chaos and noise

A milestone slipped past me unnoticed on Wednesday, while I was heading home from Brisbane...

As of the 25th of August, aeliel and I have been paying off our house for a year :) We haven't actually lived in it for that long, but we've now been home-owners for a full cycle around the sun.

That feels significant, somehow - there's still a long way to go, but we now own about a thirtieth of the bricks in our walls...

I've discovered the thread linking all my disparate jobs and hobbies together: a ridiculous attention to detail, bordering on obsessive/compulsive :) I seem to enjoy the jobs that most people find soul-destroying, like spotting misplaced commas at ten paces or paintng the eyeballs on tiny figurines. Here's hoping that there will always be a demand for minutiae, as they form the nano-scale foundations of my career.

I'm now working at Synergy Publishing two days a week, with two projects to occupy my time. The first is a book - a memoir, to be precise. I started work on it last week, but it's on hold for a while as there is still a lot of editing to finish. It's the second book I've designed - the first being the Weapons of the Gods Companion... I hadn't realised at the time just how far into the deep end I leaped with that project. Memoirs and novels are serenely calm in comparison. Five text styles instead of thirty, one author instead of half a dozen...

Project #2 is an educational journal called "Junior Horizons," which is actually a lot of fun to design. It's aimed at pre-school and early primary teachers, and also has information for parents of pre-schoolers. It's a riot of colour, fonts and illustrations. It's also a nice manageable 16 pages. I spent today re-buildng the layout templates, as it looks suspiciously like the file has been edited and re-saved for every issue they've ever worked on it.

I'm still in the process of sorting out paperwork like an ABN (I need one!) and GST registration (perhaps - only compulsory if my annual turnover will be over $50k). I'm planning to quiz the accountant at work tomorrow, to find out exactly how this works. Wading through the ATO website was on my list of things to do eventually, but I didn't expect to start two jobs before I got my feet under me.

My goal for the week is to register for all the legal things I need to do, and then start sending out invoices for all the work I've done over the last few months. With the exception of the "hobby income" (painting), I haven't actually been paid for any work I've done this year... high time I sorted that out. I'm also thinking of rolling my painting income in with all the other elements of the Sole Trader operation (essentially considering painting, writing and design all as "professional" income sources). If I have to start collecting GST on my income, I might as well claim back the GST component of the things I spend most of my money on.

Thanks to those who surprised aeliel on her birthday :) She's headed back to Blackwood for a couple of days, so I have an empty house at the moment. I feel like I've stepped back a few years in time... I'm back late from work, the music is cranked up nice and loud, and I'm heading upstairs to paint until my eyes drop out. Plus ça change...