Im slacking…

I apologize to all of those who take their time to read my blog for the lack of posts. It has been quite busy here in Florida. This past week I have been working hard on many graphics for the website. Yesterday I had about 4 hours of graphics to complete, followed by story graphics, and then learning about a flash element. It has been a very long week just with many things taking place. My aunt and uncle have been away in Alaska for the past week and I miss them and can’t wait for them to return. So far there hasn’t been anything I dislike about this week. Tomorrow is friday and as soon as work is done I get to go to Ft.Lauderdale and see my dad’s sister and her family. Which ultimately means a great/fun weekend with my favorite cousin Becca. Oh well, I guess I haven’t had much to update on .

I finally captured photos:

Saturday was the intern bbq hosted by Maya and Cameron. Here is a glimpse into the antics of our barefoot Kickball game at the park:

Meet the Boys of Summer:

Meet part of the Intern Posse:

Thursdays=?

I have about 5 minutes left to my really relaxed lunch hour. I decided against joining the rest of the staff at the lunch table area. I opted for some solitude and Greys Anatomy. I ate lunch at my computer and watched an episode i hadn’t seen (which there are more than i thought). Today has been an easier day than usual, but now I am busy with my newest project. I am designing some marketing subscribe headers for our subscribe page. It should be interesting working with marketing since it is my minor. What have I disliked about today, nothing really. I have yet to really dislike anything at my job. I am quite tired and broke, so acquiring the much wanted Starbucks iced coffee is out of the budget.

Yesterday, I felt a bit like gilligan. I went out for a 15 minute errand to the post office that is located 1.3 miles from the office. When you are directionally challenged and work in the downtown area that is mostly one way streets, you can easily become lost. I almost ended up on a highway with tolls and then I found a dairy factory. I found my way back and was a bit flustered that my usual strength of finding my way through places was not useful in this situation.

SUBSCRIBE

Good afternoon readers, today has been a slower kind of day. I feel like I am floating along and simply easing into the rythym of Relevant. It had been a productive morning where I finished projects quicker than I anticipated. So far today I have liked the flow of work throughout the office and stillness today has to offer. At the very beginning of the day there were shrills of excitement when the women of the office heard the news of someone’s engagment. I was excited for their excitement. I will admit my first inference of the story behind the screaming was that Cara, the Editor, was having her baby. But, logic told me that there would have been more panic in the sounds than excitement. It was nice that today all the women went out to lunch together and got to know us interns a bit better. It was also nice to ask questions about the beginnings of the magazine and how they ended up here. Most of them said that it was from earlier contacts than applications. So it is true what they say about its not what you know, it’s who you know.

In other news, my aunt and uncle left this morning for alaska this morning. It was kind of sad saying good-bye to them. Even though I have only really gotten to know them in the past week or so, I will miss them while they’re gone for the next ten days or so. It should be interesting though, me and my cousin Lauren and her baby hanging out and keeping each other company. I am really enjoying living with them! Well, that is really all the excitement I have to share. I wish I could type about my chance to sit in on a phone interview with Eisley, but I never did ask one of the co-Editors if I could. I really just wanted to observe another facet of the industry of music/print/journalism. I am definitely learning a lot.

R-e-l-e-v-a-n-t-M-A-G-A-zine

So technically we aren’t your average micky mouse club, but the growing population of interns at Relevant is becoming the joke. It actually almost seems like there are more unpaid interns than paid employees at the office. I offically mark the end of week one/eight and the beginning of week two. I apologize for the lack of updates, it did get a bit busy and tiring after wednesday. It is almost surreal that I am desiging in a real-world place. Relevant Magazine is extremely challenging because it aims for higher standards than most christian magazines do. I love the challenge of being restricted to one or two font faces and working through problems. It is always rewarding when you finish a small project (ie story graphics) that you struggled with for hours only to find in the end you just needed 15 mins with a different picture. Thursday was a calm day. There was a much needed calmness and quietness floating thick through the office before lunch. Every 20 mins or so you do get a quick shake from the train that passes behind us. Friday was an even better day. I was given my first non-story graphic assignment, it was reworking an ad for Zondervan. For a moment, I felt a rush of excitement because everything that I have learned the past two semesters has helped me in one week. Thank you professors at Evangel for preparing me for the requirements this job did not publish. Its always nice to recognize terms that your professor used. Nonetheless, I spent a few hours rebuilding an ad from files hidden in different parts of the network. Come to find out at the end of the day, I produced it in the wrong program. I did it all in photoshop, problem one. I had a gut feeling it was supposed to be produced inDesign, but someone gave me to the “ok” to do it in Photoshop. It wasn’t until 15 mins before the end of the work day that I was told how wrong I was. I was partly embarassed that I did my first “real” assignment wrong, but mostly I felt guilty that I spent hours working on something on Relevant’s time to do something that will need to be redone. Luckily, I have a really cool director that was semi-supportive of the fact that it wasn’t technically my fault and that we will fix it on monday. I will admit the last hour of friday’s day was a hectic, I was busy getting a story graphic whipped out in a limited amount of time and the ad and also emailing.

In other news, Florida has been treating me way well. Saturday about nine of us went to Wekiwa Springs and went canoeing. Jen, a fellow design intern hailing from Truman State in Colombia, Mo., was my canoe partner. I apologize for my lack of skills. I talked a good game but didn’t follow through. We did see about a half dozen turtles, 1 water moccassin crossed our path, and 3 gators. Seriously, seeing alligators in the wild swimming by our boats gave a wierd rush that was cool. I also spent the other half of the day shopping (don’t worry I only bought one thing) all throughout Orlando. I ended up at the Florida Mall and found this really awesome fitness store called Paiva. I found a sweet pair of nike running shorts for ten dollars. And here are a few pictures of my little cousin:

That’s all for now. I will update more this week.

oh its a fun one today.

Well today has officially been day three of my internship at Relevant Magazine and today we said hello and good bye to the lucky boys that are doing a summer roadtrip to all the Christian Music Festivals. I was on story graphics all day, again. It seems as though I have developed a routine of composing story graphics. I receive designated stories around 10:30 am, eventhough I start at 9 am. I work on them until I feel as though I can work no more (so i think) and call my creative director Alastair Over to inspect. He says a various assortment of no’s and dismays. Thankfully he has saved the deep sighs of dissapointment for his own cubicle. I have been told that I am doing a great job on the tasks, yet that is by my peers. The other design interns keep reassuring me that I am not the lamest designer on board and that I am getting story graphics done a faster rate than stories come forward. I half-heartedly agree.

I experienced my first all staff meeting in which Cameron Strang, the Commander in Chief of the Relevant Empire (of 35 employees or more) gave great pep talk. It gets me really excited to hear him talk about the successes they are experiencing lately. Summer is an exciting time. The festival boys left with the tons of merchandise that the interns so diligently put together. Hes really cool. I also realized later in the day I was in the same building that my favorite podcast was recorded in. It was an odd feeling, knowing that the Editorial team is recording something that over 30,000 listeners including dozens of my friends.

I did come home hoping to run, it was perfect temperature outside. Cool and humid, regardless of the temperature the humidity is one thing that I will never get away from. Oh well, now it is pouring outside and I am experiencing my first home cooked meal. I should introduce my living arrangements to ya’ll. I am living with my aunt, uncle, cousin lauren, and her 3 week old baby boy Marco. Its an interesting experience altogether. I really was worried/nervous about living with the family I really don’t know that much about. But, heres the really cool thing They were very excited to have me come and stay and still are excited to have me. My cousin is way nicer and friendlier than I remember. Its a nice house and nice neighborhood. They have high-speed wireless internet, which is way appreciated. Well, off to try to learn more html and css style sheets so tomorrow I don’t look like a complete idiot when they ask me to design templates/skins/CSS anything.

ps..I designed the storygraphic on this page…there is a great sample of what I have learned in the past 3 days of Relevant. Only the rest of the week and 7 weeks to go.

from the intern blog…

I feel as if I have a poor sense of concentration, because every time someone walks past me I glance up in hopes of receiving some form of task. I am one of the few last interns to arrive in the Design Department and join the already numbered posse of designers. I should introduce myself to whom ever reads this ever growing and enlightening blog.

This intern is originally from Connecticut, but has been at Evangel University in Springfield,Mo. for the past two years. My name is Ashley Boos and I am a design intern. I am an Electronic Media Major and minoring in Art and Marketing. What that really means is, I want to do anything with designing or business.
I officially arrived at my new home in Lake Mary Saturday morning, even though I had only left Springfield the afternoon before. Yes, I admit I was excited, but I blame my trucker style driving to the fact that I was full of excuses. I had an excuse for every rest stop or hotel that would have been a good place to stop. JennW said Georgia, I beg to differ.

So far life as an intern has been one long party. Well, actually the weekend before I even had stepped foot in the office the many interns stalked me on facebook and invited me to join their festivities. It was a much appreciated time of getting to know people. I usually am anti-social and enjoy sleeping, running, or listening to music by myself. Saturday we saw a movie that only two (to my knowledge) really enjoyed. I just found watching a movie with AARP cards was a bit awkward. What was really cool is that on Sunday I ended up going to Summit Church and enjoying an evening with the interns again.

I really have only been at Relevant for the past two days and foresee myself learning quite a bit. I have already dived into the world of story graphics and observing. As much fun as this all is, I am kind of missing all the faces of the ones I saw all year at Evangel. I hope I make them proud!

Day One: Story Graphics and Pei Wei

It wasn’t until 7:20 am that I realized that I overslept on the first day of interning. My aunt and uncle warned me of the heavy traffic heading into Orlando, so i was in a desperate panic when I realized I couldn’t get fully ready the leisurely rate I would have hoped. Nonetheless, I showered, moussed the curls, and proceeded out the door within 40 mins. I was fully ready to accept the fact I would be late due to heavy traffic, but to my surprise the “hour commute” was only a 25 minute one. So I was or couldve been 30 mins to the first day, I really wasn’t that eager. I gathered that Orange Ave would be an interesting one to get acquainted with and explored. I ended up at an Einsteins Bagel shop and had time to enjoy a Dutch apple bagel. I finally did make it to the green building situated between train tracks and a quaint park.

Arriving at 9am-ish is an odd concept. I have classes that meet at that time, but never did I realize that real life starts at 9. I met many smiling faces and felt a little bad that my handshake was not strong. It was very great to be welcomed by a design dept. staff meeting. Alastair, the creative director, informed us that they are going to do their best to educate us will all that could be learned in these next 8 weeks. Hopefully I will learn more about concept and realize that the books I purchased will be very helpful.

You can look around the office at any given point and find people busy puttering away at work/projects. The greatest part of my day is the amount of music I am allowed to listen to and the massive amounts of photoshopping graphics I am designated to do. It was my duty today to try my best at story graphics for the website. Lets just say at the rate I pump out story graphics, Relevant might have to rethink bringing this novice into the department. Story graphics are those cute little graphic headings to their web stories. The first two story graphs I did with little work, only one came out with the right concept. I was pleased with it. The other two I was having a little bit more trouble on. One graphic gave me about 3 hours of deep sighs and almost tears on my part. My creative directors critiques was everything I knew I was having problems with. Its not like school, where you can settle for below par stuff. Needless to say I was relieved when I finally worked through it and found what really would work.

Lunch with the fellow interns was really nice. We went Pei Weis, which is the fast food version of PF Changs. I enjoyed the lunch just as much as I enjoyed the company. I will say, these Relevant Interns are super sweet. The day is almost done. Like, 6 pm is leaving time. Hopefully I will get another project and do better than before, timewise!

From the Hills of Lake Mary

I probably shouldn’t have, but I did anyways… Prior to my departure for the looming road trip from Missouri to Florida, everyone had a mutual agreement that I should probably stop at one point and sleep during this 1124 mi drive. It sounded like a good idea, but really who were they to tell me what I would be feeling like during this drive. The first leg of the drive, Missouri-Arkansas-Memphis, was my least favorite. It was absolutely beautiful lush green hills of the Ozarks, but seeing it from a one lane pseudo highway (which was just another town road) made it last too long. I finally got really excited when I paid 2.84 per gallon of gas only to see it spike back up to 2.94 within the next 15 minutes. The part of the trek that took me through Memphis, well the ghetto/poverty-like Memphis was another awkward leg of the trip. I didn’t stop like I had wanted to because the people of Tennesse just didn’t look to friendly.

The next leg of this trek Mississippi-Alabama-Atlanta, was a long one. I remember at one point in Miss./Alabama, I was always grateful every couple of miles when there was some form of life. I drove through Atlanta around Midnight. At this point in my adrenaline filled head I was thinking, I can keep going. Its only like what another few hours until the florida state line, I think I can keep driving. Looking at the map and seeing a distance is quite different than actually driving. I believe it was 4:00 am when I realized I had been driving since 1:30pm, and I still was going strong. I crossed Florida’s state line 5:30 am ish and finally stopped for an hour at a rest area to sleep. Got back on route by 7 am, arrived at my new home in Lake Mary Florida at 9:00 am. Lets just say, no one was happy I did the drive in one night, but just happy I was safe and semi sound

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I am extremely excited to say that I do believe I have met almost all the other Relevant Interns that I will be working with. I met up with a group of the ladies to see a movie that I would rather have not spent money on. Knocked up was an ok movie. I think I enjoyed the idea behind the story more than the presentation. I think almost 75% of all vulgarity, profanity, and “bad stuff” couldve been taken out and the movie wouldve been more digestible. It was fun to meet these people. And then tonite I met up with them again at Summit Church in Orlando. It was an excellent message and the atmosphere was way cool. At this time I met Alastair Sterne, the all wonderful Design Director of Relevant Magazine. It was pretty sweet to meet almost all of the Interns again and Alastair. We ended up sitting next to each other at some deli chain shop. We really didn’t have a conversation, because where we were sitting was the split of interns vs. not interns. From the conversation at dinner I can tell the four main things that will most likely come up in any one of the interns conversations:

number one— It is most likely to be mentioned in any form or fashion that this is unpaid. I will make it my goal never to talk about the unpaid-ness of this internship. I am going to try to enjoy this for the mere experience of it all.
number two– I can guarantee something about the intern blog will be stated and discussed and stated again.
Number three– something about the beach or intern hanging out times will be circulating our conversations at any given point.
Number four– There is no doubt that the blatant use of ‘RELE’ in front of, or in conjunction with will be used an obscene amount.

At this time, I am going to bed because tomorrow I will finally see this amazing office that I have been so eager to dive into. I feel a great deal of ease knowing I have met some of the people I will be co-working/interning with. And I know tomorrow we are doing lunch in celebration of my arrival!

re-le-vant

So it officially is Friday, the day I venture central Florida to pursue everything relevant. What makes me laugh is all summer semester I have been trying to get up at this time to run, yet the snooze button seems like a better option at the moment, and the last day I am up. Too bad it is cloudy/rainy/angry looking outside. My online course is complete, my interpersonal communication class is meeting at Shoneys for breakfast/discussion/the easiest final ever, and then my Biology exam. The Bio exam really might determine my happiness, but going by the amount of studying I put in, its a wait and see. Wait until the last minute and see the mind of Ashley do olympic style gymnastics to complete the test.
I read the newly updated internblog @ RELEVANTMagazine.com with an excitement I haven’t felt since I was in the fourth grade and I found out my mom was visiting after 5 years. It was that nervous, “omg”, adrenaline, heart pounding, makes you want to run long distance experience of excitement. I am a little concerned, they all seem way cooler than me. Like, each person is unique in the way that everyone has a story. I am really excited to meet Hannah and Jen, only because they are the ones I have been in semi-fluid correspondance with via facebook. My director has the coolest tattoo up his arm, its a t-shirt and jeans type of atmosphere, and I have a strong feeling that I am going to sweat an unattractive amount.
I admire the cinder block room in Inez Spence Hall that I have called home for the past month. I smile because for the first time, I don’t feel like my life is cluttered with stuff. I can physically see everything in my ownership that is traveling with me. Two body-sized bags filled with clothes, books, and dvds. One medium sized duffle overflowing with shoes (75% of which I know I will not wear its a choice factor). Two overflowing tote boxes of my Health and Beauty supplies. A backpack full of books and cds. My computer and all his companions. My bedding and my pilates mat. All of this to say, I do have a plethora of stuff. Sometimes I feel so overwhelmed by stuff that I long to simplify it. Its kind of like how I feel about life. Life can become cluttered with stuff that can become overwhelming. What is great as Christians, we know that God is simple in an aspect. He is simply the alpha and omega, and we accept him in his state of greatness as if he was simple. Then again I am no philosopher, just a well-adjusted student that is ambitious and tenacious.

I will update from the road!