yelp!

i'm a yelp(er)

when i moved to sf, i decided to remedy the problem i had when i lived in la that left me saying "oh yea, where was that place i went that one time? i went with him and her and her and we ate noodles. where was it? what was the name of that place?"

to remedy that problem i started an excel spreadsheet as soon as i moved to sf. the spreadsheet column header labels were something of the following: name, address, who i went with, what i had, why i liked it, would i go back.

accompanied with this .xls worksheet, i quickly picked up the habit of collecting business cards at each restaurants/lounge i visited. after a week or weekend, there would be a stack of 3-5 business cards on my desk awaiting entry to my "sf places" excel file. filling out the spreadsheet was something i did to relax and recap my week/weekend.

this method worked great, i had a list of everywhere i went -and my opinion of each. the only problem with this list was the fact that it was stuck on my computer at home. many times i would make plans to meet someone after work, and the same question popped into my head "oh yea, where's that place i went to one time?"

then i discovered yelp...

what is yelp? it's basically myspace.com + citysearch.com = yelp.com

yelp is a social networking website, so you have a list of friends, comments, personal pics, etc... but the focus isn't showing skin and posting pic of your funniest drunken stupor moments [crack at myspace.com if you weren't paying attention]. yelp is based on users opinions. from restaurants to auto mechanics yelp is a place for people to post opinions and reviews about establishments and their services.

i figured that yelp was the answer to my problem here. moving back to la, i needed a new leaf to turn over. so yelp.com got my signup! with the habit of collecting business cards at each establishment already part of my normal routine, i figured that 1/2 of the work i've already taken care of.

the second half is to yelp about everywhere i visit.

so far i've got a few reviews going, and plenty more to come. if you want to be my yelp friend, let me know. if you are already on yelp, then why didn't you tell me about it before?!

chapstick

chapstick

"hi, my name is ameer, and i'm addicted to chapstick."

have you ever walked out of the house, checked your pockets, realized you forgot your chapstick, and then actually went back in the house to get it? i did this just the other day. i've done this many times. but this time it triggered a thought, "oh man: i'm addicted!!"

that got the rusty gears in my noggin a-turning.

there was a time in history when people didn't go back in their homes due to lack of lip balm. what did they do? in the 1500's did everyone on the planet just live with chapped lips? i don't think so?!

the chap-lip-prevention industry has gotten it's hooks into the masses. and they're here to stay. i state that with (adam is so cool btw) confidence because almost every person i know carries some sort of lip moisturizer with them at all times.

thing is, i don't find myself applying chapstick every minute of every waking moment. some days i don't even apply, even once. but the moment i realize i'm without chapstick, my lips shrivel up and i start to frantically search for the closest lip-balm selling store. it's almost as if chapstick in my pocket is enough to moisturize my lips. it's mental! i'm mental!

so the chapstickers have stuck the idea of dry lips in our heads, and on our lips.

thus all we really need is that subconscious piece of mind that if we ever do need some lip moisturizing, we have it! we can live without chapstick?

what do you think?

p.s. my brother borrowed my laptop while i was composing this post. his name is adam.