Tired of reading Pride & Prejudice? Instead of placing the book on a shelf, the book can be turned into a shelf itself. The creatively designed bookshelves for sale only at the Park Slope art, accessories, and gift store Cog and Pearl and soon-to-be launched retailer Curiosity Shoppe Online, can hold approximately five pounds.

Have a favorite book you would like converted? As long as you provide the book that is a minimum of a half an inch think, designer Ezra Waltermaurer of Little Fish Furniture will create it. "The operation is non-reversible" he warns as he explains that he created the bookshelves while "living in the city in the late 90’s, around the time that the NYC Public Library was being accused of secretly dumping thousands of old books."

His collection developed into horizontal and vertical bookshelves which sell for approximately thirty and eighty dollars respectively. Ezra told us, "The majority of the books I convert to shelves still come from otherwise trash-destined sources. I like the idea of allowing the books to live another, purposeful life [and] I like the idea of being able, finally, to really judge a book by its cover."

http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2006/10/04/books_as_shelve.php

Donning blue UN "peace keeper" hats and protest signs, an estimated 20,000 people gathered in Central Park yesterday to demand the end to the genocide in Darfur. A large percentage of those present were college students who traveled in bus loads to attend. Timed to coincide with this week’s opening of the 61st General Assembly of the United Nations. the rally was a part of the Global Day for Darfur, a day of assemblies in cities across the world, including Phnom Penh, Nairobi, and London. Former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, Actress Mira Sorvino, and Country music stars Big and Rich addressed the crowd, among many others.

Yesterday, many of those same college students and young professionals met for a Global Young Leaders Summit, hosted by Americans for Informed Democracy, a non-partisan organization whose mission is to "Bring the World Home." The nearly two hundred attendees of that summit heard from Mark Hanis, 24, Executive Director of Genocide Intervention Network and Erin Mazursky, 21, Executive Director, Students Taking Action Now: Darfur (STAND), two young people whose actions helped organize the students activism at today’s rally. Besides addressing Darfur, the summit heard from Varun Gauri, Senior Economist at The World Bank who announced the publication of its 2007 World Development Report. This year’s report addresses "Development and the Next Generation." His advice for the students was to lobby for change for the conditions of their peers around the world. The turnout of young people at the rally certainly seems to indicate they are on track to do just that and more.

http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2006/09/18/save_darfur_ral.php 

On 57th Street and 5th Avenue, situated between Burberry and Yves Saint Laurent, a cell phone flagship store recently added itself to the ranks of luxury retailers. This Saturday, Nokia, the Finish cell phone company, opened its 2 nd store in the US after Chicago, drawing 1,500 visitors opening day. It is the 5 th Nokia store in the world. A total of 18 stores are planned to open within the next two years, potentially setting the next trend in tech store flagships since Apple opened its own stores.

The three level 1,800 square foot building changes colors, approximately 60 different hues throughout the day, thanks to interactive monitors which double as information specs of the cell phones as well as text message displays—text 83895 while you are in the store and you might see your message appear on the monitor.

Between fifteen and twenty cell phones are for sale in the store, ranging from the basic $99 model to the luxurious $100,000 model. A trek up to the 3 rd floor will land you in the Vertu brand, a store within a store, where cell phones come with laser etched keys, sapphire crystal screens, or ostrich leather cases. For $4,500, the entry level luxury brand Ascent phone with automotive influences, requires a key to access the battery "under the hood" and features a 24 hour concierge service accessible from anywhere in the world. The service is complimentary with the first year of the phone, but costs $100 a month after that. It is like having a personal genie in a bottle, except of course, it is a cell phone and your wishes are charged to your own credit card.

http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2006/09/17/move_over_apple.php 

Even though it is September, it looked more like the Halloween Day Parade arrived early, but in Soho instead of the Village. The marchers down West Broadway from Houston to Grand Street were a part of the 2nd Annual Deitch Art Parade produced by Deitch Projects, Creative Time and PAPER magazine. Showcasing 75 "acts," the parade included artists, performers, designers, and every day New Yorkers (two young women marching as zombie school girls answered an advertisement on craigslist to join the parade).

Less on the typical float and banner side, the 75 "acts" were more on the glittery and outrageous side. The parade began with a Yoko Ono imagine banner and progressed to increasingly unusual participants, including a marionette, sailors riding an octopus bicycle, "The Bob Snead Corporation loves Wal-Mart and Wal-mart loves me" donning Wal-Mart Uniforms and handing out the smiley face stickers associated with the corporation’s low prices, a reflective serpent of mirrors, "Unicorns from outer space," and half clothed police.

The bystanders seemed to enjoy the sights of the parade, crowding into the streets at times in order to get the best view. But, the cars caught in the traffic jam caused by the parade certainly didn’t feel the same way. As for the art, it certainly made a statement, or two, that were IOYO—Interpret On Your Own.

http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2006/09/10/art_on_parade.php

Ice replaced Iron in a Chef competition yesterday at Central Park Zoo. Fittingly, the contest’s taste testers were Polar Bears Gus and Ida, weighing in at 1,000 and 700 pounds respectively. In the wild, their diets consist mainly of seals, eating as much as 100 pounds in one setting. On Sunday however in the Ice Chef Competition they had a more adventurous and scaled down menu of raw fillet Mignon, tilapia, peanut butter, whipped cream, Cheerios, and carrots to eat. The competition placed a guest chef from the Leaping Frog Café, who typically prepares food for the human visitors to the zoo, versus a zoo keeper in a race to prepare a "cake" for the bears.

The completed creations were tossed into the rocky water habitat almost as quickly as they werer prepared. Ida and Gus devoured the mid day treats, unusual for a pair who is typically fed in the evenings after visitors have departed for the day. And in case you were wondering who won the competition? The real winners were the zoo visitors who watched the meals prepared in front of the Polar Habitat.

http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2006/08/07/when_its_approp.php 

There is something different about the way your classmates are dressing, and it has more to do with their future than with current fashion trends. One less person is wearing baggy jeans and a sweatshirt; instead, they are sporting a tailored suit with heels or dress shoes, all sure signs that the fall season of recruitment is in full swing. This is the start to a senior year of resume drops, career fair schmoozing and rounds of interviews until seniors find the right fit and the right fit finds them.

Hundreds of companies will descend upon campus this fall. The 2005 on-campus recruitment season brought 619 firms, conducting 8,818 interviews and hiring approximately 17 percent of seniors, according to a Career Services survey. Less than one year later, many of those 17 percent return to recruit. “It’s amazing how much more you learn when you are on the other side of the recruiting equation,” Eric Hsu ’05 of Wachovia Securities explains. “You realize what is important on a resume, which answers are the ‘good’ answers, and which candidates get the job.”

It is now our job to review the resumes. “When confronted with 200-plus resumes for 13 interview slots, the quantity of candidates with impressive job experiences and great GPAs is overwhelming. While resumes are not everything, there’s unfortunately not much more to work from,” admits Diana Myint ’04, one of the youngest recruiters from her team at Barclays Bank. “From a 30-minute interview and a blank piece of paper, how do we recognize who is sufficiently motivated, intelligent, aggressive and affable?”

While we also represent our companies at the career fair, it is an adjustment to be shaking the hands of the long line of students waiting to ask us questions. As we look around, we share a sense of pride recognizing other recent graduates representing their respective companies, shares Cait Myles ’06 from Watson Wyatt.

As interview day arrives, we are now asking the tough questions that made us squirm. “The anxiety from interviewing is gone, and it is replaced with the excitement of seeing candidates display the enthusiasm and angst that you once felt from the job hunt,” Michael Mannarino ’04, an analyst at NERA Economic Consulting, reflects on his three recruiting trips to campus. As the interview comes to a close, “you end up comparing the questions they ask you to what you used to ask,” shares Ira Blumberg ’05 of Merrill Lynch. Talk about déjà vu.

While some seniors are hired through on campus recruiting, where do the other 83 percent find jobs? Approximately 33 percent of the class head straight to graduate school, bypassing the search now to enter the workforce later as a lawyer or doctor. For some students, the internship during the summer between junior and senior year leads to a full time job. For others, senior year is the start of an independent search as we recruit companies to showcase our talents. We take this path for numerous reasons. Sometimes, we are trying to break into an industry where job openings are rarely posted in advance, or we desire to give back at nonprofit organizations.

Often, this path is accompanied by a longer wait, but one that is rewarding. “I had quite an extensive job search, especially because I aspired to break into the sports industry,” says Jay Jendrewski ’05, who received his offer to work for the NHL during the summer after graduation. “It caused a lot of distress throughout my senior year. However, in the end, I believe my decision will prove to have been worth it as I gained important experience in the sports industry and have taken steps in the direction of my dreams.”

During the search, we realize the power of personal connections. Alumni, including recent graduates, are tremendous resources who are willing to offer advice, connect you with networking organizations and share opportunities. Even if you do not have a contact at a company, try calling or mailing a letter — it may make you stand out from the long list of candidates sending emails. Rachel Pokorney ’06 recently started her job as a program associate with the Pulmonary Hypertension Association. While she tried traditional search engines like Idealist.org, Rachel saw results when she “started calling places two weeks after I sent my resume.” Perseverance like Rachel’s takes time and ingenuity, but now she is working in a field she loves.

Yet, there is still one group who I have left out of this career search story. They are the seniors who postpone looking for a job because, well, they are not quite sure what should be the goal of their search. Ask yourself, what were your favorite activities and subjects in class over the last few years? Take your initial ideas and look at the Career Contact Network organized by Cornell Career Services. You can search by industry or region to find alumni who shared similar interests and volunteer for informational interviews. If you are too shy to contact them directly, one global student organization with a chapter on Cornell’s campus has made it easier to speak with recent graduates and experts in a group setting without leaving the comfort of your room. Americans for Informed Democracy (AID) hosts a group conference call series where any student or recent graduate can listen to speakers from many fields, including journalism, government, law and business. Merely listening to these calls might be the start of your “Ready or Not” realization that senior year has arrived.

The flurry to decide on what’s next will only increase steadily as May approaches. Sit back, enjoy the ride, and don’t rush into wearing suits everyday. Not only is dry cleaning expensive, the real world doesn’t always let you sleep in late during the week or leave the office without homework.

If you are like me, before you read a column, you often skip to the end to read about the columnist first. What’s different about this Daily Sun columnist? Five years ago, I sat in Bailey Hall for Psych 101 learning about Power Sleep; four years ago, I declared a government major, diving into Causes of War; three years ago, I ate at the Statler’s Terrace restaurant, waiting in the never ending salad line for lunch; two years ago, I began writing a senior thesis, hiding in the 7th floor stacks of Olin Library; one year ago, I graduated and moved to New York City, beginning life after college.

“The city” is now my campus: Third Avenue is the new Tower Road, the street I walk on during my daily commute to work, not to class. Meetings divide my day in lieu of courses; and networking and alumni organizations have replaced the after class clubs with evening cocktails and conversations.

In trading the real world for college, life changed considerably. The transition is much like being a freshman again — we must meet friends, explore ways to get involved and navigate our way around without a map so we do not advertise our newness. But, this time, life after college is not accompanied by an Orientation Week of organized activities like a capella arch sings and barbeques, Welcome Volunteers to greet us, Resident Advisors to guide us towards resources, Club Fest to introduce organizations or tours to help us find the hot spots.

For the first time in our lives, we are really on our own as each of us forges a distinct path. At this exciting and admittedly overwhelming transition in our lives, we are introduced to work by our employer, but who introduces us to life outside of work? Orientation at Cornell helped us to find new friends, ways to relax outside of class and organizations to join. Now, it is our job to create those same opportunities for ourselves.

How do we begin?

In moving to different cities, we have found that our campus friends did not always move with us. The instant community within a five-mile radius no longer exists. Our friends now live in locations too far away to meet for lunch at the Ivy Room. We are seeking to connect with new people who share common interests or backgrounds because our college network has changed. We succeed in finding new Cornellians in our cities and begin to socialize with both our colleagues and our friend’s colleagues at happy hours.

In the free time that we are not working 60-hour weeks, we explore the sights of our cities as tourists, initially turning to guide books to recommend restaurants and social venues before we discover our own places. Suddenly, there are now more options than just frat parties, Ruloff’s and the Nines. Unfortunately, there is not one clear calendar of the many options we can plan our social lives from like we could at Cornell. In retrospect, Denice Cassaro’s emails were a gift — think about how lucky we were to have all the events compiled for us in one place instead of reading Citysearch and blogs on our own.

And how do we get involved after work to create our new lives, replacing the clubs after college? Without a Club Fest to guide us, we are left to navigate haphazardly through the options on our own, starting with the “grown up” versions of the student organizations we joined at Cornell, like Habitat for Humanity. We scan the internet to find nonprofits we can volunteer with to help our cities. Some of us opt to “graduate” into professional networking associations, joining to enhance our careers and create contacts. These remind me of the lectures sponsored by Career Services, except that, at these new events, the speaker and guests mingle afterwards to exchange business cards.

Despite all of these ways to meet new friends, see places and become involved, there is one venue which ties all of them together. It can even travel with you despite the fact that you have graduated — Cornell’s Regional offices and clubs. These are the organizations which sponsored your send off to Cornell in the summer. They celebrate Zinck’s night in October, cheer at Cornell hockey games when they are televised, organize alumni speakers to talk about careers and gather volunteers to donate time for Care Days. A combination of all classes and all colleges, this group is a way to step back in time to Cornell while moving forward. Moreover, there are specialized committees within this greater Cornell alumni community — minority organizations, alumni ambassadors and even a young alumni committee with brunches and happy hours of its own.

This week in New York, I sat at a table telling the Class of 2006 about ways they could get involved in this young alumni committee. It was a strange feeling, one year out, to be sitting on the opposite side of the table. In a way, this event was an Orientation to Cornell in New York, albeit a scaled down version, complete with a Survival Guide to life in The Big Apple. It was a brilliant way to bring together a new class in their new city to connect the Class of 2006 with friends, places and organizations. Hopefully, with this lucky head start, they will move forward with creating the rest of their orientation to New York.

http://www.cornellsun.com/node/18293