Tracy Tran – Page 49

Life, San Francisco

So You Need a Place to Live? How to Respond to a Craigslist Ad for Housing Without Sounding Like a Psycho

It’s happened again. Time to search for another housemate. I always get really excited and anxious when this happens because I LOVE CHANGE. I love the drama and the feeling of possibility. I would change my wardrobe, job, family, house, everything over and over again if only there weren’t so many damn hurt feelings and uh… if it didn’t cost so much.Â Changing roommates is a way of shaking things up that doesn’t totally upend my life.

I’ve been on both sides of filling a vacant room in San Francisco, and either way it’s a competitive jungle.When I was searching for places during my first year or two in SF I had to send out scores of emails, ran all over town every day to interview, and oftentimes my interview turned out to be an open house where I was trying to stand out amongst 15+ people. It ain’t pretty, and while having a room to fill is less stressful, it’s still a lot of work.Â In our first 24 hours of posting our available room we’ve received 50+ responses. That’s a lot of people to sift through.

I think that over the last four years (5 apartments, 15+ roommates) I’ve gained a sense of what will or won’t work as far as putting up ads and answering ads. Here’s a few tips for the apartment SEEKERS.

When answering an ad for housing...

DO:

Be honest about what you’re looking for in a home. Do you want a party house? Do you want a calm place? Do you want a cooperative sharing household? It’s best to get that aligned in the beginning.
Say that you are gainfully employed and have not had a problem paying rent on time (if this is true). If you are unemployed… most people will want you to be employed, but I feel like if you can pay rent, and have a backup income source (even if it’s mom and dad) that’s okay. Everything is ok as long as the money is coming from somewhere.
Talk about yourself- what you do, what you’re into. Emails that are sent to us without any personal information at all are automatically deleted.
It seems like everybody in San Francisco is “new to the city and interested in discovering its secrets” and Â “into hiking, yoga and wine/food”. Geez these responses are worse than OKCupid profiles! Try to include something you feel is really unique about yourself (a “hook”). Do you draw comics? Do you do improv downtown? Do you own a bunny rabbit?
Er… if you DO own a bunny rabbit, it might be best to include a video, link to the pet’s Facebook page, or some sort of “digital resume” so that we can see how cute and well-behaved the critter is. Houses will still have a serious bias against you and your litter-box trained rabbit, but who knows? They might be charmed.
State your flexibility as far as move in dates. The house might be flexible as well.
Include a link to the original apartment posting within the email you send so that when you receive a response you can remember which apartment you are talking about.

DON’T

Include a link to your art. People will judge you for your nude maternity photography and Biggie Smalls paintings on sneakers.
Ask if you can let people couchsurf in our place. We don’t know you yet! No!
Mention your age. Let people meet you first before they decide that you’re “too young” or “too old.”
Include a link to your Facebook. I’m kind of on the fence about this one, but my general policy is that you’re just trying to get your foot in the door for an interview, so the less information the better. People may decide not to write back to you just based on your musical tastes or profile photo. It’s not nice, but it happens.
Talk about what drugs you are or are not into. Just don’t go there.
Quote Bible verses. What does this have to do with finding a house?
Ask for pictures of the room. If there were no pictures in the Craigslist ad, there are probably no pictures of the room.
Ask how close the apartment is to an identifiable landmark (BART, downtown, etc). You can probably figure it out via Google Maps, or ask when you see the place.
Obviously show that you haven’t read the ad by asking questions that are answered in the ad.

I could think of a ton more, but these are the things that irked me most in this round of house interviews. Add your own pointers in the comments if you have any extra tips.

Life, San Francisco

Astor’s First Critical Mass

Critical Mass is a gigantic group bicycle ride that happens once a month, in 300+ cities worldwide. I’d seen the Mass in New Haven, but it’s nothing compared to San Francisco. It figures-this is where it was founded in 1992- going on 20 years.

Last month my coworker invited me to ride along, and I had a great time. At first I was nervous about it, as a friend of a friend was injured riding in CM years ago. Also, as a bystander, just watching the Mass go by is nerve wracking! And Critical Mass riders have a bit of aÂ reputation for being “Massholes.” All of these fears vanished once the ride began (er except for the Masshole part… keep reading…)

I decided that I had so much fun last time that I should go back again this month, this time with Ryan. By mid day of the ride my friend Tristan decided to join, and by 5pm, Astor was coming!

Everybody met up by the Ferry building and lounged around to techno music while the the Nestle Quik Rabbit did a little dance. Tourists were excited.

Time passed, more people showed up. Oh, I should mention that there were a number of naked riders (“Critical Ass”). I’ve tried not to include any photos of them, so photos are limited… hehehe

Soon it was time to go. Astor got set up in her milk crate and net…

And we were off! We went all over the place- downtown, SOMA, the Mission (the above picture is near my house), Chinatown, Civic Center… It was a hot mess. There were bikes that blew bubbles, bikes that played music, and bikes with dogs in them. Police on motorcycles escorted us. We biked through tunnels screaming and laughing. Some people drank. I kept getting dangerously close to naked riders. It was surreal. Through it all, Astor just chilled out. Amazing.

Around 30 minutes into the ride the Critical Mass people decided to be assholes and block traffic at Mission and Van Ness. Yikes.

Then we took off again.

Around Civic Center the Mass took another break. Astor was getting ansty, so we decided to stop off and do dinner instead.

Fun times, and I’m so proud of Astor for being an instant bicycle dog!

Life

Yeasayer at the Fillmore

The last show I’ll see for a while… The fun thing about Yeasayer is that I didn’t think that I knew their music very well, and yet during every song I found myself recognizing the beat. I had that “Aha!” moment again and again.

The stage was decorating in various succulents, and it felt like “the techno desert.”

All in all it was a nice time. Nothing got too crazy (no costumes, props, skits, freakouts, breakdowns)- just nice kids wanting to dance to catchy music.

Style

My New Bag: The Cambridge Satchel

Lately I’ve been feeling dumpy. I’ve been commuting to work via bicycle consistently since February now… and wearing a backpack every day (while practical) makes me feel less than stylish. Even though might I add the backpack in question is a limited edition North Face SUSHI backpack (hello there are Kikkoman labels and sushi zipper pulls and everything)… it’s still a backpack.

My first thought was that I should attach a basket to my bike so that I could carry whatever purse I wanted (more of a long term fix). So I got a rack and installed a rear foldingÂ basket. It worked wonders, but still didn’t fill the need for a bag. I obsess over bags (I daydream about them, draw them…), so once I got started thinking about getting a new bag it was kind of unstoppable.

I knew that I wanted a cross body bag, because that’s just what I reach for most often. After quite a bit of internet trolling, I finally made the leap for The Cambridge Satchel 15″ in Green.

I’d seen these around online and in Urban Outfitters. They’re super popular in blogland, but I have yet to see one on somebody’s arm.

Pros: Really classic style, well made product, great leather smell (if you’re into that), comes in many different colors and sizes, also you can monogram a catchy saying or your initials for about 5 pounds a letter

Cons: Well, this bag doesn’t come cheap-$$$. Also, this leather is STIFF. No joke. When I got my bag at work I took off my shoes and jumped up and down on the damn thing- it popped back up. This is either good or bad- just depends on your bag style. For me it was a little infuriating. The break-in period will be substantial.

The way the stitching is done, each face of the bag caves in (see below) so that you really cannot carry as much as say, a messenger bag of the same dimensions.Yes, you are lugging around a huge bag that can’t carry that much. Let’s not think about it too much. No bueno.

Another con is that there is no lining on the bag, and it is probably not waterproof. I knew this going into my purchase, however.

Here is my satchel open. Inside I’ve got: wallet, keys, phone, MUNI bus pass, digital camera, camera cords, makeup compact, zip loc of tea and random stuff, rollerball perfume, planner, sunglasses, Tupperware, and a t-shirt. If I stuff things up top, I can also pack in a pair of shoes and a dress. I know, that sounds like a lot, but it is NOT by my standards. : )

The satchel in action at Critical Mass. I will forgive it for not carrying everything and the kitchen sink because it is so handsome and so “me.” Also it’s bright enough that it will probably prevent me from getting run over while I’m riding.

Random Internet Thing, Style

Blogs You Should Follow: Nerd Boyfriend

A friend shared something from this blog on Google Reader the other day, and I’m hooked. It’s a simple idea, but kind of addictive. Basically they take classic photos of celebrities (interpreted loosely) and show you where you can buy the clothes online. I’m not really into the shopping part of it, but I love the pictures. They do their best to credit photo sources too, which is nice. Here are a few of my favorite imaginary “boyfriends.” Obviously all my photos came from Nerd Boyfriend.