The Lights of Grand Central - Desktop Images

There are things in our lives which we feel strangely connected to, perhaps it's fashion from a certain point in history or vistas in another city, or we might favor certain arts and sports while considering others to be boring.  We know it when we see it because it enchants and fascinates us like a lover we can't take our eyes off of.  For me, certain styles of architecture and design make me swoon, especially when it's evident that a great deal of consideration was put not just into the function of a space or fixture, but into the aesthetic quality and craftsmanship as well.  Grand Central has it all for me- a public palace full of smart design and artisan indulgence with no detail left unconsidered.

Chandelier embellishments of acorns and leaves created by Parisian sculptor Sylvain Saliéres to represent the Vanderbuilt family crest
technical detail: iso 800, 38mm, f/9.0, 1/60s, handheld, ambient light

The lights of Grand Central are particularly iconic, from the finely crafted chandeliers to the planetarium-style painted ceiling with tiny lights representing stars, not only serving a function, but also becoming their own visual works of art that act as fine jewelry and a special embroidered scarf over an exquisitely tailored dress. With so much detail, it's a luxury to find yourself stopping just to stare at the ceiling while everyone whizzes by you to catch their next connection.

Bronze chandeliers created by Sterling Bronze Company
technical detail: iso 800, 24mm, f/14, 1/8s, handheld, ambient light

Will there ever be another time when such care, detail, and flourish is incorporated into such a large public space again? Until that time comes, at least we can adorn our computers with such artful creations. Click any image to download a copy for your desktop, and please contact me directly for additional use or publication of these images.  More information on the Grand Central architecture and design can be found at http://www.gcthistory.com/#s2.

Sky ceiling painted by French artist Paul Helleu, friend of architect Whitney Warren as a budget replacement for skylights
technical photo detail: iso 800, 25mm, f/5.6, 1/4s, handheld, ambient light

14 Creative Things To Do Together Tonight

Whether your relationship is a new fling, or tried and true spouses, make the journey more fun by doing things outside of the box from your regular routine.  Here are a few things to create a unique and fun memory together:

1. Try a new recipe together.  Get adventurous and pick an exotic recipe neither of you have made before.
2. Draw each other.  If you're both horrible at drawing, you can at least laugh at your creations together.  Of course, there's also a chance that one or both of you are brilliant artists, and that you'll end up with something worthy of a frame.  Either way, it's a simple way to create a unique keepsake together.
3. Learn to sing a Karaoke song together.  There are plenty of YouTube-style-karaoke examples you can practice at home- just pick one you can practice over and over together and if you feel really daring, take it on the Karaoke circuit to try it in front of a live audience!
4. Divide a deck of cards in half and write out 26 things you love about each other on the face of each card and then play a game like war, and read them back and forth to one another over a bottle of wine.
5. Create a favorite dance mix together and then use it to dance to in your living room.
6. Create a painting together.  Get a canvas, pick out two colors and take turns adding paint to the canvas to create something original and unique for your collaboration.  If canvas and paints are out of the budget, paper, markers, and pens work just as well.
7. Reenact a famous movie scene together and record it.  No one else needs to see it, unless you feel like you have some star potential, but now you'll have something to relive over and over together.
8. Write a poem together.  Trade off line by line and see how long you can keep it going.
9. Make a snow creature or a sand creature together (or play dough creature!)  Dragon, teddy bear, shark, koala- the options are only limited by your imagination.
10. Take a hike and find a good hiding place to start a new Geocache together.
11. Learn a dance together so that the two of you can really take the dance floor with confidence as a couple at your next social gathering like a wedding or holiday party.
12. Sit across from each other and give each other foot massages at the same time, of course you may not want to stop at the ankles.
13. Go through random photos you have of each other and print them out to create an album of shared memories together.
14. Create a vision board together, imagining a life that's even more wonderful than you have now.

MySocialBook Review - Facebook Feed Printed as a Book

I think it was just 10 days ago that I came across someone else mentioning MySocialBook.com as a way to print their Facebook feed, and while I was traveling, my own version arrived in the mail.  I had been considering converting my personal digital memories posted online into print for a while, and had even started the process with a few other bookmaking services, but had never finished either because there was an error, it took too much design and layout tweaking, or it just wasn't the right price point for something that was basically just going to be a printed archive.  I may never write an actual book, but I've certainly written enough digital content to fill many books, and I wanted to make sure I could actually preserve it in printed form.

Once I began the process with MySocialBook, I found it to be so easy that I finished five books in no time, without any frustrations or delays.  They streamlined the process by providing options to print some or as much of your content as you want, organized by date range and by type of content like images vs. status updates.  Include what other people have posted to your wall or not, it's just a quick click to make that design decision.  You can add Facebook photo albums to your books, and you can change your mind over and over again while getting an updated preview of the book along with a count of how many pages your book will be with your current selections.  I ended up removing one post from a book that was going to be a highlight (when it was actually insignificant to me, but had received lots of likes), and changed the cover on a couple others.  It was so easy to make decisions with a new preview just a few clicks away- instead of getting bogged down by this process when trying other services.

I wanted to print as much as possible and I was able to squeeze my first couple years into one book (2007-2009, 2010-2011) but then my posting of Instagram images picked up big time and it became two books for my adventure year in 2012, and I haven't even printed the rest of 2013 yet because I want to fill as many pages as I can before I order another.  I was less concerned about each book being a specific time period and more concerned that as much of it gets printed as possible.  The books are limited to 500 pages and you can order in softcover or hardcover (for an additional fee).  Based on the number of pages, I went with a softcover book mostly for utilitarian purposes to make it easy and light to store, rather than as something to display or handle often over time.

The printing and paper quality is decent for the price, but especially for the speed of binding and delivery  (starts at $11 for 25 pages in paperback and up to 500 pages for $168 in hardcover, but follow MySocialBook on Facebook and be notified of 20% or 30% off specials)!  If your images were uploaded with enough resolution and they were sharp to begin with, they will appear in great resolution and sharp in the book.  If they were low resolution, the image will either appear very small, or you'll notice the resolution difference from one image to the next.  

I only have three very minor "meh" comments about the books (as of this writing, and I'm sure things will change over time):

1. In some ways it uses the old Facebook timeline style of jumping back and forth between columns on a page, and it carries the column on the left of one page to the left of the next page, rather than just continuing into the next column on the same page.  A minor reading annoyance that's easily adjusted to when you figure it out.  

2. Occasionally, an image is cut off on the bottom of the page, showing only the top portion of that image.  The bottom portion of the image doesn't print anywhere, it's just gone.  Since part of my archives are my images, this makes me a little sad, but since it only happens occasionally throughout the book, I'm not completely dissatisfied.  Hopefully they'll figure out how to prevent an image from running off the page soon.

3. The yellow book option with yellow text is slightly difficult to read due to its light color.  I like the yellow cover, but perhaps the yellow text inside could be a darker type of yellow to make it more readable.  If visibility is a concern for you, choose a different color.

Ultimately, I'll still print another book using this same service because the process was so easy and quick to complete.  Now, if MySocialBook could integrate blog feeds as easily as it does Facebook feeds, I'd use it to print my blog as well!

Here are additional images from inside my books:

Yellow Book, yellow text, page of instagram posts include the headings:

This is what it looks like when many people post "Happy Birthday" comments to your wall:

A mix of mobile uploads and status updates:

Status updates only:

A better view on green of those monthly highlight pages:

*This is a completely independent review and all books were purchased as a customer without any compensation or free product provided.