I finally met with the FinGame client on Monday the 15th.  The first meeting went over very well, as I walked him through each screen of the game.  As I always do, I described what was going on in the background, the variables considered in the game, and what would be administrator-configurable. 

Our reactions to the meeting could not have been more different.  He was amazed to see that I had completely exceeded his expectations and was actually further along than he thought.  I was amazed because he thought so when I only worked 30 hours and believed myself to be slacking because I had to work on other things.  I am harder on myself than people realize; I feel guilty whenever I take a break because I'm not getting work done!  For business purposes, it doesn't matter what I think (as long as I don't say it); it's the customer's perception that matters.  The bottom line on this is I successfully sold myself to him; I can guarantee he will come back to me when he needs more web applications created.  For now, I must finish the remaining new ideas for the player side of the FinGame.

There hardly were any problems on my end.  I am still perplexed with the only problem the game does have, however.  When a user goes to either the marketplace or stock trading screens and tries to buy something using the text boxes in the data grid, the first submittal will not trigger anything.  When I debugged the code concerning this error a few weeks ago, I found the text boxes did not retain their value on the first submittal.  Any subsequent submissions will do well.  As of this writing, I have but one idea how to fix this.  I am hesitant to use this option because it literally involves populating the data grid twice before the user sees it.  I do not look forward to doing this simply because that's two calls to the database.  However, in the argument of usability versus waiting an extra half second for the page to load, I guess the argument is moot.  Now, if we were considering 1,000 users accessing the game at the same time, I think I would leave the problem alone.

It looks like payment for services rendered thus far will be around the beginning of December.  I'm wavering back and forth concerning what to do with the money.  On one hand, I have no idea what's going to happen after the middle of December, when I graduate from the Master's program.  I really need a .Net job around Greensboro, and the money could come in handy until I find one.  On the other hand, I've been putting what funds I can into my photography hobby because that could easily become a legitimate business just as freelance web development has become. 

So, the big question is web dev vs. photography: which will win?  I'm good with both, but I've also learned both from scratch and with minimal classroom involvement.  This does not instill confidence because I have no mark in which to compare.

Current Development: All on hold; Master's research now takes precedence.