Take a tour of Google NYC Usability lab
The crew of Information Week visited Google recently and got an exclusive sneak preview of the redesign of the Google Docs editors that was launched today. They concluded that Google Docs is now ready to Take Microsoft Office Head On.
(You can find much more information and cool videos on Information Week’s special page on Google Docs)
During their visit, David Berlind took some time to visit the usability lab and to discuss with me how User Research helps shape Google products. Take a look!
Last 2 days to sponsor my meditation marathon
Sit Down, Rise Up!
A reminder to all of my friends that on Saturday I’m participating at the Interdependence Project marathon and I need your help.
As you can read in my previous post, I will be publicly sitting for 4 hours on Saturday, between 11AM and 3PM, in support of the Interdependence Project. This is the annual fund raising for this great non profit organization.
Showing your support is easy: visit this page, select your amount, and add my name in the “Name of sitter” field.
I know you want to do it, and the time is short! Come to the event, which is hosted by the ABC Carpet and Home at the corner between Broadway and 19th street, to see me sitting still and to get free meditation classes with three great teachers: Roshi O’Hara, Dr. Miles Neale, and Robert Chender. The classes are at 12:00PM, 2PM and 5:3pPM. If you want to learn more about meditation, now is the time.
Meb Keflezighi wins the NYC Marathon
Meb Keflezighi (right) around the 8th mile on Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn (Photo by Antonella Pavese)
This was my first time watching the NYC Marathon. It was an amazing experience. The entire neighborhood was in the street, cheering, making noise, dancing, and having fun, welcoming with the same enthusiastic support the first runners and the last runners, the fast and the slow, as people of all races and ages streamed through.
Go, John!
More picture of the NYC Marathon seen from Brooklyn »
Sponsor me, as I sit still.
Sit Down, Rise Up!
You might know that I am part of the Interdependence Project (IDP), a non-profit organization based in Manhattan blending meditation, art, and activism. On November 7, I will meditate for 4 hours as part of a 24-hour meditation marathon organized to support IDP’s annual fundraising.
Donations collected for the 24-hour marathon will be used to fund classes on Buddhist meditation and philosophy, to take actions on social issues, and to sponsor art projects. The IDP practices integral activism, an approach to progressive social transformation that connects personal experience with political work and our efforts to transform society.
Why am I asking you to give money to the Interdependence Project?
Because I care deeply about the IDP and I want this organization to thrive. I also want you to learn about IDP’s unique approach to personal and social activism. The IDP project survives Manhattan’s high rents (we are on the Bowery in the LES) and program expenses through donations and low-fee classes. Among the many IDP programs: college tutoring for people getting out of prison, a project to eliminate plastic bags from New York through a combination of public events, awareness raising, and legislative action; art workshops.
All this, combined with the informal, non-cultish, and smart community, makes the ID project one the best place to be mindful in NYC. Your donations will help a great cause and will be tax deductible.
How can you help?
I will be sitting for 4 hours during a 24 relay meditation event, and I’m asking to sponsor my effort with an hourly donation to our non-stop, group meditation marathon. For example, a $2/hour donation offers the IDP $48, but you can donate as much or little as you want.
I will be sitting between 11AM and 3PM on November 7th, in a window at the ABC Carpet and Home at the corner between Broadway and 19th street. Pass by to take a picture and make faces as I try to sit still. As you may expect, I will be sitting there no matter what. But 4 hours of meditation are hard stuff, and your donation will keep me motivated and warm and fuzzy.
To donate, please visit this page, select, your amount, and add my name in the “Name of sitter” field.
With gratitude,
Antonella
The City that always sleeps on the subway
The cheerful person who defined New York City as the city that never sleeps must have never stepped on a subway car.
There is no time of the day, no subway line, no neighborhood that is immune from the army of NYC subway car sleepers. We sleep in the morning and in the evening, but also at lunch time and in the early afternoon. We sleep crossing downtown Brooklyn, we nap in Gramercy and Soho, we snooze in Forrest Hill, Washington Heights, and the Bronx.
Some subway travelers sleep lightly, their eyes gently shut and sitting straight as if meditating, still holding a book or a bag. Some sleep hard, falling down from their seat, leaning on the person on their side, snoring, and sometimes missing their stop. People can even sleep standing on their feet, their forehead on the metal bar.
Train sleeping crosses all the boundaries of race, age, economic status. Entire families find harmony in shared sleep time on the hard seats of a subway car. We all come together in the sweet arms of Underground Morpheus.
New York is the city that is chronically sleep deprived, and takes naps on the subway.
[See 800 more pictures of NYC subway sleeping on Flickr]
[Sleep Bonus: Look at politicians sleeping at public events.]
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