Free Time? Wazzat?

I have a standing agreement with my employer that I can write about "anything on Earth" for pay, so long as it isn't a conflict of interest with the company's other interests or activities. I can also write about space-related stuff...for free. So I've been doing that. Looks great on the resume, but working for free is an expensive hobby and should not be practiced, if at all possible. That leaves editing resumes and doing some side jobs for various clients...all of which is going to have to go away for the next year so I can concentrate on running ISDC 2011, which I am not getting paid for, by the way. You only run a space advocacy conference if you're a serious true-believer or a bit of a masochist, or both.

My apologies to any future customers, family and friends alike. I would like to help, and most earnestly I'd like to take your money. However, given my soon-to-be-very-tight schedule, you really won't be able to afford my rates. I can probably refer you to other professionals if you're serious, or if you think you can afford my rates, then we can negotiate, but I'll be quintupling my usual per-hour, per-task, or per-page rate to discourage you. I've got a conference to run, and that's priority #1 until May 22, 2011.

Caveat to the above:
Of course, if I find myself unemployed between now and May 2011 due to certain political decisions regarding the future of NASA, I'll be scrambling to take any gig I can get...at which point my rates will drop back to something that will allow me to eat and you to feel like you're getting good value for your dollars.

No doubt at some point I'll get a message to the effect that "You sure spend a lot of time blogging for a guy who's too busy to accept work for pay!" To which I will plead guilty. Writing here offers me a bit of a breather/escape from the other stuff I do out of obligation or a need to eat. If I'm not blogging, it's because I'm doing my day job, ISDC, eating, sleeping, or hitting golf balls. That's about all I have time for, barring the occasional wild day off, which I will take. All this is a long way of saying I might or might not be writing here as often as before, but I will not be accepting commissions for "outside work," paid or otherwise. Again, my apologies.

/b