20150930.0625

Today is payday, and so today is pay-my-bills day. I have already done so. Things appear to be in better shape this time than last, however; I think I have more money still unallocated than at this time last month. There are a couple of bills that have yet to come in, to be sure, but I have an idea of how much they will be, and I think I will still be better off. If I can continue to get freelance work in--and I pushed through a job yesterday--then I will be all the more able to do so. So I can hope to get more paying work--in a bit. I would like to get one or two other things cleared before that happens; my scholarship is still waiting for attention, for example. But I am (cautiously) optimistic.

I am sending out charitable contributions today, as well. There are some causes and institutions I support and which have been helpful to me, and I return the favor as I can. I cannot always do so, admittedly, but today, I could. So I did. It feels good--and I have to be wary of that good feeling. Such things are addictive, and I cannot afford to indulge that addiction as well as the many others I maintain. There are costs to the work I do and the hobbies I (seldom, anymore) indulge, and, again, I just paid the month's bills. I know what Sherwood Cottage costs, not just for rent, but for all of the expenses associated with it, and I know the price I am paying now for my youthful extravagances. Did I know then what I know now, I'd like to think I'd have done some few things differently. Many of them have to do with money.

To attend to something else entirely: Some time ago, one of the freelance pieces I wrote was rejected. The client did not like my presentation, and the agency through which I do most of my freelance work agreed with the client's decision (evidently, capricious refusals are overturned). This means that the text was not purchased and that I still retain copyright to it. I wonder if I ought to put it on my more nearly professional website as a writing sample, something that helps me to develop my professional portfolio against the event of moving into a different line of work altogether. Despite the rejection, I think that the writing is good (obviously, else I'd not have sent it in; I have some pride as a professional), and it does decently at showing I have some basic skill in HTML coding (something I need to develop more thoroughly, I know, and to expand to other languages). Then again, it was rejected, and so it may have problems that I do not see--other than simply not suiting the prospective client's ideas of what it ought to be. (The client has since blacklisted me.) Advice and information will, of course, be welcome.