This year's keywords are: freelance, France, Patreon

Starting tomorrow, I'll start moving my belongings to a temporary apartment as the search for a house in the Alsace region in France continues, as I wrote about in my previous blog entry. Getting all of the logistics organised for this move is still an ongoing process, even as the process of packing up at the old apartment is winding down.

My hope is that by the next weekend, everything will be at the new place, so that during the last week of this month I can finally end another less fun chapter in my life. Hopefully I'll be finally free of the old apartment and its slumlord after five years of struggling to find a new place, dealing with an eviction despite no debts or other reasons, etc.

There's still a lot of work to be done to get me over to the new place, with any bit of help appreciated, but this should be the first big improvement in my life in a long, long time.


Also tomorrow I'll be looking at this house in the Alsace for which I have a chance of being allowed to rent it. If that works out, then in a matter of weeks I'll be moving again, hopefully for the final time for a long time.

With living in a small French village also comes having to get a car, meaning that I'm comparing various used cars at this point, with plug-in hybrids looking especially attractive due to the low running and maintenance costs. This means that for the coming time I'll be spending quite a bit of money to set myself up.

This month is also the first month that I'm officially a freelancer. I'm still trying to find my way, of course, but there are many options open to me. Hopefully by next month I'll have that stable income in addition to a nice, quiet working environment.

I have set up a Patreon account [1] for those who want to support my efforts with finally finishing my autobiography, as well as maybe supporting a career as a writer. Feel free to have a look there and maybe toss a few bucks per month my way if you feel so inclined :)

Another thing I have been meaning to set up for a few years now, but haven't found the time yet, is a YouTube channel for Nyantronics [2], with a focus on electronics, software and science. Both Nyantronics projects, but also for general education, tear downs and all of the usual things.

Feel free to support me on Patreon, or donate to me directly. Or help out with these two moves the coming weeks and I'll make sure that there's free pizza for everyone :)


Maya


[1] https://www.patreon.com/MayaPosch
[2] http://www.nyantronics.com

Help with moving to France and going freelance

Sometimes one's life suddenly seems to find its course back again, even if issues remain. So it was for me that in the course of doing another batch of job interviews I got asked by one company whether I might be okay with working as a contractor for them. At the mentioning of this it was as if something clicked inside my head.

It's not as if I haven't worked as a contractor or freelancer before. For most of my professional career I have worked either for customers as freelancer, or on my own projects and products. The part that really appeals to me about freelancing is the freedom and responsibility towards oneself instead of towards a collection of bosses and other management types.

Thus I found myself at the tax accountant's office last week to get things sorted with the tax office with regards to my registration as freelancer. As of March 1st I will officially work as a freelancer. This of course means getting a lot of things in order, beyond just the business side of things. This of course also means getting my housing situation sorted.


Thanks to my new lawyer I fortunately managed to avoid getting forcefully evicted earlier this month. The court ruled decidedly in my favor. Now I have at least until the end of next month to find an alternate place.  This is both positive and negative, as finding anything short-term that is even remotely decent is not easy in a city like Karlsruhe.

A few weeks ago I thus decided that I would be moving just across the border from here, in the region of France known as the Alsace. Finding a place to rent there is decidedly easier and comes with a host of other benefits for freelancers with a home office, such as a much more quiet environment to work in.

This is however the point where things get a bit too exciting, as I only have about two weeks left to find something. If not a house in the Alsace, then an emergency solution somewhere else until said house can be found. The more help I can get with this, the better.

If you live in or have any contacts in or near the Alsace who might be able to help, then that would be wonderful. The current regions and ZIP codes I'm looking in at the moment are:

• 67630 Scheibenhard
• 67630 Lauterbourg
• 67470 Munchhausen
• 67470 Schaffhouse-près-Seltz
• 67470 Seltz
• 67630 Neewiller-près-Lauterbourg
• 67470 Wintzenbach
• 67470 Mothern
• 67630 Niederlauterbach

Naturally the more quiet and more roomy the better. This means that a house would be ideal. Having proper internet access has to be a requirement due to my work, of course, so that slightly limits the options again. I'm planning on buying a car so that I'm not limited to public transport availability.

Feel free to contact me via the contact form on my personal website or Twitter if you have any questions or information.


Maya