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My client called again today. He started yelling again. He was very displeased because there were 9 changes that I still had not made to one page. I had no idea what he was talking about, and I didn't care. I interrupted his rant by saying that I quit. He paused for a moment to think about that and agreed to look for someone else to finish the project.
He then started talking again, and I just wanted him to shut up. I cut him off by saying that we had nothing else to talk about. As he started his goodbye speech with "I wish you the best in....", I interrupted one more time by saying "goodbye". He said OK and I immediately ended the call.
After it was over, I mentally reviewed some of the things that he was yelling about and I realized why he was so upset. I have been processing his requests in the order in which they were received. He knew that and made it clear long ago that he knew this. He is now upset because there are some changes I haven't made that he requested in some newer messages that I haven't read. This conflict seems to have started from a misunderstanding. I could have explained this to him and he probably would have let me continue working on this project, but I really didn't want to.
I don't need this kind of toxic energy in my life. What I need is rest, which I haven't had since this project began. Tomorrow will be my first day of not doing work in a long time. I still have to do some shopping, cleaning, laundry, etc., but it will be much better than what I have been doing since August 3. I'm planning a day of complete laziness either Wednesday or Thursday of next week to celebrate my freedom.
He then started talking again, and I just wanted him to shut up. I cut him off by saying that we had nothing else to talk about. As he started his goodbye speech with "I wish you the best in....", I interrupted one more time by saying "goodbye". He said OK and I immediately ended the call.
After it was over, I mentally reviewed some of the things that he was yelling about and I realized why he was so upset. I have been processing his requests in the order in which they were received. He knew that and made it clear long ago that he knew this. He is now upset because there are some changes I haven't made that he requested in some newer messages that I haven't read. This conflict seems to have started from a misunderstanding. I could have explained this to him and he probably would have let me continue working on this project, but I really didn't want to.
I don't need this kind of toxic energy in my life. What I need is rest, which I haven't had since this project began. Tomorrow will be my first day of not doing work in a long time. I still have to do some shopping, cleaning, laundry, etc., but it will be much better than what I have been doing since August 3. I'm planning a day of complete laziness either Wednesday or Thursday of next week to celebrate my freedom.
My client called me yesterday. I saw that he called and didn't answer, because I hate talking on the phone. He left a voicemail message asking to call him back. He said it was important, but he didn't say what it was about. A few minutes later, he sent me an email asking to call him. It seemed unavoidable, so I called him.
He reminded me about the October 1 deadline and yelled at me for not having done anything the past week. I reminded him that work on the backend of the site does not create anything visible. He ignored that and yelled again. I explained to him that I had been working on the FedEx label. He wants the site to automatically generate one. He told me that he spoke to a FedEx technician already and they told him that it is easy. He referred to my explanation as a "story" and implied that it was a lie.
The FedEx label system is easy, but only if you are willing to have a completely blank form that the customer has to fill out. Since the site requires registration before the customer gets to the point where they can request a label, it would make sense to automatically fill out the sender's information. It is also a very important requirement to have a reference number automatically generated, because we use this to correlate what we receive with our records. Getting this to happen requires editing the code that FedEx gave me. Their code is a 138,531 character text file on ONE LINE. My usual text editor crashed when opening it. 10 other text editors also crashed. I only found one that could open that file. I had to edit that, which took several days just to reformat into something readable.
There was so much wrongness in my client's accusation that I was too stunned to respond. I had been working for the past 11 days without a break and he was accusing me of procrastinating. His goal was probably to try to force me to hurry, but that is wrong in many ways. Programming requires tremendous concentration. One missing punctuation mark or misspelling can cause it to malfunction. Also, he implied that he might replace me with someone else. It takes away the incentive to rush when there is legitimate reason to suspect that he might not even pay the remainder of what he owes. He sent another check two weeks ago, so he has now paid half of the original estimated cost. I could take him to court if he doesn't pay for additional work that I have done since then, but that's not a very motivating thought.
I did a significant amount of visible work on the site after the call, but it wasn't because of the call. It was because the FedEx label system was the last complex backend task. Everything else left is simple. Each of the remaining changes only takes a few minutes. He did not send me any messages today. He usually comments on changes that I make. I'm not sure what that means.
He reminded me about the October 1 deadline and yelled at me for not having done anything the past week. I reminded him that work on the backend of the site does not create anything visible. He ignored that and yelled again. I explained to him that I had been working on the FedEx label. He wants the site to automatically generate one. He told me that he spoke to a FedEx technician already and they told him that it is easy. He referred to my explanation as a "story" and implied that it was a lie.
The FedEx label system is easy, but only if you are willing to have a completely blank form that the customer has to fill out. Since the site requires registration before the customer gets to the point where they can request a label, it would make sense to automatically fill out the sender's information. It is also a very important requirement to have a reference number automatically generated, because we use this to correlate what we receive with our records. Getting this to happen requires editing the code that FedEx gave me. Their code is a 138,531 character text file on ONE LINE. My usual text editor crashed when opening it. 10 other text editors also crashed. I only found one that could open that file. I had to edit that, which took several days just to reformat into something readable.
There was so much wrongness in my client's accusation that I was too stunned to respond. I had been working for the past 11 days without a break and he was accusing me of procrastinating. His goal was probably to try to force me to hurry, but that is wrong in many ways. Programming requires tremendous concentration. One missing punctuation mark or misspelling can cause it to malfunction. Also, he implied that he might replace me with someone else. It takes away the incentive to rush when there is legitimate reason to suspect that he might not even pay the remainder of what he owes. He sent another check two weeks ago, so he has now paid half of the original estimated cost. I could take him to court if he doesn't pay for additional work that I have done since then, but that's not a very motivating thought.
I did a significant amount of visible work on the site after the call, but it wasn't because of the call. It was because the FedEx label system was the last complex backend task. Everything else left is simple. Each of the remaining changes only takes a few minutes. He did not send me any messages today. He usually comments on changes that I make. I'm not sure what that means.
I got banned after only three days. I should have anticipated this. I had a rough start when I couldn't submit an entry after working on it for two hours. The problem is that they demand 10 forum comments/posts before anyone can participate. Many of the posts that I looked at were closed. I found a few that I could comment on but not enough. My work was wasted.
I considered abandoning the site at that point, but I gave it another try. I eventually found their "hangout" thread and completed the necessary requirements, but a few of my comments got deleted and were responded to with hostility by moderators. I wasn't trolling or being argumentative, but they did not like the obviousness of my attempt to get 10 comments.
I finally submitted something, but it was rejected. It wasn't because I submitted crap. All submissions that comply with the rules are accepted regardless of how awful they are. They simply get voted out in the judging process. My submission was rejected because I used 3D graphics software. This is a really stupid reason to reject a submission. Their official explanation is that vectors can be resized and raster images cannot, but 3D can be re-rendered at different resolutions. It's technically a 3D vector but the administrators are only familiar with 2D vector technology.
A simple rejection of my submission would not have been so bad. What happened is I submitted twice. The first submission was missing the name of the company, so I submitted a revised version. Both of my submissions for this specific contest got rejected. There is a 30 point penalty for each rejection and I only had 10 points. That means I now have -50 points, which is an automatic ban.
This was the submission that got me banned:
I am amused that their server still hosts the image that got me banned.
I considered abandoning the site at that point, but I gave it another try. I eventually found their "hangout" thread and completed the necessary requirements, but a few of my comments got deleted and were responded to with hostility by moderators. I wasn't trolling or being argumentative, but they did not like the obviousness of my attempt to get 10 comments.
I finally submitted something, but it was rejected. It wasn't because I submitted crap. All submissions that comply with the rules are accepted regardless of how awful they are. They simply get voted out in the judging process. My submission was rejected because I used 3D graphics software. This is a really stupid reason to reject a submission. Their official explanation is that vectors can be resized and raster images cannot, but 3D can be re-rendered at different resolutions. It's technically a 3D vector but the administrators are only familiar with 2D vector technology.
A simple rejection of my submission would not have been so bad. What happened is I submitted twice. The first submission was missing the name of the company, so I submitted a revised version. Both of my submissions for this specific contest got rejected. There is a 30 point penalty for each rejection and I only had 10 points. That means I now have -50 points, which is an automatic ban.
This was the submission that got me banned:
I am amused that their server still hosts the image that got me banned.
My primary mouse died last night. I am now using the one finger mouse again and it is very inconvenient.
I am in a car that is being driven by some unfamiliar woman. The car seems ordinary, but it somehow holds an entire busload of Blogstalk members. The driver takes us on a journey to Michigan. Evilserif is the only blogstalk regular not in the car. We are on a journey to meet her. At some point, the car goes through the train station and gets into the train.
We eventually get to Michigan, but the driver doesn't let us get out. This was apparently a training session to teach us how to get there. The driver brings us back to New York and we have to go back to Michigan for the "real" trip.
The next day, we are on the train going into Manhattan. I tell the group that we should get off at Canal Street, because the driver said she would be in downtown Manhattan. The_grim_zipper disagrees and everyone else agrees with him, so I stay on the train. We get off at the next stop, which is Journal Square. (not an IRL stop on the subway) I am confused because I have been riding this train for years and never knew about this stop. It happens to be one of the train stations that we visited the day before during our training session, and I recognize it.
None of us clearly remember which train to take next. I do some research and figure out the route. The vending machines for train tickets refuse to accept money, but they print out tickets anyway. While we sit around waiting for the train, Rhodochrosite informs me that this was Saddha's idea. She had read somewhere about how to get free train rides, but these rides always involve significant inconvenience and confusion. We decide that it would be a good idea to create a reality TV show based on this which would be called "Lost For Free".
We eventually get to Michigan, but the driver doesn't let us get out. This was apparently a training session to teach us how to get there. The driver brings us back to New York and we have to go back to Michigan for the "real" trip.
The next day, we are on the train going into Manhattan. I tell the group that we should get off at Canal Street, because the driver said she would be in downtown Manhattan. The_grim_zipper disagrees and everyone else agrees with him, so I stay on the train. We get off at the next stop, which is Journal Square. (not an IRL stop on the subway) I am confused because I have been riding this train for years and never knew about this stop. It happens to be one of the train stations that we visited the day before during our training session, and I recognize it.
None of us clearly remember which train to take next. I do some research and figure out the route. The vending machines for train tickets refuse to accept money, but they print out tickets anyway. While we sit around waiting for the train, Rhodochrosite informs me that this was Saddha's idea. She had read somewhere about how to get free train rides, but these rides always involve significant inconvenience and confusion. We decide that it would be a good idea to create a reality TV show based on this which would be called "Lost For Free".
I was planning to pay my National Grid bill online today, but they modified the site with information about the hurricane. I cannot find a link to log in or pay my bill. It might be there, but I'm not in the mood to waste time looking for it.
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