Subway Poetry

I was in a T stop I frequent regularly the other day, minding my own business, when something caught my eye. I was walking under the staircase/escalators, and carved into the bricks on the floor was a poem!

I'M nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there ’s a pair of us—don’t tell!
They’d banish us, you know.

How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!

- Emily Dickinson

Wait? Emily Dickinson on the T? What a lovely surprise!

Adventures in Microsoft Land

A while back I went to the computer lab at school, in a rush to print my paper. I opened my document in MS Word, but the application looked totally foreign. Unbeknownst to me they had installed Office 2007! I couldn't figure out where anything was. Like, where did the menus go?! How do I print? Ouch. Luckily, I hit ctrl-p and moved on with my life.

Fast-forward to today. I was again in the computer lab, this time waiting while some research-related articles printed. I had literally nothing to do while I waited. So I opened Word, played around a bit, then went to Help. I figured I might as well learn a bit about how it works since this issue is likely to arise again at some point. I did a few searches, and found the manual for the information I was looking for. So I figured I'd read it. (Aside: What? You don't sit around reading software manuals when you're bored?! Stop laughing!) Anyways, I clicked on the link, but no go. To read the information I want, I need Flash 7.0. And no, I can't install it on a school computer, not being an administrator and all! Foiled again!

My newest hobby...

...calling the management of buildings on my street that have not shoveled their sidewalks to tell them that the icy sidewalks are a public health hazard and criminally negligent.

Seriously, if I'm gonna live in the cold inhospitable northeast, I at least don't want to risk death-by-ice walking to the subway! Is that too much to ask?!

Meet Brijit

I want to introduce you to a friend. Brijit is a new web-based resource, created by a friend of mine in DC.

Basically, the idea is this: we're smart educated people who like to know and read about what’s interesting in the world, but we don’t have time to actually read all those sources that we’d like to. What we need is someone to tell us which stories are most worth reading. Brijit aims to fill this role. This is more than an RSS feed. While it is fully rooted in the age of online media, it is equally based on human input. Real people read a myriad of articles and write qualitative summaries along with rankings to help you choose those articles of most interest. It’s a pretty awesome concept. So, check it out. And tell your friends!

PS. Brijit is still a work in progress; if you have constructive feedback they would very much like to hear from you.