On Sunday I went through my Junk Email folder for the first time in about two weeks. To my surprise, I had an email from Glassdoor letting me know there were new reviews of Diamond Comic Distributors. “That’s interesting but useless,” I thought. Still, I was curious, and I wanted to take a look. LookingContinue reading “Thank You, Captain Obvious”
Category Archives: Work
The Last Days of PREVIEWSworld
PREVIEWSworld is no more. I went last night to get a link to an article I’d written for a cover letter I was writing — yes, still on the hunt, rationing my meds, and #OpenToWork — and I got a 404 error. When I went to previewsworld.com directly, I was redirected to an Enesco website.Continue reading “The Last Days of PREVIEWSworld”
Tales of Diamond: The Paper Size Crisis
For many years, when I worked for Diamond, I worked on the UK edition of PREVIEWS. The UK team had a small section — it usually ran 16 pages, though some months it ran 24 or even, once or twice, 32 — of items unique to the UK. For the first several years I wasContinue reading “Tales of Diamond: The Paper Size Crisis”
Tales of Diamond: The Washington Post CMS
Yesterday, Jeff Bezos lifted off in a Blue Origin capsule and nuked the Washington Post from orbit. It was, I suppose, the only way to be certain that the Washington Post would not even accidentally commit journalism and upset the regime. Living in Harrisonburg, Virginia when my dad worked at James Madison, I grew upContinue reading “Tales of Diamond: The Washington Post CMS”
And So It Ends
This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper.– T.S. Eliot, “The Hollow Men” Today, Diamond Comic Distributors shutters its doors. Lance Woods retires today, and today is President Chuck Parker’s last day as well. LanceContinue reading “And So It Ends”
Memories of Long Ago
From time to time I think about two customers from my long-ago EB Games days. There was a man named Malcolm who came in the store on the weekends with his son, aged around 10. (I cannot remember the son’s name, but it might’ve been David. That’s what I’ll use going forward, but it mightContinue reading “Memories of Long Ago”
Cleaning Out the Cubicle
At some point, I would have to go down to Hunt Valley to turn in my key card and parking pass, not to mention pick up the two boxes of personal effects I had in my cubicle. I’d moved from my office to a space in the old Diamond Select Toys offices in early JuneContinue reading “Cleaning Out the Cubicle”
The Last Day
Today was my last day with Diamond Comic Distributors. Eighteen years didn’t end the way I would have wanted, but when Chuck Parker started in on some prepared remarks I also wasn’t terribly surprised. The October PREVIEWS has 350 items in it, the products offered in New to Order are a trickle compared to whatContinue reading “The Last Day”
The 12K Sale
Today, Diamond launched a giant print sale — the 12K Print Sale, complete with a running theme. Shoutout to our designer Casey Dimoff for his graphic for the sale. That title was my pitch. The remit was to refresh the branding from our usual fall sale, the Blizzard, since it’s still August as I writeContinue reading “The 12K Sale”
A Little Ingenuity and a Bit of Code Make the World Go Round
Sometimes I surprise myself with my own cleverness and creativity. Case in point… At Diamond, we maintain two completely different SKU systems to refer to inventory. There’s a stock code system (prefixed STK or STL), and there’s an item code system (prefixed in a MMMYY system, such as SEP25). Occasionally over the years I’ve beenContinue reading “A Little Ingenuity and a Bit of Code Make the World Go Round”