This is Mai Blog

Mirror's Edge Trailer

2008-11-21T11:02:00.000-08:00

Check this out. It's awesome. It's for the Mirror's Edge game. This is awesome. The transitions are so cool!

I wish I could jump and fly and do all these crazy things.

The Game is called Networking

2008-10-28T17:27:00.000-07:00

So the other day, I attended the Creative Summit at the Walker Arts Center. I'm glad I went.

The speakers were: Rei Inamoto (CCO, AKQA), Kevin Allen (Proximity, London) and Nancy Hill (Pres & CEO, AAAA). They each had really interesting/inspiring things to say, but the most influential was definitely Rei Inamoto.

When I found out about Rei Inamoto attending the Summit (and that he was going to visit Miami Ad School afterwards), the first thing I realized was that he's Japanese! I realized this was the time to put my Japanese skills to use. So I googled him to get some background info on him before I actually met him. And Google listed his facebook, so ofcourse I messaged him and introduced myself in Japanese and told him I'm excited to meet and talk to him. A few days went by and he never messaged back. "Was that too much of a stalkerish move? Was it a bad idea?"I thought. But I just moved on and didn't think much of it. I figured I'll just have to introduce myself after the Summit. Well, turns out I didn't really have to! Rei came to MAS, had some lunch, and had convos w/the students. I felt weird cuz I participated in the convos in English...(I think it's weird speaking English w/ Japanese people...) but as soon as I walked up to him afterwards, he turned on his Japanese switch and said "You're Mai! You facebooked me!" Gotta say, I felt cool cuz no one knew what we were talkin' about. We must've talked for at least 20 minutes. About advertising, about Japan, about family, etc. He also offered to help me network in Japan, which I really appreciate. Ive been trying to network in Japan for a while now and I've been having trouble for some reason.

Anyway, I can blabber on about this. WWaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!! I'm so glad I went to the Summit. I'm so glad I facebooked him, and I'm so glad Ive kept up with my Japanese!

School's All Good

2008-10-12T17:20:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been pretty busy since school re-started. To be honest, I thought being a 5th quarter student here would give me more time to work on things outside of class. (Most people go intern..so I didnt even think I'd have a heavy courseload..) BUT I was wrong, and I love it. Taking a couple concepting classes...an IMPROV class...Motion graphics....etc. Life is good. Seems like I've been coming up with at least 1 pursuitable campaign every week. I'm excited. I'm glad I stuck around in Minneapolis. I'm focused. I'm ready to do work. Bring it!!!

Another Quarter in Minneapolis

2008-09-18T17:17:00.000-07:00

Well, it looks like I'll be in Minneapolis for another 3 months. I didn't get the internship I wanted. Oh well, I'll try again. That being said, I decided to stay in Minneapolis for another quarter. I'll use the next 3 months to really focus on school and grow. I've already picked up some local professionals as my "mentors". We'll see what happens.

Saturn Astra

2008-09-12T17:08:00.000-07:00

We finally gave our Saturn Astra pitch. It was awesome!

Our team presented in front of Saturn's Marketing Manager, an AD from Deutch LA, and the EVP ECD from DIGITAS. We were really comfortable and proud of our work since the minute we walked in and we had a blast. The client really liked the way we set up the presentation, and they loved our leave behinds. If you want to know the details of our campaign, you can ask me. :) But yea, wow...it was awesome. It was really encouraging and exciting when they kept wanting to talk more and more about how to keep expanding our campaign. It didn't even feel like a "pitch". It was more like hangin' out and having a conversation. I want to do it again!

Sweet home Chicago!

2008-09-01T16:04:00.000-07:00

Not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I'm from Chicago. I've moved about 14 times in my life, but Chicago has been my constant "base". After I graduated from CU in 06, I went back there to work for a year and be "responsible". But when I left to come here to Minneapolis for school, I couldn't fit everything in my wonderfully generic Honda Accord. And guess what got left behind? My precious hockey equipment. This past year has been rough w/o hockey every week. Major withdrawls. So I just hopped in my car and made the trip back to pick up my gear. Oh my gear how I missed you and your odor...haha.

Chicago was so much fun. Hung out with friends, had a few drinks, enjoyed the city. Hey, the 6 hour drive each way wasn't that bad either. Thanks iTunes!

Saturn....no, not the planet.

2008-08-28T15:58:00.000-07:00

Haven't talked about school in a while...

I was recently "recruited" to join a creative team in the account boot camp program that MAS is hosting right now. I'm not getting credit for this class or anything, but I figured it would be a good opportunity for me to work on stuff...so I took the offer. I'm really excited about this because on 9/10, we're actually pitching to a real client, Saturn. We're working on the Saturn Astra, and I think we have some good ideas so far. Lots of ambient stuff. Good stuff. I'm excited. I'll talk more about it later for confidential reasons...?

Trip home to Boulder

2008-08-25T23:45:00.000-07:00

This weekend I went home to Boulder to visit the family. Dad flew in from Japan, brother flew in from San Diego, I flew in from Minneapolis, and well...mom waited for us to get there. Our family's all spread out. It was a bittersweet weekend because it was my brother's pre-deployment leave. But it was all good. Learned some martial arts from my brother, ate a ton of food, and well...caught up on some sleep.

Da-Fusion Artist #1: Kurt Vatland

2008-08-21T19:45:00.000-07:00

So in order to spread the word of Da-Fusion, we decided to interview some musicians, get to know them, and maybe inside their kind heart they'll find the urge to collaborate with us.

Meet Kurt Vatland. He's in town from San Diego to record an album in Minneapolis. We met him when we were eating at the Hard Rock. Pretty cool guy.

More Da-Fusion

2008-08-20T15:24:00.000-07:00

People are slowly starting to notice Da-Fusion. Our main site is myspace.com/createdafusion and our online studio site is www.da-fusion.com.

I'm really excited about this idea. An online musical collaboration site. I mean...musicians always have jam sessions...wouldn't it be cool to jam with people around the world to create music?

My team and I are promoting "Da-Fusion" as a band. And as a band, we created a "get to know us" video. Check it out!

Da-Fusion

2008-08-17T21:05:00.001-07:00

Some people and I created an online music collaboration site. Here's a promo video for it.
Find out more at www.da-fusion.com!!

Ads on the news?!!?

2008-07-22T09:03:00.000-07:00

You can't run from McDonald's!

I just read that McDonald's is advertising on the morning news. What!? Seriously?!

Apparently, KVVU in Las Vegas has been placing McDonald's iced coffee cups in front of the news anchors. Kinda cool, but kinda ridiculous. Kinda weird that no one ever thought of that.

Hmmm....curious to see how people start reacting to this.

Mai random thoughts...

2008-07-19T13:22:00.000-07:00

The other day I took the wonderfully blue Megabus from Minneapolis to Chicago. If you can handle multiple stops, interesting people, unique odors and an 8 hour ride, $25 one-way isn't a bad deal.

What's with this Dark Knight craze?! I was supposed to go see it today but all tickets are sold out! Booo!!!

My brother (1st MAR Div LAR Bn. Delta Co 1st Pltn) is scheduled to deploy to Iraq in 53 days. But the other day, he was called into the officers' office with a proposal for a great opportunity. He has been asked to become a Japanese translator between USMC and the Japanese military recruits. Pretty damn cool must I say. He was also chosen out of his battalion to go to officer school to become an officer. But here's the thing..my brother's not sure if he wants to accept the offers. He claims he is happiest when he's out on the field. So I told him that he could probably go out on the field as an officer, but he responded with "but I wont be guaranteed an officer spot in infantry" grrr...I am torn as much as he is. I like to think I've looked out for him for the past 19 years. But now he's on his own.

On a brighter note, I've spent the past few days in Chicago networking in the ad biz and touching base with folks from the past. Let's just say that I think I need to play the Kevin Bacon game now. It's crazy!!!

Next weekend I'm off to Boston to see one of my best friends, Danny. She and I are gonna drive up to Maine and go rivering/camping along the Saco River. I'm so excited!!!!

So it begins...

2008-07-13T21:22:00.000-07:00

Well first off, I once again didn't blog for a week...or two. Not that anyone really reads my blog, but still...it's something I should get in the habit of doing. But hey, at least I'm back.

Tomorrow will start the second week of the new quarter at school. The first week went really well. Unfortunately, I don't really have any concepting classes, but I'm really excited about what I'm taking. We're using strobes in photo2!!! I'm so excited! The photos come out so much better with strobes! Everything is so...crisp! The Flash class will be awesome because I think we get to create our own portfolio website for the end of the quarter. I have another Type class again, which I could use...And oh my gosh I'm reeeally excited about our Interactive class! Our goal by the end of the quarter is to create a site and get at least 500,000 hits! My team has an awesome idea. I'll post the link when it's more developed. Lets just say that I really hope I walk away without a trip to the hospital...

Work is going well too. By work, I mean nannying. I nanny for 1 year old twins and a 5 year old. It's actually not as bad as you'd think. The mom was out of town for the past 2 weeks, so it's just been me and the dad holdin' down the fort at the house.(Another reason or "excuse" for me not blogging. I've been swamped.) The mom barely missed the girls' first steps. That's a bummer. But at least we got it on video. I also taught them how to "high five". Good job girls. Good job. The 5 year old's been great. She's been really into drawing, although that pretty much means that I draw while she watches Scooby Doo. Oh well. It's fun.

That's all for now.

Work is Fun!?

2008-06-29T21:13:00.000-07:00

I WISH I WORKED AT A PLACE LIKE THIS!
Its funny that I'm posting this, because I totally worked on on a NERF campaign this pas quarter.

Good Night

2008-06-27T11:43:00.000-07:00

I totally forgot to blog yesterday. But at least I remembered and I admit to it.

Anyway, last night we had an Open Warehouse event at Miami Ad School. It was pretty sweet. DJs, food, drinks, raffles and such. School's usually fun and I like being there, but the place seemed alot cooler with the "makeover". Very "hello dear, welcome to the art gallery~" - esque. At first it seemed pretty easy to tell who were agency folk and who were students. But then some randoms started showing up so I gave up on the attempt to network. Haha. At least I had some good conversations about hockey.

I can't sleep

2008-06-25T01:32:00.000-07:00

I can't sleep because I have alot of random thoughts running through my head. I'll talk about those things later on.

But look at what I found! These guys are called Monkey Majik. They're Canadian guys that went to Japan to teach English and ended up forming a band. I think they're pretty big in Japan now. They collaborated with the Yoshida brothers who are traditional Japanese Shamisen players. It's the coolest music ever!!!!!! Very fusion. Anyway, I dont know which is cooler, the music or the fact that when the Candian's speak Japanese, they sound like Japanese folks. Confused me so much before I knew what they're about.

I dont really consider this J-pop even though it is...but yes, I do listen to J-pop. We'll discuss more later.

Way to be smart, Japan.

2008-06-23T10:40:00.000-07:00

Japanese Invent Car That Runs on Water ! -

This is probably the coolest thing ever!!! Cars running on veggie oil, electricity, tooexpensiveformetopayfor oil...it's about time someone came up with a way to drive a car with water! It's just too cool...

I never kept a diary...

2008-06-22T17:38:00.001-07:00

So I realized that I only wrote 1 post all quarter. Mai bad. But I should've figured, since all of my diaries have ended after page 1. However, since I need a place to release all of my randomness, I'm gonna try to write more. Really.

With that being said, here's a random thought of the day:

When you're walking down the street and a stranger passes you, why do they always try to avoid eye contact? And when you feel like saying "hi" just because, they get really uncomfortable. Or does that only happen to me? Haha.

First Post: Mai Inspiration

2008-04-30T11:15:00.000-07:00

Back in the good ol' days of college, I was given an amazing opportunity to do an independent study with Kevin Carroll, a creative mastermind. With energy, humor and passion, he shares the power of sports and play as a way to find one's dreams and social change and teaches business leaders to boost their work and team dynamics. He was THE creative inspiration at NIKE for years and has been quoted on Starbucks cups (Grande)...just to list a few. Anyway, during the course of a few months, Kevin helped me figure out how to represent myself as a brand. We talked about hockey, music, family, my multilingualculturalism, friends, values, etc....and eventually came up with my brand: iammai.

Kevin's Starbucks Cup "The Way I See It" #77:

" The human catalysts for "dreamers" are the teachers and encouragers that "dreamers" encounter throughout their lives. They are invaluable in the quest to turn ideas into reality. So here's a special thanks to all of the teachers - especially my teacher, Miz Lane!"

I can keep blabbering on, but you should go get inspired at www.katalystconsultancy.com.

Also, I highly recommend reading his book: Rules of the Red Rubber Ball.

And another book: Roadtrip Nation.

If you can't tell by now, I'm a huge fan. He's my inspiration. He's my mentor.