, I see I’m in the minority here, but I have a desktop and a laptop. The laptop almost never gets used. These days, it’s mostly just a storage device for digital photos. I bought it so I could work outside during the nice weather. Unfortunately, once you’re running off battery power the screen resolution is so dark and poor that that’s out of the question. I like having it to take with me on vacation, but that’s about it. LOVE my new widescreen desktop monitor, though.

Lori

August 14, 2008

I’m so used to a desktop, Kathy, that I’m seriously questioning the laptop idea. Tell me – why do those screens have to be so dang hard to see? You’d think given all the technology someone would’ve figured out how to put a decent monitor on a laptop.