This is just a short post from AWP in LA to let you all know that you should have fun today, and also hopefully every day, because if you don't, I feel bad for you.
No, really, all of the times in life when I wasn't having at least some fun were bad. Try to lighten up, smile, find some simple joy in something, and make the most of it.
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I miss my Bengal cat, Tango, a lot. It's been nine months since he passed away. When I launched Sky Tango Freelance, the intent was to honor Tango by naming my company after him. Eventually, I would like to hire other freelancers, so I didn't want a company that was named after me. I've redone the font scheme of my personal website because it's no longer a site about my trip to Uganda, but the marriage of my personal website with a blog that grew into my personal blog. I chose Weebly as my website builder because it impressed me with its range and usability of options, including full html editing and integration. I know it's not as popular as Wordpress, but I'm finding it a lot more intuitive. The goal is to develop regular content, and I can't do that if every little thing is a hassle.
Likewise, Weebly has some SEO advantages over Wordpress sites because it has native SEO integration and is doing a fair job with best practices without me having to do anything. I've set up Google Analytics to track the site with more tools than what my Weebly account gives me, and I'm hoping that good things will come as I continue to update the blog and site. However, there's one final step that I haven't taken: updating my site's icon so that it no longer shows as the dorky blue W that Weebly has by default. I've commissioned someone to make an icon that fits what I've always envisioned: Tango's distinctive head markings in black and white. I hope to unveil this icon soon! Please let me know how I'm doing with readability, ease of finding posts, site design, and social media updates to posts. I'm not fantastic at the whole 'leave your life behind' residency concept. I've gotten better at managing my time since my first residency here in Chicago, or, even more laughably, my first residency at Goddard College, where 'manage your time' meant playing Hearthstone in bed and looking for edible food. (First semester of MFA residency sucks, guys. You're looking for a way around while trying to figure out why they accepted you while juggling a mountain of workshops and tasks...)
But I'll admit that I do other work while I'm at residency, try to find time to do art when I'm supposed to be writing, and even keep up some scheduled commitments like student council meetings, Aisthesis scheduled events, and paid work. That's not because I'm a malicious person. It's because I see my time at home annoyingly expended the most by mundane chores and errands, and when I'm out of town, those vanishing is a huge win. Someday, when I'm even better at residencies, I'll do it. I'll shut off my cell phone--okay, except to call home so my mother doesn't send a search and rescue party--and tell everyone I'm unavailable and stop answering emails. But right now, the work I do is important to me, and I can't shut off things like my classes workload without incurring a huge time penalty later on. The goal of a residency--for me, right now--is to carve out a different niche in time and space for my work. I don't cheapen that by overcommitting to 'other' activities. Nor do I diminish it and risk burnout later by turning off the rest of the world. So, without further lead up, here's a list of what I plan to do this week. I wrote it before I left, so even though I'm in medias res as I type this, I haven't modified it at all. I'll post when I get home and let you know whether I was successful:
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