HM Magazine Intern Diary: 7.9.09

Ugh! When it’s not spiders, it’s skunks, and while it’s still skunks it’s ants! My girlfriend thoughtfully sent me the ingredients to make that dirt/mud dessert, which was an old favorite in grade school, and I just yesterday got around to making it. But tonight after an otherwise productive day, I opened the cabinet to find a bunch of ants carrying off the bag of Oreos she crushed to make the dirt part.

So instead of the hot food I was looking forward to, I’m sitting here reluctantly eating my peanut butter sandwich and dried fruit because that’s the only “meal” I could throw together since I have yet to check to see how much of my other food is salvageable. Wonderful.

The Ranch smells a bit less like skunk today, though there are definitely still areas where the smell is uncomfortable. I just hope the skunk isn’t living anywhere under the house.

Other than all that mess, today was somewhat productive. I finished transcribing the Showbread interview finally, but I have a lot of work ahead of me since the notes and transcription are 13,830 words combined and I have to whittle it down into a 1,200-word feature. But I guess that’ll leave some interesting stuff to be posted online as a full Q & A.

I spent a good amount of time determining which album reviews have been turned in, assigning anything that hasn’t been reviewed and inquiring with any delinquent writers on the whereabouts of their reviews. I guess I should count myself with the delinquents since I have three new reviews to get done ASAP. One of the reviews is Skillet’s Awake, which came in this package for me the other day:

I’m not a PR major, nor should I be, but I don’t understand why they’d pay $7.10 to send a can of Rockstar with the CD. I could understand if Skillet was on the can, or at least if they went the ghetto route and slapped a Skillet sticker on the side. But to just randomly spend the extra $5 per kit to send an energy drink along with the review CD? Maybe they think jittery reviewers give more positive reviews. Don’t think I’ll try it, 280 calories of sugar would put me in a coma. I don’t think I’m very articulate or nice when I’m passed out.

Tonight, I’m going to try and forget my urge to go hunt down and murder every last ant in a 5-mile radius and watch the movie Lord Save Us From Your Followers while picking out pictures to post from Warped Tour. Probably not a smart idea since I could use some reassuring and I’m way frustrated with photo editing, but I’ll let you know how it goes.

Not not counting the days until I leave this deathtrap,
Corey Erb

“Treat the other man’s faith gently; it is all he has to believe with. His mind was created for his own thoughts, not yours or mine.” – Henry S. Haskins

HM Magazine Intern Diary: 7.7.09

Day two of living in Skunkville. If my indecipherable rant yesterday was indecipherable, I woke up at 6 yesterday because there was a horrible smell in the Ranch that I fully tried to sleep through but, with my nose, couldn’t. So I woke up and tried to determine what was making the house smell like burning rubber or burnt garlic but couldn’t so I went outside and hung out with the cats and read. I texted Doug since he had been over to pick up his dog Biscuit Sunday night and I usually assume shenanigans by default. The text exchange went roughly like this:

6:32 a.m.: Corey: Did u leave a stink bomb in biscuits place last nite?

11:18 a.m.: DVP: Haha. No.

I’m still not convinced. Anyway, since it decided to rain for the first time in 38 months I was forced back inside to try my best to work through it. Doug stopped by later to drop off the trailer and reported that it was a skunk that sprayed, so maybe I believe him.

No, I don’t, but let’s pretend.

That brings us to today, huh? Doug was in at his normal time and we went to work trying to ameliorate the odor with bottles of Fbreeze and carpet cleaner, candles and plug-in air fresheners. It at least made the Ranch smell like baking soda and vanilla and burnt garlic. But workable conditions for the time being.

I worked most of the day transcribing my interview with Josh Dies of Showbread. It wasn’t as easy as transcribing the Thousand Foot Krutch interview yesterday, since Josh and I talked for over an hour and nearly everything he said was interesting. Oh well, I’ll finish that up tomorrow and have the article done by Friday.

I also helped generate some advertising leads for the special Christian apparel section we’re running in this issue. Do you know of any t-shirt companies or anything like that with a Christian message? (Preferably that aren’t lame and/or look like they’re from 1993, but that’s my request not necessarily the magazine’s. Something like Faveur Clothing.)

Also, do you know of any effective, inexpensive ways to rid a house of skunk smell? I think the skunk (/Doug’s leftover 4th of July stink bomb) sprayed (/went off) under the house, probably provoked by the little orange doofuses, though they don’t smell like they got sprayed.

Peace in the Middle East,
Corey Erb

“Money doesn’t talk, it swears.” – Bob Dylan

HM Magazine Intern Diary: 7.6.09

Check out the Warped Tour review Kelly and I collaborated on.

There will be more later, but for now I’m done messing with photos not uploading and I’m tired and the Ranch smells like skunk because a freaking skunk sprayed under the house, the overwhelming stench from which woke me up at 6 a.m. and has been driving me crazy all day and at least Doug agreed that it’s overpowering so I know I’m not crazy and I’m about to go to the grocery store and Taco Bell because I haven’t eaten in a long time and I’m out of food and I don’t care if this is one long sentence because I’m about ready to punt the nearest small animal/child that wanders in my path.

Good day sir.
Corey Erb

“You do not want a quote right now.” – This guy.