What I have been doing and what I have been avoiding
hi. remember me?
Soooooooooooooooooo, it's been pretty hectic in my little corner of the space/time continunum. Last week I had tons of work at week's end and then over the weekend I was on site for 2+ days on my first show (which was inconveniently located out by Pearson Int'l.). The show was frenetic, and long, and FILLED with coffee that tasted like ass but no bathroom breaks.
To explain a little bit - it's 'corporate theatre'. Corporations hire PR firms to organize their staff meetings - the PR firms hire us to create the presentations - and then we are hired by the staging companies to operate the computers on site. Confused yet? Well, it's a full-on to-do, complete with scripts, headsets, lighting and staging crews, set dressers, actors (in this case, a comedian was hired to be the MC)... It takes HOURS to set up, and since the presentation is an all day affair, it takes DAYS to do run-throughs. All the while, the clients (Nestle Purina Petcare Canada) are offering up changes, SIGNIFICANT CHANGES, to their presentations that you have to modify in situ.
In the end it went well. My boss was running the main computer with the english presentation and I ran the computers with the french version. The clients didn't provide the (incomplete) french translation until mid-day, the day BEFORE the show, so there were plenty of stylistic mistakes that stuck in my craw, but the clients didn't seem to notice. I built my version of the presentation on site, which is something that I don't want to do again (but am pleased that I actually CAN do). During the show, the main english computer crashed b/c an embedded mpeg file tried to access Roxio on Becky's computer (!), so we had to switch to the back-up which involved a lot of running around and frantic whispering (we're backstage, people!) as I ran both presentations and Becky tried to fix the issue. Anyway, two 12-hour days , no sleep and dozens of bad coffees later, the client thanked us profusely and we went home feeling good b/c we proved that we can make a silk purse out of a pig's ear after all. btw, the Hiltons need to look into that airport hotel of theirs: it's dingy, tacky and fucking COLD. Paris would never party there.....
In other news, I've been conspicuously absent from my friends' lives (both real and digital), and for that I'm sorry. If it makes any of you feel better, even synap has been complaining about my preoccupation. I will try harder to balance out my life a bit: you guys are, after all, THE most important part of my life - not work. I have plenty of stuff to catch up on (including plans for the 5th, art projects and more writing ideas than I know what to do with). I really want to start doing some art again!
But first: get through this week, pay some bills, and SLEEP.
Soooooooooooooooooo, it's been pretty hectic in my little corner of the space/time continunum. Last week I had tons of work at week's end and then over the weekend I was on site for 2+ days on my first show (which was inconveniently located out by Pearson Int'l.). The show was frenetic, and long, and FILLED with coffee that tasted like ass but no bathroom breaks.
To explain a little bit - it's 'corporate theatre'. Corporations hire PR firms to organize their staff meetings - the PR firms hire us to create the presentations - and then we are hired by the staging companies to operate the computers on site. Confused yet? Well, it's a full-on to-do, complete with scripts, headsets, lighting and staging crews, set dressers, actors (in this case, a comedian was hired to be the MC)... It takes HOURS to set up, and since the presentation is an all day affair, it takes DAYS to do run-throughs. All the while, the clients (Nestle Purina Petcare Canada) are offering up changes, SIGNIFICANT CHANGES, to their presentations that you have to modify in situ.
In the end it went well. My boss was running the main computer with the english presentation and I ran the computers with the french version. The clients didn't provide the (incomplete) french translation until mid-day, the day BEFORE the show, so there were plenty of stylistic mistakes that stuck in my craw, but the clients didn't seem to notice. I built my version of the presentation on site, which is something that I don't want to do again (but am pleased that I actually CAN do). During the show, the main english computer crashed b/c an embedded mpeg file tried to access Roxio on Becky's computer (!), so we had to switch to the back-up which involved a lot of running around and frantic whispering (we're backstage, people!) as I ran both presentations and Becky tried to fix the issue. Anyway, two 12-hour days , no sleep and dozens of bad coffees later, the client thanked us profusely and we went home feeling good b/c we proved that we can make a silk purse out of a pig's ear after all. btw, the Hiltons need to look into that airport hotel of theirs: it's dingy, tacky and fucking COLD. Paris would never party there.....
In other news, I've been conspicuously absent from my friends' lives (both real and digital), and for that I'm sorry. If it makes any of you feel better, even synap has been complaining about my preoccupation. I will try harder to balance out my life a bit: you guys are, after all, THE most important part of my life - not work. I have plenty of stuff to catch up on (including plans for the 5th, art projects and more writing ideas than I know what to do with). I really want to start doing some art again!
But first: get through this week, pay some bills, and SLEEP.