Got to get my act together.

It's 4:15 PM. I'm sitting here doing the same thing I was three hours ago; looking at the screen. I bounce from Email to Gmail, to Flickr, to news, to email, to Gmail, to blogs, to... I'm accomplishing nothing.  I have guys at the shop right now working and I'm sitting here on my ass with my head... well, I'm not sure where my head really is. I need to be productive today but I'm not in the zone. I can work on the web site, work on the remote assistance package we're offering, work on the email marketing campaign, work on client's computers, spec out bid jobs, work on the bid I have with the state, and a hundred small other things I could be doing. Instead I'm doing this.. nothing.

 

I just started typing in here because I was tired of.. OOH Phone rings.. hold on

 

Ok. That was a 38 minute distraction from my distraction away from work. Wess called about wanting to do some web work for the Veterans of Modern Warfare Administration, www.modernwarfare.com. Come to think of it, it would be kinda cool to rebuild their site, but I quite honestly don't have the time for any more non-profit work at the moment. Between the NCBBA, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Pitt County Boys and Girls Club, my non-profit time is about chewed up and then some. And it seems that no one in the business community understands that web sites don't come cheap.

 

There's a topic for discussion. Why in the world does everyone think a web site comes cheap? The old company I used to work for is selling them to customers for $400-$500 dollars each, but they're outsourcing all the design to a firm in India who's charging them like $200.00 for a three page web site. Now, let me catch ya up on something in case you didn't know. You can hire indian, libyan, iraqi, syrian, whatever... outsourced labor is WAY cheap. I've even thought about it myself from time to time.  Sure, a underpaid Indian dude can build you a web site for a hundred bucks that looks pretty decent. However, here in the real world, where the technology actually IS and the people actually have to pay to go to school for four years to do what I do, it takes a little more than that for a quality product.  It takes between 5,000 to 15,000 for a really well put together web presence that you can actually USE for your business. There are hundred of hours in programming, graphic design, ad-placement, keyword structuring, meta-tagging, content provisioning, and let's not even get into the e-commerce spectrum of things. PS: If you convert 400.00 US dollars to Indian... it's over 16,000 dollars. Just thought ya should know.

 

Mom called... another break from my break from reality. She wanted to know how to find her birthday photo on the blog. Mom, in case you're wondering, it's here:

July 11-13, 2008- The Scoobies 6th Annual Brenda's Beach Bonanza Blowout Barbecue Birthday Party

 

However, after talking to Mom a few weeks ago, I'm thinking we're going to cancel this year's event. Mom just had her hand operated on, which I've completely forgotten to mention in all this. I'm really sorry for that, Mom. She needs your prayers too to make it through the recovery all right. Her boss is wanting her back to work pronto and I know Mom enough to know she's liable to overstress her recently operated on appendage. Pray that she doesn't overdo it and that her hand heals properly.

 

The point is, none of us can afford the pig-picking this year. Mom's going to be at half-strength and she always does a lot of the cooking for the side dishes and stuff. I'm opening a new business so we all know I'm perpetually broke until the day that I'm just not broke anymore. That's how being a business owner is. You're either broke or wealthy. There is rarely an in-between. Dad is sick and that's weighing heavily on all our hearts. Ray is going to be in Alaska hunting wildabeest, or whatever people do in Alaska for fun. Anyway, he'll be gone. It just won't be the same this year. I think I've made the decision to either put it off until Fall when the weather cools off or to just do it next year in an even more grand fashion that last year. Mom's really trying to say she's all right with not having it but I know she really enjoys seeing everyone and it seems that everyone always seems to enjoy attending. Just another downer this summer I guess.

 

Oh crap.. this is ridiculous. I just started bawling reading one of the emails sent to me from someone. This wasn't even a personal one, just a prayer poem someone had written. Bah. I got to get to work. I'll write more later most likely because I don't have anything productive left to do today. It's 6:00 PM now.

 

Until then...