Mother's Day and my new job

We did mothers (and mothers-to-be) day in FC this weekend with Mom and Dad and G&G. Above is a pic of us from the weekend. I haven't posted a recent picture in quite awhile so I thought I'd share. Wifey is doing okay but I think she's getting sick of her current dimensions.

Well, I'm leaving my position at STP. It's kinda bittersweet because STP is the only place that I've worked since we've moved here (I've had three different jobs within the company). I have many good friends in my coworkers that I will genuinely miss working with. Despite that, I'm very excited about my new position. My last day with STP is the 18th. I start the new position on the 21st.

The new company is called Local Creative. They are based Locally and do Creative stuff: imagine! Seriously, they do web site design, print design, interactive media design/programming and other creative work. My official title is Digital Fulfillment Manager. That means that I will be handling all of the technology development that powers the websites and other media design that Local Creative produces. Initially it will be lots of hands on work programming in PHP and other languages and working with database design, etc. LC is a small company right now but as we grow I will be responsible for bringing in and supervising new digital technology talent as needed.

It was a hard decision to move out of a large, stable corporation to a small, fairly new company. But looking at the quality of work and dedication that the owner has put into LC convinced me that this will be a fun, flexible and exciting place to work. STP has been a great company to work for. I will actually miss my boss a lot as he was an excellent guy to work for (no, he doesn't read this blog and flattery wouldn't get me anywhere at this point anyway). It's probably rare that you can honestly say you really like your boss. All that being said, I never really made a conscious choice to get into marketing. I found opportunities at STP and took them, which led me into marketing but I am ready to get back to more creative pursuits. I think I will like my new boss too, I already respect him for his demonstrated ability and that goes a long way with me. The other guys I'll be working with seem really cool.

I know you're probably thinking: programming, creative? Yes, web programming and application development requires creative problem solving. Technology without creative regard for usability and efficiency is worthless (ohhhh, M$ Windows anyone?). I enjoy [trying my best to] blend the technology and design elements needed to create a seamless web experience for the user. Since this is a small company, I will probably be getting my hands "dirty" in some of the other design and print jobs that come in. That might be a nice break from lines of code.

The company itself is located in a renovated industrial building. It's an old old redbrick, complete with antique painted signs on the side. It manages to be trendy, historic and quaint all at once. Inside it has hardwood floors and the wonderful hum of dual-core processors and 24" widescreen monitors.I asked my new boss what kind of computer I would have and he said "what do you want?" I said I usually built my own at home so he let me compile a list of components from newegg.com (my fave computer parts company) and he ordered them for me. It's not everyday you get to build your own work computer and yes, I consider that a huge privilege. The goodies came in today and dropped in to assemble it. For my geek friends, here's what I built:

• Coolermaster case (I highly recommend these, built by people with good brains)
  
• Dual core 64 bit AMD proc (built by psionic supermutants, it's the only explanation)
  
• 2GB ram
• 256MB nVidia GeForce 7600GT
• 320GB 7200RPM SATA drive
• ASUS, dual Gigabit ethernet mobo that can handle up to 8GB RAM and 2 GPUs in SLI
• 500W PSU
• Logitech MX518 mouse

I'll be getting a DVD burner, 24" widescreen LCD (I think/hope) and an ergonomic keyboard. Basically this machine will outperform my home machine in just about all categories and that's saying something.

So there's your windy dose of news and nerd. Hope all had a happy mother's day.

Hired!

Well, we finally hired two people for my old position. One of them started this week (later nicknamed Dizzney) so I've been doing lots of training. The guy we hired doesn't have the technical (read: nerd) base that I do but he seems to have really good people skills and is catching on to stuff pretty quickly. I am very optimistic about turning the program over to him.

We have another guy starting in March that I will be training to take over another chunk of my old job. Turning the rest of this stuff over will be a huge relief since I have lots to do with my new position. I have been approached about speaking at a conference in Chicago in September. I get the feeling that my boss thinks it would be a very good idea for me to do that, which means that I have a lot to learn if I want to be able to speak confidently to a crowd of experienced marketeers. Public speaking scares me.

Wifey is doing well. We are hoping to get an ultrasound pretty soon so we can see if the baby comes with accessories.

I think this is the most boring blog post that I have ever written. The fact that you made it this far is astounding. Or maybe sad. I wanted to write something cool but I didn't have any interesting news so I tried to fudge it by talking about stuff that's going on at my job. That was probably more boring than just admitting that I didn't have anything cool to say. Maybe next post I'll try talking about the weather.

Why doesn't someone suggest something cool for me to post about so this blog doesn't continue to go downhill?

Do you want my job?

Happy New Year everyone. To my surprise, I got three comments on my last post. This is interesting to me because I only told one person that I had even started this blog. Unfortunately for you, now that we've outed our most exciting piece of news, the majority of future posts will be exhaustive and dull.

One thing that I didn't mention in the last post was that I got promoted at work. This seems insignificant when I'm at home and thinking about the changes coming to our homelife. But the significance comes crashing back home when I arrive at work.

Beginning February 1st I will be managing the email marketing for Sierra Trading Post. I currently manage something called Affiliate Marketing for Sierra. Between now and February 1st I will be hiring and training someone for my position, training another person we hired, learning the ropes on the new position, and going to conferences in San Fran and Las Vegas. Needless to say, I'm pretty anxious to find some eligible candidates for my current position.

If anyone knows someone who's web-savvy (this means you at least know some HTML), driven and wants to learn a whole bunch of stuff in not a whole bunch of time, let me know. Marketing experience is a plus. Wait, isn't my sister in marketing?