End of an era 2

Got some sad news today: my nanna died. That's both maternal grandparents gone in 6 months :(

I have to say I'm glad she's now with grandad and at peace, because she found the last year especially miserable. She was ready for death and welcomed it, which was confronting to hear from someone who spent most of her life nurturing. She'd had enough and knew her best days were behind her. Mum and Janine were there with her when she passed away. There was soft music in the background, aromatherapy, and she was comfortable and not frightened. So she is at rest as she wished.

I visited her before I came overseas and we said our goodbyes, which was very upsetting, because we both knew it was goodbye forever. At least I had the opportunity to tell her how much I loved her, and that I have buckets of golden memories with her, and that I will miss her terribly.

I have a photo of nanna and grandad here with me, from my wedding. I'll have to have a little ceremony on Tuesday, which is when her funeral is. No snow gleaming like Japan, when grandad died...will have to think of something befitting. Any ideas?

I have officially made it

All my career dreams have been realised: a headhunter contacted me today. I don't know how they found me, or how they're aware of what I do, but there they were. What next in this crazy town?
(Random photo from Hell's Kitchen and Grand Central Station)
I should make it clear that I said a polite thanks but no thanks, given that I had just arrived and was loving my current employer. It was for a consulting firm...someone at work mentioned that other firms are swooping on Razorfish people who might be toey given the Microsoft merger.

How to leave a comment

I've had some messages from people who have been wondering why their comments aren't showing. To leave a Comment you need to click on the text 'comments', not the envelope.

On the next page, after you've written your message, type in the letters/numbers you see in the 'word verification box' and choose 'Anonymous'.

Then hit the orange Publish button, and voila. Finito. Hope that helps.

End of an era

Well I write this with mixed emotions. My trusty Filofax, which I received as a 21st present from dad, sits dusty in a drawer. Forgotten. No more diary entries, no checking of phone numbers, no scribbling of notes, no annual trip off to the stationery store for the calendar refill.

It has all been made obsolete by my iPhone, with its synching with Outlook, its Notes section, its Contacts...Nothing of which is new in PDA land, but I never thought I'd be a PDA person, I'd never get addicted a la Crackberries, I'd never get smug a la Palm Pilot users, I liked the sound of pencil on paper. Even the Filofax tagline is 'Its a way of life.' And here I am flipping out the phone every 2 secs, dedicated to typing stuff into it and getting info out of it.

For 12 strong years my Filofax survived student life, holidays, work life and living in 4 different countries; I never lost it, it never broke, and it held tightly bills and business cards and yoga timetables. I have kept all my diaries - 1997 was a busy year - in a box that now sits in storage in Scoresby. Now I have paperless billing, digital contacts, access to my internet bookmarks and a blog all at the press of a touch screen.

And so I bid you farewell, Filo, as you were known around the house. You were an indispensable gift and you have served me well. So long.

Yankee Doodle Dandy

So long Telstra, tonight was Skype night! I can't sing Skype's praises highly enough. I sat on the 'phone' (read: spoke into my laptop keyboard) for hours tonight calling family and friends in Australia. Picture it: me sitting on a stool in my kitchen on Friday night in balmy NYC, people in Aus sitting in their jamas and doing morning pottering, the internet connecting us all for free! (or 2c/min for the luddites on landlines ;)). I loved chatting and hearing everyone's voices: suddenly made me feel not so far away and I felt plugged into people's lives.

The great thing about speaking handsfree is that you can gesticulate wildly and doodle. I can't imagine what I must have looked like to someone peering through the window. Possessed, possibly.

I did do an amazing doodle though. And as I looked at it I realised I had done the same 4 symbols over and over again, and I thought: that has to mean something. So I jumped on some 'doodle analysis' websites and they do actually have recognised meanings:

- stars: "Stars, sun, moon, celestial bodies: optimism, ambition, a need to prove and advertise oneself "

-houses: "Search for a home. A need for family and willingness to invest in his family. A need for a spiritual shelter and search of self. Feelings of insecurity (could be temporary). "

- 3d rectangles: "Organized brain, clear thinking process and planning skills, meticulous planning on one's steps, efficiency, purposefulness "

- spirals: "If shown to be gradually expanding the author is implying personal stress and tension and is aware of or ready to meet a challenge. And that also implies a level of optimism."

I find that a scarily accurate summation of my unconscious as I start a new life abroad.

Star struck

Last night Avenue A razorfish held an Information Architecture Summit Redux - key note speakers gave shortened versions of their talks from a Las Vegas conference. Some really interesting speakers including the very thought provoking Chris Fahey, the IA pioneer and co-author of the bible Lou Rosenfeld, the committed Victor Lombardi, and Frog Design IA/ID enthusiast Michele Tepper.
At the drinky schmooze fest afterwards Andrew (one of the other new Aussie's at work) and I got chatting to Lou Rosenfeld - which is the work equivalent of talking to Bert Newton if you work in Melbourne TV, he basically started IA as a profession - and Lou lives in Park Slope (Brooklyn) around the corner from Andrew, and Lou suggested that Andrew come on down to their bootcamp in the park, and that we come along to the monthly IA meetups, which is like Bert Newton asking you to come over for karaoke! Andrew and I kept exchanging glances. It was all I could do not to run to my desk to pull out my copy of IA for the WWW and ask him to autograph it.

Its weird meeting these thought leaders whose books and blogs you read and you realise they too wear Birkenstocks, ooh and aah when you pull out your iPhone, and create Powerpoint presentations with formatting glitches. We were as giddy as school girls.

Scrabble with strangers

Tonight I headed down to Chelsea to a Scrabble meet up: you just arrive, Scrabble board and dictionary in tow, and play with strangers. It was held at Neutral Ground Gaming Centre (I love the name), which was overrun with adolscent boys playing fantasy card games. The smell of hormones was overpowering. I was the only woman in there when I arrived (I keep getting to places early as I never know how long the subway ride might be) and I nearly turned and ran. But I couldn't spend another moment in the apartment after working from home today and bonding too deeply with the fridge.


Now playing against strangers is a totally different game: there's no checking the dictionary before your play to see if its a word, no moving the tiles once your fingers leave the board, no challenging without willing to forsake your go if you're wrong. Words like 'quirt', 'oe', 'curia' were played. It was serious!

There were about 50 of us: an IT consultant, a speech writer for the South Korean consulate, a high school maths teacher, a guy who worked in a rare books store, and that guy in the photo with the do rag just wandered over from one of the fantasy games to join in.

And the boards people brought, they were unlike anything I had ever seen before. Blue travel boards, ones that zipped up in leather covers, and the recently released Onyx Edition: silver background, black tiles, tile bag and box. Its about as sexy as Scrabble is ever going to get.


I won my first game, then had to play the winner of another game and got soundly trounced. He was playing another game on his cell, while we played and was playing mind games with me by playing made up words. A total Scrabble geek. Not like me ofcourse.

People and their avatars

Someone sent this around at work: a slideshow of people and the characters they create for themselves when they play computer games. Fascinating that some create characters who look exactly like themselves (with strategic enhancements) and some go for complete alter egos.

I'm just thinking back on my Sims avatars: I was into bobbed hair, knee high boots, glasses and tatts, or otherwise I was a guy with a goatee. I don't know what that says about me...

Tipping etiquette

I'm always scared I'm offending someone by not tipping adequately, or not realising theirs is a tip-worthy service. I stumbled upon this tipping guide, and now I know exactly how much I should be slipping the takeout delivery guy, as well as what to do at funerals, hospitals and the country club. This bit takes the cake:

"If you hold a table for two serving periods, make sure that you tip
double. In other words, if you spend enough time at a table that a waiter could
have typically gotten two parties seated and served, then compensate him for his
time by tipping him twice. I like to ease his mind by telling him this about
half-way through."

If you're sitting there for that long you're probably onto your fifth bottle of wine, and surely the 15-20% of the bill gratuity covers the tip adequately! Seriously!

Very important update

Just in case you were wondering: The Poo is down to 6 brunettes. He definitely has a type.

And because there's just so much trashy TV I thought you'd want to know about Coming to America, which is chronicling the Beckham's move to the US. I have new found affection for Posh: she's hilarious! Maybe I should stop drinking the water here. (And I find it ironic that she dissed Eddie Murphy (re Sporty) but the show name is from one of his biggest movies ever. Anyway...)

Working at AARF

We're doing a big employee referral campaign for all Avenue A Razorfish departments: $4500 smackers if someone you refer gets hired, $10,000 lottery if you refer someone, period. They made a little video about it. Send me your CV by 3 August! I'll split the dough with you if I win!

Sat & Sun

A bus I'd feel sheepish boarding, surprisingly Aliens-esque armour at the Met, stuffed hot pretzels en masse, and my latest icecream flavour...

This is caramel ice cream with cinnamon bun dough and a caramel streusel swirl: its impossible not to moan as you eat it.

A Sunday with art and food shopping: soul food and a remedy to the empty fridge. I spent several hours at the Met, most of the time in the musical instrument section. I saw stunning old harpsichords, precursors to bagpipes, brass instruments that are now 'extinct', original xylophones from Africa: it was fascinating. I had those audio tour headphones and for that section of the museum they were invaluable, as it was hard to imagine what some of the instruments might sound like. The rest of the time I wandered around the medieval armour, marvelling that anyone could move around in that hot, heavy, awkward metal.

Food shopping is also a cultural experience and this time I didn't rush it. I did what Jus and I call an 'Establishment Shop': everything right down to the condiments and dried herbs. I put the earphones in and wandered around Wholefoods, an organic/quality food emporium, that also manages to stock stuffed hot pretzels.

I had a major homesick pang on the bus, leaving the Met. It was weird because it was quite a specific, unusual pang I'm sure you'll agree: I was missing crowds of people with faces that I'm used to, like Vietnamese people, Greeks and Italians, Indonesians,, freckly people with sun-ravaged skin. All these Hispanic people and African-Americans and square jawed Anglo types, women with huge hair, are too fascinating and my eyes need a rest. I miss just walking down the street and everyone being kind of invisible. What does this mean?

Disturbing local news: 34 Chicago highschool kids are murdered every year at school- 34 in Chicago alone! God, when things are bad here they're really bad. I can't imagine raising children here at all.

And yes, Mr Priestley is in a new series that debuts tonight and I can't wait. I had a serious crush on him during the first couple of seasons of 90210 and he's now all grown up and playing a Stanford business analyst type with cute hair. Versatile, isn't he?

TV programming for GenX

The Two Coreys are back! Haim and Feldman are pairing up for reality tv heaven. This is going to be delicious. The lost boys have been found, and I have to say I'm really curious about Feldman in particular. Haim never pulled off the cocky, smooth guy persona to my satisfaction, but Feldman nailed the quirky sidekick in the 80s teen idol heydey.

What next? Molly Ringwald and Mia Sara do a wife swap?

Randominium

Union Station in DC, the pitiful contents of my fridge, Graham in Bryant Park on free movie night, the original subway.



Time killers:

http://amiestreet.com/welcome - music discovery site where you get free music if your friends visit your recommended songs
http://www.fimoculous.com/ - busy blogger makes amusing insights on pop culture
http://www.mcphee.com/ - where all your Xmas and birthday presents are coming from, from now on
http://www.emusic.com/summerstage - make up a US address and download 35 iTunes compatible songs right now! (Rihanna-free zone)

While you were sleeping...

...on the other side of the world here I was walking over the Brooklyn Bridge at dusk with Mitch, on my way to see the Brooklyn Philarmonic play at a park under the bridge. It was so low key, nothing like the hipster glamster Summer Stage crowd at Central Park. Its bizarre that Brooklyn is a world away mentally, even though its only a 15min walk across the bridge. Kinda like venturing off map 58 of the Melways and going to Smith St, or Williamstown, or dare I say it, Flemington. In New York most of the people wearing NYC t-shirts are tourists or from Queens or the Bronx, the people wearing Brooklyn t-shirts are all from Brooklyn.

We had our wine and cheese and watermelon, caught up on years of relationships, travel and jobs, and listened to the classics, then walked back to the city in the dark. People were still streaming across the bridge: joggers, cyclists, tourists, downtowners. The Chrysler building, Empire State and Woolworths building were all lit and glimmering, the Verazzano Bridge was twinkling in the distance marking the path to New Jersey, the Statue of Liberty's humble torch shone: it was postcard stuff. I got that 'I'm so far from home' thrill that is making this experience so stimulating.

At 12am its still 23c: every night has been balmy. I wasn't expcting this boon. The days are clammy and the nights are sultry. I love it. You can wander around in a t-shirt the whole time. By the time I've walked my 15 mins to walk in the morning I'm sticky and preying to the baby powder gods to do their magic. I know how pale you're all getting. I've seen the photos. I'll be there in a couple of months, when it drops below zero for weeks at a time, and I'll be suffering. Will banish the thought for the moment...and investigate flights to the Caribbean.



A former work colleague said to me before I left "New York is a great place to experience intensity", and I think that sums it up perfectly. When I'm in my apartment I could be anywhere: the tv is the same (except for the intrusive pharma ads and the non-sensical other commercials), the fittings are familiar (if over-sized) and I've found food that is not so different from my diet at home (except for The Incident), but as soon as I step out into the street I'm hit with New York again: a kaleidoscope of accents, tight bright clothes and bland separates from Gap, dyed, permed, straightened hair and wigs and braids and dreads and afros and lots of bald heads (women and men), suited smoking car drivers lounging by their black sedans, sweaty hot dog and halal gyro sellers on the street corners, gunning taxis, lumbering kneeling buses, tinted SUVs, obese tourists with their ankle socks and white sneakers, couriers pushing Fedex trolleys around the streets like 19th century messenger boys in Anna Karenina, UPS trucks in convoy, NYPD wearing shorts and do rags, homeless people collecting cans, Ralph Lauren types with their collars up and driving shoes on...the passing parade is fascinating. This city is full of spunks and freaks.

Its the same at work. I am at my computer Visio'ing away and then I wander to get a cup of tea and remember that I am in America: there is 4 types of sweetener, 6 types of herbal tea and various cup sizes in the mini kitchen, and someone is having the loudest conversation ever on their cell phone ("You di'int! Oh girl I'm feeling you.") while waiting for their sushi/burrito/bagel/burger to be delivered from next door.

I feel like I don't really have time to go to work. There' so much other stuff to see and do. Sales, musuems, cafes, neighborhoods, I haven't even wandered around the streets near my office yet, or been to the other 3 boroughs yet or played with all the widgets on my iPhone yet (oh hang on, yes that was Sunday, Monday & Tuesday nights). But I did find time to join the library, and I have found a Scrabble night next Wednesday at the Neutral Ground Gaming Centre. I obviously need Jus's cool influence.

BTW Korovians: I met up with Janet Brunckhorst in DC and went out for a drink to Georgetown, which is so quaint I nearly teared up. She's getting married tomorrow! Our goldilocks in black is going to live happily ever after!

Oh funny

In this Japanese game show contestants play real live Tetris, having to put their body in the shape or get pushed into a pool. So funny

A funny thing happened in my Inbox today....

Well, what should I do?

Sunday

Went to the Natural History Museum today, was great refuge from the 36c day. Inspiring atronomy show (they must get so frustrated by the Creationist's stronghold of this country) and whimsical exhibit on mythical creatures. Steeled myself and went into the Frogs! exhibition. I was cool for the first 5 minutes but then their revoltingness began to shine through. Nothing in there endeared them to me, in fact, I saw enough freaky specimens and freeaky descriptions to freak me out even more. Poison ones, ones that latch onto you, ones thar carry their tadpoles around on their back for months at a time... they just keep getting grosser in my eyes.

Such a cool musuem.

The view from the bandwagon

I finally have a cell phone. The number is 646.894.0492

So text message away, Australia, or email, or post comments on the blog...cos I can access it all with ye olde iPhone! No more brick with a scratched screen. Just a few ounces of slick digital heaven.

I am going to turn off the Aussie mobile so don't leave messages on there, or text me on that number, because I won't be checking it until I get back home.

I also have Skype set up, under this email address, so we can instant message or talk for free. So many options, don't be shy.

The Beach

Caught the train & ferry to the New Jersey Shore and joined a zillion others at the beach last weekend. Lots of umbrellas, boomboxes and tatts. Was divine to just lay in the sun and bake, and have a dip in the freezing water. The city was far away and forgotten. Was worth it for the tan.
Today was July 4 Independence Day. Great to have a holiday at the start of summer, another in the middle, and one at the end. They actually seem to have more public hols than we do at home.
Bought cholesterol-lowering foods today after a serious Mac attack/cherry pie incident yesterday. Broke the baked good drought and woke up to the idea of actually doing some cooking while I am here.
Have not given up on the iPhone: everywhere is sold out. But now I have a social security number so I'm a real person finally! Now I can get paid! And get a phone! And apply for apartments! And get a credit card!
Bought tix to see Silverchair in a couple of weeks. Have fallen in love with their new album. Had to hold back from rocking out on the subway. Wouldn't have stood out at all, but all the same...