Tag Archives: stupid

Florida Man Beer (& Ciders)

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Back a few years ago, I worked as a copywriter at an ad agency in Orlando. I was only there for about a year, but I still made a couple of life-long friends, worked on some cool projects (others, not so cool), and I even learned a few valuable lessons.

I’m not going to talk about any of the projects I worked on while at the company. Instead, I will talk about the “homework” project that got me hired. I was recently reminded of this project when my girlfriend picked up some “Hurricane Beers” for Hurricane Ian***.

This particular beer (Florida Man Double IPA from Cigar City Brewing in Tampa, FL) reminded me of that “homework” project, because I had to create a new line of ciders for another Florida brewery. One of my pitches was the “Florida Man” line of ciders, where each cider had its own name based on a specific “Florida Man” story.

*Side Quest: For those of you who don’t live in Florida, “Florida Man” is a made-up, infamous superhero (or villain) depending how you look at it.
Most of the outrageous news stories out of this “great” state begin with “Florida Man…” as in “Florida Man takes off his clothes and [does
something crazy].” I will add that most of these tales come
from middle of nowhere cities, not Miami.

Now that you’re all caught up, let’s check out this silly project I worked on to get hired at that ad agency:

Here’s the sketch I made to give a rough idea of each cider being showcased in a mugshot.

Each cider’s name came from an official “Googled” Florida Man news story:

  • Naked Trucker – Florida Man caught driving tractor naked through town.
  • Desktop Lover – Florida Man attempts to marry his computer.
  • Statue Executioner – Florida Man beheads statue.
  • Forgetful Nudist – Florida Man arrested for running naked outdoors.
    Forgot he wasn’t wearing any clothes.

*Side Quest: I’m pretty sure I’m allowed to share this project because I never signed any NDAs. Also, now that Cigar City has created something
so similar, I think that kills this project from ever getting made.
Lastly, I think the statute of limitations has passed.

I’m not sharing this to accuse Cigar City Brewing of any foul play. It was only a matter of time before some local Florida brewery came up with a Florida Man beer. In fact, I’m pretty sure I may have even seen something like it before, I just happened to try this one and it’s pretty delicious.

I decided to post about this for a few reasons, (1) this was a spec project that got me a job. So, I’m pretty sure that no one (including the client) saw this, except for my bosses. (2) I think it’s important to showcase the caliber of work I can help Cigar City Brewing and other cool clients and companies create. And (3) it’s been a while since I last posted here, and this is what I was able to come up with last night.

Wow, look how beautiful and delicious this beer looks right now. I took this with my iPhone, quickly before enjoying this tasty IPA. Imagine what I can do with my DSLR camera and it’s expensive lenses.

So, if you’re reading this (@CigarCityBeer) and you need help with some copywriting, design, photography, or any other creative endeavors feel free to reach out to me.

For now, stay away from the Florida Man. He’s coming for us all…
Also, is there a Florida Woman?

***Here in South Florida, we got lucky this week when Hurricane Ian decided not to hit us directly. Others in our state were not so lucky, so although this is a silly, stupid post I still wanted to share some way that we can help those who were not so lucky this time around.

Here’s an article from the Tampa Bay Times featuring ways to donate and help victims of Hurricane Ian’s terrible wrath.

The Internet Hates Me!

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This past week, I was working on a brand new learning all about my newfound love for Machine Gun Kelly. It all started just a few short months ago and I even had the chance to see him in concert, but you’ll have to wait for all of that until some time next week or possibly later.

Yesterday, I was pretty much done with my MGK learning when I learned something unexpected — THE INTERNET HATES ME!

Now, when I say “THE INTERNET HATES ME,” I’m not talking about that angry group on the internet that attacks every single social media post with racist rants (they hate everyone).

I’m talking about the internet itself. Like that robot in the corner of your room that allows us all to communicate with anyone, anywhere, all the time.

Work Days

Most of my work days are kind of unstructured, unless I’m working on some sort of multi-day project. I usually just figure out what needs to get done and I try to finish that on that day. Usually that works out ok, and I stay up late at night working on my side projects: Ferdi’s Learnings, myVGBC, and other stuff.

This week, I planned on working on my MGK learning on Tuesday and Wednesday night, but stuff got in the way. I was too tired, or I had something else to do.

Yesterday, I finished my work early so I decided to get my MGK post early so that I could work on other stuff at night. I was pretty much done setting up my post when I realized that the post was Autosaving and had been for quite some time. I then noticed the internet was not working that well.

I restarted it, and still couldn’t save my entire post. Half of it was good to go, the other half went missing. This all happened because I made a plan.

In the past year, any time I try to tell myself “I can do this between these two or three hours, so that I can work on that later on,” the internet craps out on me mid-project and I instead spend that time trying to fix the internet.

I guess I should just continue to wing it every day and stay up late working on my other stuff when I have the time. I’m trying to get better at planning everything out to release more content each week, but I’m sorry that the internet hates me and won’t let me give you more.

If you wish you have more learnings and video game stuff to read and watch, blame it on the internet…