“bulk” mail

today has been a little interesting. one of my clients has a medium sized client base, but it can be grouped into categories of clientele. he wants to send “bulk” messages to his clients, offering special services based on those categories.

well, that’s not really hard, is it? sending a copy of one e-mail to multiple recipients is possible from nearly every e-mail client available. the trick is to do it in an efficient manner and to follow a good e-mail etiquette. what complicated this little tutorial is that he uses eudora, on a mac.

i haven’t used eudora for several years. which means i’ve never used it on a mac. fortunately, eudora can be downloaded and used for free, with only a few limitations.

i imported my settings and contact info from apple mail, and set to work looking around the eudora interface. upon opening the address book, i discovered i had to enable showing of the OS X address book. once done, i created a few alternate address books. i seem to remember there’s a way to create “groups” in eudora, but this way was a little easier.

doing bulk mail this way forces the user to select the addresses in the address book. you can select multiple addresses by holding the command key as you select addresses. at the bottom of the address book panel, just click on the [Bcc:] button. Bcc:, of course, because you don’t want everyone to see all the other recipients’ addresses (that’s the e-mail etiquette i was talking about).

NOTE: duplicate addresses will only get one copy. eudora is pretty smart about that, but it confused my client, as he was trying it out by sending copies to himself. i think we’ve got it working for him, now.

new client activity

one thing can lead to another.

the minutos have been clients for nearly ten years. mostly, i keep there ‘puter running. they started with a packard bell (a cursed machine) that would completely quit working every couple of months. after rebuilding that machine several times, we finally built a new machine. from there we kept moving up, finally switching to a 24″ iMac (alum) early this year.

Frank is a professional artist — very prolific. he also teaches for the Palos verdes Art Center. Debs is a photographer, and she specializes in artist’s portfolios – photographing the originals and printing quality giclees. every once in awhile she calls for help with a project in photoshop. her call this week was to create a CD of one of Frank’ss series to present to galleries. it was an excellent time to introduce her to lightroom.

we used lightroom to adjust the images of a few of the photos and to create a screensaver of the series. we also experimented with how it would create a webpage presentation of the series. they liked the result so much, we’re finally going to put Frank’s work online! as i’ve been pushing for this for a couple years, i’m absolutely delighted.

we’re now figuring out just exactly how we’re going to upload the files. one new aspect we’re going to try is embedded videos of Frank’s “gallery statements”. we’re going to give him approximately 10 minutes to record a short description of the series, as though he were presenting it in a class lesson. we’ll probably use viddler, but (just in case) i’m going to try a few things with garageband. after showing the screensaver to another client, there’s even a possibility of having some original music for the site as well.

i guess i’m branching out into “production”.

busy, busy week

or two? i’ve been finishing up all the loose ends with taxes and such. the grandboy celebrated his 6th (!!!) birthday on friday and saturday. and i’m getting ready to go see the endocrinologist in the morning. that was a surprise; i thought the appt. was next month. thank the powers that be – one of my clients wanted a training session this week. there’s the appointment – plain as day…

i usually have my blood work done a week in advance. here’s hoping the test results arrive in time.

getting ready for the meetup with my client was fun, too. now that i have the iMac, i don’t use the laptop every day. i guess i’ve been neglecting it this month – there were TEN updates to be installed. i also wanted to be sure to install the adobe lightroom 2.0 (beta) as that’s one of the programs we’ll be working with. charged the battery and discovered the two spares i have are definitely deader than doornails. so i ordered a new battery, photoshop elements 6.0 and the print shop! i had no idea that was available for macs. i don’t use it often, but when i want to use it…

i spent a few extra minutes last night trying to trim some of the many many podcasts down to “manageable”. sigh, i don’t think it’s going to happen. iTunes reports i have 862 podcast episodes currently in the queue. granted, some of those are stories i haven’t yet transferred to CD, but many of them are tutorials. i’m going to have to get brutal over the next couple of weeks.

haha! on me…

being single-minded doesn’t always work out.

i was so “focused” on getting the office cleaned up, i just kept piling the mail up on the end table. oops. friday, i finally sorted through all of it. one “late” notice, several catalogs (straight into the trash bin, this time), a bunch more magazines (more about them, later), and a few bank statements.

well, really, that’s not so bad. the “late” notice bothered me, i didn’t remember getting the first bill, but it wasn’t a major problem – it’s the first time in about four years. paid the bill on the phone (bugs me, they charge for that particular service) and now i don’t owe them anything. the bank statements are usually not a problem.

i check my bank balance nearly every day. it keeps me balanced, and i learn early if something is “out of order”. last year, i discovered a fraudulent charge (ultimately, three of them) the day it occurred. managed to contact the company where it happened and get their cooperation, and the bank covered it. eventually, the hubby got a new ATM card, and it hasn’t happened again. NOTE: i wouldn’t recommend netzero to anyone, ever. THEIR response was “we’re not responsible for the misuse of your card…” very peculiar circumstances, really. whoever was trying to use the card, did so ONLY to try setting up an online FAX account. the first time, it was used to set up a one year service. the next try was a month-to-month service. after the third try, they gave up.

back to the main tale–i hadn’t checked my accounts online for ten days. it took me four hours, saturday, to balance the checkbook! at first, i thought i was off by about $750. pulled out all of the receipts for last month and double checked that i hadn’t entered anything more than once. then i printed a month’s worth of transactions from the bank site (i don’t just download the transactions – it confuses me). checked off item by item, and discovered i had not entered a couple deposits and several online transactions. eventually, it all worked out. whew!

i love using quicken. i joke that “i never learned to count; that’s how i got my kids.” it’s really true. until i started using quicken, i could never balance my bankbooks. i’m a little obsessive about it, now (“i check my bank balance nearly every day”), but everything stays balanced and up to date. i probably could take more advantage of the program. there are neat little graphs to show you where you’re spending your hard earned moneys. and there are other graphs to show whether your funds are growing or shrinking. the best part is having the numbers show up red if you’re overdrawn; i haven’t seen those “red” for a long time, but i know they’re available.

once i balanced everything, i figured i should finish paying the bills. there really weren’t that many, but it took me all night! amazing! of course, i started around 9:00 pm. but i didn’t finish until after 6:00 am. sheesh paying the bills includes printing stamps, and filing, and checking when i last paid for that particular subscription or donated to that particular cause… have you noticed that paying for a subscription immediately gets you a “renew now and save” offer? or that donating to an organization gets a “thank you, would you like to give us some more?” you could run to the poorhouse faster if you just gave them everything, right?

so that brings us to sunday. hubby gets up and wants to know if i’m planning on sleeping any time this weekend. he was right; i definitely needed a nap. 1 hour and 20 minutes later, mom calls wanting to know if quicken can print her checks for her. i like talking to mom. her eyesight really is giving her fits, she’s not sure she’s doing her checks right, and yes, quicken will print out her checks. she just bought a new house! we talked for quite a while. in the meantime, hubby has started working on last year’s taxes.

please, would i dig out the taxes from 2006 so he could compare them? did i pay estimated taxes for the state? no more napping. back to cleaning out more office stuff (there are files we could put in the garage, i’m sure). just how long are we required to keep old tax records, anyway? questions answered, old files refiled, and taxes for 2007 are now complete. california wants copies of new mexico taxes, and viceyvers. so now i’m making copies of tons of paper. i also need to run to the mail boxes, etc. store for envelopes. don’t i have some stuff i want notarized?

later, gators.

good people day 08

one of the things i want to do with this blog is give it more “content”. otherwise, it’s just random ramblings and whoever manages to find it will quickly get bored.

today is as good a day as any to start adding links to posts. this particular link is better than any i could imagine. gary vaynerchuk has an incredible blog re: personal branding and business building. today, his second post is a real real eye-opener.

gary vaynerchuk: good people day ‘08

there’s a good little video on the page (explanatory). after watching this little video, i immediately thought of the various members of my family, most of the blogger and podcasting tribe, and quite a few other persons who have influenced me and helped me become the kind of person i am, today. i would be writing all week to include them all here, so i’ll just name a few, and leave room for you to add to the list.

my hubby is “good people”. we’ve been married almost 36 years. he’s always made me feel beautiful, pretty, sexy and smart! as a father, he simply couldn’t be better and as a grandfather he’s just about perfect. even whe i’m grousing about something he does, or did, i know in my heart that i wouldn’t have him change for anything in the world. he’s the best man there is, and my true life mate.

my mom is “good people”. it took me more than forty years to realize just how much i truly love and admire her. she taught me how to be patient (even when i consider it a dirty word), and tolerant (some people can try one’s patience). i learned not to gossip from her, and how to never let someone feel my personal displeasure at their presence (no matter how much i feel they’re intruding on my presence). mom has a really strong opinion on what is right and doing it; i hope i will always do what i believe is right.

mur lafferty is “good people”. when i first learned about podcasts, hers was one of the first i found. i’m not a writer, but her podcast makes me want to write. and through her podcast, i have discovered many, many others. her essays have brightened many days, and her support for the Tribe is awesome. “go, eagle, go” is catching on around my family and friends (although they’re not certain what started me saying it).

and gary vaynerchuk is “good people” for reminding myself and others that “every day is good people day”

he’s home!

this is so nice, i missed him even more than i thought.

they had a great vacation; DiL took about 100 pictures which #1 son put on a CD for me. i got presents; they found a nifty disney pin with mickey mouse and a dragon on it, and hubby bought me a huge plush dragon – very colorful. the grandboy told me about seeing all the aquariums and fish tanks, swimming in the different pools, and all the lights and noises.

it’s their first trip to vegas in 7 years. the place has definitely changed a lot. hubby and i go every year, and there’s usually a lot of changes. somehow, our descriptions jsut didn’t quite prepare them.

we went to lunch at islands, and then back to their house to play on the wii. what a really nice day. perfect ending to the week.

impatient

waiting on pins and needles for the hubby to get home tomorrow (around noon). if i go to sleep early tonight will he get home sooner? i miss him.

the hot glue gun didn’t work. it has a very fine nozzle for detail work, hence it’s just not putting out stickiness fast enough. #2 son got the velcro out of the closet for me, and i’m preparing to reapply new strips to the power strip and the side of the cabinet. silly me – i could use screws – the back of the power strips has cutouts for them… still, climbing under the desk to drill holes for them seems a bit awkward. (what a funny looking word – still, it doesn’t have an spelling underline, so it must be correct)

cleaned out one of the hutch cabinets over the south desk. put the loft back to usefulness. watched man of la mancha (i always cry) and collected the mail. nothing much there, today. that’s good, i didn’t feel like looking at bills. 5 magazines:

National Wildlife: articles that look really interesting–”lessons of the flowers” and “america’s forgotten forest. there’s also an article about paperless bill paying (right up my alley).

Diabetes Forecast: general health and dietary stuff for diabetes control, and news re: diabetes research. there’s an article about bariatric surgery this month.

Bead Style: there’s a cute srticle on making cellphone charms this month, another on using wood beads.

ZooNooz: (from the San Diego Zoo) there’s an artical here about flightless birds, and another on polar bears and climate change.

American Craft: there’s a really good article on modern materials, and another on the crafts scene in Los Angeles.

i’m winding yarn now, and i think i’ll listen to the podcasts i didn’t pay any attention to this afternoon. it’s going to be a late night. #2 son is on his way to visit a friend. it’s going to be a quiet night. even better.

whew!

okay – i’m all the way into the corner of the office. figure that, while i’m here, i should work a little on the shelves – throw away stuff that’s just cluttering up the place, make room for the references i want close to hand… and vacuum before i put anything else here.

found lots more yarn, tons of needles and tools. did NOT find the glue gun i need to use to reattach the power strip at the side of my keyboard tray. poor thing has held up well, but the sticky tape finally just gave up (after about 5 years ). just dangling above the floor right now – no hot glue available; i’d use velcro tape if i could reach it – it’s in the closet on the top shelf.

did i ever mention that even step ladders terrify me? good thing my men are all much taller than i – they’re great for reachies – and don’t mind any chance to call me “midget”. unfortunately, none of them is here right now.

i’ve cornered myself in the office. haha! pulled down a lot of stuff and put it a box to throw it away, but the box is too big for me to move by myself. guess i’m stuck here for about an hour. #2 son is going to laugh at me.

it’s not all “that” bad

okay – so six hours of sleep can make you feel a lot better. when i finally caved in last night, i was really depressed. the task was just waaay overwhelming. i was sure we weren’t even close to an acceptable stage for the installer, and i was too tired to deal with it.

this morning, the “mess” didn’t seem that messy. after a cup of coffee, it actually looked “doable”. the installer is here, he doesn’t seem to mind the state we’re in at all. which means the goal of having the office and loft done by the time hubby gets back is now more realistic. especially as the office really is almost done. it’s even at a “run the vacuum” stage. squee!

i found another stack of magazines – mostly layers, illustrator and knitting. going thru that stack a little more slowly – trimming patterns i really like, and putting them in a notebook. moved a stack of books from in front of the cable control box (maybe the remote will work, now) and there’s actually room to move around in here; sweet! i found a box containing the rolling file folder cart; #2 son will put it together for me this afternoon – that solves a paper sorting issue i’ve been having. getting organized is getting easier by the minute. i still haven’t found those bookends…

going to post this, now…the internet connection is going to be broken pretty soon…

it’s just too much

not able to pull all nighters like i used to do. sigh. too tired to think, let alone move. if i see another box tonight, i think i’ll start to cry. but the office is looking pretty good. south desk is better organized. stack of magazines is gone, as is the spare table. can actually pull the PC out from under the desk without having to move anything out of the way.

good enough for the installer. #2 son is in charge of getting the loft cleared. he says he’s got it under control. going to have to trust him, i haven’t enough energy to argue about it. going to go take another nap (about 4 hrs. this time) and see what else i can do in the morning. nothing major, until the installation is completed, but there’s still a lot i want to do this week while the hubby is out of the way.

it’s time to order a dumpster. and i think i’ll call the used books store (i think they’ll actually come get these). sometimes, you just have to be really ruthless. i said that before, didn’t i? “things” are just not going to control the way i live. if i can’t give it away, or throw it away, i’m far too attached to the wrong things. should be able to walk away without looking back.

mostly, i think i’m capable of that. the things are nice, or pretty – some of them have sentimental qualities…but they’re just things, after all. what really counts is my family and our health. the rest of it is just trimming. it’s a bonus we don’t have to have. so cleaning up all this clutter is just a way of clarifying the best ideals for us. and it feels like i’ve accomplished an incredible amount of that in the past couple days.