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

The (Sort Of) Eco Renovation Continues - Hacked Ikea Platform

Progress has been made! The platform or “elevated room” that I’ve been trying to explain to everyone (unsuccessfully) is almost complete. Just to give you a little background here, I’ve been renovating my tiny apartment and trying to be as eco-conscious about it as possible. That being said, I was really at a loss for where to source a custom platform like the one that I wanted for less than $500 without having to resort to Ikea.

Long story short, I ended up going to Ikea. LOL. Although there were quite a few replies to my Facebook poll about whether or not Ikea is green, I still think they’re trying harder than others and was willing to buy some of my stuff there as long as I made sure the vast majority of my furniture was either secondhand or that I just didn’t buy any more furniture in general (I already have an old dresser and dining table as well as some chairs I fished out of the dumpster at Stony Brook before I graduated). Anyhoo, read on for more pics and to see how I made the platform.
Read more

How I Am Feeling Today

I’ve been downhearted baby
Ever since the day we met

I AM A CHANGED WOMAN

Traveling is usually seen as an eye-opening experience, but I am now more confused than ever. While I was away and not really able to work on Swyyne, I thought a lot about what my little teeny tiny 140 lb. life (I added 6 lbs. for my “soul”) is doing here - a mental query which led me to a dark and unresolved place. Sort of like the version of hell depicted in 90s Robin Williams film “What Dreams May Come.”

I do know that the more that I try to push my family and friends towards being a bit more conscious of how our actions and purchases effect the earth, the more they hate me. It’s not a good feeling. What’s more, it doesn’t even seem to be making a difference, and I am discouraged.

: stockholm is a city of islands

: albert at the hall of antiquities where they pieces together faces, torsos and baby heads to create frankenteinesque statues

: eva, anders, albert and ida at the rooftop lounge inside a mall

: the sun never set fully

: albert and i playing in the midnight sun

: on the bridge going to the old village, gamla stan

: at the vasa museum, they spent years building this huge ship and it sank as soon as it set sail in the stockholm harbor

i thought i had conquered my inability to contain my emotions a long time ago…

has anyone else noticed that facebook’s homepage revamp in an effort not to be overtaken by prettier, dumber and slightly sluttier little sister twitter has resulted in quiz overload?

so far, i’ve discovered that i should live in the u.s., have misterious eyes (is anyone using spellcheck on these things?) and my japanese name is aya. hmmm…guess someone shoulda told my parents that before they named me yuka.

anyhoo, if you want to take a break from those strenuous fb quizzes, try out the travel channel’s “i have the bug” quiz to see what you travel style is.

here’s mine:

yes, yes this explains a lot.

wanna find out what kind of traveler you are?

meet your wind farm: maple ridge wind farm is creating new jobs, lowering taxes and generating income for locals

after my post new yorkers: did you know you could switch to wind energy? a few people asked me about where the wind farms are located and how many there are. there are currently two main wind farms in ny, tess please correct me if i’m mistaken, one is fenner wind farm in madison county, ny and the other is the maple ridge wind farm in lowville, ny.

for anyone who is interested in how people that live in lowville feel about the farms, this video provides some perspective:

some of the main takeaways are:

the wind farms are more like real farms than most people think. individual farmers actually put them on their land (the guy in the video says he receives $6,600 a year for one).

people are proud of them and love the boost to their town economies.

the technicians that handle the turbines are called windsmiths (i never knew!).

the farmers call the turbines “cash cows” because they don’t need to maintain, feed or do anything to them. they just get paid.

the wind farm keeps the town taxes low (in lowville, haha).

did you know?

interesting video visualizing what our world with all the technology and information we have floating around looks like today.

all of this begs the question, do we use less paper today with all of the electronic communication we do than we did 100 years ago?

thanks for the tip sam.

how my new haircut made me realize that i am ready to be in a relationship

i know everyone is different, but this is what happened to me. by the way, this post really has nothing to do with the environment, so if you are a person who only cares about the environment, you should stop reading now. you should also start caring about other stuff!

it also has nothing to do with that youtube video of the guido saying “not now chief, i’m in da zone.”

being the cheapo that i am, i usually cut my own hair. and when i say cut, i don’t mean that twirly snip snip thing that hairstylists do. i mean i just grab a big chunk of it and chop it off with a pair of scissors.

so the other night, after several comments from my friends that my hair was looking suspect, i resorted to violence against it. people that know me know that i am often annoyingly self-righteous, and while i will ask for opinions, i am guilty of completely disregarding them. that night i was feeling quite satisfied with my hair, but decided to ask albert for his opinion since he was in close proximity.

“how does this look?” i swished my hair around wildly so that he couldn’t really see.
“ummm, not so good. may i?” he said.

well i never! i begrudgingly shoved the scissors at him in a shank-like motion.

after a couple of snips and some “umm hmms” he grunted his approval. i ran to the bathroom (what’s up with boys only having one mirror in their whole apartments - in the bathroom!) to check out my new do, shuddering with fear.

but then i saw it. it was good. it was better. it made me glad that i asked albert for his 2 cents.

in the past, i’d never wanted help. i’d never even wanted to be better. i just wanted to be me. but then albert came along and i realized that me with his input = a radically better me. who knew?!

does that mean that i will listen to albert all the time? i think not. but i will when it comes to my hair. it also means that albert should listen to me more because i saw him cutting up some tomatoes later on that night - with the same scissors he cut my hair with!

“shouldn’t you wash those?” i said.
“nah.”

we still have a lot to work on.

new york times posts article about green dry cleaning the day after swyyne does

the article is called “it may market organic alternatives, but is your cleaner really greener?” and addresses many of the same points that my post did.

check it out here.

congratz aneka!

thanks to everyone who wrote in about the pink razr!

one entry stood out from the pack so i had to give her props and the phone.

the lucky winner, aneka, who is orignally from germany, has volunteered for idealist.org, the world schools foundation, transportation alternatives, etc. and rides her bike every day, even in the snow!

she would like to work for the UN at some point in the future to help make life easier for those who need help.

she even sent a pic of herself as a marshall in the tour de bronx bike tour. clapping proudly*

keep up the good work everyone! and send in pics and tips if you would like to be featured.

swyyne: live from japan!

hi everyone, and greetings from the land of the rising sun! i wish i could say that i have been taking detailed notes about the efforts of my second motherland to reduce waste and conserve energy, but i have been too busy scarfing things and battling the wicked bout of allergies that i always do as soon as i arrive here (how sad is it that i am allergic to my own land??!)

i promise that as soon as i gain back my strength, i will check in with some observations (there is a whole slew of rare emoticons here that will blow you away). until then, happy new year, one love and word to the mother(land).

one life to live, one cubicle to empty

this is it.

after working diligently in the finance world for

3 years,

1 month,

and

8 days,

i am packing up the kid robot mousepad, bearbricks and cubes (remember those? goodness, they are so fun with their free downloadable accessories! - but, i digress) that never really belonged here in the first place, and i won’t be looking back.

“what?!!!” you’ve all said to me, with shaky voices and absolutely no attempt to hide the fear and confusion in your eyes. why would i leave a company that has been my home for so long -and now of all times?

i scribbled down an answer to that question and practiced it so that i could spew it out to people when they inevitably ask. but i don’t even think that it sounds right. so i’ll try to explain what i think the answer really is.

part 1. i love my job, and i know that i am lucky to be at a company like mine. but i also know that someone else, in fact thousands of people out there, could be better at, and actually want, a job like mine. so why would i be a spacefiller? ever meet a couple where one of the members blatantly dislikes the other but keeps dating them because they are either too scared to be alone or too posessive to see their mate with someone else? yeah. i don’t want to be that person.

part 2. without sounding like a cult member or something, i believe. i believe that sustainability and the movement towards a simpler, cleaner, smarter, freer (that looks weird, is that a word?) lifestyle has many advantages and very few disadvantages. i don’t think it is fair to my current employer for me to keep collecting a paycheck when my mind is constantly occupied with how i can make something more energy-efficient or how i can promote eco-sensibility to everyone on the planet. i’ve never been a cheater and i never will.

my piece being said, i am scurred.

what if i can’t find another job? what if i get sick and have no health insurance? what if i end up back in finance?!!!

this weekend, i’m going to get a balloon and blow it up with all of my fears and frustrations and release it over the east river. then, i’m going to reel it back in on a string that i’ll have attached to it beforehand because i don’t want to litter. i’m just nice like that. and i’ll give the balloon to a kid or something so the frustrations and fears will be gone. i know what you’re thinking, but as long as the kid doesn’t inhale the air in the balloon, he’ll be fine.

technically, i won’t be evacuating my generic grey cubicle with sliding glass door that adds absolutely no privacy but instead actually amplifies sound when closed, until next wednesday but i felt that i wanted to gradually start saying goodbye.

so…goodbye.

greenhouse: sometimes obvious works

greenhouse, nyc’s first eco-friendly luxury club, opened last week in soho. it seems like the natural addition to the lineup of owner john b., who also owns such hotspots as guest house and home. the venue is applying for leed certification, a designation granted by the u.s. green building council for leadership in energy and environmental design.

but don’t be fooled by greenhouse’s bamboo dancefloor, waterless urinals and recycled glass bar. there’s nothing crunchy about this space. you’ll still find all the same types of plush surroundings that grace john b.’s other clubs. they’re just green versions. a night out at a tropical retreat with two floors, multiple vip sections, and a ceiling fixture made of 5,000 crystals is an apropos way to thank yourself for those long hours you spent setting up your compost.

photos courtesy of greenhouseusa.com and guestofaguest.com which reports that kevin spacey was there on opening night!

incredible and edible

don’t read this, just watch:

amazed? i was flabbergasted!

what you just witnessed was an omurice (japanese dish consisting of fried rice covered by a blanket of soft, yellow omelette) being cut open. although the dish is most commonly dressed with ketchup, the glistening sauce you just saw burst out from between the egg was demiglace sauce, a hearty, savory brown sauce that when done right, makes me want to go dancing in the rain.

want more? here’s a peek at the series that the omurice clip comes from, lunch queen, about natsumi, whose only passion in life is finding delicious and affordable lunches. i’m hooked!

did you know that the way you can tell what color eggs a hen will lay is to look at their side wobbles (cheeks)? if they are red or brown, they will lay brown eggs. white, and they will lay white eggs.

but i digress.

to tie all of this back into the swyyne philosophy, if you’re grateful for the eggs that make our pastas, cupcakes, chawanmushis, breads, quiches and omurices oh so satisfying, buy them in cardboard cartons instead of styrofoam ones. it is such an easy change to make, and using the cardboard ones is a small way of saying thanks to the earth that these yummy yellow and clear wonders come from…well, that the chickens come from…hmm, better stay away from that one.

byob op: bring their own bags or pay

anyone who has shopped recently at euro furniture superstore ikea has noticed that the plastic bags there are not free. has that deterred people from using them? the short answer is heyl yah! 92% or approximately 64 million less ikea bags were used last year. talk about results!

not to be left in the dust yet again by the rest of the world (ahem: metric system), new york city mayor michael bloomberg has proposed a tax on plastic bags across our city. if the proposal passes, that means that you will save 6 cents on every bag you decide not to take at grocery stores and other retailers. it’s just the extra nudge that people who ask for a plastic bag for a stick of gum or a bag of chips (you know who you are) need to think, yes think, for a moment about whether or not they really must have a bag in order to carry their purchases home.

of the 6 cents, 5 cents will go to the city and 1 cent will go to the participating store as an incentive fee. officials estimate that the plan will generate $16 million a year for our city, which is not too shabby. what they may have forgotten in their calculations is that new yorkers are pretty good at taking action when they know their hard earned bucks are at stake. i estimate/hope that we will actually use less plastic bags even if the city makes less money.

here are some reusable bag options that i’m feeling right now:

baggu bags in a rainbow of colors. the muted jewel tones are very en vogue right now.

flip and tumble’s easy to roll up bags

greenworldbags are sturdy and come in fun patterns

skn has cute designs like tomato and blueberry and will plant a tree for every bag you buy!

shagbags come with cute pouches and have cinches to hold all of your belongings safely inside.

shoutout to dave h for hooking me up with the story.

keep looking »

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.