The Economy SUCKS

So, since I interviewed at IP, they have cut about 5 permanent staff members. Now they don't have enough staff to do all the work they need to get done, so everyone is always super busy and they've brought in interns to help make up the gap. However, everyone on staff is so busy all the time that it leads to an issue that I have been experiencing: they do not even have the time to put together projects for me to work on, because they have too much else to work on, and they're stuck doing all the work anyway. This frustrates me like crazy - I want to be of service to them, but it's tough when all I have to work on is the author database (oh, lovely, lovely database) which has been passed from intern to intern for months and really isn't anywhere near completion. Then, when the database I need to use to compile the names/affiliations/contact info for the new mailing list goes down, there isn't anything to do except work on getting that fixed (which I attempted for 2 hours to no avail until it was time for me to leave). Oh, and I also walked 3 blocks to Safeway to get soda for a lunch presentation they were having at the office on Tuesday. I've been using a lot of brain power this week...

Three Weeks Down

This week had me working on much more substantial projects. Monday, I struggled to get the sound working on ANY computer in the office (there are like 5 that I can use, and NONE of them had sound) so that I could do a video project for the Publications Director. This consisted of watching a promo tape for one author and then linking photos to the dialogue from a database she sent me. It was a little tedious, at times, because there was no counter on the video and I had to use my cell phone stopwatch to figure out the time cues, but it was interesting to learn more about the books IslandPress publishes, especially this topic (the main reason I don't eat fish is because of the absurd overfishing practices). After that, I did some less exciting work (making an excel database of people to add to the email newsletter list) for the rest of the day. Then, Tuesday, I did all my paperwork (time sheets, etc), talked with my supervisor (the head of the Development team), and then started on another project for Communications/Publications. This was updating the Pub report (a record that IP keeps of all the "earned press" for the books they have published in the past year). It was crazy to see how many blogs talked about our books- somebody even "tweeted" (oh, twitter-verbs) about one last week! Two days without ANY database entry... hallelujah!

Week 2

Well, this week was a little weird because I was sick on Monday. It was really nice, because the office was super understanding. I made up most of my hours working extra time on Tuesday and working for a little on Wednesday afternoon, as well.

**Tip: If you are saving something at work, make sure you know where you're saving it! I worked on a project for like 3 hours this week, and then when I went back to find it, it was gone. Except, it wasn't. I had just managed to save it in the "temp" folder rather than on the Development drive (like I should have). I was about to start over when I accidentally found it. Learned my lesson with that one!

The other intern on my team is really nice. She's at the office 4 days/week now, so since she knows what's been going on, I've just been working on stuff that she needs for the most part. My supervisor is really busy, so it's been tough to connect and get assignments directly from her. But, this setup works out well for both Jenny (the other intern) and me, I think.

Oh, and the area the interns sit is called "the fishbowl". Weird? Not when it's glass on 3 sides and in the very center of the office, directly across from the kitchen and next to the copier/mail machines/recycling bin. It's a little distracting. The best part was when I looked at the aerial map of the office and realized that it was actually labeled "fishbowl". I'm not sure how I feel about that...