Well, Friday has finally arrived! It seemed like it was going to be a fairly good day. I slept straight through the night which netted me about 9 hours of sleep. I headed into work and saw that gas dropped once again, this time down to $3.70 per gallon. I got to work and decided to get me a cup of coffee on my way to my desk. I neglected to look at the coffee maker and notice that the red light was not on. That would have tipped me off to the fact that this coffee was from yesterday and was also ice cold. I figured that out on my own when I sipped from the mug expecting hot refreshing coffee and receiving a totally opposite experience. I quickly poured it out and began brewing a new pot for the office. Aimee, one of the regional managers, brought in Dunkin Donuts for everyone so I poured myself a cup of fresh coffee when I procured a donut for myself. I spent a good part of the morning refining the graphics needed to send to our website company to finalize the design of our Breast Cancer awareness homepage. I then ate the leftovers that Christina's mom sent to me. I ate lunch today in two parts. I first ate the shrimp and garlic bread with Mike, Carmen, Aimee and Blair. I then ate the piece of fish that Christina's dad had caught with Tausha and Stacy when they returned from getting their lunches.
After lunch I spent a good deal of time creating the base for the breast cancer flyer that will link off our homepage to inform our customers what we are doing and how they can help find a cure for breast cancer. I also made a completely different cover for the Holiday Toy catalog so we would have options to choose from instead of having to go with only one look. It took several adjustments with the colors used and the textures applied to certain parts of the background, but I was pleased with the end result. Stacy and Vickie also liked the new design so now we will actually have to decide which to use; the more traditional holiday colors approach, or the bright splattered primary colors approach that may attract more attention. I like them both, but I am a bit biased. I am pulling to use the primary colors design as I think more people will pay attention to it since it will stand out form everything else they will see during that time of the year. I then made the website header image that I will have to update first thing in the morning on Monday since the Classroom Gift Card promo is over on Sunday at close. I talked at length with Mike for some ideas on how we might solve our problem of slow to no-response from the website company we are using to maintain/create the larger part of schoolbox.com. I think that we may have a plan in mind to present to Dave for solving this problem while also planning for the future. 5:00 rolled around and I headed home!
I called Christina on the way home and we decided to order some pizza and then watch one of the new movies I picked up on my last trip to Knoxville, 21. She arrived and we ordered the pizza. It came faster than expected which was nice because I was starving. We also 
ordered the new dessert pastries from there. There four to a box for $3.99. A little pricey for the amount you received, but they were delicious. They were square flaky pastries with Tollhouse chocolate chips melted inside with icing drizzled on top. We watched the movie "21" which is based on a true story about a group of gifted math students that counted cards and got rich, that is until they were caught. It was overall an excellent movie with a strong cast (Kevin Spacey, Jim Sturgess, and Kate Bosworth). The movie ended just in time for us to catch the new episode of "Psych" that came on at 10:00. We watched the episode of "House" that followed and then it was time to go to bed. I said goodnight to Christina and then went to sleep. I was hoping to sleep in and regain even more of the sleep that I had lost over this past week.
Meditation for the day: Luke 12:6-7
Saturday, August 9, 2008
From the Desk 8/8/2008
Thursday, August 7, 2008
From the Desk 8/7/2008
This morning I woke up late and very sleepy. I am determined to get in bed early tonight and catch up on some much needed sleep. I got to work and immediately grabbed my cup of coffee. I worked on brainstorming ideas throughout the day for the marketing meeting, which has been moved to September 3rd due to some schedule conflicts. I got together with Stacy and we made a plan to alter the graphics we have for our classroom tables. The original 
graphics only show one color of table and we needed to demonstrate that they were available in 7 different table top colors with matching trim. After decided what would look best, I began working on updating and altering the graphics for the 12 different sizes/styles of tables we regularly stock. That took about an hour to complete and then I returned to my attempted brainstorming. I had planned on being good and eating lunch that I had brought with me today, but when I discovered that the entire family was going to go out for a meal I couldn't resist.
So Mike, Carmen, and I hopped into Mike's car and we followed Stacy, Blair and Tausha in Tuasha's car. We arrived at McDonald's and quickly grabbed a booth in the back corner as to not disturb other people. 
That almost worked except we were sitting next to the bathroom and we received lots of strange looks from people as they were walking in and out of the bathroom. After we ate we headed back to work and that's when Mike showed that even though he is in his mid 30's he can still be cool. (side note: Carmen and I couldn't breathe because we were laughing so hard at the site of Mike that I captured in this picture) The afternoon was spent trying to brainstorm, but nothing came from that except a real storm outside. I also compiled a report to show that results from our blast emails through the BTS season. It was interesting to see the open rates, clickthrough rates, and URL link clicks that will hopefully be used to help direct our layout of the emails in the future. My cell phone had died as I forgot to charge it the night before so I apologize if any one tried to call me and I was unreachable. I only mention that because I knew that Christina was scheduled to work from 11-6 today and she wouldn't be joining us for dinner before the movie....or so I thought.
As 5:00 rolled around we all gathered and made our way out the store front to Mike's car to go eat at Ted's Montana Grill. When we walked onto the floor I saw that Christina was clocking out and ready to go with us! I was thrilled and gave her a slightly confused look as I hadn't yet received her text that she was getting off at 5:00 to go eat with us (cause my phone was dead). We went to Ted's and I had a delicious Salmon Ceasar Salad while my usual (George's Cadillac burger) was ordered by Christina. We ate quickly as our food took an usually long amount of time to arrive. We headed across the parking lot to AMC Barrett 24 to see "The Dark Knight". Everyone enjoyed the movie and it was just as good the second time around as it was the first. After the movie Mike dropped us all back off at the Box to pick up our cars. I said goodnight to Christina as I was determined to get extra sleep tonight. I went home and checked emails and some other stuff online before turning in early for the night at 10:15! I laid my head down and wondered if I would be able to go to sleep early. About the time I completed that thought I slipped into a deep sleep that was sure to last all night long.
Meditation for the day: Psalm 149:4 “For the LORD takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with salvation.”
From the Desk 8/6/2008
This morning I overslept a bit and rushed to get ready for work. I got to work to eat my Frosted Mini-Wheats for breakfast with my morning cup of coffee. I then began to work on brainstorming some ideas for next year's marketing calendar. We have set a meeting for August 25th to gather Dave, Chris, Vickie, Mike, Aimee, Anna, Kenny, Stacy and I to collaborate on new ideas for marketing for 2009. It will be set-up as a storyboard meeting. We will sit in a circle and then each person will share one index card that they have brought that has a new idea or improvement for an idea that we currently use and we will classify them and post them on a board. Once everyone has shared their cards we will look more closely at each card and see which ideas are financially do-able and which ones we need to start working on first. I am extremely excited as this will be the first official marketing focused meeting that we have had since I've been in this position. The ideas didn't start flowing quickly so I decided to re-visit the attempt at creativity later since I had plenty of time to work on that. I also worked on more graphics to include with the Georgia State poster that we are considering producing ourselves. It took until lunch time to add the graphics of 3 historical Georgia-born figures to the mix.
For lunch today Christina met me at the Box (she was off today) and I took her to Kirimosho for some sushi. I had the usual Volcano Roll and Christina had the California Hand-Roll combo. I will have to try that sometime as hers looked delicious. We ate and talked and as suspected time passed way too quickly. After eating we returned to work and I said goodbye until later tonight. I went back inside to work and Christina 
went home. For the rest of the afternoon I worked mainly on the cover for the Winter Toy catalog that we are finishing up. I tried several basic approaches at first and then further developed the design I liked most. You can see it pictured here (not the finished product at all) as the version I have sent to be looked over and critiqued by Vickie and Stacy. I had to remove the background from yet another image to isolate the girl in the bottom corner so that took a good chunk of time. It rolled around to 5:00 and I headed home for a brief stay.
I got home after stopping off by the bank and then changed into clothes more suited for the hot weather that met me as I walked outside. I then called Christina, took her food order, and then headed to grab us some dinner. I stopped at Burger King and then ended up at Christina's apartment where we watched an episode or two of "Hangin' With Mr. Cooper" which I didn't know was still on TV. It was hilarious and we laughed until 7:15 when we headed to Stacy's to watch a movie. We arrived at Stacy's and after scaring Cooper to the point where he was 
hesitant to be within 15 feet of me, we sat down to watch "Batman Begins". Cooper finally warmed up to me again and decided that I really wasn't going to maim or kill him. We decided on that movie as tomorrow after work we are going to see "The Dark Knight", which is the sequel to this version of the Batman films. It was good as it is every time I see it. I managed, once it got dark, to catch a small nap for about 15 minutes during one of the slower parts of the movie. After the movie was over Christina and I left and we headed back to her apartment. I had planned on saying goodnight, but decided to stay and watch some TV with her instead. We fell asleep to episodes of Home Improvement and then when I woke up I headed home for the night.
Meditation for the day: Isaiah 33:22 “For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; it is he who will save us.”
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
From the Desk 8/5/2008
This morning I arrived at work after picking up some food from Chick-fil-A. I began working on revising some more graphics and placing them in test pages of an older catalog to see how they looked, stood out, blended in, etc. I then started to work on the theme for our breast cancer promo in October. We received a mock-up from our web-server company on a "pink site" that we could launch for the month of October to better promote our push for the cure of Breast Cancer. I worked on the main graphic we would use (which are pink boxing gloves...."Help knockout Breast Cancer! - a possible theme) and emailed that to my contact to include in the next version. I took a short break around 10:30 to run down to ABC Mailing to deliver the check for the postage for our catalog mailing that goes out on Thursday. I was fairly proud of myself for no longer needing directions to find my way there and back. When I returned I answered a couple of emails and then decided to eat my lunch. I ate my lunch at my desk today as everyone in the group was either meeting family for lunch or running errands.
I scanned a couple of sites listing concerts for the area over the next week and saw that Amos Lee, who I first saw in concert with Norah Jones, was playing at the Variety Playhouse tonight! I was thrilled and when I found Christina on the sales floor I asked if she wanted to go. She was excited and said yes. I knew that she really wanted to go because it was her brother's birthday and she said she could cut the family festivities down in time so we could still go. I searched for tickets on Ticketmaster and soon discovered that the show was sold out. I was highly disappointed, but kept looking for tickets on craigslist. I sent out emails to people posting tickets for sale, but only got one response letting me know that the tickets she had to offer were already sold. I returned to work stuff and met briefly with Vickie and Stacy about an idea they had. They wanted to explore the idea of creating some products (charts, etc.) that we designed and bore our logo. This idea was very exciting to me, but I know that unless we bring a graphics person on board to help design these items that it will be hard to balance that work with the work that 
I need to do to maintain the marketing calendar. I worked on removing the backgrounds from two pictures for the rest of the day (taking around 2 hours). As you can see from the two pictures the difference between the before and after graphics. It is a tedious process to properly remove the background from an image, requiring you to zoom in down to the pixel by pixel level to get it right. I looked up and realized that it was almost 5:00 so I saved my progress and then shut everything down to go home for the day.
Once I got home I played a bit of Guitar Hero III to unwind from the day. I have decided, possibly foolishly, to begin working through the game on the hard level. This level was one I never thought I would try, but I have decided to jump of that ledge today. I beat the first 3 songs about 2 weeks ago and then failed the next one so I hadn't tried it again since then. I beat that song that I failed, played through the following encore song. I then kept the momentum going and beat the following 4 songs which led me to the first battle on the hard level. I failed it impressively 4 times and then decided to take a break for the night. I ate some dinner and then sat and stared at our website for about an hour trying to determine what graphics we should use to jazz up the boxes at the bottom of the homepage. Nothing brilliant came to me, but I'm sure it will eventually. While I was doing that I had the USA vs. Australia Olympic Men's Basketball game on. I noticed that it is sometimes hard for professionals to work together when the team is comprised of lots of stars from the NBA. Christina called and she was on her way over after her brother's birthday celebration. When she arrived she had a gift for me; leftovers of dinner that her mom sent to me! So for dinner tomorrow night I will be enjoying fried shrimp, grilled fish, and cornbread! We watched an episode of dirty jobs and then stumbled across a gem on the Universal HD channel: The Naked Gun 2 1/2. Christina had never seen these movie before so I felt privileged to introduce her to them. After the movie was over we watched an episode of Family Matters and then it was time for her to leave. We said goodnight and I walked her to her car. I came back inside and quickly fell asleep as my eyes were tired from staring at the computer screen all day.
Meditation for the day: Psalm 119:160 “All your words are true; all your righteous laws are eternal.”
Monday, August 4, 2008
From the Desk 8/4/2008
This morning I slept in till 7:30 (not my plan) and rushed to get ready for work. I think that now I am caught up on sleep as I went to bed early last night after having napped for a combined 3 hours yesterday afternoon. I got to work and began working on some ideas for new marketing ventures for the 4th quarter of the year. I was pleased with a couple of them and then Mike approached me about an idea that he had and we kind of collaborated together to come up with the finished product of an idea. I will be posting more about that idea the close it gets the time we will implement it into our website. I also worked on tweaking the coupon sheets for the workshops that will be held in the fall. I met with Chris and Vickie briefly to discuss updating the coupons on our website and it was determined that from now on I will be updating them as I can do this quickly and probably have a better idea of when they need to change. I worked on some more graphic ideas for the 2009 catalog and then took a break around 11:30 for lunch with Stacy and Blair. We were all good today and brought our lunches. My goal this week is to only eat out one day for lunch and that will be on either Wednesday or Friday with Christina as she is off both of those days. We relaxed and laughed our way through lunch until it was time to return to work.
After lunch Stacy and I met with Vickie to discuss/proof catalog covers for the Holiday Toy flyer. We approved the insert promoting the one day sale and coupon, but we wanted a couple of days to brainstorm and make rough versions of a cover that we could design ourselves. I almost began working on brainstorming that and then I finally remembered to send out an email letting the powers that be know about the new feature I put on our website. If you visit our website and click on the part of the header that promotes the back-to-school sales flyer you will be taken to a flip book version of the flyer. I worked with a company online to upload the flyer and we purchased a single license to make sure we followed the rules for publication. I linked the flyer to the promo on the header and it works beautifully. Let me know if you think that this tool would be appreciated by our customers or if it just comes across as a gimmick. I then worked with Stacy to check in and split out an order to the stores. It was 3 pallets and although it was not particularly hard labor, I wasn't dressed to work in the warehouse so I got hot very fast. It took us about 45 minutes to complete the checking in process and then I returned to my desk to find that I had gathered 15 emails in the hour I was away from my desk. I sorted through the urgent ones and then brainstormed with Vickie and Chris about a theme for the Breast Cancer focus in October. I will share the winning theme once we have settled on it. I straightened up my area and then realized it was 5:00 and time to go to Target and then home.
I ran by Target to get some cleaning implements I was out of and some bottled water. I went home and fixed some dinner with enough leftovers for lunch tomorrow. I snoozed briefly on the couch and then went to work on updating the blog and reading my newest issue of MacWorld. I got a free 6 month subscription to the magazine which I find interesting since I don't own a Mac (even though I really want one) The main focus of this issue was 53 free or low-cost applications that could help you do really cool stuff with your Mac. I read about half way through that article and then set-up the file to create Elizabeth's picture disc. I was looking at some canvas art online trying to find what I was looking for to have in my apartment when Christina called to let me know she was out of work for the night. She came over and we watched a few episodes of Boy Meets World. She hasn't been feeling 100% over the past couple of days so I didn't keep her up late tonight. I walked her to her car and we said goodnight. I went to sleep almost immediately after going back inside my apartment.
Meditation for the day: Psalm 119:130 “The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.”
Sunday, August 3, 2008
From the Desk 8/3/2008
This morning I woke up feeling much better after having slept more than the past few nights. I got ready and picked up Christina and we went to His Hands. The service was great! The message returned to focusing on the "Sermon on the Mount" which the pastor referred to as the "teaching on a hill". He focused on Jesus' illustrations of how if people wanted to be like the Pharisees and live by those rules and laws that they would have to be perfect to still enter the kingdom of Heaven. I never thought about the fact that throughout the examples he gave ("don't pray openly and make a presentation of it as the Pharisees do, otherwise that will be its reward") were calling the so called religious leaders out and saying that they were doing these things to be seen as righteous by others and not doing it for God's glory. The service was capped off by the last song that had pretty much everyone at least bobbing their head as the band played and we all sang:
"Your mercy taught us how to dance
To celebrate with all we have
And we’ll dance to thank You for mercy
Your glory taught us how to shout
To lift Your name in all the earth
And we’ll shout to the praise of Your glory
It’s the overflow
Of a forgiven soul
And now we’ve seen You, God
Our hearts cannot stay silent
And we’ll be a dancing generation
Dancing because of Your great mercy, Lord
Your great mercy, Lord
And we’ll be a shouting generation
Shouting because of Your great glory, Lord
Your great glory, Lord"
I left feeling alive and ready to conquer the day. That energy eventually faded as I wasn't as caught up on sleep as I thought. I dropped Christina off at her car since she had to work at noon today for the last day of tax-free weekend.
I went to my apartment and ate some lunch. I also snoozed briefly to the movie "The Core" that was on FX. I woke up and got to work on things I needed to do. I scanned in all the photos Elizabeth brought me for her wedding slide show DVD. I also scanned in some photos I had found
while cleaning the other day. You can see that some of them were quite old as this one was probably from my sophomore year in high school (who is that wild creature roaming around in the background?) I then took a break from my computer and decided to play around on the guitar Hickey lent me. I managed to remember how to play "Crash Into Me" by Dave Matthews Band and it sort of sounded similar to the real thing after several minutes of picking and strumming. I then returned to some necessary chores. I got in a hyper-cleaning mode and ended up cleaning (Hickey level of clean) both bathrooms, the kitchen, and vacuuming the entire apartment. I finished up cleaning and Christina called to let me know that she was getting out of work a little early. She picked up Wendy's and headed over to hang out. While she was on her way I grabbed a quick shower as to not smell like Fantastic and Dow Scrubbing Bubbles when she arrived.
She got there and we ate our food and enjoyed our Frostys. Christina pointed out the new slogan on the fries box: "You can't eat a Frosty and not smile". While this is a bold statement to make, I firmly believe that it is true as I thought back and have never seen anyone eating a Frosty that wasn't smiling. You will have to let me know if you witness this unlikely event. We then watched some TV and intermittently slept to the sounds of That 70's Show which was playing several episodes in a row. We were both exhausted; me from my driving and trip to Knoxville, and her from working all weekend in the chaos. I walked her to her car and we said goodnight. I went back inside and then went to bed not long after that. I was reminiscing on the weekend and smiling about getting to see all my friends and family even if it wasn't for as long as we would have liked.
Meditation for the day: Matthew 6:1-8 "
“When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth, that is all the reward they will ever get.
