The WEBADO Blog

I’ve been back at work for exactly 9 weeks now. As they say, plus ça change, plus c’est pareil…

Few adventures in getting settled back into my digs, with network connections not quite working… the usual stuff. Changed window side. Facing the west now, so I get all the afternoon sun … hmmmm… that helps lift the spirits a bit.

It’s tough, I’d lost the habit of the 9-5 pace. Haven’t quite found it yet either, LOL! I feel pretty jet-lagged most of the time, as I try to cram both the job and my web hobbies into the same 24 hours which are simply not enough. Oh, well… shouldn’t complain, at least I still got a job.

Actually the part I hate the most about this deal is the commuting. Unfortunately my employer isn’t open to the notion of telecommuting. I find I get anxiety attacks regularly while driving. Either because of some idiot who is riding my bumper, angry that I’m still ahead of him though already 20Km over the speed limit due to all the pushing, or due to our notoriously bad roads full of huge potholes combined with the high winds of late that seem to want to push my car off the road. They all contribute to me feeling queasy every so often, like when you ride a rollercosater. When that happens it’s quite scary, I need to get off the road and calm down. Not good, not good at all. I wish I could just take the train but it’s not working out schedule-wise.

I find I look forward to the end of the day and end of the week a lot more than I used to.

The fun is over. I’m going back to work tomorrow. *sigh* I won’t have any more time to work dedicatedly on my websites, nor do support work in the forums where I mod.

It’s going to be tough. I has been fun being free for a whole year on sabbatical. Now it’s back to the grindstone. *sniff* *sob*

You’d think that having been off work all this time I’d be eager to get back to it, I’d have grown bored. Nope. It’s been a wonderfully enlightening year. I’ve learned a lot of things, and grown in leaps and bounds in knowledge. Just barely scratching the surface to be sure, but a far sight further ahead than I was a year ago.

I’ve learned a fair bit of php. This satisfies my craving for programming. I’ve always been a programmer at heart, despite the label of “analyst” slapped on me by my employer who thinks there’s such a thing as an analyst who doesn’t need programming skills and a programmer who doesn’t need analytical skills. What balderdash!

I have learned about W3 requirements, and am able to have an educated opinion of my own about them. I can now disagree with some of them and back my assertions intelligently, LOL!

I have learned the benefits of CSS in web design. I have learned ….

I have experienced the rush of seeing some of my websites take off and actually be found by Google with normal queries, not artificially made up ones. I have learned some of the ins and outs of SEO. Not to the point of obsession, as that’s not my nature, but enough to feel comfortable knowing I’ve done what’s right for my web sites and I have not overlooked anything that could have helped achieve more.

I have learned from some and taught others. Learning is meant to be shared with others. I have done that. That’s comforting and its own reward.