Geek for Hire
Lyndsy Simon
This user hasn't shared any biographical information
Posts by Lyndsy Simon
Burning the Midnight Oil
Aug 29th
After weeks of procrastinating and waiting for materials to arrive, I finally decided to get my wife’s signs done for her studio – no matter how long it took. We all went down to the studio about 7:00, after Anastasia’s Zumba class finished up, and got to work.
Five hours later, this was the result – a dozen new yard signs for the studio:
Oh, and here’s a better picture of my assistant, Lynzy, with her wild I-stayed-up-till-midnight hair:
New Project: Weekend Website Courses for Entrepreneurs
Aug 5th
I’ve had several people either request that I build them websites, or ask for help in updating their existing sites. Being the unashamed Capitalist that I am, I saw this as an opportunity.
Tonight, I’ve been laying out a preliminary curriculum for a series of half-day classes geared towards area merchants and small business owners. The ultimate goal is to offer 1 to 2 classes per month, priced at $50 to $125 each, with clear, defined objectives and time allocated to individual assistance with each person’s own projects. I’d like to teach these classes on rotation – this is what I have as a preliminary list:
- Setting up your website using WordPress
- Adding eCommerce capability to your WordPress site
- Analyzing website traffic
- Social media: marketing on a budget of $0
- Paid online advertising
Of course, this is dependent upon interest and content development, but so far it seems to be a reasonable goal. I’m also considering specific courses on eBay, Amazon.com, Etsy, and similar sites as I gain expertise in those areas.
Feel free to let me know if you’re interested in a class or have an idea for one that I’ve not thought of yet.
Ever See a “Root Snake”?
Jul 5th
This is the oddest thing to happen to me in a while.
Whenever my daughter, Lynzy, comes out of our dance studio, she always walks over to a little clump of grass growing from a hole in the sidewalk that used to be used to place a flagpole. Today, she went to do that, and I asked if she wanted me to pull out the grass. She nodded, and I did — and came up with this monster. The roots from that little tuft of grass held the entire column of dirt together and it all came out at once!
Working Late
May 1st
I’m going to sleep well tonight – just finished up all my vinyl orders for eBay, and cleaned up a design for a motorcycle club interested in decals. On top of that, Tamsyn and I rented the studio space out to a high school sorority for a dance, so we’ve been here trying to make sure they don’t burn the place down 
New Business Name, Pricing for Vinyl Work
Mar 20th
My vinyl business is slowly but surely expanding, and I’m getting more serious about marketing my services. I’ve settled on a business name (Gadsden Graphics), purchased a new domain (gadsdengraphics.com), and established a set pricing structure, below:
| Size of Graphic (ft2) | Price per ft2 |
|---|---|
| < 1 | $20 |
| 1 to 2.99 | $15 |
| 3 to 5.99 | $13 |
| 6 to 8.99 | $11 |
| 9 to 19.99 | $10 |
| 20 to 32 | $8 |
| > 32 | $6 |
As time allows, I’ll design and launch the new site and get things cleaned up a bit around here. Until then, please bear with me as I take care of the most pressing issues first.
A New Site is Born
Jan 30th
I launched a new site this weekend, to help support the rights to effective self-defense with firemars: http://www.thankgodihadagun.com.
I’m looking for personal tales of armed self-defense from the perspective of those involved, first and foremost. Beyond that, I’ll also be posting news articles on a daily basis that I find throughout the web.
In addition, this is my first attempt at creating a site that is entirely supported by ads. Google AdSense is providing them at this point, but as the site’s traffic grows, I plan to see about being sponsored.
Flipped my truck, but I’m okay!
Jan 20th
I was on my way to work this morning, following an unmarked police car, when he and the several cars in front of him slowed down. I had plenty of following distance, and was only going 45, but when I hit my brakes to slow down, they immediately locked up.
My rear end pulled to the right, which caused me to drift into the opposing lane — right into the path of a Tyson truck. I let off my brakes, got back in my lane, and re-applied. They locked up again, and this time, I didn’t have enough room to stop. Instead of taking out the back of the patrol car, I went for the ditch instead, thinking that I would tear up the passenger’s side of the truck and hit the culvert about 15′ in front of where I was aiming.
When I hit the ditch, I was going about 20-25 MPH, and my front right wheel caught on a boulder that flanked a culvert, flipped my truck front-wise into the ditch.
I wasn’t hurt at all, and was able to get out right away. I think I made a couple of kids’ day that were waiting at the bus stop across the street. As someone once told me, “Save the skin, then the tin” – as soon as my brakes locked the second time, I knew I was going to crash, and did my best to limit the damage. I think I made the best choices available to me at the time, so no regrets.
I also learned that full coverage insurance is freaking awesome. Instead of bumming rides to work, I’m shopping for a new vehicle.
Need a fundraiser for your school or organization?
Jan 11th
School spirit decals make an excellent fundraiser! For qualified organizations, I will send you a stock of decals for your members or students to sell to their peers. Typically, you can expect to keep $3.00 to $4.00 on a $5.00 for every $5.00 decal you sell – a far better margin than most fundraisers out there.
Please contact me directly for pricing and specifics for your school – due to differences in the difficulty of creating decals, pricing is established on a case-by-case basis. Stock designs are available for virtually all sports, mascots, and activities, and custom graphics are available.
Custom vinyl decals now available
Jan 2nd
As my wife and I moved into a new space for her dance studio, we needed new vinyl decals for the windows. That stuff was expensive! We decided just to buy the equipment and do it ourselves… Now that we have the equipment, I launched stuckonpolitics.com, and I’m offering custom vinyl to anyone with a need – at a discount rate, of course.
Initial site launched
Jan 2nd
Well, the time has come — I have so many side projects, I need a single place to direct people to keep up with me! Enough of keeping a dozen different business cards on hand and never having the one I need for the people I meet – I’ve consolidated into a single “geek for hire” card.
Check back with this site in the future to keep up with me – every time I launch a new site or start a new side project, I’ll talk about it and link to it from here.