Category: Jake

I know this blog is all but dead (I do most of my writing elsewhere), but I needed to resurrect things for this. If you know me at all, you know I’m not one to seriously ask for help, especially financially. I also don’t usually chat publicly about my family and kids much, leaving their lives private for the most part. That changes today as I need your help.

So the new job is going well. I’m still trying to wrap my head around ConnectWise, but I’m getting there. The people there are great, the company’s philosophies are good, and things are going smoothly. And I actually get home earlier from work, so I can see my kids more (shorter commutes are nice, though I did have to wait at a train crossing three times in the last week).

Meanwhile, since it’s the end of the school year, and there are a bunch of concerts, recitals, and other end of the year activities with the kids, including my own mess of stuff. I have rehearsals and/or concerts tonight through next Tuesday, which means I won’t be able to come up for air much after work or on the weekends.

In other words, this blog is going to be neglected for a bit more time. I have a ton of fun reading material and videos to share, but I actually need to sleep now and again.

With that being said, good night.

I’ve been a bit quiet about this (and quiet in general, lately), as I wanted to make sure it was a sure-thing, paperwork had been signed, my bosses knew and notice was given before I went public: I’m going to be leaving as the IT/Graphics/Marketing/Bit-o’-everything guy for Sunray Vacation Rentals and Discover Sunriver Vacation Rentals to take a position with Weston Technology Solutions. It was an opportunity I really couldn’t pass up, and I look forward to the new challenges and working with the folks at Weston. The folks I’ve talked to there are all really nice people, and I’ve heard great things from a couple of their clients, too. I enjoyed my time down here in Sunriver and the people I’ve had the pleasure to work with, but it’s time for a change.

I was in a unique situation in that I grew up knowing the folks who own both of these vacation rental companies, which is why I was able to work at both places, despite them being competitors. They work together on some projects to help cut costs (they built/share a laundry facility together, for example), but they’re going after the same customer base, and they each do things a bit differently in general (both from an advertising standpoint as well as a technical standpoint).

What that basically means is that I’m going to need to find two people, one for each company, not a singular person to work for both companies. I’m still talking it over with the folks here to see what the exact job description will be at each company and getting craigslist ads written. We’re still working on whether they plan on hiring full-time or part-time, but if you have experience in marketing and advertising (online and in print), graphics design. a-bit-of-everything (and having some web development and technical experience wouldn’t hurt), send me a resume and cover letter: jakeortman at gmail dot com. Benefits may be available as well. My current officemate likes cats and Apple products, so keep that in mind when sending me your resume.

I’m also looking at getting contacts for freelancers who might do some of this kind of work as well, as I know there has been talking about outsourcing some graphics design and/or technical duties. If you’re interested, and don’t mind the drive out to Sunriver, send me your information as well so I can add it to my file.

Update: Here’s one of the craigslist postings, will link up the other one when/if it gets created.

If anybody tried to e-mail me on my personal email (jake {at} orty {dot} com) the last 24 hours or so, you might want to e-mail me at jakeortman {at} gmail {dot} com instead. E-mails are disappearing off into neverland since I moved my domain between servers last night (part of the move I mentioned yesterday), so I don’t know if the emails are lost or not. Looking into it, but meanwhile, that Gmail account is probably the best way to get in touch of me right now.

Update: After looking at all sorts of logs and such, it appears my e-mail was never making it to this server. It was making it to my old server, but was getting rejected for unknown reasons (probably because the MX records pointed here, as they should have). They were temporary rejects, but for some reason something kept trying to send email to that old server. So I just said screw it and did what I’ve been meaning to do and move my personal e-mail domain to Google Apps and changed the MX records all around to reflect that. As soon as I did that, e-mail started to trickle in from last night, so SMTP servers were doing their jobs and retrying. This will probably give me a better e-mail infrastructure than I could ever build myself anyway. Still do wish i knew what the heck was going on.

First off, happy Internet JackAss day. I’m too busy to really browse around and find the good stuff, so post a comment with your favorites.

We’re moving offices here in a month or so, so I’ve been cleaning out closets here at the office. I have a truckload of laser printer toner (mostly for HPs) that I have on Craiglist and also have a good Canon copier for sale. I also have a few twinky flatbed scanners and a few other parts I’m still going through, so let me know if you are looking for something specific and I’ll see what we have.

The rest gets a bit technical here, so you can read on if you’d like…

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If any friends or family in the Portland/Beaverton/etc… area would like the pleasure (or displeasure, depending on how you look at it) of our family’s company the night of Thursday, October 6th, and has room for all four of us (my wife and I and two daughters) to crash there for the night, send me an email or note or something (jake {at} orty {dot} com). I will be attending a funeral on Friday morning (the 7th) in Forest Grove and I can’t say that I really want to drive from Bend at the crack of dawn if I can avoid it (that’s time I’d rather spend with my family up there). I’d ask the family I have in Forest Grove, but I have a feeling that they’re already going to be full up (as there are people coming in from all over for this funeral).