So, the internship at the magazine has finished. Tell you what, I'm looking forward to a little free time during the week! One of the hardest things to adjust to was the workload. That seems pretty obvious. But at uni, school and everything, you'll have a handful of assignments scattered throughout a semester, and there will be a build up, then you'll get a break. But in the newsroom, every day is a new project, and you rarely get time to stop, think and catch your breath. A lot of the time I felt like I was on autopilot, but even in that state, I'm astounded at the amount of work that I was able to do. I can now say that I've been published online - and that's pretty important in today's media. One of the things I loved learning was how the designers work. There's some really interesting dynamics between the different groups - while everyone is united under the "designer" branch, there is so much variation. Some designers are like scientists and mathematicians, others closer to sculptors. I guess most sit somewhere in the middle. The great thing about working with them was that they were all so keen to get their work up on the website - which is so different to what I'm used to! Usually I'd have to scrape together a story working under the title of "student journalist". As soon as you've got a publication behind you, people (especially people with their own interests at heart) start to throw themselves at you. There was one time when there was a problem with one of the images on the website. Basically, it wasn't high enough res to meet our standards. So I had to call the woman and ask her to resend it through at a higher resolution - and she apologised to me, rather than me having to defend my lack of skills as a student. All in all, a good time. Not sure that I would do it again without pay, though. I've gained a good education, but it took so much time and energy. Really left me feeling used.

Today we have a profile on an fashion designer turned interior stylist... A bathroom article on an Australian manufacturing company... And an event profile. Plus some notices etc. I am very tired after this week! It's good so far but - I like online. It's instant! But then again, you write a lot each day. I don't get to spend a lot of time on each piece - as it probably shows, I guess. I would like to put a nice feature up there. I like writing profiles though - much better than writing about inanimate objects.

November 6th 2008 On a note that's more related to the broadcast side of things, I've been looking at a whole bunch of video clips from that show, Live From Abbey Road. This clip is Muse's Knights of Cydonia - one of my favourite songs, and it also won triple j's Hottest 100 last year. The production of these clips is just incredible. I've worked out they must have about four cameras on set - but's just so smooth! Whether they did their switching live or post I'm not sure, but whoever did it must have had, a. A really good knowledge of the dynamic of the band b. Knowledge of their music c. and was in tune with their camera people And I guess that the studio lends itself to that sort of production. It's fairly big, they've got all the lighting set up (lighting, too, was amazing - perfect contrast, not really sharp like you often see in live performances). They also showed the guys doing sound mixing as well, which was a beautiful touch. And the little interviews! As a package, it's tight, and amazingly elegant. I'm glad to see music videos can be a little bit more mature. They didn't skip on the sound quality, either, which was great! I am just so impressed. If I could ever be a part of a production like this, that would be awesome. *** Oh okay okay.. I know I'm not meant to overload my blog, but here's another one... The Killers, doing an accoustic version of Sam's Town - which they actually included on their last album.

November 5th 2008 My internship went really quickly today, but the day still felt very long. I had so much to do - I only got up once, for a quick break. I ate lasagne. It was surprisingly refreshing. Today was painful on my brain - I did about three advertorials, plus a couple of profiles, some product news, and general notice and events updates. Here's the rundown: - A bathroom advertorial that made absolutely no sense when they sent it to us (translated from French or something), so I had to rewrite the entire thing, guessing what it was they wanted. I hope I got it right. - A fun profile on a guy that makes bowls out of ground up macadamia nut shells - Another advertorial on the latest Herman Miller chair - A cool profile on Neil Poulton, lighting and hardware designer. - A company profile on a group called Tongue + Groove and a recent shoot off of theirs. - That article on the Melbourne Cup marquee, which is a little bit kookie (the images are in an odd order I've just noticed, so I'll have to fix that later) I am very proud. My articles are ranked 2,3 and 8 on the website's most viewed pages. Woohoo! I spent a whole bunch of time today trying to speak to a bathroom manufacturer in Melbourne, and finally managed to at about 4:00. Unfortunately the images weren't formatted in time, and my editors were all out to a meeting, so I couldn't put it online. I really wanted to have everything finished by today so I could relax on Friday, but oh well. Mary

November 3rd, 2008 I have a computer headache. The kind of horrible tension pain you get when you've been looking at a screen for too long.. It's horrible. And yet, here I am, writing an entry on sitd.. but sitd would never dare give me a headache. Today was my first day as acting online editor! It went better than I thought it would. Ben was kind enough to send me a lovely email on Saturday night, outlining some of the main things I have to do while he was on holidays. He seemed very genuinly thankful that I was taking over, so.. cool! I was the brunt of jokes today but. One of the sub editors, Nikky, sent out an email to the office saying saying that "no, Ben has not turned into a red haired woman". And I recieved a lot of "why Ben, you're looking very pretty today!" But it was all good. I wrote a few articles, updated the website with those plus some other content, and did some sub editing for one of the girls. Good day! But definitely too computer based. I did however get to do my own interviews today, which was an awesome, awesome change. I hate lifting quotes from press releases. Today was mainly Melbourne Cup events. I wrote this one on a wallpaper, and another on the Village Green marquee (which will probably get up online on Wednesday, unless someone does it for me tomorrow). There were a few others, but they were fairly boring. I'm glad I've got sitd. It's very handy to record all these links. In Leaps and Bounds - Melbourne Cup wallpaper Tokyo clothing store/interior design It is much easier to write a story when you've got good images to back it up, and when you're actually able to do the interviews yourself. It opens things up by a million percent. And, of course, it's always good if things are a bit fun.

November 2nd, 2008 Some of my work got put online! Okay... So they MIGHT be advertorials. Oh well. + There's Lights Alive - Marcel Wanders and Euroluce + A review that I rewrote for my editor to go online + And a water saving shower head that's a bit funky + And a bit of an uninspired one on commercial sunscreens Today I think I really learned the importance of having an angle. Especially with things that are product-based. If you focus on one aspect of something, it squishes it into a box so that people can comprehend it more easily. Then if you want to go into greater detail, they can understand more easily.

October 30th, 2008 Today was wonderfully slow paced. I got up at 7:30, went to Hurstville to take photos for my photojournalism portfolio.. Yeah. Awesome. Hope you don't mind some uploadin. Thought this is cute... The Twilighters. I didn't want to put names up here so I've just left them out. **** I've loved being able to put this together. I used Adobe InDesign to lay it all out - always good to get some practice! I learned how to coordinate the yellow and blue boxes a little better today, as well as work out how to do all those funky grids to get the layout schmick. I think it might have a couple too many photos, so hopefully that won't matter. Is it abnormal to enjoy this? Probably.

October 28th, 2008 Designers all seem to have in-built fetishes for chairs. I don't get it. It's like the maiden voyage into design: design a chair, and PHWOAR, you've made it buddy! At my internship, everyone has these miniature chair models on their desks. Imagine this, but 6cm high, multiplied by about a hundred throughout the office: Weird. Anyway! Today was good. I was so super efficient. I finished up some articles from yesterday, and wrote about another four for online. I did one on lighting designer Marcel Wanders from Flos/Euroluce, another on Jodhi Meares and some interior design thing she's taken a crack at. I also did product profiles on a showerhead called DROP shower, and a new collection by Melbourne people tongue + groove interior. I also helped out with the annual clean up of the office - I can't believe how much stuff they throw out! Thousands of beautiful CD and hard copy catalogues from all the designers and mailing lists that send them stuff. We donated it all to reverse garbage. Someone out there is going to have a field day. I understand why they can't keep everything but. We only cleaned out this year's stuff, and only from the editorial department - which is like five people. And we filled about seven or eight boxes with stuff. Oh well! I am looking forward to dinner. Don't know what it is, but I guess that's a part of the thrill.. :) Mary And Ps. This is a photo from Enough Rope on Monday that I took for Jacqui. I wish I'd gotten one with me now.

October 26th, 2008 I have finally finished classes for the semester. Ah! At last! I still have to go down to uni for a couple of days to hand in stuff, but oh well. I'm going to chill for.. today, at least. My internship started on Friday! I never thought the day would go so quick. I did some database work, looked at the clock and it was like midday. Bit boring and headache inducing, but oh well! I wrote some stories for the online site - a few profiles and some advertorials, which was cool. I put things into envelopes and wrote transcripts of interviews.. C'est la vie. The people there are lovely! They're all really young, like in their mid-twenties, and super well dressed. I suppose you'd expect that from design writers. The office is great, too. This huge open space in a renovated old factory in Surry Hills. I have to go in again tomorrow and Wednesday. Should be alright. Next week I'm in there full time for a week and a half while Ben is away. I have a title! I am 'Acting Online Editor'. Pretty special. I'll basically be working on the articles that I've set up this week, as well as taking a look at all of the press releases as they come through the email and picking the highlights. I think the different eds are planning on putting me to work as well. In other news, I might be going to the studio audience of Enough Rope tonight. I'm not sure if we've got tickets yet, though.. *** UPDATE. Going to Enough Rope! WHAAAY!!! I also made apple pie.. Haven't eaten any yet, but it looks awesome.

October 23rd, 2008 I got the link to my radio presentation! It's annoying. I hate my voice. The guy that was taking our recording forgot to hit record. So I had to re-do the first minute, which is why it might sound a little.. rushed. I think it's a fairly large file, so don't click unless you want to listen. 11 minutes. http://jstudies.com/files/ShootOut.mp3 Mary PS. Here are some photos from my press shoot today with a local boxer. Shannan Taylor is his name. Really nice guy! He bought his kids along too, but I didn't get photos of them. It was funny seeing our class in a press pack, just because it brought out all of the rivalries and competitiveness. Note to self: next time, train hard and get strong elbow muscles

October 21st, 2008 I got the internship! Two days a week, don't know for how long - I'm guessing six weeks to start off with, and then whatever after according to if they like me. But then, if they really don't like me, I don't think I'll stay for six weeks. Unpaid. Oh well. Compolsory part of my course. I start on Friday. indesignlive.com Check it out. Mary

October 20th, 2008 I might have an internship with InDesign Magazine... Exciting? Yes. I really hope I get it. It would make next year so much easier - and design is so interesting. Surprisingly, I was talking to Dad about the magazine. This is the first time ever that I'll be writing for a publication that my family actually knows about before me telling them. I think it will be different writing for such a large organisation, as compared with the work I've done for SBA. There, there is a large amount of pressure- I mean, where is the pressure going to come from if you're only in a team of three people? So it should be interesting to see how the whole proper-newsroom works out. And working online, too. I haven't had heaps of experience online, apart from writing blogs and the occasional html formatting/dreamweaver usage. Tomorrow I'm presenting my final project for radio broadcast. It's a group task, live radio. Bit nervous - but it's mostly scripted, and as long as I check everything is cued up correctly I should be fine. It's actually a bit exciting. Anyway. Sleepy time! Never thought I would look forward to sleep so much. Seven hours is a luxury these days.

October 16th, 2008 Here is a very dodgy version of my audio report for next week. Does anyone know an audio equivalent of photobucket? Camila?? xx Mary I need to fix the music levels in parts. It's meant to go along with a live studio piece I'm presenting with my group next week. The promo at the start is my friend Reece from uni. He was so embarassed about doing it that we all had to leave the studio when he was recording - I lowered his voice a few notches in protools too. I reckon it's awesome!

October 13th, 2008 Possibly one of the best $1.70 purchases I ever made was the Sunday Telegraph a few months ago, when they had the free CD along with the paper - The Whitlams and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. I hate the Telegraph, but just that once, it was marvelous. The Whitlams are amazing live. Much better than in studio - they're more dynamic and.. just.. good. * * * Listening to: Jack Johnson - Sitting Waiting Wishing I'm hitting that point in the semester now where everything that's due requires all this forward planning. I can be good at forward planning - so long as I have the motivation to keep it up. Today, I'm organising interviews with literature experts and Twilight fans about the series. I figure, it hasn't got a whole lot of coverage, and it would be awesome to get into their heads. And I really want to look at the occult in teen fiction.. Mwuaha. I might have to do an internship over summer is because I need to squish in an extra literature subject at the end of next year, in order to (POSSIBLY) get into doing a Dip Ed at uni in 2010. I took this this afternoon, just after sunset. I was a bit disappointed - if I'd turned up just ten minutes earlier I would've caught the light dying on the tracks. I should take my camera with me more often when I go for walks.

August 19th, 2008 Today I went to Carriageworks in Redfern to help out with an audio walk that they're putting together for this upcoming exhibition. Only about half of my broadcast class came, so it was really nice that there were only a few of us. We went around in groups of two or three and spoke to the local business owners, construction workers, uni students. All that type of thing. It's a beautiful area, and this site is amazing. It's an old train mainentence workshop that's been renovated into a theatre - they film So You Think You Can Dance there, and a whole bunch of other stuff. I actually made a vlog post about it, but I can't work out how to put video on here from photobucket, so I'll just leave it for now and show you some of the photos I took instead.

This is a photo from my trip into the city the other day. The CBD does weird things to me. I love it, because it's beautiful, the streets are alive and there's a million people around - great for photos. But I also hate it. I hate the traffic, and the fumes from the traffic. I hate how everyone is in a rush. I hate the old men that spit over the platforms at the train station, and the dirty school kids that take up whole rows of seats with their bags. I also hate the smell of pork that always seems to waft out of Market City. It makes me want to vomit. Which reminds me! Here is a photo of that carpark in between Central and Town Hall... Goulbourne Street. I took this a while back for my investigatory journalism subject - but you can see the different perspectives of the CBD. Shiney tourist destination, or decrepid, smelly and run down.

I think my graphics card has died. My computer is making all the noises that it usually does, but the monitor doesn't seem to be registering that anything is connected to it. I reset it all, vaccuumed up all the dust inside the casing of the computer.. Nothing. This is so horribly depressing. I had a whole bunch of uni work on there as well, and I can't get it off! If only I had a mac, then maybe I could use it as an external harddrive and still extract the files.. BAH! I'm on my Dad's computer right now, and he's got this mad old "Gateway2000 Vivitron". It's probably only got 256mb RAM. Gateway went broke in Australia way back in the early tweenies. But the point is, he's had this computer since 1999 - it's a heap of junk! Argh. I want my computer to work again. I think I'm going through withdrawal.. Banksy was the theme for today. I made this one for Andrew. I think the shirt will be too small but (like the House one I made a couple of months ago). On a site note, you can probably tell by the green of that fishtank that we have an algae problem.. Very exciting. I can't wait to seal the paint. Hoorah! Alright. Back to work Mary!

I drew this today for the next issue of the magazine. Combination of hand drawing, photoshop and illustrator.. I might fix the bit down the bottom so it's a bit clearer... First time I've done an illustration in this style. I would like to learn how to use illustrator a bit better - I understand that it works using vectors, but still.. What I really wish is that the line drawing function in photoshop was identicle to the one in illustrator, because that's the main thing I use in there..