From the Desk 5/2/2008

Today I arrived at work anticipating a full day, and I was not disappointed. I worked on trimming some retail signs to send out to the stores on Monday as well as finishing the binders and backpacks discount sign. I explored some effects to tweak the apple graphic for the summer catalog cover and then it was time for my first meeting of the day. At 10:00am Chris, Mike, Vickie, and I met with Blake, who helps do some of our website design and special email blasts. We talked about new options for design upgrades for the website and what specifically we want to have control over as opposed to Objectware, the company that is responsible for building/maintaining our website. That meeting resulted in several new ideas and suggestions to explore for our website which I never thought of as being another store of its own, but it really does need to be treated that way. That meeting ran over until 11:15am. Then Mike and I hopped in his car and drove to Marietta to tour/meet with the owners of Atlanta Business Circulators, an independent mailing house. The owner John was very enthusiastic and seemed very knowledgeable about his company and the business in general. I think that we will probably send at least a small project his way to test for pricing and turn-around time. We batted ideas around about what he could do for us and what we were looking for. We left there around 11:55 and Mike suggested we eat some lunch while we were in the neighborhood of several restaurants. I agreed and we then attempted to decide on a place. We drove past the big chicken (I've finally seen it with my own eyes!) and then settled on Marietta Diner as our lunch destination. I highly recommend this for a meal any time of the day, as they are open 24 hours a day. They serve anything from breakfast to burgers to Greek to seafood to Italian dishes and it all looks delicious. They also make their own cherry Coke and desserts.

While eating we had a good chance to talk about my frustrations with not having enough to do to fill up my days. Part of that, I know, is that as time goes on I will become busier with more responsibilities that I take on. The other part is that some things that I should be handling or at least take part in, I am not being involved. This situation is delicate and I will talk to Dave about it next week to see if some things can be fixed/handed over to me. Mike also suggested that I do something to really show that I'm ready to take on this job's full responsibilities and maybe that would help ease Dave into handing these things over to me. He suggested that I research and create a presentation on developing our customer loyalty program. So for a large part of the afternoon I did research and wrote down an outline for what I need to develop this program. I also got word from the warehouse crew that the summer learning inserts had arrived from The Marietta Daily Journal printers and needed to be divided into the correct amounts on separate palettes to go to Knox and Chatt. Thankfully they were divided into boxes of 2,000 flyers in each box. This made dividing the 46,077 flyers to Chattanooga and 33,309 flyers to Knoxville a much easier and less time consuming task than originally expected. I finished up with that and then designed the buttons that each employee will receive at the summer training in June. Once that was done it was getting around 5:00 and I packed up my stuff to head home for a couple of hours.

I chilled at the apartment for a while and then met Stacy, Corey, Corey's husband Jeff, and Corey's friend Kendra at Taco Mac for dinner and drinks. I had their boneless buffalo wings in medium sauce with fries. It was very tasty and was just the right amount of food to fill me, but not make me too full. We left there and met Tausha at Regal Cinemas 16 near Town Center Mall to see the 10:00pm showing of the movie Baby Momma. It is the story of a career driven woman who wants to have a baby, but through her own physical problem is unable to conceive so she hires a surrogate mother. The movie chronicles their lives together through this process and how they each teach each other to look at life differently. It was a funny movie that had some surprisingly tender moments. After the movie we all said goodbye and then went our separate ways. I returned to the apartment and decided to do some quick packing for tomorrow's trip to K-town. I then decided just as quickly to get some sleep knowing I would have to drive the 3 hours tomorrow, probably in rain and thunderstorms according to the weather predictions.

Meditation for the day: Ephesians 1:7 "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace"

From the Desk 5/1/2008

Today I arrived at work to find a memo on my desk (boy that sounds strange to say....a memo..."my desk"...oh well back to the real world) concerning new Internet monitoring procedures that have been implemented to prepare for our next upgrade of telecommunications systems. There have been a few sites that have been blocked all together, but the majority of sites are still accessible and are just asked to be viewed in moderation. I worked on a new sign to promote the sale prices on our Just Jump it! brand jump ropes. Once I got the final approval from Vickie and Stacy I printed the copies out for our larger stores to began promoting the sale. I also spoke with Chris about the arrival of our inserts to send to Knoxville and Chattanooga for the newspapers. We realized that they were actually going to be done and ready on Friday and that we are supposed to go pick them up at the printer location in Marietta instead of them being delivered to our warehouse. I coordinated with James, the warehouse manager, to have Mihn go pick them up in the morning before 11:00am so when Mike and I return from our tour/meeting with Atlanta Business Circulators, Chris and I can began to divide the 85,000 flyers between Knoxville and Chattanooga.

I ate my lunch while doing some other sign creation at my desk so I could run some errands on my break today. I went home, paid the rent, bought some milk an gas, and then returned to the office. The remainder of the afternoon went rather slowly. I packed the 14 posters that arrived promoting the Summer Learning products we carry into flat boxes and labeled them to be shipped to each store. Once 5:00 rolled around I was ready to go home. I checked by the weight room to see if it was open yet and it was still closed for renovations. I asked the ladies in the office when it would be open again and they said that it should be open on Saturday morning which means that I won't have wasted my entire first week of planned workouts.

I had some dinner and worked on some graphics projects for friends and some projects of my own for a while. I also read some more information on our new insurance through The School Box as I will be seeing a doctor down here at some point in May so I can continue to receive my Allegra prescription and avoid an unpleasant sinus infection. I was working on stuff until I realized that Grey's Anatomy was about to begin. So I wrapped up my projects and then stayed glued to the TV for the next hour until the all new episode ended at 10:00pm. I am glad that tomorrow is Friday for several reasons. First, it means that we have 2 days without work stuff to get in the way of hanging out with friends from work. Second, it means that I will be hanging out with my friends and family in Knoxville. Finally, it means that I will be seeing the movie Baby Momma on Friday night with the work group and the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall on Saturday night with Hickey. I will see you all soon!

Meditation for the day: This is an excerpt from the song "Pursuit of Happiness" by Nuno Bettencourt from the soundtrack to the movie Smart People:
"Time can move fast now that you're gone
Can't dwell I the past, what's done is done
Starting over again, more or less
In my pursuit of happiness
Starting over again, more or less
In my pursuit of happiness"

From the Desk 4/30/2008

Today I woke up and noticed that my apartment was actually cool for a change. This was no doubt due to the chilly temperatures this morning that I'm sure were felt in Knoxville as well. I arrived at work and ate my Chick-fil-A breakfast (anything to get through hump day) and began working on a project for Aimee, one of the regional managers. I also returned a phone call to Becky, our rep at the Chattanooga Times Free Press, to ensure that our choice to move the insert to Wednesday wasn't going to be a problem. She assured me that she would get the date altered on the schedule and that it would go out on time. I also had to make a minor adjustment on the ad for Atlanta Parent Magazine as the file I sent Chris still had a transparency setting active which caused the area to appear black when I exported it and she opened it. Once I got that fixed, I confirmed with Mike about our meeting next week and then he told me the time of our meeting this Friday with a smaller group about the website had been moved to 10:00am. It feels like I have officially arrived here (at work) since I am now being invited to meetings to give my input. I worked on Aimee's project for a while until I took my lunch break.

After lunch I noticed that there was a large package that had arrived for Chris in the mail room and it had been sent by the company that does our posters for the racks in our retail stores. I was excited and asked Vickie, since Chris wasn't there, if I could be like a kid on Christmas morning and open the "present" before Chris arrived tomorrow. She said ok, and I proceeded to carefully open the package. I pulled out one of the posters and I was pleased with how they turned out. I think the new design will catch people's eyes as they enter our stores (which is of course the poster's purpose). Everyone seemed a little sluggish through the afternoon, but I guess it was because of the cooler weather and knowing that the week was only half over. I briefly checked some reviews of the website I plan to order my TV from and they were typical of any reviews site: several good several bad. I will place my order for the TV tonight and am excited to finally be making this upgrade to my entertainment technology. (Now I just have to locate a Wii to buy and I'll be set for a while)

I got home and found that the weight room was still "under maintenance" so my workout plan was foiled yet again. I ate some dinner and then placed the order for my TV to be delivered to my parents' house. I also did some laundry and generally vegged out for a bit. I gave Dad some information on my tires so we could make plans for me to purchase new tires this weekend when I am in Knoxville. I also straightened some stuff up in my office and filed away some papers. I talked briefly with Stacy on the phone about a funny story from her evening out with some friends. It was an unusual evening as I received 3 phone calls when I usually receive none. It is nice to feel wanted though, so I'm not complaining. I decided to get some extra sleep and went to bed earlier than usual to prepare for dividing out over 70,000 inserts to send to Knoxville and Chattanooga tomorrow.

Meditation for the day: Psalm 49:20 "A man who has riches without understanding is like the beasts that perish."

From the Desk 4/29/2008

Today at work Mike and I talked about some possibilities for mailing houses for The School Box. I called and set up meetings with 2 potential businesses to get the ball rolling on this project so we can make the best decision by the end of May. I also made some more retail signs in preparation for a second packet of signs for the managers sometime in May. I went to eat lunch with the group (sans Mike) at Willy's. I had the same dish I did last time, but for some reason the person taking my order must have mis-heard me and started to make me 2 Quesadillas. Thankfully, I quickly clarified my order and avoided a surprise at the checkout line. We laughed as usual and probably would have disturbed other people except for the fact that it was during the lunch rush and it was noisy in the first place.

After returning from lunch I resolved a minor crisis with our newspaper insert in the Times Free Press in Chattanooga. We thought that last year we ran the insert in the Sunday paper. So when I called and they gave me the total for what we ran last year (47,496 inserts) and then I received an email confirming what we would insert this year (70,701 inserts) I was alarmed. First of all, newspaper readership is declining and certainly not growing by 20,000+ subscriptions in the same zip codes that we used last year. Secondly, I knew that we only had a max of about 60,000 inserts that we could send there if needed after taking care of Knoxville and the Atlanta area. We soon figured out that we actually ran on a Wednesday last year and that explained the difference in numbers. Chris and I decided to go ahead and shift our insert date to the Wednesday prior to our original target insert date. The other minor crisis that came about was Chris sent me an ad that another company had put together for her promoting Summer Learning books for and ad in the Atlanta Parent Magazine. I had to edit and make corrections from the original ad (which was in pdf format) and export it to Chris to send in that day by 5:00pm for inclusion in the June publication. I managed to make the necessary changes and sent it off to her at 4:40pm. All of this commotion took place with only an hour left in the work day.

Once we finished the work day out, I grabbed my clothes from the car and changed so we could leave for our road trip to Chattanooga. The original plan was for Blair, Tausha, Mike, Carmen, Stacy, and I to pile into Carmen's Sequoya and drive to Chattanooga to join Kenny and his wife Stacy at the Imax theater to see U2 in 3D. Well...Blair was in the middle of moving and couldn't make it, Tausha had to go to court for a speeding ticket, and Mike was tired and not feeling well. So Carmen, Stacy, and I hopped into my car and we drove up to Chattanooga. We got there with only a little time to spare before the movie began so we foolishly tried to eat quickly at Mellow Mushroom. We were promptly seated, but found that anything we ordered (aside from the drinks we already received) would take too long to receive or consume. So we paid for 2 cokes and a water and opted to purchase concessions at the theater. We walked into the theater and it was very empty. We grabbed some great seats about halfway up and in the center. The concert movie was awesome. 3D has really come a long way and with it being on the Imax screen it really felt like you were at the concert with the fans and on stage with the band. I'm not really a big U2 fan, but I discovered it is mainly because I have never taken the time to listen to much of their music. It was an awesome show and after we said goodbye to Kenny and Stacy we headed back to Kennesaw. There was little traffic on the interstate and we all took turns playing different songs on our ipods to amuse ourselves for the journey home. We arrived safely back at The School Box at 10:20pm where I dropped Stacy and Carmen off at their cars. I headed home, wrote this blog, and then went to sleep.

Meditation for the day: Romans 1:16 "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes."

From the Desk 4/28/2008

Today I got to work and promptly began working on a task that Dave had handed to Mike and I. We are supposed to find and select a mailing house here locally in Kennesaw for any future direct mail pieces we need to distribute to our customers. This task seems simple enough, but it is very hard to find stand alone mail fulfillment centers. Everyone seems to be going for an all-in-one approach to marketing. I have made contact and met with several printers that handle everything from concept to creation to distribution. Unfortunately these companies would be priced higher than our current mailing house that we use in Chattanooga since we would only be employing their mailing services. I'm sure Mike and I will call many different places tomorrow to narrow down the list to ones that are within 15 miles of the corporate office, have the fastest turn-around time, and have the most reasonable price. I also confirmed arrangements for our newspaper insertion in mid-May with the two newspapers in our Tennessee stores. This is my first project that I have seen from start to finish and it is all going without a hitch so far (fingers crossed). I also have now tweaked the final version of our Summer Catalog cover and I must say that it is definitely a new direction for The School Box, but I think it will generate more interest than usual.

I watched an episode of Psych on my lunch break and then returned to mailing house searches for the majority of the afternoon. I also took some time to work on a card stock divider type piece that we could use in our bookcases to highlight specific products. It is sort of like a file folder but only a single sheet with the tab being at the top instead of along the side. There are 2 different versions: one for new products and one for on sale items. I noticed around 3:55pm that today time passed really quickly as the last time I looked at the clock it was 1:30pm! Stacy and I decided that today we would go walking after work for a bit. That works out to my advantage because I was planning on starting my workout today, and now I can just go to the weight room after I walk at Stacy's since I'll already be in the active mode. I worked on some random projects until 5:00 rolled around and then I headed home to change into walking clothes (I really don't know what classifies articles of clothing as "walking clothes" but I figured if they have specific clothing for every other activity why not for walking)

I changed clothes and headed to Stacy's for some walking. We walked for about an hour and then I headed back to my apartment. Stacy had somewhere to be so there was no dinner tonight, which is fine because if I don't eat some of the food I've got it will go bad. I returned to the weight room at my apartments to begin my workout. I was ultimately let down because the weight room is closed for routine cleaning/maintenance so I will have to delay my kick-off to fitness until another day. I fixed myself some dinner and proceeded to watch some Law & Order SVU while I dined. I spent the rest of the evening occasionally glancing at the TV, but mostly ordering some more miniDV tapes for my upcoming weddings and more water shield DVDs too. I went to bed around 11:30pm and fell asleep almost as quickly as the night before.

Meditation for the day: Genesis 31:49 "May the Lord watch over you and me when we are apart, one from the other."

From the Desk 4/27/2008

I woke up too early Sunday morning and fought with the alarm clock, continually hitting the snooze button for about 40 minutes of intermittent sleep. I finally got up around 7:45am and took a shower. I skipped on some breakfast at the house and picked up a smoothie from Sonic on my way to church. I was going to fill in up in the broadcast booth as Charlie had to play in the orchestra for the first part of the service. The service was good. The adult choir did an excerpt from their latest musical production "The Risen Christ" and it was still as powerful as the first time I saw it. It was good to be able to catch up with Charlie during the broadcast.

After the two services, I met up with Hickey, Charlie, Josi & Bob, Elise & Josh, Amy & Jon, and my parents at the mall for some lunch. It was really good to see them all as I usually don't get to visit with most of that group when I come into town. I also had some delicious Charlie's Steakery for lunch (anyone want to guess what I ordered? You get a prize if you're the first one to post a comment with the correct answer!) After that I went back to my parents' house, changed, and left to hang with Hickey. We watched 4 episodes of Are You Afraid of the Dark? then I hit the road home.

My trip was alright. The skies were mostly overcast and then I got to Cleavland where the skies opened up and dumped the equivalent of the Tennessee River over a 5 mile area in 20 minutes! The average speed of everyone on the interstate was 45 mph because no one cold see anything other than brake lights after the swipe of their windshield wipers. The rain let up once I got closer to Chattanooga and only lightly sprinkled on and off until I got 15 miles into Georgia. There the ground was dry...perhaps the drought is the fault of a mysterious Tennessean who has developed a rain shield that is placed on the border. I only suggest this because the ground in Georgia was dry, and it looked like it hadn't rained at all! I arrived home at 7:20pm and unloaded my car. I unpacked, ate some dinner, and then got to answering emails and check the usual websites for info. I worked on some new templates for wedding DVD inserts, but couldn't create anything I like too much. I went to sleep watching Clue on my laptop and fell asleep faster than I thought possible. (don't remember anything past the opening credits)

Mediation for the day: “We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlesness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature - trees, flowers, grass - grows in silence; see the starts, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence...We need silence to be able to touch souls." ~Mother Theresa