Mission Accomplished

That's all I can say.

All my projects have been submitted, PDF'd, approved by the client and forwarded to the printers. Now, it looks like I've got nothing to do that's billable tomorrow or next week unless Stephanie or the small Wendy drops by with a docket bag containing work.

By the way, my vacation has been approved. I'm off to Asia in July for a three-week holiday.

Printer Issues

It was another slow day in the easy so I decided to look for free downloadables like fonts, images and vector graphics. I visited RapidShare GFX and found these awesome paper caricature cutouts.

I decided to print some of them using card-stock samples Wendy handed to me this morning. That's when I noticed that the printer's rip unit, the so-called fiery server, wasn't on even though the power switch was on.

I've encountered this problem before. Normally, it was the rip unit's surge protector. If its light wasn't on, it meant that there was no power going through it. All I needed to do was to simply press a button and I was back on business.

However, it wasn't the case this time. Even though the surge protector's light was on, the unit still has no power. There was nothing wrong with the power outlet either because I plugged a boombox to it and it worked. I also plugged the rip unit to a different outlet and it still didn't work.

I got in touch with the repair centre and they were charging us $178 per hour for labour, which didn't include travel time, parts and taxes. I left this with Wendy. For now, I'm stuck with the small colour printer.

Friday Off, Weekend Work

I still have four vacation days left over from last year; so, I decided to take a day off, either on Friday or Monday. I couldn't decide which day to take as we were expecting French and Chinese versions of a DM's copy decks to be coming soon from the client. However, the older Wendy gave me the go signal to take Friday as she, too, wasn't sure when to actually receive the copy decks.

My gut feeling was saying they could come on Friday; so, I decided to FTP the working files to myself before I left for home on Thursday. I didn't bother to check my office webmail on Friday because I was off that day. Besides, Friday was "me" time.

However, I had this nagging feeling that I had to check my office webmail. And both French and Chinese copy decks for the brochures and letters did arrive on Friday and everything was rush. Plus, I had four posters to revise, courtesy of Stephanie.

To avoid being under tremendous pressure on Monday, I started working on them for six hours Saturday night. Sunday, right after lunch, I went to the office and printed, proofed and e-mailed everything I did the night before. I was in the office for more than four hours.

It was a good thing I worked on these on the weekend because when I reported late for work today, e-mail was down and that would put additional stress on me. Now, I'm taking it easy. Thank God, I was thinking ahead.

Crying Wendy

I was reading the digital version of The Vancouver Sun when I saw the print ad I made for the client. I proudly showed it to the young Wendy, who wanted to show it to the other Wendy. It was then that we found out she was crying.

She was crying about the DM kit we're doing for a client. From the looks of it, we're way behind schedule. I have yet to see the finished copy decks for the letters and the French and Chinese versions of the brochure.

If Wendy is crying, then it means it's bad, really bad.

Back at Work

Thanks to the lousy weather during the long Easter weekend, I mostly stayed indoors doing household chores, but I had time to clean my bike hoping for an awesome ride along the trails late Good Friday afternoon. Unfortunately, the sun was a no show. It was a no show, too, on Black Saturday and Easter Sunday.

Easter Monday and I'm back at work. Guess who decided to show up? The sun.

The Year's First Long Weekend

Finally, it's here! The Easter long weekend.

We've been waiting for this since February. Just imagine getting the regular two-day weekends. Man, those are short! And the best thing about this particular weekend is that this is the start of three- and four-day weekends for us.

Awesome!

Hell Week

I was warned that this week would be hell because of the following:

1. Rush print ads - Apparently, our Toronto office was tasked to do this job; however, they were too busy. So, they decided to hand this project to me. Unfortunately for me, five days had already passed when they realized this.
2. Rush poster ads - See above; although I don't know how long this project has been lying on their tables untouched.
3. DM kit - As Cathy has described it, it's like a rash that won't go away.
4. Ad resize - It's not my fault. The client provided us with the wrong specs — way wrong.
5. Online banners to PDF - More banners to PDF.
6. Office closure - Our shop in Chicago closed after losing a client worth $20 million in billings two years ago (the office opened in 1891).
   

I've never been this busy in my almost two years here. I was so tired I was using the wrong copy decks on the projects. But the good thing that came out of all these was that Toronto — wonder of wonders — found the time to do the print ads and posters. I was more than glad to relinquish to them my working files.

Now that I'm done with my own projects, I've got nothing to do.

Some Updates

A lot has happened since my last blog. So far, here's what happened in the last two weeks:

1. Cathy does know her trade. When our CEO dropped by on Monday, she knew what he was talking about. Needless to say, the young Wendy and I were impressed with her. Both of us were glad that she was hired for the job. We were wondering what would it be like if Shelley were around and she spoke with the grand poobah of the company. I shuddered.
2. Work continually comes in trickles, but it keeps me busy for most of the day. The two-page, letter-sized poster is one that's worth mentioning. This project started at the end of last week. When I was done with the layout on Friday, Jim asked me to revise the second page (which I did promptly). Then the client wanted to revise the first page. Then Gord wanted to revise the second. Once everything was done, Jim revised the first page.
   
3. Norris, one of our IT guys in Toronto, dropped by today to make an inventory of all the computers we have in the office.
4. Mother Nature pulled an April Fool's prank on the city by lightly dusting it with snow. (It's already spring!)
   

Now, you're up to speed.