April 21, 2010 · 11:25 pm

Subway Etiquette Posters

Now this is something I wish I had thought of. Kind of like your mother telling you how to behave before you ride the subway. Thanks to The Daily What and a tweet from my idol, @guykawasaki, I found these and just had to share. For all of us who have ridden the NYC subway system for years, this is a breath of fresh air.

From the Daily What:

Jason Shelowitz is presently in the process of posting 400 “Service Changes”-themed Subway Etiquette posters on behalf of the “Metropolitan Etiquette Authority” on trains throughout the city. He encourages subway patrons to keep an eye out for them and take them “before the MTA does.”

Too lazy to click the links? Basic story is that this guy surveyed 100 people about their pet peeves in the subway and created these posters to try to build some awareness and get people to behave better.

Kinda wishing that the guy on the F train in 1982 when I commuted from Forest Hills had read the physical contact one. I am still skeeved out by him. And the religious ranters? Seriously, must I listen to that AND be stuck next to the smelly guy and the not so noise cancelling ipod boy at the same time?

Looking forward to hearing more about these. If any of you spot one please snap a shot and send me the location. Would like to track how this works.

Haven’t had enough of me yet? You can also read me at 50-Something Moms Blog. For photo enthusiasts, visit Leaving the zip code, photos from outside the comfort zone.

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April 20, 2010 · 9:23 pm

Education and Technology – Indulge me please

140 characters conference update.

I have quite a few observations about today that I want to share but I am spent so I will post them tomorrow. Tonight I want to focus on just a couple of things.

Some of the smartest, most passionate people in the industry were in this auditorium.

I was humbled, awestruck and inspired.

And retweeted often (the highest form of twitter praise). I even made it onto bigapplechannel.com‘s trending topic top tweets. I am (almost) famous(ish) in a not so famous but it was flattering sort of way. And this was one my more sincere tweets so that’s nice.

But what I want to talk about here  was one man who rocked the room. He got a standing O! (not that O, you filthy minds, ovation but now that you mention it…)

Chris Lehmann. Click that link and you can view an extended version of the passionate speech he gave today. He is the Principal of the Science Leadership Academy in Philly. He simply blew the room right out of the water. The crowd was awestruck by his energy. It was so exciting to hear an educator this committed to embracing the technology that drives our kids. Here are but a few of the pearls that dropped out of his mouth today:

Tell a better story in school. Technology must be like oxygen: ubiquitous, invisible and everywhere.

Kids are using devices & technology in not great ways because the adults that are supposed to teach and monitor it are afraid of it.

Let’s never forget how important teachers are. its about the community. with technology we can blow out the doors.

We need to bottle @chrislehmann and distribute him to every HS in America. Kids need to learn how to think and he gets how to help them. He loves his job. He loves kids. He loves education and he was one of the most inspiring speakers I have heard in a long time.

Yeh, today was amazing!

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April 19, 2010 · 9:38 pm

Time to Cry Tuesday – No tears today #140conf!

Ok, kiddies, I know you all love a good tear-jerker from me on Tuesdays but this week I would not dream of it. How could I possibly think of shedding a tear when I am off to a geek girls heaven sort of a day.

Yes, my friends, out of the basement and off to the Twitter conference better known as  the 140 characters conference, or as we tweetgeeks call it: #140conf.

For those who are not twitter savvy but are afraid to ask, 140 refers to the amount of characters a tweet is limited to, hence the name.

By the time most of you read this post I will be way gone and sitting my geeky (not so) little ass in a seat at the 92nd Street Y listening to the rock stars of twitter spout the many uses for the platform. (does this tweet make my ass look fat?)

For all you early adopters, this is so very yesterday. You are out there with all your location based apps like Foursquare rolling your eyes at how twitter is so over. (um, doubt that) But for most of my readers, you are finally believing me that twitter IS a big deal and I am NOT nuts. Well I am nuts, but not about this.

Nonetheless, a day out of the basement is a rare treat for this chick so I will thank you very much for indulging me a tearless tuesday.

If you follow me on twitter I will be live tweeting with the #140conf hashtag and will try my best to give those of you who could not make (@lizscherer and @wendyscherer, I am crying a little that you will not be joining) a better first-hand look at what is happening than trying to follow the unreliable stop start video on ustream.

This all makes being there at 8AM less ungodly. If you are at the conference stop by and say hello.

Haven’t had enough of me yet? You can also read me at 50-Something Moms Blog. For photo enthusiasts, visit Leaving the zip code, photos from outside the comfort zone.

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April 17, 2010 · 9:47 pm

Warning: Florida can cause manopause in teenage boys

Me: Danny, what’s wrong.

Danny: First it is so hot in this house, then it’s freezing. Then it’s hot again. I feel like a menopausal woman!

I love that boy!

Haven’t had enough of me yet? You can also read me at 50-Something Moms Blog. For photo enthusiasts, visit Leaving the zip code, photos from outside the comfort zone.

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April 15, 2010 · 10:51 pm

A Big Florida Welcome

Yes, I am back in the Sunshine State, and I use that term loosely this season.

This is a billboard as you get out of the airport towards I95. Nothing like making the tourists feel at home as soon as they arrive.

Stay tuned for more stories.

Haven’t had enough of me yet? You can also read me at 50-Something Moms Blog. For photo enthusiasts, visit Leaving the zip code, photos from outside the comfort zone.

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April 15, 2010 · 1:01 am

The Bulgarian Bar

The Bulgarian Bar is NOT upstairs.

I, for one, was quite relieved by this signage.

Apparently they have a problem with thirsty Bulgarians.

What was upstairs was a fabulous, tragically hip (which we are not) asian fusion tapas (any other groovy name you can think of to describe it) restaurant called Kuma Inn. (113 Ludlow Str, NYC)

Great food, great service, reasonable prices and lovely bathroom with lots of candles.

And SO not a Bulgarian Bar.

Haven’t had enough of me yet? You can also read me at 50-Something Moms Blog. For photo enthusiasts, visitLeaving the zip code, photos from outside the comfort zone.

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April 13, 2010 · 10:28 pm

Lilly Pulitzer Animal Crackers?

I kid you not. This box is not a package comp, this is an actual box that I found at the supermarket down the block. (Uncle Guiseppes for those who live in town).

Lilly Pulitizer Edition animal crackers. Yeh, well I can see why these would be popular. You know, because little kids are heavily into designers. Especially terminally preppy designers.

I would have just taken a picture and not bought the box but they are supporting the WWF (no, not the World Wrestling Foundation, the World Wildlife Fund, but yes, it is funny that they have the same initials). And for just this reason I will stop making fun of this project  – showing quite a bit of restraint, I might add. So it appears that Lilly is working with Kraft Foods and Nabisco’s Barnum’s Animal Crackers. In honor of 2010, the Year of the Tiger, Lilly Pulitzer redesigned their box and Nabisco will donate $100,000 to support the WWF worldwide conservation efforts, include tiger conservation. (to learn more visit lillypulitzer.com and worldwildlife.org/tigers) Cool!

I told my mother-in-law about this and she asked me if the cookies were all bright colored and plaid. It had never occurred to me but I thought, wow, that would be cool. I opened the box to find that they were just ordinary animal crackers.

And then I proceeded to eat the whole damn box. (thanks Ruthie, for getting me to open it).

Haven’t had enough of me yet? You can also read me at 50-Something Moms Blog. For photo enthusiasts, visit Leaving the zip code, photos from outside the comfort zone.

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April 12, 2010 · 11:58 pm

Time to Cry Tuesday- onemillionactsofkindness.com

If you follow me on facebook you have seen this already, so humor me. If you don’t, let me tell you a little bit about this picture. Parked on the streets of Delray Beach, Florida a few weeks ago was this throwback to the ’60s of a school bus. This vehicle houses ‘one guy (Bob) and his dog (Bogart) traveling to campuses across the country to promote kindness.’

Well, of course this caught my attention. And the more I walked around that bus the more intrigued I became. As I was wondering what this was all about, I came across this panel that says it all.

I was not sure if this guy was for real so checked out onemillionactsofkindness.com and I urge you to do the same. In the spirit of Pay it Forward and with the energy and belief in a cause that you can’t help but support, this guy took action and built a life(style) around the simple premise of teaching kindness.

Not a bad mission. Not a bad mission at all.

Haven’t had enough of me yet? You can also read me at 50-Something Moms Blog. For photo enthusiasts, visitLeaving the zip code, photos from outside the comfort zone.

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April 11, 2010 · 9:32 pm

1 in 499

Today I bring you a little story about the absurdity of the area in which I live. Some of you may know of it as the Gold Coast, made famous by the Nelson Demille book of the same name. Don’t be fooled, the entire area is not like this, there are plenty of normal neighborhoods and the community I live in was a great place to raise a family.

But!  Part of raising a family here is to keep them grounded in the midst of some crazy money. Silly money really. Silly money sitting next to regular families like ours. My friend Twentyfour at Heart writes about the LA version of this life and she refers to it as moneytown. Well, 24, you will love this story!

Enter the story of the red Ferraris. We were in a shopping center nearby – buying sneakers of all glamorous things – and we ran into some friends we have not seen in a long time. We started to chat in the parking lot when we saw a red Ferrari F430 16M Scuderia Spider parked with the license plate 1 in 499 (yes, I am miserable that I did not get a shot of that). Wow, a little research tells me that sucker sells for around $220,000 and in fact only 499 of them were produced.

Yeh, that’s not nuts. I mean, shouldn’t it come with 3 bedrooms and some major appliances for that price? Ok, so wow. This guy is really loaded. Or he is in a lot of debt. Or he wants us to think he has a really big dick (most likely).

So, we chat,chat, chat a bit more and then my friend says, “Oh boy, Mr. 1 in 499 is going to be really pissed off, here comes another car just like his.” Yep, that’s right. There we were in a parking lot with not one but TWO of these cars. As we wondered where the other 497 of them were residing you would never believe this but a THIRD one drove into the lot.

Ok, that is just crazy. Funny money. There we were in the midst of $660,000 worth of red Ferraris revving their engines trying to get their 3 dicks to be as big as they were when they left their driveways that morning.

And you know what? I was still just happy to have a new pair of kicks.

Haven’t had enough of me yet? You can also read me at 50-Something Moms Blog. For photo enthusiasts, visit Leaving the zip code, photos from outside the comfort zone.

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April 9, 2010 · 7:50 pm

Recovery Agent

I love this picture. I love how the yellow type on his shirt matches the wall. I love the coral and turquoise accents. I love the chrome furniture that doesn’t really belong in the tropical setting. And I really love the big cup of fries on the table next to this super-sized guy (note the ankles – they are the size of my neck!).

But what I love the most is the type on his shirt.

Recovery Agent.

What the hell is a Recovery Agent? One source I found in a google search told me that a Recovery Agent is a person who is issued a public key certificate for the purpose of recovering user data that is encrypted with Encrypting File System (EFS). Um, ok. Probably not this guy.

Then I found the The Fugitive Recovery Network website. Now let me tell you, I’m not sure how I have lived without knowing about this stuff all these years. These guys ‘provide national professional services to Bail Enforcement, Fugitive Apprehension, Bail Bondsman, Bounty Hunters, Fugitive Recovery, Private Investigators, Surety Companies, and Skip Tracer Agencies or Agents.’

Fugitive Apprehension?! Bounty Hunters?! Skip Tracer (WTF) Agents?! Man these are some exciting job titles.

But somehow I think this guy bought this at a souvenir shop like the NYPD shirts you can buy in Times Square.

Hey, a guy can dream.

Haven’t had enough of me yet? You can also read me at 50-Something Moms Blog. For photo enthusiasts, visitLeaving the zip code, photos from outside the comfort zone.

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