After many hours, we finally shipped out the skid going to Australia. I’m not sure what’s happening with all this, but it seems as though each shipment has it’s own problems. One would think that the process would get easier as time goes on, but it appears the opposite. I’m thinking it took about 4 hours to finalize the paperwork this morning. Well, that’s half because of the phone seemed to be ringing off the hook with many unique situations that cause distractions in the paperwork concentration :) But thankfully, it did manage to sort out in the end, and was able to put some time to re-formatting a computer. I remember thinking that this is not what I signed up for… in that when I started with GoodSeed, my responsibilities were more centered around content creation, videography, audio, etc. But now it’s more menial or mundane. Or as some have said, like eating cardboard. That’s ok. I have to keep reminding myself that someone needs to fill these shoes so that others can benefit. Like today, I shipped out over 2,000 pieces of material to Australia that will help that many (or more) understand the Lord a bit more. Not everyone can be up front. It does take a team effort, and I thank those who help keep me here.
Yesterday, I spend the day working on my taxes. Going through last year’s finances is not the highlight of the year, but after it was all said and done, it was good. Morning started at men’s Bible study (finishing up Acts 17). Around 1:30 I had to get out because it was a beautiful day (~43 degrees) so I went for a 5 mile run (39:51). Just what the doctor ordered for working on taxes!
Today, after church (Mat 2) I came home and again we had a really nice day. So I climbed Canfield Mountain, 7.3 miles, 3 hours, 17 minutes or so (w/ 30 min stopping to talk to folks.) Slept on the couch this afternoon and rested the rest of the day!
Been working on a clip from a long time ago, a little video when we first produced The Lamb. Since then, it's been translated into Simplified Chinese, French, German, Luxembourgish, Pa-O, Portuguese, Spanish and Yakut. More translations are underway.
This morning I spent probably 2 hours on finalizing the print job for The Stranger. I’m not exactly sure why it took so long, but there were details that I missed and had to have resolved before signing the quote.
Our last print job I failed to see that the quote had glossy lamination on the cover, where we usually use a flat finish. Part of the problem, is the technical term is “glossy lay flat lamination”, so it has both flat and glossy in the description. I originally requested the cheaper “flat lam” and they took that and used glossy because it’s cheaper. And it lays flat. And I didn’t see that on the quote, so that’s what we ended up with. No harm done in the end.
The other problem is I had crossed off shrink-wrapping off the quote, as we didn’t want that for our WorkBooks this time around to save some money. However, they went ahead and did that for some reason, and the good news is we didn’t have to pay for that mistake.
Oh, and they couldn’t find my signed quote, and the quote I signed didn’t have the shrink-wrapping price on it anyway (though it was listed.) I actually was willing to pay half the difference on the wrapping, and they were worried that I wanted to take their half off the invoice. Reason why they were worried, is the invoice didn’t have the pricing for the shrink-wrapping on it in the first place, so I wasn’t paying anything for it to begin with! Eventually we got it all sorted out and realized we both needed to pay a little more attention to details the next time around.
So, as you can see, lots of problems with the last print job, and trying to be extra careful on this one, as it’s our main book (The Stranger.) In the end, I think it all worked out. I got the final quote, signed it, emailed it back and send the files.
So far this year, I’ve had at least 6 print jobs to handle. Books and DVD’s, but each needs a good attention to detail! Some of my troubles can be compared to the seasoned traveler who is the one who makes the mistakes because things are too familiar.
Spent the day at church, were we had a Steeling the Mind Bible conference. It's my second time going to one of these conferences, and it was a good time. Lunch break was supposed to be an hour and a half, but was shaved down due to going over on time. I got home at 12:20, and had 70 min to get back. But it was such a nice day, I had to go for a run. 4 miles in 31:23, my fastest 4 mile within the last year. And yes, after a shower I still made it back just fine!
Mike Gendron taught on some of the differences between the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant Church. Russ Miller spoke on Creation, radiocarbon dating and some of the problems with evolution. Paul VanNoy taught through the many different aspects of the Millennium. Jerry Robinson worked on the aspects of finances and some good ideas to offset the problems that are coming on the horizon. John Loeffler spoke about some current events among many other things going on in this world! David Moore taught on Failure, Forgiveness and You Future. Buck Storm led worship. Wilfred Hahn spoke about the 10 kings of Revelation. Frank Peretti talked about "going through the middle" -- not trying to go around the trials of life, but- through the middle.
Yesterday Dave and I drove to Canada, today we came home. I left Coeur d’Alene at around 6:00, picked up Dave in Newport, WA, and arrived in Olds at around 6:00 pm. We only stopped to mill around an old abandoned mine checking things out (in Blairmore, AB.) After supper w/ Dave and Sally, headed out to the office to unload and say hi to the Kary’s. Unloaded the books and spent the night at JRC’s house (thanks!)
This morning we left at 6:00 MST (5:00 PST), drove around Banff, hiked Johnston Canyon / Falls, and was home by 4:50 pm PST. It ended up good, because I had a condo board meeting at 5:00. Then took to truck to wash off, fill up w/ diesel, hit Costco on the way home, supper and sleep!
Just a quick note saying the truck is full (even boxes in the extended cab) and ready for the trip up tomorrow. I packed in about 3 skid’s worth of books, tabernacles and DVD’s in there. You could pray for safety if you like : ) Looking forward to a road trip, and this time my bud Dave LaVille is riding shotgun. Currently the plan is to come back on Thursday.
Today I sent quote requests out for the first print of Edition 5 of The Stranger. The main difference between Edition 4 and 5 is the page numbering. We shrunk it down from 324 pages to 288. Lighter, thinner, all are good things. The font size is just a hair smaller, but that’s ok, because we have a Large Print edition. It will probably be a month before they are printed and delivered.
Today’s been a warehouse day. Started out by pulling a couple skid’s worth of inventory to take to Canada. In the process, skid levels lowered, meaning it was time to re-arrange the warehouse to utilize space better, so I started. When I was finished, I had 4 bays open for full skids! This is good, because I’m also expecting a shipment of By This Name WorkBooks (which actually came in over lunch time.)
Coffee helped out today. Spent much of the morning packing boxes (as Wednesday is my packing day.) Got the quote signed for the Arabic reprint, finished duplicating the Spanish Audio CD’s, worked some on the website.
Also this morning I received the lens that I had sent in for repairs. I’m very thankful that Nikon had an extended 5 year warranty on the beast, because in another 2 months it would have been out. It had a problem where the aperture would stick in the 2.8 position, making shooting more of a challenge. After a fix and a clean, it appears I’m good to go. Looks like they replaced the aperture blade mechanism among other things.
Also learned that Alberta went into the hospital for some heart troubles. She is one who has been very dear to my heart for many years, and pray for her encouragement, strength, healing and her dependence on the Lord during this time. And too, for the family.
Among other things done today (like printing 3 copies of the script for the Stranger AudioBook, duplicate CD’s for the Spanish AudioBook, start the next reprint for the Arabic ATP), I’m also looking at another trip to Canada. This time it appears to be just a delivery, and not a 10 week endeavor. And that means throw in the snowshoes, camera, computer (duh) and plan a hike in the mountains on the way up and down! It’s actually almost perfect. The drive is an 9 hour trip, so if you leave early and get there late, you can hike for 4-5 hours easy. All depends on the weather (among other things) but we’ll see how it goes.
Yep. One of those days. Here's some things I worked on:
Oversaw the shipment of 2 skids of books (French All that the Prophet has Spoken) from our Quebec office to Arizona. (Power of Attorney, Commercial Invoices, Certicificate of Origins, Schedule B's, Addresses, special requirements, etc.)
Re-authored / remastered a DVD for promoting our TERM seminars in Canada. (Rebulidng an avi file, converting to mp4 and ac3, creating a new iso, and transfering to the duplicating machine.)
Started duplicating the above DVD on our robotic DVD duplicator machine (and if any of you know which one that is, you'll understand...)
Answered phones (Monday's my day) and that alone kept me busy it seemed.
Started re-formatting a computer, but put on hold until we get a copy of Windows 7, which I ordered.
So, all in all, kept me busy, and going in many different directions. Just thankful to have been able to help out. But it did seem a lot worse than what it looks like here!
After a 4 mile run (33:53) and men’s bible study this morning (currently in Acts 17,) I spent the day working on hooking up my furnace. Last time I worked on it, I positioned the unit, put on the plenums and hooked up the 2” PVC for fresh air intake / exhaust. Today I finished vacuuming the spider webs in the crawl space, hooked up the gas line, and then ran the electric. There are 3 different electric runs—one for lighting, another for an outlet nearby the unit, and the third for the furnace itself. The outlet was actually inline to the power I ran to the gas fireplace / tv / dvd player, and the light I just ran off the existing circuit (but adding a switch topside making life much easier.) It is fun to work on your own place and customize things as you go. Next to come is ductwork and running the lineset to to the condenser unit outside. But once the ductwork is in, I’ll probably run it just as a furnace for grins anyhow.
