November 2004 Archives

In moving to New York, we've been trying to establish a pattern of buying and cooking food, and nothing has really worked so far. We've always tried to stress the importance of buying organic foods, but sometimes we just can't afford it. Or maybe it's the sticker shock. Like buying a half gallon of milk for $5. But in the end, I usually end up feeling guilty when I buy milk from one of the big-ass companies, and I'm never happy with the taste. It's so...flat.

So mostly we've been trying to mix it up, buying organic when we can, and crappy industrial stuff in the interim. It doesn't help that we live in a semi-ghetto and the selection of grocery stores (Met, Key) is less than desirable. OK, their selection of food is less than desirable, apparently they have much more produce and choice in more affluent areas. So we've been doing a mixture of Fresh Direct, going to Chinatown, occasional trips to the aforementioned grocery stores, and once in a blue moon a visit to a greenmarket.

I've also considered joining Urban Organic, but it just feels so...expensive. $33 a week for a box of organic veggies delivered to your door. Convenient, but pricey. However, after reading this op-ed by Dan Farber, it renews my belief that it's worth paying more money for good food, as often as I can.

It's also frustrating to me that the community that I live in does not have as much access to fresh, healthy food. There must be alternatives...

article via Kottke

Walmart's been getting a lot of press lately this week. For some strange reason. Or maybe I'm just noticing it more, after watching Frontline last week. Or maybe it's because the Christmas season is right on our doorstep. Sigh.

Women vs. Wal-Mart (from Salon)
Wal-Mart concedes China can make unions(NY Times)
Is Walmart Good for America? (Frontline)

I haven't posted anything in almost a month and it's almost Thanksgiving. Time flies when you're having fun. Somehow over the weekend Wayne and I figured out that our apartment was not optimally set up, so we went into a rearranging frenzy in the middle of the night. What a difference it's made! It's not like we bought any new furniture (ok, well 3 new pots for repotting some plants), but it's amazing what moving things around can do.

We put the bookcase in the middle of the living room instead of against the wall, so we gained twice the storage space. Then we moved the "dining" table (it's tiny) into an unused space underneath the stairs. We also moved a light to that area and it's completely changed the atmosphere. It's always been too dark between the living room and the kitchen, and unfriendly feeling. But now it feels open and airy, even though there's a table and four chairs next to the stairway now.

It's funny how it's difficult to really evaluate the space you live in until you step away from it somehow. I think it was the coffee from Zabar's that did it.

so i never thought there was really a contest between google and yahoo. Google's always been so savvy with thinking up of better ways of doing things in a really clean way, while yahoo just seemed to add clutter to their site. i've been seeing ads up all around town for yahoo! local, and one day i went to their site to see what the deal was. (i haven't used yahoo for anything in a very long time, having been a google convert years ago.)

well, i think yahoo's beat google at the "local" level. It's exactly what I've been looking for...an application that allows me to search for a business in an area that I'm going to. Superpages never cut it, their interface was confusing and used java (boo!). Google's interface isn't really cut out for the way I want my information. But Yahoo seemed to get it...there was a map of all the places in the category I wanted, within a certain distance. It listed a web site for the business if one existed. Finally, Yahoo's gotten something right.