SAM @samuteki@rage.love

This freelance thing, especially as someone just starting out, really feels like being lost in the forest. You know you got skills, but you don't know how much your skills are worth. You don't always know how to move forward. When you get a client it feels fantastic, but after the project is done, you're wondering when the next project will come along...

Read a sample of a book on advice for freelancers, and within the first two or three pages the author suggested outsourcing contracts to cheaper freelancers and practicing your craft while you make money off of their labor. I was totally disgusted.

I want to be a freelancer, not a slave driver.

Two cups of coffee vs a mild depression, and all I got is bursting energy and a profound need to avoid using it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JKLM45aIik

Had a rough day. Think I've been pushing myself on the productivity front too much recently. Even though I'm glad for the time (summer vacation) and for figuring out my best personal workflow, I gotta ease up a little bit and not expect myself to be designing, coding, writing, working out, studying Japanese, and keeping a relationship afloat 24/7 without a break.

... It's really possibly to physically exhaust yourself with cognitively demanding work, isn't it?

My friend in the States tried to give me the hookup vis a vis hiring on new designers to deal with the growing company's growing needs. I was unceremoniously rejected after one project, no notes, no discussion. (My friend told me afterwards that the company's long-time resident designer didn't want new blood to push her out, so she was making a fuss.)

Now: my friend, being a friend, reached out to me one more time for a voiceover project. This time, despite not being a voiceover actor at all, for whatever reason one of the characters in a certain presentation was a Black man. And none of her other coworkers knew any Black men.

So I used my shiny new mic, recorded a few lines, sent them in. My friend tells me the boss was so pleased with my work that they might contact me again in the future for other voice stuff.

I'm delighted. The universe works in mysterious ways...

What was your favorite game/video game as a kid?

The future is looking g o o d.

I went down to the Immigration Office to get my new residence card today. I thought it would take hours (it did last time). But because I went towards closing time, it was actually a breeze.

Three more years. Hopefully in that time I'll have become fulltime freelance.

Seems like a general rule of the internet that smaller, leaner products and services maintain their dignity and customer satisfaction than bigger brands. Do you have any hidden gem apps or websites you'd like to share?

I've got a novel in me. At least a trilogy. If money weren't an issue, I'd already be too famous to attach my photo to my online profiles. /alas

I've been using Elementor for a while, but have been getting frustrated by bugs that go without fixes for years and years. Starting to ponder Oxygen and feeling excited about web design again 😍😍😍

What creative projects are you working on?

One of the weird things about being a cishet male is how difficult it is for your male friends to just... *say* how they're feeling. I've got at least three friends who could be getting eaten alive by a shark and still they'd be like 'oh yeah everything's cool bro, how're you?'