From the Desk 4/26/2008

Today I woke up early and hit the road to Knoxville at 7:15am. I like driving up on Saturday mornings due to the much lighter traffic I encounter on the road. I arrived in Knoxville and got my allergy shots after dropping off stuff at my parents' house. This is the last time I will get allergy shots and or any medical treatment in Knoxville as my insurance has changed with The School Box. I hung out briefly with mom at the house before getting m haircut. Upon leaving there, dad and I met at Grandmother's house to move a recliner from the storage building to the patio in preparation for her garage sale. I am sure she will sell many of her treasures she has accumulated over the years.

I then journeyed to Amy and Jon's house where I would spend the remainder of the evening. I played some more on a Super Metroid game file and actually beat the game after an additional hour of play. I then watched some TV while Jon was grilling our dinner. While the rest of dinner was being prepared I took the opportunity to test out my new phone's camera quality and took some pictures. The picture of Samus was only taken after she managed to escape from the deck and explore the outer-reaches of their property while Amy was chasing her with treats in an attempt to lure her back to the safety of their house. For dinner we feasted on steak, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, and salad. It was my first real attempt at eating a steak for the main course of my meal and I must admit that it was extremely tasty. I still don't plan to eat steak on any sort of regular basis, but I know now that if steak is going to be prepared for a family get together I will eat it and not request an alternative dish be prepared. After feasting till we were full, Jon and Amy watched as I began a new file on Super Metroid and I played it for about 2 hours. I made it about 75% of the way through the game when I decided to call it a night and give in to my sleepiness. I drove home and watched a minute or two of TV with dad and then retired to my guest room at Le Chateau de Taylor.

Meditation for the day: Calmer of The Storm by Downhere " There on the storm, teach me God to understand of the Will that I just cannot control there may I see all you love protecting me I thank you Lord, you are the calmer of the storm."

From the Desk 4/25/2008

It's Friday! I was happy that the weekend was here. Not because I don't have to go to work, as I love the things I working on right now, but as a chance to see family and friends for my trip to Knoxville this weekend. I arrived at work a little early as traffic was light. I witnessed The School Box's own MacGyver, Mihn, using his agility and ingenuity to open Vickie's locked office door, as she had locked her keys inside. Normally Vickie would just go to another source for keys (Mike, Dave, or Michaele) but all three of them were not in the building at that time and she needed to make a conference call. I began working on a sign to promote some Case-It brand binders that we were going to put on sale. We are now in the mode to move out old product from last year's back-to-school to make room on the shelves for new product this year. I also spoke with Dave about details concerning the Summer Learning insert into the newspaper in about 3 weeks. I called the Chattanooga Times Free Press and The Knoxville News Sentinel to make sure they had us on their schedule for when they would receive the inserts from us and when they would go out for delivery. After finally speaking with the right person at the News Sentinel everything was set on our end.

Our lunch group (Stacy, Tausha, Carmen, and Blair - Mike was MIA on vacation today) went out to eat today for Tausha's birthday. We ate at On the Border Mexican restaurant and we asked to be seated away from as many people as possible because when we all get together we will inevitably end up laughing very loudly and could potentially disrupt other patrons eating their meals. I had the Fiesta Chicken Salad, which was a salad with fiesta chicken, bacon, black beans, corn, and crispy tortilla strips with chipotle-honey mustard dressing. It was delicious and I was rather proud of myself for ordering a salad and attempting to eat healthier than I normally would. We convinced our server that we needed them to sing happy birthday to Tausha to enhance the celebratory meal. They did and she was embarrassed to our satisfaction. We took some pictures and then headed back to work. Once I was back at my desk, I had trouble focusing because I really just wanted to take a nap. I decided to remain here in Kennesaw for tonight to continue the celebration with Tausha and company. I was the first time where I could have had plans in Knoxville, but instead had plans here at my new home to keep me out of my apartment on a Friday night. We spent some more time at the office celebrating Tausha's birthday with a cookie cake from Rhonda in the warehouse. I ran by the bank to deposit a wedding video check and then made my way home.

I ran by the apartment office to pick up a package that had arrived for me. It was my new cell phone! I decided to upgrade since my current phone had a battery that was limping along having to be charged sometimes daily and the speaker phone was busted as I had accidentally dropped it one too many times. I played around with it for a while and added everyone into my contacts list. I ate some dinner and waited for the night to go on until we were all supposed to meet at 10:20 to watch Baby Momma in the theater near Town Center Mall. About 9:45 Stacy called me to say that Tausha was really tired and so was she, so I decided that we could just go see it one night next week. I decided to spend the rest of the evening working on some reading and napping. I retired for the evening a little earlier than planned, but that way I can get up early and head into Knoxville first thing in the morning. See you all soon!

Meditation for the day: Psalm 119:33-34 "Teach me, O Lord, to follow your decrees; then I will keep them to the end. Give me understanding, and I will keep your law and obey it with all my heart."

From the Desk 4/24/2008

Today I woke up feeling fairly well rested, which is good because I thought that cutting the grass yesterday might have irritated my allergies. I got to work and found a thought provoking quote on my iGoogle homepage: "Coming home from very lonely places, all of us go a little mad: whether from great personal success, or just an all-night drive, we are the sole survivors of a world no one else has ever seen." - John le Carre. I don't know why I liked it but it seemed to catch my eye so I decided to share it with you. I worked on refining the apple mosaic graphic for The School Box summer catalog and I think that it is coming along nicely. I also began preparing the final elements to send out to the retail stores for Customer Appreciation week. I suggested to Chris that we send flyers about the event to each store to have them stuff in the bags at checkout, and she agreed that it would be a good idea to promote within the stores too.

So I printed 2800 flyers and divided them between the stores. I then had James, the warehouse manager, pull down the pallet that contains all of our special promotions materials so I could divide out items for each store. It was nice to get all of this stuff boxed up and off my desk, since I have felt cramped by all of the stuff for this event piled high on my desk. It took longer than anticipated to pack everything up because the copier kept having issues with printing the flyers I needed to send to the stores. After I got that done it was 3:45 and I decided to take it easy and do some easy tasks for the rest of the day. I also left work about 15 minutes early today because I kept forgetting to mail out the wedding DVDs on my lunch break. I even had them with me for the past two days, but I would inevitably get caught up in something and forget until after 5:00pm when the post office is closed.

After mailing out the DVDs I went home to pack for my weekend in Knoxville. I finished up my last load of laundry for the next few days and then hung up my poster of Knoxville next to the bookcase in my living room. I ate some dinner and then decided to take a small nap as I was overcome with fatigue for some unexplained reason. I awoke in time to check Facebook, Myspace, and delete some junk emails before the new episode of Grey's Anatomy came on ABC at 9:00pm. The last new episode aired on January 10, 2008 and further episodes were delayed due to the Hollywood writer's strike situation that dragged on for several weeks. Tonight's episode was full of memorable quotes and it was good to watch the show again even though I'm not used to watching it alone. I am hoping to avoid any rain tomorrow afternoon/evening as I make the journey to Knoxville to spend time with the people I love. I will end my thoughts for today with this quote from Grey's Anatomy: "We are all lions, but just because you didn't win [the contest] doesn't mean you don't know how to roar. So pick yourself up, don't lick your wounds."

Meditation for the day: 2 Corinthians 3:12 "Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold."

From the Desk 4/23/2008

Today I arrived at work after picking up some Chick-fil-A for breakfast. The day always seems to start out better with a chicken biscuit. I got to work and decided to go ahead and do some of the physical labor preparations for Customer Appreciation Week. I divided out 30 boxes of Teacher Created Resources calendars that we are giving away with each purchase made May 5th - May 9th. This proved to be a more lengthy task than anticipated because the pallets that go to each store are located no where near the calendar giveaway boxes. I loaded them up on carts, labeled them, and distributed them among the store pallets. Tomorrow I will place another box on each pallet containing signs and balloons & pumps to decorate the stores for the week and promote the sales we have going on. I had a chance to talk to Anna (one of the regional managers) this morning and I think we are planning on me tagging along with her one day soon to visit some of the smaller stores to see what kind of space they have to work with so I can produce things that fit in their space as well as the larger stores. I also had a chat with Aimee (another regional manager) about a poster she needed to promote the furniture on sale in our Early Childhood piece within the Town Center store. I made it fairly quickly and hopefully we can boost some sales by moving out some of the furniture in the warehouse. I ran some errands on my lunch break including mailing the wedding DVDs out to the couple back in Knoxville. I spent the majority of the afternoon working on folding and stuffing the envelopes for the gift certificate mail out later this week. I'm just glad we have a machine that will tri-fold paper and stuff it in the envelopes for us. That save lots of time and headaches even though the machine sometimes jams and eats things if it is unhappy with your project. I also worked on a new cover for a cardboard display that holds our small floor mats. They are made by a company called Dr. O's whose owner, Joannia, used to be a purchasing agent for The School Box. The front of the current display is only a large version of the company's logo, but here is what I had in mind to add some flair and hopefully attract more attention. I also will have other products offered by the company to occupy the white space on the sides of the display.

After work I was actually very busy. I tagged along with Stacy to Old Navy and while there I actually found a pair of shorts on sale and 3 t-shirts (one for only$6!). I then accompanied Stacy to Walmart, where we both had to pick some stuff up, and she found a lounge chair that she had been looking for. After that I went home to change clothes, drove to Stacy's and then rode with Stacy to get gas for her truck and her lawnmower. We returned to her house and I began mowing the grass. It should have only taken about 15 minutes to mow, but it hadn't been mowed since before January and the grass reached 2 feet tall in some places. I finally got done about 35 minutes later and Stacy was kind enough to fix me some grilled cheese for dinner. While the food was cooking we squared off answering the questions on Jeopardy (I lost). After that I had plenty of energy left, but we decided to save the usual walk for another day. By that time is was 8:15pm and I was needing to go home and get some laundry done. I worked on laundry, emails, and talking on the phone with Hickey for the remainder of the evening. I also watched Law & Order's last episode with Detective Ed Green portrayed by Jesse L. Martin as a lead role. Martin is leaving the show to pursue more fruitful roles as an actor. He will be missed as he is a very talented actor. I tried to go to sleep a little early as I had exerted more effort today than usual, even though it felt good to be active again. Hopefully this will jump start my strenuous work out routine that I begin officially on Monday.

Meditation for the day: 2 Thessalonians 3:3 "But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one."

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."

Its alright....cause I'm saved by the bell!

I woke up this morning and quickly got ready for work. I sat down and turned on the TV to enjoy some entertainment while eating breakfast. I flipped through the channels until I came to TBS where I was forced to put down the remote. I got to watch an episode of Saved by the Bell, a wonderful comedy TV series from the 90's. I had forgotten how often I used to watch this series and wish that my friends and I got into the mischief that the cast always found themselves surrounded by. After reminiscing for about 30 minutes through the episode I packed up some food for lunch and then headed out to work.

I got to work and began finishing the last few pages of website item checking. I finished those up around 9:30 and then spent some time trying to determine what else had to be done soon and how soon I had to do it. I packed up some posters for each of the stores to begin advertising for Customer Appreciation Week May 5th - 9th. We don't really have any tubes to send over sized posters to the stores without them getting damaged, so I had to tape some medium sized boxes closed while they were still collapsed and slide the posters in. I marked the boxes as fragile and said posters inside do not bend. Hopefully this information will prove to deter people from crushing/throwing the boxes away. After some email responses to graphics requests from Chris, I met with Vickie to discuss a top secret project: Summer Training 2008! I can only say this, there will be video integration into this year's class and I would like to tell you more, but I honestly can't remember anything else. I told Vickie I would eat the plan she printed out for me as soon as I could find some salt and ketchup... dessert! I also arranged a donation to Mt. Bethel United Methodist Church to support their Road Race/Habitat for Humanity 2008 fund. I am glad that we are willing to help causes that help others (even though we can't help everyone).

After work, Stacy, Leslie, and I met at Stacy's house for dinner. On the way there I saw the most recent rise in gas prices on display, and it made me glad that I bought gas yesterday. It was $3.55 per gallon at the Exxon that I bought it at yesterday for $3.39 per gallon! We missed our weekly date last week, but it was probably for the best since Leslie was still contagious at that point. We decided to hang out in a more relaxing environment. Stacy fixed us pasta with spaghetti sauce and Italian sausage to add some protein to the meal. It was delicious, and to show our appreciation we helped clean up. We had good conversations over our meal and it was nice to talk to someone else while eating instead of just watching TV or looking at stuff online. We hung out there until 8:00pm and then Leslie and I headed out to go tour respective homes to finish out the evening. I got home and decided to update/customize the appearance of my blog. Leave me a comment and let me know what you think! I watched a bit of TV before deciding to do some research on some music I had heard in some movies that I wanted to buy. I found most of what I was looking for, and by that time it was 11:00pm and I needed to try and go to sleep.

Meditation for the day: 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but mot abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed"

Can we add another day to the weekend?

Today I woke up to the sun shining brightly through the trees near my window. I looked outside and knew it was going to be a good day. I found an old journal this morning from my sophomore year at UT. It was filled with prayer requests, scriptures, and my everyday events (even dating back to my last day working in the warehouse at P&S!) I quickly showered and was getting ready to go visit Towne View Baptist Church this morning for my first church experience in Georgia. I looked up the address to make sure where it was (only 3 minutes away) and saw that they had only one worship service that began at 11:00am. Their services typically last a little over an hour and I was supposed to meet up with Stacy (and possibly Leslie and Tausha) for the Big Shanty festival so I decided to visit the next weekend I'm in town when I don't have anything to do immediately after. I instead sat in bed and read the journal entries that spanned from August 20, 2008 to November 17, 2002. It is amazing to look back at where my focus was then, where it is now, and where it has been in between those times. It also made me a little sad at the often mention of Chris, Josh, and Jubin as I don't get to hang out with them on a regular basis anymore. I read lots of scripture and spent a good deal of time in prayer before making a list of groceries and venturing out to the Super Target for some shopping. It was not crowded at all while I was there (9:45am) and it was nice to just slowly stroll down each aisle to see what I might want to eat this week. I made a relatively small purchase considering my last food purchase at Publix was close to $200. I went back to the apartment and unpacked everything.

Stacy called shortly after noon and we finalized plans to attend Kennesaw's Big Shanty Festival. It is located in downtown Kennesaw (which is actually far away from the business section of Kennesaw) and they had the streets closed off for vendors to set up their booths. I had envisioned a replica of the Squash Festival held in the little town in the movie Doc Hollywood, and I was pretty close but without the live animals and only rednecks present. There were crafts galore and lots of food stands offering cotton candy, frozen lemonade, and funnel cakes. There was also a climbing wall, several inflatable structures for kids to play on and in, and some live music from a local bluegrass band. Stacy and I refrained from eating anything (even though it smelled wonderful) because we have decided to keep each other accountable in getting in shape and consuming those foods would have been counter-productive. We didn't spend too much time there due to our lack of interest in hand carved decorations, airbrushed t-shirts, or antique-looking jewelry. We only spent an hour there, but at least I can now say that I have been to this event and do not have to attend again next year simply for the "experience". We stopped off at an Exxon on my way to dropping Stacy off and I filled up...for $52! Gas here has hit the $3.39 mark as the cheap end of the spectrum in Kennesaw. I went back to my apartment and found that the reception video had finished burning and it looked great! I printed, duplicated, and then packaged them to ship out tomorrow. I also spent a good deal of the afternoon cleaning everything extremely thoroughly. I now feel that my apartment would even pass the Hickey test (I even dusted the puzzle boxes on a shelf on my end tables!) I searched online for some black and white canvas prints for over my entertainment center, the kitchen, and over my couch. I found many possibilities, but few that I could afford while saving for my TV. I'll have to keep these in mind for Christmas perhaps.

Tonight I watched a movie dad had lent me, Hollowman 2 (you can checkout more info from the movie's page on imdb.com). I expected it to be fairly awful since I didn't even know they made a sequel to the first horror movie. The original starred Kevin Bacon and, while graphic, was very good as far as horror-sci-fi's go. This was not the same case. While it attempted to make up for a weak story and poor acting budgets with special effects, the film's shortcomings could not be ignored. I will definitely not be purchasing my own copy of this, weak attempt at a professional horror production. I straightened a few things in my office and looked ahead to future weddings I will film to make sure that I had all the supplies (tapes, DVDs, etc.) I needed to complete the filming projects. I decided to relocate to my bed in an attempt to capture some sleep for the upcoming week. If I talk to any of you this week please ask me if I have run/worked out that day to help keep me accountable. Thanks and have a great start to the work week tomorrow!

Meditation for the day: an excerpt from "Let It All Out" by Reliant K

"You said I know that this will hurt, but if I don't break your heart then things will just get worse. If the burden seems too much to bear remember the end will justify the pain it took to get us there. And I'll let it be known at times I have shown signs of all my weakness, but somewhere in me there is strength. And You promised me that You believe in time I will defeat this some where in me there is strength. And today I'll trust you with the confidence of a man who's never known defeat, and I'll try my best to just forget that that man isn't me."