Sunday, November 28, 2010

Le Future

Yesterday, Amy helped me put up a world map on my wall. I will now wake up just under Antarctica every day. I was looking at it this morning and thinking about how much more of the world there is left for me to see, and I wonder if I could ever survive an around-the-world trip for six months or a year. I've met and read about lots of people who have done it, and it sounds incredibly lonely and amazing.

Whether I travel or simple move, I don't think it's my destiny to stay here in Chicago forever. I know I have at least a few more years in me, because I really do love this city every single day. But I wonder where I will go next. Will I go to school? Get a different job? Move someplace new with only the will to be there? I don't have to decide just yet, but this map has got me thinking…

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Bette Davis Eyes in My Arms

I’m not one who knows her music. No no, not at all. But, I will say I’m always blown away when I find a new song I love and later realize I’ve for a long time loved the song that inspired it.

Like this:

Old


New


Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

Friday, November 05, 2010

Why You Shouldn't Pay More Than $0 for Anything from the GAP

The GAP has certainly been making headlines recently. First there was the nationwide Groupon that broke the site. Then, there was this thing today with Facebook places to get one of 10,000 pairs of free jeans. And a couple months back, the Michigan Avenue store gave away 50 pairs of their new black pants. There's a lot of talk that GAP is paving the path for the future of retailers online. Maybe it's all true. But when GAP puts all these deals out there, they have to watch out for people like me. The ones who realize that if GAP is going to keep giving away free stuff, then I'm just going to stop paying for any of it.

From all the coupon blogs I follow, I know the absolute most you should ever pay for any GAP item is 40% off. Every couple months, they have these sales that sound super exclusive. But they're not because these sales happen all the time. So I've needed a new pair of jeans for awhile now, but I knew if I waited a bit, I could get them for super cheap from GAP. I was planning on paying just a fraction of the price, but today I got them for $0. I will admit that I stood out in the cold for a little while and read a book while waiting for the doors to open, which is more than most people would do for a pair of pants. But I'm trying to fly to Australia next year people. By my calculations, each mile of airfare costs 18 cents, so the $60 I saved can buy me 333 miles.

Anyways, my point is giving people a bunch of deals all the time is not necessarily going to make them buy more. In my case, it's making me buy less.

Now what shall I wear tomorrow? The free GAP jeans I got? Or the free GAP black pants?

Justified

Today I received this comment on a post I wrote:
This is probably silly, but your posts about books and the local literary happenings are much appreciated, even if your posts tend not to get many comments (too bad--books and writing are great things to argue about). Same thing for the classical music posts, from which I have learned a decent amount about a style of music I am trying to understand better.
This is also coming from a commenter who sometimes trolls the site and leaves really mean comments. Which made it even better.

I've said before that I don't need anyone to pat me on the back. I am both my own biggest motivator and my biggest critic. But, I'm just saying. It was a nice thing to see.