Up Broadway

Time Square

Broadway is the most annoyingly diagonal street in the world! I walked up to "theatre land" today. I figured if I just walk in a straight line up Broadway, I'd get to Time Square, but FOUR times, I noticed that I was no longer on Broadway and had to turn one block to the left. The strange thing is that this only happened on the way there. On the way back, I followed Broadway in a straight line all the way back to Union Square.

It was a nice walk. It's 75 degrees now and lots of tourists are out and about. Lots of people walking their dogs, too. I've seen several whippets. It took an hour there and an hour back. Nine-thirty to eleven-thirty a.m. I think that's like 73 blocks in total.

Down Broadway

Bubbles in Soho

Today I took a walk down 14th Street in the direction I'd never been before. I found a proper grocery store and bought some normal food. I also found a little market where they sold hats and scarves and sunglasses. I bought a Philly cheese steak sandwich from there. Overpriced, but good. Other than that, there wasn't a whole lot down there.

Sarah and I walked to class today because it was nice out. It only took us an hour walking straight down Broadway. Tomorrow, I think I'll walk up Broadway. Time Square and all the theatres are less than an hour away.

We had 4 hours of instruction in the Mac lab about how to use InDesign, InCopy, and Photoshop. I learned a lot, but it was kind of information overload and I got a headache from looking at these massive and bright screens for so long. The instructor taught us how to create websites within Photoshop, which is pretty cool (similar to SiteGrinder) but you need DreamWeaver to convert it. I'm not a fan of DW and neither is she, but she says she HATES FrontPage. Hey, now.

I want to do something fun tonight, but I don't know what I can do. I think everyone else is just going out to the bars like they did last night. Anyway, tomorrow, there's a free comedy show just across the street in Union Square, so I'll probably check that out.

Useful

Our Launch Workshop Panel and the backs of 100 heads

Today was useful. Long and rainy, but useful.

Mag and book HR came in and told us the dos and don'ts of interviews and resumes. I learned that I need to redo my resume from scratch!

Then we did a mock interview where one student was interviewed by an HR rep and everyone else watched. Again, some more dos and don'ts.

Then alumni from the program last year came in and told us how to get jobs and apartments, etc. The corporate world sounds scary.

Finally, for our launch workshop, we pitched our magazine ideas in front of two top dogs they brought in. This was even more like American Idol, especially when one of the panelists said he'd have to be Simon because he makes cranky witty remarks and he has a British accent. These guys were great at this job because they were funny and bounced off each other and spoke very bluntly. Some of it was harsh, but it was honest. The only bummer was that we got out at 6:30 instead of 5:30 and we were getting ansy because we were starving. We had to stay and listen to everyone else's groups, so it lasted three and a half hours.

The Tour

I went on a tour of Good Housekeeping this morning. It's in Hearst's brand new building. WHOA. You walk in and there's a waterfall with a diagonal escalator going through it. You're going up as the water's going down around you. And above are big glass ceilings and marble. So corporate.

And the elevators had mirrors so clean that I thought the elevator was twice as big. (We fit 20 ppl in one). It wasn't until my way back down that I saw myself on the other side of the crowd. And even then, I was more willing to believe I was having an identity crisis than that I was looking in a mirror. Has this ever happened to you? It's the freakiest thing. My brain reacted in an unexpected way. I feel bad for those kids in The Parent Trap. I don't know if I could cope.

We didn't really tour the magazine part of the brand. We went through their testing facilities instead. They test all their products thoroughly before they decide whether to advertise them in the magazine. That was pretty neat.

Got to dress up for mock interviews with HR tomorrow. Printers aren't working, so I can't print my resume. Annoying! Resume paper is $13 for 100 sheets. Also annoying.

Want to hear something funny? The school's online organizer for students is accidentally enrolling us all in nursing and Islamic studies courses. Whoo.

It's nice not to have much homework tonight.

My Schedule

I thought you'd like to see how many hours of school I'm in per week.

THIS WEEK

Sunday
2-5pm

Monday
8:30am-7:30pm

Tuesday
10am-6pm

Wednesday
8:30am-6pm

Thursday
10:15am-5:30pm

Friday
8:30am-5:30pm

Saturday
2-6pm

Blimey. That's 51 and a half hours this week, not including homework.

Observations 1

Trying to get 10 people to agree on a magazine mission statement takes a long time, but I am feeling good about the direction it is going.

There are a lot of speakers and panels. My knees hurt from sitting so long.

I've been eating out a lot because I have no time to grocery shop and it's raining. But the shop down the street from the academic building has amazing (and expensive) food. Famous Famiglia's has good pizza and I don't even care for pizza that much.

I got a slip in my mailbox saying my package has arrived in the mail, but alas, the mailroom is only open while I am in class. I don't know if I'll ever get my package.

Our toilet and shower handle are broken.

The water here tastes funny, but aparently it's safe to drink.

Entertainment Weekly has a paid fall internship program.

I don't like most magazines because they're gossipy or about fashion or sports or health. I do like entertainment magazines, however, like EW, Paste, Time Out. But I shouldn't be allowed to read Time Out New York. They do give them to us for free at NYU, though. I just learned Loudon Wainright III is playing a free concert on June 17th. I'm only on page 13. I should stop looking.

Oh, and Lee Camp next Tuesday for only $5. He's one of my favorite comedians. Stop looking at Time Out, Jaime!

Post comments. I like reading them.

revamp

Today, we got our magazine idea critiqued. I felt a bit like I was on American Idol, or one of those other stupid television programs, when I was up in front of the judges. Boy, we sure didn't know what we were doing. After the critique, we had a long meeting, renaming the magazine, shifting its focus, changing its audience, and coming up with a tagline. Almost starting from scratch, but not quite. It's better now...or so we hope.

I'm exhausted. I don't know how many more articles off the computer screen I can read. My eyes have gone wonky. It's only 9:20pm and I'm already well knackered. Trying to avoid taking a nap because then I really won't be able to get to sleep and I need to get up again at 7am.

We're talking about web tools tomorrow. Should be fun.

Thursday, I'm going on a tour of Good Housekeeping magazine.

For photographs, here is a facebook folder that anyone (even if you're not on facebook) can look at. It will be updated as more pictures come in, so you might want to save the link.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2151795&id=73405296&l=dc343ca21c

Among the Oak and Ash concert

Ahh! Love, love, love. I almost didn't get to go, but I'm so glad I did because they're way better live. I mean, they're good on recordings--Josh's and Garisson's voices go well together--but the recordings emphasize the folk and the live show was more rock. It rocked harder. It was great. And they played my favorite songs. I didn't stick around for the headliner because I didn't know how long it would be 'til she started and it was getting late. I've got homework.

(website link)

Web Art Director

Hello. I am the new web art director for a new magazine concept that emphasizes the REAL person. Where most magazines dig into the lives of celebrities and the fake Hollywood world, this one gets into the lives of real everyday people.

This is an exciting concept. I really like it. And my group is getting along well so far, too. I'm glad I got a role I'm confortable with. If they would have put me in charge of marketing or something I'd have been lost, but they based it off of our resumes and experiences.

I was bummed to find out we don't actually get to make a prototype. We don't get to make any real articles or a real website. We create it mostly on paper, I think. The way I'm imagining it is pretty lame, but I don't have all the details yet. I'll know more tomorrow. At least in undergrad we got to make a real magazine.

This is City Hall Park where a pigeon almost crapped on my bagel.

I just thought this was funny. Maybe it's because my favorite book is Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and I've never heard holistic used about dentistry before.

New Gaff

This is my new bedroom. It's one suite, two bedrooms, two people in each bedroom. I currently have 2 awesome suitemates, Sarah and Lauren. At the moment, I have no roommate, which is nice for a light sleeper, but who knows what next Sunday will bring.

This is my walk-in closet. We also have a kitchen, bathroom, and lounge area. It's a bit dirty and the light switches and outlets are hiding behind unmovable furniture, but no real complaints otherwise.

Funny thing, though. Remember how I left my ethernet cable at home? Somebody left one in my bedroom! Well, at least I'll get my shower shoes tomorrow.