Almost have a job...!

Hey everybody, I hope your past two months went well. I'm staying on a couple extra days because I took a couple days off for grad. I'm coming home on Wednesday, not sure how long I'm going to be back though. My practicum host has asked me if I would be interested in working there, and their trying to create a position for me. It might be right away or might not be for another month or so. Anyways, anyone still kicking around Brandon when I get back we'll have to hang for a bit, I got a couple stories of some real shit projects to tell you about. Anyway good luck everybody!

The End of an Era

The final day of practicum, these two months have gone by so fast. I hear some of you got jobs already, congrats on that. And for those who havent, good luck in the future.

The last day was good, they got a cake for me! My boss gave a little speech which was pretty cool. So ya today was good, I finished updating The Den's site and working on some ads for Google.

So I'm not sure if you all heard, but I am moving to Winnipeg on Wednesday. I'm leaving Saskatoon on Saturday to my hometown, Killarney to see everyone. I MAY have a place lined up in Winnipeg, my friend has a house and in need of a roommate but another guy might be takin it. So I might be living with my sister for two months, during that time I'll be searching for my own place...and a place of work! I've sent out my resumes and portfolio to a bunch of firms in the peg so hopefully I get some positive responses.

Don't give me wrong, Saskatoon is a great place. It was hard not knowing anyone in Saskatoon, but I guess I don't like change haha! On my last weekend in Toon Town, I went down Broadway again and found this kickass record store, I bought 3 records; The Doors self titled album, Rolling Stones Let It Bleed, and Beatles Rubber Soul.

So I got huge plans coming up, I've been planning my europe trip. Going in order, I'm heading to Norway, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Czech, Austria, Italy, Greece, Spain, France, Belgium, Netherlands, England, and Ireland. So ya I did my research, the only problem is the moola! I got student loans to pay off soon but I figure I should plan it now before I settle down. I'm planning next year in September (hit up Oktoberfest!). I'll keep you all posted on the details.

So hope everyone had a good last day and good luck in the future with your new work placements or finding a new one.

Hope to hear from you all soon,

Jeff
(aka Joey Joe Joe)

T-minus 2.5 days

Hello Hello,

Well it seems like June has just flown by and my practicum is now coming to an end. There is so much that I have learned, so much that I have seen and yet it feels like the learning will never end.

There is a lot I can say about the West Coast...but I'm not gonna. I think everyone should make it out here and experience it for themselves.

Places of interest are Tofino, amazing beaches, amazing mountains, amazing people, amazing surfers and just an awesome place to go see.

Sooke Potholes... jump off the cliffs into the FREEZING cold water. This place I think is my favourite. Never before have I seen such beautiful places.

Here is wishing you guys the best of luck in all your future adventures, and maybe I will get to see some of you in Brandon on Monday. Going to pick up the last of my life and header overseas!

Cheers,

Olivia

Last Week and a Half!!!

First off,
WE'VE ALL GRADUATED!!! WHOO-HOOO!!!!

Second, happy Tuesday! The past few weeks have been very busy; I've been working on a lot of animated sequences with After Effects and also developing an ad campaign for a local client with the studio designer and one of the partners of the company. The only programs I've been using my whole time here have been After Effects CS4 and CS5, Photoshop CS4 and Avid Editing Suite. Basecamp, online, is used to organize who does what shots, and what still needs to be finished for a completed animation. There has been talk of using Flash to develop a site for a client, but since a decent photo gallery can also be achieved with JQuery, so the whole Flash idea might be avoided all together.

I have really enjoyed working in a studio setting, under a director and learning from other animators. I have also enjoyed getting to work with After Effects to create animated sequences using character and effects animation. It's AWESOME!!!

FOR ANYONE WHO IS INTERESTED IN ANIMATION AND WOULD LIKE TO PURSUE IT.

First of all, you have to be able to take direction. WHOLE SEQUENCES can be scraped, sometimes in a ruthless and insensitive manner, after you spent DAYS working on it. And there is NOTHING you can do about it. Your work will be critiqued beyond what it's tiny 2D lines can withstand, and then you'll have to take it back, add changes, and submit it to be critiqued again. And after all that, the final shot can still be cut entirely if it weighs the story down, fits awkwardly, etc. etc. That's just the way it is. Ego has no place here.

Second, there are many jobs in the animation industry. Concept artists, storyboard artists, modelers, character and set designers, riggers, lighting and render artists are just a few. The animators job is to make things move in a realistic manner appropriate to the characters, environment, etc. The only drawing I have done is to add a bit to characters to extend the art, THAT'S IT. If you like drawing, then you are probably looking at classical animation. But remember, you will probably not be designing the characters, especially at first, and it will be repeating the same character A LOT with minute changes. Just because you're a good artist, doesn't mean you can make things move or act convincingly either. A theater background helps, so will an understanding of anatomy and a wide range of art styles (ART HISTORY and CLASSICAL ANIMATION; who would have thought, huh?). You can't jump into 3D without doing classical; I've even heard people say that here.

Third, competition is STEEP. And I mean it. Once you're in the industry, you're up against Pixar-quality animators for jobs. And in Canada, Vancouver and Toronto are where the industry peaks are. I'm not trying to scare you; I'm just trying to spout facts that scared the hell out of me, but it's best to get used to them early. The best thing to work on (besides motion), is storytelling through motion (hence the theater thing; see?). This is one of the things Pixar looks for in a demo reel, and probably a lot of other studios too.

Fourth, you really have to be able to work on a team. Everyone works together and helps each other out. If you are a bit of a loner, a studio job may not be for you. No one is more important than everyone else; everyone has a role in finishing a production.

So if you want to be an animator (or bring stories to life through movement), then put in the extra effort! Digital video was very important, because you NEED to understand scripts and storyboards! These give you your direction when the director is not available. Understanding shooting with the camera is important too, because this teaches you framing, camera angles and continuity with positioning. Classical animation and 3D animation are also very important; art history helps knowing different eras and styles. But if you really want to do this you have to put in extra hours too. Sometimes A LOT of extra hours. And remember; medium isn't important if you can do something awesome and demonstrate that you know what you're doing (Amelia animated a stop-motion short using lego men last year; CHECK IT OUT if you can, it was awesome). But really, if it moves and expresses itself well, it doesn't matter what you animate (also sorry for pimping you out a bit Amelia!)!

I know I made it sound rough, and it can be, but the animation industry is awesome. I love it; I would love to spend all my time doing it!!! But you do have to be highly self-motivated, able to take rejection and criticism and sometimes have to work irregular hours (or a LOT of hours) to meet a deadline. Animation is part of the film industry after all; and Hollywood is brutal!!!

Apparently Owen Wilson biked by the building the other day. I didn't see him.

I'm sorry this is so long, but if anyone is interested in animation as a career and has any questions, feel free to email me! I'll answer as best I can; I'm very friendly!!

Have a good rest of the week!!!

Speed Mentoring Quotes

Hi guys,

I am glad you guys are doing well! Are you guys excited about your practicum being almost done!!! What are your next plans?

Anyways, I had a request for all of you guys. I would like if you can post a quote or something memorable of your experience during the Speed Mentoring Session in Winnipeg.

Kathy, the Speed Mentoring Coordinator, is applying for government funds to expand our speed mentoring and continue this exercise. One of her requests is some quotes about this experience.

Could you be able to post in the blog a few ideas or experiences that you remember from speed mentoring.

Also, as an fyi note, Katy Driscoll from New Media Manitoba may contact you in the future to talk a bit further about your experience.

Thanks again!!!!
Malena

Had to Happen Some Time

Hey everybody, I've finally gotten around to writing on this thing! Everything's going real great so far, I've put up a few Joomla sites and I've finally been given a Flash project that I have been working on for the past week. I myself have a few Firefox add-on suggestions as well as some really cool Joomla! extensions.

Firebug (two recommendations now) - This is a really great add-on, it allows you to select specific elements of your page, while giving you a look at the html. It also shows you which CSS rules are influencing that specific element, it tells you which stylesheet it's coming from and what line the rule is on!

MeasureIt - This is a really nice ruler add-on that does a lot better job then the one in the web developer toolbar.

ColorZilla - This is a handy little eye dropper tool for your browser, just click on the page and it gives you the hex code for whatever colour it is. You can also double click the icon and it will bring up a colour picker very similar to photoshop.

I'm sure there's more but I use these every day and they come in real handy.

Alright now Joomla! extensions, I've been working on nothing but Joomla! sites this whole time so I've got quite a few.

JCE - This is a free wysiwyg editor to replace the default Joomla! editor. You not only get more text editing options, but it makes it a lot easier to create links and use photos on your Joomla! site.

Simple Image Gallery - This is a plugin produced by joomlaworks.gr. It's really simple to use all you do is put your images in a folder inside your templates images/stories folder. Then you create an article and enter {gallery}myfoldername{/gallery}. It creates thumbnails of all your images and displays the full sized ones in a lightbox.

(all the ones I'm going to tell you about in detail are free btw)

UCD (Ultimate Content Display) - This is also produced by joomlaworks, I came across it while working on my current project. I was having an issue displaying content because there's very little space for articles. The template is mostly made up of little module boxes. I couldn't get the control over the content I wanted so I installed this extension. Basically it lets you display and article in a module.

PluginInModule - This does exactly what is suggests. It enable you to run a plugin through one of your modules... It comes in handy for Simple Image Gallery.

All Videos Reloaded - This is a cool component, it gives you two different options, you can go to the extension manager and add videos that way as well as create play lists, or you can add videos right to an article by using the AVR button at the bottom of the editor. You get the same core options but going into the main component gives you a couple of other options.

This next one is not free but I recommend it if your ever doing a project where you need a simple light weight flash image gallery.

JPhoto like I said is a small flash gallery. It has several different styles you can apply to it and a few different display modes. Now I'll warn you the documentation isn't very good and it doesn't mention the file size limitation. There is a file size limit and you'll need to be aware of that even if the files are small enough they might take time to load (it is flash after all). You should be able to load pretty much any file you'd have to given that it's properly optimized.


Anyway I think that's enough for me, it was really nice seeing most of you last week at grad. I hope everyone is having a good time and good luck!

Some Recommendations From Your Old Pal Kelly

Hey everyone! Hope your all doing well and enjoyed the grad festivities last week (You lucky buggers)! Wish I could have been there!

Any who, this week, I thought I'd talk less about what I've been doing here at Fjord West, and more about what I've learnt during my time here, and what I'd suggest/recommend for the rest of you doing practicum, or even those who are in Year 1 (Just finished), or next years Year 1's.

Let's start of with one great informational nugget of recommendation. If someone tasks you with creating a Flash Banner, by god, don't do the animation in code. I was originally asked to edit another persons ads for the creation of a new set of ads similar to the originals.

He had done everything in code, which was fine in the case of the original set of ads and mine, as all the code was doing was pulling in 3 pictures at random, in between a defined start and end picture. But when I was tasked with creating another set of ads that had actual animation in it, I never thought anything of it, and created the new ones using the first set I created as a base. Since all the animation was done in code, this took much longer then it would have to animate the ad on the timeline in Flash.

When I was finished, I felt smarter for doing it all in code (Lot's of x and y coordinate definitons, GreenSock tweens, alpha transitions, etc.), but dumber for wasting Fjords time with what could have been done much quicker, and much faster had I done all the animation on the timeline.

So with out of the way, it's now time for me to recommend some programs for everyone to use, or the teachers to get for next year! (That means you Derek!)

• Adobe Flex Builder 3
  Adobe Flex Builder is basically a Dreamweaver for ActionScript. You can set up multiple projects, with each keeping track of every file within your Flash applications. The best feature I've found so far is the ability to press the "Ctrl" button while hovering over variable names and other crazy AS code, and by clicking on said code, it will automatically take you to the location of the define variable, be it within the same .as file, or within any .as file inside your define project folder! (Derek, you seriously need to get the school to buy this if there's ever any really heavy ActionScript coding in the course.)
• EditPlus 3
  This is just a simple "everything" editor like Notepad++. Not really a recommendation, but just a suggestion if your looking for something else. It's all I've really used here at Fjord to edit anything code wise, excluding ActionScript code.
• Firebug (With the Google Page Speed plugin)
  Basically, Firebug is another awesome Web Development tool for Firefox, but all I use it for is Google's Page Speed plugin which scores your site's download speed based upon a range of different tests, such as file size optimization, tag usage, document combination (Combining multiple CSS/JS files into one file reduces the amount of requests to the server, resulting in a faster loading site for the end user), etc. I've been able to reduce the file size of some of my HTML, CSS, and JS documents by up to 50% of their original size, resulting in faster download times for visitors to my site.
• Google Chrome
  Yes, I drank the Kool-Aid, and it was damn tasty! :P

Well, that's all for this week. Sorry for pushing everyone else's posts below the proverbial "fold"! Hope to hear from everyone soon!

I have arrived

Greetings from far off B town. Ya, I am bloggin' it to it now! Okay, now that I am in, I don't have much to say.

It is good to hear that everyone is doing well. My placement is serving me great. Been handling more of the database side of things ... didn't see that coming. But it has been a smattering of everything so far. little video editing here, a brief animation, lots of site management through mysql and learning about digital signage more too. My first digital signage goes up in their secondary headquarters as soon as new monitors get in.

It's been very interesting so far, the day just seems to cook by. The hours go by so fast when I am still working on something by the time my ride home shows up, I love it.

On another note, my friends here have recently thrown a fund raising social for my benefit, in which donations are still coming in. It was some great support from family, friends and local businesses. We are raising money for a new treatment over seas in mid August. My hopes are to help stop progression in my MS before I lose much more plus a week in Costa Rica sounds pretty sweet to. :) fingers are crossed, but there is a bright side to my bad circulation ... 2 beer go a long way ... :-P going to lose that

Anyhow, down to the last couple of weeks yet ... unreal, like I said time is just flying by now but it always does when you don't hate your life ... haha (yes I know I have a strange sense of humour 'cause that makes me smile)

Take care team "HOTEL", the world is yours!!
Rhett

What a week!

It has been a great week! I just got home from a week back home. Of course, I only spent two days in Killarney. So where to start...

I got home Wednesday on the 2nd, my sister was at the airport to pick me up. That's right, I flew! The flight was only 45 minutes long! We then drove home to Killarney where my mom and my aunt and cousins from Arizona were waiting for me. We just sat around, I told them about Saskatoon (I didn't have much to stay on the count of all the bad weather) and ate a bunch of food that they made just for me!

The next day was of course, GRAD! It was great seeing everyone, and it's too bad we couldn't get together afterwards. My family and I went out to the keg for steak and crab afterwards, it was damn good!

Friday was, as many as you know, my 21st Birthday! It was pretty much a relaxing day...until the night came! I drove into brandon and went to my friends house and hung out with the boys for a good ole drink night! We then went to the roadhouse for a few more drinks and shots and saw a few more of my brandon friends! Good times, tough bretts!

Saturday was a busy day, I was a little hungover from last night but nothing a gallon of water and 3 pieces of toast cant fix! My mom and I left for winnipeg to go to the 2 o'clock show of Rain: the Beatles tribute band. They were AWESOME!!! They sounded exactly like the four and they had the costumes and everything! Their best song was I think Come Together and Hey Jude, a real crowd pleaser! After the concert, I went to my friend's new house and had some more drinking moments!

So ya my week back home was awesome! I'm really glad I came back to see everyone. So now I'm back in Saskatoon to do the last month of my praticum; still havent decided if im gonna stay here afterwards. Hopefully the weather gets better so I can actually go out, explore the city and tell some stories.

It was great seein everyone wednesday and for those who weren't there, hope you are all doing good in your work places.

AFTER EFFECTS CRASHES, so I blog......

Soooo, I am getting more shots to animate and that part is really fun and is going really well. Downside: my After Effects suddenly has a mysterious crash and I have no idea how to fix it. Does anyone know what a 'dynamiclinkmanager.app' is?? After Effects won't even open for me!!

So that has been pretty much my week, animating in After Effects; it's been good. I may go on a stake-out for Pixar Canada this weekend, just to see what the building looks like. It has been raining all week, which kind of sucks; it would be great if the sun came out. I was also made to feel bad by an old panhandler the other day; I decided to keep my eyes forward and ignore him, and he was all, "Thanks for acknowledging me," in a really mean voice. And I would have smiled at him if I wasn't terrified of panhandlers ever since that guy in Winnipeg was beaten down by a man who he was just giving money to!! That's like how Batman always tries to save everyone, and nobody's ever grateful and they still try and arrest him.

That's my rambling tale for this week; this is what happens when my After Effects fails and people tell me to 'hang tight'. Gah.
Anyway!!
Hope you guys have a great time at grad, whomever is going!! Congratulations everyone!!

Survey for last week!

Hi guys!!!

I am glad to hear all the new and exciting things you guys are getting to experience. This is amazing, and I am happy you guys are enjoying this.

Anyways, I just reviewed the surveys for last week, and I noticed a couple of you guys did not submit the survey from last week, could you guys do it sometime today?!

Thanks again and I will see you guys or most of you this Thursday!

Malena

More Vancouver Craziness

Hey everyone! Hope your all doing well, and that your all excited for grad (For those of you who can make it out anyways)!

So, not to much to talk about this week. Just more Flash ad creation (Which I'm quite enjoying actually). Cosette had a "pink party" yesterday, which included free drinks, a keg, boat racing, and some other stuff I don't remember, as I was busy getting ads done for the end of the day (Guess that's what I get for saying I can deliver a project before I head home)! :P

This week, Kristy and I plan on heading back to North Vancouver to visit an awesome market they have there, and hopefully we'll get a chance to see a few more comic book stores around Vancouver, as well as hit up Metropolis at Metrotown (Vancouver's biggest mall). They "apparently" took two malls and combined them at one time, and now they have something crazy like 470 some shops over 3 floors. They have a ridiculously crazy food court (The only Tim Hortons I've heard of in Vancouver is there), as well as a Zellers, Superstore, Silver City, etc. Shoppers Mall this isn't! :D

Any who, as I mentioned earlier, I hope everyone is doing well! I can't wait to hear from you all to see how your practicums are going!

Week Three

Well, last week was pretty easy going. I was stuck doing most of the grunt work in photoshop. I am currently working on a some realtor sites for the BC area. Nothing interesting there.

Later in the week I got another project to work on, for international Walmart. Did you know there was a Walmart in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua? Crazy...Walmart is taking over the WORLD!

Anyways enough about work! This weekend was the long weekend as you all may know. I was lucky enough to spend it in Victoria, for Victoria Day. Man was it fun! I went to the World Championship Highlander Games. Lots of dancing, singing, and strong men in Kilts throwing heavy things in the air. It was pretty interesting.

Then yesterday was the parade! I have never seen such a LONG parade! We found a awesome spot right near where they stop and preform for the Mayor and City people. There were tons of marching bands and different culture displays. The best I think were the Chinese and Japanese groups. Very colorful and entertaining.

Well that is my week in a nutshell, I better be headin' er' to work now.

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Cheers,

Olivia

Batman and Talking Frogs

So the second week of my practicum went pretty well; I actually got to do some animation on Friday so that was awesome! It was a talking frog and I did it in After Effects. I also put a ripple effect on his water in the background, and had to animate a sentence coming out of his mouth and disappearing left of frame. The fact that I was able to animate anything just made my whole week!! Plus it was Margo Friday, which means Dan(one of the co-owners) brings his bulldog Margo into work and she scampers around all day. She's pretty cute, in a bulldog sort of way.

Other than that, I was working in Avid to time edit the scenes to the dialogue of the scripts I typed up last week. This involves sitting at your desk and reading all the lines out loud to yourself, and then trimming or lengthening the shots as needed for the lines and action to take place (there is totally a Russian character, and I totally did accents for him, Sam-Sam). I was also cutting more panels out of graphic novels in Photoshop, to be prepped for animation.

The studio is working on a really cool project right now, but I can't talk about it until it's officially released. That should be either this month or next month, I'm not sure.

Kelly is playing Batman: Arkham Asylum right now and just informed me he took out Bane. This is good, because Bane kicked my bat-butt last night. He was a 'bane' in the a**. Bwa ha ha.

Until next week; hope everyone enjoys the long weekend!!

Kristy

Do not forget to submit survey!

Hi guys!

This is just a friendly reminder to not forget to submit the survey for this week!

I am glad to hear everyone is adjusting to their new life, and also that you guys are trying to overcome the barriers.

I hope everyone has an amazing loooooong weekend! :)

Malena

Two Down, Six to Go!

Hey everyone! Hope your all doing well! Only heard from a few of you so far! Comment on this post so I can find out what your all up to!

Any who, I thought this week I would actually talk about what I've been doing here at Fjord, or at least as much as I can explain in accordance to the NDA I had to sign. (Anyone else get one of those?)

The first big project I got (That I'm sure some of you heard about), was to edit some of Steve "Berger" Lindenberg's code for a project he had been working on prior to my arrival here. Basically, I have to be able to read and write data to/from a MySQL database using PHP and ActionScript 3. I also have to use AMFPHP as a middle man between PHP and AS3. Long story short, I have no clue how to do any of this, but luckily enough for me, I haven't been given a deadline for the project. I believe it's just something to plug along at for the time that I'm here!

The next project I got was to create some prototypes for a photo gallery/photo wall that could possibly be used for a very large client's website. (Hint: You've all eaten there before.) I looked at a few examples, and downloaded some Freeware/Open Source apps such as Minishowcase, Galleriffic, and Simpleviewer. I'm currently in the process of swapping out images from the example with pictures that are a little more related to the client. Much like the first project though, I haven't been assigned a deadline. Another project to plug along at for the time that I'm here?!

And last but not least, the latest (And coolest) project I've gotten, was to create some online banner ads for another large client. I had to attend a "kick off" conference call meeting with the Ad Company that we'd be working with on the project. The next morning, I had a one hour conference call/online training session with the Tech Expert from said Ad Company about how to use their software (An extension for Flash) to create the ads. I was lucky in that I was working on Phase two of the ad campaign, and as such, there was previously created ActionScript 3 code for previously created .fla's. Once I received the new image/text assets, it was a matter of importing and editing the old AS3 code to move objects in faster/slower, and in different directions. Finally, I had to submit the ads to QA for a 24 hour QA session. I'm currently awaiting word on any changes that might be needed, and Phase three of the ad campaign.

So, that's a rough idea of what I've been doing here! I hope to keep you all up to date on whatever else I get to do! Can't wait to hear from everyone! Don't forget to comment!

third week!

Third week has ended and in comes the long weekend! I hear some of you are going home and that's awesome, I wish I could too but its hard when you don't have a car. But grad is coming up soon, so i'll see some of you in two weeks. And the other people, already said my goodbyes, but good luck!

The weather here is ridiculous, there have been thunderstorms for the past 3 days and it is still +31 degrees so my apartment is boiling hot, even with the windows open overnight.

Work has been good, nothing really new, a guy had trouble remembering my name so he gave me a nickname, Joey Jo Jo! If no one knows what thats from, heres a link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQW2t4SxvJ0
Haha, yeah! I thought it was awesome! There's another nickname you can add to the list!

So Curt made a visit to my practicum today, checkin out my workplace and what I have been doin. And of course I had to congratulate him on the new job, Mr. Chair of the Tech! He also took me out to lunch at a thai restaurant with the first ever student who went to saskatoon for practicum, and I'm the first!

Hope everyone has a good long weekend. Depending on the weather, I might go downtown and check out the parks along the river, hopefully no thunderstorms this weekend.

Cya'll later

Jeff
(Joey Jo Jo)

Movie Madness!

Hello everyone! Things are busy on my side of the city. They are shooting a movie in the Exchange district and production trucks are constantly parked out front of the building I work at. The movie stars Milla Jovovich and it's called "Faces in the Crowd". It's really cool seeing them set stuff up for sets. The side of the trucks have compartments with labels beneath them that say things like "Big Stairs" and "Crow's Feet", whatever that means. Filming is supposed to go until the end of June so maybe I'll get to see some more exciting stuff!

As far as work goes, projects have picked up a bit! I'm working on an animation right now for a government organization which is fun! Still a bit of down time where there isn't any work for me to do but I've been filling my time searching the net for Flash/Photoshop tutorials and cool videos. If anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear 'em!

Anyone have any interesting plans for May Long? Not much going on for me except hopping on a bus for home!

Hope all is going well!

Finnja out!

Brady Penner in the HOUSE!

Hey guys I'm alive! Things have been going well for me so far. My first day I was shown how to input information into the Magento database for the one site that we are creating for Interior Images. It is still on going, as are all of the projects that I am working on. I have been doing different things. I have been updating sites and making ads for them and exporting images for the different websites that we are creating.

I was really thrown off when I realized that the guys don't talk when they work!! I was sitting there in my little desk area and there was silence... I am so used to having my sweet, wonderful NOISY classmates surrounding me while I work. But now there is silence and its a little bit unsettling. They come out of their offices every once in a while and chat but otherwise its really quiet. I am the only girl in the office as well, until Margaret the book keeper shows up for a couple hours in the afternoons. So when she gets there I get to talk about movies and girl stuff.

I am really glad that I know Tyler Cameron from last year and Joe, my Bentley boss's brother - it just makes the atmoshpere a little easier to feel comfortable in.

Needless to say, I am not doing any graphic design, which I would love to be doing, but I have to start somewhere eh? I did get the task of design a website for a new client though! I was pretty jazzed about that!

For all of you who didnt stay in Btown, (which is all of you!!!! Im still mad at you by the way) the memorial cup is on in full force. Im not really into the whole hockey thing but they all talk about it at work so I join in. I thought you hockey fans would like to know that the Wheaties played in the opening game. The puck dropped, and the Windsor Spitfires scored 4 times in the first 5 mintes. --- The Kings lost 9-3.

Have a good night!!! (or afternoon or whatever!)

Bee!

One down, seven to go!

And so begins week two of my practicum, and my first IMA Pracitcum post! I'll get the basics out of the way first:

• Vancouver is beautiful!
• Kristy and I found a basement suite, and got our internet set up. There's no wash machine/dryer, and no microwave, so laundromats are our new hang out place!
• As Kristy mentioned, Vancouver has Palm Trees!
• The public transportation system here is awesome! (One monthly pass gets you access anywhere in one zone (Of three) on SkyTrains, busses, or SeaBusses, and anywhere in the three zones after 6:30pm and on weekends!)
• It's really, really beautiful!
• It doesn't smell like an open sewer like Toronto did! :P
• Did I mention that Vancouver is beautiful?

Anywho, with that out of the way, let's get to the practicum placement stuff. Fjord West (Who I'm doing my practicum with) is the Interactive arm of Cossette, a rather large international "communications firm". Within Cossette, there are 9 other companies that do other parts of projects such as media, branding, etc. Cossette own three floors out of the 6 in the building I'm working out of. They also have 4 other offices in Canada, three in the U.S., one in London, and one more in Shanghai. I'd estimate there's over 100 employees (Not including contract workers, the HR department, or interns such as myself) within this building alone, spread out over the 10 smaller companies here at one time.

So now that you have a sense of how big the company is, you'll understand why I kind of feel like a name on a sheet, rather then a person here from time to time. Each company is sectioned into little cubicles (Or teams) of 4 people each. I'm part of the "tech" team. I share one half of a large desk with "Big" Steve Lindeberg (Who I'm sure you all remember from Toronto). I have a little lamp, a regular grey computer with two flat screen monitors, a phone with someone elses name on it, a key fob for opening doors, and a little pen/pencil holder. If it wasn't for the fact that walls of the cubicles are semi-see through and about 4 feet high instead of blue and 6' or 7', I'd almost feel like I was in a Dilbert comic.

With that said, the company is pretty relaxed. On the wall behind me is a rather large sticker mural of the 1st level from the Donkey Kong arcade game (That's from some other building, not Fjord West's) that just got put up last Friday. You can listen to your MP3 player or music on a thumb drive while you work (So long as you have headphones), and much like where Kirsten is at, they don't really mind when you get to work or leave, so long as you get your minimum 7.5 hours of work, considering there isn't a big project you should be staying late to work on. There's a kitchen with a 50 cent drink machine, and a patio where you can sit and eat your lunch, park your bike for the day, or just get a great view of the city. Everyone frequently goes out for lunch everday for Sushi, Thai, Italian, etc. (Yes, I've gone with. No, I didn't like Sushi, Thai was ok, and Italian was great!) Also, there's a personal gym on the 1st floor that has more then I would need to get in shape!

That's pretty much what it's like here from a non work standpoint! Things have been pretty stressful for me here the first week, so I'm hoping this week goes better! I'll do a much better job in my next post of letting everyone know how work is here! Since I don't want to take up an entire page with one blog post though, if you want to know more, just let me know in the comments!

Third week!!! or Second!

Hi guys,

I am glad to hear all the exciting new opportunities you guys are encountering at your practicum.

Here in Brandon, for those people that are not here, the weather is beautiful, it has been so hot in the last couple of days and I LOVE IT!!!

School is the same, you guys know what I mean, well kinda the same. Even if things change here, things stay completely the SAME!!! And I find it boring, but oh well!
C'est la vie!

So, I have not hear back from Rhett, Kulani, Justin, Brady or Nikki. So, when are you guys letting us know what is happening?

And for the rest, please keep us updated!! Love to hear more stories. Don't forget to be open minded, and try your best at anything you do!

Take care,
Malena

Week Two

Well I guess I have had a short week this week. I caught a bad cold and have been home sick since Wednesday afternoon. The good thing is that I can work from home and just hand in my work as I get it done.

There is really nothing to exciting about my work right now. I am pretty much just working on a realtor's site right now. Trying to figure out this OLD CMS system called POINT 2. I do not recommend looking at it, it will burn your eyes.

Umm the award show that I created those flats for last week really like them. Apparently the show went well and the projections on to the 40 ft. panels was a success. Thats good because I was wondering how that would work out.

I also took a trip out to Sooke Potholes ( that picture right over there) last weekend. It's a bunch of springs that come from the mountains. Further down the river there are a number of beaches you can go swimming from...I tried to go in, but holy man was it ever cold. I got up to my knees and was like "DONE!". It is one of the most amazing places I have even been. I think ya'll should come out here and visit me...it will blow your mind.

Cheers,

Olivia

Survey

Guy do not forget to submit survey sometime today! The link is in this blog!

Glad to hear from all of you, and keep letting us know about your adventures!

Have a great weekend!
Malena

Vancouver has friggin' PALM TREES!

So yes, I am halfway through my second week here, and things are going well. I can't really talk about what the studio does because it's a closed studio, but it's super fun and they do awesome work. Hopefully I am able to animate something soon; so far it's been Photoshop-ery and creating schedules. The building is really cool and old, but it gets pretty warm so the windows are open a lot.

Kelly and I found a nice basement apartment that smells like curry (no laundry, praise be to the laundry mats!!!!) and we have a daisy plant I named Oscar. It's pretty sweet here; they have PALM TREES, which blew my mind, and tropical flowers. Riding the skytrain isn't bad, but the area my practicum is in is the domain of the homeless and crack addicts so you don't really want to be around after the 6:30 mark, or OH NOES!!!!

Not even kidding there.

We did see the house of the guy who produces Stargate Universe though, so that was pretty cool.

I'll write again when I have more to say, guys. Miss you!!

FITC Toronto 2010 Highlight Reel

http://vimeo.com/11675553

The Finnja infiltrates the 'Peg!

Well, the first week was slow and a little boring but this week has picked up with new projects! Every day a situation arises where I think "hey! We talked about this in class!" so good job to instructors for applying real life practices in our education!

Nothing too exciting about my office. It's a bit of a sardine can but I get a sweet Mac to work on. It was a realization of how spoiled I was at ACC discovering that they use CS3 in this office. Psshh... clearly they didn't get the memo on how awesome CS5 is. My building has lots of interesting, and related businesses so it's a lot of fun chatting up different kinds of people from not so far professions in the elevator. There's also a fashion designer on my floor (*across the country high fives all the ladies*).

Adjusting to my new surroundings has been a little difficult. I find myself quite homesick, but fortunately for me (and not so much for some of you) home is just a hop, skip and a jump to Timmy's away!

It has rained every single day that I've been here so far. I can't tell if it's a Winnipeg thing or spring thing. Hopefully it stops soon because it's SUPER depressing!

Really looking forward to grad coming up. I will miss those of you unable to attend but we will be sure to Photoshop your faces into the sweet pictures we'll be taking of our oh-so-deserved event and send them out to you!

That's all for now!

Finnja out!

1 down, 7 to go!

When I got to Saskatoon, it was SNOWING! Son of a B****! Today is the first sunny day, not too sure what I am gonna do though.

I really like my apartment because it's my own! Also, it has hardwood floors and it is really quiet so no noises to bother me. I just had internet and cable hooked up tuesday, so thankfully I'm not losing my mind in boredom. I get over 300 channels and lots of good movies.

My workplace is your average office; desks, computers, coffee maker, etc. Sorry, no cool stuff like a slide or beer dispensors like the places we've seen. The people are very nice and helpful. They are giving me some pretty standard stuff to work on; I am currently updating their website with new people and awards. I also have some spare time so I've been planning out a few art pieces for my portfolio.

It is kinda of lonely here, since I don't know anyone. I feel like Paull Rudd from "I Love you, Man". Maybe I should arrange a "Man Date" with a random? That could lead to some hilarious antics, eh?
I would say the downside of living in Saskatoon is the loneliness. I hope I meet some people and things won't be that awkward. But don't let me bore you guys. Things are going good here, and to be honest, I do like the alone time right now. I'm thinking of going to central Saskatoon this weekend to check out the Mall and maybe go see a movie, perhaps Iron Man 2!

If anyone feels like talkin, don't be afraid to drop me a line, and if anyone knows of any good places to go see in Saskatoon, let me know. Hope to hear from ya'll.

Jeff

First Week!

Hi Guys!

I moved into the Residence here in Regina on Monday.
First impression wasn't great... as you know I'm a clean freak.
OCD perhaps! When I first moved in the place was a mess with garbage and dirty dishes everywhere! They had turtles which was cool but they smell a little. The suite is split between me and 5 other girls, most of them are from China and are here for school. Yesterday I cleaned the entire place to needless to say I feel more at home now haha! It's been snowing here since I arrived so I'm very jealous of all you BC folks!

First day of practicum was very over whelming! They don't use anything that we've been using for the past two years so it's taken a while to adjust but I've got the hang of it now! Instead of DW im now using a program called Coda. Within the first hour of being here I had one of the developers request that I write out a PHP script to pull things from one database to the new database for a CMS they had created....... I was clueless. I don't know enough PHP to write it out of no where so he sat and helped me but I felt like I knew nothing. Since that episode I've been given work thats in my comfort zone. Nothing too interesting yet. I like it here the people are all very nice and the office is very nice as well. Today is bring your cat to work day haha. They have a very flexible schedule where you can come in basically whenever you want to as long as you get in 7.5 hrs a day. So start at 7 am, 9 am or 10! Whenever! I haven't taken advantage of that yet though. Also they get paid to drink beer on fridays.. Noooot bad!

Hope to hear about everyone elses week!

Kirsten

The first week...

Well, its safe to say that I made it to Victoria and I am loving it here. The sun is always shining thou the temperature is not that warm and everything is beautiful.

I guess for the work placement part...I like it!
I already have projects on the go and I have been working on some stills for a award show in Vancouver this weekend. Its pretty interesting here...there is always something on the go. Being located in downtown Chinatown is not to bad either. There is so much to see.

The only downfall...construction going on outside the building...its like there are a million wood peckers behind the wall, trying to get out.

Email Address

Hi guys,

Also, if you could send me your personal email address, so I can add you as an author in the blog?! Please!

Thanks,
Malena

Curt Shoultz is the chair

Hi guys,

I thought you may want to know this, Curt Shoultz is official the Chair for the Technology area at ACC.

We congratulate Curt in this new adventure, and please Curt - don't forget about us! :)

Malena

First week - how is it going!?

Hi guys,

How is it going?! What do you guys think so far of your practicum? What about the place you are living?

Please share!
Malena

SEO reading

Hi Olivia,

I thought I may share this article. I read you have your first assigment in SEO, and I thought you may find this interesting.

http://www.optimum7.com/internet-marketing/internet-marketing-strategy/strategic-marketing-with-seo-search-engine-optimization.html

Let me know if you have any questions,
Malena

Hi everybody!

Well, this blog will be to communicate our experiences during our Practicum. Please feel free to tell stories, share pictures, and ask questions. We are here to help, and we are a community!

Good luck to all of you! And don't forget to fill the survey every friday. Here is the link:

http://survey.assiniboine.net/TakeSurvey.aspx?SurveyID=n4L1593

Best wishes,

Malena