So I have been instructed to create a large scale materials packet that includes a poster, postcard, flyer, and brochure. while the first three are pieces of cake, the brochure would take a fair amount of work and time; not to mention that i cant print it on my laserjet because it is a 4x9, 8 page pamphlet. i guess i got the project about two weeks ago. the actual order was to fix up the old files, so my first job was to locate them on my computer. this computer has been through a good amount of users. and during everyone's stay here, files have become ... less than organized. so less that it took me the whole first month of the job to grow accustomed to document placement. in any case, i couldnt find the files. so i ran a full search and still, came up short. i managed to find a small picture that was included in my materials, but nothing helpful. i found a couple of pdfs, but upon inspection, found that they were made from quark files. i dont have quark. i dont even have the original quark files.
so i started thinking about how i was going to recreate all the materials, and how i was going to do that without a usable picture. i took that small picture, and sent it to creative services, who is a university service specifically for print marketing and propaghanda. distant response given. so i put off the project as there is no solid due date, and yesterday the person who gave me the project was like "lets get to work." so i sent out reminders to see what was going on. then i started recreating the files -sans photos- in indesign(cs2). after laborious typing and type fitting, creative services finally got back to me and were basically like "uh, we've got all the stuff your looking for."
i met with them and not only did they have the photo (original), but they had all the marketing material in quark files that they were able to edit. they also gave me the impression that the person in charge knew all of this. we have come to a stall at this point, because i dont want to rebuild something that is already available with a few minor edits, and the person in charge is unavailable.
but what this has taught me is, i dont know how to make an 8 page booklet of custom size. i mean, yes, i can lay it out and put in photos and text and pull quotes and all of that good mess, but i dont know anything about printing it. I dont remember how a printer scrambles the pages for print and sets colors and binds. and while that is actually ok since im not working in the actual print shop, im not really comfortable with it. so i need to go back and reread all the stuff i should have memorized from communication design 2, where we made my book. but besides all that, i still feel the project was over my head. but it wasnt. it was this reachable goal that i timidly held my hand out towards. its like when you look up at a pull-up bar and think "thats too high for me to reach," but then you jump and you feel it in your palm; sometimes you cant hold tight and fall back down, but sometimes you pull yourself up.
yesterday, while i was at work, a conflict broke out on the street below and shots were fired. we may be on campus property, but this school is in the city, and in a highly active area. a place where cops hang out because of the abundance of traffic violations and parking dilemmas, good food, and courtyards with loiterers. i dont think there has ever been a day where i have not seen a police officer walking around down here. so then what would possess someone in an arguement to leave, retrieve a gun, come back and take a few shots? i suppose i will never understand people.
this book club things seems to be working out pretty well. not only has there been decent discussion, but we've picked two good reads so far.
i just read the previously mentioned f s fitz "curious case of benjamin buttons" and it was a pretty interesting short story. theres really not much to it but the mere fact that it handles the enormous hurdle of encompassing a persons life and events within 20 pages is pretty amazing. the beginning and ending are well done, with sort of filler in the middle. but really the focus at first is how bb's birth is such a mysterious thing, and how his father handles it. and then as the story ends it becomes how people will not put up with him because of how he is unable to handle himself. its strange but worth of discussion, which will surely be done in my new book club!
abs and i started a book club. we'll see how far that goes in terms of getting people together and having them all read the book proposed.
other reading ive done? just tpb comics i picked up from matt. hes got this huge collection and i went through and started picking off some of the well recieved titles. i think ive become an even bigger nerd in the last year than all through high school. anyways, finished BPRD vol 1 + 2, goon vol 0 + 1, battlepope 1.
so i was supposed to meet up with abs for lunch, but she cancelled. instead i hopped across the street to subway, where i got my usual, a footlong spicy italian on honey wheat. whe it came to toppings, i asked for lettuce, tomato, black olives, and banana peppers. the girl loaded normal amounts of lettuce and tomato, but gave me SEVEN slices of olive and SIX slices of pepper -all neatly ordered in a straight line in the middle of the sandwich. i was too busy being amazed at the orderly perfection of arrangement to be angry at the complete lack of toppings. however, now i regret not asking for more.
i also walked into the b&n in the mall and looked through their graphic novels. there was an adaptation of F Scott Fitzgeralds "the mysterious case of benjamin buttons." which i perused and i have to say, my interest is piqued. first of all, i didnt know it was written by f scott fitz, and second, the art in it is really awesome. i also like how each chapter is broken up by a portrait of ben butts, making it much like a memoir or biography or a mix of the two. anyways, its humorous and i might pick it up later.
and now for the complaining: i wasnt ready for swimming to start back up. i feel like i had finally found freedom and then wham! were back in the thick of things. but it is nice to see the kids again. it just makes my days so full that by the time i get home i have to prep for tomorrow and i dont have time to relax and unwind.
go listen to the new bound stems album. its fantastic.
i went all week with minimal amounts of work. until today. today they heaped a whole mess of updates on me and i had to readdress flyers i fixed last month. i dont know where all these things get handed out, but it seems like a lot of waste. also, its pretty unreasonable the requests they give me. ok, so one date is changed? it was the session this week? why do we need new updated flyers if the ones out now will be usable next week when no one cares about that date? anyways, today has been stressful. there were a ton of things going on. plus theres that hurricane that might be bearing down on us? its getting dark out, and starting to rain.
today we randomly recieved hand held video recorders. digital. 60 seconds of memory. size of a point and click camera. why? what are we going to do with 1min of film in an office? daily webcasts? there wasnt an email notice or anything, just had ivan come around and sign one out.
i think i missed the staff meeting this morning because i was in class. thats ok. nothing ever really happens at the staff meeting. i decided that its pretty much just an excuse to make yourself look good and feel important to the company. we go around the room and fill everyone in on what youve been doing. which in my case just results in me saying "i updated all the little things on the website and your individual pages, and i printed all the stuff you gave me." but everyone else makes a huge production about what they do, and how hard theyve been working, and how this company really needs them here to do all that stuff. also, they use a ton of acronyms to confuse people and make themselves seem super involved with their projects.
there was free food in the conference room! i had a tiny salad, a small amount of tortellini (cheese filled) pasta salad, and a roast beef sub with lettuce and tomato. also, a pickle and a chocolate chip cookie. the roast beef was quite rare (good) but the pasta salad was the best part. i dont know why there was food, but everyone else was eating so i joined in.
im supposed to keep track of paper usage for my printer (since its networked, other people can print to my printer), but since im not here for half the day practically every day, its sort of useless for me to do so. also, the door to my office locks, but apparently just about everyone has a key. regardless, i log paper and output, and continually lock my door every day.
on a personal note, yesterday i met up with abigail and adam over at cogans pizza in ghent and it was FANTASTIC. we actually spent quite a bit of time over there talking about all the people we know getting married and randomness.
have i told you how much i love gmail? its pretty handy. if only i could get all my friends to get accounts and join my google group so we could get things accomplished like planning out events that we're all going to. but at least i can talk to people all day without using a separate internet page for meebo or something.
ive been doing a lot of website updates. nothing special, just changing incorrect/old dates for classes and tweaking little things. im using adobe contribute, which is actually pretty cool. it makes tables super easy to handle. like, even easier than dreamweaver. its pretty fantastic as far as plain text websites go.
we went out for amy's birthday last night. started at paradocks (which failed again), and then moved over to buffalo wild wings where we finally got some service. and then jonathan bought the hottest wings on the menu to celebrate (like buying a round of shots) but amy declined (both a shot which led to the wings which she decided against) as did scott. blazin is indeed a very hot sauce. someone should have recorded our reactions. let me tell you, i was quite uncomfortable for some time after eating it. but possibly not the hottest thing ive ever eaten? i think ive had pretty bad reactions to other hot things before. in any case, bww was pretty good. glad to see them in the hampton roads area.
the muppets are now appearing on youtube in shorts. hilarity ensues.
ive been printing things all week. like non-stop. i think its giving me cancer. my office smells like burned toner and i think im developing some serious eye disease. i wonder if theres any link between inhaling toner particles and black lung?
but at least im doing stuff now? people certainly have caught on to my being here and have loaded me up with things. mostly just flyer prints. it could be worse though. i could be forced to update the course catalog with class numbers, dates, and descriptions OH WAIT, im doing that for all the web pages. actually, its pretty easy compared to hunting down the old flyer files on the computer and changing little things in adobe acrobat. let me be clear in saying that i completely dislike adobe acrobat. it is hell. im beginning to think that the only reason people use it is because it completely locks out people from making any sort of changes to your document. its like putting something behind a glass case -everyone can see, but no one can touch. luckily, the person who held the job directly before was alright with adobe indesign. and that is really easy to work with. i can change picture links and edit text all day long and make everything look perfect before sending to print.
on a more interesting note, i changed my magenta cartridge today! ive already gone through 1 cyan, and its on low right now. probably because tcc's main color is a dark blue, and ive run 98123478124713 copies of things.
