Friday, June 06, 2014

Weekend Links: The Hopeful and Happy Edition

I continue to work my way down my business set up to do list. Today I filled out a form for the state department of employment, leaving me with (I think) only one more form to fill out, and it isn't urgent. I also registered domains and set up web hosting- I'm one step closer to having a website for writing about management and related topics, associated with my actual name. (Yes, I will tell you about it when it is ready. No, I'm not abandoning Wandering Scientist- I need my space to write about parenting, travel, things that make me rant-y, and the other random things I put here.) And- this is the best part- I submitted my first invoice!

The invoice was more of an achievement than you'd think, because to do that I got my time-tracking tool of choice (Toggl) to talk to the accounting software I'm trying out (FreshBooks, chosen even though my friend Jennywennycakes told me not to... but they are the tool that integrates with Toggl and I love Toggl. So far, I've been able to make FreshBooks do what I need it to do. My needs aren't that demanding.) I also had to create a basic logo for the consulting arm of the business, which may be what took the most time, not because I did anything fancy, but because I discovered I am irrationally attached to the font I chose back when I made business cards (Futura Book, if you're curious), and that required that I purchase the font and install it... and on and on.

But all in all, it was a good week business-wise.

I also took Otter Pops to Pumpkin's class at the end of the day today, because Mr. Snarky and I had a communication failure and didn't do anything for her birthday in her class, even though she really wanted us to. She's a forgiving kid, though, and today's visit has made all OK.

Petunia, meanwhile, got to be the "greeter" at preschool graduation (she wasn't graduating- that's next year). Their graduation theme this year was dinosaurs, and the teacher made her a dinosaur tail with Mickey Mouse heads forming the spine. The center's assistant director sent me a picture of her at her station and I just about died of the cute.

Oh, and this week I got to see the illustrations for my next kid's book, which were downright wonderful. Seriously, I could not be more happy with them. I emailed a bit with my publisher, who has all sorts of exciting things planned for this book. I should be able to tell you more details about that soon.

So I'm in a pretty good mood. Luckily, the links I have today are mostly happy and hopeful things, so nothing to kill my mood. No doubt, I'll be back to my usual anger-inducing links next week.

First up, I loved this remembrance of Maya Angelou from Patricia Matthew.

Kiese Laymon has a beautiful interview with filmmaker Stanley Nelson, which somehow manages to be hopeful despite the fact the film they primarily talk about is about the fight for black voting rights in Mississippi.

I really liked this essay about the overview effect and how we need to find a way to get more of it here on earth.

Hmmm. Those were some heavy topics. But the posts I linked to left me hopeful. Now for the purely happy things:

I came across this delight art and now I want to buy some prints. The bougainvillea is my favorite,  I think, possibly because I love those flowers so much. The artist also has a blog.

Here are some cool cups.

My publisher emailed me this nice review of my Taming the Work Week book. I've stopped searching for new reviews, so I hadn't seen it. She noticed it because it bumped my sales numbers.

Mr. Snarky sent me  a link to two geek guys deconstructing the fake geek girl argument. It has some moments that made me laugh out loud:



Happy weekend!

5 comments:

  1. Glad you're checking things off your list! I think freshbooks is way better for you since you won't have as many clients as me an it is more for someone billing by the hour. They also seemed to upgrade a lot of things since I left over a year ago. I gave up in the end when it wasn't able to properly integrate with all my bank accounts, Paypal and credit cards.

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  2. Anonymous7:00 PM

    must... see... "two geek guys deconstructing the fake geek girl argument"... feel teased...

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    1. Weird! It disappeared. I fixed that. You should be able to watch it now. Sorry for the inadvertent tease!

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  3. Oh, Cloud, I'm glad to hear things are going so well for you on so many fronts this week! And your first invoice--that's awesome! It must have felt wonderful =)

    I'm just catching up with blog-reading today. So I just wanted to say that I loved the line from your previous post:

    "No matter what happens, I want to remember this time, when I believed enough in myself and my ideas to give this a go."

    Yes. So heartening, and inspiring for all of us trying to believe in ourselves and give our ideas a go =)

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  4. I'm so glad to hear things are going so well for you right now! Can't wait for the new children's book to come out :D

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