A really quick update before I leave for my week long adventure in West Virginia. I’ve posted a few pictures from my brief stay in Manhattan this past week in the pictures section of my site. I think the one of the east river and FDR drive is my favorite photo.
›› Spring Break ‘05: NYC Pictures
Tomorrow (in fact, in less than 12 hours), I’ll be leaving Manhattan and heading back up to Hamilton to meet up with my ASB group. For those not in the know, ASB stands for Alternative Spring Break, and its an organization on campus that sends groups of about 10 students to various locations in the south to do community service. In my case, I’m heading down to Pipestem, WV located pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Apart from the knowledge that we’ll be doing “construction work,” I’m not entirely sure what will happen during the week. However, I am quite excited and am looking forward going somewhere new - even if it is in a remote location!
Directions to Pipestem, WV
So, this is just a heads up that I won’t be answering e-mails or posting updates to my site during next week. I’ll be taking my camera along and hopefully, when I get back, I’ll post some of the photos in the pictures section of my site. I’ll also be posting some of the photos I took this week in the city … so stay tuned.
No real news to report today nor comment on. I’m not even sure what happened to the day… except that I woke up around 9.30 to find two workmen outside my parents’ 14th floor apartment window. Yes, very odd. Actually, I do have one comment (or observation). Has anyone noticed the re-use of songs in ads lately? Nissan is using Ride by The Vines in their latest ad, featuring their various cars superimposed on a white background. Reminiscent of Apple’s advertising? In fact, it was only perhaps a year ago when Apple was using this same song for their own iPod ads. A second example is the use of Lux Aeterna by Chris Mansell, originally composed for the movie Requiem for a Dream. In this case, it was used for some unremarkable, unmemorable TV film on USA. I have no problem with music being used over and over again, but it’s an odd feeling (and a testament to the remarkable power of advertising) when a song has such power over your memory!
A couple of interesting articles to read:
›› McDonald’s Commands a Real Estate Empire in Russia [BugMeNot]
›› “More than one million computers on the net have been hijacked to attack websites and pump out spam and viruses” [BBC News]
›› Digital Rebel XT (350D) Review [Luminous Landscape]
›› New Dr. Who Leaked on Purpose? [Wired]
›› “If I could speak English, I would…” [Via BoingBoing]
Perhaps one of the best features of Manhattan (and New York City as a whole) is the individualism. Sure, there’s a Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, and New World Cafe at every corner, a Barnes and Noble and Borders every other avenue, and a Gap, Banana Republic, and Express every district, but for each chain store, there’s countless unique, individually owned stores and cafes that have their own, one-of-a-kind experience. Case in point, the pictured 1899 pharmacy on the corner of Lexington and 82nd. Peering through the windows, you can almost feel yourself time-traveling back to the early 20th century. Gone are the sterile, tight narrowed shelves of the corner CVS, Rite Aid, or Duane Reade, replaced by shelves of lesser known brands that allow the shopper to explore other brands.
1899 Apothecary (Left) and Myself (Right)
Don’t get me wrong - I think there’s plenty of room for chains. I myself am guilty of shopping at them each and every day. I buy clothes from the Gap, drink coffee from Starbucks, and shop at the Food Emporium. But, I’m fearful America (and soon after, other western nations) will turn to a brand-conscious lifestyle. You already notice this when you’re in rural America. Strip malls featuring the same stores, same designs, and same products. No matter where you are, there will be a Walmart nearby and the standard suite of fast food joints. So my suggestion: support your local stores. They may be more expensive, perhaps even less helpful, but they provide the opportunity to find products that are not as common, a shopping experience outside the norm, and the good feeling that your money won’t be heading to some nameless executive.
I got a good kick reading No Need to Stew: A Few Tips to Cope With Life’s Annoyances [BugMeNot] by the NY Times. It details many of those annoyances we deal with every day (such as Starbucks’ desire to change small to tall) and how some New Yorkers are combatting them. My personal favorite is the story of mailing back unfilled subscription forms at the end of the month!
Speaking of unwanted mailings, I’ve been looking at different services that allow disposable email addresses. They range from simple to complicated, but all do one thing: allow you to create a new address using their domain so that you don’t need to give your e-mail address away. My personal favorite is dodgeit, that features a minimalist web site thats even less cluttered than Google! How does it work? Simple. Just use any e-mail address that ends with @dodgeit.com. Then, when you’re ready to check it, just enter the e-mail address over at dodgeit’s web site. You can even subscribe to an RSS feed so that you can monitor the e-mail address in FireFox. Anyone can check the e-mail address you create so its probably best to use a random address and of course, to refrain from signing up for any say, banking services with it.
Mailinator works exactly the same way except that it will suggest a random e-mail address for you if you need it. Slightly more feature-rich is SpamBob that has three methods of use, corresponding to the three top level domains they own (spambob.com, spambob.net, spambob.org). Using any spambob.com e-mail address will work just like the other two services. Using a spambob.net e-mail address will forward the e-mail to another e-mail address of your choice and finally, using a spambob.org address will delete the e-mail as soon as it arrives. As odd as that last option sounds, it’s good for situations where you only need to provide a properly formatted e-mail address and don’t feel like using my personal favorite, someone@somewhere.net.
The final service is Spamgourmet that allows you much finer control of your e-mail. One caveat though: you need to sign up for an account with them. Once you sign up for an account, you can forward your new spamgourmet address to your proper e-mail address without ever needing to return to their site. Their best feature though is self-destructing e-mail addresses. By creating an address such as someword.x.user@spamgourmet.com where x is the number of e-mails you want to receive, you can limit the number of e-mails that address receives. This can be good when signing up for services that require you to confirm that the address is valid, such as forums or mailing lists.
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