Vodka and Soda

monday favorites: samsung galaxy S2

 

i love my phone.  i convinced my director to get this phone and he's in love with it too.   heck, every person who owns this phone says that it's the best phone they've ever owned.  even previous iphone users have said the same thing *gasp! blasphemy!*

the S2 is powerful, fast, has a beautiful display and has access to lots of good, free apps.  i love the fact that i have full control (superuser) of my phone so i can do whatever i want to my phone (maybe get a early version of ICS?).  

my only pet peeve is the battery - it sucks large.   i charge it every day which annoys me but i guess that's the trade off for a having powerful phone.    i molest my phone every day and i use it for everything - music, reading, videos and i never leave home without it.

here are some of my favorite android apps:

• zdbox (free) - tracks your mobile data (and you can set alerts if you're close to your cap), task killer, cache cleaner, battery monitor (temperature and capacity), uninstaller
• juice defender (free) - i have to admit, the S2 battery life is major suckage. there are 2 paid versions which allows you to customize where battery is conserved but right now, i'm testing the free version.  basically, this monitors your connectivity and your background processes to conserver as much battery as possible.
• camera zoom fx ($4.75)- andoid's version of the hugely popular hipstamatic camera app.  i hate paying for apps but  google had a 10-day $0.10 app blowout sale and i snagged this badboy for $0.10 on the last day.   hellz yeah.
• aldiko (free) -  ereader; lets you import existing epub and pdf files; fully customizable with a decent interface 
• titanium backup pro ($6.49) - the only app for which i paid full price.  i needed this app when i hacked into my phone but (the paid version) allows you to remove or freeze bloatware which can eat your battery and takes up space and do a full backup/restore
• whatsapp (free) - messaging client
• doubleTwist (free)  - best media player.  plays every media format i've thrown at it
• seesmic (free) - twitter client.  slick, easy to use interface.
• pulse (free) - best feed reader
• smart keyboard pro ($2.99) - the stock keyboard sucks ass so i actually went and bought a keyboard!! luckily, they were having a sale so i only paid $0.99.  this keyboard is really "smart"  because it learns how you type and will predict the words you most often use.  you can also calibrate the keyboard to recognize the mistakes you usually make and adjust accordingly.  i always used to want to throw my phone down in frustration whenever i hit the wrong key (which was often) but this keyboard has helped reduce my rage. 
• app monster (free)  - app manager
• tiny flashlight LED (free) - uses your camera's flash as a flashlight.  simple and easy to use
• tip me (free) - yes i'm asian and no, i'm not a math whiz.  because i can't calculate for shit, i need this app whenever my hubs isn't around to calculate this for me.  this app allows you to select tip percentage and calculates based on # of people splitting the bill.  simple and easy to use
• ad-free (free) - who says you have to pay to get ad-free apps?  simple and easy to configure, ad-free gets rid of all those pesky ads on your free apps.  you must be rooted to use this app

 

what phone do you have?

monday favorites: 80s TV shows

 

continuing the 80s theme from a previous monday favorites post, the 1980s was filled with some great tv shows as well.  although i was a pre-tween at the time, i certainly appreciated prime time television. 

Three's Company  - my all-time favorite.  to this day, this show makes me laugh my ass off (i have all of the dvd sets) and i will destroy anyone in three's company trivia.  that's right, i said it.  destroy.

 

V is my second favorite show.  my cousins and i loved this show so much that we would "play V" every chance we got.  we knew all the lines and would reenact every scene, it was awesome.  when this was airing, i was only 8 years old and to see skin peeling away to expose lizard scales is some scary shit for an 8 year old; i can't believe my parents let me watch this!  oh, that's right, we were left to our own devices because our parents were playing mahjong.

 

21 Jump Street.  seriously, how hot was johnny depp in this show?  damn, to this day he's still all kinds of sexy.  i only watched this show for officer tom hanson

 

Dynasty.  my mom was obsessed with this show.  it was the only english show she watched and she would send us to our rooms when this was on.  i remember it aired at 9pm and we would sneak out of our bedrooms and watch it peeking from behind the couch.  my mom would let us watch V but not dynasty.  

 

Knight Rider!  me and my sister LOVED michael knight and we thought kitt was the awesomest car ever.  we were so obsessed with him that we called up every "michael knight" in the TORONTO PHONE BOOK asking  "is this was the michael knight with the cool car kitt because we love him".  isn't that called harassement? 

 

Who's the Boss.  i'll let you in on a little secret:  i had a crush on tony.  i also tried to copy sam's fashion sense (which turned out to be a disaster in real life)

 

The Cosby Show was all kinds of hilarious.  it was the best when it was only this cast and when they started bringing in other characters like olivia, martin and pam, i stopped watching it.  the best episode was when denise tried to make theo a gordon gartrell shirt hahahaha!  "no 14 year old boy should have a $95 shirt unless he's on stage with is 4 brothers!"  

 

Family Ties.  one of my fav episode was when mallory followed alex to princeton, she caught her boyfriend, jeff, with another girl and she was a blubbering mess during his interview.  although alex was annoyed with mallory ruining his chances of getting into princeton, he cancelled the interview to take care of her. 

 

monday favorites: gucci bags

 

when i was a kid, i never understood why my mom had a huge collection of bags.  the words she spoke many years ago were this:  when you grow older and you become interested in fashion, you'll understand.

well, i'm older and i definitely understand.

i'll admit this blasphemy and state that i used to hate the gucci pattern *gasp! shock!*.  when i was young and immature and unknowing about things that are all kinds of awesome, i thought it was gaudy and old-woman like. 

my, how times have changed because i love gucci with a capital L.  i'm careful about the styles i choose but if i find a bag that i love, there's very little that can prevent me from buying it.  i'll cheap out on clothes and shoes but when it comes to gucci bags, i spare no expense.  i've been known to rock a gucci dressed in yoga pants, a ratty top and crocs.  in public.  at the mall.  i figure if i have my gucci, nothing else matters; i could be wearing a potato sac and still look fabulous because gucci is the redeeming factor in my otherwise frumpy outfit.

 

what designer bag do you love?

monday favorites: gadgets

 

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i wouldn't say i'm your typical girl.  while i'm a tad into girly stuff, i don't really follow fashion all that much, my makeup/get ready routine is about 10 minutes tops,  i never do my hair, i never accessorize and i don't like chick-lit or sappy movies. hell, it was only last month that i bought my first hair brush.  and no, i'm not a savage.

what i do love are gadgets.  anything that clicks, beeps, lights up, makes noise and does stuff gives me a total geek boner.  if i can somehow hack into it, all the better.  i remember when i got my samsung blade many years ago - which was an great non-smart phone at the time - i sat for hours molesting it; playing with it, programming my contact list, discovering what it could do and just basking in the awesomeness of the phone.   when i discovered that i couldn't use the super mario brothers theme song as one of my ring tones and realized my carrier expected me to pay for ring tones - blasphemy! - i thought oh hell to the no.  there's gotta be some way to hack into this thing.  and i did.  it took me many hours and a few late nights for me to discover that if i converted my mp3s into video file format, transfer them to my phone in mass storage mode, i would be able to use them as ring tones.  suck on that, bell canada! i even learned some basic music editing techniques to glue snippets of a song or songs together if i wanted something specific for a ringtone. you may hi-five me now.

old technology is at the top of my List of Irritating Things besides bad drivers and stupid people.  like right now, i'm hating my blackberry playbook.  since RIM's last software update, my iMac can't recognize the device.  it's why i ditched my blackberry bold and went with HTC android and it was giving me all sorts of bullshit trouble.  RIM, you are really disappointing me these days.... but that's another post for another day.

what are some of your favorite gadgets?

monday favorites: 80s movies

 

the younger generation missed out on some totally awesome 80s movies.  it's sad when i reference  top movies like aliens, the goonies or back to the future only to get a reaction of blank stares.  hmph.

cheesy graphics, crazy hair cuts, loud fashion.  what's not to love?

 

beverly hills cop - axl foley and the gang 

 

i don't know anyone who doesn't love the goonies.  if you are one of those non-lovers, please go away because i can't relate to non-gooney lovers

 

can't buy me love - the movie that put patrick dempsey on the map.  look at those glasses and the hair. 80s at its best. heh

 

every girl dreamed of landing a hot senior like jake ryan. 

 

pretty in pink - ducky!

 

don't pretend you didn't love this movie too

 

'nuff said

 

YUM.  i loved harrison ford as Indiana Jones

  michael j. fox wasn't my heartthrob but the delorian was all kinds of awesome

 

 

one of tom cruise's best movies.  also, men in uniform are so hot

 

the breakfast club - one of my absolute favorites.  john bender was the best badass

 

cheesy now, but hella scary back then

 

tango and cash.  even as a kid, i loved action movies

 

there are so many more great 80s movies... what are some of your favs?

monday favorites: action movies

 

as mentioned in a previous monday favorites post, i'm not your typical girl; aside from not knowing all that much about fashion and it's rare that i come across and watch a chick flick/romantic comedy that i like.  unless it's a movie from the 80s or anything by john hughes.  those movies are awesome. 

i get the most enjoyment out of action-packed films; anything with guns, bombs, john mclean, aliens, car chases, code-craking or covert-op ass-kicking is the best.  below are some of my favorite movies.  oh, and die hard rules all. 

 

while alien was a great movie, aliens was even better.  ripley kicked some serious alien ass.

 

really, anything with brad pitt is watchable; maybe not for the plot but definintely for the eye candy.  i  really liked this movie - guns and explosions galore.

 

arnold in one of his best movies where you could actually understand what he was saying.  tom arnold and bill paxton were hilarious in this movie.

 

 

both bad boys movies were amazing.  "everybody, everybody, everybody wants to be like miiiike!"
 

 

ok, i admit i only wanted to watch this movie because bruce willis was in it and i was hoping his role would be similar to john mcclean.    and it was.  lots of shooting, old people kicking ass and john malkovich. 

 

T2 judgement day

 

only one of the best movies ever

 what are some of your fav action movies?

monday favorites: the blogosphere

i thought i'd start a new blog series called monday favorites where i write about something i love.  when i had my wordpress blog, i had a lot of good blog series....perhaps i'll revive some of them because they were pretty fun to write.

today's monday favorites post:  my love of the blogosphere.

 
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i love blogging; i could spend hours fixing up my site, thinking about things to write and organizing this blog just the way i like it.   i've gotten better at image manipulation and html coding over the years but that's simply from a mild form of OCD that often plagues me when i have to figure out how to do something.  when i didn't want to pony up the cash for someone to design my blog, i taught myself how to use photoshop (or at least the main elements) so that i could cut my own images.  when i didn't want to bug my developer friends for custom code, i searched and scoured  the internet for snippets of code that i glued together so that i could customize my social media icons or images and be able to place them in a specific area of my blog.  i taught myself all about digital scrapbooking so that i could make my own custom banners and while my work is a hack job at best, it's something i'm proud of because i did all on my own. 

my love for blogging started back in 2003 when i called it 'my online journal' and livejournal was the platform that ruled my small blogging world.  i've since taken several platforms for a test drive - blogger, tumblr, wordpress - and landed on typepad when i decided to launch my parenting site back in 2009.  at first, typepad was a little hard to get used to; it required some coding knowledge for small customizations; coding that i hadn't done since i left college but with patience and determination, i practiced this craft and while i'm not an expert, i'm not that bad either.

i blog whenever i can - at work (shhh!), after kayla goes to bed or whenever the inspiration strikes.  i email myself blog ideas or topics, i take pictures for my posts and i'm always thinking about series to create, like this one. 

reading and interacting with (new) blogs is also something i love doing.  i used to be a quiet lurker - reading but never commenting - but i've turned a new leaf and often interact with the blogs i follow.  stepping out of my blogging shell has allowed me to get to know some great fellow bloggers and i love reading what they write. 

 

are you a blogger?  what do you love about the blogosphere?

oh, and if you want to start this series on your own blog, go right ahead but please let me a comment with a link to your blog so i can read about your favorites!