Category Archives: technology
I Should Be Writing (a new form of procrastination!)
So I’ve developed another method to avoiding all that I should be doing. It’s addictive. It’s amazing. It let’s you snag all your favorite things from around the net and organize them into cute little pin boards for your viewing pleasure. It lets you gather idea for the upcoming holidays, remodeling jobs, organization, fashion, or whatever else interests you.
What am I talking about? Why, Pinterest of course! You can see my profile here 
If I could figure out how to grab a screen shot of it, I’d post one here just to show you how Fab it is.
My little Mock-Up will have to do:
But I’m burning daylight here and I’ve got 1,235, 998 projects calling my name. Ciao’
Hurricane Reading – Sunwalker Saga, Steven King
Quickly, before we lose power again thanks to dear, sweet Hurricane Irene, I thought I’d give a quick rundown on my reading list. I’ve made great progress too, knocking 2 1/2 books off my To Be Read list.
I plowed through the first two books in the Sunwalker Saga by Shea MacLeod. The first book, Kissed By Darkness, had me from the first pages. I adored the main character Morgan. Quirky, quick-witted and seriously kick-ass, she’s my kind of girl. Through pop culture references and inventive twists on mythology, this was most certainly not just another vampire book. In fact, all the Vamps in this series are the old kind- the kind to fear, not swoon over. Ah, how refreshing! 5 stars, for sure!
The fun didn’t stop there as I moved to the second book, Kissed By Fire. I don’t want to give away any plot points because the uniqueness suffers if you know ahead of time, but I’ll just say that the author did another stellar job of mixing myths, history, and dynamic characters together to come up with a second novel that rivals the first in terms of quality and first-rate writing. Another Fab 5 stars!
In between charging my iPad to finish the second Sunwalker Saga book, I’ve had to revert back to dead-tree books to fill the hours sitting in semi-darkness. So I selected Full Dark, No Stars by Steven King. I had sampled it back on my Kindle app a few months ago, but never got around to purchasing it. Then, while bulking up on the prerequisite storm supplies (batteries, water, can good and Wine) I happened upon a paper copy in Wallyworld, marked down.
I’m only on the first story in Full Dark, No Stars but already King has skeeved me out (in a horrifically good way) so I’m sort of hoping the power goes back out so I can continue or maybe I’ll just flip the breaker and read on right now…
Mobile Multi-tasking for the creative lady
I’ll be the first to admit, life has gotten away from me before, but somehow the past few months have been complete chaos. Following a series of electronic malfunctions, I found a tiny answer to my prayers for organization.
Three days before Christmas my Kindle died. Of course it was too late to hope that Santa would bring me a replacement. I pined over the loss of my literary friend. I even tried to download the Kindle app to my mac laptop– but of course my operating system wasn’t new enough. Then the laptop itself died. Obviously I’d ticked off a toaster in a past life or something.
Without something to read on, and without my internet browsing ability I flopped around the house aimlessly. I couldn’t afford to replace both devices, and I was torn between what to get first. And then I had a brain storm- I’d get an ipad and have the functionality of both devices neatly rolled into one!
Now I can read at a moments notice and search till my hearts content. But that’s not all that my little ipad had helped me with. I can blog from it– which I’m doing right now. WordPress has a free ipad app, and while I am using it right now I will probably upgrade to one of the paid third party apps soon as the free version is pretty buggy.
As a busy working mother, keeping current on what’s happening in the world is hardly a priority. Then I downloaded the free Huffington Post ipad app, and it has quickly become one of my go-to daily apps. It’s chock full of current events, news stories, reviews, op-ed pieces and interesting slideshows.
As an avid reader, I’ve downloaded three apps, and I switch between them all willy-nilly. It’s my right as a woman to be fickle While the Kindle ipad app is the main one I use, I also have Apple’s iBook, and the Barnes and Noble Nook app.
To occupy my children during long waits at the doctor’s office, I’ve got a nifty white-board drawing app from Ms Oprah herself called SketchBook O. My children also love tickling the ivories on the virtual piano app Virtuoso.
Evernote, StoryTracker and Index Card are all terrific apps that I’m now using to organize my thoughts and to (hopefully) get my writing-butt back into gear.
Dropbox is another free app that has been a blessing for me, since it lets me sync files and folders between my ipad and my desktop computer. It has helped me out a lot with my photography business, and coupled with the great apps Easy Release (digital, email-able release contracts), Square (allows me to take credit cards right from my ipad or iphone!) and Paypal my workflow has become more fluid and productive.
Am I an ipad fan. Yes, and no. I’m not a fan because of the “brand” craze or snobbish peacocking. I am a fan because of all the helpful, organized, productive, and creative things that my ipad lets me do.
I’d love to hear about any other great apps you guys know of as well!
A Greener way to Read
I just put up a post over at my other blog One Quirky Gurl regarding my newest way to read, which is great for the environment, saves me tons of cash and gives me time to read instead of wasting my time driving to the bookstore or digging through the library for something, anything that I haven’t read yet. It’s the Kindle, and electronic reading device from Amazon.
Here’s a teaser from my blog:
I’m a self-proclaimed bibliophile. Of course, I don’t have to proclaim it, one just need to see my house– baskets, bookshelves and cardboard boxes full of box nestled in various corners of my humble abode speak volumes on my Literal addiction all on their own. And like any addiction, loving to read does have it’s down falls…Needless to say, I wasn’t surprised in the least when Oprah recently was quoted as saying how much she loved the Kindle device. But I had to smile, because I loved it first
Read more on my other blog
