Day 1

My first day on the internship!

This is my workstation or rather work area. I don't really have a set space but I use this computer and the one across from it. This is me of course. Got to love the Carolina Panthers mousepad.

This is me again. This is more fancy than the normal work clothing but a nice collared shirt and straight cut jeans with tennis shoes will work fine. Notice I got a name tag. I have to wear that too. It recognizes me as a volunteer and that's why it's red.

For the most part I've been taking pictures of pictures or when the camera battery dies, scanning pictures.

The pictures go into a program called PastPerfect 4 that catalogs them. They go into collections so that if researchers need them all they have to do is search for them.

Something that struck me. I work on a boat! That's me once more and behind me is a furnace. The Berkley is a museum but is also an 1898 steam ferryboat that was fully functional. I have no clue if it's still functional...I don't think it is...

My interesting experience was definitely finding this thing. It looks very daunting but in actuality it just measures variations in ocean temperature as a function of depth on a moving ship.

The Maritime Museum and the Recession(for Sarah):

Did the economy reduce volunteers/donations?

Actually it increased volunteers. People don't have anything to do so they come in. Donations really haven't been hit as far as objects/collections.

What have been the effects of the recession?

There is less money coming from the city because the funding for the museum comes from hotel tax. Less money in people's pockets -> Less people traveling and staying in hotels -> Less money from the city for the museum. Less tourists. The top deck and other areas rented out for events have not been rented out as much as they have been. Same for people charting boats from the museum. Staff have been reduced/let go. All staff got a 12% pay cut. Part-time workers got their hours reduced.

A Description of my Day:

I woke up around sevenish. Couldn't figure out which shirt I wanted to wear so I tried on several before deciding on a brown one. My mom came to wake me up (I'm a sleeper inner) and I couldn't decide which one of my jackets to wear because I don't own any really nice ones just hoodies pretty much and I didn't think that would be something that I should wear to my first day. So my mom brought me two of her jackets. I picked a vibrant blue one. It went with my brown shirt and shoes and brought the attention away from the black mingling with the brown (I don't think the colors go very well together). Asked my sister to leave a little early and she got angry at me for not telling her last night. I went downstairs and packed a bag for myself. I didn't want to bring my backpack (It was on Karl's not professional list). I needed nylon socks for my low, brown, brand new heels so my mom let me use some of hers. I put on my shoes and with my full ensemble of clothing I asked my parents if I looked nice. Of course they said yes. I had a chocolate shake (It's a doctor monitored weight loss diet) for breakfast like I always do now. My mom was rushing around because she had to get to a meeting. I said goodbye to her and me, my sister, and my dad left the house very soon after she did. We took my dad's car again like we do every morning and we actually were in the car by 7:30am. That's a feat. We drove for the time it usually takes me and my sister to get to school. About 40 minutes. I got dropped off early and spent 20 minutes on a cold, hard, tile mosaic bench in front of the museum waiting for Marc and just watching people go by. Some Navy people walked by talking about some guy who was a Seabee (Construction Battalion). Marc got there and we introduced ourselves to a lady at the gate and she let us in. From there we had to wait for our mentor to get to the museum so we wandered around a bit in the boiler room. When he showed up he showed us where some of the stuff we would be needing would be and then showed us how to take and upload photos onto PastPerfect 4. From there we took pictures, numbered pictures, downloaded pictures, cropped and compressed pictures, and then uploaded pictures. We took a break and Marc had coffee with a ton of creamer and sugar and I had some cookies they had there. Those were good. Went through more pictures. Marc and I took an early lunch when our camera died and walked down to Anthony's Fish Grotto. I had another shake and Marc got a Shrimp and Fish plate. Hand battered and fried of course with plenty of catsup and a soda. After lunch we waited for the camera battery to charge again so we took to the scanners connected to the computers in the mean time. I figured out how to use mine and everything but it kept showing me error messages. I looked for an on button and checked all the connections bit it still gave me error messages not to mention that my screen also decided it didn't like me and I had to reboot my computer. Turns out the scanner hadn't been plugged in. That had not been my first assumption because my mentor had said it was all connected. At least I got it working. Uploaded more pictures. There are still a whole ton to still go through. I left at around 3:45pmish and got to school at 4:00pm for Robotics. Stayed a whole hour. There was some traffic on the way home but there usually is if you leave later in the day. Well, I hope my first day went well and that next week I can really get into my internship. Never know what I might find.