Tips on Greeting Cards

So once in a while we like to send out a card or two. It’s heart-warming, sincere and sweet- providing you are doing it right. When you are sending a card (especially to those whom you don’t get to see often), it acts as your agent thus it is basically a representative of you. Do it wrong and you will look insincere, thoughtless and stupid (now we don’t want to look stupid do we?). In that case you’d be better off sending a gift without the card.

Here are some tips on greeting cards:

1) Get a real card. If you get insomnia from the guilt of killing a tree, get one that’s made of recycled papers. E-cards are just too common and impersonal. It is hardly as detail as the real thing and it shows you’ve put some effort to actually physically go look around for a card.

2) Do something with it. Don’t just send a card with nothing but the message that came with the card and your signature. Write a personal message or even make a doodle on it shows that you’ve put some thought on it. You may also do something on the envelope, don’t limit yourself to the card. (I personally find putting stickers on envelopes makes the cards more ‘fun.’)

3) Be specific. Don’t just write something general such as “Thank you, you’re a nice person.” Instead, try “Thank you for taking a sincere interest in things that matter to me.”

4) Surprise them. There is no law saying that you can’t send a card unless it’s a holiday or a birthday. Sending an unexpected card for no particular reason can have a better impact. (Like Postcards, “I just thought of you when I’m travelling here)

Tourist space travel, not that far away?

Xcor Aerospace announced plans for a two-seater commercial spacecraft called the Lynx on Wednesday. It was also announced that Lynx could probably take its first test flight by 2010. The spacecraft would allow passengers to take a 25-minute spaceflight. “Our company’s goal has always been to build rocket-powered vehicles that can be flown like regular aircraft,” said company president Jeffrey Greason, who claims that the Lynx is relatively environmentally friendly: “They are fully reusable, burn cleanly, and release fewer particulates than solid-fuel or hybrid rocket motors,” he says.

 

To Tibet: flight or train?

 

It’s been a while ever since travellers can reach Tibet by sky-train, but it’s about time for feed backs on how to get there. In the past seven years, the Chinese government has laid 710 miles of track across western China and the Tibetan plateau, creating the highest elevated railway ever built. At its tallest point, the Tanggula Pass near the China-Tibet border, the Sky Train climbs to 16,640 feet.

The lowest level of accommodations is simply an uncushioned seat. The most luxurious option, soft-sleeper class, has flat-screen TVs and four soft bunk beds (with down comforters) in each cabin. In the hard-sleeper class, which is less private, consists of compartments with no doors. Three wooden bunks are stacked on both sides of the cabin, so the person at the top has to sleep nose-to-ceiling.

Unless you’re really into the scenery from Beijing to Tibet, I recommend flight. It’s quicker and more comfortable (or at least, the period of discomfort is reduced.) That’s how my mom and brother travel to Tibet every year anyway.

No matter which way you choose though, you would feel it’s all worth it once you reach Tibet. That’s a fact.