2014 - Canada vacation: Preperation

And here we go again! Tomorrow I'll leave to Canada again for a month.
I will stay at the same house again and there are some fun things planned already like the stampede.

Right now I still don't realize I am leaving tomorrow. We will leave at 8:30 and my flight will be at 1:30 pm.
My parents seem more nervous than I am and I worry less about my suitcase than them :P

I'll try to write on my blog daily, but can't promise anything xD I don't know the plans yet, but I do know that saturday will be uneventful after I arrive and sunday will be a day to get groceries and going to church. 

Week 18 - Saturday: Day 89 - Goodbyes

Wow, I never even posted day 89, so here it is.


.. No portal opening? Okay, thought the 89 would count too *silly*

Quickly writing about Thursday:

Website design was going on. He showed me how easily he made the mudbog website.
You also have to think about what people want to know. So we had to come up with what to write in the side bar.

I was home alone and took it easy in the morning. My body was so sore from yesterday.
I had to do the last laundry and of course pack my suitcase. The sight of your suitcase getting fuller and fuller
was making me quite sad. I was supposed to go to work today to sing backing vocals, but as we started the day around 7:30 pm instead of the afternoon I will do this when I get home in my own studio.
I transferred my unfinished work I still had on my laptop and I received some work from him.
Like the song I will have to sing later.
We also took a picture together before I left.

When he brought me home he bought me some snacks for mmy trip tomorrow.
Back home he gave me a hug and we promised to stay in touch.
When I walked into the house I couldn't help but feel really sad. This is really ending now.

Week 18 - Friday: Day 88

Not counting Thursday as a full day as I didn't do much.
But today was a busy day! I arrived at the Emmex center at 7 am, but couldn't start until 8.
I borrowed steel toed shoes as you are not allowed to work without only they were quite big which wasn't convenient.
A lot of people stood outside waiting for instructions. Six trucks would come in for the concert and we had to stand in line in order to push the boxes. I was quite relieved to see so many people. For a moment I thought it wouldn't be a big group.
The trucks came in and it was time to push. We got instructions on where to push the box (sometimes there was something on top so we had to be careful we didn't push off the top box) and we got instructions on where to push the boxes to. I did learn from my supervisor stage left, stage right stage down and up and the house, but when pushing there was a guy on the front telling me to go right and another guy on the right would tell me exactly where to place the box.
It was a bit strange pushing those boxes. Some were tall, some were small so I had no idea how heavy they would be or how to push it 'the right way'

The last trucks contained heavy things like speakers so we had to work with multiple people in order to push it. I did get annoyed by one lady who was a know-it-all. One load we had to push with 4 people and it nearly went off the ramp. I luckily pushed it up in time, but I did get complaints from a guy watching. I could have killed someone. Well, I'm sorry, but I wasn't the only one pushing the thing. The others pushed the front too far too the left! And to top it off that annoying lady gave EVERYONE advice to watch the back as our cart nearly went off the ramp! ... Geez. You're not that great.

During the wait after unloading the truck we spotted Selena Gomez walking back and forth. So that was pretty cool! Also saw the musicians from Emblem 3 and spotted Christina Ricci (though I didn't know at that time it was her xD)

Sadly I had to wait 2 hours with the whole crew before we got the word to go home. In that time we only brough the drumset to the stage, but that was it. When everyone went home I still had to wait an hour for my supervisor.
I couldn't go home right away, but we had to check the magazine and pick up a jacket I got as a present from my supervisor. At 4 I was home and barely had free time. I had to shower and eat and at 5:30 I got picked up again. I luckily had a great spot to sit. All the way on top where the supervisor had to work as well. At 7 the show started and I filmed a little bit of Christina. I skipped Emblem 3 as I wasn;'t a big fan of it and then Selena Gomez showed up. Man, the fangirl screams were loud! It hurt my ears XD
The show was amazing. Even though you're not a fan, it was fun. She had a few songs I liekd though.
After the show I had to hurry back down as we had to work again. I was too late and I didn't get a t-shirt, but I was part of the blue team: The pushers. There were other teams, but I have no idea what their jobs were.
I didn't like this part as much as in the morning. Now we had to push up the boxes on the ramp on the truck and that requires some strength. I did this too, only people stood in the way so I didn't have to push it all the way up. Other than that it was picking up boxes that could go back and putting it in line for the fork or for pushers. Oh yeah, I also had to lower big screens. The first one was easy as a guy helped me, but the second one was hard as I had to be in the middle by myself. Having not a lot of space and big shoes with loose laces didn't help either. I nearly fell with the screen as it pulled me forward again.
We were done at 1 am and of course everyone was sweaty and tired. One guy told me I shouldn't look that tired. Well, excuse me, but try doing that. I think he was joking a little though as he looked like someone I talked to in the morning. Or he said it to the girl I walked next to who also didn';t have much energy left.

I didn't expect it, but I actually got paid, and quite a lot too. I actually got some more money than the other pushers. Maybe because my supervisor arranged it and wanted me to have a fun vacation in Lacombe.
Thanks a lot =D
I got home around 2 and fell asleep within 5 minutes after I went to bed. That never happens.
But man, this day was awesome. It was great to experience this!

Week 18 - Wednesday: Day 87

Another day of Magazine work! Focusing on creating new ads.
I should write down what I have done because I start to forget xD
More sponsors jumped in and we had to make sure we got them all, so we went through a list.
I got to make an ad for a sponsor that just got added. Luckily they knew what they wanted and added a picture and their business card. I had to look up their logo on the website instead of using the business card and had to make the background transparent.
That was quite a lot of work to do as the vehicle had a lot of openings to the background which I had to get rid off too. It took me a while, but I did it. Thanks to the shift tool (if you hold in shift and make a dot and make a dot somewhere else that line connects) I could cut of the background nicely at the tricky triangle shapes.
After I made the ad for the company. We wanted to post the picture of the store first, but it didn;t work.
In the end I did add it again on the background with a transparency on it.

Later on I had to type out info for the linked companies and also had to finish designing one of them.

As we thought we had it all we went through all the sponsors and I had to write them down in a document so we could add them to the Thank you list. But I also had to write down the sponsor money for a different document.
In the end I had to fix the thank you list.

This day was awesome because:
* The magazine is nearly done and I had quite a lot of tasks in this one
* I got scouted for a big skyrim mod
* My dad can get a piano for free!
* Will work at the concert from Selena Gomez on Friday!

I'm quite tired so my post might not be so exciting xD

Week 18 - Tuesday: Day 86

More magazine work. I picked up the work from yesterday and continued with creating ads.
We finished the main sponsor ad and changed the picture to the Taber one instead of the random one from internet. We both got used to the previous picture size so working with the new one was hard. I also had to add blue to the yellow background.

Some companies didn't have websites which was quite annoying, but luckily they had a facebook page with pictures or enough information. I received more business cards to add in which made room for more ad work.
The graphic design for magazines is quite a lot work. I understand why it took so long for the earlier events.
Now I do have a huge role in this one. In the previous ones I only made one simple ad and was actually unsure what to do, but now I worked on full page, half page and quarter page ads!
I finished some quarter page and half page ads and also one full page which was the trickiest one.
I didn't know what to do with it, but later it all came together. I wasn't done yet, but the supervisor was happy with it so I left it.
Some ads had to be rearranged. I didn't realize three companies were from one guy so we set those up before I left at 5.

At home I had to get the food ready for the goodbye party! Turned out more people would drop by than expected: 8 people to be precise. I started wondering if we had enough food xD
The first people came in at 6 immediately and the rest came later so they started a game: Dutch Blitz.
Oddly enough I didn't know the game which shocked my roommates. "It's Dutch!" They yelled.
Yeah sorry, I don't know it =P So they played it and I watched. In the meantime more people joined and also started playing. I still didn't play and another person also chose not to play so we started talking and went to the food. More people followed at 7 and started trying the Dutch snacks.
Most people LOVED the Stroopwafels and those were the ones to be finished completely as well as the Hamkas and Nibbit's chips. The black licorice wasn't really touched by most of them, but one person kept saying how good it was xD
Most people left and the last people left at 10:30.  It was a good party, everyone got along perfectly. Only at the end I was getting tired so I had a hard time jumping in a conversation.
But i'm grateful for the people to show up  to be there for my goodbye party (or to try the snacks =P)

Well, one roommate is addicted to the snacks and she will bring a lot for her family who they will visit on Thursday.

Week 18 - Monday: Day 85

Worked on the magazine for Mud bogs as that event is coming up soon.

I showed the articles I found earlier and had to put it in the magazine. Only pasted it, didn't do anything fancy with it yet.
The supervisor also had a list of sponsors that I had to put in the magazine. First on the side and later I had to find a place to put all the names in. These had to be a quarter page, half page or a full page.
The supervisor left and I had the opportunity to start creating the ads so the workload would be less for the supervisor.
I had to put in the business cards on the right place and other pictures if they were there.
Sadly most companies didn't have anything else posted so I had to go online to their official website to find some information.
* Pictures
* Phone numbers
* Address
* Opening hours
* Slogan's
* Information on what the company is about.
I already started building the main sponsor ad in black and white, but later got a call that that one had to be in color as well as page 3 had to be empty for the index.
I changed the main sponsor ad in color and was actually happy with how it turned out. I never really focused on Graphic design, but I started liking it.
More sponsors came in so the magazine needed more pages in order to have anything else than sponsor ads.

I managed to finish a few businesscard size sponsors (which turned into a quarter page)
I made sure I had the right information and mostly I could get a picture from the websites.
I filled up the top and bottom with either a picture or a colored block to not have it all in white.
That's what the supervisor also told me earlier: Think in Black and white. Use a black background if needed.
If I wouldn't have known this then I wouldn't maybe have experimented with different shades of grey.
When the supervisor returned I was proud to show it as I actually wasn't doubting about my work. (doesn't happen often XD) He was happy I had done more than expected. He liked most of my ads, only some might have a slight change.
Before I left we had a talk about leaving. When I get home he might still contact me for projects. I then won't be seen as an intern anymore and will get paid! Never thought that would happen.

Week 17 / 18 - Saturday and Sunday: Day 84

Worked on composing.
I finished the song Hot for Teacher and send it off to the producer from the audioplay!
I at first had something extra's added as it felt so empty, but in the end I deleted it again as it didn't fit that well.
I also noticed I forgot the synth I had at the start and by adding that in it felt more lively. It didn't need anything extra.
Because i learned working with drums, I also applied it in this song... Only.. it got worse.
Yeah the drums were balanced and all, only someone it sounded like the quality was less good and the synths weren't synchronizing with the drums for some reason. The only way I was happy with the result was having it back the same way as it was at first. All volumes of the drums and synths at maximum.
(I did tweek some things to make sure it didn;t peek)
I did have to lower the cello's as they were a bit too prominent, but it finally sounded good.

I also worked on a new song I promised working on. In my last week at work I will work on an instrumental project with my co-worker. So that meant I had to come up with a beat and melody.
I came up with a piano melody randomly and it shaped a sad violin melody automatically.
I wanted to add a lot more, but then we can't go through the creative process together. I also like to hear what she has to say. The plan is to build up the song during the chorus, but the way it's now it sounds really sad xD

So yeah I have the rhytm of the piano and the melody for the verse and chorus.