Looking for inspiration
The Freelance folder in my Google Reader has steadily been growing in size as I add the feeds to various blogs around the blogosphere. Some I keep, others I delete, and then there’s the ones that I actually click on over to the site to read. (I usually just read the posts in Google Reader.) One of those special ones is Chrisblogging.com,a freelance writing site by, you guessed it, Chris! In it he talks about how he finds his writing jobs, how he structures his day, hell, he even talks about how much he makes on these jobs! Impressive to say the least, as a lot of people have a taboo about talking about money. As a noobie to the freelancing world, his candour is quite informative and appreciated.

Gathering strength
Now, you’d think that reading about all the adventures and trials and tribulations other freelance writers are going through could potentially turn me off of a freelance writing career, but you’d be wrong. As I’ve learned over the years as a technical writer, there’s always ups and downs; there are always days where you want to chuck the computer out the window; and other days where the VP of the company actually remembers that it was you that wrote that stellar software manual. At this point reading about all the adventures has made me more excited about the prospect of changing my career. I can’t wait to start being more involved with my career, of taking back the reigns and steering my own course.

I can go my own way
“Quality of life” is a phrase that gets tossed around a lot these days, however it definitely holds meaning for me. Having lost both my parents to cancer in the last 10 years, I am reminded that there are bigger things to worry about than whether or not my SME is going to comment the hell out of the document I wrote last week, or dealing with the headache that is MS Word 2007. The stress of work has begun to take a toll on me physically, so changing the quality of my life is a priority for me. I want to spend more time with myself, more time with my family, more time travelling. As many of you freelancers have stated, “have laptop, have internet, will travel.” That’s all I need: my laptop and an internet connection. I look forward to writing software manuals while at my cousin’s kitchen table in Italy, or editing that set of release notes while sitting on my friend’s deck in Vancouver. Quality of life is where it’s at.

So keep on blogging my friends, you’re inspiring me to thought and action, getting me off my duff and helping me make my dream a reality. Stay tuned to hear about the first dollar I make!

Bury your head in your cubicle.

This is an easy one to do, just put your head down and type/code/work. Leave your cubicle only to attend meetings and to leave for the day.

Avoid your boss at all costs.

Some people like to play the avoidance game, in the hopes that it will save them from being canned as well. Oops, wait a minute, this would only work if people were being laid off, not if they were leaving on their own. Never mind.

Berate the soon-to-depart staff and get them to leave earlier.

Vent your pent up frustration and anger by berating the people who are leaving. Make them feel so awful for leaving you “in the weeds” that they actually leave earlier than planned.

Laugh immediately when you read this post.

In case you didn’t figure it out, I am using the laughter defence in this post and at my workplace. Acme Ltd. was a great company to work for before these two touchstones left, and it will still be a great place to work once they leave. Sure, we’ll be a little lighter in the knowledge department, but all of my developer colleagues are good at what they do, and even better than that, they are great at rolling with the punches and making the best out of any situation. We still have fun when the release isn’t behaving, when the site is down or when SVN is won’t let anyone commit any code.

There it is, when life gives you lemons, instead of making lemonade, throw them back!