• High cost of housing. Guides usually fail to mention the surrounding Burroughs and cheaper alternatives to Manhattan city living. Largely undiscovered neighborhoods are still out there. Explore my Burrough of Brooklyn. Forget the hipster-art scene in Williamburg – you’ll pay the price. How about Clinton Hill or Red Hook? The biggest challenge is really housing-hunting, but luckily I bypassed this step through the friends connection.
• High cost of living. Everything is expensive, people say. But it’s true everywhere – depends on how you budget, and where you go. Even high-fashion SoHo in Manhattan has its back-alley delis and shops. I recall being pleasantly surprised as a new New Yorker (ha!) when I discovered that clothing is tax-free. Want to go for food? Explore student-friendly Village area. My favorite is the abundance of affordable falafels, in the $2 range. And of course a New York specialty: pizza! Drinks? There are plenty of happy hour specials around the city with some offering open bars, free food. Although I’m not necessarily endorsing these organizations, I’ll point you to: myopenbar.com and freenyc.net. I still prefer my Brooklyn neighborhoods but you already knew that. The upside about Manhattan is that you can get everywhere by walking. But if you’re not a walker, subway lines and buses are dispersed neatly and closely all over. I’m a walker – I walk over bridges around once a week to get home from work.
• High crime rates. This statistic supposedly brings down the standard of living rating. While I won’t defend the crime incidences, I can say that for a big city population (and I mean it: nearly 9 million residents), crime rates are relatively low. Compared to you know, say, Chicago. Some places, again, are more crime ridden than others. I would avoid East New York. But with safety precautions (i.e. avoiding strangers late at night in desolate areas), I’ve felt secure in my neighborhood of Bed-Stuy. Also consider many areas of Brooklyn is undergoing fast-paced gentrifying development, which means the landscape will change to the point of unrecognizability from its former “undesirable” state. Will it affect crime rate? Certainly it’s a factor to consider.

The bottom line is that the city encompasses so much with its vast city limits, diversity and endless opportunities that’s it’s hard to pinpoint its exact faults. I did have a hard time here initially, and that is soley based on the facts of New York City: it’s too big and populated, and thus impersonal. And that might, eventually, be the ultimate reason to drive me out of city life in general.

• Starbucks. Or your favorite coffee place. Suitable for groups of two, three, four… or just one. These are established exclusively for you to sit and read or do other solo work. And of course to drink some coffee while you’re at it. +Controlled room temperature: perfect for those too-hot summer days or too-cold winter days. +Selection of snacks and drinks – besides the coffee. +Bathrooms? Nearly always available, which is essential for a long stay, depending on your activity. -Lack of seating, sometimes. Oh, crowds! -Speaking of which, lack of privacy, sometimes.
• Public libraries. Suitable if you need to get away from other chaotic New Yorkers or tourists to a place where peace and quiet is strictly enforced. Or to study. +The peace and quiet. +Relative privacy. +Bathrooms should be available. -No food allowed. Or drinks. -Too quiet. You miss the noise.
• Parks. Nature is good. Depending on which park, it could be a serene experience, a good get-away from the rushed city life. I recommend Central Park or Prospect Park, whichever is closer to you. If you take the 2 or the 3, you can hit up both! +The peace and sometimes quiet. +You’re in nature! What a change. +Relatively private. This doesn’t mean people aren’t around – they just don’t pay as much attention to you. -Weather. When it’s bad, I mean. -Bathrooms. You really get spoiled by the cafes and libraries. Here, the bathrooms close early. Or are dirty. Or are both. Wait, that doesn’t make it a bad thing anymore. Anyway.

Yes, I’ve only got three. After you’ve tried the three, you might as well go home anyway. Home is the best place of all. All +’s from me. Whatever you do, do not go to a bar by yourself in the City. Bad, bad news.

1. I Don’t Really Love You Anymore – The Magnetic Fields
2. The Opposite of Hallelujah – Jens Lekman
3. Paper Planes – M.I.A.
4. The Quiz – Hello Saferide
5. Tire Swing – Kimya Dawson
6. And I Found This Boy – Maia Hirasawa
7. Past in Present – Feist
8. Developing Active People – Via Audio
9. The Park – Sambassadeur
10. Little Wounds – Herman Dune

Did you know that all the deaths associated with poverty (i.e. hunger and disease) could be alleviated with an estimated $195 billion a year? Several of the world’s wealthiest countries pledged to donate 0.7% of their national income for aid; however, the United States came in last in its progress last year. (Information and data taken from Poverty.com’s International Aid page)

Here are some related resources to check out:

1. Freerice.com lets you “learn free vocabulary & give free rice.” No, you don’t lose your “grains of rice” if you get your word definition wrong!
2. Print a letter to your government officials to support international aid.
3. Food force is an educational game for kids.
4. World Food Program is the official site.

1. Rebtel lets you call abroad on-the-go for cheap or free (if you are located in one of the ‘Rebtel countries’), bypassing the need to use your computer. Since I call out-of-country quite frequently, this is incredibly useful. I haven’t paid a cent to Rebtel; the international part of the call had always been free to me. I haven’t fully broken up with Skype though.
2. Muxtape is so simple, but maybe that’s the appeal. It has one of the cleanest and simplest interface I’ve ever seen. You can’t download your mixtapes, but it’s still an easy way to quickly share your mixes online.
3. Surf the Channel sure has a lot of channels. I don’t download TV shows (really!), so I go here sometimes to watch missed episodes.
4. Pixish is new. I haven’t really tried it, but it seems like a good idea for freelancers!
5. Common ties is also new. If you’re a freelance writer or designer, it may be good to check out. But Postsecret is still my first love.

I know my list is severely lacking/incomplete. Rather than stealing someone else’s list to put on here and call it my own, I’ll just link you to someone else’s list directly. I know, how annoying of me. Here’s CNN Money/Business’s Web 2.0 list.

1. Central Park, Manhattan
   The only time I would probably go here is after work; it’s only a few subway stops from the SoSauce office. Otherwise, it’s a bit out of the way for a large constructed piece of nature in the middle of upper Manhattan. While vast and clean, it’s clearly superficial– half of it is fenced off for “preservation”, and the other public parts– especially the Meadow, is too populated. It’s spring, so people still have a chance to nab a lucky spot in the shade! I sound bitter, but when you don’t want to leave the City, it’s still a nice place to grab a pretzel and lie down and enjoy the landscape… towering buildings poking out from the trees.
2. Prospect Park, Brooklyn
   I’m madly in love. You can go fishing here. I could count more than a few lakes/ponds and fields and other scenic nature components. It’s big enough (yet small enough) that you can get lost without really being lost. Several turns could make you end up in front of an ice rink near a lake or have you across the street from McDonald’s. But when you lie in the middle of a meadow, you can’t see buildings poking out and maybe you can pretend you’re not in New York. I’ve gone 3 times this month though it’s hell to get there… I’d either have to take a train to the City and transfer back to Brooklyn, or walk for about an hour to get there.
3. Fort Greene Park, Brooklyn
   The landscape reminds me of Dolores Park, San Francisco, except it has a fort, Ft Greene. It’s hilly, with proper amount of trees and open spaces. I say it’s a great community-sized park, decent for picnics, although not big enough if real isolation is needed.