Trendy Stuff

You know it's THAT time of the year when you start seeing people walking around with red Starbucks cups. It's the time where Figaro, The Coffee Bean, Seattle's Best, or Bo's suck and Starbucks rise from the ashes of evil and become awesome. It's the time where stickers and red cards fly around your local Starbucks shop. It's the time where you hurt your wallet and pockets a little bit more for Le Corporation.

Ahhh. Peppermint Mocha and Toffee Nut. How we've missed you. And a new one that I've yet to try, Dark Cherry.

But I am not to talk about those simple (yet expensive) joys in life. I will blogging about the other reason why people claim Starbucks Christmas is awesome: The Planners.

I was never really one of those avid sticker collectors of Starbucks. The first time the promo came out, I was too destitute to care. The next times it came out, well it got suckier.

Let me show you how Starbucks Planners went from awesome to big-ass bulky, to just plain sucky, and back to a little bit awesome.

The 2006 Planner (Left. Source) was definitely, undoubtedly the most awesome creation of Starbucks that is in the nature of organizer notebooks. The first and the last of its kind. I remember the interior being quite nice. I'd have to credit Starbucks for the clever idea of putting in there their "coffee portfolio" or menu of some sorts. It makes people crave at the sight of it. But the very thing that made it so totally fucking HOLY-COW awesome? The coupons. Goodness gracious, when that planner came out I was just overjoyed. Free coffee coupons, free shots, discounts and what not!! The stickers were definitely worth it. 2006 = Awesome sauce.

The 2007 Planner (Right) was just plain big-ass bulky. Sure, it had a free notepad inside but come on. Don't you think they went a little bit overboard with that one? It's FAT, and Starbucks must have went koo-koo when they design this with a leather case which made it even more Cartman-FAT. We actually have three untouched copies of that thing lying around the house.
And you know what sucks the most? No coupons. Boo, Fat ass! 2007 = Fat and Stupid

2008 Planner (Source) followed the fat and stupid characteristic of its predecessor. Bad, kiddy-type, close-to-Comic Sans font. Also coupon-less. 2008 = Like your fat ass classmate whose brain is the size of a raisin.

2009 Planner (Source) was boring. It's definitely improved in sophistication when you compare it to the previous one. But the trade off was boring-ness. Why was it boring? The design is only secondary. The primary is because it's coupon-less again. By that time, I had lost hope. 2009 = Anorexic greedy rich kid who won't give free coffee!!

2010 Planner (Source). So I had my first Starbucks Christmas goodie yesterday. A brewed Toffee Nut thingy. Ahh. Yummy. And because of the past three sucky Starbucks planners, I did not take any interest in this 2010 one. I didn't even bother to browse through the sample. I just thought, boring. Would've been better the cover was one of my photos. Hehe. But soon after, Joao arrived and got his coffee, sat down and told me the good news. They have it back. The coupons. Hallelujah! Hope! Change! Free coffee but not quite!! It isn't as awesome as the first one. The coupons in this one, I was told were only of discounts and free shots. But that's okay! I can't wait. We have to get this one. 2010 = Awesome but less than that of 2006.

Sigh. Yes. Thank you.