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.