Got my new business cards from moo a few days ago and I can’t get over how cool they are. They are made from 100% recycled paper and come in a recyclable package. I love them! Can’t wait to start handing them out!

Moo Business Cards

Skyflier Summer Fun

Reminiscence

Carnivale

Greece

OK, so it’s been so long since I last posted that I wondered if I should even bother… but the fact is I haven’t been doing much foodie type stuff lately. Instead, life has been consumed with looking for jobs and (though you’d never guess from this blog) counting calories…

Anyway, a few things I have been up to:

- Travels. Headed to Portland a couple weeks ago on something of a food pilgrimage. Had an Allagash White and a meatloaf sandwich at Duck Fat, which is high on my list of all-time favorites. Stopped by Two Fat Cats for cookies, which I’d read were supposed to be the best, but I found kind of meh, just a bit too crisp for my taste. And I spent well over an hour inside Rabelais Books, one of the few stores in the nation dedicated solely to books on food.

Though I’d read the NY Times article and visited their blog, I wasn’t sure what to expect at Rabelais.  I envisioned a cross between a Williams Sonoma and a Borders, and I’m glad I was wrong. The store was a bit smaller than I thought it would be, lined with book shelves and filled in with book covered tables. The place maintained a good balance of older (ie used) and new books, and was full of all sorts of little treasures, like books on foraging for mushrooms or dressing game, and first editions of several cooking classics. I pawed through a first-edition “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” ($1,500!) and discovered the folks from River Cottage, who put together a fine book on fish (A particular interest, as you might have noticed).

After a lot of hemming and hawing (I am unemployed, after all) I chose a little book for some vegetarian friends and approached the counter to pay. On top was an old Fannie Farmer cook book. “God, I covet these,” I said to the woman working. A brief conversation about our grandmother’s beloved cookbooks ensued. “I have a few extras here that the owner said I could give away at my discretion,” she said, picking up a stack of old Fannie Farmer’s. “Pick one out, if you like.”

Incredulous, I looked through the pile, which included a few books from the 1920s and earlier. Some of the spines were broken, some had loose pages. None were in sell-able condition. But there was one from 1917 that was mostly intact, seemingly with all its pages and enough stains on the cover to ensure it had been well-loved. “Really?” I asked. “Take it,” the woman replied. And that is how I came to have my very own “Boston Cooking School Cook Book.”

- Notable meals. Yes, there have been a few, on both ends of the spectrum. I had a birthday recently, which gave someone a good excuse to take me out for a fancy meal. We headed to Moo, which I couldn’t have been happier about. I’m the first to admit that I’m not a steakhouse kind of girl. But my companion isn’t really a gourmet kind of guy. And for us, Moo was perfect. For starters, it doesn’t feel like a steak house. The inside is cool and hip, more South Beach than Boston and the menu, while beef focused, has a lot of other stuff to offer.

We started with steak tartare, which came with warm pita crisps and a quail egg on top.  I love raw beef, but after getting food posioning a few years ago, I’ve largely shied away from it… However, beef being Moo’s specialty, I figured I was safe. And I was right. It was soooo good, I filled up and couldn’t finish my entree. Dinner was Beef Wellington and a smorgasborg of sides: squash, mashed potatoes, truffled fries, creamed spinach and brussel sprouts. Yes, we took quite a doggie bag home. The service was impeccable, just exactly what it should have been with a waiter who helped us choose a lovely wine and brought us a plate of homemade s’mores with candles in them. This will go on the list of “Best Meals 2009.” Yes, I keep track of things like that.

If Moo was one of the best meals of the year, Estragon provided one of the worst. I cannot tell you how disappointed I am to say this because with its funky decor and great wine list, I really wanted to make it a favorite. But the bottom line is they served me bad meat. Twice. But more on that in a sec.

Chicky and I headed there earlier this week on a whim. At first glance, everything seemed great. our server suggested a wonderful bottle of wine and the menu appeared to be creative, with lots of the stranger cuts of meat that Chicky and I treasure. But any excitement evaporated when the food arrived. The veggies were ok, but the two meat dishes we ordered were awful. Awful. At first, I thought that maybe it was me, maybe I just don’t like beef cheeks or something (I know I don’t like liver or tongue). But a quick consultation to higher culinary powers confirmed that no, beef cheeks are not supposed to taste “gamey.”

“It tastes like old meat,” Chicky said. And she was exactly right. Both of our meat dishes smelled like that hamburger that’s been sitting in your fridge for two weeks. We tried to be nice, yet honest when our server asked how the food was, but he didn’t pick up on it. Instead, he stood at our table and talked very quickly at us for 25 minutes about Provincetown while not very discreetly wiping his nose on his sleeve. If the whole kitchen was as high as this guy, it’s easy to see why the food sucked.  We sent back more than half of it untouched and while the wine was good, I wish I hadn’t paid $87 for this experience.

- Cooking. Now that it’s fall, I have occasion to make some of my favorite things: soups and pies. Made an “everything but the kitchen sink” lentil soup last week that was supreme. Onions, garlic, carrots, mushrooms, celery and kale. So yummy, and with all those veggies, you know it’s good for you.

- I was late getting into the Thanksgiving cooking spirit. But I’ve got it pretty good now. Just finished making a chocolate-pecan pie and will tackle “Grown Up Green Bean Casserole” tomorrow. The pie looks really really good… and smells about the same. If I was smarter, I would have made two pies and then had one to taste today… but as it stands now, the taste-jury will be out until tomorrow. I used a Gourmet recipe for “Waiting for Wilma” pie and then adapted it to what was in my own cupboard.

My version:

1 9-inch frozen pie crust. (Sorry, but pie crust isn’t delicious enough to warrant making my own)
1/2 cup dark corn syrup
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon Pusser’s dark rum
1/4 teaspoon salt
3.5 oz milk chocolate, melted (in my case, a giant Cadbury Dairy Milk bar)
1 1/4 cups pecans, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together corn syrup, sugar, eggs, flour, butter, vanilla, rum, cocoa and salt until combined. Stir in melted chocolate and pecans and pour into pie shell. Bake until top is puffed but slightly wobbly in center, about 50 minutes. Serve at room temperature.

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As I’ve noted before, I love working on personal design projects for people–projects where I get to take their personality and portray it in the design.  I just finished a such a project for a client, who also happens to be my cousin Andrew.  He asked me to do his business cards and I gladly accepted.

Andrew and his awesome wife Tovah live in Chicago, and are absolutely in love with their city.  Andrew is currently in grad school at the University of Chicago for public policy, and I decided to display his love for Chicago in his business cards.

A while back, my friend photographer friend Ashton had some business cards printed with Moo, and I absolutely loved the way they turned out.  The paper is slightly matte, which makes the cards really unique compared to the other thousands of plain business cards being passed around.  But the winning feature about using Moo to print business cards is that you can have up to 50 different designs within one set of cards with no additional cost.  Moo is where I turned to get Andrew’s cards printed.

Because of this really cool feature with Moo, I decided to take a variety of sharp black and white photographs of various parts of Chicago and use them on one side of the card.  The other side of the card–the side with Andrew’s details–would remain the same on all of the cards, but each would have one of the different photos full bleed on the other side.  Here are the images I went with, and I think they are just so striking:

I found them on a free stock photo website that I love, and just did a little editing with the levels to make the whites and blacks as bold as possible.

For the details side of the card, I went very simple because of the busyness on the other side.  I opted for a white background with black text in Geo Sans Lite (per Andrew’s request) and I think it goes so nicely with the feel portrayed by the images.

Then I simply uploaded each of the parts to Moo, which was as painless as could be, and placed the order!  Another neat feature of Moo is that you can order a proof pack of the cards (10 count) for free to make sure they turn out as you expect.  Sometimes with online ordering for printing, you end up with unintended white blocks from crop marks, or pictures cut off in odd places, so this is a great feature to have.

I can’t wait to see how they turn out.  I expect great things!

Do you or someone you know need a business card or other personal materials?  Let me know at lmeanswell@mac.com and we can talk details!

Wild and windy up on Witchmountain today… I just looked out and saw some kind of hawk ( Sparrow Hawk?) balancing in the air outside my window…so beautiful and amazing to see it holding itself so steady when even the big Oak is struggling against the wind .

I’m still slowly gathering a few things together to try and make some pennies. This purse is another early “zip  experiment” involving a vintage tablecloth, some print and stitch.Its a bit wonky but of course this is part of the CHARM of “handmade stuff”…thats what I’m saying anyway!

My lovely stickers came from Moo. We are all raving about this company with its friendly and quirky style; everything from the packaging to the e-mail confirming your order just makes you smile. I have no plans for my stickers yet , I’m just a sucker for stationary !

So, upcoming events…Lindsey is at Worsall Village Hall on Friday night with her stall and on December 6th we are at Osmotherley “Christmas Extravaganza” along with Jane Thorniley-Walker and Heidi Turner. Don’t forget the Designers Marketplace in Middlesbrough Town Hall on The 29th. I’ve done NOTHING about Christmas yet which is terrible ,so hopefully I’ll be able to get lots of lovely things from there.

Time to get the stove going now… x

Unfortunately for Tom the cat, Bessie was quite farsighted and hopelessly attracted to her particular color scheme …

a doomed love that was not to be …

Woof to all!

I am just loving my life. The past few months, my parents have been trying new things with me, making sure that they give me as much attention as Charlie, the golden child. I love Charlie to bits, he’s my fur bro and my woofter in crime. But I am definitely lapping up all this attention. In fact I don’t like it when I’m not close by to my parents, and I have been following mum and dad around everywhere. I just have to know what they are up to!

I have also been enjoying this awesome warm weather which means I get to run around the pool – yesssss! It’s Charlie’s pool technically so I’m not allowed to swim in it but I love dropping my toys in it, getting them wet and then seeing if mum can get them out before they sink to the bottom. Now that is fun!! woo hooo!

I’m behaving so well now that mum says I’m like a different dog… she’s even calling me weird new names like ‘Mookie’ and ‘Magic Moo’. I really like Magic Moo.

Sooooo…yeah, it’s been really hot, so we haven’t gone for too many walks but I have worked out an awesome routine. In the morning I act extremely cute. I learned this from a cat I watched when I was in the pound. I weave in and out of mum and dads legs and then wait there until I get a good neck rub. This is quite different to what I used to do (throwing my weight at them and trying to eat the bottom of their trousers.) It works! They love it!

Next, I sit at my special place and wait for breakfast. That doesn’t work straight away as for some reason I’m not allowed to eat before my parents. Next, I watch Charlie take his morning swim, and then I curl up on my bed, wishing and hoping that mum and dad don’t go anywhere. But sure enough, dad leaves every day. Bummer. Next, mum calls someone and someone with a van appears to take boxes from the front door. I bark and he goes away. Awesome, that’s why I’m magic. Next, I follow mum around most of the day, before taking to the play arena with Charlie. Then we watch what goes on outside in the big world, the world I have tried to see more of (but not allowed to any more…why??) And lots more. Yawn…As you can see, my life is very busy I’m so tired now, so will catch you’s all later.

Moo

…Guess I took a bit of an impromptu hiatus there.

I’ve got a bad case of the blahs and the blechs and the blues, and have just NOT been feeling great for the last week or so.  At least it’s finally starting to resemble fall here in Phoenix (87?!), so maybe that will help.

Strangely, all my discontent seems to be channeled into hating one thing:  DINOSAURS.

I haaaaaaaaaaaaaate dinosaurs.  HATE!  HATE!  HATE!  I want to kill all the dinosaurs (actually, thanks for that, nature), and smash all the dinosaur toys, and mostly, punch my fist through the TV every morning when Moo begs to watch the newish PBS show, “Dinosaur Train.”  Oh sure, the dinosaurs are all cute and friendly and they ride a train around the Cretaceous time period and learn about dinosaur species but I want to RIP OFF THEIR HEADS and SMASH THEM INTO A BLOODY, LIZARDY PULP.  And for God’s sake, STOP TALKING ABOUT CARRION! 

I miss Caillou.

Hmm, yes.  So what else is going on?  Hey, you know what might save me from the dinosaurs?  A new obsession for Moo.  And you know what might be the perfect thing to usher in a new obsession?  A trip to Disneyland!  I think we’re going – we’ve scored some free tickets (yessss) that have to be used by the end of December.  Herbie and I plopped Moo on our laps last night and showed her pictures of Disneyland on the computer, and she ate it all up while Herbie and I wondered why Disneyland seemed smaller than we remembered.   And why were all the people in the video Asian?  Were there really that many Asian people in California?  Then we realized we’d happened upon the Hong Kong Disneyland site.  Well, same idea.  Moo is very excited to do a dance for Donald Duck and ride the train (wait till she sees Dumbo!), and we’ve already been assigned roles – I’m Mickey, Herbie’s Goofy (of course), and she’s Daisy – so hopefully Disney will wipe those pesky dinosaurs off the map for good.

In other news, Moo got her H1N1 vaccine on Saturday, so I hope we will avoid the pandemic that seems to be sweeping at least Facebook, if not the whole country.  It was a bit scary giving her a new vaccine, but I did my research and it hasn’t seemed to affect her at all, except for her insistence that we Do. Not. Touch. The Bandaid.  We took a different approach this time, telling her on the way (thank God it was a Saturday and Herbie could come) that we were going to stop at the doctor’s office and get a vaccine so she’d stay healthy.  She nodded wisely and kept her composure until the nurse led us into the room of doom, where she started screaming like a frightened monkey.  She couldn’t get a grip, so Herbie had to hold her while I stretched out her little leg and watched as the needle poked through her pale skin.

Luckily, a cherry lollipop will always solve just about all that ails you.

Maybe I should try one myself.

Today I have: – made bread, cleaned the leaves out of the drains, designed and ordered cards and stickers from Moo, done a mass of washing and eaten almost a whole packet of Oreos. I decided to use this image for my cards as it’s one of my favorite pieces and I miss it since the Golden Lion bought it for their guest room.I know you’ve seen it before but its so dark today I couldn’t take any pictures.

I found a lot of hoof prints near the car when I ventured into the ” lost world” behind the house to investigate the drains. There must have been some sort of stampede this morning while I was snoozing;I’d been reading “The Summer Book” by Tove Jansson and was therefore miles away in a different nettle patch altogether.

Lindsey and I made cards and drank whiskey coffee all night, oh and great news… Sara came home from college with a new printer and an ipod which she had won! She got second prize in a mural competition for BT , hurray!! I’ve never won a thing in my life ( except a tray of meat at pony club when I’d just turned vegetarian!!).

Well Done Sara, have a great weekend everyone.x

When I first decided to sell on-line, I realised I needed good postage safe packaging so after hours pricing up different packing combinations, I placed a large (for me) order with Rajapack.  This consisted of brown cardboard boxes, tissue paper (apple green – I decided early on to choose a main colour and stick to it), small green kraft gift bags (one of my best buys), a large roll of brown paper, Jiffy bags and some green circle stickers for sealing packages.

I made plenty of mistakes such as cutting patterns for new designs according to whim and not thinking about posting them (so having to go and buy yet more packaging) and going a bit overboard with boxes not realising then that my main sellers would be lavender bags that would be better sent in Jiffys.  As a result, I now have 4 sizes of cardboard box (2 of which I hardly ever use), 4 sizes of Jiffy, 1 size of bio-degradable ‘plastic’ bag all of which have to be stored somewhere.  My husband loves all my shop stuff  Having learnt some lessons,  I now design with existing packaging in mind and I also try to pack so I don’t have to go to the post office as this involves driving around our village for 20 mins trying to find a parking space, so ideally I stamp small items at home.

Everyone reading this will know (I have failed to buy anything homemade which hasn’t been packaged beautifully) the packing is a key part to selling homemade goods, I frequently buy mass produced things that are also well packaged but it’s nice to have a personal touch with the little details.  I’ve written about this before here and here, in fact I see I am slightly repeating myself so sorry if you pop back to read these posts, however I am a MOO fan, in the mini cards and business cards, if you pop back to the links above you can read all about my corner cutting tools used to add the finishing touch to my (then) new MOO business cards.

I am also a bit addicted to our printer, again you can read more here, but I do like to print postage labels and cards, that is until I have to replace the ink and remember how much it can cost!

In fact this is a great opportunity to show you a lovely package that arrived this morning from Kirsty at Kirsty Elson Designs.

How nice it that?  and the contents are great, I especially love the Reindeer card.

I recently had a packaging problem in that I didn’t have a way to send my new Christmas Birds, I was worried their beaks would get bent if they were packed in a Jiffy and they are too small to pack in a box (the minimum postage for which is £1.62) so I decided to order some postcards to fix them to from Overnight Prints. I highly recommend these guys, the order was produced in Germany and I had progress emails throughout the whole process.  I should point out though, they are not overnight unless you want to pay extra and the other rub is there is a set postage of £10. I ordered 100 x A5 (I see they now have an option for reduced number and quality in A5 size) along with 2 lots of A6 postcards (sets of 100 on sale for £9.18 each).

The arrived just before we went to Yorkshire and I’m impressed by the quality.  I paid for the very basics so no extra gloss, one-sided and I opted for cutting the corners myself, although next time I will pay the extra £2/100 for this.

I kept to a simple design for the mounting cards, on the basis that I will probably be using them next year so I took a photo of ribbon with a vintage bauble and one of my sewing tags.  I then attached the birds with removable glue dots on the beads and placed the lot in a cello bag.  Perfect, job done and they take up a fraction of the storage space they did.

The A6 cards are for a special ‘treat’ for some of my regular customers and those who placed lage orders in the past year.

I made up 2 new colour birds which are attached to the cards with punched holes and gold ribbon, they will hopefully be sent out next week as a little Christmas card and gift.

Lastly (this is a long post, hope some of you are still with me!), I thought I would copy out my individual pricing list which I keep so I have an idea how much my packaging is costing per order.  In most cases I have included a percentage of the delivery costs in the price as well and obviously some pricing may have changed, but here it is:

Rajapack

Good for large orders and has a next day delivery (in a LARGE lorry) but you have to place an order on-line and they call you back to take payment, also delivery is £8.95 so you need to factor that in.  The prices below include VAT and may well have changed since I bought mine.

Brown Standard Postal Boxes (bought in 50’s)

A6 215 x 155 x 50  -  35p each

A5 310 x 220 x 50  - 50p each

Lrg Flat 430 x 310 x 50  - 80p each

Lrg 430 x 300 x 120  - £1-65

Rajabul Mailers (their Jiffy)

White 300 x 450 (50 /pack) – 44p each

I also buy tissue, green small kraft bags (8p each) and rolls of brown paper from them.

Smart Packaging Store

I bought Jiffys (Jiffylite) from here simply because I needed them in a hurry and they offer free next day delivery.

Lrg Letter 220 x 320  - 26p each (min 50)

Lrg Letter 170 x 245  - 15p each (min 100)

Simply Envelopes

They allow you to order small quantities and delivery is £4.50 for next day (optional).  I had struggled to find a supplier of mailbags in small quantities, more importantly they had a good price on large Biodegradable Poly Bags.

Clear Cello Bags 230 x 167 (A5)  - 7p each (exc VAT)  - no min order

Jiffylite 115 x 195 (A6)  - 19p each (exc VAT) – no min order

Biodegradable Poly Bags – 595 x 430 (exc VAT) 36p each – no min order

Overnight Prints

Love em!  Price below include VAT and allow £3 postage towards each 100 cards on the basis 3 orders covers the £10 set delivery

A6 postcard, one-sided, no extras – 13p each

A5 postcard, one-sided, no extras – 30p each

Moo

Moo Mini – £11.99 (box of 100)

Moo Business – £12.99 (box of 50)

Plus Delivery

Hope some of that helps, I am sure there may be better options, these are just some options that I have used in the past.

こんなかんじの箱に入ってて。

あけるとこんなかんじ。

注文したのが10月26日、発送通知がきたのが10月30日。そして、11月10日に到着。MooはMini Cardsがよく言及されているけど、今回はBusiness Cardsを選択。

会社の名刺とは別の、ついったーアカウントでのプライベート名刺。こわい街、東京だと色んなイベントがそこかしこでああるので、あったほうがいいかなぁ、と。Pokenも持ってはいるものの、必ずしも相手ももっているとは限らないし、キャップ無くして端子むきだしだからあんまり持ち歩きたくないし。一方的に押し付けることができるのは、やっぱり名刺かな、と。必要に応じて会社名刺も渡せばいいことだし。がんばるぞー #findjob

Business Cardsだと紙質を2種類から選べるんだけど、Moo Green Cradにしてみた。ボール紙に近い感じで、サラサラの触り心地でしっかりとした厚紙。じゃっかん裁断面がざらついてたり、プリントに擦れたようなところがあるけど、許容範囲内。むしろ、いわゆる名刺といった堅苦しい感じがあんまりしなくて、イベントなんかで気軽にやりとりができそうでよいよい。Mooのプリントはわりと評判がいいようだけど銀塩写真のようなクッキリとした感じにはなるわけではない。さらにこのGreen Cardだと要は再生紙なわけで、ややぼんやりした印象になる。だもんで、こんなんとかこんなんとか、これとかちょっとアレな感じの写真のほうが紙質と相まって良い感じになったりする、面白い。あえてボケボケのやつとかもね。写真単体としては残念な感じでも、こういう使い方もあるわけだ。

以下、てきとうに写真。

what is missing from the picture. it’s bad, maybe to be too me-thodi-cal & yet i know, um, that i can do about 20 words, under 120 chars, for titles but i am not comfortable creating titles that are also tweets that work as well on top of a big gray blob like this or as a fuse on the concentrated power of a bold twitter shortlink.

once the new click2share twizmo is in the wild it won’t matter to leave space for RT header, i’m sure when i first see an unfamiliar face in the crowd i’ll be startled, right — actually no i’ll be happy, it’ll feel like i picked enough people to have forgot who, a good sensation.

what i’ll miss is tagging a couple tailing words’ color.…

still waiting for the software to add group/list feature before hunting wider/deeper/funner/dreamer/insider sources. damn thing’s shooting blanks so far on the trippy-o-meter. i haven’t looked.

what about tags. everybody has tags, does tags, loves tags. i go in there and it’s funny the faces in the heavy-used tags are all brown or browner than me, i never looked in facebook to see if that was true there too. i mean i saw the video for the fb anthem and thought maybe they were auditioning for a re-enactment of a high school horror movie. and maybe yeah i took that blurry memory, multiplied it by a hundred million and got all the stats i cared to.

tags. i had the idea that i would pick a few high-traffic fun tags —wait i had a list of rules. what —ok. first they would need to have people in them. second they would have short names so they could be combined if i wanted with also room for at least one whole clause. & i could remember them. third they would represent a neatish distro of interests and future bugbears so whatever i ended up with would fit into something.

fourth the sorta-residents would need good subtext. i would not want to live in the other kind of neighborhood.

ch. none of that is even remotely strategic. but i don’t want to sell anything to anybody. i don’t want to lead them into the desert accidentally. i’m not heading back anytime soon.…

you know what i feel like, i feel like the transition initiative and the doomsters are cultural castor oil.

By Diane Berkenfeld

MOO, the company known for their variable data printing solutions has introduced a new version of its well-known MiniCards. The MiniCards measure 1.1-inches x 2.76-inches, basically half the size lengthwise of traditional MOO business cards. Having created traditional MOO business cards in the past and reviewing them for this website, we jumped at the opportunity to review the new MiniCards.

The MiniCards come in packages of 100, and are delivered in a sturdy white cardboard box. Optional felt, acrylic and leather cases can be purchased from MOO as well as the company’s Mosaic frame, which displays 20 MiniCards. The Mosaic frame comes in two versions: solid white acrylic or solid black acrylic.

The basic concept behind MOO printed products is the company’s ability to offer variable data printing. What this means is that each card or MiniCard can be a different image. This makes Moo products ideal for photographers and artists to showcase their work.

The new version of MiniCards allows image uploading for use onto the front and back of the MiniCards, so you can upload images on one side and a logo on the other. Additional layout options include new templates, fonts and colors. And, the company now offers a bulk discount for customers purchasing its new 400 unit pack.

Unlike the traditional business card shape, think of the MiniCards as panorama images. Once you upload your images to the Moo.com website, you’re given the opportunity to tweak the cropping of your image(s). You’ll want to consider the final shape of the MiniCards when deciding which images to upload. I found that I liked the way the majority of my images turned out. There were a couple of images that didn’t work in the crop as well as I thought they might. So, if I create another batch of MiniCards, I know I’ll reuse certain images, and not use others. This is purely a subjective opinion on my part.

Here are some of the MiniCards I had printed. You can tell right away that these images work well in the MiniCard shape. At the top left of the image is the storage box that the MiniCards come in. All photos © Diane Berkenfeld.

The quality of the printing is just as good as the quality of the larger, traditional business cards that I’ve had printed by MOO. The paper quality has good heft to it, and the printing is high quality; text is easy to read. The one thing I would like to see in a future update is the ability to increase the font size on the side dedicated to your contact information more than is currently allowed.

There may be some folks who wonder if the MiniCards are an odd size for a business card, but there isn’t an absolute as to what a business card should look like these days. I’ve seen larger than normal business cards as well as small squares, the MOO MiniCards and those half the size of the Minis, as well as other shapes. What best represents your unique identity is what’s right for you.

The MOO MiniCards are definitely cool, and offer me another format for showcasing my photography. And, for the price of $19.99 per 100, they’re a great buy.

[Check out the Picture-Soup.com review of the traditional business cards by MOO here.]

I’ve been gone peoples! I’ve been on vacation and i did’nt have a computer (or atleast one with .NET) so i was’nt able to make anything.

But i made this real quick. I opened up the Common 3…… And took all the Capsule stuff….. (Dr mario Fans rejoice) A Capsule Fire Ball Mario.
Thus meaning that Mario Throws Capsules. Meaning their textures can be edited. Meaning Dr. Mario. Meaning YAY. Meaning ???? Meaning PROFIT.

Anyone who uses this MUST make a Their own capsule texture for it, or leave it as it is. So use this with a DR. Mario moveset and texture. Oni K4ge has a Dr. Mario moveset, so use that.  Dl link hates me so….. : http://www.megaupload.com/?d=XCDMN70L

I could’nt use Media Fire cuz it would’nt let me upload anything….        Vote on what Model Next. Now i need to go work on some SSP’s. PEACE.

Earlier this week, the SGA Finance Committee (FC) and the Middlebury Mountain Club (MMC) sent out a joint survey to students regarding the Middlebury Outdoor Orientation (MOO), a program cut last year by the school in an effort to save money. They asked students on a scale of one (opposed) to five (support), do they  ”support reviving the MOO program with partial funding from the Student Activities fee?”

As of Sunday, 525 responses were received — 54% (286) said they strongly support reviving the program (a five vote). 7% (37) said they were strongly opposed with 38% voting in between (see chart left).

The FC indicated that reinstating the program requires $20 per student, per year which is 5% of the $380 Student Activity Fee (SAF). On top of that, students participating would pay half of the cost of the trips (with financial aid already covered).

MOO would be able to accommodate all incoming students that wish to participate and would use the MiddView model of also having community service and more local options for activities.

Don’t get me wrong, I think MOO is a great thing, but I argue that a survey is not how we should be making decisions like this. An email survey seems logical and democratic as a way to gauge student sentiment but it gives students a false sense that they are voting on this decision. They are not. The FC will vote on this decision with the survey data in hand and they could easily say no, despite the survey results above.

The survey data is probably not the most representative even though 500+ people responded. Why? The framing of the discussion is that students need to respond to the survey to “save MOO!” There clearly is no one who is willing to be “anti-MOO.” Only those people who feel strongly about MOO will vote/take the survey and the indifferent rest probably won’t respond.

The reality is that reinstating MOO means taking money away from someone else. This survey doesn’t do enough to make that trade-off clear. Most students don’t realize that this is their student activities fee (SAF) dollars which also go to support the likes of Quidditch, the Commons, Yearbook, ISO, MCAB Concerts, etc. The $40-50,000 required for MOO should be framed as a trade off for similarly priced activities like the entire budget of WRMC or MCAB Speakers. Frame it this way: would you rather have MOO or a radio station? would you rather have speakers come to campus or MOO? It’s true that this money might come out of the FC reserves for now, but what happens in three years when it has to come out of the SAF?

The FC should take particular care in this decision. Once the FC takes on this program, it is permanently their responsibility to fund it each year. Do not expect the administration to pick up the costs once the economy improves. Dean Spears’ calls this “the new normal.” Furthermore, the FC would find it hard to ever cut the program back once it is in place.

I am a fan of keeping the OINK model, pioneered this year. All students who wanted to participate were accepted and they went on trips in the first two weekends of school. MMC worked expertly under a new normal to form these abbreviated trips. These trips are short and sweet, preserving the spirit of MOO within new budget constraints.

School is amazing and scary and hard and very, very rewarding. And part of being back into the academic swing means actually manifesting the role of graduate student. It’s much more serious than undergrad, you see!

About a month-ish back, I had the great privilege to attend a conference at Connecticut College, titled “Undocumented Hispanic Migration.” It was seriously AWESOME and was so relevant to my research. I met lots of people and had a great time.

But when it was time to exchange information, I had my snazzy business cards, but something was off. They’re still pretty snazzy, but the whole writer/editor/designer/photographer label just didn’t fit my role at the conference. Sure, I still actively do all the fun writing/editing/designing/photographing stuff, but now that I’m doing anthropology-related networking, I thought it’d be appropriate to have the proper representation.

More business cards!

After doing some research, I settled on a company called MOO, which works in tandem with Flickr. I was instantly enchanted with their mini cards, and equally smitten that I could choose several photos for card backs, and then design the front portion myself.

And the results?

The box was pretty darned adorable!

They even included little dividers!

Et voila! Here’s a close-up:

I love these, and they’re an excellent representation of my work. On the front is my info, and on the back, one of seven different photographs taken either in Mexico or Arizona, which is the geographic location of where I focus my work. They’re pretty small, but I’m hoping they’ll make a big impression on people when I go to the AAA Annual Meetings this year in Philadelphia!

Barbara Wagner always loved a good fondue. Dried meats, toasted breads, succulent chunks of pork, slices of roast duck: she enjoyed dipping things. Taking foodstuffs in her pudgy fingers, she would renew them in a  baptism of melted cheese, cackle wildly as they emerged, and set them aside to cool. She would arrange them in a pyramid, cube or some other madly popular shape, going for the aesthetic affect of a towering establishment of curdled milk, referred to it quietly as her nativity scene of deliciousness. Seeing as how she never had guests, the creations would often get eaten by her rottweiler puppy, Turner, who in turn suffered from loathsome bouts of eye-watering gas.

Her holidays were often marked by the silence of lonely years now normalized. The coffee pot more often than not could be heard hissing its woebegone cries from the innards of the lime-green kitchen. The subtle humming of the small burner under the earthenware pot of melted cheese was like the respiration of a baby, the stalwart humming of a carpenter, the calming presence of the silent elder. It’s reverberations imbued every object in the house with a sense of pastoral continuity, grassy highlands on roaming hills, endless sighs of relief in the open lands of forever.

She dipped with fervent regard for the task at hand, practicing metallurgy with product of moo. The downward dipping motion, curled fingers backwards towards her palm, the extended index finger and thumb, the light grip touching the object to the melted mass, the release and the sigh of relief. It was in, it had been placed mindfully, it would remain for two minutes, no more, no less, soak up the milky characteristics and mix them with its own. Then the quick movements to the tray of pronged fondue forks on the right, picking up just the right one that speaks and says, “It is my turn. I am ready to dive in, to prong. I am ready to live.” The gleam of the polished silver, the ebony handle tight within her grip, she sails it downwards into the murky waters below, fishes the food item out with a perfected hooking motion, gasps every time it emerges anew. “You are beautiful,” she tells it. “You have started the day as a piece of salami and now, you are a work of art. Bravo, dear marbled sausage!” She would place it carefully amongst other dipped items, lean back in her worn, oak rocking chair and smile at a job well done.

“To fondue,” she would think to herself, “is an act of God.”

Aaah, ça faisait longtemps

Quoi de neuf ? Quelques petits choses.

Ce weekend, c’était la nuit de l’horreur chez les guides, j’ai pris des photos, mais j’ai laissé les plus intéressantes/marrantes pour publier. J’ai créé un album “Guides” pour tous les évènements à venir, histoire de ne pas avoir 25 OOO albums pour rien
Hop, un petit échantillounet de la chose :

Le repas after nuit de l’horreur a été quelques peu mouvementé à la maison, j’ai pris quelques photos (les 5 dernières dans cet album). J’ai beau dire, j’aime prendre mon frère en photo. Je vous mets celle que je préfère de la série, parce que c’est celle où il est le plus naturel dessus, et que j’aime bien son petit regard !

Et pis mon coup de coeur (j’ai créé un album “Concepts” où je mets les photos que j’ai pensé avant de prendre)

J’ai reçu ma commande Moo ! Et je suis méga-déçue. En fait, je ne m’attendais pas du tout à ce qu’il y ait une bande de promo sur chacune des cartes, et moi qui m’étais amusée à trouver 50 photos différentes et à les recadrer, quelle surprise ! Mais bon, on va pas dire, elles vont sans doute me servir, puis pour le moment, les cartes de visite, c’est plus du pratique que de la promo/pub, donc, on lève la tête et on sourit !

Sinon mardi je suis allée faire les magasins, je vous fais pas la liste détaillée, mais j’ai pris une photo avec ma fleur de cheveux de fille et je vous la mets :

Je pense que je dois être dans une phase de recherche de mon moi profond, mais ça arrive à tout le monde
Niveau cours je lache un peu la cadence, et c’est pas bien, mais ça fait du bien de ralentir un peu, surtout que je cours partout pour d’autres trucs !
Et on part à Pariiiis ! Trop bien ! En janvier j’aurai plein de nouvelles belles photos !

Bon bon, je vais arrêter de polluer. Juste un dernier petit mot pour dire que ce blog n’est pas mort, et qu’il est plus intimiste (de mes pensées profondes et pas de celles qui me traversent la tête comme des TGV).

When Rosalind proposed going to see the butterfly exhibit at the Desert Botanical Garden a couple weeks ago, I jumped at the chance.  Beautiful butterflies!  Moo would love it!

“Of course,” Rosalind said, “I probably won’t go in with you.”

“What?”

“Butterflies are just bugs wearing costumes.  They don’t fool me.”

“You’re telling me you’re going to bring us to a butterfly garden and then stand outside by yourself?  Moo will be very displeased.”

“Well, maybe I’ll go in for a second.  We’ll see.”

Rosalind does not like bugs.  I don’t like bugs, but Rosalind REALLY DOES NOT LIKE BUGS.  My fear comes close, but I draw the line at butterflies - so pretty!  Granted, she’s had some negative experiences with butterfly releases gone awry at weddings she’s shot (“The butterflies–they’re everywhere!!!), but I hoped she’d have the courage to share the butterfly love with us.

She did.

Butterfly dance:

Thanks for being brave, Rosalind!  And thanks for the pictures.

The butterfly exhibit will be at the Desert Botanical Garden until November 15 – if you’re a local, I highly recommend it – so lovely and peaceful!  Word of advice:  Pick a cool day, when the butterflies are more fluttery, and go after lunch, when all the school groups are gone.

Just a sneaky peak at some of my fabrics being turned into exciting new stuff. I’ve also used the two images as part of a series for my new clothing tags from moo

So the baby’s head is nearly fully engaged and has dropped quite a bit in the past week. I guess it’s not long to go now – I reckon baby will be here in before week 40.

Today, the mini-moo business cards arrived. They look pretty good, so I am looking forward to handing them out. Also Y is on an ‘entrepreneurial’ course at his MBA school. He had to pitch our business idea to his peers. Once everyone had pitched, they all had to allocate five points to their favourite ideas. Pleased to say ours won hands down and hubbie reported that nearly all the group were interested in working on our business. We are hoping Y learns different angles of approach to business from his peers as well as VC funding – the most interesting element of the course is pitching ‘Dragon’s Den’ style on Friday and seeing if he can get through the grilling he will receive. How exciting!

Still negotiating on premises. Website brief has been given to graphic designer and she is now working on it. It’s all still happening very slowly and patience is a virtue I guess.

the time has come to begin thinking in a very casual mode about how the links are organized on this site.

currently they are arranged — no, really, they are. shut up — approximately according to how likely they are to have forced me to write something. so it’s like — ranked — from, say, red orange yellow blue, to green? or maybe that’s how they started and then there were jokes about that, and, sort of, thematic articles, tonal stuff like ‘fatima the spinner and the tent’ or ‘the man who planted trees’ that are both lessons i’m not learning but i really really want to learn.

in much the way, by-the-way, that i have been making a real dent in one of my two copies of the worldchanging book, and learning that i love skimming books and each quick pass is a little more informative. that’s news i can use.

what’s about to change with the links is i’m about to add several dozen new ones. i’m switching from the ‘nothing but sources’ approach to begin using concentrated willpower, aka NGOs and other group efforts, to stand in for (and hopefully realize; i’m much too busy to audit the work) domestiforeign policy of the pirate country (‘plunderkeel’ for now, by me) from this geographic perspective.

yeah, i know, right, it’s hard to live in the USA and be into the whole economies of scale thing, and the need for coordinated industrial solutions to earthly dilemmas thing, it’s hard to have a whole strategic whatchacallit that is all of forward-thinking, pluralistically present-sensitive, individuated, and functions as something like a shadow-gov policy. base. thing.

especially if you have like maybe, generously, half the attention span (and read speed) of a mid-pack lawyer. and don’t go to cocktail parties.

what i’d like to do is something like this: get some useful categories, i’d like them to be globally useful, and then fill them with US-centered-but-not-exclusive groups that are on a good track and aren’t fake. i am well aware that what i want from the next decade and this quarter century are not what many big membership orgs think practical — i really don’t know how we’re going to resolve this tension between mammoth fundraising shortfalls and the need to lead plastic rich people to the water of the future that is in danger because they’re incredibly fucking wrong.

‘flattery will get you nowhere,’ sense two. (hello! have you http://tr.im/readplanb?)

truly… i’m not quite settled with the twitter-jotting thing, using it as a scratchpad makes me feel guilty, everything makes me feel guilty, everything makes me feel guilty, but i am closing in on doing the comparison shopping of the non-insane, non-revolving political parties and use their platforms to build a shambles of my own which of course nobody else needs to worry about let alone adopt.

that’s progress.

(•) ’scratchpad’ no, doodlepad. there’s nothing like del.icio.us happening with @pludk. it’s totally unsearchable by subject. it’s… chewing.