Listening to: Ben Taylor, "Nothing Compares to You." I guess I'm in a covers mood. I just found out this weekend that this was originally a Prince song. Whoops. And apparently Ben Taylor is the son of James Taylor and Carly Simon. Of course he is.
Currently pushing: Dropbox. Shared folders have totally been done, but not quite with this much ease. You sign up for the Dbox service, you install a little mini-program, and you get two gigs of space to easily drag stuff in and out of. I originally used Dropbox to shuttle files between my various computers, as I found myself constantly plugging Flash drives back and forth. Since I've started with Dropbox, I don't even carry an USB thing anymore. Although if I could get my hands on a horcrux one, I'd wear it with me everywhere.
For the past year or so, my friends and I have been using Dropbox to share music with each other. Since you can make any folder shareable in Dbox, you just invite everyone in and then people upload a few tracks they like, or a whole album if it's good. Once in awhile requests come in ("Who's got the new Glee!") but it's mostly just whatever you feel like sharing. It's so great and if you feel like trying out Dropbox, use my reference link because then I get extra space! Which I'll use for good, I promise.
My hours this week have been more ridiculous than normal. Sleep at eight am, wake up at five pm, go out till morning, somehow still be awake through noon, up again for something in the evening. Mother would not approve. I guess it's been fun, but this is clearly not a pattern to (re-)establish. I'm supposed to be in New York to learn how to live like a normal person. That's the plan anyway. Many of my friends have been asking me how I like New York so far. "Do you love it?"
I dunno yet. It's hard to answer because I'm living the charmed life of a new person to the city, and until winter and work hits, I can't really say I love it without having a false experience. Basically me and New York have had a great first series of dates. On with the relationship!
So instead of focusing on how I feel about being here, I'll focus on things that are different. For example, my relationship with music has changed. I'm back to listening to music on the go. Walking around the city, I've constantly got the volume turned up high to drown out surrounding chatter. This habit will likely lead me to an untimely death by misstep into manhole or body crumpling by taxi but so far so good.
Oftentimes I'll force my mood by selecting a specific artist or particular playlist, and then try something entirely opposite the next time around. It's been different than listening to music on my computer or my car, where the environment stays pretty static and uniform. Even if I'm walking around the same few blocks, I feel like I'm able to take things in differently depending on the song selection. And then I can stamp in/out emotions that aren't even supposed to be there.
By the way, how cool would it be if the city had certain tracks that you could access via Wifi or something whenever you're in a particular area? And then that would fade into the next track as you moved onto another part of the city? An audio tour sorta thing. Answer: very cool.
My relationship with pizza has changed. San Francisco made me detest high end pizza, and San Diego's pizza is just mostly sub-par. Pizza however, is the perfect New York food. Nobody looks at you funny if you're eating alone, a slice is easy to handle while moving and eating, pizza is available at any time of the night, and if you're nutritious and into your body like me, there are many combinations and flavors that integrate all four food groups.
I also haven't read a single book in six weeks of riding the subways. I think it's because I lack a commute. Last time I lived via subway, I read tons of stuff at a furious pace, so I was hoping my reading intake would go up with all this waiting around in the underground. So far no dice. If only I had a drudgerous commute in which to read. Please Santa, please?
"Drudgerous" is not a real word, I just triple checked.
Tonight I watched a play that was sort of about a woman losing her senses. The first to go was her sense of taste, then her sight, and finally her hearing. Incredibly, she never quite lost her sanity. The play was really great and it really made you wonder what it would be like to lose any of your senses, much less three in short succession. It also showed me that taste is clearly the most underrated sense, as it can alert you of danger, screw around with your memory, and send you to the shower five times a day as you fear that people are recoiling from your stench. Well I guess that last one would be a good thing.
Senses I'd rather retain if I had to jettison one of the major five: sense of humor, sense of compassion, common sense.
