WARNING! [VERY ANGRY BLOG POST]

Posted on March 2, 2011 by SimpleMom

I probably just sent the bitchiest email I’ve ever sent in my entire life. I’m not even going to bother with back story here, I’m just going to copy and paste the damn thing:

–
Subject Line: HOAX HOAX HOAX !!!

Email:

ALWAYS check your sources before blindly sending these emails out.

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/missing/ashleyflores.asp

You’ve just violated the privacy of EVERYONE you know!!!!!!!

–

Steps to avoid this mistake in the future:

1. Check Snopes.com and verify whether or not the email chain letter is a hoax
a. If it’s a Hoax, please respond to the person who sent you the email and let them know.
b. Once you’ve sent the email, stop, you are done.
2. If the status of your email chain letter is TRUE, or otherwise NOT A HOAX
a. CHANGE your email settings from ‘TO’ to ‘BCC’ (that’s ‘blind carbon copy’)
b. At the top of the email write a quick note letting everyone in your address book know how considerate of their privacy you are being.
3. An example of a quick note might read something like:
a. My name is ___. This email is being sent to multiple recipients. This forwarded email is regarding something I find to be very important and I want to raise awareness of it. I have already verified that this is not a hoax, but you may also verify by following [link] or checking your own sources before forwarding. If you do forward this on, please be respectful of the privacy of others. Use your ‘BCC’ wisely. – Thank you for your attention to this matter, ____e-sign name___
–

And as an aside to whomever just received this email, kindly feel free to delete me from your address books and history after this.

Thank you,
~T

–

[HEAD DESK] [HEAD DESK] [HEAD DESK] [HEAD DESK] [HEAD DESK]

Seriously folks,

Please – use some common sense. It’s not like my email address isn’t public knowledge or anything, I’m a CEO for goodness sake. But still, there are some people out there <*cough* Blood Family! *cough*> that I really don’t want re-alerted to the status of my existence on this mortal plane.

I’m going to go be very grumpy for the rest of the evening now. Several other members of my family are still continuing to send me the same fucking hoax email.

Question: Do I send them the angry love letter back? To each one? Or do I let it go after the first?

Posted in SimpleMom - General Updates | Leave a comment

The Karate Kid Reboot [ and reboots in general ]

Posted on February 27, 2011 by SimpleMom

Okay, for starters I’m beginning to really love the idea of the reboot vs. the remake. Granted some attempted reboots have failed miserably and fall in line more with the idea of a remake – so much so that the lines between the two can get a little blurry at times.

So, let’s do a little clarification – and this is strictly under the dictionary of the SimpleMom – this is by far, in no way, an attempt to actually define anything by anyone else’s standards.

Remake: What happens when Hollywood producers that can’t form an single original thought to save their lives are under the gun and they have to come up with SOMETHING.

Reboot: What happens when Hollywood writers decide to creatively change some key elements in a story line so that the story itself becomes an entity unto itself and not some pale shadow of a parent copy.

The Karate Kid Reboot changed such things as location, age of the main character, the reason for the wounded healer/teacher’s grief and the fact that he was actually learning Kung Fu not Karate.

Whereas other elements such as being the hazed new kid who gets his ass kicked and has to enter a tournament in order to prove himself – while simultaneously going through his own issues and helping his wounded healer/teacher to overcome his grief – remain the same.

Add in the fact that the main character is played by Will Smiths son and he’s paired off with JACKIE CHAN, and seriously, you’ve got a winner. It’s a great story – as soon as I finished watching it I wanted to watch it again and I couldn’t wait to share it with my daughter.

I had to pause the movie several times while I translated the Chinese for her – and then I would ask her for her interpretation of the translations to be sure she understood.

Get this! This made my day!

I was translating the part where the Kung Fu instructor of the bullies was stating that no mercy should ever be shown, ever. Not in the studio, not in the tournament and not in real life. The enemy deserves pain. So, especially when the enemy is down, the enemy should not be shown any mercy.

Seriously, I was only asking her if she understood the translation.

“So, Arlynne what does that mean to you?”

“That when the enemy is down, we should show mercy.”

At first I thought she just misunderstood the context of the translation and the question and I had to do a double take to make sure. I asked for clarification and not only was she understanding exactly what was happening, she understood it all to well.

“So, you think that when the enemy is down, we should help them?”

“Yeah.”

“So that maybe our enemy will become our friend?”

“YEAH!!!” She was so excited that ~I~ understood what SHE meant!

–

It was just one of those times when my daughter and I were totally on the same wavelength. Despite recent scares about some of the behaviors she could be learning from her father… she just doesn’t display those qualities with me.

When my kid is with me – she’s my kid – through and through. I don’t think anyone could doubt that, ever.

~SimpleMom

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Knitting? Srsly?

Posted on February 25, 2011 by SimpleMom

It’s all Hello Kitty’s fault, really.

The Backstory: Last October I bought 8 ‘Make your own Hello Kitty _something’ kits. 4, for me and 4 for my daughter. The plan was that these could be easy and fun mother daughter projects that we could do together.

Here’s the problem – when a kit says on the front its box “Ages 3+” (she was turning 7) – they don’t actually mean that what’s inside is even remotely comprehensible to a child of older than three years of age – they just mean that the contents involved things that could be potentially chokey or stabby to a child of 3-.

The whole thing became such an exercise in frustration for her that I’d end up taking over her project and getting way into it (like tongue sticking out and determined facial expressions and everything) while she got totally bored again.

The Fast Forward: So these kits have been hanging out and not getting opened, assembled or really used, except when I got my new camera and thought that the “Make your own Hello Kitty Tote Kit would be an awesome camera case. It didn’t actually work out that way, it was to small. But the tote was a nice random gift for her.

And, The Now: These days I’m pretty busy – and despite the fact that it’s cold outside and I’d give just about anything to be the proud new owner of a Hello Kitty Scarf (which I incidentally also have a kit for), I just couldn’t justify taking the time off to learn how to knit the damn thing.

Fortunately I had the benefit of engaging in a full meltdown on Wednesday night – and I just randomly decided to take yesterday off.

I mean, completely OFF.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve taken days off before, but usually it’s been due to some sort of crisis or burnout. But, this was different. I wanted to have a single day when I wasn’t beating myself up about something and constantly nagging myself in the back of my mind for how much I wasn’t getting done.

I didn’t want to take the day off from work exactly, but I really wanted to take the day off from the self-deprecation. Meltdowns are sometimes the best way to advance one’s mental health overall. Seriously, I’m thankful for the events that caused this one in particular. That’s not to say that meltdowns aren’t totally fucking awkward as hell for everyone involved but they can lead to some pretty spectacular communication and healing spurts.

In other words; I’m doing okay – I hope everyone else is too.

I digress.

SO… KNITTING… seriously? When the hell did this become a priority?

Ahhh… well you see there was that whole ‘I want a Hello Kitty Scarf’ combined with the ‘I want to spend a day doing fuck all and not feel bad about it’. OMG – TOTAL WIN WIN, Right… Right?

Right?

Um…

Holy shit, knitting is actually really harder than it looks!

The learning curve was especially difficult in my case because I didn’t actually want to RUIN a perfectly good Knit a Hello Kitty Scarf Kit. So, I started practicing on the only thing I had available. Some super slippery, neon day-glow green cordage that I just happened to have laying around.

I’m looking at the Google images. I’m watching the YouTube videos. Nothing I’m producing looks anything like the way it’s actually supposed to.

What’s a girl to do? Right? Well, go get some actual fraking practice yarn.

So I did – and in the process of my journey I really started to think about this whole knitting thing.

1. Post-Apocalyptic Survival – people are still going to need clothes. Whatever cities haven’t been burned to the ground are still going to have un-looted yarn and craft stores. There will be ready supplies of yarn and other things that could turn out to be useful.
2. Self-Sufficient Survival – It’s really important to have trained oneself in non technology dependant, yet otherwise useful skills. I can bake and cook some amazing things out of 50 year old designed to last a lifetime in a bunker canned goods, so – I’ve got that one down pretty much. But I got to thinking that actually learning some other self sufficient skills would be a good thing too. And no, I’m not just making excuses for the fact that I want to knit now.
3. Guilt Free Days Off – Knitting is a great way to take that hamster running the wheel in the back of my head that’s always over caffeinated and feels like it’s got to be doing SOMETHING and shoot that fucker right in the face. Seriously, it’s a fidget. An actual productive fidget because I can make cool things with it. I’m starting to like this!

So, in short – what started in Hello Kitty Hell has actually become some Simple Mom Heaven. I can so live with this.

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I will never be a Super Model. I will never be a Stepford Wife.

Posted on February 22, 2011 by SimpleMom

I will never have perfect breasts or a hollow head. I will never have a day where the biggest worry on my mind is that I didn’t bake something or that my house isn’t clean room sterile. I will never dress my daughter in bows and lace and expect her to stay out of the mud. I will never be free from the need to express my own pain, in my own way and in my own time.

I will never be anyone’s idea of perfect. Not even my own, because perfection is an unattainable goal.

There are a lot of things I will never be.

Know what else I’ll never be?

I’ll never be sorry about any of the above.

I’ll never regret that I hurt every day. I will never regret that my head is so full I have a 5 second memory span because I can’t cram anymore into it. I will never regret that baking something is a luxury I indulge in for the simple sake of loving that art form. I will never regret that my house is lived in. I will never regret that my daughter splashes in puddles and makes snowballs until her gloves are sopping wet that they’re of no further use to her as actual gloves anymore. I will never regret that I have as many art forms as I do to express my pain the fullest and share it with others, so that the other people in similar pain can feel less alone.

I will never regret that I will always have room to grow and that growth itself is its own reward. I don’t ever want to be fully grown.

I don’t want to stop.
I don’t want to stall.
I don’t want to stagnate.

I don’t want to hate myself for loving the pain and I don’t want to love the pain enough to hate myself to get it.

I just want to be who I am, and to know that there are others out there who truly love me for being me.

I want to love myself and all my imperfections.
I want to love my extra flesh and my tainted blood.

I want to be able to admit that I know I’m absolutely fucking fabulous and not feel guilty about it.

I want to be done with wanting.

Guess what?

I’m absolutely fucking fabulous.
I don’t care that some people don’t see it that way.
I know who I am and what I want and I know that I don’t want to be any other way.

I don’t feel the least bit guilty about that.

And I never will.

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A quick note on ‘Gun Control’

Posted on February 16, 2011 by SimpleMom

If someone were to ask me why I feel it’s necessary to be armed, or to never leave my house without both my asp and my knife, even if it’s just to cross the street for a quart of milk – the simplest answer I can give is this:

“For the same reason I keep fresh batteries in my smoke detectors.”

–

And to those of you who are anti-gun.  Please, do me just one favor.

Take a Concealed Carry course.  It doesn’t obligate you to buy a gun or even fire a weapon.  Just take the class.  Read the book.  Learn something about everyone else in the room with you and why they are taking the class.

If you are too much of a coward to do that much, for fear of being shot, let me just outline a quick bullet version of what you could expect:

  • About 4 hours learning gun laws alone.
  • About 3 hours learning all there is to know about personal protection plans and conflict AVOIDANCE.
  • About an hour on the basic operations of a gun.

All of this before you’d even set foot on a firing range.  YES – 90% of a concealed carry course is learning how to not need to use a gun in the first place.  Conflict avoidance is exactly the same as keeping fresh batteries in a smoke detector – so that recently tested fire extinguisher that I sincerely hope is in your home somewhere – never needs to be pulled out or used.

If you talk to the people sitting next to you, you will likely discover that they are not the least bit violent, cruel or hate-mongers.  Most of them are decent peace-luvin folk who just want to keep luvin the peace a bit longer.

If you actually set foot on the firing range you will discover just how rigidly gun safety can be taught.

If you pass your shooting qualification, you will discover that you’re STILL not done yet.  You still have to register with your County Sheriff and pass the strictest guidelines of a criminal background check.

They don’t just pass out carry permits in cracker jack boxes.  You have to earn the right to have it and then prove that you’re worthy if it too.

So, all of you out there who think I’m just some crusader or wannabe cop, think again because it has nothing to do with any of that.  But, you’re not going to get that through your thick little noggins just by reading me rant about it.

Go on.

I double dog dare you to take a concealed carry course and then come back and say the same shit you’ve been saying about law abiding citizens who carry guns.

Unless you’re willing to take a course and see it through to the end – I’m not listening to you bitch anymore.

Thanks – SimpleMom

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Cuddly Kitty loves Tru-Spec

Posted on February 7, 2011 by SimpleMom

Contented Kitty loves Tru-SpecThat is the face of one contented cat snuggled up against the pant leg of someone sleeping in his Tru-Spec 24-7′s.  Yes, they’re so comfortable that even the cat approves.

Posted in Product Review | Tagged | 1 Comment

OMG I LOVE MY BOOTS I LOVE MY BOOTS I LOVE MY BOOTS!!

Posted on February 4, 2011 by SimpleMom

The harshness of the winters in Minnesota is not the worst part of why they’re damn near insufferable. It’s the softness that delivers the true damage.

Often, in mid-winter we’ll get these brief thaws before the sub-zero temperatures kick in. By that time, the drains and gutters are so clogged with snow and ice that the slush melt has nowhere to go. Add to that the occasional mid-winter RAIN… and there’s nothing but trouble.

I’ve stood at street corners and bus stops observing the passers by. Some of them will risk life and limb scaling eight to ten foot mounds frozen death packed in by the plows, just to avoid the six to twelve inches of standing icy waters.

Me? Oh no, not me. I have ROTHCO boots! Waterproof to the deepest depth of those frigid pools, and they’re warm too. When the mid-winter rains come calling, I just strap them in up to the tops of their lacy bits and stomp right through the mess, and I’m just one average Minnesotian. I can only imagine what Military, Cops and other Law Enforcement Professionals are getting out of these, in any wet conditions. Be they thaw or swamp these boots could take the punishment.

These are the one’s I have:

Sludge Stompers

“Forced Entry Black Eight Inch Tactical Boot”

  • Waterproof
  • Leather and nylon upper
  • Leather collar
  • Steel shank
  • Gusseted tongue
  • Slip resistant cup sole
  • Rust proof hardware
  • Speed lace eyelets
  • Moisture –wicking lining.

Simple Survival will have these in stock on Monday, February 7th.  Just in time to make the perfect Valentines Gift… right?

Okay… maybe not.  Most women aren’t like me.  I’m kinda simple, and really practical about my tactical gear.  Besides, I like February 15th better anyway – that’s the day all the boxed chocolates go on sale.

Posted in Product Review | Tagged | 1 Comment

There’s a Zombie on your Lawn

Posted on January 29, 2011 by SimpleMom

In the fall of 2007 I found the inner strength necessary to stand up for myself and demand to be treated with respect. This meant a drastic change in my living situations as I abandoned everything I knew about my private hell and struck out on my own for a chance at heaven.

I did not do this alone.

I was inspired.

Those of you who have read the profile of yours truly in the 2010 May/June issue of Concealed Carry Magazine, by my favorite photographer Oleg Volk, have some idea of exactly what I went through in the following winter months leading us into 2008.

Those of you who know us personally don’t need to have an idea – you know full well what he put me through.

In the kindest of words I can basically tell my readers here that immediately after my escape from my abuser, I was subjected to four months of self-empowerment boot camp. I had already staked my claim on being a future survivalist by choosing my new place of residence based entirely on it’s defensibility in case of zombie attack. My inspiration attendant took great care as he psychologically primed me to absorb bad ass. Once I was ready, I became a bad ass sponge. I learned to shoot, got my carry permit and these days I never even leave the house without my knife.

One weekend he was hanging out at my place and borrowing my wi-fi while I diligently hunched over my drafting desk and pushed ink on my calligraphy and letter form assignments from art school.

On that particular weekend, one of the Man Channels on cable decided to have a ‘Delta Force’ weekend. I had no time to actually watch the movie, I had homework to do and the TV was behind me. That cable station played the movie ‘Delta Force’ no less than five times. And… he watched it in its entirety… all five times.

Have you ever taken the time to pay attention to only the music during the action sequences in ‘Delta Force’? No? Well then, allow me to enlighten you:

 
Yes… if you managed to survive that entirely you know that is nothing short of 4.5 minutes of hardcore bad ass music that repeats the same sequences over and over and over again. The movie itself ONLY uses that song for all its action sequences.

Now, keep in mind that ‘Delta Force’ isn’t just any action flick. It’s a Chuck Norris and Lee Marvin action flick. I think I lost count after 5 explosive examples of butt whupping bad ass’ness. In a 125 minute film, that 4.5 minutes of bad ass music was repeated probably nine times. Multiply that by five and you get a grand total of 3 hours and .375 minutes of this music being sledgehammered into my brain.

By the end of that weekend, even the hardened iron of my mental crow bar snapped clean in half in its attempts to pry the song loose.

After a few weeks of not humming the tune on every walk too and from work I finally accepted defeat and had the music added to my phone as my primary ring tone.

My conversion to beginner bad ass was now complete – my ring tone will cause the revocation of Man Cards left and right to any testosterone laden individual who can’t identify it by just the first few bars.

And yet…

… despite being a total bad ass himself. My Inspirationalist still has a strong appreciation for the epic cute. He was the one who introduced me to LOLcats and everything cute that comes with them. About a week ago he sent me this:


Every time he comes over to borrow my wi-fi, I here the sounds of it drifting upstairs to my office from my living room downstairs. I even had to send it to my gamer friend that I’ve been dating for two years now, but he’d already seen it. So HE sent back this:


The original singer song writer kinda has an epic cute herself – so now THAT version is constantly being played within hearing distance.

Yeah… I think you know where this is going. The song has penetrated deep into the cortex of the cholesterol rich gray matter in which no zombie shall ever sink its chompers.

Three years of being subjected to bad assery and my revenge is at hand. Mr. Bad Ass himself is going to be getting his very own ring tone rather shortly. That of an epically cute sunflower singing about her solar powered zombie lawn defense infantry.

Hell yeah!

My life has an awesome.

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Corporate vs. Freelance

Posted on January 20, 2011 by SimpleMom

I just noticed that my morning coffee mug is one of the corporate ones from my last formal web design job.

Loosing that job weighed heavily on me at first. 9 months of Unemployment, followed by another 9 months working in a customer service hell that nearly killed me (no seriously, the stress got so bad my health deteriorated rapidly).

By the time I got fired from that job… I was… not in a good place. My body was still trying to find its way back to some sort of health, mentally and emotionally I was exhausted. I took a little bit of ‘me’ time.

Now, for a little back story here – during one of the harsher times that I’d been dealing with CS-hell, my healer did a guided meditation with me. He had me close my eyes and imagine two buckets on either side of the room. I was then instructed to take every emotion I felt about that job and put it in the bucket on the right – then examine the contents.

… “Eeeeewwwww!” What came out was something that looked like a mixture of oil, sludge, slime, mucus and puss… mostly dark brown, black and shades of toxic green… all coating an object that resembled a ‘cog’. ~shudder~

After examining that, I was asked to simply ‘emote’ my perfect job. Not what would you be doing but how should it ‘feel’ when doing it? Take that feeling – what would make me happy in the work place – and put in the other bucket. Then examine the contents.

… “Oh wow!” What I found could only be described as bright flowing energy, it swirled in pretty patterns of orange and crème, with speckles of gold. The colors distinctly reminded me of a dreamsicle, and there was a distinct aroma of vanilla.

I didn’t know what it meant at the time. But, another spiritual adviser had told me that once I learned to love what I hated about the CS-hell, I’d be out of there and in the best circumstances I could possibly imagine in no time.

Learn to love what I hate? Turned out it wasn’t a lesson in endurance, or suffering in silence… eventually I hit a breaking point and I started looking for another job. Once I shared that information with my boss (at a weekly performance review following one that had me breaking down in tears)… I was fired within a couple of weeks.

What I had said to her during that performance review was: “I can not grow in this environment, I need to be somewhere else.” Said much more gently and professionally of course but the overall embodiment of my words were ‘this place sucks, you’re killing me, and I deserve to be somewhere better than this. ~I~ am better than this!”

What has happened in the year since than has [as previously mentioned spiritual adviser had implied] far exceeded my every expectation of what the perfect circumstances would be.

As it turned out, my own company had evolved to a point where it needed me on task full time and not just as a side project. I’m actually able to cover living expenses and the relationships I’ve built professionally have become deeply enriching friendships as well.

And… I get to take days off, in which I usually end up baking something delicious. Even Oleg’s cat, Gremlin, gave me cooking props by preferring my pumpkin bread over meatballs.

My little bit of ‘me’ time in recovery became what is now my life long career choice. I’m a CEO. We’re still small, but we’re growing rapidly, getting noticed and people are starting to realize that they can come to The TarraDesigns Group for just about anything. Simple Survival has been a big part of that. Much of what I do is rooted in my own sense of survival in many ways – and I blog sometimes about the kids of problems I’ve faced in my time, and how I made it through them, because I have a sense that others are struggling the same way that I did.

I’m not saying quit your job and be your own boss. But – if anyone is out there suffering in hazardous working conditions – try the bucket test – and learn to love what you hate [in my case, admitting that I was worth more than I was getting]. Seek a new path.

I think bad jobs are a lot like bad relationships. Sometimes we stay out of a sense that we don’t deserve better – or because the uncertainty of change is too frightening to face. Someone once said “The hell you know is better than the heaven you don’t.”

Well… Take it from me.

Heaven is WAY better…

… and it smells like vanilla.

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Allies: BattleComp

Posted on January 6, 2011 by SimpleMom

For those of you who are not already aware, or are a little confused about the details, please allow me to provide a little more insight into my personal history, growth, development and overcoming of evil.

SimpleMom, as an entity of her own, grew out of the Simple Survival portion of my business triad. Another element of this is the Memento Projects site but both of these were spearheaded by my original web presence of TarraDesigns.

I got my start as a web designer.

Early on my online portfolio of web design work was largely put in place to woo future corporate employers into hiring me on for a steady paycheck. I never liked the idea of freelance work and I was a terrible negotiator when it came to getting paid for my work. Since then the creative industry has pretty much tanked. Corporate jobs all seem to require creatives to be logicals as well. Main problem there is that I’m exclusively creative. The logical, very math based, side of web design is short circuited by my dyscalculia.

I started school in Advertising Design in order to round out my creative profile and circumvent the desire of future employers for me to know JavaScript, PHP, or any other form of ‘scripting’ language. Markup languages I’m fine with, but scripting languages baffle my brain to a wobble.

I had done some freelance work, including helping clients out with hosting, but never really got paid for my efforts. Two companies that I’d hosted dissolved, allowing me to free myself from the burden of hosting them.

Meanwhile, the boyfriend was getting other ideas about those web sites. I may be the CEO of TarraDesigns, aka The TarraDesigns Group, but he’s my Business Operations Manager. Put succinctly, I’m the beauty and he’s the brains. Put together we’ve become an unstoppable team. Forces of nature. Simple Survival and Memento Projects grew out of his expertise, knowledge and ability to be the Great Connector. It’s been my job to make us beautiful and keep us noticed, as my expertise, knowledge and abilities are ideal for. Seeking a creative job in the corporate world of web design became irrelevant. I had become the corporation.

Freelancing? Yeah… as a matter of fact I do still do that. And I’ve gotten good… really good. I’ve somehow managed to carve myself a niche with cops who run their own businesses as side projects. The most wonderful things began to happen when The Great Connector linked me to BattleComp. So much has grown out of that one designer/client relationship that I’m seeing tremendous success in my future for 2011.

However; there was one obstacle that needed to be overcome before I could achieve that level of success. First, I had to be tested, and I had to prevail. I had to learn what I was truly worth as a creative so I could stop getting screwed by people expecting too much and not wanting to pay for a damn thing.

Of course, this meant that I had to be absolutely bent over and violated without lube by an overly demanding client that refused to pay me for the best work I’d ever done to date. The work was so good, I still claim responsibility for the original artwork and I still highlight it on my portfolio site. Even though I no longer service them, I couldn’t let that beauty go to waste.

So… Long story short. I popped into my portfolio site to get a bead on what updates need to be made so I can fully acknowledge my relationship as BattleComp’s main design girl. I can’t wait to get that update in because right now, that beautiful website for an ugly client is still right on top. I went to check them out to see how their doing.

Um… wow.

I had managed to, at the very least, get them to stop using my original artwork that had never been paid for, but they are still sporting my logo design in different web profiles, naturally while offering nothing in favor of credit where credit is due.

They were customers of Simple Survival as well, who kept changing their order, changing their minds and not accounting for the different price quotes that had to be run in order to accommodate their wishes. Add to that a level of verbal abuse that was seriously intense enough to have me flashing back to my ex, and constant threats of law suits for the ‘missing items’. The claim is that we screwed them for 1K worth of equipment, and yet I’ve still never been compensated the 3K owed me for my work.

This is the kind of really classic sociopathic behavior that really pisses me off sometimes. The victimizer plays the role of the victim, getting away with countless atrocities while blaming the affected for having any part of it at all.

My ex used to claim that I got pregnant on purpose just to trap him, while never clarifying to anyone that I never wanted kids and nearly died bringing my daughter into this world.

This client claims we owe him, when he still owes me three times as much. Insult to injury, he’s still using MY artwork for his corporate branding.

Seriously, the experience with this client was so traumatic that I demanded to never be mentioned as a web designer again. I wrote off freelance work entirely. I was done. I was out of the game for good.

Yeah…

That idea didn’t go over so well with the Beloved One. The Great Connector decided that it was his job to restore me. It was classic Joseph Campbell separation, initiation and return; the Hero Archetype at work.

The Great Connector made contact with BattleComp, they have become my most favorite client ever. They’ve never once screwed me for a single second’s worth of work – and they’ve even brought me additional business as well.

Alan Normandy, Nick Gottuso and Marty Bloem, are the triad that makes BattleComp what it is. BattleComp has become its own force of nature, and has single handedly restored the entirety of my faith in the designer/client relationship. They acknowledge me for my work, they love me to death, and they actually pay me what I’m worth.

That’s worth its weight in gold to me.

Thank you Alan, Nick and Marty. Thank you BattleComp. You’ve made the list of great allies in my life, my work and my friendship. My gratitude can not be measured. I can only bow to you and hope that I continue to serve you well.

BattleComp

Click the image to the left to visit BattleComp’s website.

Friend and Follow BattleComp on Facebook.

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