I found this article on digg, and I thought it was pretty interesting. It doesn’t really give a whole lot of solutions for avoiding these fees, besides doing your homework about the services you’re purchasing, but it was informative to be able to see what ridiculous things they are trying to charge us for nowadays. Housekeeping fees in hotels? I thought clean sheets and towels were part of the deal for the nightly rate. I know that recently, any time I’ve purchased concert tickets or movie tickets online there has been a “convenience fee”… Like it’s somehow less convenient for them to sell tickets through a website than it is for them to open the venue and hire and train staff to sell the tickets. Plz.
So, for the last month or two, they have been doing construction overnight outside my apartment. It starts at 10 or 11, and goes the entire night, but by the time I leave for work, the construction workers have magically disappeared!
I took a video last night, to send to my city councilman who I wrote a few weeks ago about the problem. He said:
The contractor is supposed to be taking every perception to keep the noise level down from their machines during the night. My office has contacted the agency overseeing the project and they are going to make sure that the contractor mitigates the noise as much as possible. They apologize for the inconvenience.
I don’t think so. There is no way this should be legal on a residential street. The project is supposed to last until at least Thanksgiving, at which point they have to stop construction until the new year. Unfortunately, my lease isn’t up until December 1st at which point I will definitely be moving.
So I’m seeing this, I’m going to call it “sticker-peeling-off” effect (or the “SPO” effect), going on on one too many websites these days. I mean at first, as an original design element it was probably pretty cool, and the first time I saw it I definitely thought it was a neat touch, but it’s being thrown into things that don’t warrant it, and to me something with an SPO effect just thrown in there for show doesn’t look thought out. I feel like it’s time to let the SPO effect go.
Although, we all have our guilty pleasures.
There is one good thing about Mondays. By chance I discovered this show (I don’t have cable so I really only watch what different channels offer as free streaming episodes online), and having already been a fan of the musical, which I will defend in a minute, it is really interesting to me.
When I heard they were making Legally Blonde: The Musical, I said just what you’re probably saying now. PSH. That looks stupid. And I mean, it certainly isn’t deep, and doesn’t really give us anything the movie doesn’t, except some cute, catchy songs. Overall it’s fluff, but it’s enjoyable for what it is. There are some interesting duets/harmonies in it too… But I wouldn’t call it a “guilty” pleasure if I didn’t expect to be judged a little.
Anyway, the girls in the TV show are competing for the lead role in the musical. I guess the current lead is leaving. I suppose it’d be way more interesting if it was a competition for Wicked or The Little Mermaid or something with a bit more substance, but overall it’s cute and sometimes scandalous, and gives me my dose of TV girly-ness. The girls on it seem genuinely nice though, and most of them are very talented. It’s sad only one will win, because I like them all (now that Cassie S. is gone).
Today Kristen and I attended the first day of the Creativity Now conference at Cooper Union, put on by Tokion. It was a shame to spend such a lovely day indoors, but the discussions were really interesting.
The first presenter was David Shrigley. I found his presentation a particularly good start to this event, because of both his artwork and his way of addressing the audience. His artwork seems to manifest the simplicity of blunt honesty, mixed with a little sarcasm and dark humor, which appeals to me. His work reminds me a little bit of Toothpaste for Dinner mixed with some Daniel Johnston. They all have sort of similar styles, though Toothpaste is definitely more of a ‘cartoon’ than the others.
Another interesting panel was The Commodification of the Street: Downtown Gets Sold. Well, actually, the presenters of this one weren’t all that engaging, but they showed an interesting video… This has a lot of the same clips they showed today but it’s edited differently.
Too bad Clayton Patterson wasn’t there himself.
And then there was my favorite panel… David Cross, Maria Bamford, and Zach Galifianakis. They were supposed to be discussing the ’state of comedy’, however after they summed that up in about 45 seconds the rest of the discussion was all over the place. Here’s what they concluded…
I hope to upload my other videos but honestly, youtube is taking forever.
The other presentations were interesting, but not as notable. Aside from being subjected to the same three Zune ads on a loop during breaks, it was a very enjoyable experience.
So this has been bothering me ever since I first set foot on the brand new N trains. For some reason, the ‘Do not lean on door’ signs have a new and improved sort of ransom note theme going on. I’m sure you’ve noticed. I don’t know how so many of these stickers could’ve been approved and printed… Then again, the MTA doesn’t seem to be terribly picky… about anything.
