Deadlines, deadlines, deadlines!
The last few weeks; the last month, has been unbelievably busy. It all culminated with 3 deadlines this week, on Wednesday and Thursday: two projects at work and the Flyers' newsletter.
It has been harried, to say the least. For the last week, particularly, I've been getting 6 and a half hours sleep a night, max. This has been partly due to time constraints, but also due to that stress I've been feeling over the deadlines.
At work, my Wed. deadline was for a seriously boring project: the redesign of the Belt Parkway Bridges for NYSDOT. Our part was basically the construction documents for the planting along the highway exchanges. The project has been entirely uninteresting, but subject to an intense schedule as of late that resulted in all the aforementioned stress. That said, in a few years when you're driving along Rockaway Parkway and notice the lovely Crataegus crusgalli and Quercus Rubra out there, well, that's all me. Part of my stress level can also be attributed to my colleague, the the project manager, who is a real a*shole. Really, she just has absolutely no people skills whatsoever. Everybody hates working with her.
The other project, which was due the following day, was not as extensive. It was just a progress meeting for the redesign of a park & ride in Staten Island, also for DOT, and we just brought in a few sketches that the client hardly looked at. People tend to think that us landscape architects are all busy all day designing creative and artistic parks and gardens. Then they hear that I'm doing a highway right-of-way and a park and ride and it pretty much blows 90% of the romanticism away. The other 10% disappears completely when they find out how little I make.
Okay, so maybe that's not all quite accurate. I have also been working on the Bronx River Greenway, and that has been an interesting project, along with the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway, which we were working on awhile back. And the work I was involved with on West Street last year was also interesting and somewhat enjoyable. So it's not all bad. Unless you look at the paycheck.
Anyway, the meeting with DOT on Thursday went alright, especially considering how little time we invested in the project, since we'd been so busy on the Belt Parkway Bridges. However, the next couple of weeks on that project look like hell, so we'll see how that goes.
I do realize that writing about work is a risky business, but given the size of my income, getting fired from my job could be a blessing. Don't get me wrong - I do acknowledge that my current position/company has some serious advantages over other firms, which is why I'm still there. However, I just don't particularly care that much, and if someone gets a bee in their bonnet about the general crap I write, well then I'm just happy enough to move along.
The last deadline this week was a self-imposed Wednesday night deadline. I had promised myself that I'd get the Flyers' newsletter out within the first week of February. Being as finicky as I am, I ended up putting way too much time into the redesign of the layout, not to mention that my two final submissions came in on Feb. 1st and Feb. 5th. So getting it out on the 7th was a lofty task indeed. I attempted to proof-read the thing myself with much failure. Not only did I miss a lot of grammar and general spelling mistakes, but I spelled over a half-dozen members' names wrong in the document; two of them both the first and last names. I did tell a fellow club member that I'd use her as a proofreader, and have had offers from two others whom I will totally use as backups (thank you very much!). The proofreader is a former newsletter editor and club secretary and I connected with her on doing the March issue today.
The redesign, as far as I took it, seemed to go over well. Most people gave me very positive feedback. That said, negative feedback, in my experience, tends to come either after someone's had a few drinks, or when you specifically ask for an opinion. I'd say the best compliment I received was from a fellow architect who said the layout reflected that I was a designer. This sort of surprised me, since I really didn't feel like it was finished. The awards page and calendar still look like hell, so stay tuned for some graphic improvements next month... if you do actually read the thing, that is.
I also changed the name. It used to be called the New York Flyers Newsletter, until the last couple of years when editors have changed the name - first, to News on the Run, and then to On the Fly. I called it The New York Flyer to give a nod to the original name, and also I liked the play on words... "flyer". Of course I had to explain the double meaning to someone already, so I think it might be lost on readers.
And so my last couple of weeks have basically been going to work at 7 AM until 6 PM and coming home to work on the Flyer until midnight, sometimes with a run and some eating in between. Even when I went to bed, my mind was still spinning over what needed to be done.
And technically I did miss my Flyer deadline, as I finally sent it off to be posted on the website after midnight... so, the 8th. Oh well. At least the template is done for future issues, so that they won't be so labour-intensive.
And at least one of the benefits of editing this document is that it guarantees that my photo will not appear in it this year, and I'm sure we can all appreciate that. Don't all thank me at once!
Having those deadlines out tof the way has left me with an unusually unplanned weekend, which is nice. I stayed home tonight and watched a DVD after grocery shopping, mostly for beer and junk food to accompany the movie. I was going to go to the Flyers' impromptu happy hour, until they put forth the venue. Take note: do not let Flyers women decide on happy hour venues... I'm only teasing! I'm just not fond of the bar they selected, and it's a bit out of the way, in Manhattan geography, for a Harlemite.
So it was a quiet evening at home, and hopefully a quiet weekend to come, ahead of the maelstrom of work that will hit me once again this week, and the March Flyer production later in the month...
It has been harried, to say the least. For the last week, particularly, I've been getting 6 and a half hours sleep a night, max. This has been partly due to time constraints, but also due to that stress I've been feeling over the deadlines.
At work, my Wed. deadline was for a seriously boring project: the redesign of the Belt Parkway Bridges for NYSDOT. Our part was basically the construction documents for the planting along the highway exchanges. The project has been entirely uninteresting, but subject to an intense schedule as of late that resulted in all the aforementioned stress. That said, in a few years when you're driving along Rockaway Parkway and notice the lovely Crataegus crusgalli and Quercus Rubra out there, well, that's all me. Part of my stress level can also be attributed to my colleague, the the project manager, who is a real a*shole. Really, she just has absolutely no people skills whatsoever. Everybody hates working with her.
The other project, which was due the following day, was not as extensive. It was just a progress meeting for the redesign of a park & ride in Staten Island, also for DOT, and we just brought in a few sketches that the client hardly looked at. People tend to think that us landscape architects are all busy all day designing creative and artistic parks and gardens. Then they hear that I'm doing a highway right-of-way and a park and ride and it pretty much blows 90% of the romanticism away. The other 10% disappears completely when they find out how little I make.
Okay, so maybe that's not all quite accurate. I have also been working on the Bronx River Greenway, and that has been an interesting project, along with the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway, which we were working on awhile back. And the work I was involved with on West Street last year was also interesting and somewhat enjoyable. So it's not all bad. Unless you look at the paycheck.
Anyway, the meeting with DOT on Thursday went alright, especially considering how little time we invested in the project, since we'd been so busy on the Belt Parkway Bridges. However, the next couple of weeks on that project look like hell, so we'll see how that goes.
I do realize that writing about work is a risky business, but given the size of my income, getting fired from my job could be a blessing. Don't get me wrong - I do acknowledge that my current position/company has some serious advantages over other firms, which is why I'm still there. However, I just don't particularly care that much, and if someone gets a bee in their bonnet about the general crap I write, well then I'm just happy enough to move along.
The last deadline this week was a self-imposed Wednesday night deadline. I had promised myself that I'd get the Flyers' newsletter out within the first week of February. Being as finicky as I am, I ended up putting way too much time into the redesign of the layout, not to mention that my two final submissions came in on Feb. 1st and Feb. 5th. So getting it out on the 7th was a lofty task indeed. I attempted to proof-read the thing myself with much failure. Not only did I miss a lot of grammar and general spelling mistakes, but I spelled over a half-dozen members' names wrong in the document; two of them both the first and last names. I did tell a fellow club member that I'd use her as a proofreader, and have had offers from two others whom I will totally use as backups (thank you very much!). The proofreader is a former newsletter editor and club secretary and I connected with her on doing the March issue today.
The redesign, as far as I took it, seemed to go over well. Most people gave me very positive feedback. That said, negative feedback, in my experience, tends to come either after someone's had a few drinks, or when you specifically ask for an opinion. I'd say the best compliment I received was from a fellow architect who said the layout reflected that I was a designer. This sort of surprised me, since I really didn't feel like it was finished. The awards page and calendar still look like hell, so stay tuned for some graphic improvements next month... if you do actually read the thing, that is.
I also changed the name. It used to be called the New York Flyers Newsletter, until the last couple of years when editors have changed the name - first, to News on the Run, and then to On the Fly. I called it The New York Flyer to give a nod to the original name, and also I liked the play on words... "flyer". Of course I had to explain the double meaning to someone already, so I think it might be lost on readers.
And so my last couple of weeks have basically been going to work at 7 AM until 6 PM and coming home to work on the Flyer until midnight, sometimes with a run and some eating in between. Even when I went to bed, my mind was still spinning over what needed to be done.
And technically I did miss my Flyer deadline, as I finally sent it off to be posted on the website after midnight... so, the 8th. Oh well. At least the template is done for future issues, so that they won't be so labour-intensive.
And at least one of the benefits of editing this document is that it guarantees that my photo will not appear in it this year, and I'm sure we can all appreciate that. Don't all thank me at once!
Having those deadlines out tof the way has left me with an unusually unplanned weekend, which is nice. I stayed home tonight and watched a DVD after grocery shopping, mostly for beer and junk food to accompany the movie. I was going to go to the Flyers' impromptu happy hour, until they put forth the venue. Take note: do not let Flyers women decide on happy hour venues... I'm only teasing! I'm just not fond of the bar they selected, and it's a bit out of the way, in Manhattan geography, for a Harlemite.
So it was a quiet evening at home, and hopefully a quiet weekend to come, ahead of the maelstrom of work that will hit me once again this week, and the March Flyer production later in the month...
Labels: daily grind, Flyers, work
posted by Skylight at 11:26 PM
4 Comments:
You did a great job on the newsletter.... it brought tears to my eyes!
My, my; didn't realize Skylight was so picky about where he downs his beers! I did ask for bar suggestions, ya know. You missed a fun time.
Who doesn't have preferences, bcg? You might have missed the first part of my post - I was a little to busy this week to peruse bar alternatives.
Anyway, I think I needed the relaxing evening at home more than the party. Glad that at least you had fun, though, and I'll see you out next time.
Wow, non-anon, the newsletter brought tears to your eyes? I'm impressed! Who'd have thought a running club newsletter could have such an emotional impact? Thanks for sharing that!
i had a reaction when reading that newsletter :-p ;-)
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