|
|
|
Chocolate.Public television.Foreign/indie film.Modern art.Int'l travel.Foreign language.Performance art.Cats.Birds.Butterflies.
more
|
Activity Summary
|
|
Reviews Written: 83
|
|
Member Visits: 2,211
|
|
Total Visits: 40,561
|
|
|
About yippee1999
|
EPINIONS HAS GONE COMPLETELY DOWN THE TUBES!!
IS IT JUST ME?? FOR THE PAST FEW MONTHS, EVEN THOUGH I'VE WRITTEN REVIEWS AND HAD A NUMBER OF HITS, I'M NOT EARNING ANYWHERE NEAR WHAT I USED TO. DID EL-CHEAPO'S CHANGE THE SYSTEM? I MEAN, IT'S SO HARD TO UNDERSTAND THE "SYSTEM" THEY USE ANYWAY TO PAY US!! VERY DISAPPOINTING... THIS SITE USED TO BE REALLY GOOD.
I apologize if the line spacing here is messed up. Everytime I edit my bio here, for some reason, all these extra paragraph returns get auto-inserted, even when I go in and try to later DELETE them!! Arrgghhh!
WELCOME FELLOW EPINIONERS!
Originally from Boston. I'm 38 years old. Have two cats.
My taste in the arts is usually not that of mainstream Americans. My thoughts on gender roles, marriage, family etc. are also not the same as most people. I love to travel, esp. outside of the US. I consider myself a "gourmand", although I confess to loving KFC! I'm a definite "city person", although I like the "countryside" too ... but only to visit!
Epinions Pet peeves:
Revenge Ratings.
Inappropriately high ratings just cuz of the WOT.
Anonymous Not Helpful's.
Reviewers that favorably mention other reviewers within the body of a review, as a way to score points with various members of the community.
Women with profile names such as "momofJacob" or "motheroftwo". I'm sorry, but I didn't realize that once women had babies, their whole persona has to change from being a vital, interesting, individual human being to someone who now sees herself simply as a "mom", and not as a multi-dimensional person who HAPPENS to be a mom, as well as perhaps a writer, an ESL volunteer, and a lover of horror film. Why do you see so many profile names containing "momof...", but not "dadof..."? Because so many women continue to define themselves by their children.
...I call 'em as I see 'em folks!! :)
MY THOUGHTS ON THE WHOLE 9/11 THING...
As I've mentioned elsewhere on this site, I don't think accounts of 9/11, or thoughts on it, are appropriate within a "review".
I had only been living in NYC 5 mos., and was still adjusting to life in a new city, when 9/11 occurred. My office was located at World Financial Center, directly across from the World Trade Center. I was on the street, walking to my office, when everything occurred. I won't recount all the details, which we all know by now, but suffice to say that it was surreal. I was on total auto-pilot, and, unlike most people around me, who were either bonding with strangers around them, or crying, etc., I was more like a lone soldier, concentrating on my own survival. Other than the moments where a sound or flying objects caused me to run for my life, I was extremely calm and lucid, my brain constantly thinking... "... if there's going to be any more bombs, it's going to be downtown... head NORTH... keep going NORTH.... do NOT take the subway, because that would be another likely target..."... that kind of thing. I called my family to let them know I was OK, and even had the wherewithall to dial-in to my message services for my home and cell phones, and change my outgoing messages telling any concerned callers that I was "OK".
Now, almost 5 months later, I and my co-workers are still working in my company's offices in midtown, since our downtown office space was damaged. Everything to do with work is in a state of temporary-ness(?).... the midtown space is overcrowded with all us "refugees" from downtown... I share my desk with another person, as does most everyone here, regardless of their level. We had to start all over from scratch, most of our ongoing work and paper files having been "trashed" in our downtown office space. We are still living out of boxes here, and often have technical problems due to the system being overloaded, since it is now handling twice its normal capacity. There is much uncertainty at work as well, since we know that at some point, we WILL be going back down to the World Financial Center, just as soon as they finish reburbishing, cleaning, etc. our floors. Of course most of us are quite ambivalent, and in some cases very certain, that we do NOT want to go back downtown. Can you imagine having to work across from a black hole, hearing constant construction, and constantly replaying in your mind what the view out your office window USED to look like? In addition, our commutes will also be more difficult, as the route many of us took to get to the office is no longer passable. So not only is my day-to-day personal life in NY somewhat altered by what happened, but even my job was affected. So nothing is the same anymore....
MY THOUGHTS ON "WHY" THIS HAPPENED, THE EMOTIONAL AFTERMATH, AND THE "WAR ON TERRORISM"...
Obviously what the terrorists did was deplorable and unfounded. If anything, I hope US citizens have now come to understand why it is so important that we are up to speed on US actions abroad, and how those actions are perceived by the world at large. Yes, this country has much to be proud of, but we are not perfect. Also, like any other country, we citizens are also fed "propaganda" by the government and the media (i.e., all the "patriotism-inducing" war films that are out all of a sudden). People need to get their news from all kinds of news sources, NOT just from the local TV stations or the local ragtag newspaper. I often read newspapers published in other countries, to get a sense of what the rest of the world is thinking. Whether we agree with how other countries think of us or NOT, it DOES matter. It is in our OWN self-interest that we constantly keep tabs on how we are perceived. We should NOT dismiss the opinions of other countries, but rather take them all into account when considering any US actions abroad. It's just "smart business".
As to the emotional "hysteria" of sorts that was so rampant in NYC these past few months, while some of it has been understandable, certain aspects I have found nauseating. Some victims families' have said that the money they've received is not "sufficient", while other groups rallying for the families have come up with specific dollar amounts they feel the families are "due". While I do not mean to belittle what happened, I feel that, in the current climate, people feel they cannot say "no" or "enough!" to the families, because to do so would be "unpatriotic". Unfortunately, people die everyday, sometimes suddenly, sometimes in equally tragic but different manners, and their families somehow deal with it. Why should these deaths, horrific as they were, be SOOOOO different? I have no problem with SOME "compensation", but I feel the hysteria has swung too far the other way.
As to Ground Zero, and the viewing stands, I can certainly understand people's wanting to see the area for themselves, as did I afterwards. And while I understand why some area residents find the notion of the stands "disgusting", I think the city did a good job in thinking through all of it. One way or another, people WERE going down there en masse to witness the destruction, so why not make it so that it can be done in a more orderly fashion, while also helping to eliminate congestion in the streets and sidewalks?
As to the "war", I fear that Bush is starting to feel a bit too "confident", and that we may be rushing into too many other countries sometime soon. We always need to wonder what the US government's TRUE motives are anytime they do something militarily. As we have already seen, if bin Laden could operate his network out of a bunch of caves, he (or one of his high level operatives) can easily continue to do so from ANY OTHER location. In addition, his network already covers a large number of countries. It may be impossible for us to make it so that they are completely unable to operate. We also need to keep in mind that, just because we have not had any further attacks here since 9/11, that that does NOT mean other things are not brewing. The 9/11 attacks had been planned for TEN years, so if anything, it shows us that these terrorists are EXTREMELY PATIENT, that they do NOT just act on impulse, and that they do NOT forget what they see as transgressions against them or other people/countries they support. The knowledge of this makes me very nervous about the next 10-15 years out....
BEST OF NY SHOPPING!
Food: La Bergamote (9th Ave. around 19th Street) for pastry, Fat Witch Brownies (Chelsea Market), Silver Moon Bakery (Bway around 105th), Eli's fresh pasta - available at Zabar's, Neuhaus chocolates (Bway around 76th Street?), Whole Foods Supermarket (7th Ave. at 24th St.) for all- around the best food shopping for meats, fish, produce, cheese, prepared foods...., Citarella (Bway around 78th?) for meats.
Women's high-fashion/unique clothing: Kirna Zabete (Soho... maybe Mercer St.?), IF Boutique (Grand St. in Soho), Seven (Orchard Street, just south of Houston) and of course Barney's (Madison around 61st)
Household stuff: Gracious Home (Bway around 65th) - this place has a wide range of stuff - limited selection - but all very high quality, and the staff is excellent; Bed, Bath & Beyond (6th Ave. around 24th?) - wide range of stuff of a generally good quality.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2008 Shopping.com, Inc.