Back in March I bought a bag from STM, based (in part) on a post by designer Cameron Moll.
I love this bag. It’s just about perfect. I love the the pockets, especially. There are just so many really well placed storage spaces on this bag. I can fit all of the normal computer accessories (power supply, extension cable, headphones, etc.) plus just about everything else I might want to take (a hard-cover Moleskine, pen, wireless Mighty Mouse, wireless aluminum Apple Keyboard, Swiss Army Pocketknife/USB drive, Apple Remote…).
So imagine my surprise (read: horror) when I noticed that the strap on my amazing little 4 month old bag was coming undone. In a word, bummer.
The good news is that shortly after shooting an email to STM, they wrote me back asking where they could send a replacement strap, and apologized for any inconvenience. Fantastic.
So it looks like I’ll be keeping this bag around for a while longer. And for that I am grateful. I’m pretty sure I’ll be looking to them first for any future digital cargo-carrying needs.
Last week a small group of us headed out to Kennedy Space Center. Meagan and I wanted to see it one last time before we left for Salem at the end of the month, and Brian just hadn’t been in a while.
We were lucky enough to arrive on the same day as the launch of a new telescope called GLAST, which is going to be studying gamma rays. Pretty cool. We took some pictures which can be found on Flickr but I thought I’d post a couple here too.
You might even be interested in grabbing that picture of the engine as an iPhone or iPod touch background.
I realize it’s already been covered by more than just a couple of sources, but I thought it was worth mentioning (and celebrating) the release of Celtx, version 1.0
Celtx, of course, is your friendly (and free) script writing software available for just about every computer platform in existence. In short, it’s awesome. And it just got better. The Celtx website outlines all of the new features, and even includes a couple of helpful videos to send you off in the right (and hopefully creatively inspired) direction.
I’m a huge fan of the Consumerist, a website advocating consumer rights and sharing the terrifying ordeals that some companies put their customers through. It’s got a certain car-wreck shock value to it, I suppose.
It’s the kind of site where you hope you’re never the one writing in with your own tale of woe. Unfortunately, a recent shipping experience I had prompted me to write in with one such story.
You can head over to my post at the Consumerist’s website for all the bloody details, but the short of it is this:
I ordered a new Sennheiser G2 100 Wireless Mic set from B&H for an important last-minute shoot. I choose overnight shipping via UPS. Instead of the package arriving at my door as I had hoped (and expected), I was told I would have to drive out to a construction site where I could meet up with the driver as he helped another, already overloaded, UPS driver with some of his delivers. Ultimately my driver never showed up and I had to drive 30 minutes to the UPS distribution center later that night.
It wasn’t a good time. I was pretty miffed about the whole thing and asked for a refund on the $40+ I spent on shipping. I was told that somebody would be in touch. About a week went by and I hadn’t heard anything from UPS. I did get an email from somebody at B&H who expressed concern over my story, and said that they’d get in touch with their UPS people to straighten things out.
A few days went by and I got a phone call from “B&H’s UPS guy” who offered a really sincere apology as well as a $50 B&H gift card. Not too bad. He also assured me that nothing like this would ever happen again; not to me or anybody else.
I really appreciated the apology, and especially the personal phone call. Somebody (actually, his name was Lou) went out of their way that day to make sure I was being taken care of. You can’t over-appreciate something like that.
In the end, I don’t imagine this is something that happens very often. Nevertheless, it probably shouldn’t have happened in the first place. That being said, I’m really happy with how B&H (and ultimately) UPS handled everything. And I especially like that I should soon be getting a $50 gift card to B&H. A card that I intend to use on my first visit to the B&H store in New York later this summer. Can’t wait. No shipping required.
I’m not an After Effects user, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love seeing what people can do with it. Video Copilot is one of my favorite After Effects centered sites for viewing the latest and greatest from some talented artists. They consistently deliver fantastic tutorials (that Motion people can benefit from too), and their lineup of plugins looks to be top-notch. If I were of the Adobe persuasion, I’d definitely give them a look-see.
Today Video Copilot is releasing their latest disc of plugin goodies, calling it Twitch. One of the best parts about these releases are the trailers that accompany them. My favorite is still Evolution, but this is probably a close second. You can check out their store for the full lineup.
