Mar 17, 2013

PARTY!

So, you see that BIG number over to the right?
No?
Well, let me point it out to you.

THAT IS A BIG NUMBER.
SO I'M GOING TO CELEBRATE.

RISE OF THE GUARDIANS STYLE.
BECAUSE THAT IS MY CURRENT OBSESSION.
Don't even pretend you aren't attracted to Jack. You are. You know it.

I mean look at that:

Anyway... onward...

How I feel about everyone who has ever: donated a book or gotten one and reviewed it:


How I feel when I get on the internets Sunday afternoon:


How I really am when donations come in:


How I feel when a bunch of donations come in 5 minutes before open:


When there are eleventy billion books. Or just more than 20:


How you guys must feel when you really want a book and don't get it:


Me, when a session goes really, really well:


When someone does something they shouldn't:

Okay, this doesn't happen much, but it's one of my absolutely favorite shots in the film.

When Lili and I just KNOCK IT OUT:


When people are super loving on my little program:


When I peace out for another week:


And now I end with the best joke in the whole movie:


You'd probably have to see the movie to truly get it, but it's a HILARIOUS moment. I also recommend seeing this movie if you haven't seen it.

Just an FYI, when we get to 1000 ARCycled books I might just die. Might.

Mar 3, 2013

Inside the ARCycling Studio

You might think this going to be a slightly egotistical post, like I'm over here going, 'oh, ah, look at the insane system I've created and how well it works, I am so great', but more often than not, I fail at something. But really this post is to take you inside ARCycling to understand what utter madness happens every week.

First I'm going to explain the spreadsheets. All eleven billion of them. Seriously. I can't even explain all of them at once, I have to break them into the different groups of spreadsheets.

Let's start with Donator spreads:

Donation intake form spreadsheet - oddly enough, this is the newest of spreadsheets and yet the first mentioned. When you submit a book here, it goes directly to that form. Where it sits until I manually add the donation books to two more forms (below).

Donator Master spreadsheet - Books from the above spread get added here, same information, but this time grouped by donation week and then by donator's name. This is vital on the Donator end, it tells me who needs to know where to send their books. It also tracks how long books have been sitting unclaimed by the masses.

The List spreadsheet - This is the master 'show' list of current books available for the week. This is spreadsheet you see every Sunday afternoon.

Then there are the Requester spreadsheets:
This is the fun part. This is what you see happens every Sunday.

Weekly Request spreadsheet - When you use the form to request a book on those fateful Sundays, they go into their own spreadsheet that is changed out weekly. Requests are timestamped and it's first come, first served. 'Winning' requests are highlighted and books gotten are written to the side for easy reference to us. Then they are deleted from The List.

Suspended (Time Out) spreadsheet - This is kind of a specialty spreadsheet. It's Lili's territory. When someone gets a book, their name is checked to see if it's on here. If it is, REQUEST DENIED. If Lili's working that session, she will politely email you, telling you are still on Time Out or what have you. If Jennifer's by her lonesome, not so much.

Requester Master spreadsheet - If you request and get a book, your information is manually transcribed from the Weekly Request spread to here. This dictates absolutely everything on the Requester end. It's what Lili works off of to manage the Suspended spread and tells where the books from the Donator Master spread go.

Then there are the emails.
For Requesters, confirmation emails go out go out within 20 minutes of start (which is a breeze), but it's the Donator emails that take the longest. In order to email, 2 different spreadsheets have to be consulted. First, the Donator Master spread to get who donated what books, then the Weekly Request spread to get the information on where to send them. Combine that with a 3rd open tab for an email in which to copy and paste the information of both. Then of course, crossing off the people who have been emailed.

During an average ARCycling session, I have about 6-7 tabs open, not including my Pandora channel that keeps me sane. As crazy as it sounds, it's easier to have a million tabs open then to have to go searching around in Google Docs to find a spread in the ARCycling crunch time.

From start to finish, it takes about 3 hours to prep, have the session, then all of the emails and "clean up" aka fixing spreadsheets and organizing the ARCycling inbox, which can get insane. Labels and folders, if you've never used them and have a lot of emails, I highly recommend.

And to top it all off, I keep ALL OF THE INFORMATION ever. Each one of these spreadsheets are forever long because nothing ever gets deleted. I did have to start a new Donator sheet for 2013 because it was getting too long. All this saving helps me track lost requests, lost donors, lost kittens and all-in-all stalk the crap out of everyone.
Me:


Does your brain hurt yet?
Wondering how in Tartarus we do this every Sunday? Me, let's just say I've mastered the keystrokes ⌘A, ⌘C, ⌘V and ⌘Z like nobody's business. Seriously, at times I do them so fast I often mistype them.

Anyway, now I think you guys know why after an ARCycling session I love to hang out and post stupid gifs. Cause me brain dead. And that's why mistakes happen from time to time. Though I *think* I'm getting better at that? Worst/ best part is that before the Weekly Request forms, this was even worse. Seriously. Led to lots of drinking.



Okay, not really. I'm a good girl. Kinda.


But seriously. I think this gif is the spirit animal for ARCycling.


Who doesn't love a cranky crab?

HI GUYS.

I feel like I haven't been here in ages and it wasn't until I actually, like, looked at my blog again was I was like oh, YOU GUYS. I remember you! And then I got all...


I feel like I need to update you guys on my life and what it means for you and ARCycling.

Well, I went to LA Oscar weekend, thinking 'oh, this will be cool!' then we learned the friend we were staying with lives off Hollywood Blvd which is cool, normally, but labyrinthine come Oscar weekend.

No, I didn't see any celebs. Unless you count going to Billy Boyd's band's show. In case you aren't as old as I am, he was Pippin in Lord of the Rings. You know, this dude, the hobbit joke cracker.


Or for a sultryier Pippin...


Either way, yes, it was awesome, he sings beautifully, you should check his band out! It's Beecake. Perfect if you love the Scottish accent!

Anyway, all that driving (22-24 hours solid one way) and... we didn't find nothing.



Big ole WAH WAH for us. So, as of this very moment, I still have no official plans to move to La La land and ARCycling will continue as normal.

I guess that's really all I had to say! An excuse to say hi and use some gifs!

So hang tight and...