Two Paddles. One Ball.

Phoenix is hosting the R&R "Two Paddles. One Ball." Ping-Pong Tournament starting Friday, March 28th. This 32 person tournament is a single elimination battle to the death (insert echo here). We will be live streaming throughout the tournament. The quarter, semi and final rounds will have scheduled times and dates so anyone can tune in and watch the action here: http://rrpartners2.com/rr/pingpong/. We will also be live tweeting and instagramming at #RRpong.

Who is ready to get paddled?

Tweets about "#rrpong"

Bananas Studio

I am super excited to share that one of my awesome friends Ana B. Cordova is opening an Etsy shop. This girl is ridiculously talented and deserves lots of praise. She has a fine arts background and creates some of the most amazing artwork. Below is a mixed media print of Leroy. Someone on Facebook said, "Hey that looks like the dog you are always posting pictures of." Enough said. I will keep you updated when she has her Grand Opening!

Weekend Recap: Birthday Shenanigans

Yes, I turned 30 this year. Whee!! But Saturday was pretty fucking awesome.

The day started out with sleeping in. Then breakfast with my favorite pup Leroy, followed by lounging on the couch and taking a nap.

That was the first half of the day.

The second half got a bit more interesting. First event on the list, the 2014 ASU Women's Rugby Alumni Game. This happens once every two years and is something you never want to miss. Aime plans it and does a ridiculous job. She feeds us, provides alcoholic beverages and gets everyone in line. The alumni won again, of course. We are undefeated.

After the game, I went to meet up with three of my work lovelies. We had dinner at The Dhaba, it's real punjabi food and simply amazing. We had this like three course meal of salad, tandoori chicken and mango rice pudding. There was enough food for three meals.

Ana drew Leroy for me!! 

Food in our bellies, we moved on to the movie theatre, where we saw Mr. Peabody and Sherman. It was really cute and funny.

That simply was a great birthday. Here's to my thirties.

Dirty 30

via

I made it to 30! Sometimes I didn't think I would make it, but here I am. Birthdays are always a bigger time of year where I do more reflecting than New Years. It's a time that I think about all my accomplishments, failures and future goals.

Last year I had made a goal that I didn't even come close to meeting. I had too many things that I made a priority over that goal. This year, that will not happen. This goal will be accomplished.

What is the goal you ask? It's to take care of my health. It's to make time for me to give my body the nutrients and exercise it deserves. It's as simple as that.

I sit in a chair for 8-15 hours a day. Don't get me wrong I love my job. I love working in advertising and coming up with cool shit to influence society, but if I don't take care of myself, I won't be able to continue doing that.

So here's to the next 365 days of shifting priorities and making myself better.

4th Annual Phoenix Portfolio Review

I can't believe this year was the 4th Annual Phoenix Portfolio Review. I am proud to say I have been involved since the beginning and wouldn't have it any other way. Jason and Michelle organize the shit out of this event and should get massive kudos.

The idea is simple, get the Valley's creative folk to review a bunch of students books.

This year's turnout was amazing. Every reviewer had people waiting to talk with them, it felt like a portfolio review at The One Show in New York. I went to the One Show portfolio reviews as a student, I would stand in line and the one CD I wanted to talk to left when it was my turn. I know he probably had somewhere to go or just didn't want to be there anymore, but I will never forget that he couldn't give me 15 minutes of his time. Now, I make it a point to stay the entire time and plan to stay a bit afterwards in case anyone wants to talk to me.

We normally get 10 minutes to talk to the interns but I didn't let the lights being turned off and back on distract if a student kept talking. Of course that lead to me meeting with less students, but the ones I did meet with were pretty awesome. Here they are below:

Justin - He has a great personality about him and he said he came to talk to me because he heard I was a straight shooter. I like this guy already. His work is crisp, clean and beautiful to look at. As he learns to evolve an ideas arms an legs, he's going to be dangerous.

Shelby - I would love to see her push her work a bit more. The branding work is great, though how would you market those brands? What would they look like in-store, on a shelf? How would you get someone want to purchase these baby clothes over a more established brand? Also, her last name is Spoon, seriously how awesome is that?! Can you imagine how many self promo ideas are going through my head right now?

Tomoko - She was a little quiet, though she had very clean work. Though that wasn't what intrigued me. This lady thinks about things differently. All of her projects had a slight twist to them that gave you a bit of an aha moment.

John Doe - I feel really bad that I don't remember this guys name BUUT if you know it let me know. He's more of an animator and a decent one at that. He has this book called The Eye Book where he compares animal eyes and human eyes and then illustrates them. I really want to see this animated and see the transitions through each of the eyes. So cool.

Jane Doe - I can't remember her name either . . . She had branding for unitea and some cool posters. My favorite is the poster for the Spring Show, the photography and the angles. Ugh, just gorgeous.

I love this and really want to start up my internship program again. I love learning from them as much as I hope they learn from me.