It’s Saturday night, the mood is right and so it is time to hit the streets of Shibuya – right? These night time city lights were captured by sarah.and.michael while hanging around Japan in 2005 sometime. Lucky them and nice shot!
Unicef Stores in the U.S.: Going, Going, Gone?
When I’ve describe my house, I often say that it looks like a Unicef store without the price tags. If you’ve ever been to a Unicef store, you’ll know what I mean. They are filled with high quality crafts from around the world and the profits go towards Unicef’s humanitarian projects. Or perhaps, I should say, the stores were filled with quality crafts.
I’m not saying that all the craft items in my house are high quality, but they are from all over the place and if we sold some of it, it would be hard to tell what’s missing. What is missing is a number of Unicef stores. I’m hoping it’s not all of them.
Unicef stores are having a hard time making ends meet. I just found out that the Unicef store in Sacremento, California closed a few months ago because the greeting cards sold there weren’t the new stock. It has something to do with a Hallmark cards taking the card production over. This article explains it. According to the article, other Unicef stores in the United States have closed also because people aren’t as drawn into the stores without the cards.
Darn it. I looked at the Web site for Old Town in Albuquerque, New Mexico to see if the Unicef store I used to go to is still there and I didn’t see it in the list of merchants. I loved that store. It was intimate and gathered much of the world on its shelves.
It’s too bad Unicef stores might not exist any more. They have that feeling about them that if you shop there, you are doing good. You can still buy Unicef cards year round at Pier One and 100% of the card sales go to Unicef, but still, shopping at Pier One does not feel the same.
Indian Kid Speaks 13 Languages
Check out the video above of a young kid who is so dedicated to his job selling peacock-themed souvenirs to international tourists, he’s learned his pitch in 13 different languages including French, Italian, German, Arabic, Russian, and Japanese.
I’d imagine this was taken somewhere in India — the classic black and yellow taxis can be seen driving in the background, and the familiar sound of the horn-flooded streets almost guarantees it’s somewhere on the Subcontinent.
I sure hope the videographer purchased the souvenir — this kid deserves it! Click here, or on the photo above to watch the video. [via]
(Sorry, I couldn’t find the video on YouTube or elsewhere. This one is hosted on a site that uses annoying audio ads. You’ve been warned!)
Don’t BlindlyTrust Your GPS Device
I don’t have a GPS device. For me, part of the fun of road trips is getting lost; I enjoy navigating unknown cities and long, remote stretches of highways with my trusty Rand McNally. That’s not to say I wouldn’t use a GPS device in conjunction with a paper map — but I wouldn’t rely solely on the satellite navigation system. Case in point: Back in March, the driver of a £96,000 Mercedes relied on her GPS system a little too much and ended up following its directions right into a river.
“The Mercedes SL500 was swept 600 yards downstream, bouncing from one bank of the River Sense to the other as the woman, in her late 20s and from London, frantically tried to escape,” described the Daily Mail. “She was finally rescued by villager Alice Clark when the car ran aground.”
This seems to be happening more and more often. A driver in Italy recently trusted their GPS device’s directions when it advised pulling off the road and onto a train track. Here’s a rather boring video of said car being pushed off of the tracks:
And even when you’re not blindly following incorrect, computer-generated directions, studies have shown that “using GPS while behind the wheel is actually more distracting and less safe than unfolding a paper map and using it to find your way,” reads our sister site Engadget. Thirteen percent of drivers, according to the survey, relied exclusively on their GPS for directions, “rendering them completely oblivious to the world around them.” With numbers that high, I’m surprised we don’t have more people driving into rivers and onto railroad tracks.
[via]
Travel Deal at Jacob’s Field
Eurkea! Ever since I wrote my post on dwindling travel deals for those over 50, I’ve been looking for a bargain. I’m not over 50, but like the good Girl Scout I used to be, it doesn’t hurt to be prepared. Last night, I found one.
If you happen to have a kid with you, and it doesn’t have to be your kid, and you happen to be in Jacob’s Field where the Cleveland Indians play head to Kids Land. It was glorious. Kid size sodas for $1.00. Push-up orange sherbert for $1.50. A snow cone for $1.00. I couldn’t believe it. What bounty! Just outside the boundaries of Kids Land’s border, sodas were almost 3 times as much. You don’t have to be a kid to partake.
Here’s the thing, I don’t know if this was called Kids Land or Kiddieland, but it’s at Section 117. Follow the signs. Once there, an adult at the gate checks to make sure that each child has an adult with him or her when entering. On the way out, it’s the same so you don’t need to worry about your child getting misplaced.
My son had a blast playing with other kids–the favorite thing was to see just how many of them could fit in a playhouse–and on the way back to our seats in the nosebleed section high above the seagulls, we walked on the inside of the ballpark where we got a better look at the field. Check out the kids page on the Web site for more deals. Children 14 and under can join Kids Club to get some special bargains. One is a free sundae.