All work and no online life (update)

— Posted inUncategorized — 4 min read

I haven't updated my site or even logged for quite some time. Finally I've time & energy to write this short update. …

My work volume dramatically increased mid August. Still there were odd breaks but I was finding it increasingly difficult to find energy for blogging & photo sharing. From August to November, I was doing 20000 words (worth of submitted products) a month on average, plus 10000 or so for search and comments. That is a lot of typing and time spent at computer. I still managed to publish a few post, mainly on Rugby World Cup, and upload some new photos when I could find time and energy.

Then come December and I got hit by a giant swarm. Between 5 December and 5 January I submitted approx 37500 words worth of translation, not including the words I typed for search and commenting. Simply there was no downtime. I managed not to work on Christmas Day, but had to work on New Years Day. Even when I had small windows of downtime, I was too tired to do much, let alone the My Opera stuff.

Now the frenzy seems settled a bit. The rate of work order request coming in is back to what it was in November.

I still want to share my thoughts and some pictures on My Opera. But clearly I need to find a better way to manage my work life balance. When I started actively blogging some 18 months ago, the economic downturn affected the volume of translation orders and I had plenty of downtime. Now the situation has changed and my translation business booming, it's clear I cannot hope to be doing what I was doing a year ago. So here are a couple of things I intend to do.

1. Cutting down photo sharing commitment: I am intending to have Shoot First Tell Later album closed. I had great time being active in Shoot & Tell and learnt a lot. Shoot First Tell Later was the outcome of my learning curve. Like you put away your diary after you finished the year, I think it's time I close Shoot First Tell Later. Hopefully when I get better organised, I can start a new album.

2. Going back to the basic: I do intend to resume publishing posts about hardware & DIY and walks around Wellington on my blog, Hard Life. Fewer photography related topics, probably.

3. … I forgot!!! (Remembered) No more beta testing and no more active forum involvement. A bit of shame as I started as a forum contributor. Opera is still may default browser and I will still ask question or for help if I have a problem.

I would love to catch up with updating photos and sorting out albums, but I need to have some decent chunk of downtime off work. I have started a daily photo project 52 in August, and, I am actually still trying to take at least a picture a day (with odd holes now and then). Taking pictures are not too difficult even when the workload is very heavy. It helps me to take my mind off the stress. But after downloading the pictures to my PC, going over to select good ones for sharing and composing suitable caption/ description are rather time consuming, and more importantly, something I cant'/ don't do while I'm logged on my work account. But photos are there and will be shared. I just don't know when.

I am still quite busy with small orders lining up till end of next week. And, if you have left one at my post or photo, I'm sorry but I don't think I've time to respond to comments.

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  2. The great thing about being self employed is you only have to work half days, the awesome part about that is it doesn't matter which 12 hours you pick :DTTFN

  3. Yes, sir! Gladly :DThe thing is, being a freelance, there's always a doubt, 'If I declined this order, would I get the next one?' You know? I do say no if an order is physically impossible. But the translation agency knows just how much to push and where to stop. So that I can't quite say no. :insane: I should go. Will be back tomorrow, probably. Have a good day, DH. TTFN.

  4. I understand this is also good news because you now have work and more income :hat:Originally posted by mimi_s_mum:

    I think it's time I close Shoot First Tell Later. Hopefully when I get better organised, I can start a new album.

    Sounds reasonable :up:Originally posted by mimi_s_mum:

    I have started a daily photo project 52 in August, and, I am actually still trying to take at least a picture a day

    Good 🙂 Even when we are very busy, we need to have something else than work to balance the life :happy:

  5. the good news is, you're very busy with work. The bad news is, you're very busy with work. :p .Thanks for giving us this update. :up: .

  6. My sister had her own business, and she also wouldn't turn down work if it was at all possible to squeeze it in. If she turned them down, they'd have to find someone else. And in the future they might be offering the jobs to this other person instead of her even if she had more open time then.At any rate I am glad to hear that your absense here hasn't been due to some difficulty in your life (although working all the time can be difficult :p).

  7. I am glad to read about you and that you are respected in your work. Take time in your free time to wander and unwind. You live in a beautiful country – enjoy it. Always hustle and bustle (I hope that's the right word) isn't good for us. 🙂 Take care of yourself!

  8. Thanks guys for your kind comments. I have been aware some of you might get worried. I was hoping you would see my Twitter feeds and know at least I'm alive. Strangely I found tweeting was somehow easier to do than logging in here and posting my excuses. Does that mean my opera demands you certain commitment and place you under a certain stress?The work pressure seems easing up in the second half of January. I'm still booked up till the 27th but the quantity of work is smaller. And I don't need to work this weekend. :yes:@DHLOL. To be honest, I'd rather work 12 hours a day for 3 or 4 days a week and have 4 or 3 days off, had I been a salaried worker. It's great not needing to have the alarm clock at bedside. But extremely miserable having to work till 10pm in the night. :cry:@SamiYes. Finding the balance is important but sometimes also so difficult that you think you can never get right. Still on a learning curve on this. Cheers. :)Originally posted by qlue:

    the good news is, you're very busy with work. The bad news is, you're very busy with work.

    😆 Exacly, Aadil. At least in my case, every 100 words I type will earn me the unit price (which I shan't name :p), unlike the salaries workers.Originally posted by debplatt:

    If she turned them down, they'd have to find someone else. And in the future they might be offering the jobs to this other person instead of her

    It really sucks, Deb. We're at the beak end of the pecking order in this industry. At least the agency I work for is quite reasonable. But when they get busy, … :insane:@AnglelikaThanks. I do need to get out more. :left: :right: I'm getting a bit concerned about my waist line at the moment. And, as you know, when you're sitting down at computer all day typing, you tend to snack a lot. :awww:Thanks for stopping by, everyone. :happy:

  9. Shoot First Tell Later is now closed. A little sad but little relieved at the same time. I had a quite few what Sami would call DAFS (desperate attempts for shot), as well as a few disappointments for not successfully getting across the story I wanted to tell. I am a photographer in the sense that I take photographs a lot mainly to record some curious, impressive, interesting and/or humorous moments. But I am not a photographer if that means an artist using photography as the means of self expression. When I start my next album in Shoot&Tell, I intend to make sure there is no misunderstanding in what type of photographer I am.

  10. Waiting for your comeback at S&T :wait: :up: I have somewhat ambivalent attitude to picture taken in past. I don't mind if my online albums disappear into electronic heaven, but I also find them as wonderful source of memories and for learning.

  12. Too bad there's not some way of changing the ownership of an album from a group to an individual.

  13. Originally posted by debplatt:

    some way of changing the ownership of an album from a group to an individual.

    Indeed. A Wishlist item for the Feedback forum, probably. But I'm too busy to start a wishlist topic right now. :(I actually thought about going through every photo and archiving page, but that seemed too daunting a task. :(Because of the imminent closure of the PM system, I'm now going over every messages and trying to forward to my other account so that I'll have access when the PM's gone. I won't be keeping everything, but those important ones. More unnecessary task I don't need. :(Enough of the long facing. So, Deb, have you acquainted with the other me yet? 😉

  14. Originally posted by mimi_s_mum:

    So, Deb, have you acquainted with the other me yet?

    I sent your alter ego a friend request. :coffee:

  15. Surely it's not the first time you do that, is it? Aren't you friend to both Angelikas? ;)Deb, I also sent a mail to your debplatt@myopera… address. Check out my sig for a laugh. :DChanging mimismum's notification setting so that I'll be mailed for future friend request. 🙂

  16. Yes, I am also now friends with both of her :left: :right: :eyes: :insane:

  18. I'm happy to report I have caught up with my daily photo diary project 52 and published the first "Back to the basic" blog post about my walk today. :happy:

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