This is a guest post from Gary Sharma (aka “The Guy with the Red Tie”), founder & CEO of GarysGuide and proud owner of a whole bunch of black suits, white shirts and, at last count, over 40 red ties. You can follow him at @garysguide and reach him at gary [at] garysguide.com.

LINSANITY, Baby!
If you're a die-hard New York sports fan like me, you have probably been pinching yourself at whats been transpiring the last 10 days. First the Giants win the SuperBowl against the Patriots in another amazing one-for-the-ages game. And now, the Knicks have won 5 in a row on the shoulders of an unlikely hero, Jeremy Lin. Now, dear reader, as you know, I like to do my part in making sure you hold ur own in any water-cooler / cocktail conversation and this week Linsanity is the topic du jour. So here goes.

This is the story of Jeremy Lin, a 6' 3, Asian American NBA player, Harvard degree in economics, let go first by the Golden State Warriors and then Houston Rockets, just three weeks ago sent to the minor leagues, before returning to be a benchwarmer for the Knicks, sleeping on his brother's couch, finally getting a chance to play for the injury ridden Knicks on Feb 4 and since then has been on a roll scoring career bests 25, 28, 23, 38 and 20 points in his last five NBA games, leading Knicks to a 5 game winning spree, the 38 coming against Kobe Bryant and the Lakers @ MSG on primetime. This is the story of an underdog, of hard work, of not fitting the profile, of being overlooked despite being talented, of relentlessly pursuing the dream, of teamwork, of patience, of humility, of seizing the opportunity when it knocked and ultimately of believing in oneself. (Bonus: here's a fun clip of Lin on how to get into Harvard.)

Social Media Week
So even as Fashion Week winds down, Social Media Week is about to take the city by storm. So all ye tweeting, liking, sharing, pinning, tumbling folks better get ready for some social media goodness! Check out whats on the agenda.

And now lets take a look at what other tech craziness is going down this week...

O'Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference
Speakers include Eric Ries (Lean Startup), Baratunde Thurston (The Onion), Steve Rubel (Edelman), Bob Young (Lulu), Tim Carmody (Wired) and more.
Monday (Feb 13), 1 p.m. @ New York Marriott Marquis, 1535 Broadway

Entrepreneur Week | The Un-Valentine Party
From the folks who made you rock out on the terrace on the hudson, comes another awesome party where you can tell Cupid to "stuff it" the night before Valentine's Day ;)
Monday (Feb 13), 6:30 p.m. @ Private Residence Terrace, 312 11th Ave

Chocolate Tasting Networking Party for NYCs Social Good Community
Chocolate tasting AND for a good cause? How can you even think about saying no to that? ;)
Tuesday (Feb 14), 6 p.m. @ School of Visual Arts Westside Gallery, 601 W 26th St 15th Floor

SecondMarket Presents: Capitalyze
Rockstar group of speakers include the incomparable Danny Meyer (CEO, Union Square Hospitality Group), Barry Silbert (CEO, SecondMarket), Dan Primack (Senior Editor, Fortune), Duncan Davidson (Bullpen Capital), Adam Dinow (Wilson Sonsini), Chip Korn (SNR Denton), Matt Harris (Village Ventures), Lawrence Lenihan (Founder & Managing Director, FirstMark Capital), Tom Sansone (Gilt Groupe), Dan Burstein (Millennium Technology Value Partners) and more.
Wednesday (Feb 15), 8:30 a.m. @ Dream Downtown, 355 West 16th Street

We've Got Mail: An Interactive Youve Got Mail Experience
A celebration of the film that put the dot-com in romantic comedy!
Wednesday (Feb 15), 6 p.m. @ Housing Works Bookstore Cafe, 126 Crosby St

Travel 2.0: Gidsy.com Founder and CEO tells founding stories
Want Ashton Kutcher to invest in your startup? Well of course you do! Learn the ropes from Berlin travel startup Gidsy’s Founder and CEO Edial Dekker who was able to accomplish just that.
Wednesday (Feb 15), 6:30 p.m. @ NEW NYU Poly, 137 Varick Street, 2nd Floor

Social Media Influencers Awards + Party
Cocktails by St Germain, Performances by the Stumblebum Brass Band, Music by DJ Jonny Mack and much, much more.
Wednesday (Feb 15), 7 p.m. @ Yotel, 570 10th Avenue

HackEDU: How Tech is Disrupting Education in Order to Save It
Speakers include VentureBeat's Ben Popper, TutorSpree's Aaron Harris, SkillShare's Michael Karnjanaprakorn, General Assembly's Brad Hargreaves, and Unigo.com's Jordan Goldman.
Wednesday (Feb 15), 7:30 p.m. @ General Assembly, 902 Broadway 4th Floor

NY Beta :: Media & Entertainment Edition
Demoing will be Cheek'd, frestyl, Get-A-Game, iMediaShare, InstEvent, Lua, Songza and Whosevent.
Thursday (Feb 16), 6 p.m. @ Green Spaces, 394 Broadway

Mediaoke
Cuz in my book, Social Media + Karaoke + Cocktails = Win Win Win! :)
Thursday (Feb 16), 7 p.m. @ Boho Karaoke, 196 Orchard Street

Projective Space - L.E.S. Launch Party! Hosted by IndieGoGo
Awesome new coworking space + Cocktails + Huge dance party. Lets DO this!
Thursday (Feb 16), 8 p.m. @ Projective Space, 72 Allen St 3rd Floor

Pints & Pinterest
Should be quite a pinteresting evening!
Thursday (Feb 16), 9 p.m. @ The Belmont Lounge, 117 E 15th St

Global Android Dev Camp 2012
Time to get your android on.
Saturday (Feb 18), 10 a.m. @ Pace University

More on the horizon...
Daily Deals And Business Development on Feb 21 @ General Assembly
Startup Grind NYC on Feb 22 @ General Assembly
Digital Media MBA February 12 Happy Hour on Feb 22 @ Gstaad
NYC Gaming February Meetup on Feb 23 @ General Assembly
Lean Startup Machine NYC on Feb 24 @ Grind Space
Photo Hack Day 2 on Feb 25 @ General Assembly
GA Career Fair on Mar 03 @ General Assembly

Until next week. Stay thirsty social, my friends! ;)