Category: Travel

E-2-S-2-C Commerce

One of the first things to do in my Boston travel planning is to get tickets for the Blue Man Show (one of the best multi-media shows in USA). To promote e-Commerce, I of course first visited their official ticket site – www.ticketmaster.com to buy tickets. Unfortunately, all tickets were sold out for all the days I’d stay in Boston, according to the website.

So, I tried the other way – S-Commerce (i.e. Scalper Commerce). That is, somehow another party got the tickets and willing to sell it to yet another party – with a higher price tag. I checked the site www.ticketsnow.com and found that I could get the tickets but the original US$ 58 tickets (for a seat 10 rows from the stage) were selling at US$ 148. Toooo expensive I think …

Therefore, I decided to leave it to the last resort – C-Commerce (i.e. Concierge Commerce). I checked into the hotel and immediately asked the concierge for help … and the gentleman kindly promised to help and get me the ticket. The next day the gentleman told me the good news – ticket with seat 5 rows from the stage and it cost only US$ 58 plus US$ 5 handling fee (i.e. together US$ 63 a ticket, which I was very happy to pay for the services).

Lesson learnt – Ticketing websites still cannot replace a good concierge.

In-flight entertainment

As far as I can tell, the best in-flight entertainment of any domestic flight within USA is not the movie / TV shows / Games (as there is none for shorter flights), not the food / drink (as you need to buy your own drinks) and certainly not the flight attendants (you probably know why). Instead, it is the shopping catalog. Not the usual Duty Free catalog, but the one that only available in USA – Sky Mall catalog.

You will find hundreds of strange / bizarre products in this catalog and most important of all, those are products you don’t need and you don’t know why other people need. Granted, some products are innovative products, but some are really strange. So strange that I think it is a very good proof of consumerism.

For example, the following product help you to cut your pizza in a perfect shape. And it cost only US$ 37.00. Sorry, I just don’t get it …

Another example, a sound amplifier for seniors … you know in our city we try to hide the amplifier / hearing-aid, but this product just do it in a different way. So, in future if you bump into a senior who’s yelling “Hello !!”, s/he may not yelling to the bluetooth headset, but s/he is yelling at you.

It’s raining

My friend browsed thru my photo book and his first question was “How come the weather was so good in every place you went to ?”. Hmmm … good question, isn’t it ? So I answered, “Visit the place again, until you see the blue skys.”

Anyway, it’s raining in Boston, and I suppose I need to visit this city again. But hey, there are still 4 days to go. Be positive. May be I can see good weather like couple of days ago in Toronto:

Statue in University Avenue
Statue in University Avenue
Casa Loma
Casa Loma

It is now for sale

The first copy of the photo book is good looking and beautifully printed, so I think it is time to make it public and available for sale online in Blurb.com. One can pick up a copy of the book with soft cover, hardcover with or without dust jacket.

Frankly, I don’t expect to sell any, but the experience in learning how to publish a book on demand is great.

Around the world in 80 photos

My first photo book

This beauty finally arrived from the mail and it looks absolutely gorgeous. It took altogether 4 weeks to finish and here are the details:

  • Day 01 – download the free software BookSmart from Blurb.com
  • Day 02 – starts the “design” of the book … and it lasts 15 days, as I needed to select the photos, add some, remove some; and searched the information of the place thru the web. It took a long time !!
  • Day 15 – upload the finished book to the web site and place order
  • Day 28 – it’s here !!

Book cover

Inside the book