warehouse sales

i went to the SFERRA outlet/warehouse sale today. it was insane. i got there at 7.30am (it opened at 7am) - and it was a zoo. apparently, ppl are swarming at the entrance half an hour before opening time, waiting for this event all year. but i have to say it was worth it. i bought two new sheet sets, duvet cover, sheets, and two towel sets all for the price of say, one duvet cover, normal price. let me tell you, there is no reason to buy anything at full price. there's a Malo sale today in the city. it may be cold in nyc, but boy, the sample sales are good.

i just wish they had the same thing for tableware. i've got great sheets, great towels and great furniture. now i just need new dishes!

oh, and lights too. i need some better lighting, bc man does it get dark early.

fall is here...

and may not last for very long. it was 39degrees outside this morning when i woke up. at least it's not raining. sunny, but cold. makes me want one of these. Like now. my dad's got a gas fireplace at his place. it's pretty sweet.

in california ppl have fireplaces but never use them. i used to wonder why they were in houses in LA at all. but now if i could have one, i would. it makes the air smell good, and more importantly the house warm. but central heating works pretty well too.

what a boring post. i've got to come up with a more entertaining way about this.

i'm back!!!!

i've moved to new jersey. my hair is no longer curly. i live by myself. wow, life has changed a lot. and i'm about to brace for the winter.

now why have i come back to the blogsphere? that's the real question. my answer? because i love home & garden. if you know what i'm doing these days, then that makes sense. if you don't, well, don't think i'm a sweet homemaker looking to be the perfect housewife for the perfect husband. not me.

but i do like kitchen sinks. i like kitchen sinks a lot. and kitchens, yeah, kitchens too.

on the money

from Guy Kawasaki's blog: I could not agree more.

If you want additional proof that we’re in a bubble, here it is: young people are trying to get into the venture capital business again. I get several emails a week along these lines:

I’m about to graduate from college where I majored in economics. I’ve always been interested [what does “always” mean for a twenty-something year old, but I digress...] in business and entrepreneurship and ran my school’s entrepreneurship club. I’ve been working as an analyst for Goldman, Sachs, and now I’d like to get into the venture capital business to further my understanding of entrepreneurship and to help startups achieve success by tapping into my knowledge base. I am adept with PowerPoint, Excel, and PhotoShop.

They see a wonderful job: going to cocktail parties and networking events, flying in private jets, and getting sucked up to by entrepreneurs while pulling down a base salary of $500,000/year plus a piece of the upside of selling a YouTube for $1.6 billion. Who wouldn’t want such a job? (Frankly, I would too.)

First, a rare moment of Guy-Kawasaki humility: I am by no means “proven” as a venture capitalist. I’ve been in this game for about ten years, but I don’t have the mega-hit that “makes” a fund. Thus, I may not be a source of good advice about getting into this business, but when has the lack of knowledge stopped a blogger?

Regardless, here’s my advice to all the Biffs, Sebastians, Brooks, and Tiffanys who want to be kingmakers:

Venture capital is something to do at the end of your career, not the beginning. It should be your last job, not your first.

My theory is that when you’re young, you should work eighty hours a week to create a product or service that changes the world. You should not sit in board meetings listening to an entrepreneur explaining why she missed her numbers while you read email on a Blackberry and intermittently spew forth gems like, “You should partner with MySpace; I can also introduce you to a few of the losers in our portfolio.”

Furthermore, entrepreneurs should view any young person who opted for venture capital over “real world” experience with contempt. Why would you want advice from someone whose background consists of working in a college bookstore or cranking spreadsheets at an investment bank? Financial models are almost totally irrelevant because there’s no financial wizardry involved in making a good product and selling the heck out of it.

hear hear

From an article i read today in informationweek.com magazine:
(okay, so maybe i'm a geek, a little bit)

"One of the biggest challenges of Web2.0 is how to define and improve the user experience. The challenge is to amaze and delight users, give them what they want, and surprise them with stuff they didn't know they wanted."

So please, stop starting new photosharing communities!

just for me

my alarm is going off, omg, what is that noise?? i roll over, grab blindly for my blackberry and push a button, any button. it's 5:52am. i never set my alarm clock at a multiple of five, it gives me more time to snooze. slowly, my senses start to wake up, i moan and turn and curl up, no, don't ring yet, be silent, stay dark, let me sleep - "do-do-do-do-do-do-do bzzbzzbzzbzz" - damn the vibrate and ring mode. ten minutes have passed already. but it's 6:02 now isn't it? ha, i have four more minutes until 6:05. i am a genius.

but for two weeks now, i've been doing it - Monday through Friday. (i know that's not very long, but hey, i can barely do anything everyday for two whole weeks!) it's still dark outside, i stumble into the bathroom, brush my teeth, change, throw my work clothes in my bag, and don't forget the shoes so i'm not wearing flip flops with workclothes... and off i go. and you know what? i love it. driving to work after practice at 8am, i have plenty of time, i stop in at il fornaio for a 2% latte, one shot - just enough for the health benefits, but not so much that it'll shoot me to the moon. i shower at work and i'm at my desk by quarter to nine. perfect.

but most importantly? it's just for me. this insane routine of waking up before the sun has, getting in a room with 25+ other ppl much more dedicated and much more advanced than i am, completely shutting off my brain, shutting off the outside world, and focusing only on my body and my breath. (do i sound like a junkie yet? ;)

i spend much of my life doing things for other people, consciously or subconsciously. and don't get me wrong, i like most all the things i do, but rarely is it just for me. stanford - best decision of my life - but clearly not just for me. church, religion, piano, music - all building blocks of my life who make me who i am today, but much moreso for my mother. banking, venture, my career, my future - are these for me? perhaps, but i'm not so sure. where i will live, who i will share my life with, choices and more choices - all of those must take into account different people. losing weight, eating, i could go on and on. and like i said, there are parts of everything that i do enjoy and do for myself, but not just for myself. so i have always found little things to fill my life with, to in part create a hodgepodge of twinklings that are simply and sweetly to my fancy.

and yoga every morning? it is just that. two hours of my very own time, in which i'm focused, working, disciplined, and silent. and the reprieve, rush and accomplishment i feel afterwards. it's like buying an expensive handbag, finding a brilliant pair of shoes, exploring the streets of London, baking chocolate bread pudding and spiced cream from scratch, gingerbread lattes and pumpkin pie - but with none of the guilt, and so much more productivity and some pretty good health benefits. so let's see if it lasts. i really hope it does. but damn, am i tired by 10pm.

highway robbery

WARNING: THE ABOVE PRODUCT IS DECEPTIVELY EXPENSIVE. VIEW PRICE TAG BEFORE PURCHASE.

Or you will fall into the same mistake I did: going home with a $20.00 jar of fancy peanut butter, aka almond butter. Fine it tastes a lot better, and it's better for you, but not $15 better. I mean, hell, organic peanut butter is already damn expensive.

And let me tell you, I will savor every lick of it. And, no, I'm certainly not sharing.

;)

learning

i haven't been very busy at work recently, so i've been voraciously reading about yoga. iyengar, ashtanga, mysore,desikachar, paris, you name it. it's fascinating.

something i read today: "...for him the practice was about being at the wall. If you take away the wall, or spend your time trying to figure out how to remove the wall, you have completely missed the point. Maybe, maybe hopefully, this is about your mind, and soul, and something a little deeper than how to get your fingers to touch.....And things are meant to happen here, not over days, but over months. That’s what makes them lived and experienced, not told or spoken."

there's something possessive about ashtanga. it's bizarre.