How to catch me
I've been thinking about making this post for a while... but just didn't due to an over abundance of personal gremlins (hey there ted!). It's become clear to me in the last 24 hours that it needs doing. General outlines of the best way to contact me, and where I may be when on a weekly basis are behind the cut.
Okay, first and foremost, unlike nearly everyone that is reading this, my job is in no way computer based. It has a serious computer component, but if all the computers in the world blew up tomorrow I could do my job and most of my social life wouldn't suffer unduly. (Of course, if you are even thinking about taking my iphone you clearly don't care much for keeping your limbs.) I have no desk, either at the house or at the store, that belongs to me, and all the desk space I'm able to work in is communal. In general if I'm sitting somewhere doing something it is a highly transient state, and in fact as many of you can attest most of my phone calls are made in the car from one place to the next. I know it makes it frustrating to get a hold of me sometimes, so I thought I'd do this sorta overview so people can have realistic expectations of my communication levels in general.
Email : Email is a great way to give me information, but actually a very poor one for responses I've discovered. Many of my business contacts also have my email address and I get some many critical pieces of business email a day. As I said above, I don't have a computer or desk that I use as "home base" throughout the day, and that makes answering more than 2 or 3 email messages a day a stretch. I do check email at least twice a day, once before I leave the house, often before 8am, and then again when I'm home sometime after 4pm. Those are obviously times with a great deal of play in them, and if something goes very pear shaped at the store I won't get to my evening email session. Also the best email address for me is the one that has the same ending at the Teacup website. If you don't have that address for me as your default email address, you should. It can often take me days or weeks (sometimes months) to respond to a piece of personal email. You have been warned.
The Store : I am at the store pretty much every work day, but for how long and when tends to vary a lot. Like many restaurant or small retail shop owners, my day is spent wherever I'm needed most. Unlike a chef I don't have to be there for people to get fed, but I am the only one that can run to pick things up, have meetings with the attorney and such. Thus about 60% of my average work week happens away from the front counter of my store, and some weeks none of my work happens there. I tend to be in more often around lunch time during the work week, as we've discovered having someone to help with the coverage means the normal staff can get their lunches. This also means I tend to have a somewhat offset eating schedule getting either two breakfasts or having a light mid-morning snack so I can hold off on my lunch until after 2 when things have reestablished. If you must run into me at the store, it's best to let me know you're coming. The store is open 90+ hours a week, and I'm there somewhat less than 35, and it's most productive for me to be there during normal business hours, which is when most people are working. However, I can be highly flexible and am happy to rearrange my week / day. Often I end up at the store just before or after someone who was looking for me, who if they'd called would have gotten me with little or no effort on anyone's part. I also am often in one or the other weekend day for some reason, occasionally both, rarely neither. I often don't have time to sit and have a cuppa with everyone all the time, but I can generally find time to overlap with you if you need me to meet you in the store for some reason.
Phone : If you're using our house phone number to call us, just stop. We would disconnect it entirely except it's the only financially reasonable way for us to talk to people we know overseas. (We don't even want to think about the cell phone charges. 48 hours in Canada cost us close to $150, and we barely called anyone) My cell phone never leaves my side unless the guys take it from my cold fingers and force me to have a "duvet day" without being on tap to everyone in the universe. If you need to get me during the working day, that's really the best. Heck, even if it's not the working day. I do however put it where I can't hear it when I am working the counter at the store. When I'm doing that I'm focused on customers, and besides I made that rule for the staff I think it's only fair I stick to it myself. If you get my voice mail, please feel free to let me know what you needed. I do check it as soon as I get back to my phone, and with the visual voice mail of the iphone it's super easy to deal with. I'll often return a call within that same day or occasionally the next.
Text Messaging : I know some of you don't do this new fangled stuff, but I very much do. Over the last 2 years I went from someone that barely sent them, to someone that lives and breathes it. My staff text me with questions or comments. L and Z and I have whole conversations this way. When we got the iphones we gave in and got the unlimited texting option, and boy howdy it's a good thing too, and so it costs me nothing extra in any way for you to send me a text message. Personally, if you have a quick question or a short piece of information you're trying to get to or from me, texting is by far the best way. Fastest, and most reliable, on any given day by a wide margin. I often return text messages within moments of getting them.
Livejournal, Facebook, etc : I have had this LJ account since the spring of '04 (wow, that's like 5 years now!) and check it several times a day. It's often the treat I give myself for opening up my laptop, booting it up, and checking email. I see comments here and check on friends here probably more often than I should. I do have a flickr account, but don't check it hardly ever. My staff and many of my friends have facebook accounts, and as I posted a couple of days ago, I do now as well. We'll see how much I check up on it, but at the moment it's new and shiny, so it's been a fair bit. I noticed Facebook also has live chat, but I don't know how much I'll use it. All of these social networking things are good places for me to vent and tell everyone what I'm doing, so I expect they are a good way to get a hold of me as well. At some point I'll start that Blog I keep talking about... LJ may fall a bit by the wayside then, but hopefully not. I'm working with L to see if I can find a way that works for good easy cross posting.
Chat : I have yahoo, google, and AIM chat accounts, none of which I use much any more. I may use the facebook one instead, and many of the people I was chatting with there now use Facebook, but we'll see. Honestly, when you aren't someone that has much computer time to spare, chatting seems.... less than productive.
World of Warcraft : Yes, I'm still doing this... almost certainly more than is healthy. The guys and I are on most nights. If you want to know more... then you're probably an addict too. If not... well then you just wouldn't understand. (For those that do. A 80 fire mage, a 78 hunter, and a 53 warlock, among some others. Kilrogg)
In larger "where I'll be when" sorta way : I will home for the remainder of March (all 8 days), but then am in San Diego on a family birthday trip the first weekend in April. I'll be at Norwescon Thursday night though Sunday afternoon. I'll be at the Tea Expo from the end of April though the first weekend in May. Then I should be home though early July when we are in Spokane for the lovely M's wedding. This of course assumes I don't find a screamingly cheep deal on a plane ticket to London between now and late June and take off on a tear to visit misthawk who I haven't seen in way way too long.
There, now you know where I am, and where I'm likely to be.
Okay, first and foremost, unlike nearly everyone that is reading this, my job is in no way computer based. It has a serious computer component, but if all the computers in the world blew up tomorrow I could do my job and most of my social life wouldn't suffer unduly. (Of course, if you are even thinking about taking my iphone you clearly don't care much for keeping your limbs.) I have no desk, either at the house or at the store, that belongs to me, and all the desk space I'm able to work in is communal. In general if I'm sitting somewhere doing something it is a highly transient state, and in fact as many of you can attest most of my phone calls are made in the car from one place to the next. I know it makes it frustrating to get a hold of me sometimes, so I thought I'd do this sorta overview so people can have realistic expectations of my communication levels in general.
Email : Email is a great way to give me information, but actually a very poor one for responses I've discovered. Many of my business contacts also have my email address and I get some many critical pieces of business email a day. As I said above, I don't have a computer or desk that I use as "home base" throughout the day, and that makes answering more than 2 or 3 email messages a day a stretch. I do check email at least twice a day, once before I leave the house, often before 8am, and then again when I'm home sometime after 4pm. Those are obviously times with a great deal of play in them, and if something goes very pear shaped at the store I won't get to my evening email session. Also the best email address for me is the one that has the same ending at the Teacup website. If you don't have that address for me as your default email address, you should. It can often take me days or weeks (sometimes months) to respond to a piece of personal email. You have been warned.
The Store : I am at the store pretty much every work day, but for how long and when tends to vary a lot. Like many restaurant or small retail shop owners, my day is spent wherever I'm needed most. Unlike a chef I don't have to be there for people to get fed, but I am the only one that can run to pick things up, have meetings with the attorney and such. Thus about 60% of my average work week happens away from the front counter of my store, and some weeks none of my work happens there. I tend to be in more often around lunch time during the work week, as we've discovered having someone to help with the coverage means the normal staff can get their lunches. This also means I tend to have a somewhat offset eating schedule getting either two breakfasts or having a light mid-morning snack so I can hold off on my lunch until after 2 when things have reestablished. If you must run into me at the store, it's best to let me know you're coming. The store is open 90+ hours a week, and I'm there somewhat less than 35, and it's most productive for me to be there during normal business hours, which is when most people are working. However, I can be highly flexible and am happy to rearrange my week / day. Often I end up at the store just before or after someone who was looking for me, who if they'd called would have gotten me with little or no effort on anyone's part. I also am often in one or the other weekend day for some reason, occasionally both, rarely neither. I often don't have time to sit and have a cuppa with everyone all the time, but I can generally find time to overlap with you if you need me to meet you in the store for some reason.
Phone : If you're using our house phone number to call us, just stop. We would disconnect it entirely except it's the only financially reasonable way for us to talk to people we know overseas. (We don't even want to think about the cell phone charges. 48 hours in Canada cost us close to $150, and we barely called anyone) My cell phone never leaves my side unless the guys take it from my cold fingers and force me to have a "duvet day" without being on tap to everyone in the universe. If you need to get me during the working day, that's really the best. Heck, even if it's not the working day. I do however put it where I can't hear it when I am working the counter at the store. When I'm doing that I'm focused on customers, and besides I made that rule for the staff I think it's only fair I stick to it myself. If you get my voice mail, please feel free to let me know what you needed. I do check it as soon as I get back to my phone, and with the visual voice mail of the iphone it's super easy to deal with. I'll often return a call within that same day or occasionally the next.
Text Messaging : I know some of you don't do this new fangled stuff, but I very much do. Over the last 2 years I went from someone that barely sent them, to someone that lives and breathes it. My staff text me with questions or comments. L and Z and I have whole conversations this way. When we got the iphones we gave in and got the unlimited texting option, and boy howdy it's a good thing too, and so it costs me nothing extra in any way for you to send me a text message. Personally, if you have a quick question or a short piece of information you're trying to get to or from me, texting is by far the best way. Fastest, and most reliable, on any given day by a wide margin. I often return text messages within moments of getting them.
Livejournal, Facebook, etc : I have had this LJ account since the spring of '04 (wow, that's like 5 years now!) and check it several times a day. It's often the treat I give myself for opening up my laptop, booting it up, and checking email. I see comments here and check on friends here probably more often than I should. I do have a flickr account, but don't check it hardly ever. My staff and many of my friends have facebook accounts, and as I posted a couple of days ago, I do now as well. We'll see how much I check up on it, but at the moment it's new and shiny, so it's been a fair bit. I noticed Facebook also has live chat, but I don't know how much I'll use it. All of these social networking things are good places for me to vent and tell everyone what I'm doing, so I expect they are a good way to get a hold of me as well. At some point I'll start that Blog I keep talking about... LJ may fall a bit by the wayside then, but hopefully not. I'm working with L to see if I can find a way that works for good easy cross posting.
Chat : I have yahoo, google, and AIM chat accounts, none of which I use much any more. I may use the facebook one instead, and many of the people I was chatting with there now use Facebook, but we'll see. Honestly, when you aren't someone that has much computer time to spare, chatting seems.... less than productive.
World of Warcraft : Yes, I'm still doing this... almost certainly more than is healthy. The guys and I are on most nights. If you want to know more... then you're probably an addict too. If not... well then you just wouldn't understand. (For those that do. A 80 fire mage, a 78 hunter, and a 53 warlock, among some others. Kilrogg)
In larger "where I'll be when" sorta way : I will home for the remainder of March (all 8 days), but then am in San Diego on a family birthday trip the first weekend in April. I'll be at Norwescon Thursday night though Sunday afternoon. I'll be at the Tea Expo from the end of April though the first weekend in May. Then I should be home though early July when we are in Spokane for the lovely M's wedding. This of course assumes I don't find a screamingly cheep deal on a plane ticket to London between now and late June and take off on a tear to visit misthawk who I haven't seen in way way too long.
There, now you know where I am, and where I'm likely to be.