Tuesday, August 19, 2014

I'm A Smart-Phone Virgin

Sunday afternoon, I went to Verizon and came home with this:




Exciting, right? 

I was like a kid trying to choose a piece of candy as hubby and I browsed all the techy gadgets. Since neither of us have upgraded our phones since 2003--(We both had flip phones which we both loved.) I figured they should have given us 5 free phones, but let's not get into that. We decided to be frugal and choose a model that was free to upgrade. The Droid Mini. It's not really 'mini,' but it's smaller than the 'Ultra.' Whatever.  

Choosing from the 'Free phone' counter is almost like an arranged marriage. Verizon is like a matchmaker who chooses a model for you. You either learn to love it, pay the cancellation fee (which is cheaper than a real divorce,) or you live in misery until the two years are over. In any case, hubby and I are still in the wedding-night stage with our phones. 

Anywho, I immediately downloaded VZ Navigation (for a $4.99/month charge, of course.) because when I'm driving alone, I can't find my way out of a wet paper bag. I like the turn-by-turn directions, and that my phone will talk to me as I drive. When I got home, my daughter informed me that Google Maps does the same thing. Oh well.

Then, I learned how to take photos. This phone takes really good photos, which will be great for my e-baying, sending Tweetpics and Facebook statuses. 

I downloaded Facebook and Twitter and set my morning alarm. I plugged my phone into the charger and plugged the charger into an electric strip by my nightstand. Unfortunately, I don't know how to shut off the alarm, because this morning, just as the song that took me about 10 minutes to choose, started playing, the phone shut down. Apparently, I had forgotten to turn the strip on. Not apparently--I just forgot. I should probably stay away from electronics.

Anyway, all day at work, the phone buzzed, booped, beeped, and vibrated, letting me know I had an e-mail, a Facebook notification, a Twitter mention, and texts. It drove me crazy. I tried to figure out how to turn off notification sounds. I'm still trying. 

In the meantime, I removed Facebook and Twitter until I can decipher it. Besides, I stumbled across all the things I was permitting Facebook to do with my phone. I wasn't too happy. Have you ever read those permissions on your phone? You should. I would've shared that with you, if I could have found it again. Sorry.

There's a long road ahead of me, figuring out this phone. It will probably take me another 11 years to love it. Do you think it'll last until 2025?


If not, I still have this one:

 just in case.


What kind of smart phone do you have? Are you in love or eagerly awaiting your next upgrade?

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Rest in Peace, Robin Williams

I was all ready to go with an already scheduled blog post, but I was so saddened by the news of Robin Williams' death that I had to write a new post.

The first time I saw Robin Williams was on Mork & Mindy.


Even though the show was goofy, he captured my heart.

He was a very talented actor, with or without his beard, and I enjoyed almost all of his movies. Some of my favorites were What Dreams May ComeThe BirdcageAwakenings, and of course, Mrs. Doubtfire.

His death is such a tragedy, and I don't know what else to say except that I hope his family can find peace.


Thank you, Robin Williams, for bringing me both laughter and tears, and for sharing your gift with us all. May you rest in peace.

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

100 Years, 100 Films, 100 Nights I Won't Write.

Recently, I stumbled across one of those time-sucking Facebook quizzes that asked a few irrelevant questions and then calculated how many more cats you should own. Or something like that. Anyway, one of the questions asked whether or not you watched every movie on the American Film Institute's 100 Years, 100 Movies. I had watched almost more than half of them, but most of them I'd seen more than 20 years ago. I thought it would be fun to watch them in order, starting with #100.

My daughter, Amanda, was on board with me and suggested we should write something about each movie. We entered the movies on my Netflix queue.
I rustled up an unused journal, (We have a few in my house.) and decorated the cover.


After watching the movie, we take turns jotting our thoughts into the journal--keeping the year of production in mind, we write a paragraph or two about how the movie made us feel, what we thought about the story, the acting, or the cinematography. Of course we each use different color pens, because that's how we roll.


So far, life has gotten in the way, along with SYTYCD and the new Starz Outlander series, so we've only watched 2-1/2 movies. I'm hoping to set aside 2 nights a week to catch up, which means that will be 100 nights that I'm not writing. But hey, I need to look at it as quality time with my daughter, right? We'll see how that goes...

Here's the 10th Anniversary list of AFI's 100 Years, 100 Movies:

#MOVIEYEAR
1CITIZEN KANE1941
2THE GODFATHER1972
3CASABLANCA1942
4RAGING BULL1980
5SINGIN' IN THE RAIN1952
6GONE WITH THE WIND1939
7LAWRENCE OF ARABIA1962
8SCHINDLER'S LIST1993
9VERTIGO1958
10THE WIZARD OF OZ1939
11CITY LIGHTS1931
12THE SEARCHERS1956
13STAR WARS1977
14PSYCHO1960
152001: A SPACE ODYSSEY1968
16SUNSET BLVD.1950
17THE GRADUATE1967
18THE GENERAL1927
19ON THE WATERFRONT1954
20IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE1946
21CHINATOWN1974
22SOME LIKE IT HOT1959
23THE GRAPES OF WRATH1940
24E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL1982
25TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD1962
26MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON1939
27HIGH NOON1952
28ALL ABOUT EVE1950
29DOUBLE INDEMNITY1944
30APOCALYPSE NOW1979
31THE MALTESE FALCON1941
32THE GODFATHER PART II1974
33ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST1975
34SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS1937
35ANNIE HALL1977
36THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI1957
37THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES1946
38THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE1948
39DR. STRANGELOVE1964
40THE SOUND OF MUSIC1965
41KING KONG1933
42BONNIE AND CLYDE1967
43MIDNIGHT COWBOY1969
44THE PHILADELPHIA STORY1940
45SHANE1953
46IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT1934
47A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE1951
48REAR WINDOW1954
49INTOLERANCE1916
50THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING2001
51WEST SIDE STORY1961
52TAXI DRIVER1976
53THE DEER HUNTER1978
54M*A*S*H1970
55NORTH BY NORTHWEST1959
56JAWS1975
57ROCKY1976
58THE GOLD RUSH1925
59NASHVILLE1975
60DUCK SOUP1933
61SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS1941
62AMERICAN GRAFFITI1973
63CABARET1972
64NETWORK1976
65THE AFRICAN QUEEN1951
66RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK1981
67WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?1966
68UNFORGIVEN1992
69TOOTSIE1982
70A CLOCKWORK ORANGE1971
71SAVING PRIVATE RYAN1998
72THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION1994
73BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID1969
74THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS1991
75IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT1967
76FORREST GUMP1994
77ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN1976
78MODERN TIMES1936
79THE WILD BUNCH1969
80THE APARTMENT1960
81SPARTACUS1960
82SUNRISE1927
83TITANIC1997
84EASY RIDER1969
85A NIGHT AT THE OPERA1935
86PLATOON1986
8712 ANGRY MEN1957
88BRINGING UP BABY1938
89THE SIXTH SENSE1999
90SWING TIME1936
91SOPHIE'S CHOICE1982
92GOODFELLAS1990
93THE FRENCH CONNECTION1971
94PULP FICTION1994
95THE LAST PICTURE SHOW1971
96DO THE RIGHT THING1989
97BLADE RUNNER1982
98YANKEE DOODLE DANDY1942
99TOY STORY1995
100BEN-HUR1959

How many have you seen?

Friday, August 1, 2014

Just For Laughs

Happy Friday! Here are a few giggles I found around the interwebs. Enjoy!


If Moses were alive today he’d come down from the mountain with the Ten Commandments and spend the next five years trying to get them published.
- Anonymous


The dubious privilege of a freelance writer is he’s given the freedom to starve anywhere. 

- S.J. Perelman



As far as I'm concerned, "whom" is a word that was invented to make everyone sound like a butler.
- Calvin Trillin





Writing is a socially acceptable form of getting naked in public.
- Paulo Coelho





How many mystery writers does it take to change a light bulb? 
Two. One to screw the bulb almost all the way in, and one to give a surprising twist at the end.