Things have been really strange and busy around here. Our drummer left the band. Why? I do not know. After our last gig, we simply haven't heard from him, and it's been a month now. Well, he did post twice on the band's message board two days ago, but that was all, and, even at that, he didn't bother to give us an explanation. Just that he was "sorry." We're working with this kid, now, but I don't think he's going to work out. He likes metal, and we don't play metal. Besides, we've been working with him for almost a week and a half, and he can't even get down twelve originals. I shudder to think what it will be like when we throw 106 covers at him. I'm shaking my head here, because I don't think I can take it.
So, we're in talks with Cactus to return to the band. If he says no, we'll keep working with this kid. But I am not holding my hand over my ass.
In other news, I am pretty well jobless. I have looked and looked and looked for work and can only find shitty little jobs that are from people who don't want to pay for what they want. For instance, this one guy (I'll call him "Bronco") wanted a site where he and his office buddies could run an office football pool... for $50. I listen to what he wants, and say, well, okay. At least it's a little money, and I can save it, I guess, for other projects. Well, I do exactly what he tells me, and send him the link. I hear NOTHING for a week and a half. Then, two days before the season starts, he begins barraging me with telephone calls and e-mails. He wants changes. LOTS of changes. The first list of things he wanted went something like this:
-a main page to make selections of activities from
-a page where all the weeks of the season were laid out in numerical format for people to click on
-a page for each person to make his or her picks and then send it to him
-a forum board
-and a sports newswire
Fine. Done in a day. But then, he wants:
-the main page to change daily. I would be doing the updating.
-the pages for making the picks had to be built as a "confidence pool" where the people picking could place values on the picks they made. The range of numbers needed to be from 16 down to 5, with five games being able to use the number 5 and the rest of the numbers only being able to be used once. These pages also needed to include a place for the pickers to make "suicide picks" weekly, and a place for name and e-mail.
-all picks were to be compiled by ME and sent to HIM
-all picking had to be "locked" at the start of the first game
-all picks made had to be posted on the web site at the start of the first game
-after the games, all results (including his point awards) had to be posted on the site immediately following the Monday night game
-no forum
-no newswire
-the entire site had to be password locked
-each person had to have his or her own, unique username and password, picked by him
-each person had to be able to change his or her password, but not his or her username
-I had to be available to him 24/7 for technical support, training, and updating.
ALL FOR $50!!!!!!!!!!
Now, you see the downside to my job. The upside is people like this one client I have, who lets me do whatever I want as far as design and implementation, and, if he is short on funds, lets me know to stop working, pays me what he owes me so far, and lets me know when to start up again. And he pays WELL. But your average client is just a putz.
After dealing with Bronco for so long, I took the weekend off. I retreated to my Mom's for the weekend, and basically just slept. I did take a shower, and I learned to drive stick shift. I also got started replacing the lost copy of A Night Borrowed, the sequel to Night Cries. And I did that on my laptop, which I used for the first time in three months. My bassist repaired it for me, but I was gun shy of it. So, I used it. At least it runs. The thing is three and a half years old, and I need to replace it, but I can't afford to. I wrote the bulk of Night Cries on an HP laptop that was built sometime around 1997. It ran Windows 95, and worked fine until one of my nephews stepped on it. Then the screen wouldn't work. So I got my files off of it, and finished Night Cries up on my new laptop, which, as I said, is about three and a half years old. So, I guess I can start writing this new book on my three and half year old laptop. (Incidentally, my old laptop now works fine again. I gave it to my bassist as payment for fixing my newer laptop, and he replaced the screen for $9 (got the part from Germany, I hear) and put Windows 98 on it. I guess he really likes it.)
So, now, the band is practicing with the hope of being the in the studio to re-record the album by Saturday. Oh, yeah. We have to completely re-record the album.
Nothing else of import is going on. Just a bunch of random stuff.
