very simple

The girl sitting next to me at the cafe this morning was very diligently creating her own note cards, so I asked if I could take a picture. We ended up getting into a whole discussion of 365 projects and what she was doing as well, in terms of trying to be creative.

Then, as a bonus, as I was getting up to leave, she handed me a card of my own (with a lovely note inside)! Totally made my day.

I had an original black ipad2 dodocase that I bought soon after I got my iPad. Not only did I like the moleskine-esque design, but the fact that they are attempting to move classic 19th and 20th century handcrafted “technologies” (bookbinding, tailoring) into a 21st century space appealed to me. But, alas, my old case finally bit the dust when I thought it would be brilliant idea to pile a bunch of crap (including laptop) on top of it while it was open, breaking the spine. Duct tape was an interim solution, but I finally bit the bullet and ordered up a new one – this time custom made.

The last post was of an angry sea-god, so I might as well counterbalance with one of my favorite (and most-photographed) spots in the city – Bethesda Fountain, featuring the angel of the waters, a tribute to the naval war dead after the Civil War, and one of the most beautiful, well-placed fountains around (even without water in the wintertime). According to “New York, A Documentary History” (which I have watched in its 14-hour entirety multiple times), there was controversy when she was installed, due to the fact that she looked like a peasant with wings rather than some lofty creature, but the people loved that she was, well, one of them.

A few months ago, I integrated a photo-selling service onto the site. Well, this morning, I got an email telling me that they were not only doubling and tiering their pricing structure, but that it was going to happen in less than 2 weeks, AND that we would both be forced to pre-pay for the prints before getting paid ourselves and that we would have to use PayPal or some service called stripe that I had never heard of. Oh, and the announcement email didn’t even have all the detail. It’s ‘coming soon’. Presumably some time between now and the change on October 10!

I liked fotomoto precisely because it didn’t require PayPal, which I avoid at all costs if it can be helped (sometimes it can’t, but I continue to use an “unverified” account in these circumstances because I will never, ever, give them access to my bank account information, so getting paid from PayPal would obviously turn into a giant headache).

I don’t have a problem, philosophically, with price increases or tiered pricing by themselves, but the short window is obviously a big issue, particularly for more active users who have done things like publish their price lists. It’s the timeframe (I’ll barely have enough time to get the code off my site this weekend before the deadline), and the forced use of a super-problematic service like PayPal that are forcing my hand.

Tonight, I ended up going to a work-related event at the Time Warner Center, part of which was held in the Allen Room overlooking (coincidence of coincidences) Columbus Circle. So here’s one more shot of Discovering Columbus, from the outside, at night. Pardon the reflections.