about the universe forum commander Shop Now Commanders Circle
Product List FAQs home Links Contact Us

Friday, March 02, 2007

A quiet friday

Steve Cole writes: It's a quiet day. Matt is in the next state to the west visiting his parents. Vanessa is two hours south watching her daughter recover from surgery. Mike is out the warehouse packing more copies of Tholian Attack. Steve Petrick and I just got done discussing to to move SFB Module R11 forward for Origins. I just got (and edited) the instructions for the prototype Juggernaut resin kits. I got the last staff reports on Comm-15 this morning, and Steve Petrick is re-proofing it, so it will be ready when Vanessa gets back next week. I have done and sent out the six ships for the TA boosters 13-14-15, and have done six of the battleships for the summer product. Things are progressing steadily on many fronts. If this holds up another six weeks, we'll have eliminated the backlog and can move forward with some special projects.

Many years ago, when I was a military analyst, I visited a National Guard unit to do an article about them. One of their officers told me "We have so many things to do, that we allocate so much time to each one, but if we don't get finished with a specific task, we just have to do as much as we can and move on to the next task, since it's better to get something done on everything that nothing done on everything but one thing." I took this to heart and used it when I was commanding Company C, 1-39 MP (Combat Security). I use it in ADB (when I don't forget to).

I am not sure how many different "piles of tasks" I have (I've been telling people six piles all day) and it could be six or ten or something else. I just don't get to work on one pile all day. I have to do something for every pile every day or at least every other day. My piles include but are not limited to:

1. FED COMMANDER: As noted, I did the sixth ship for the boosters yesterday, and processed reports on various ships and on Comm-15 today.

2. STAR FLEET BATTLES: Well, I did talk to SPP today about R11 (which will probably be the Origins product) and started processing one of the archives I haven't processed. I have it half done, will finish it today, but have several other archives.

3. CAPTAIN'S LOG, FICTION: I have to finish the CL35 story, edit the CL36 story, and make changes to the "reserve" story.

4. WAREHOUSE: Yesterday, I went out there and make more "factory seconds bags". I need to process some of the 14 boxes of "SVC's crap" which are cluttering the assembly line before Mike and Steve Petrick get annoyed and throw them out. I guess I can count doing the Juggernaut instruction sheet today since the warehouse crew needed it to pack orders.

5. BUSINESS-PRODUCTION: I spent some time reviewing inventory figures and production plans yesterday, and spent some of today discussing future juggernaut production. I've been talking/arguing with the GPA about their trade show sales program. I am in here at Matt's computer right now since my Mac can't talk to "new blogger" but I've got to check on the Booster-13-14-15 art and get Ted busy if we don't have it yet.

6. MARKETING-WEB: I did the SFB and F&E pages yesterday. Matt will have them up next week. I need to go through Vanessa's computer (she's been gone all week) and see if anything is going to blow up, burn down, or break out before she gets back.

I only covered about half of my list of things to do, because you'd get bored if I went on. Film at 11.