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Rustin Jessen

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freelancing

Happy shut in… er… freelancer

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I re-read my post from yesterday and, while it definitely sounded the way I felt yesterday (read=bored and kind of cranky), it didn’t convey a complete enough picture about how I feel about being a freelancer… er, well let me talk more about that.

There are really two forces at work that I want to address. First is being a freelancer, and second is working from home. My post from yesterday was really less about being a freelancer and more about working from home. So, even if the titles of these posts would lead you to belive otherwise… what I want to talk about is working from home.

There are a million articles out there about why working from home is both awesome and horrible. I’m not really here to say why it is or isn’t anything. I’m just going to tell you why it kicks ass for me.

  • Family Time
    I have a son that I adore, and a wife that lights up my life. Working at home gives me the chance to pop out of my office at any time, for any reason at all. Sometimes I just need a dose of family. They are my reason for doing what I do. We can take a walk, run some errands or just chill in the back yard any damn time we want, and I love it. I also love that I’m not missing a second of our little boy experiencing his firsts and learning about the world. It’s just too good to miss.
  • My shop dog
    You can think it’s corny all you like, but I have a dog named Nanna who is my pal and working companion. She is at my side pretty much everywhere I go. When I run errands, she’s in the seat next to me. When I take a walk, she’s trotting by my side. And when I’m at work, she’s lying by my chair. Can’t take the dog to the cubicle farm…
  • My shop, my rules
    Sometimes I mow the lawn at 11AM on a Tuesday just because I can. I love that when I need to take a few minutes or hours to do something for myself or for my family, I can just do it. I don’t have to ask anybody, or give anybody a heads up. My work bends around my life… and that’s just how it is.

So there’s just a few things that make freelancing from home a great thing for me. Of course it comes with it’s own set of challenges and sacrifices… but that’s not what I’m here to talk about today.

What it really comes down to is this. I have complete freedom to be the husband and father I want to be. And, while I love my work very much, I love my family so much more. Working from home helps me make sure that I never neglect my family for work.

Shut in… er… Freelancer

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I haven’t left my house today. Well, that’s not entirely true… I did make it out to the mailbox once, the driveway once, and the front yard to turn on some sprinklers. But that was the extent of time I spent outside of the four walls I call home.

Not every day is quite like this one. I usually get out for a walk, or at least a quick drive somewhere at some point in the day. Today is just one of those few that a chance never popped up. It’s days like today I can feel the beginnings of cabin fever.

It’s a strange life I live. It’s incomprehensible to some of my friends that I don’t get up and go to work in the morning in the same way that they do. I don’t kiss my family goodbye and start a commute. I don’t call during my lunch hour, and have a big greeting when I come home for the day.

I get up when my son wakes up (usually in between 5AM-6AM). We go downstairs and play with toys while watching whatever Disney cartoon I can convince the crappy downstairs DVD player to accept. Then sometime around 8:00 we’ll come upstairs and have a little breakfast with Phineas and Ferb (I’ll have to write another post on how much I love Phineas and Ferb, seriously). Sometime during the breakfast window I’ll pop in and say good morning to my lovely bride. Most days she springs right out of bed and throws the curtains open with a song… other times, I may have to entice her with the promise of strong coffee. But it’s usually the first one.

We trade positions, her taking over with the boy and me stepping in to get ready for the day. A quick shower, throw some clothes on… then my trusty dog and I bid the family farewell for the journey down the hall to work. I can usually make the commute in 30 or 40 seconds, unless I hit lingering traffic of toys from the previous day. But I usually keep moving at hallway speeds all the way in.

I spend the day working as hard as I can. I hear all the goings-on of the house and I’ll poke my head out if things sound particularly interesting. I pop into the kitchen to make a sandwich for lunch, and back to work for the second half of the day.

Around 5:00 I call it a day and come out to help with final dinner preparations. We eat, play for a while… then it’s bath and bedtime. Each day brings a slightly different set of events, but it’s usually a variation on this theme.

As you can see, it’s not difficult at all for me to spend entire days inside. I don’t see the sky beyond my office window unless I make it happen. Like I said earlier, I usually do make it happen. If it’s a run to the store for a drink, or a family walk after dinner, I try to get SOME outside time.

Today, I didn’t. Today I spent just about every waking second inside and looking at a computer screen. Work is busy and new requests are stacking up. Given all the problems to have, being busy is probably the one that sucks the least.

I’m feeling the beginnings of stir craziness. I’ll have to make sure I see the sun a little more tomorrow.

So, there’s a little slice of my life. Cool eh? Thanks for letting me vent some useless nothingness out into the world.

Two months

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I didn’t plan it like this… really I didn’t. I didn’t mean for this site to become a monthly chronicling of my life post-Disney. It’s just sort of ended up that way so far.

You’ll remember from my last post that I’ve been busting my butt on some ever-changing plans. Well, that work hasn’t slowed down one bit, as the world keeps throwing interesting situations our way. I’ve been very fortunate to have met several wonderful new clients and made some great friends who keep me in mind when they have design projects and such. I’ve got ten great posts for this blog, in draft form, collecting a bit of dust while I hustle at getting a few more projects out the door.

I guess this is my obligatory sorry-I-haven’t-blogged-but-I’ve-been-busy post. Damn, I hate those.

Ok, how about this. I’ll say sorry, and I’ll make a vague promise of doing better. But I’ll raise the bar a bit and bundle a bit of an announcement.

… remember a while ago when I was asking you all to help me decide on a few things for our new company? Well, that work is complete. I’d like to introduce J. Blackbird LLC.

Moo Cards

The J. Blackbird website has been online in various forms over the last month. But it’s only just started taking it’s final shape. For now, only the design/development side of our business has a presence. The event side will come shortly. So… any thoughts about that?