Monday, January 26, 2009

Monday Off

I finally took a day off work. Since all that was happening today was an 11:30 a.m. client presentation and I was done with my part last week, I thought it was the perfect time to take it easy.

So, I sent an e-mail to old Wendy early Monday that I was taking an "emergency" leave, but I was still available for contact at home. And contact they did.

Apparently, Jim didn't like the artwork I sent to him last Friday and he wanted to make changes to it before presenting it to the client. Young Wendy called me up and asked her to send me the InDesign files so that I could work on them at home. I was walking her through the Mac to get it packaged for me, and it took us 45 minutes to do so.

Anyway, she managed to send the files to me and I started working on them right away. I sent the files to Wendy just minutes before the client presentation. Unfortunately, Jim still didn't like what he saw (he wasn't clear with the instructions in the first place), but they still proceeded with the presentation.

Well, I didn't care around this time. I was on leave anyway. I just didn't want to leave Wendy and Shelley hanging. But I dealt with Jim's revisions the next day. All was good and the client liked it.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

First the snow. Now, it's the fog.

Although it's been fairly dry in the last 10 days, there's nothing but fog day in and day out. Here's what downtown Vancouver looked like from Cypress Mountain when the fog was as thick as pea soup:


But it looks like the fog is clearing now. Hopefully, we'll see some sunshine tomorrow, but weather forecasters say that there's snow coming this Saturday.

That's all for now. My head's aching after making 42 layouts for client approval.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Wendy's First Day

We were excited to see a new face in the office. Unfortunately, our e-mail and Internet server had other plans. It was down for much of the day and only became operational at 2 p.m. Since we didn't have e-mail and the Internet, we basically did nothing while awaiting for repairs.

Of course, Shelley was able to do something productive with her time. She took the new Wendy to her first client meeting; showed her the ropes in the office; and had a teleconference with Jim, which I was invited to attend.

I also spent an hour studying Flash CS3 yesterday, too. I finished the online tutorial this afternoon and discovered that it wasn't for me, thanks to ActionScript. I'm not a technical person and all this programming makes my head hurt. Now, I'm simply focusing on InDesign.

More about Wendy: She's Chinese and reminds me of Candace, a writer who used to work for me, but a lot slimmer and more mature.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Wendy and the Office Move

They finally hired someone to replace Charlene. Her name is Wendy. She'll start Monday. Old Wendy calls her fresh blood; Shelley, chum; me, fresh meat. A former officemate of Allison, she was laid off last year. Now, Wendy will work for us. I hope she likes it here. (Her hiring means a lot of things: there's a budget and work will start to trickle in.)

Though we've increased our number by one, the place is still too big for us. So, the original Wendy is planning to move us back to the other wing and occupy the vacant offices there by February. We'll be mingling with our sister company. The current wing we're occupying now will be sub-let.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

A Crazy Afternoon

I thought I was going to spend the rest of the afternoon learning Flash CS3 when I received a Print Media Release, or PMR, from Wendy. This meant that I was to send ad material, usually hi-res PDFs, to various publications for insertion. The PMR this time was for a client's appointment notice, which needed to appear in four Chinese newspapers.

Since I was already finished with this project last week, it was simply a matter of sending PDFs to the contact persons and have them confirm receipt. Or so I thought.

These notices, which we always do in black, should come in black plus another spot colour. So, I had to do some minor adjustments, like adding colour to the logo and borders. Then there was one that had the wrong size. Apparently, Charlene, who used to handle this job, got the dimensions of the length and width mixed up. So, what was once a horizontal ad, was now vertical.

Tonie, who now works on this project, was pissed because "it makes us stupid." I don't blame her.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Learning the Essentials of Flash CS3

This week is turning out to be a slow one; so, I decided to keep myself busy by learning Flash CS3. I try to spend at least four hours every day studying the software and learn some new skills.

Flash CS3 is a very interesting software. I like the animation part. Unfortunately, I try to keep my eyes open as I'm fighting a cold again and the medication makes me sleepy.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Job Security

Remember that URL-translating job that used to be Charlene's and was being dumped on me? Well, I decided to step up to the plate again even though there was no proper remuneration for that. I had to because it added more security to my job here, especially during these tough economic times.

I started doing that task yesterday, which only involved three websites and four Flash banners — for now. I spent more than an hour on that, which also included deciphering Charlene's notes on translating URLs.

Then I worked on a client's English flyer and changed it to Chinese. I submitted it to Tonie although I wasn't satisfied with the quality of my work on that project. My desktop-publishing skills were a little rusty after the Christmas break.

All in all, I worked for 4¼ hours yesterday, which was better than doing nothing at all (like Monday and today).

Monday, January 5, 2009

First Workday of 2009

We had an unexpected dumping of snow last night. Good thing it happened on a weekend; otherwise, all hell would have broken loose today, the first workday for us in 2009.

As expected, things are pretty slow. It's even more quiet now that Charlene has left the company.

I ended 2008 on a sour note. I didn't agree on their plan to pass Charlene's responsibilities of translating URLs for a client's website banners to me. First of all, I resent people dumping their work on me because they can't or don't want to do them. Jennifer used to do that to me. Patrick tried. Now, it's Tonie's turn.

Second, it's a client-services thing; I'm in creative/production. If they want me to add that to my duties and responsibilities, then they should pay up.

Applying for that auction advertising coordinator sounds like a good idea now.