College Street Bar Hopping Review

Sneaky Dee’s

Sneaky Dee’s is a place me and my friends frequent when we go down to drink on College street. Its usually the bar we end on but we decided to start on it this time because we had a huge craving for Buzz Amber. Buzz Amber is my team’s favorite all-around beer of choice. I secretly still prefer Guinness overall but Buzz Amber is a tie or very close second. We discovered Buzz Amber at Sneaky Dee’s the first time we went drinking on College street. It was the last bar of the night that time and we just asked for something cheap and left it up to the waiter. The moment we tried it we loved it. It’s a very smooth dark beer. Very easy to drink and not notice how drunk you are getting. If any of you are ever at Sneaky Dee’s I highly recommend trying it.

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Mullins

This was the first time we went to Mullins. My friend saw it on the way when were meeting up. We decided to give it a try after Sneaky Dee’s and we loved it. It wasn’t busy and there wasn’t any loud annoying music playing. The whole side of the place was one big window they left open. It was nice having the breeze flow into the bar. The people working there were also very nice. We asked them for what they would recommend as the drink of choice to represent the Mullen. They brought us 2 pints of Guinness. I cant complain. My favorite beer at a really nice comfy open window bar. Will visit again for sure.

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Touche

I’m more of a whiskey, vodka, beer kind of a guy so things like martinis throw me off a bit. But we were trying new things and said what the hell it looks nice so let’s give it a try. We quickly noticed how “dated” the place was which made me and my friend laugh at the situation. We got our seats and went up to the bar and I asked for something that looks good in a picture but isn’t a girl drink. The bartender laughed and thought for a second. She told us that would be a “Caipirinha” which is a Brazilian drink. I and my friend agreed after drinking it that it’s simply an alcoholic lemonade. We liked it but the overall place wasn’t our style. If you are looking for a place to take a date but want to be on the fancy side or you’re a fan of martinis I recommend Touche. If you are not one of these than I would say keep looking.

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Ryoji 

So we are walking and at this point, you have to understand we are pretty drunk. We see Ryoji across the street and decide we should go over. We get inside and see how nice the place is. I mean its very pretty and out of all the places we went to it has the best lighting. As you can probably tell from looking at the pictures. We asked the waiters what they would recommend and they both said different drinks. We said we will get one of each and try it. Now again we were drunk so we forgot to get the names of the drinks written down but we both agreed we liked the drink in the shorter glass more. It had this slightly grassy taste that went down very smooth. The other one was more of a sweet and sour flavor. We didn’t hate it but we wouldn’t order that drink again. Overall great place. We plan to go back there to try the food next time.

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Smokes Poutinerie

Remember how before when we crossed the street to get to Ryoji. Well, we are even drunker now and we are stupid in general. We had completely forgotten we crossed the street. So we continue down the street and start seeing stores we are sure we passed on the opposite side of the street. Now again let me remind you we are very drunk now and also very stupid. We start to talk about how its such a dumb idea to double up the same store on the same street. We go on about how bad of a business idea that is. on the second store we saw that doubled up I got suspicious. One store on the same street doubling up, ok. Two stores on the same street? No somethings not right here. It wasn’t until we hit the 4th store I realized we are walking backward on the opposite side of the street. We walked for a solid 8 to 10 minutes in the wrong direction before I realized we went the wrong way. We couldn’t stop laughing at how dumb the situation was and then had to speed walk all the way to Smokes. -_-

Now that all that’s^ out of the way. Let’s talk about Smokes Poutinerie. What can I say? It’s the best poutine in the city if you ask me. My friends would agree with that statement. What you see photographed down below is the triple pork poutine. Just writing about it now is making me salivate. I think if I was able to without getting fat I would eat this every day. I mean just look at it. Do I need to say anymore? Do yourself a favor and get some poutine at Smokes Poutinerie. Unless you’re a vegetarian. I mean they do have vegetarian options but meh. It’s just not the same.

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Track & Field

I’m going to say right off the bat this place is not my style. Music too loud, drinks were on the more expensive side. The crowd was very young and hipster. I just wasn’t able to feel comfortable there and relax. I felt like I stood out like a sore thumb. That being said. If you are a fan of the whole hipster type stuff than you would like this place. Also if you’re a single guy between 20 and 25 it’s a good place to go since it was filled with girls. Again not my scene but it is someone’s scene. Everyone there seemed to be having a good time. My friend overall didn’t mind it but he really liked the music. The DJ was playing a lot of pretty cool old school music. As a DJ myself I can’t be too impressed about downloading a best of 80s track list and playing it. The good music alone doesn’t validate the place for me. Your results may vary. Oh and we forgot to write the name of the drink we got here as well. It was alright…I wish I can say more but I was pretty drunk by this point and it wasn’t that memorable of a drink, to begin with.

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The Emmet Ray 

We were so drunk by this point I couldn’t function as a photographer. Hence why I don’t have many good pictures of the Emmet Ray here. I was so drunk I knocked my glass of whiskey over on the table and didn’t want it going to waste so I drank it off the table. >:P Yea I was pretty drunk. My beard smelled like Glenfarclas 12yrs for the rest of the night. That being said the Emmet Ray is one of if not my favorite bar on College Street. The live jazz band always playing quality jazz at the back of the place alone is worth a visit. The whiskey selection is simply amazing. Over 230 different kinds of whiskey. If you are a fan of whiskey this is a place you got to go to.

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Back to Sneaky Dee’s

After whiskey at the Emmet Ray, we decided we had to go back to Sneaky Dee’s for one last round of Buzz Amber to close off the night. We did just that. All in all, it was a great night. Would do this again for sure.

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All shots were taken by me using a Sony a6000 with a 35mm Canon FD vintage lens. Lastly a special thanks to my friend Arash for coming along and helping me drink.

Top 10 Reasons To Be Excited For Heroes of the Storm

I have played a bit of the alpha and the game has a lot of potential. I’m not the biggest moba fan. I would probably say I am not a fan of mobas in general but I do enjoy playing Heros of the Storm. Would recommend it to most people. Especially if you don’t like other mobas. This might be the one to change your mind.

DMA234 – Destiny Planet View Design Analysis

DESTINY DMALink – DestinyPlanetView

Motivation – Social

This sites motivation is social because of the game it is based on. Destiny is an active open world instanced multiplayer game. The game revolves around 3 planets (Earth, Mars, Venus) and the moon. This site lets you explore and see these planets with a Google Maps-style design. The site is made by Google Technologies so it makes sense there are some similarities. I find it being so close to Google Maps as a plus. So many people use Google Maps and this being like it sells the fantasy sci-fi world more. At different points in each world, you will find clickable targets, which give you more information and the option to share across other social media.

Communication Style – Entertainment

Destinyplanetview.com falls under entertainment because none of the planets and its inhabitants is heavily based on actual facts. It is also again based off a video game, which is mainly considered to be for entertainment purposes. The site also takes a cinematic tone. The voice over leading you through the worlds with the combination of the FX’s added more to this fact.

Medium – Web/Interactive

The hierarchy is based off the planets and the moon. Only 3 of these sources are viewable on this site due to Earth not being the one from the game but the Earth we live on now. When you first arrive on the site it actually finds your location through Google Maps and zooms you out into the games universe. The voiceover explains that this is our universe in the distant future. To maintain the realism of this you cannot move around Earth since it would just be Google Maps. The planets are based on proximity, size, and distance.

The scale is fairly large. With the voiceover and all the animations, it can chug on allot of machines and connections that can’t handle it. On some of the school computers, it wasn’t able to maintain a constant frame rate due to this. On a solid connection and decent machine, it should work fine.

I personally found this site to be really cool. As a fan of the game, being able to move through the areas I have been through with my friends in game is nice. The voice over and animations are very well done and the execution is flawless. The game itself will have updates and expansions that will grow out the overall universe. If destinyplanetview.com also grows with these updates and expansions I would find that very impressive and interesting.

Fools Gold By: Darkster

This is a “gag” I wrote for my DMA299 Media Production class. It was meant to be funny and have some sort of punchline or at least be a funny story but once I started writing this is what I got. Its a little on the sad side but it really hits home with me personally and how I feel in my day to day life right now. I hope you all like it. I will be posting more stuff like this in general from now on I think. We will see how it goes.

The fool goes to the princess after a visit from her prince charming and asks. What is it about him she loves? The princess says that he is loyal and kind and funny. The fool asks. Who is the loyalist person she knows? The princess is not sure. The fool says was it not him who has been by her side through all the hardships she has faced. Willing to take the blame for anything. The princess replied yes you are right you are the most loyal fool I know. The fool asks who is the kindest person she knows is. The princess is not sure. The fool says is it not he who tells her a tale or a joke to raise her spirit. Is he not the one who skips meals to save pennies only to get her what little he can? You are right you are the kindest fool I know. Finally the fool asks. Who is the funniest person she knows? She says of coarse the fool is. Yes. You are right says the fool. My humor and wit is known across the lands. Kings and men alike smile at me. Does this not make me the most loyal and kindest and humorous person you know? Does this not make you love me? The princess thought a moment and said. No. It just makes you a good fool. No one can love a fool.