As I suggested in a previous comment here, I’m “hiring” myself to work on a little project that will give me a chance to brush up on some job skills. I plan to make it fun too.
It’s going to be a tiny microcontroller board that can be configured to do a few different things. The first will be to “blink” two little led lights in a way that makes it look like creepily realistic “eyes” peering forth from the shadows.
I plan to build a few of these in various configurations, and use them to confuse and scare the heebie-jeebies out of various family and friends.
For those of you that know about such things, this isn’t really a very difficult project. It will give me a chance to learn a new “toolchain” though, and a new microcontroller architecture.
Besides, I’m not just going to turn the LEDs on and off. It will “blink” at differing intervals, and each blink will vary in duty cycle and in transition time. There will also be logic to decide when to turn on and off, and how to manage the battery charge.
The first milestone is already completed: I’ve entered the necessary components into the CAD software. I’ll finish schematic entry today, and perhaps even the board layout. 6 months ago
With the conclusion of my most recent consulting contract, I realized a couple of things. First, I love the technical challenges and I learn quickly and easily when I’m “in the trenches”. Second, I’m quite capable of managing and even financing the projects myself.
So why wait for another (possibly unappreciative) client to come along? Why wait to work on somebody else’s project?
I’ve always got a number of things in the back of my head I want to do “someday”. I’m going to choose one that will be fun, and will also give me the chance to (re)learn some useful skills… Then I’m quite literally going to hire myself to do it.
One very important point- I will need to set a schedule that provides a good push, and I’ll need some kind of outside observer to hold me to it. Otherwise, it will be too easy to let things slide, and I’ll never get it done. 7 months ago
I’m trying to invest in myself morning. By that, I don’t just mean dollars and cents, although that is part of it.
(Maybe a LARGE part, judging by how much I paid for a pair of glasses today!)
What I really mean is devoting the time and energy it takes to knock the rust of my professional skills, improve my health, make friends, pursue new experiences, and so on.
Toward that end I’m putting a LOT of effort into the current consulting opportunity, although I’m not billing most of the hours so far. It’s a great chance to (re) learn some things.
I also bit the bullet and bought an expensive piece of test equipment. It’s something I’ve needed for a long time, and it will be good to become familiar with the state-of-the-art.
It’s a cute little thing, too. I’ll have fun working with it. 9 months ago
