After running through a downpour from Murph’s to Johnny Brendas last Saturday night, we decided to run upstairs and check out the remnants of whatever band was playing.

Luckily, we were treated to the last 4 tracks of a band called The New Time. As much as I really enjoyed the band, I soon found out that it was their last show since they were splitting up.

I found myself buying their CD for $5 and talking to the bass player, who ended up being my old neighbor. I didn’t recognize him though due to his new getup. His name is Justin and I had always been too busy to see one of his many bands. Gotta love how it finally worked out.

We recently checked out Grounds For Sculpture in Hamilton, New Jersey. About a 45 minute drive north of Philly, this 35-acre public sculpture park / arboretum is a great escape for kids and adults alike. Loads of sculptures from various artists are beautifully displayed on these winding grounds.

If you get hungry, there is an awesome restaurant called Rat’s that is attached to Grounds For Sculpture. If you eat at the restaurant, you get free admission to the grounds. Otherwise, it’s $10 a person. Make sure you bring a map to find out where the bathrooms and other cafes are. You can easily get lost. But for us, that was part of the fun.

This is really one of those destinations that you have to see to believe. Check out more photos here.

I then posted my sudden irritation on Twitter:

“Having to log-in to a website to “unsubscribe” from an email is lame. Turns out I don’t want Orbitz to notify me daily about vacations.”

A couple days later, I got an email from Orbitz, stating:

“Your comments posted on Tweeter regarding our promotional emails was forwarded to our attention for review. I appreciate the opportunity to respond to your concerns.”

Now, aside from being a bit spooked and creeped out, I was laughing for a bit that they didn’t know the difference between “Twitter” and “Tweet”.

So, is there really someone at Orbitz employee searching the web for complaints, especially on Twitter, and looking to make amends? If so, that’s amazing and actually a very welcoming feature in my mind.

With every service based company, there are going to be loads of rants on the web, especially on Yelp.com, Epinions.com etc. But I just find it fascinating that Orbitz was on the hunt for them.

This is f-ing hysterical.

]]> http://www.philadesigns.com/2009/06/24/triumph-visits-bonnaroo/feed/ http://www.philadesigns.com/2009/06/23/soundcloud/ http://www.philadesigns.com/2009/06/23/soundcloud/#comments Tue, 23 Jun 2009 23:56:51 +0000 philadesigns http://www.philadesigns.com/2009/06/23/soundcloud/ Soundcloud.com is place for musicians to upload their tracks and share them within the Soundcloud community. You can also alert your Twitter account for every new track that you uplaod, to notify your Twitter peeps. You can also embed your tracks on your own site with it’s snazzy player, or share to a variety of social networking sites. Here is an example of their player:

Soundcloud is kind’ve like Twitter in that you “follow” people, and they follow you, but your status is music you’ve created as opposed to a text update.

A profile with your photo and artist / song stats is available to personalize your account as well.

The free account allows for 5 free uploads a month. More robust accounts require monthly fees, and it is kind’ve on the hefty side.

As far as the interface and usability, the site is a gorgeous ease-of-use.

Our backyard has gone through all kinds of alterations over the 4 years that we’ve lived here.

The 12′ tall wall was reduced to 6′ tall…We got rid of the grass and replaced it with mulch…We’ve sprayed garlic mosquito repellant…

Melissa has pretty much been the mad gardener out back and she often goes out to clip some basil for our meals. We’re really hoping the Topsy Turvy works!

So, I’ve been eating a lot more tofu than usual, now that Melissa is a vegetarian.

Above is a photo of one of her last tofu extravaganzas.

This one was delicious, and featured a firm tofu with spicy curry, orange peppers, kale (or is it cale?), with garlic. Oh, and a side of berries and a glass of wine. Very good indeed.

Melissa’s been taking loads of “meal” photos lately, and it’s fun to look back on her creations. Looking at this, I can remember exactly how it tasted.

If you use a Mac and, like me, have been conditioned to use big clunky ole Dreamweaver, then I really suggest you check out Coda by Panic.com.

Panic is a company that makes “shockingly good Mac software”, and Coda has proven to be a great lightweight coding app that will make organizing and updating your web sites a breeze, all in visually pleasing and easy-as-cake setup.

With Coda, priced at $100, everything is accomplished via one single window. You can edit your markup and css, preview your site, hop into a terminal, or use the reference books that they’ve provided — all in the same window.

Coda also has a wealth of 3rd party support / plugins that you can add to enhance your app.

So, allegedly, this new iPhone is going to be released this summer on July 17th. I’ll be stuck with my crappy Samsung Spring PCS phone until early September, when my Sprint service agreement finally ends.

In the meantime, I’ll be drooling at images such as this, and picking out iPhone apps…

Hilarious…It’s just one of those Hollywood clichés that you’ve seen so many times.

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