« November 2004 | Main | January 2005 »
December 30, 2004
Mooooooving
I got back into town early this week from my Christmas travels to Arkansas. It's great to see everyone down there, but there's always a lot of places to go, so I'm usually exhausted by the time I get back into town. This year was no exception, but it was tiring for another reason.
I spent the evening of Christmas with Wendy's family. We went out to eat Chinese food (much to the displeasure of Diana, sorry) and then went to see the movie "Meet the Fockers," which wasn't nearly as bad as I anticipated it to be (funny how marketing can spin things). At the end of the movie, both Wendy and her mother had messages from Wendy's granny. There had been some trouble with their papa and they needed to rush to his side, fearing the worst. It turned out to be not as bad as initially thought, thank goodness, but it was still scary. Why does this all happen around Christmas? Need I remind you of last year's fiasco when I spent time with Wendy's family? It's settled, I'm not spending time with them around Christmas again.
Overall, Santa sure did deliver this year!!! First off, my team wins the VML Bowling League. Then, I somehow manage to win my Fantasy Football League, too. Both earned me some nice and unexpected money, which helped me out today, when the third leg of good news came my way. I found a place and will be moving out of this building – the money aided in my deposit.
At the end of January, I'll be moving into the 523 Grand Lofts, specifically, apartment 4E. I'm excited because I'll be on the real top floor of the building (there's a penthouse, but that was added later), the floors are concrete, it has a corner of exposed brick, I'll have a view of downtown, and I'll finally be able to get my refrigerator out of storage. Don't worry friends, I'm planning on using movers.
Yes, Christmas was good this year. My favorite gift was from my brother. Growing up, he always wanted to do what I was doing. But being nine years apart from each other, I wasn't about to let him play in my reindeer games. Since he was always trying to be in my business, he also wanted to read all of my comics. One day, he was looking at them and decided to bend some of the pages inside an issue of Marvel Universe. I could've beaten the chub off that boy. Forgive and forget, right? Well, Garrett didn't forget, and this year he gave me two awesome hardback books: The DC Comics Encyclopedia and Marvel Encyclopedia: Volume One. Thank you so much Gar, they're the BEST!!!
Christmas Eve was fun this year, too. Being stuck in Fayetteville (the ice was too bad to drive to central Arkansas), I had the chance to hang out with Todd. So, we did what every family does on Christmas Eve, we went out and ate dinner at Logan's Roadhouse. I can see a great tradition forming.
Well, I came back to town with a ton of stuff that I wanted to write about, which is probably a good reason why this post is a bit rambling. In the next few days, I anticipate covering how towns "become big-time." I hope everyone's holidays were great! Be careful tomorrow evening!
Posted by Seth at 09:26 PM | Comments (0)
December 23, 2004
Happy "Hollandaise"
Well, it's "that time" of year again, if you haven't noticed. Yes, it's Christmas Season. I'll be "out of pocket" for a while, so no updates while I'm gone. I'll update everyone on my travels and "quality time with family" when I'm back in Kansas City. Some of my friends Crystal and Andy are going to watch my "son," Simon, while I'm gone. I couldn't "thank them enough" for doing that. I'll make them a pie, or "something nice."
This week I traveled to Wichita to visit the SHS "headquarters." Our agency has their own plane, it's a small "one-prop" that only seats four. The inside is smaller than my car. On the way back up to Kansas City, the pilot let me "fly" the plane. It made me nervous, but I knew that I wasn't going to send the plane "to hell in a handbasket," so I wasn't too worried. Flying was fun, and it sure beats driving down.
Okay, I'm "closing shop" now. I'll leave sometime tomorrow afternoon, I can't wait to see my family. Happy Holidays everyone, may all your wishes come true.
Posted by Seth at 09:00 PM | Comments (0)
December 20, 2004
Week in Review
I survived. My first three days at SHS went off without a hitch. In those three days, I could already tell there was an enormous difference between SHS and VML (except the three letter acronym). Even though everyone runs around saying they're busy, SHS runs at a much slower pace than VML. That's ensuring to me, hopefully that means that I'll have plenty of time to do sites the right way... just like I always imagined.
The environment here is different, too. At VML, everyone has cubes, or some semblance of walls. Here at SHS, it's a very organic environment and the cubes here rock. All of the furniture here is Herman Miller (desks AND chairs)... can you say "boss"? Even the people here are a bit more open (when you hear gigantic burps and guitars playing in the afternoon, you know people are pretty comfortable around one another).
So, the new job is going well, in case any one was curious. My loft, on the other hand, not so good.
As I have alluded to in the past couple of weeks, I'm becoming more annoyed with my apartment each day. The two main contributing factors to this are my upstairs neighbor and my landlords.
The walls at Old Townley are already thin enough – this was proven to my by a previous neighbor who talked on the phone non-stop. No, scratch that, it sounded like she yelled on the phone non-stop, big difference.
As if the walls weren't enough, the floor in my part of the building is paper thin as well. See, Old Townley was built in three sections (you can see this as you walk through the building). The first (the oldest) was built using concrete flooring, the second was built using wood beams and steel piping, and the third was built using wood beams (NOTE: I COULD have that all backwards, in terms of age).
I live in the second section, wood beams... and wood floors... that are covered with industrial carpet (yeah, the super thin carpet that doesn't even really exist). So, the upstairs neighbors, whenever he/she walks around, I hear it. When they use the restroom, I hear it. When they almost kill themselves falling over in a drunken stupor, I hear it. And... when they turn on the dishwasher at midnight, I hear it.
The fact that I hear their every move isn't too big of a deal, I feel like I'm living on the lower level of a two-story house. To make matters worse, there's a drip in the walls. You can hear the drip whenever either of us use the hot water in the kitchen or they take a shower.
It's not JUST a drip. I think of it more as torture. You can hear it everywhere in my place, it echoes. No matter if I have the television on, music playing, the heater running, etc... you can hear it.
If you had a drip inside your apartment, who would you tell (besides your friends)? Your landlords. I've told them four different times about a leak/drip. One time the maintenance guy came, heard the drip, said he was going to check upstairs, and I never heard a thing again. So, I kept asking for it to be fixed. The response I finally got...
Oh, that's not a drip. That's how the water drains. If you don't want to hear that anymore, we suggest you move to the fifth floor.
WHAT!?! What kind of management is that? Who ARE these people? Just move and don't worry about it? What about the people who move in after that? Hu-uh, no way. I just found out that my lease is up in January, I'm gone.
And those pesky upstairs neighbors I mentioned... Yesterday they decided to have their HUGE break-up fight. It's bad enough that the walls/floors are thin and people elect to have a huge yelling match. It's worse when the gal is screaming "get off of me, let me go" over and over. I called the cops. What else am I to do in that situation?
I've got to get out of this place. Ugh.
Posted by Seth at 08:52 AM | Comments (0)
December 13, 2004
Last (Mon)day @ VML
Welp... that's it. Just like a lousy NCAA Basketball team, today was one and done. I dreaded today a lot over the weekend (especially last night when the people above me ran their dishwaser at midnight – yeah, wtf?). As ready as I was to get the hell outta Dodge, I also didn't want to leave so quickly. But as we all know, time flies bye so fast (redundant, sure, why not).
Today was no easy day, though, it wouldn't be the VML way if it wasn't. I've been working hard on the VML.com redesign for the past month, and it's supposed to go into testing tomorrow (don't hold your breath). But, I'm pretty sure that the guys left working on it will get a majority of it perfect by the 20th – which was the day Matt told us to get it done by. You see, Sir Martin Sorrell (CEO of WPP, the conglomerate that owns us) is presenting to Intel next week and is pitching VML as the interactive lead for WPP. That presentation hinges around VML.com being complete. Talk about pressure.
So what's the first thing I see this morning? An email, forwarded to me, from the User Experience Department, saying that there are some problems with the site and how come they weren't involved earlier!?! Good question.
The answer? Because the system at VML is broken. This isn't news to anyone, especially those who work at VML. You see, VML has become quite fast at what they do, which is a good thing. The problem that being fast presents is unrealistic deadlines and lack of quality. We pitched the new site idea to Matt in mid-November, and he wanted it done by December 15.
That's not an unrealistic deadline, in Utopia. At VML, that's pushing it, big time. It put a lot of pressure on everyone involved. So much in fact, that corners were being cut one week into the project. Why not go back to Matt and say this isn't a good idea to press so hard? Yet another good question.
The answer this time is because the previous "new" VML.com was supposed to launch LAST December. Ouch. So before we even started the project, the cards were stacked against us. So you do what you can, the best you can, and give them your all, and they appreciate that.
That's what I did. That's all I know how to do.
Yes, today was busy, but it was a great day. I worked my butt off, but I'm glad that I did. And as a reward, I ate lunch with a lot of great friends at Genghis Kahn. They read a poem for me, gave me a card that they all signed, a photo book of my going away party, and a gift certificate to get me a new portfolio book (sorry Sam). It was a lunch that I'll never forget, from friends that I will never replace. Thank you all.
Around 4:30 I packed my last box and started to make my final rounds of VML. It was so strange saying goodbye to everyone. It felt right, but at the same time, it felt foreign. I truly can't imagine not walking in those doors tomorrow.
But, it's a small town when you run in the same industry, and I know I'll see everyone sooner, rather than later.
Below is a copy of the email that I sent company-wide before I left:
To everyone at VML,
The past two weeks have been surreal.? There wasn?t a whole lot I could do to prepare myself to say 'goodbye' to VML.? Everywhere I walked around the office spurred some memory, some unique story that I'll never forget.? When I packed my belongings into boxes, I uncovered old work and long-forgotten timesheets, which allowed me to relive every fire drill that came our way (scary!).? Even the emails I've sent over the last two weeks, I realized that I may not be talking to these same people on a daily basis in the very near future.
And that was the hardest part about it all.? The ultimate realization that after five years of headaches and heartaches, fun times and hard work, long days and sometimes even longer nights, I won't be surrounded by 200+ people that I love and cherish.? To say that the people here are what make VML a wonderful place to work is almost clich?, but it's a simple truth.? And while it may be true that a job is a job is a job, I know that it was all of you that made VML the special place that it is, and the place that I found extremely hard to close a chapter on.
Saying goodbye isn't one of my strengths.? In fact, I'd much rather not say goodbye to any of you.? So, I choose to say "see ya later," it doesn't seem so absolute that way.? I'm not about to drop off the face of the Earth.? I'll still be bowling in the VML Bowling League and I'm sure I'll see a great many of you out around town? Heck, I may even drop by the office from time to time, just to annoy you all (don't worry, no more "lame" fun events from my twisted mind).
So, here it is, and here I go.? Thanks so much for all of the memories, and I can't wait to have many more with all of you.? Take care.
-sg
Good bye, VML.
Posted by Seth at 06:37 PM | Comments (2)
December 12, 2004
Last Friday @ VML
It's winding down, I'm getting close to the end of the road here. If anything, Friday wasn't a bump in the road, it was a triple speed-bump. Friday was my going away party.
There wasn't much that happened, except a lot of people celebrating me leaving VML (which I haven't figured out if they were happy or sad) at The Quaff (a downtown KC bar). We started drinking at 4:30, which, if you haven't done that before, make sure you pace yourself. Trust me.
The night ended at Jilly's (another bar in the KC Crossroads) watching Greg spin records. No one was breakdancing that night, though. Ah well.
Friday also marked my last VML-Chipotle lunch. Sad.
Tomorrow is the last day. I don't look forward to it, but I do look forward to Wednesday. Lots of emotions.
Posted by Seth at 11:29 PM | Comments (0)
December 09, 2004
Last Thursday @ VML
Today... well, today started off with a bang, err, rather fire alarms. The entire building's worth. A mere 45 minutes after I drifted off to sleep, the Kansas City Fire Department was dispatched to my building. I've woken up to fire alarms before, but they were usually turned off very quickly. This time, they weren't turning off. Simon was freaking out, running around all over the place not knowing what to do – I bet his ears were hurting.
Reluctantly, I threw on some clothes and marched my way downstairs to see what all the fuss was. Sure enough, the entire building was outside in the cold, at midnight, waiting for the Fire Department to "put out the fire." And by that, I mean fix the busted sprinkler in the garage. This has happened before, but it wasn't 30 degrees outside.
Work was more of the same today, still runnin' hard to get the new vml.com up. Again, I reiterate how hard it is to make a site when you have no content. It's the ol' "hurry up and wait" routine.
We had a creative department meeting today, where several people took the opportunity to complain that I was leaving. it was all in good fun, but they best watch their backs. Yeah, I'm talking to you Parre, and Pruitt.
Tomorrow is the going away party. That'll be fun... and sad.
Posted by Seth at 09:33 PM | Comments (0)
December 08, 2004
Last Wednesday @ VML
Today wasn't a bad day, by any measure. It started off bad because my upstairs neighbor, whom I know a lot about since he's so loud and the floors are thin, wasn't home this morning while his alarm went off for 30 minutes. I loved it. Because of the noise, I'm attempting to move into another loft in this same building (more to come on that in the near future). The rest of the day was great... but believe me when I say that VML is going to get every minute out of me that they can until next Monday... which isn't a bad thing, just sprinting to the finish, I suppose.
We're in the middle of a giant redesign of vml.com (boy, does it need it). It's going to be a great site when it's done – it's supposed to launch on December 15. The site is split into two halves *#8211; the work and the company – which we think are the main reasons that people would come to the site. The work side is going to be completely done in flash, while the company side will be done entirely in CSS. To date, this is my best CSS work done.
So, as I sprint to finish at VML, and we sprint to get the site ready to launch, I need to make sure to get all of my other housekeeping chores done at VML.
Tonight, me and Simon are going to watch some TV and veg. I'm excited.
Oh, and one week from now, I'll have finished my first day at SHS... weird.
Posted by Seth at 07:30 PM | Comments (0)
December 07, 2004
Last Tuesday @ VML
On my drive to work this moring, I thought to myself, "today is the last Tuesday morning meeting that you'll have to attend at VML." What a nice thought, I'm now on the last week of my career at VML. Not because of the fact that it's my last week at VML, but that it's finally down to my last five days until I'm ready to start my new job.
It turns out that a friend of mine, Ken, had a very sweet and sincere note to be read at the meeting – but it never happened because of a network failure or something. How crappy for Ken. He shared the note with me afterwards, and I couldn't ask for a sweeter note from someone who I will miss very much when I'm gone.
So, today was not only my last Tuesday at VML, but it was also a very important night at the bowling alley. With one week of bowling before the bowl-off week, our team (The Belt Strikes Back) was in a comfortable five-game lead ahead of the second place team. All we had to do tonight was match the win total of that team to assure ourselves first place for the season. By the end of the night, we had won three games, while the second place team won only one. THAT MEANS WE HAVE FIRST PLACE LOCKED!!! It's only bittersweet, because we were the worst team in the history of the VML Bowling League last season – so you can see, The Belt really does Strike Back.
And since good news comes in three's, I have to mention that the Arkansas Basketball team improved to 6-1 tonight by beating, border state, Missouri, 62-52. Sad for Mizzou fans, they were dedicating their new arena tonight... I guess that's what you get when you initially name your arena after a cheater.
Last Tuesday at VML, now officially in the books.
Posted by Seth at 11:14 PM | Comments (0)
December 06, 2004
Meris' Birthday!!!
Happy Birthday to You
Happy Birthday to You
Happy Birrrrrrrrrrthday to Meeeeeeeeeriiiiiiiiiis
Happy Birthday to You!
Posted by Seth at 06:18 PM | Comments (0)