My favorite place

My grandmother, who works for the economic sector at the U.S. Embassy in Berlin (on the German side--she's not American) sent me this New York Times article about Berlin, which I think is a) well-written and b) an interesting take on travel writing--as in the style used being in the "you" voice and third-person, rather than the "I" voice. It's a cool lens to look at the city through.

Berlin really is my favorite city. This article gives just a few reasons why.

A safe return

I have returned from my one week of vacation this summer. Chicago was fantastic. The rest of the Midwest was probably nice, but I got a sinus infection so I didn't appreciate it nearly as much.

The best thing: Chicago, in general. Although I was disappointed with the eating situation there. I expected to find wonderful restaurants on every corner (like you do in Berlin, or even Tucson). Instead, all we could find in Downtown were McDonalds, Subway, Jimmy John's and Chipotle. Am I missing something? Where's all the world class cuisine promised me?

The worst thing: Being sick and sitting in a car for three days. Or rather, just being sick in general. I hate you, sinuses.

Some photos to follow soon.

Social Media Sites Abound

Part of the research I do at work is in researching new social media--that's anything in the realm of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and last.fm.

One thing my research has shown in the last week is that there are so many new social media sites popping up that I will never be able to catalog them all.

I think it's fascinating there are so many reasons people decide to build social networking sites. Some of those reasons are actually pretty dumb, but others are really neat.

Some sites I found this week that I think are cool:

LearnHub
It's all about exchanging knowledge. Anyone can form a "community" about something and use it to create lessons, tests and trivia to help other people learn more about that topic. You can be a student and a teacher at once, offer tutoring sessions and even make money by teaching a course. Sure, if you haven't got all the time in the world, this may seem like more time-wasting idiocy. But when is learning something new ever a bad thing? I dig it.

Chictopia
As stupid as it sounds, the fashion-lover in me shouted for joy when I found this site. It's a social network for fashion lovers--the motto is "ordinary people can be super models, too". The great part is that it's for guys and girls, and you can learn what's most flattering for your shape while you're on there. You put in your personal and size information (everything from pant size to bra size if you're a lady), write a few things about your style philosophy, and start posting photos of yourself in various outfits, or your favorite accessories, in your ChicBlog. If you look super-stylish, your photo gets picked to go into the gallery and others can vote on how chic you look, and comment about what they love most. While the pursuit is, at its heart, shallow in every way, I think it has useful (and fun!) applications.

mEgo
This thing creates an Avatar for you that you can post on your blog, Web site, social networks, etc., with all of your information in one place. The review on Mashable said it was a two-hour commitment to make an avatar, which could be a bad thing if you're a busy bee. Another downside the review cited was that the widget felt a lot like MySpace--which I characterize as trashy and difficult to navigate. I tried the widget (you can see mine on the right sidebar, under the blog archive) and didn't think it was that bad. There is the possibility of making a trashy, flashy, overpowering-looking avatar, but hopefully you won't do that. It also didn't take me two long to create the avatar--maybe half hour tops, but then I am a 20-something Web whiz, right?

Glassdoor
This network is nifty for anyone job searching. When you create a profile you can look at information about different companies--everything from ratings of the management to salaries in the position you're looking at. This is particularly interesting since so many companies have that "you may not discuss your salary with anyone" policy that usually accompanies unequal and unethical salary assignment.

These are just specks in the spectrum of social media I've discovered lately, but I think they're worthwhile. None moreso than Facebook or studiVZ, though. :-)

Nutrition Homepage...Found!

So I keep track of my food life online, at Fitday. I do this not so I can scrutinize everything I've eaten as extra fat grams, but rather to see if I'm getting enough vitamins, calcium, protein, etc.

One of the pains about the site is that you have to manually put in food that isn't already in the site's tiny, junk-f00d riddled database.

Sometimes I just don't have the nutrition information with me. And I hate that.

But I just discovered Nutritiondata.com, the official Web site for those little labels on food packaging. Genius, huh?

Not only does the site have nutrition information for practically everything, but it has a conversion tool so cooking with a German recipe doesn't turn into a ridiculous math problem.

Yay, right? Yay!

Bicycling Indecency

I read something vaguely ridiculous yesterday.

So there's this naked bike ride taking place in Tucson.

It's really not a big deal--they happen all over the world, and the point is to show how vulnerable bicyclists are as they ride alongside Hummers and monster trucks (although that's mostly on U.S. streets).

The ridiculous part is that people can't really do it all the way in Tucson unless they want the potential of being slapped with a misdemeanor or class 6 felony for public indecency.

Basically, you can't show anything between your waist and thighs, and women can't show their nipples OR any part of the areola. (It's not fair that men get fewer restrictions, for one thing). Sounds like common-sense decency from an American point of view, but the more I think about it, the whole law bit just seems so stupid.

I mean, if you're really staring at a bunch of naked people on bicycles, you deserve to be grossed out, right?

Oh, America the prudish, you've struck again!

Call for Cafes

I'm not a big coffee drinker.

I definitely don't drink it every day, although I used to during my first two years of college. And then I realized all the double shots were making me porky.

I only drink coffee or espresso drinks as part of my social routine these days.

My favorite cafe in Tucson has long been Espresso Art.

It has this comfortable European atmosphere, good espresso drinks, smoothies and pastries, and ample seating. I even played my harp recital there in March. It's a bit expensive, but I just love the place.

My friend Jamie is an espresso connoisseur. She also digs Espresso Art, but now she's got a new favorite at Cafe Luce, the evil competitor cafe on campus that I abstained from trying for a whole year.

So we went there together, and it's not bad. Jamie claims the cappuccino's cheaper, but I can't tell since I rarely just get a cappuccino. She also says it's consistently the best cappuccino in Tucson. I guess she would know.

*On a side note, I just found a really cool blog about Arizona coffee shops. Lots of neat photos of coffee art. Worth checking out.*

I'm curious. If you're reading this, what's your favorite coffee shop or cafe, regardless of your location?

A Perfect Ending

I went to see Sex and the City with some friends last night. It was a nice birthday gift from Steffi.

With any movie based on a TV series, there's a danger of it sucking. And since I am a fan of the six-season-long Sex and the City TV show, I was prepared to be disappointed.

Luckily, I was over-prepared.



The movie was delightful. I thought it was the perfect ending for the TV show and didn't have any oddly unexplainable gaps after a three year hiatus. The characters were all the same, their attitudes and personalities hadn't changed, and I was in SATC heaven.

I had heard of bad reviews of the movie, but I didn't want to read them and have them ruin my experience. I personally give the movie five stars. I even cried four times (half from happiness). What could be better!

This is a real blog

A few years ago I got a hateful comment on my blog (in a comment about one long-ago post about skinny jeans, someone told me I needed to get a life--I suspect this one someone wearing skinny jeans at the time). [In a youthful indiscretion I deleted the comment, which I now would not do--I'm all for free expression and rollicking discussion.]

That's step one towards becoming a real blogger/having a real blog.

Step two is getting a media call/e-mail/something about one of your blog posts.

This happened today, when a journalist from the Arizona Daily Star asked me to talk about hypermiling, which I wrote a post about in May.

After three years, this has become a real blog. Yay!

Combatting Poor Body Image

One thing that has happened (in some places) over the past few years is a campaign for women in the U.S. to accept themselves as they are.

One article does this by giving quotes from men who are love women of different body times, from the plump to the pencil-legged and beyond.

Other articles, like those in some women's magazines, try to give fashion tips for women of differing body types. The problem with these is that the models are usually just that--models ascribed to the rungs of "normal modely type" and "plus-size modely type" and therefore not realistic at all. I guess they work as mere guidelines.


Marie Claire does, however, have a Virtual Model program on its Web site that allows you to find "the best fashion for your figure", and the models are fairly realistic looking--you can expand or decrease the size of the model to look more accurately like your figure. The clothing they've chosen to include are really frumpy, though. Your three choices are Land's End (eh), Sears (EW!), Levi Strauss Signature and Speedo.


I heard a really fantastic program on NPR last year about women around the world (and men and whole countries) trying to combat body image (and modern health) woes--something I strongly feel started in the U.S. with our bulemic, plasticized, whitened-teeth alternate reality.

While running small campaigns to make women feel better about themselves is a step in the right direction, I have a feeling it's not going to do much to make most women feel better about themselves. I mean, just stepping into any high-class mall makes you feel like purging your last meal (and skipping the next), and looking at our celebrity role models--especially those lauded for being curvy in all their size four glory--doesn't do any body good.

I think this is just one of those problems we're stuck with. Forever.

What do you think?

Sushi makes the world go 'round

Not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I LOVE sushi.

I'm a vegetarian, sure, but that doesn't mean I don't dig the veggie-only varieties.

My favorites? Cucumber rolls, veggie rolls and avocado rolls. Sort of spans the entire spectrum, but they're just so good.

So I recently tried Sushi Cho--twice. Once with my editor, once with my boyfriend. Both times were pleasant experiences.

The fare is cheaper than at most of the sushi restaurants we've tried in Tucson. The cucumber and avocado rolls are pretty small, but they're cheap enough to make up for it.

The veggie rolls are more expensive--and you discover why once they land on your table. They are MASSIVE--bigger than the palm of my hand. I found it impossible to eat them with chopsticks--I swallowed my pride and just used my hands. My editor approved. Those things were huge.

I also tried the avocado and cucumber rolls. More of the same, right? Actually, it was just right. If I were only mildly hungry and wanted sushi, just getting one avocado and cucumber roll would do it for me. Dee-lish.

The other stuff is good, too, from what I hear. My boyfriend tried the crunchy roll--cucumber and tempura shrimp wrapped in seaweed and rice, doused with tempura crumbs. He seemed satisfied. I haven't heard complaints about anything else.

Edamame? Good. Tempura veggie appetizer? Good. Teriyaki chicken? Heard it was all right. Vegetable yakisoba? Heard it was pretty good--although differently flavored than the yakisoba at Sushi Ten.

The service is also decent--my water was constantly refilled the second time I went (although the first time the waitress was careless and never came back to see if I had enough water, and I finished my first glass within five minutes and practically died of thirst during the rest of the meal).

A note for strict vegetarians: don't eat the soup. It's got fish stock in it.

But as far as Sushi Cho goes, I highly recommend it.

Cheaper tuition at elite schools?

So Harvard and a few other schools are making it easier for poor people to get in. And by poor, they mean anyone whose family makes less than $60,000 a year.

Good, right?

According to an article I read, these schools are getting rid of student loans, capping the Expected Family Contribution and giving away grants.

Does that mean everyone will have an easier chance of getting in? No.

It just means that the poor people who know someone who know someone who works at Harvard will be able to afford going there once they get in. Cutting costs doesn't change the admissions process. Even if you have a 4.0 GPA, stellar GRE scores and a fantastic 12-page CV, you probably won't be able to reap the benefits of these "cheaper" programs unless you've got contacts.

That sort of spoils it for everyone who got their hopes up, doesn't it?

More parking problems in the works?

As if the shrinking amount of parking on the UA campus isn't enough to think about, the City of Tucson is talking change in the realm of parking meters.

Not in getting rid of them and creating more free public parking, but rather replacing the parking meters we have now with newer meters that take credit cards and cash, control 10 meters at a time and call the parking authority when it's time to give you a ticket.

There's going to be a pilot program this fall for three months to see if the new meters work in Tucson. There will be a few on University Avenue, but the majority will be downtown.

Apparently other cities have tried them. In New York, the worked well. But in other places, people found them too confusing and hard to use. I can only guess how they'll be received in Tucson...

Way of the future

If you've looked at the New York Times lately, you might have seen an article by Paul Krugman about the future.

"Stranded in Suburbia" basically said the rest of the Western world needs to pay attention to Berlin, Germany, to figure out how to progress.

Although there are a lot of problems in Berlin, Krugman's got a point. Basically, more public transportation + densely populated areas close to public transportation, shopping and jobs = efficient and better than what we have now.

As I've always said, we really need (better) public transportation in Arizona.

I encourage you to read the article.

Community bike ride

I went out on a limb and tried something new last night.

I went on the Tucson community bike ride with a group of friends...and about 150 other people. Some of my friends were intimidated by the crowd when we got to the meeting place, the turn-around out front of UA's Old Main.

I was not at all intimidated by the eclectic-hippy-grunge crowd before us. I just wanted to ride, damnit.

The ride is supposed to start at 8 p.m., and we finally started to snake down University Ave. around 8:30. The ride, which I guess takes a new route every Tuesday, snaked through Southwestern Tucson and took us through back alleys and creepy neighborhoods with lots of dogs barking at us.

Had I been alone or with a small group of people, I would have been scared shitless. But it wasn't so bad with all those other people.

When we started out, it was also friggin' hot outside. But the breeze crept up, the night cooled the air a bit, and the ride was pretty nice by the end--before it started to get just plain windy.

Cons: the going was too slow and there was a lot of bottle-necking
Pros: opportunity to see parts of Tucson you never imagined seeing and getting to go on a leisurely ride with friends

It was an overall good experience. I'd recommend you try it at least once.

Economy down, salaries up?

Seeing as I (and a whole bunch of other people I know) just graduated from college, it's always interesting to know what we'd be making in the real world, should we choose to go out into the real world rather than going straight to graduate school, as I am doing.

My Mom sent me yet another MSN article (I think we're at two-three a day, mostly about finances...I take it as a hint). I found this one super interesting.

Apparently, if I were to go out into the world with my liberal arts degree and try to make a living, my starting salary would be around $33,258.

If I decided to use my journalism degree, my salary would be a little less, at $32,250.

If had decided at the beginning of my college career that I hated words and wanted to work in the medium of computers, my salary would be somewhere near $56,921.

The moral of the story? If you like words, you're destined to stay right around the Arizona poverty line in your post-graduation years. Yay, right? Eh, nothing new.

The main point of the article, however, was that salaries for new college grads are higher this year than last year. That's a good thing.

It's just pretty weird because the economy is tanking like crazy. Wild.

Pricey, but quality

On a vein similar to yesterday's post, I want to talk fashion and combine it with cost (hehe).

I've discovered a couple of lines that are really quite fantastic, as are the prices. But as I've said again and again since the dawn of time, if you buy a few pricey items, it beats buying a shit-ton of cheap, trendy ones you have to keep replacing.

Here are a few things to remember when you're shopping in the most fantastic realms of fashion--which you really should be doing (it just means you have to *gasp* save your money first!).

1. Don't buy obviously trendy clothing.
2. Classic pieces will last you forever.
3. Think functionality: will I wear this once, or can I adapt it over and over? Can I wear it for work and play?
4. Is it dry clean only? And if yes, do I want to go to the dry cleaners often?
5. Read up on the types of pieces that will flatter your figure, and get a second opinion in the store. At some stores, the person helping you will give an honest opinion if you just ask.
6. Purchase versatile pieces to be the building blocks of numerous outfits.
7. Think undergarments. If you love this dress that you can't wear a bra with and you NEED to wear a bra, chances are you'll never be able to pull it off.
8. And going with 7, if it doesn't fit now, don't buy it under the presumption you'll fit into it later.

And now, a few places to start trying these tips at.

Ralph Lauren
Anthropologie
Ann Taylor Loft
Searle
Mango
DKNY

If you can think of any other high-quality stores, let me know. I'm always open to new experiences.

Long time no clothes

I've noticed lately, especially with the influx of financial information I've been publishing so far, that this blog has really strayed from its original function. Way back in the day (like six months ago), this was a fashion blog. Can you believe it?

So, I thought I'd take a trip back in time and deal with a bit o' fashion. So here goes.

Something I've been thinking about a lot lately is dresses. Not because I'm shallow and I think about clothes all the time, but because it's graduation season, getting into wedding season.

I've been to six graduation events in the last week that I had to dress variously for, and although I'm not invited to any weddings, it's good to think about how I would clothe myself to attend one.









This Anthropologie style would work best on someone with a smaller frame, especially with a smaller bust. Wear with heels--even if you're tall, go with a short heel.


This Ann Taylor Loft dress is a bit longer than the others, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's elegant and grown-up. Would work well on most frames, even the bustier ones (as long as it fits well!) and can go with heels or flats.






This Ralph Lauren dress would work best with heels, and can go with a medium frame or a smaller one.













This Searle dress is a good night-time look and, in the right size, would fit most shapes well. Wear with heels--either a tall one (if you're short) or a short heel (if you're tall).

This Searle dress would definitely work best on a smaller physique, and in white, definitely on someone with darker coloring. Wear with shorter heels or flats.











Be careful with yellow, blondes. For everyone else, this Searle dress will be great on you unless you're really small on top. Wear with medium heels or flats.




And, last but not least, this Searle dress will go best with lighter complexion, smaller figures and flats or short heels. Darker complected people will also look OK in this dress. Bigger busts and overall figures will not look OK in it. And if you try pairing this with really high heels, you will look like a hooker.

Iceless Ice Bears

It's a good day for the polar bears, but it's been a bad year .

The New York Times reported today that the U.S. Interior Department declared polar bears an endangered species because of melting sea ice.

The more the ice melts, the more the bears' habitat and hunting ground disappears. You may have heard about the bears drowning or starving to death because of melting sea ice. It's really quite sad.

SO, it's great that our government is finally acknowledging a problem and adding the bears to the endangered list. I'm wondering what steps they're going to take to actually put a stop on global warming, though.

My guess is nothing will happen until the Bush administration is gone, provided another Republican administration doesn't take its place.

This is a car state

Growing up in little Willcox, Ariz., the idea of not having a car seemed beyond absurd to me.

Not to mention to the fact that Willcox could fit onto the UA campus. Or that you wouldn't have to worry about getting obliterated in traffic there as a pedestrian.

Everyone in Willcox had a car except for poor people, and it definitely wasn't cool to be poor. No, you need to have a car. And so does your spouse, each of your children, and you need to have a backup and a truck for hauling. For example, there is a family of three in my neighborhood with six cars lining their lawn, driveway and sidewalk. And these cars aren't the old, rusty ones you see heaped up to rot in the fields outside of city limits--all of these cars still function.

So it was completely natural that I got a car when I was 15. My parents didn't want me walking anywhere, after all. They were convinced it wasn't safe to do so, especially in the morning or evening. When I was 16, I got a new car (because the old one was on its way out, really). And when I was 17, my dad traded in his old car to get me a new, safe one for college. Today my parents have two trucks (one of which they're trying to sell), an Explorer, a motorcycle and the car I drive. That's five vehicles we've accumulated for a three-person family in which only two people know how to drive.

Thus I have always been perplexed when someone's parents refuse to buy them a car, or someone doesn't have a car waiting at home for them--even if they don't drive it regularly. The way I was raised, a car is a necessity for everyone. And I'm definitely not the only person who was raised that way.

I just read an article about the possibility of living with *gasp* just one car per family. One of the lede paragraphs stated, "According to a 2004 Department of Energy report, the average household with two drivers owns 2.1 vehicles. Those with one driver have 1.2 vehicles." And therefore, there are more cars than people in this country. That's actually kind of mindboggling.

In light of the rising cost of fuel and impending effects of global warming, the article discusses how the concept of the single-car family is on the rise, as is public transportation use. At the same time, the number of SUVs on the road is also increasing.

Since I've gotten out of Willcox and educated myself a bit, I think it's smart to stick with the single-car solution. After all, if more people rode public transportation in Tucson (like they do in big cities and all over Europe), it wouldn't seem so scary.

More Scary News

Did you know lip gloss could contribute to cancerous lips?

Yes, that's as gross as it sounds.

Apparently some dermatologists think lip gloss makes your lips more prone to UV ray penetration and deadly cancers.

Another something to worry about, right ladies?

The suggested solution: wearing lip products with SPF in them, just like sunscreen.

It sounds plausible. I'm just wondering if the dermatologists who say lip gloss is bad for you aren't the ones whose names grace those SPF lip products. Has the notorious Patricia Wexler got one in her line?