Re-entering the Business World

I had a very business-y day yesterday, dealing with the paperwork to start my new freelance job, and the fact that it's been a long time since I've had to deal with this kind of stuff really showed. First, I needed a new cartridge for my laser printer. The old one still has some juice in it, but it made messy print-outs. It was fine for internal use, but it wouldn't work for something that had to be scanned or faxed. Then I went to fax the documents (these were PDFs that had to be signed, and I don't think I have the software to add a signature to a PDF, so that meant I couldn't do it without hard copy), and my fax machine totally died mid-way through. No dial tone, no read-out electronically. So I resorted to scanning on my flat-bed scanner, which meant a multi-page document took a while. Then I discovered that there's some kind of disconnect between my scanner and my new computer, even though I have the current driver for the scanner. The document would look fine in the preview window of the image capture application, but then the actual scanned document would be just a bunch of wavy lines. I resorted to scanning to the old computer, then transferring the files to the new computer to e-mail them.

Since my color ink jet printer is also dead, I may get an all-in-one fax/scanner/printer/copier. Most of my fiction work has been done entirely electronically, with no need for printing or faxing. The normal business world may be different. Both the fax and the scanner are at least ten years old. I probably could have tinkered with settings to make the scanner work, but I didn't have the time or patience and went with what I knew would work to send the documents I need to start work.

I'm hoping for a little less stress/hassle today. I'm also looking forward to immersing myself in fiction for a while. I have brainstorming to do, which means getting out the crayons and colored markers and letting myself get wildly creative. I want to apply some of the techniques I found in that book on creativity I found at the warehouse sale. After yesterday being all business, a good creative day should be fun.

It's also apparently Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day, so if I can find the hazmat suit, I may give that a shot. It's the freezer that's the real issue. I have a vacuum sealer, which means I have a bad habit of buying in bulk, sealing and freezing, and then forgetting what I have and buying more. December may be "live out of the freezer" month.