Be More Social?

Social Networking

As my daughter and I navigate around the city looking for cheap thrills, I usually have first navigated my way around the WWW - searching for these little gems. I am not really into using the computer, but have come to recognize and appreciate it for the great tool that it is. People use it for so much more than searching for free fun- there is a whole social aspect available that is constantly expanding. One thing I have learned is that by joining groups and networking, I can reap the rewards of other people's experience and adventures as well.

Social Networking, to me, sounds like something I'd rather not try. But in reality, I do have a Facebook account, which I use to spy on old friends and new. There is a bit of pleasure in keeping up with the old crowd while not really having to keep up.

I like Facebook because now I know who's in town - who I really could get back in touch with if I wanted. But, as my sister Liz noted, it has really lost the personal touch we all longed for when we first started friend-searching.

As my more social and more tech-savvy friends tell me, there is so much more I could be doing with my facebook, and there are so many other sites to explore as well.

I will stay away from Twitter - while I would like to know what LL Cool J or my friend Heidi is doing right now, I really could be too easily distracted by too many tmi tweets.

LinkedIn, I am sure could be very useful in my job search, but it is boring. As in BooorrRinggg!

MySpace- I think I will leave this to my daughter's generation; while I would like to have a page decorated with pink cupcakes and cute frames for my photos, it just feels not right for people born before the bicentennial.

reddit and Digg just make me feel old, too - there is too much going on for me to enjoy peacefully, and too many rude/naughty/dumb comments for me to tolerate.

One social networking site that I hope to use more often is Ning.

Ning It!

This site looks like fun and seems to be useful for those of use who just want a forum to connect with a specific set of people with similar interests. The icons are just the right size, there is not an excess of info shoved into a small space, and it doesn't ask me for my soul to simply join in the fun.
It is nice to look at and easy to navigate - I like it because I don't personally have to create and maintain a page. It doesn't seem like as much of a time suck as facebook, though without all the quizzes, polls and games to entertain/distract. But it is fun to explore, and I hope to dedicate some time to looking for a a site or forum with good ideas about raising children in the city.

the Institute of Contemporary Art

This is from an article at boston.com about the stunning increase in visitors since the museum moved to its stunning new building.

Play Date, City Style

My Boston Baby
How many kids grow up tossing around a football on the very grounds where the game was first devised? Or have daily access to one of only 2 public research libraries? Go to summer camp at the Zoo?
I am often surprised (translation: irritated) when people question the wisdom of raising my child in Boston. I am amazed that they can’t see the innumerable advantages of being so near to so much culture, knowledge, government, history, technology, and natural beauty. I appreciate that we are able to drop by the Museum of Fine Arts after school, canoe on Mother Brook on Sunday afternoon, and hear the cheers of the Fenway crowd on the way get a guitar restrung. We can watch a Broadway show, learn about opera, or watch Shakespeare in the park after an afternoon of shopping.

And for none of these little adventures do I need to load up the car, grab a roadmap, circle a rotary for 10 minutes, decode a train schedule, or pack a change of clothes and emergency gas money.
Because we live here, we are able to appreciate the treasures of this town casually and with exceptional frequency. The advantages of culture are worth the small stresses of city living.

Art for the (Shorter) Masses
One of our new faves is the sleek, hip Institute of Contemporary Art. Many kids will find the ICA to be an easier trip than the MFA or the Garnder (All are excellent, just different.) It’s smaller, easier to navigate, has a gorgeous glass elevator, and to quote a very cute 10 year old: “you don’t just stare at pictures.”
The ICA first drew me in when I noticed their FREE family Saturdays. Two adults per family get in free on the last Saturday of the month. The bonus here is that on these Saturdays the museum offers “play dates” – a performance and art activities for the child or family.

These are not perfunctory projects - no cardboard cartouches or drawings of paintings. On our first playdate Maya learned about architecture and made a great sculpture out of recyclables.. I was amazed at the beauty of the piece, and proud of her pride in it.

Our fave playdate was part of a larger event, Kidsbuild 2009, in which children from across the city were invited to create the ICA-city on the floor of the ICA’s stage. It was an elaborate, enriching process. Maya chose a lot, decide what type of building, pulled a permit, designed, gathered materials, built, and went through the inspection process. I had no idea she’d have any interest in building a fire station out of leftover building and decorating samples, and I doubt she did either, but it was much fun, a great success, and she still tells people about her fire station.

During these visits, We usually take a brief jaunt through the exhibits, and some she likes more than others. She loved Anish Kapoor, grand, surprising, bright, confusing – very appealing to a ten year old, who really doesn’t care about the art’s meaning or the artisit's intentions.

Shepard Fairey, I was surprised she didn’t really react much to – I thought she would like the “prettiness” of some of the work, appreciate its notoriety, or at least think the technique cool. But apparently Kapoor’s ridonkulously large ball of wax is more appealing than Fairey's "Guns and Roses."
But I guess that’s art - everyone sees it differently.

Why I Love to Play
Maya and I agree that a great part of the play dates is the performances. During the day, there are a few shows at the ICA theatre – one was a fun, silly bubble magic show – and another I particularly enjoyed was a dance lesson/show by B-Side and Rainbow Tribe.
I love these play dates because we get to do an art activity together, and I don’t need to find supplies, rack my brain for ideas, or try teach any lesson. (All that is done for me. )

Even more so, I love our play dates because they are free, they can be brief, and they can be followed by a walk along the ever-improving harbor. We can splurge and have a quality meal at the museum's café, or we can munch granola bars on the museum's steps watching sailboats sway and the Codzilla zoom in the harbor.

the MBTA

An Assignment
I have received an assignment for school in which I am to write from my personal perspective about my blog’s topic. I am happy living in the Hub, but I will admit there are times I feel frustration, and casually wonder about greener grass.
Closing the Zoo? Few BPS high schools offer sports? Sick call abuse by firefighters?
But consider extensive public transportation; imagine world class restaurants and shopping close to nature preserves and beaches; think of living amid history.

People can spout hundreds of benefits to living in or visiting Boston, and no matter how extensive, the next person will have a different list.

And it goes the same way if one were to enumerate the frustrations of this town. The grievances are many, and varied.

The interesting thing to me is that so much would appear under both headings.
Like the T.

In My Opinion…
When I hear the screeches, booms and putt-putts of a bus coming, I don’t mind so much: that’s my ride – but for so many others, the sound of a city bus is the slurpy, swirly, sucking sound of money gurgling down a drain.

From my personal perspective, as a part-time student, single mother, and working woman, the T is to me an indispensable element of a large, diverse city. I don’t always have the income to support a car and high insurance rates, I seldom have a job that offers (free) parking anyway, and I love to use the T to get to the many places my daughter loves to go: a park, the beach, a museum, a friend’s house, a school event.

Controversy
The Boston Globe today describes a “Transportation Standoff". The article is fuel for those who like to stoke fires of controversy and contention. In the competition for state dollars, suburban drivers and urban rail riders both have legitimate needs, while the state has limited aid.
The MBTA has suggested that, even with the influx of a large chunk of revenue from the upcoming sales tax increase, it may need to raise fares or cut services. The proposed fare increases, nearing an average of 20%, and applied across all branches of the system, still won't come close to eliminating debt estimated at as much as $5 billion.

The T has been steadily improving over the last decade. The improvements and additions made to some stations are outstanding. For example, the Silver Line has brought life to the Waterfront and helped reinvigorate the South End. Buses can carry bikes and some stations have or are getting bike cages. Renovations at many stations, including Kenmore, Ashmont, the Airport, and Arlington have improved ease of use and aesthetics.

But take a look at the Orange Line platform at Haymarket or try to cross from the #39 bus stop into the station at Forest Hills on a rainy day without getting your feet damp. (If you've not passed through this area on such a day, I will vouch that it is near impossible – only those who plan each step strategically can enter the station with dry toes. OK, unless, you’re wearing your Wellies.)

The T obviously needs more money:

• they transport hundreds of thousands of people daily.


• the t police are important presence in the more than 100 towns in the T’s service area


• the environmental benefit is obvious


• our roads and parking facilities cannot bear many more cars
  

But there is, too, evidence of mismanagement within the T. As one of those agencies subject to little oversight, and full of union employees, it is naturally known for excesses like double dippers, excess overtime, and piggy pensions.

Conclusion???
We need the T to stay cheap and run often because it is depended on by students, tourists, the poor, and ever so many businesses that that cannot afford to offer parking to employees. Think of the school students who ride daily with student passes – imagine that many more buses on the road at 7 AM, or a bunch of newly licensed teens clogging the left turn lanes in their jalopies? Maybe the image of thousands of Red Sox fans circling Kenmore Square in their SUV’s, vying for parking spots on game days is more affecting …

But I fear the T actually needs both more injections from the state or the feds AND a fare hike. What it may need most of all is severe housecleaning to exterminate its unneccessaries, inefficiencies, and underperformers.

The T is integral to enjoying the benefits of our amazing city. Everyone may need to sacrifice for what some would consider the greater good, what I would consider the common good.