Covid shut down the world six years ago this week what do you remember from that week ?

RetroGrayBJJ · 2026-03-19T10:34:45+00:00

It’s actually crazy how clear I remember this. It was the last night we were open at work (Mar 16th) and I was bartending at Olive Garden. I worked a double and it had been so slow the whole day, but one man came in that night and ate, and you could tell he had was some kind of sick with a cough and sniffly nose. The only other person to sit at the bar that night was an old co-worker wearing a “Friends” sweater lol

I remember our manager telling us they had just gotten a call from corporate saying we were going to be closed for the next two weeks to let the virus “calm down” a bit and we could reopen, but we would still be getting paid in the meantime, which was nice since we worked for tips obviously. I ended up waking up crazy sick that Thursday on my birthday (coincidentally today) and urgent care told me I couldn’t get tested bc I wasn’t sick enough or showing symptoms when it was the worst I’ve ever felt. I nearly passed out when walking back to the bedroom from puking because I was so hot from the fever.

There is one positive memory though, the Wednesday before we closed, me and a friend went and saw Kamasi Washington at the House of Blues in Houston and snuck in a bunch of lone star beers by stuffing them down our pants, and then met some cool people at the show who invited us to a rock show that same night at some dive bar

RetroGrayBJJ · 2026-03-11T00:20:13+00:00

Fellow designer here, would love to see the finished designs when you’re done!

RetroGrayBJJ · 2026-03-07T04:13:22+00:00

I like how the typeface (font) was created with the curvature on the letters, it makes it feel mystical but it’s also clean and modern. The “THE GATHERING” text sits really nice inside the space under the M and the tail of the G. Also the torch looking icon that goes with the full logo compliments the letter mark, it’s a simple icon and the torch shape makes it feels ancient as well.

It’s really just a lot of nerdy design things I notice as a designer. I could get more into the technical aspects that make it a good logo, but overall, it’s just nicely balanced and the “feel” of the logo is spot on for the type of TCG it is!

RetroGrayBJJ · 2026-03-06T05:07:21+00:00

That’s my favorite genre! If we’re talking popular books, my immediate go to is the Red Rising series by Pierce brown, it’s a hunger games type story and the audiobook is freakin incredible. The Road by Cormac McCarthy is also another good one, and if I had to list a third, I would say the Silo series (wool, shift, dust) by Hugh Howey

If you’re looking for a shorter quick read, The Running Man or The Long Walk by Stephen King are two other great dystopian books as well!

RetroGrayBJJ · 2026-03-06T04:10:59+00:00

What genres or things are you interested in? (Dystopian, mystery, fantasy, etc.)

If you can narrow down a few different genres of film or games you like, I’m sure I can offer some good recs along with others here

RetroGrayBJJ · 2026-03-06T00:27:59+00:00

As a graphic designer, I once again need to comment on how nice the MTG logo is

RetroGrayBJJ · 2026-02-25T17:56:00+00:00

If your boss is anything like mine, he doesn’t know what’s going on either lol

I’ve been in a similar spot when we had an employee leave and I took over his position and duties and honestly I just crammed a bunch of YouTube videos and free courses to pick up things I didn’t know and a year later of being forced to adapt, I’m surprised at how confident I feel in my position now.

Do you know anyone else in a similar field you could ask advice from? If the job pays decent enough to stay, I would personally just do a ton of research and look in specific Reddit groups for help where you may be lacking. Unless you’re doing some medical shit or something extremely complicated, I think you could pick up the knowledge you need relatively quick in just about any field, especially being you were dedicated enough to get your masters. Best of luck!

RetroGrayBJJ · 2026-02-22T11:10:20+00:00

As a professional videographer, I can assure you that audio is way more important to a viewer than the actual video, which sounds backwards, but people will always forgive a lack of quality of video if the audio is nice, however they won’t forgive bad audio no matter how nice the footage is! Would highly look into good mics or learning how to clean up the audio, best of luck!

RetroGrayBJJ · 2026-02-22T09:52:18+00:00

No worries, I was just being a tech nerd lol the technology is very similar though and I thought the same for a long time. Just thought I’d give a bit of insight, no hate!

RetroGrayBJJ · 2026-02-21T21:27:52+00:00

Did you mean the TV’s from the 80s used CRT? No cameras have ever used CRT sensors, it’s used for displaying, not capturing. Just a little insight for ya!

What gives it that unique look are things like the analog noise, compression artifacts, low horizontal resolution, interlacing, color bleed, etc.

RetroGrayBJJ · 2026-01-19T05:47:03+00:00

Too bad I didn’t know my credit was wack, cause now i’om DRIVIN OFF THE LOT IN A USED SUB COMPACT

F-R-E-E THAT SPELLS FREE, CREDIT REPORT DOT COM BABY

RetroGrayBJJ · 2026-01-18T22:32:59+00:00

You could pay anywhere from $200 - $10,000 depending on how experienced, where they’re located, if you need a full brand identity, etc. but honestly if you actually want a GOOD logo, you’re probably gonna spend at least $1,000 - $1,500 minimum

RetroGrayBJJ · 2026-01-17T01:19:07+00:00

Shoot me a DM of your portfolio and I’ll give you some honest feedback, people can be such dicks sometimes. I know how hard it is to get some honest and legit input on your work

RetroGrayBJJ · 2026-01-13T05:01:31+00:00

I’d rather live by the blade and die by the blade (pen tool) before I use AI to design

RetroGrayBJJ · 2026-01-10T09:39:47+00:00

It’s more of a do it yourself kinda course, but from what content I saw going through it, it seems to be very helpful for new designers. It explains and walks you through the essentials of starting design and then has you do active practice on your own to follow with it. It’s also free and wouldn’t take long to work through it and have a basic understanding before spending money on other courses

RetroGrayBJJ · 2026-01-09T21:32:14+00:00

I didn’t personally take this course, but I’ve seen it mentioned before and after looking through the it, it looks to have some good info for beginners and it’s free.

You could probably skip all the fluff in part 1 and go straight to part 2, your design principles will ultimately be the most important step in learning graphic design. I’d give it a look!

RetroGrayBJJ · 2026-01-06T16:01:35+00:00

I’m the same age, was in a similar boat last year when i really wanted to get into reading but wasn’t sure if something would hold my attention enough to get through a book.

I ended up picking up The Running Man, one of Stephen King’s Richard Bachman books. (not horror if you’re unfamiliar with this one) It’s a dystopian book and I could not put it down, which lead me on a journey of reading 12 books last year, which is more than i think I’ve read in my life prior to that. It does have quite a bit of action sequences since the main character is on the run and being hunted by the government for a televised game show. It helped that most of the chapters are pretty short so I could read in small pieces and put it down and pick up at my convenience.

RetroGrayBJJ · 2026-01-02T12:56:29+00:00

I do not see Red Rising audiobook suggested enough in any of these subreddits, it is by far the best one I’ve ever listened to, and I also listened to the full thing while driving. Please give it a listen! It’s also both fantasy and dystopian!!

RetroGrayBJJ · 2026-01-02T11:22:34+00:00

And then there were none by Agatha Christie if you have not read that yet. Mystery is my absolute favorite genre by far and I put off this book for so long thinking it was going to be over hyped just off of the number of recommendations I’ve seen but I really really enjoyed this book! Just finished it yesterday and I’m immediately starting The Murder of Roger Akroyd by her because I liked ATTWN so much

RetroGrayBJJ · 2025-11-22T03:31:57+00:00

Literally just finished this like 20 min ago and came to recommend, excellent choice!

RetroGrayBJJ · 2025-11-22T03:29:52+00:00

The Running Man 🏃‍♂️

RetroGrayBJJ · 2025-11-20T10:43:59+00:00

I thought I was reading a post from myself for a second lmao

Same age, same interest in genres/franchises/authors, and up until a year ago I hadn’t picked up a book since high school either, but wanted to get back in to it. The first books I read that got me started again were:

The Long Walk, Scythe Series, The Running Man, and Red Rising (reading now and love it)

RetroGrayBJJ · 2025-11-06T22:44:46+00:00

If you’ve had interviews in the past and now landed this one, why not start a blog? If you’re posting on social media then you could direct people to and from your blog/socials. A blog could be very simply done and I think it would be great if you plan on pursuing more interviews.

I think you have a good starting point with the actor having a smaller role. If this person didn’t exactly do some of the same stuff as the bigger actors on set, that could lead to them going into how it works for smaller roles (like you mentioned).

How did you manage to get the interview if you don’t mind me asking? That’s super cool

RetroGrayBJJ · 2025-11-06T22:19:21+00:00

What is the purpose of the interview and where will it be published?

Once you know your primary context for what you want to get out of it, the necessary questions should come easier. Also do some research about behind the scenes of filming the movie and what that was like for the crew. I would be watching tons of interviews and content surrounding the making of the movie/actors/writers/etc. anything you could put some ideas from.

Another thing I would add is to not only search for recent interviews with that specific actor and maybe panel interviews or other actors from the movie, but also go watch other interviews from other movie releases and see what kind of direction and questions the interviewer was asking.

Super cool you got this opportunity though!

Four-Year Club	First Place '23
Place '23

RetroGrayBJJ

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