Why I Love My Phone

I'm totally a phone snob. I have no idea how I lived before I owned my android phone. I absolutely love it.
The only irritating thing about phones is how quickly they become outdated. Luckily android has system updates, so the phone adapts as technology adapts. So if you have a droid, here are 5 things that you might not know your phone does, that are awesome:

1. Widgets: did you know you can create shortcuts on your phones "desktop". I have shortcuts for people I frequently call. You can create an icon on your desktop that will call or text a person. You can also create shortcuts to frequently visited websites, or a song that you play on repeat. I absolutely love this feature.

2. Zip files: I use my phone as my primary music source. I buy all my music from Amazon, which, in my opinion, kicks iTunes ass. Amazon lets me have the music both on my desktop, and my phone, but it also lets me use any media format to carry my files. This means I can share my music files with other people. Furthermore I can buy a song on my phone, save it as a zip file on my phone and email it to someone else. No PC necessary. I love this feature.

3. TV: I don't have cable. This means I watch most of my TV either day of, or online. I recently discovered that thru sidereel.com I can watch pretty much any show out there on my phone. This is pretty awesome for me.

4. Radio: There are lots of free radio programs out there, but I use pandora. I know that they now have a 40 hour a month limit, but using a different account on my PC than I use on my phone I am able to double my monthly usage!

5. Navigation: I know that a lot of people have garmins and tom toms and swear by them. I swear by my google navigation. They are constantly updating the program, and I use it in place of other traditional navigation systems. I have a dock for my phone in my car specifically for when I use it as a navigation  systems. I would be lost without it. (Get it? It's punny.)

Do ya'll have any other neat features that use use your android phone for?

Love, Tina Marie

Hair Cuts and Bingo

I'm excited. For weeks I've been planning a hair cut, and the day for it is finally here. I'm heading over to my friend Erin's house today for my first haircut in about a year.

Last year I cut off all my hair and donated it to cancer kids. NEVER AGAIN.

I'm seriously never doing it again. It was way too traumatic. Now I've grown my hair out again and am ready to have a style to it. I'm going to have layers put in, and absolutely no length taken off.

Wish me luck!

Love,

Tina Marie

Long Time No Blog

Hi all!

I've felt so displaced without my blogging!

I figured it was time for a post.

As many of you know, I love to read. I mean I absolutely love it. It's one of my favorite hobbies, and I'm always reading something. Sometimes (more times than I care to admit) I'm reading a chick lit book, but I try to alternate between that at classics/ Pulitzer prize winners. Most recently I tried a new genre of book: foodie.

When I say foodie, I don't mean a cookbook. I mean a book on the subject of food.

I like to tell people I'm a pretend foodie, because while I love a fine dinner, I'm just as happy having tacos from Jack in the Box. Also, I never demand that everything be fresh. I was raised in a not so wealthy household, so we definitely ate our share of canned vegetables. This particular book is called "Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant". It's a collection of short essays by people who have some connection to the food industry. These people talk about eating for one, and preparing meals for one, versus preparing food for a crowd. The book really spoke to me.

Any and all of my friends can attest that I LOVE cooking for them. I'm always happy to spend time in the kitchen preparing food for the people in my life, but I rarely take the time to do it for myself. Sure, every once in awhile, I become decadent, but 99% of the time you can find me eating a random assortment of food for dinner. And on more than one occasion I've forgotten to eat altogether. This means many dinners consisting of cereal, or a microwave potato, a spoonful of peanut butter, or some other singular fulling item. An example: last night I had half an avocado, some carrots and hummus, and 2 slices of cheddar cheese. I didn't eat them all at the same time, I ate them in that order, one after the other, without ever using a plate, getting up and going to the kitchen for each new item. I eat by myself because I have to. I would much rather prepare huge meals for friends. Maybe that's why I like cooking so much. I enjoy the look on other people's faces, knowing that the food I just made them is blowing their minds. For me, food is the way I show love and appreciation. Anyway you look at it, I think I've found a new genre of book.

How about you. What/How do you eat when you're alone?

Love,

Tina Marie