joeymarburger

Tomorrow I will be attending the TH(ink) E-reader 2010 Summit in New York. I’ll be blogging about the event here and live tweeting from @josephjames.

Feel free to check out the site to see what this deal is all about. I’m interested to see what the talks bring. Of course, I’m sure the iPad will be a hot discussion.

I’ll be taking the Acela train up this afternoon. The conference begins tomorow at 8 a.m.

Stay tuned for more.

Check it out. Just shined this puppy up a little bit. Feel free to click around and see what’s new. I’ll be updating the sub pages this weekend with new portfolio links and much more.

Also, check out http://orangegoatmedia.com and sign up to receive notifications when the new site launches.

Rock on.

I got lucky leaving Washington D.C. before the first snowpocalypse so I could spend the Super Bowl with my family. Little did I know that was the last time I would see any luck this weekend.

Colts lost. Got a flight cancellation phone call right after Addai couldn’t punch in that last possible shred of a hope touchdown. Then, was rescheduled on a terrible multiple connection flight with Delta putting me into DCA around midnight. So I called to reschedule for today.

Hold on, let me give you a little back story.

Before I left, the weather reports were growing taller than too tall Tim. So I moved up my flight and got out of DC first thing Friday morning. Around 1 p.m. later that day, they got hammered. And continued to get hammered. I figured I would be able to get back Monday morning after everything was cleaned up. Nope. Reagan International (DCA) was shut down for snow removal until 10 a.m. Monday morning. Eep.

Oh it gets worse. Then, thinking I would get out later Monday or first thing Tuesday (today), I start to read the weather reports. Snow. Snow for Indianapolis and Chicago. AND! More snow for the DC area. Via CNN: No relief for for snowed-under Washington

So here I am. Stuck in the Indy airport as my dad tries to navigate the roads to come pick me up. At least there is free wifi.

Then there’s Delta. The kiosk lady was not helpful as the other DC bound folks and Detroit bound folks behind me were all turned away. Apparently another flight got out but because she couldn’t remember how to put in DCA into the computer she missed the time period to switch me to that flight. Oh yes. Flights were getting out, but none for me.

Luckily the fine lady I talked to on the phone from Delta was super nice and got me on the flight for tomorrow (if that even happens). But most of all, she was understanding. She was thankful that I was calm and not yelling at her after she looked through the rebooking history on her terminal screen. I said, “This definitely sucks but I’m not the only one dealing with it.” Right then she said there was one seat left and it had been taken. But she worked her magic, called her manager, and said she had already started the rebooking so the seat was hers. I got it. Whew.

We thought we had found a perfect DJ for our wedding June 12 in West Lafayette, Indiana, with the Indianapolis-based company Event One DJs. Funny how things go…

Cas and I met with Wes from Event One Djs on a Saturday afternoon at 12:30 in their Indianapolis office in Broad Ripple. He was extremely nice and professional. They even had a room full of hand-written testimonial cards from previous clients. He had a great presentation and outline the specifics of their services. Easy process. We were thoroughly impressed.

We decided to discuss it over the weekend and figure out the exact DJ package we wanted. He encouraged us to think about and said, “take your time”. We settled on the standard 5-hour package ($895). We weren’t interested in all of the grossly overpriced add-ons such as a monogram light projector with our initials, additional uplighting, or photo slideshow. I emailed him early Tuesday morning (8:30 a.m.) after flying back to DC Monday night.

We completely understand there can only be a limited number of openings for dates, but as a professional courtesy, other services we’ve booked have alerted us to other people looking at our dates if they had spoken with us first. Not the case.

I heard back from Wes at 10:02 p.m. (thirteen-and-a-half hours later) and found out another couple had booked our date. After a round of excuses he did offer another DJ service and any assistance we wanted.

I inquired about the delay in response. He apologized. I then responded about the courtesy we expected. I have yet to hear back. Looks like the bells and whistles were just that.

Cas quickly posted a  review to Angie’s List. I’ve paraphrased pieces of it here.

Needless to say we will not be recommending Event One DJs to any friends or family in the future. Am I bitter? Duh. Luckily we had a backup plan and will be talking to a few other DJs this week. I figured we were bound to get burnt eventually during the course of our wedding planning but this was my top task.

We understand the competitiveness of wedding dates. We understand we should have acted sooner. However, we also expect to receive the same level of courtesy we have received from others.

Today is my last day at The Indianapolis Star. It’s a surreal, bittersweet experience to be leaving the job I have so truly loved for the past two years.

In that time, I’ve developed as a designer, web developer, journalist, writer, editor, but most of all as a person. The knowledge I have gained from my colleagues is immeasurable. I will miss them all dearly. Luckily, I’m staying in the family. On Monday I will begin my new job at Gannett corporate as a Web developer/designer for ContentOne. I’ll post a few updates as I settle in there.

I’m not one for sappy notes or lengthy ones. With that said, so long and thanks for all the fish.

I’m in the process of archiving old files and rebooting my blog. Too much to write about. Hopefully I’ll actually keep up with it this time. Stay tuned for more…