So I was watching TV and this commercial came on. It was about a site called neworleans.com. Obviously, its a site about New Orleans. “Oh, its just another generic New Orleans commercial.” I say to myself. Then at the end of the commercial, the logo for their site shows up. It looked oddly familiar.
Check it out:
neworleans.com’s logo
Now where have I seen that graphic before? Oh that’s right. I did a project last semester that had a similar design. It was an advertising project where we had to create a billboard to advertise the city of New Orleans. The catch was you had to think about how you would advertise New Orleans outside of Louisiana. Anyway, here’s what I came up with (NewOrleansOnline.com is a real site by the way. I just used their site for the sake of the project.):
My billboard ad
Side by side comparison
Coincidence? Probably. Am I going to do anything about it? Probably not. I just found it funny to see a very similar design on TV. Even my version of Andrew Jackson’s statue almost fits perfectly with theirs. Only the size and detail of the cathedral is different. Again, I’m probably not going to take any action as I really do think its just a big coincidence. And besides, its just a class project. And who knows? They probably thought of the design before I did :p
“Ableton Live looped cover of Something About Us by Daft Punk, performed on Nintendo DS Ubisoft Jam Sessions, Midi controlled software electric bass, drums, synth, vocoded vocals, and solo theremin, recorded in a single pass, with a single camera.”
Very awesome. Please watch this with an open mind.
Ion Drum Rocker (Premium Drum Set for Rock Band)
So what happens when you’re obsessed with Rock Band and a “premium” drum set was made available for purchase? You buy it… for $300 plus shipping.
My package came in yesterday and I was pretty excited. The UPS man dropped it off on the front door and I lugged it upstairs to my room. The whole box weighed 33 pounds. So it’s 4 o’ clock and Judge Mathis was on TV. I set the box down and proceeded to open it. Inside, there was the actual box of the drum kit itself. And inside that, there were smaller boxes and some support bars for the kit. It took me around 20 minutes to unpack everything. (more…)
Rock Band 2 for XBOX 360 by Harmonix
Donkey’s review: Awesome. Buy it.
From a graphic designer’s point of view:
The art direction was pretty awesome in the first game. Everything was sleek—from the menus, the on screen displays while you’re rocking out, the use of different fonts, to the general artwork that’s present all around the game. Rock Band 2, however, blows the first game out of the water in terms of art direction. I’m really impressed with what they did with the game.
I mean look at this tiger in the main menu: Awesome.
There’s other little subtleties like how the menus transition to sub-menus and the like. The overall package is just more awesome. What was missing, they implemented it. What was good, they expanded on it.
While we’re on the subject of Rock Band, my little sister was customizing her character and she came across this:
Yeah! It’s an “Ao Dai” top. For those who don’t know, it’s the Vietnamese national outfit for women. Kind of funny how it’s in the game. Well, it’s funny because I’m Vietnamese… err yeah.
While we’re still on the subject, I went ahead and ordered the Drum Rocker. It’s a premium e-drumkit for Rock Band by Ion. It doubles as a real e-drumkit if you buy the electronic brain for it. It hasn’t come in yet but I’ll be sure to post some pictures when I get it.
Oh right, other stuff!
I saw a Wendy’s commercial advertising the “Double Stack”. I say to myself, “Wait a minute, didn’t they discontinue the Double Stack? They replaced it with the shittier Stack Attack.” I went out to Wendy’s later on the night and lo and behold, its there on the menu. It costs the same as it was back in the day. Yes, it was good.
01 The Autobots & Screwface feat. Navigator – Headcase (Screwface Remix)
02 Antiform feat. Ethical & Neesh – Grip
03 Cut & Run – Jigga What
04 Sharaz – Superphonic
05 Wavewhore – More Life
06 Beat Assassins feat. Nine Lives – Generation MTV (Pimpim Mix)
07 Stanton Warriors feat. Big Daddy Kane – Get Wild (Stanton’s Bounce Mix)
08 The BPA feat. Dizzee Rascal & David Byrne – Toe Jam (Stanton Warriors Remix)
09 MIA – Paper Planes (Dalgo Remix)
10 Amiel – Be You Girl (Bass Kleph Remix)
11 Krafty Kuts Vs The Freestylers – Dynamite Love
12 Evil Nine – They Live!
13 Faydee – Never Ever (donkeybeatz Remix)
14 Angelica de No – Sweet Seduction (DJ Trashy & Tekk Remix)
Question:What’s the meaning behind the album cover?
It came out of a habit of me saying “I approve” to everything I like.
EDIT: Track 6 is supposed to be “Pimpim Mix” not “Pimpin’ Mix”. Sorry for the error. Post updated with the correction. Kinda late to make the correction in the files though but you guys can do that by yourselves right?
Monday
12:49 P.M.
Power goes out. Comes back on shortly.
12:51 P.M.
Power goes out again =(
After awhile, I lose track of time. My phone couldn’t get a signal so I turned it off to save battery. I spend most of the day sleeping and eating ham sandwiches. Couldn’t really cook anything since, the power was out. Didn’t really help that the stove was an electric one. Outside, it’s really windy and the rain seems to be going in a horizontal direction. The wind gives off a high pitched howl as it blows through the area. Some of the wind gusts shook the entire building. The ceiling started to leak at one of the corners of the apartment. Things calm down a bit by nightfall. I spent most of the night playing on my Nintendo DS. I actually put in some time in Professor Layton and the Curious Village. Awesome game with some awesome puzzles. I also played Advanced Wars: Days of Ruin for a bit trying to get S ranks in some of the maps. Then I remembered I haven’t finished Phoenix Wright: Justice for All. So I played that for most of the night then ended it with more Professor Layton. Yes, the DS lasted for hours and it was still chugging along.
Tuesday
The order of events are probably not right, but I’ll try to remember as best as I can.
Some people came to the apartment during the morning to check on the leaking ceiling. It rained most of the day. It’s hot in the apartment and there’s absolutely nothing else to do other than play on my DS. Battery was still good but I can only play for an hour or two at a time. At one point, a piece of the ceiling in my little sister’s room (which is upstairs) collapsed, resulting in more water coming into the apartment.
A piece of the ceiling comes off.
Below, water is now leaking through the ceiling light. Rain turned into light drizzle. I go out to check out the scenery. Pieces of roofing and branches were littered everywhere. In the front of the complex, there’s a bustop… or there used to be.
The bus stop in front of the complex.
I go to check out my car in the visitor’s parking lot. Looks good. I got in my car to check out the radio. To the left, there’s a road but it seems to be blocked off. I get out of my car to check it out. There was a downed tree and a downed pole blocking one lane.
Blocked lane.
I go back to the apartment and the water leaking into my sister’s room seems to be getting worse. We have to somehow divert the water out the window. So we used some shower drapes (is that what its called?) and tacked it on the wall and made a make-shift gutter and diverted the water outside.
Our man-made gutter.
Shortly after, another piece of the ceiling falls down. Things are starting to get very miserable. People are experiencing the same thing in their apartments. We decided to pack up and get out of there. It was hot, the apartment was falling apart, and we didn’t really have much food. Around 6:00 P.M., we drive out to a cousin’s place about 30-40 minutes out. Power was out also but it was dry at least and they had food for us. After we eat, we go to another place where there’s power. We would spend the night there.
Getting ready to get the hell out of there.
Wednesday
Sometime yesterday, I was in my car listening to the radio and they said that they will start letting people in on Wednesday at 6:00 A.M. So we leave at 6:00 A.M. My car only had a half of a tank but hey, its a Honda Civic, it’ll make it =) Traffic wasn’t too bad and damage seems to be at a minimal as I drove by. The area I lived in had virtually no damage if any. It appears to only have some minimal wind damage. Debris was everywhere but nothing too major. My dad was OK and so was the house. Unfortunately, there’s no power here. My dad told me to go out to the Alario Center to pick up some stuff for my grandma. The national guards were there handing out MRE’s (Meals Ready to Eat) and water. There was a long line but the process was pretty quick. It’s been awhile since I ate some MRE’s but I remember that the spaghetti one was magically delicious. So I looked in the box and there it was—the spaghetti pack.
Awwww yeah. Spaghetti.
The outside packaging is different but other than that, its totally the same. OK, except this time, they give you a packet of water to use with the heating bag thing, there’s no napkins, and for some odd reason, there’s no miniature tabasco sauce! Of course, we had our own so I just used that.
May not look like much but trust me, its good.
Later on the day, we went to my uncle’s house to eat dinner. He had a generator so we were able to eat in the light. I took this chance to charge all of my stuff including my DS. By 8:00 P.M., the town was almost in complete darkness. I get home and set up some candles. Again, I end the night playing on my DS.
From Thursday to Saturday
Situation hasn’t changed. The neighborhood doesn’t have any power but the surrounding ones do. I’m fairly an optimistic person and have very high patience but these past few days are really taxing to my mind. It’s frustrating hoping the power will be up and running only to wake up to totally the opposite.
Sunday
My dad woke me up in the morning to tell me to go to church and after that, to go back to Baton Rouge to help my little sisters move their stuff out of their apartment. The church had a generator so we were able to have mass. After that, my bro and I took my dad’s truck to Baton Rouge. When we arrived, the scene looks pretty much the same as we left it. Power were still out and there’s still downed trees everywhere. After a bunch of driving back and forth, we go back home. Power was still out in town. Around 7:15 P.M., the power comes back on! It’s good to be back ladies and gentlemen…
Oh yeah, the Saints won!
