Tag: facebook

Legitimate Facebook Friend Request

On By Michel McDonaldIn Android, Facebook, Friends and Family, People, Social NetworkLeave a comment

facebook friend request

As of today, I will no longer be accepting friend requests from people on Facebook.  It seems that every time someone sends me a friend request, they either never talk to me, or they won’t leave me alone because the only reason they sent the request was because they want to have sex with me.  Facebook is not Grindr.  If you want to have sex with people, get a cell phone and install Grindr.  Here is a link to Grindr.  Use that, don’t use Facebook to look for sex.

Last night someone sent me a friend request and I gladly accepted because it said we had 1 friend in common, but then he sent me a DM asking for sex.  When I told him I was in a relationship, he asked me to help him find someone who is single.  No!  I’m not going to help you hook up with my friends.  That is not what Facebook is for!

Awhile ago, someone sent me a friend request and I gladly accepted because it also said we had 1 friend in common.  He sent me a DM and we chatted, and then suddenly he told me he was in love with me and that he wanted to be my boyfriend.  You can’t possibly be in love with me after 10 minutes.  I knew I should have ended the friendship right then and there, but he seemed suicidal and I didn’t want to be the reason that someone ended their life.  I think I have finally made it crystal clear that I am not the person for him, but I shouldn’t have to go through that.  I should be able to live my life guilt free without worrying that someone is going to kill themselves.

Speaking of which, I am always saying that if you need a person to talk to because you are suicidal, send me a DM and I will be a shoulder you can cry on.  So these people who send me a friend request then DM for sex are ruining it for those who legitimately want to talk to me because they need someone to talk to.  That’s a real shame that those people have made me not want to accept friendship requests.  Although, if someone did legitimately need someone to talk to, they can send me a DM first and then I will accept their friend request.

My reasons for being on Facebook is to talk with my friends and family.  To see their pictures and read their funny and or corny jokes and see pictures of their barbecue with their families and friends.  To me, Facebook is a website for friends, and that’s it.

I am not a prude, I like sex, but as I said before, I am in a relationship that has lasted for 19 years and I would like to get to 20 years.  I am not your boyfriend and I am not your friend with benefits.  I am just Mike and that’s it.  I save my friendship for people who actually want it.

So from now on, unless you have sent me a message saying who you are and what your intentions are, I will deny all friend requests.  I wish I didn’t have to get to this point that I have to write a blog post explaining why I will be denying friendship requests.

I Recently Bought Lego Star Wars III The Clone Wars for PSP

On By Michel McDonaldIn Games, PSPLeave a comment

lego star wars III for psp

When I bought my PSP in 2009, it was because I was taking care of someone and I needed to sit with them which meant I wasn’t able to play EverQuest as often as I would have liked.  In fact, I quit playing EverQuest altogether because of that.  I figured a portable gaming system was a good way to keep me occupied, and I was right.  I got the very first Lego Star Wars which was called “Lego Star Wars II The Original Trilogy.”  What happened to Lego Star Wars I?

I recently received a $35 gift card from Amazon for advertising.  You see that ad on the right?  Someone bought a VERY expensive camera from one of those ads and someone else bought a tv series on DVD and I got paid for it.  I wasn’t even expecting it and I was pleasantly surprised that I even got anything from the ads since I’ve had them for years and never made a dime off of them.

lego star wars III screenshot

Here is a screenshot of the new Lego Star Wars III The Clone Wars for PSP.  It looks just as fun as the original adventures, but I assume this is molded after the cartoon which I’ve never actually seen.  I am a huge Star Wars fan, but I don’t watch the cartoons.  It’s not that I don’t like cartoons because I watch The Simpsons, Family Guy etc., but I just don’t care for watching the cartoon channel.  I’m just not into it.  Maybe one day, but I can’t promise.  Although, now that I will be playing this, I might have to watch the cartoon to get references, if any.

I haven’t actually played with my PSP in a very long time because I got bored with it.  The Lego Games have always held my interest, especially the Lego games, so I am sure I will be staring at my PSP for hours on end for a very long time.  Of course that won’t take away from the other things I like to do like veg out on Facebook or make earrings for Etsy, but it will keep me occupied for at least an hour or so per day.  At least until the battery dies lol.

Check out the other games I have for my PSP.  I can’t say that I have gotten to the end of any of them because I tend to give up when I’m stuck.  Although, I don’t give up immediately, but if I’m stuck for a week, then I give up and move on to another game.  Like Daxter, I got stuck and moved on to another game, but then went back and figured it out, but then got stuck again.  I will give it another chance because I really want to make it to the end of that game eventually.  I have my whole life so I’m not worried.

One of the things I was looking at on the Amazon website was a skin for my PSP.  More specifically a Lego Star Wars related skin, but the one they had was only for the PSP 3000.  I have the PSP Slim 2000.  All the other Star Wars skins they have are either for the PSP 1000 or 3000.  I can’t win :(.  Oh well.  Maybe some day I might get the skin that I want for my PSP.  Until then, I get to look at a silver PSP.

Well I bought my game yesterday on Amazon and I have yet to receive an email notifying me that it was shipped, but the email confirmation of my order said that I should get it from August 12 to August 15, so I have a bit of a wait.  No big deal, I can wait.

My recent reward for watching TV

On By Michel McDonaldIn Android, App, Nook, TV3 Comments

viggle

I bought my HTC One V for Virgin Mobile from Amazon in December and one of the first apps I installed was Viggle because a friend uses it and posted the advertisement on Facebook.  I’m always looking for ways to get rewarded for doing things, like surveys, blogging, tweeting, installing and playing games and whatever else I can do.  Well, Viggle gives you rewards just for watching TV and doing trivia during your shows.

Since December I have been racking up points.  I had over 63,000 points and I was saving it for a really expensive reward, the Kindle Fire or Kindle Fire HD.  The problem is, those are 482,500 and 560,000 points and well, let’s just say if it has taken me 6 months to get 63,000 points, I’m sure it will take me a long time to get the Kindle, so I figured I might as well pick a reward of lesser value for now.  I decided to get the Barnes & Noble $25 gift card for 50,000 points.  This is what I bought.

the hunger games trilogy

The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins for $24.49.  I waited for a few days after getting my Viggle reward because I wasn’t positive what I wanted.  I can’t recall exactly what made my decide on The Hunger Games, but I suddenly remembered that I wanted to read the books before seeing the movie.

I wanted to buy many ebooks at .99 cents each because then I could buy 25 ebooks, but I think getting this trilogy was better.  It’s not the quantity of the ebooks that matter because chances are I’m not going to have time for all 25 ebooks, and who knows if I will feel like I made a huge mistake because the books aren’t quality writing.  So I’m glad I bought this trilogy rather than a bunch of books I may not like.  Although I’m not positive I will like the hunger games, but I know it is something that I am interested in so I’m sure I will.

I have started reading the first book, but haven’t gotten too far because I just didn’t feel like reading.  I have to be in the mood to be able to really get into it, and I don’t want my lack of interest in reading to make me like or hate a book.  I will wait until I’m ready to start reading it.  I actually have a few other books that I’m halfway through that I would like to finish before starting another story.

Anyway, I just wanted to say that Viggle is a good app and this is proof that you do actually get rewarded for watching TV.

Cycling again… FINALLY!

On By Michel McDonaldIn Bike, Cycling, Diet, Exercise, Health, Noom, WeightLeave a comment

noom cycling 2013-07-20_09-51-23

Today was the first time in a very long time that I have been able to ride a bicycle for exercise.  Of course I used the Noom app on my Android cell phone.

This is the map, but the statistics are wrong.  The app froze at a few points and I was not given credit for 3.5 miles.  I mapped it out on Google Maps and the roundtrip ride was 11.8 miles, but I was able to add what I missed manually so I got credit for it.

The reason it froze is not the apps fault, I believe it’s that the music was causing it to freeze.  I wasn’t using the built-in music player, so I think that with the Noom app running and other apps running caused my phone to freeze up.  I also kept getting phone calls from home and I got a notification from Facebook and from eBay and from my emails, so I feel that everything was causing my phone to become slow.  So I don’t blame anyone but my phone itself for that happening.  Whatever the app doesn’t record, I can add in manually so I’m not worried.

It’s been a very long time since I was able to ride my bike.  In January I was 264lbs and I was worried about riding my bike because it says in the manual for the bike that it has a weight limit of 250lbs and at that heavy weight, I was afraid I would break something, so I just didn’t ride it.  I waited until I was 245 to ride it again and every time I tried to ride it, the back tire would go flat.  I lost more weight and bought a Bell No Mor Flats tire from Wal-Mart (it was the only place I could buy it) which was a huge mistake because installing it ruined not just the rim which was practically brand spanking new, but it also ruined the tire.  I tried using a tube and I don’t know if it was the scratches in the rim or the wires sticking out of the tire that popped it, but the tube wouldn’t stay inflated.  I was saving money for a new bike because I couldn’t see myself spending $30 – $35 for a new rim and $20 – $25 for a new tire.  My bike was originally only worth $60.

Fortunately we found a thrift store nearby that had a used rim and a used tire and they sold it to me for… wait for it… give me a drum roll please…  $5.  That’s it.  I saved $50 or $60 and saved myself from having to buy a new bike.  Check it out.

bike 1 july 20 2013 bike 2 july 20 2013

I wore my Black Nashbar Bib Shorts with my black Noom shirt and I put my wallet, my phone and my keys in my Noom backpack and set off with only my Noom water bottle to quench my thirst.  I actually didn’t think I would be riding more than I did, so I didn’t bring my Camelbak.  Next time I go out, I will load my Camelbak in my Noom backpack and put my keys, wallet and phone in the front pocket.  Although, I may put my keys in with the camelbak so they don’t scratch up my phone.

When I came home from my walk I was pleased to see that my Nintendo 64 had sold on eBay for $28 plus $21 shipping, so I took a walk to the post office to pick up a Priority box (if it fits it ships), so naturally I did a walking workout, so my total calories burned today was 736 with that extra 3.5 miles added that the Noom app missed on my bike ride.  I normally get a 1400 calorie allowance for my meals, but with the amount of calories that I burned today, I can eat 1770 calories.  Not that I will eat that many, but I know that if I feel hungry for an extra snack, I won’t feel guilty about it.

Today was also weigh-in day and naturally I didn’t lose any weight this week, which is disappointing, but now that I’m exercising again, perhaps this will kick my weight loss back in gear.  I hope so.

noom cycling bike store 2013-07-20_11-34-43 Oh and one more thing.  The spot that I stopped and rested at on the bike trail just so happened to be near a bicycle shop.  That’s the place where I bought my beach cruiser handlebars many years ago.  The store is called Finish Line.  You can’t see their sign or logo in the map, but that’s what they are called.  There is a seat right there on the bike trail which is where I took a break and that’s where I turned around to come back home.  There is a bridge right there too, so if I ever need to, I can cross the bridge and park my bicycle somewhere and go in and buy whatever it is that I need.  Not that I will need to mind you, because I usually buy all of my cycling supplies from Nashbar or Amazon.  I probably won’t need to go in there, but it’s nice to know they are there in case I do need to.

You have no idea how happy I am to be able to ride my bike again.  I really want to finish losing the rest of this weight, of which there is really only 23lbs.  I feel that if I could lose 70lbs with diet alone, I can certainly lose 23 more pounds easily with diet and exercise.  I’m so psyched!

Scan Your Barcodes and Save Meals with Noom

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, NoomLeave a comment

noom scanner

Did you know that with Noom, you could scan barcodes from the boxes of food that you eat?  Two people have told me that they didn’t even know you could scan the barcodes to enter the food that they eat for their meals.

Yesterday I was talking with someone on Facebook and she told me that she had no idea, so I took a screenshot like the one on the left in the image above, and told her to look at the buttons below “Add Food Item” that say Dial, Scan and Saved.  I told her that all she has to do is click Scan and the image to the right will come up.  It scans the barcode and this was the result of the barcode you see in the picture.  “Weight Watchers Smart Ones Classic Favorites Three Cheese Ziti Marinara” for 300 calories.

I have known about it since I first started using Noom because the scan button is in plain sight, so it was a no brainer to me.  That’s not meant as an insult by the way, I just see things more than most do.  I am very visual, I look at everything.  Have you seen the show The Mentalist?  I’m like that guy, I look at everything.

Did you also know that you could save your meals too?  When you enter certain items like for example, if you are making a peanut butter and jelly (or jam) sandwich, you scan the bread, the jar of peanut butter and the jar of jelly or jam, but you don’t want to have to do that every time you eat a sandwich, so after you enter all the information, click “Add to Saved Meals” at the bottom and type PB&J, so the next time you eat that, just click “Saved” at the top and find PB&J, click it and it will automatically add it for you.  It’s really that easy.

So there you have it, the barcode scanner and saving meals with Noom.  You’ve been looking at it everyday and you didn’t even notice it lol.  I hope this helps.

SD card unexpectedly removed…

On By Michel McDonaldIn Android, Games, PicturesLeave a comment

SD card unexpectedly removed

Has anyone ever seen this issue before?  If you have an Android phone and a SanDisk memory card, you probably have.

So this is my problem today, well, last night anyway.  It was 8 p.m. and I was logging into The Sims FreePlay to send my 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Sims to work.  As it was starting to load, it crashed to the home screen and I see this message “SD card unexpectedly removed.”  What the…?

I rebooted the phone and tried to load the game and got this message again, and again, and again.  I Googled the problem and read in a few forums that my microSD card is most likely no good and that I would need to buy a new one.  Well, I bought this card in January, how could it be bad after only 5 months?

One of my concerns was that I might have lost all of my pictures, because I never backed any of them up.  Some of them have automatically been privately synced onto Facebook, but not all of them, so if I lost all of my other images, I was going to be very disappointed.  I went into the pictures and they all had that triangle with the explanation point.  FRAK!  I rebooted the phone and they were all there, but then they disappeared… they came back and I was able to upload everything album by album onto Google Drive.  WHEW!

So another one of my concerns was that I haven’t backed up the Sims FreePlay in a few days, so all of the work that I have done will disappear and I will have to continue from where I left off the last time I backed it up to the cloud, which backs it up on Facebook.  Fortunately the game loaded last night and I was able to do a backup, but then this morning I got the “SD card unexpectedly removed” issue again, so I knew that I wasn’t out of the woods just yet.

This morning I went into the app management screen and saw that all of the apps on the microSD card were showing their icons, except for The Sims FreePlay.  Knowing that it was backed up on Facebook, I uninstalled the game and tried to reinstall it.  The first attempt wasn’t successful because it told me that it couldn’t install it, but then I tried it again and it worked.  I was able to send my 10 a.m. Sims to work on time.

I really don’t care if I have to buy a new microSD card, that is unimportant, what is most important to me is that I don’t lose my pictures, and I haven’t so I’m okay with it.  I only paid $20 for it which was a good price considering the Best Buy Mobile store at the mall was charging $35 for the PNY 32GB microSD card and $70 for the SanDisk 32GB microSD cards.  That is a lot of money.  Too much for my blood.

Last night after I backed up all of my pictures on Google Drive, I went through my apps and uninstalled a bunch that I never used that were on the microSD card.  I don’t know how many apps I uninstalled, but it was a lot.  I’ve been messing around with it after I reinstalled The Sims FreePlay today, and after rebooting it a couple of times found that one app is showing up weird in the App Management screen, so I uninstalled it.  I moved a lot of apps to the phone so that I don’t lose the data so those are fine.

Everything seems to be okay with The Sims FreePlay now after I have rebooted the phone and tried to go into the game.  I’m sure I don’t even have to buy a new card, but just in case I do, I will be very careful to back everything up.  Like if I take a picture, I will back it up with Google Drive and if I play The Sims FreePlay, I will upload my data to the cloud just to make sure I don’t lose any progress.  If I have to buy a new microSD card then no problem, but for now I don’t think I have to worry about it.

Have you had these same issues?  If so, what was your solution?  Enquiring minds want to know!

I’m not a one trick pony after all

On By Michel McDonaldIn craftsLeave a comment

circle brick and wall

I have been playing around with my lanyard (or gimp) material a lot over the last week.  I thought there were only 2 styles, the square and the round.  Well, a friend told me on Facebook to try the triangle pattern which uses 3 colors.  I never even knew it was possible to use not just 3 colors, but only 3 strands.  She sent me to “Laneyards” on YouTube and I’ve been watching a lot of his videos and have discovered so many different patterns that I never even knew existed until now.

So I put all of the images on my crafts page in the Lanyard Keychains section.  I made some keychains with the Mega Lace, I made a pretzel, I made a long wall stitch with the Mega Lace, there are some imperfections in it because I had to add more of the clear gimp because I didn’t have enough, but it doesn’t matter because it was just for practice.  Then today I just added the ones you see in this post.  The one on the bottom is the brick stitch in a circular pattern and the one above that is the wall stitch in a circular pattern.  Of course they were just practice.  They are small because I used scrap gimp to make them.  I’m out of all of my gimp now so if I want to make more, I’ll have to take a trip to Michael’s, which I will do tomorrow.

I never knew I had it in me.  I really think these are so cool.  Of course, I don’t know what I’m going to do with any of them lol.  My next trick will be a rainbow wall in a circular pattern.  I honestly don’t know how it’s going to turn out, but I’m going to try it anyway.

I am also going to make many awareness ribbons for many causes that I support.  There are too many to list, and most likely I will have a keychain of only cause ribbons that I won’t be able to keep on my keychain, because if I did, they’d never fit in my pocket lol.  Of course I can put one on my keychain at a time during that awareness month.  Either way, I’m going to be very busy making lots of ribbons with the simple circular stitch, bending it to make a circle, then attaching it to the other side to make it into a ribbon, then continuing with a few more stitches to finish it off.

My hands seem to be doing fine with the stretching and pulling of the gimp.  I had to stop crocheting after 20+ years because of my carpal tunnel syndrome, so perhaps if I can make these keychains, I might be able to crochet again.  Maybe… we’ll see.

Banana Ice Cream

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, Food, Health, Noom, Recipes, WeightLeave a comment

banana ice cream

How many calories are in 1 serving of ice cream?  I looked up Häagen Dazs® Banana Split ice cream and it has 270 calories for 1/2 a cup.  HALF A CUP has 270 calories?  Well, how would you feel if I told you that 1 cup of banana ice cream only has 116 calories if you make it yourself?

It’s really simple.  I found this recipe on Facebook of all places.  All you do is slice up 1 banana, freeze it for about 2 or 3 hours, put it in a food processor or a blender with a dash of non-fat milk until it’s the consistency of ice cream, scoop it into a bowl and viola, banana ice cream.  It’s more like soft serve, and technically it’s not ice cream, it’s just pureed frozen fruit, but still, it’s like ice cream.

What makes this healthy is that you are eating fruit not ice cream, but it tastes and looks like ice cream so you are fooling your brain into thinking you are being bad, but really you are just eating a banana.

Say you don’t like bananas, well you could try this with a cantaloupe or honeydew melon, I have even read that you could make this with watermelon, but I haven’t tried it yet.  I’m going to when they are at the grocery store though, so stay tuned for that.

The Noom app that I am using says that any green fruit like banana, cantaloupe and watermelon is 25 calories for 1/3 of a cup, 50 calories for 2/3 of a cup, 100 calories for 1 1/4 cup and 150 calories for 2 cups.  The SparkPeople recipe page says it’s 116 calories for 1 medium banana.  I’d rather go with Noom’s calories because 100 calories is better lol.  Any way you slice it, it’s better for you than ice cream that you buy at the grocery store and you can eat more of it, guilt free.

Writing on and putting up walls

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

brick wall

I think as a human being we all have the right to our own happiness, right?  I mean, it’s what I would love to believe.  So when I write something silly or even stupid on my Facebook wall, blog and/or Twitter, I’d like to think that I shouldn’t get criticized or yelled at for sharing random personal information about myself.

When people start talking down to me and I have never even said boo to them, I build walls in my head and they usually never come down.  I like to think that I give people enough chances before I put up this wall.  After 42 years of having people treat me like dirt, the amount of chances a person gets goes down.  You have heard of the three strikes law right?  Well, I used to give people 3 chances.  But then I’ve heard the saying “Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.”  So screw 3 strikes, if you are rude to me a second time then that’s it, I’m done.  And believe me, when I say to you “I’m done” at the end of an argument, that means I’m finished with you.  I may not unfriend you, but I will remove you from any streams so I can’t see what you are saying and I will restrict you from seeing what I say in the future, that way I don’t give you any chances to be rude to me.

Why is it that people are always rude to me though?  I never say or do anything bad to anyone.  I’m never rude or belligerent with people on purpose.  I don’t tell people how to live their lives, so why do people do that to me?  I don’t get it.  This is my life, I pay the rent, I pay the bills, I buy the groceries, I am who is responsible for my life, not other people, so why do they feel the need to criticize me when I say something that is meaningless to them?  I never talk down to people because who the heck am I to do that to them?  So who the heck are people to talk down to me?  Screw them!  Who needs them anyway?

I have built so many walls that if I were building a house, I would have at least 1 floor of a 2 bedroom house completed.  I’m not joking either.  It sucks that I have to live this way.

I am just venting… sorry you had to see that.

Dr. Jim and Bob’s Funny Health Advice

On By Michel McDonaldIn AdLeave a comment

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of © Blue Shield of California for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

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Everyone has to visit the doctor from time to time, some more than others depending on what ails them.  I have to go once a month because I have serious health issues, but sometimes I have minor issues that I should discuss with my doctor, but I don’t always because it’s a bit embarrassing.  Even though he is my doctor, it still makes me blush to have to talk about constipation, diarrhea or whatever embarrassing things you have to talk about.  Sometimes you want to go to a website to check things out before speaking to your doctor, and Dr. Jim and Bob are probably the best people to help because they make you giggle.

Check out Dr. Jim and Bob’s Fun & Helpful Health Advice on Facebook and watch all of their videos.  Every day, Dr. Jim and Bob scour the internet looking for people who have problems that they for one reason or another discuss, and they leave a reply with a link to one of their videos.  Perhaps the health issues I have blogged about have stumped them and they just don’t know how to respond.  Yeah, I’m sure that’s it.  Hmmm…

Dr. Jim and Bob are with Blue Shield of California which is a non-profit company.  They offer easy access to chiropractors, acupuncture and other alternative care.  They offer access to great doctors and they have a wide range of health plans that you can actually afford.  Imagine that.

I think I have benefitted from some of the advice that Dr. Jim and Bob have given in their videos.  One of the issues I have is with heartburn and Dr. Jim and Bob discuss how perhaps I get heartburn because I might be eating too much or the wrong foods, or perhaps maybe I just need to go on a diet and lose some weight.  Are you calling me fat Dr. Jim?  LOL just kidding… or am I?  Watch the video, it’s hilarious.

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