My Own Intern

Today I was given the final go-ahead to hire my very own little intern. To get the process rolling my co-worker Hinz and I called the local college in Menifee that offers a degree focus in visual communications.

I'm pretty much swamped here at work. You could say the boat is taking on water and my pail to bail it out has a hole in it. Or, I'm neck deep and the waves are splashing up over my nose. Or, I'm the lone horse and I have no time to drink. Enough with the analogies. What it all really means is between product management and graphic design, there's no time in the day to breathe. So, I pitched the idea of an intern a month or so ago and everybody has finally warmed to the idea.

Apparently my design skills have been ramped up about 50 notches the last few months as I'm now responsible for all of the product brochures (Three total at 28 pages each). It's a huge undertaking because I'm not just responsible for design. That's right ... I'm technically a "Marketing Product Manager", so that means I have to write the copy and headlines too! We run a small marketing department here that's for sure. The other two people in my department, Christy and Hinz, help with the copy during the rough draft stages and usually a few things get changed.

Along with the model line brochures, I'm responsible for all of our magazine ads, any promo flyers, modifying and creating Flash ads, creating dealer ads upon request (which average about 4 a week) and any POP (Point of Purchase) material for our dealers. It can get pretty overwhelming at times because that's just the graphic design aspect. This is where the intern comes in. If we can land somebody who can take just the dealer ads, flyers and a few Flash ads off my plate I might be able to come up for air again.

The sad part of the whole graphic design angle is I'm partly if not majority responsible for crushing an entire company that was once at 70 people in that of Arras Group ... our previous marketing / communications agency. The Arras Group had a head count of 70 when I started and is now at 5 or 6 people strong. I guess that's what happens when you become difficult to work with at times and you don't cut your rates in a down market. I estimate I've taken over $600k of business from them this year. I truly wish I was joking, but I'm not and it's probably even higher than that. From what I know we were their largest account. But we haven't passed so much as a dime on to them in the last six months. On the back end of the whole Arras Group collapse is me feeling guilty for people suddenly landing in the proverbial unemployment line. I guess I did what I had to do to keep myself valuable in a rough economy.

Lest we not forget, graphic design is only a portion of my job duties. In three weekends I'll be presenting all the new KTM offroad and Husaberg dirt bikes to the media in Washington. This obviously requires presentations and prep. After that it's our dealer meeting in Indy in late August. More presentations and a lot of front end grunt work for that one.

Needless to say, an intern can't come knocking soon enough. Who knows, doors might open for said intern if this market ever turns around.

Here Comes the Twins!

We just purchased our first set of tickets from Stub Hub for the Twins vs. Angels game this Friday. Terrace box on the visitors first base side Row A. Tracy is all about a Circle Me Bert sign, so we'll try our arts and craft skills Thursday night. We also plan on going to the Saturday night game, but we aren't so sure about a Sunday day game.

It's been super hot here lately. Here's what the last five days looked like: Friday: 98, Saturday: 101, Sunday: 103, Monday: 106, Tuesday: 102. Sadly, we're starting to get used to it. I'm still biking about 25 miles five times a week, but I have to be really selective on what time I go!

On a different yet related note ... we are planning on going to the Angels vs. Twins game at the Metrodome Saturday Aug. 1. Right now it's Jason & Carrie, Paul & Kristine, Brad & Kristi and the two of us. It's not a couples thing. Anybody who is interested in going to the game should let me know by Tuesday of next week at the latest. I plan on ordering a group of General Admission tickets in the upper deck.

We can't wait to see everybody. And we actually wouldn't mind seeing a thunderstorm or two. You start to miss those after a while.

Pedaling Away

I've been logging a lot of miles on the bike Tracy bought me for my birthday. So far it's been a great gift. It's pretty similar to the one pictured, except I'm riding with clip-in pedals.

For you non-bikers, clip-in pedals require a special riding shoe that has a cleat on the bottom of it. Said cleat clips in to the pedal, allowing you to pull and push the pedal on uphills etc.

I'm now up to 27.5 miles around four to five times a week. My co-worker, who got me in to this whole biking thing, was gone for three weeks on vacation and traveling for work. Once he got back he learned how out of shape he really was when I punished him on a recent bike ride. I felt like I was waiting for the little kid who didn't want to climb up the hill but knew they had to!

I've noticed the money up front to road bike seriously is kind of hefty. I spent $100 on my shoes, $75 on compression shorts and a Nike fit shirt, $40 on a new helmet, $15 on two water bottle cages, $28 on a nice air pump, $25 on another Nike fit shirt when I realized keeping up with laundry is a lot of work, and $38 total on an extra tube, small under the seat pack and CO2 air cartridge. I learned quickly the final $38 is the best money spent.

It didn't take long to experience my first flat tire. I guess road tires are really thin so it doesn't take much to get a puncture. Thankfully, I was riding with my co-worker and we were only 1 mile away from his house. He pedaled back to his truck and came and picked me up. It was at this point I realized I better spend the $38 for the spare tube and CO2 gadget considering how often I ride by myself and how far I ride from our apartment.

However, it was at an entirely different point that I learned tipping over on my ass at an intersection isn't really painful, just embarrassing. It was one of those "forgot my feet were clipped in to the pedals moments". To unclick you have to turn your heels out. Well, turns out forgetting that and panicking results in tipping over on your ass. A car stopped short on me so I had to stop early in the bike lane losing my forward momentum. I probably looked like one of those grooms fainting on their wedding day. Steady, steady ... he's down! I'm hoping that's the one and only time that happens!

The Joys of Summer in SoCal

Ah yes, the joys of summer in sunny, dry and hot Southern California. On Thursday I was all set for another 20-mile bike ride after work. It's typically a little hot around 4:30 p.m., but it usually doesn't smell like fire!

I guess it's a smell we are going to have to get used to here. This view from our apartment balcony is a fire blazing just south in the mountains. Naturally, I sat out on the patio with a drink and book and watched the whole thing unfold. All I needed was some marshmallows and graham crackers. The photo doesn't really give the size of fire much justice. If you look closely after you click on the image to expand it, you will see a helicopter just above the smoke line. That should help put the size into perspective.

I was amazed at the efficiency of the firefighters here. This fire raged in 95-degree temps for two hours. That's all the time it took for the helicopters and planes to put out the fire looking to advance in the dry brush. The foam phosphate does an amazing job retarding fires. I tried to snap a few pics of the planes dumping but my lens was maxed out, the smoke made them grainy and they pretty much sucked. This mountain is about five miles southwest of us.

The fire consumed about 125 acres in two hours time. Needless to say, the air quality here in the "valley" wasn't ideal for a hard bike ride so I had to shelve that plan for the day.

Other than that, Tracy and I had a great holiday weekend together. We were able to watch another type of fire from the porch on Saturday as two fireworks shows were visible from our balcony. Pretty ideal for us. No fighting crowds or traffic and the drinks were cheap! But we didn't completely cheap out. We managed to make a stop at a couple of wineries on Saturday for some tasting. We had another glass at Leonesse Cellars, which is by far the best winery we have found here so far. They have good reds and whites, which is a rare find here for some reason.

On Sunday we made our first stab at beer can chicken on the grill and it turned out really well. After 90 minutes the bird was ready and I was impressed we pulled it off for our first time. Tracy did the preparing and I did the grilling. I really, really didn't want to mess up my half of the duties. Bet that chicken never thought it would end up in our grill with a beer can up its ass!

Today (Monday), I took in another solid bike ride and am thoroughly enjoying an extended holiday weekend as KTM gave us Friday and Monday off. I feel like I'm the only one out there with Monday off too. Tracy wasn't as lucky.

Watercooler Talk

It appears the old cliche reference to watercooler talk at the office doesn't really apply to KTM anymore. Due to cost cuts I guess, the Glenwood Inglewood cooler service no longer exists at the KTM West office. It was a little sad once I learned of the cooler's demise.

We have an espresso machine, a selectable coffee style machine and a sink filled with dirty dishes. I guess that's where the non-fancy water comes from ... the dirty sink. Unfortunately, the water here in Murrieta tastes like a swimming pool so I'm going to have to come up with another option. Way too much chlorine; it must be the only solution to killing off all the nastiness found in the Colorado River these days.

My suggestion was to have people pay for the coffee and espresso, which would fund the water cooler rental. Ultimately, you know things might be bad if the water cooler service costs get cut. At least I get AC still, unlike all the mechanics in the back shop, drying out like a sponge here in the desert.

At the end of the day maybe I've just been a little spoiled with a water cooler at every job I've had. As long as I don't become the old water cooler, kicked to the curb looking for a new office to call home, there's really nothing to complain about!