Comments on: Freelancing Stories: When A Neighbor’s Tree Kills Your Power

By: Eduardo Portillo

Eduardo Portillo — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 21:12:02 +0000

The power outages here in El Salvador where I live are very common, and many times programmed, one of this days when I was preparing a work presentation for a client the energy goes out, as usual I think will be back in some minutes but after half hour I call the electric company and they tell me “this is a programmed energy cut, you where advised on sunday in one local newspaper, power will come back at 5 o´clock” and my meeting with the client was at 2 o´clock, needles to say i have to run to a restorant with wi-fi, not a near one since the power cut affect an area with about 10,000 homes and business, an in that momment I thanked god in my first decition as full time freelancer of buying a laptop and now I’m thinking in buying a portable printer since that day didn’t have enough time to print the material and have to do it in my clients office, embarrasing but after all was better than pospone the presentation.

By: Brenon MacLaury

Brenon MacLaury — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 02:48:56 +0000

Great stories!! I have so many instances where something has gone wrong, but when I try to think of one, I draw a blank..isn’t that how it always happens? Anyway, I really enjoyed yours and everyone’s stories! Thanks for sharing!

Brenon MacLaury

By: Mastermind Internet Marketing

Mastermind Internet Marketing — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 08:18:21 +0000

Since reading Tim Ferris’s four hour work week
I try to keep my interruptions to a minimum.

So far, I had nothing out of the ordinary to interrupt me
in a fun way, but one thing I do have to share:

When you work, try to get away from the family as much as possible.

Igor

By: Jared Walker

Jared Walker — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 04:29:27 +0000

My web host is usually pretty good, but of course the only time my portfolio site is down is when I go into an interview and try to bring up my site to show people my work…the CEO even mentioned Murphy’s Law.

By: Angélique Green

Angélique Green — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 09:06:39 +0000

Just a few days ago, something funny but annoying happened to me : I do translations in the French-English language pair, and I had accepted a project with a two hours turn-around. The weather was unbearably hot inside here in France (we don’t get to have AC here) and we had the windows open to try and get some air in… my daughter, who’s 4 yrs old, decided that would be a good time to play “throw my ball out the window”, we live in an apartment on the 4th floor of a building with no elevator. Guess who was the lucky one having to go down those 4 floors and back up with the ball ? Me, of course, as the only other adult home was my grandma, who is 78 years old and in not-so-great physical shape. She didn’t get the hint that throwing balls out the window was a bad thing. Therefore, she did it not once but three times. After the 3rd time, I decided that next time she threw the ball out the window, I’d go downstairs with my laptop and sit in the hall. I had someone attach a canvas bag with a string long enough to go down the 4 floors and hang it to the window. When a ball went out the window, they let the bag down and I put the ball in it and they pulled it back up. When I was done with my work, I came back upstairs… and that’s when my daughter decided she’d had enough of throwing balls out the window and stopped.
And the summer break has only started… she doesn’t go back to school until September…. I can see a lot of working time down in the hall in my near future.

By: Joe Wallace

Joe Wallace — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 01:51:15 +0000

Before I went full time freelance, I was moonlighting as a freelance writer while stationed in Korea at the American Forces TV Network in Kunsan. I woke up early one Saturday morning after a particularly Hunter Thompson-esque evening (damn you, Wild Turkey). I was hung over, feeling rotten, but anxious to get a couple of queries out the door. I went down to the base’s brand new coffee shop hoping to get some coffee, free wi-fi, and the peace-n-quiet to write a couple of editors.

The coffee was lousy, and the wi-fi didn’t work, but I decided to press on. I was halfway through a query when I discovered the coffee shop wasn’t quite all the way finished. I learned this because my brain was violently jerked out of my hungover head by the sound of not one, but TWO jackhammers suddenly going full blast. I ran away screaming for an asprin bottle and an industrial sized ice pack.

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:38:34 +0000

LOL, great stories. The few times I have been caught out by poor weather (wirless internet) or excessive rain (dsl) I have found the local McDonalds a god send. Free WiFi, Free TV and cheap food haha.

By: Laura Spencer

Laura Spencer — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:44:08 +0000

Jill – You mean lots of people were sitting in their cars using the WiFi? That is a little strange.

Good story!

By: Jill

Jill — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 04:11:58 +0000

Just last night my Internet (and cable) went down at 9:30 p.m. I needed to translate a file and deliver it by 9 a.m. today and send an e-mail to another colleague telling her how many words I could take on today and tomorrow. I translated the file that night without the Internet to confirm several choices. I woke up at 8:00 hoping the Internet connection would be back on, but it wasn’t. I saved the file to a jump drive and noted the e-mail addresses I needed, grabbed my laptop and drove to the Panera Bread around the corner from me. I surfed their Internet from my car for an hour and managed to get everything sent off. Oddly enough I wasn’t the only person in the parking lot doing that…

By: Freelancing Stories: When A Neighbor's Tree Kills Your Power … | Top Amuse - The Fun Stuff Lounge!

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 03:34:39 +0000

[...] Read the original here: Freelancing Stories: When A Neighbor's Tree Kills Your Power … [...]