Cultural Survey: Chapel Hill/Carrboro

Chapel Hill/Carrboro area has seen some new establishments open up recently. By establishments I mean coffee shops and bars. By recently I mean in the past 5 years. Let's debate which ones are worth it.

Coffee Shops:
The Looking Glass. Aka the Looking Bong to some on the streets. This probably isn't that new, but it's new to me so it's included. It was really crowded but not loud or obnoxious when I was there. I liked the atmosphere and the look of the space. I did catch the baristas making out in the back, but whatevs. Service was better than Open Eye cafe. I'd go back.

Caffe Driade. I think this is my favorite in the area (not including Raleigh's New World). I feel like I can get work done here and I enjoy the coffee. I've never been when it's busy to the point of over-crowded, so I appreciate that.

Bars:
Bowbarr. The vibe is more upscale - OCSC. The hipster touches are OOC - PBR on tap, photo booth, and tree stump tables/seats. I think it has a future in Carrboro! They had a nice selection of drinks and I know some will disagree, but I thought the service was great. I was able to place my drink order within seconds of stepping up to the bar. The space is small providing that "ultra exclusive cramped" feel.

Kildare's Irish Pub. Just in time for St. Patrick's Day! Confession: I haven't been here...but I really want to go. I feel like Chapel Hill was missing an Irish Pub chain. Seriously! If it's good enough for Pennsylvania, it's good enough for us. They probably have a good selection of beer and tasty Irish specialities. I'm excited to go one of these days.

Upgrade?

I just uploaded some new stuff to flickr, which made me think about the eternal question - should I upgrade to a Pro account??? Overall I'm happy with flickr. The set-up is pleasing to the eyes and the slide show feature is great...and it doesn't seem to get as bogged down as facebook. Sometimes it can take forever to scroll through a photo album!@!@! That's valuable picture time wasted!! I love searching through people's photos, and last week I found a whole walking tour through Graceland. What a find!! It's also great for decorating your home - like Winnie finding paint colors on someone's house tour. If anyone has any other flickr albums/accounts worth knowing be sure to leave them in the comments section. I'm thinking for now that I'll hold out until the Pro account becomes free...but who knows.

Winnie and I were also talking about the flickr groups where people take pics of what they wear everyday. Some are annoying, but some can be really entertaining! It all depends on the tone of the pictures and the outfits for me. Along those lines, I'm really into this site these days. She makes thrift store shopping seem easy.

iGoogle

Does anyone use iGoogle? Recently I have started using it to organize, and I wonder if others are using it. Am I out of the loop?

What I like about it:

• Fun themes - it really dresses up my emails. Currently using: Las Vegas Strip


• Blog organizer - able to see who updated all at once.

I'm on the fence about reading emails in this way. I like seeing the colors of my labels and being able to reference old emails. Also, you don't get the uniqueness of a website unless you go to click on the tab.