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[via The Egotist]

Since I'm a super-duper US Airways patron (the cheapest way to get to Barcelona), I was fortunate enough to get the following email today:

Subject: We're bringing back free drinks

We're bringing back free drinks

On March 1, we're bringing back free drinks in our Coach cabin. This includes sodas, juices, tea, coffee and water on all US Airways and US Airways Express flights.

We believe in our pay-for-what-you-choose-to-use – or "a la carte" – business model, but it's a work-in-progress. We are committed to remaining competitive and that's the main reason we have decided to bring back free drinks.

You still have the choice to only pay for the things you want – like checked bags, Choice Seats or First Class upgrades. And, those services will continue to be free for our Preferred members.

Always get the latest news and our best offers at usairways.com.

Sincerely,

Fernand Fernandez
Director, Marketing Programs

Now I know that the airline business has been hurting, and the future likely looks bleak, but seriously, would it have killed them to admit it was a bad call?

I mean, it's kinda obvious it was, and anyone who flies on a regular basis or ANY of your flight attendants could have told you that before you started the program. But you tried it and it didn't work.

So admit it. Apologize for it. Act like you care.

And an FYI - checked baggage had NEVER been something I want to pay for. Seriously Fern-Daddy.

Check out the stats here.

While this obviously shows that there is growth in long tail search terms, I think the more interesting angle on this story is that it seems that people may be learning to speak "searchese" - learning how to write effective search queries that get them where they want to go on the web.

This could have big implications for the companies trying to figure out natural language search since it could be easier to teach humans how to speak search engine rather than teach search engines how to speak human.

Time will tell.

Here is a fun little remix as well.

Is this real life?

I ended my job in Barcelona last Friday...the experience was an amazing one, but my options came down to relocating to Barcelona full time or not having a job, and Kristi and I dig it here in Denver. Amazingly, a new opportunity has come along and I will be starting at a new start up company on the 17th. The company is focused on helping small businesses market themselves online, something that is of great interest to me. Not sure how I am so blessed when it comes to jobs, but I'll take it.

I'm going to be spending the next couple of weeks chilling out and gearing up for the next adventure. Kristi surprised me on Monday with a trip to the Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey distillery (the best whiskey ever made). We got a private tour with Jake the Master Distiller, and I'm actually going back on the 12th to help bottle a batch (they are so small they take volunteers to help bottle once a month). If you ever get a chance, grab yourself a bottle of this stuff and make time to go on a tour.

So that's the update. It's almost 70 degrees here in Colorado, and I am going to go enjoy that now. Much love to you all.

The use of camera movements on small- and medium format cameras. In many cases, it refers to tilting the lens relative to the image plane and using a large aperture to achieve a very shallow depth of field. The technique relies on the Scheimpflug principle and usually requires the use of special lenses.

If that made as little sense to you as it did to me, I think the easiest way to explain tilt-shift is to say that you can make a photo of the real world look like it's a picture of tiny models. Tilt-shifting seems to be all the rage right now and there is a lot of cool tilt-shift work coming out as of late. A prime example is this video of a real monster truck race, but that's processed like a tilt-shift photo:

Metal Heart from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

Pretty neato, huh?

The thing is, I figured that no matter how much I like the tilt-shift style, I'd never be able to make my own since I can't even understand the definition of what tilt-shifting actually is. But since this is the Intarwebs, someone has taken the time to create a website that allows you to take your own photos and make them look like tilt-shifts. The site is called (big stretch on the name here) TiltShiftMaker.com.

Here's an example of what you can do. First, a photo from Tenerife in the original form:

and here is the post tilt-shift version:

Fancy, eh?

Now if I could only figure out how to use this technology to make my feet look smaller in photos...

Cooliris is a cinematic style browser application that lets you search images and videos on major search engines and websites in a smooth and speedy way. It just won a much deserved Crunchie Award in the category of Best Design, and while it may not revolutionize the way we search, it sure makes looking for pictures and videos a hell of a lot prettier.

Head over to the Cooliris site, download it, and let me know what you think.

My favorite stat was that people consider the following as their primary tool for finding local business information:

Search engines - 50%
Print yellow pages - 24%
Online yellow pages - 10%

So if you're a small business owner, where are you going to put your marketing dollars in 2009?

Check out the post for all the details and to see how small business owners feel about their marketing efforts.

Maybe it was that I was underfed, underslept and freezing cold, but does it not look like two businessmen who just self-upgraded to Follow the White Light Airlines?

Turns out it was just an advertisement for a newspaper that was supposed to look like this:

Since there were ads on either side you could only really understand the whole concept if you saw the ad from up close. Execution fail to be sure. (Pun intended)

So thanks for the laugh Frankfurt, and for proving that in advertising, it's all about the angles.

The recent videos of the delightfully rough around the edges Seasick Steve really embody what makes the shows so amazing. Not only is the music fantastic, but every frame of the video looks like it could be a standalone photograph worth framing.

Here are the two videos, but for higher quality, downloads, and more shows check out the La Blogotheque site. And if you have an iPod, make sure you subscribe to their podcast.

Seasick Steve - A Take Away Show - Part 1 from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Seasick Steve - A Take Away Show - Part 2 from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.