Legofish

rick what

2008-01-16T16:38:48Z

Sometimes when I see a really interesting video or news item online and I find out that it was apparently the talk-of-the-net several months ago I feel a little bad that I'm so far behind. On the other hand, it also probably means that I'm not a super-nurd, which is a comforting consolation. In any case, at the risk of looking stupid in the eyes of the geeks who read this, I'm going to blog about all of these interesting (yet somewhat old) stuff that I discovered today.

First, there is this extremely unbelievably retarded news video that aired on a local Fox station in july 2007. You'll cringe as you see this, but this is not a parody or hoax, it's an actual news report : check it here.

The way I found the video was by reading about the concept of imageboards, another seemingly big topic which had illuded me (there goes my big business idea).

How did I hear about imageboard, you say? I was reading about another internet meme called "Rick Rolling" and in the process found out that Rick Rolling was started at one of these popular image boards (4chan).

And finally, what started all of this was this xkcd strip. The rickrolling comment at the end made me curious and set of my wonderous journey in the internets.

Oh and since we're doing this, another example of why 80's was a disaster.

Game Over

2007-11-28T21:41:33Z

I beat Assassin's Creed on the weekend. I still have mixed feelings about the game. On the one hand I really enjoyed the realism and the free roaming nature, and of course the grandness of each city. On the other hand, I was as frustrated as everyone else with the repetetive gameplay. In any case, the ending is open-ended and sets up the sequel. What's interesting is that there are a ton of hidden secrets and messages laid out for you at the end. I almost overlooked all of these, but then I found an interesting link after finishing the game which explains the ending and it added a whole new dimension to the game for me. Check it out.

assassins creed

2007-11-16T16:53:43Z

It finally came out yesterday. I had been following the development for Assassin's Creed for the past year, eagerly waiting for its release.

I'm not a hardcore gamer at all. I only play a game if I love it, and that means that I might play 2-3 titles per year (or sometimes no titles, if nothing comes out that's interesting to me). But the games I do play, I play with passion.

]]> I had been a PC gamer until I saw Ninja Gaiden four years ago at a friend's place. That game suckered me into getting an Xbox just so I could play that one game. The same thing happened again last month when I saw an ad for Heavenly Sword on TV. I couldn't believe I had never seen or heard about it before, but I knew I just had to play it. So I went out an got a PS3 (just before the price-drop, mind you), and I don't regret it one bit.

So now comes Assassin's Creed, a game I anticipated and loved to play just as much as Ninja Gaiden and the Heavenly Sword, and I must say my first experience playing it was a bit of a let down. I had every reason to look forward to this game: It's made by my favorite studio Ubisoft Montreal, The characters and story were very interesting, the game was clearly next gen, and the setting seemed out of this world.

I'm still on the first mission, but I totally aree with this IGN review of the game. What could have been an extra-ordinary game just falls short because of a few bad gameplay decisions.

I must say I adore the realism and historical accuracy of this game (I can only look back and wish they had strived for the same accuracy in the Prince of Persia series), but the slow pace of the game and the less-than-ideal combat system is what breaks it for me. Also I was looking forward to a great soundtrack, but unfortunately that's almost non-existent.

Still, I look foward to finishing it, and even more so to the release of the sequel.

and the winner is

2007-11-06T19:29:40Z

ME! well, sort of. Both of my entries won an award :

Labelheads, won Dr. Frank Piller's "Innovativeness" award. It was one of the panel awards in the competition. It also won the popular vote, which certainly surprised me in a very good way. Despite that and despite being in the panelists' top 3, it didn't get any of the main prizes. Spreadshirt felt it wasn't serious enough, a decision that I fully respect.

My second submission, Molecular Goodness, which was a collaboration with my designer friend Shahin, also won a panel award: Computerlove collaboration award, for best collaborative entry.

I must confess in the beginning I felt slightly let down because I had a lot of confidence that I would make Spreadshirt's top 3 cut, but I am very happy with my performance overall. It was the first competition of its kind that I had entered, and having 2 entires in the final 15 among 2,800 submissions, and both of them winning something was a great acheivement. During the 7 weeks that the OLP ran, I was truly addicted to the process and i'm thinking about participating in more competitions from now on.

Let the voting begin

2007-10-19T23:24:42Z

The Spreadshirt open logo competition I wrote about earlier is now closed. After 7 weeks and 2800 entries they have narrowed it down to 15 finalists. I'm really happy to say that I have one and a half entries in the final!

Labelheads, the concept I came up with on week 3 is one of them. Spreadshirt is a company that lets its users customize their own clothing. So I tried to capture that essence with a customizable logo. They can always keep their logo fresh by changing it depending on the season and/or occasion.

The second one was a collaboration between me and my friend and talented designer/photographer Shahin. It's called Molecular Goodness. The three core values of Spreadshirt are represented by three basic shapes or molecules, that can be combined to form any shape (like a big "S", a t-shirt, or a tag).

The final winner will be chosen by Spreadshirt next week, and in order to help them make their decision they have made an online survey where you can see all the 15 finalists and vote for the best. If you're interested check it out and vote for your favourite (by which I mean us :D ).

Design quote

2007-10-09T01:13:29Z

I've neglected my blog far too long, and I don't feel too good about that. I'm going to gradually start writing again, and this might be a good start. I've been reading some interaction design books for the past several months and this little quote resonated with me deeply:

Never show a design approach that you’re not happy with; stakeholders
just might like it.

]]>

I've been quite busy lately, working on multiple projects at a time. One of the more fun things I've been doing is taking part in an Open Logo Project for re-branding of Spreadshirt, a big online t-shirt label that lets you customize your own shirts (and is the platform I use for the Legofish Store).

It's a 7-week competition and one of my designs has made the final short list and I'm feeling pretty good about that. It's a really fun design and I had as much fun making it as people seem to be having looking at it and playing with it (it's quite interactive, so do check it out).

project three hundred blog

2007-03-28T08:06:28Z

I haven't had time to update my Weblog here, I've been working on setting up the weblog at the Project 300 website, and I just finished a first version of that. I invite you to check it out here.

]]> I lied about not having time to update here, I was writing a long post about how the whole Project 300 came about and what triggered me to start it, but I never finished it, and now that I look at it it seems pretty boring ... maybe i'll publish it in my memoir when I get old or something.

By the way, if you would like to show you support for Project 300 by putting the ribbon on your website you can do so by simply copying the following line of code and pasting it after the tag on your template:

red ribbon
<script language="JavaScript" src="http://300themovie.info/threehundred.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
white ribbon
<script language="JavaScript" src="http://300themovie.info/threehundred2.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

BBC article about project 300

2007-03-18T05:21:24Z

check it out here.

The Art of a Movie Protest

2007-03-16T01:37:00Z

check out this E!online article about Project 300, our artistic protest to movie 300.

project 300 kicks off

2007-03-13T17:22:10Z

I have been simply overwhelmed by the massive response to project 300. In the past 3 days I have received close to 1,200 comments and emails. Many people have submitted their art, while others have suggested ways to improve the site.

Already there has been some great art posted (+). Despite what some have suggested, project 300 is neither retaliatory nor confrontational. It is a collaborative endeavor aimed at showing the artistic side of Persians you normally don't see in the media, specially these days. 300 was just an excuse to bring Persian artists together, perhaps project 300 will serve as the foundation on which to build a thriving and active artistic community.

three hundred a collaborative arts project

2007-03-08T15:04:34Z

300 opens today, and like many comic book fans I can't wait to see it for its stunning art. However, like many Persians I'm not thrilled with its portrayal of the great Persian army as barbaric snarling beasts. In recent days some have talked about different forms of protest to this movie. A better idea (one which I have already proposed on my Persian weblog) might be doing a collaborative art project: 300 from a persian perspective. Basically I have called upon all Persian artists to submit art with the theme of "ancient Persia", so we can gather all of these in one site and show the world (and comic fans) the face of ancient Persians from our own perspective. And to make sure that the world does really see it, I've orchestrated a campaign to bring up our gallery page to the top of search results. The site is 300themovie.info. If you are an artist, or just think the idea is cool you can participate by either submitting your art (email it to submit@300themovie.info), or by helping to bring the page to the top of the rankings by linking to that page on your blog or website. Make sure you ONLY use the phrase "300 the movie" to link to it, like this:

300 the movie

too sexy for my role

2007-02-20T17:56:45Z

What better way to break this silence by quoting some words of wisdom from actress Michelle Pfeiffer? In a recent interview, she has said that her beauty has hampered her career, insisting critics don't believe her performance because she is too beautiful for her roles. she said:

My argument is always, 'You know, everyone can be damaged. and pretty people can be just as damaged as ugly people or fat people'.

Legofish store free shipping

2007-01-08T06:41:02Z

From now until the end of January all orders above $15 from the Legofish Store are shipped to you for free. All you need to do is use the promotional coupon FREESHIPPING07 at checkout.

follow these steps

2006-12-18T18:45:48Z

Haven't seen an SNL clip this funny in a LONG time. Instant classic.
while ur'e at it check out the Barry Gibb talkshow sketch from the same episode. I guess Justin Timberlake does have some talent after all.

MJ evolution

2006-11-16T20:21:42Z

I believe michael jackson has evolved into a new stage in his evolution: Vandetto Jacko (hey, it's gotta rhyme).
Mustache added by yours truly, but otherwise the original image is left untouched. Vandetta mask also courtesy of yours truly.