Rainy Days are Here Again

I woke up to the sound of rain this morning. It was nice to hear after all that heat we had for awhile, and today is the first day I actually wore my sweater to work cause it was still sprinkling when I left for work. Ahhh...so refreshing. :) I just love the rain and cool weather, it's just so nice and refreshing. Later on it did clear up a bit and the sun came out for awhile, but it was still cool outside.

Today we weren't concentrating so much on the ICC Profiles, mainly because our printer was down. The lever that locks the media into place pretty much broke down finally. It sounded like it kept slipping and grinding the wheels for awhile. I think it all started when some banner material got jammed one day. When we tried to get it out by lifting the lever, I heard it 'crack' when trying to do so but I was hoping it would be okay. So much for that. The tech guy was supposed to come this morning and fix it but was delayed until tomorrow morning. Meanwhile, we got the new parts for the lever today. So...tomorrow morning will be interesting. I know everyone will pretty much be watching him closely cause that's just the kind of people I work with: they're all love to learn new things and meticulously at that! I'll probably just finish up some designs and not worry about it. lol Cause we got some new orders in this afternoon so I'll be busy enough.

I got to hear my boss and coworker go at it for awhile about the phone systems. Like I said before, my coworker likes to try and figure every aspect out himself very meticulously without resorting to getting 'outside help'. He kinda sorta reminds me of myself not too long ago, cause I would never ask for anyone else's help in the past. I'd just try to figure it out myself, which caused all kinds of problems. I had to realize that I can't do it ALL myself, that there are other people with other skills that I need to depend on or rely on. It goes alot smoother that way. But yeah, after hearing the whole analysis, I could tell that even my boss, who has a background in Engineering and knows how to be meticulous himself, was getting tired of hearing all the details. I was getting tired of hearing all the details! lol So he told him to just cut to the chase, and get some answers from the phone company who can answer those unknowns for him. And whenever he said this he would just reply with "Well this..." or "Well that...". Yes, it was getting irritating. So I finally grabbed the phone and said "I'll call them for crying out loud! geeez!" lol I'm kidding. I wouldn't get that drastic about it. But honestly I almost stepped out of the room for a sec just to get some peace while they discussed that whole issue.

lol I just had a thought: I should record these discussions, post them, or something. lol

Anyhow, other than that I just spent the evening cleaning up my small piles of paper that lie here and there. I may use my MSN Live Space to help promote Onoma, but not as aggressively. A friend of mine Im'ed me this week and wanted to get together this week and get my site going for me, which would be very nice, and just catch up on things in general. Haven't talked to him for some time.

*You know how I have all my links here on this site and use this site as a kind of 'base' for my other sites? It would be nice to have a site intended for that sort of thing. A site that truly links all your sites in such a way where you can see your daily activity that's going on, where it's all interactive and works in a synchronized way, like how MSN Money works with a person's bank account and updates it constantly. I've been even thinking of designing such a site. I should ask my friend, he used to be a web designer so he would be the right person to do such a project with. But that would be such a coool site, cause honestly, between Blogger, MySpace, Ringo and other personal sites, there's not one that I prefer over another so much. It would be nice to combine some of the aspects of one with another, and even be able to set the interface the way you like, whether having just a blog upfront, or your profile, or friends or whatever: you're in charge of it and have many options to display it the way you want. And like I said, it's all interactive and linked to any other sites you have, whether MySpace, a business site, Blogger, Ringo, Yahoo 360, MSN Live Space...whatever, it's all about who you are and what's going on in your life, kind of like a 3D picture of your life in one space, you see what I'm saying?

And this site wouldn't be just another site with links to sites. I mean, this would be THE site to have, almost like a must for all people, almost like having Windows is a must to run a PC. I would even venture to say that this site is, how can I put this...like, and just open your mind for a sec...a site where you log on with your thumbprint to get in, a totally secure site that's screen-activated even, or you'll need to verify yourself to get in, cause in it is also your personal stuff like bank acct info and other information. See...it's kind of like a me, but a web-me, that's very interactive, and very secure. So you might be thinking 'are you crazy! Putting all your info on one site? Yeah right!' But see, you can't even access your site without valid, physical info. A hacker can only break into a site with numbers. He can't break into a site without physical info like a thumbprint or eye-scan. We need to have security parameters that go beyond digital encyption, and the site needs to take great care in verifying each piece of info. AND...if someone is trying to hack it and one piece is missing, he's done! Cause when you log in, your location is noted, the webcam is on, and it's all on record and recorded in real time. Geeez...this is almost sounding like Orwell's 1984.

But this might also be sounding like Minority Report as well. But I believe what they portrayed about ID recognition and how it will be in the future will also be the way to find better security online. Cause no one else has your thumbprint. No one else has your eye pattern. There's ONE you, and no one else is. We need to find a security system that enables such recognition whenever someone tries to steal someone else's identity, and honestly I'm surprised they haven't yet! I can't believe that if someone uses your identity that when it's entered into the system that a red flag doesn't goes up. Either they're bypassing the system, or our system is sorely lacking still in ID recognition. Or...it's all a conspiracy. lol Well...I believe such a system is rapidly coming because of all this chaos.

For now, however, it would be nice to have a simplified site of this...web-me. Or E-me. Or Eme. lol MyWeb would be boring. Something catchy but also has a tone of importance, of professionalism. The interface alone will speak for itself and will command a very serious and interactive tone. It will ask for you to log in in the likes of logging into your computer, but this is for online logging, not computer. An OnlineLog, or OneLog. I love making up words! lol Or maybe just OL. Oh wait, that means Organizational Leadership. Darn! haha See, Blogger is for blogging mainly and showing pics, MySpace and LiveSpace are mostly for friends and pics as well and fun. What about a professional space for serious users, who are willing to pay for such a site?! In fact, the way it's set up would be worth paying for. Hmmm...not totally sure how that would go over, the paying part I mean. It could just be free and maintained by Advertisers I suppose. Oh...and it would have an awesome help mechanism similar to MSN's Spleak, but alot more advanced. Instead of sitting there searching for something online for hrs, this helper would search the databases for you very specifically and would understand your question. I tried doing that with Spleak...doesn't work. She understands key words and seems to respond to them in with predetermined answers. But I think they're working on improving her.

Anyhow my mind needs a rest. Oh...one more thing and I think this is a great idea, just to put out there. We're working with a Reflexologist and doing her window graphics and also doing her car doors as well. Her thing is, she realizes that people can't afford 100's of dollars on a chiropractic or massage therapist or even for what she does. The pricetag alone stops people from going. So...she thought of making it more affordable by bringing down the price to just $49/month! And she's liscenced and a specialist, so for her to do that is just awesome. I would even go for that price! And I might cause my tail bone is still bothering me. But I just thought, that's awesome, and I'm sure she will get more clients that way.

Alright it's that time. Nite for now. =)

Fun with ICC Profiles!

I didn't realize how fun building color profiles could be until I started working here! lol I'm kidding of course. Today, when I was on lunch, (I usually take my lunch to this lake a few miles away that's situated between homes, condos and a shopping center. Pretty nice.) I was thinking about where I was working before and where I am working now. When I was at America's Instant Signs, I was learning alot about the production/installation aspect of signs and hoping to get in alot of experience while there. Well, that was cut short because of the accident. And now, I'm getting into an area that I have very little knowledge of, mainly digital printing and application. See, at AIS I was fairly confident working with Flexisign, cutting, weeding & taping and applying vinyl on pretty much every substrate. Now, at SignsNow, it's pretty much all digital prints, which is a whole new area, cause the printing and application and setting up are pretty different. With regular vinyl, setting it up for application is very easy and manageable. With digital vinyl, setting up is a little trickier for application in order to line it up straight, PLUS getting the colors right is whole 'nother ball game! And that's what were doing at work right now, creating new profiles for the media we have and fine tuning the color linearization and everything. My coworker is all into it, he's more a techie than I am and likes to get pretty meticulous. But today when work was done, he was still talking about this stuff and inside I was thinking 'okay, enough already, too much info today, I just want to take a break from this stuff!' Seriously, after 5pm, I was done! lol Yeah, I still stayed a bit to finish up, but it's a little hard to wrap up your day when someone is talking to you at the same time about technicalities. But, I tried to make an effort cause it IS important, yeah.

Anyhow, all that to say I'm really being challenged with this new system of production. But at the same time, I'm growing, and that's what I'm stoked about! I admit, I'm thankful that I'm not just doing the same 'ole every day and learning nothing new. These challenges are helping me, indeed God is helping me, get to where I want to be: in a management position. That's ultimately my plan and desire. I believe He knew that when He put me in the Organizational Leadership program at Biola. He knows what He's doing. :) So I knew it wasn't a coincidence when my boss, the owner, told me he wanted me to be in charge of the production part of the morning meetings. I basically have to let everyone know what's on the agenda for the day. Believe me, at first it was hard to hear, but I knew this was a much needed step I needed to take.

Speaking of ICC profiles, I've been learning quite a bit about profiling a new media from scratch, which we're doing right now. We're using the Onyx Postershop RIP application along with the HP 8000s printer. I downloaded the instructions from our SignsNow site, which is actually on the Onyx site. While going through it we realized that it isn't very thorough. For example, if after doing a scan of the Advanced grayscale chart, the linearization has all kinds of spikes and such and cannot be built, there are no instructions on what to do at that point. Do we start all over again or what? So we had to do some research on these things. We have plenty of support with SignsNow on these issues, but...my cooworker is just very adament about solving this problem by himself! But my thought is, instead of trying to figure out every single corner before we get it right and spending hrs doing it, why not call for support and get it right with someone who knows what they're talking about! Seriously, he's almost...stubborn about it. But he's the kind of guy who just wont give in. But...we need to get this figured out or we're going to be on this ALL WEEK! Anyhow, notwithstanding the venting here, it's actually been both a challenging as well as a good learning experience.

Tomorrow will be an interesting day and I hope we get at least one media profile finished and ready to go, that would be nice in itself.

A quick side note: today was actually the coldest day since Summer now! I'm not sure what the temp was, but when I left this morning for work it was nice and cool for the first time in awhile, and tonite it's been windy and actually COLD. Most of today was overcast so I think that helped to cool it down. But it seems to me that after that scalding Labor Day which seemed like the hottest day of the year so far, it's been cooling down, which is just...wonderful. =)