Word Camp for Dummies

So. About the post title. I had to! I mean, it sounds like a legitimate "For Dummies" installment, right? Except...this was real life. I will not say any more. For those of you who attended, you know the half of it!

Basically our company signed up to attend this Wordpress seminar/conference, knowing it was more for the Devs anyways. "Dev" is short for "Developer", FYI. But they had classes for bloggers, new marketers, Wordpress noobs, and even one for Designers!

Sam denying Nathan access to this photo. Lol

Jim and Lisa: some seriously cool people!

Sarah just didn't want to share her coffee with Sam and Hilary

Caitlin and Katie

Tim and Timothy. Being super crazy.

So we went away with the program, doing our thing(s) and coping. We had heard most of this stuff before. I seriously learned everything from working for 3 weeks and listening to the CD's from Thomas. He actually spoke at the WP event, and everyone kept saying how his was one of the best!

One of the most memorable classes I went to was about developing your online voice. Leslie Hancock was wonderful, and now I call her "the Play Doh lady"! She talked about some popular blogs and personas and how they have their own voice and style. Quite fun. You can check out her blog here. Happiness!

This is what I came up with. No notes necessary, just play dough.

A Picture Tim Z. took! We had a loose cannon turtle on our hands.

"Learning" (?) Haha. 

Sam, Hilary and I got burnt our towards the end, so we made "gourmet" items from Play-Dough for the duration of our break. Well, the last session we got out of took longer, so we got out late, and it was not terribly informative. But hey, I got a free shirt out of it! "Code Poet". Cool.

In our spare time, we make awesome things. From Playdough.

In the end, it was a day. We just had fun being with each other. I mean, I learned some, but also it seemed like the Devs could have gleaned more from it. 

Also: if you want to know what the play-doh things we made were, here is the story:

Hilary gave us a category to sculpt. "Gourmet" was the theme. Hil made a lavish plate of tiny food with a cover. Sam made 6 stars. I made a London version of a Hamburger. They are quite the ordeal, being like 6 stories high of meat and stuff, and you have to eat it with a fork and knife. 

Cheers!

Until Niagara falls,

Diana

Waco vs Austin and Other Observations

Well, I've been in Austin for about 4 weeks now. Crazy how time flies! So far I've managed to find my way around town, and explore the epicness that is Downtown. But I've realized one major setback Austin has. Public Parking is almost a joke.

In Downtown Waco, there are more spaces than people know what to do with! I mean, being an Antiocher, we hang out a lot in the downtown regions...because that's our city that we love and the people we love live in the heart of it. With the good, the bad, and the ugly. Every city has its homeless population. I thought Waco had a big number of homeless people (which it does) but Austin's on a different level.

Every day I come back from work (and even going to work) I see the same people out on the streets, signs held out as banners, screaming more need than what they profess with just a simple sign. Its horrible. Like an RSS feeder drive-by. What they need is a friend, and attention to them, not just people slipping them a few cents, or avoiding eye contact, or whatever.

Yeah, our pastor at Hope In The City today spoke on James; in the passages he read, it talked about being "doers of the word, not merely hearers" so as to not deceive ourselves. People all the time tell me that the people on the streets are cons, are lazy, and/or just want to live that way. I am learning not to depend on what others say, because that's deceiving too. I've got to read the Truth for myself.

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world" James 1:27

But I digress. I'm still working out how I feel about this issue, but for now I will move on to other things.

FOR INSTANCE!

Awesome things about Austin:

Whole Foods
Half-Price Books
Actual Lakes
LIVE MUSIC!
Healthy food... so many farmers markets, etc...
Downtown shopping
Congress ave.
Lomography store http://www.lomography.com/

Things I miss from Waco:

Katie's Custard
Antioch
The Fast food strip
Baylor Campus
Lion's Park
Hole In the Roof
Spice
Barnes and Noble
Common Grounds

So, I guess the things about living in Waco versus my new life in Austin are mainly due to city layout and what's available. But being with people is what matters to me the most. Back home in Waco, I feel like I get my batteries recharged, but in Austin (living on my own) I feel alive, like Im really becoming an adult.

The best thing about being in Austin right now is literally my internship and the coworkers I spend my time with. Sam, Hilary, Sarah, Timothy, Katie, Jim, Tim, Thomas, David, Leah, Mariano, and soon Nathan. People who make me smile and come alive. I love spending time with them!

Here are some best-moment memories. If you haven't noticed, Im a pretty sentimental gal. These are in no particular order of fun-ness, or whatever. I just post as I go along.

1. Bestsellers Society Launch Party-- had so much fun going to Walmart at a moments notice. Timothy drove and we got everything we needed for the party in like 20 minutes. Had fun talking with Hilary downstairs as we waited to escort guests
2. The Avengers-- as a last-minute change of heart, I decided to go even though I was tired and had planned to do something else that evening. But I got to go to Whole Foods with Sam for some smoothies and then we saw the most epic movie of all time! I enjoyed their commentary. Maybe I spazzed out a bit too...
3. Going to concerts with Sam. Dude, she picks the best gigs to see! And she's so cool, I admire her a lot.
4. Hope Groups with Hilary rock! They are one of the biggest hi-lights of my week. She led worship this one time... I love how she sings!
5. Word Camp. Or wait... Im not sure what it was called, actually. But anyways, I learned a little bit...but being with the company made it fun. I enjoyed networking and talking to people. Like this one guy went to India as a pilot and was invited to a wedding. An Indian wedding.
6. Snow Cones! Kerby Lane! P. Terry's! Whole Foods! Bah, all of these places ROCK and I will miss them when I go to Waco. I mean, they still have snow cones, but not like the ones here!
7. Hanging out at an art exhibit with Sarah! We met the artist and typed on his typewriter (which turned out to be an ordeal. The keys get so...stuck) and ate at Hickory Street for some gluten-free goodness!

That's the sum of my adventures, thus far.

Maybe you enjoyed it, maybe you didn't. But these stories are mainly to remind me in the years to come that I had a rather enjoyable summer of 2012. Life rocks.

Peace, Love, and Rockets,
Diana

Facing Dragons at Castle Media

Castles and Dragons and Design (Oh My!)

Wowzers... so much has happened in the last three weeks of being here in Austin. Right about now, I will give you guys a bit of a recap:

1.Working at Castle Media has been a dream. I've met so many awesome people who love what they do, love Jesus, and love each other.

2. My first day on the job I got lost for 2 hours trying to find a Freebirds burrito joint. I had only been in Austin for 2 days at this point.

3. I got to go see Ingrid Michaelson and Active Child live in concert, both in the same week! And then we found out we all are musical in some way, so... *Sneak Peek*

We discussed forming a band, which will soon be a reality. Name of band is tentative.

4. I've learned how to do dishes. Being the intern, I have many chances to learn and re-learn how to do this well. Learning to be faithful in the little.

5. I've connected with Hope Group, which is like Lifegroup (for all you Antioch people reading this) but I have yet to go to Hope in the City.

6. I have decided to stay committed to this internship for the whole summer, and therefore will trust in Jesus all the more as I do not have a job. I do not fear for the future, I know He takes care of me (I mean, have you guys read Matthew 6 lately?)

7. Austin gets easier to drive around in (Total lie). Actually, I've just figured out to use my blinker copiously because traffic moves so fast and people don't always give you the courtesy of passing. I at least know how to navigate to work, HEB, and now San Marcos. The essentials.

Now that I've let you in on a bit of what's been going on in a systematic way, I get to tell you all about my job (internship) and how I've come to realize its almost as scary as facing a real, live dragon, but the benefits of plunging forward always outweigh the effort it takes to get there. Who knows? I may be able to tame the dragon and ride it aaaaallllll across the world... Well, figuratively speaking. Ahem.

Here's the Scoop

 I've been assigned to read a book called "Inbound Marketing" and I have also been listening to Author Media tips from Thomas Umstattd (who happens to be my boss and incidentally my friend Cynthia's brother). He is the founder of Castle Media Group, which  contains four amazing services:

1. Author Media, which is a site dedicated to help authors thrive in the business world by giving tips on how to blog and increase your fan base and blog traffic

2. Umstattd Media, which assists in businesses and website building using WordPress

3. Webroots Media, a really cool political site that coaches you on how to start and manage your campaign should you run for office and the like

4. Bluedove, a super amazing project that teaches on search engine optimization and increases blog traffic as well as a myriad of other things

You can find all these things here; the main one's I've been focusing on are Author Media and a new collaborative site called the Bestsellers Society.

What I'm Up To Now


I am learning so much about designing and Photoshop and working under deadlines. The projects I am currently working on always change, but I mainly get to practice doing ads and making quotes that will appear as PNG posts on the blogs in the future. Keep an eye out!

Well, folks, my time for this post is up. So!

Until the butter flies,
Diana

A New Home, A New Life

Here I am, all of a sudden, in Austin, Texas. I just got back a little more than a week ago from my semester abroad in the UK. Which, might I add, was life-changing. I think about London and my experiences there every day, if i can help it. But things are different now. Am I that different now? Let's find out:

My parents helped me find an apartment pretty quick here, and it just so happened to work out that I would have a place to live strictly for three months. I moved here to be close to my new (and highly-anticipated) internship at Castle Media Group. I started work yesterday.

The initial transition to the apartment was pretty hard. I still don't think of it as a "home" yet. When I got here none of the roommates were there to meet or greet me; the girl who's room I would be usurping left pretty quickly and left a lot of stuff. And dirt. I can't begin to tell you how disgusting it was when i first got here. No trash taken out, dishes on the stove, dirt everywhere, and a whole lot of TLC (and deep cleaning) was overdue for the carpet. Needless to say, it was less than thrilling. But we live and make do.

First day of work was crazy. My supervisor, Sam, who I could not wait to meet, was late over an hour to work because of a bus trip gone south. It took her an hour away in the wrong direction! So she finally got to work just as I had been settling in and doing all the initial "intern" sign-up work. Sam let me share her office; and her laptop. I told her I would be getting Photoshop CS6 soon, hopefully, so in the meantime I was to use her backup computer.

Lunch was a disaster. I told Sam I loved Freebirds Burritos and she did too, so she told me how to get there. It should have been a 15-20 minute trip there and the same back. I took like an hour and a half almost exactly. I can't tell you how many times I got turned around...I almost cried but just decided I was going to find my way back anyways, so I just held on and kept finding ways how not to get back to work. Forty minutes and two cold burritos later, I made it back. I was so stressed, I felt so frazzled inside the whole day long even back to the apartment! I came back to go to sleep early and my roommates were talking about some crazy show about a girl making a devil's deal or something, which not only horrified me but kept me up until they were done talking. Day one, you have thrown your punches. Next day that comes will be a good one, I have decided, because I will start it out with a heart of thanksgiving and praise. God is so good, He gave me this job and new home for a reason. Its not to build my own kingdom, thats for sure-- I am learning more and more to rely on His strength and wisdom and might alone.