This one's for the Cinderella Reference.

If Prince Charming lived in today’s New York, he might turn to Missed Connections’ in his search for Cinderella. “We danced at last night’s ball, but you bolted at midnight,” he might write. “I didn’t even get your name, only a glass slipper. E-mail me if you get this.” -New York Times

While getting into a twitter conversation with my friend George (while simultaneously talking on gChat), I was totally making fun of him for tweeting on the hotness factor of a girl sitting next to him at a coffee house. After suggesting that he should post something on Craigslist’s “missed connections,” he immediately referred me to another way to tell that stranger you’re interested.

In order for this to work (and not be creepy)– it obviously depends on the people involved, and of course, how well you write.

If you’re going to post something on craigslist or yelp, or well, anywhere.. just don’t be creepy (please)

Ex: NYC Craigslist “Rain”
I have never done this before, but it was such a kind gesture and you were so sweet. We were both waiting outside in the rain trying to hail a cab. (on Bowery and Bleeker). I let you under my umbrella since you didn’t have one. We had some small talk while waiting, you asked where I was going (you were going to Murry Hill?) You hailed down a black car, handed me money and said “you seem like a nice girl, here is $x and please take this car home, Its all set.” After a moment of hesitation, I jumped into the car since it was so gross out. After I got in the car, I wished we had exchanged information – you were very cute and I was totally taken back by your kind gesture. Maybe you are out there? : )  [blogger's comment. <--cute, not creepy.]

Another (very creative) option: Yelp. It’s great. I love it. George’s friend took a different approach to finding that “Mr. Perfect” and posted something in her yelp review about this mystery man.

Dear hot boy in dark blazer with hat, who came in around 10pm on September 24th, 2009,
I need your # or email. Thankyouverymuch.
…what? Craigslist is so 2007.

It’s cute. She didn’t give too many details (i.e. what you were reading, exact height, web sites you were browsing, your SSN or bank account passwords, etc.) It is highly recommended that EVEN IF you know these details, you do not share them with the internet, and the other person. (ex: 6’4″ = “very tall”). AND ALSO that you require some validation in exchange. (This should help to keep desperate creepers away.)

Next question. Do people actually find each other via these types of digital, internet-assisted “missed connections” connecting sites? An article via NYT (2005) tells the story of a couple who did something about that missed connection.

It’s a different approach from going on Match.com… as you’ve actually seen the person IRL first.

[Technyess Advice: PLEASE PLEASE always be careful when meeting people you have never met before. It's fun, and sometimes super romantic - but air on the side of caution. OK thats it for the mom in me.. for now. hehe]

Celebrating 23 Years of Alana

Is it weird that one of the first things that crossed my mind on Sunday (My 23rd birthday) is the fact that I had to update my blog? Not just that a truly remarkable post needed to be written, but also that I needed to update that little bit of text on the right side of the page (go ahead, look) that said “I am a 22 23 year old …”

Well, now that I’ve updated that, it’s time for a little bit of techyness insight into the world of being 23. I kinda feel the same, but now I just have to remind myself to say “23″ instead of “22″ – and I think that being further away from 21 makes people take me more seriously.

Anyway, people have been asking me- “What did you do for your birthday? How did you figure out what to do”

Well, readers of the techyness, I leveraged pre-existing resources to determine my birthday agenda.

Birthday Dinner at Bacchanalia (L:R, Momma, Alana (Me), Lauren

Food. Since the mom was in for the weekend, she said “pick the restaurant.” That was probably a mistake, mom, as I looked up the #1 restaurant in atlanta using Yelp and OpenTable. And in true web 2.0 style, I reviewed it afterwards.

And it doesn’t hurt that I was wearing the same dress featured in Vogue / that Sheryl Crow wore to the Inauguration concert-

Events. Luckily GE had a “Family Day” event scheduled for my birthday at Atlanta’s High Museum, where mom & I checked out the Terracotta Warriors Exhibit- amazing! This Wikipedia article has more info- over 8,000 terracotta soldiers were recently found in 3 pits!

Presents. It’s kindof Techy… My mom traveled down to hotlanta with a (swedish made) sewing machine! Oh and I got a chest of drawers (not quite so techy)

Other (Girly Events). HAD to see confessions of a shopaholic with the atl girly group. Loved it. Especially that custom ring tone… and the fact we have the same speck hard case for our macs (mine’s clear and I have a pro, but basically the same thing, right?)

So what I am going to work on while being 23? Continuing to write for the techyness, of course! And maybe planning a few blogger events in Albany ? Oh and moving every 6 months for work (but more to come on that soon).

PadMapper - Amazing.

I’ve been living my life in 6-month increments, mainly due to the fact that I’m in a rotational leadership program where I move every 6 months (call me crazy, I know.)

People are usually concerned for me- but the worst part of it is finding a cool place to live for 6 months in a short amount of time, within your price range.

So, my initial approach was somewhat similar to most- updating my facebook status, e-mailing contacts, and of course, checking Craigslist numerous times per day.

After the stress of excel to Craigslist copy and paste efforts, my lean/six sigma training kicked in: There has to be a better way to do this… Are there applications available that I just don’t know about or don’t have access to?

Well, I was right.

I found PadMapper… this would have seriously saved me HOURS. Basically, PadMapper pulls location data listed in craigslist, and displays it in (our favorite) google maps interface, where you can also FILTER LISTINGS based on bedrooms, # bathrooms, total price, and price per bedroom (great for roommates).

If you’re particularly interested in a place, you can zoom in very close, and nearby restaurants, bars, shopping and more will show up on the map (in most cities), and you can click on them to see their Yelp Ratings.

The only thing to watch out for is not PadMapper’s fault- but just the inconsistency of how data is entered into Craigslist. When posting an ad on CraigsList, some enter the “weekly” or “bi-weekly” rate instead of the monthly rate, and that can throw PadMapper off… so just keep an eye out for this. Now, this is an improvement CraigsList needs to change- simply adding a new field or a button to choose if it is a weekly/daily/monthly rate, which would allow for easier searching.

It really just boils down to their tagline- “Making Apartment Huting Suck Less.” basically.