Great summer in the City of Angels!

My time in LA has come to an end but it was simply an amazing experience. The people at the Times were so welcoming and helped me anytime I had questions, well maybe not all the time Luisa.

I want to give a shout out to all the people at the Times who helped me there:
Jim, Barbara, Nina, Luisa, CLO, Cindy, Mantis, The Toe, Ralph, Nick, Lorie, Patrick, Jim F and everyone else there who supported me. So thank you guys so much because without you, my experience would not have been as amazing.

As a going away present from all these wonderful people, they bought me a nintendo Wii so we can connect via the internet and play some Wii games.

I will never forget my time in Los Angeles, I got to do some traveling, some sporting events, some DAMN earthquakes, and some great people who I have made life long friendships with.

I look forward to graduating in December and working in the great city of Duluth.

God Bless

X Games Sweet

Last Saturday Luisa and I got the hook up to say the least. My boss Barbara's best friend is the Vp of Marketing for Red Bull North America and got us tickets into the Red Bull executive suite at the Home Depot Center. This is where all the red bull sponsored athletes go when there not competing.

There was free food and an open bar, it was amazing. We got to see some Moto X races and Moto X freestyle.

When I walked in there were some people sitting in the suite already. I though I recognized one of them but I thought there was no way it was him. But Yep, Travis Pastrana was chillin in the suite before heading to one of his comps. I got a picture with him, I kinda felt like a dbag but it was still cool.

So its my second to last day at the Times. It has been a great learning experience and I have met some amazing people. I have no doubt that this helped prepare me for my career and I have made some life long friends here.

I want to thank all of you who have checked out my blog. I know I didn't update it as often as I should of but hey, its been pretty busy here at the Times.

Here we come MN.

God Bless

Why did the Chicken cross the road?

And the answer is...........

So I could eat its feet.

Yes that's right, I ate a chicken's foot today. Very weird. A bunch of us went to a Dim Sum restaurant today in Chinatown. The food was great, and then a strange bowl of food was placed on our table. Rico started eating one and they looked very interesting. So i picked it up and was informed that it was a chicken's foot, fried and marinated for our eating pleasure.

I can honestly say it was the strangest feeling thing that I have ever eaten. There is the little digit bones inside the skin and you have to suck the meat off the bones, yeah gross I know.

But hey, at least I tried them.

God Bless

Thank you Luisa!

So I went to the Dodger game last night, Dodger stadium is a great stadium. I bought a block of 10 tickets for the game, and to get rid of them I e-mailed my department. So i got people to buy them. But then, someone backed out right at the last second. So i was screwed out of $33 bucks. enter Luisa, she kindly bought the final three tickets and came with some of her friends.

So Nina, Barbara, CLo, Christina and I went to the Dodger game, where by the way beers are &10 bucks, that is ridiculous by the way. They were playing the Giants and won 2-0, slow game but still fun to be at Dodger Stadium.

So I would like to thank Luisa for bailing me out and buying the rest of those tickets.

God Bless

Damn Earthquake!

So, of course while the kid form Minnesota is in Los Angeles, the biggest earthquake in 15 years has to hit downtown. It was a 5.8 on the Richter scale, centered in Chino Hills which is east of Los Angeles. I was at our Off-site printing facility where we print the main newspaper, and it was pretty scary. Stuff started falling from the ceiling, and let me tell you, it is nothing like you will experience in your life. I am hoping we don't feel any after shocks, or the bad thing would be this is just the pre-cursor to the real quake, NO GOOD!

The LA Times building was evacuated along with the building I was in. When we were on our way back to the building, everyone was out in the streets on their cell phones. It was tough to get a phone call in because the towers were so backed up.

So on a lighter note, I get to go to the dodger game tonight with some people from work. I am hoping it doesn't get canceled cause of the quake so we'll see.

I will be back in MN in less then two weeks, good thing, no more earthquakes.

God Bless

Wii would like to Play!

The gang at the Standard Friday Night


This past weekend Maggie came to visit again and we packed a lot into our weekend. We went to Hollywood and the Chinese Theater. Then we took Mulholland Drive to Beverly Hills and tooled around there for awhile looking for houses of Maggie's favorite actress, Jean Harlow. From there we took Sunset boulevard to the Pacific Coast Highway up to Malibu where we had dinner by the beach. It was a long day but a great day.

On Sunday, we went to the Hollywood Bowl for a Feist concert, first of all the venue is amazing and the concert was awesome. The only bad thing is they have a noise curfew at around 10:30 so they have to cut the shows short which is no good. You can bring your own booze and food into the bowl which is great and you can save a lot of money that way.

So we have been saving up for a long time at work for a Wii, and finally on Monday Jim and I went to Best Buy and bought one and aerosmith Guitar Hero. A Wii is definitely my next big purchase because those things are the cat's ass. Wii tennis is my new favorite game and it is so much fun to play.

At work I am hard to work on the Vance Stickell application form and student brochure which I am the editor and designer of. It has been tough getting all of the information from the interns but we are very close o completing both pieces. It is the 20th anniversary of the internship next year so I thought it would be cool to do a piece on one of the first interns from 1989. To say the least, this guy is a baller and has worked for all the big agencies out east. He now owns his own agency, The Republik, and they have some pretty sweet clients like Smirnoff Ice and Nestea. Check out their website for more work, Therepublik.net.

I only have a few weeks left out here in LA so I am hoping to fit as much into these last weeks as I can. The X games are coming up and The Times has a suite at the Staples Center where they have the Moto X and vert ramp comps. I am trying to convince my boss to hook a brother up with some tickets which would be very nice.

I hope all is well back in MN and thanks again for all your thoughts and prayers.

God Bless

Shout Out!

I have to give a shout out to one of the senior art directors in the office, Jim. First off he has a cabin where I vacation every year in MN which is cool, also he kindly enough brought in a coffee maker so I dont have to buy Starbucks everyday. He has helped me out a lot with my Stickell Brochure project and has answered any questions I have. He also turned me on to Dry roasted Edamame, which is delicious, even though is soy beans, which makes TOFU which we all know is gross.

Jim is the kind of Art Director that if you were starting a business you would want him on your team because he has tons of experience and he knows hot to motivate his team.

Thanks Jim

While you Were Out.....

This past weekend I ventured to Ashley, ND for my older sister Mary's wedding. This was one of the funnest weddings I have ever been to in one of the smallest towns I had ever been to. I think the population was around 600 and there was 1 bar, restaurant, gas station and a 9 hole country club. It was a great town to have the wedding in though because the small town atmosphere was awesome and only in a small town will the sheriff be at the dance and drive the drunk people home after so they don't have to walk.

About two hours after we left Minneapolis for ND, a big storm went through Lakeville and we had two big trees go down. So returning to MN last night, our yard was a mess. One of the trees was blocking the sidewalk and the other was covering our whole back yard. Needless to say, my dad's chainsaw will be working overtime this week.

My projects are moving along smoothly to this point.
http://creativegroup.latimes.com/custom_publishing/index.html

Check out this link, it is an interactive version of the Custom Publishing Microsite to date, not everything is up yet, but this is what we have so far.

I am dragging a little bit today because i got in last night at 1 am so I will be consuming probably about 70 gallons of coffee to keep me going, but luckily when I was back in MN I bought some Caribou Coffee beans so I dont have to drink crappy Starbucks.

God Bless

"Around the Horn"

Wow it has been awhile since i have updated.

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July. I went to one of the sons of the people im living with's house for fireworks and a pool party.

So I am a big fan of ESPN as many of you know and if you have ever seen the show "around the horn" they have columnists from around the nation talking about current events. Bill Plaschke is a member of this show and works for the LA Times so I asked one of my bosses to set up a meeting with him. I didn't know if he would want to or not or how receptive he would be to the idea. I was very happy when my boss forwarded me this email from him that she received.

"Hey donna...I was an intern once, I know what it's like....I'll be in next wednesday and thursday.....we can have a cup of coffee downstairs if he'd like, around 11 a.m., after my TV show...heck, he can come over and watch me film it if you can spare him from 10 to 11...."

Very nice, so I will be in his studio with him when he films tomorrow's show, which airs in MN at 4:00pm on ESPN. I think I am going to buy his book and have him sign it, I know kinda cheezy but its a good book and it will be cool to have it signed.

Work is very busy, one of the ladies in our office, Cindy, has been out for two days and I have been filling in for her. I know appreciate the work she does more then ever because she works with a program honestly from 1990 and does a lot to make sure the paper runs smoothly. So I am very glad that she will be returning tomorrow and I wont have to do that again.

I will be returning home tomorrow night to MN for my sisters wedding in North Dakota. It will be nice to get a few days off and spend time with my family and girlfriend.

Thank you all for your support and prayers and I look forward to seeing you all when I return for good to MN in early August.

God Bless

Life and "Corporate Re-structuring"

I don't know if any of you have ever seen the HBO Miniseries "Band of Brothers" but I was walking to the city council building last night and they were filming something in the front courtyard. I was on the phone but looking in the shoot for someone I recognized and sitting 15 feet away from me was the actor who played Dick Winters in Band of Brothers, Damian Lewis, filming his current TV series "Life". Im a big fan of Band of Brothers so it was cool to see one of the main actors.

I was in San Diego this weekend with my girlfriend Maggie, checking out some Museums and great restaurants. San Diego is a really cool city and I recommend it for a vacation spot.

So on Friday i experienced something that I definitely did not think I would experience while at the Times. We went through a little "Corporate Re-structuring". We have our weekly floor meeting on Friday's and we were on our way to the room when my boss, our Creative Director, Maria, told me I did not have to go and it wasn't for freelancers or interns. It was kinda weird because I have gone to that meeting every week since I have been here.

So when they get back, I learn that 6 people, including Maria, got laid off from the company. It was very interesting the rest of the day seeing them move out their offices and looking at the new organization chart and seeing where everyone now landed in the scheme of things.

It was something I am glad I experienced because it's a reality of the corporate world, but I would not wish it on anyone and I was sad to see everyone go.

God Bless

Work Work Work........ and Hollywood

Hello to all,

So I finally got to go check out more of the city on Wednesday. I took a tour with Father John, the priest from our church, through Wilshire Blvd. and Hollywood to Rodeo Drive and Santa Monica. It was really cool to see the Chinese theatre and the handprints in the cement.

Above is the project we have been working for a couple weeks now. We finally got approval to go through with this concept, "Cityscape", and will begin production today and next week. Our interactive people Nick and Lorie did a killer job on this concept and it will be amazing when it is finally up and running in August. The purpose of this site is to create awareness for LA Times events such as Festival of Books and the Envelope Screening Series. I am really excited about this site, unfortunately I will be back in Minnesota when we launch it so that is disappointing but it will still be awesome to see some of my work on the LA Times website.

God Bless

Tofu and the Padres

Tuesday night I got to go to the Padres v. Twins game in San Diego. The new pictures should be up in the new slide show thing i added. Great game and beautiful stadium. I cant wait for the Twins new stadium.

I will start the tofu section off by saying that I will never eat Tofu again.

So I brought lettuce to work and we have a salad bar in our cafeteria so I was going to go get some ceasar dressing and chicken and cheese to put on my lettuce. So i get to the chicken and I see there are two different kinds. So i choose the smaller cubed chicken because it looks better and pay and im off to eat my salad. I stop at our refrigerator on the way back up and Graham, one of our copywriters, says "oh you got some tofu," and I said no, of course not just some chicken. I was puzzled as to why he said that because there is no way I would ever get tofu. I start eating my salad and something is definitely wrong here. The chicken was very squishy, wait a second............it wasn't chicken at all. I messed up big time and got tofu.

NO GOOD!

So needless to say I will be the laughing stock of the office for awhile for my little Tofu experience.

God Bless

A Trip to..........Mcdonald's

For Thursday's lunch our department decided to take a little field trip down Broadway street to the local McDonald's. Little did I know that I was going to get a lesson in Hollywood history . On our way we stopped by the Bradbury building, where the majority of Blade Runner and Heat was filmed. I wish I would of seen either of them to see where in the building we were but it was still pretty cool. Also, anyone who has seen the latest Transformers movie, Broadway street is the scene where there flying helicopters down the middle of the street.

NOW, wow the most interesting and weird part of the trip was that my co-workers and I were walking by a pretty nice knife shop, when I was informed that it was THE knife shop that OJ Simpson bought the knife that he "didn't kill" his former wife with. I guess he was here shooting a movie and stopped by the store and bought the knife. I was a little skeptical of it at first but it was part of the trial showing the receipt for "Ross Cutlery" on broadway Street.

Anyways, it is unbelievable to me that even walking to McDonald's I get a lesson in Hollywood History.

P.S. Maggie comes one week from today, I cannot wait

God Bless

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

First of all, really ridiculous name and to long. Second of all, I got to go to their game Sunday night, fabulous stadium so I will forgive them for the stupid name. Great game against the Braves, the Angels won 2-0. Im starting my third week at the Times and this week is turning out to be a busy one. I will post some of the other work that my team is working on soon you all can check it out.

God Bless

Example

Also, here is a link to one of the jobs we just finished for banners on our website and some flash promotions for new media executions.

http://creativegroup.latimes.com/online_marketing/index.html

As project manager for this project, I was in charge of meeting with our client, in this case the interactive department of the Times, and working with out copywriters and graphic designers to get the job done. We had to create three different size banners for each newsletter so that they can put them throughout the www.latimes.com website.

Busy at the Times

Today ends my second week working at the Times and it has been a great few weeks. Yesterday they were filming a movie across the street from us and I though it was pretty cool but the rest of my co-workers weren't to amused because this happens all the time around here. I just finished up a production calendar for the two Microsites that I am project manager for, and the template that I created for these will be used from now on for all production calendars. So I was pretty stressed to make it good and I am pretty happy with the final product so lets hope my bosses like it as well. I am hoping to explore more around LA this weekend. I went to Trader Joe's in San Dimas last night, its about 20 minutes away from my home in Baldwin Park, so that was a little interesting. I hope all is well back in Minnesota and have a great weekend.

God Bless

Getting in the swing of things

So I have been experimenting with LA public transportation when my ride has to stay late, and its pretty efficient but expensive to ride. People here call the month of June, "June Gloom", because its always gloomy and "cold" they say, but I think the weather is perfect. The house I'm living in does not have AC so I am not looking forward to the 100 degree plus days, I think I'm going to melt. Also people are predicting a earthquake for this summer, oh great, I leave tornadoes and walk in to earthquakes. Work is going very good, we have a couple of photo shoots in the next couple of weeks for one of our campaigns so that is cool to be able to be involved in wardrobe fittings and choosing the models for our shoots. I hope all is well back in MN.

God Bless
Mike, or Nuevo Miguel, thats my nickname in my department

Project Manager

Hello All

So I was appointed project manager for a few different projects for our LA Times website. We had some preliminary meetings yesterday and I am really excited to work with the art and copy writing guys to make this work. What we are doing is creating a microsite for all of our LA Times events, for both B2B and B2C. It will be challenging but fun and definitely a chance to get my feet wet.

I possibly will be going to a Dodgers' Game this weekend which would be awesome and we are going to Famous Dave's tomorrow night, apparently a big deal out here, I thought that was pretty funny.

God Bless
Mike

First Day

Today was my first day at the Times. It was amazing. The advertising department is very laid back but I can tell they get the job done and the Times building is filled with amazing history. I can tell I am going to learn a lot and they said I will be a project manager a couple times this summer so I am looking forward to that.

God Bless

Thanks for Visiting!

Thank you to all my friends and family for supporting me and my journey to Los Angeles this summer. I will try to update this as often as I can and put some cool pictures of the Times building and where I am living.

For those of you who do not know, I received the 2008 Vance L. Stickell Internship through the American Advertising Federation and will we working with the Los Angeles Times for 10 weeks this summer. I am very honored to receive this internship and hope to represent UMD and Minnesota well.

Any questions or comments you have for me feel free to put them on the blog, or e-mail me and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

God Bless