New invite only daily sales site...

I have daily emails to every single one of them out there: gilt, ruelala, hautelook, ideeli, milliondollarbabes, etc.  Here's one that I think is pretty cool by Daily Candy: Swirl or http://beta.swirl.com/invite/dailyremix

Plus, BRIDES20 gives you $20 off  your first purchase, expires Oct 20, 2010!!

biz xx

Hows the weather?

So the expression, how's the weather, is such a generic/cliche way to start a conversation -- however, I'm amazed at how it brings people together.

So apparently, there was a tornado/storm in NYC today, and twitter and facebook went crazy with updates. Everyone in NYC was unified because of one subject: the weather.

And who can forget that crazy afternoon last summer in NYC, where the skies were filled with the pretty pink popcorn clouds. NYers are usually unfazed by things, but everyone stopped to take pictures with their phone.

As for LA, things like this doesn't happen because the weather is always 74 and sunny.

New Yorker in LA: Delis

So I'm gonna start writing a series of entries bitching about LA and how much I miss NY. I did this to London too, but now, the next place I want to find a job is London, so these rants aren't really indicative of how I feel about this place.

Growing up in Queens, my only lunch/snack/dinner source was from my local deli. There was "the red deli" because it had a red awning. There was also the "blue deli" which had a blue awning, but ironically named Green Farms or something. I would get typically an egg sandwich with sausage, cheese, and ketchup; an Arizona Green Tea in a can; and maybe a bag of Wise New York Deli Kettle chips.

Other choice I would get would be a toasted bagel with butter, a pizza bagel (a bagel with cheese and tomato sauce), blt, gatorade (if I was just in the park playing handball or basketball), honey bun, etc. Delis were always around, and they always typically sold the same thing.

Going to high school in Tribeca, it was the same. There was Terry's which was closer to battery park, and Morgan's which was closer to Greenwich Street. At NYU, there were a few places including Campus Eatery, University Cafe, this Deli on the corner of Waverly Place and Broadway which I don't know the name of, and a few places on West 3rd. Near my apartment in the West Village and Chelsea, there were in the vincinity some delis, or bodegas, as is the cooler term now.

I guess this is something that I took for granted. Waking up today earlier than usual for work today, I started seriously craving a sausage egg and cheese on a roll with ketchup for breakfast. I got to work and finally tracked down on google on place in the area that sold breakfast sandwiches and other sandwiches called City Cafe. They also had the Boar's Head seal of approval on their website. It was a down the block from where I worked, but it ended up taking 15 minutes to walk there. Of course when I got there, it was NOT the same. The place was pretty empty, with the exception of 1 aisle of food. I got my sandwich, but it was on a crossiant, since they didn't have any rolls (which led to much confusion when I asked them about "rolls"). Side story, some guy placed an order, which I saw on their counter of the store, the same thing: a sausage egg and cheese on rye bread. I looked at the phone number, area code was 917.

Anyway, what is this post really about? I miss bagels and rolls. I miss 99 cents Arizona Green Teas. I miss the convenience of grabbing breakfast on the way walking to school/work/destination. The things that I kinda expected to be the norm, is just so unobtainable here. Seriously, it feels like I am living in another country.

Finding my blackberry

Ok- Just because I dedicated 22 hours of my life just on ONE single thing, I think this warrants for a blog entry. Couldn't find my blackberry from yesterday morning 11am and didn't leave my house the whole day, just searching for it. My room isn't that messy or big, so literally I looked at every inch of my room 10 times. Got to the point where I thought I couldn't see it with my naked eye and started using a metal detector app I downloaded on my iPhone. After going through a metal search of my room, I realized it wasn't in my room, and finally found it in my car.

So for those who are looking for answers as to where their blackberry is on google (as I did myself), here's what you should be doing.

Caveat: The list of steps only applies to MISPLACED phones, not stolen phones. If your phone is stolen, sucks for you and the chances if you getting back are close to slim, so don't try texting the thief or calling the thief or enticing them with a reward or whatever. It will NOT work (and I know this from experience). If your phone is lost on a cab or something, you MAY be able to get it back, just keep calling it. If there isn't any proactive attempt to reach you from the party who found in the first day you lost it, most likely they will not change their mind. 

1. Don't waste your time on the internet searching for answers. Google will not find your blackberry. There was this thing on google "Click to Dial" but that was disabled in 2007. Those sites that say that they can track your phone through a GPS is bullshit. That will never fly, privacy-wise. We may have the technology to do it, but it's not accessible to non-FBI/CIA folks, and definitely you will not be able to buy it online. The only thing that may be able to track your phone, are those applications you must download PRIOR to losing your phone. For most people, they wouldn't be looking for those applications until AFTER they realize they lost their phones, so those internet solutions are also useless. 
2. Call your phone and listen for it.  If you don't have another phone, use whereismyphone.com, google voice, or skype
   
3. NEVER put your phone on silent. But if you already did,  turn off all the lights in your room/car/where ever you are searching. Call your phone, and look for the phone being lit up.
4. If you have a daily alarm, wait for your alarm clock to ring, and have different people be in multiple vicinities when it does to listen for it.
   
5. Look in your pillowcase. Apparently, that was one of the popular places people had misplaced their phones, as discussed on the internet. 
6. Look in your car.
7. Look in your pockets. 
8. Check the couch.
9. If all else fails, go to sleep, and look for it the next day. 

Difference between LA and NY

I've been meaning to write this entry for awhile, but couldn't really do so without enough first hand experience and evidence.

• Lack of pedestrians. So before my car arrived from NY, I've been walking everywhere. I would walk from my apt in Westwood to my office in Century City which is 1.4 miles. I can run that in under 10 minutes, so I didn't think it would take much longer to walk. Except, it took me 30 minutes to walk it. One of the reaons being that I didn't know I had to press the button to cross the street, causing the traffic light to not change for a good 10 minutes, while I stood there waiting... My coworkers were joking how they will interview me for the morning news, being the ONLY pedestrian in LA. It's also just not safe walking. I was jogging, trying to cross a street with no traffic light, only then realizing that I must cross an exit ramp for cars coming from the freeway....
• Mexican food, everywhere. And really good Mexican food too. I've been mostly to fast-foody places, but that's typically the Mexican I like. Even Chipotle is cheaper here, with a steak burrito around $6, which is $9 in NY. There's also avacado/guac on everything possible, not necessarily Mexican food.
• Bad Chinese food. I live in Westwood, or the broader term for the entire area west of downtown may be characterized as "West LA." There really aren't that many Asians in West LA (other than outside of UCLA, which is probably like 60% Asian). Being this is the case, I can forget about any decent Chinese food. Even in San Gabriel Valley (Hacienda Heights, Rowland Heights, etc), where people can get by in their communities only speaking Chinese and not a word of English, the Chinese food isn't all that great. I'm still convinced that NY has the best ________ (put ANY type of cuisine here) food in the world.
• People actually make eye contact. This one I am still adjusting to. If I'm walking down the street and there is someone walking in the other direction facing me, my reaction pretend I got a text and look down at my phone or avert my gaze to the left to avoid eye contact. People here actually try to make eye contact, and when eye contact is established, they smile and actually say something. This still freaks me out...
• Expensive, but generic fashion. I find that people here have no style. They LOVE designer labels here, especially things with monograms. LV LV LV LV! GUCCI GUCCI GUCCI! CHANEL CHANEL CHANEL! It's actually kinda tasteless. Everyone looks very generic, and no one has any style that is inspirational. I can't say that I hate their outfits, but it's just very expensive and plain. It's unfortunately, but goes to show that money cannot buy everything, including style!
• Waiters/servers/employees of stores/services are all sycophants. It's a bit ridiculous. I'm about to leave a restaurant, and the maitre d' from 20 feet away runs over and asks to open the door for me, when literally I was 3 inches from the door. Anyway, they all kiss up to your ass, it's kinda sick. I guess it's because there are such high maintance people in LA that they must do things like that. This is kinda related to the next point....
• Pretentiousness. I mean, this one is fairly obvious, given it's LA. But this pretentiousness is on a whole other level I could not have envisioned before experienceing it. I park next to a Ferrari at my apartment, and there's an Aston Martin 3 cars down. We all live in the same apartment and are all renting. I cannot honestly see how they would be able to afford such cars, anymore than I can since I certainly can't afford a $8,000/month car. Driving in Westwood or Beverly Hills, a BMW 3-series is probably the cheapest care you will find on the road (beside my own of course). There's probably a Lambo to the left of me and a Phantom to the right of me. This is NOT even an exaggeration.