Three to four years ago I had a chance to fly to the North of Thailand. I went to Pai, a tiny town near the Myanmar border. It's very well-know town among backpackers. The atmosphere is very relaxing and laid-back. Pai is completely a great hideaway for me. It almost has no electricity and pollution. That place has no shopping malls, subways, fast food, and etc.
I stopped by one of the most well-known coffee shop and had a hot chocolate with my friends. I love the way that cool breeze touched my skin and my tongue was soaked into warm drinks. Even it's cold outside but I felt so warm because people there are kind and laid-back. Last week I had a chance to scan postcards I bought from Pai. I am trying to find the way to use them. They are very cute and authentic. My concern is how can we sustain Pai? I don't want Pai to be too commercialized and Pai has attracted more people to the town. So people start to make money and shun away from the authenticity.
After reading this article, It left me in silent wonderment. The Japan tourism named Hello Kitty as its choice to represent the country in China and Hong Kong where Hello Kitty is widely popular among kids and women. Officials expect that Hello Kitty will attract a ton of tourists into Japan. This is the first time that the tourism ministry has endorsed a fictional character as a country ambassador.
I would like to applause them for being bold and taking risk. Although Hello Kitty has been in this world for a long time and found herself in everyone's heart, being cute is actually enough to lure people to come to Japan or not. Hello Kitty is such a wonderful character but I don't think she will be the key driven in people's mind to visit Japan. It's a cute execution but an ill-judged strategy.
Here is a conversation on Gchat with one of my communications strategy classmates,Schmidt. Oakie : www.cityshrinker.com Schmidt : Cool...but why are you obsessed? Oakie : I dunno..I think it's so awesome.
I re-think about his question why I am so obsessed with Tilt Shift photography. I mean I can't produce it but I strongly love looking at it. I guess the reasons are...
1. I love traveling - I love to see the world. I enjoy viewing this world in many perspectives such as sitting at the Cafe in Hong Kong, sightseeing the New York city on the tallest building in NY. The tilt shift technique is mostly used in taking photo of cities, streets, landscapes, and etc and this would probably be the reason why I like it so much. 2. I wanna be a good photographer - When I see the Tilt-Shift photos, they make me feel aspiring. I wish I could take many cool photos like that. I still hope and will push myself to that goal.
Below images are the example of Tilt-Shift photos that I like.
I came across the Springwise website and found this cool innovative product called Activate Drinks. What caught my attention was they keep vitamin powder in the cap and when you twist the cap, the vitamin powder will be released into water. They claim that vitamins and other healthy ingredients lose their potency sitting in water. I really like the caption, "It's hid in the lid."
The product initially launched in California and will be rolled out nationwide during this year. I think they should expand their business by selling the vitamin powder in a small package. It will create more usage and occasion for the consumer to mix it in water by themselves.
They also have demonstration video on Youtube. See the video below.
What is a Cougar anyway?...this question stuck in my head now. I always look for Cougar women whenever I have a chance to go out. Sometimes I say "She got a Cougar look" and "Do you think she is a Cougar?" That's not because I sexually love Cougars but I soaked myself into the Cougar world. My friends (Brittany and Mimi) and I were assigned a final project of this semester and we selected "Cougars" as a topic. After spending a couple of months thinking, talking, observing, musing, researching, joking about Cougars, I have a positive attitude towards Cougar women. Although we finished the final project on Thursday but I feel like I know and understand them really well.
The image below is one of many slides in my presentation. I really love it because it's such a great juxtaposition between the lace and cougar animal. For those who don't know what is Cougar, I won't tell you coz I am sick of talking about it now.
