Tag: tweets

The Racists and Bigots Hate Miss America Nina Davuluri

On By Michel McDonaldIn Bullying, TV, TwitterLeave a comment

Miss_America_Nina_Davuluri

I haven’t watched Miss America since I was a kid, and even then I wasn’t paying very much attention.  It’s just not something I really care about.  Give me RuPaul’s Drag Race any day of the week.

I didn’t watch it, but apparently on Sunday night, Miss New York Nina Davuluri, who is the very first contestant of Indian descent to be crowned was crowned Miss America and the internet nearly exploded in a mushroom cloud of pure putrid racism.

Here is a link from Buzzfeed showing a few of the vile tweets.

Some people called her Miss Arab, Miss Al Qaeda, Miss Terrorist and Miss 7-11.  People were saying that Miss Kansas should have won.  Why?  Because she’s white?  I don’t understand what makes Miss Kansas a better candidate for Miss America.  Because she hunts animals?  Because she has a tattoo on her stomach?  Because she loves her country more than Nina Davuluri?  How do they know the level of love Nina has for her country?  I mean, honestly, do they even know her at all?  Have they met her?  Have they had a conversation with her about how dedicated she is to the United States?  I bet you if you asked her some history questions, she probably  knows more than these bigots do.

It’s funny how they don’t care if a person’s ancestors (or parents) were born in Italy, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, Hungary or England, but if your ancestor was born in India and your skin color reflects that, all of a sudden you’re not a true American. White doesn’t mean American.

Nina is from New York, so what is a typical New Yorker to these people?  Is she supposed to be like Fran Drescher?  Or what about Julie Chen?  Yeah, she’s from New York.  Check it out.  I mean what is a typical New Yorker supposed to look like?  Is she supposed to be white with brown hair and a thick New York accent?  Please tell me what the expectations are for being a true New Yorker.

This is 2013.  I just can’t believe there is still so much hatred and racism.  People from India are not terrorists and they are not affiliated with Al Qaeda.  Indians are not Arabs either.  I feel if you are going to make a racist statement, you should at least look at a map so you can see that India and Saudi Arabia aren’t the same country.  Here, take a look if you don’t believe me.

saudi arabia and india

I don’t know the rules of Miss America and I don’t know Nina Davuluri, and I’ve already said I don’t even watch the show, but I’m pretty sure that they wouldn’t crown a woman Miss America if she weren’t an American.  Like I said before, having white skin does not make you a true American.  If you want to know who the true Americans are, go find a reservation and ask around.  The Native Americans might have something to say about your racism.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinions just as I am entitled to point out their ignorance.  We all as Americans have free speech, but I think free speech and hate speech are two separate things.  Get your facts straight before you start calling someone you don’t even know names.

“Those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.” “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”

You know what my mother always said to me when I was a child?  Come on, you know this one.  “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”  Do us all a favor and just keep your mouth shut if all you can do is spout your racism and hate speech.

How to make money with your cell phone – 7 apps

On By Michel McDonaldIn Android, Cell Phone, Make Money3 Comments

AndroidMoney

I have been getting paid to blog for many years using various IZEA websites, such as PayPerPost, SocialSpark and Sponsored Tweets, which by the way is the only reason I was able to buy myself a brand new Android phone for Christmas.

Since I have a new HTC ONE V from Virgin Mobile coming, I figured I would see if I could use that to my advantage to make more money.  The blogging for money is fine, but it has taken a few months worth of blogging and tweeting just to make $80 to buy my new Android phone.  It’s good pay, but it doesn’t come by very easily.

Naturally the first thing I did was go to Google and typed “Make money with android phone” and I found a bunch of things.  IZEA used to have a cell phone app called WeRewards which rewarded you every time you checked in at a store like Target, Walmart, Subway etc. as long as you took a picture of yourself, your receipt, the product and/or the store sign while in the store or in the parking lot.  They closed that down so there is one less thing to talk about, but they did replace it with Staree.

Ok so here are the things I have found.

ipinion 1. iPinion and iPinion+

iPinion is the most sophisticated survey app ever built for smart phones. It has exciting survey questions including several image interaction types. Users can take surveys on the go and earn rewards.  iPinion is non-intrusive, fun to participate and professional.

They have 2 apps and they each got good ratings and reviews, but iPinion+ doesn’t have as many as the other.

iconzoomer 2. IconZoomer

Become Trendspotter at Iconzoomer and receive cash for your photos.

Shoot it – Send it – Earn it

Each week you’ll receive assignments of basic topics such as: “Show us what you are eating for dinner?” or “Show the shoes are you wearing today?”

Pretty straight forward.  They ask you to take a picture, you do and you get paid for it.  That seems pretty good and the ratings and reviews are very good.

checkpoints 3. CheckPoints

Scan barcodes for products like Coca-Cola, Dreyer’s and more in any store for instant rewards! As seen in the Washington Post, NY Times, USA Today and CNN, CheckPoints is the “App That Pays You Back” with free rewards, no matter where you are!

You are going to the store anyway, why not open this app while you are there and scanning barcodes for rewards?  It seems really easy.  This app got a lot of good ratings and reviews.

shopkick 4. ShopKick

This holiday shopping season, join the more than 4 million shopkick users who get rewarded for the shopping they already do. It’s like a rewards program—only better. You get rewarded just for walking into stores like Target, Macy’s, Best Buy, Old Navy, American Eagle and Crate & Barrel. Get even more kicks when you scan items and make purchases. Forget sales and coupons. You can find great discounts and deals in the app. It’s a magical experience, and it’s free.

This is very similar to CheckPoints in the sense that you get rewarded for scanning barcodes, but you also get rewarded merely for walking into a store without doing anything.  So you could basically just go to the mall and walk around with this app loaded and go into the stores that they have listed in the app and start window shopping and scanning barcodes.  They got some good ratings and some reviews.

SwagBucks5. SwagBucks Search Swidget & SwagBucks TV Mobile

The official app from Swagbucks. Earn rewards & prizes by searching on your Android device.

I haven’t had much experience with SwagBucks Search Swidget because when I have tried it, it hasn’t really given me too many rewards.  I think the only way to get your SwagBucks with that is by making a purchase from whatever website you are searching for.  Like if you search for Target and you make a purchase, you get SwagBucks for every dollar that you spend.

SwagBucks TV Mobile on the other hand is a bit different.  You load the app and you choose which type of videos you want to watch and you just sit there and watch videos for however long of a time you have to sit there watching videos I guess.  There are music videos and movie trailers.  It’s a novelty that does wear off and you don’t get that many SwagBucks, but it still counts.  You can’t just load the app and have it run all day and all night because you have to tap the X in the top right of the screen in between videos.

Note that 100 swag bucks is basically $1 so it is a good idea.

Added 8-14-2013

viggle 6. Viggle

Viggle. Check into your favorite shows and get rewarded. Viggle makes TV better.

Watch TV. Get Rewards. Check into your favorite TV shows with Viggle and you’ll get real rewards from brands like Best Buy, Burger King, Fandango, Old Navy and more.

Viggle can automatically identify the show you’re watching. You get Viggle points for every show you watch which you can redeem for real rewards or convert into charitable donations.

Some people are saying bad things about this, like the app doesn’t recognize the show they are watching so they have to type it in manually, and others are saying it doesn’t give you money, you get coupons.  I would say to check it out and if you only get $5 gift cards for Amazon, then at least you are getting something.  I mean who cares if you are getting coupons, it’s the same as cash when you go to use it and you end up saving money on things you already want to buy.  Also, if you feel generous you could give the money to charity.

Update: I can tell you that this is good and you do get real rewards because I got a $25 gift card for Barnes & Noble to buy ebooks.  I used it to buy the Hunger Games ebooks for my Nook.

staree 7. Staree

Use the Staree app to upload photos and videos to your Staree.com profile.

To request a Staree account, please visit our website at http://www.staree.com!

I am loyal to IZEA so I am only adding this because they are an awesome company that always pays you.  They are 100% legit.  I have signed up for Staree and have uploaded a couple of photos, but I don’t know how it really works yet.  But it’s still worth giving a shot.  I really wish they would bring WeReward back though.

erewards icon8. e-Rewards

e-Rewards Mobile is now available for Android- now you can answer surveys and earn Rewards on the go!

I have used e-Rewards for many years and I can say that it is a good tool for making money, although you don’t actually make money so much as you get rewarded for your surveys with gift cards.  Some rewards are better than others, but the only reward that I am interested in is $25 Game Stop gift cards.  They have changed their reward system since the last time I got a $25 gift card for Game Stop.  It used to be that I would have to do $50 worth of surveys to cash in for the $25 gift card, but now you have to do $75 worth, so they are basically charging you $50 to cash in on $25.  I feel that is a huge rip off, but it’s still a reward.

It would be nice if they offered better rewards.  Most of their rewards are for hotels or airline rewards or magazines.  I don’t travel or read magazines, so those rewards are useless.  It would be nice if they had Amazon and Barnes & Noble rewards.

Added 8-14-2013

So these are all of the apps that I plan on installing when I get my new HTC One V from Virgin Mobile.  If you know of any more or better apps for making money please let me know in the comments and I will add them.  These were just all I could find from doing my own research, but I am sure there are better apps out there.

Thank you to IZEA for allowing me to blog for products and websites and paying me for it.  Now I will hopefully be able to make more money from my phone so that I can afford the monthly fee and/or to buy some accessories for it lol.

Why Do Atheists Bother You So Much?

On By Michel McDonaldIn AtheismLeave a comment

I was on TweetDeck one day just looking at my friend/family stream and a friend retweeted something that @GodlessAtheist tweeted. It was something that he retweeted that someone else had said. So I checked out a few of his tweets to see what he tweets and he’s mostly retweeting nasty things that other people say about atheists along with a response.

Like right now I’m looking and I see this:

RT @aleepolat: Dear God, Well, this is awkward. Sincerely, dead atheist.http://lil.as/3VC <–at that point neither exist anymore #atheism

Update: The user aleepolat must have deleted his/her account because the link is no longer valid.  Hmm, I wonder why they deleted the account…

What he does is he responds at the end where it shows the arrow then he hash tags it.  And he isn’t nasty about it either.  He responds with a nice sentence like the one you see above.  People say that atheists are so evil and so mean, well this guy shows that they aren’t because his responses are nice.  He is to the point and he doesn’t lie unlike the people he retweets who lie about atheists.

Why does it make people so upset that there are people who don’t share the same exact religious views as them? I mean, there are people who don’t worship Jesus, they are called Muslims and Jews. And I know that upsets the christians to no end because I went to visit a church in San Diego a couple of years ago and they were talking about how they converted a muslim and a jew into christianity. And they were putting them and their religion down to their faces while bragging about the conversion.

Look, people are going to believe in something different, that is what makes us all unique and individual, because we don’t share the same belief system. We are all like snowflakes if you think about it. No two look alike with the exception of twins and even then they have different opinions and personalities because they are 2 different people.

I’ve only been following GodlessAtheist for a couple of weeks now and it seems that he retweets a lot of people who talk trash about atheists. I just don’t understand why atheists bothers people so much. Atheists have nothing to do with you so don’t let it interrupt your life.  Don’t give them so much thought that you have to tweet about them on twitter so much.

It’s like how people are so upset about gay people and they tweet so many negative things about being gay. Who cares! Gay people don’t have any impact in your way of life so why are you giving them so much thought?

You know, when all of these anti-gay republicans started getting caught in gay scandals, it started to make me think that anyone who is anti-gay must be gay because their whole career ends in a gay scandal. So I’m wondering if all of these anti-atheist people must really be questioning their own religious views, otherwise they wouldn’t be bothered by atheists so much.

So this is my theory, all of those anti-atheists are really in the closet atheists and they just don’t want to admit it so they are taking out their aggression on all the atheists to cover up their own atheism.  Let that one sink in and get back to me, or don’t, who cares, I don’t.

iPad Only Newspaper “The Daily” Starts Today

On By Michel McDonaldIn NewsLeave a comment

I am fortunate that I was able to wake up early this morning and that Darrin watches Fox News all the time so that I was able to watch this news story in the living room about “The Daily” for the iPad while eating my Honey Nut Cheerios.

Rupert Murdoch has announced this new app for the iPad that will give you your news every day for only .99 cents a week or $39 per year. That works out to just .14 cents per day. Remember when the newspaper was just .25 cents a day? You just load the app in your iPad and you get everything that you would normally get in your newspaper and then some.

Although, I wonder if it has any of your local news and features like local obituaries, classifieds, comics and things that are happening in your city, not just around the country and the world. If this replaces the newspaper, what will happen to all of those other cool features that came with the newspaper?  What about the coupons?  Will those just end up coming in the mail instead?

Well, besides losing local news, I envy anyone who has an iPad because it’s really cool and well worth the $39 per year price. They have news articles just like you would see in your newspaper but the exception is you also get color pictures on every article and sometimes even video instead of an image.

Here is a quote from VentureBeat.com where you can read the full story at:

“The Daily is not an island,” they said. You’ll be able to share stories on Facebook, Twitter and via email. You’ll also be able to record audio comments. The app features a built-in web browser, and certain pages also include Twitter feeds. There’s also an apps and games section to The Daily, which will link you directly to the iTunes Store.

The Daily will update throughout the day with breaking news as it happens so if you are at work and something is going on, you will know about it if you just so happen to be looking at it at the time.

I am not fortunate enough to own an iPad so this will be something that I will dream about for a very long time, at least long enough for the iPad to go down in price anyway. It looks like something that Darrin would find very useful where he can save tons of money and waste less paper since he loves to read the newspaper every day. Maybe he can charge an iPad for himself so he can get the Daily. It would be way easier than a new computer which he needs desperately anyway. Also he pays the same price per month that the iPad Daily charges per year so that’s something to think about.

If you have an iPad, let me know how the Daily looks. You get 2 weeks free thanks to Verizon so you have plenty of time to test it out.

True Blood – Blood Bites on Twitter

On By Michel McDonaldIn TV, TwitterLeave a comment

If you are a huge True Blood fan as much as I am and you also have an addiction to Twitter then you probably already know about Blood Bites.  I didn’t know about it until this week thanks to Sam Merlotte, the role player that is.

Every Wednesday night you can go to the Blood Bites website or you can just watch them tweeting live.

The fun part about it was even though it was probably a 5 or 10 minute scene in the show, it took an hour to tweet out but what made it fun was that they were tweeting what they were thinking and how they were feeling and who they were looking at.  It was like reading a novel.

Occasionally some other True Blood role-player would role-play on my list but they weren’t a part of the “show” so they most likely didn’t show up on the “Blood Bites” website.

I didn’t even know about this until now and I kick myself in the pants for not knowing but I really wasn’t into Twitter until very recently so how could I have known.  After all, nobody told me about it.  I also don’t remember seeing anything advertised on HBO about it.

Hopefully if you are a fan of the show and wouldn’t mind seeing them role-playing in Twitter then use my list .  I have all of the True Blood role players, well, I might be missing some, I don’t know.  I keep finding out every day that there is someone I didn’t have in there so I add them.  Some of them require permission to view their tweets too which I found out when I wasn’t seeing both sides of a conversation even though I was following them and they were on my True Blood list.

What is an easier way to see their live tweets is using TweetDeck or some program or website that streams the tweets as they are tweeted so you don’t have to keep refreshing the page.

They don’t just role-play on certain days, they role-play all freakin’ day long.  I’m glued to TweetDeck all day now, I should be doing other things but I can’t peel my eyes off the True Blood list lol.  It’s like I’m addicted to that one list of mine, I don’t care about anything anyone else is saying on Twitter except for the role players lol.

I wonder if any other show does this.

Note that the role players and True Blood on Twitter is not affiliated with True Blood or HBO.

@Twimbow: New Revelations

On By Michel McDonaldIn TwitterLeave a comment

Well I have finally figured it out.  I guess because I don’t use Twitter that often I never learned that there are lists that you can add people to.  Twimbow allows you to use your middle column to view only people in a list that you choose.  DUH!  So naturally I am making a list and only putting in people I really want to follow, friends and celebrities.

So, I can stop blocking people, which I stopped doing when I learned that blocking equals unfollowing followers.  A huge Oops.

Also the 3rd column in the Twimbow website is a search window.  Notice the magnifying glass?  The search area above that allows you to type a specific persons name to look at all their tweets and mentions.

Notice the column on the left (which is the middle column in the website) says Celebrities, that’s my new Celeb list.  And notice the magnifying glass in the column on the right that says Twimbow?  I get it now.

Now that I have this new information I will be a very happy Twimbow user.  I’m very excited because I finally get it now.  What can I say, I guess I get stupid in my old age but I learn… eventually.