March 11/11:30 PM (Me in a very sleepy mode)

Me: I heard this guy is asking for me, huh?
Lois: Yeah, and you will get a lot of points if you accept the job. So, see he’s confirming if you’d take his project again.
Me: Sure. So what does he want?
Lois: This project is about aircraft wing flutter, and you need to find the natural frequencies in terms of things you can measure on the wing during the test for flutter in the wind tunnel laboratory. finding the two natural frequencies in term of Kx, kh, M, Ix and a. Where: kx = Torsional Stiffness Kh = Bending stiffness Ix =Inertia M = mass
Me: Wow. Sounds good. So when are you gonna send the plane, so I could analyze the wing? And the tunnel, as well. Yes?
Lois: …
Me: Jeez, Lois. Did it ever occur to you that I couldn’t do this? I have this feeling that you’re taking me for granted.
Lois: …
Me: Er… how much do you say I’d get for this baby?

Wtf. Of course, I declined.

“Hi. How are you?”
“Am cool thanks. So what’s the paper about?”
“Well, in each graph in Figure 6.4 the culture was incubated at 30 degrees Celsius in a glucose minimal salts broth, aerobically. The bacterium is a facultative anaerobe with an optimum temperature of 37 degrees C, and can metabolize glucose and lactose. Indicate how much growth curve would change under the conditions indicated in each graph. Draw the new graphs or write “no change”… you’re not speaking. Copy?”
“Uhuh”
“Anyway, analyze the growth requirements of the bacteria. Which of the media, if any, are chemically defined?”
…
“Hello, you there still? Chris?”

Futek. This is suicide. What does he take me for? A thermometer or something.

My Paypal was scammed! Well, almost actually. About half of the blame goes to my sheer stupidity. I was just thankful that the Paypal service is not yet fully available in the PI, otherwise the scammer would be laughin his way to the bank. If you got Paypal too, just beware if you receive an email that looks like this:

The mail sender would be something like the Paypal Security Center and it appears really legit with the mail asking for an update of my account and all. But if you open the mail, the sender used a darn gmail account! It will bank on the stupidity of the recipient in order for a link to be clicked which would pop in a copycat Paypal site with a form asking for details such as one’s credit card information. I am not entirely naive so before I filled up everything, I noticed the URL >> it wasn’t www.paypal.com and all its subdomains but an unintelligible combination of numerical url. I got suspicious and it was this time the Firefox started flashing a warning that the site has been reported repeatedly as a sham.

Dang, it almost had me.

One of the downsides of working freelance for offshore clients is that it requires an ample amount of trust on the service providers’ part, like me to get a project. That is why some people both on the provider’s and buyer’s end sometimes agree to open an escrow account so payment and project delivery are assured. However, it is a bit complicated process so I have never tried it. I have done business for overseas clients and about 90% are good with their words and those were mainly anchored on trust and faith. And so, I have a generally good feeling about the whole setup.

Recently, however, there were some glitches with the payments and given the fact that I have completed the projects already, it had given a considerable strain on me and how I view freelance work. I freaked out really. Dang, we were talking about a month’s worth of work here so its perfectly understandable for me to go nuts. The delay took another month and I had to refuse half a month’s work for fear of not getting compensated again.

Apparently, there were problems with the third party remittance service, thus the delay. I heaved a sigh of relief but not until I learned some lessons. First, it caught me flat-footed: there is really a chance of getting scammed and that thinking the best out of people is not the way to go in this line of work. Unfortunately, when this situation happens one cannot really do anything about it since there is no regulatory body who could penalize unscrupulous clients. I do not have hacking skills to get even with my client lol.

Second and most importantly, it does not hurt to tread with caution. Google a client and chances are, if there are some complaints and bones in his closet, it will surely turn out in that search engine.

I would like to highlight, however, that most of my experiences with my work is nice and rewarding. Some clients could compensate a good work done and give a bonus or offer indemnity when things get delayed due to some mistakes on their part. It’s just that the taste of the bile of the recent caper have not yet left my mouth and so I am laying low at the moment.