#NerdsUnite for the love of @spirithoods!!!

AWW!! Just got to kick it with Rishe ... she dropped me a tweet the other day saying she was going to be on a layover in LA ... and oohhhh my goodness - she's just the sweetest thing on this planet. For reals, teeny tiny lil thang that I could just put in my pocket. I tried to place her in my pocket at one point ... but she's fiesty. Lesson learned Jen ... lesson learned.

Thanks a heap for all your support and writing for TNTML, Rishe!! Really really REALLY appreciate it!

Had SUCH a blast this afternoon!!

Now ... off to VEGAS VEGAS VEGAS!!! CES TIME BABY!! WAHOOOOOOOOO!!!

#nerdsunite

Sometimes You Just Need To Hear This... #SteveJobs is Spot On

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @Rishegee

... is rewatching a bit of Jobsy for a bit of inspiration.

I'm going to watch this over and over, and then read Jen's permission slip.

Feel like sharing more inspiration? Contact Rishe on Twitter, or comment below.

Anatomy of a #Nerd - My #iPhone Speaks the Truth

TalkNerdyToMeLover's @Rishegee

... realizes even her nerdy gadgets are nerdy...

Tonight, not long after I was sufficiently traumatized from finding myself stuck in the carpet of white hail that dumped itself on New York City with a vengeance, I was sitting at a considerably non-nerdy function, among folk who prefer to distance themselves from the label that we bear so proudly. When the girl next to me saw my iPhone casually lying on the table, she asked, as so many non-Jobsniks do, whether she could “play”.

Desperate to brainwash another innocent into the cult of Jobs, I of course agreed, however noticed her frowning several moments later.

It was when I saw her flipping through my apps that I realised the cause for her concern.

Fellow nerds, have you ever taken stock of your iPhone app situation? Am I the only one whose apps are so, quite frankly, nerdy?

There were the standard social media apps – I have my Echofon and Tweetdeck (Echofon is my fave, Tweetdeck for when I have to tweet from another work-related account), the holy Facebook, the naughty kid that I am angry with also known as Foursquare, Wordpress, and eBuddy.

Then I have all my news and travel – because like any good nerd, I like to know what’s happening and where things are around me. I’ve got Time Out New York and the NY Times, Yelp, The Onion, NYC Subway, Trip Advisor, HostelWorld, and heaps of other apps I picked up from the other cities I travelled in – Paris, Jerusalem, Spain and Italy.

Then don’t even start me on the sports – I’ve got LiveScore, every tennis tournament’s official app, and my beloved AFL LiveFooty. I have my music streaming apps and language translators.

And for a bit of fun? Here’s where the nerd in me just failed to communicate to the rest of the universe.

 I’ve got Sudoku, Crosswords, Word Scramble games galore, and not one, not two, but FOUR Trivia Apps.

 The only solace I have is my free trial of Uno. Circa 1991.

I’d like to hear from the rest of you nerds out there- what kind of nerdy apps have you got that put you to shame? Which ones highlight to the universe precisely what you are, and which ones redeem you by proving that even nerds have souls, and like to, shall we say, knock around horoscopes every once in a while? (Not pointing a finger at anyone, here….)

Let me know on Twitter @rishegee or comment here…

Unapologetically #Awesome: Our Global Village

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @RisheGee

What a FABULOUS, AMAZING, AWESOME, insert superlative here, day!

Lucky I signed Jen’s permission slip way back in the day because this is it, children, New York is going to be pretty fabulouskies within the near future.

In a town populated with thousands, there are many who wander the island, alone. It’s a known fact that everyone runs to New York City to be alone, among the myriads. It’s a rare phenomenon, unique to this city that I now call home, and I’ve been a casualty of it myself in recent weeks. Meeting people constantly but wondering which of them I can actually call on to hang out when the going gets tough. Forging closer relationships with family and finding myself missing that casual social camaraderie that was always at my fingertips back home, and during the European adventure.

Today wasn’t supposed to be a big day, but I had some plans I anticipating a fair bit. I was meeting up with J, a brand ambassador and guerrilla marketer I’d met while we worked together at the US Open tennis; and then to perhaps head to my friend P’s cocktail party in midtown in celebration of the Jewish festival of Sukkot.

Turns out in a city full of strangers, New York has it’s own way of springing surprises on you…

J and I caught up for coffee near the Columbia University area. I have no friends at Columbia – or so I thought. I had clearly forgotten my friend A, a fellow Aussie spending a few months here doing some study with a bit of volunteering on the side. He had mentioned his work at the Jewish centre at Columbia, but that didn’t stop me from being shocked out of my mind when J and I casually bumped into him cycling a Sukkah on wheels around the Columbia campus this afternoon!

We hung out, we chilled, and then it was time for J to go. No worries, I had a drinks date with my other ex-pat Aussie, D, an Upper West Side native and former classmate. We had drinks with D’s friend, also known as the lovely lady who donated her gorgeous Ikea furniture to me the other day, and I embarked on the trainride downtown to head to P’s cocktail party.

Not so fast, little lady – says the universe. Because as I head down into the subway, I bump into the gorgeous R, a lady I have known for several years who once spent some pre-college time studying in Australia and I have since encountered here and there on most of my trips to New York City. Oh, the Jewish universe. So tiny and so bloody beautiful.

It’s not over yet, though. P’s party downtown is gorgeous – twinkling lights under the stars in Bryant Park, and I’m trying to switch on the Ms Fabulous within me by talking to strangers the way I do. All of a sudden out of the corner of my eye, a guy approaches.

Hell to the you have got to be kidding no.

It is none other than Mr J, a New Yorker I had encountered precisely one month ago, in a YOUTH HOSTEL IN SWITZERLAND. Mr J was attending an event put on by P’s organisation for the first time ever – and I just happened to be there.

J and I catch up and I meet up with his lovely Israeli friends. P introduces me to some more amazing people, and I head back to Brooklyn for drinks with my cousin S, who is in town with her husband Y for a short visit. I find an Australian beer on the list – Cooper’s, who wouldathunk it? – and start talking to the guy on my left – who informs me he is none other than P’s husbands brother. Yup. No kidding here.

Oh, little tiny Jewish New York universe. Today I love you so.

Click here to follow @Rishegee on Twitter!

#SocialMedia To the Rescue – Furnishing my Apartment

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @Rishegee

Everyone talks about how social networking is the new advertising, the face of marketing, the future of communications, the solution to all of life’s problems from world peace to what the hell is all that gunk that is clogging up my kitchen sink?

So being a new resident of the greatest city on earth, and faced with many crazy obstacles to overcome, I’ve become ever-reliant on these so-called tools of the future. With my Google Maps telling me where to go, my NYTimes app keeping me abreast of the news in the 3G-service-unfriendly subways, and Foursquare and Yelp making sure I find the Starbucks and kosher restaurant in my nearest vicinity, I can feel it – I am swimming in a sea of technology, and loving every second.

But here’s the challenge: Everyone says people are now connected, more than ever, through social media. I’m a huge proponent of this theory and will blabber about it incessantly when given the chance (I’m particularly talented at cornering the person most likely to fail at hiding their glazed over look while demolishing sushi at a cocktail party, in fact).

But I know that there are many who live in a blind universe, who don’t worship at the altar of SM as we do, and still prefer to follow the footsteps of their forefathers, papering the walls with their printed resumes, buying the Saturday paper to peruse the apartment listings, and combing curbs on the 1st to find furniture bargains.

Having already found my apartment (through online listings, natch) and job (through a friend of a friend, of course), it was time to face my fears of being unable to make it independently in New York – and ask for help.

Being independent is not about making it on your own, a wise man once said. It’s about being able to find the means to get help where necessary, without being bailed out. Or maybe that wise man was the little voice in my head, trying to make me feel better.

Either way, it was time to find something as basic as a bed and a cupboard – and not pay through the roof for it. In fact, ideally, I’d be paying nothing for these things.

Fabulous Tours of the Universe (TM, or not TM) are very efficient moneyeaters. They consume all your cash until there’s none left, not even an eensy weensy bit for you to tip the nice man who helps you carry the armoire up the stairs. So this girl had to get resourceful, and resourceful I did.

Part I – this Sunday morning.

I need a bed, I need a dresser, I need everything for my apt, and I’ve got none. I post the crisis call on Facebook.

“Taking all offers of free or very very cheap furniture in the Brooklyn area…”

Two minutes later, I have a response from a friend in my inbox. Her friend is moving out today and needs to empty a storage unit by 5pm – in my neighbourhood. Next thing you know, she has picked me up, shown me the goods and helped me transport back home a fabulous Urban Outfitters dish chair (so ridiculously comfy I want to cry), a grown-up looking Ikea dresser with a fancy glass top, a foam mattress topper so I can dream nice and comfy, and even a boxful of dishes, decorative stuff and – most importantly – wine glasses.

I’m carrying it up and down stairs into storage at my aunt’s place (the official move isn’t until October begins) and my cousins are sitting on the couch and falling in love with this stuff.

“How much did you pay?” they chorus, one ensconcing her baby in the dish chair, the other running her fingers over the fake varnished wood of the dresser, Ikea style.

I’m reminding them of the wonders of social media, and informing them of a promise to take the gorgeous donor out for a dinner in LA next time I make it out west, when my iPhone beeps with a new Facebook message.

It’s the girl from the Upper West Side, a Facebook acquaintance I met once or twice at a dinner back in February on my whirlwind NYC reconnaissance mission.

She’s giving away a queen size bed-frame, and an Ikea bookcase.

Queen nerd bookworm is mucho mucho excited by this news, and somehow all my ancient talents from managing corporate accounts comes into play, and I am the logistics coordination queen. Within two hours, I’ve arranged a tight schedule for the evening involving minivan borrowings, driver assistance, and landlord
cooperation – all without spending a dime.

We drove home via midtown, my furniture safely arranged in the backseat, and I felt a lurch of hope and – yes, finally! – excitement as I saw the lights of Times Square ahead of me.

This city has infinite possibilities. It’s the kind of place where you can furnish an apartment for free through the gifts of strangers, and call on the help of anyone and everyone who has ever done the same thing as you in this big, bad, city. Let’s do this, New York.

On that note: @rishegee is still taking all offers of furnishings, particularly closet/clothing/wardrobe storage items, for her new abode. Pretty and decorative things would be lovely, too. I also kind of need a clock. Let’s harness the power of the nerds and get the social media chain reaction going! Viva NYC!

Click here to follow @Rishegee on Twitter!