SUN RAPED

So the beach was a bad idea. We went to New Simerna beach (on the Altlantic coast) and it was amazing fun, but don't be fooled... there were brutal consequences for my disregard of Florida's mother nature. First off, I was reminded that hydrating is of upmost importance when you plan on having nothing but beer in this Florida summer sun. Secondly, I was taught a hard lesson that it really does matter to reapply sunscreen here in Florida. You see, in California, one application of Banana Boat is more than enough. Not the case here in Florida. Needless to explain myself any further, I ended up dehydrated (beer minus water) and toasted (not from the beer, mind you!) So the whole weekend was basically ruined for me. I could barely move and had blisters all along my chest (I'm probably making it sound worse than it actually was). Don't be fooled though--I wasn't able to wear a shirt for a few days. I just layed there all day (my back wasn't bad burnt bad at all) and saturdated myself with aloe until the skin would reject it's moisture. I actually gave myself a vinegar treatment, too. To this day, my skin had the greenest tinge to it from the aloe and I faintly smelled like that of a salad. However, just yesterday I found redemption in the fact that sun burns eventually begin to peel. Instead of the stinging pain, this time I started to itch all over. I wanted so bad to preserve the tan, but once I jumped in the shower, my skin became really soggy and the dead stuff just started to come off. So comes the end of this fiasco.

Serving an internship with Relevant Magazine over the summer: negative $1,500.
Taking a weekend trip to the beach with the rest of the interns: $10.
Another lesson learned in skin protection: priceless.

Don't tell me I didn't learn anything this summer...

ITS A GREAT DAY TO SLEEP

So we went to print today... thus concluding my first full issue here at Relevant. I have 8 weeks down... 2 to go. It's been a long journey and an amazing experience, but I think there is still quite a bit of learning I can get in before I leave. Half of the interns left (today was there last day) we just went out to lunch and stuff. I have a bunch of pictures from today (I'll send the URL to the album once it is created). I'm way too tired to do anything right now... way too much sun for me. Chris and I left the office after lunch and just came home and laid out in the pool for probably 2 hours listening to this new podcast that he found today. It is a completely random, vulgar, and funny. So the sun took a lot out of me. Once we got done with that, I just came back inside and watched some FRIENDS.... ate some dinner (PB&J) and now I'm getting ready to go to bed at the wee hour of 10pm here. Chris and I (along with the rest of the interns) are going to the beach in the morning and making a day of it. Gonna go soak in some more sun... have a beer or two... enjoy the Atlantic while I can. I'm pretty excited about that. I'll probably be taking pictures with my phone. Not brining my camera on a beach trip ever again... not after last time. Anyway, I'm sure ya'll will see those pictures soon too. Anyway, it's been great updating you (not so much) on what I've been up to. I should get some sleep... the sun will come fast. Be kind and love.

TILLY AND THE WALL

Went and saw Tilly and the Wall tonight. Didn't have my camera, but I had my new phone with me so I took a few shots. Above is from the show. It was a pretty good show and I'm glad I went. Hopefully more shows to come...and maybe with a photopass. PlayRadioPlay is coming to Orlando in a few nights--who knows what will happen!

THE ALBUM LINK

Ya'll can check out the rest of my pictures here. They aren't amazing, but I was somewhat pleased with the results. I really found myself limited with only my wide angle lens. Anyway, let me know what you guys think. I've realized lately that more people read my blog than comment on it. If it is easier for you to just comment via email, then you can email me at justin.r.sledge@biola.edu.... or phone call. Whichever works best for you! Anyway, a new post to come soon. I hope everyone is fantastic.

THE TOUR THAT WARPED

Went to Vans Warped Tour yesterday here in the lightning capitol of the WORLD. It was pretty awesome. The bands I saw: Norma Jean, Anberlin, We The Kings, Angels and Airwaves, The Color Fred, and Matishyahu. I missed Jack's Mannequin and Maylene and the Sons of Disaster (DAMMMMN) but it ended up being really great. I got the photo pass for Angels and Airwaves and got to go right up on the stage and take picture for the first few songs. The photograph above is one of the ones I took. I debated on putting up more on the blog, but I'm making an online album of all of my shots and they should be up in the next few days. Anyway, for those of you who don't know... Tom DeLonge (pictured above in the brown shirt) is one of my favorite people so it was awesome to be able to take these pictures. Anyway--good experience. Hopefully soon I will have the link provided so ya'll can take a look at all of my photgraphs from yesterday. That is all for now. Let me know what you think. Be kind and love.

THIS PHOTOGRAPH IS PROOF

First of all, I welcome you to my living quarters! I took some photographs of the house I've been staying at the past four weeks. Will also be in the house the remainder of my 6-7 weeks here. I had just ambushed this particular photograph in time before the big storm hit last night (regular occurance). The road you see here in the bottom of the photograph is Eastwood Drive. My room is the furtherst left window in the front of the house. I knew a few of you wanted to see pictures of the house... so here it is! I will try and post some of the other pictures I took--the pool etc--later today. Until then, go and listen to the newest Relevant podcast featuring my roommate and fellow intern, Chris "Formal" Goodson. Quite a character, indeed. Warm wishes.

EXCITING WEEK IN O-TOWN

No... not the band unfortunately. (If you got that joke, then I pity you). Anyway, the past week at here has been pretty busy. I've been non-stop on In-Design creating the new media kits--although, I did manage to take some pictures yesterday of Philip in his office. Philip has been busy racking up revenue this past week. I've been helping out a little bit, but it's really all him. Relevant's future is looking really bright due to him. Not only are we getting new advertising clients, but we are also doing a lot of agency work with Relevant Solutions--a branch of Relevant Media Group that acts as an agency that gets contracted for design and marketing purposes. Anyway Philip is making things work in a lot of different ways and in a very healthy way when it comes to the future of Relevant. All in all, it was a very productive week. Not necessarily for me, but for Relevant in general. Besides work the past week, I haven't been up to a whole lot. Been working out and dieting. The workouts are tough and the dieting isn't too bad. I'm beginning to feel a little bit better about myself although I haven't really seen a drastic change. So that is going good. Last night a bunch of us were invited over to Jeremy's apartment. He is the art/design director here at Relevant. Anyway, he and his wife just got out of debt from school, etc. Pretty impressive. Anyway, we had a "green" party and everything was decorated in green to celebrate their accomplishment. Tonight Jesse (design intern), Chad (marketing intern), and I are going to a hardcore show at the House Of Blues. Demon Hunter and Oh, Sleeper are the two main bands and I'm pretty excited about it. The warped tour is coming to Orlando on July 10th and I might be able to get backstage pass through Relevant for that. (Finally.... some restitution!) Also this past week (on a completely different note) I watched probably the most beautiful movie I've ever seen. The title of it is "Once" and I won't say too much about it because I want you to watch it. It literally is the only movie that has almost brought me to tears and encouraged and motivated me all at the same time. On top of that, the cast was all no-names in the movie industry. The soundtrack became one of my favorite soundtracks ever and the songs have become my recent favourites. If you haven't seen this movie, I would greatly recommend it. It's directed by John Carney. Go out. Rent it. That's all from me out here in Orlando. Will post more this weekend... maybe a little more about the movie. I love you all and take care of yourselves.

WHAT DOESN'T BELONG IN THIS PICTURE?

Finally got to whip out my camera and take some pictures! Chances are they're not getting published in the magazine, but it will be printed with all of the media kits that are distributed. Not so much of a big deal, but I got to mess around with some studio lighting (for the first time). So it was some good practice for me. Hopefully there will be more and more opportunities to mess around with the soft boxes and stuff. I've been able to brush up my InDesign skills and learning a lot of new stuff from Jeremy and Jesse while re-designing the media kit. Anyway, that is about all I've been up to. I'll post more pictures that I take in the future. The above picture was one of the few that turned out well yesterday. Jesse also helped a bit on a portion of this. Let me know what you think.

PS: Love You, Pookit.

HEY, LETS CROSS THE SEA AND GET SOME CULTURE.

Before I say anything, I would like to say thank you to my father for the past 21.7 years for the dedication and love that he has invested in me. Being fathers day, I think that he should be recognized as a big part of why I'm here (you too, mom... and grandma). I would like to thank you, Dad, for every single second you've allowed me to be your son. Anyway, I really didn't want to come up with a clever way to word this... so I'll simply state that today was a Monday. You know... they start slow, about halfway through you're nearly asleep, and it ends with the realization that you have to wake up and do it again four more times. Eh, I shouldn't complain really--it wasn't that bad of a Monday. It just pales in comparison to the weekend I had. Over the weekend, I got sweaty cleaning out the garage with my housemates and afterwards jumped in the pool. To top it off, we threw some steaks on the grill and lived the "high life" by slamming a couple of Miller's. Following this, we sat around on the patio and had some casual conversation with a couple of tobacco-filled pipes. I guess you can say it was an "all american" night with the steaks the beer and tobacco. Keep in mind that all of these elements, aside from the steak of course, were used in moderation. Me and Chris also decided to go on this 8 week diet and exercise program called "Belly Off." It consists of workouts three days a week and guided eating habbits. So... next time you talk, text, or call me... ask me how that is going and help keep me accountable. Welp, that about sums up my weekend. I promise to update on the actual reason that I'm out here either tomorrow or the next day. I love and miss you all dearly.

PS: I was on the weekly Relevant podcast last week. The podcast is over an hour long, but I come in at 47 minutes. I would reccommend listening to the whole thing because it's just awesome and they have a great sense of humor. I'm trying to find a way to post it on here but at the very least I can email the MP3 file to you tomorrow. If you want to keep on listening to future or past podcasts, you can subscribe on iTunes. Just search 'Relevant Magazine Podcast" and then click the "subscribe" button. It will automatically upload every week so you don't have to worry about it after that.... just listen!

WHAT'S THE STORY, MORNING GLORY?

It seems as though I've been relying on this blog merely as a means to apologize for not posting as frequently as I would like. Despite being here for nearly two weeks tomorrow, I still find myself somewhat dazed by this unfamiliar scenery in which I have subjected myself to. I long for the day that I will finally grow accustom to my daily activites and, more importantly, the time zone here in Florida. I don't have problems waking up, mind you. No... my problem is going to sleep. I'm just now starting to get tired at a "normal" hour. I feel that this will eventually lead me down a road filled with liveliness and success--mainly in fufilling my promises of keeping my blog up to date. So work this week has been fantastic. I am also in the process of totally redesigning the existing media kit and also adding a whole new section for the new publication that Relevant Media Group is coming out with called: Neue (pronounced "new"). It's going to be a quarterly 'book-zine' for ministry leader audiences. I also just got the Design Premium CS3 from Adobe so I am stoked about that. Not much else is going on. I'll update on everything I am working on as soon as it comes my way. Anyway, I'm just finishing up this fine day here at Relevant. There is yet another storm rolling in today and hopefully staying for the next few days. It's lovely. Ya'll should come visit me here... really.

ALOTTA 'BOUT LIVIN N ALIL 'BOUT LOVE

The past few days have been great--my first normal weekend out here. Got to SLEEP IN which was great. Yesterday (Saturday) I just watched some movies and went swimming. The guys have this game they call XMP (Extreme Marco Polo) that we played. The word extreme is probably the best fit word for a reason. The game is just a adaptation of the widely popular game of "MARCO!" and "POLO!" However, the extreme version does not include the shouting and you basically just mess with whoever is 'it' by splashing them or messing with them in any way you can until they tag someone (of course, this is still all while their eyes are closed). So after that, a few of the guys thought it would be fun to have a BBQ. We rushed over to Wal-Mart and got some bratwursts and buns, sweet tea, and some chili. It was quite the feast (to say the least). After this meal, the guys and I retreated to the couch and watched a few movies and played a few video games... a few friends came over... then left. It was a low-key night. I also got to sleep in today (Sunday) and haven't done anything up until now. I am, however, planning on going to Status tonight. Status is a college-aged church service on Sunday nights. Some of the interns are going so I'll probably tag along. I shall let you know how that goes when I return. Anyway, just wanted to let you know I am still alive and having a great time. I'm sure I will be up to a lot more next weekend so be prepared to listen to my crazy adventures! Hopefully soon I will be motivated to take some pictures throughout my typical day that way y'all can see what I do and who I do it with. I know you will like that. Until tonight, my faithful friends and family, thank you for reading my blog. I love and miss you all.

THIS BEAT IS AUTOMATIC

Before I share with you the past few days, I thought it'd be nice to share a photograph from the past week. I have my camera with me, but haven't used it at all. This particular photograph was captured with my handy camera phone. It's a picture of Chris (left) and Jesse (right) when we went to the lake on Tuesday evening. There, I saw my first wild gator and nearly killed a rabbit with my bare hands (ask me about that if you're interested--you know you're curious now). Anyway, Chris is the intern from Alabama that I live with and Jesse is from Florida and probably one of the coolest interns. All three of us are unspeakably convinced that the dot you see here in the floating the in the sky is a UFO. However, you decide for yourself. Now. On to what you guys REALLY wanna read...
I would first like to apologize for not posting recently up until now. I haven't really been busy--just seemed to have slipped my mind... Anyway, not much to update on today. Philip still is catching up on some emails but I just hang out in his office and pick his brain. He's been around the world and has so much knowledge to gain from... I'm just trying to take advantage of that before I am thrust into assignments and the deadlines that are looming ahead of us. Some stuff I learn has great value and other stuff is just random but awesome nonetheless. So I learned today that Ciera--you know, that pop artist that is breaking through the top charts as of late--has been contacting Relevant wanting to be featured on the cover. Supposedly she is religious and is going to be in Orlando next month to promote a spiritual movie she is premiering soon and her people have been begging to get her on the cover to help promote the movie. In my opinion, I think this would be a great idea coming from a business and revenue mindset. Not only is Ciera ridiculously popular in the secular music industry, but I can only imagine that there would be the thousands of new readers opened up to us to impact. Anyway, I will be having a lot of assignments in the near future and you can count on hearing every detail about them once they arise. But for now... sleep.

FIRST DAY AT THE OFFICE

So today was my first day in the office. The office itself is a very sweet place. The people I work with are even more awesome. I really didn't do anything today... just felt like busy work. My adviser wasn't in today so there was no real direction today. The marketing girl just had me go through magazines with similar target audiences as Relevant and researched their advertising agencies. The logic is to contact their agencies and try and get them to advertise in our magazine, too. We are just starting the process of getting some national advertisers in the publication instead of just Christian advertisers. I am hoping that Philip (my adviser) is in the office tomorrow that way I can start to have some type of direction or vision of where we are going and what exactly is expected of me. My biggest worry, though, is that I won't have something visual to show that I contributed to Relevant. I mean... the design interns will be designing spreads and graphics, the editorial interns will have published articles. But me--I'm afraid I won't have a hard copy of anything to show in my portfolio. At the very least, I will have something to put on my resume. But yeah... just a few things on my mind after my first day. After work, I just came back and the guys and I watched some Arrested Development, and went and bought some Little Caesars for dinner. Played some Halo and Rock Band... the usual. I'm going to bed a little bit earlier tonight than I did last night. I am very optimistic about tomorrow. Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers. They mean more to me than you'll ever know.

UNEXPECTED

So today was really great. I found a house to rent! I slept in and took my time getting ready this afternoon... not knowing how productive it would come to be. One of the interns picked me up from my hotel and we went out to an early dinner at a place called Urban Flats. I had "The Black and Blue" Flat. It basically is just a huge piece of flat-bread with steak, mozzarella and blue cheeses, and tomatoes with basil--all lightly topped with a oil and vinegar dressing. Needless to say, it was fantastic. I also found out that on Monday, my first day at work, the whole staff is going out to lunch for some celebration all courtesy of Relevant. So that's cool... I don't think I can afford to eat out too much. I need to go shopping for groceries soon. Anyway, after dinner we drove over to Chris's house (another intern). We hung out there and I got to meet Chris and his house-mates. We ended up playing video games (Rock Band) and watched a movie (That Thing You Do). We didn't end up leaving until around 1AM. Also, with much excitement, I am glad to announce that it looks like I will be renting a room with Chris at the house he is staying at this summer. I will have laundry and a kitchen and everything so it works out really great. The rent is under my budget and the guys that live there seem to be a really neat group of people. So thumbs up for that-- I knew something would work out! As I previously wrote in my first entry, this is what makes me faithful. The unexpected. That's what accurately describes today. I woke up expecting to spend the day alone. I am going to bed knowing 20 new people. Faithful...

WHERE I'M AT RIGHT NOW...

My first night/morning in Orlando. Thought it'd be cool to post exactly where I will be staying for the next week (courtesy Google Earth). My room is approximately five windows from the right on the second floor. Do you see me smiling out of the window? Warm wishes from Orlando...

FLUTTERBYES & THE SOUNDS OF AUTOMATIC WEAPONRY

So I'm sitting here laying on the floor of my friends room listening to the sounds of Call of Duty 4. Brad likes that game. And I happen to enjoy the sounds of it. Much like every boy from a young age, I have always been enchanted by guns and the sounds that they make. In the strangest of ways, I have come to appreciate environmental noises such as this. If you've never experienced this for yourself, I greatly encourage it. Go lay outside and listen to the dogs bark or the wind blow. Maybe listen to the traffic... the semis and the cop cars. Perhaps snuggle up in your favourite chair with the news on mute and listen to the dishwasher or your refrigerator making a new batch of ice. Anything, really... I've found that just taking the time to listen to what is around you is a very calming medicine. Anyway, I'm staying the night at Brad's tonight... he's driving me to the airport tomorrow morning to jump-start my adventure. I leave Ontario around 12:40 P.M. I then have a layover of about an hour in Nashville and finally arrive in Orlando at around midnight (Eastern). I am pleased to inform all of you that I now have a temporary place to stay when I land. I will be staying at the Travel Lodge in downtown Orlando... approximately a couple blocks away from Relevant. I'm still trying to tie up some loose ends on where I will be staying after next Saturday, but more details about that will come soon enough. So the thing about the Travel Lodge is that there is no internet... not even the kind you barter for. We'll see how that works out. There's a chance that I'll wander about town in search of a Panera Bread or perhaps a lovely Starbucks on Saturday. But enough of that... let's talk about how I felt today. While it was reassuring to finally find a place to lay my head for a few nights in Orlando, I found it quite troubling to leave home today. It's a lot harder than you think to voluntarily leave the comfort of your home and your family--even if you have done it a thousand times, it doesn't get easier. I think the most daunting thing to think about at this moment is the 2-3 days I will be in Orlando before I start working. I don't know about you, but I've never been completely alone in a city I've never visited. Of course it will be strange. No doubt it will be different. But I intend to make the most of it. Needless to say, I have butterflies. I am trusting that I will be soothed by the sounds of the automatic weapons continually firing in the background while I close my eyes. It's somewhat of an eerie expression, but it works for me.

I DARE YOU...

Four more days until I arrive in Orlando--I can already taste the Atlantic. I'll be spending eleven weeks interning with Relevant, a magazine published by Relevant Media Group based in Florida. I'm really excited but to be perfectly honest, I am really nervous. I still have yet to determine whether or not I'm going to need a second job (the internship is not paid). Also as of today, I do not have a place to stay after I fly in on Friday night. As much sleep as my Dad is losing over this, I feel that it is almost a blessing in disguise. This may sound horrible, and perhaps disastrous, but I hardly ever have a real plan (despite the fact that I have been raised to have a plan for everything). As safe and helpful as plans are, I think that this fiasco is just what I need. Yes, I'll admit it. I need this. I need to know there is a slight chance I will have to sleep on a park bench for a few nights. I need to know that I am most likely going to be getting everything I need at the local dollar store. I need to know that I can leave this place not knowing what to expect. This is where I thrive. This is what forces me learn. This is what makes me faithful.