This Can’t Be Real Life

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Le Sigh. Let me tell you what happened to me Tuesday night.

But first, let me give you a little bit of background. I completely hate my apartment complex. If you can imagine any problem that you could have with an apartment, I have had it. I’ve had an infestation by a colony of mice, ginormous furry spiders descending on me from my ceiling, flying ants, water leaks,  dinosaur sized roaches, power outages, cabinets falling off of the walls, extremely creepy neighbors, and the icing on the cake: my kitchen ceiling caving in.  I moved to Philly sight unseen (I do NOT recommend that you do this. EVER) because I got a new job and literally had to drop everything and move there within four weeks. The apartment complex had beautiful pictures online, claimed that it was eco-friendly, and that my unit was newly renovated. In reality, they are complete slumlords that make their money off of unsuspecting people moving in that break their leases a few months later at a ridiculously high cost to high tail it out of there because of all of the craziness that occurs there.

So, back to Tuesday night. Around 10 pm I was laying on my couch watching Youtube and drifting into a really nice sleep when I started to hear a sound that was similar to static electric. I had been hearing this sound all week but could not figure out where it was coming from. My apartment is located directly over the boiler room of the apartment complex, so I figured that it was just some machine making a noise. A few minutes later, I heard a noise that was similar to in the movies when they turn an electric chair on. A really high voltage like sound.  This continued for a few seconds. Next, I started hearing popping sounds. Then there was an explosion and the lights went out.  I looked out my window and saw that my building and the building next door did not have power.  I fumbled around in the dark to find my flashlight and my shoes. When I turned on my flashlight, I realized that my apartment was quickly filling with smoke from the basement.  I grabbed my keys and my bag, a folder filled with all of my important documents, unplugged everything and ran out into the hallway. My neighbor was in the hallway as well and said that her apartment was filling with smoke too.

I went to call 911 but of course I forgot to grab my phone so I went outside and asked someone to dial 911 because there was an explosion in the basement.  All of the tenants in the apartment complex started to file outside and were sitting on the steps in front of my apartment in their pajamas and wondering what had happened. They sent five fire trucks, police, an ambulance, and a police helicopter.  I had to let the firefighters into the building to check my apartment, so I was able to go back and get my phone.  It turns out that my landlords/slumlords had all of the power lines in both buildings connected to one solitary power source in the boiler room under my apartment. With everyone running their air conditioners due to the unusually hot weather, the circuits got overloaded and literally spontaneously combusted.

Around 1am, our property owner showed up and let us know that everything was under control and that the power would be restored by morning. In the meantime, they had set up a Red Cross disaster center at a local school with cots and food so that we could go to sleep there and then return in the morning when the power was back on.  Well, we got to this supposed disaster center and all they had for us were some hard metal chairs and some pringles and coffee. No food and no beds. Around 4am they told us that it was safe to go home.

The whole 6 hours that this was happening, I kept saying out loud “This can’t be real life. This can’t be real life.” It was literally like a scene out of a movie. I have never had something that crazy happen to me before.  I will be moving out on Monday. I can’t take anymore of this foolishness. My new apartment is wonderful and I will share more about it when I move. Now, if you will excuse me, I have a scathing google review to write about my apartment complex.

Coursera.org – A Really Cool Website for Those Who Love to Learn

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Remember when you were in undergrad and there were always those one or two really interesting sounding classes that you wanted to take but couldn’t fit into your schedule? Or perhaps you have been out of school for a while and want a refresher on some subjects. Well here’s your chance. Introducing Coursera.org.

I was perusing my Twitter feed a few weeks ago when one of my friends tweeted that she had just signed up for a free finance class on a website. I clicked through to the website and saw that not only were they offering finance, but they were also offering other cool classes like Cryptography, Intro to Pharmacology, and my personal favorite, Intro to Sustainability, among many others. 

The best thing about this site is that the classes are offered through really amazing colleges and universities including Harvard. The classes are interactive and have assignments and even final exams in some cases! I see huge potential in this being a great tool for high school students to use to determine what their career interests are and to get acclimated to the academic rigor of college.

 I signed up for the finance class but I definitely plan on signing up for more once my schedule allows me to. I was really inspired as I read through the course listing. It is admirable that these schools are offering access to these courses for free! The philosophy and management courses look particularly interesting to me.  I am so glad that my friend recommended this website and I knew that I had to pay it forward and share it as well. I’ll keep you posted on my Coursera experience as I go through the course.

Round Two

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My computer died last night. My electronics are all staging a revolt against me! My battery and charger are both completely fried. I am waiting on replacement parts in the mail. If I can get at least another year out of that computer, I will purchase a MacBook in Fall 2013.  In the meantime, I will see if my old computer from undergrad still works. If not, I will resume posting next week  -___-

Why I Quit Cable [Part 2]

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The first day without cable was torture. I decided to return my cable box to the cable company on a Thursday. In hindsight, I probably should have waited until Monday to cancel my cable so that I would at least have had the opportunity to indulge in the weekend TV lineup one last time, but I quit cold turkey. By day two without cable, I was doing just fine. In the end, it wasn’t about how expensive having cable had become. Rather, it was about how much time that I was spending watching TV that really bothered me. Once I quit cable, I had time for so many other things that I had been putting off. I started to go hiking on weekends. I read a lot more. I took a standardized test that I postponed five times. I try out new restaurants and bars with friends. I also attempt to cook a lot more (and I fail most of the time).

Don’t get me wrong. I still watch some TV shows but just not nearly as many as I use to. I continue to watch Pretty Little Liars, which is available for free online, and I watch CBS’ Big Brother.  The only time I really turn on my TV now is to watch DVD’s on Netflix. I am four DVD’s away from watching every single movie in my Netflix queue, so after I am through with those I will cancel my Netflix subscription. Most movies can be rented from the local library for free and for any new releases, Blockbuster has those convenient kiosks where you can rent movies for a couple of bucks.

I’m not saying that watching TV is bad or that everyone should get rid of cable. I’m just acknowledging that TV was a major time leech for me and I’m glad that I have so many extra hours now and more motivation to try new things.  Did you get rid of your cable or have you recently reduced the amount of TV that you watch? I would love to hear about it!

-Sylvia

Slow Down

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I have been super busy over the past few days. As such, I have been feverishly trying to cram a lot into my evenings. Last night I found myself: 1. Watching the season premier of Big Brother (the only show that I watch on regular TV since I quit cable a few months ago), 2. Editing an essay, 3. Chatting with a friend on g-chat, 4. Listening to Pandora radio, 5. Chatting with some friends on Kakao Talk via text on my phone, 6. Looking up a recipe, 7. Surfing Facebook, 8. Eating a snack, and 9. Pondering the meaning of life, all simultaneously. I have a serious habit of multitasking. I just kept opening more and more windows on my computer and adding more unnecessary stress on myself. Finally I looked up at my clock and saw that it was really late, and I knew that I had to cook lunch for the next day and to prepare a snack.  I turned off my TV but kept my Pandora playing and continued on with my conversation with my friends as I headed to my kitchen.

I decided that spaghetti would be a quick and easy meal so I got out two pots and started boiling water in one and put the sauce and some shrimp in another.  Once I had those going, I decided to start on my snack. This particular recipe required a can of black beans. I was eager to get back to my g-chat and text conversations, so I hurriedly tried to open the lid. I successfully opened the can, but then I decided to fold the lid back so that the beans could flow easily out of the can.  I hastily grabbed onto the lid of the can. The next thing that I saw was the edge of the lid going straight into my thumb. [I could insert a really gory picture here, but I’ll spare you :-) ]

 I recoiled in horror and ran to my bathroom. At first I thought that maybe I just grazed my thumb since it wasn’t bleeding, but then it started gushing blood. My bathroom looked like a crime scene. I didn’t have any bandaids, so I wrapped my thumb in several paper towels and secured them with a ponytail holder. As I sat there applying pressure to my thumb, I peered out at my kitchen to see my pot of boiling water bubbling over, spaghetti sauce splattering all over the place, and my phone buzzing all to the soundtrack of some Mariah Carey from my computer.  I had no choice but to sit there and concentrate on trying to stop the bleeding.

It took me nearly amputating my finger to realize that I needed to slow down and not try and do everything at once. I thought this was a fitting post as we head into the weekend. Take it easy! Have faith that things will work themselves out in perfect timing.

Happy Friday!

 

Coldplay: Mylo Xyloto Tour

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I am a huge Coldplay fan.  There is not a Coldplay album that I don’t own nor song that I dislike. Their music is very mellow, inspiring, and perfectly balanced. When I heard nearly seven months ago that they were going to go on tour, I made sure to mark my calendar so that I could attempt to get a ticket. Within five minutes of the tickets going on sale, the only seats I could find were in the nosebleed sections.  The particular ticket site that I was using only allowed you 10 minutes to enter all of your payment information before they release your tickets to someone else.  Somehow, I managed to take more than 10 minutes to type everything in, so I lost my seats. However, when I refreshed the page and tried again, one solitary floor seat had opened up. I originally wanted to get a ticket for myself and a friend, but a floor seat was too good to pass up.  

The concert was simply amazing. I’m a very visual person, and the visual effects that they had did not disappoint at all. They had confetti cannons, laser beams, and wristbands that lit up and blinked to the music – it was quite intense. The crowd knew every word to every song.  I had a really good time and would highly recommend that if you have the chance to go to a Coldplay concert that you take advantage of the opportunity.  It was the best concert that I have ever been to by far.

When It Rains, It Pours

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So many things have happened in the past five days, but I have not had the opportunity to sit down and upload my pictures and write some blogs. I have attended one great concert, reunited with several of my friends from college, and took a trip to Kentucky. One major thing that happened was that ALL of my electronics decided to have meltdowns. It is funny that just a few days ago I blogged about my friend’s phone going on the fritz, and I remember thinking how grateful I was that I have never had a single problem with my phone since the day I got it.   What a difference 72 hours makes!

On July 5th, I was headed to a Coldplay concert (which I will talk about in my next blog post) and I noticed that my phone was losing its charge more quickly than it normally does. I can usually go a good 2 days without having to recharge my phone at all.  When I got back from the concert, my phone was at 1 bar. I plugged it into the charger and nothing happened. I eventually figured out that if I held the charging cord at a 45-degree angle, my phone would begin to charge. I got creative with some tape and luckily, my phone was able to charge all night.

The next day I was headed to Kentucky (I will blog on this too, soon), and I was glad that I could travel with a fully charged phone.  By the time I got back from Kentucky, my phone was again at one bar, but now, no matter what I tried, the phone would not charge. All of my pictures, my contacts, and my notes were lost forever :-(

I headed to my phone carrier’s store to get a new phone. Luckily they were able to salvage all of my contacts, but they weren’t able to recover my pictures. I ended up getting the Samsung Galaxy Exhilarate. It is a smartphone. I like it, I guess, but I am not technologically savvy at all. I didn’t get an IPod until about a year ago.  I don’t really care about having a flashy phone. As long as I can text and call people, I am good.   Maybe I will do a review on it one day if any of you are considering buying this phone.

In addition to my phone deciding to malfunction, my computer (Dell Inspiron) will no longer hold a charge and has random blackouts, even when it is plugged in, and my camera (Canon SD600) is now acting funny and is no longer taking quality pictures.  I have had my computer for 3 years and my camera for nearly six years. I don’t know if there is some kind of atmospheric phenomenon going on that is causing all of my electronics to go crazy, if my apartment got hit by lightening, or if it is just time for me to stop being cheap and do some much needed upgrades (It is most likely the latter. Thank you, Universe, for your “gentle” reminder.)

I guess I am in the market for a new laptop and a new digital camera. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

-Sylvia