Yes, I know it’s been a while since my last blog post. Ironically enough, we’ve been flooded with projects at Intrigue of late. Even though our regular clients have been cutting projects left and right, we’ve managed to fill in the gaps quite well with some other work. So much so that I’ve managed to set personal records for overtime! The last 3 months have seen some very long days (and nights) as we’ve struggled to put together a handful of catalogs – almost simulatenously.
Thankfully, all of the “big” projects have been completed and sent out the door. It’s now time for a breather. I usually keep a list of “things-to-do” for those days when we aren’t crushed by a project deadline or two. It seems like that never happens, but so far, I’ve been able to dust off and take a look at my list again. These are usually the types of in-house projects that get filed under “backburner” priority – which means it might be months before I actually take care of them. I don’t like to let them linger but sometimes, there is no choice when we have several “hot” jobs that need to be done.
With my to-do list, it doesn’t really matter what I work on first. They all need to be done – just no particular rush. So, the first thing I chose to address was to bring our archival backups up to date. Don’t misunderstand – we backup everyday and every hour using Apple’s Time Machine on our Fileserver. What I mean is that we also “archive” finished jobs to DVDs so they can be removed from the server, and clearing up much needed space. Fairly standard procedure. But when I neglect this task, the files accumulate almost exponentially in no time at all. Believe it or not, but this has become a project in and of itself! A little bit here, and a little there and I’ll be back on track.
The other thing I need to do is more research. While I always enjoy looking things up that are relevant to a current “need” at Intrigue, it’s just amazing how much time it actually consumes. The other day, I was looking for a new external 500GB hard drive for our studio. It’s been a while since I last shopped for one of those, so it was good to check the usual players and see the latest and greatest. Turned out to be a most frustrating exercise. No matter which drive I researched, they ALL had reviews that span from “best drive ever” to “worst piece of garbage”. I was going in circles trying to narrow things down.
Once I did that, it was a matter of figuring out which vendor had the best deal. Not so easy as some have free shipping and some have no sales tax. So you have to figure out who can ship it quicker for the least amount of money. Normally, I enjoy figuring that out, but it gets more and more complicated to do. Anyway, it was time to just “PICK ONE”, so I did and the drive is on it’s way. I went with a LaCie D2 from Provantage, despite knowing that there are issues with power supply reliability. The way I look at it, I have a bunch of spares on hand for my other LaCie drives, so it shouldn’t be a problem down the road. When they work, they work great.
That ate up half my day without even trying. I didn’t even notice the time passing. Thankfully, I had the time to spare for it, so it was a good change of pace. But now, it’s time to move on to something new on my list…