Devauld.ca

The last two weeks of my life have been in fast forward. Since the middle of November, I really haven't done much but burn the candle on all it's ends. I'm forcing myself to write this down, because it won't be long and I'll have switched gears, probably to neutral. After which I will not want to do anything but stare at the stipple on the ceiling.

The end of the month brought about a weekend of moving, and the arrival of my lathe. I committed myself to making some Christmas gifts this year. A decision that was made based on entirely too little information regarding the time it would take. Therefore, I've spent a great deal of the last month out spinning, polishing, oiling, sanding and breaking things in my shop.

Early in the month, Mike and I took some photographs at a wedding. Another undertaking of which I was not prepared for the time commitment that was involved. The preparation was easy enough to lead us into the storm. Then my partner and I scrambled into action to deliver the gallery we promised with all the cropping, white balancing, color correcting and touch ups that were required for us to feel good about the quality of the work. Mike deserves a big thanks for all the effort he put in to make it all happen.

This past evening, I put the final touches on my last spun piece of work, and the only real chore before the holidays is getting all the presents on the bus so they can be in the Peace by Christmas. After that, it's going to be a Holly Jolly Christmas

I was checking out Steve Pavlina's web site, and came across an interesting article which basically outlines the benefits of being self employed and working for a more passive income. He makes some excellent points, one of which I want to outline here:

Getting a job is like enrolling in a human domestication program. You learn how to be a good pet.

Look around you. Really look. What do you see? Are these the surroundings of a free human being? Or are you living in a cage for unconscious animals? Have you fallen in love with the color beige?

How’s your obedience training coming along? Does your master reward your good behavior? Do you get disciplined if you fail to obey your master’s commands?

Is there any spark of free will left inside you? Or has your conditioning made you a pet for life?

Humans are not meant to be raised in cages. You poor thing…

I find this to be an interesting point. Nobody works a nine-to-five because they want to. We are in effect being domesticated into a work life. I've been a big proponent to being self employed as long as I can remember. My parents, during my lifetime, never worked for someone else. We went from lumber yard, to rental yard, through farming to finally end up with a custom meat cutting facility. Technically my mother now works for someone, but if you think her job is ordinary, you've got another thing coming. Currently I do have a corporate master, but I also have two other businesses in which I contribute some time. The first is a partnership in photography, and the other is as an independent adviser.

I wouldn't go so far as Steve did, and say that you should never get a job. I think they fit into a great deal of people's lives, and most projects can get done in less time with more humans working on them. Skyscrapers would never get built if one person didn't pay a bunch of others to build it. What should be done, is find a job you love, then it feels less like work. I currently enjoy my daytime pen. The work is challenging, the people are fun. It is true that at times it is frustrating, but that comes with the territory. If you think that being self-employed means it's all just a bunch of roses, you are dead wrong.

Everything of value in life, takes time to get, I believe we just need to be efficient in the time we spend. It is, after all, the only commodity we have in limited supply.

During a rather regular work day, Mike introduced me to a social networking site with a bit of a twist. Linked In appears to be strictly for developing your career, and a list of contacts that will help you get where you are going. Once you have a profile created, you can add some contacts. From there you can just watch your network grow, on a who knows who basis.

It's simply another seven degrees of separation experiment. Although, you'll quickly find that you have 'Ins' in a bunch of different industries and companies that you never thought of before. Adding to the sweetness of the deal, is that if your profile is even half completed, it serves as a pseudo resume

Go on and add yourself, and don't forget to add me as a contact.

A while ago, Mike and I were talking about how much cash we've spent on photographic equipment over the past year. The number, of course, was quite staggering. At the time, I was numb to the idea, but later it hit me that I needed a company that I could use to write off photographic expenses that I was already incurring.

Mike and I did a little brainstorming, and from there DR Photography was born. We've been pushing the business up over the last few weeks, which adds to my already hectic schedule, but I believe that our online presence is ready to be seen by the world

The Website was all developed 'in house' (which mean we did it all ourselves), and I'm rather impressed with the final result. The site is so Web 2.0 it hurts. Fading effects, reflective logos, gradients and a surprising lack of words all help make this spot on the web look like it's ready for the future. For those of you plaing buzzword bingo, it's a JavaScript supported front end with Rails, fcgi, MySQL backend. I'm allergic to Flash and all the cross platform, installation headaches it brings, so that's why I didn't use it. Everything on this site is pure, and will run on all browsers with default security settings.

Now that the fun stuff is done, we're looking at a little more procurement of equipment, and scheduling some time every week to practice our craft. We were going to do it anyway, we might as well try to make some money at it.