7 posts tagged “failure”
So I have been instructed to create a large scale materials packet that includes a poster, postcard, flyer, and brochure. while the first three are pieces of cake, the brochure would take a fair amount of work and time; not to mention that i cant print it on my laserjet because it is a 4x9, 8 page pamphlet. i guess i got the project about two weeks ago. the actual order was to fix up the old files, so my first job was to locate them on my computer. this computer has been through a good amount of users. and during everyone's stay here, files have become ... less than organized. so less that it took me the whole first month of the job to grow accustomed to document placement. in any case, i couldnt find the files. so i ran a full search and still, came up short. i managed to find a small picture that was included in my materials, but nothing helpful. i found a couple of pdfs, but upon inspection, found that they were made from quark files. i dont have quark. i dont even have the original quark files.
so i started thinking about how i was going to recreate all the materials, and how i was going to do that without a usable picture. i took that small picture, and sent it to creative services, who is a university service specifically for print marketing and propaghanda. distant response given. so i put off the project as there is no solid due date, and yesterday the person who gave me the project was like "lets get to work." so i sent out reminders to see what was going on. then i started recreating the files -sans photos- in indesign(cs2). after laborious typing and type fitting, creative services finally got back to me and were basically like "uh, we've got all the stuff your looking for."
i met with them and not only did they have the photo (original), but they had all the marketing material in quark files that they were able to edit. they also gave me the impression that the person in charge knew all of this. we have come to a stall at this point, because i dont want to rebuild something that is already available with a few minor edits, and the person in charge is unavailable.
but what this has taught me is, i dont know how to make an 8 page booklet of custom size. i mean, yes, i can lay it out and put in photos and text and pull quotes and all of that good mess, but i dont know anything about printing it. I dont remember how a printer scrambles the pages for print and sets colors and binds. and while that is actually ok since im not working in the actual print shop, im not really comfortable with it. so i need to go back and reread all the stuff i should have memorized from communication design 2, where we made my book. but besides all that, i still feel the project was over my head. but it wasnt. it was this reachable goal that i timidly held my hand out towards. its like when you look up at a pull-up bar and think "thats too high for me to reach," but then you jump and you feel it in your palm; sometimes you cant hold tight and fall back down, but sometimes you pull yourself up.
knees, hands, cars, and computers. no matter how much we appreciate them while we put them to work, it never seems to reduce the loss we feel when they go bad. all the things we rely on become souls we attribute characteristics to. and the memories we build with them lend emotion and feeling; such that when they finally fail we feel let down, worried, or depressed. love sucks.
my car has come to a halt. i currently have no full explanation, but i believe its the battery. it might be the alternator, but hopefully its just the battery. this may be a problem. this has not been a good month. it started with a speeding ticket and has been spiraling downward since. everything i have is falling apart and i feel like soon ill be left with nothing. its even getting hard to rely on things that normally break these cycles. weekends in blacksburg, swimming, being creative; they just seem to be intermediary high points between bad events.
invitation.
i wanted to welcome her with a safe embrace; trying to quiet her down
by smothering her freedom. she would not fall for my tricks. i held out
my arms, palms facing upwards, fingers stretched and flat, awaiting
some equal weight and form. i tried and tried again, but as quickly as
i would reach out to her, she would fly away and i would drop my hands
to my side. all the while i thought she was going to be an embarassment,
but after the third or fourth failed attempt to quell her i was the one abashed.
i was scared of being found out,
but i suppose thats the risk of sabotage.
somehow, in my 4 year stint at virginia tech i was pursuaded to believe that small businesses, independent dealers, and mom and pop stores were not only valuable, but in dire trouble within the structure of america. which may be true. so ever since freshman year, ive been helping free trade coffee shops, local skate and surf shops, mega expensive art supply stores, and family restaurants. in my efforts, i started checking out stuff in this surf/skate shop right next door which i was always suspicious of. i assumed it was owned by some already rich entrepreneur with highly eclectic (and often poor) taste. i still assume this as a matter of fact. but despite all of this, i picked up some decent clothes and signed up for the email list.
and through this list, i found out about this awful news. a heelys skate park with incorporated mall. this is absolutely outrageous. i have always been highly upset that these heely shoes have caught on, mostly because it makes me think kids are too lazy to walk; or have such important things to do that they must run to do them, but feign to waste energy on such an effort. but more seriously, upset in the same way real extreme sports athletes were upset that inline skating was an integral part of the original xgames. or that street lugers were considered actual athletes. BUT, in any case, having a 10 story building strictly for teens who wear shoes that upset me so much, is incredibly debilitating. i feel detached from society. i do not understand who thought this was a good idea. there are lots of people going into this decision as the structure will stand on a lot so close to town center (where all the fancy bars and restaurants are). one of which is the city council who is using my tax dollars to give funky beat (the skate shop) a $10 million grant for this building. this catastrophe. this abomination. do you know what would have been an excellent use of that money? how about building a olympic regulations meeting aquatic facility which could be rented out to the 8 local USA swimming teams for practice and would make back the construction money within 2 years? you know what lots of facilities do to help make ends meet? attach an ice skating rink to it (heat from refrigeration used to warm pool water/cools refrigeration water). we could even tack on a giant gymnastics facility and cover all the bases of child mental/emotional abuse (maybe throw some pianos in the lobby?). but no. rather than channel the efforts of our foolish youth into productive, structured, extracurricular programs; it seems much more worthy to pander to their preteen cravings of consumerism and popularity and get them used to being independent from their parents so that when they hit high school they can become great burgeoning examples of leadership by dropping out of school to sell drugs to fund their babys mommas heelys shoes addiction. because lets face facts, if you cant buy your woman her $80 shoes with a wheel jammed in the heel, shes going to take your baby to someone who can.
other issues to ponder:
will there be a relationship between women heelys wearers and miscarriages?
how will these kids contribute to future fashion trends?
how can i know if my independent shop/merchant will sell out to corporate america?
i wish we had caught eyes,
sitting in adjacent cars at a red light.
i wish we had met in the market,
where we may have passed with a nod and smile.
i wish we had met in a cafe,
with a brief conversation and coffee.
i wish we had met in school,
where a relationship is the fifteen minutes between bells.
i wish we had met much later,
as adults with differing responsibilities.
but mostly,
i wish that of all possibilities,
we had not met failure.
im not especially creative or inventive this week. i think its all going into staying alive after all the work ive been doing. but none the less, here is my commitment to writing.
Tell us a little something about your first car. Do you have any photos you can share?
Submitted by tamara.
i loved my first car! i miss it dearly. it handled well, got good gas
milage, and was the perfect intermediary among all other cars. it wasnt
new, it wasnt old, it was just middle of the road. i had been driving
it for about 5 years when i crashed it.
this isnt a true representation of what happened, but i have similar sentiments to the creator.
what did happen, is that i was driving on the interstate with the sun in my eyes. i dodged a falling 13gallon trashbag from a big big truck, swerved too far, counter rotated too far, the car lost traction and spun a 1/4 turn to the left, crossed four lanes of interstate traffic at 4:45pm, and ran practically head-on into the highway divider. hooray for airbags.
so after work, we tried to meet up and jet out to busch gardens to
catch some rides before they closed. and our plan would have worked,
except for the pouring rain that occured only in williamsburg. well, we
got there and entered the park (we've all got cheap season pass things)
but it was raining quite a bit; so we ran over to ireland to try to
grab a brewmaster class (ie: free beer). they were all booked up
though, so we went next door to the pub and decided to get sloshed in
order to better ignore our soaked clothes and crappy work days. we
stood in line for a couple of minutes, got up to the very front, and
then BAM! lighting! it struck right outside, maybe hit the building. we
saw the entire place light up really brightly and heard a crack
explosion that resounded through the pub. there wasnt a power loss, but
the fire alarms went off and we had to evacuate to another shop. it was
pretty crazy, all the drunk european tourist people were going nuts. we
walked fifteen feet to some jewelry store and tried to find out what
was going on. after a few minutes of deliberation, we decided it just
wasnt supposed to be, and left the park. of course, as we get to the
exit tram, it stops raining and becomes nice. we went to mcdonalds
where there were like 50 employees and just the four of us eating. mmm
$1 double cheesburgers. we drove through rush hour traffic for an hour
to go to mcdonalds. so, that was a pretty huge waste of gas; but at
least we got an interesting near death experience out of it.
