CORPORATIONS WILL DO ANYTHING FOR MONEY: carrot mob makes it rain

Carrotmob Makes It Rain from carrotmob on Vimeo.
i throw up more cash, and change the forecast. this is how it should work and what swyyne in ALL about. plus that asian dude is funny.

what to do with all your stolen toiletries

i’m always impressed when people can resist grabbing as many soaps, shampoos and sewing kits from their hotel rooms as their luggage can hold. i have yet to develop such willpower and rue my weakness everytime i look at my drawer full of miniature bottles. instead of throwing them away, here are some ideas about what to do with them:

use the showercaps to cover leftovers. it saves saran wrap and is a lot easier to work with.
this one’s obvious - after using up all your shampoo on a trip, clean out the bottle and save it so that you can refill it for your next trip.
building off of that last one, i just started a “waters of the world collection.” fill your empty bottles with water from your destination as a souvenir of your travels.
use the shampoo as dish detergent (or just use it as shampoo!) instead of buying it at the store.
melt all of the soaps down in the microwave and make them into one giant soap. you can buy molds here.
krissy just mentioned something that blew my mind: why don’t hotels just refill those big shampoo/conditioner/soap dispensers that hang on the shower wall instead of giving out individual bottles? it would save money and materials. i’ve stayed at a couple places in europe that do this and i did not even miss the bottles at all! while we’re on the topic, i was excited to see that many hotels are adapting to a system where guests must insert their keycard into a slot in the room for the electricity to work. this way, the tv, ac and other devices do not drain energy when no one is in the room. you can’t leave the lights on either.

shower cap…forgot to take a pic of it in use. kind of defeats the purpose, i suppose.

staggering our work hours - is it so insane?

we get it. the mta is so strapped for cash that they’re considering everything from “selling” station naming rights to the highest bidders to buying bridges from the city for $1 and charging riders to cross.

the 2nd ave. line, a situation more desperate than me trying to find a non-slutty, but still not completely man-like costume for halloween, is not likely to be completed until, well, until i find a non-slutty but still not completely man-like halloween costume. not anytime soon, but i’ll keep you updated.

bottom-line, most of us have abandoned the prospect of a comfortable and reliable subway ride. the 7 line is packed and often runs local even though it starts off as an express. the indicators that tell you how long the next l train will arrive in work great, except that the train comes into the station right on schedule and then does not stop. the g train, well let’s not even get started on the g train.

ask any new yorker why we have to suffer so to get to work and he/she will say the same thing - there are simply too many people trying to get to work at the same time. and ridership is increasing. so what do we do?

with money, time and capacity as our limits, it seems the only thing we can do is stagger our work schedules. now, there are many obvious reasons that people might think this approach won’t work:

my boss needs me at work at 9am.
i don’t want to stay at work later than i have to.
i don’t want to look like a slacker.
i am an stockbroker and need to be in early.

the list goes on. but consider the following:

almost everyone has a mobile device and much of what we do between 9am and 10:30am can hardly be called “working” anyway.
some people are still sleepy at 7am in the morning and would appreciate being able to come in at 11am (and would work more effectively).
some of us do not mind staying late if we get to come in later.
some of us have kids and would love to come in a little early if it means we can pick them up from school at 3 in the afternoon.
if your office makes it a policy to have staggered schedules, and dept. heads know about it, they won’t think that you’re lazy…well they might, but that’s probably due to the fact that you are.
imagine 1/2 or even 1/4 of the people that you usually ride the train with, not riding the train with you anymore.

i’ve run this idea in front of a lot of different people and most think it is great. yes, there are a lot of roadblocks, namely your employer not being down with you coming in later or earlier. but there has to be some way that the mta and employers across the city can strike a deal. incentives of some kind? employers should know that not everyone is a morning person and allowing people to come in later could boost productivity. the mta should know that many of their delays and necessary repairs are caused by the super-high volume of riders.

if anyone has ideas, let me know.

in the meantime, i’m going to ask john liu what he thinks.

here is his email address: liunewyork@gmail.com

meat flakes!

if you thought that bacos were revolutionary, you will be flabbergasted when you try gyu toro flakes. the brainchild of hokkaido-based tokachi slow foods, gyu toro flakes are made from cows raised on “physiologically optimal feed” and are said to taste like o toro fatty tuna! i am sold!

imagine eating these sprinkled over some steamy rice, or scrambled eggs? rarrrr.

now i just have to figure out the website. from what i can decipher, you can purchase a 200g container for 2100 yen or about $19.91.

www.gyutoro.com! who knew?!!

A Poem for Today

a couple of months ago, I would’ve said no way.
i was towering over everyone and everything. but i’ve taken my slippers off to kneel and pray - at the very thought of you.
i don’t want to make the same mistake. it’s so easy for you to separate - the colour and the shape.
my dues have been paid in a million ways. the check was made out for 200 days. you cashed it in and didn’t hesitate.
and it made you a hero to me.
do i want to be that indistinct blur? do i want to end up like her? the girl i wanted to never see again. though i fed her milk to make her strong again.
she was sleeping like a baby cub - and when i shook her awake and got her all dressed up. she was so shiny and perfect in every way. we laughed and we said “gosh, look how you’ve changed. we’ll never let it happen again.”
no one has ever called me decisive. wallowing in vagueries is my favorite dish. but i was so sure about this. you made me so sure about this.
so i don’t want them to be right. i want to tell them you are my light. when i am dark, i wish you’d be by my side. telling me that i will see another day.
am i foolish to think this way?he told me we don’t exist in our physical bodies. we flee from them to our memories. traveling each day to the places we feel most safe.
i read it a book that prince charming was a crook. and cinderella was just plain crazy. she was hallucinating and talking to mice. that can’t be right.
i’ve been seeing what i want most to see. and you look so good to me. but i swear i’ll never visit the old me. so if i’m dreaming, let me know i’m dreaming.

why is this a site?

swyyne has always been an experiment for me. with all of the other super eco sites out there, i've been feeling like i want to contribute something just a bit different. so for now, here are my random musings.