Holy shit this game is addicting. Try to beat my score of 115… I’m sure most of you can. I’m keeping track of my high score on Twitter with a #flightcontrolhiscore hashtag.

Grab it on iTunes

(Interesting that my last two posts have had something to do with flying and enjoying it… Odd.)

If you know me, you know that I never really enjoy flying. I’m aware it’s the fastest way to travel, but that’s usually where its advantages end. Security is a pain in the ass, flights are often delayed, and comfortability is minimal.

While talking to my friend Eoban about Virgin Atlantic, he brought up how much he loved flying them. About a year ago, I was lucky enough to fly Virgin America, Virgin’s latest spin-off company in the states. While their ads have been covering Boston lately, I feel like I got sort of a sneak peek into the service, since I was flying before even their first birthday. I told Eoban it was my favorite airline I’ve flown.

Aside of the mood lighting, the nice music in the bathrooms, the awesome entertainment systems, and the high-quality (for an airline) food, possibly the one thing that stood out more than anything was the safety video. Check it out:

Whoever created this safety video did an excellent job. Why? Because, they were able to add humor, sarcasm, and interesting graphics into something that is always boring and mundane on other airlines. Through light jokes and eye-catching animation, the creator was able to make the viewer laugh, stay interested, and learn without making them uncomfortable or uneasy. I am certain that the ability to make a flight safety video funny without belittling the importance of emergency procedures isn’t easily found.

The result of this? Increased knowledge of the viewer.

I bet that if you did a study and had people watch this versus the traditional safety video, they would retain much more knowledge from the former. The other airlines should learn from VA, but maybe they’re just too boring in every other way to get the picture.

UPDATE: With a little bit of research, I discovered that the safety video was animated by W!LDBRAIN, Inc.. Cheers to them!

Here goes:

A noteworthy twitter update (or, “tweet”) should be structured in a way that you could start a decent (however short or long) conversation based on that message.

Examples of good:

• Who the fuck asks for their papers in 10pt Arial? My 5-page 12pt Times New Roman paper instantly becomes 3 1/2 because of this craziness.
• Just purchased $100 in European travel books.
• Ben & Jerry’s creates “Yes Pecan!” Flavor for Obama. For Bush? “Cluster Fudge.” “Impeach Cobbler.” “Iraqi Road.” “Anchovy Fuckup Surprise.”

Examples of bad:

• Beer FTW!
• I walked up those stairs, yes I did!
• I ate a pancake.

Not to say there aren’t exceptions, that I don’t tweet badly (I constantly share mindless, stupid information that nobody cares about), or that the bad tweets wouldn’t be good in some contexts (imagining a lengthy discussion about steep stairs), but this might be a good starting point.

Disclaimer: I absolutely hate it when people say “FTW,” “win!,” “fail,” or “epic!” I’m just a curmudgeon, I know.