Times Square

The brightest, Disney-esque part of Manhattan is called "Times Square." But have you ever noticed that when you say the intersection of 7th Ave and B'way out loud you pronounce it "Time Square" ?

Originally the site of a former NY militia soldier John Morin Scott, who served under George Washington, the property was bought by the Astor family, and then the New York Times built their headquarters at the downtown edge of the intersection; soon be addressed "One Times Square." Todays iconic light displays have their origins in 1904, when a local bank at 46th St and Broadway put up their first electric sign on the corner.

And apparently some plays happen around there too, but they're way out of the student budget so I only go on a TKTS ticket :-)

Cutest Post Ever

One of my favorite bloggers, who I occasionally check in on is Brooklyn Lad. This post is about his son Billy learning to go to the bathroom. Call me crazy, but I think it's cute as hell.

Prada Pumps

This office manager in my office was just given adorable black patent leather pumps. They're even Prada. It was a gift from a friendly, small dog toting, gay man who seems surprisingly down to earth.

I want my gay pal (attn: Alex W.) to drop by with designer shoes on occasion, and let me pick up his dog (attn: not your real dog, he's too heavy to hold).

All he wants for Christmas

Some guys like year long Playboy subscriptions, others a video game, event a console, but not my boyfriend. He's made his wish perfectly clear:

http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/28/optimus-maximus-in-minimus-sub-1000-configurations/

Second Life: Dressing Avatars for Success

As if flipping non-existent real estate and working in an virtual office weren't enough, Second Life is getting even more realistic with job placement! Employers like Verizon, HP, & Microsoft are having Second Life career fairs and interviews!

I once had a Second Life avatar, but Victoria (I honestly forget her last name) became such a huge part of my day I had to stop signing on because I needed to retain a real life.

Read Anjali Athaveley's WSJ article.

Free Rice & Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing runs wild on freerice.com . When you scroll along the bottom, you will notice that links go to click.linksynergy.com/morecrap .

Recall your SAT vocab words and donate 10 grains of rice for every correct answer!

Tofurkey Reflections

Below: the uncooked tofurkey. With stuffing underneath. A certain poodle looks on in the background.

It tasted like crap. And quite frankly, I think it looks a bit like it too. The lesson I learned is this: buy fake meat, don't try to recreate it yourself. Better yet, don't cave into the pressure to create fake meat in the first place.

Below: Out of the oven, almost on my plate. The "gravy" however, was delicious.

My Tofurkey Recipe

I'll be sure to take pictures. This recipe comes from allrecipes.com .

PREP TIME	15 Min
COOK TIME	50 Min
READY IN	3 Hrs 5 Min

INGREDIENTS

• 1 pound firm tofu
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon dried marjoram
• 1/4 teaspoon dried savory
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 (12 ounce) package dry bread stuffing mix
• 2/3 cup water
• 1/4 cup soy margarine
• 1 slice bread, cubed
• 1/2 teaspoon sage
• 2 tablespoons water
• 5 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
• 1 teaspoon barbeque sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon prepared mustard
• 1 tablespoon orange jam
• 1 teaspoon orange juice
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds

DIRECTIONS

1. Drain and rinse tofu; in a food processor or blender, process tofu until smooth. Stir in salt, marjoram, savory and pepper. Line a sieve with 2 sheets of paper towel and place over an empty bowl. Place tofu in lined sieve and press against sides to form a deep well in the middle. Place 2 more sheets of paper towel over tofu and refrigerate for 2 hours.
2. Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat combine stuffing mix, 2/3 cup water and margarine. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat; let stand 5 minutes and fluff with a fork. To the stuffing add bread cubes, sage and 2 tablespoons water.
3. After tofu has chilled for 2 hours, preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). With 2 tablespoons of the vegetable oil, grease a baking sheet.
4. Remove the top layer of paper towels from the tofu. If necessary, again press tofu against the sides of the sieve to form a well. Spoon the stuffing mixture into the well and smooth the surface with a spoon. Invert the tofu mold onto prepared baking sheet. Remove the remaining paper towel layer and shape the tofu with your hands if it has cracked or lost its shape.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes.
6. Meanwhile, prepare the glaze by combining barbecue sauce, mustard, orange jam, orange juice, sesame seeds and remaining 3 tablespoons oil. After tofu has baked for 30 minutes, brush or spoon the glaze over it. Return to the oven and bake for 20 minutes more.
7. Broil for 3 to 5 minutes, or until tofu is browned and crispy.

4 Legged Family Members

Today my sister caught this on her mobile. The beginning of my return home for Thanksgiving, just like it always is... Niki (my kitty) and Cody (my poodle) fighting it out. Actually, Cody is a peace loving fluff ball but Niki ("the little one" as my mom calls her) is "Trouble" as my dad has renamed her b/c she is just that.

Goal #4

Anyone who knows me probably knows that I'm very goal oriented. Defining the next thing I want to accomplish keeps me focused. As my roommate will attest to, I keep this up by posting note cards above my bed, around my desk, with current goals in bright marker colors.

Right now they are:

1. A's, A's, A's - I have to get A's in school. No exceptions this semester, I decided over the summer I'm too smart for a B.
2. $XX,000 - a slightly more private goal, I already know my salary for next year. My mother thinks I'm crazy, but I know I'm that valuable. (hello there future employer!)
   
3. Vocab! - I have an extremely limited vocabulary. I like to shovel this blame onto my parents because as a youth I never learned "fancy" words, my parents in turn blame the California public school system, for not inspiring their everyday lexicon. Every time I hear or read a word I don't know, I write it down and make a note card for it on my coat closet doors.
   

NEW GOAL #4: by November 20, 2008, I will have a speaking position lined up
at a SEM event.

I have lots of work to do to even make this feasible, first, I may want to start actually writing SEM related posts on a new site that doesn't mix my personal life in quite so much.

SMX London, searching for women

One observation I must mention, which didn't impress me at SMX London, was the lack of women speakers. I went to 8 sessions, each with 3 to 4 speakers and out of those 28 people (8 x 3.5) I recall 2 women.

The first was SEO Chicks Lisa Ditlefsen, which sells brilliant green SEO Chicks tshirts and did an equally brilliant Leveraging Social Media Networks presentation talking about a sleepy site called myheratige.com which went crazy viral with a celebrity lookalike widget. The second was Jane Copland of SEOmoz who, besides wearing a great lip color, had great slides for her Linkbaiting & Viral Serach Marketing Tactics presentation.

I highly doubt this lack of women (7.14% by my count) has anything to do with Chris Sherman and Danny Sullivan holding a bias against the fairer sex, but simply reflects a lack of women in SEM. At least, from my limited experince at networking events in NYC, this seems to be the case.

I intend on helping to change this trend.

SMX London, Reasons to go

1. Although the guys still look like they're computer savvy nerds, the accents make them a lot more attractive, dare I say some reach sexiness.
2. It's the only place you'll actually feel bad for Microsoft; when the main sponsor's Windows Live presentation doesn't work b/c their version of an adwords account fails to load the presenter's log in name properly.
3. They manage to suit every interest randing from a "Fundamentals Track" to "advanced Organic Track"
4. Great food. So much better than other conferences I've attended. Fancy deserts you don't want to eat b/c they look too pretty, grilled salmon with a crusty erm...crust over it, yummy noodles & tons of salad.
5. Networking - I met many a friendly face from in-house SEOer for John Deere tractors to a couple friendly women in Atlas's London office.

Plagiarism & My Sweat

I have been working on this great idea for a web series. Without disclosing details (although the name does give a preview), it's called College Bound. For my class Producing Essentials I had to select an investor, I decided upon Kaplan - a popular test prep company in the US.

After turning in 75% of the project last week, I was researching Kaplan's site over the weekend and found THIS. Check out the second half of the right hand column.

My idea was so good, it already existed. Granted, mine has a number of better features including video instead of just audio, but the principles, the selected advertiser, and even the NAME are the same!

I couldn't hold it in, so I asked to speak to my prof after class and explain the situation to her. She was incredibly understanding, and told me not to even worry about rewriting my proposal for another investor nor renaming my project! This made me very happy, because I've put a ton of work into it and lost sleep over the ordeal of being thought a plagiarist. (is that a real word?)

Then she asked me "So have you considered pitching it to them?" I looked at her all confused and said, "like, actually suggest they do it?" (my brilliant response); she went on to say I have one of her top 3 favorite ideas in the class (60 people), and that I should seriously consider shopping it around to relevant investors.

Now I may know what to do without a forth course next semester...

Final Uni Courses (Spring 2008)

I am staying on at NYU for an extra semester, so as to satisfy my parents intense need to sit in Washington Square Park and watch me graduate surrounded by leafy green & lots of other students in caps and gowns. Since I am complete with all requirements for my major and minor, I have decided to expand into some less obvious areas of study:

1. Anime - East Asian Studies (EAS) department gets together to watch series and films. I love the EAS, Neon Genisis Evangelion (tv series, never saw alternative ending movie), and that wolf princess chick wasn't half bad so I figure it'll be interesting.
2. Intro to Soviet Cinema - taugh by "the most russian man i know" according to ratemyprofessor.com, I loved the Communist films & filmed ballets from my Gender & Radicalism in Modern China course, so why not migrate to the other half of the continent? Less dragons and red, more alcohol, guns, and men with beards.
3. Intro to Painting - my first art class since high school. very excited to get my hands dirty!

Out with the Old (Emails) In with the New (Dress)

I just took 3 hours to clear out 449 emails with 232 new emails. And that's just my uni account. I'm scared to look at my work account right now. I also erased almost all of the 154 email addresses I had in my address book. I'm so wild when it comes to a Friday!

Today I went crazy running around Chelsea and the West Village trying to find a dress for this Celilidh I'm going to with Cal next Friday. All I have to say is it's navy in color, and sexy as hell while being uber conservative all at the same time. I love it. I love it!

Eric Hutchinson!

Halloween night rocked, for lack of a better way of saying it. Last minute, V was available to go to see Eric Hutchinson at the Cutting Room! In line I ran into a friend from Rubin 6th Flo' so we caught up while waiting.

Without costumes, me and V honestly looked out of place. Walking up to the venue via 5th Ave was hard b/c of the world famous Village Halloween Parade's 6th ave over spill. Walking home afterwards, we passed the McDonalds on Union Square where a shooting and stabbing would happen 30 minutes later (never a dull night!). Now I don't mind people shooting each other up if that's the only way they can communicate their anger, I truly believe it's not my place to tell them how they should act, but the moment it starts to hurt innocent bystanders it's just not fair. And how the hell do teenagers get guns? And why were they out at 1am on a school night? And where are their parents? All I know is that between trials and serving prison sentences, I can hear my tax dollars being sucked down the drain. (Thank you 50 cent & co. for glorifying the gun culture!)

Anyways...Eric dressed up a comedian from Blue Collar TV for Halloween with a little mustache which started to fall off mid-song; he would roll his upper lip along the mic as he played his guitar to keep sticking it back on. He even had a costume contest.

Two new songs:
1. Freak Machine - cheezy but Eric-esque in the delivery, rock bluesish.
2. Lisa - was introduced as a song about "one of those friends who you always make the effort with, if you don't know what I'm talking about it's probably you" ; funny b/c it perfectly described an old friend of mine who, like Eric said, never would come to your house, I always had to go to her's, who never made an effort to hang out with you unless it was convenient for her, and is gets obsessed with a love interested who is a looser. Luckily, I don't have my "Lisa" in my life anymore.

The clip doesn't do Hutchinson justice, and although he looks very small in it, me and V had good seats.

Halloween & Water Taxis!

I had a fun Halloween last Wednesday. Me and Avi did such a great job working in the morning (or perhaps it was because of the beautiful weather) we just couldn't bear to sit down at our desks so outside we ventured! Just like in The Office, season 3's episode The Convict when everyone has out doors time! Not that working at Promediacorp is like a jail, or the NBC show. Anyways, I had class in the evening, so we hadn't enough time for a museum but then I thought "I've never been on a water taxi, and we are near the water..." Avi agreed, and off we hopped towards the Water Taxi terminal on 34th St.


Waiting for the boat was rather depressing. The ferry docks at this desolate turn off on the FDR with an abandoned "Water Taxi Ticket Sales" booth, even the crazy homeless man entered on cue throwing balls of trash into the east river like a basket ball hoop floated above it.

As you can tell, it was rather windy on board but really fun. Then we randomly hopped off in DUMBO and explored for a bit. After some pizza (yes, I ate some cheese) at Grimaldi's, I had class with a speaker who is terminally ill, a slight downer to my day.