*Test* *Test*

I’m trying out the mouse and keyboard again because I’m watching some TV series on Netflix with my mom. She got a phone call, so we had to put the show on pause and I figured I’d make a "quick post".

With all the TV news watching I’ve been doing lately, I’ve noticed one thing stays the same: Everyone is reporting from their homes and they all have the little white headphones in their ears. You know it’s not some generic white earbud, but the kind that is synonymous with a specific fruit brand (my friend Tay calls this brand “fruit”... much like he calls my phone the “expensive fruit phone”).

Now is the time for other brands to boost their game up for the wireless smart devices. Bose is awesome for smooth playing around the house while JBL is that thumper for the late night club stuff. Beats is becoming the runner up for the welcome mediator on combining clear sound with bass turns when you need it.

Name brands are name brands. Panasonic, Sony, Toshiba, all slowly stepping away and no longer becoming “the big names” to compete with the aforementioned public radio inducing, wine drinking, stay at home and listen to hot jazz, Bose. Outside of that, there’s the “once under the radar, now becoming the new contender in headphones”..  Skull Candy .

I’m finding a lot of people mentioning this brand when they research headphones. I did too, when I was researching new in-ear cans. I saw some average reviews for the in-ears but the actual headband headphones were good. I didn’t get the clunky rock star monitor looking ones, as I’ve got a weird feeling about them. I’ve gotten used to the in-ear ones, once I switched from normal over the ear headphones. Doesn’t matter the brand - they look clunky - the wide kind that would go in your ear. I like the stream line look of the EarPods, but can’t afford the Apple price tag.

Even when I’ve tried several off market versions (less than $30), I broke one pair because the charging case was junky. Another pair had the little speaker fall off. All pairs sounded tinny, and when I made phone calls, people either said I had marbles in my mouth or they couldn’t hear me all together. The pair I have now (JBUDS) are good - they're holding up and riding steady. I've been using them for well over a month now and I've charged the case completely all of two times.. even though the past 2 weeks or so, I've not been using them as much as I intended when first purchased. I'll probably get more use out of them now that I'm away from a phone line and doing more all-campus work at my job. So for now, the $70 has been worth the price of admission. And that's also saying how people say they can hear me clearly when I speak. So the microphone pick up is pretty good and the hearing is quality as well. I've still got to figure out the tap situation on them - one on one side = one thing, 2 on the other is something else. It's confusing but I'll learn.

But yeah.. back to topic of discussion: Apple is getting big bucks, I reckon, for all these shows to be using their white EarPods even though you can't see the name on them. We all heard the news back in the day, when the iPhone was new, how people were getting jumped over the phone... all because the white cord was a giveaway for something expensive. Now I'm willing to bet anything these white, bluetooth, wireless, in ear cans, are someone's new cash cow. All the competitors should be learning from the talking pictures right now and step their game up... come up with amazing in ear headphones and make the fruit brand have a run for their money.

Until then.... enjoy the music.



Cheers;

"Just shoots and ladders and this is the kiss"

American anna fantasticalsation

From nowhere to nothing

And I go way back

David Bowie. If You Can See Me. The Next Day. 2013

I haven't posted any pictures in a while, and I thought I'd throw one on here today, even though it's not holiday related. Happy Easter, to those celebrating, by the way.

The picture always makes me chuckle a little bit because it's one of those tin foil American flag stickers that you get with some materialistically small yet big mailing from any "American Made" company. I've gotten so many of these stickers over the years, I can donate them to the Military. But someone in my community had the bright idea to slap it on the bank of mailboxes. And it happens to be the bank where my unit is.

Every time I see it shine, I laugh and I shake my head... these mailboxes were re-painted several years ago, and the board members made it a point to threaten people that we aren't allowed to tape things to the sides anymore, so the paint wouldn't get ruined. Well, it didn't even last a month, as the board was using all sorts of tape and posting agenda flyers everywhere. So paint got ripped off. People started putting other information on the boxes. Now we have an American Flag. Too bad it doesn't cover the whole box. Maybe they need a different decal?

I'm been trying different protein powders over the past couple years. I don't eat breakfast, per se, as I'm never hungry in the morning. I quite literally have to wake up feeling like I've not eaten in days- kind of starving, in order to eat any type of food. That's not to say I can't have my coffee or any other liquid. I'm just not ready to eat a meal.

So in place of that, I've tried the Protein Powder with Vitamin C by Nature's Bounty Optimal Solutions, which on Amazon right now is a damn good price at $8.49. I was originally buying it at "buy one, get one" in the local retailers for $17 and change. Then the price went up to $19.79 and I begrudgingly bought them at the BOGO rate. I stopped at one point because I felt like I needed a break. It was getting too much and I wasn't as active as I was when I started taking it.

When I used it, I was mixing it with milk and ice in the blender. Sometimes coconut water. Other times I substituted frozen fruit for the ice. The vanilla is a lot less "in your face" taste of vanilla than the chocolate is. It's calm enough that you can mix it with the frozen fruit and recognize whatever fruit you put in. The chocolate was a little heavier and it made the fruit taste like you dipped it in the melted bits. Maybe it's because I'm not a huge chocolate fan to begin with, so I have a slight negative thought about it, but I even tried the more expensive (yet plant based, allegedly) decadent chocolate version, and felt the same way. It's just too much chocolate.

Soon after I stopped using this powder, I had printed a coupon for the Emergen-C Protein Powder Fuel & Superfoods mix. I had gotten the small bag at Walmart (because they made some contract with the brand to be the only carrier of the half pounder). It was pretty interesting. As the only flavor in stock was mixed berry, I thought I'd give it a shot... only because I'm using the Emergen-C vitamin C packets, so why not try something else they make? Maybe it will help keep the grossness / sickies away.

Mixed with coconut water, I found that there's a strong darker berry flavor to the Mixed Berry, and it's also a bit on the super tartly sweet side. I still made it through the bag and ended up getting another coupon. I tried the Pomegranate Mango.

The Pomegranate Mango seems to be a little thicker when blending. It's sweet tasting but doesn't feel as cavity inducing as the Mixed Berry. Again, I'm putting in coconut water.

I've also substituted the ice for Dole Fruit & Veggie Blend that is in the frozen aisle at the super market. There's something about those bags of blends, that throw off the superfood mix. I found that it tasted horrible and there was something conflicting. I couldn't wait to use up the blend bags and go back to ice.

Now I'm on Fit For Life Active Essentials Nutritional Powder because it was clearanced out at one of the big box stores I went to. I started it the other day and am finding that for a vanilla flavored powder, it's got an underlying medicinal taste to it. It tastes like a sterile vanilla. I can't wait to finish it... not throwing it out - going to bide my time with it and continue using it til its gone.

I changed job roles at work, so I'm starting to get out a little more during the day, so I figure "why not" start up these other powders again? Help get me motivated to continue to get out.*shrugs*

With all this blending stuff, I know some of the powders say you don't need to blend - just use a shaker... because they don't expect you to use ice, I guess. But I'm greedy and I want ice. So at first I was using a very outdated Black + Decker blender, of which you can't find at the moment. We have had this thing for ever. The problem with it, is it's just too damn big to leave on the counter every day. It's a work horse, but it's clunky.

Out comes the Bella mini blender. It's a single serve knock off of some of the big brand baby work horses. This thing works okay - it gets the job done, but I am finding it starts giving off a burning smell from the motor real quick, if you're trying to make sure all the ice is blended in. Plus, it can't be left unattended for more than 2 seconds - you have to hold it down and keep it held while blending. Otherwise it looses the cap and you get whatever is inside, leaking outwards. Again, it gets the job done, but it's not something where I'd be using it for every single cooking venture I need. It is small though... I give it that. In the end, it works.


I guess that's it for now. The tech I got in my last posts are still working and I'm happy about that. I've also entered myself into yet another contest. I'm signed up to win the grand prize of $250 at Tropical Smoothie Cafe. Here's my referral link if anyone else is interested in trying their luck (and has a store near them).

Cheers;

Video Post #4

I am trying... yet again... try make a test post for this video blog. If the videos are not going to work, I am not going to post this. So until I can edit the videos, side by side, this post will remain “Save as draft”.

I entered a contest the other day. It’s for a company called “Crave” or something like that. It’s to win a free Kindle and if I refer people, I get more entries to win. I’ll be posting that referral link in this post too.

But for now, here is my video... hopefully.

I’m not going to do fancy editing, in hope I can just edit it together as one and not worry about getting it perfect. This is a test and i hope it won’t a horrible test.

Keyboard = Apple magic keyboard.
Mouse = Logitech M535
Cameras:
• Canon Rebel EOS T3 recording my iPhone
• Canon Rebel EOS T7i recording my keystrokes.
Tripods:
* Amazonbasics for my T3
• Targus for my T7i
* Vanguard table top for the iPhone
* Ailun mount for the iPhone.

I know you can see the table top legs in the keyboard video.

Background is also the Amazonbasics.

Fingers crossed.


Cheers;

Edited:
It didn't totally sync together, but you get the idea of how the mouse is working with the keyboard on the phone. It's my first video with a side by side picture, so please excuse all the noise / blurriness / shakiness / ineptitude of generic editing.

The Kindle contest I'm trying to enter is from a site called CraveReads. My referral link is here. So I think for every person that enters to win a new Kindle, I get extra giveaway entries. CraveRead stumbled in my inbox last week, as it's like BookBub - free and discounted eBooks for your eReader. Some of the discounted books are pretty good prices, and sometimes, you can't beat free either. The books I've come across aren't knock offs either... some of the $5 or less books are best sellers.

I went back in and linked to Amazon for all the breakdown stuff (cameras, tripods, etc).