From the Desk 8/15/2008

Today at work was completely focused on preparations for the marketing meeting. I typed out an agenda for me to have to keep things moving along and to make sure we at least touch on all the areas of marketing that we need to address. I know that everyone is coming into that meeting with their own agenda and their own ideas that they feel are the best way to promote our company, but I think that it is my responsibility to help keep the big picture in focus. We need to take the ideas and free flowing thoughts from this gathering and be able to shape them into the larger plan to accomplish the goals we set for the company each year. I do not know everything about the Box or know the best way to do things all the time, but what I do know is how to take ideas, mission statements, budgets, and goals and put them down on paper into a Total Integrated Marketing plan. ("Advertising Management 101: if you don't follow a detailed plan to accomplish an objective through marketing, you will fail" ~Dr. Dan Haygood, University of Tennessee) With this directive in mind, I revised and edited the agenda until it was broken down into 3 main sections.

After creating the 3 headings I took a break and ate some lunch at Willy's with Carmen, Blair and Tausha. We laughed louder then usual, probably due to the fact that it was Friday and we knew the weekend was within sight. We returned to work after what seemed like too short of a lunch break. I went back to work on the agenda and created some stat sheets on the value of zip code data from our customers, the importance of bolstering our customer database, and the introduction to a larger group of my vision for a customer loyalty program. I know that my admission of creating these sheets is a confession of my own agenda, but I think that these items are things that no one else will be thinking about as they do not concern the day-to-day activities of anyone else at that meeting. I took a break from the marketing meeting prepping to answer several emails and get together with Vickie and Judy about the best way to get the images we are missing for items in the holiday toy catalog. I watched the clock tick down to 4:45 and then I packed up my things to go home just a few minutes early.

I had to stop off at Publix on my way home to pick up a few items that I had forgotten that were necessary to prepare the salmon for Christina tonight. I picked up the 4 items quickly and then went home to began cooking. I baked corn on the cobb in the oven and then while the salmon was cooking I grabbed a quick shower. The salmon smelled wonderful and the aroma of the sweet corn also filled the air in the kitchen. I had just finished moving the salmon fillets from the baking dish to the plates on the table when Christina knocked on the door. In a minute or two I had the garlic bread on the table and we were ready to eat. The food was delicious and much thanks goes to Amy for sending me the recipe. It wasn't as hard as I thought and was very filling (which was good as I had nothing planned for dessert). We ate and talked and laughed about our days until we couldn't eat any more. We then looked at some pictures that she had brought to show me from her childhood (since she's seen almost every photograph I own). It was fun to see how she grew up and how different her parents look now. Once we had gone through her stash of pictures we began to watch the new episode of "Psych" on USA. Neither of us made it all the way through the episode as the food filling our stomachs allowed for a sleep worthy environment to be made with the chatter of the TV lulling us to sleep. We awoke not long after the episode ended and decided it was time to go to sleep for the night. I said goodnight to Christina and then I went to sleep, hoping to sleep late into the morning.

Meditation for the day: 2 Corinthians 7:1 " Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God."

From the Desk 8/14/2008

This morning things were a little slow to get started at work, but that pace didn't last too long. I was working on finalizing the new boxes design for a portion of the website and sending out proof to various people to gather their input. I met with Mike and we discussed an alternate solution to our problems working with our web-design company and their increasingly slow response to our needs. After that I began toying more with the data mapping program and calculating the remaining stats from the zip code transaction reports I printed the day before. I am hoping tomorrow to plot the zip codes on the map surrounding each store to determine what zip codes the majority of our sales are coming from for each store. I asked about lunch with the group and it appeared to be every man for himself today as we were all busy and weren't sure what time we could take a break. I was going to eat my lunch at around 11:30, but decided to go ahead and meet with Vickie. I went into our meeting expecting to talk about the final details of the Breast Cancer promotion coming up in September/October. I left feeling a little nervous as I was informed that Vickie just took the initiative to call the marketing meeting, but that I was the one to be leading it. After considering my title and my role in the overall marketing efforts of the company, I knew she was correct, but it still didn't calm my nerves. This would be the first "public" test of what I was made of professionally and creatively. I was glad that I found this out close to 3 weeks away from the meeting instead of the morning of. This was an opportunity for me to shine and I am going to spend the next 2 weeks preparing to make sure that I "dazzle with my creative oozing" (a phrase coined by Vickie about what I do each day).

I went to lunch, but was quickly distracted when Chris stopped by and we sat down to go over a new idea for a promo that she had. It was going to have to be put together in about 2 weeks from design to print and then mailed the first week of September. I'm not sure if this can be worked into the budget, but if not then it is something we can plan for next year. We also chose the product to appear on the front cover of the Holiday Toy catalog. Now all we had to do was to send the image to the company who is printing this for us so they can add the cover page and create a final proof. After that (around 2:00) I finally ate the rest of my lunch. I spent most of the afternoon thinking about meetings I'd been in and heard about and wondered what type of approach I was going to take. We all knew each other, but I imagine that we all have different focuses on what Marketing should do for the Box and how it should be done. I typed out several ideas that popped into my head for an opener to get things rolling and knew that I would be relying on Vickie and Mike to help direct a couple of parts of the meeting. I worked on that until 5:00 and then went home for the day.

Once I got home I ate some dinner and then it was off to Super Target to fill a very lengthy grocery list. I spent about an hour walking up and down the aisles searching for food on my list. I picked up supplies for the dinner I planned on cooking Christina on Friday night. Once I payed for my cart of food I returned to the apartment and relaxed a bit by playing Guitar Hero until Christina came over after work. I played a few songs while she ate some food she brought with her and then we watched re-runs of Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice on ABC. I hadn't watched one of these episodes since the season finale in April and it got me very excited about the new season that begins on September 25th. After that it was time to say goodnight and I walked Christina to her car. We said goodnight and then I went back inside to go to sleep for the night.

Meditation for the day: 2 Corinthians 10:17-18 “But, "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord." For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.”

From the Desk 8/13/2008

This morning I woke up a bit later than intended, but somehow managed to not rush getting ready and still mad it to work on time. I spent the morning working on learning more features about MapPoint 2009 and plotting the future stores in the same map as the current stores. I then experimented with plotting demographic data in a 5 mile radius around each store location. This proved to be harder than originally thought. At first it took me a while to figure out how to adjust the place that would show as pushpins when I chose to find place near each store. I finally found the filter settings to allow on the schools to appear when I ran this filter. It is a most useful tool as it not only plots the schools as point on the map, but it includes the full address and phone number for each school. This feature is more useful for plotting locations for future stores to determine a school-rich area in which to plop a store down to serve the community. I eventually realized that althought this program is very sophisticated, it could only map these addresses for a radius around one point at a time. So I played with that a little, testing it out in each of the new locations. I soon realized that it was time to eat and I went into the break room to heat up my chicken, while Stacy and Tausha were running out quickly to pick themselves up some food from Taco Bell.

After being joined by Blair and Carmen, we all ate and talked about how slow the week was going and wondering why it wasn't 5:00 yet. It seemed that I wasn't the only one who had trouble getting up this morning. After playing clean-up and eating one of Tausha's tacos and some of Stacy's Cinnamon Twists I returned to my desk. I spent a little bit of time working on some sketches of the updated website boxes to further prepare for some graphics work on them in the next few days. I played a little bit more with the mapping and discovered that you can draw territories in a radius around each store location which will come in handy later (once I import the zip code sales data from our system). I got slammed with phone calls asking for advertising meetings and donation requests from seemingly everyone in Atlanta, but it was something to pass the time I suppose. 5:00 came all to slowly, but when it finally arrived I was relieved to be heading home. I needed to go to the grocery store, but decided to wait and go after eating some dinner instead of stopping on the way home from work.

I went home and ate a little food (as until I go to the store, a little food is all I have available). I then spent the next 2 hours unintentionally napping on the couch while I was dead to the worked from fatigue. I woke up and decided to delay my trip until the next day after work as i had enough food to last me one more day. I spent some time on Facebook and Myspace and searching for any upcoming concerts that I might want to go to. I talked on the phone with Hickey later in the evening about upcoming weddings and life back in K-town. We also talked about his visit over Labor Day weekend until Christina came over for a bit. Her and Leslie went to the Jack Johnson concert tonight and I would have been with them, but the show was sold out. I heard all about the show and her day. Then I brought out some old pictures that I found when cleaning out my closet in the spare bedroom. They ranged anywhere from trips to Fontana in '99 to Christmas morning when I was around 7 years old. There was even one really old picture from a trip to Waverly, Ohio in which I was captured dancing up the street wearing an over sized hat allowing my then platinum blond hair to peak through under the bill of the hat. We watched part of Dave Matthew's Band on VH1's Storytellers and then it was time to go to sleep. I said goodnight to Christina and fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. Apparently my nap wasn't enough to deter me from sleeping soundly tonight.

Meditation for the day: Romans 14:8 “If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.”

From the Desk 8/12/2008

This morning I woke up and put on the appropriate attire to work for the day on the warehouse. Dave had sent an email yesterday to Tausha, Stacy, and I to ask for more help if we had time to get them through their last large push of Internet orders they received at the tail end of the GA Classroom Gift Card time. I had my cup of coffee and checked some emails before making my way back to the packing tables around 8:45. Tausha and I helped pack up the seemingly never ending line of orders on carts while Stacy helped them pull the orders. Time passes quickly when you are focused intently on doing something quickly (and accurately) that you are not used to doing so when I glanced at the clock and saw it was 10:45 I was surprised. I figured that I had time to pack one more order so I grabbed the only order not being packed at that time, which was actually loaded onto 2 different carts because of its size. I worked on packing the order as fast as I could, but soon realized that it would take longer than 15 minutes. Blair came back and asked us where we wanted to go for lunch since we had deemed that today we would eat out for our one day of the week we've allowed ourselves to do so. Tausha eventually came back to help me finish my order after she had left, thinking I was almost done. She helped me finish amid the threats from Blair that if we didn't hurry up they would leave me! We finished and then made our way out through the store front to Mike's car. The car ride over there made me glad that I had certain height/leg space requirements as the backseat was filled to capacity with Blair, Carmen, Stacy, and Tausha!

We went to Jersey Mike's and I decided to sample a new sub this time. Stacy bought my lunch instead of dinner as it was more convenient to get that out of the way. I had the Buffalo Chicken Sub (shredded chicken grilled with cheese, served with lettuce and buffalo sauce). It was fantastic and something I would recommend to others, although I might ask for light sauce as the amount they put on mine was a bit overpowering. We ate and joked with the staff there before returning to the office. I stopped by my desk to check emails and messages of which I had both. I took care of those quickly and then returned to the warehouse to continue packing. It took until 2:00, but we finally reached a point where we were caught up on packing and the orders weren't being pulled as fast so they were able to keep up without the assistance of Tausha and myself. On the way back to my desk I glanced in the mail room to see if I had anything in my box. In a rare moment I saw that I had received some mail! It was a disc containing the trial version of Microsoft MapPoint 2009. The company I ordered this software from had said they were going to send me the trial version to tide me over until the full version was released and shipped on September 1st. It took me a bit of time to install the program as it is Windows based and I had to run my virtual machine to make it work. The virtual machine basically runs Windows as a separate program allowing me to have both operating systems (Windows and Mac Leopard) on the same machine at the same time. I didn't have any clue on how to use the features of this program, but I quickly learned some of the features. I am excited for the potential of this program to generate demographic information in targeted areas around our stores to better equip me to create marketing messages that speak to our customers near each store. I am certain I will be spending a good deal of time in this program over the next few weeks. Once again, I looked up at the clock and saw that it was 5:00 and time to go home.

I talked with Christina on my way out the door and then went home to change into non-smelly clothes. I met Leslie and Stacy at Marlow's Tavern for dinner. I had the usual Hot and Sweet wings and they did not disappoint. We ate, laughed, and talked there for almost 2 hours before parting ways. We had remarked that it had been far too long since the last time we had gathered there on the Friday before I went to Charleston with Hickey and the Tuckers the first weekend in June. We also remarked that it was a week before Christina and I had our first date (on Friday the 13th!) and it just struck me as odd that only 2 months had passed since then as it felt like a long time had gone by. We said goodbye and I made 2 stops on the way home. I first stopped off to fill-up my car at the nearest Exxon station. If you look closely at this picture just know that no, you do not need to get your eyes checked. The price of gas is $3.66 per gallon! (still its disturbing that we get excited over that amount as being "cheap"). I then ran by the post office drop box to mail out some bills and made my way back home. I was home for about an hour when Christina came over after work. We listened to the Human Fuse CD as I am trying to educate her about my friends back in Knoxville. We also watched the Family Guy marathon on TBS and then switched over to Home Improvement before Christina had to leave for the night. I walked her to her car, said goodnight, and then returned to my apartment. I sent her a quick message on Facebook, telling her to enjoy the Jack Johnson concert tomorrow night (she tried to buy me a ticket, but it was sold out) and then I went to sleep.

Meditation for the day: Ephesians 2:10 “For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

From the Desk 8/11/2008

This morning I woke up and felt ready to tackle the week with the help of my extra sleep this past weekend. I got to work and worked on some details for the switch over to the pink website and some other ideas we have talked about to incorporate this theme in our retail stores for the months of September and October. I also updated the website header to remove the information about the GA Classroom Gift Card since it ended at midnight last night. I simply expanded the header graphic about the Back-to-School savings to cover then entire banner at the top of our homepage and then expanded the link to the flip book flyer to match. I responded to several more requests for donation that we simply do not have the resources right now to accommodate. I think that I will bring that up in the marketing meeting, that we need to develop a system that we follow to determine who we contribute to and who we decline. Shortly after that thought, I received my pack of index cards and marker from Vickie to began putting my ideas for the marketing meeting down on cards. I worked on that a little before lunch.

I joined Stacy and Tausha in the break room for lunch today. I was proud of myself for eating what I had brought as I received offers from both Carmen and Mike to go out different places for lunch. We ate and then returned to our desks rather quickly as we all had things to get back to and try and wrap up before the end of the day. I went back to writing out more cards for the meeting. I reached a mental block after writing out about 35 cards. (I joked with Vickie that I might need a 2nd pack of cards at that rate!) I then went to our homepage and began sketching different approaches for the boxes at the bottom of our site as we want to have them appear more graphical and eye catching. I came up with a few different ideas and will create rough versions of them later this week to share in our next website committee meeting the first Friday of September. I then met with Mike on some ideas for how to fix some of the older versions of documents on our manager's site. We have determined that we first need the input of the regional managers to determine which documents are old and which ones are new, then we can began the process of updating them by using the latest revision of the employee handbook. 5:00 rolled around sooner than expected and I went out the front and talked to Christina for a few minutes before heading home.

I changed clothes once I got home and then headed over to mow at Stacy's. The traffic was unusually light on my way over, but I didn't complain. I knew I had to mow today as rain has been predicted for every day until Saturday. I only had to empty the bag once while cutting the grass, which led me to believe that if I mow every 10 days then it will not get out of control. Since Stacy had dinner plans, she said she would buy me dinner tomorrow night at Marlow's when we met Leslie for dinner after work. I went home and ate dinner as I was starving by this point. I showered and then answered some emails, paid bills, and worked briefly on Elizabeth and Dustin's picture disc. I also finally took the time to decorate my Wii guitar controller with decals provided with the game. I think it turned out looking very rockin' if I do say so myself. Christina called shortly after 8:00 and told me she was out of work and on her way over. When she arrived I fixed her some taquitos and she ate them while I tried to beat a song on Guitar Hero III. I failed miserably (twice) at the song I was playing and after completely embarrassing myself, I put down the controller and turned off the Wii. We then watched the last 45 minutes of the movie "School of Rock" on TBS before Christina had to leave for the night. I walked her to her car and then we said goodnight. I fell asleep quickly as I was much more active today than my lazy weekend.

Meditation for the day: Psalm 55:22 " Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall."

From the Desk 8/10/2008

This morning I slept in till around 10:30. I didn't go to church as Christina couldn't go because she had to be at work at 11:00 and I wasn't really comfortable going by myself. I grabbed my laptop and checked email and read some news articles while remaining warm and relaxed in bed. I finally drug myself out of bed around noon and ate some lunch. I showered and then began working on Elizabeth's picture disc for her wedding on September 20th. I managed to create the main title slide, lay down the music tracks, insert the pictures and transitions, and adjust the length of each picture clip to occupy the amount of time necessary for each song. After that I stopped working on that project for the day. I then went to play some Guitar Hero III and beat another 3 songs on the hard setting. I actually had to go into practice mode and work on the solo for one of the songs in order to beat the song in career mode. This was my first indication that the game is going to get much harder from here on out. I stopped after beating that song and finished up my last load of laundry and changed the sheets on my bed.

For the larger part of the early evening I decided to nap on the couch while watching bits and pieces of "Die Hard", "Dumb and Dumber", and "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" on TV. I probably collectively slept for 2 and a half more hours so I was certain that I would be well rested to begin the week. I cooked some taquitos for dinner and made too many for just me to eat. That turned out to be ok as Christina called shortly after that to let me know she was out of work and coming over. She ate the remaining taquitos and then we watched the last part of "School of Rock" on TBS. We then spent the rest of the evening watching various animated comedy shows ("Family Guy" and "American Dad") We finished the night with an episode of Family Matters before I walked Christina to her car. We said goodnight and I went back inside to go to sleep for as long as I could before acknowledging the beginning of the week at 6:30am.

Meditation for the day: Genesis 2:8 "The LORD God said, 'It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.'"

From the Desk 8/9/2008

This morning I slept in until around 11:30 when I finally managed to force myself out of bed. I feel that caught up on a significant amount of missed sleep from the past week. I of course vow to get more sleep next week, but what are the chances of that actually happening? I checked a few things online and then ate some lunch (too late in the day to be called breakfast). I then went to work on teaching myself a new song on the guitar that Hickey lent me. I found the tabs online for "Hang" by Matchbox 20 and proceeded to re-learn how to read them. Once I figured out that then I decided the next step would be to tune the guitar off my keyboard. It was very wrong to begin with, but that was to be expected as I don't think Hickey really plays it at all. I worked for about 45 minutes and finally learned all the chords and managed to put them together to resemble the song. I think it sounds decent for someone who really doesn't play the guitar and I added my own vocals to help the song's representation limp along.

I took a break from that and used my musical momentum to play some Guitar Hero III. I have now worked my way up through the first 3 sets of songs on the hard setting, which is more than I ever thought possible for someone as out of touch with video games as myself. I decided to get out of the apartment to run a couple of errands. I had spoken with Stacy about mowing the grass at her house today, but decided it was too hot and could wait until another day. I ran to Target and while in the area stopped off and dropped a note on Christina's car. It was an invitation to go get some dessert at The Marietta Diner after she got off work. I received a text saying that she would like that and wondered if Leslie and Bill could join us. I said of course, knowing that the more people there are in adventures at restaurants late at night, the more memorable the stories that get told to other friends are. I got home and watched part of a movie on TV while eating some dinner. Christina called around 9:45 and they were almost through at work so I headed to meet them at the Box.

After a brief debate on how many cars to take and who was driving we were on our way in my car. We arrived there about 10 minutes later and were seated immediately when we walked in the door. It was surprisingly busy for 10:15 on a Saturday night, but I'm told that it remains busy until around 2:00am. While Leslie and Bill ordered real food, Christina and I opted to enjoy only their legendary homemade desserts. I ordered a piece of White Chocolate Raspberry Mousse cake and Christina got a piece of The 7 Deadly Sins Chocolate cake. When my "slice" arrived I was almost speechless at the size of the piece on my plate. As you can see from the picture, the cake filled the entire plate that a dinner entree normally fills. (if Dad sees this picture, tell him to stop drooling....and yes it was that good!) It was rich and delicious, but I only was able to eat 1/3 of my piece. (otherwise you may have read about my bypass surgery to relive the amount of sugar clogging my arteries by the time I was done) I experienced an incredible rush of sugar as my legs were about to start running in place underneath the table.
We left the Diner and I dropped everyone off at their cars. I followed Christina to Leslie and Bill's where we watched "The Sword in the Stone". Leslie is a Disney movie enthusiast and that DVD had just arrived in the mail. I had forgotten how good of a movie it was, but even the superb-ness of the film was not enough to combat the sudden crash from the sugar high. I was not alone as during a certain part of the movie the TV speakers jarred all 4 of us awake with a sound effect from the film. We decided to take a rain check on the rest of the movie and I walked Christina to her car. We said goodnight and then I drove home. I didn't have far to go as Leslie and Bill live only 5 minutes down the road from me. I walked in and as soon as my head hit the pillow, I was out like a light.

Meditation for the day: 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.”