From the Desk 4/22/2008

Before beginning this blog today I realized that eventually I will run out of creative titles for my blog. So before that happens, I have decided upon "From the Desk" as the new title to my blog everyday. I have now avoided running my creative well dry for a menial task as this. I hope you like it, but if not...create your own blog and tell me about other ideas! This morning after getting to work, I decided to explore online to see if there were some free resources to teach me more about Photoshop and creating more professional graphics. I found that online tutorials were not in short supply. I have bookmarked several pages, but you can see the results of their instruction by the samples I created myself. I never thought I could use Photoshop to create things that looked like this so my day was already a success. I watched an episode of Psych, one of my new favorite TV shows, on USA Networks website. It is a good show filled with jokes and humorous situations usually felt most by the lead character's partner Gus, or Detective Lassiter. If you have a chance to catch an episode you won't be disappointed. I spent the majority of the day re-sizing a poster and cleaning up the graphics for our printer to finalize and produce the Summer Learning posters for the metal racks that hold our sales flyers in the retail stores. It didn't take as long as I had expected it to, which was good because I also got to work a bit on the gift certificate letter mail out today. Blair brought me the first set of labels, and I will have to compare those against the ones Kenny sends me for the Tennessee stores to make sure there are no duplicates. I also brainstormed some more on what might make our website more user friendly or aesthetically pleasing as our newly formed website committee will hold its first meeting next week. Stacy and I had planned on walking today after work, but she remembered that she had to go to dinner with her friend Stephanie (in Smyrna) so we decided to postpone our fitness venture. The time seemed to pass fairly slow today as I didn't have a ton of stuff to do. I did sit down with Mike and we discussed a solution to a common problem with our office and printed materials we distribute. We needed a way to make sure that all the appropriate departments (retail, purchasing, grammar, etc.) look over and sign off on the material's accuracy. We decided that custom post-it notes with a checklist on it would be the easiest solution. We are doing this in hopes that it will reduce the errors in printing thereby reducing our use of paper and toner. The fact that a little more time will spent in this process is a necessary evil. After that it was time to go home for the day.

I worked some more on Hickey and I's music video for "Roses On My Grave" as I had almost forgotten that we had begun that project. I also finished my cleaning endeavors that had been delayed from the weekend. I made a quick run to Target to pick up a poster frame for a poster that is sure to become a collector's item one day. It is the poster given to certain agencies and businesses to help explain the I-40 Smart Fix (I know, I know....smart + DOT = oxymoron) process that will begin in Downtown Knoxville on May 1st. You can see how the poster will compliment my wall and brings a little piece of Knoxville to stay with me in Georgia. I also gathered all of my materials to begin the process of getting a Georgia car tag so I will no longer be seen as "one of those TN drivers". I can now be viewed as "one of those GA drivers" when I visit K-town on the weekends every now and then. The remainder of the evening was fairly uneventful, but I did get to work some more on my new instrumental song that I promise to share with you all someday.

Meditation for the day: Matthew 6:34 "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."