4 posts tagged “summer”

Greetings from Florida!  I arrived here but a week ago, and can't help but feel that my summer is off to a late start.  There I was Friday, finally on the transcontinental flight home, so antsy to arrive that I couldn't even watch the in-flight episode of Two and a Half Men. And by the time I did reunite with my friends and acquaintances later that night, the conversations were way off; my “catch-up” questions were just too May.   By mid-June, “how did finals go?” is passé.

Work-wise, though, I came home just in the knick of time.  DailyMe had earlier agreed to take me back for another round of interning, and it wasn't until early June that they cleared me office space.  Turned out to be worth the wait: by the time I got back, they had cleared me a whole suite’s worth of space.  Well, not me personally.  More precisely, Sales and Marketing--the two groups I work with--recently moved to a different set of offices within our building.  This was partly to help accommodate the burgeoning company's staff increase, but also to give the Sales and Marketing a little space as they matured into teenage departments.  The CEO even let them get bunkbeds in their new pad. 

So I've been relegated to the new suite with another recent hire and Mrs. Boss--but the function goes hand in hand with the new features on DailyMe's site.  DM just incorporated some news organization tools meant to help readers find the most important news at a given time.  Users can still prioritize DailyMe’s articles based on their personal preference survey, but now they can also see what headlines our editorial board thought worthy of attention along with the most popular news of the day, DailyWe, as determined by what fellow DM’ers are reading.

I don't mean to wax nostalgic, but it felt funny to experience another DailyMe launch so soon after returning.  It was more than 7 months ago, but I remember the original service's initial Beta launch like it was yesterday.  I had just finished my first summer internship, and watched the old site go live on a laptop screen not unlike the one I'm viewing now.  Reliving that excitement all over again last week was great, and I hope we continue the trend of one grand unveiling per summer.  Pretty soon, I'll have seen more launches than an astronaut's wife and the mayor of Cape Canaveral combined. 

Until then, though, I’m just happy to be back and be bloggin’. 

Peace, Love, and Personalized Media,

-         John the Intern

http://DailyMe.com

I just finished my freshman year of college, but—I must say—the occasion felt less momentous than anticipated.  This is probably because, unlike other years, it wasn’t really defined by a discreet, culminating moment.  You know, the one you come to expect after the first twelve transitions from academic year to summer: a bell rings, papers start flying, kids start rejoicing, and—although it’s optional—the song “School’s Out Forever” should begin playing somewhere in the background.

            By those standards, 13^th grade ended in somewhat disappointing fashion.  Everyone finished their exams at different points in the week, and I was one of the stragglers.  And even once all the academic obligations were out of the way, it was still no occasion to deck the halls with reams of loose-leaf.  Quite the opposite, actually: dorm rooms had to be spic, span, and thoroughly emptied of our possessions by move-out day.  The worst part is that I couldn’t even play “School’s Out Forever” because I had already sent my speakers to storage.  Somewhere, Alice Cooper was wincing. 

            But “all’s well that ends well” isn’t a saying I always ascribe to.  On the whole, freshman year was good to me.  Maybe it was me who wasn’t good enough to it.  I could have flossed more, slept less, checked my mailbox more, spent fewer monies.  But what am I saying?  “Self-improvement” is something to think about at the end of the real year, not the academic one.  I’m just happy to be back within 30 miles of DailyMe’s Florida office again.

I'll be working part-time for my favorite personalized news service this summer, and can't wait to be back.  Expect to read about some intern adventures that are twice as funny, twice as wacky, and twice as office-y as last year's.

As Always - Peace, Love & Personalized Media,

- John the Intern

http://DailyMe.com

I always count my blessings that the Earth is—beyond a reasonable doubt—round and without end.  Our ancestors put up with misconceptions about a flat planet for years, but could modern man even handle the notion of a “terminal edge”?  We have evolved into a species that always fears the finish, and our habits verify this fact (when was the last time that television-watchers were satisfied with a series finale?). Of course, this idea is no better put to work than by our farewell customs: people these days would prefer a novelty e-card to the warmth of a genuine goodbye hug, and I’m no exception.  This is one reason why it will be difficult to wrap up my internship at DailyMe come the end of the week. 

            Yes: by this time on Friday, I will be putting my seat in the full upright position in preparation to land at an airport close to college.  But before I recede from the blogosphere completely, I’d like to reflect on some of the DailyMe team members who made my summer fun and informative (FUNformative!).  The first word that comes to mind is “roast”, but those are usually done with permission. 

The CEO/Founder a.k.a. The Founder/CEO: The dual-title alone explains why this guy got the corner office, but don’t think for a second that our fearless leader lacks humility.  This is a man who shares a refrigerator with his employees, which says a lot more than “Please! Call me by my first name, and shorten that to a nickname if you’re promoted to management”…we have that policy, too.  The Chief was never a stickler on time, but time was often cruel to him.  Like the time he bought three atomic clocks for the office, only to find that they were out of synch.  We did “eeny-meeny-miny-moe” to decide which one read correctly. 

Mrs. Boss a.k.a. 20-Words-Or-Less: I’d like to keep this reflection short and sweet, because that was my direct supervisor’s style.  She has plenty of fun things to talk about, but wait until lunch to hear about them.  Always the champion of focus--Mrs. Boss can bring a meeting back to center from just about any digression (just about any digression), and sometimes manages to fit an eight-hour workday into six.  She taught me a lot about Sales and Marketing (her two areas of expertise), and skillfully wore both hats throughout my internship (three hats, if you count the DailyMe manual-fit cap we produced for a convention).  But seriously, goodbye to my partner in crime, and biggest fan (second to my grandmother).

The V.P.s a.k.a. The Veeps a.k.a. The Two Programmers a.k.a. Thing 1 and Thing 2:  These guys only have one thing in common—their job--but it happened to be the only thing I was using as a basis for nicknames; this is why they have been aggregated for the sake of description.  Not that they really mind, having spent months aggregating your relevant news with their well-tweaked DailyMe algorithms.  You could almost say it brings things full circle.  Either way, these are some very particular characters: they like their work hard, their lunches cheap, and their cubicles by the window.

            At the end of the day, I’m happy to have worked with such a lively crew.  These co-workers taught me both the written and unwritten lessons of working for a company, and the only ones I neglected to learn were in messy cursive.  I will sign-off now, but not for the last time.  I plan to make guest web appearances throughout the school-year, and cannot wait to keep you posted on all irrelevant things DailyMe.  (And of course the actual launch of DailyMe, scheduled in the upcoming weeks!)

Goodbye all!

As always – Peace, Love, and Personalized Media.

-John the Intern

www.dailyme.com