Rainy day drive

My brain... is fried. So many years have passed since I have felt this way. As if my head were tired. I just sat down on the couch and my brain sighed with relief.

That said, I have a fascinating group of coworkers who I hope to learn immesurable amounts from.

Telecommunications

I've never actually sat in on a conference call before, let alone one with folk out in random starbucks across america, but I'm amazed at how productive that was. Really cool look inside the sales and numbers aspect of this job, with some exciting high stress projects to come!

The Saga Continues

Now that I can make coffee from home, I desperately regret having been a cheapskate. Going from Keurig to Eight O'Clock is simply not the grand leap I had fantasized about. Better coffee will be procured in short order. I also then forgot to set a timer, so this coffee may has steeped for a bit on the long side.

Today will be filled with SEO goodness. I loathed SEO and SEM working for the agency, it was forced on me, I never felt like I could build an honest relationship with my clients because of the agency environment, and so I approached it with some disdain. Always fun at first, setting clients up I had a good bit of free reign to run down intellectual pursuits, gets boring after that though. I think that's why it took me so long to get "good" at it, about 2 years.

I have always maintained that SEO and SEM efforts were best kept in-house. That it's worthwhile to consult with a professional during setup, and to get a bit of training, but that no one knows your business like you do. Someone who cares, speaks the language, knows about sales and services the moment they change, can respond to customer or social networking feedback in real time with real answers.

Now, I'm that dude. I'm the in-house. And I truly do care about the product. I need this beast to succeed or I will have failed my employers and the faith they have placed in me. That's no short order. That's poached eggs on the sunday morning rush. So here goes, into the  boiling water and vinegar.

Late night

Alright I lied, day wasn't quite over, and I'm now officially That Guy talking shop on his cell phone in the grocery store.

In Closing

Thus, I suppose, draws to a close my first day of work. At 4:15. I started at 9:10. That doesn't seem really fair, now does it? Fortunately, tomorrow will be a much longer day, full of SEO goodness. Will be the first time I've ever done and SEO Audit on a website for a product I care about. I'm curious to see how that skews my findings, as I'm not trying to sell this client on building a whole new website, in fact findings of the opposite would be a money saver, as now I actually care about that too. Stay tuned! Maybe I'll liveblog that too...

Timing

Well, I could go pick up hunter, and potato salad, or I could finish this copy... pretty neat little conundrum, mostly because I know that I have the freedom to make both work, that's unique in my experience. Knowing that I can choose. I can go get hunter now, and have to do a little work later tonight, or I can sweat it out for 5 or 10 more minutes, still get hunter in plenty of time, and be home to enjoy my family for the evening.

Workday

Take a meeting. Write some ad copy. Order a stupid quantity of friend chicken. This is the best workday ever.

Bagels & Sandwiches.

Meetings in fast food restaurants are an interesting thing. The people-watching is fantastic, if only one wasn't supposed to be paying attention to the rather lofty goals being laid out by the meetee. Interesting job with an interesting future. Also I now have to sign up for Skype, not entirely sure there's a built in mic on this laptop, which means I may have to do some jerry rigging with my Shure.

First time out

And now, we pause to drive to Panera. Also, damn my ass looks good in these pants.

Quantity

I was wrong, it wasn't 15 e-mails. It was 45. Everything from random musings to projects and beyond. One thing I can say for sure, dull moments will be few and far between.

Cables

Who knew you'd need cables to make a home office?

Working hard

but tonight some red eyed Wireton girl lies staring at the wall, and her lover's gone in to the white squall...

Seconds

Having now reviewed all 19 e-mails left waiting for my start, while also having compiled a list of things to do, projects that need some vaguely immediate attention, and finished my breakfast... I can confirm that this job will involve quantities of work not seen by these hands in a long, long time. Here's to hoping apathetic complacency caused by long term exposure to an underwhelming and negative environment isn't perminant.

The ebbs and flows of excitement and dread have really been half the fun. Seeing Hunter's face when I got up this morning, knowing that I was about to embark on something interesting, that was amazing. Looking at the monitor and my already massive lists? Yeah I'd call this Intimidation.

Dumpster Diving

Discovered that, in my traditional sunday evening stupor, I threw out the piece of paper I had carried all weekend long with various Father's Day slogans on it, a pre-employment project handed down last week. This was dissapointing, until I found said paper conveniently hidden under the wet remnants of yesterday's house cleaning. We'll just dust this off and see if I've stumbled upon any nuggets of literary gold...

9:10. Logged into e-mail for the first time. Meant to do this by 9:00. Somehow a shower seemed more in order, and apparently I have the freedom to make that decision. This will be a strange job.

And so, the day begins. This marks my first foray into "Liveblogging," a genre of writing I have no particular love for, but will likely be required to do for my new employer. Thus, I will Liveblog my first day.