Category: Products I Like

BeFragrant Soy Candle and Ceramic Owl Candle Warmer

On By Michel McDonaldIn Products I LikeLeave a comment

Be Fragrant owl soy candles

A fan and friend named Lois sent me this awesome owl candle warmer along with 3 packages of soy candle tarts.  You know, I’ve always wanted a candle warmer but never bought one.  I love candles, I have 5 candles on my desk that I burn occasionally, but I can’t burn them all the time for 2 reasons.  1 the swamp cooler is always blowing them out and 2 I’m afraid I’m going to knock the candle off the table or it will fall off with vibration.

We had a candle on top of the TV in the living room a long time ago and the vibration of the TV made the candle fall down and candle wax got all over the carpet.  Since then, I’ve been very careful about that sort of thing.  It could have been much worse.  I was so happy when we finally got hard wood floors because that wax dried up in the carpet and I could never get it out.

BeFragrant Business CardI am not the kind of person who worries about soy vs. wax or beeswax or whatever, so I’m not really too concerned with it, but to be fair I didn’t know there was any difference.  From what I read on the BeFragrant website, the Soy candles are Kosher and they don’t stain your clothes, furniture or the carpet.  I also found out that it’s much safer around children, not that I have to worry about that, because it is non toxic and it burns a lot cooler than regular candles.  There are many other reasons to buy soy candles, so check it out, visit their website http://gobefragrant.com/.

My partner isn’t a fan of candles or well, anything that has a scent.  I have to buy unscented laundry detergent and unscented bathroom spray.  He doesn’t even like the Glade Plug-ins.  I tried, but he unplugs it lol.  That’s why all of the scented candles are in my room and not anywhere else in the house.

Be Fragrant owl soy candleIt seems like every inch of my desk has something taking up space, so the space between my printer and my Sterilite drawers on top of a bookshelf next to my desk is the only place it could go.  I will have to rearrange my desk to put it somewhere safer.  I am actually going to buy some more containers and I will be putting a lot of the crap on my desk in the closet, along with the Sterilite drawers.  Those will all be in the closet, which is a better place to be than me lol.  I couldn’t resist making an “in the closet” joke.

So I bet you are wondering what the scents are that Lois sent to me.  There were 3 packages with 6 tarts per package and they are Citrus Patchouli, Lois’ Meadow and Dragon’s Blood.  I really like all three, but I bet if my partner had a choice, it would be Lois’ Meadow because it’s not too strong.  I really love how Dragon’s Blood smells, but I’m a huge fan of dragons so that’s not a big surprise.  They are all the same color so I thought they were all the same so I just chose randomly when I put the tart in the warmer.  I chose Citrus Patchouli.  I really like that scent.  I really can’t wait for October so I can get some Pumpkin scented tarts.  I usually go nuts with the pumpkin scented candles in October anyway, so this will be perfect.  In December I usually go for sugar cookie, pine and peppermint scented candles.

One of the candles on my desk is banana nut bread which is my favorite thing in the world.  I also have an e-cigarette with banana nut bread e-liquid which oddly enough he can also smell when I vape.  The whole point of vaping was so that you can’t smell it, but apparently his sense of smell is so strong that he can smell what is not supposed to smell.  I can’t win.

Yesterday after the Soy tarts melted, I took a picture, and then last night before I went to bed I took another picture only a few minutes after I turned it off.  It’s very surprising how fast it solidifies and hardens after you turn the warmer off.  A regular candle would take a lot longer because they burn a lot hotter.  I guess that’s the good thing about this warmer as opposed to using a wick with fire.

soy candle

I have had candles practically disappear from one of those little 2.5oz jars in 1 day of burning.  I’ve been burning this stuff all day since I got it and it doesn’t seem as though any of it has left the bowl.  That tells me that this stuff will last a long time.  Next time I add new tarts, I will weigh it when I start and when I stop for the day to tell me how much burns away in a typical day.

Anyway, I love my new BeFragrant Soy Candle and Ceramic Owl Candle Warmer.  Thank you to Lois who sent it to me.

Vaping and Weight Loss

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, E-Cigarette, Food, Health, Noom, Products I Like, Recipes, Vaping8 Comments

ecigarettes and eliquid

I am constantly getting messages from people who have read my posts about vaping and weight loss asking me if it works, and not all stick around in the chat for me to respond properly.  Let me just say that it is not going to help you lose weight.  I have said many times in my posts that vaping is not a replacement for diet and exercise.  If you want to replace the sweet tooth with vaping that’s one thing, but unless you are eating a balanced diet, eating fruits and vegetables and watching your portions and exercising, you are not going to lose weight.

When I started vaping, it was with the understanding that it might help me lose weight, but I discovered that it didn’t do a damn thing.  The only thing it did was get me to stop snacking on candy and junk food, but I was still going to the buffets and still eating bad carbs and all that other bad stuff that you know you shouldn’t eat.  Vaping only replaced one thing for me, but it didn’t help me lose 1 ounce of fat.

From January 5th to today April 15th 2013, I have lost nearly 50lbs.  Want to know how?  Sure you do, that’s why you are here.  I downloaded the Noom app from the Google Play store for my Android phone.  I have been scanning food which are mostly all green items.  Here is a typical day for me.

  • Breakfast at 8 a.m.: Exactly 1 cup of Cheerios with Silk Soy Milk (not measured, I pour it until the cereal rises then I stop).
  • Morning Snack at 10 a.m.: Fruit, like a banana or an apple.
  • Lunch at 12 p.m.: A Weight Watchers Smart Ones meal or Lean Cuisine.
  • Afternoon Snack at 3 p.m.: Either fruit, steamed vegetables or Wheat Thins.
  • Dinner at 6 p.m.: A Weight Watcher  Smart Ones Meal or Lean Cuisine.
  • Evening Snack (Optional): Either Fruit, steamed vegetables, Wheat Thins or Jello.

I’d like to note that I buy the Weight Watchers Smart Ones at Food Maxx for $1.88 and I also get coupons for $3 off when you buy 10, so that is a very good deal for me since it is way more expensive at Albertson’s.  I only buy the Lean Cuisine when they are on sale for the same price which isn’t too often, but I like to have the variety when they are on sale.  Some people may have an issue with them, but they are good and they are real food despite some people saying they aren’t.  They are made with healthy ingredients.  You should give them a try, they might surprise you.

That’s basically my day and that is 1400 calories or less depending on what I decide to eat for my snacks.  I drink coffee in the morning until the pot is empty and then I drink Crystal Light the rest of the day.  I should say you should drink water, but we all know that water sucks.  I should be telling you to cut up a lemon or an orange and soak it in your water pitcher, but come on, Crystal Light tastes so much better lol.  Plus it’s like 50 cents a pitcher, or if you buy the generic version, half that per pitcher.

So that is how I lost nearly 50lbs in 3 1/2 months.  Not everyone agrees with my method, but it works for me.  I haven’t had 1 week where I didn’t lose weight.  Most every week I lose 3 to 4 pounds, but this week it was 1.8lbs.  Why?  I honestly don’t know, but I know that my next weigh in will make up for it.  I probably shouldn’t jinx myself by saying I have lost weight every week, but it’s true.  I normally plateau after the first month, but I’ve kept up the routine and it’s working so I’m going to continue to do that until I am at my goal weight.

I am still vaping from time to time to get the sweet taste in my mouth, but I really don’t need it as much as I did when I was still eating junk food.  I feel as though I have kicked the sweet tooth.  I have all the sweet flavors I need with the fruits and the crystal light.  I don’t even bake fruit cookies anymore to satisfy my sweet tooth because it’s practically gone.

To anyone who doesn’t smoke who thinks that vaping might help them lose weight I will just save you the time and money now by saying it does not.  If you want to lose weight, download the Noom app on your Android phone if you have one, iPhone coming soon.  If you don’t have an Android or iPhone, well what are you waiting for?  Get with the times, sheesh!

The most important thing I can tell you that if you want to lose weight you need to stop going to the buffet and the fast food restaurants and start eating healthy for goodness sake.  That’s your problem right there.  Even if you don’t go to the buffets or to the fast food places, if you are overeating the food you cook at home and not eating a balanced portion then that’s why you are overweight.  You have to look at the label on everything you make and eat the exact portion you are supposed to eat.  Like if you buy a box of Macaroni and Cheese, you can’t eat the whole box, that’s too many calories.  That’s like half of your day right there.  You have to be mindful of how many calories you are putting into your body because that’s why you can’t lose weight.

Also, no more ICE CREAM!  You know you don’t stop at half a cup, admit it.  You put 3-4 scoops in your bowl.  That’s too many calories and that was my big issue.  I have discovered that you can eat ice cream as long as it is made with natural healthy ingredients.  Like this Banana Ice Cream recipe.  It’s just a frozen banana pureed in a food processor with a tiny splash of milk, that’s it.  It’s frozen like soft serve so it tricks your brain into thinking you are eating actual ice cream, but it’s just a banana.  You can do that with any fruit you like.  I tried it with a cantaloupe and it was delicious.

I haven’t mentioned exercise yet.  Guess what?  I haven’t been exercising.  I know I should and I don’t mean to make excuses but I have to.  I have a spinal disease called Degenerative Disc Disease which is very extremely painful.  I can walk for maybe 5 minutes before the pain starts and after 20 it’s debilitating.  I can ride my bike, but guess what?  I started to ride my bike a month ago when the weather started to warm up and I broke my arm.  A broken arm means I can’t ride my bike.  So I have no more options until my arm is healed.  I’m not saying you should eat healthy and not exercise and lose nearly 50lbs in 3 1/2 months, but that worked for me.  I do plan on getting back on my bike when this heals in the next couple or few weeks, so I’m not trying to be lazy, I’m just in a lot of pain and you can’t ride a bike with one arm in a sling lol.

So anyway, I hope I’ve made my point about vaping and weight loss not being a good way to lose weight.  I do recommend that if you are a current smoker and you want to quit smoking cigarettes and start vaping that you should because it is way healthier for you than cigarettes are.  You can quit smoking if you switch to vaping because you can step down on your nicotine.  When you order your e-liquids from Zeus E-Juice (which I highly recommend) you can order as much or as little nicotine as you want with your e-juice for your eGo e-cigarette.  You get a lot of sweet flavors (my favorite is Banana Nut Bread) and you aren’t inhaling or exhaling smoke, it’s water vapor, so you aren’t harming yourself, spouse, children, friends, co-workers or pets.  It’s perfectly safe for everyone if you switch to vaping.

Good luck on your weight loss and I hope my suggestion helped you.

Vaping and Dieting

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, E-Cigarette, Food, Health, Products I Like, Recipes, Vaping, Weight2 Comments

zeus ejuice

Last year I decided after doing a bit of research that vaping sweet flavors would help me lose weight.  Of course, I realize that only diet and exercise will help me lose weight, but my reasoning was that if I had sweet flavors in my mouth, then I wouldn’t be tempted to eat the empty calories, because I just wanted the flavor.  So if I had the flavors, then I wouldn’t be consuming the calories.  Well, that theory was flawed because without a proper diet, I was still consuming empty calories from my regular day-to-day food.

Now that I am on track and eating healthy food and have already lost more than 20lbs (1/5/2013 – 2/19/2013), I started vaping again.  I placed a new order with Zeus eJuice for a 10ml bottle of Banana Nut Bread, and they comped me a 3ml bottle of Grape Jolly Rancher flavored e-liquid.  Of course, the e-liquid I buy doesn’t have any nicotine at all so I don’t have to worry about an addiction.

Since I am on my healthy diet, I don’t have a craving for sweet foods anymore.  Although I do have the occasional craving, I will eat fruit instead of cookies or ice cream.  I do have a recipe for a fruit cookie that uses banana, apple, oatmeal, vanilla and a tiny amount of brown sugar.  It’s not the same as eating a cookie, but I psych myself out, so to me it is.  It’s all mental.  The vaping is all mental too.  If I vape sweet flavors then I’m getting the sweet taste that I wanted without the calories, right?  Well, it only works if I say it works, and so far it does because I haven’t even craved the fruit cookies.

For anyone wanting to lose weight and think that vaping will help, let me just dispel that, it doesn’t.  I mean, it will give you the flavors, but you won’t actually lose weight.  This is my advice for losing weight and it is what helped me to lose more than 20lbs.  Eat healthy!  I started using this app on my phone called Noom Weight Loss Coach.  It’s only available for the Android (sorry iPhone users).  It’s free, or you could pay the monthly fee or pay for the full product.  It’s your choice.  Try it out for free and see if you like it.  Noom is just a tool to help me log my food and exercise and it gives me great articles, but the food I am eating is what helped me to lose weight.  I’ve been eating the Weight Watchers Smart Ones meals for lunch and dinner and also eating steamed fresh or frozen vegetables.

The vaping gives me the sweet flavors that I am not eating so I don’t eat empty calories.  Vaping is pretty much a tool the same way the Noom app is a tool, they just do different jobs.  I’d say it’s still worth the time and money, and if you are a smoker you could benefit from vaping because it will help you save money and possibly quit smoking too.

So if you want to start vaping, do this.  Go to Smoktek.com and buy a SmokTek Express eGo CE4 650 E-Cigarette Kit for only $20.  It’s a good idea to also buy a changeable coil clearomizer (round tip) with replacement coils too.  Then go to ZeuseJuice.com and buy a 10ML bottle of whatever flavor you want.

These are the flavors that I like because they taste sweet.  Banana Nut Bread, Pumpkin Pie, Grape Jolly Rancher, Strawberry, Raspberry (and let’s just assume all the fruits), Demeter’s Harvest, Candy Corn and Vanilla Ice Cream.  It’s good to experiment with different flavors, but don’t mix too many with the same wick because the flavor stays with that wick, so if you use candy corn then dump it back into the bottle and put pumpkin pie in there, it’s not going to taste like pumpkin pie anymore, it’s going to taste like pumpkin pie and candy corn and the two don’t mix.  It will probably end up tasting more like vomit lol.  Trust me.  I haven’t done that with those flavors, but I have done it.

You could try another website for your e-liquids, or go to a smoke shop to get it like that same day, but you will end up paying double.  Zeus e-Juice charges $6 for a 10ML bottle which is equivalent to a carton of cigarettes.

So that’s my advice for anyone who wants to lose weight with vaping.  You don’t have to take my advice because what might work for me might not work for you, but you have to ask yourself, do you really want it to work for you?  If you want it to work, then it will work.  Everything is psychological.  Anyway, give it a go and tell me if it worked for you.

Kinivo BTH220 Bluetooth Stereo Headphone

On By Michel McDonaldIn Cell Phone, Cycling, Diet, Exercise, Products I LikeLeave a comment

 

Kinivo BTH220 Bluetooth Stereo Headphone

My new headphones arrived today and I am beyond excited about them.  At first they didn’t fit me and I was ready to throw in the towel and pack them back up to ship back to where they came from, but I gave them another chance and now they fit me like a glove.

I watched a few YouTube reviews which I know I shouldn’t do because they almost always put the product down and compare them to higher end products, but these were okay and gave it a high rating for its price.  One guy said there was a bit of space where sound escapes or whatever, and that is true, it’s not air tight, but when have headphones ever been air tight?  Who cares!

I did call myself on the phone so I could see if I could hear it ring and I did and it answered like it was supposed to when I pushed the button.  So cool!  That’s the issue I had with my other phone when I was riding my bike.  It would be in my camelbak and I couldn’t get to it in time because I’d have to pull over and take the camelbak off and find it and by then the person hung up or was leaving a message.  Sometimes I’d have it in my pocket in my shorts, but it gets uncomfortable in there and I’m always afraid the phone will drop out as I’m riding and I will never even know.  Nobody ever calls me except for my partner, but he is why I have a cell phone, so if I’m out exercising on my bike, he will be able to get in touch with me, or if I have an accident I can call either him or 911 depending on the severity of the accident.

I activated the voice dialing feature and it asked me to choose between the voice dialer that came with the phone or Robin which is an Android’s Siri challenger (it’s free in the Google Play store).  I chose to use Robin by default because the voice dialer that came with the phone sucks.  It never recognizes what I say.  If I say “Call Home” it calls my friend Ruth lol.  At least Robin understands me.

The sound quality is actually amazing.  I pressed the button once and it automatically started playing music that I had on my phone.  I thought I would have to load the music but I didn’t.  It’s more amazing than I thought it would be.  I press the button once to start and stop the music and when it starts back up again, it continues where it left off.  I loaded Noom to begin an exercise and it started, but I could barely hear the voice talking, which is actually fine by me because I don’t want to hear how fast I’m going or how many calories I’m burning.  Surprise me!  I’m actually going to mute that during workouts.

The headphones are very good and I am so glad I bought them.  They are definitely going to come in handy when I begin cycling this Spring as my cardio to help me lose weight.  I normally ride 22 or 23 miles per day which is a bit much for some, but it’s enough for me.  It’s not too much, I could go more but I just don’t want to.  Obviously I haven’t tried them to receive a phone call on the bike because the bike is missing a back tube, but I will find out in a couple of months and I will try to remember to update this post.

I highly recommend these bluetooth headphones.  Mind you, I base my opinion on wearing them for 10 minutes so this isn’t really a review at all, it’s more of a hey it was awesome for the first 10 minutes, you should try it.

If you do have a pair of these, please do me a favor and comment and tell me how you like them and what you use them for.

Update: I wanted to give an update on these since I’ve had them for a week.  The instructions say to charge it fully, then let it drain completely, then charge it again and drain it again.  Holy crap, that is taking forever to do because the battery seems to go on forever.  I’ve already drained it once and that took at least 3 days to do.  I’m on day 2 of trying to drain the battery for the second time.  The way I’m doing it is to just play music all night long.  Well, it has an 8-hour battery right?  Well, 8 hours pass and it’s still going strong.  I use it the whole day and then play music all night again and it’s STILL going.

One of my concerns when I bought these headphones was that it wasn’t going to last my 2-3 hour bike rides, well that’s out the window because I could probably ride for 3 days straight before the battery died lol.  So no worries there for me now.  That’s actually a relief.  The box says 150 hour standby time and 8 hour talk time, so I’m just guessing that if you don’t use them too often, don’t expect to have to charge them more than once or twice a week, if that.  These are damn good headphones in my opinion.  So worth the $30 I paid.

Oh and one more thing.  The sound is AMAZING!  What is it that the annoying reality celebs say?  AMAZEBALLS?  Well, that it is.  The sound is so awesome and you don’t lose quality from that space between the headphone and your ear.  The headphones seem to be a bit stretched out more than it was when I first opened the package.  It goes back to being small, so it’s stretchy I guess lol.  Stretchy hard plastic.  Yeah.

I was watching a YouTube video with Karl Pfeiffer (Ghost Hunters Academy and Ghost Hunters International) and his voice sounds perfect.  It’s not too loud, it’s not too low, it’s exactly the way it should be.  Before I couldn’t watch his videos because the volume on my monitor sucks, same with my Chromebook.  I can finally hear him with these headphones.

Oh I was told in video reviews that you can fold it and put it in the little pouch that they included with the headphones, but they don’t recommend doing that because the plastic gets too loose when you try to fold it.  It stops snapping into place in other words.  So I’m going to take their word for it and keep them open at all times and never store them in the bag.  I’d rather they be in plain sight anyway.

That’s all for now.

My Weight Loss Journey – Week 2

On By Michel McDonaldIn Cycling, Diet, Exercise, Health, Products I Like, WeightLeave a comment

On January 5th, 2013, I was looking through the Google Play app store on my Android phone for an app to help me lose weight.  I had downloaded a few apps that would help record my walking and bike rides with GPS and would tell me everything my bicycle computer tells me and more, but they didn’t help me record my eating habits or tell me what to eat.  The front page of the app store had a featured app called Noom Coach.  I downloaded it and checked it out and it was way more than I was expecting in an app.  I had the free version with limitations and after only a few days decided that I had to purchase the pro version.  Yes, I was that confident in this app after only a few days.

I am only in my 2nd week with this app and I have already lost 8.4lbs.  I only expected to lose 2lbs a week, so this is quite surprising that I have lost more than double my goal each week.  Then again the first week or two are the easiest, I won’t count my chickens until the 3rd or 4th week.

week 2-1week 2-2

I am over 100lbs overweight and my goal is to just get down to 200lbs which means losing 63lbs.  I have tried to set goals to lose all of the weight before and becoming disappointed when it failed because my goal was set too high.  I have been told to set smaller goals because you reach smaller goals faster.  When the small goal is finished, then I can set another small goal.  Although, setting my goal for more than half of what I need to lose is not quite a small goal, I think that I can reach it because this app is motivating me to.  If it doesn’t then I will adjust my goal to make it easier.

We haven’t been exercising as much as we should.  I could give 2 excuses as to why, but what’s the point?  I mean, I hate to make excuses for why I can’t do something because excuses are why I fail.  These are good ones though.  It’s cold outside and we both have bad backs and it hurts to walk.  There, I said it.  The cold part is a BS excuse, but the back pain is legitimate.  With that said, we have been walking 2 or 3 days a week for maybe 1 mile or more each time.

Arctic Cooling P311 Bluetooth Sports Headset I have way more weight to lose than my partner does.  I was at 263lbs and he was around 200, so I have to do double the work which is why I bought myself a new pair of Arctic Cooling P311 Bluetooth Headset for Sports from Amazon for my HTC One V android phone so that I can ride my bicycle when it starts to get warm outside.  I can keep my phone in my camelbak which will have the Noom app recording my exercise while letting me listen to my music, and the bluetooth will allow me to accept phone calls at the push of a button on the headphones.  Although I’m not sure if it will accept the call automatically or if I have to push the button, I will find out soon enough.  I thought I read in a review that it automatically shuts off the music when a call comes in and resumes when you hang up.

The headphones that I bought aren’t the best, I mean, they didn’t get the best reviews, but they were $30 which is way more than I could afford.  The headphones that are in the $60’s-$100’s range are the best, so I am getting what I paid for.  I saw in one video review that the mic sucks for taking calls while you are on your bike or walking, but are amazing indoors.  I don’t really have much of a choice in the matter, so it’s the best I can do with what money I have available to me.  But it has been my experience that people who do reviews are spoiled with the more expensive products they test, so to them it might be a horrible pair of headphones, but perhaps it will be fine for me.  I can say that because my phone got horrible reviews and it’s way better than they gave it credit for.

Cycling seems to be the best exercise for me because I am sitting which doesn’t hurt my back.  Walking is fine if I walk 1 or 2 miles, but I can ride 23 miles a day on my bicycle which means I can burn more than a quarter of my days meals on the bicycle which will help me lose more weight and will get me to my goal faster.  Not that I want or need to rush anything, but it will help.  It’s too cold now, so I will get to it when it starts warming up in the Spring.  I bought the headphones now so that I could afford to fix my bike next month.  I can’t afford to do both in the same month.  I would also like to buy some bicycle shorts and a bicycle shirt to make riding more comfortable.

I am finally eating healthy and enjoying it.  We have been buying the Weight Watchers frozen dinners at Food Maxx for $1.88 each with a $2 coupon for 10, so we’re saving money on that.  We’re also eating more fruits and vegetables than before, which is a very good thing.  I don’t drink soda (diet or otherwise) very often, so that’s not an issue.  The fruit seems to satisfy my sweet tooth, for now.  I have been looking up recipes for cookies that use bananas and apples so that I can make a very low calorie sweet treat without compromising our diet.  I found a good banana oatmeal cookie recipe that uses applesauce in place of sugar, they even tell you how to make it with real apples.  I think I might try to make those today for our late night snack.  I also bought some bottles of Slim Fast specifically for when we have a chocolate craving, but I have a feeling those won’t last the week.

I know that 8.4lbs isn’t a lot to be blogging about so soon, but it’s a good start and I feel confident that I will keep it up this time.  I will keep this blog updated on my progress every week when I do my weigh-ins too.  Not that anyone really cares, but it will help me to talk about it, even if I am just talking to myself.

Fun With My New Phone

On By Michel McDonaldIn Android, Cell Phone, Products I Like, TechLeave a comment

htconev Santa (or as I like him call him, me) gave me an awesome present for Christmas.  My first smart cell phone, a HTC ONE V Android from Virgin Mobile.  My previous phone was a Samsung T401G from Net10 which did absolutely nothing other than texting and making calls.  It did have games and internet, but they both sucked.

This new phone is better than my previous cell phones.  It’s not a high-end phone, but it is to me since I’ve never had a smart phone before.

cruiseSo far I have earned 11,067 Viggle points which I will keep earning and saving up to buy something very expensive.  They have a few cool items like a Kindle Fire, an iPod Touch and an Apple TV.  My partner doesn’t have internet on his TV and he has an iPhone, so perhaps he would appreciate the Apple TV.  I earned the 11K points in just 2 weeks, so can you imagine how many more I will earn by Christmas 2013?

They have one reward in there that is worth 4 million points which is a 4 or 5 night Caribbean, Europe or Bermuda cruise aboard a Royal Caribbean International ship.  Can you imagine winning a cruise just from watching TV?  I have never in my life been on a cruise and I have always wanted to.  I think it would be fun and I could take pictures and video with my new phone and post them daily lol.

I have many apps for losing weight which I haven’t really used because they are for cycling and walking and it’s been too cold (as you can see from the weather on the phone image above).  I will take advantage of them in the spring.  Actually, I may uninstall them because I found one that will do the work of all of them, it’s called Noom and it has a GPS and logs my walk, run, jog, cycling etc.  It’s free, but if I pay for it then it will do more.  One thing I love about it is that I can scan the bar code of the food (box, obviously) I eat so I don’t have to find it manually.  I also have a food scale to keep me honest lol.

There are reading apps like the Kindle and Nook apps as well as Aldiko, but I don’t think I will use it too often because it’s killer on the eyes.  I much prefer reading on my Nook WiFi when I do read because it’s e-ink.

I’ve been playing a few games like Megapolis and The Sims FreePlay and Tetris.  I like games that you play with your finger, but my fingers are too fat so I have a stylus to poke the screen with.

I love how it takes pictures and video.  Pictures are widescreen which is basically 4×6 which my other digital cameras never did.  Not that I ever have pictures developed, but if I did want to have a picture developed, I won’t lose anything when it converts the pic to 4×6.  I love that it has a flash which I also can use with video which again isn’t something my camcorder can do since I don’t have a flash for it.  I also love that I can take a picture and then post it directly to Facebook and Twitter without any steps.  Screenshots too.  I learned that just by pressing the power and the home button, it will take a screenshot which I can share in emails, Facebook and Twitter.

My last phone was okay for making calls, but this is perfect.  It has a speakerphone which only works by turning the phone upside down.  I don’t need to look at the screen while talking so that’s fine.  The 3G is great for internet.  My other phone had internet but it was a crap shoot.  It literally took 5 minutes to load a web page one time, and then it gave me a message that said there wasn’t enough memory, which means it didn’t really load the web page.  So I lost minutes and didn’t get anything in return.

My old phone is in good hands with someone I know.  It’s my partners late cousins life partner.  She had a cell phone, but she doesn’t have it anymore and she told me that this one is better than the other one anyway.  I feel sorry that she has to use it and not an Android, but it still works for phone calls and texting.  It’s not perfect, but it works.

I think I am too spoiled now lol.  I will get a ton more use out of this phone than my last which is a good thing.  I felt really guilty about buying it, but I don’t feel that way anymore.

My New HTC One V for Christmas

On By Michel McDonaldIn Cell Phone, Christmas, Computer, Gadgets, Pictures, Products I Like, TechLeave a comment

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I got a brand new cell phone for Christmas thanks to IZEA paying me to blog and tweet.  I just love blogging and tweeting for money.  It’s not a very good living, but at least I get some cool things out of it.

It just so happened that when I got my new HTC One V from Virgin Mobile, my partner decided that he wanted to set his computer up and naturally his mouse and keyboard weren’t working, so I gave him mine which meant that I lost my computer.  So I’ve been using my new phone as a computer for a few days now.  I’m not used to using such a small screen so it takes getting used to.  I have my Chromebook, but the WiFi crashes after typing a few words.  I reset it to factory settings, but it still does it.  Resetting it helped make it faster because even clearing the cache and browsing history wasn’t speeding it up, but the WiFi problem still happens, which meant my phone is now my only means of being online.  I’m “borrowing” my keyboard and mouse for this lol.

So after a few days of using it, here are my impressions.  I read a few reviews and watched a dozen video reviews on YouTube before I committed to buying this phone just to make sure it was what I wanted.  Of course, I wanted a better one, but this was what I could afford that I could get before Christmas day.

I was under the impression that it had 4GB onboard, but when I went to install the Sims free play, it said I didn’t have enough room which told me that I only had 1GB available.  I figured I’d be okay until I could buy a MicroSD card, but apparently not.  I am using a 2GB MicroSD card from my previous phone, so that is working for now until I get my new 32GB MicroSD card.

I am very impressed with the performance compared to some of the reviews that I watched.  It’s not slow at all.  I mean, sometimes I have to wait for a page to load or a game to load, but I’m not spoiled with a faster cell phone since this is my very first smart phone so maybe I just don’t know the difference yet.  It is slow however when I am not at home on my WiFi.  We were at the movies yesterday and it took forever for Foursquare to load so I could check in.  It finally checked in by the time we got home.  So the 3G isn’t great so far, but it’s wonderful on our WiFi.  I will have to see how frustrated I am the next time we have a doctor’s appointment lol.

iphone folder screenshot The OS is pretty impressive, well to me anyway.  It has the big clock with the weather, then room for 8 icons underneath.  There are 2 screens to the left and 2 screens to the right.  I decided that I didn’t want a bunch of icons, so I downloaded the iPhone Style Folder app.  I tried another one that allows me to put the icons in folders, but it only allowed me to have one folder, which is not what I was looking for.  This is perfect for me.

Oh and by the way, I downloaded an app to take screenshots and it was nice enough to tell me that my phone already has a way of taking screenshots by simply pressing the power button and then the home button.  So that’s one less app that I have to worry about taking up room or putting a watermark on my screenshot.  The background image is of our Christmas tree btw.

Before I got the phone, I typed out a post about how to make money using your phone.  I installed those apps (as you can see from the folder in the image above) and here are my impressions so far.

1. iPinion was a pain to sign up on because it insisted that my email address was currently being used, but when I tried to get the password, it said that email address wasn’t even in their system lol.  I had to use another email address to sign up with and even then they didn’t have any surveys for me to fill out.  I’m not giving up on it just yet.

2. IconZoomer wants me to take pictures of things like what my fridge, coffee maker, my form of entertainment etc.  But they haven’t paid me in credits for any of the pictures I have taken.  They each say they have so many days left, so maybe when the question expires I might get credit.  If not, delete…

3. CheckPoints wants me to scan barcodes of products at the grocery store, but I am broke so there isn’t a reason for me to go to the grocery store.  I’ll do it when I get some money.  I don’t want to look suspicious if I go in, scan barcodes then leave LOL.

4. ShopKick wants me to go to the mall and walk into specific shops for points, that would be fine if I went to the mall all the time, but I don’t and I don’t think I would be willing to walk around just for this because of my back pain issues.  It’s fine for some people, but not everyone.

5. Cash King wants me to download apps, watch videos and fill out surveys.  I only get 1 video a day to watch so that’s not what I thought it would be.  I downloaded 1 app which is a game which I actually enjoy and it connects to Facebook and is a game people have been wanting me to play anyway.  They don’t have any surveys yet.

6. Viggle is a wonderful app.  All you do is turn on the TV and let Viggle hear what you are watching and you get points which you can use to buy stuff.  They mostly want me to watch college football games on ESPN so I turn it to ESPN and let it hear the game then I just wait for the next one.  They will give you credits for everything you watch, but specific shows they give you bonus points for.  I have almost 2,000 points after just 2 days.  It’s not going to take long to get some decide rewards if I continue to check in and watch videos everyday.

7. Staree is from IZEA and I will never question them, but… what the heck is this app for?  I have taken a few pictures and haven’t gotten any credits lol.  Maybe they will ask you to take pictures… who knows.

One of my favorite features of this phone is how it takes pictures and video.  This doesn’t do 4:3 like most cameras do, it does 16:9.  In fact, I have it set so it takes pictures that are 1280×768 which is the resolution of the wallpaper on my desktop computer.  Videos are 1280×720 which is the same resolution as my HDTV.  Also I am loving the flash lol.  I know it’s funny to hear but every digital camera I have ever had was missing one thing, the flash, so I am in heaven.  It also uses the light from the flash for video which is pretty cool.  My camcorder doesn’t have a light so now when I need to take video at night, I’ll be able to.  Not that I will have a reason, but you never know.

Here are some pictures I have taken with the camera on my new HTC One V.

So I think I will have a lot of fun with this new phone.  It is so much better than my other one and I love that I can post pictures directly to Facebook and Twitter and I can email pictures to myself instead of having to move them to the MicroSD card, then putting it in my printer to copy to the computer.  It sure takes out so many steps.  I also love the voice recognition.  I don’t mind typing, but I make tons of mistakes with the on screen keyboard.  Although, the voice recognition isn’t perfect, but it’s still better than typing.  Yep, this is going to be a beautiful friendship.

Oh and I gave my other phone to someone who really needed a cell phone so that makes me feel really good.

Could the Star Trek comm badge become a reality?

On By Michel McDonaldIn Products I Like, Science Fiction, TechLeave a comment

tng comm badges

I saw a picture on Facebook today of the Starship Enterprise from the original series, but it was all made of Christmas lights.  That got me thinking about comm badges.  I consider myself to be a nerd, but I don’t have a Star Trek uniform or a comm badge, so perhaps I should either buy one, or turn in my nerd membership card.

As I was browsing Google, it came to me.  I wonder if they make a Bluetooth enabled comm badge that looks exactly like the Star Trek comm badge that actually works with your phone.  Most phones now have voice recognition right?  So I wonder if they have made a comm badge that when you tap it, you can say “Call Aunt Louise” and it places the call.

comm badge

Guess what… I found it!  It’s not exactly what I had in mind, but it is a step in the right direction.  This is called “CommBadge” and it works with your iPhone and Android phone using BlueTooth technology.  It isn’t in the shape I was hoping, but how can I expect them to legally use that licensed design without incurring lawsuits?

This is a start up company, so they don’t actually sell these yet, but if they can get their funding with Indie GoGo, then they will be able to make and sell these and perhaps every person in the world will have one.  They have 10 days as of this posting and have only raised $18k of $100k, so unless people help them out, we will probably never see this awesome design.

May I convince you?  They have several different models.  One without anything that just has the regular features, then they have others that have a badge holder for work and one that has the retractable badge holder for perhaps those who need to swipe their badge.  It all does the same thing whether you have the badge holder or not and that is almost exactly what you think the Star Trek comm badge would do.

You press the button (the speaker) and you hear that iPhone Siri ding ding sound and you tell it what you want and it responds without you ever having to take your phone out of your pocket.  Android has something similar to Siri, but they don’t show that in the video (below).  You can tap the CommBadge and say “Call Sally” and it will dial her number and you and everyone else around you can hear Sally answer the phone and talk and you can talk back to her.  I assume when the conversation is over you hang up by pressing the button again.

What is more exciting is that you can chat with your phone just like you normally do.  Like my partner likes to talk to his iPhone to text people.  He will say “Text Mike” and then he will say what he wants to tell me and the words spell out on the screen.  I assume it would do the same thing, without you having to look at it.  Of course Siri’s voice recognition software isn’t exact every time so there might be some confusion when I receive the actual text, but I won’t know until this thing ever comes out.

I am also assuming that you can get directions too, but I don’t think Siri will tell you to go here and turn there and get you to your destination just by using the CommBadge.  I have tried it by looking at the phone and there weren’t any turn by turn directions from Siri, I had to actually look at the screen.  But that would be cool if she gave you a heads up while you were driving without looking.

Anyway, here’s the video, perhaps if you like it you might want to help their cause to get this thing started.  I’m sure whatever you donate, you will get that product if and when they launch it.  I think it’s awesome and I would help if I had the money, but it’s Christmas.  How do they expect people to have money this month?  I mean seriously lol.

Tell me what you think.  Would you use this?  If I had an android phone, I certainly would.

Virgin Mobile

On By Michel McDonaldIn Gadgets, Products I Like, Social Network, Tech1 Comment

Virgin-Updated-Logo-300x300I bought my first cell phone in 2002 against my partners wishes because he didn’t think I needed a cell phone, which if truth be told I really didn’t.  I mean, I don’t go to work everyday and need to make important phone calls, in fact I really hate talking on the phone lol.  I will call people from time to time, but I don’t spend a lot of time on it.  The main reason I wanted one was because I was traveling to visit family on the Greyhound and Amtrak busses back then two or three times a year and I didn’t like having to use dirty pay phones when I got there to have them come get me.  It was also difficult making and receiving long distance phone calls on their home phones, so I needed my own cell phone to call home.

nokia 3390 The cell phone that I bought was with T-Mobile and it was the Nokia 3390 which was fine at the time.  I had that phone for maybe 8 years and I hadn’t really used it for the last 4, but I kept paying for it just in case I needed it.  I had Gold Rewards, so I only had to pay for 1 month, but got a whole year of time.  I forgot to buy another card for another year and lost the number and the phone was no longer valid.

samsung-T401G-net10-hero-lg My next phone, which I am still using is a Samsung T401G, which is a great phone for texting, but the internet sucks on it and my signal is so weak that it drops calls on me all the time.  I got a “Are you there?” thing going on.  I have it with Net10 so I don’t have Gold Rewards which means I have to buy a $20 card every month to keep it even though I never use it.  I would use it more if it had more features though.

That’s where I am at now.  I really want to buy a smart phone to keep up with the times.  I have been shopping around, but nobody has given me any really good prices.  My partner has an iPhone with Verizon and he pays more than $100/mo for his service and he is stuck in a 2 year contract with 1 more year to go.  I don’t like that their smart (Android) pre-paid phones are $50 a month.  Net10’s smart (Android) pre-paid phones are also $50 a month, but they won’t sell one to me through their website and they are too expensive in the stores.

That brings me to Virgin…

I saw a commercial for Virgin, and even though I have seen this commercial a million times, it never clicked until last night.  They have Android smart phones and you never have to sign a contract.  You get 300 minutes with unlimited data and unlimited texting for only $35 a month.  That’s $15 more than I pay for my Net10 phone.  They also have another plan which is the same, except you get 1200 minutes for $45 a month and then unlimited everything for $55 a month.  That’s not bad.  Although I would get the $35 plan since I never use my minutes, I just want to use the apps with the unlimited data and texting.

What I really want a smart phone for is for certain apps that will make me money.  Like Staree which pays you when you take a picture and share it on Facebook and Twitter.  Viggle also pays you (with gift cards) when you check in when you are watching TV.  I mean, it’s not a steady income, but anything helps.  Plus I would like to read Kindle ebooks that aren’t available for my Nook without needing to buy a Kindle.

I also want a smart phone so I can do Facebook and Twitter updates and check email when I am not at home and don’t have a computer nearby, like at the doctor’s office while I’m waiting for him to come in the room for example.  I would also like to be able to play certain games that are only available on cell phones too.  My Samsung T401G has games, but they are nearly impossible to play with the numpad.

htcevov-gallery-angle-3 So, this is my Christmas wish.  I want a new HTC EVO V 4G Prepaid Android Phone (Virgin Mobile) .  Right now, this phone is $249.99 but on sale for $189.99 on the Virgin website, but it is on sale for $199.99 on Amazon.  Of course I don’t have the money for it now, but I will put money in PayPal every month until I can afford it.  I’m always broke so it’s difficult to save any money, and paying this much money up front for something like this would break me for the rest of the month. It’s not easy to just make a decision to spend that much money when I really don’t need to lol.

I chose this phone because it looks like a good phone.  It has a front facing camera and a 3D camera for video and pictures in the back.  According to a review, it’s good for playing games.  Even though this isn’t my main focus, I’m not going to buy a phone that doesn’t want to play games, because if it doesn’t play games well, then how would I expect it to run apps very well?

If/when I do buy this phone, I will probably give my current phone away to someone who doesn’t have a cell phone.  I won’t be able to keep my phone number, but I haven’t really given it out to too many people anyway, so changing my number won’t be a real issue.

I really don’t need this, but I want it, and why shouldn’t I have something cool, eh?

Oh and by the way, this is my commentary on my experiences and my wish for a new phone.  I am not getting paid for this.  It’d be cool if I were (hint hint wink wink Virgin Mobile).

Update: This is edited.  Previously, I chose the Kycera Rise and then I decided on the HTC One V.  I then decided that I wanted to spend a bit more and buy the HTC EVO V 4G.

Obviously I don’t have the money for this phone, but like I said in the paragraph with the phone, I will have to save up the money for it because this is a good phone.  Who knows, maybe by the time I have the money saved, it will go down in price and I’ll actually be able to afford it.

RoboStir

On By Michel McDonaldIn Products I LikeLeave a comment

Have you seen this new product advertised on TV?  Well, I’m a huge sucker for new inventions but I didn’t really think that I would have a need for one of these until recently.

I was making some gravy from the packets (because it’s cheaper) and it says in the instructions that you have to stir it constantly.  Well, I have carpal tunnel syndrome so stirring isn’t a great thing for my hands.

Oddly enough my hands and wrists aren’t what is bothering me when I stir, now I have a new pain in my arms just below my elbows.  It’s not just my stirring arm, it’s both arms.

I’m having trouble picking up every day things like the milk carton or the tea jug.  I’ve even had trouble picking up a cup of coffee.  So if I have pain picking things up, then just imagine how much pain I am in when I try to stir things.

So I decided yesterday that I would buy a RoboStir because it was only $9.99 at Albertson’s.  I didn’t use it right away but I did turn it on and it looks hilarious bouncing around the empty pain.

I wanted to try it today so I made some oatmeal for lunch and had this thing stirring while it was cooking and it was hilarious to watch.  I mean, it did a good job, it was just funny to see it in action.

If I had my eyes closed, I could swear that someone put a vibrator in my food.  That’s how funny it sounded to me.

RoboStir did the job it was paid to do and I did not regret for one minute the money I spent on this new toy.  It wasn’t a frivolous purchase because I had thought about buying it ever since my new arm pain started developing.

I totally recommend this for anyone who has any pain in their arms.

*not a paid endorsement