Many people are afraid when life becomes uncertain; I am embracing the uncertainty that will shape my life in the near future. My previous journeys have all been documented in some form of journal — this journey will be no different. Let me rewind and share the last few days. I am no longer in Portland. That city has given me so much insight into the real world, along with experiences, compassion, tolerance, and hope (no pun intended). The time has come, however, to start another adventure. I’m nearly done with my education at Portland State and feel confident that I am prepared for the next stage in my life. The weekend I left Portland was hectic, naturally, but relaxing at the same time.

Status: ✅ Toes, aka the Temporary Order Entry System, is a, get this, a temporary ordering system to buy some more time while the full ERP is designed and implemented. Because we grew so quickly, orders needed to be put in a temporary zone, then moved somewhere else (apologies for being vague, you can understand why). Myself and a co-worker hacked up a temporary holding zone for the orders. It allows New Invoices, to View Invoices, whatever is In Queue, Voided and Search. The order entry page is auto-loads prices and things from the database, so totals are pulled out of the database and added up automatically. We ultimately entered well over 1500 invoices into TOES before the ERP was implemented, and besides a …

Status: ✅ Initially all CSRs were hired as temps, which means they had their own timesheets. Some new people have been hired as full/part-time employees, so we need to handle their timesheets – plus, several people (including myself) are paid on an hourly basis. Perfect time to setup a Timesheet. Since we are still small, with no ERP, and I don’t have time or desire to write a timesheet app, I decided to do some research. I found a few on SourceForge, but I wanted something uber-simple to use and uber-simple to install. I settled upon TimesheetPHP. Luckily it even allowed LDAP support, which would be useful eventually for SSO. Installation was a breeze, and now everybody logs hours onto the an …

Status: ✅ Another line needing to be ported over: fax. Since time is very constrained, I quickly setup an extra server (OS X, actually) to act as a fax server. The fax line inserts immediately into the server, then from there any new faxes are printed on a normal printer and dropped into a central shared repository for the CSRs to access. Surely we will replace this setup sometime in the future, but for now it gets the job done.

Status: ✅ On a Friday I was told we might purchase a division from another company. Monday I heard that we purchased the division, and that we needed to have a website taking orders and a call center, capable of handling 500+/day (and not short calls); by the end of the month. Not to mention that the products wouldn’t even ship out of the same warehouse that held the call center, but a warehouse half-way across the country. And that a recall was occurring, which had additional requirements. On Tuesday the CEO, and my boss, left for Asia.

It was a long flight, but I slept for seven of the nine hours! Here is the recap. On the night of the 31st, we all left for Heidelberg. For those who do not know it, Heidelberg is the epitome of a cheerful little German town. We walked around for a few hours, but our ultimate destination was Frankfurt. Back on the train, we opened the wine we had bought earlier. The only way to describe it is:

Sorry about the post under Casey’s name. The people next to me bumped my arm, and my hand hit the Enter key. Anyhow, talk about culture shock! We are staying with Ben, who is living with a family whose hospitality seems rather transactional: warm when money is involved and less so when it is not. Regardless, it has been a good visit. Yesterday, we climbed the hill near the centre of the city and took in one of the most amazing views I have ever seen. We then rode the outdoor escalators down the hillside, yes, outdoor escalators, and walked around town for a while. We ate at an excellent seven-euro-per-plate restaurant and enjoyed a three-hour dinner, then went out for a drink. We need to look up a few …

I’m at an internet cafe, and it is roasting in here! I’m in London right now, after a pretty rough flight. We left Berlin late and, after a second taxi attempt on arrival, missed the last train. We then took several buses to our hostel, arriving at about 3 a.m. I collapsed into bed, woke at 9:10, had breakfast, and packed a lunch too. Since 10:00, I have been walking around and have seen almost everything in the central area, which was satisfying. I took a 15-minute bus ride without knowing where it was going (a little mission Casey sent me on before I left him this morning). I do not know how there are not more bus accidents here; the drivers are chaotic! I got on, he took one turn and I swear I …

Hi everybody! I did not quite realise it, but today is Christmas Eve. I hope my family will not be too upset with me. We are at an internet cafe that costs one euro a minute. Casey is doing something to my left, while the host to my right is listening to Ricky Martin. Too funny. Yesterday we woke up, packed, and left our bags in the main office. I made another wonderful breakfast: eggs, yoghurt, a chocolate cookie, and bacon. The eggs and bacon were especially good wrapped in a piece of flatbread.

That last post was on the 23rd, not the 24th.