Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Short and Sweet

Disclaimer: this post is going to be short and sweet due to the fact I'm working on a midterm that's due by midnight.

Today was awesome. We got free breakfast tacos this morning. I then worked on making some changes to some signage and an ad for the Livestrong Challenge in Austin from yesterday. Before lunch Diana and I went over to the new Navigation Center to check up on the quote signage that's going up on the walls, it looks really good. Did you know they have to have each individual letter made and stick them up one at a time? Even the dot's on the i's and the periods...must be tedious. After lunch I made some edits to an event poster which needed the rsvp information revised. At 3 o'clock Nike came to do a presentation about their new apparel and their plans for the Livestrong Nike collection during the Tour de France. They also talked about the "chalkbot" which is a robot that paints along the Tour route in France; it paints actual messages people submit online about loved ones with cancer, who they're fighting for/supporting, etc. The best part of this meeting was that we got FREE t-shirts and FREE BEER! Also cheese and crackers and chips and salsa. Did I mention the beer was from Canada, US, England and France? We're so cultural. Next Wed. we're going to get free crepes and watch the tour...I'm going to get fat this summer.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Read Me

Much has occurred since the date of my last post, so allow me to update you on the life and times of Sarah and her adventures in Austin. When we last left off I was finishing up the work week on a wednesday due to my boss's absence at work on Thursday. I'll skip the boring parts (such as the papers I wrote and Math exam I took) and go straight to the juicy stuff. Thursday night a friend from work and myself went out for some late night mexican at Guerro's, and I can vouch for their queso, delish. Afterwards we went downtown and met some real life Austinites, talk about exciting! Friday I did some more boring stuff, but that evening I went to a Round Rock express minor league baseball game! (see photos below). After the game was a nice fireworks show. They absolutely crushed the Albuquerque Isotopes by the way...
Saturday I babysat early, about 8:30, and got done around 11. I then made my way to the lake house to watch the sad sad US/Ghana game, but cheered up via a few jet ski rides on the lake after. Sunday night I went to see Toy Story 3, but wait, there's more...IN THE IMAX AAANNNDDD IN 3-D! It's pretty great, I would recommend it to all. Yesterday Livestrong had a benefit at a restaurant on the river which I went to with a few other interns, it was nice...we got free drinks and delicious food (personally I was a fan of the bacon wrapped jalapenos) and enjoyed the lakeside view. Immediately following the happy hour benefit, a friend and I from work went to a concert. The band is a lesser-known one, which made it so much better since I got an autographed t-shirt AND photo with them! We then went out to a couple bars with the merch guy...although we were under the impression the band was coming out with him, so a slight disappointment, not gonna lie. Whew, now that that book is written it brings us to today.
Waking up today was rough considering my 4 am bedtime this morning, but it did not deter me from a productive day! First thing when I arrived at Livestrong was a meeting. Basically the marketing team is just beginning the infant stages of brainstorming for next year's Livestrong Challenge campaign. It's pretty neat to see everyone bouncing ideas off each other and coming up with something that alllll the design with be focused around next year. After this I work on some livestrong challenge ads, using photoshop to add and adjust the featured people in each ad. I forgot to bring lunch today but I munched on some delicious grapes and trail mix from the kitchen. This afternoon I worked on some signage for a Livestrong challenge and from 3:30-5 Livestrong screened a documentary called 'Ride the Divide' about a grueling bike race that goes from Canada to Mexico; less than 40 people have ever even finished it! The director was there so we got to do a q&a and everything so it was pretty neat. Getting off work late however meant I had to endure the traffic home, it took an hour to get back...and it's been raining alllll day. My fingers hurt from typing but that was a much needed update, come back tomorrow for a fresh new post! And check out da pics!

Round Rock Express
Fireworks after the game

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

USA

Started off the morning extra great today (aside from the extra early wakeup and hellish commute) because THE US BEAT ALGERIA and is advancing in the world cup! And I got to watch it all unfold on the big projector at Livestrong's personal Worldcup party, breakfast tacos included. After all of that excitement it was meeting time. First was a meeting about some new products we'll be designing for the Livestrong store, and I think we're going to have some great new merch! Next was a meeting concerning a new logo we'll be designing for individuals and groups to use more liberally while raising money/doing events in the name of Livestrong since Nike doesn't allow indviduals to use the official logo. After the meetings I finished up an event guide for participants of the San Jose Livestrong Challenge and then made some edits to a card. Currently I'm working on an ad for the Livestrong Challenge in Philly doing some photoshop work...never a dull moment here at Livestrong! Gotta go, somebody brought in cake...

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Another Day Another Dollar...well...another day

Hello blog!
It's been quite sometime since I didn't work last week, but I was able to get a lot of homework done early which made for weekend playtime! On Thursday I saw "Get Him to the Greek" with a friend from work, it was quite humorous. Saturday I had to babysit at 7 am! It was ok though because I got $45 for 2 hours. Later that day I went to Barton Springs with a friend from work and laid out and swam...the water is quite chilly though, it's a brisk 68 degrees all year round, but it felt rather nice after laying out in the 97 degree heat for a while. Sunday we had Father's Day lunch at my grandparents with the whole fam and watched the soccer game, and that night myself and my aunt, cousins and brother went to go see Date Night (I'm quite the movie-goer recently) which was pretty funny, and only cost $1.75 because it was at some discount theatre since it's been out a while. Anyways now it's back to the grindstone, I'm back at work and thus far I've made a few business cards, made some changes on LIVESTRONG Challenge registration forms and changed the parking information on the back of the bibs for the LIVESTRONG Challenge in San Jose. This past weekend was the LIVESTRONG Challenge in Seattle and I think it went pretty well. Here is a family that participated in the race this past weekend and little Owain's story:

Check out Owain's story!

Friday, June 18, 2010

LDsjkfa;lskdfjs

What a crazy weekend for sports! The Lakers/Celtics game was awesome last night, the soccer game today was good aside from the fact we got robbed of a win due to the refs call (which is still undetermined as to what it was for) and the US open. Speaking of sports/activity, I was running last night and saw a coyote! Kind of scary...I saw a deer the other day too, apparently there is a nature preserve nearby. This post is basically a procrastination tool so I don't have to begin my trig hw which I'm 3 days behind on, so I should probably go start that. Anyways just some thoughts...

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Missing work?

Dare I say it? I miss work this week...not so much the early wake-ups, but it's a lot more fun than paper writing, that's for sure. Actually I quite enjoy work so it's not shocking at all...but I did get to go in this morning for a team meeting; nothing too exciting, but interesting nonetheless. I somewhat loathe and despise summer classes...they take up so much time that I could be doing other FUN SUMMER THINGS! However, my art history and trig class will have none of that!

On a slightly different note, here is a funny video relating to the oil spill that is the talk of twitter these days by the way...

Humorous

Monday, June 14, 2010

Monday Monday Monday!

Switching things up a bit this week, went in to work on a Monday, whoa crazy! Diana is going to be out this week after today so she had me come in since I won't be able to the rest of the week. Finished a LIVESTRONG challenge ad today that will be featured in the August edition of Austin Monthly (check it out!) and worked on the quarter 2 business cards. This morning I went to a marketing meeting; they have them every Monday so I'm usually not in attendance. Pretty much consisted of going through current projects and checking the status of each, pretty standard. Oh we also got some more free food today! I might start keeping a tally of every time we receive free delightful meals. The count is at 3 thus far, but that's not including the random treats such as the gourmet suckers that were available today as well. Anyways, since I'm not working the rest of the week I will most likely be trying to get ahead on homework and get my name out for babysitting jobs, etc. I will try to blog a day or two with updates, but don't get too excited...Until next time!

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Where has the week gone?!

Last day of work for the week, good day overall. Spent most of the morning finishing project labels, however, I got to go with Diana to meet a vendor who brought samples of window coverings for the new navigation center that is about to open. Some windows inside are going to be covered with graphics of cancer survivors and quotes that were printed on a plastic mesh material that lets light through but provides a bit more privacy for conference rooms and just adds to the space overall. On the outside they're going to have similar graphics adhered to the upper windows; I think it will all look really good when it's done. I spent the afternoon working on an ad that's going in Austin Monthly Magazine. It's an advertisement for the Livestrong Challenge in Austin coming up in October. The challenging part about this project is that it basically requires a horizontal ad to be adjusted to the vertical dimensions, 4 something by 9 something. This still needs a good bit of work but I got a decent amount done today. Diana is going out of town next week after Monday so I'm going in Monday, which might be my only day for the week, she's going to talk to the marketing team. Because I'm going in Monday, however, I'll get to go to a couple of the big meetings with all the marketing people and everything, so that should be interesting. Time to go work on some homework, booooo summer classes! Later gators

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Just another day at the office

Worked on lots of projects today, don't even remember all of them. A lot of them consisted of making minor changes to cards, brochures, etc. I finished the autograph card and used lots of pantone 116 c in the process...boy is that yellow! I ended up getting all the projects Diana planned for the week done today, apparently I'm pretty quick which is good I suppose. So I spent the last hour or so making labels for finished job folders, not the most exciting but it needs to be done I guess. Oh I almost forgot, this morning I also got the chance to sit in on a meeting with a freelancer. The woman was someone who Diana says she's been working with for years and she's helping to finish the annual report. She isn't doing much design, more production. Tomorrow I'm going to sit in on a vendor meeting...woohoo! Until tomorrow blog!

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT

So today at work there was a big announcement! The best part? We got free lunch from Maudie's AND free dessert, can't beat that. Now, you might be asking yourself what announcement could be so huge that would merit free lunch and news cameras AND the mayor's presence? Turns out that Livestrong recently signed a 3 year commitment with the city in which they will be the primary sponsor of the Austin Marathon/Half Marathon event, which is the 3rd or 4th largest of its kind I believe. Anywho, all that excitement aside, today was pretty solid. I started out by making some minor changes to a notepad I was working on last weekend. I also added a photo and description of a new available brochure to a card. In the afternoon I worked on making changes to a current brochure and began creating a large autograph card which will be provided to fans at this big golf tourney coming up in which Livestrong is involved in. Time flies by there...the 6 hour shifts seem even shorter than my 4 hour shifts last summer. Welp, I'm gong to go try to watch the season finale of Glee, but stay tuned for another update tomorrow!

Saturday, June 5, 2010

The weekend thus far...

So as most of you know, my internship is only Tues/Wed/Thurs, which makes for a long weekend. So I didn't have work yesterday, but I did go to Dallas to see 3oh!3, which was awesome! It was a tour of 4 bands so their set wasn't very long, but man can those guys put on a show. Played some the classics such as 'I'm Not Your Boyfriend Baby' and 'Colorado Sunrise' along with a few newbies. Now that I'm back in Austin, however, it's time to continue this long journey I like to call a job hunt; at this rate I'll be living in a box on 35. I have 5 applications to turn in today, sounds promising right? 2 of them are for a couple of local country clubs, and if you don't know this I am veteran when it comes to working at these joints, so I have high hopes. How is it that I can land an apparently competitive internship but can't manage to get a job waitressing at a low end chain restaurant? After that, however, I might be hanging out with a couple other interns from Livestrong which will be a fun time. On a more depressing note, online classes begin Monday. Modern art and Trig...hold me back. Oh and ps- I finally put my livestrong and apple stickers on the back of my car, now it just screams "me". Welpie welp, I'm off to attempt to get a paying job, wish me luck blog!

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Day 2

Today was a great day at work simply because somebody brought a giant box of free chapstick into the office. Awesome. Besides my super moisturized lips, I also began to work on some projects in the graphic design department today. One of the projects was making simple revisions on some Livestrong Challenge registration forms. The second project I worked on was creating a form/notepad for workers to use at the Livestrong Challenge in Seattle which included a spot to fill out one's bib number, shirt size etc. Diana was very clear and helpful and everything seemed to go smoothly. I worked for 6 hours today but it felt much much shorter. The only low point of today was when I was eating a cheeze-it at lunch which violently scratched/raped my throat, that was awful. I am yet to bring in some flair to add to my personal little bulletin board (which currently has a picture of me and the Truman logo, which nobody as any idea as to what that is). Also, my hands turned blue today because I wore these new jeans that I haven't washed yet and was sitting on my hands and it dyed them slightly blue...I look like I have terrible blood circulation; I'm scared to see what my legs look like.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

First Day at Livestrong!

What an amazing day!
Today was intern orientation at Livestrong, and it was great! The building is amazing. It is an old warehouse that was gutted and completely recycled to make the new headquarters. Everything from the wood to the concrete is original to the building, but recycled and revamped. There is tons of natural light that comes in through the razor blade style skylights. One of my favorite things, however, is Lance's personal art collection that is displayed throughout the building. There are paintings, sculptures and posters (some of which are by the artist Shepard Fairey, who designed Obama's Hope poster). And just when you think there couldn't be anything else, there is! There is a gym where they teach classes (free yoga on mon. and wed.). Also, there is a great kitchen with all real dishes so we can be environmentally friendly, which is stressed here.

As far as the interns go, everyone seems really cool. There are 27 interns total from ALL over; one girl is even from Australia. With interns from across the country, imagine my surprise when the first person I meet is a girl from St. Joe, Missouri. One of the interns is in charge of putting together intern social events over the summer, the first being put put next Friday which should be fun. Anyways, each intern works in a different department including Team Livestrong, Navigation, Legal and Government, Info. Tech and many more. When talking with one of the Employees, she was very impressed I was the Graphic Design intern and said it was very competitive position, so yay!

After a tour and meet and greet we were given pizza and got to eat with all of the Livestrong employees. Everyone is really friendly and interested in what the interns are doing. Each intern is given a mentor that they work under, mine being Diana Berno. Diana seems really cool and I think she really knows what she's doing; she says I'll get to start working on projects as soon as tomorrow! Each intern gets their own space in the intern room with their own computer along with our own Livestrong email and phone extension. Below is a picture of the employees/interns eating lunch today:



After lunch we went over the handbook and received our emails and whatnot along with learning some of the computer program basics. I'm really excited for what is yet to come and I'll be posting here daily to keep everyone updated (that means you Rusty!) So until then, Peace out Blog!!

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Tomorrow tomorrow...

Hello Blog,

It's been quite some time. It's been very busy around Austin with my cousin's wedding and whatnot, but that's all over now and the real fun is about to begin! That's right, Internship starts tomorrow! Tomorrow is just an orientation day so mostly training and learning how everything works there; I'm excited nonetheless. I'm yet to find an outfit that says biker-friendly, cancer research-supporter, artsy and professional...on my list of to-do's. Anyways I will be posting about my first day tomorrow, but I should be getting some shuteye considering I'm waking up at 6:45 to get ready and deal with morning traffic! Check back tomorrow for more detes, later gator!