My first pro game.

Last night I went to the Knicks vs Magic game in MSG.  It is my first ever pro basketball game.  It was a lot of fun.  I can not believe how fast the players play.  I have watched years and years of college basketball and I do not remember ever seeing a college game go that fast.  It was unbelievable.  The athletes in the NBA are ridiculous.

Nate Robinson NYK really had an impact on me.  He was the spark plug on NY.  He went 1000mph all the time, never stopping.  His spin moves where lightning quick and he has a really explosive first few steps.  

Dwight Howard from the magic is one of the best big guys I think I have ever seen.  He had a double double within seven min of the game.  He is really quick off of his feat for a big man.  I think in a couple of years when he gets stronger he will go down as one of the all time greats.  He is going to be a real terror on the league.  

The Adobe Project

This was for a class assignment, we couldn't use our computers so we made it by hand.

Not knowing where I am going is always fun.

After going to the Miami Ad School for a year you are allowed to travel and take greenhouses, internships or even classes all around the world.  

The greenhouses are classes that are in an agency.  They can give you live briefs but not that many, you do have teachers in the agency to give classes.  They are a great opportunity to work on your book and learn in an agency atmosphere.  The only problem with the greenhouses is that there are not very much of them, so sometimes they can be very hard to find a good one.   It doesnt help that after every quarter one more agency drops it.

Luckily there are more internships to apply to, except they have good agencies and bad ones.  The good ones everyone seems to apply to.  The bad ones accept you right away because they may not see anymore books.  You can learn from both it is just with the better ones you learn more.  The worst part about the internships is that they take for ever to tell you that they want you.  They make people want to jump out of buildings because they can not take the waiting.

Classes are boring, it is what you have do for the first year.  Why keep going, I just don't know.  The other two you put on your resume which make them cool.  Classes are fine, I will probably do that my final quarter, hopefully at the San Francisco school.  

One of the big problems right now is some of the biggest agencies are pulling out. They didn't pull out at the beginning of the quarter but very close to the end.  This is leaving people like me, stuck without a place to go at the moment.  My first choice DDB Chicago pulled out last week.  Five weeks after I applied, so I sat in NY with a thumb up my butt because I thought I was going to go there.  I haven't heard a peep about my second (Draftfcb, Chicago) or my third (Saatchi NY).  But I am holding on to these moments as they pass.  I know I will go somewhere, I just don't know where. 

Megan Fox is Single!!!

Megan Fox the hotty has broken up with her fiance, Brian Austin Green I dont know who that guy is but I guess he was on 90210 twenty years ago or something.  She says they will remain "Friends" which means she will never talk to him again.  Even when he comes to her door crying his eyes out because lets face it, she is one of the hottest women on the planet, and he is even just lucky to be seen with her.  I bet in the next couple of days TMZ or someone will report that he hangs outside of her house with a boom box trying to sing to her.  He might even be in a law suit from someone throwing a shoe at him.

I bet she is going to trade up.  Find a star that has more influence then a never was.  That means unfortunately for us common folk we will never get to get any.  But she cant walk away in my dreams.

Working on my book

For the past year I have been working on my book.  I have been going to the Miami Ad School for help creating the best book I can.  Here at the school advertising is life.  My book has come a long way since I started and I still have a little way to go before I am really comfortable with showing it to get a job.  I am trying to add something every quarter that is worth while in my book.  Hopefully I will have enough to get a job at where I want. 

On the way

A breeze gently floats across a park.  Trees that have been dormant start to come back to life, sawaying back and forth.  The pathway of sand and gravel becomes a ballroom for the orange and crimson leaves.  The leaves move together in pairs across the walk way, as if they had choreographed the entire event months before.

One of the leaves blows across the path and rests on a man's pants.  Without a hesitation the man reaches down to get a better look at what is on his pants.  His glacier blue eyes focus on the cream colored leaf with bright red veins.  His corse hand comes out of the warm pocket of his coat.  He reaches down and gently grabs the stem lifts the leaf closer to his eyes.  A smile comes over his face, not any smile a child's smile.  Throwing the leaf in the air he watches as it does a dance right above him before it goes off to join the others.

Bye Bye Marbury!

Fianally the saga of Starbury and Knicks has ended.  The Knicks have finally unloaded the most useless player in the NBA.  He hasnt played a game since last January, when they needed him this year he refused to play.  Marbury has talent, I wont deny that, but every team that he goes to blows up.  Basketball is about a team, but he thinks he should be the only one that has a spotlight.  I think he has maybe been in the playoff once or twice in his 13 year career.  Once he leaves a team they get a lot better.  See the Nets, the Suns and now the Knicks.  In fact the Knick fans should thank him for leaving, because now they can be a contender again, and clear up room to get LBJ.

The Celtics are the team that want to sign Marbury and he has basically said that he will play for them.  I know the Celtics need people to come off of the bench or be a cheerleader like Cassel was on the bench, but Marbury is not that person.  He is going to be very rusty, he has stayed away from the Knicks for the entire year, he will be in game shape when the season is over.  But the Celtics say that they have a really chemistry in the locker room, now they are really going to have to prove it.

Streak for the Cash is so frustrating and fun at the same time.

ESPN has a game on their website called Streak for the Cash, and it is owning me right now.  Every time I log on to my computer I check the site to see how I am doing and to research the future games.  The object of the game is to choose 27 straight winners correctly to win a million dollars.  They give you games that you can choose the winner, how much they will score, or even match two players up against each other.  Sounds easy right?  

Some people have done really well at it and win 70 games a month but me I really struggle to stay over five hundred.  My highest streak that I have had this year is 7 only seven.  I won 7 then I lost five in a row.  

This game is keeping me active on sports, I don't have cable at home so I am unable to watch any of the games (ESPN is buying all the rights to every sporting event and only showing them on their station).  This is keeping me right in there, checking states, rosters and making what I think are informed decisions about the options.  

This game drives me nuts.  I should know who should win so I pick them, then the other team or another person pulls a rabbit out of their hat.  Having a choice to pick two people that average 24 points combined sounds like a good choice compared to one player that averages 24 points.  But when the game ended the one player put up 40 while the two players put up 10.  How are the two best players of the team only going to put up 10 points now really.

If I get hit by lightning I still wont win this game, but that is ok, I just like to play

I called a creative recruiter today

A job can come from a simple phone call, but why is the phone call so difficult to do?  I can talk to them face to face and have no fear, but on the phone I am hesitant.  I don't know why that is.  Before I call I always sit there with the number on my phone thinking what do I want to say, how do I want to say, and structure the conversation before it ever happens.  It goes well when everything goes to plan, but when they throw me a curve ball I get all nervous and start to panic.  I have more trouble talking on the phone than walking up to the prettiest girl in the bar and talking to her.  To me that is easy, I can start a conversation with anyone at any moment when I can see them.  It is just when I do it on the phone I freeze up for some reason.

The call went fine.  I talked to the creative recruiter for a little bit and she has to get back to me about an internship.  I would really like an internship at DDB Chicago, it's a bad ass agency and would look good on the resume.  

Lazy day

Every once and a while I have one of those days where I don't really want to do anything.  I started off wanting to do a lot, but when it came down to it I really haven't done much.  Mondays suck, it is the day that you should actually recover from the weekend because Sunday isn't always enough.  It is always the least productive day of the work week.  I feel if I put my mind in a blender this weekend and I am still trying to put the pieces back together.

Who doesn't like dinosaurs!

When you're kid dinosaurs are the coolest thing ever, then you grow up and your interests change.  It happens, thousands of things get forgotten or over looked all the time, take my imaginary friend Buckiss for instance, just kidding, I have never forgotten Buckiss we still play space man every chance we get.  

Now that I can afford to do things on my own(without parents money) and I went to the natural science museum with the gf, and walked around for hours.  The dinosaur exhibit was the only thing worth looking at.  I loved it, but the kids running and jumping not so much.  I understand why they did, dinosaurs are not like fashion or pop stars, they never go out of style.  I felt like a kid again without all the running and screaming.

I guess I was wrong.

It wouldn't have been a good move if Cleveland traded for Amare this year.  He is now out for eight weeks with a detached retina.  That just sounds terrible.  I have had eye problems before thanks to my damn contacts.  When your eyes hurt it feels like you just got spanked with a paddle that had nails sticking out of it.

You know he isnt going to stay but she should

David Beckham the most famous soccer player in the world is looking to get a contract from AC Milan.  He is with the team right now but he is on loan from the LA Galaxy that is in the last month of the term.  

I really dont want to see Becks go, he is an amazing player.  I watched him when he and the Galaxy came to Minneapolis.  Except no one was there to see the Galaxy they were there to see him.  I dont even they want to let him go.  They are getting world wide fame and sales just from his name.  No one gives to shits for them but when they have the most popular player in the world everyone loves them.  I do think he should continue playing at the highest level.  He is one of the best he should play with the best.  He is a natural competitor, and if he stays in the US he only get worse.

If he goes his wife needs to stay just so I can see her on TMZ and in tabloids.  She is absolutely beautiful I mean look at her, I dont even know if I can name five women that are better looking than her, well maybe I can but she is definitely in the top ten.  Lets face it when they leave the US just wont care, and they will be forgotten.  Except by people that follow the sport.

something I am working on

Little did we know, today we were entering the mouth of hell.  As soon as the door dropped, a barrage of tracers and blood cut its way through my platoon.  There was no way out, except up and over the side of the boat.  I had to use my knife to cut  my pack off, the Damn thing was so heavy it almost took me down with it.  I finally get free and make my way to the shore.  Red sand kicks up all around me while I run to find cover.  

A Captain is shouting orders and pointing forward as he is lifted off of the ground.  A moment of stupidity comes over me while I run out with another man to bring the captain back to cover.  We grabbed jacket and made a b-line away from fire.  I tried to patch him but I've never seen so much blood, it was gushing out like the man was a water well back on the farm.  The only thing I could do is give him morphine and watch while his eyes became dull.  

Suddenly I  felt a tug on my coat, a Lieutenant picked me up and threw me back into hells fire.  Not only do I have to worry about being sent home as swiss cheese but having to avoid falling on the mines from the heave.  Weaving in and out of the craters, avoiding the bodies that where tossed every which way by the explosions.  I only had one thought, "don't hesitate go straight through."  I have met the devil today, and he wore gray.  We made over the barbwire barricade that they stocked on the beach. The bunker is dug into the side of the hill with the nests on top making an up hill charge foolish.  The guy who opened the door to a hail fire of bullets.  We secured the troop barracks

Idea stealers

One thing the advertising industry hates, are idea stealers.  People who take ideas and claim it as your own.  Sometimes it just happens but other times people steal ideas because they cant come up with anything themselves.  These people always get caught because the ad community will call you out as soon as they can.  

Since I have been at the Miami Ad School I have never had anyone steal my idea, that was until now.  My group had an idea for the history channel and now I have learned that another group has taken it and called it theirs.  The exact same IDEA written in the same way.  They stole it because when they originally presented it they had nothing even close to it.  I just cant believe it, they are spending the money to go here and they are stealing ideas.  Maybe I should be happy that it was my groups idea to begin with, and they say imitation is the best form of flattery.  I think it is complete bullshit.  It has me questioning them all together, they never show up to class with marker comps or anything finished for the class, they make them in class and they always go last.  In fact they have had ideas that are similar to other groups before as well.  But it's hard to say when they never have anything set on a page when they show up in class and they are the last to present that makes you wonder, are they taking ideas that the teachers spew out from other peoples ideas or what? 

NBA trades

Today is the last day of the trade deadline for the NBA.  Some teams are set while others are looking to improve or scrap their team.  Many teams are unloading long contracts to get ready for the 2010.  That is when some big name players like Lebron, Chris Bosh, Carlos Boozer and many others will become unrestricted free agents.

The reason for this post is because I think it is funny that Cleveland is doing all it can to build a team around Lebron.  They want a good big man like Chris Bosh, Amare Stoudemire, and Antwan Jameson.  But a report on ESPN said they are going after Shaq.  Why?  He is going to retire by the time James is a free agent.  His best years are long past him.  He has maybe one or two years left in him, and those years are not going to be good years.  Last year he was traded to Phoenix and basically ruined that team.  The once run and gun team had to wait for his fat ass to run down the court and set up.  It wasnt their style, they went from being a really good exciting team to just another NBA team.  

Cleveland if you want Lebron to stay build the team with young good talent that will help him not slow him.  Talent that wont retire when he becomes a free agent.

How much is enough?

More grim news on the financial front.  GM and Chrysler are asking for more money, again.  They are saying that they may need $30 billion more but they can get by for a while on $16.6 Billion.  They might be able to pay us back when the companies become profitable in two years that is if they dont go bankrupt first.  Then they pose the threat that if they dont get the money they are for sure going to go bankrupt.  Now who is holding the gun, the government or these companies?  

I think they do need help and that we should help them out a little bit, but not this much.  I want to know what the people that are running these companies are doing.  Are they putting their own money in?  Spending their savings?  Taking a pay cut?  Making workers take a pay cut (the bad thing is the Unions would never let that happen even though it needs to)?  Or are they taking all they can get to buy their own island in the Bahamas?  

Happy Birthday to the Greatest

Back when I was a kid there was only one team that mattered in the NBA.  Da Bulls.  They were the greatest team ever, it might of been because of the kooky hair due of Dennis Rodman, or the revolutionary coaching of Phil, but if I was to say that it would be a flat out lie.  The only reason why the Bulls where the most popular team in the 90's was because of #23.  The greatest player to ever play the game.  If you look now at the two guard they all imitate him Lebron, Kobe, and who ever else plays that position.  Before him you had to have a good center to win a title, he changed that.  He was number 2 or 3 in all time scoring when he retired three times.  If he would have kept playing with the bulls he would have more rings than any other person in the history of the NBA.  He changed the game like no other before him.  I will also say that I really have not payed any attention to the NBA since he left in 98.

Happy 46th birthday MJ.

submissions to the Clios

Last week I freaked out.  Thats because Awards are starting to come around.  Some how I got bit by that damn bug this year.  I want to win, I think I can and will win.  But submitting it is all the hassle I really don't want.  When you submit they have a ton of rules that you have to abide by, and if you don't, you get screwed.  So to prevent paying the money just for them to throw it out immediately we have to read five pages of entry requirements.  Anytime you read instructions you get bored to death.  Men don't read instructions, I know women do, but if men or at least I don't.  I hate them.  If it is suppose to look a certain way, I can look at the box, if my end game doesn't look that way then shit, but then you throw it out and have someone make it for you.

But this award is a little different, it is like the grammies, the rest of the world doesn't care but it is prestigious to the people that win.  So I made sure I know what I had to do, well the girl next to me was submitting to the same event so I just followed her.

I almost forgot presidents day

See how much yesterdays holiday means to me.  I and the rest of America only see it as a day off.  Why don't we have a tradition of celebrating the people that were in control of the country?  But here is my tribute to those great men.  

George Washington * John Adams * Thomas Jefferson * James Madison * James Monroe * John Quincy Adams * Andrew Jackson * Martin Van Buren * William Henry Harrison * John Tyler * James K. Polk * Zachary Taylor * Millard Fillmore * Franklin Pierce * James Buchanan * Abraham Lincoln * Andrew Johnson * Ulysses S. Grant * Rutherford B Hayes * James Garfield * Chester Arthur * Grover Cleveland * Benjamin Harrison * Grover Cleveland * William McKinley * Theodore Roosevelt * William H. Taft * Woodrow Wilson * Warren Harding * Calvin Coolidge * Herbert Hoover * Franklin D. Roosevelt * Harry S. Truman * Dwight D. Eisenhower * John F. Kennedy * Lindon Bains Johnson * Richard Nixon *Gerald Ford * Jimmy Carter * Ronald Reagan * George H. W. Bush * Bill Clinton * George W. Bush * Barrak Obama

I have to say pretty exciting.  Being a history major I should be able to name all of the presidents.  Some are tricky because they only served for a few months while others literally did nothing in eight years.  I didnt want to put Obama on it but since he is president I had to, lets see if he will be remembered or forgotten in 200 years.  

Great form from the USA!!!!

Last night the US soccer team played arch rivals Mexico in Columbus, OH thanks to Michael Bradley who scored twice.  It has become a custom for the US and Mexico to duke it out for the top spot in North America for a bid to the World Cup.  The US is dominate on home soil and Mexico is dominate on there home soil.  But this win last night the US looked and played like a better team.

It will be interesting to see what happens when the US packs up there bags and heads south of the border for the next show down.  But if they have the same intensity they showed last night I believe they will come up with the same results.

GO USA!!!!!!!!

Farve is retiring again or so it seems!

The biggest name in football is retiring again, maybe.  But this time he is leaving his team the Jets worse off then they were before he got there.  They traded people for an old man that led the league in interceptions with 22, fired their coach, and worst off cut Chad "fragile as an egg" Pennington only to watch him beat them at home with the Dolphins.

I thought last year with the Packers would have been a great year for Farve to leave, a great player should leave on a high note.  I think it might reflect in how we remember him.  Before he went to the Jets he was, the defenses worst nightmare.  And now he just proved that he is a pick throwing machine that cost his team the playoffs.

It's going to be hard to see #4 go but unless he plays for the Vikings good riddance.

The best Pizza I have ever had!

I just came back from Lombardi's Pizza in Soho and it was some of the greatest pizza that I have ever had, if not the best.  They specialize in the Napoletana pizza.  It came out and it was so fresh and so good it was mind blowing.  From start to finish it was fantastic with a capital F followed by a capitalized ANTASTIC.  

One thing that I found interesting is the History behind this pizzeria.  Lombardi's started as a grocery store back in 1897.  Then it was established as the first pizzeria in America in 1905.  They must have a consistently great to be open this long.

You have to go try this place for your self it is just that amazing.  I give it five stars out of five.

How much are we going to throw at these failing companies?

I believe that we need to do something to get us out of this recession, but throwing money at failing companies is not the answer.  They end up paying themselves in bonuses with the our money.  Isn't the US in enough debt already?  I know that if some of these companies fail could destroy our economy.  But if they keep failing with our money then they fucked us.  In my opinion they got in this situation they need to find there own way out of it.  Someone will find a way to take there place, survival of the fittest, it's happen for ages let it keep happening.

What if these companies take the money and still go belly up?  What if they are never able to pay back what they take?  What then, if they failed once why do you think throwing money will help them change that.  They still have the same people running the biz.

An Economic Stimulus at our own cost.  

I didnt get into this industry to copy people

The advertising industry is about finding what is new and taking it to the new level.  New ideas are not easy to come up with because so much has already been done before.  But that is what separates the good from the bad.  The good always finds a way to keep things interesting and fresh.  While the others try to recycle old tired ideas that have been used for a long time.  I have seen this in Ad School and in many different ads.  I will even admit that I have thought that way sometimes, and I have made sure that they are not in my book.

To get out of this rut you have to take yourself from the situation and think; what is different about this, what sets it apart, what do people don't already know, how can I say it in an interesting way?  These questions are very important to ask yourself while you are thinking of strategies and executions.

A three hour chase in a Bentley

Chris Brown lead police on a three hour chase today in his Bentley.  He is obviously not smart to take a less noticeable car on a chase.  Or maybe he just wanted to pay tribute to OJ with a white car that started with a B.  Because no matter where you go you will never outrun the cops in a white Bentley.  He figured that his $200,000 car would mix in with all of those Hondas, Toyota's and Fords.  

All of this happened because his knuckles got frisky had a little to much fun on Rihanna's face.  He was auditioning for the Ultimate Fighter.  I don't think hitting a woman is right but if I was that rich I wouldn't care cause I could get away with anything.  But if I were to lead to cops again in a high speed chase it would be in a Bugatti, 1,000 horsepower garentees the cops wont catch me.

Empire State

I went to the top of the Empire State Building like King Kong.  All stretched out looking at the city in a gaze.  Little fires lined the streets, some red, some orange and a rare hint of blue, making the light brighter than the moon.

All is silent at the top of the world.  No more sirens, honking and screaming that echo's below.  Just you, the sky and about a hundred people that are all struck in a gaze not caring what happens below.  Your in a whole new world when your atop of the Empire State.

The New Bonnie and Clyde.

This is pretty exciting.  Hollywood is remaking the story of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, who are two of the most interesting criminals in American History.  Their story is legendary, they where media darlings back in the 30's.  They are America's version of Robin Hood, except they didn't give to the poor and they gave a wake to dead police men where ever they went.  

I love the idea of the remake of the movie, but I hate who they have in it.  Crappy Movie Teen queen Hillary Duff is going to play the role of Bonnie Parker.  Why?  What has she ever shown in any of her movies that she can hold her own in a role like this.  No body wants to watch her in a movie, let alone killing them with her boredom.  She doesn't even draw people to movies, why is she even in there.  

Faye Dunaway, the original actress who played the iconic role Bonnie in 1967 had this to say.

"Couldn't they at least cast a real actress."

To me that is enough said.  Hollywood GET SOMEONE ELSE TO DO BONNIE.

I really want to clime the Brooklyn Bridge

Visiting the Brooklyn Bridge was amazing.  It made me really want to clime it to get a view of the city.  I am sure the cops would come, but they don't have any signs that say don't clime.  Getting up there would be a real thrill and it wouldn't be hard to get past the crappy gate that they have protecting the top.  If I was to do it, I would do it at night to see all the lights, maybe even camp up there, who knows.

Have any suggestions?

My AD and I are working on a product for fresh direct, a online grocery delivery service in NY.  We have a couple strategies that we are working off of:

1  Food at the super market is older then you think.

2 48 hours is better then waiting 7 days.

3  Different Climate rooms for different food.

If you have any suggestions on what to do with that let me know.

This is what I do.

I have had people ask me, what is an advertising copywriter?  So I thought it would be important to tell you what I do.

First of all Copywriters are the ones who write all of the ads you see.  We write everything from scripts for commercials to pamphlets and everything inbetween.  We are "writing machines."  Getting into the mind of the many is a difficult job.  

We have the privilege of coming up with the idea for the ad.  What it is going to say how is it going to say it and so on.  But for this task we are not alone, we have Art Directors as our partners to help us come up with the idea.  

Working in groups with an Art Director can be very frustrating at times, but also very rewarding.  People can work together for years, while other groups split and go their own way.  It would be great to have a partner, but it is also great having the chance to work with anyone.

My typical day as a copywriter consists of looking at the internet, writing, watching videos on youtube, writing, playing some wii, writing and just for the hell of it writing some more.

This is what I want to do for the rest of my life.  I love my job period

Another entertaining game

The game last night was unbelievable.  It was exactly how a superbowl should be.  Very entertaining and action pact.  It went right down the the wire.  I had told a friend "The Cards by three," at the very beginning of the game.  

The first quarter I thought the Steelers might blow out the Cards.  I thought the cards may have reverted back to the way they where before the playoffs began.  But they turned it around in the second quarter.  The started playing like the team of the playoffs.  Everything clicked for them in the second quarter until that last 16 seconds when the beast Harrison intercepted the ball that was thrown right to him and marched down the field for the touchdown.  That was an amazing play.  I thought one of his own players was going to knock him over for a while but he kept marching down and no one could stop him.

In the forth quarter with the Cards made a late charge, Forcing a fumble and finally getting the ball to there play maker Fitzgerald.  I think he caught six of his seven catches in the last quarter.  He finally got the ball and he showed why he had been the best playmaker of the playoffs.  But his heroics where not enough.  The Steelers also had a player wearing a cape that day, Holmes.  He was the only reason why the Steelers won.  He was the best player on the field yesterday by far.  He was the one who moved the Steelers up the field.  His last catch that put the Steelers over the top is something young receivers will dream of doing for years. 

Thanks to all the players of the Steelers and Cardinals for providing America with a great game