DannieG

Frustrated all day trying to figure out the shipping time for a few packages that I ordered from Amazon last night. Oh by the way happy Halloween, I’ll be Lora Croft, decided to ditch the ears and tails and go for something dangerous this year. Anyhow, back to the main concern of the day, I’m expecting three package sent to me in the coming days, however my schedule will be a mess, in between my best friend visiting, finishing up a print and web project and plan for the Nov. 10th trip to NYC // Tracking packages isn’t something I want to worry about. I mean we live in this world where a photo can be Geo-tagged and a chat can be shared across the world, and yet, no-body can tell me exactly where is my package? how many days I have to sit at home to wait for the delivery? someone out there has to have something that works, right? As usually, instead of complaining I went out and found something, well not Geo-tagging but close — Delivery Status If you own a mac bonus, install this widget and you will be worry free about delivery tracking, if you own an iPhone double bonus, download it and you will be the coolest kid on the block.

How it works? I really don’t know, some really hard geeky techy stuff. However you don’t have to be a tech geek to use it, download the widget, and it will sit in your dashboard (if you operate on Windows, you are prob. lost at this point, Dashboard is a place where Macs keeps it’s widgets), once you have an online purchase, just copy the order number/tracking code and Delivery Status will tell you exactly how many days you can expect the package to arrive. It took me less than five mins. to set up 3 amazon orders and 1 UPS tracking, looks like one of the book will take about 24 days… what the heck, are they print the book as they sell it… Anyways, like I said it’s no Geo-Tagging, but it’s better than constantly checking my mail box and get up every time the door bell rings.

“I demand Geo-Tagging UPS trucks”

Last but not least … Last night’s InfoMania —>

What’s a party without awesome party pictures, for some naturally born Idon’tlookbadunderanylight people party pictures are fun, as for the rest of us, a little diffuser goes a long way. As with many Halloween parties coming up, it’s one of those times to rest my camera and let everyone else do the snap, somehow I can rest assured that most of the pictures will come out horribly wrong, then again it’s one of the greater gift to oneself - having the ability to switch off when elements are out of my hands. After all no matter how horrible the photo looks it’s just a photo, that doesn’t proof any thing, okay I don’t look good in photos so what, I’ll just have to gain more real friends rather than over photoshoped virtual ones. Depends the light and who is taking I can either look like a super model or some bag lady coming from the market, that’s why mastering light is the most important to learn in photography.

Here by show of an example, two photos taken under the same light at the same location, same person, the out come are just so different, on the left, I used auto flash, the harsh light pretty much blow my face 10 times it’s size, don’t say I didn’t tell ya, camera shooting at raw like this does add weight and make you look like you are on crack. Anyways, if you direct your attention to the right, there, isn’t diffuser great, I look like me again - finally.

At this point you are wondering ‘okay, great, how much is the diffuser.’ Well, nothing, that’s what’s so great about diffusers, once you get a hold of how to diffuse light, you can pretty much use anything. That said, there is no excuse not to diffuse, it’s a simple trick the pro uses to make the human face look alot friendlier. What is a diffuser? it’s a tool to cover up the flash, you know, those pesky little bright light you love to hate. Flash lights are extremely helpful taking party photography, even in the darkest place it lights up everyone’s face, however, the lights are so harsh, they pretty much make everyone in the photo looked a) 10 years older and on crack b) dipped in oil c) zombie white d) all of the above (see photo above). What can you do to change it up? diffuse the light, make it softer and less intense, you don’t need to own a professional camera or buy a high end gear to diffuse, you can use a piece of paper, a gum wrapper(best choice), napkin, or a flat plastic object, I have used them all they work wonders. After all these time shooting with a homemade diffuser, I find a cut out piece of wrapping paper from Express works for me in all situations. Then again that’s just me, for the rest of you, gum Wrappers are the most popular, since you can just pop into the store and get a pack, home made diffusers like these doesn’t require any special caring, just tuck it in the pocket, when you are at the party, either tape, mould or ask someone to hold the diffuser in front of the flash you will see the difference. Try it on the next party you host, your guests will thank you

Seven years in the city from age 13 to 20, I can dare to say that I was a true New Yorker. Add another (almost) seven years I still dare to admit I’m a true New Yorker. No matter how you do the calculations, how much you change a city, certain things and locations stays the same. On my last trip to NYC I had became one of those people that point and tell stories of what it used to be. This time around I’ll be traveling to NYC with a mission - as the start of my photojournalism path, I want to go back to the beginning, return to where I once loved, where the root of my passion started, where I feel connected - New York, where my life begin, for the second time.

Alright, as a true New Yorker, we travel in fashion. Leave those sweat shirts and matching pants at home, we are going to the big apple… (apple, new york, apple, mac … I know there has to be some reason that I like Mac so much) For real! Alright, let’s see where do I start, only visit NYC during November, Halloween just ended, people are still goofy around with photos, thanksgiving is coming up, everyone will be happy to connect with their family. So you won’t get any friendlier people in the city — if you are lucky enough, sale clerks might force a smile off the corner of their mouth (but I wouldn’t pushing that far of a luck). However, Dec is a big nono, as people are mostly stressed.

Day trip down to the city from Boston, life can be cold on the road, bring a blanket like scarf is a must (for girls that is), I usually read wired magazine (fashion magazines has too much mind dizzy stuff in them), recently I’m beginning to switch my reading attention to Monocle, if you like to read about stuff happening around the world, take a look at Monocle at your local Borders. After 4 or 5 hours sitting in the bus, honestly I won’t feel too good, or remembers anything. So planning is a must, as digital as I am about thing, I still love to use Moleskine City Notebooks, for each city Moleskine listed out subway maps, area of interests, service phone numbers, it’s not a one size fits all travel guide, it’s a self customization trip planner. Among all of the activities in the planning always plan what to do in the first day when you arrive (maybe it’s just relax and go to dinner, either way write it down), people often get caught in the grand planning, yet misses the detail. There are two ways to dress in New York, like a sheep or be yourself, I like the later. People thinks, oh I’m going to NYC let’s see what’s the current trend let’s buy something for hundreds of dollars and wear it to NYC and call it fashionably chic, not really, it’s just sheep-ism. Fashion is what you make of it, when I attended F.I.T nobody wears the latest fashion, mostly are our own creations of mixed match style that’s guiding the trend. Also, the most important - Having a open mind about food and other culture, after all we are all human. Along the years I have lived in NYC — it is when I travel outside of this mecca I realize that people in other cities (smaller ones) aren’t so acceptable to different kinds of food. If you want the New York experience, then don’t sit in a big restaurant chain - how different can that chicken parm be tasting. Head over to Chinatown for Cantonese bakery and Vietnamese food, walk down Ditmars, Astoria for a little peace and quiet, while enjoy all the Greek food you wallet allows. Travel to Flushing for a unique mandarin breakfast and Taiwanese lunch box, for the best pizza, subs, and steaks head back to Manhattan, 4am and feeling hungry? you will find yourself in Korea town for some awesome (very spicy) Korean food and beer.

There are so much more to cover for a city this interesting, which is something I’ll do on the next issue of my magazine, it’s still in the planning process, I have test run a Boston issue, just to see what does it take to put together a magazine, out of these short month I’ve certainly learned alot, while the Boston issue, isn’t all that the way I wanted it to be, it’s a good starting point to get me in touch with all aspects of the field, I don’t think the NYC issue will be a huge leap but it will certainly be more content focused and professional.

Unless you have been living under a rock, you know what spam is (If you are Hawaiian-no not the kind you eat). Spam is this evil little email, sent by people who wishes you nothing but a hand full of bad emails. Most savvy web users already figured out the use to gmail’s filter, basically what it does it filter emails containing whatever keywords or email addresses you setup and have it directed right into your trash. This process can get tricky sometimes, as the amount of spam there are, even I get less spams each day, there are still pesky ones that just won’t go. Last night, a friend and I were dinning out, and we over heard someone blasting on about internet spam and x rated ads in her child’s inbox, I feel really bad for the woman, however it is a concern and problem in everyone’s life, we have gotten so accustomed to spam it’s a part of our lifestyle, when will we start to realize - it is not right for us to receive spams, they have no right to send such thing to us, where do we go to report such a crime. ‘well you can always try forward it to FTC’s spam program’ my date told me… I was mad he’s been silent about this piece of info… ‘you never asked me, didn’t you say you filtered out all the spams ?’ … ‘yeah well, there are more coming each day, info like this can help, you know!’… Okay I was been pointless, poor guy.

Anywayz, here is the deal, after some time googling around this morning I’ve finally confirmed that there is a government site, called ftc.gov/spam (if you don’t know this already), go check out the FAQ site about Facts for consumers : “Report it to the Federal Trade Commission. Send a copy of unwanted or deceptive messages to spam@uce.gov. The FTC uses the unsolicited emails stored in this database to pursue law enforcement actions against people who send deceptive spam email.” Not sure how effective this program is, but I’m sure glad someone is taking on the action to protect us from the inbox spam. As of this morning I’ve been forwarding alot of emails to them, let’s see how that goes.

More and more I see people go to school to study design - not because they live and breath art, or even care for the cause - they simply can’t do anything else, and design seems like an ‘easy’ major to get into. A real artist doesn’t just care about the art, she cares about the environment, the community, issues and concerns we face in the world today, artists aren’t shallow, if any thing, we selflessly spend hours of our life time to raise awareness. Back then, people respect artists, nowadays, they are simply called designers, which, to me,  is something shallow, dispensable, something can be learned in school. I was accepted into the school of  gifted art even before the first grade, no one had taught me anything before that, it just that, we are either born with the ability to see art or not. More and more days I walk down the street I hear people call themselves designers, what really it is?  can they create or are they simply good at copying Ikea styles and turn text books into templates.

As time goes on, I think at one point I had lost the real meaning of art, until one day I remembered, when I was 10 visiting my grandparents, I saw a local Chinese programing, about a village, a very small, very poor village, they don’t have schools, mainly they can’t afford to, but as poor as they are, they do hope their children a better future, every morning, before the sun even catches up with this tiny village, the kids are on the move, they walk in muddy path, that was created by their little footsteps, for hours, some children were so little, the older kids has to carry them, from time to time. There is a school building at the center meeting point of surrounding villages, it’s just a basic house, only one wall, for the blackboard. For any or no reason at all, their effort to make it here can be futile, if the volunteer teacher from the city couldn’t make it. As disappointed as they are they still need to walk the hour long muddy road back. I was young when I saw this program, but old enough to understand the meaning of it. I made a promises to help the less fortunate. At age ten I started to give speeches, for city kids to understand, save and help. However, as time passes, I grow up, forgotten the mission I had promised to take on, at one point I must have seemed like one of those shallow ‘designers’. It is till a recent enlightenment I had remember my true passion, to tell stories, with my art, to connect emotions and understanding across the continents.

I don’t know if anyone was as confused as I am before I reached this point, maybe people just don’t talk or think of it as much as I used to do. I used to always panic some silly thoughts — that I’m reaching my late 20s and I haven’t accomplished anything, when I read the success stories of others it seems so easy, an idea, put some hours into it, then bravo you are the it person. No matter how many ideas i came up with (which they all seemed REALLY good at the time), how many human hours I put into it … from age 24 - early parts of 26, I had one idea after the other, all had this master plan to succeed, yet they were all epic fail.

I have a very close relationship with my mom, she’s very smart and knowledgeable of pretty much any and everything, she has some of the most fascinating stories about life, traveling and friendships. She used to study the art of Qi with the highest Qi master in Beijing, from what she have told me, I would say Qi is very similar to quantum physics, which I’m big into. One of the theory was personal enlightenment, no this is not a made up fancy word, I had and everyone at one point had or will. By which it means, everyone at a certain point of their life will be enlighten by something, for example if you tell a person she’s smart, but she doesn’t believe it, it’s useless, she will remain the same, she will act smart, that’s because that’s what everyone tells her, but maybe at one point of her life she suddenly realized that ‘hey i’m smart’ that’s a personal enlightenment, that means from that monument on her mind and thinking will be different, she doesn’t act the part any more, she is the part. — watch The Matrix to see what I mean. Why am I telling a story? as in Qi the way to guide people to their enlightenment is through stories, if you understand the meaning of the story then you will befit from it, otherwise it’s just a story.

“she came home, seeing her mother for the first time in ten years, she told her mother: ‘look, i’m back, I now have lost everything, money, fame, status and husband.’ … after a few days, her mother told her: ‘you are wrong, that’s not how it goes, when you are younger you don’t gain, you loose, you are constantly loosing everything, up until a certain point of your life, when you are older, that’s when you starts to gain, if at this point, you don’t realize it then you will continue to loose, loose everyone, and everything’. “ my mom used to tell me this story about a young woman from a small village became big and famous then lost it all when everyone prefers to look at younger faces on the screen, even her husband trade her in for a younger woman, she moved back to the little town, all the while manage a simpler and happier lifestyle. All these time I thought it’s just a nice story, a love story for that matter, because at the end she did find true love, which turns out to be the very first guy she had met in her life… Then yesterday, I was doing the dishes, while thinking about some past events in my life, and wonder why don’t I have this, why did I lost that, how unfair that some has it all without trying … and it hit me, wait a min. I have been through of the losing stage, I had lost, had failed, have had bad lucks, now it’s the time for me to gain, if I don’t realize it now and take control of my life now then i’ll be on the losing streak forever. There in the Kitchen, while washing dishes, I had my enlightenment, I now finally understand the meaning of the story.

From 26 to 26, within the same year, I’ve turned from confused as hell to certain and direction focused. okay just to get some chuckles, Yes I did had an enlightenment back in Florida, when I was younger people always tell me I have A.D.D can’t sit still to learn anything, thus i’m wild, stupid, don’t like to study blah blah, no matter how smart I was in high school - honors in physics, I never believed that I am smart, until I was attending school in Florida, one day sitting in the Florida heat, stuck in traffic, I had this sudden urge, and uncontrollably told myself, out loud  ‘hey, I’m smart’ , ever since it’s just been a lot of fun with me knowing that I’m actually smart. yeah yeah, okay fine laugh away.

Must have been around 10pm, I can always keep track of the time by the programs I’m watching, last night, it was InfoMania . There are myriads of news programs, from the ultra serious, to the seriously off beat (yet somehow informative), how does one pick and stays loyal to a piece of news program? — that’s easy, from their intros — as the saying goes something like: don’t judge a book by it’s cover, well that’s a complete bull shit. Do judge your news programs by it’s cover, if it starts out with a flag followed by somewhat military like marching tune, for sure you will find some 100 year old dude reporting some SERIOUS news, if it starting out with a dog on the operation table with a gas mask on (digg) … okay you get my point. As for me, nothing says, YOU ARE IT, than start the show off with ‘Get the Cool Shoe Shine’ does anyone have any idea how much I like Gorillaz?! I don’t care if the news program talks about watching the paint dry.

Alright what is, InfoMania? It’s part of the Current TV on channel … emmm just start to channel surfing every Thursday at 10pm you will get there. What is Current TV? How do I begin, Let’s say, I am standing on a street, in a city. I’m going to catch a train. There are people streaming in all directions. Each one of them carries a news to be told. Current TV gathers these ‘user’ feeds and spit the news back to us, well chewed, thus makes them easier for the digestion.

Watch the news clip from last night’s InfoMania Program:

Yesterday on almost all of the news programs the topic of the day was: Palin’s wardrobe …. on EVERY SINGLE NEWS CHANNEL. The mainstream news media has turned into a blogosphere - if there is something happening in the web community, every big and little blog is covering it - boring!

Alright if that’s the headline of the day let me give my two cents, first of all Sara Palin is running for the vice President of United States, don’t ever compare her to Michelle Obama, (it’s like compare Biden’s wardrobe to Cindy McCain’s.) as much as I like them both, one is running for the VP and the other is in for the ride, their image are different. One is a successful business woman-ish figure, that ‘if-elected’ will move us forward. The other is a good mother/supporting wife-ish figure, that ‘if-her-husband-gets-elected’ she will continue be a good mother and supporting wife, promising not to run around the white house all wild and all. Those are the image, these two presents, so they need to dress the part. People it’s not the same. Think about it, if you go to a business conference with thousands of people you have never met, would you most likely think  the sharp dressed person is more successful and might help you succeed? or would you rather talk to someone in a trucker hat and hope he has some business connections? in another world, no matter who we are on the inside, we need to dress the part to look the part. It’s not Palin’s fault that - Women’s total make over are more expensive than a typical guy’s - I can see this is def. coming from a guy’s point of view, who never had a girl friend or a sister … it’s funny you can see as they are reporting it on the news, all the female reporters just look around and not saying anything, it’s not over spending it’s just the price women pay to look good. And if you are running for VP it only means you gotta pay 10x as much as the typical women. besides who is her to say no, if someone came to me and give me a free make over … hellz yeah!

All in all, mainstream news - please stop this madness - you guys know better than to report such a stupid stuff for ratings. Besides who is cashing in on all of these air time? Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Av. it’s like a freaking cult brainwashing program “Yes, NBC I’ll only shop at Saks from now on”. besides, isn’t spending encouraged in this down fall economy? let’s just say that all four of these hopefuls are helping the economy moving again.

Picked up the mails this morning, surprised to find a thick book of ELLE in the mail box, the thing with magazine subscriptions - you never receive them when you really wanted to read them (at the time of subscription), they wait till a year later, when you have totally forgot you’ve ever subscribed to such magazine, they went ahead send you a copy … what? just to keep my feet in the loop? this is especially the cases for some of the fashion magazines, I don’t know who’s running their subscription service - I can never get my full year subscription on my terms. They should learn a thing or two from Tech. and design mags like Wired, Computer Arts and Web Designer.

Anyways, I sat down with a cup of hot coco and Elle in hand, trying to figure out what’s new. A Picture of awkward and I’d say a bit of shy looking modelish guy caught my eye, hey it’s Anderson Cooper, I know that face anywhere, in fact he’s the only reason I even watch CNN (psst news who needs them).  what’s he doing on Elle, did he quit CNN and become an active editor on Elle? (… kidding). So I sat there read the three page long article, ” ‘what are you gonna do?’ Cooper says. ‘I mean, the whole point of these things is to provoke somebody to respond, and then you get some sort of silly feud going on and the idea of it, I guess, is that it boosts your ratings and stuff, but it seems like a waste of time to me.’ “ I do have to say he’s a rather remarkable person.

The article continued on with ” On the way to his town car, Cooper looking quite adorable today, jeans, Gore-Tex sneakers, and an ice blue Nike T-shirt that perfectly matches his piercing blue eyes - strolls through the crowded Time Warner building to pick up a book for the plane. New Yorkers are kind to him: They ogle, but they don’t pester. Except for the stalkers - a posse of mostly middle age women - who wait for him on the curb after the show. ‘There’s a core group of them. A few guys, but mostly … not girls, but women, 50 to 60 years old.’ He laughs. He has just come from having lunch with his mother … Read the full article on Elle online “ I was laughing with tears, when I read this part. I’m sure there are a bunch of 20 something girls like myself that watches CNN just because of him (and yet people thinks I’m a smarty pants since I always mention news I saw on CNN).  Poor thing, next time I get down to NYC I’ll wait for Mr. Anderson Cooper on the curb after the show, that’s a promise!

For a very limited time, Right Now - Nov 15th 2008, VistaPrint is offering free printing service on the following items:  250 Free Premium Business Cards, 100 Free Postcards, Free 25 Small Magnets (I wonder how small), 1 Free Pen, Free T-Shirts (not sure how many), 140 Free Return Address Labels,  1 Free Car Door Magnets (new item), Free Sticky Notes (again not sure how many pads … it comes in pads right?), Free Rubber Stamps (free rubber stamps? just how many rubber stamps does one need!), 1 Free Window Decals, 10 Free Note Cards, 1 Free Hat, 1 Free Lawn Sign (those might come in handy one day, so stock up),  Free Holiday Cards. Anyways it sounds like a pretty good deal, designers if you have never used any of VistaPrint’s service it’s a good time to try it out and see their qualities.

As a word of caution, when getting your stuff printed always call/visit the printer to make sure they can deliver on the time frame you needed. This just happened last week (totally unrelated to the sales event), you see, I had something urgent to print, with only one week to the deadline, and two items to get printed, I had to pick a local/semi local printer (MA/CT/NH/NY) that way I can pick up the prints myselfs, which goes without saying - zero out the shipping time.  so I called VistaPrint (since they are located in Massachusetts, I used to pass them everyday to my work place), I told the sales lady, ‘that I had a really tight deadline, If I order online, can I pick up the prints at VistaPrint?’ . That’s something I always check with the printer, sometimes shipping costs are more expensive than the printing job, and most local/semi local printers allow you for physical pickup. However the sales lady not only didn’t confirm the estimated shipping time, she told me I can’t pickup my prints, ’cause they are been shipped by the printer in Canada’ … all in all, I’m not saying this is bad and that is good, I’m simply stating the fact, no matter which printer you are dealing with, always call to make-sure everything fits your budget and deadline. Did I use VistaPrint for my last project, no - I didn’t have the time to wait for shipping, am I going to use Them in the future, yes, they have a wide variety of premium products at a competitive price, I would be a fool not to deal with them.

I do have a couple of short run printers with super fast turnaround … which will be on another post, ha!