en route to NYC

Astra:

On the way to NYC to finalize apartment. Finally feels like I'll be moving into NYC. I dread the cleaning my current house and moving heavy stuff. It's a nice thing that Peter Pan buses have free Wi-Fi. I can check my email and chat and update my blog (been another month since the last update).

Somehow I feel that my typing skill has gone down. I should practise with Typer Sharks or something. Or maybe find the flash version of The Typing of the Dead. Or something....

NYC part 2

Astra:

I've just finished my internship with Andrea Blanch a couple of weeks ago. I made myself as one of the best interns to have worked with her. Ossom rite? Well, I liked the place and the people. Andrea isn't exactly an easy boss to have but she's not the hardest one either. At least I could still handle the works that she asked me to do. I'll miss the interns there and Shiva, the cat. Shiva's the only cat that I've been able to socialize with in my 25 years of existence.

About a month before my internship ended, I rented a small place in Midtown East for 2 months just to cut cost on the hotel. But the rent isn't cheap either. So, I still think on whether or not the rent is justifiable. But the place is pretty nice and the rent comes with Internet, tv cable and utilities. The room is also furnished, just that there is no food and toiletries.

The first week of living in the new apartment was pretty crazy. Had to buy some food, toiletries and some cleaning agents. The worst news is that the shower got clogged and it almost flooded out. The standing shower is only separated from the rest of the floor by about 5-6cm of partition. That partition was the only thing holding the yucky water from spilling out. I wasn't able to bathe for 2 days. So I had to call people up to get it fixed. For many reasons that I don't want to say, it was finally fixed in about 5 days from the big clog. Luckily, the landlady who owns the building let me shower in different rooms that wasn't leaking or clogged.

Both Yin and I applied for graduate schools in NY, Parsons and School of Visual Arts. Both of us completed the application near the end of January. Both Parsons and SVA accepted Yin's applications and both of them offered her scholarships! On the other hand, SVA rejected mine. What happened to Parsons? Well, they lost my RISD transcript! They were supposed to let the applicants know by April 1. Yin got hers near the end of March. I waited until April 3 to email them about it. Then I decided to call the admission office up a few days later. Only then they told me they didn't have my RISD transcript. I think if I didn't make the call, I will not be notified even until next year. So I went back to RISD and got a new transcript and personally dropped the transcript to the school. Now I'm still waiting for the letter.

Another good news is: Yin got a job! She's been working in Troy, New York. She's a 2D artist for a game company called 1st Playable Productions. Check it out! There's another friend of ours who has been working there about a year longer than Yin. Phoebe was the one who asked Yin to try to apply for the job. Troy is a small city near Albany, the supposed capital of New York state, but obviously New York City has been outshining Albany by far. It's kind of hard buying things in Troy. There's only 1 four-lane road (2 lanes for each way) as the main road and shops are sparsely located. In the weekend, the buses run in 40mins to 1hour interval so watching the schedule is crucial. One good thing about the city is that the prices are cheaper compared to Manhattan. Even slightly cheaper than Providence. Cheaper is good.

highlight of the day: none

not highlight of the day: none

NYC part 1

So I got the internship and started working for Andrea Blanch a few days prior to Christmas. Exciting huh?

Then, it was my second week interning in New York. Took Greyhound bus to come to the Big Apple from Providence. My dad came to visit on Dec 25 and Yin and I took the regional train from Pvd to Boston to pick him up since the usual taxi guy who we usually call to pick/send him from/to the airport was apparently on vacation. Yeah, it was that time of the year when everyone seems to be on vacation and no one seems to want to work. A few days before that, I needed to go back to New York and continue my internship. Being near the end of year of 2008 and being New York, the prices of the hotel stays went up a lot. The hotel that I used to stay for my first week of internship went up twice the amount that I paid. It was a Holiday Inn very near to Penn Station where I got off the train from Pvd. The hotel was comfortable, pretty roomy for a NYC hotel, free breakfast included and fast wireless internet. For the price I paid that two-night stay, it was a bargain, really.

This time, I was staying for 3 nights in another hotel called the Pod. It was more expensive than the Holiday Inn but at least internet connection was available. The room was pretty nice, but not as comfy as the Holiday Inn. It was kind of small too. But the downside is that the hotel is further away from the office and I needed to transfer once to another subway line. At least its not as expensive as the rest of the hotels near the middle of Manhattan.

Anyway, on Monday, I took the subway to Andrea’s place and there was an old Chinese guy performing with his erhu begging money inside waiting platform for the subway. There was also another guy on the same day (but this time, afternoon when I was going back to the hotel) who was drumming with a weird drum.

I still don’t like Manhattan that much. So complicated, so crowded, so extreme, so ghetto and so dirty. The subway runs literally like blood veins through Manhattan. There are like more than 25 lines running through the city towards other areas outside Manhattan borough. I got lost a couple of times.

The New Year’s Eve was hectic. Everything seemed to be closing sooner than expected on that day. As expected since the Times Square was used as the center of celebration in the Northeastern part of the US. About 10 blocks around the Times Square was closed off if not for the resident or people who are going to celebrate the coming of new year. I got off at the nick of time and zoomed to the bus terminal. Unfortunately the surrounding area was kind of blocked off. I needed to walk around several blocks to get to the bus terminal. After rushing in the midst of cold, skin piercing winds and crowds of people oblivious to our condition, I found out that the bus to Providence since 2pm on that day was cancelled due to bad weather condition. The train, by that time would have left or got cancelled as well. Finally, after trying to check into a several hotel, I decided to go back to the hotel that I stayed in and check in again. Unfortunately, the room was so costly, but I just didn’t have any choice left. I was so pissed and tired. But I still don’t know who or what to blame. It just sucks.

I found out that there might be another bus going to Providence on 830am. So I needed to wake up early morning to check out. Being so drowned in the spirit of new year, some other guests talked loudly and made noises during the night I wished I could go out and slammed their faces onto the walls. But whatever. The next morning, I phoned Greyhound and was greeted by automated answering machine that took my call. I had to took a taxi to the bus terminal and found that the bus to Providence was still cancelled. At least I found out later that the train was running. So took the train back to Providence.

I really don’t like the crowdedness, messiness and complexity of NYC.

in the past few weeks...

Astra:

time to recap from last post.

thanksgiving (this year fell on the Nov 27) was awesome! yin and i were invited to Uncle Ed's sweet home fr Americana thanksgiving dinner, complete with turkey! they thought that since it's our first as-real-as-can-be thanksgiving dinner, turkey was a must! yin's been craving a whole turkey since we arrived here years ago. of course i didn't give her that since we don't know how to cook a whole turkey with all its stuffing. even if we do know how to prepare and cook it, that one whole turkey is too big for the two of us. sharing the turkey with a few of our friends would not even finish the turkey. all i got for her in the past few years was turkey hams or slices of turkey meat in the restaurants that we dined in.

anyway, there was a lot of food in the house. Aunt Jill's parents were there and so were her sister, the husband and their girls. the girls were lively as they met their cousins. in total, there were five girls jumping around, running around, and making noises in the house.

two weeks ago, i went for an interview for Markus Klinko and Indrani studio in NY. they have a list of high-profile clients so i was eager to get the internship. unfortunately i didn't. i wonder if i had missed anything. the internship was 5-6 days a week, unpaid, possibility of overtime and weekend shift and very busy. sounded very interesting even though it's unpaid.

after that, i looked again for another internship opportunity in craigslist. i found Andrea Blanch's request for an intern and applied. that same day an email came back from her asking me to call her. I rang her the next day and when i finally got got talk to her, she said that she wanted to meet me. so yesterday yin and i went over to her work place to meet her. we were greeted by her and her cat. so while i was conversing with Andrea, yin was occupied by the cat who was showing her the kitchen (according to her). there were 3 other interns (i think) who were crowding around one computer doing some work. Andrea said that she'll be calling me before the weekend to let me know if and when i'll be working. looks like i got it this time?

prior to that, i went over to B&H photo super store to trade in my old 18-70mm with 18-105mmm VR. the store was really cool! lots of gadgets and electronics on display such as telescopes, binoculars, video equipment, photo kits (lighting, cameras, lenses tripods, reflectors and many others), computers and monitors, printing papers, audio equipment (i finally got to try my ears on the critically acclaimed Grado SR60 headphone and i love it) and more. basically, all, if not most, of the stuff you can find in the website, you can find them at the store. the experience was arguably better and radically different from the minimalist and simple interior design of Apple stores. what's more interesting is the system that they use to transport goods. there are rails/trolleys overhead that send stuff from their storage room to the sales booth. the goods are transported on a green cart from the storage to the booth and then to the pickup point after you pay for your purchases. all you need to lug is the receipts that you would pay at the cashier. there is also a waiting room near the exit for those who prefer not to navigate the crowded store or wait for their friends or family members to go around the two-storey gigantic shop drooling over gadgets that they would want to own or, will own after paying. i was drooling too.

so, after looking around at most of the store, i queued to purchase my lens. the front-most person in line will be announced to go to the next booth available with a dome-shaped speaker system above your head. after telling the salesperson that i want to purchase the lens, he keyed in my phone number which has been stored in their database (since i used to buy some stuff from their online store) and asked the storage room to send the lens to him. after waiting for about a minute, the lens came in the green cart below the sales desk (you can see the carts whizzing from one far end of the rail to another end of the rail while you queue). then, he gave me the receipt. after paying, i finally got to pick up the lens.

the weather was crazy yesterday. in the morning, it was raining and everything was wet. as i went out of the house, it started raining ice pellets which upon hitting the ground, melted to merge with the puddles. in new york, it was a mix of rain, sleet and snow with snow ultimately lasted until the night.

it was tiring yesterday, but the trip was pretty worth it.

Narutofan Paypal subscription cancellation

Astra:

i was finally able to cancel my subscription to Narutofan Manga Plus after a long year of paying for not using the bloody service. Tazmo, the webmaster/owner of Narutofan has been labeled as a scam-artist by many. the subscription said to be a donation to maintain the manga/anime servers. but most reports seem to indicate that he has been taking the money for himself. the best thing is that there is no unsubscribe option in the profile's control panel of the website.

what to do if you, a random subscriber of narutofan Plus account, stumbled or googled the topic and found my blog? i have sent a few cancellation notice from the support menu on the narutofan plus! site. but all of them got closed even without replying. like the ones below:






if you, a random member of narutofan free member, thinking of upgrading and paying US $8.00 per month seems worth the downloadable stuff and found my post, please DO NOT subscribe. i don't know how many people still go to narutofan.com for their daily dose of anime and manga. but there are other sites if you search well enough. i present to you complaints about narutofan plus! services here:

ripoffreport.com1
ripoffreport.com2
stoptazmo.com -> a whole site dedicated to, well, stop tazmo, the webmaster of narutofan and the one who had been accused of plundering the subscription money all to himself. you need to scroll down a little to look at the forum.

if you, a random subscriber of narutofan plus! thinking of unsubscribing but without any result from the forum. try cancelling your subscription via PayPal. follow these steps:
1. log into your PayPal account
2. under the History drop down menu, click on Basic Search or Advanced Search
3. under the Show drop down menu, choose Subscriptions.
4. if you remember the date when you started your subscription, find it. if you don't remember the date, search within the time frame (1 year, 2 years and so on).
5. click on the Search button
6. hopefully you could find your narutofan plus! subscription start date that you want to cancel.
7. click on the Details for the narutofan plus! services subscription
8. find and click on the Cancel Subscription button
9. on the next confirmation page, click again on the Cancel Subscription
10. done!

hopefully this post could help someone out there looking for a way to unsubscribe from the service.

finally...

Astra:

wow. the last entry was 2 months ago. well, almost. it's scary how fast time flies, not stopping for anyone. i'm still trying to find a job/internship regardless of the economy. i know that the economy sucks right now but that's not for me to fix. all i have been hearing is that it's somewhat getting worse everyday. now that Obama will take the seat as the next president of this ultra-influential country, i hope that he could fix this. mind you, i'm not a supporter of Obama or McCain but they're both seem to better than Bush so, i'm glad.

mom's been giving me her support and helping me to source for options should i not get a job/internship soon. initially she wanted me to come back to Asia and look out for openings in China or Taiwan. i said, like hell i'm goin to China! the nearest i'd go is Taiwan. Hong Kong would be fine too. but now even in China people are getting sacked n salary cut. the impact of global trading and globalization is really severe. not to mention that we are getting even more connected somehow as the internet grows even bigger and inseparable from many people, especially those whose business depends a lot on the connectivity of the internet.

yin's been doing very well in Charlesbridge, a small book publishing company that seems to focus on young adults and children's books. both of us have been wondering if the company would eventually hire her at the end of her internship period. from what she told me, the small company definitely needs one or two more people in the office to help out. even so, it seems that the economic condition has put a leash on the company. i heard some people in the company got a pay-cut. lucky it's not a job-cut.

speaking of a job-cut, a good friend of mine had recently been pushed out of his job. he got a job in Massachusetts and even moved very near to the office. after about 5 months working in the company as an intern who progressed into almost full-time-like, he was sent packing out of the office. from him, i heard that there was another girl in another company who was also cut off her job. i also noticed that there are more higher-up jobs available now since there are many people in higher-level and lower-level jobs getting sacked.

maybe, i need to go back to school, get a degree in another field (not that i don't want to get a master's degree in photo, but it just doesn't seem possible at this moment) and wait for the economic condition to turn for the better. i mean, it should get back on its feet, right? we haven't even recovered fully from the turmoil in 1998 and here we are with another big-ass economic downfall.

enough of the sad story. this Thanksgiving, we'll be goin to Uncle Ed's house in New Haven, Connecticut. Yin's dream of having a turkey dinner for Thanksgiving would finally be fulfilled. we're both looking forward to it.

i think up to date, since July, i have sent about 30 odd applications. seems so little after 5 months of looking for job but not that i can help it. there isn't many position that i found. even internship. all the reply that i've got so far are rejection letters apologizing for not interested in me.

highlight of the day: Lamborghini Gallardo in Need for Speed Undercover rox!

not highlight of the day: so damn cold.

useless stuff

I will update soon. meanwhile, look at the picture above.