ipods and quick updates

just wanna say-- love love love ipods and itunes. don't know what i'd do without them. working in silence is the pits. hard to match the inspired design you can come up with when you're tapping your feet to some nice tunes and feeling good.

also must say -- hate hate hate the constant 'instant' updates to new technology that you recently purchased. i bought a 10gb original ipod a long while back and a week later, it was obsolete. people were laughing at my model whenever i pulled it out. i felt like a second class citizen. anyways, besides my bruised ego, it just seems right to wait like 6 months or so to make the newest and greatest update to your product. at least give your recent purchasers the feeling that theyhave the latest and greatest, at least for a month!

sure, it seems like apple knows what it's doing cause they just make bank no matter what they do -- but this humble user feels like he just got played.

well, recently that 10gb quit on me-- that dang battery is dead, and i'm not paying the cost of a new ipod to get a new battery for my inferior, clunky model. why aren't these easier to change out? who knows. and while people are out walking around with these crazy ipod touches and phones and doodads, i am just gonna go right back and get the lowest model. yes, i am miffed at the company, but i will take my new ipod and i will like it. at least for a couple of weeks.

crinkly clear bags

so we've been packaging a lot of cards lately with our new biodegradable clear bags, and i've gotta say -- what a pain! handling these things is like defusing a bomb. the slightest error, and you'll get a permanent crinkle on the bag-- rendering it virtually unusable at that point. i guess corn is not the most supple of materials. suffice to say this has slowed us down quite a bit, but we've managed to speed things up with a little practice.

it's amazing how your motor skills can adapt and refine themselves to near pinpoint accuracy and lightning speed. i mean, we are like jungle cats or cheetahs or whatever now.

ok, so we're sluggish like molasses with bear paws for hands and we've ruined like 50 bags. what!??

stupid environmental bags. the things we do to save the world. i suppose it's worth it.

minted design competition

we got an email awhile ago asking us to submit a design for a competition by a new company called "minted" -- after checking out their site (minted.com), we found a very cool idea in the making. designers who submit entries into each competition are eligible to receive cash prizes, and a percentage of the sales of the design if it places in the top 10 (or so) after voting by the minted community.

they also have a collection of very respectable companies lined up for people to choose from for your wedding invitation needs -- letterpress or otherwise, you can customize online with a nice on-the-spot preview. very cool.

in any case, we thought the idea of the competition was so fun, we decided to throw in an entry! "photo-cards" aren't really our thing (at the moment), but it was definitely fun trying to make it work with our style of design.

go to http://www.minted.com/vote to vote for your favorites!

virgin america vs. jet blue

so we've flown both, and i gotta say virgin america seriously upped the ante on in-flight entertainment with their "red" system. you can watch tv, listen to albums, watch videos, play games, and chat with other passengers in other seats through the interface (although this is a bit strange). supposedly in the future they will include the functionality to "read" -- books perhaps? this wasn't working the last time we flew them, but they said it would be coming soon. "red" also has the ability to allow you to order food/drinks from your seat -- the flight attendants would bring them to your seats.

jet blue we thought was going to be great the first time we flew them a few years ago. they seemed to pioneer the whole "watch satellite tv on a plane" thing. though this was a novelty back then, and was pretty cool at first, we quickly grew to find out that the tv often would black out at the most inopportune times, due to "normal aircraft movement." this didn't happen half as often on the virgin america flights. maybe their dishes were in better places ;)

with virgin's "red" now, jet blue's basic satellite tv seems just...well...basic.

jet blue does get some bonus points for their excellent snacks (mmm blue chips and munchies). but i swear, their customer service is butt poor. we found that the baggage service for jet blue in jfk always made us wait to get our luggage. after the first time we flew with them, we waited over an hour and a half for our luggage -- this was at 1am in the morning as well. a jet blue representative came afterwards and gave us "fake" vouchers for our pains-- i say fake because they never honored them! virgin america misplaced one of our bags, but the representative gave us hourly updates by phone, and had a driver promptly drive the bag to our home once it was found.

maybe that's just the jfk airport, but it happened all 3 times we flew with jet blue. that baggage claim area by the way, is a very very depressing place to wait. it got so bad that we gave jet blue a new name. jet poo!

virgin also has a very cool instructional safety video-- very stylish and funny, a brilliant way to get people to pay attention to the same old important details!

also, being on a virgin plane feels a little like you're clubbin' -- not sure if that's a plus, but it's something? it definitely caters to the younger crowd. if you're considered 'old folk,' maybe jet blue would suit you better. not that jet blue is 'old,' but c'mon, they use the safest corporate color...blue. virgin goes with the flashy purples/pinks. make your own conclusions.

for our conclusion, although we've never had a flight more than 2 hours with virgin america, i'd have to give the edge to them. it was really quite a landslide. no contest.

anyways, keep in mind that however much we may bitch and moan about this and that, they are both better than all those other crappy airlines out there. but if you had a choice...

new york eats

one of the perks of exhibiting at the national stationery show is that we get to try out some of new york city's yummy eateries! here are some of our favorites:

tomoe sushi - crazy long lines but super fresh sushi. comparable to sushi places in california..

cabana - tapas, paella, and sangria... oh my!

joe's shanghai - possibly the best soup dumplings in new york! a few blocks walk from times square...

saigon 48 - little fusion place located just down the street from times square, surprisingly pretty good (and cheap!), considering it's close to a high traffic tourist area -- try the noodles (singapore?) -- i wouldn't go here if you want 'authentic' stuff, though. stick to the basics, and read the reviews on the outside of the place to get an idea of what to order.

gray's papaya - snappy, juicy, and cheap hot dogs

typhoon - asian fusion tapas -- a nice variety

serendipity - lines are long but the frozen hot chocolate! mmmmm delicious!