A tribute to Pittsburgh's Running Lady

If you live or work in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, you may have gotten a chance to witness the spectacle of Pittsburgh's Running Lady. Like Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster, this story is one that grown to near tall-tale proportions. As proof that this magnificant woman exists, here is some photographic evidence for you to judge.

She also has a Myspace.

This wonderful specimen, this Cadillac of women has been seen on Smithfield st, Liberty ave, and the Roberto Clemente bridge. I have also seen her on Provost which is easily 5 miles from the city.

My friend informed me that this woman rides bus home with her. From eyewitness reports, we hear that her antics continue on the trip home.

I must say, as much as everyone makes fun of this women, I am very envious. For her age, this woman is in incredible shape. I can run for maybe fifteen minutes at her pace, and only if I'm being chased. To do this for the entire day is mind blowing!

To to all the local Pittsburghers who have seen this magical woman running past them, just remember that when the zombies come, this woman will outrun us all as we're eaten alive. I leave you with some video evidence that I found. Cheers.

This is an arcive of all my blog articles. Until I install wordpress, this shall have to do. Enjoy!

Day 6

Sorry for the delay on the update, things got pretty hectic.

We are back home, and this wonderful journey has come to an end. It was an incredible week full of good times and fun sights and experiences.

On our final day we booked it from Madison Wisconson through Chicago, Cleveland and back to Pittsburgh! Hitting crazy Chicago traffic in a Uhaul wasn't the best of times, but we made it through without a scratch. Here are a few Pictures of the final day of travel!

Thanks to everyone who checked this site out during my travels, I hope you all enjoyed it. >To view my full set of images from today, check out my Facebook Album!

Cheers.

Day 5

We made it to Madison Wisconson!

I have learned that the middle of this country is really boring. Seriously, I took six pictures today and none of them are even worth my time. I also almost drove us into a grass median but was saved by Dave's quick thinking and my lack of cardiac arrest. It's been a long day so that's all for now. We are planning to make our final push tomorrow, 10.5 hours till we're back in the Burgh!

Ok I changed my mind, if you really want to see the middle of the country, check out my Facebook Album.

Hope to see you all there, cheers.

Day 4

What a day! 14 hours of driving today!! We are now in Wyoming or South Dakota, I'm not really sure.

Today was an amazing trip. We passed through some beautiful mountains and amazing plains. The entire 14 hours were amazing. Here is a bit of a preview.

When we hit route 212 we saw about 100 tiny deer that were about the size of a large dog with giant antlers and really long skinny ears. They all stood next to the road for close to 40 miles and made me really nervous. We also found out that my gps thinks there are gas stations where there is absolutly nothing. Scary but true.

To view my full set of images from today, check out my Facebook Album! I also updated yesterdays album, so check that out as well!

Day 3

Progress! We have made it to Spokane Washington!

Dave and I did a quick 8 hour drive to Spokane today to get the ball rollin on this trip. As we speak, we're planning part two which involves a 5 am - 9 pm push twoard Fargo North Dakota

During our journeys today we passed through some awesome sites and crazy landscapes!

To view my full set of images from today, check out my Facebook Album!

Cheers

Day 2

We are still in Washington. It's day three and we're about to head out.

Yesterday Dave and I have finished packing the truck up and are doing the last bit of cleaning. After the work was done, we ended up at the casino and Dave got way too drunk. No pictures for Day 2 since all it was was us packing a truck and drinking Corona's. We're hitting the road Wednesday morning so there will be more to talk about then.

Cheers.

Day 1

I arrived in Sea/Tac International around 11:30 PST and traveled with Dave through the sweet town of Seattle, WA. We ate some breakfast and took a ferry across the inlet to the island that he lives on.

As I arrived at Dave's place, I realized that we still needed to pack mostly everything in his house, so we quickly got to work doing that.

A few hours later, we decided enough was enough and headed out to get some greek food and drink as much as we could. It is now Tuesday and we're trying our best to pack everything up so we can hit the road Wednesday morning.

Until I have time to properly host these images, you can check them out on my Facebook Photo Album!

Cheers

A New Journey Begins!

At this very moment, I am sitting in a terminal at Pittsburgh International Airport awaiting my flight out to Tacoma Washington.

This whole crazy idea began with my friend Dave moving back to Pittsburgh. He offered the chance to fly out to Washingon and drive back across the country with him. Needless to say, I couldn't pass up this chance. So here I am, sitting in a terminal, listening to the people movers say "Moving walk is nearing its end" over and over and over, waiting for my flight.

Since there's not much to talk about, here's a map of the proposed road trip back to Pittsburgh. I'll have more for you once I get to Washington and can wake up a bit. Cheers

Choose Your Next President Based on Their Graphic Design

Crazy you say? Un-American? You bet your ass it is.

I'm sick of the lies we hear on TV all day. The constant smear campaigns and shady backhanded comments that increase each week as we near V-day (Voting day - cool eh?). It's time to vote on their marketing instead of what they will actually do for our country. Right?

Since I work a normal job, I am only sticking to the top three candidates. Barack Obama, Hilary Clinton and John McCain. Is there anyone left besides them, seriously? If so, they better step up their marketing a bit. (I'm looking at you guys, call me if you need help.)

Logos & Branding

Well all of our candidates have solidified a logo to represent them in the times where words aren't welcome, or needed. Here are our candidates:

How cute, eh? Three logos all in a row. The only political correct thing would be to go down the line and talk about each one. You guys are lucky I still have some patience tonight.

Clinton logo

Ah, good ole Mrs. Clinton. I was a huge fan of Bill. That cool cat would open up a UN meeting with a sax solo and smoke a cigar while having an orgy on top of the national surplus. My kind of guy.

Out of the three, I hate Clinton's logo the worst. The font is Goudy Old Style Extra Bold, not a bad choice overall, but it is very close to Times New Roman which is tired and unimaginative in my opinion. The "new and edgy" version of the flag as an underline doesn't really make me smile or anything, and without it and the blue background, the text just sits there and doesn't say anything but "I just typed this on MS Word". When it comes down to it, this logo is just plain boring and stale, like most politicians.

Like I said at the beginning, I hate this logo more then the other two. So far missy, you aren't looking to good

Obama Logo

Barack Obama, a smooth talker who could afford to eat a steak or two has a really great logo if you ask me. The font is Joanna Standard at about 90% height I believe. I find it interesting that Obama strayed from the navy blue color with white text and instead used #082255 and #007DC3 for his text. Very original good sir.

The graphic that Barack used is very progressive to say the least. This logo hits home with the "web 2.0 crowd" and really shows a symbol of progression and change. The colors are bright and happy, and give a "brighter, better tomorrow" feeling with the circle in the middle.

Obamas logo can be used without the graphic and still give a unique feel to it. The colors really stand out against the white and can also be used with black text and still look unique. I approve.

McCain Logo

Before I start, let me say that I am a Democrat. If a republican wants to win my vote, he needs to show me some brilliant innovative design that makes me tremor in my chair and cry a tear of happiness. At least since the Bush administration put a bad taste in mine (and everyone else's) mouth. Well...

Although I will give him points for effort, I simply can not get into this logo. The font is Optima Black and while I have nothing but love for gradients, a solid gradient as your background is going to screw you up on the print side of things.

The little star inside the yellow is pretty neat, I will say, and can work well for a business card (do presidents have business cards?) or letterhead, I don't find it stunning or ground breaking. I also just learned that the star was a military symbol... Wow, what a great thing to include in your logo, an association with the military which then associated you with the war so in my mind McCain = War, sweet. Out of the three, I think McCain comes in second for logo design.

Conclusion:

Basically if I was up for it and went into a voting booth and saw these three logos, Obama would get my vote easily. Good job man, you earned it.

On another note, I was wondering what the backlash will be from this. Will I get a bunch of hate mail saying "If you know so much, make them a better logo, n00b!" Well, I'm not doing that. But if I was running for president, my logo would be something like this.

Oh yea, vote for me. Also, if you feel this is crazy, enraging or hilarious, let me know! email me at andrew@parroccini.com, if it's political talk, I'll be sure to ignore it or tell you you're an idiot. Cheers.

Coming Soon - Websites! Give me a day or so, I'm beat.

A New Site Has Arrived

After a year of version 3 being online, I decided it was time for a change. I figured this time I should go a bit wild and make version 4 with a bit more personality and energy. The result, as you can see, pleases me.

There are some new additions to this site, as well as some changes in the navigation. I have included a "freebies" section, where I will put some homegrown brushes, vectors and code snips for you, the designer, to use at will.

I have removed my seperate sections for graphic design and web design and combined the two into one big page. I will be setting this up by client as to include their graphics and web work all at once. I feel this change will give people a quick and easy way to see all of my work in one happy home, instead of jumping around.

Anyways, that's all for now. If you enjoy the site, please drop me a line and tell me about it. Without feedback and communication, we can go nowhere in thie world!

Cheers,
Andrew