Coffee Shop Etiquette

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It’s 2:33pm on a Sunday afternoon. I’ve been holed up all weekend and I want to get out. My brother asks to hang out. After going a few places, we stop at Starbucks. An afternoon caffeine pick me up, ya know? Anyways, the store doesn’t look to busy as we walk in, the line isn’t long and there seem to be some tables left.

Surprise. After getting our coffees, we try to find a good table and come up at a loss. The inside is packed and the only ones available are on the outside patio where the weather is currently a windy 55 degrees. Not too cold, but enough to not be comfortable.

Guess who’s occupying all of the tables inside? Wi-Fi Leeches. Eight of the nine tables have people sitting with laptops at them, browsing away. Maybe I shouldn’t be so harsh. A few of the people seem to be doing actual work. Although most are not. From what I can see, two people are watching videos (probably through Netflix or something), a couple more are on Facebook and Twitter. One girl is intensely staring at her laptop, looking at Pinterest and writing down some of what she sees.

Can these people be considered “Wi-Fi leeches” or are they just people who are using the complimentary service provided to them after purchasing a beverage/snack? Public Wi-Fi is mainstream. It’s everywhere now. Starbucks, McDonalds, Chick-Fil-A, Burger King, Panera Bread, and more offer free wifi (as long as you purchase something). Heck, even airplanes now have wifi (albeit with a price tag).

Why do people use it so much though? It seems normal to sit in a coffee shop for maybe 30 minutes or an hour and use the wifi, but three hours, four, five…? I remember going into Starbucks when I was younger and–get this–there were seats available to sit down at. People would sit down, read their newspaper, drink coffee and leave after 30 minutes or so. Times have changed.

Although skeptical at first, Starbucks began offering free, limited wifi in 2008 and then free, unlimited wifi in 2010. Other businesses began following suit and public wifi became commonplace and expected by consumers.

Is using public wifi for hours on end bad? Probably. If you order a coffee and sit down for hours, using your laptop, you’re taking away a table that new customers can use. Although I’m guilty of using free wifi at places like Starbucks to do work for a few hours. However you look at, there are a few rules people should follow for proper coffee shop etiquette.

1. Consolidate your stuff  

Don’t be that person that has all of your stuff scattered across the table and chairs. Do you really need to spread out all of your work over the table and have your power charger strewn across the walkway? No, you don’t.

Only bring what’s necessary and make sure your laptop has a full charge before coming to the coffee shop. Stop taking up unnecessary space with your jacket, backpack, purse, and so forth.

2. Don’t hog power outlets

I went to this one coffee shop where they had a big community style table among the other smaller tables. The big community table was big enough to sit about four people comfortably. It had a four plug wall outlet. When I walked by the table, there were three people sitting at it, two of them appearing a little disgruntled. The other guy at the table was occupying three of the four plugs. He had his phone plugged in, laptop plugged in, and some type of power pack or something plugged in. Seriously dude?

*Bon Qui Qui voice* “Rude!”

3. No Phone Calls

Unless you’re famous, no one wants to hear your phone calls to your business partner, co-worker, mom, dad, boyfriend, or girlfriend. Stop. It’s alright if it’s a quick one minute call but when you’re on the phone for minutes on end, for the whole coffee shop to hear, it gets annoying.

4. If you’re in an independent coffee shop, make sure to buy something every hour or so. 

Support your local coffee shops, be a good, non-freeloading customer. You could maybe apply this rule to Starbucks, but they seem to be doing fine considering they always seem to have a steady line of cars in the drive-through and a line inside.

5. Nobody wants to hear your music

Put in headphones and make sure the headphones volume is low enough so that the people around you can’t hear it blasting out.

 

All in all, practice courtesy at the coffee shop. Share power outlets, buy more coffee or food if your going to be there a few hours, and don’t hog space.

 

Realizations Upon Visiting NYC

Brooklyn
Brooklyn

As you may have seen from last Wednesday’s post, I visited New York City. Aside from a job interview, I played tourist a bit and wandered around, finding new places to visit. Along the way, some thoughts entered my mind about The Big Apple.

1. New Yorkers seem to walk really fast or really slow, there is no inbetween

2. Making eye contact with a stranger in the murky underground subway station is more awkward than most eye-contact scenarios. Keep your eyes on a revolving rotation while in the station.

3. People really love Starbucks here (everyone I walked past was jam-packed crowded (although maybe it’s just cause NYC has so many people…maybe).

4. WHY DOES EVERYONE IN THE COFFEE SHOP HAVE MACBOOKS ?!?!? (sorry, macbooks are just too expensive for me #windowsforlyfe).

5. By the end of your visit to The Big Apple, you will have perfected your “subway smug face” (seriously, everyone has it while they ride the subway).

6. There is little treasures of different places everywhere

John Lennon dedicated Strawberry Fields section of Central Park
John Lennon dedicated Strawberry Fields section of Central Park

7. WHY IS IT SO COLD HERE?!?!? (I’m from Texas, I’m not used to 9 degree weather!

8. You can find the most incredible views in the most unexpected places.

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View from a bathroom window in Dumbo, Brooklyn

9. I suddenly love bagels (NYC has great bagels)

10. Movie Tickets are expensive (I thought paying $10.75 in Texas was expensive, in NYC tickets range from an okay-reasonable $11 to $15 freaking.dollars.).

11. This may be the city with the most amount of jaywalking

12. There’s so many neighborhoods and different cultures (I mean, I thought it was just the standard Manhattan, Brooklyn, what’s Dumbo? Williamsburg? Greenpoint?)

13. Times Square is a horror zone that must be avoided at all costs (seriously though, there’s SO MUCH more to explore in NYC besides Times Square).

14. Basically, NYC is beautiful and you should definitely take a visit up to the city that never sleeps

Magnificent Brooklyn Bridge *not posting a picture of Times Square*
Magnificent Brooklyn Bridge *not posting a picture of Times Square*

 

 

My New York City Visit in Photos

Yesterday I got back from a 6-day trip to New York City. My time in The Big Apple was a blast. Aside from the job interview I went for, several great things happened. I visited a few famous buildings and places from TV shows and musical artists. The trip brought new connections as I got to chat with a budding playwright while sitting in Starbucks and talk with a senior account executive at a well known NYC public relations firm.

All in all, New York City was great to experience. This was my first time visiting in the winter time and it came as a shock! It was 9 degrees at one point, definitely not something a born and raised Texan like myself has ever experienced.

Look through the photos below to see my visit to the big city!

dumbod The first time I came to NYC (back in 2009) I was with a tour and mostly stayed in Manhattan. I made a point to see more of Brooklyn this time. The photo above was the view from a bathroom window in a Dumbo, Brooklyn office building.

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Tom's Restaurant, the restaurant seen in the TV show Seinfeld
Tom’s Restaurant, the restaurant seen in the TV show Seinfeld
John Lennon dedicated Strawberry Fields section of Central Park
John Lennon dedicated Strawberry Fields section of Central Park

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Central Park
Central Park

 

 

 

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Monica Gellar’s apartment building in the TV show Friends

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When I was a teenager, I LOVED the TV show Wizards of Waverly Place. So glad I got see the New York City street referenced in the show!

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Practiced my hand-lettering while sitting in Starbucks.

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I had heard about Cafe Grumpy before. On my last NYC visit, I just went in, ordered some coffee, took photos and left. On my visit this time, I stayed in the place for a few hours and now it’s become my favorite NYC coffee shop. Fun trivia: This Greenpoint, Brooklyn Cafe Grumpy location is the one Hanna (Lena Dunham) works at in HBO’s Girls.

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Visited Liz Lemon’s apartment building from NBC’s 30 Rock. 

 

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Keep your eyes out for next Wednesday when I share some humorous insights I learned while in New York City. Stay Tuned and follow me on Instagram: colin_ashby until then!

 

Goals for 2015

I'm the tall one...
I’m the tall one…

The college graduate feeling has officially kicked in.

Being a December graduate has been weird. Since graduating nearly three weeks ago, I’ve been under the thinking that “Oh, I’m just on break. I’ll be going back for classes come mid-January.” Wrong.

I’m finally out in the real world, with no job lined up yet, and it’s both hugely exciting and hugely terrifying. I have a mixture of emotions but I’m ready for this new part of my life. A few job applications have managed to get completed and sent out but I had to constantly remind myself to enjoy this period. This period of free time, unemployment, and job hunting stress. I’ll never get this amount of time again until I retire, so I better enjoy it while it lasts (although I seriously hope it doesn’t last too long, bills gotta be paid, amiright?).

With 2015 now upon us, I have a few goals I want to achieve this year. New Year’s resolutions have gotten a bad reputation due to most people failing to achieve theirs. The usual sayings go: You don’t need a new year to decide to do something new. You can go after opportunities any time of the year. New Year’s resolutions are stupid!

Well…yeah, I agree with all those points. At the same time though, it’s still great to set New Year’s resolutions as long as the resolutions  are realistic, measurable, and you know the goal you want to achieve with them. 

Another reason for starting my new year’s resolutions now is because the the time constraints of college are behind me. Granted, I will soon have the time constraints of a full-time job,  a job has a more structured time block than college and it’s endless required essays, assignments and quizzes that take longer than expected.

Below are my goals for the new year:

Learn more graphic design

I’m not quite sure the specialties of graphic design I would like to learn more about design theory, logo design, web design, e-book cover design, and illustration.

For the past week, I’ve been putting together a “syllabus” for my self-directed learning of graphic design. I’m investing in some hardcopy material including The Design of Everyday Things, Logo Design Love, and You Can Draw in 30 Days.

To create a measurable aspect to learning, I’ve outlined some things I want to accomplish:

  • 3 typography sketches per week, every week
  • 3 graphic design projects per week, every week (retouching a photo, doing an exercise in Illustrator, the project can be anything but it has to involve working in Photoshop, Illustrator and/or InDesign)
  • Design one website/blog per month

Publish my first novel 

I’ve been working on a novel for nearly two years. I’m editing it and feel confident in it. This year, I will set out to self-publish it and build readership for the book. The release date will be sometime this spring, no set day yet.

Ahead of the release, once I get the manuscript back from my editor, is to share excerpts and quotes from the novel. I want to build excitement for it!!

This is my biggest goal for 2015 so for the first few months of this year, I’ll be spending a majority of my free time on it.

Go to the freaking gym already

I signed up for a planet fitness membership in August 2014 and started going there. It’s been great and I’ve made progress but I haven’t been consistent. I would go to the gym five days one week, two the next, you get the gist.

My goal for 2015 is to maintain a routine of going to the gym five days a week. Exercising gives me a better outlook and attitude on things. It makes me feel great. I want more of that feeling so I’m going to better my gym visiting habits this year.

 

Hope everyone’s new year is filled with insightful conversations, great connections, growing friendship, and full of learning. Here’s to the new year!

 

 

Weekend Reading List: Dec. 18

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There is a lot that goes on in the week. Christmas shopping is reaching the final countdown and the new Annie movie is coming out on Friday (anyone seeing it?).

In the weekend immediately following my college graduation, I read several articles online. I’ve rounded them up and provide some commentary on why they’re great. Behold the weekend reading list:

  1. 5 ways to motivate yourself to do anything (The Daily Muse): I really like reading The Muse’s career advice articles. Many people have a grand idea or goal they want to accomplish but have trouble actually completing it. The article’s first way to get more motivated (get clear on the end goal) is my favorite. When you get stuck and/or feeling down on your pursuit, you can always look towards the end goal you have set for yourself.
  2. 4 habits of people who follow their dreams (Fast Company): This article mentions the crucial soft skill of being able to not take rejection/criticism personally and having the ability to judge your work. It has a handful of anecdotal examples of people who faked it till they made it, created their own opportunities in response to rejection, and used naysayers as mindset rocket fuel.
  3. Six secrets to effective job hunting (Primer Magazine): Go directly to company websites, something so obvious but often so overlooked.
  4. How to choose a direction when you have a million ideas (XO Sarah):  This is for all the bloggers/creative consultants/designers/self-published authors/entrepreneurs/insert job title here’s everywhere.
  5.  Resume Speak (Resume Speak): This is a humorous one. Funny read considering the countless times I’ve been told as a soon (and now recent) college graduate being advised on “fitting my resume with buzzwords”.

Photo by: Bec Brown (Unsplash)

Blowing Smoke

de9uL9L7RSmzV4SAoAO5_Lauren and Winona Under a pass-1I’m glad most people that read and liked the various articles about me living in my car won’t see this post. This entry is a bit of a turn from the vibe that those car-dwelling articles were about.

Blowing smoke

Ever heard that phrase? Apparently it’s a common phrase yet I had never heard it until recently. There is this version of the phrase that I just put up and there is also a slightly extended version. Both mean similar things. The expression of people giving you compliments and saying they will do something…and then never do.

When the article came out, a handful of people talked about how my story was inspiring, humble, and so forth. I didn’t really understand it considering I just lived in my car to get through college, but nonetheless I went along with it. I knew things were going to die down soon enough. Many people I talked with mentioned that they would try to help me get set up with jobs and careers. They said I could reach out if I ever needed help.

Well, I’ve experienced my fair share of people blowing smoke lately. I was told about a likely job offer only for it to never happen. Then a handful of people got in contact with me and talked about introducing me to potential job leads…only for it to never happen.

I didn’t realize what I was doing wrong at first. I had told the people I was talking with about the types of careers I wanted, the skills I had, and that I was open to moving anywhere in the country for a career I wanted. Things seemed good at first. I was talking with a few people, they were sending information and so forth. The fan fare died down, however, and things have hit a (sort of) brick wall.

I’m no closer to knowing what my future career entails than before the article was released. It wasn’t my intention when writing the article to have it boost my career in any way. It’s just that when I started getting in contact with working professionals saying they wanted to help me, I thought “Hey, maybe a potential lead could come out of this.”

This was far from the reality.

I thought working hard, living in my car freshman year, and taking a full load of classes would get me prepared for the job hunt.

I thought having good grades, a handful of internships, and student involvement would help me secure a job for after graduation.

I thought, I thought, I thought…

I graduate college in 6.5 weeks and I have no idea what comes afterward. This is a weird feeling since my schedule is packed right now. I’m taking 15 credit hours, working a part-time job at a public relations firm, running an organization, and writing my first novel. However, once December hits, most of these things (except for the novel) will go away and I will have an open schedule.

Slightly (okay, very) frightening to say the least.

I always laughed at Lena Dunham’s character in Tiny Furniture. Now I feel like I might become the character.

I’ve always dreamed of moving somewhere else after college (either Chicago, NYC, or Seattle). Lately, I’ve been toying with the idea of going to Chicago for the improv scene. Pretty foolish, right?

On top of all of the lost leads, I haven’t had much time to devote to my novel. It’s my first novel and I’m writing it right now, something I’m proud to be doing, yet I don’t have near the amount of the desired time to do it. It sucks having to put a passion project on the back burner for things like writing papers and studying for tests. Whenever I’m not doing that I’m working my job, whenever I’m not doing that, I’m running an organization. I clock in only a few hours a week toward my novel.

It is the one thing that I can look forward to after graduation…yet I don’t even have the desired amount of time to devote to it. I hate it.

Not exactly how I planned my last semester of college going. Originally I wasn’t going to have the internship at the public relations firm this fall. Not having it would have freed up a lot of time to job search. I socked away money in my savings account and had a good enough financial aid package to get through the semester without working too much. Well, my place of work extended an offer for me to continue the internship through the fall. I wanted to say no but my bank account told me to say yes.

Anyways, what I’ve learned the past few weeks as my college graduation nears is that nothing is guaranteed. People will tell you things then won’t do it. Opportunities will arise, then they will disappear. The only way to get through is to keep moving forward (thanks Walt Disney).

I monitor my time more closely now and put any free time I have toward finishing my novel. I don’t exactly know the type of job I will have but I know the person I want to become.

Last fall I promised one of my teachers, Mr. Zmikly, that I was going to be a speaker at our college’s Mass Communication Week. I even set a date for it, October 19, 2015. This date is starting to make me nervous considering the thought I have of me working in a crappy low pay job and not really seeming all that qualified to be a speaker.

There is something keeping me from believing this. It’s like there are two people in my head: one thinking I’m going to be an unemployed bum and the other thinking “hey, even though this will be freaking tough, I can get through it and come out on top.”

A big thing I learned at my college’s Mass Communication Week last week was simple:

Make things. Get stuff done.

Trei Brundrett of Vox Media said this during a panel. I freaking loved it. Constantly I’m being instructed to have a perfect resume, thoughtful cover letter, 3-5 internships, good GPA, and have a know-how of many different skills. Several of my teachers and the career advisors have jammed this into my (as well as other students) heads.

Thinking of all of this can get overwhelming and leave a person forgetting to do an activity that matters: make things. 

So, even with the lost leads, disappointments, and rejections, I’m going to keep moving forward and keep making things. The “thing” right now include finishing my novel. There is a mass communication job fair tomorrow. Things will move forward, I just have to take the first step.

As Kenan & Kel (mainly Kel) would say, “Aw, here it goes!”

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50 Follows

On Monday (February 24th) I hit 50 followers for Reel Deal Film/TV. I’m super happy about it. I originally started this blog back in September 2013 as a class project for my Fundamentals of Digital and Online Media course. Since the ending of the #fdom class in December 2013, this blog has really grown into something of its own. I tweaked the topic, changed the layout and added some new things. I really like the progress I’m making with this as I near my college graduation later this year (December 2014).

I’m taking a web design class this semester with the same lecturer I had for Fundamentals of Digital and Online Media. The class exposes me to a lot of new skills to learn (HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, iMovie) so I’m excited to see how I can incorporate some of what I learn there into this site. Below is a before/after picture of my site redesign for colinashby.org

Site Redesign: Before/After (for Web Design & Publishing class)
Site Redesign: Before/After
(for Web Design & Publishing class)