Paper is Heavy

Yesterday, we worked in the storage for many hours. There are more hours to be done today and tomorrow (and possibly even Sunday), to get the inventory, purging and sorting finished. I am a big bruise all over though, since I apparently bruise like a peach and I was slinging 33-pound boxes around for hours. But we got about 18 boxes emptied/purged so far, and about 40+ inventoried so far. Only several hundred more to go, and that's just in the clean comics room. But it has to be done, as there literally is no more room in the storage rooms. We've got two storage units (in a climate controlled facility, this is Texas, and the humidity here will make comics curl up pretty darn fast...), one which is 10x15 feet and one which is 10x10 feet. Both are full of stacks of boxes that are about six feet tall, with tiny paths between the stacks. I am five feet tall, and currently, the only human being that can fit through the space between the box canyons, so we realized we had to do another full inventory and purge. Yesterday, before we set out to work, I printed up the inventory forms I made, and the sales data from the online store since it opened. I also brought the contributor copies log, so we could pull aside enough copies for anyone who might not have gotten some of the books they worked on for whatever reason. (Sometimes, we have artists who get published and move without telling us a forwarding address- which we find out when their packages bounce back to us- so we just hold on to their books until we find them again.) So, this way we'll know how much to keep of everything, and we won't be swimming in cases and cases of Rivets & Ruby, Mangaphile or Universe So Big. We're also taking this time to pull the boxes of pre-reg bag freebies aside for A-Kon, since we give away several thousand of our overstocked comics there every year. (And it still barely makes a dent in the storage, let me tell you...) I keep getting tempted to list an entire case of Furrlough or something on eBay or FurBid, just to see what happens- it'd be amusing to see if anyone would bid on a box of 200+ copies of the same issue!

Other things I need to do: get the mail order for this week done and out, process some more orders, answer some more email, deal with some auction stuff, poke about our new batch of ISBNs (which still haven't come in yet, which is vexing as we need them fairly soon), get some price quotes, deal with and pack some more subscriptions, do some editorial paperwork for my records, and sort more mail. I don't have to work at VGSX again until Tuesday, so hopefully, I can get a lot of this done over the weekend.

Last night, theuberbob brought over the first episode of the new season of Dr. Who, and it was AWESOME. Good lord, I love that show. This episode was very cool also, because it had the *best* cat-people I've ever seen onscreen. You can see a few pictures of them here on the wallpapers page (look out, episode spoilers on that page too), but the still photos really don't do the makeup job justice. When they spoke or moved, it looked so real, and so much like cats. Usually, makeup of that nature looks plastic or stiff and prosthetic-like, but the coloring on this really made them look like they had that very short, velvety fur that cats have on their faces. I can't wait to see the next episode!

Anyway, time to eat breakfast and get to work. My schedule is a little off because of my antibiotics, which I am supposed to take an hour before I eat anything. The sinus infection seems to be getting better, though, as I am no longer laid low with crippling sinus pain and not to be gross, but *stuff* is actually coming out of my head, instead of staying packed in it. Bleargh!

Paper is Heavy

Yesterday, we worked in the storage for many hours. There are more hours to be done today and tomorrow (and possibly even Sunday), to get the inventory, purging and sorting finished. I am a big bruise all over though, since I apparently bruise like a peach and I was slinging 33-pound boxes around for hours. But we got about 18 boxes emptied/purged so far, and about 40+ inventoried so far. Only several hundred more to go, and that's just in the clean comics room. But it has to be done, as there literally is no more room in the storage rooms. We've got two storage units (in a climate controlled facility, this is Texas, and the humidity here will make comics curl up pretty darn fast...), one which is 10x15 feet and one which is 10x10 feet. Both are full of stacks of boxes that are about six feet tall, with tiny paths between the stacks. I am five feet tall, and currently, the only human being that can fit through the space between the box canyons, so we realized we had to do another full inventory and purge. Yesterday, before we set out to work, I printed up the inventory forms I made, and the sales data from the online store since it opened. I also brought the contributor copies log, so we could pull aside enough copies for anyone who might not have gotten some of the books they worked on for whatever reason. (Sometimes, we have artists who get published and move without telling us a forwarding address- which we find out when their packages bounce back to us- so we just hold on to their books until we find them again.) So, this way we'll know how much to keep of everything, and we won't be swimming in cases and cases of Rivets & Ruby, Mangaphile or Universe So Big. We're also taking this time to pull the boxes of pre-reg bag freebies aside for A-Kon, since we give away several thousand of our overstocked comics there every year. (And it still barely makes a dent in the storage, let me tell you...) I keep getting tempted to list an entire case of Furrlough or something on eBay or FurBid, just to see what happens- it'd be amusing to see if anyone would bid on a box of 200+ copies of the same issue!

Other things I need to do: get the mail order for this week done and out, process some more orders, answer some more email, deal with some auction stuff, poke about our new batch of ISBNs (which still haven't come in yet, which is vexing as we need them fairly soon), get some price quotes, deal with and pack some more subscriptions, do some editorial paperwork for my records, and sort more mail. I don't have to work at VGSX again until Tuesday, so hopefully, I can get a lot of this done over the weekend.

Last night, theuberbob brought over the first episode of the new season of Dr. Who, and it was AWESOME. Good lord, I love that show. This episode was very cool also, because it had the *best* cat-people I've ever seen onscreen. You can see a few pictures of them here on the wallpapers page (look out, episode spoilers on that page too), but the still photos really don't do the makeup job justice. When they spoke or moved, it looked so real, and so much like cats. Usually, makeup of that nature looks plastic or stiff and prosthetic-like, but the coloring on this really made them look like they had that very short, velvety fur that cats have on their faces. I can't wait to see the next episode!

Anyway, time to eat breakfast and get to work. My schedule is a little off because of my antibiotics, which I am supposed to take an hour before I eat anything. The sinus infection seems to be getting better, though, as I am no longer laid low with crippling sinus pain and not to be gross, but *stuff* is actually coming out of my head, instead of staying packed in it. Bleargh!

Support Internet Freedom!

Ganked willfully from a dear friend, I am sorry to bring a political topic into this journal, but this is something that I believe is very important and could affect all of us who go online.

BEGIN QUOTED INFO:
Do you buy books online, use Google, or download to an Ipod? These activities will be hurt if Congress passes a radical law that gives giant corporations more control over the Internet.

Internet providers like AT&T and Verizon are lobbying Congress hard to gut Network Neutrality, the Internet's First Amendment. Net Neutrality prevents AT&T from choosing which websites open most easily for you based on which site pays AT&T more. Amazon.com doesn't have to outbid Barnes & Noble for the right to work more properly on your computer.

Politicians don't think we are paying attention to this issue. Many of them take campaign checks from big telecom companies and are on the verge of selling out to people like AT&T's CEO, who openly says, "The internet can't be free."

The free and open Internet is under seige--can you sign this petition letting your member of Congress know you support preserving Network Neutrality? Click here:

http://www.civic.moveon.org/save_the_internet

A list of all the ways you might be affected by Net Neutrality is located on the bottom of this link: http://civic.moveon.org/alerts/savetheinternet.html

Thanks and pass it on!

Support Internet Freedom!

Ganked willfully from a dear friend, I am sorry to bring a political topic into this journal, but this is something that I believe is very important and could affect all of us who go online.

BEGIN QUOTED INFO:
Do you buy books online, use Google, or download to an Ipod? These activities will be hurt if Congress passes a radical law that gives giant corporations more control over the Internet.

Internet providers like AT&T and Verizon are lobbying Congress hard to gut Network Neutrality, the Internet's First Amendment. Net Neutrality prevents AT&T from choosing which websites open most easily for you based on which site pays AT&T more. Amazon.com doesn't have to outbid Barnes & Noble for the right to work more properly on your computer.

Politicians don't think we are paying attention to this issue. Many of them take campaign checks from big telecom companies and are on the verge of selling out to people like AT&T's CEO, who openly says, "The internet can't be free."

The free and open Internet is under seige--can you sign this petition letting your member of Congress know you support preserving Network Neutrality? Click here:

http://www.civic.moveon.org/save_the_internet

A list of all the ways you might be affected by Net Neutrality is located on the bottom of this link: http://civic.moveon.org/alerts/savetheinternet.html

Thanks and pass it on!