15 posts tagged “work”
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.
yesterday, while i was at work, a conflict broke out on the street below and shots were fired. we may be on campus property, but this school is in the city, and in a highly active area. a place where cops hang out because of the abundance of traffic violations and parking dilemmas, good food, and courtyards with loiterers. i dont think there has ever been a day where i have not seen a police officer walking around down here. so then what would possess someone in an arguement to leave, retrieve a gun, come back and take a few shots? i suppose i will never understand people.
this book club things seems to be working out pretty well. not only has there been decent discussion, but we've picked two good reads so far.
i went all week with minimal amounts of work. until today. today they heaped a whole mess of updates on me and i had to readdress flyers i fixed last month. i dont know where all these things get handed out, but it seems like a lot of waste. also, its pretty unreasonable the requests they give me. ok, so one date is changed? it was the session this week? why do we need new updated flyers if the ones out now will be usable next week when no one cares about that date? anyways, today has been stressful. there were a ton of things going on. plus theres that hurricane that might be bearing down on us? its getting dark out, and starting to rain.
today we randomly recieved hand held video recorders. digital. 60 seconds of memory. size of a point and click camera. why? what are we going to do with 1min of film in an office? daily webcasts? there wasnt an email notice or anything, just had ivan come around and sign one out.
i think i missed the staff meeting this morning because i was in class. thats ok. nothing ever really happens at the staff meeting. i decided that its pretty much just an excuse to make yourself look good and feel important to the company. we go around the room and fill everyone in on what youve been doing. which in my case just results in me saying "i updated all the little things on the website and your individual pages, and i printed all the stuff you gave me." but everyone else makes a huge production about what they do, and how hard theyve been working, and how this company really needs them here to do all that stuff. also, they use a ton of acronyms to confuse people and make themselves seem super involved with their projects.
there was free food in the conference room! i had a tiny salad, a small amount of tortellini (cheese filled) pasta salad, and a roast beef sub with lettuce and tomato. also, a pickle and a chocolate chip cookie. the roast beef was quite rare (good) but the pasta salad was the best part. i dont know why there was food, but everyone else was eating so i joined in.
im supposed to keep track of paper usage for my printer (since its networked, other people can print to my printer), but since im not here for half the day practically every day, its sort of useless for me to do so. also, the door to my office locks, but apparently just about everyone has a key. regardless, i log paper and output, and continually lock my door every day.
on a personal note, yesterday i met up with abigail and adam over at cogans pizza in ghent and it was FANTASTIC. we actually spent quite a bit of time over there talking about all the people we know getting married and randomness.
have i told you how much i love gmail? its pretty handy. if only i could get all my friends to get accounts and join my google group so we could get things accomplished like planning out events that we're all going to. but at least i can talk to people all day without using a separate internet page for meebo or something.
ive been doing a lot of website updates. nothing special, just changing incorrect/old dates for classes and tweaking little things. im using adobe contribute, which is actually pretty cool. it makes tables super easy to handle. like, even easier than dreamweaver. its pretty fantastic as far as plain text websites go.
we went out for amy's birthday last night. started at paradocks (which failed again), and then moved over to buffalo wild wings where we finally got some service. and then jonathan bought the hottest wings on the menu to celebrate (like buying a round of shots) but amy declined (both a shot which led to the wings which she decided against) as did scott. blazin is indeed a very hot sauce. someone should have recorded our reactions. let me tell you, i was quite uncomfortable for some time after eating it. but possibly not the hottest thing ive ever eaten? i think ive had pretty bad reactions to other hot things before. in any case, bww was pretty good. glad to see them in the hampton roads area.
ive been printing things all week. like non-stop. i think its giving me cancer. my office smells like burned toner and i think im developing some serious eye disease. i wonder if theres any link between inhaling toner particles and black lung?
but at least im doing stuff now? people certainly have caught on to my being here and have loaded me up with things. mostly just flyer prints. it could be worse though. i could be forced to update the course catalog with class numbers, dates, and descriptions OH WAIT, im doing that for all the web pages. actually, its pretty easy compared to hunting down the old flyer files on the computer and changing little things in adobe acrobat. let me be clear in saying that i completely dislike adobe acrobat. it is hell. im beginning to think that the only reason people use it is because it completely locks out people from making any sort of changes to your document. its like putting something behind a glass case -everyone can see, but no one can touch. luckily, the person who held the job directly before was alright with adobe indesign. and that is really easy to work with. i can change picture links and edit text all day long and make everything look perfect before sending to print.
on a more interesting note, i changed my magenta cartridge today! ive already gone through 1 cyan, and its on low right now. probably because tcc's main color is a dark blue, and ive run 98123478124713 copies of things.
so conor oberst is playing on sunday, and i think i might like to go. i suppose i should get tickets? i missed my chance to see she&him in north carolina a few weeks ago, and i really regret it. but i havent found the new conor album all that appealing. yeah, i mean, its good; but it doesnt have the same draw that she&him did. so im still debating whether or not i want to pick up a ticket to this show. i suppose it will depend on price and who else is willing to go.
i think this job is killing my eyes. i spend a lot of time staring into the screen, and i feel like its making me blind. really, i suppose its just that im readnig too much on the screen. but in any case, im going to be sightless by the end of the year.
i made business cards for someone the other day, printed them out on cardstock and cut them with a paper cutter. it was a very tedious process, especially because i had to do 600 cards and the paper cutter would only do 2 pages of cardstock at a time. if the paper cutter were sharpened, it would have been so much easier. as it is though, i was lucky i didnt have to do one page at a time, that would have killed me.
i always forget how much trash there is, how much waste there is in offices. its like workplaces are bottomless pits of consumption that spit out all this trash, and no one has ever thought to try and minimize it.
well, perhaps not "start."
ok, so in my previous entry, i mentioned i was going out of town on business; well im back, and ive got pictures! after picking up the vans and splitting the kids into "guys" and "girls + a 12 year old", we started out with a short stint in busch gardens on saturday afternoon, staying until close. i didnt get the chance to ride the new roller coaster, the griffin, but ive got a full season pass thing, so theres no rush. after walking around all night i drove the kids out to waynesboro; they pretty much all fell asleep during the 3 hour journey which was nice because i just listened to my music and drove like i would normally when i trek out to blacksburg. arrived at the motel around 1, had to wake up and get everyone out to the van by 9.
sunday was pretty much summed up by driving, swimming, and driving more. we made two trips to charlottesville for sightseeing and food, only to be disappointed twice. apparently jay, who loves uva, has no points of interest he would like our swimmers to note (not that they would actually listen to anything educational or trivial we had to say) and charlottesville did everything within its power to remind us that small college towns close down on sundays. as for food, i dont know how but over the past two years jay has managed to brainwash these kids to believe that gusburgers are the most delicious food ever produced by man. gusburgers, are a late night staple at the uva diner "the white spot," where they serve preformed beef patties with cheese and a fried egg on top. thats it. thats the big appeal of a gusburger, an egg. its really bland and highly unappetizing served up with a shred of lettuce on a bleached white enriched bun. although it may actually be just the nauseating atmosphere of a greasy hole in the wall diner not cleaned since it first opened. i just dont get it though. i understand how delicious it might be if i were a drunk college student stumbling back to campus, but for all these kids, it should be a gross statement about bad mom and pop diners in small towns. there are so many cool little eateries on the same street so close to campus, but 23/23 swimmers DESIRED to eat there. and normally we (as coaches) would not let them eat there (as nutrition and energy goes, burgers offer very little) but it is one of the promised places to visit on the roadtrip because it holds such high esteem in the minds of our children. and we were done with driving to charlottesville, so we just thought wed get it out of the way and cut our losses. oh yeah, in the afternoon we had our swim meet. i sprinted a 26.2 in the 50m free. yeah, its an open meet, so i just swam with the 15 and older group. i wasnt the only 23 year old though, my friend and colleague doug from TAC swam too (and beat me. once again).
monday was another swim meet day, but we got up extra early to drive out to wintergreen resort and swam in the mountains. nothing like some high altitude training to remind you what being out of shape is like. more meet stuff in the afternoon, then back out to wintergreen for some fun. they set up a bunch of things for the spring time including a minigolf course, a paintball course, and some random things. theres a 25 ft rockwall i scrambled up, and the two pictures to the left are of me doing a bungee trampoline. basically its like jumping extra high and with a slowed fall so you can ... jump. and do flips.
tuesday we woke up to swim the dreaded "monster set." its basically an 800 of fly, back, and breast, followed by an 800 IM. boring and exhausting, but a fitting end to a training trip. after that we drove to scottsville (a one street town that looks like an old western movie set with buildings all connected together lining the two lane road) where we went rafting and tubing on the james river. it was really slow moving and shallow, 1.5 mph and average depth of 4 feet. not really exciting. i think it would have been fun had there been more team interaction, but it was sort of "float and talk amongst your friends," and the kids in rafts pretty much took off and did their own thing. now we know for next time i suppose. so 3 hours in the sun later, we drove back home. i was super tired from staying up to make sure the kids were all in their rooms and then getting up early to kick them out of their beds, not to mention the grueling training i endured with them; so i was extra vigilant in staying awake on the drive back. its really scary to realize their lives are in your weak and feeble hands as you speed down the interstate in an extra tall, extra long rental van with poor handling.
but all in all, good trip. i learned everything i need to know about my kids and more. if i were to compare my memories of swim trips with what they did, i think id be jealous of the opportunities they have. im also sort of upset at their money handling habits, diet, and other basic lifestyle choices; but maybe thats just the responsibility in me rearing its over-inflated head.
the swim team took a trip to baltimore, maryland this weekend. much to my delight, the past few weeks i have been training and entered myself into the meet. i did pretty well, got my AA in 100 free Long Course Meters, AAA time in 50 free LCM, 26.68 which isnt half bad. its actually fairly impressive, so the senior kids made up a new term, bbc: beat by curtis. its an honor, really.
besides the meet, there really wasnt much else this weekend. i got to drive another 15 passenger van. its quite fun, sometimes. and besides being stuck in so much traffic, the journey up and and around baltimore were pretty decent. i had to stay an extra 4 hours at the meet to watch one of our star swimmers, hes 12 so hes in a different session. i rode back with him and his father. THAT drive left a bit to be desired. but i slept most of it, as i had been up at 6 and spent all day in the sun. the one night we were able to get out fairly early, we headed into baltimore harbor and ate at espn zone. which was awful. the service there was horrendous. food was ok, but really, that was the worst service ive had from a upper mid-range restaurant ever. especially for being so empty and overstaffed.
on an unrelated note, i just watched the painted veil while typing this up. it was quite good. ive never read love in the time of cholera, but i would assume it is similar. even if its not, its a tensely emotional film that completely overwhelmed me with tone and period feeling.
also, i have a hard time uploading pictures from my external hard drive, so im forced to upload to flickr first, and then import them through vox. weird.
i started a flickr account for work. im going to try and get them to buy a year subscription because i already exceeded the upload bandwidth, and ive only posted half of the pictures i took at districts. they turned out pretty well, i took the whole set in full manual (even focus). i suppose that for something like this i should have put the camera into automatic, although that would have pretty much ruined the whole point of me playing around with my camera.
