Okay, I’m done making excuses now. The following is a piece I wrote for my writing seminar, during my first semester at NYU (fall 2006, crazy.). The assignment asked us to choose a passage from Mrs. Dalloway and imitate Virginia Woolf’s writing style. Though I may not have my own creative writing skills, I definitely enjoyed imitating hers. After the jump!

How crowded! So many people! From what she remembered, it had always been this way; New York Penn Station would always and had always been crowded, with people from everywhere, going everywhere, all at once; passing, intersecting at this one point in their lives, never to meet or encounter each other ever again. What a concept, of strangers (but she should be accustomed to them, as a college girl living in the city as she was now), who, part of the daily flux of travelers, were nameless; passing momentarily everyday, exchanging a glance, or a half-smile perhaps, to others who appear nice enough, and not intimidating or uninviting in their ways. Except how different this afternoon was, for this time she was going home alone. How independent, how solitary, not in a disheartening way however, she felt in the train station; the atmosphere whirring as she and the countless, nameless others waited; standing, sitting, slouching; staring at the big black board that announced departures. The train she had intended to board had left but two minutes before she got to the station; what luck, for the subway had been delayed and made her late; feeling panicky as she usually did, snatching looks at the time to maintain her anxious state, she was unsettled and impatient (as she had been a few years before with her father), running through Penn Station, as their intended train – NJTransit, Northeast Corridor Line, Trenton last stop – flashed “Boarding” on the big black board, and threatened to disappear for good; she lost her glove while running, realizing later on the train that she only had one of the pair remaining. They had been coming back from a Broadway matinee show – was that it? – from another Chinatown excursion – maybe that was it? He would always take her into the city for one of those two reasons – her father. Those daytrips rarely happened anymore, although he would ask her occasionally what she was doing tomorrow, and if she wanted to go to the city instead; abandoning her social plans or her plans to do homework, which actually resulted in doing nothing, was out of the question these days; it was these outings with him that she remembered; the travel stress, his over-enthusiasm, the strangers, her sometimes lack of enthusiasm, even now when the big black board was flashing that her train was at gate 15W – though she was alone now – losing a glove while running through Penn Station.

If you’re still reading and curious, Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway passage that I imitated:

What a lark! What a plunge! For so it had always seemed to her, when, with a little squeak of the hinges, which she could hear now, she had burst open the French windows and plunged at Bourton into the open air. How fresh, how calm, stiller than this of course, the air was in the early morning; like the flap of a wave; the kiss of a wave; chill and sharp and yet (for a girl of eighteen as she then was) solemn, feeling as she did, standing there at the open window, that something awful was about to happen; looking at the flowers, at the trees with the smoke winding off them and the rooks rising, falling; standing and looking until Peter Walsh said, “Musing among the vegetables?”-was that it?-”I prefer men to cauliflowers”-was that it? He must have said it at breakfast one morning when she had gone out on to the terrace-Peter Walsh. He would be back from India one of these days, June or July, she forgot which, for his letters were awfully dull; it was his sayings one remembered; his eyes, his pocket-knife, his smile, his grumpiness and, when millions of things had utterly vanished-how strange it was!-a few sayings like this about cabbages.

The first time I live-tweeted an event, it was unintentional. I was watching the Golden Globes and began using the hashtag (#goldenglobes) for the sake of convenience in following everyone else’s awards commentary. It didn’t occur to me that what I was doing was considered “live-tweeting, ” until I suddenly gained 20 new followers and potentially had 20 other followers who were ready to yell at me in 140 characters or less. Then I started to understand the pros and cons of live-tweeting.

Provided that the event itself is buzz-worthy (highly-anticipated, well-attended/viewed, featuring people with influence/celebrities), the hashtag should itself gain momentum. All of this criteria applied to the Golden Globes. I had conversations with people who were watching the awards at the same time, as well as those who could not access a television and were thankful for tidbits of real-time information (i.e. “Kate Winslet is so classy!” and “Why does Drew Barrymore’s hair keep getting bigger???” and “Did Colin Farrell really just make a coke joke?”). Of course, there were people on the West Coast who were understandably peeved about having to avoid Twitter for the fear of ruining the surprise of who wins; others simply did not want #goldenglobes to continually dominate their tweet feeds. The former are the people who followed me (as I found people through Twitter Search and followed them) and the latter are those who temporarily hated me.

When it come down to it, live-tweeting involves talking about ONE subject repeatedly. Just as it gets tiresome to overhear two people’s conversation without being able to leave, it is much the same on Twitter with @replies.

******In the middle of writing this post, I read on Twitter that a plane crashed in Clarence, NY, on its way to Buffalo from Newark, NJ.  It was a Continental commuter plane carrying 44 passengers and 4 crew members, none of whom are reported to have survived. The plane also struck 1 or 2 people on the ground. @KeithBurtis was the first to tweet about it and is getting numerous phone calls from the media for eyewitness reports; he’s understandably upset about the circumstances while still having to provide information to news outlets, who will thus report to the rest of the world:

Another neighbor, SpiketheCowboy711, took a video of the crash site and the massive fire.  He zooms in on the firemen at the scene.  His raw footage was already played on CNN and is being retweeted over and over on Twitter.

I promise to continue my original post as soon as possible but this tragedy was just too immediate to ignore.  As for @KeithBurtis and SpiketheCowboy711 (as well as all of my followers who kept me posted before I could find any information on CNN or The New York Times), they’re the real live-tweeters I need to be following tonight.

66 DEGREES IN NYC, IN DEC? WHAAT?

• This Thursday, 11/13, the Gallatin Journal of Global Affairs will be holding its delayed launch party for the 2008 edition in which my paper (“From Combined to Green Propaganda: BP’s Decade-Long Greenwashing Cycle”) is published. I originally wrote the research paper for my Propaganda course last fall. I volunteered to do a 5-minute reading of it at the event, which will probably be small and intimate (true Gallatin-style). Any NYU student can come so if you’re interested in free “global” food and drinks, and my nervous tongue-tied reading, definitely come (715 Broadway, Rm. 522, 7 pm)!

• On an equally (if not more) dorky note, I can’t wait to register for spring semester courses. My top choices? New Media Research Studio, Finance for Social Theorists, Law & Society, and Biology & Society. It would be fair at this point to conclude that I like society and all things social. If you were my mom (and yes, my mom does read my blog), this would be the point at which you ask me what I plan to do with my life…to which I would respond with a deeply-frustrated sigh and again bring up the possibility of law school to assuage her (and my) anxiety.

Since I actually abandoned this post halfway through and have now returned to it whilst in the middle of writing said fifth paper, I will make this last point short.

I AM EXCITED THAT BARACK OBAMA IS NOW PRESIDENT-ELECT.

notice "flagboy" who eventually got arrested. pic from Max's iPhone.

A little delayed, but there we go. It’s old news but it’s amazing news. Max and I spent Election Day (that is to say, Election Night) celebrating with the huge crowds in Union Square and in the East Village. Everyone was ecstatic, high-fiving, cheering, and simultaneously shouting variations of “Obama,” “No More Bush,” “Yes We Can (Si Se Puede),” and “Yes We Did.” There was one guy who kept trying to start a “The Red is Dead” chant, which signified to me the bipartisanship/divisiveness which Obama denounces. What immediately ran through my head was the following: “We have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red states and blue states. We are, and always will be, the United States of America.” So in the unifying spirit of Obama’s victory and an unbelievable Election Day, I started cheering “USA,” and people joined in (that is, after the guy with the bullhorn helped).

Max's again.

And the fact that Obama’s victory was largely attributed to his engagement with and mobilization of people on the internet is unprecedented. Change.gov allows people to send in their stories and reactions to the election, submit their ideas on what the next administration should do, and also apply for a job. Seriously. This website, along with the fact that my.barackobama.com is going to “live on” (thanks Mike for the link) makes me excited about the ways in which the people will interact and communicate with the next President of the United States. There has been much talk about digital “fireside chats.” TechPresident is also a website tracking the presidential campaign/administration’s relationship with the internet (Barack + internet = BFF, IMO). Bottom line: A new and connected kind of presidential administration? Yes, please. I will work for your new media team anyday, Barack!

Badass.

I have to return to my paper now but expect a post soon about the possible deterioration of intellectual life in college and why I think that is bull.

Anyway, I’m running late for class and don’t have time to proofread what I just spewed onto the (web)page, agh.   Where were you on that morning?

And now for a series of touristy pictures, courtesy of Max and his iPhone:

view of the BK Bridge from South Street Seaport

We were standing on the pier by the Ice Cream Factory, looking at the BK Bridge waterfall.

As I was typing this post, I realized that the majority of these locations offer amazing views of Manhattan. That is, they’re known for their phenomenal panoramic views of the NYC expanse. I absolutely love the views because they provide a slightly-outside-of-NYC perspective through which I can appreciate both the huge size of the population and the small sized of the actual island. Maybe that’s why some of these places are so popular? What does it mean to overlook/watch the city and its bright lights and skyscrapers from a distance?

View from the Reclamation Site on N.9th & Kent - one of my fave places in Williamsburg

On the Staten Island Ferry, my hair sexily blowing in the wind, ha.

My first time at a real beach this summer - took long enough.

Pretty picture...too bad the island is pretty grimey.

According to Wikipedia, the Met Life Tower was the tallest buildling in the world from 1909-1913.

Oh, there’s also a poster in a window across the street that reads: If you can see this, you’re spying on me. It makes me think about how many people could be spying on me right now, what with my blinds open and desk light on, while I awkwardly blow my nose and type this entry. Then again, I’m sure I’d be watching my neighbors if I were staring out my window and someone’s light happened to be on. Voyeurism: every New Yorker’s favorite pastime – it’s like live reality TV!

Anyway, I’m going to bed in a last-ditch attempt to sleep off this sickness. Welcome Week officially starts tomorrow, meaning much of downtown NYC will be aflutter with fresh(men) faces as anticipation floats in the air like allergy-inducing pollen. As a rising junior, my plan consists of the following: avoid thinking about my future career while memorizing these new avenue names (Lexington, Park, Madison, Broadway, 5th) and enjoying the remaining days of summer vacation.

Update: some Spybusters (?) dude posted what I wrote about voyeurism in his security blog as the “Quote of the Day – A New Yorker Ponders…Surveillance.”  Internet microfame, here I come, ha.

How adorable was she?

Considering how much I love my mother and how often people tell us we look/act alike, this project has long been something I wanted to do. And I’m grateful to Don for taking on all the artistic work (shooting/editing) while my duties consisted of nagging him and trying to look pretty.

My absolute favorite of the three.

Fast forward to 2008 and my mom is still pretty cool. While driving to the mall this past weekend, a car kept beeping at us unnecessarily. Pissed off, I rolled down the window and flipped off the driver in true New Jersey fashion. Okay, so she happened to be another Asian woman who was headed to the same parking lot as us. I got a little nervous but my mom was unfazed as she parked the car and coolly declared in Thai, “Come on, let’s go start a fight.” The whole incident only made me love her more, of course.

Brownie points for whoever can identify the guys in the posters behind me.

I remember how excited I had been to see Paris, je’taime at the very beginning of last summer. And though not all eighteen short films were amazing, there were several phenomenal stories and actors. I actually walked past Rufus Sewell on Broadway and Prince St. about a month ago. He was featured in Wes Craven’s short in Paris, je’taime about an engaged couple that visits Oscar Wilde’s grave. The character’s fiancé struggles with his lacking sense of humor and nonexistent spontaneity.  Oh, but then Oscar Wilde’s ghost gives him some advice.

Natalie Portman, who played a young actress with a blind boyfriend in Paris, je’taime, plays a Hasidic woman named Rifka in New York, I Love You. This time around, she has also taken on a much bigger role as actor/writer/director/producer. Apparently, this movie will mark both her and Scarlett Johansson’s debut as directors. That’s pretty respectable and badass, ladies.

click for more pictures from NY Daily News

Other actors to get excited about include James Caan, Kevin Bacon, Orlando Bloom, Hayden Christensen, Ethan Hawke, Shia LeBeouf, Rachel Bilson, and Christina Ricci. According to the Wikipedia entry, Blake Lively is also supposed to make an appearance as the mysterious character called, “a girlfriend.” Seems like a primarily young cast.  I’ve always considered NYC to be a place for young people (then again, my opinion is definitely shaped by the fact that my city life consists of college students during the school year and hip young Williamsburg residents in the summer).

Either way, I’d say New York, I Love You has me even more starry-eyed in anticipation than Paris, je’taime did last year. Maybe because the stories are set so close to home, in and about the places I frequent, in the city I love the most. It’s New York City romanticism, squared.

Here’s the memorable Paris, je’taime short starring Natalie Portman – y’know, to get you feeling a bit romantic yourself:

My favorite (and least comprehensible) sentence of the entire Craigslist post?

“In a sense, the hipsters have won as they have successfully ‘hipsterized’ modern day sensibilities.”

Well you know me – leading the modern day battle of sensibilities with my unbeatable hipsterizing skillz.

Apparently I have a hipster...face?