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My fourth annual AdobeMax

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Adobe Creative Cloud

As of this week, it was my 4th time attending what’s considered the biggest Adobe Commercial. It’s actually something that I enjoy because I’m what I consider a loyalist (I like tools that work and Adobe does it for me—also, I get to mingle with all sorts of creatives and fellow loyalists). Many others are absolutely against the new direction that Adobe has taken (I do invite you to comment).

There were difference reactions to the announcements this year but mine is pretty positive—being bias and all. I’m pretty excited about the features and how it will affect my career moving forward. I want to thank my very amazing boss for approving this and I can’t wait to share all this new info with my company at H4B Chelsea. This is the first time that any agency has paid for my attendance and I’m even more grateful for being employed there.

Usually, when I attend AdobeMax, I write about the experiences daily and post them on my blog but this time, I’m writing this in one entry and I decided to separate them with anchor tags so you could:

1. Choose what you’re interested in or,
2. Read this experience in its entirety.

So, feel free to select from the Table of Contents (TOC):

—Short summary and my reaction to Creative Cloud
The Cloud
Digital Publishing
Responsive Design
Price/Subscriptions, etc

—Social events at Adobe Max (Max Bash, Sneaks, New Friends, Shoutouts)

Short summary and my reaction to Creative Cloud:

The Cloud

If you are on Creative Suite 6, you’re aware of the cloud features of Adobe Suite. If you’re not, this shouldn’t come as a shock to you if you’re familiar with other cloud storages like Dropbox (which I love) and Google Drive (who provides 100gigs for less than a Starbucks coffee that I also use—I just make my coffee). Having access to a cloud that supports various devices makes life as a tech savvy gal, yours truly, run quite smoothly.  I can think of many nights when I’d rather work at home where I’d drop a PSD in my DropBox from Manhattan and continue working from my iMac in Brooklyn and download it at work the following day. So kudos to cloud feature!
However, with Adobe CC, I can turn off layers on the web, share my file with other users where I can collaborate and publish them on behance (or to my site).
Back to TOC

Digital Publishing

Screen Shot 2013-05-11 at 1.31.36 AMSo, not many of you know that although I’ve dabbled in InDesign for college, I hardly ever had to use it post-graduation. In fact, I often wondered why it came with my Suites at all. I love all things digital and my focus had always been Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash (I just use Dreamweaver for coding at times but I code directly in my CMS (wordpress). InDesign to me had “print” and “paper” splattered all over it and although I get hot and bothered over a well-printed piece, I always figured wasting paper myself was only increasing my carbon-footprint—no thanks.
Then came the iPad… and the over 600 books that I have on it.
People use this device… a great deal. Also, they love the kindle and they spent lots of time on their phones. So why not target them right?
I need to reach them, I want to make my work interactive, I probably don’t want to write too much code. I want to create an app but I don’t want to develop one. Voila! Adobe answered… you can create an interactive ePub and publish via the iTunes Store that reaches 10s, 100s, 1000s—oh you popular social butterfly!
This was my favorite part of Adobemax because I remembered when I first got my illustrations published as a teenager and I always wanted to put another piece out there for kids. Now, I can make it for a device that appeals to them (and do it myself now).
InDesign allows you to create layouts for all eReaders and create experiences that bring your work to life. With FolioBuilder you can organize your publications, set meta data, etc.
When it comes to using tools such as Photoshop and Illustrator, collaboration with behance helps you to publish your portfolio online as well to get the feedback that you need to create your last piece, as an individual.

Back to TOC

Responsive Design

So, have you seen all those parallax trendy websites that work on the desktop, and when you view them on the iPad it works (or has a different version for that experience), then suddenly, you try it on your mobile device and there’s an even cooler experience?
Well, you can set that up in like 10 minutes after you set up your website structure it’s so easy! Sorry devs!
No more to explain.
Just kiddin’! I started using Dreamweaver when it was v2, and I think I stopped using it as often since CS4. Opening up Dreamweaver CC and setting up fluid grid layouts was so intuitive. I was shocked how very little coding that I had to do to hide_mobile and align divs. Fluid Layouts choices I do have a small freelance responsive website that I’m working on now, I’ll be using Dreamweaver (or possibly MUSE) to recreate (I hope to share how it looks later… Probably on behance)

Adobe MuseMUSE! My new favorite… because InDesign has grown on me, Muse is. It uses Masters like InDesign and I think that even print designers will get it. In the labs at adobemax, I was able to create layouts, include spiffy add-ons like sliders and publish with business catalyst. Of course I got reactions via social networks by bitter developers about this not being useful and only applies to people… The thing is, developers are always going to be needed for sites that are heavily data driven but, it’s nice to be able to start the skeletal structure and hand it off.
I’m also really happy that most of the Adobe apps are starting to look similar. Eventually, hopefully they’ll be integrated? Meh, why not.
Back to TOC

Price/Subscriptions, etc

@JeffCutler and @SocialJulio asked my reaction to this for their blogs and youtube channel and this is what I said (yes, I’m sharing this even if I hate myself being recorded). Embeded from youtube:


YouTube

This is what I really think:

Yes, I’m probably one of the many people who have had  torrented programs so I know how they work. I won the Adobe Creative Suite CS4 Master Collection when I first attended AdobeMax back in 2009 so—I’m good. I also paid the $200ish for the student version of suites that I needed prior to that. Anyway, I’m very aware of many users of earlier CS versions who have torrented copies because of pricing. I didn’t even upgrade until CS6 was available for us who attended max because $900 seemed a bit much for me back in the day (still is a bit much!).
So, is the price worth it?
Coming from someone who can actually afford it now and is no longer a struggling college student (I might have to give up my gym membership for a while and run outdoors) the answer is YES.
Let’s break this down economically and consider it an investment. Creative Suite was possibly valued at $2500+ for access to the Master Collection right? The upgrades in the past could cost you along the lines of $900 right?
As a New Media Design Graduate, I loved using all the software in CS from Aftereffects to Flex/flash builder to Premiere to Dreamweaver to Photoshop, etc. They weren’t always all in the Premium packages.
Now, with the new CC subscriptions there’s just one version: CC. Meaning, as soon as the upgrades occur, you get them. You don’t have to pay another $900. You’re subscribed and it’s ongoing but think about the $2500+ you never had to pay and another 900+ on top of that for each released Suite.
I’m aware that this isn’t the best option for everyone. If you’re a student: “A subset of CC applications are available via Design & Web HED Collection, Design & Web K12 Collection, and the Adobe Video Collection, plus more add-ons are available (sold separately).”

Here are some of the other pricing (I’m rounding up the prices to the nearest 10th)
New users pay $50 monthly
For users with CS3+ you pay $30 monthly for a year
Students and teachers $20 monthly
For only one app $20 monthly
Teams are $70 per month
Existing teams pay $40 per month for a year
If you’re new, or want to “test,” there’s a 30-day trial

See a breakdown of the prices here, all available in June

Back to TOC

Social events

This year we had The Black Keys, I went not really knowing their music but realized that I knew at least two songs. Last Adobemax we had Weezer.

Jerlyn Thomas and Selva Alganer(photo taken by @anissat on twitter)

As usual, Adobe creates magical experiences at the Bash (and really good food).
However, I appreciated the free drinks from the pre-conference parties and the chance to mingle with friends that I know from social media. Thanks to @mayhemstudios, Calvin who I met a few months ago in person finally, I got introduced to @JeffCutler and @SocialJulio who I hung out with the most. I also met some of his other friends @andysowards and @grantfriedman. The funny thing about hanging with social media folks are their stories. They were the ones setting the paths to influence before it became easier to follow celebrities.

Social Crew
The general session and announcements on day 1 and 2 were quite wonderful. I always love the creativity because it makes me reconsider my work.

Here are the keynotes.

I also got the opportunity to play a game and win the Jambox by Jawebone:

jambox by jawbone

We had the opportunity to create Adobe Fingerprints with the Brother printing machines so I worked on a piece of art from my iPad and went to the pavilion where I got it on a T-Shirt.

jambox by jawbone

Also got some colored pencils:colored pencils

I didn’t get to hang out with @stefsull this year and @asciibn couldn’t make it but I ran into @rufusd, @Beatlejase, @martineno, @anissat (who made me introduce myself to @denisejacobs whose TED talk helped put my life in perspective). I want to thank @aprilclark for trying to help me QA my work with that phantom Adobe viewer app during my lab session.

Thank you so much for making Adobemax wonderful guys, hoping to see you next year? I heard it will be in Chicago. Who really knows?
Back to TOC

Coach ColorTag

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What’s your favorite Color? Or, Colour? Colors or Colours? :)

I love Reds (Red is very sexy)

RUBY is awesome:

Sometimes Tangerine fits my mood nicely:

This is the closest color to my bike:

Purple makes me feel like royalty:

You know how NYers love wearing black:

Happy Holidays

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A few weeks ago I worked on a card for my company’s holiday card website.

I thought it was abit rushed but people loved it around work. The task was to draw something that represented how we celebrated the holidays. Naturally, I took to designing something with Mocko Jumbies representing island life. I miss St. Croix.

The cards were hung around the office. They also took photos of them for the website. This is the finished website. Check it out and share.

Happy Holidays from the cement boc.

Coming to terms

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20111208-010233.jpgAppropriate title for an proper time… There were many things that I had to come to terms with this year such as relationships, jobs, life in general. Also, a little legal situation that I was asked not to discuss via the Internet but I can possibly reveal in a biography or if the company tanks (life is funny like that, anything can happen).

I’ve had quite a few years of experience in life in general and it’s like I learn something significant each year or few months where I literally want to smack myself from realizing before… But as they say, hindsight is 20/20.

For example, it took me years and months to get over relationships before realizing one day that the guy I had fallen in love with wasn’t the same guy I fell in love with initially. In my fluidity I had changed and moved on. However, doesn’t seem like he had. Of course I’m speculating but I’m only mentioning this because someone told me of a snarky commentary that my ex of 3 years ago made some weeks before this entry… On Facebook. You know how I feel about Facebook privacy. It was interesting to reflect on, I decided to send a message and ask him kindly to discontinue. Apparently if he was happier about his decisions he wouldn’t have anything bad to say about me :) because I’m an angel — really. The fact that NYC is such a vast city, there’s simply no reason for him to mention me at all, right?

I’m pretty proud of myself for being really calm about situations I get involved with lately. I took 3 years off to not lose myself, somehow finding myself in other quite challenging situations (not relationship related thankfully) that essentially helped me grow up. I had to give up friendships all the while attempting to make a name for myself with a new job where I’m pushing the almost 80 hour work week. I’m surprisingly enjoying myself despite the crankiness from lack of exercise and proper diet…

Another factor that I realized restricted the “freedom of speech” right that I was privileged since I naturalized in this country. Somehow it doesn’t apply with binding documents such as settlements and I truly wish that I could share exactly what transpired over the past months that hindered me from sharing each step of my fantastic lawyer and I coming to terms with someone on my blog… *breathe* The words exchanged prompted me to realize that essentially mid 30s isn’t synonymous to being grown up. I was completely appalled at the way some meetings were handled and discussions with my lawyer, it didn’t seem professional and frankly, I’m excited to put this ordeal in the past… Six more months to go.

It was quite an interesting scenario where some privacy was violated on their parts. I’d never felt so vulnerable before but I’m thankful that I had a lawyer to take care of it.

Moving forward, I’m writing. I’ve finally gotten a few title ideas but decided to write under a pseudonym so I can’t share that part of my life. Can you believe that I’m censoring myself? I always figured that many people might find that aspect of my life fascinating since I hoped that I seem very vanilla(my friends know that I’m not) in everything that I do. Will keep you posted on all my projects.

Miss Universe: Miss Angola

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Miss Universe is Miss Angola Leila Lopes (Leila Luliana da Costa Vieira Lopes) - I’m not really into pageants but she is absolutely stunning and deserving :) .

By the way, she’s 5 ft 10 1⁄2 in tall (I’m pretty excited about her height, date of birth and beauty apparently).

 

She’s currently a business student in Great Britain and this is the very first Angolan Miss Universe!

Adventures in the Paradise Day 1 & 2

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I’m back in the Virgin Islands where I will start my journey back to where I grew up in Dominica. I’ll have no obligations (besides ensuring that my bills are paid). I do want to blog about the entire journey but I can’t promise that I will find an internet cafe along the way while in Dominica. Currently, I am using PDAnet on my phone.

This was me yesterday after only 1 hour of sleep. I had spent all night packing. I was hoping to spend the 3 hours from New York to Puerto Rico napping but two kids (one in the seat infront of me and one directly behind of me) kept me up by hitting the seats. Also,  being that I’m a giant… I had no comfortable leg room.

I was thrilled to have a connecting flight to Puerto Rico because, as some of you know, I was taking Spanish for a couple months and I wanted to practice. Unfortunately, the woman who sat in the middle did ask me a question… en espanol… and I took 5 minutes to answer… She asked how long was the flight from JFK to San Juan… lol. Of course, I wanted to respond in full sentences…

I finally got to San Juan after telling the kid behind me “por favor… lo siento… yo quiero duerme. ” No idea if that was right but she stopped kicking for abit.

When I got to San Juan, I had another 3 hours to connect, they announced: We overbooked the flight which fits only 50 people by 14. Will anyone be willing to give up their seat for $200. I decided nope, no way, I’m too sleepy and I have booked this trip too long ago to stop now… besides, I had a hike in the morning.

(Ha, I can tell that power resource and internet is going to be a challenge for this entire trip).

My mom and Laurie picked me up from the airport that afternoon. I was still on very little sleeps so I took it easy that night and crashed for 7 hours.

The next day I went on a hike and invited Laurie. We met with the two Johns.

John B. is like a second dad to me and has  been around since my career started. He’s always been a remarkable inspiration

I started my GPS on the way here and we took the path to the right up ahead near Cramer’s Park.

Immediately John began his tour by telling me what each plant he knew was. It was very fascinating because most of these plants didn’t seem to be here by accident. If you’re aware of this side of the world, you’d learn that the Indians migrated from Asia and came into North and South America, came up the Orinoco river and into the archipelago called the Caribbean. There were many types of indians but the most noted were the Caribs and Arawaks.

My grandmother is a pure Carib Indian and lives in the Reserve in Dominica (I will be seeing her when I take the second part of my trip).

Anyway, the two Johns were great company. John (to the right, we just met yesterday is retired and from PA).

Laurie kept up and went with retired John and completed around 3-4 miles out of the almost 6 miles that John B and I did.

This is the GPS map of the bay that John B and I walked along.

We didn’t go to Point Udall (the most easternmost part of the United States which is the loop on the map) but we walked back to the left back to our starting point.

This is the actual trail.

This was an incredible sense of accomplishment in 90 degree weather.

This is buck island in the distance. John B told me there’s a nice hiking trail there that I might try one day. I used to visit this island when I was younger… I had my very first terrible sun burn there.

We found a soldier crab on the trail… Memories of Dominica came back: We used to catch alot of those things along the beaches near the Atlantic in Dominica.

This is a type of plant used to catch fish… the indians most likely broke them and placed them in the water and fish came up to the surface.

This is an endangered plant that grows on the island. This is the only place it grows naturally.

I forgot the name of this cactus but there’s a religiously safe name and another that sounds quite phallic. It’s supposed to be good for hair.

A marker.

I changed into my Vibrams to walk on the shore.

This doesn’t seem to be from the island, John thinks it drifted from another island.

These oddly shaped cactus has a pink fruit.

We ate it and it tasted similar to another plant that I’ve had before.

Finally took a toll on Laurie, so she had to catch a breath.

Nothing can stop me! I did get a tan haha.

Sense of accomplishment!

We went to Mahi’s because we deserved an ice-cold beer.

I happily tweeted my view at the moment.

I was impressed at the bartender’s lime slicking skills but I had to leave since John had to catch a flight. So, Laurie and I went back to the Palms to have lunch.

While there, I saw an iguana (I used to have this in Dominica). Some of you don’t know this but roasted iguana tastes just like chicken.

However, Laurie and I had BBQ ribs, plantains, rice and corn for lunch.

Then I took a quick visit to my highschool: The St. Croix educational complex… It was great meeting past teachers but there’s some political things going on with the current Principal (which makes me quite sad). I met with my art teacher and I gave his current students a pep talk.

After that, I was so beat, I stayed home for the rest of the night but not before I met with my new half sister.

Jerlyn & Kerlyn (it’s interesting having a half sister this young because our lives are incredibly different however she’s really funny and as adorable as a typical 3 year old).

 

 

My Birthday Weekend!

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I recently became a year older and celebrated my annual 25th birthday. Instead of asking anyone for gifts, even if I do have an amazon wishlist set up, I decided to do something selfless and asked everyone to donate to a charity of my choice. From now on, on my birthday, I will try to do something selfless. I will get gifts on my own. I think that’s best and it will save the returns to the store :) .

This year:

It was for the Battle Against Breast Cancer. On the page says:

Hello, and thanks for checking out my Birthday Wish!

For my birthday on February 19th, I’m asking my friends and family for a special gift: help me raise $250 for Battle Against Breast Cancer. It’s a great cause that goes to the Breast Cancer research Foundation.

I chose Battle Against Breast Cancer because I run the Susan B Komen race yearly and believe in it.

Please consider giving to my Birthday Wish, and together we can make the world a better place. If you can’t give now, I’d really appreciate if you’d share this page with your friends.

Thanks so much,

Jerlyn

Go here to donate, I think there’s still time. Currently there’s $179 out of $250. Not bad right?

I haven’t done a what I wore post in awhile. However, to the left is what I wore to go out that night. Unfortunately the beautiful weather dropped about 20 degrees!

I had an incredible time — didn’t go without a little hitch though but in the end I’m happy to be where I am today.

Happy for health, laughter, good people and just living in the city that I dreamt of living in since I was 7 years old.

I’m not sure what else will happen this year but I did a bit of reflecting and I’m  happy to be a little older and wiser.

My dad called me on my birthday and mentioned that he and mom had all three of us kids by my age and I’m still amazed. My parents are quite young.

Remember when I interviewed them in November?

On Friday, I went to Johnny Utahs (where I went with a friend of mine a few weeks prior) — it’s a busy atmosphere with a mechanical bull.

After that we moved to Faces and Names where I could chat with my friends more but I think next time we’ll go dancing if I celebrate another birthday like this. The waitress was very nice however and brought me chocolate mousse cake.

After, I went to have breakfast with one of my friends, Joseph. Then I went home to get ready for my scheduled 3 mile run that everyone was convinced that I would miss.

Later, I went to see the Harlem Globetrotters at Madison Square Garden! We got surprisingly great seats even if we got the deal off travelzoo.com.

The next day, I ran another 4 miles then met with my friend Jackson (we were roommates in college also). We went to get delicious Indian Food from Curry & Curry (153 E 33rd St, New York 10016) in Manhattan on our way to watch “I am Number Four.”

Since we had some time before the movie, I decided to get a new phone. My Samsung Moment only has 2.1 (annoying) and it kept freezing (even if I am Team Android, 2.1 is a no-no). I upgraded to the HTC EVO. My Moment was recycled for $40 (better than nothing right?).

(The background is actually a photo that I took in Rochester, NY a few years ago. If you would like it let me know and I can email it to you if you’d like).

I LOVE the phone, I almost got the HTC shift because it has a keyboard like my Samsung Moment but it made more sense to get the EVO since it had a faster processor. So, I had to get used to the onscreen keyboard. I love the beautiful graphics also.

Also, how psyched I am about Words With Friends being on the Android!

By the way, naturally, I got the EVO in white.

Anyway, back to I Am Number Four. Jackson and I went to see it at the AMC Loews at 570 2nd Ave.

In the movie, gorgeous Timothy Olyphant was in the list of the casting…

– Give me a moment –

Sorry about that, even if I won’t say spoilers, this movie didnt seem predictable to me and I enjoyed it because of this. I love science fiction movies and this is on a list of favorites. Let me know what you think if you’ve watched it.

I Am Number Four follows the story of John Smith, a 15-year old alien from the planet Lorien, and his guardian, Henri, as they run from the Mogadorians, another race of aliens that are hunting down John and the other eight teenage Loriens, who all make up the Garde, living on Earth. The Garde consists of all Loriens who have special Legacies and powers. The teenagers are protected by a charm, which only allows them to be killed in a set order. John is Number Four. Both the Loriens and Mogadorians have a human appearance.

(source – do not read this source unless you want a spoiler)

I wonder if there’ll be a sequel… I wouldn’t be surprised.

All in all, my birthday weekend was amazing. Thank you if you were there! If not, even if it wasn’t a Night of Debauchery as originally planned, it was fun and intimate with great laughter and company.

Cheers to birthdays! Also, it’s definitely not too late to donate to the charity.

Oh, I didn’t get to play video games all day on President’s Day as I initially planned… *sigh*

$17,000 a night?

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Hopefully now we are all over the “Black and Yellow” Song by Wiz Khalifa since the Steelers didn’t win the superbowl


YouTube

Packers won, yes I was hoping that they did. I also got a foursquare badge:

By the way, in terms of Social Networking Influence, the Steelers didn’t win like @Klout predicted… Guess that online influence has nothing to do with actual gameplay.

I’ll share two infographics that I found today. One tweeted by my friend @Seb66 which shows, “7million employees won‘t show up at work the day after superbowl.” You know, because they are sick… I went to work.

Another from My Cheap Apartments states that some people rent their places for as much as $17,000 a night to rent out their homes for SuperBowl weekend!

Although this sounds ridiculous, you know how fans can get.

Yesterday I went to the Half Pint (76 West 3rd Street, New York, NY 10012) to view the game. I think I might be going back there in the future. I love the bar, the wings are great and the atmosphere was perfect to watch the game.

I was invited by @copyrider. Who was aware that ADesignDesk was having a meet for Creatives and Friends. There were people for either teams. I love sports and I love the energy from competing teams but I was a little annoyed by the screaming (another reason why I am happy that anytime the Black and Yellow song comes on I can chuckle a little). One super fan was yelling on top of her lungs and left my ear ringing. Let me not get into the female fans of football… Yes girls, we can understand football but we don’t need to show off to our male companions that we are hardcore fans or that we can hang with the boys. Haha Packers won though, she quieted down after that!

How did you spend your Superbowl weekend?

By the way, you can view some ads on hulu. Seems like this year that everyone was using Celebrities. It was interesting but I’m definitely not into Bieber Fever nor do I get how Eminem can improve Chrysler sales (C’mon we’ve seen 8th mile and knows he goes hard). Maybe I didn’t enjoy the ads as much because I was in a loud bar and couldnt hear most of them. I’ll rewatch to change my opinion :) . Someone had to explain what “Chevy Runs Deep” meant to me.

What did you think of the ads?