“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.

still going strong!

well, i’m about half way ’round the office. busy reorganizing as i go, and packing up books to recycle or move down to the library. this seems like slow progress, but i’m pleased with the results so far.

i’ve found two sweaters to be finished, and the yarn and pattern for the next one, three afghans that also need finishing, and the fabric for two quilts (the sewing machines moved downstairs last week ). i’ve also found quite a few tools for fiber-crafting, some roving and some felting needles. there’s a grand stack of paper and card-stock. and a box of adhesives for any number of applications. i found my missing sketchbook and nu-pastels, too. i’m definitely not lacking for projects to work on this season!

there is now room to set up the tablet PC on the corner desk, and i think i’ll be able to move the printers to better positions in the office. one of them needed to be closer to a phone outlet, and the other needs to be close to the airport express (wireless print-server). i’m afraid to go into the closet just yet – not ready to go thru the “spare parts” box… and where did all these phone cords come from?

i guess the inspiration/inclination had to finally HIT me sometime! it’s great to have motivation.

lists

i love lists. lists of things i need to do, things i should do, things i want to do.

i write lists of things i need to order. grocery lists. menus. books i want to look up; the next ones to read. patterns i want to try, fibers i want to use.

i list my goals, my accomplishments, my blessings.

i even write lists of lists!

one of the nicest things on a mac is the stickies app. i have stickies all over the 6th space on my iMac. every one of them is a different list. there’s a list of podcasts, a list of software. there’s a list of dates that my family might be getting together. i have a list of phone numbers, and email addies i haven’t yet added to the address book, and another list of websites to check.

every so often i check the lists – delete items, add others. i love the stickies…

creating a logo

well, actually not. what i’m doing is cutting a logo from a photo using CS3. this could be really tricky, depending on the photo. but photoshop has some cool tools that really help.

the photo in use is one i took at the Star Trek Tour. over the entry was a huge and beautiful panel and the picture i took shows it very clearly. the Queen Mary Dome is white on top, but the entrance is dark. selecting just the logo should be fairly easy.

the quick select tool is really a bonus. with a little patience, i was able to select the entire border and not the doorframe. but there are a few blurs along the edge where the contrast fades away. not too bad, really, but the edges look a little choppy at first.

copied it onto a new layer, hid the background and now i’ve got a very sharp contrast. i also have a great cintiq 20WSX monitor. can easily zoom in, and move around the edges. can expand and contract the eraser easily, too. so now i’m just smoothing out the edges a little…

i’ll be using it in a newsletteer reviewing the Tour for the O*W*C.

doing the taxes

well, i don’t… i just assemble all the files for the hubby to do them.

supposedly, all the paperwork is supposed to arrive in january. they do, but they don’t seem to start arriving until the last week of the month. i just keep adding them to the tax folder until the middle of february. then i compare what they say to what my records thru the year say, and try to reconcile them as much as possible. then i give the whole pack to him, and leave town if i can while he works on them in turbtax.

our copy of turbotax arrives in september, usually, but there’s no point in installing it before january, as ther are always updates to be downloaded at the end of the month. and we downloaded the state versions. bad enough we have to pay taxes in CA, but we also have to pay them in new mexico. blegh!

somehow, even with all this preparedness, we never seem to have them done until the last minute. my mom is hiring a financial manager…boy, do i wish that were an option for us!

a normal day

it’s saturday. i’ve spent most of the day in the office. SOP. grampy is visiting #1 son and his family – won’t be back ’til after 9:00pm.

this is routine. i start with e-mail, and catch up on a few podcasts. log in to the #techguy chatroom a little after 10:00am, and listen to the KFI broadcast when it starts a little after 11:00am. yes, i do multi-task throughout the show, mostly in ‘puter work, sometimes a little fiber arts, but always within earshot. today i synced the iPod and the iTouch and made sure they were thoroughly charged. i trimmed some of the rubber stamps i had on the desk, and put away one of the afghans i’m working on (until the rest of the yarn arrives). i added my name to a couple knitting blogs and caught up on past submissions.

NOTE: why does google insist on using the same password for e-mail that is used for google checkout? it doesn’t encourage me to use google checkout–that’s for sure! and it means i have an really complex password just for checking my e-mail…

when the chatroom closes, i sometimes take a nap, but usually i do a few household chores–often with podcasts playing in the background. i love my airport express (broadcasts to the stereo equipment downstairs).

today, i ordered a game for the DS from amazon, placed an order for rubber stamps and paper, balanced the checkbook, edited a catalogue of images in lightroom,  and followed tweets from SXSW. lazy day. but very normal. it’s really been pretty quiet–#2 son has been away all day.

tomorrow is my mom’s 77th b’day. we’re going down to visit around noon, staying ’til a little after dinner. standard visit includes balancing her bank accounts in quicken. my brother helped her organize all her tax papers this year. that’s a real blessing; my eyesight isn’t that much better than hers when it comes to reading the print on the papers she needs every year.

i really enjoyed my day. and i’m looking forward to the day, tomorrow.

little reminders

listening and watching leo during “the techguy” broadcast, today, i was reminded about being prepared. his video stream went down after just two hours because he forgot to bring his power supply cable for his macbook pro.

it’s such a little thing; a simple cable can ruin a session with a client. same thing for card readers, backup drives, e-manuals… i’ve done it myself.

a couple years ago, i had the opportunity to create a DB for a client on a new eMac (new then!). “the DB is ready!” i proclaimed over the phone, and set up a time for delivery. to my chagrin, I had loaded it on a floppy disk, completely forgetting his new ‘puter did not have a floppy drive… completely wasted my afternoon (not a “close” drive), and disappointed my client, terribly.

keep up with your clients’ requirements! double check your travel kit for cables, necessary peripherals, etc. and back up! back up! back up!