Happy Halloween!

Happy Friday and happy payday, too!

I managed to hang around this week, thank God! However, I wasn't that busy. I only clocked 21½ hours in client chargeables, half of that coming from our Toronto office.

I think Wendy is planning to close the office at 3 p.m. I'm heading to Blockbuster and rent Journey to the Center of the Earth and The Hulk.

I will worry about work on Monday.

Will This Be the End?

It was through this afternoon's WIP that Charlene and I found out that our small office got merged with the mother company's digital division. Right now, I don't know if that's good or bad.

According to Shelley, this was a good thing because it would help validate "the importance of [the mother company] to have a presence of in Vancouver." Charlene simply wanted us to keep our fingers crossed and even brought up the possibility of me proofreading stuff for other clients.

I also looked at the organization chart of the new digital joint and only three guys from our Toronto office — Jim, Gord and Artin — were included in it. It didn't even mention our Vancouver office.

I guess my days in the company are numbered unless I continue to make myself useful.

Then There Were Three — Just Joking!

Wendy took Friday off; so, it's just Charlene, Shelley and me in the office. It's really quiet in here, especially now that Nina left the company for better and greener pastures.

I was practically doing nothing the entire day when Charlene approached me, wanting me to cough up an ad for a client. With only two hours left before closing time, I was really hard pressed to produce one from scratch based on an old ad we had on hand. Fortunately, the client didn't like the idea of rehashing the old print ad. He put it off for Monday and let the Toronto guys do it instead.

All that adrenaline rush gone to waste, but I don't mind. It's Friday.

Hello, Small Printer. Goodbye, Big One.

I saw Wendy carrying a big box this morning. She said that it was a new HP all-in-one printer. Both of us wondered why the IT guys in Minneapolis sent us a new one when we had two black-and-white (one big and one small) and two colour printers (one big and one small). She thought that it could be for Toronto because our colleagues there was using a beat-up one. Well, she thought wrong.

Around noon, people from Canon hauled away the big, black-and-white, heavy-duty printer and copier. I guess this was only leased and the higher-ups decided to end the agreement, save money and send us a small one instead.

I don't mind them taking the big one because I seldom use it anyway. However, if they take away the big heavy-duty colour printer, that's a different story. I rely heavily on that one for my printing needs, but it looks like this printer's days are numbered, too.

Then There Were Four ...

Nina announced her resignation today. Her last day will be Thursday next week. Damn, she beat me to it!

And just when Wendy decided to let each one move to the vacant offices. Except me, of course. Maybe because the Mac just has too many wires attached to it. But I get to be the king of the wing again.

Is My Work Here Done?

I don't know what was Wendy thinking when she told Charlene that the DM piece for a client would be done by our production studio in Toronto. I guess they didn't like how things turned out with the latest project I did for them (it's the one with the huge files). Oh, well, that's one less project for me.

I was simply using what I learned from the video tutorial at lynda.com. At least, I learned a lot from that particular project.

Off to Another Job Interview

I took Thursday off for a job interview. It's for a marketing writer at a local film school. It's the most fun I had being interviewed, maybe because I felt relaxed being interviewed by my creative peers. But I hope they didn't find me cocky or too relaxed.

The entire office was off Friday because of the Thanksgiving long weekend. So, I took advantage of this extra day off for the interview's hour-long writing and editing test. The editing part was okay, but the writing part was too short. I simply ran out of time.

Anyway, it's all in their hands now. I gave them my best — and I will do even better when they hire me. They will be making a decision soon; I hope they keep me in mind.

Then There Were Five ...

Well, they finally did it. They let Julita go on Friday. (I don't know who gave her the boot.)

Even though I knew it was going to happen sooner or later, I still couldn't prepare my heart for such kind of news. I could still feel the pain and the heartbreak when I got the boot, too, almost two years ago. I thought I was over it until the current office situation brought these feelings back again.

There were also rumours that employees in our Minnesota office were getting laid off, too. I think this is part of the plan of the higher-ups in the company to trim off corporate fat.

Business as usual? I don't think so.

Damn Files!

"Why do things that happen to stupid people keep happening to me?" — Homer Simpson, The Simpsons

Well, we did hear from the printers — and they weren't happy with the files I sent them yesterday and this morning. Apparently, they're too huge (700+ Mb, and that's Zipped!) and take a long time to download.

Of course, Wendy wasn't happy with me either because it meant we're a day late again and made me rebuild the files. One Photoshop file alone took 20 minutes just to open. (Yes, it's that big.) So, I was forced to flatten the layers to minimize its file size.

After two hours of rebuilding, I sent my files again. I hope we hear something good from the printers this time.

I Spoke Too Soon

Tuesday afternoon was a crazy, busy mess!

I was caught by surprise when a client wanted to do a French version of a DM mailer, which was very hard to do in English in the first place (it's the one with the die-cut). Then I had to design an advertorial, which I had to do at home because it was already past six when I was done with the DM piece.

Then with all that rush work, I ended up coming to work early yesterday and today, just to beat their deadlines. Now, it appears everything is going smoothly — until we hear from the printers or receive the proofs from them.

Now, I can concentrate on laying out the seven print ads, which was put on hold because of all these rush jobs.