creative riff

In case you didn’t read my earlier post about the Aeropress coffee maker last week, this is an example of some damn good coffee. Brewed a 15 ounce cup today of Cafe Americano… essentially the same as a triple expresso. Woooo! Seriously, everyone should pick one of these coffee presses up. $26 on Amazon.com with a bonus 250 filters.

Tonight I found out that a “friend” buddy of mine from UNC won Sony’s Playstation Tester reality show. The contestant, Cyrus, or Will Powers went from being a waiter to now a video game tester after a series of events that have little to do with any kind of real skills or abilities a video game tester needs.

So what exactly does a video game tester do you ask? They are the people who sit in cramped cubicles and play early/unfinished builds of video games for hours on end for minimum wage. I repeat minimum wage. How many jobs can you think of that have the audacity to pay you $7.25/hour? I can count them on one hand.

Will "Cyrus" Powers

So Cyrus is the winner. Congratulations! Now get out there and test with the best of them. Who knows? Maybe you will become the next David Jaffe and release a critically acclaimed game and own your own video game studio.

Or it could end up like this…

Sources: Kotaku.com, The Tester & Penny-Arcade.com

Lordy me, it’s Easter. I think the website is officially 1 year 1 month and 1 day old at this point. Things have changed dramatically from last year. I had just gotten back from Florence, Italy, and was living back in the dorms for a semester my senior year as I was scrambling to apply to a number of ad schools. Yes, that was my take on what these schools were for.

Now, I have two bedrooms and I am student at the VCU Brandcenter in communications strategy. 2009 already seems like it was eons ago. Yet, I feel like I have grown a ton over the past six months here in Richmond. I am now an loyal podcast/NPR listener and I am now able to create a number of mixed cocktails at a moment’s notice.

So the heat has begun to roll into the South and with it comes the desire to stay alert as I move ever closer towards summer. My latest investment? The Aeropress French coffee press. 350 filters later I am a much happier person. I would take the time to explain how it all works, but this will suffice. Enjoy!

This is what greeted me yesterday when I opened my computer after napping all afternoon (hangovers are fun).

It is crazy to believe that I have been an eBay member since July 14, 2003. Back then everything had to come in my mom’s name since I did not have a debit or credit card.

To recap here are the items that pushed me over to the 100 feedback milestone this Christmas break:

-7 For All Mankind “Dojo” Women’s Jeans (sister wanted them)

-Armani Code by Georgio Armani Mens 2.5 Oz. Tester Bottle

-Burberry London for Men Spray 3 Oz.

-American Ninja (DVD)

-American Ninja 2/3 (DVD)

The very fact that Michael Dudikoff led to my 100 feedback was the reason for this post. Sorry, but do enjoy!

As follows (thought I would put them in writing this year):

-Floss more (figure it out for yourself)

-Move my lard-ass self off of the couch

-Find love

-Learn some new bass scales

Future Resolutions

-Host/guest on a podcast before I die

-Actually read books again

-Buy a new pair of in-line skates and not look like a sordid mess wearing them (impossible)

-Learn how to bake pies better

It sure has been awhile since I last checked into the office. Basically half a month to be exact. My excuse: stealing a wireless signal in muggy Richmond makes one look more than a little suspicious. Now that I have had working Internet (I like how I think of it like running water) for over a week now, I have had no excuse for abandoning my infant. Or is this thing a toddler now (the website is 5 months old now)? I thought I would upload some pictures of my blog’s analytics.

So here is my built-in blog stats generator:

Man, September 1st was a huge day for me. In fact, it is the biggest day for me ever with 203 hits. No new information in over 15 days and somehow I have the best day of my blog’s life. Crazy.

I’m a big fan of the second opinion so I also utilize Google Analytics to track my blog’s success. Here’s what it says for the same time period.

12 visits on August 1st. Phishy. Really phishy. Just goes to show folks that WordPress is built on some solid code, but most of the built-in plugins are awful at counting spider bots and “echo” pingbacks.

That’s all I really wanted to say. I’m back and ready to upload some fresh new stuff about my time at VCU and beyond. Get ready.

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This isn’t new news by any means, but the linked image is just too cool to not share. So Sesame Street turned 40 on January 30 this year to those not keep track.

It is crazy to even think how old Sesame Street has been entertaining our kids. I remember my mom forced me to watch the show every day before Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles came on. Hey, I’m not complaining.

Hit up this link for a guide to the puppets that probably raised you.

Sources: 101 Muppets of Sesame Street, Muppet Wiki

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I promise more delicious content in the coming days (I am currently at the beach and the reason why I haven’t been able to update as much).

I did want to let everyone who reads this thing know that I am currently in at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Brandcenter for communication strategy. Great news and I will hopefully have more shortly.

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The Pirate Bay was once referred to as the most well-known Bit Torrent tracker website in the world. Everyone from member of the Pirate Party to anarchists to hippies to cheapskates filled their hard drives with every known reincarnation of Mega Man X3. Times were golden as stealing involved a quick search and a tiny download. But like all good things in life it was not meant to be.

Other Bit Torrent tracker websites such as the UK’s OiNK and US’s Suprnova bit the dust after government server raids. The fact that The Pirate Bay continued to exist this long is nothing short of a miracle – The Netherlands’ law almost completely ignored torrent tracker sites until recently. The Pirate Bay moved its main servers to Stockholm with the long term interest in purchasing a small, private island with which to be immune from international copyright law. Unfortunately, things didn’t pan out for The Bay as a nine-day trial in Stockholm ended with a guilty verdict for “assisting in making copyrighted material available.” The Swiss court ruled that the four defendants serve a sentence of one year and were fined the equivalent of $3.6 million.

To add greater damage for pirates, software company Global Gaming Factory X AB paid $7.4 million to run the website “legally.” The company intends to utilize the new business model to compensate copyright owners – a Bit Torrent Napster of sorts. How the news will pan out among users is pretty obvious.

According to a statement from The Pirate Bay, “If the new owners will screw around with the site, nobody will keep using it. That’s the biggest insurance one can have that the site will be run in the way that we all want to.”

Well, I suppose the pirates will just move back to Coda.fm or Mininova and not notice any difference at all. Why pay when you can just steal the Blu-Raaarrrrrrrry edition? I’m here til Sunday, ladies and gentlefolks.

Source: The Pirate Bay Purchased

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For those unfamiliar with Volkswagen’s “Pink Moon” ad it goes like this: Four friends are riding in a Cabrio at night to a house party. There are lots of quick shots cutting to the moon and the four friends enjoying a night drive. The wind whips their hair about as they make off-screen stares into the light created by the headlights. Upon their eventual arrival at the party the four friends silently decide that the ride over was more fun than the party they are going to will be. The final scene shows the friends enjoying the expansion of their carbon footprint.

So what makes this ad so great? Unlike the newer VW ads that use shock value to grab the viewer’s attention it is the seamless use of music and visual imagery to tell the story. Nick Drake’s Pink Moon provides a haunting backdrop for the beautiful cinematography. There are no spoken lines by the actors in the entire commercial but we are fine with that. Like the iPod commercials it just isn’t necessary. We get it.

I get the sense that after this ad was shot and was being presented to Volkswagen there were more than a few tears shed. I keep hoping that VW will pick up this campaign at some point and create some more nocturnal wandering.

Rating:

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