Senior Projects

I got to drive a Nissan GTR to get emissions and some other tests ran on it. I stalled a Corvette on a hill, in front of the owner (it was my first time driving a manual Corvette and I was also a bit nervous). Today had its ups and downs. Selling a product is super hard. I am supposed to make people want to buy a car through the description. It is not the easiest thing to do.

Today, we showed a property that was not a house. It was a piece of land. It was 33 acres worth half a million dollars. The client is also looking for a home to rent or buy and he is looking for land. In the end, he is only buying one; however we just broaden our business by asking him where he is currently staying. I sent him a few properties where he was looking regarding homes and plots of land (there was no rentals where he wanted).

Today, I was apart of hosting an open house. A big part of life is making people want you. Today I was reminded of that. If you remember when I gave presentations in school, my voice was all monotone (even in most conversations). Presentation in the real world includes voice dynamics. In this case, people are about to spend at least $339k on a house, the agent (or me) should sound excited when showing this house (love it or hate it). I also got a little insight about strategy. I learned what to take into consideration when placing open house signs.

No car dealership report today; however I do think we have a Ferrari 458 Spyder. I am listing a BMW S1000RR. I know a lot of people saw it on my Snapchat and Instagram stories. I believe I am doing that start to finish. I took videos and pictures of the motorcycle, now I need to list it.

Today at the dealership, I wrote up a description on a 2007 Mustang. It was a limited edition model created by Parnelli Jones and Steve Saleen. It is a 5-speed manual with special edition mats, pedals, and a shift knob. I, stupidly, didn’t know where reverse was because there were no indicators (also not knowing it was a 5 speed at the time). I got to move some cool vehicles around. Pictured is a Lamborghini Huracan Performante with full carbon fiber racing seats and a BMW S1000RR. I also continued with more office work and Walkaround videos.

Today on the car ride to a listing appointment, I ran comps on a duplex located in The Southampton. I also did some formulas on excel for comps for the listing that we were going to. Even the formulas from Makerspace Business Club came in handy in the real world. It’s actually quite on point with the real world. Oddly enough this client works for Carrollton Bank so we had a conversation after. I am only bringing this up because of how important customer service is. People want business to be intentional vs transactional. Carrollton Bank strives to create personal connections and I saw Carrollton win business because of that today and the two weeks that I was there.

I kept going to the library and studio this week. On Monday morning, I illustrated the first page and a half of the introduction portion of the Arlys stories. In the afternoon I went to get my second Covid vaccine dose, so I didn’t get to go to the studio. My body had a really intense reaction to the vaccine, so I took Tuesday off. Wednesday morning, I finished the introduction at the library. In the afternoon, I went to Wildwood Community Park to sketch. Thursday morning, I went to Laumeier Sculpture Park to photograph and draw the sculptures, and drafted the first chapter of the Arlys stories at the studio in the afternoon. Today I worked some more on the first chapter, and did some sketching (at the library and studio respectively). (I’ve also recently learned that live sketching can also be called drawing plein air, which is a term people who aren’t fancy oil painters can also use.)

The first chapter of the Arlys stories will be thirteen pages, which will take me at least a couple weeks. It’s about her early childhood, and there’s not a distinct plot, which I don’t see as a problem. There are stories about her relationships with her cousins, friends, and family. It starts at birth and ends when she’s about six or eight years old. (Unfortunately I don’t have anything to show yet – but next week I will.)

Every day before I started a session on the Arlys stories this week, I did a thirty minute warm-up sketch to loosen up, which really helped. When I go out to do live sketches, I don’t always get to draw everything I see, so I take a lot of pictures of things I want to remember. Most of the time, I used these pictures as warm-ups. Both of the pictures I attached below are warm-ups of sculptures at Laumeier.

This week, I tried to focus on focal points when I was live sketching. I would try to indicate a focal point by inking it thicker and in more detail than the rest of the picture, which makes the values more distinct. Additionally, I tried to use less paint and let more of the paper show through. It helps simplify the coloring process, and I think it makes the piece look better. Even though the sketch of the eye sculpture wasn’t done on location, I think it’s the best example of how my skills have progressed this week.

In the world of poetry, I managed to memorize half of Sonnet 81 by Shakespeare this week. In the sonnet, Shakespeare is writing to a lover about how once both of them are dead, the lover will be immortalized because of Shakespeare’s sonnet about them. The language is tough, but I will stick with it, and hopefully I should memorize the whole sonnet next week. I also started skimming through Selected Poems by Gwendolyn Brooks.

I had an Arabic lesson last Saturday, and my next one will be tomorrow. We’re working on verb conjugation, specifically the future and past tenses. I can only make simple sentences with these verbs, so it hasn’t been too difficult so far.

This week was pretty repetitive and boring. Lots of product updates over zoom and in person. Even a mobile show room that was really cool. I Finished cutting samples for project binders and completing renderings for clients. Working in the interiors library is something that’s really helping me prepare for college classes and get ahead. I have been able to get familiar with the materials in the library.

Today was the last day working with Underdown Trenching. I think I’ve really gotten used to getting up early and it’s nice because I get of at noon. I’ve learned a lot more and recently got to go to house where they were running the boring machine. The machine has all the rods that threading onto each other, and when you put the rods in the tray the machine will feed it into the next road and thread it for you. While the machine is running, you have to have somebody with the located checking to see how deep the bit is, that way you don’t hit any water lines or something like propane. Once your hole/trench is the correct length, you dig a hole at the end with a shovel. You then connect a plastic tube to the end of the drill bit. The operator then back pulls, which means they reverse the drill and all the boring rods come out. After the last one is through, the plastic tube has now come out the other side. Now you can put whatever you want through it.

Another thing I learned about was fiber optic. Fiber is made up of these little glass pieces, almost like tubes. The signal goes through the glass as light, which is faster then coax since coax uses sound. There is an tiny number of houses that have fiber directly to it, but David said if you could get fiber directly to your house the speeds would be almost unlimited. Fiber is harder to use which is why is doesn’t go directly to houses. You have to have special people connect it or splice it, which are called splicers. Splicers have to have this special box that fuses the glass together, and you have to be very careful because I’d you get even dust in it the signal will be screwed up. I really enjoyed my time here and it was something that I haven’t done before and previously didn’t know much about.

Today I continued my work in the shop. It was a much more busy today because they finally had the materials in that I needed to finish the dance floors. But before I did that I spent awhile coating the lazy Susan discs in mineral oil. I did the bottoms of the discs first, let them dry, and then went and finished the dance floors. After that I went back to the discs and finished off the tops and edges. It was satisfying to finally complete one of the projects, even if it was a small and easy one. I will continue working on the discs later this week.

Today I was again in the shop working on my projects. The materials for the dance floors were still not here yet so I continues working on the lazy Susan trays. I spent the majority of the day cleaning up and sanding down the extra glue and debris to get a smooth clean surface. It was kind of a slow day today and that was mostly what I did. It took a pretty long time to get them done and requires a lot of attention especially when I was sanding around the circular edges trying to make sure I didn’t round the corners too much. I still have a lot to learn about what I’m doing but I’m picking up tips and tricks everyday that make every job easier and more efficient.

This time of year is crazy because people are starting to buy and sell cars for the warmer weather. The car market is a little bit inflated. The building is filled. All of the lifts are full, and the line of cars back up to the entrance garage door. Yesterday, we got a Lamborghini Huracan Performante in. Today I will probably make a YouTube video on it (for my personal account as well as Parker’s). We sold 50% of our Nissan GTR inventory exactly 1 day after I posted walkaround videos on YouTube. Coincidence? I think not!

Social media is a key role in business now a days. In both internships, I act as a “social media insight”. The car dealership already knows what they are doing. The owner is only 20 years old. I am only a supplement to their social medias. I have all the logins so I can just post stories and grid post pictures of inventory. The real estate media is a little bit harder because it is all about a personal connection. It is a balance between inventory and “who is the agent”. I write scripts and give tips on how to make Instagram posts attract more engagement.

The website is going along very well. It is almost done, I just have a few minor details to work out. Today I worked on putting all the products in with pictures. I have published the site for free using a wix url but the eCommerce does not work with this link. Once the business club is ready to sell stuff they can pay for the eCommerce features and they will also receive a custom domain along with a lot of backend features. Some of the backend features include inventory tracking, email marketing, SEO, and much more. I have attached the link below if you want to check it out.

https://makerspace97.wixsite.com/website

This week has been very productive and I have learned a lot. I have wanted to learn and build a website using a builder for a while but have never had a reason to. I found it fun to play around with different templates and layouts. The rest of the week I am going to work on a personal website.