From the Desk 6/28/2008

This morning I managed to sleep in for the first time in a loooong time. It was mainly due to the fact that I didn't have to drive up to Knoxville this morning, which eliminated the need for a pesky alarm clock to be used. I woke up around 9:00 and decided to do a little bit of video work before my days activities started. I managed to complete the cutting of the cake, the dance with the parents, and the dance with the brother of the bride. Christina called around 10:00 and we decided to go hike a trail out at Red Top Mountain State Park. I drove out to Woodstock to pick her up and then we headed North on I-75 until we reached our exit. The park was not far off the exit and there was adequate parking as it was only 11:35 when we arrived. The weather was supposed to be scattered showers, but there was nothing visible except a few white clouds and lots of blue sky. The trail was a little confusing as the trail markers didn't really direct you to trail names, but rather lodge and cabin locations. After we made a quick .7 mile hike around the visitor center loop we finally found the trail head to the Homestead loop trail (5.5 mile loop highlighted by yellow dashes on the trail map). This trail was very moderate, no steep uphill or downhill for extended periods of time, and there was quite a bit of shade along the path. That was a relief because the sun had begun to show its power to create hot, uncomfortable afternoons as it beat down on us through the gaps in the tree tops. We took a short break about 3/4 of the way around the loop to sit on a bench overlooking Lake Allatoona. (I have included a picture of us so you can see who Christina is...and how beautiful she is) The trail we chose seemed to cling to the shoreline of the lake for the back half of the loop, which made for some nice scenery. We arrived back at the visitors center around 1:30 and hit the road back to Woodstock. I dropped Christina off at her apartment and then went to my apartment to eat some lunch. I returned to working on the wedding video for about 2 hours and then decided to take a break, which ultimately led to an hour long nap. I woke up feeling refreshed and ready to do some more editing work. Christina called soon after that and we made plans to go see Wall-E, the new movie by Pixar, tonight around 8:00. I updated some info on Facebook and then went back to working on some of the extras for the wedding videos (printing the discs, duplicating the ceremony disc, and creating/printing the inserts)

I showered and got ready for the movie after eating a quick bite. Christina met me at my apartments and I drove us over to the AMC theater on Barrett Parkway. We saw Wall-E and I would recommend this movie to people of any age. It has all the elements that you would expect from a Pixar and Disney film. There is an underlying tone about the in-activity of the human race/ the downfalls of a large corporate company that is given too much power, but that is sometimes how real life is so we'll let Disney slide on this one. Basically, two-thumbs way up and you need to go see it. After the movie, Christina came in and we ate some ice cream while watching Sweet Dreams. She had mentioned after seeing the movie poster that she wanted to see it someday and I figured why not tonight. She laughed through the main parts (which is what we all did) and she loved the bloopers reel. I walked her to her car and then she gave me directions to His Hands, the church we are going to tomorrow morning at 10:00am in Woodstock, GA. I went back inside, smiling, and am excited to see what this church is like tomorrow with Christina.

Meditation of the day: Psalm 117:2 " For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever. Praise the LORD."

From the Desk 6/27/2008

This morning I got to work anticipating a day that would be filled with activities different form the norm. As I would find out later, I would not be disappointed. I worked on resizing an ad for the Chattanooga Parent magazine's July Back-to-School section. It was a little awkward to resize the ad because the original was more of a landscape format and the new size was in portrait mode. After a little moving around of page elements and some tricks, I had it done. I then got a call from Chris that she would be in around 11:00am to begin our major project of the day. I finished up some signs for the stores and then finished up entering the coordinates for our zip code data map of the BTS flyer mailing list. The end result was exactly what I was looking for, but I am hoping to find a different method of entering the data as it took almost and entire days work to determine the zip code counts and enter them into the mapping program. I was invited to join Stacy, Tausha, and Blair for some lunch at Taco Mac, but unfortunately I had to decline as it was almost time for Chris to show up. I did send them with some money and an order to bring back for me.

While "the group" went to eat, Chris and I gathered up our list of items we needed to send to the stores for the Back-to-School sales that runs from July 14 - August 31. We set out boxes for each store and then filled them with 20% off stickers, large vinyl signs for the store windows, clips for holing the product signs, and then took a break for lunch. I ate my take-out from Taco Mac at my desk and answered some emails that I missed while working in the warehouse with Chris. After I finished eating I saw that Christina was taking her break so I went and sat and talked with her until she had to go back to the floor. I met Chris back in the warehouse and she and I finished diving up the signs. We then had to divide out the 105 boxes of calendar/mouse pads that will be free giveaways during this promotion. I am finally beginning to learn what stores are identified by what number and how large each store is (ergo, how many boxes they received of the giveaways). We finished up around 3:00 and for the rest of the afternoon I begin preparing the final print of my secret project for presentation to Chris and Dave next week.

I left work at 5:00 and then went home to take a quick nap since I was tired from being in the hot warehouse while still wearing dress clothes and sweating profusely. I took a shower and then Christina picked me up at 6:45 to grab some dinner before we went to a wedding downtown at 8:00. We ate at Los Reyes Mexican restaurant and it was delicious. They also had a live mariachi band playing (there seems to be a good job market for that type of band down here). We ate and it took us a little longer than expected because our waiter, Leo, disappeared and didn't bring us our check promptly. We headed downtown to The Peachtree Club located on the 28th floor at Peachtree St. & 10th St. in Atlanta. The setting was extravagant and the reception was a blast. We actually missed the ceremony because we were about 15 minutes late due to the exit we needed to take being under construction. (and that the ceremony was the shortest in the history of weddings: 12 minutes) We toasted, laughed, and danced (when pushed onto the floor by Christina's friend Bill) until 11:00 and then we headed back to my apartment. We decided to watch a few episodes of Boy Meets World before Christina left for the night. I walked her to her car and then went inside to rest up for the hiking trip tomorrow.

Meditation for the day: 2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”

From the Desk 6/26/2008

This morning I woke up feeling very rested and ready to work on the video before work. I was able to get a little bit accomplished, but I didn't have high hopes since it takes several minutes to just get the file open and ready to edit. I left for work and noticed that the Exxon station I passed along the way had actually had a price drop in gas. (That's right....the price of gas went down!) I made a mental note to go buy gas on my lunch break before they either raised the price or ran out of gas. I got to work and was doing some various status updates with mailings, cover art work, etc. when Chris called me. She had gotten back in town and we set a meeting for after lunch to create a checklist for sending supplies to the stores for the BTS sale (July 14 - August 31).

I decided to go home on my lunch break and get just a bit more work done on the video if I could. I was able to make it through the wedding party entrance, the first dance, and the blessing before I had to return to work. I remembered to stop off and buy gas (for $3.92 per gallon...things are definitely wrong if I'm excited about this price) on my way back to the Box. Chris arrived shortly after and we made our plan. We also went to the marketing corner of the warehouse to see if any of the new things we ordered had come in yet. We found the new lanyard, which turned out great, the new shelf label holders for the BTS sale signs, and two rugs with The School Box logo on them. We took the clips to the sales floor to make sure they would work, and they are far better than the sticky holders we used to use. We also took the 2 rugs and replaced the old, faded, and very dirty rugs that greeted customers as they entered and exited the store. They looked great and I have a feeling that we will be ordering more for several other stores. The rest of the day was spent trying to expand my horizons by replacing parts/repairing the shrink wrapping machine. It was slow going as the directions were not very thorough, but I made it work.

I left work and went to Super Target to do some grocery shopping (since Christina was coming over after she got off at 7 and I had no food to feed her with). Traffic was kind of crazy getting there, but Target was unusually uncrowded. I bought my groceries and managed to stay under $100.00 this time, but not by much. I returned to the apartment and put everything away. By the time I had gotten that done it was close to 7:00. I decided to sift through some of my old notes from my advertising research class at UT to see if I could uncover an easier way to obtain the information I needed to plot on a map for David to gain insight into our new store locations. I had emailed Dr. Ron Taylor (advertising department head) earlier in the day to ask for guidance and he was most helpful in suggesting the service PRIZM. I spent some time making notes and searching for answers until Christina arrived. I realized that I hadn't eaten and that she most likely hungry by then so I cooked some 4 cheese tortellini shells with Bertolli's pasta sauce and some garlic bread. It was delicious, especially since I hadn't planned on cooking, but it was nice to cook for someone again. After we ate we played Wii Sports for a while until we determined that I was good at baseball and ok at tennis, and Christina was magnificent at bowling (while I continue to struggle in that area). I walked Christina to her car and then went back inside to try and work for a little bit on the video. I managed to squeeze about 45 minutes f work out before I lost focus and becam extremely tired. I went to bed with the lyrics of a Coldplay song in my head: "God Put a Smile On Your Face" (its a really good song).

Meditation for the day: Matthew 16:25 “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.”

From the Desk 6/25/2008

This morning I woke up at 6am (again) and got a bit more video editing accomplished before getting ready for a full day at work. I made a short detour on my way to work by what hopefully was my last trip to the Tag Office to finally get my license tag for my car (the picture is not my tag). I was the 3rd person in line this morning and I got to mostly listen to two gentlemen talk about their respective Corvettes that they owned. I was amazed to see two people that knew the in-depth knowledge of the engines and customizable kits for these cars from the 1967 to the 2005 models. It was over my head in terms of participating other than the occasional nod or acknowledgment that I would have trouble fitting into the older models due to my height. I walked into the office when they opened at 8:30 and was immediately seen by an employee. The process took all of 6 minutes to sign, pay, and receive my tag. I hopped in the car and then journeyed to work for the day. I got to work and decided to go ahead and print the remaining new teacher letters that Leland would need at the end of next week. I was making decent progress printing the remaining 3,500 flyers and then I hit a snag. We were getting low on and then ran completely out of toner for the copier. We normally have a spare cartridge, but apparently after the spare was used no one called to get another spare from our supplier. I called Southern Office Machines and told them we were out of toner and we needed 3 cartridges to replenish and have a spare. They said they would send someone out with toner, but until then my printing project would have to wait.

For lunch today I met Leslie (from Howell Mill) and Stacy at Rafferty's. Stacy was taking the remainder of the day off to go wedding dress shopping with Leslie, but we all needed to catch up since our weekends have been packed an we haven't had a chance to get together lately. It was good to talk and laugh (as it always is) and we talked more about Leslie's wedding plans. After we ate I wished them good luck on their quest for the perfect wedding dress at the perfect price and I returned to work. The afternoon passed very slowly with the clock not seeming to move for almost 2 hours. I tried to get some work done on my market research project for the 8 new store locations. It is more difficult than one would think to obtain income data, school locations, and other demographic information to plot on a map for marketing purposes. I have found a site online that is close to what we need for plotting the data on maps around the store locations so now all I need is the data to input into the mapping program. I emailed back and forth with the designers from CCC who were putting together our new catalog cover. It took a few tries, but I finally got my point across for what changes we needed made to the proof. We should finalize the cover tomorrow which means it should go to print next week and be done around the 3rd week of July.

5:00 finally arrived and I went home to begin my other work: wedding videos. I left the ceremony project burning while I was at work and tested it to make sure that it burned without error. It looked flawless so I now have the official master disc for the ceremony and can focus all my attention to the reception video. I was able to make a little headway on that project. I compiled the exit to the reception as an intro to the main menu. I also compiled the pre-shots of the reception into a separate video clip that will be shown on the main menu screen. I laid down the two video tracks for the beginning of the reception and then took a break to eat some dinner. I answered some emails, updated the blog, and did some laundry during my non-video hours. I talked briefly on the phone with Christina and then Stacy called a few minutes later to tell me that Leslie found a wedding dress! After getting off the phone I decided to go to bed early tonight and start fresh in the morning. I decided to watch the movie Clue as I drifted off to sleep tonight and it proved to be good, but led to odd dreams that I can't entirely remember. Oh well, at least I will get more sleep tonight.

Meditation of the day: Leviticus 19:18 “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.”

From the Desk 6/24/2008

Today I got up at 6:00am to get some extra time working on video editing. I managed to import all the files into the project and lay down the opening footage and menu backgrounds and music before I had to go to work. I worked on various project throughout the day, with the main focus being on finding data plotting software to help analyze our customers' locations on our mailing list. It was slow going mainly because most of the services out there either do not allow for the level of customization that we are looking for or they are way too expensive. I did manage to find a couple of sites that would let me download trial versions of the programs to play with and see if they would meet our needs. I also worked on a bit more printing for the new teacher letters for Leland to pick up mid-July.

For lunch today we went to Willy's in honor of Carmen's last day before her vacation. It was great food as usual and it was good to laugh for almost a solid hour too! I returned to work and then struggled to stay awake due to my early start to the day. I assembled and laminated new headers for the 3-ring binder displays in a small effort to make sure all our racks have signs before BTS. I also spent a good deal of time sifting through the multiple offers for sponsorships, donations, and advertising that I have received over the last week. The flow of these offers seems to come in waves about every three months. I also knew that once Chris and Dave returned to the office, there would be limited time to spend dealing with these things since we now need to turn our focus to Back-to-School Sales, the next catalog mailing, and fourth quarter planning. I left the office shortly before 5:00pm to run to Target on my way home.

I picked up a case of bottled water and the new release movie "Definitely, Maybe" on DVD. I went home and immediately began working on editing the wedding videos. I managed to get about 3/4 of the way through the ceremony and then I needed to eat a quick bite and get ready before my company came over. Christina came over around 8:00 to watch the new movie I picked up earlier. We watched the movie and I must admit that it was one of the better movies I have seen lately. It has most of the same elements of your typical romantic comedy, but it also threw in lots of serious moments with some underlying tones of the harshness of life at times. I walked Christina to her car and then returned to video editing in an effort to push through my sleepiness to make some more progress. I managed to finish the ceremony and all I had to do was to set the menu links in the morning before burning it off to DVD. I went to sleep smiling about the movie, thinking of the quotes I could use in the next few days before I slipped into a deep sleep.

Meditation for the day: Jeremiah 23:24 “Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?" declares the LORD. "Do not I fill heaven and earth?" declares the LORD.”

From the Desk 6/23/2008

This Monday morning started off very groggy as I have yet to recover from my lost sleep over the weekend. I didn't have to be at work at 8:00 since I was going back to the tag office to get my car registered and my license plate from Georgia. I arrived there and was about the 8th person in line this time so I was helped almost immediately. Much to my dismay, the insurance information had not yet made its way into the Georgia State system and I would have to wait til another day to finish this process. I arrived at work and began working on the project that would occupy the rest of my day.

I had to finish de-duping the mailing list for the BTS flyer that had already arrived at ABC mail house that morning. I had some obstacles in using the de-duping program as it would only take 50,00 entries at once and I had to filter through over 112,000 entries. After breaking down the addresses into groups of 25,000 I ran each through the filter and then complied the outputed unique addresses into a new file. It took up until 2:00 for this process to finish and by that time I had already had 2 cups of coffee (yes, me drinking coffee to stay alert and somewhat focused). I took a break for some lunch that I picked up at Chick-fil-A since I have yet to go to the grocery store. When I returned from lunch I spent what little amount of the day remained sending out follow-up emails for the Fall catalog printing/delivery logistics. I also shared the news that we would be mailing out 32,691 BTS flyers with "the bosses" who were thrilled. We have been running mailing list building contests with all the retail stores in an effort to gain a larger customer database to increase our marketing efforts. The last flyer we mailed out like this was sent to around 28,000 addresses so growing that by 4,000 names in 3 months was great news!

5:00 came around much faster that I realized and I changed into my clothes to go hiking with Stacy. We went and hiked the loop at Burnt Hickory Rd. We set a fairly aggressive pace as we hiked the 3.5 mile loop in 1 hour. After dropping Stacy off at her car, I realized that the hike had the desired effect and I was very much awake. I went to the apartment and almost immediately began working on video editing (which will consume my nights for the next 2 weeks). Christina called me around 8:00 when she got out of class and invited me to be her date for one of her friend's weddings on Friday night. I graciously accepted and thought that it will be nice to go to a wedding and not have to film it! I finished the video of the Graduate Recognition Service at CBCB and burned the master off to DVD. I straightened and unpacked while the video was rendering and burning and then when it finished I knew I had to get some sleep. I turned in, knowing that I was going to be getting up early (6:00am) every morning this week to work on editing before I go into work.

Meditation for the day: Romans 5:5 "And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us."

From the Desk 6/22/2008

This morning I woke up at 7:00 (when I planned this time) and picked up the paper at Amy and Jon's to check the ads. Rumor had it that if the Target ad listed Nintendo Wii's as available that the stores would have a limited quantity to sell on Sunday morning. I checked and they were shown in the flyer so I got ready and left to try and secure a Nintendo Wii for myself to occupy my time while I am done with wedding videos. I arrived at the Target at Downtown West at 8:10am and bought one of the three remaining systems (they had 12 at 8:00 when they opened). I then ran to Walmart to buy replacement bulbs for my car headlights. After stopping off at Sonic for some breakfast, I arrived at CBCB to help run the sound booth for the services that morning. I was soon joined in the booth by dad, Charlie and Stephanie. We made a mostly error free recording/broadcast of the first service which was amazing as I was still about to fall asleep despite my extended rest from last night.

After the second service was over, we all went to Calhoun's at Bearden Hill to eat some lunch. It was nice to eat a Sunday lunch with my family. I do miss that each weekend, but I'm sure that I will be welcome to join them whenever I am in town. Dad and I changed out the headlights on my car, which came in handy later, and I met up with Hickey at his parent's house. We made a run to Walmart and then ended up at the mall after stopping for some slushes at Sonic during their "Happy Hour". We wandered around the mall in search of swim trunks for Hickey, but he couldn't find any he liked. I just enjoyed hanging out and walking around (as otherwise I would have been asleep). I dropped by my parent's house to change back into my church clothes that mom had so graciously washed for me to wear to Dr. Wendell Boertje's 25th Anniversary service at 6:30.

I had already made contact with Chris Bailey and made arrangements to join the orchestra to play the opening song in the celebration service. It was good to see my orchestra family again and my playing wasn't as bad as I had thought considering I hadn't played my trumpet in over 6 months. I left as soon as we finished playing in an attempt to get home before dark. It didn't work. I ended up meeting with Paulette Chandler and family to discuss the details of Amy's wedding that I was filming in October. We wrapped up our chat and contract signing as the clouds rolling in appeared to be about to burst with rain. I hopped on the interstate and before I even reached the split to I-75, traffic slowed to an astounding 35 mph as no one could see from the combination of heavy rains and blinding sunlight. I finally arrived at the slip to I-75 and found that when I drove just a bit further, the ground wasn't even damp from rain. I'm glad it stopped though, because I was already delayed from my desired departure time and was trying to make up for it by not running into any traffic. That worked until Sweetwater where the weekend paving project was still ongoing and traffic was cut down to using only part of one lane and the shoulder (see my picture if you think I'm joking). I finally got back to a normal speed and finally arrived home at 10:00pm.

After I unloaded my car and changed clothes, I met Christina at Steak n' Shake for a milkshake and to hear about her weekend. It had been almost 2 years since I just went someplace for a milkshake, and I will have to not let another 2 years pass before doing it again. It was good to see Christina and we made plans for hiking later in the week and I think she is going to join Mike and I on our 10 mile hike on Saturday morning. I said goodbye to her and then went to my apartment where I promptly crashed until the next morning.

Meditation for the day: 1 Corinthians 13:6-8 "Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.