Vik-Thor's Journal

Lets have a rundown of what I do with myself:
Work: OUTFRONT Media (formerly CBS Outdoor) Billboard company. Saint Louis Real Estate (Assistant). The short description of my job is that I make sure our lessors get their rent. I also deal with anything related to the property and sign structures (real estate taxes, electricity accounts, business licenses) though once it gets to the actual physical sign structure, I usually have to pass it on to Operations (damage to the structure, lights out, ad vinyl loose or missing). I don't have anything to do with actually selling the ads on the boards, other than letting the sales people know what our rent for specific boards is.
In general, I would say I am content in the job. The times I really enjoy it are when I have to research something about the property or owners. Something I really wasn't supposed to do when I was in Phoenix. I am basically at the other end of my Phoenix job. I do the research, figure out what needs to be done, and if it involves a change to the lease information in the database, I send it to my replacements in Phoenix.

Speaking of which! If anyone reading this lives in Phoenix (I think some of you do?) and you are looking for an office job (or know of anyone who is looking for a job) the Phoenix office is hiring. Unfortunately, links to the jobs don't work well. Best way is to go to outfrontmedia.com, scroll down to the bottom and click on the CAREERS link, which takes you to sjobs.brassring.com for Outfront Media. (I presume this is some sort of general job site that lots of companies use, as when we were part of CBS Corporation, all CBS positions were visible, from on air talent for both radio and TV stations to editors with Simon & Schuster…) Anyway, search for the city you're in and see if there are any jobs. Phoenix currently has 2 Lease Admin positions listed (one bilingual), but from talking to my admin there, they are really looking to hire at least 3 people, possibly more. Let me know, and I can probably give you some contact info.

Anyway, didn't mean to go off on that tangent…
other stuff I do…
I'm in a Bowling League Sunday nights, HeadPins @ Tropicana Lanes. My average is ~124.
I'm taking a Tai Chi class on Satyrdays at the YMCA in Maryland Heights, as well as an aqua-dance/fitness one on Thursday nights.
A lot of my reading has been forums and sites related to setting up my aquarium. Though I have read the Silo series by Hugh Howey, which I quite enjoyed.
I do quite a bit of catalogueing of comics @ the Grand Comics Database, and in fact recently won a seat on the board of directors. :)

concentration, I no has.

Lately, past few months or so, not really sure how long, I have been having problems keeping myself concentrating on stuff. Long term planning doesn't seem to hardly exist anymore.
Jos is much better at it than I am. He's got so many plans for his/our company(s). I can barely keep up.

(I've been mildly depressed for awhile, more or less. There's been days when feeling quite good, and days when it was a challenge to get out of bed. and of course, most of those days have been work days. I really wish I could find a different job. [and here's yet another place where I'm having problems keeping concentration going. for quite awhile, I was applying to jobs @ maricopa.gov regularly, and even had several interviews. at this point, I don't remember when the last time I did an application there…] )


ETA: One of the best recent experiences regarding concentration:
I messed up Jos's birthday date a couple times. First thinking it was the 7th, and didn't quite get everything ready by the 7th, searching for a couple things, mentioned it to him that I was looking for something for him, and he pointed out his b'day is 19th, so 9 more days to get everything together…
Didn't get started again until Wednesday (because for some reason, I was thinking 17th... another fail).
sinished up, most of it (still need to get one thing)...

I'm sorry it wasn't better.

song I hear in my mind right now?
"I Was a Bad Boyfriend" by Pansy Division

:(

bleagh.

Not feeling good today. stomach bit upset, headachey. should take some aspirin type stuff.


Had job interview Wednedsday, for a Judicial Clerk Assistant, in the Maricopa Juvenile Court. Would be 3 days at Mesa court, 2 at the Durango. I don't think went that well... Seemed a bit rushed, like they knew who they wanted, and were just going through the motions.

I'm fairly dissatisfied with current job. Oscar (my partner in SunBelt) got fired earlier this month, so I was running solo most of the month. they've hired a new person, so I get to work on training her.

I would really love to be able to get job back closer to family, but Jos's job(s) are really seeming to really start working out.

I am truly not happy/satisfied at current job.

Staying for insurance at this point, for Jos...

I think if didn't have to worry about that, I might go ahead and quit, do courier for Aloha Courier until finish Paralegal Program, then get different job.

Yesterday, I had a headache much of the day. Aspirin(type) things didn’t make it go away. Went away pretty much while in class, still wasn’t feeling 100%. Went to sleep moderatly early.

Woke up feeling not well, and called in sick. Finally woke up, and am actually feeling much better now. Better than all day yesterday in fact.

I could probably go in to work, and do a half day, but not going to. Why? »shrugs« plain and simple, I don’t want to... I’ve been working there since June (actually on staff since November), and I still don’t feel like I fit in all that well. (That’s not quite the working I want...) I felt much more comfortable at Albertsons after this length of time than I do here...

Did most of the laundry, that we neglected over this weekend... Leaving the cold to do when Jos gets home, so I can do both his uniform shirts.

the more I'm working with CVS, the gladder I am that I don't work for them. I canNOT believe they are as big as they are, if what we have dealt with over the past couple of weeks is typical of how they do business.
In this day, they do not communicate with their stores by e-mail. They communicate with their stores by fax. >6000 stores, communicated with by fax... and what is worse (and this part I am uncertain of) it is my understanding that they communicate with the district managers by email, then the District managers fax the stuff to the stores. Excuse me?!
While our old stores still have our email, we have been begging CVS to communicate with them using our email IDs to communicate with the stores. We have given them the store IDs and mailing lists that we use for the various ad versions. From what we understand, CVS is not using them.

I have seen stated in print that CVS was planning on keeping pretty much the same mix of product that are currently in our stores, including fairly large liquor departments in many of them... now we are hearing that they are planning on cutting liquor down to maybe 30 feet. ummm... can you say they are shooting themselves in the foot?

They are not converting stores to CVS systems in any type of order, they are jumping around the country. I think they should convert in groups. Especially in Chicago! our chicago customers are used to seeing the same ads in both the Jewel/Osco combo stores and the Osco freestanders. Starting on Thursday and ending on the following Wednesday. The last ad we are supporting for them ends today. The CVS ad does not start until Sunday! The Chicago market stores are going to be without an ad for 3 days. And when did this FINALLY get communicated to them? TODAY!! After we pounded it into CVS's collective skull that we were getting inundated with questions from the stores asking when they were going to be getting ad batches and labels.
(Of course, the Jewel side of the business didn't help, by the fact that they didn't turn off their ad that starts tomorrow, so stores got labels and batches for the Jewel ad... Took a bit of scrambling on our part to get that shut off.....)
With something like this, we would have been communicating the info to our stores by a week at the latest, and we would have been giving the info several times for something of this magnitude.

CVS runs the same ad companywide. All 6000+ stores, get the same ad. «shakes head in disbelief»


supper was most of the remains of Jos's chili, the last of my chunk of Brie, some red cabbage, and a PB&J.

Currently reading A Time to Kill by John Grisham. One of Jos's books. I think I like Grisham's work.

Friday evening, I think I am going to go a meeting of the Central Arizona Speculative Fiction Society.