sebgonz

New Site

Sebastian — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:12:03 +0000

www.sebgonzdesigns.com is now up and running. All requests for designs will be going through that site as of January 1st, 2009.

Christmas

Sebastian — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 04:56:54 +0000

So I thought I’d try out my new itouch and it’s neat wordpress feature that it contains. So far I’ve been very impressed with all it has to offer. I mean, not only am I able to update everytime I’m near a wifi connection, but I’m able to do tons of other things.
I’ve loaded a ton of apps from the app store and, so far, not paid a penny for anything. This thing is awesome. The qwerty keyboard makes me almost wanna buy an iPhone just for that specific feature.

Whatever You Like - New Song By Weird Al.

Sebastian — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:02:47 +0000

Al just finished recording the first track for his next album and he couldn’t wait to share it… so you can get it RIGHT NOW on ITUNES, AMAZON, RHAPSODY, NAPSTER, ZUNE or WALMART!! “Whatever You Like” is a parody of the #1 smash hit by T.I. (which, coincidentally, is also called “Whatever You Like”).

I took a listen to this and laughed my guts out. But as that black guy on Reading Rainbow used to say, “Don’t take MY word for it.”

Disneyland Vacation

Sebastian — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 23:20:27 +0000

Friday, October 18th

Well, it was Brittany’s birthday this past week (October 14^th) so we decided that it would be fun to go to Disneyland to celebrate. And why not? It’s not every day that you get to visit the happiest place on earth where“…you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow and fantasy.”

It was a great weekend to go. We left Salt Lake on Thursday night around 6:30 and drove through the night, arriving at Brittany’s sister Katrina’s house in Redondo Beach at 5:30 am California time. We first slept for a few hours since everyone was pretty exhausted from staying awake with me while I drove through the night.

After everyone woke up at around 11:30, we had a quick breakfast and two of us (Harrison and Catherine) decided to go to the beach while Brittany and I stayed at the house and helped Katrina with Kimberly for a few hours. Basically, the whole day was just a day of wandering around and enjoying the fact that we were in California, when just a few hours prior, we were all in the cold weather in Utah. That night, Remi, Katrina’s husband and Katrina were both kind enough to buy us some pizza, which we thankfully accepted, while we watched Iron Man (which I’ve seen about 10 times now. But never in California. Guess what… it’s still the same. ;)).

*****

Saturday, October 19th

The next day, Saturday, we all woke up and got ready to head to the Happiest Place on Earth. Again, Katrina and Remi showed their immense generosity by giving us some cash for parking in the park and packing us a lunch so that we wouldn’t have to spend so much on snacks in the park. We got to the park just after 11 am. The weather was fantastic, there really weren’t that many people in the park for the majority of the day, and we were able to jump on most rides rather quickly. It was really amazing. The park was completely decorated for Halloween. There were Jack-O-lanterns everywhere with Disney characters carved into them, pumpkins on buildings, streamers everywhere, and so on. It was beyond anything I’d ever seen. Which is expected when it comes to Disney. They’re pretty well known for going over the top on things like that.

We spent the first part of our day in the actual Disneyland park. Then after we ate lunch, we went to the California Adventure park. There were fewer people in that park than at Disneyland, so… as you can imagine, we were able to ride rides a lot faster.

We started by riding the rollercoaster that you see on the commercials. You know, the one that has the Mickey Mouse ears in the background. It’s called California Screamin’. Catherine didn’t want to ride that one, so we left her behind and the three of us rode it. All I can really remember is Brittany sitting next to me screaming her guts out. After that, she and I went and rode the Maliboomer. It’s a ride that shoots you 200 feet in the air, sorta like the Rocket at Lagoon. Now, if you can picture this, I’m sure you’ll get a bit of a laugh out of it. I’m a big guy. Meaning, I’m not small by any means. I have a long torso, and long legs. Imagine me trying to get into the seat of this ride. It’s got a bar that goes over the top of your shoulders and snaps into a seatbelt-type buckle on the base of the seat. I put the restraint over my shoulders and reached for the buckle, but couldn’t get it. So the guy that operates and checks the ride to make sure that everyone is buckled in came over to help me. He took one look at me and sorta shook his head like, “Oh man… this isn’t gonna work.” But… alas… after he basically made it so that I possibly won’t be able to have kids in the future, he got me buckled in. For a 20 second ride, it was sure a lot of hullaballoo about nothing.

Once we were done with that ride, we worked our way across the park to the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. This ride was probably the highlight of the day. We convinced Catherine to come with us to ride this one, telling her that it just “seems” like you’re being dropped, but that it’s all just stationary. The Tower of Terror is a mostly dark, freefall-type ride. You enter the Hollywood Hotel lobby, watch a video that tells about a lightning strike that sent the elevator into the Twilight Zone some years ago and then get into the elevator.
The Tower of Terror then drops 13 stories in starts and jerks. You get bounced up and down quite a bit and then finally, before you drop for the last time, the doors open at the top of the tower where you’re able to look out and see the entire park, while a camera snaps your picture. Now… as you can imagine, Catherine was probably freaking out at this point. She was sitting next to me yelling things like, “Oh crap! Oh crap! Oh Crap! Sebastian, do you have me?! Are you holding me down?! You don’t have me Sebastian!!! Hold me. Hurry. I’m falling out! Oh Crap!!!” To ease her frantic screaming, I placed my arm across her lap and grabbed her knee tightly and held her in place so that she felt safer. Too bad that by this point she had already grabbed onto and bitten my shoulder…

We then stopped and took some pictures in front of this wall that made it look like the street just kept on going and going. Catherine and Harrison stood in the pictures while Brittany and I were behind the camera. We then headed to the one ride that we’d been waiting all day to go on and the one that we were told was the coolest one in the park, Soarin’ Over California. How the ride works is you’re suspended in the middle of an 80-foot domed screen, on large, skilift-style seats. On the screen in front of you, you’re taken on a trip of the most scenic parts of California as your seat dips, turns and raises just as though you’re in a glider, flying over these places. As if what you see weren’t enough, you can actually FEEL the wind and SMELL the orange blossoms as you fly over them. It’s definitely worth visiting when you go there.

To finish off our day, we went back over to Disneyland and rode the rides we hadn’t been able to visit before. Mainly just the Matterhorn and the Thunder Mountain Railroad. While getting into the Matterhorn, Brittany and I were sitting in the same bobsled, and we were a little tight. I had to squish my feet in there so that she could come sit down and as we would take a turn, I would hear “Oww!” “Ouch!” “Oof!” coming from Brittany. I IS a sorta bumpy and joggy ride. It likes to throw you to one side or the other. My knees kept hitting the side of the bobsled with every turn. After we rode those, we watched the fireworks and then decided to make for home. It was getting late, and both Catherine and I were hurting in our knees. Honestly, that’s probably the only thing that I could think of that went wrong that day. My knees gave out before I was ready to leave and I wasn’t able to enjoy things as much. But other than that, it was the greatest day I’ve had in a good long while. And best of all, I got to spend it with Brittany. Yeah, that sounds a bit cheesy, but it wouldn’t have been nearly as fun if I wasn’t with her.

*****

Sunday, October 20th

We woke up at around 9:30 or 10 and got ready to go to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. Of course, none of us had planned for this, so we didn’t have any money. But it was Katrina and Remi’s idea, so they were kind enough to pay for it…. again.

When we first walked in, the first thing that stuck out to me was the giant Blue Whale model that they have hanging from the ceiling. Then Remi, our tour guide so-to-speak, lead us thru the aquarium one section at a time. We went through four different sections: The Southern California/Baja Gallery, The Northern Pacific Gallery, The Tropical Pacific Gallery, and the Gulf of California. After going through those, we went outside and pet some Manta Rays and some small sharks. That was really interesting. Sharks feel rough, almost like sandpaper while Manta Rays feel like a gummy worm that you’ve had in your mouth for a little while. Yes, I know, weird comparison. But you definitely understand what I mean now, don’t you?

After the sharks and the rays, we went into the Lorikeet Forest. Lorikeets are these really colorful birds that are native to the lowlands of Australia. They’re mostly green, but can have blue, yellow and red in their faces. You purchase a little tub of nectar that you hold in your hand, and Lorikeets will come land on you and start drinking it. They’re not really scary birds, you just might wanna look out for the shot of poop that they can leave you on your shoulder or back. Apparently, I had some on me.

All in all, it was a great day and an even greater weekend. It was definitely needed. Brittany’s sister, Katrina and brother in law, Remi, were great to us. I really appreciate them being willing to let us into their home like that and even that they were willing to spend time with us. I hope to visit them again soon. And maybe this time, I’ll even hit the beach…

Here are the pictures that we took during our trip. Take a look.

T-Shirts

Sebastian — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 20:37:25 +0000

buy unique gifts at Zazzle

Here are some t-shirts I’ve made that are available for purchase. Take a look and see what you like.

Neat Spoof

Sebastian — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:41:26 +0000

This is a good spoof of a classic Neil Diamond song. Check it out.

[audio:snuck-into-america.mp3]

Pretty Neat Site

Sebastian — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:31:06 +0000

I ran across this site recently. It’s got a pretty neat election video trick that you can play on all of your friends. Check it out.

Zombie

Sebastian — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:06:23 +0000

Miser recently did a cover of the classic song by The Cranberries named Zombie. Check it out. It’s pretty great.

[audio:http://www.sebgonz.org/wp-content/audio/miser_zombie.mp3]

The 3 Golden Rules professional Graphic Designers don’t want you to know about

Sebastian — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 04:44:47 +0000

Horatio Farquaar asked:

Ever wondered how some graphic designers always manage to produce beautiful looking designs for their brochures, website designs, logo designs? Talent…yes, it helps but there are a handful of more important things you can do that will have even complete beginners producing award winning design.

Forget everything you’ve ever been told about Graphic Design

There are some hard and fast things that graphic designers will insist are to be obeyed. Only use limited fonts on a design for example or never use green on a magazine or book cover as people will not buy it. Stuff and nonsense. You can pretty much do whatever you like but you must apply these STRICT GRAPHIC DESIGN RULES and you will soon be walking away with graphic design silverware.

Somewhere on the page you MUST put in a subliminal message

This can be done in a multitude of ways for example if you are producing a brochure selling wellington boots then start every paragraph spelling out ‘buy our wellington boots’ or better still ‘you have no choice but to buy our wellington boots now get out your cheque book and buy them - NOW!’ Another crafty method is to doctor images in photoshop so that on an innocent picture of a tree for example carved into the bark is a message along the lines of ‘U Luv Wellington boots’ You get the idea. just make sure it’s hidden away on a subliminal level and watch your sales go through the roof, quite literally

You MUST include a picture of a pretty girl smiling on your document or webpage

This works for 95% of products. Put simply would you rather read and look at pictures of industrial machinery or would you rather look at a pretty girl? It’s a no brainer right? Research has proven that mens brains are wired up to focus on girls smiles and of course their breasts and backsides. If you can somehow convince your client to put a naked girl on there somewhere you can pretty much laugh yourself down to the bank. However, never ever put a muscle bound hunk on any design thinking it will work conversely for womens products. Research has shown that womens brains are only wired to think of shopping for clothes and chocolate, so putting a bare chested chippendale on the cover is going to see your business go down the dumper. Unless your product is for homosexual merchandise in which case go ahead.

Shock and Awe - the guaranteed way to get your design work noticed and talked about

Perhaps the best example of this trick can be found widely used in the modern art world. Sharks in formaldahyde, unmade beds and plastic dolls melted together to sodomise each other. All these pieces of art have been much talked about and whether you find them to your taste or not are widely percieved as being breath takingly original. The same principal can and should be applied to your graphic design work or website design. Add a blood splattered severed willy in the centre of the page for example or how about using an excrement smear as a backdrop. Remember the important thing is to get people talking about your design work. Bad taste soon becomes acceptable once commonplace so be the first to do something outrageous and reap the rewards.

If you remember to apply at least one or two and ideally all 3 of these golden graphic design rules there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be a millionaire/billionaire within one or two months. Now get creative!

Create a video blog