Salad & Sunshine

Today I brought Salad & Sunshine to the Timbuk2 blogosphere. I sure it will be mocked online as it is in the office but I love Salad & Sunshine. I'll never eat at my desk again.

Today's highlights included a lone sunflower, the Timbuk2 bike chariot and some scruffy burners.







Here's what Salad & Sunshine looks like from a culinary POV.

Bagel Mobile

This truck makes me want to eat a bagel and I don't eat bagels.

Spot Bagel

Hopelessly Californian

I guest blogged for mychef today and @Swinespace called my creation, "the ultimate california cuisine mashup." The funny (sad?) thing is that grilling sushi in a parka on my San Francisco roofdeck in August never struck me as uniquely Californian. Clearly I'm a lost cause. I invite you to mock and follow.

Food Photography

There are a lot of food blogs with gorgeous photography -- sproutedkitchen.com is one of my favorites -- but whoa this is a good one. How did I find it? @shihcooks follows @timbuk2. Ah the wonderful tangling of social profiles.

A Productive Work Environment

Lizzy Lizzie Bennett Bennet

Lizzy Bennett is a great name and an even better character. So I dragged my feet (a lot) before pushing Bennett to the middle and adding Fallows to the end. No one made me do it and I feel surprisingly good about being Lizzy Bennett Fallows, but I get stupidly excited when I see versions of my maiden name. Spelling Lizzy with a "y" is much better than "ie" and Bennett should have two "t's," but this is still fun to see. Almost as cool as being the fake family in store-bought picture frames. Thank you @jruv!

San Francisco Prayer Flags

21st & Shotwell tranquility.

Social Hammer

[Social media] accelerates behaviors because it creates social modeling — people see that other people are involved and they’re encouraged. But, these “tools” are not only in the hands of the rioters; the police, for instance, have used social media to inform worried local residents about the state of rioting in their areas. . . You can use a hammer to build something or destroy it. It’s just a tool.

- Dr. Pamela Rutledge, who studies the intersection of the media and human psychology, on the role of social in the recent London riots, NYT

A Christmukkah Miracle

Yet another example of Zappos exceeding a (Timbuk2) customer's expectations but an even better example of how social can inspire. I'm added the phrase "Christmukkah miracle" and hashtag #bogglesthemind to my repertoire.

Tumblr via @timbuk2.

We had no choice but to respond:

Firsts: Gourmet Popsicles

My first encounter with a gourmet popsicle truck.

South Van Ness ~ 20th in San Francisco.

Full Circle: Personal & Corp Messiness on Facebook

My personal and corp Facebook profiles recently interacted.

- - - - -

My friend and Timbuk2's retail czar Jared posted about his crash. I replied with a sharky comment

and re-posted his photo to Timbuk2's Facebook page because everyone loves to talk about bike crashes . . .

and Jared's comment was clearly inspired by the winning caption from Timbuk2's Shark Messenger caption contest.

The brilliant caption writer spots her inspiration call-out on Timbuk2's Facebook wall and says thanks.

You can try to keep it clean, but personal v. corp gets messy. The good news is that social involves real people so messiness often turns into something interesting.

Zappos Goes VIP

Zappos has cleverly repackaged my standard experience into Zappos VIP.

If you live on the west coast and select Ground Shipping on a Zappos order, Zappos automatically upgrades you to free overnight shipping. This is the standard upgrade I received for my order last night.

But now rather than surprising me with a free overnight shipping upgrade (every time I order something), Zappos has invited me to join their VIP program. This is the VIP invite I received this morning.

And this is the sense of urgency they tacked on, just for fun.

I suspect Zappos VIP shopping will look a bit different - new URL (vip.zappos.com), special badges, etc - but function identically. But as with everything Zappos does, they've found a way to make my standard experience more fun. And who doesn't love a friendly unicorn?

I love Zappos. Their VIP plan is a clever way to jump on the exclusivity bandwagon and it will stoke out anyone who isn't paying attention and even those who are.

Airbnb Lays it Down

Wow. Did airbnb founder and CEO really drop this email to his entire user base? Yes, yes he did. More proof that you can't get away with being sneaky or covert on the web if you hope to build any sort of loyal customer base.

See the CEO's complete note here.

Spotify is Smart!

I just Spotify battled. I logged into Tom's Spotify account while he was listening, things fell silent and then we saw this message: "Spotify has been paused because your account is used somewhere else."

Unlike Pandora, Spotify is smart enough to know when users are sharing usernames/passwords. But even though Spotify just gave me the boot, I have nothing negative to say because it's an amazing product. The sound quality is insane and they have obscure world music I thought nobody listened to but me. Their Facebook integration is incredible; you click, drag and drop artists from your friend's top songs or artists into your own playlist like a social Pandora. If I were to make one ask of Spotify, it would be to make its search smart enough decode my spelling.

Spotify. So good it keeps you up at night. So smart it blocks laziness.

Shark Fin Soup

Timbuk2 is a special place. We have a factory in San Francisco that pumps out 50,000 bags a year and a culture that pays me to do this. While our Shark Messenger and its accompanying shark video are a touch niche and a dash odd, I think they're exactly the type of thing that set memorable brands apart from "what are they called again" brands. And while we're always asking for more budget at Timbuk2, money should never be an excuse. We dreamed up, manufactured, launched and romanced this product with zero additional resource. So how does one make Shark Fin Soup? Simply pour your team's creative juices and getting-things-done power into a giant caldron and stir and listen (and perhaps nag) until a disgusting gelatinous soup forms (Yao Ming says "no"). Now if only @mikeroweworks would reply to our tweets.

Get a behind the scenes look at this sharktastic thriller.