3/31/08
This morning, went good - I was going to pay the remainder of my utility bill and then realized they are closed today. Why mail my utility bill, when I can drop it off right down the street from where I live (saves on postage).
As I was driving to work, I questioned myself "Where is everybody?" usually when I go to work, there are tons of vehicles - I guess its spring break for schools, so I am guessing everyone I see in the morning is everyone going to school - wow!
I got a lot of work done today at work, and completed 2 new designs that still need to be approved by the clients - but Steve and Dan enjoy both of them. I am still in the process of catching with my work and clients are still calling "I sent you information a week ago, why aint it done yet" my response, "we are working on it" - they don't realize it that its really just 2 people working on their stuff, but we work at 2 different times - so they gotta wait. If we move ahead a project over another, well the other client will get upset and so on... That's why we are looking for anyone willing... I mean someone who wants to work.
I last thing, Happy 21st Birthday Mike!
More updates are still needed on my site, but it's almost time for television night.
Well, there is a lot happening - but this page is going to be limited today. In other news, the gallery has been updated with brand-new photos shot in the month of March 2008. Lots of updates have been made today.
There are going to be new food added for March 2008, but you must wait until the next time I post them.
Our so-called new guy I guess, Quit! Never returned our calls, what happened - gosh? Anyways, we have continued to do our work, but with 1 less person. We did in fact gain a new employee and her name is Megan, Steve's daughter - who she will be helping and in charge of the billings for SWS.
This morning, I picked up my upgraded computer that Steve and Dan had let me get. My machine at work is much faster and will help me out. We upgraded the ram to 2gb, installed a 160gb hard drive and added a dvd drive with a reader/writer - not bad hey. Having the bigger hard drive is get compared to the previous size in there of 40gb.
Last night, we celebrated my brothers 23rd birthday - we had pizza, cake, then later him and I went to my house to watch the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean : Worlds End" - it was a good movie, but too long.
Tonight, I watched the movie "War" and very good - but in the last chapter, the disc started to skip and you might know the rest. I really hate those skipping DVD's or is it the player (got an answer, let me know), they need to produce something besides watching movies on those damn discs.
Well, its been an interesting couple days.
Yesterday, JD was scheduled to work at 9am, since he didn't have class on Tuesdays only at 6pm, so the morning he would of been able to work. 9:30am arrives and still not a word from JD, so I thought maybe he over slept or since we had nasty weather, that he got stuck somewhere. I gave JD a call... rang and rang... no answer - so I left a voicemail, nothing bad, just asking where he was. The day went on and still JD never returned my phone call, what's happening - we need help and the new guy decides not to show on his officially the 1st day of work. Then I tell Steve what's happening... so he decides to call him "nothing", an hour later "nothing" - not even a call back to tell us "I can't make it". This isn't good, I just wonder what his excuse will be.
I don't want to expect the worst, but we'll see if he arrives to work tomorrow. If he doesn't come to work, why? It cant be that bad at SWS, he is even getting paid well with the chance to make more. Everyone starts at a low pay raise and then after their progress expands then they can get a raise (depend sometimes though). Its nice, since working at SWS, you can really make your own hours and work from home sometimes, at least that you get the work done - that's all that matters!
In other news, I got most of my window coverings installed :) .
I got my garage door opener finished and the opener works too, that made my day. Thanks to my dad and his skills and for my brother who helped out too.
Where did the food pictures go? Well, they now have their own section - and by the way its only accessible via this page. Look on the left side underneath the Photo of the Moment and look at the heading of "Food of the Moment". This way, you can see the latest and newest item with the option of viewing all of them via the link. To view all food for the month of March 2008, click here.
Where did the time go, its already 9pm and it looks like I missed brand new episodes of my favorite shows. Oh, well - I can watch them next week.
The box on the left side "newest design" has been changed, it will now only show one design at a time, and then you click the link below it to view all for 2008.
Happy Easter to all! It has been a great weekend, my garage door opener is almost finished - hopefully tomorrow it'll be done.
Our part of the family for us living in northern Michigan, we got a disturbing call last Friday. We got news, that my dads mother had been rushed to the emergency room (not exactly sure what day she was rushed, but...). Anyway's, she is about 84 years old and she almost had a close encounter one night and asked for the ventilator. May God be with her and protect her with means of getting better. We are expecting to be visiting the rest of our family very soon, but not sure of the exact date.
For work, I looked at all the 20 some emails, I got over the weekend. I sent many changes to one of my assistants "Mike", and I mentioned that I wish the clients could send us updates in "1" big email instead of sending us 10 individual ones. Okay, maybe I have being a little picky, but at least these clients are contacting us unlike some who don't contact us for changes.
This week, I finally get my blinds installed, hooray!
JD started his 1st day with us at SWS, and like always - its just a learning experience. We had to wait until his computer arrived, so we talked a bit and he shared some things, that I didn't even know - that's good though! We finally got his computer working, but we ran into a problem with the monitor "it stopped working", so... Dan gave JD his monitor, and then Dan left to purchase a new monitor. When Dan came back, he brought an 19" flat screen monitor, and guess what... He gave it to me! This bigger monitor will help me out much better now, so I gave Dan the monitor I had.
JD was finally able to install all the essentials like: dreamweaver, photoshop, acrobat professional, ws_ftp, webroot spy sweeper with anti-virus, microsoft office, and a few others. Its always fun installing new programs, but a pain after doing a reformat of a hard drive - that's hell!
I gave JD 2 projects to work one, lets see if he can design a site for a client, and then I gave him a project that will take a few days, very time consuming.
We worked half the day, because it is "Good Friday".
Happy Easter to everyone!
Today is the official day of Spring, well it looks like it - but its still cold. It even snowed a bit today, looked like it was really coming down earlier, then the sun shined for the rest of the day.
Work was much better than the other few days, we interviewed a gentlemen named "JD" and he seemed knowledgeable and a good thing that Steve likes about him as in his previous job, he knows SEO - and he could help us out a lot. JD mentioned to us, that he is an amateur when it comes to emails, but hey not everyone is perfect. JD did mention that he knows someone who is skilled with exchange servers, everything about email, and also this individual is involved with flash animations. I think, we might be calling him soon. JD will be starting tomorrow, so I already have some work for him to get started on, and for Mike - he has plenty of work to do to.
I now have 2 assistants, 1 in the daytime hours and 1 at night (daytime for him). This should defiantly help us out, at least get us back up to par with new clients. We have a big list of work, so finding things to do for JD & Mike, will not be difficult - but deciding who to give it to, may!
Like I mentioned yesterday, if we were to get rid of Mike - then we would have to train someone else on the programs (which the programmers are working on), and that would take a lot of time. I talked with Steve and Dan, and told them we should keep Mike, because he understands what needs to be done with the programs "he could be in charge of those" (and there are a lot by the way) and do any work, that I give him and the regular submissions". We have plenty of work and if we were to get rid of someone, well I know... we will just fall behind again.
Today was another bad day at work, but a little better. First off, I woke up at 9am and that is the time I usually start - called Steve and told him I'd be late this morning. No big deal, I deserve a break once in a while, especially with everything that is happening at work this week.
We are interviewing a new person tomorrow to help out during the daytime, and I believe we are keeping the other person. Mike if you are reading this, I think I heard Steve mention that we are keeping you and this new person will be an addition to SWS. It'll be nice if it works out this way, so we could have someone helping during the day and then we can have someone at night.
Especially, since Mike who works the night shift (which is considered the daytime for him) he is familiar with the programs that the current programmers are working on, so if we had to start with a new person, well we would have to train that person - it would take a lot more time. From the phone conversation with the person we are meeting with tomorrow, I don't believe he is interested working at night... nice! Well, that's because we have someone working the night shift already.
I did get a lot of work done today, mainly I worked on one site which involved a lot of flash animations and extensive graphic work. We got a quote from our oversee workers that someone could create a flash animation and that we had told the client it would of cost them $400. Since, I was in the creative mode, I decided to use my skills and create this animation for free, well not exactly "Free" - but its part of the contract. It looks nice and the client loves it, I mentioned to the client - I was going to make some modifications later, when I get some extra time.
Yesterdays post was an angry one compared to today's, I just needed to vent. Afterwards, last night when I was watching the office, I had an alcoholic beverage which then really made me feel good - tonight I plan to do the same while watching "House of Payne".
Today was very rough at work, I told Steve "I can't handle it, I need help". Constantly our clients are calling... did you get my email, this needs to be fixed, my email password doesn't work, etc. For one, if you want something done, stop talking - so I can work. Also, many of our clients want programming done - well guess what "I'm not a programmer, I am a designer", and our night shift can get the programming done - so you must wait. I can go on, it gets ridiculous sometimes, and for those exchange servers... I am not skilled on those, so any questions or concerns about this, I simple cannot answer or help you.
*Someone gave me a suggestion today... I should ask for a raise, so I did some thinking. Even if I did ask for a raise, it's not going to help me get out of this deep hole of work that we have to complete - but its a good idea though. I'm better off looking for additional help, for someone I can pass work to and maybe someone who has knowledge in exchange servers and has expertise in using plesk, answering email questions.
I'm not going to get too much into details, and trust me - I REALLY WANT TO!
A few of our clients called the office more than 20 times today, holy crap - we'll call you when we have the time, gosh! We'll see what tomorrow brings, maybe it'll be better.
**Notice, an update has been made on the gallery.
It's St. Patrick's Day, did you wear your green today? I actually didn't... I forgot it was today, ouch don't pinch me!
In other news, there is a brand new gallery. This gallery has a lot less features than the previous one, but has the most useful features and plus its much faster. I'm, still in the process of learning how everything works, but most of it is self-explanatory. I am just finding out that this gallery is very easy to customize, so expect a new look coming soon. Right now, I'll be customizing the current one, but I plan to use my own in the future.
**Note: since this is a new gallery, I have decided not to increase my site version - so it'll stay at v8.3.
The older gallery is currently in the process of being deleted, so expect missing pages if you had some of them bookmarked or added to your favorites.
Well on the weekends, I think I'll update once depending on how busy I am.
Yesterday was a very busy day - unfortunately, I couldn't get a new phone... now I must wait about 1 1/2 months. My mom and I left Alltel and then drove to Art-Van, we purchased for my house: a bed for my guest bedroom, and an arc lamp for my sectional (its a special order, so I am stuck waiting 5-6 weeks). After we left Art-Van, we went downtown and picked up my free pie from the Grand Traverse Pie Company. They have an amazing selection of pies, and there other food choices look very appetizing. We left the GT Pie Company and stopped at The Wooden Gallery, where I picked up my framed art work given to me by Michael Desforges.
My mom and I returned back home and then all 4 of us went out to lunch. The four of us includes: myself, my mom, my dad, and my brother. We ate lunch at Agave, a Mexican restaurant in Traverse City on garfield road. This restaurant in my opinion is much better than Qdoba.
Later in the day, my parents came over and they brought Beni (the family cat) and the 3 of us watched the sci-fi movie "Ghosts of Mars". The movie was okay, it has many famous actors and actresses, but the ending of the movie was lame.
This morning, I woke up made some coffee and had left-over pie and by the way the kind of pie I got was a "Blueberry Crumb" and its very good! I then played Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars for a while and then went on a drive.
I got my camera equipment ready, charged the batteries, chose my lenses: Sigma 18-50mm 2.8, and the Nikon 70-300mm stabilized 4.5-5.6 telephoto lens - and the body of my Nikon D80. I love my camera, the Nikon D80 - its perfect for what I do and I can always purchase lenses for it, that's nice for DSLR's. I drove about 50 miles today and explored the new area where I live. I even went on those seasonal roads, because I can with my AWD Nissan Murano. Here are some pictures that I took today and the rest of them can be found in my gallery at the end of the month.
Today at work was hectic, well for me it was. One client kept emailing and calling to complain that they cannot send 14mb emails with attachments. Why sending so large in the first place, not sure what the problem is. I talked with our server for over 30 minutes today regarding a similar email issue and I believe we got it fixed.
Tonight I made a smoothie, which I had to throw away - something didn't look right. I then washed everything and made another one - this time it looked right. Not sure what happened the first time. To go along with my smoothie, I made a grilled cheese sandwich (2nd time making it and it turned out much better than the 1st).
Thank god its friday, tomorrow I am planning on getting a new phone.
I woke up this morning and had a few inches of snow in my driveway, what a shocker! It was also freezing rain and snow mix, but on the good side - it was warm, so the snow didn't last that long. Now it should be getting warmer now. Spring is getting closer!
It was an alright day at work, I had some difficulties with one project I was working on, and in the end we got it working. We had a big phone conference with a client in Florida, they were having technical difficulties and after multiple tries, they finally got it working.
My dad and I got more work done at my house, I tighten all the door handles, organized my office a bit, unpacked some boxes, almost completed the insulation on my piping in the basement, ran the dishwasher, etc.
There isn't much on television tonight, so I'll try and find something to watch.
Its getting warmer by the day, yay! In other news, I have new neighbors... I think. New because I knew there was going to be a closing on the house and I saw 2 vehicles arrive there tonight. The new neighbors didn't stay at least I didn't think so, maybe just to see it and call it their new home.
Anyway's, work was good today, I caught up with a lot maintenance for our clients and sent out a lot of work for our other developer "my assistant" and the overseas programmers.
Tonight, I made a new smoothie from a recipe I found online "Fuzzy Navel", it was alright, but the "Blue Monkey" smoothie was better. My next smoothie to make is "Peaches and Cream" - I have a nice blender with a smoothie option.
A new design will be coming soon, hopefully I can finish the whole site tomorrow! Tonight are 2 brand new episodes of "House of Pain", gotta go - they start shortly.
Today was actually warmer and it feels like spring is coming. Finally, I along with many others in Traverse City are getting tired of winter for this season. In a few weeks, I will be getting my blinds and then after those, my couch should be arriving.
About my gallery, I am searching for a replacement of the current one. The gallery I am looking for is too use a lot less memory, because this current one is taking about 25% of my server, its not much - but I need to find an alternative, just in case. Right now on the gallery, I have disabled features such as: searching, rss feeds, ratings, comments, user registration and many others. This is due to many of those people who did request this, but never used it.
I'll be watching The Office tonight on TBS.
Oh my gosh, it was freezing cold this morning, 0 to -2 degrees outside in Traverse City today. I got a lot of work done today, and also some sad news.
Today was the day, that I resigned as the web master for The Wooden Gallery. It been tough trying to update his site, with everything that has been happening to me (i.e. my new house purchase and being swamped at work "SWS"). I have been working with Michael Desforges for more than maybe 4 years on his web site. It's like working 2 full-time jobs, and I really cant do it. When I come home from work, I just want to relax, and not have to think about doing work, and even on the weekends.
In other news, I am searching for a new gallery to replace the one I currently have. Since I had gotten many suggestions from users who visit my site, they would ask that my gallery has...
- rate your pics
- comment them
- etc...
When I added those items, and now no one uses those features - such a waste of time, Now I am looking for a new gallery (without those items) that is lighter and doesn't run down my server. Thanks for everyone who did rate my pics, but for those who didn't and requested these features "you should feel ashamed of yourself".
It has been a very busy weekend, and the most important thing that happened was the time change, I am trying to get used to the new time, but its hard. We had to spring ahead and raise our time up 1 hour, so we lost time last night or early this morning. Anyway's...
My dad and I started to insulate the pipes in my basement, and this project looks hard and a long one, but we'll get it done.
Yes, although... this weekend seemed to fly by, maybe because of the time change - I got a lot of stuff done.
I slept in for till about 10am and it felt good - I then ate breakfast, got ready and went to town. I went to the bank and cashed a check that a relative had given me for getting my home, after the bank I drove downtown to The Wooden Gallery. At The Wooden Gallery, I met up with the owner and good friend "Michael Desforges", we talked about his web site and I dropped off his memory card.
Shortly after time had passed, I met up with my brother and my mom and the 3 of us had lunch at "Qdoba". This is a new restaurant in town, right next to ABC Warehouse - when I walked into this place, it wasn't as I expected it to be. It's not an actual restaurant, but more like a "Subway or Quiznos" - they make the food in front of you. The menu selection isn't the greatest, because its not the other mexican restaurants in town. One thing for sure though, you don't have to leave a tip! I got the shredded beef burrito, but it really didn't have any taste.
After lunch, the 3 of us went next door to ABC Warehouse. While we were there, I purchase a vacuum cleaner, while my brother and my mom were looking at the big screen televisions. As time passed and the day continued, I cleaned my driveway, went shopping at Meijers, had dinner at my place with my family, watched the Sci-Fi movie of the night "Orge" - good movie.
This morning, I woke up to lots of snow - I think it was a couple inches. When I left for work, I couldn't see the road, because it was covered in snow. I made it work fine though. Work went well too!
After work, I went to my parent house, collected my mail and had dinner. I then left my parents house after dinner and went home, and then within minutes my family arrived over and even Beni came too. My dad, brother and I installed door stoppers on most of the doors in my house, that's nice! When I parents and brother left, I then went grocery shopping.
Actually, when I arrived to "Glen's Market", my brother was there too getting food for him self "we talked about meeting each other there anyway's". I got some food and cleaning supplies and then left. On the way home, I stopped and got some gasoline at Shell for $3.09, it had come down from the other day when it was $3.19.
I then arrived home, cooked some soup, and then worked on converting my site - did you notice a new version has arrived "MLK83 v8.3".
Last night on TBS, I watched Family Guy for a while and then watched The Office, 2 great shows. I had to skip from watching 10 Items or Less though, as other things had come up.
Before I started watching television, I was in my basement trying to figure out my photo studio. I marked the areas where to place the tripod and explaining which lens to use and also the area, where someone should be standing. I have done some measuring of the area and it should work perfect. I have also drew up some ideas on what else should go there, now just to get it working. This future photo studio will be a great place for photographing products for work and anything I have in mind.
Also, this theme of Espresso Mint - will stay as the current theme for a while. I am planning on releasing another version of it and possibly lightening up the background and adding a few other things too... Now just to wait and see what happens! Do you think I should change to a new theme?
It's been a while, since my site has been upgraded and like I said before, I am always thinking of something new to add - but right now... I'm not sure if a change is coming, because everything on my site is "as what I've always wanted it to be".
Just a while ago, 2 individuals from Budget Blinds arrived at my house and showed me what they had to offer. It took longer than expected, but in my opinion - I didn't know how long it would of taken. I finally decided on getting blinds for most of my windows and I selected shades for my door wall.
Once, Budget Blinds left, I cooked some fish sticks in my new oven and they were good... it hit the spot!
Tonight on TBS, I'll be watching "House of Payne" and brand-new episodes are starting at 10pm - I can't wait!
This annoying cough just doesn't want to go away, I am feeling better though. The Halls Plus cough drops really work nice. I worked a late night yesterday, until about 12:30am, but I didn't go to work this morning until about 11am. I slept good though, without any issues.
On my way to work, I went to the bank and cashed a check and changed my address - I've been trying to do this for a while now. We have had a nice and sunny day which is always nice, but now it seems to be getting chilly.
The season finale of "Terminator" last night, really had a shocking ending. I can't wait until the next season arrives. I now don't have anything to watch on Mondays now, but tuesdays - I can watch the Office and 10 Items or Less (along with mini-marathon of "Family Guy").
Many people have told me that they have seen my picture and article of the Record Eagle and have been congratulating me. Thanks to everyone for noticing! Check out the article for yourself, click here.
Today was a busy day, this morning and during the night it rained and was windy. In the morning, I thought it was going to be a slippery drive into work, but it was fine. Now that I live on my own, I don't have a report on how the roads are from my dad (he is coming home in the mornings). I got a lot of work done today at work, and got a new web site completed "well at least the home page".
As I arrived home after dinner, I got a picture of the sunset, and it was nice. You can see the shot as the "Photo of the Moment".
Tonight is the season finale of the "Terminator" series - it'll be missed and I can't wait until next season.
I told myself last night, that I must get my stuff together and do most everything I used to do, even now that I have my own house - and updating my web site is a top priority.
Its been a very busy weekend, I ordered my couch, featured in the Record Eagle, shopping, and celebrated my dads 54th birthday.
** Updated: new photos have been added for 2 galleries "02-February 2008 and Beni 02-February 2008", check out the new photos.
A new photo of the moment will be coming soon.
Like I mentioned in an earlier post, that posts may become rare or very limited. I will try my best to post!
Today was nice, I woke up feeling better - but not 100%... maybe about 98% better. I had to get ready and go to my brothers basketball game. To get to the location of the game, I took a shorter way and it avoided all the major traffic. I watched 2 games and by the way... I took my camera.
After the games, my mom and I had lunch together at Burger King. After lunch, the both of us "in separate vehicles" drove to Art Van Furniture. Upon arrival, I was looking for the couch I saw previously looked at and then made the decision to purchase it. I also got a nice table to go with the couch. Shortly after...
My dad came over to my house and finished the installation of my washer and dryer. We did a load of laundry for the first time with my washer and dryer and everything went smooth. This was the first load of laundry I have ever done myself. Now that I live on my own, I'll be doing everything my parents did for me, myself.
Later in the day - my mom, dad, and I went to Menards to purchase some items like: laundry basket, storage boxes, bathroom accessories, and other smaller items. We arrived to my place and installed the bathroom accessories: hand towel holder, 24" towel bar, and partial of the toilet paper holder. They soon left and then I watched the Sci-Fi movie "Puppet Masters" and after the movie, I went to bed!