The self starter creates a spark, turning nothing, or what certainly appears to everyone else as nothing, into something.
The self starter doesn't see it that way. That 'nothingness' was actually an opportunity, a chance to make a connection, to do something a little better than the status quo, to get things moving.
Has there ever been a project, an institution or a community that hasn't needed that?
American Airlines doesn't know what to say.
And they're having a lot of trouble saying it.
They're making a fortune this year due to low oil prices, and one way to manage shareholder expectations for the future is to put some of that profit into brand advertising. And so, they hired a fancy ad agency and started to run full-page, two-sided, glossy inserts in newspapers. The single ad I'm looking at cost at least $100,000. And I might be one of a hundred people who are actually reading it.
The copy-dense ad includes references to babies, red-eyes, noise, middle seats, lessons learned, 'relinquish', making the best of the situation and the ability to sleep anywhere. All told in an odd third-person, referring to the hero as "they" not "you."
With a layout that's so confusing that there's a big arrow that says "start here".
Some things worth remembering:
For thirty years, the airlines have relentlessly trained travelers to spend as little as possible on a seat, offering generic alternatives and contemptuous, confusing pricing policies. To blame the state of travel on the passenger ("Let's move that conversation from us and turn it onto them..." said Fernand Fernandez, VP of global marketing at AA) doesn't feel like the foundation for a great marketing campaign, does it?
The lesson for anyone spending money on ads: it pays to be consistent, generous and thoughtful when you build an ad campaign.
[Posted from LGA. /rant]
Good, better and best were the three price points.
Organizations had an easy way to distinguish between their various products. Adding more features cost more money, and so the Cadillac cost more than the Chevy.
Customers learned to associate more features with more expense with more luxury and exclusivity. And manufacturers were always on the lookout to add a feature that consumers valued more than the marginal cost of adding that feature.
In the digital age, all of this thinking goes out the window.
How much does it cost a car company to display the temperature outside? Well, it used to mean wiring a circuit, adding a sensor, creating a display. Now, it might cost them $1 (if that) to add that feature to a $40,000 car.
Even more radically, the marginal cost of just about every feature on a website or an app is precisely zero. Program it once and you can give it to everyone. The 'good' version is merely the 'best' version with some software turned off, which is fine if you don't have any competition.
Good, better, best is going to have to start being based on something else.
I’ve added an LGBT column for the website to make the site more inclusive and talk about issues that affect some members of our community. In this column, we will hear from voices in the LGBT community about their experiences on the road, safety tips, events, and overall advice for other LGBT travelers to get the most out of their time on the road! Back again this month is our column leader Adam from travelsofadam.com.
At last count, there are 77 countries where homosexuality is illegal, with death sentences possible in at least 12 of those. As a traveler, it’s rare (but not totally unlikely) for LGBT tourists to get caught up in local antigay laws when traveling. But there are such stories out there: a gay British tourist jailed in Morocco, a gay Swedish tourist jailed in Tunisia, a couple facing harassment in Dubai, entrapment in Egypt…the list goes on. It’s not always safe or easy for gay travelers (and certainly even harder for LGBT locals living under those laws and customs).
There are ethical and moral issues in play, as well as safety issues. Out Now Consulting’s LGBT research shows that a key factor for LGBT travelers is determining how welcome they will feel in the places that they visit, and that many of those travelers are choosing purposefully not to visit places with anti-LGBT laws.
But as someone who believes in creating fewer borders, should my sexuality also control my travel plans?
For me, it’s a gray area. There’s no clear-cut answer for how or where I travel. There are some anti-gay destinations that I have zero interest in visiting to begin with, and their anti-gay laws just make the destination that much less attractive — for example: Dubai. But countless friends (gay and straight) have been there and go often. And I don’t judge them for it. My travel preferences are my own.
But then there are also some anti-gay destinations which I do have an interest in visiting. I may not make plans to travel there now, but I won’t cross them off my list either.
At the very least, I believe travelers need to learn about and understand a destination’s political restrictions before traveling — even when those laws don’t apply to you. Once you’re fully informed about the political and security situation, attendant risks, and necessary precautions, the decision whether to visit an anti-gay destination is yours to make.
But, by visiting anti-gay destinations, can we actually make a difference?
A 2012 UN World Tourism Organization report estimates that the economic impact of LGBT travelers in the USA alone is over $65 billion per year, and another source cites potentially over $200 billion for LGBT leisure spending globally.
So first, let’s address the issue of not traveling to a given destination. Travel boycotts are a contentious issue, and one that brings up as many questions as answers. Do you boycott an entire country for its anti-gay laws, or just a specific region or state? What if the people there aren’t universally anti-gay? For example, in the US, North Carolina and Mississippi recently passed anti-LGBT legislation. Do you then boycott the entirety of the USA, or just those states?
And there are always going to be LGBT individuals in every city, state, and country, many still closeted. By boycotting anti-gay destinations, are you hurting or helping those LGBT locals?
Ashton Giese, Outreach Director for OutRight Action International and editor of the weekly GAYography news brief, suggests that “boycotts don’t really work against dictators or authoritarian regimes. Democratic institutions have to exist, where people and businesses could actually have a voice to make change.”
By boycotting anti-gay destinations, however, you also miss out on the opportunity to support LGBT businesses that may exist there. Ashton recommends: “See if there’s some type of LGBT tour guide or safe space to assist. I visited Egypt in February. It was incredible to see the sights and interact with the gay community there.”
If you do want to visit a destination with anti-LGBT laws on the books, it’s still important to consider safety. Do you have to hide your sexuality, or can you just be mindful if and when to come out? You might want to book with travel agencies that specialize in LGBT tourism, as they’ll be more familiar with LGBT-friendly hotels, tours, guides, and specific activities. Independent gay group tour operators often have the most recent information regarding a country’s LGBT safety for tourists.
But it’s not just your own safety you need to keep in mind. Visiting an anti-gay destination to specifically seek out LGBT venues or groups can backfire. Sometimes giving a secret LGBT venue extra visibility can actually harm the small business, making it a potential target for hate crimes after you, the tourist, are long gone. As travelers, we’re often in a bubble with our “tourist privilege,” so it’s important to be mindful of privacy issues, not just for yourself but for the people you interact with when traveling.
Do you always have to be an activist?
If it’s possible to visit safely as an LGBT traveler, should we deny ourselves travel experiences because of who we are? Most LGBT travelers I’ve spoken to about this issue are conflicted. There’s a sense that you shouldn’t give your tourism money to notoriously anti-gay destinations, but where people draw those lines seems to vary. For example, Uganda may have horrible anti-gay legislation, but there are still LGBT people living there — and still LGBT tourists traveling there. Not to mention a thriving tourism industry.
Troy Petenbrink, a journalist and blogger, wrote, “In general, I think we do more to help change anti-gay destinations’ attitudes and behaviors by rewarding destinations that openly welcome us. I believe destinations seeing the power of the LGBT travel dollar benefiting their competition can bring about change. Those who argue that gays and lesbians vacationing in a horrible anti-LGBT destination such as Jamaica will somehow bring about change are foolish — and potentially dangerous.”
****
In the end, travel is often political. And choosing to specifically not visit a destination is a political statement, hopefully formed out of a belief system and ideas based on reality. My best holidays have been ones where I’ve both had fun and learned something and I’ve found travel to be an amazing way to discover the many differences in our world.
When visiting homophobic places, it’s important to make yourself aware of the local customs and laws, while still being mindful of both your safety and that of the locals. Trust your instincts and make informed decisions.
For me, I don’t rule out visiting anti-LGBT destinations. Governments change and people’s attitudes don’t often reflect their government’s. While I think it’s important to be extremely cautious — and some countries aren’t on my bucket list because of their policies — I believe it’s just as important to take each country on a case-by-case basis and look at the overall situation.
The best we can do is be as informed as we can, but also remember that, while it is important to be cautious, if we believe travel can break down barriers, a blanket boycott of all anti-LGBT destinations won’t do that.
Adam Groffman is a former graphic designer who left a publishing job in Boston to travel around the world before settling in Berlin, Germany. He’s a gay travel expert, writer, and blogger and publishes a series of LGBT-friendly Hipster City Guides from around the world on his gay travel blog, Travels of Adam. When he’s not out exploring the coolest bars and clubs, he’s usually enjoying the local arts and culture scene. Find more of his travel tips (and embarrassing stories) on Twitter @travelsofadam.
The post Should LGBT Travelers Visit Anti-LGBT Countries? appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.
That means you have a choice:
Spend a lot of your time in whimpering moments.
or
Be prepared to blow things up, declare victory/failure, walk away—even if it feels easier in the moment to timidly and slowly fade away, whimpering.
Prematurely giving up is a huge problem. A more draining problem is not knowing when to quit.
It’s about time the wristwatch started becoming as smart as your phone. Cue the new Casio Edifice EQB-600, the perfect smart watch for those who travel the world and want a watch to keep up with them. The Edifice links up to your phone via Bluetooth, and with an exclusive app for your phone, determines your location and syncs up your watch’s time automatically.
With the app, the watch is actually able to reset regularly 4 times a day and show both home time and world time correctly (if you’re traveling that much in one day, you’re going to need all the help you can get). The main dial shows the time of where you currently are, while the inset dome dial on the lower left side shows the time of where you came from (or vice versa depending on your preference).
The 3-D globe dial on the right side rotates every 24 hours in sync with the globe’s rotation, with a hand indicating the time zone of the city of your choosing (the top half of the globe will indicate where it is nighttime, and the lower half shows where it is daytime).
So how does the watch work exactly? Elves, obviously. No, actually accurate time information (UTC) is acquired by pinging a deadly accurate server on the internet. Your phone takes the time data and its own current location data regarding the time zone and daylight saving time status and resets the watch to the correct time automatically.
On a recent trip to France I was able to try the watch and its functionality out with a sample Casio had sent me, and the watch worked perfectly, syncing up with no problem, and also fulfilling my inner tech geek impulse that doesn’t escape me, even while traveling.
You can also reset the watch manually with just a push of a button when crossing between time zones. The precise time in the current location is displayed instantly with daylight saving time taken into account.
Given the amount of things going on here, the phone needs a little help in the power department, which is why it also includes a supplemental solar power function that allows the watch to take some strain off of the internal battery so you don’t have to worry about constantly changing it.
To learn more, visit the official Casio EQB-600 site here.
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The post The Ultimate Smart Watch For The World Traveler appeared first on TheExpeditioner Travel Site.
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Recently in the Lower Mainland, they got the customer, they did the re-key, they got the customer, they drove them to their bank so they could get cash, why the customer was inside at the ATM, they drove back to the house, with the key now, opened up the house and ripped off lots of stuff outta their house. So again, don’t trust these $15, $25 unlicensed locksmiths.
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The post Mr. Locksmith is a BC Govenment Licensed Locksmith appeared first on Automotive Locksmith.
If you moved to Norway or Haiti or Bolivia, you'd notice something immediately: People don't move at the same speed you do.
The same thing is true about different organizations and different pockets of the internet. Or months of the year, for that matter.
There's not an absolute speed, a correct velocity, a posted limit or minimum for all of us. It's relative.
Given that, how does your speed match your goals and your strategy? Not compared to everyone else, but compared to the one and only thing you have control over?
Passing the slow cars on the road is an illusion, a chance to fool yourself into thinking you're making good progress. To a sloth, even a loris is a speedster.
Pick your own pace.
There's a difference between speed and acceleration. This is hard for novice physics students to grasp. Velocity (speed) is how fast you're going. Acceleration is a measure of how quickly you're getting faster.
Brands today are built on relationships, and relationships of all kinds work solely because of expectation. That thing we're confidently hoping we're going to get from that next encounter.
The shift we're facing is that expectation isn't the speed (the quality, the value, the repeatability of an interaction), it's now become more like the acceleration of it, the change in what we expect.
And so advertisers and fashion houses and singles bars and Hallmark cards are built on promises. The promise of what to expect next.
The challenge: Expectations change. A few good encounters and we begin to hope for (and expect) great encounters. Sooner or later, our expectation for a politician or a motorcycle company or a service we regularly engage in goes up so much it can't be met.
When the economy is racing forward, people are engaged and satisfied. When it slows, when the good news slows down, people are even less satisfied than they were when they had fewer resources.
A common ridiculous expression is, "expect the unexpected." Of course, once you do that, it's not unexpected any more, is it?
Expectation is in the eye of the beholder, but expectation is often enhanced and hyped by the marketer hoping for a quick win. And there lies the self-defeating dead end of something that would serve everyone if it were a persistent positive cycle instead.
