The festival featured 2 main stages and an art-deco contraptions in the middle composed of wooden crates encasing amplifiers, made to look like little huts. DJs in the middle spun house and drum n’ bass. The rain and the constant thunderstorms got so bad that eventauly Natalie and I had to leave. We were told that because of the bad weather on Friday, we can re-use our tickets for Sunday’s show which headlines Coldplay. First thing’s first – drying our mud-stained clothes from Friday.

The ladybug ended up on our picnic blanket which we’ve laid out on the lawn while waiting for a few hours for the fireworks to begin. I can’t wait for next year; it’d be amazing if they ended up having them on the Hudson again.

“An investigation by the Prosecutor’s General Office of the Russian Federation has confirmed Soviet responsibility for the massacres, yet does not classify this action as a war crime or as an act of genocide. This acknowledgement would have necessitated the prosecution of surviving perpetrators, which is what the Polish government had requested.” – Wikipedia.org

The Soviet Union denied the massacre until the 1990s according to other articles I’ve dug up online. I’m not trying to stir anything up, I was just shocked and appalled by what I was reading. Yet, having been born in Poland, I felt proud that this event was acknowledged and amazed by the monuments symbolism and backdrop; the skyline of Manhattan. The monument stands just a few feet away from the WTC 911 memorial.

In 2008, Polish born Andrzej Wajda directed “Katyn” the movie, which was nominated for an Oscar as Best Foreign Film in 2008. I’ll have to rent it this week.

We took a peek on the uncompleted 11th floor earlier as well. Pool, jacuzzi, residence lounge, park, gym, all the little perks that came with the lease are scheduled to be completed by July 4th. Since we’ve decided to stick around that weekend, we’re definetly indulging in all of the amenities this up-coming weekend with friends.

Last night I took a quick trip to Guitar Center on 14th street in the city and git Natalie a MIDI adapter for her piano keyboard. We’re both trying to record and layer her original compositions on the laptop and start experimenting with composing a complete track. We’ll see how that goes.

We were one of the first tenants in the building when it opened last summer. We were promised that the pool and gym (twoof the main reasons that we selected this property) would be open before summer’s end. This promise continued month in and month out. The pool wasn’t opened until labor day weekend. We used it once. Throughout the year we experienced innumerable issues with the building. Leaks, fire alarms constantly, flooding in the gym, the lobby and consequential mold, a horrible smell coming from our office that we were eventually told was from the ‘garbage chute on the higher floors.’ Our washer had to be replaced three times. Throughout all of these issues, we still kept a smile on our faces and particularly enjoyed the doormen. We thought that because the price was ‘fair,’ that it was worth the hiccups. That was until yesterday. We received our lease renewal letter only to find that the ‘fair’ monthy rent had been increased more than $700 – or 30%. Before moving to 70 Greene, I had lived in Portside Towers, another Equity Property, for 3 years. I can’t think of how much money I have poured into them over the past 4 years. We feel robbed. After expressing concerns, I was told that, ‘2 other tenants renewed at this rate.’ Well, thanks – I’m thrilled for them to be able to easily give up another 700 a month without blinking in this horrible economy, but unfortunately, it doesn’t help us. How can this be legal?

A Google search for your full name (admit it, you do Google yourself), is the best way for an employer to perform a “social profile background check” on you to see if there’s any additional relevant information about you that might not otherwise be mentioned in your resumé. Majority of employers look for well rounded individuals. After all, the activities we perform out side of our 9-5 is what shapes us. By taking it upon ourselves to own that responsibility, we in turn have a high impact on what a typical Google search on us comes up with. Additionally, If you’re concerned about what’s posted about you on some website, take the time to contact the administrator of that site, and politely ask them if they can remove that content.

Vanity URLs are a big craze right now as they end up placing keywords associated with your full name higher in search engine results. A good place to start would be to open up a LinkedIn account, and create an account associated with your full name, unless it’s already been taken by someone else. A Facebook account would be the next place to start unless you already have one. Again, you can limit what people see about you. A lot of companies have began establishing Facebook pages already and in many cases ask their employees to join them. Don’t be left out in the cold.

Apple’s countdown brought along a contest with prizes including a 10,000 iTunes gift card, a 17″ MacBook Pro, iPod touch and a few others. As with any contest, the actual details are in the small print.

Prizes. One (1) winner will receive one (1) 17” MacBook Pro; one (1) iPod Touch 32GB; one (1) US$10,000 iTunes Gift Certificate; and an Apple Time Capsule. Total US Retail Value of all prizes is US$13,746.

The prizes might be great, but if you managed to download an iPhone / iPod Touch application in the past few weeks, you’re up against everyone else who participated as it seems like there’s only 1 winner. Best of luck to everyone, the results come in 48 hours.

I didn’t know much of the Word Wide Web following it’s initial release in 1989 by the creator Tim Berners-Lee, who’s now the director of the World Wide Web Consortium. My first introduction was in 1993 learning how to take apart my Hyper Card projects at school and turning them into atrocious looking websites. The W3C (World Wide Web Consortium), much like any other consortium aims at preaching and continuing to develop web standards across the World Wide Web in order to maintain some sort of stability. With the huge variety of websites and companies offering web services, Web 1.0 began. Yet no one considered it Web 1.0 since there was no prior version to compare it to.

Web 2.0 came about in 2004 It wasn’t a technical software patch that propagated down from our internet service providers onto our computers. instead, the term Web 2.0 meant the process in the way we utilize the World Wide Web. To me on the other hand, it was and still is the way websites are built and the purpose they serve to those interacting with them. The idea of an Open Source System is the main characteristic of Web 2.0 in my opinion. Wordpress, Joomla, various Ajax libraries, and many many more are all perfect examples of sets of code built by open communities and distributed freely. These projects aim at growing communities and further help the development of the project wether it be through plugins or visual templates created by designers and developers.

Web 3.0 in my opinion has already began several years ago with the social media concept. Facebook, MySpace, Twitter are all fun and exiting social media platforms but with a completely different business model in comparison to Open Source Systems. Again, I stress that this whole versioning of the World Wide Web is hypothetical; In my opinion there is no set time as to when one starts and the other ends. Social media websites are all about establishing themselves as the living room of your daily networking activities online. The use of  ’some’ of that database is freely available through APIs which developers use to build web applications that manipulate that data through various ways with user interactions.  Yet, the home base stays in tact with very little customization from the visitor. Integration of the data from that database onto personal and company websites is where Web 3.0 is heading in my opinion. What happens next? Well the same way operating systems fight for your loyalty, the same way search engines fought for your “bookmark me in your toolbar as your place to start your day in front of a computer” will be the same way these social media platforms fight for your living room experience online.

Several years ago, I believe it was with the introduction of Mac OS X by Apple, Steve Jobs described the personal computer as the “center of your living room”. Microsoft in turn focused on the television as being the “Hub of your daily activities”. Social Media platforms now are all about being in the know about what’s happening as it happens and before it happens. Will you run home, grab the remote and turn on the TV, grab your laptop out of bag in some trendy coffee house and relax, or will you be the type to wip out your mobile device (iPhone, Palm Pre, Google Android device) and be part of the news or even better, have the power to create it.

I used to walk around Union Square as well as Bryant Park and photograph anything that moved there. City critters that is; people are a lot more difficult to photograph. I for one dislike having my picture taken by strangers and in turn, prefer not to deal with people’s unexpected reactions to having a camera shoved in their face.

I can’t wait to put off sometime in my life for travel; Someplace with minimal of human foot-print as possible, yet safe enough for tourist to explore. Human kidnapping type-of shows on the Discovery channel scare the Sh*t out of me. I doubt the kidnappers would enjoy getting their picture taken. If I were ever in such a situation, I guess I’d try to bargain for my life by explaining to them that I’m capable of building personal websites for them and explain to them how social media integration can enhance their group’s reach. It’s late and I’m retarded.

Years later, on a hot steamy New York City summer afternoon, I decided to jump into the Hudson River off a pier next to Hudson River Park in downtown Manhattan. I was a freshmen in high school, it was hot, there were a few girls around, and I didn’t think twice about doing the unthinkable. It was actually quite refreshing; A little slimy, but fearing being pulled down by the current, I quickly climbed back up onto the pier platform.

Ok, what the hell am I getting at. Basically, I’m questioning my ability to grow a because of the potential exposure to all sorts of chemicals during my youth, that could have possible altered my chemical makeup. Insert blatant sarcasm here.

In any case, I’m going on 2 weeks now. It’s slowly filling-in. I still look somewhat homeless, but I choose to accessorize with a hat. Until my fiancée gets fed up with it, I’ll keep pushing through and perhaps I’ll break my unsuccessful cycle.