The Michael Swayne Story V: King of his Castle

I went to work with a smile on my face. After yesterday's event of Wade ruining the surprise, I just couldn't help but be excited. Anyway, I got to the office half an hour early, and proceeded to play Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings and Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days until everyone else showed up. In Revenant Wings, I didn't progress at all. That battle against the Bangaa headhunters is really difficult. I am not yet accustomes with the controls to fight effectively. Anyway, the game is quite different from Final Fantasy XII. I like being able to make the decisions, and this game really seems to take that away.

As for 358/2 Days, I completed another mission. I fought a something (drawing a blank on what it's called), and won. I still have three missions before I can really progress the story. I just checked the Enemy Profiles, and I fought a Tailbunker. I am at Day 52, and just completed Mission 17. I really like the game so far, despite having some initial trouble with it.

Back on topic. At 10 o'clock, I walked in and discovered that my desk was missing. Not exactly missing, actually. It was there. It was just dismantled. I put my stuff down on the floor because my usual place on my desk was gone. Then I put my lunch (ham sandwich and Orange Crush) in the fridge, and stood there waiting to find out what I would be doing and where I would be doing it.

Misty came in, and after the start of the day gossip concluded, I was put to my task. I would be working on the computer, making ads and putting them in the paper. It was quite a process. First, I have to take the insertion order and write its information on a piece of paper. This paper goes to the billing person (Iris, office manager) for updating the records. Then I find the business's last ad they placed in the paper. This is actually the least boring, but the easiest, part of what I do. I had to search through four years of papers to find some of them. Then I take the ad, put it on the template, resize it if needed, and save my work.

If the business hasn't run an ad, or needs a new one made, I build the ad from scratch. This involves finding appropriate images for the ad on the Internet, choosing creative fonts to use for the text work, deciding which colors to use, and other techie stuff. I asked Misty during the orientation meeting about how to build an ad, and she told me that it would be best if I just played around with the program and did it myself. It may seem like she wasn't being nice, but in fact it was probably the best advice she could give.

I had to build an ad for Rent-2-Own today. I was really nervous, because this was the first one I had to build from scratch. I found a logo I could use, and used some basic Times New Roman font for the contact info, and kept it nice and sleek. When I was finished, I showed Gabby (the person who sold the ad), and she approved. She didn't know I built it from nothing until I told her. She was thoroughly impressed.

Let me mention this orientation meeting. So at 11 o'clock, I was asked to go to lunch so Misty, Iris, and Gabby could have a meeting. I was then given $20 to spend at one of Peebles' fine local restaurants, and told to not come back for 30 minutes. I went to White Star, a diner that makes the best cheeseburgers and french fries in town. I stayed out of the office my required 30 minutes, only returning just as Gabby was leaving. I eat really slow, because I enjoy my food. Anyway, when I came back in I was given the same speech I got when I first started working there. Don't be late, make sure you call if you can't come in, three write-ups in a 90 day period and your job may be on the line, the normal stuff.

Then came the good part. I would be put on a trial basis. For the next two weeks, I would earn $5 per hour. If my work is deemed fit to continue, I would get $6 per hour. Then after three months, even more money will come my way. Also in this trial period, I would have my work evaluated to see if it is up to par before it even goes to press. I would be free to do things my way, but when the time comes to finalize things, I would have to get approval from the higher ups. For now. I fully intend to rock this job, pass these evaluations in order to get more money, and end up not needing to require approval before I publish the paper.

Today, I had a stack of ads to make. And by 3 o'clock this afternoon, I finished making the ads in the stack. On Monday, I get to form the paper and get everything ready for the deadline. Since this week is basketball week, I will be putting all the area's team pictures in the paper. We also have the remaining Thanksgiving letter to publish as well. So, this week will be the best time to test my abilities. The paper has a lot going on for it, and it is up to me to make sure everything is nearly perfect.

But all in all, I am confident I will do a good job.

Now, I haven't done much since I got home. I still need to play Final Fantasy VII for an hour and write for the LP. But as it is getting late, I am not sure I want to. I also have a Korean film I have been wanting to watch loaded up on YouTube. As for tomorrow, I am free to do anything. Grandma will be here to bring some groceries. But other than that, nothing is on the agenda.

Well, that's all for now. Hope to see you around the forums, and until then...

Later!

Michael