{"id":1245,"date":"2010-06-16T20:42:54","date_gmt":"2010-06-17T04:42:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nomadicminds.org\/blogs\/?p=1245"},"modified":"2010-06-18T06:43:45","modified_gmt":"2010-06-18T14:43:45","slug":"260-lbs-of-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.nomadicminds.org\/blogs\/2010\/06\/260-lbs-of-love\/","title":{"rendered":"260 lbs of love"},"content":{"rendered":"

How do you move 1,000 packs of poker cards from China to the USA? Daughter decided to design a pack of cards years ago. She doodled with Photoshop on and off and refined the definition of “finish” for over a year. She kept on tweaking and finally reached the limit of her creativity. The perfection is elusive and a matter of opinion. Changes would just please a different set of people, instead of making herself more satisfied. So she called the project done and hired a production manager (Ahem<\/i>) who also would finance this venture. The idea was to print certain quantity and sell them to recuperate the costs. There is, after all, a difference between designers and artists.<\/p>\n

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Email messages flew. Weeks became months and time tried the patience. Money changed currencies and changed hands. Finally, 1,000 packs of poker cards arrived a friend’s house in Beijing. Those of you jumped up and shouted “Fedex” just sit down. Put together, they will cover your coffee table and stack 10 inches high. Yes, about 260 pounds in weight.<\/p>\n

If we ship them, the unit cost will be way too much. So we hired couriers: those friends and family who happened to be flying to the USA. Twenty packs in the suit case and hundred packs as a separate luggage. The last batch came when I went to Beijing on business. I filled an extra luggage with about 100 packs and another 250 in a separate box \u00e2\u20ac\u201d a hair less than the limit of airline weight limit.
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A bone-skinny officer picked me out after the airport X-ray station. She led me to a windowless room with a elevator door, two low tables, a phone, and no chairs. She made a phone call and waited siliently. For 25 minutes, I rehearsed Richard Gere’s Red Corner<\/a>. Then someone came in with one of my luggage. She was surprised to see those cards. My explanation brought a hint of smile, “so, she tried to become a designer.” I offered her a pack and she declined.<\/p>\n

The SFO custom could not believe a lone business traveler would bring three pieces of heavy luggage into the country. I, again, offered the inspector a pack. He declined too.<\/p>\n

My coffee table is now covered with packs of cards. I would probably move them to the closet, but that involves handling lots of weight. Instead, I contemplate how my grand kids will be amused by their mom’s youthful design works.<\/p>\n

Nope. I would never get the money back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How do you move 1,000 packs of poker cards from China to the USA? Daughter decided to design a pack of cards years ago. She doodled with Photoshop on and off and refined the definition of “finish” for over a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nomadicminds.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1245"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nomadicminds.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nomadicminds.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nomadicminds.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nomadicminds.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1245"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.nomadicminds.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1248,"href":"http:\/\/www.nomadicminds.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1245\/revisions\/1248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nomadicminds.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nomadicminds.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nomadicminds.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}