I had to cut ties with one of my favorite clients tonight. It wasn't done without a lot of thought and deliberation, and without going into the gory details on the ins and outs that contributed to my decision, let me just say a few words on the topic of communication.
I did a show on The Brushfires last week, and the topic that really got Jack and I going was this on communication in project management. In the conversation, I predicted the demise of this particular project, and it appears that my projections have come true.
I was hired to consult on and engineer for a particularly complicated video podcast show. The man had a built in audience with him, and all he had to do to make it a successful show would be to show up, and produce quality content. Consistently, he'd show up to the show a couple hours before it started with a basket full of edit jobs to do, and no show preparation. Those of us on the team begged him to listen, and attempted multiple times to schedule coaching sessions to improve his game a bit, but he could never seem to fit us into his busy schedule.
Furthermore, I was designated to wear the hat of chief rain-maker, in that I was to come up with advertising business model, make daily changes to the web site, and of course engineer all podcasts.
The problem, of course, being that he was either unwilling to make the time to communicate with me. All it would take would be responses to email correspondence in order to ensure the marching orders I understood were the ones he had in fact issued... just a quick five minute call for me to give him a status update, and for him to confirm that was the direction I needed to be going in.
As it turns out, relationships soured because when he told me what he wanted in a (and I quote here) 'web button' actually was a video thumbnail. So when I finally had all the videos converted, back end code written, reward models formulated and the forms formatted, and I showed it to him after two weeks of work, he became rather upset that I didn't just create the thumbnails two weeks ago, and why did it take me two weeks to make some thumbnails?
I'm sure you've probably guessed which client it is at this point, if you've been following my work online. Bottom line is that the relationship has now soured to the point where he hasn't returned my phone calls or emails in over a week in some sort of odd passive-aggressive revenge for the 'button incident.' Now what potentially could have been a show worth thousands a week in income is now a very expensive mistake for all involved, including myself, as I was working partially on spec.
I must take some of the blame, however. In the future, I'm going to be a lot more careful to exact a great deal more communication (or alternatively, up-front in-full payment) from my clients, especially where speculative deals are involved. There's nothing more annoying and disheartening to realize you've wasted a lot of good days on a project when it collapses through no fault of your own.
/mark
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Showing posts with label finished projects. Show all posts
Showing posts with label finished projects. Show all posts
Monday, July 23, 2007
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Hilarious and Often Painful Memories
I'm done posting up the first half of my Diaryland posts. Basically, what I've got up there takes you through the CompUSA experience of my life, the breakup of me and my ex Traci, my jail experience, and my period of being unemployed and attempting to start my first company NinjaCo (which I don't even list on my CV anymore, I don't think. Check my Wikipedia entry to be sure).
I seem to have lost the entertaining writing style I had back in those days. I was more conversational and irreverent. I think it came from a combination of living with a bunch of geeks, having way too much time to waste while I was at work, and copious amounts of hallucinogenics. These days, I'm way to engaged in my work to slack off like I used to, I'm way too involved in responsibility for hallucinogenics, and all my geek friends have moved off or I've moved away from them.
I think going over my old writings may inspire me to write a bit more humorously though. Those were some good times.
Going through these entries is a bit of a trip down memory lane - I can easily read between the lines of my entries to what was actually going on behind the scenes. My selective storytelling doesn't fool my brain into remembering only the parts I chronicled. In fact, I think some of the most interesting bits were indeed left out of the diary itself.
The thing that has me the most apprehensive about bringing this whole thing over is the reason why it was discontinued in the first place. My parents back in the day discovered my diary and read all about my juvenile drug use and freaked out. The whole time I'm skimming over these entries and posting them in here, in the back of my mind, I'm reliving the whole experience in my head.
This is probably the main reason behind me procrastinating on this project for the years I've been putting it off for. That and the fact of how mindlessly BORING it is to hit [ctrl+a], [ctrl+c], [ctrl+tab], [ctrl+v], type in the title, type in the date, publish.
Another thing that strikes me is exactly how prolific I was back then. I was posting upwards of three times a day, especially back in early 2000. That's the sort of time-porn one has, though, when you have a slack off job like CompUSA was. Now-a-days, my mind is filled with things that are of immense interest to myself, but of little consequence to anyone else. Very few people want to hear about the clever solution I've worked out for this or that programming job I'm working on, whereas back in the day, everyone wanted to hear about the story of the unending, ruthlessly stupid calls I'd get back in tech-support hell.
I think I'll start filling in the gaps a bit once the import job is done. It's infinitely more interesting to read about than what's going on in my personal life right now (at least for the moment, and likely the near future - as someone who's a new father, the stories that amuse me are likely the most boring stories in the world for the rest of the world!).
Who knows - maybe after this project is done, the gaps are sufficiently filled in, it can all be rolled into a book of my life, and the true Rizzn story can be out there for the world to consume and enjoy.
At least we know my ego is still in healthy condition.
/mark
Quote of the Entry: "Acting is the most minor of gifts and not a very high-class way to earn a living. After all, Shirley Temple could do it at the age of four."
- Katharine Hepburn
I seem to have lost the entertaining writing style I had back in those days. I was more conversational and irreverent. I think it came from a combination of living with a bunch of geeks, having way too much time to waste while I was at work, and copious amounts of hallucinogenics. These days, I'm way to engaged in my work to slack off like I used to, I'm way too involved in responsibility for hallucinogenics, and all my geek friends have moved off or I've moved away from them.
I think going over my old writings may inspire me to write a bit more humorously though. Those were some good times.
Going through these entries is a bit of a trip down memory lane - I can easily read between the lines of my entries to what was actually going on behind the scenes. My selective storytelling doesn't fool my brain into remembering only the parts I chronicled. In fact, I think some of the most interesting bits were indeed left out of the diary itself.
The thing that has me the most apprehensive about bringing this whole thing over is the reason why it was discontinued in the first place. My parents back in the day discovered my diary and read all about my juvenile drug use and freaked out. The whole time I'm skimming over these entries and posting them in here, in the back of my mind, I'm reliving the whole experience in my head.
This is probably the main reason behind me procrastinating on this project for the years I've been putting it off for. That and the fact of how mindlessly BORING it is to hit [ctrl+a], [ctrl+c], [ctrl+tab], [ctrl+v], type in the title, type in the date, publish.
Another thing that strikes me is exactly how prolific I was back then. I was posting upwards of three times a day, especially back in early 2000. That's the sort of time-porn one has, though, when you have a slack off job like CompUSA was. Now-a-days, my mind is filled with things that are of immense interest to myself, but of little consequence to anyone else. Very few people want to hear about the clever solution I've worked out for this or that programming job I'm working on, whereas back in the day, everyone wanted to hear about the story of the unending, ruthlessly stupid calls I'd get back in tech-support hell.
I think I'll start filling in the gaps a bit once the import job is done. It's infinitely more interesting to read about than what's going on in my personal life right now (at least for the moment, and likely the near future - as someone who's a new father, the stories that amuse me are likely the most boring stories in the world for the rest of the world!).
Who knows - maybe after this project is done, the gaps are sufficiently filled in, it can all be rolled into a book of my life, and the true Rizzn story can be out there for the world to consume and enjoy.
At least we know my ego is still in healthy condition.
/mark
Quote of the Entry: "Acting is the most minor of gifts and not a very high-class way to earn a living. After all, Shirley Temple could do it at the age of four."
- Katharine Hepburn
Rizzn.Com Temporarily Suspended
Posting to the site will be temporarily suspended. I'm endeavoring to finish the project I began a few years ago, and that is to import all the old diaryland entries back into rizzn.com - i'm about 45% done, but I stopped working on it years ago.
Who knows, if I get this project done, maybe I'll start finishing all my projects. I still need to finish up my two books I'm working on.
/rizzn
UPDATE: Crap on a crap cracker. I'm 20 minutes in and diaryland goes down in the middle of my acquisition of the posts. Plus, Cammi at UT is playing dumb again, further moving the bar of when I'm going to get paid by the University. Frustrations.
UPDATE 2: I'm going to list some of my favorite posts as I get them up here, so pay attention to this post.
Why Batman Is So Cool - from March 2000: in which I describe why Batman was so cool.
Cause the boys in tha... - from March 2000: in which I express my desire to be a millionaire by 27. I should have been more specific and said acquire and keep a million dollars by the age of 27. Ah well, there's always 30.
Stick a Fork In Me, I'm Done - from March 2000: in which I detail a number of horrible tech calls.
Females Shouldn't Read... - from March 2000: in which the quote of the entry is HILARIOUS
Good Fscking Bye - from April 2000: in which I break up with my girlfriend at the time.
BS PhD: Bullshit Piled Head Deep - from April 2000: in which my ex-GF from the time and a friend of mine confront one another on the breakup.
The Story of a Boy and his Burger - from May 2000: in which I write a story about a boy and his burger.
I'm stopping for now at June 2000. I'm about 50% done importing this particular diary. Two more diaries after that.
asdf
Who knows, if I get this project done, maybe I'll start finishing all my projects. I still need to finish up my two books I'm working on.
/rizzn
UPDATE: Crap on a crap cracker. I'm 20 minutes in and diaryland goes down in the middle of my acquisition of the posts. Plus, Cammi at UT is playing dumb again, further moving the bar of when I'm going to get paid by the University. Frustrations.
UPDATE 2: I'm going to list some of my favorite posts as I get them up here, so pay attention to this post.
Why Batman Is So Cool - from March 2000: in which I describe why Batman was so cool.
Cause the boys in tha... - from March 2000: in which I express my desire to be a millionaire by 27. I should have been more specific and said acquire and keep a million dollars by the age of 27. Ah well, there's always 30.
Stick a Fork In Me, I'm Done - from March 2000: in which I detail a number of horrible tech calls.
Females Shouldn't Read... - from March 2000: in which the quote of the entry is HILARIOUS
Good Fscking Bye - from April 2000: in which I break up with my girlfriend at the time.
BS PhD: Bullshit Piled Head Deep - from April 2000: in which my ex-GF from the time and a friend of mine confront one another on the breakup.
The Story of a Boy and his Burger - from May 2000: in which I write a story about a boy and his burger.
I'm stopping for now at June 2000. I'm about 50% done importing this particular diary. Two more diaries after that.
asdf
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