Tag Archives: erica swallow

My 1,000th Post on Twitter

4 Aug


Let’s celebrate! I just posted by 1,000 post on Twitter! Just wanted to get that on record. Ok. Go back to your normal lives now. Cheers!

Interning at The New York Times

31 Jul

Today I created a Facebook group for the Summer ’09 NYTimes Interns and it reminded me that my internship is really awesome! I also love the work environment at The New York Times, so I wanted to share it with you! Below are some photos of the beautiful space that I work in! What a blessed life!

(Above: The New York Times Building)
(Above: The lobby of The New York Times Building is simple yet beautiful. Walking through it is a great way to start the work day!)
(Above: My subway station exit is about 10 steps from the building. So, each morning, I enter here!)

(Above: My desk on the 9th floor of The New York Times Building)

(Above: The view from my desk. This is a view of Port Authority at 40th Street and 8th Avenue in Manhattan)
Not only is working at NYTimes.com amazing, it’s aesthetically-inspiring!!!

My Resume was Featured on Scribd.com

24 Jul
(Above: Click the screenshot above to enlarge and see my resume featured on Scribd.com)

Wow! What a day! I finished a super cool NYTimes project, which is yet to be launched, and my resume was featured on Scribd.com. I’m floating!

P.S. Just found Scribd on Twitter!

Louis Vuitton Advertises in Space Style

20 Jul
(Above: Louis Vuitton takes a new direction with luxury advertising)
(Above: On July 20, 2009, Louis Vuitton advertised with a drop-down ad that read “MEN WALK ON MOON on July 20, 1969. 40 years later, Louis Vuitton is taking you on a Journey Beyond.” The ad links to louisvuittonjourneys.com.)

Louis Vuitton is taking a new direction on advertising. With the recent 40th anniversary of putting a man on the moon, Louis Vuitton is taking the opportunity to honor the journeys of three space heroes: Jim Lovell (commander of Apollo XIII), Sally Ride (America’s first woman in space) and Buzz Aldrin (the second man to step on the moon).

The website louisvuittonjourneys.com takes viewers on an adventure through the lives and careers of the three space legends, as described by them in a private interview with Louis Vuitton.

It’s an interesting take on luxury advertising. Best of all, I love how Louis Vuitton is not directly advertising their products. Instead, they are engaging viewers in conversations with great American legends. What a treat.

Twitter’s Internal Strategy is Compromised

16 Jul

twitter-confidential

I stepped out of the office for a little bit today and when I returned I found a 40-paged article on my desk, freshly printed and bound with a binder clip. The article, from TechCrunch, was entitled Twitter’s Internal Strategy Laid Bare: To Be “The Pulse of the Planet”.

Apparently, on Tuesday evening, more than 300 confidential Twitter documents and screenshots were sent to TechCrunch. Skimming through the article, I can’t help but think the following:

1.) How can Twitter be so rude to P. Diddy? (@iamdiddy)

2.) Is this really a strategy? And was it written by 10-year-olds? But, then, on the other hand, I’m thinking that Twitter must have a really youthful culture to use such juvenile language in official strategy meetings. Some examples include:

– Google would kick our ass at finding the good tweet.

– Twitter should tell me stuff without me searching for that.

– Getting into bed with Microsoft / Why did we start talking to Microsoft in the first place?

– We can give people stuff for free but not forever.

3.) Wow. I wonder how the folks at Twitter conned TechCrunch to not publish all 300 confidential documents that were sent to them.

If you haven’t skimmed through (or completely devoured) the article yet, please do so now! It’s hilarious and a bit enlightening at the same time.

Binging and Googling Myself

2 Jun

As many of you may know, Microsoft just came out with Bing, it’s new search engine that is positioned to rival Google.

And what was the first thing I thought to do with these two mega-power search engines? I’m shameless. I just Binged and Googled myself to see which one has the better search results. Let’s compare, shall we?

Number of Search Results

Google retrieved 397,000 Search Results, while Bing somehow managed to pull out 762,000 Search Results… hmmm. Somehow, I doubt they’re all about me.

- Bing wins Round 1!

Timing

Google performed the search in 0.40 seconds, while on the other hand Bing didn’t even tell me how long it took. In the broad scheme of things, I guess I don’t even care, but it would be nice to have that extra piece of information for shock value!

- Google wins Round 2!

Quality of Search Results

I’ve always loved Google’s ranking system. They never let two of the same domain name enter the first page. If they do, one of them is listed as a sub-category of the other. HOWEVER, Bing allowed two Twitter pages onto my front page. One is my Twitter account, and the other is a tweet that I wrote about Hillary Clinton speaking at my graduation. Bing also let two Brandstorm Community webpages up on the first page. Tsk tsk, Bing! What are you doing over there?!?!?

- Google wins Round 3!

Number of Options

So, this battle is all about who has the most options on their page. Google has a TON of applications and tabs at the top of their page that people use every day, which include Maps, Images, Video, News, Shopping, Gmail and More.

Let’s see what Bing has…. At the top of their page, they have Images, Videos, Shopping, Maps, MSN, Windows Live and More.

Great try, Bing, but Google is the king of Apps.

- Google wins Round 4!

Name

Ok, so far Google is kicking Bing’s ass, but who will win the Battle of the Domain Names?

Google is a clever name. “Google” is derived from googol, which is 10100, that is, the digit 1 followed by one hundred zeros (in decimal representation). This is a great name choice for a search engine, as it implies that it retrieves a very large number of results.

And, so what does Bing mean? According to dictionary.com, it means “a heap or pile”. I see where they are going with that. It also is a type of cherry. And it also means “to go”. When I think of Mandarin Chinese, I think of the word “ice”, pronounced as bing. Hmmm… but somehow, I’m not buying it. Especially when you write it as a verb: Binging. It reminds me of binge drinking and bulimia (binge eating and purging)…. ICK!

Plus, there are already a lot of social networking sites out there with similar names, such as Ning and Ping. But there are other similar onomotopaeia-ish names, such as Boing boing, Blurb, Bonzo, Badoo, Blip, and Bebo. Very unoriginal and not well thought-out, Microsoft. And kudos to Google for the creativity.

- Google wins Round 5!

Overall, it’s Google at 4 and bing at 1. Google is the champion here, and it seems that the only edge that Bing has over Google is the number of results returned. But, peeps, it’s QUALITY OVER QUANTITY!

Check out the screenshots from my vain Binging/Googling session!


Above: Googling results for “erica swallow”

Above: Binging results for “erica swallow”

China Care Foundation Launches New Homepage

21 May

During my four years at NYU, I had a huge involvement in the China Care Foundation. My roommate, Alice, and I, along with three other friends, founded the NYU China Care club. During my time there, we helped dozens of children receive life-saving surgeries and feel loved from thousands of miles away.

This week, China Care launched their newly designed website: www.chinacare.org. It is much more user friendly and explains in detail the new program that they have with Half the Sky, their new partner. We even have a whole new Youth Empowerment section dedicated to clubs, in which I’m actually featured in numerous sections! NYU is listed as a recipient of the first annual Club Awards(in which I won an Outstanding Leadership award); they used an NYU photo for the Fundraising section (which features our Treasurer Amanda Fuller, as seen above); and they even feature the newsletter story about my 2008 summer internship with Saatchi & Saatchi (which you can read about below, or click on the photo to go to the webpage), in which I led a team to create a pro bono ad for China Care that was placed in CosmGirl magazine!

I hope this new homepage brings lots more attention to the China Care Foundation, as they touch not only the lives of they children that they save, but also the lives of so many others, like myself, that help in the process.

I’m a Gilman Scholar! Are you?

18 May

Above is an interview that I did with the Institute of International Education about my experience as a Gilman Scholar. I discussed my Gilman experience as an NYU in Shanghai study abroad student in China and offered advice to current applicants for the Gilman Scholarship. Wish I was more interesting! I need to start reading a dictionary!

To learn more about my time abroad, check out my China Adventure website.

Swap-a-palooza Tonight!

26 Apr


I’m modeling in the annual Swap-a-palooza tonight! I’ve modeled in the show for the past four years, modeling for AuH2O, designed by my friend, Kate Goldwater. I actually met her four years ago on an audition to walk in her show. Luckily, I was picked as one of the models and have been working with her ever since! This is my first time to be on a show flyer (see above)!

What is Swap-a-palooza? It’s an eco-friendly fashion show. Basically, the entrance fee is a bag of your clothing. In return, you get to go through tables of other people’s clothing, alter them, and bring home new pieces! The event lasts all day at NYU’s Kimmel Center and ends with the fashion show at 5pm, brought to you by AuH2O.

So, why AuH2O? Well, AuH2O is an eco-friendly and socially conscious clothing store owned by Kate Goldwater. AuH2O is “Goldwater” in chemical symbols: Au=Gold, H2O=water. Clever, right? Kate makes all AuH2O clothing from recycled materials, sewn right on site. AuH2O also carries other eco-friendly designers, and vintage and consignment clothing, jewelry and handbags.

You should all come out! Check the Facebook invite or the AuH2O blog for more details!

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