I Can't Complain

Oh, sure I can...but I won't. The cathartic "Things I Hate" post that I've been picking away at will stay personal because:

1. It doesn't say anything I haven't said before;
2. Nobody likes a whiner;
3. It boils down to one word: "People"; and
4. Nuisance calls have dropped off noticeably since I shut down AdWords a few weeks ago.

This Monday's Curio City payday was so small -- $48.79 for two weeks, before taxes -- that I didn't even bother creating a check. I'll fold it into my next payday instead. I'm sure this has nothing to do with #4 above.

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MIT approved my invoice for the work that I did in early August. When that check lands, I will have earned twice as much this year as I did last year...with three months left to go. It's still chicken feed by normal people's reckoning, but having a lot more chicken feed is a big deal to me. 

A web publisher dangled a regular, 15-hour-per-week editing gig in front of me. It's the second time this year that he's approached me and then backed off after an initial conversation. I haven't worked regular hours in at least 13 years, so this would be a big deal to me, too. I won't give up near-complete control over my schedule unless the job feels right, and this one's "on-call" requirement beyond the regular hours makes me nervous. He's also under the impression that one can edit seven to 10 1,000-word articles in three hours. I can proofread that quickly, but nobody can properly edit 1,000 words in 20-25 minutes. I probably put him off when I said that it takes an hour to copy edit 1,000 words if fact-checking is included; that's realistic (in fact, I just spent 2.25 hours giving a 1,700-word article the full treatment), but I don't think it's what he wanted to hear.  

I'd sacrifice some of my autonomy to turn Blue Hills into a reliable paycheck, but I won't make a vaguely defined commitment or exaggerate my productivity. After a few emails he said that he's thinking about hiring a staff editor instead, and left with it "I'll be in touch," so that's the end of that...for now. If he does come back for a third round, I'm going to make sure it happens on my terms.