30 December 2010

Recycle your electronics in the new year..

After-the-Holidays eWaste Recycling

Throughout January, we're hosting ten eWaste Recycling Events around New York City with our partner, The Lower East Side Ecology Center.

These events are being held nearly every weekend, all across four boroughs of New York City.

Now is the perfect time to dispose of any electronics you may have replaced over the holidays.

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So bring your old computers, printers, monitors, and any other unwanted electronics to a drop-off location near you for safe and proper electronics recycling.

As an added bonus, all recyclers can enter our raffle to win an Apple MacBook Air and can find out how to get one of our organic cotton "I Recycle NY" t-shirts. Recyclers will also receive a coupon for a special discount on an Apple Mac, iPod, or iPad, and an eco-friendly LCD from Samsung.

For details, a complete list of acceptable items, and answers to all your questions about eWaste Recycling Events, visit the Lower East Side Ecology Center's FAQ.

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Invite your friends to this event on Facebook

January

10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Sun 2Union Square Park, North Plaza (Broadway & E 17th St)Manhattan
Sat 8East 163rd St. (btwn Southern & Bruckner Blvds)Bronx
Sat 8Bowling Green Park (East side of Broadway at Beaver St)Manhattan
Sun 9Queens Botanical Garden, Parking lot (entry on Crommelin St)Queens
Sat 15Tekserve, 119 W 23rd St (btwn 6th & 7th Aves)Manhattan
Sun 16Prospect Park West & 3rd StBrooklyn
Sat 22Ring Garden (Riverside Drive btwn Seaman Ave. & Broadway)Manhattan
Sat 22Habana Outpost Fulton St (btwn South Portland Ave & South Oxford St)Brooklyn
Sun 23Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, 331E 70th St (btwn 1st & 2nd Aves)Manhattan
Sun 23W 62nd St (btwn Columbus Ave & Broadway)Manhattan

Why Recycle Your Electronics?

The components in many electronics can be incredibly hazardous to the environment--contributing up to 70% of the toxins found in landfills--so it's important that they are properly recycled. Sponsored collection events, like these, are one of the easiest ways to properly dispose of your old gadgets in NYC. Due to funding constraints, the city's electronics recycling events and the Build It Green electronics drop-off program have been suspended.

Win a New Apple MacBook Air for Recycling

To celebrate the event, anyone bringing electronics to be recycled can register for our raffle to win a new MacBook Air ($999 value). All participants in the event will also receive: (1) a coupon for a $25 discount on a Mac, iPad, or iPod (except iPod shuffle) purchased by March 31st, 2011. (2) an exclusive discount on an eco-friendly 23-inch LCD from Samsung, and (3) a coupon for the iconic "I Recycle NY" t-shirt, free with purchase at Tekserve.



http://www.tekserve.com/service/recycling.php

23 October 2010


I look to the left and there is a woman sitting there. Her eyes are a mix of brown and green. Mixed like unstirred paint. The colors are distinct in places and blended in others. A bubble of air rises and sits on the surface, daring to be popped. So I poke her in the eye. Suddenly the entire mood of the room shifts. The lighting grows red and dim and the music is no longer playing. Hushed words are passed between nearby party goers. She laughs and the tension is broken. The room, as if filled with helium, grows light and irreverent. The three stooges are mentioned and I am slapped on the back of the head. Nyuck-nyucks could be heard through the room. Old stand up by George Carlin is on the flat screen plasma. Fifty-two inches displaying footage meant for a screen not wider than a foot. It’s the 70’s. You can tell by the pants, his hair color and pattern as well as the dental hygiene displayed in the audience’s guffawing maws.

Carlin’s gesturing wildly. He’ll swoop to the left, then to the right. It looks like the mating dance of some ridiculous lizard. He stops to say a few words, pauses for applause, and continues to swoop, this time adding a full body rotation with effeminate jazz hands. I ask the suspected owner of the television if it would be possible to raise the volume a bit. He stares passively from the couch. A glass of vodka sits in his hand and the remote sits in his other. His jaw slackens almost imperceptibly. I paw at the television, sliding my fingers against its impossibly smooth surfaces, trying to sense the moment when plastic frame becomes plastic volume increase button. The moment never comes because the television loosens from its wall mount and crashes through layer after layer of glass and device until thousands of dollars of home furnishing and audio visual equipment lie at my feet. Someone shouts a wise guy, eh? and attempts to poke me in the eyes with his fore and middle fingers. I attempt to get my hand up in front of my nose, but I jab my nails into his palm.

He winces and his hand starts bleeding. He shushes me before I can say anything and walks over to the fridge. Are my nails that sharp? He takes out a half-eaten jar of Ragu Robusto and squeezes his cut to extract more blood. The droplets slip from his fingertips and plop silently among real Italian herbs, big chunks of onion and pepper and that flavor that the whole family can enjoy! Laughter resounds. Someone carrying a step ladder turns around and smashes a young woman in the face. Her wine glass crashes to the counter and spills over the edge. The kitchen is silent. Soundlessness moves across the house into other rooms. The girl gets up, her entire face is red except for a purple line across her forehead. She picks up her broken glass, that is almost only stem now and she jabs at the young man’s throat. The house is still silent. The man’s neck is cut deeply and the woman spits out a tooth. They have yet to blink. The owner of the house has gotten up from the couch and is standing in the doorway. Everyone farts simultaneously.

27 July 2010

What if you crowd-sourced your dating life?

A friend, Brian, I met while waiting online at the MoMa during the Abramovic exhibit is doing just that..
So ladies, if you're single.. you know what to do



You can sign up and track his progress on site. After each date he posts a video that normally ends with a message from the girl. This last date has had the most chemistry so far.

25 July 2010

Six Items Or Less

Some but mostly no one actually noticed that I participated and continue to do: Six Items or Less

Here's the NY times article and video:



Here's the website: http://sixitemsorless.com/

Backyard Farming, Day 13


A quick update from our parking space turned miniature garden: Things are going well!


These are the pepper (poblano, I believe). They're coming up slowly, but surely. Hopefully there's enough time to harvest them before the cold sets in.
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This is the zinnia, one of two flowers we planted. Both the flowers are growing faster than the herbs and vegetables, so even if we have an early cold spell this year, we can still pull a bouquet out of this tardy experiment.
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This is the marigold, the second variety of flower. Like I said, growing pretty quickly.
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Is catnip also a variety of flower? If so, my whole "flowers grow faster than herbs and vegetables" theory is shot 'cause, as you can see, there's nothing here. You can't make it out from the photograph, but there are actually really tiny green tendrils just barely poking out from the soil. So it's not completely fucked, just retarded.
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The last pot/plastic mail crate stolen from USPS: On the left we have basil and on the right we have oregano. Both are working their way up to being pizza toppings.
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Well, that's all for now. 'Nother update in two weeks?

-Arv
Twitter.com/ToImpale

20 July 2010

Taco Bell > Facebook

Only days before Facebook can hang up an "over 500 million served" sign, the survey found abysmal approval ratings for Facebook and other big-name social-media sites.
Seen on Flavorpill - 50 companies America likes better than Facebook.

13 July 2010

Chuck E. Cheese Day

In the spirit of eating overpriced frozen pizza and being surrounded by toddlers that'll kick your shins over to Siberia if you take too long at the air hockey table, Arvind and I decided to take my 11-year-old sister Gabriella to Chuck E. Cheese's. It was really the other way around, but who'd let a 6 foot tall bearded Muslim into the ball pit (which there was none!) without two little Jews at each of his sides?


Arvind disappointed by the lack of cheese oozing off of his pizza slice.

Many of our childhood memories of going there as youngsters were drowned in the actuality of our tiny past statures, along with our countries obsession with large flat screens.

Currently, the arcade is the main selling point for the store, but years back, the spotlight beamed on the animatronic band shows which were known as "cabaret's."


Chuck E. Cheese's cabaret show circa 2006.

Whereas character cabaret shows stood tall for what Arvind and I remembered as children, those shows have been long replaced with monstrous television monitors, lighting hocus pocus, and highly impersonal interactive elements. Clearly, I'm in grief.

After eating and complaining over our nostalgic disappointments, we set out to play some games. It was difficult to find any that kept our minds satiated for more than 30 seconds, but one Western, hoedown of a shooting game stole our fingers and won best of show.

Arv and Ange Shoot: Chuck E. Cheese Series, July 2010








Gracious curtsies (everything is cuter with an 'ie') to Gabriella for the photos, and for putting up with her mature sister and her adorable boyfriend.

-Angela

P.S. We were too pooped by the end of all of our play to stand in line and redeem our prizes (WE GOTS 26 TICKETS!), so if anyone's up to going with us and possibly getting kicked out hood-rat style, let's do it.

12 July 2010

Backyard Farming, Day I



Maybe a little over a year ago I told Olek that I was really interested in starting a rooftop garden. He thought about it for a second and said that he pictured roots tearing through his ceiling, eventually caving the house -- and that he was totally down for it. But, as most half-baked ideas go, rooftop gardening was never actualized.

Then Angela came over a couple of days ago and noticed all of the ceramic pots in my backyard that my step-dad used to grow basil, peppers, and lettuce in. Since he's moved out, all of it has lain fallow and become overrun with weeds. Angela mentioned wanting to grow something and gardening -- though not of the rooftop variety -- was back in motion. Seeing Tim's mom's herb garden on Friday redoubled our resolve, and we set out for Home Depot earlier today in search of seeds.



Unfortunately it's mid-way through summer, so we basically missed the entire planting season. The only seeds we could find that would grow before the cold dashed our harvest were peppers, basil, and oregano. We also decided to pick up two varieties of flowers (marigold and something else I can't remember) and catnip for the family of strays who have taken over my backyard.

Because Angela and I haven't planted anything since beansprouts in elementary school, we basically made up the farming method as we went along:



First we broke up and de-weeded all the dirt. My step dad actually bought soil for all of the pots and only used them for one summer, so I'm pretty sure it's still packed with nutrients. (Also, we found a turnip when we were digging around, which is a pretty good sign, I think.)



Then we dug little troughs and sprinkled in the seeds.



I found some Miracle-Gro, so we tossed that on to ensure that our plants will be super buff. Then we watered the concoction, covered it all up with an inch of dirt, and soaked it through and through.



And now we play the waiting game.

-Arv
Twitter.com/ToImpale

Make Love Not Porn


I realize that blogging can be a very personal act and it can be hard to engage or take interests in what others have to say or share, but I share these things with you because I'm sure you'll find some aspects of it relevant and interesting. Found the video here

11 July 2010

Article roundup!

Interesting article on personal responsibility and effect on the environment.

Childish Gambino - Got This Money (Acoustic @Ace Hotel)

Got This Money (Ace Hotel) from Donald Glover on Vimeo.

Donald Glover (who goes by Childish Gambino musically) was an RA in my dorm way back in freshman year. He did Hammerkatz improv in college, then help create Derrick Comedy. As he graduated from school, he wrote for 30 rock (you'll notice a lot of similarities between Tracy Morgan's character and some of Donald's mannerisms in his own skits). Derrick comedy put out a feature film called Mystery Team. Now he stars in Community and puts out music. His latest album is Culdesac. You can check out his first two mixtapes (I Am Just a Rapper 1 & 2) on his website childishgambino.com

Got This Money from Culdesac

Fuck It All from Culdesac

The Real (Infinity Guitars) from I Am Just a Rapper 2

Entrance Romance- Ryan McGinley


(xposted to my inspirandom blog)

08 July 2010

Fourth of July, 2010



2tor decided to have an Independence Day bash at our office in Chelsea Piers. There was free beer, mini-hamburgers and pigs in a blanket, and a really great view of Macy's fireworks show on the Hudson. We went to the driving range next door, laid on the AstroTurf and watched the night sky light up.


The driving range prior to the show


A tiny burger for tiny Angela


My coworker Todd reading the Declaration of Independence



In an attempt to capture the awesomeness of the spectacle, someone blurted out, "IT'S LIKE THE INTERNET!"

-Arv
Twitter.com/ToImpale

24 June 2010

RD is getting a face lift..

I was quite fed up with the way blogger looks and runs, so I basically changed the template to a width that's fluid instead of fixed.

Overall this blog needs a lot of help and contribution. If you don't want to worry about it's design, don't fret.
But please feel free to use this as an open workspace.

25 February 2010

formspring.me to the next level

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1366284523709&ref=nf

here is a video of a guy i went to high school with

his personality/branding/whatever is Sir Vintage
he does a blog, has twitter, a formspring, etc.
i feel he is a good example of using social networking effectively for his image, whether or not its productive is another story. he updates constantly, which is important for keeping a following

i post his video because i think its taking the whole formspring idea and pushing it into some weird honest voyeuristic place that i cant decide right now if its good or bad but titillating
i generally dislike youtube videos of people expressing their opinions about whatever (like who are you and why should i care about your comentary) but something about this type of video, being honest about something thats not quite tangible and didnt need to be revealed..
identity in the technological age is a funny thing