Miscellaneous Updates

We were approved by the rescue organization to get the doggie I wrote about last week. Now we have to sign the contract they send, pay the adoption fee and arrange to get the dog. I can’t wait!

I’ve seen a few fencing contractors, and there’s one more coming tomorrow. It looks like the job is going to be about $3k. Ouch. Now I have to figure out how to pay for it.

For the first time ever, I actually fired a client. I was doing a freelance job that spun out of control. What was supposed to be a simple little website became a monstrosity as the client tried to over-control every aspect of the design from his viewpoint, an AOL browser set at 800 x 600 resolution. He wanted a navigation system “like Windows” right down to colors and function, and that it should always be available. Never mind that I don’t have the same Windows version he does or that color schemes could be set differently. He wanted page colors to be set the same as AOL pages. Again, never mind that I’m not an AOL user. When I tried to explain that the best practices of my profession dictate that I make the site navigable and reasonably good looking for as many users as possible regardless of browser and operating system, he didn’t care. He insisted that at least 50% of his users would be AOL users.

All the while, I urged him to get the content together and have it ready. Every time I inquired it was “oh that’s easy, I can get it done in a few hours.” Every version of a proposed template I sent was met with critcism and further instructions about the minutiae. I explained that these revisions would cost him extra, over the contract estimate, at an hourly rate. “We’ll work something out” he’d said.

Finally, I pulled the plug. The project was so far out of scope that, had I continued, the final bill would have been more than twice the original estimate. I had reservations that he would pay it without argument even though the site wouldn’t have gotten published until the bill was paid. I just didn’t feel like dealing with the tug-of-war I felt was coming. Additionally, the project had already sucked way more of what little time I do have than it was supposed to and I could only see it getting worse before it finally ended. So, I cut my losses and quit. A very nice, professional letter was sent to end the project.

Heh. Don’t ya know my step-brother, a professional photographer, called this week and wanted me to do his website? I told him no. Not that this project would have been anything like the one I was just working on. On the contrary, it probably would have been fun. Never mind that I need to pay for a fence. It’s spring and other, house-related projects are calling yelling my name. Perhaps the tax return I’ve been neglecting all this while will yield a helpful refund. Off I go…