Questions About My Freelance Life: Answered!

Do you start working at 9 a.m.?

Um...absolutely not.  Most days I wake up around 12:50 p.m., which is when my afternoon editing shift starts.  If I go to bed somewhat early, I wake up around noon.  If I have to go into the office (occasionally I go in to bother my PCWorld peeps and do my shift from San Francisco), I wake up around 11:45 a.m.

When do you do most of your work?

I'm a night-owl, as you may have guessed.  After my 2.5 hour shift in the afternoon, I usually go for a walk, go shopping, take a nap, make food, or read a book.  Basically, "not work."  I get most of my work done between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m.

Do you have health insurance?

Yes.  I pay for my own, and it is absolutely worth it.  That is, it's worth it to be self-employed and pay for health insurance -- but having health insurance is worth it, too.

Do you have an office, or do you sit around in bed all day?

My big comfy chair.

I actually do have an office.  It's super pretty and I have a big desk and a comfortable chair and it's all decorated in pink and purple.  I adore my office, because it's my girl-space (my husband also has his own home office).  Oh, and it's a tax write-off.

Books!  About writing...and freelancing...and stuff.

Do you get dressed in the morning, like you're going to an actual job?

Of course I don't get dressed in the morning (or, in my case, the afternoon).  I know that this is a tip all freelancers hear, but seriously guys...I'm not working for myself so I can give myself a dress code.  I do most of my work wrapped up in a blanket.

Do you use a laptop or a desktop?

A desktop!  I use a big, hulking desktop with two screens.  Laptops are for road trips and working in bed and college students -- they're super convenient.  But I don't need convenience (most of the time), so my desktop is awesome.  Dual screens -- best thing ever.

What are the worst things about being a freelancer? 

Um...I don't love taxes or invoicing.  But I do love getting paid and keeping my money -- so I do it, guys, I do it.

Got any other freelance questions?  Ask me in the comments section!

Game I'm Obsessed With: Triple Town

So you know what's fun?  Triple Town.

OMG THAT BEAR IS SO CUTE! I want to kill it.

Quick backstory: Triple Town is a match-three game (and we all know I love me some match-three games) developed by Spry Fox and published by Disney.  Unlike typical match-three games, Triple Town starts you off with an open landscape and you have to place like items in groups of three in order to obtain next-level items.  I know that didn't sound super-intuitive, but trust me -- it's simple and super addictive.

Three plots of grass begets a bush, three bushes beget a tree, three trees beget a cottage, three cottages beget a house...etc.

Triple Town shakes things up a bit by introducing bears -- adorable, yet obnoxious little creatures that move randomly about the screen and keep you from placing your shrubbery in the right place.  Luckily, you can get rid of bears by trapping them -- closing in on them from all sides -- and turning them into gravestones.  Three gravestones beget a church.

There are also a couple of power-ups: crystals, which act as wild cards (or rocks, if you don't need a wild card), and weird robot things, which can destroy misplaced items.  Or bears.  Oh, and later on there are also flying ninja bears, which are like bears except you can't trap them (unless you do it as you're about to run out of moves), and fly, instead of walk, around the board.

So basically your goal is to build an epic metropolis, three steps at a time.  You receive moves at random (you'll mostly get grass, but sometimes you get trees and houses and other cool things), and your first 1500 moves are free.  After that, you'll have to buy them -- $4 for unlimited moves, or you can purchase packs of moves using in-game currency, which you receive at the end of each game (how much depends on how awesome your town is).

I've been playing Triple Town on Android and I just...can't...stop.  Seriously guys...it's addictive.  So addictive that I see two like items in real life (for example, two decks of playing cards or two shoe boxes), and think, what if I added a third?  Would it upgrade?  I'm not sure what the "next-level" item of playing cards or shoe boxes would be, exactly, but that's not the point.

The point is: Triple Town. Play it. It's on Android and iOS, and it's free on both -- NO EXCUSES.

The first...

Phone I ever owned: Looked ridiculous. I don't know what it was called, but it was by au/cdmaOne (that's Japanese, people), and it had a ridiculously large full-color screen.  This was in 1998 or something.  It did have a really fantastic version of Tetris, and no other version of Tetris has compared since.

Non-Japanese phone I ever owned: A pre-paid Panasonic GD55 that I picked up in Italy.  It was so tiny!  Ridiculously small.  This was also the first time I was introduced to the SIM card.

American phone I ever owned: (I know, "Finally!," right?  I lived in Japan and Italy before I hit the U.S. full-time, give me a break). A slate-gray Motorola RAZR.  About a week before I got to the states, my brother asked me what phone I should get him (he and my dad were setting up the family plan).  I said, "I don't care, but I don't want one of those ugly RAZRs."  Apparently he misheard me and thought I wanted a RAZR.

Computer I ever used: A Mac, in kindergarten.  My kindergarten classroom had them and we could play little spelling games.  Then they broke and my kindergarten had a "fix it" station where you could pull them apart with pliers.  This station was awesome.

Computer I ever owned: My parents got me a Sony VAIO FS-series in Akihabara, before I went to college.

Game console I ever owned: The original Game Boy!  My parents bought me one (my brothers each got one, as well) when I was about three or four.  Why so young, you ask?  They saw it as a way to reclaim peace on 14-hour flights between Tokyo and Detroit (which we made about six times each year), and 16-hour road trips (about four times each year).  Plus, they only let us play with our Game Boys during those times, so we were super enthralled by them.

iPod I ever owned: The original iPod Shuffle.  My brother got me one as a high school graduation present.  I was late to the game.  I was pretty sure the MiniDisc player was going all the way.

Email address I ever had: I think it was "whatever77@hotmail.com."  Yes...I was in fourth or fifth grade at the time.  I then, like any typical pre-teen/teenage girl, proceeded to go through about 782 different email addresses over the next five years.

Instant Messenger handle I ever used: Was "Princess."  Yes, my name is Sarah, it's super creative -- I know.  Fun story: everyone at my school had to take a typing class in sixth grade.  We all sucked majorly, and then one weekend some random faculty member had the brilliant idea to install MSN Instant Messenger on all of the computers in the hallways (yes, we had computers in the hallways), labs, classrooms, etc.  Suddenly, EVERYONE WAS AWESOME AT TYPING.  I kid you not.

Tech Tools for Freelancers: Mobile HotSpots

Freelancing is awesome!  I wake up at 1 p.m. every day and I don't even have to get out of bed to go to work (though I do get out of bed, guys, don't worry).  But I can't do it alone.  And that's why I have a ton of tools help out -- such as 4G Mobile HotSpots for when I want to work while driving!


Internet on-the-go is pretty important if you want to be...well, on the go.  I spend a lot of time on the road, both driving and riding.  I only just recently got the new Samsung Galaxy Nexus (with Mobile HotSpot functionality), as well as the Verizon Novatel MiFi 4510L HotSpot (yes, I got both of them in prep for CES 2012), and they are both awesome.

It's even got a battery indicator! Unlike the Samsung HotSpot...

Though I use the Galaxy Nexus's tethering more often, because it's my phone and because I have unlimited data allowance, the MiFi is more reliable.  As in, it doesn't disconnect...ever.  This is important because I am an online news editor for PCWorld, and I have a daily afternoon shift.  Thanks to the MiFi, nobody even knows that sometimes I'm editing while speeding down the 15 on my way to Vegas.  (Okay, well they know now, if they read my blog -- but I don't think they do.)

A note -- I did have the Samsung 4G LTE Mobile HotSpot for a hot second, and, while very sleek and fast, it's not reliable.  Even when I wasn't moving in a car, the Samsung HotSpot would cut out at least every hour and a half (and more often if I was in a car).

The MiFi, on the other hand, almost never disconnects -- even in the middle of the desert.  So unfortunately I must disagree with this PCWorld article comparing the two: if you're a road warrior, you'll definitely want to go with the cheaper and more reliable Novatel MiFi.

Drive safely!

Previous Tech Tools for Freelancers: Dropbox

As If You Needed Another Reason to Stop Uploading Photos to Facebook

Apparently, Facebook never, ever deletes your photos from its server.  And not in an "oh, but they're just sitting inaccessibly on a dusty server somewhere" way -- in a, "if you have a direct link you can totally still access them four years after the fact" way.

Ars Technica reports that photos posted and deleted in 2008 are still accessible now, in 2012 (via direct link).  Scary stuff, guys, because anyone can access a direct link to a photo for as long as it's on your Facebook page (depending on your privacy settings) and getting rid of your Facebook account entirely won't even fix that.

So...how about we all stop uploading stuff to Facebook for a little while, at least until they get this sorted out.  In the next four or five years, perhaps?

Non-Booth-Babe Calls Non-Booth-Babe Booth Babe...Web Controversy Ensues

It all started with a photo.  This photo, snapped by Violet Blue of ZDNet, at the 2012 MacWorld/iWorld Expo:

The "Booth Babe" that launched a thousand...blog posts.

This photo appeared on ZDNet with the following accompanying article, written by tech blogger Violet Blue:

I was, in fact, looking at The Saddest Booth Babe In The World.

She sat on a stool in between two large monitors across the aisle from us. The pretty brunette was in one of those big corner booths that paid a few bucks for that sorta-prime real estate you know is a gamble for whoever forked over the money to sell wignuts or widgets or iPhone cases or other sundry USB landfill.

Her shoulders were hunched and her hands sat limply in her lap beneath breasts that were packaged air-tight in a tight, branded t-shirt.

She stared at the floor. Unlike her counterparts, she never smiled. Sad booth babe was sad.

Anyway, blogger Shawn King called Blue out, noting that the "booth babe" (the woman on the right side of the picture) looked more like a bored developer manning her booth rather than a pretty girl hired to attract male convention attendees.

I assume you're referring to the woman on the right side of the photo and not the one front and center (nice photography). How is she a "sad booth babe"? It looks like a developer manning her booth.

Blue then responded, claiming that she merely "put the woman in a social category based on the environment she was in" and that she was not the only one to do so.

To which I must respond: Seriously? 

I'm a female tech journalist, and I've been to multiple trade shows and conventions.  And I'll admit that I have been mistaken for a booth babe, numerous times.  No, not because I wear a bikini and heels to the show floor (I wear jeans and a ratty t-shirt, like a real tech journalist).  And I'm not offended -- I get it.  After all, most of the actual booth babes are close to my age and of...um, similar proportions.

But, as a non-booth-babe, and therefore as someone who knows first-hand that there are plenty of women working, and walking, the show floor who are not booth babes, I don't assume** that most women are booth babes (unless they're wearing bikinis and heels, but that's another story).  So, yeah, I think it's strange that a non-booth-babe female would put a woman "in a social category based on the environment she was in," when said female is in the exact same environment. 

Blue has updated her article to reflect that she is using the term "booth babe" as a job description, and not as a "gendered insult."

Blue previously wrote an article in which she lamented the fact that female attendees at tech events are regarded as "fellow women that got lost on the way to the shoe store, sperm bank and Baby GAP."  Blue also states that "[women in technology are] not threatened or intimidated by booth babes, and it doesn’t keep us from showing up.  We’re just annoyed, and the idiocy it encourages just makes our jobs harder."

But you know what makes your job even harder?  When people think you're an idiot!

** For what it's worth, I did once make a bad assumption by assuming that a hired model was a company rep.  I asked for a press kit and some information on announcements and received a haughty ice-glare and an "Um...what?  I don't do that."

Tech Tools for Freelancers: Dropbox

People often ask me what it's like to be a freelancer.  I get questions like, "If you make your own schedule, does that mean you sleep in all the time?" and "Do you have a home office?" and "Do you like it?" and "How much money would I have to pay you to take a real job?"  The answers to which are, "Yes," "Yes," "Yes," and "I'm not sure you could pay me enough."

But it's not all fun and freelance games!  There are plenty of tools that make what I do (waking up at 1 p.m. every day, traveling whenever I want to, and generally having an awesome time) possible.

For example...Dropbox!

Best. Invention. Ever. (You think I'm kidding!)

Dropbox is, hands-down, my number one small business tool.  Why?  Because I can access my files from anywhere -- literally, anywhere, at any time, from any device.  For the most part I use this to move seamlessly between my multiple devices (I have three laptops, a netbook, and a desktop at home, and they're in all different parts of the house).  It's really nice, for example, to be working on a project in my office on my desktop and then suddenly be able to decide that I want to finish the piece in bed with my MacBook Air or downstairs with my Sony Vaio.

But Dropbox is also handy in emergency situations.  For example, I was on "vacation" (I don't really take vacations...because I'm always working) in Las Vegas with my husband once, and my laptop refused to connect to our hotel room Internet.  Luckily, all I had to do was sign into Dropbox on his laptop and all my files were there!  This would also be handy if, say, my laptop were stolen in another city/country and I needed to purchase a new one on the fly.

So yeah, Dropbox is awesome and the free 2GB is plenty of space for my little word processor files.

Even though Dropbox is awesome, I don't view it as a backup service (not because they're not secure, just because I'm paranoid).  I still back up all my files on my handy ioSafe SoloPRO drive, JUST IN CASE.

Should come with warning: Do not kick. Will break toes.

Protect yourself, people.  In my case, I do it with a floodproof, fireproof chunk of metal that I keep breaking my toes on (it's under my desk and I keep kicking it...and let me tell you, that thing is solid).