Hack: loved this book!

I just finished reading Hack: How I Stopped Worrying About What to Do with My Life and Started Driving a Yellow Cab by Melissa Plaut. AWESOME READ!

I first took note of Melissa Plaut's blog on Jan 23, 2006 (see "A Blog After My Own Heart").

As aimless as, well, me sometimes, trying on careers that don't quite work for her, Melissa decides to follow one dream to fruition ---- applying for her hack license and driving one of NYC's 13,000 yellow cabs. Not was a well-educated young white woman from the 'burbs should be doing with her life, according to her friends and family when she first starts out. But Plaut sallies forth and encounters first-hand a world she knew was there, but wasn't seeing at any of the desk jobs she tried out before.

Plaut writes honestly and wittily about her encounters with customers, both good and bad, different kinds of weather, earning a living and the other cabbies. She neither romanticizes nor villanizes her profession, but realizes that driving a cab reveals a lot about herself and the world to her.

check out the book, as well as Plaut's blog at http://newyorkhack.blogspot.com/

October donation: KaBOOM!

I donated this month to KaBOOM!, an organization that rebuilds playgrounds in the USA.

According to their website (www.kaboom.org), this is what they will do with it:

"$25 allows us to provide 25 cubic feet of safety surfacing to help protect kids from the inevitable falls and tumbles that go hand in hand with active play! $100 allows us to provide one park bench to give visitors a place to rest, regroup, talk with friends and enjoy the day! *

Stupid Alien!

I saw this guy in Times Square, playing a guitar:

www.thestupidalien.com