Man have I been busy

I was doing real good keeping up with my blogs at first but then November came and talk about the labor load.

I’ll start off with my internship. My adviser decided to put two issue’s out back to back so instead of every other week it was two weeks back to back. I practically lived in the newsroom. I almost set up a blow up mattress. I have learned in this roll as layout editor, that the writers can make or break your work. I had some serious issues when laying out issue 3. I have to say it was my weakest issue. I was so embarrassed by it that I really tried to make a come back with issue 4. Thank god I had more articles. The newsroom started out with a good strong team and then writers started slacking and not even turning stuff in. Some even disappeared off radar. The editors are always a no show on the days the paper goes to the printers. I am the only one who seems to care and keep putting in the full effort needed. It was alot of work and stress. Oh and get this, I was rep-remanded about doing other people’s jobs (aka the editors). They were leaving me hanging. I have had many jobs, played many rolls and wore many hats so to speak. I was an office manager, and in another job ran a business. I can be a team player but I will also pick up the slack where it lies so that we reach the ultimate goal and succeed with greatness. I hate it when other people bring me down, but I was told to not worry about them. I don’t think they understand that as the layout editor all other jobs effect my job. It’s really starting to get to me that others don’t care as much as I do.  I am happy with the final work but it could be better. I am also a little unclear on what is my duty and what is the editors. Even after the advisor explained it to me. What she says is the editors job I feel should be my job. I feel anything CREATIVE should be the design persons call, especially if the editors don’t know what they are talking about. Now don’t get me wrong the people I work with are good people but not good people to work with. I am not talking about all of them, only some are difficult to work with. I am venting because I have had to deal with the slacking and the putting responsibiliy on others instead of taking care of it their selves. It’s only getting worse over the last two weeks. I give all my time and I don’t get any homework done and now I am super stressing.

Alot has happened in the last 2 1/2 weeks. While all this is going on, my grandfathers health was declining so he had to move in with us. My mom wanted him to have my room because its attached to the bathroom and faces the pretty woods. I had no problem giving it to my pop-pop but I have alot of stuff so after I would spend my whole day in the news room, I would come home around 10 and spend my nights packing my sisters room to move me in there and pack my room to get it empty for pop-pop. I would go to bed sometime after 1am and then wake up at 8am to do it all over again. I also had to move furniture three times. I was exhausted but I had to keep pushing along because I had responsibilities. Two weeks later and its not over. We are still moving furniture and boxes beyond boxes. My siblings are home for Thanksgiving. Since I took my sisters room we had to clear out the office/spear bedroom/storage. This room was almost filled to the ceiling with boxes and furniture. First we had to empty out the room, then paint it to match my sister’s old room because she picked that color. We also had to put her furniture in there and set it up for her. The reason why we were doing all this is because my sister is spoiled and she also didn’t have a room to come home to so we tried to make this transition easier. I can tell you though the transition has not been easy but I keep jugging along and try not to dwell on the problems. My pop-pop has alzimerz and was just recently diagnosed with lung cancer. The man is also like Monk on TV always moving things and straightening them up but sometimes not in a good way. He also has a wondering problem, he can’t sit still for long. The first couple of nights I was woken up by him wondering in my room at 2am and I would have to guide him back to his room. Not to mention the gross stuff but lets just say I gave up my bathroom and now all of us have to lock our doors too. Now a family of six is sharing my parents small bathroom which is not clean enough for my standards (I am a bit of a germaphob). I am about to lose it with the dirtiness everywhere.

On top of all this I still have to pay my bills so I babysitt and now I am up to watching 6 kids and no that is not a typo. My calm mental state is about to snap. I am so drained. On thanksgiving break I am watching the kids full time so I have to get up at 6am and I don’t stop running till 9pm. I have my presentation to work on for my practicum class, my final photoshop project and on top of all of it I have to layout another news issue when we get back from break……AHHHHH! I have no time for anything and I really hope I get my projects done in time.

I swear if I am left hanging again on this newspaper. I will walkout and work on my projects because I need to gets A’s in my classes. I really hope I survive the next 2 weeks because I feel like I am about to break. Yea to make matters worse my adobe software is not working on my home computer so I have no idea when I am even going to be able to start working on my Photoshop project. I really can’t wait till this semester ends…………..oh NO i haven’t registered for spring classes yet because I have been sooooo busy. I have to go. I will blog again soon. Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Carrers Panel was very insightful.

When first arriving at the careers panel I was weary but when the questions started it was awakening. The questions were great and the answers from each of the panelists were eye opening. I took notes the whole time and was not bored one second. I felt I took a lot with me when I left that seminar. Somethings they advised us on I have already done or in the processes of doing, so it was real reassuring to know I was on the right path to success. I learned to make myself stand out more from the rest, so being different is finally going to pay off. They helped me see where I am weak and need to punch it up a notch. I will be working strong on my web portfolio/blog. I would like to buddy up with a web designer and have them help me design my web page. I know how I want to lay it out and I can work on the art work but I don’t know anything about web design/codes. I need someone to turn my design into a working web page. I will keep working to improve and hope my efforts are rewarding in the end.

Made the deadline!

Well so far so good. I made the newspaper deadline and the paper came out good. There are still somethings I would have like to change. I wish I could have put a bigger picture on the front page but I was told things had to be flush with the article. The article was only to columns wide and I wanted to put the headline and photo on top but across three columns, so if the students think it looks bad, I will try to fix it on the next issue. Overall I think I didn’t do a bad job for my first layout, especially when I didn’t know what I was getting into at first. I am learning alot working for a newspaper and I have been told there is always a struggle between the writers and the designers. I was still waiting for articles a 1/2 hour before it went to the printers. I didn’t get any photographs in till last minute, I was really thinking the paper was going to go out with big blank spots, the worst was we had no picture yet for our front page story. Yet somehow it all came together in the end. The paper still needed corrections, after I already sent it to the printers but still not bad for the first try and I can only get better from here. I have posted each page of the newspaper on my web protfolio for others to check out. http://nkcourtney.carbonmade.com/  Enjoy!

Today the papers will be dropped off at our newsroom and everyone will be looking at my layout and the NEW newspaper for AACC. This is exciting!!

On the bad note….I still haven’t started my photoshop project that is due on Thursday. This is not going to be my best work, considering he gave us three weeks to do the project and I am going to attempt to complete it in one week. Wish me luck!

Catching up.

It’s been a while since i have been on. As i was saying my internship finally took off and took off fast. Over night i was thrown into the fire. I had to purchase a book for Adobe InDesign and its become a great reference. When ever I am thrown into a tough situation i try to see it as a challenge, like how am I going to come out on top of this. I was real nervous getting into designing the layout. I didn’t have many ideas from others, like order of sections and etcetera. I am also doing the layout on my own. My creative process has diligently been working for the last week and a half. That is why I didn’t get on to blog last week, because on top of trying to give the newspaper a new look,I also had a major project due for my photoshop class. I managed to get it all done! The first draft for the paper was pretty much ready for the meeting on Friday and I turned my photoshop project in on time and it came out beautifully.

The first hump of the challenge is over! Now on to climb the next big hill. I have the next major project for my photoshop class due in 2 weeks and at the same time i have the Newspapers first issue to go out on Oct. 20th. My final second draft of the layout is pretty much done for the meeting on Friday. Although it would help if i had the actual articles and pictures. The pressure is on now…..stay tuned to find out if I get the layout done and on time. Will I create a fabulous project 3 for photoshop?

Internship is progressing!

I am finally getting in there and familiarizing on the layouts and Adobe InDesign. Things are finally looking up. I know i am going to learn a lot in this internship because i have completely forgot Adobe InDesign, not to mention the version i learned was about 3-4 versions ago. No sweat, I went to the school store and purchased a book to reteach me in InDesign. I am glad i can learn from these books and I feel relieved that Ashley is on the student newspaper. She knows Indesign well and can help me if needed. So, i am a little nervous right now because i hope i am able to do this, stay tuned to find out…….lol……

My Portfolio

I have started uploading my images to create my online portfolio. There are only a few photos up now but more will come. Also coming soon will be my graphic arts portfolio and ill let you know when. Until then enjoy. Below is the link to my online portfolio:

http://nkcourtney.carbonmade.com

Here’s how its going…..

Last week I worked the activities fair for AACC’s school newspaper. Since the paper is not up and running yet, I am trying to do my part and stay involved. This way I am clocking hours and learning what i can at this time. On Monday’s meeting (9/15/08), our supervisor was out sick and our trial editor was also absent, so i stepped up to the plate. Instead of canceling the meeting or just having us all sit there chit chatting. I took action and discussed what needed to be done (thank god i am so involved). I had us all go over the feed back we got from the surveys we put out at the activities fair. We tallied our resuIts’ and discussed some unusual comments. I also followed up on the status of their stories that were assigned the week before. Some have emailed their stories to the Supervisor (S. Venema) and others haven’t even started so I tried to give them some direction. Since Mrs. Venema was disappointed that practically none of our writers showed up to last Fridays meeting to submit stories, i told everyone to email her immediately on their story status. Even if they were not done i wanted them to at least contact her to let her know they were working on it. As for the design part, i can’t really learn anything until we get some stories in so i can experiment with different layouts. This was our first attempt with the story assignments. We are trying to feel out the writers. In the mean time I am going to set up some meeting time with Ashley who knows lots about Adobe InDesign, which is the software they use for layouts and I am inexperienced with it. She is the other design editor for the school paper……ooh this was a long blog. I’ll try to blog more often so they’re shorter. Goodnight

My Internship…..

I was lucky to stuble across this internship opportunity working for the Campus Newspaper as their Design/Layout Editor. The women who ran the paper last year happen to come to the dark room during the open lab I was running. I love that title and hope to be working in this field when I graduate. I am excited and nervous to dive into the work. The school newspaper uses Adobe InDesign for the layout software. The good news is I am familiar with Adobe software and comfortable using Illustrator and Photoshop, (I was a graphic artist for a real estate company for a year). Here is the bad news, I have touched the surface of InDesign and it was like 4 years ago. I am affraid Iwon’t be able to deliver. At the first newspaper meeting I was the only design student, but thankfully at the last meeting another design studentshowed up. Hopefully she knows InDesign more then I do and I can learn from her and maybe will will both grow as designers.