Life, streamed.

From my phone.



Every once in a while the feed will be live. The cool thing about Qik is that it instantly records everything...so it's like a video blog on the go! :)

Heroes...You got me NBC

After my last dissapointment with Lost I had a complete lack of faith of tv shows. Do I have the time to watch another one religiously? If I do...will I be led into an inevitable let down?

Well I decided to give heroes a try, after Gabi convinced me. I bought the two seasons on dvd and I was immediately hooked. So now i'm counting down to the next season!

Now, you got my attention, people of the peacock. I see what you're doing to other shows. A friend showed me what you are doing to Kitt and Knight Rider. If you let those writers even near this show, I swear you will never have these eyeballs again...you hear that? Good.

electromotive, why not?

That's what I said.
What's this gibberish you say?

Well mosey on over:

What is electromotive?

Sorry bloggy blog :(

I've left you alone for a while...I'm sorry!

Plenty of things have happened while I was gone. Like a brand new visit from Gabi! She surprised me a couple of months back with the news that she was coming for a week in august. Needless to say it was an amazing week. There was almost no sleep involved and it was just wonderful. We celebrated our birthdays...hers was on the 27th of July, mine was on the 14th. I did all I could to make it special for both of us and it was awesome really...yet another little nugget of joy in my mind :)

I promise to come back to you blog...I just have to follow my buddy Blur's advice in setting you up mobile so I can update you proper and often :)

And I have a confession to make...I made another blog at wordpress...it's not like i've been cheating on you...it's just that you, blogger weren't available and ready with the name I had for it :)

Stop it Nintendo.

You're embarrasing me.

I was so pumped about this e3 nintendo conference. Uhhh no...didn't do it for me.

Wii music?! come on!

Oh boy.

I'm glad i bought the xbox360.

A lot of new stuff coming...

New make-over for the dashboard.
Gears of war 2.
Final Fantasy XIII.
Netflix, shareable with a party of your friends if you want to.
Portal 2: Still Alive.
Fable 2.
Rock Band 2.

sigh.

Father Gates just wants my money!

A day full of like...famous people.

So I get to the office and there's a sign close to our parking lot that says "Crew Parking". The Hollyweird police had closed one square block for a production. A cable TV show on USA was being filmed. Now I paid no attention to the shoot throughout the day cause you know, I just didn't care - just as many people across the US probably don't care about the show - But then, I heard cries of...hey, is that Method man? I just had to look out the window...and there he was...arguing with Bruce Campbell about something, getting pointed at with guns and all. In between takes, practically the whole office was throwing the "wu-tang" and he looked up, laughed and threw it back at us. It was dope!

Then, a concert snuck up on me...For weeks I had no idea that I had bought concert tix to Modest Mouse so we went to the Filmore in Miami Beach last night for the show. Johnny Marr and Isaac and all of them! The show was AMAZING. Modest Mouse has an incredible stage presence and the energy was awesome. Just don't go see them when they're drunk, according to Jimmy. :)




PS: Some kid already posted a video from last night...technology is no joke... :D


Float on!

Last night at JP's new place!

Good times at JP's new apartment. The highlight has to be the wrap-around 8th floor balcony, from which we could see our beloved downtown Hollyweird and more! Then we went for some grub at Flannigan's and headed back for some more good times. Check out the pics and vid! Congrats JP...so cool!

PS: Pete almost ate my phone. Adorable.

My old man's birthday

Tonight was my dad's 65th birthday so we gathered at my brother's house for a little get together. Cheers to you dad! I love you!

The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button

Those of you that know me, know that David Fincher is my favorite director of all time, and anything he does is sacred for me. Yes, I love every single movie, including Panic Room and Alien 3 :)

So when I heard about his latest, of course I was all over it. But it seemed like such an odd choice for Fincher at first...

"So he's doing a love story...but wait, it has a great twist, that sounds like him..."

When I saw this trailer, halfway through it I just knew it was him...The way the shots move and are composed, the lighting...so good!

I smell Oscar!

Ben's Birthday

On the posh downtown vicinity of Brickell we went on Thursday night, to celebrate Ben's 25th burthday. We hit up the microbrewery Gordon Birsch and had a burger, then we hit up Redbar, two blocks down...but not before paying 18 dollars for parking! A word of advice... Never park in the Mellon Financial building unless you wanna break into your mutual funds to leave your car in there. We had a lot of fun though! Redbar was like a red "now art", they had some interesting stuff on the walls..My fave has to be the Fidel Castro spewing uhhh stuff outta his mouth. :)

The next chapter...

Today we set a tentative date. January 14th should be a reasonable time for Gabi to get here. The countdown marks 219 days to go. :) It should fly by just like the last one!

I lost a bet.

She beat me at Mario Kart. Repeatedly. So, I had to do this.

Lower your volume for the video, it's loud.




::grumbles::

The best days of my life.

This wonderful woman came into my life a long time ago. This story has been 8 years in the making...and now we're getting to the good stuff. That's why I'm going to fast forward to now...not going to talk about the past, it's not worth mentioning.

She lives in Caracas. I live in South Florida. We've been together for almost 6 months.

So she came to visit me. I took a week off to be with her, we met up in Orlando for a weekend, went to universal did a bunch of stuff while she was down...

The most wonderful thing is that, it didn't really matter if we were out to dinner on a fancy restaurant or we were sitting in a car by the beach at night, or putting on a ridiculous poncho to brave the sporadic storms in a theme park, it didn't matter what we were doing...I was with her...and with her, everything seems amplified.

I don't know what I did to deserve this but, all I know is that she's an amazing gift from God and that I love her and she loves me. And the distance thing? It's not even a thing anymore. We are all that matter and every day that goes by we bond stronger, and we grow together.

SapientStart-ed.

Today was our first "official" day with Sapient, which means we're already on their clock..

I woke up at the butt-crack of dawn today because I didn't want any surprises today....I did everything I had to do to ensure my journey to North Cuba went without a hitch. And it did...I got there exactly an hour after I switched on my car at 7:00 AM. I was the first one there and some lady put me in a room...surrounded by bean-bags. from there the former ichahmeleonites started trickling in. And we did nothing for a while. A WHILE.

One thing about Sapient...they love their whiteboards. They are EVERYWHERE....all over with a bunch of doodles and stuff it didn't take long for blur to assault them all...



There's also plenty of wildlife, like peacocks. I'm going to try and take pics today of some of them...

All in all Sapient is cool...too bad it's in North Cuba next to jurassic park.

As of right now...

A special someone is sitting snuggly in a seat, unable to sleep, not without the urge to do so, traveling at a typical cruise speed of Mach 0.82 at approximately 32,000 feet. And here I'm waiting. Patiently. And I can barely contain myself.

Requiem

Aboard the mothership...

Do they have air guns to implant microchips around here? I'm scared.

GTA IV. It's calling me.

I don't think I'll be able to resist.

My life is now complete.

I bought a universal remote. All I had to do was plug it in via USB, put the model numbers of the devices I wanted to control and presto. The fact that it plays nice with the xbox 360 is amazing to me. No more 900 remotes. I'm a dork.

By the way, it's the logitech harmony 550.

...Just another night in Paradise.

In about a month, Criterion games will release their next update for Burnout paradise, (for free no less) which will include some great things like:

About 70 new freeburn challenges, timed challenges and co-op leaderboards.
Freeburn Road Rages, Stunt Runs and Marked mans.
A new car called the Dust Storm.
And new areas (islands just off the coast)…so paradise is getting bigger.

But, the best announcement yet…coming in August 2008.



Night time.
And oh yeah... BIKES.

I can't wait.

Great Sunday

So, I've been entertained, by quite a few things today. I bought Juno on DVD and I must say it's one of the best I've seen all year. Ms. Cody really does deserve her Oscar. Also I played the bass today, I figured out that song I've had in my head for days now and it was fun to play it over and over again. And then there's Ze Frank. This dude is amazing. I had heard of him but never really went to his site...I was sitting in one of our concepting sessions on Thursday and he came up, so we visited the site and we laughed our asses off....not only is he funny but he can be incredibly insightful and deep...like on this episode of The Show with Ze Frank:



This show was done for a year from 06 to 07 and I feel like I missed out. I wanna be a sports racer!

When it hurts to sit.

I edited this today, and I barely got through it because I was chuckling the whole way...

And I miss you...and I need you...

I do.

Another Song stuck in my head, and my new baby!

So, I went to guitar center, to repair JP's bass which broke on Friday. Bought new strings and left it there to pick up today.
And then I saw this...

The Ibanez GSR200.
She's cheap, and comfy and sounds great! Right up my alley :) So I bought her, a gig bag and a strap. Finally my very own bass! :)

This morning I scroll through my ipod to find the new Kooks album...There was a severe traffic jam that I practically didn't notice, thanks to the song "Gap", which I played nonstop 'till I got to the office. Another one of those!

Do I wanna go to friendly's?

Well...they say it's a place where "Ice Cream makes the meal". You sold me on the idea.

We did this one too! It just recently launched. Go check it out!

iwannagotofriendlys.com

David Fincher and Spike Jonze.

David Fincher. Spike Jonze.
Un-be-freakin-lievable.

THE FALL

"Los Angeles, circa 1920‘s, a little immigrant girl (Catinca Untaru) finds herself in a hospital recovering from a fall. She strikes up a friendship with a bedridden man (Lee Pace) who captivates her with a whimsical story that removes her far from the hospital doldrums into the exotic landscapes of her imagination. Making sure he keeps the girl interested in the story he interweaves her family and people she likes from the hospital into his tale."



Apparently this is a remake of a Bulgarian movie called "Yo Ho Ho", released in 1981.
This movie was made in 2006, Directed by Tarsem Singh, and released in russia in January of this year. I guess Spike and David are bringing it in (a-la "Presented by Quentin Tarantino" style) for a May 9th release, which probably won't include SoFla, because that's the story of my life... so if that's the case I will wait for a dvd release.

ICG MOVIE NIGHT MATERIAL!

Thanks Ceaz for finding this!

What a day yesterday.

We got to boomers in record time...about 26 minutes from the office (mind you it's probably like 1.3 miles away) Thanks JP!

Boomers ain't what it used to be...as Dustin said, it's "ripe for a lawsuit"... All kinds of rusty things poking out just waiting for ya. (We're distributing tetanus shots in the office as we speak). But, we get to the track and raced a bunch. We made a bet of whoever loses all of the overall races has to wear the winner's underwear on the outside of their pants. Jody is rocking some penguin patterned boxers right now.

Also we made fun of this guy that was there by himself...I nearly peed my pants, I was laughing so hard. "Going to the track baby....don't wait up".

Later on I swung by Maria's house for her birthday. Stayed there for a while. Happy Birthday lil' cous!





PS: Thanks to embedded reporter Ryan Calliouet for the iphone action shots.

It's Digital Media Appreciation day.

Today...at 4:45 PM we're going to go and have fun. We're gonna do some go-karting. Tell me, in what other place do they do that on a Thursday?

I'm gonna turn this into a road rage.

Matt Lauer Games!

The "Where in the world is Matt Lauer?" games are now live!

So what are you waiting for? check out "Snapshots" and "Find Matt".
Clearly the coolest games in there. ;)

You can also check out the other games here.

There's plenty of things to look forward to.

After a bittersweet week with all the crappy stuff that happened on Monday at ICG, I've been thinking a lot, and I've realized some things. It sucks that we "lost" friends at the office, I sure as hell I'm gonna miss the little things, and seeing them every day.

But there's good news! Just the fact that they are gone from the office, doesn't mean we're gonna lose contact or stop talking...In fact, this week most of us have been hanging out and calling each other and making plans, so it comforts me that our friendships are very much alive and strong.

I don't mean to sound like a big cliche but, things happen for a reason.

So I've got my chin up, and I'm looking forward to big and small things like...

- Karaoke tonight at the Seven Seas.
- New shoes and clothes coming in the mail.
- Our beach party in honor of JP and Blur's birthday.
- Our ICG spring break! I can't wait to see what the YBC is cookin' up.
- Weekly ICG band (not named yet!) rehearsals. (Learn them friggin songs dammit!)
- Fast Approaching May 14th and Gabi's visit!
- The drive up to Orlando on May 23rd.
- My week off.
- Metal Mayhem or whatever it's called with Slipknot and other madness.
- Pearl Jam and Kings of Leon show on June 11th!

So things changed, and there's plenty of things to look forward to, but the most important thing is that true friendships are never lost and we should be thankful for them.

No day, has been like today.

It's been the saddest Monday ever :(

A salute to Stephen Street and Andy Rourke.

"Stephen Street"

"Andy Rourke"

I've been holed up in my room this weekend. I took a bass guitar home from the office and an amp I had in my car. From Saturday till now I've been listening and learning great songs ...particularly two great ones by The Smiths and Morrissey.

These two are Bigmouth Strikes Again and Suedehead. I haven't been playing bass for a while or anything but I do have a strong background on it due to my brother who is an amazing bass player. He's the one who kinda taught me how to really listen to basslines in songs, and I credit my good musical ear to him.

Anyways, Stephen Street is not only a talented producer that with The Smiths back in the day but he also plays the Bass in Morrissey's Suedehead, if you have a chance, crank it up right now and listen to it. This guy has also gone to produce a whole bunch of Blur albums too and he's responsible for crankin' out the hyper-popular tune "Song 2". So a salute to you Mr. Street.

Now what can I say about Mr. Andy Rourke. You can't compare this guy's style with any other bass player. He's the guy behind Bigmouth, which has quickly become my favorite song to play just because it's so not conventional, he just doesn't stick to the main notes...he's all about the little details which I like....I found myself this weekend listening closely and going.....Ahhh! you magnificent bastard! That's what you're doing!!! So for those moments and many others great moments, I'll raise a pint in your honor sometime this coming week sir.

I do solemnly swear...

On Thursday I became an American citizen. I had to wake up at the butt-crack of dawn to get there on time. There were 3002 people, coming from 86 different countries, being naturalized.(By the way, there was a bunch of Cubans there...Why am I not surprised? :D) It was a great ceremony, emotional at times. I'm proud to be a a part of this great country that has given me opportunities beyond my wildest dreams.

Thank you everyone.

Our new Facebook App!

It's pretty different to anything you've seen so far. Install the app, customize your new alter ego and room (if you want to), but MOST IMPORTANTLY tell your alter ego "TO GO OUT". Tomorrow you'll receive a photo of your character and one of your friend's characters embedded in a photo of some crazy antics that your alter ego got into the night before while you were sleeping. Guaranteed smile. :)

Burn Alter Ego

It's out! install it! :)

Flashback of childhood

So today I walk in where Dave Fried sits.
I see something sitting on his desk, and it hits me.
A flood of childhood memories come rolling in, so I decide to kindnap this and lug it around the office for a day.

The perfect companion for your Alter Ego...

Soon!

And the adventures of Chavez continue.

So Colombia just pwnd FARC, right? some days ago they killed one of their top leaders. A Mr. Raul Reyes. This individual happened to be Chavez's boyfriend. Chavez threw a hissy-fit and pulled all Venezuelan diplomats out of Bogotá, and also he decided to play with his new toys (i.e Fighter Jets and Tanks and Soldiers), and sent them towards the Colombian-Venezuelan border, threatening with war. Ecuador did the same. Colombian authorities found a bunch of documents that incriminate Chavez with financing FARC.

Peep this!

Colombia calls for Chavez charges
02/03/08

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe says he will ask the International Criminal Court to bring genocide charges against President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.

He accused Mr Chavez of sponsoring and financing Colombian Farc rebels. Venezuela denies the charge.

Colombian officials say a laptop found during a raid on a Farc camp held files indicating Venezuela gave Farc $300m.

Colombian forces entered Ecuador to raid the camp, provoking furious protests and a diplomatic crisis.

"Colombia proposes to denounce the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, in the International Criminal Court for sponsoring and financing genocide," Mr Uribe said.

Venezuela and Ecuador have broken off ties with Colombia and moved troops to the Colombian border.

Saturday's incursion by Colombian forces into Ecuador saw the killing of senior Farc commander Raul Reyes, and 16 others.

Colombian Vice-President Francisco Santos, speaking earlier at a disarmament conference in Geneva, said evidence of plans to make a dirty bomb - a bomb using radioactive material - was also found on the computer.

For its part, Venezuela has said it is expelling all Colombian diplomats in the wake of the raid.

Ecuador said the raid had scuppered a possible deal to free French-Colombian Farc hostage Ingrid Betancourt.

Latin American powers including Chile, Mexico and Brazil have offered to mediate in the dispute. An emergency meeting of the Organization of American States is being held to discuss the crisis.

Farc - the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - has been fighting for more than four decades with the declared aim of fairer wealth distribution.

However, analysts say it funds itself mainly through the cocaine trade, while holding hundreds of hostages it has kidnapped for ransom and political ends.

President Chavez and Venezuela have been involved in recent talks to free some of them.

There will be greed, There will be ambition, There will be...

...Blood.

It was an unofficial ICG movie night last night. So we decided on "There Will Be Blood" by Paul Thomas Anderson. It's the story of a miner turned oil tycoon, set in turn of the century California, at the height of the petroleum boom. Daniel Day-Lewis delivers a riveting performance as only DDL can. And don't worry, the movie makes good on that promise. Excellent.



I'm finished!

Ayer...

Yesterday, our friend Johan came up with a wonderful idea. Going to "The Knife". We had an excellent time joking around and thanking God for not making us vegans. I must have eaten the equivalent of a horse, and maybe a baby moose.

Between bottles of wine and good food, we caught up and afterwards continued the evening at Pablo's for some failed attempts at Rock Band.

Great day!

...and speaking of cinematic adventures...

I'm excited about Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, coming out May 22nd!

Watch the Trailer on Yahoo! Movies

And here's the official trailer #1 release:



Glad to see he's still kickin' ass!

ICG Movie Night!

Yesterday was the first official ICG Movie Night! It's been a long while since i've been to the movies so we started a campaign to promote cinematic adventures within ICG. The first ones to come out were Cesar, Ivonnne, Pris and yours truly. We went to see Persepolis. Two thumbs way up. Aside from being a beautifully done film, it really puts things into perspective. Peep the trailer and the little video I took post-screening and pre-chimichangas.

Compositing is fun.

Raw:


In Progress:


Have I mentioned how much I love after effects?!?!

EDIT:

That's the video. We announced at ICG that Yearbook Committee aspiring members should campaign next week to be elected.

It's like a drug.

I discovered StumbleUpon.
"Just....one.....more.....click!"

...and yeah, I know you wouldn't touch us with a ten-foot pole...

...'Cause we're North Americans....

My dad, my brother and I went to do our citizenship interview this morning at 7:30 AM.
I described what happened to Gabi this morning...

BigLouBeats says:
bueno, me pare a las 5:30 AM para salir para alla me eche un bano y bueno salimos mi papa mi hermano y yo
BigLouBeats says:
llegamos ahi en punto como a las 7:05
BigLouBeats says:
hicimos una colita
BigLouBeats says:
y te revisan....te mandan a dejar los celulares en el carro
BigLouBeats says:
y despues te montas en un ascensor....
BigLouBeats says:
lemme tell you about this ascensor
BigLouBeats says:
regular looking elevator right....
BigLouBeats says:
except....
BigLouBeats says:
it has a button
BigLouBeats says:
it says "W"
BigLouBeats says:
and a label covering it
BigLouBeats says:
that says "NO"
BigLouBeats says:
needless to say
BigLouBeats says:
i wanted to freakin press the button
Gabi says:
LOL
BigLouBeats says:
but i didn't cause God knows what's on the "W" floor
BigLouBeats says:
maybe the gates of Hades or something
Gabi says:
jajajajajajajajajajajaj
BigLouBeats says:
anywho...after obsessing about the button (what does "W" even stand for? Way down? Water level? What?"
BigLouBeats says:
they sit you down in a big room with several other people...and they call your name
BigLouBeats says:
we werent even there 6 minutes and there was a dude calling my brother....and then a minute later they were calling me
BigLouBeats says:
my dad stayed waiting
BigLouBeats says:
so the guy walks you to this office
BigLouBeats says:
and i mention the elevator button
BigLouBeats says:
cause i'm obsessed and i'm trying to get "insider" information
Gabi says:
LOLOLOL
BigLouBeats says:
and he's like i dont even know what's down there
BigLouBeats says:
i was like...oooo kkkk
BigLouBeats says:
anywho
BigLouBeats says:
that helped break the ice though so he starts laughing
BigLouBeats says:
and it was pretty relaxed
BigLouBeats says:
so he has a set of questions....have you been in jail?, are you psychotic?, do you owe the government some money? in case of a national emergency would you help out?
BigLouBeats says:
and my answers were: no, no ( up for discussion ), not yet, and give me a gun and orders
Gabi says:
LOL!!!
BigLouBeats says:
so perfect....he asks me a couple of those civics questions ( no 13 states, whew!)
BigLouBeats says:
then he says: read this question here #6
BigLouBeats says:
so i do
BigLouBeats says:
and then he says....write this:
BigLouBeats says:
"I have a big dog"
BigLouBeats says:
i'm like....::chuckles::
BigLouBeats says:
ok...
BigLouBeats says:
so i write
BigLouBeats says:
and here comes the most difficult part
BigLouBeats says:
i need you to sign your name here, here and here and here
BigLouBeats says:
but!
BigLouBeats says:
you need to do it in cursive writing and as legible as possible
BigLouBeats says:
cursive?! i haven't written like that in like 23 years!
Gabi says:
JAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJ
BigLouBeats says:
anywho....i stumble across the signatures
BigLouBeats says:
that came out surprisingly good
BigLouBeats says:
and he stamped my paper
BigLouBeats says:
and told me i would be called in a couple of months to do the oath ceremony
Gabi says:
:D

And to celebrate...Here's my new theme song by LCD Soundsystem:



Viva la America!!!

Echoes, Silence, Patience & Holy Vishnu that was an awesome show!

I took a good chunk of video of the show last night. I'm gonna give it the proper treatment over the weekend and post as soon as I can... All I can say is, Foo Fighters is amazing, but you probably already knew that.
EDIT: Finally! got the video rendered and uploaded. Made this from my phone and some guys footage of the concert off youtube. Ohhh it's loud, but so was the concert. Beautiful :D

The countdown is on.

Tonight! Live! Sold out!

There are 4 elements to hip-hop.

Those are DJ-ing, MC-ing(rapping), Writing(Graffiti), and Break Dancing. Of those 4, my man Charlie, dominates 2 of them, (MC-ing and Writing). My count is 0/4. I make a couple of beats from time to time but I don't consider myself part of the culture. That does not however, impede me from appreciating it and enjoying it. Last night, Charlie and I headed down to Miami Springs, FL to a Hip-Hop outreach called "Catalyst". It's run by this guy named Joel. All kinds of kids come out and get together for the love of the culture and at the same time, they get the Gospel and they stay off the streets. I had to give my kudos to Joel, 'cause let's face it, it takes a lot of balls to do things like these. Preach on man!

If you don't know, you'll miss things like this...

I used to think there was nothing to do in this town. There are things beyond the classic dinner/movie/club/whatever daily grind you're into. Ft. Lauderdale/Miami is so much more, but you gotta know the right people.
Last night we went to this place called Radio-Active Records, off Sunrise Blvd. Now, this place was very particular, not just because they sell old/new vinyl records (which no other place ever does), but because of the people. This was a different crowd, you could tell they just came out for the love of art and music. Sasha was the one who told us about this thing going on, this hardcore punk band was performing and needless to say, they were very good. I thoroughly enjoyed it. But of course if you don't know, you'll miss it!