Marketing

" 'Here.' the man said, presenting the tiny furry creature to Sma. She took it reluctantly. It was warm, had four limbs arranged conventionally, smelled attractive and wasn't any sort of animal she'd ever seen before; it had large ears on a large head, and as she held it, it opened its huge eyes and looked at her. 'That's the ship,' the man who'd handed her the animal said. "

From the book I'm reading right now, Use of Weapons, by Iain Banks. The spaceship she's traveling in has a cute animal as it's interactive representation, for the fun and comfort of its passengers. It's all about packaging, isn't it.

That's also what I learned by reading this article today, about the chocolatier Noka and their ridiculous markup of the chocolate they use in their products. It's ok though, because their chocolates come in fancy collectible steel boxes, right? So chique, so now, so, wait, it's run by former accountants? How retro! The author of the article is one of those obsessed gourmands that make such enjoyable reading, another one of those reads I recommend if you like science and food. And scandal. Delicious chocolatey scandal.

Today I applied to about 20 farm jobs, mostly in the fruit picking business. I tried to pick farms located on the south half of the north island, so that F can visit freely every weekend. A couple vineyard jobs too, wouldn't that be awesome. These things pay minimum wage, but that is better than my current wage-naught. It's gonna be fucking hard work too, maybe I'll get some arm muscles. Sexy! All of the jobs start between February 1 and 15, so I still have some time to party people. Like, say, for my birthday coming up next week? Hmmmmm?