Digital Scrabble® - my newest Escape

I broke down. Downloaded my first iPad PAID app, Scrabble. What a well spent $1.99. Truly a great, simple Escape. I've loved Scrabble forever. I can still recall epic seven-letter words. Sometimes while reading I'll see a word and think, "that would be a great Scrabble double word score." My Mom instilled my love of Scrabble. She did it by beating me regularly. She still has many of the score sheets to prove it. But playing the computer is a whole new ballgame (word game). I "rack" my brain over the tiles and place down a word. Actually drag and drop a word. The beautiful, shiny interface glows as it tallies my score. Before I've even digested my new letters the computer casually tosses out a word. Often one I've never seen before. Think avidin. Talk about memorizing the dictionary. The computer doesn't gloat. Also you never hear, "my letters are crappy," or, "there's nowhere to go on this board." The machine is a quiet assassin. But he (she) is rapidly improving my game. And when I next match up with my know-it-all youngest daughter on our Deluxe (missing one "I" tile) home set, look out. I won't need no stinking U with my Q. I'm going to whip you. No strike that. I'll employ my blank to demolish, eliminate, eradicate, and annihilate you.

The T& L Hit List

The most visited destinations on TravelandLeisure.com/trips in the past year. As reported on page 26 of the October 2010 issue of Travel and Leisure.

1. Cote d'Azur
2. Hong Kong
3. Maine
4. Chicago
5. Italy
6. Istanbul
7. France
8. Ann Arbor, MI
9. The Caribbean
10. Thailand

How do you like that, Ann Arbor cracks the Top Ten. How proud should everyone in Michigan be? I've been to 6 of the 10 on the list and I can honestly say Ann Arbor belongs.

Time for some fun

Where has this blogger been? Working. Grinding. Sleeping, but not necessarily through the night. In short not having as much fun as usual. Which makes the idea of Escape personally relevant. While doing some research on large brands with multiple sub-brands I found myself on the Carnival Cruise website. Not a bad move when the wind-chill outside is NEGATIVE. Stumbled across this Carnival brand essence video. It's not about taking a cruise. It's about the need to have fun. Give it a look and enjoy ...

VIDEO

Which shipping company is the kindest to packages?

One premise of consumer escapes is that time is precious. Therefore shipping services, including overnighting plays an important role in business and in sending holiday gifts around the country. Leave it to Popular Mechanics to test the carriers:

"A few years ago, Popular Mechanics shipped a custom-built gaming PC—a rather heavy and cumbersome beast—to a New Hampshire woman who'd won it in a sweepstakes. The computer arrived in pieces, delivering a crushing blow, so to speak, to the nice lady as well as to the PM staffers who'd built the computer. Even though we made good by reconstructing the PC and driving it to her doorstep, I still shudder at the memory of the gory photos she sent us of the shattered machine.

The overnight-shipping industry is a modern technological and logistical wonder, but it still can inflict medieval damage on parcels. Everyone has at one time or another received a dented, torn or otherwise mutilated package. And after our PC-shipping incident, I felt a sense of professional duty to find a way to get inside a package, as it were, and quantify the abuse it endures. Since my life insurance would become null and void if I attempted to ship myself, I needed a technological solution."

From the article: 'One disheartening result was that our package received MORE abuse when marked "Fragile" or "This Side Up." 

Click link to enjoy the rest of the story ...

GameStop should be called Game Non-stop

Oftentimes others describe the concept of consumer escapes far better than I. For example this paragraph concluded an analysis of retailer GameStop in last week's Barron's:

"Videogames may not be thriving like iPhones, but they're doing just fine, much to the consternation of girlfriends and wives across the planet. As long as men, who once mainly killed wild game, instead are preoccupied with killing time, they'll need distractions to fill the hours."

I've never had an energy drink ... so what

I have never had an energy drink. Maybe it's because my doctor's instructions were to avoid caffeine. Maybe it's because I'm just not that tired. Or maybe it's because I've never heard of some of the ingredients. Why do I bring this up? Red Bull is running an online ad contest and I'd like to enter. Yet how can I capture the way Red Bull vitalizes body and mind if I've never put the product into my body? Maybe I'll try to enter a concept that addresses first time trial. Or over the next few days if I appear a bit "wired" know that I'm just doing product research.

Get inspired and enter away...

Letting Go

"Letting Go" at Cabo Outdoor Adventures

For a couple of years now I've been blogging in and around the topic of consumer escapes. In our smz research early this year the escape identified as "most desired" given availability of time and money was to take a cruise. That made sense as the cruise industry markets itself as the ideal escape. Yet I'd never taken a cruise, only marveled at the size of the ships when encountering them in various ports.

Recently my wife and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary on board Holland America Line's ms Oosterdam Mexican Riviera cruise. We weren't sure if cruising was for us although we went in with completely open minds. (And a lot of luggage.) Happy to report we loved the experience. Guess that's why hundreds of thousands of people cruise every week all over the globe.

I'm going to post a series of posts on our experience. They say one of the great souvenirs of a vacation are the memories. This digital diary will help me capture and re-live those memories.