three sisters book reviews: Review: Hubris by P. A. Wilson

three sisters book reviews: Review: Hubris by P. A. Wilson: Hubris (A Charity Deacon Investigation) By P.A. Wilson ★★★★★ I love mysteries, thrillers, suspense; give me anything with a dead body an...

three sisters book reviews: Book Review: Particle Horizon by Selso Xisto

three sisters book reviews: Book Review: Particle Horizon by Selso Xisto:   Particle Horizon by Selso Xisto ★★★★★ Let me start out by saying right off the bat that I don’t read a lot of Sci-fi, and when I do ...

I've rhythm, I've got (in)sole.

I signed up for the Dr. Scholl's For Her™ BzzCampaign via BzzAgent a few weeks ago, and got my BzzKit over the weekend.  It contained a pair of High Heel insoles and some coupons for that product. Excited to try the insoles, I debated at first which pair of shoes to put them in but in the end I decided on my daily heels, the ones I wear 9 hours a day at work. These aren't uncomfortable shoes, but I figured the insoles would make them really comfy.

I was wrong.

Excitedly I put the insoles in on Monday morning, I struggled with them a bit, my shoes are strappy and the insole kept sticking to the straps, but I eventually got them in and straight.

I slipped my feet in and noticed the straps were a bit tight, but they loosened up quickly. I didn't notice any added cushioning in the heel or toe, in fact my shoes didn't feel any different aside from one thing.

The arch support.

It was uncomfortable, wasn't so much a cushion as a bump, a bump that pressed into the arch of my foot.

Maybe I just have weird arches, I thought, or maybe I just need to get used them. I decided I would give myself a few days to get used to them.

I never got used to them.

Sadly these insoles made my heels worse than they'd been without the insoles. After 2 days of wearing them I couldn't take the discomfort of the arch support anymore and removed the insoles, but prior to giving up on these I switched heels just to see if maybe it was the shoe itself, no such luck, it looks like no matter the heel height or shape these insoles just dig into the arch of my foot.

So its not the shoes.

It might be my feet. I'm not going to describe my feet to you, but I have had odd issues with shoes before, so it might be my feet. In fact I am leaning toward that theory because I've talked to women who LOVE these insoles, so I think its just me.

This is one of those products that is impossible to give a catch all review for, everyone's feet are different, for me it is far more uncomfortable for me to have a something in the arch of my foot than it is for me to walk on the ball of my foot. However you could be the opposite.

Dr. Scholl's is a well known and respected company for foot care products, and sure, even great companies can have a bad product, but I really think its just my feet and the way I walk, not the insoles themselves.

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It may not be a smartphone, but it's not dumb

Samsung Brightside For Verizon 4 of 5 Stars.

• Simultaneous QWERTY and Touch Screen Input 
• Integrated Social Networking 
• One-touch Shortcut Keys 
• 3.2 Megapixel Rear-facing Camera and Camcorder 

Today I'm going to introduce you to my new phone, the Samsung Brightside for Verizon, I've had it for about 3 weeks now, and I was well over due for an upgrade, it wasn't exactly that there was anything wrong with the LG Env3 that I'd had for the last few years, (sure it has issues with randomly shutting off, but it wasn't bad) I just wanted a new phone.

Really I wanted a smartphone.

But that data plan, whew, I simply cannot afford to upgrade my entire household (an extra $100 a month all told) nor could I really upgrade my own and no one else's, you see the quandry? It became apparent as I shopped around that:

1. "Basic" phones are really basic
2.  Some of them are rather expensive for the lack of features they have
3. There aren't a lot of "basic" or "feature" phones available
4. The ones that are available are often missing a key feature I want
5. A noticeable lack of QWERTY keyboards

I went first to Verizon, thinking that they'd sent me enough emails to upgrade that there should be some options, and there were, if I was getting a smartphone. Their basic and feature phones were not only mostly out of stock but, well, see the list above.

I next went to Amazon, its my favorite shopping site, and I figured that even if I didn't buy from there I'd at least get a more extensive list, I ran into the same five problems on Amazon that I had at Verizon, however two of the phones that had fallen under problem #2 at Verizon were decidedly more affordable at Amazon.
After a few more days of research on these two phones, (really, I research electronics to death before I purchase them), I decided to go ahead and get the Samsung Brightside.

The reviews I'd read prior to the purchase had been mixed, mostly though the biggest gripe seemed to be a lack of ability to customize the main menu which personally isn't a big deal.  I did also notice a few reviews that griped about the speed and Internet accessibility of the Brightside but that was in comparison to a smartphone, and really comparing a feature phone to a smartphone is almost apples and oranges, it goes without saying that they're different and you shouldn't expect your feature phone to act like a smartphone.

That being said. I mostly love this phone, it has a few drawbacks but is there really a "perfect" phone?

First off there is the lack of inability customization to the main menu that I mentioned, again this is not a huge problem for me, but I like the color green, if you don't like green or orange I'd stay away from this phone because what you see in the picture is pretty much what you get.

 The touchscreen is very responsive, (almost too responsive as I've called my voice-mail a few times by accident), I expect that some of the sensitivity will diminish once I get a screen protector for it, but normally a light and quick tap is all I need to access features.  Occasionally I do have to double tap a key but these incidents are few, and I tend to attribute them to either not making a good enough contact with the key or, cold thumbs.

The keyboard is great for the most part, I love that the keys are slightly upraised, and that the touch screen is still active when the keyboard is in use, the keyboard is a full featured keyboard, there are 36 alpha-numeric-symbol keys, normal right? eeeh, kind of, but the Brightside adds some extras, press the Fn key and G and you get .com, A and S get you ¡ and ¿ respectively, as well as a few more symbols that you don't normally find on a keyboard, this is mostly cool, but as its a different set up than my old phone, and I'm still not used to it, well, I've had some odd typos.

Speaking of typos, there is one big issue with this phone, which doesn't bother me, but it is something to take into consideration. There is a glitch that causes the phone to freeze when you try to activate predictive text. Again, not a deal killer for me, I don't care for predictive text, I know I'd eventually end up on damnyouautocorrect if I had it, but for some people it is a must have. If it is for you I'm going to say right now you shouldn't get this phone.

The Brightside runs Opera mini, which is much fast than the browser on my previous phone, and it renders web pages a lot better than the Env3 did.

The camera is great, the quality is a lot better than my old phone and the shape and feel of the Brightside along with the placement of the camera key makes taking pictures a snap. There is also a camcorder feature that I haven't used yet, but if the sound quality of my ringtones and the image quality of the pictures are any indication then I'd assume the camcorder to be perfect for short videos of kids or pets.

This phone really can't be beat if you want more features than basic calling and texting but don't want to fork out the money for a data plan, I am very satisfied with it, I can surf, update my social sites, and even chat with friends and family via a IM app. I can't imagine a better feature phone.

I give it four stars over all, the only thing keeping it from that fifth star is the fact that its customizations are limited, and that predictive text glitch.  Even though these issues don't bother me, they are still issues, and I have to take them into consideration.

But all in all I would and do recommend this phone to anyone who doesn't want all the bells and whistles (and price) of a smartphone, but still wants to be able to access email and social networks.

three sisters book reviews: Review: Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini

three sisters book reviews: Review: Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini: I don’t often read Young Adult novels, in fact, I think that prior to Starcrossed, the last YA series I read was Harry Potter and that wa...

Switching things up.

I've got two of the greatest friends in the world, we've been through a lot of drama together, and a lot of ups and downs but out of everyone I know, these two women are not only my dearest friends, but they are the closest thing I have to sisters.

Obviously we must have a lot of things in common, but the biggest thing we have is our love of books, (in fact it was the mutual love of a book series that brought us together to begin with.) Though all three of us have various blogs, both of the personal and the review genres, we've decided to collaborate together on a book review blog.

So as of today, my book reviews, and literature related posts will be located at Three Sisters Book Reviews Now of course, I will be linking those posts here just to let you all know when one is up, but there shall be no more book reviews here, but there will be plenty of other things to keep you informed and hopefully entertained.

I hope you'll join me over there.

Its Ok To Be A Quitter.

I've made a lot of goals for myself this year, some of them are a lot more attainable than others, some I've already reached and one in particular I'm still struggling with but I've made some really good strides toward.
I'm talking of course about my goal to quit smoking, you may recall the review I wrote on Voxiva's Text2Quit program, which is a very helpful program; unfortunately, I - much like anyone else who has been smoking for a long time - needed more than just one quit aid.

My second step in my goal to quit was reading Allen Carr's "The Easy Way To Quit", now, I'm not a fan of self-help books for a number of reasons, and though this book did at times reinforce a lot of the reasons I dislike the genre it was/is an invaluble tool for those who want to quit smoking. The book goes into at depth the brainwashing and social conditioning we experience as smokers, the reasons we smoke, and the way to begin to change your thinking in regards to smoking and quitting.

My third step was joining the "Ex Community", this site was by far the most welcoming and supportive of the sites that I came across, its kind of like a Facebook or Myspace for ex-smokers and those who are becoming exes. At the "Ex Community" you can make friends, earn badges, comment to others, post your own blog entries, and post things on your wall or on the walls of your friends. Its a fun and positive environment, full of very supportive folks.

My fourth and final step has been the NicoDerm patch. This has been the most effective for me, at least when I remember to put it on, I truly don't want a cigarette if I'm wearing the patch. There were few drawbacks with the patch, the only ones I experienced were slight levels of twitching (like I've had too much caffeine), itchiness were the patch is, and weird dreams if I happened to leave the patch on overnight (only did that once). I have had the patch catch on clothing and it does not stand up to the temps I like to shower at, other than that I've had no issues aside from remembering to put them on.

I've had a fair amount of success with a combination of these sites and products, I had even managed to completely quit for nearly 3 weeks. Sadly I've suffered a recent slip, and am smoking again. Thankfully its not a full slip, I haven't had more than 3 cigarettes in any one day, and as of today, I'm back to 0 and wearing the patch again.

Its not a quick process, to quit, and I know this, but I'm taking it seriously, its something I desire, and something I will do. I know that each time I slip and give in to smoking, I learn more about my personal reasons for smoking, besides just the addiction to nicotine. It becomes easier to not have a cig when I can rationalize why I want one.

My suggestion for those trying to quit would be to first join the Ex Community and then get yourself a copy of Allen Carr's "The Easy Way To Quit". NTRs are helpful, but not necessary. For me, between the book and the community, a lot of the fear and reluctance that many smokers experience when contemplating quitting, literally disappeared in a puff of smoke, the patch just soothes the cravings which really aren't as bad as they are often implied to be.

Interupted Thoughts.

Its been hard to find time to blog recently, among the normal ebb and flow of my daily life, spring is fully here now and I always feel a little scattered in spring, (I blame it on allergies) but I think I've shaken off the last of my histamine haze and I should have a bit of extra time this week. I've not yet managed to make a meal with the olive oil I last blogged about, but to be fair we haven't been doing a lot of cooking. I will though, hopefully this week. I've got both the Kindle Fire, and the Samsung Brightside to tell you about, as well as a pair of earbuds that may be the best $10 I've ever spent. Not to mention I still want to tell you all how I quit smoking, and I've even got a couple of books to tell you about. Guess I better get to it eh? Stay tuned. I'll be right back.