On The Job | Electric Spaghetti

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October 23, 2009

Shift

Lately I’ve been thinking (oooh, I channeled some Henry Ate* there) that it won’t be such a bad thing if it happens that I never make it as a serious writer.

Yes, it’s been this dream; this full-on burning, for so long, that the acceptance of this possibility does feel a bit like cutting off a thumb.

Digitectomising (not a real word) aside, I will not stop writing. I just need a bit of space to figure out where I see myself ascending professionally. I’m hoping our time in Egypt will bear some revelation (Inshallah Ameen).

I’m rather rudderless right now. Stagnant qi and mosquito-brained.

The freedom that freelancing affords me, now seems to be the very thing that’s frazzling me. I’m a dabbler of note, a doyenne of nada.

I am loving the layout and typesetting gigs though, and am keen on upskilling that. I don’t quite know where the papercrafting is heading, but I have learnt that hobbies-turned-jobbies are not all about the glitz and glue-buzz.

Was it not reasonable for me to believe that by the time I reached this age, I would have had it all figured out?

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*really lekker now-defunct South African band

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Fascinating bit I hope I understood correctly from Arabic class: The words Binte (Daughter of) and Ibn (Son of) have at their root, the letters Baa and Noon. The arabic word transliterated as “Banaa” means “to build”, implying a notion that your progeny build you (and your legacy perhaps?).

June 21, 2009

Let the beauty of what you love be what you do

{picture-heavy post up-ahead, most of which has been pre-tweeted/facebooked}

While this is effectively the second month of my 8-5 rebellion, here’s the official announcement;

I am now a freelancer.

I’ve swapped traffic terrors to battle pyjama-procrastination, with some losses and a few wins. I’ve just passed that stage where the amount of free time was so novel and overwhelming, that all I did was whittle it away on long breakfasts, catch-ups with friends, google reader, twitter and The Office (Dunder Mifflin’s and not frayintermedia’s).

But redemption came via little fits of productivity and I did a bit of writing, co-facilitated a design and layout training session at the IAJ, populatedÂ www.colournoun.co.za with some examples of work and

magicked this

into this (still cluttered but now there’s a semblance of method to the madness).

I also pepped up a fongkong-moleskine I got at Woolworths…

…and played with some modge-podge (I can see now that it needed more layers of the modge).

I made a couple more cards and have stocked up on enough supplies to launch Soul&Paper quite soon. Look out for the blog with more details.

Now that my time has been returned to me, I hope to get down to reading some of these…

…and writing more towards something that would be worth a space on some shelf somewhere.

Some things I’ve learnt from my time at home so far:

Your day only starts when you get out of your pyjamas.

You can sleep too much.

Your rozi* will find you.

*rozi-sustenance/daily bread/income

As it is mine, may this be your guide too:

February 13, 2009

The heavens will comply

Today is Slie’s last day at frayintermedia.

She joined us as an intern in 2007 and became a permanent staffer after serving her time. We fell into an easy friendship, jamming out spoken word in the smokeroom while she taught me bits of Xhosa and decided I was black enough.

She’s moving on up to a great position as a communications someone-or-other at an organisation in Pretoria. I have no doubt that she will step up and up and on and on. She has the determination and drive to succeed for herself, and for her child.

Her little boy’s second name is Xhosa for ‘rain’, and that’s what’s inspired my first rhyming poem in years.

I know a rainmaker;
a claimstaker,
a groundbreaker.

I know a deep thinker;
a float neversinker,
an eyeswideopen blinker.

I know a rainpath guider;
a light strider,
a feetforward glider.

I know a rainmaker.

And I don’t mind the drizzle.