Currently listening to:dancing in the moonlight by toploader
Status:excited

So we kind of wanted another sibling but mom and dad refused point blank to have another one and my sisters and i are not married, also, given our christian upbringing, will not engage in premarital methods to procure another family member. There is also the fact that my sisters are 12 and 16 respectively.

The only solution left, friends, is to adopt.

ladies and gentlemen introducing the latest member of our family

ISNT SHE ADORABLE?

We paid the deposit today for Cat, she’s a one month old Siamese kitten so she has to stay with MamaCat till next month, when we’ll collect her. We’ve wanted a cat for the longest time so everyone is really excited about this!

Name wise, I’m very taken by the notion of Athena, Greek goddess of wisdom as per suggested by XQ, or Artemis, Goddess of the hunt. SO, FITTING. The sisters object though, apparently its too atas (but this is a purebred cat what do you mean ‘too’ atas it IS an atas cat). Baby wants to name it… Poufy.

I have a game plan though. If they name it Poufy, completely unbefitting of a queen, really, I’m just going to keep calling it Athena until it only responds to that name. HA! Diabolical. It’s fail proof.

Moving on, for all the Windows phone users out there, my restless app downloading spree has uncovered a few gems you guys need to PIN TO START right now.

FOUR MUST HAVE APPLICATIONS FOR THE WINDOWS LUMIA PHONE (non inclusive of ‘duh’ apps like Facebook and twitter and whatsapp)

1. Mixtapes
I DO NOT KNOW how i survived without this before hand. Ok i do, i survived on the same music for months on end. Tragic. Mixtapes is powered by 8tracks, and you start out by browsing playlists and choosing one/searching for a song, and then it automatically pulls other playlists created by 8tracks users based on the premise of your projected music taste. The first random playlist i was allocated turned out GREAT and I LOVED IT. It’s called Songs That Will Make You Smile which doesn’t do much in the way of phrasing but i guess theres no disputing the intent of the playlist. You may access it here.

2. Thumba Photo Editor
Ive tried a bunch of photo editing applications including free ones Pictomaphone (lovely), flim! (easy to use, instagram style) and bubblegum (also something like instagram), but the best by far was the Thumba Photo Editor. It costs about 1.99 which is WAY worth it, for an app that does the basics (resize, crop, rotate, watermarking, polaroid effects) and image adjustments (auto contrasting, hue and saturation editing, sharpening, shadows and highlights, posterize, noise removal) and filters (colour filtering, color selection, cross processing, glow, HDR, lens flare, a bunch of lomo effects, retro, tilt shift, different kinds of film simulations, etc) and lastly, effects (diffuse, invert colors, oil paint, old photo, silent movie, watercolor and so on). Apparently there are over 70 adjustments and effects, and it’s really amazing.

For those of you who refuse to spend any money on apps, the pictomaphone app has proved to be the most comprehensive free photo editor for me so far.

3. Evernote
This really depends on the individual, but I’m a self confessed evernote addict. it’s the most awesome GET YOUR LIFE TOGETHER app ever- a journal sort of application on my macbook which subdivides into different notebooks. I have one for each subject because i hate taking notes on microsoft word, it gets so messy when you want to save each topic individually and there are windows EVERYWHERE. The best thing is- it syncs across all your electronics with evernote installed, for me, the iPad and blackberry. The evernote app for Windows completely pwnz the other two though, its so clean cut and gorgeous. SUCH A JOY TO USE. Everyone needs to install this. Its available on nearly all platforms. Yes this is me obnoxiously imposing my own views onto you. INSTALL IT NOW.

4. Weave/ Pulse
Both are pretty good news reader/RSS feed apps. Sort of the mobile equivalent of Flipboard for iPad which i love (everyone with an iPad should definitely download Flipboard, it turns your news feeds into a beautiful digital magazine. I have Gizmodo, Mashable, Harvard Business Review, the New Yorker, Harpers Bazaar and a bunch of other tech + fashion + news feeds on my flipboard and i CANNOT go two days without reading it.)

By the way guys, those of you with lumias- Nokia is giving away $25 worth of marketplace apps till the end of january. Go to www.appmylumia.com to figure out how to redeem yours. Also this effectively removes all excuses for not downloading Thumba. Possibly also, Assassin’s Creed.

And yes you are welcome.

My posts are getting increasingly wordy these days, aren’t they? I find myself unnecessarily vocal in the cyber evenings. I’m not sure if this is a good or bad thing.

x
♥jem