Lovin' Bruno Mars

CC by Brothers Le

I have become obsessed with Bruno Mars. Embarrassingly so. I don't even recognize myself! I feel like a young teenager who isthisclose to putting his posters up on my wall and searching through the different celebrity addresses in Tiger Beat so I can write him fan mail. But no. Keep it cool, Me! You'd be one in a million who already do that.
No, but really, I'm not a groupie bitch. Never have been. Yeah, i get excited if I see anyone mildly famous, but that's only when I'm in their presence. Also, as my best friend kindly pointed out, I'm an "old bitch" and I need to quit. Not old - but too old for this behavior.
So what makes Bruno Mars so fascinating to me? For starters, I fell in love with his voice since I heard "Billionaire." Then I saw him. I was surprised to see that he bears a striking resemblance to my boyfriend.  They even have a similar style - which I appreciate. Ahhh, he's a version of my boyfriend who sings beautifully. Hot. No further questions, your honor.

What's Up with the Huge Pink Snails around Miami Beach?

A couple of days ago I started noticing some big, bold, magenta-colored snails placed in random spots around Miami Beach. I asked my boyfriend about them and he said maybe they had something to do with Art Basel. Maybe.

Then I asked my sister-in-law. She said "I don't know! But now that I hear you say "Pink Snails" out loud, I realize that I saw a sign that said Pinksnails.com and I thought 'What a weird name for a salon'." Jackpot!

Its called the REgeneration Art Project by the Cracking Art Group (an international art collective) and the Galleria Ca d'Oro in Rome. The project placed 45, enormous pink snails in Miami Beach, and they'll be here until January. The snail is used to symbolize nature and they are made up of recycled artificial material. The purpose is to make people question their meaning (of course) and start talking about them to one another. Ultimately, they'd find out the meaning of the snails and start thinking about the impact that recycling has on the environment. Then, hopefully, us residents of Miami Beach will become motivated to rebuild our city in a fun, animated way with consideration for our environment.

My Favorite Free Android Apps

CC by svet

Apps were invented to do all the things that make my life just a tad bit easier. They compare prices of a products at local stores for me, they download music, they organize my shopping lists and to-do lists...Also,  I don't believe in downloading apps that you have to pay for...so, it's my belief that the best apps are free. Following are my favorite, must-have apps.

Calorie Counter  - This app functions like a food journal. Enter your current weight, goal weight and other like information to get your recommended daily caloric intake. Then log your meals in the food journal. You can enter it by scanning the barcode or doing a search for that particular product (brand, size, etc.). It automatically fills in the nutritional value information and adds it to your day's calorie count.

Craigslist  (AKA Craigsnotifications) - Awesome app. Create saved searches and receive notifications every time a new posting is added. The end.

gReader - Read all the blogs you follow on Google Reader from your phone. It also can send you notifications when a blog post is added.

MusicBox  - Download Mp3s

Notes  - This is the app that allows you to write down and save information you want/need at a future time without scrambling for a pen and paper.

OI Shopping  - Create multiple shopping lists in this app and name them (grocery list, christmas list, etc.) Once you buy the item on your list, you simply tap the checkbox next to it to add a check mark.

PhoneFlicks - (For Netflix users) Update your queue, rate movies and do most things you can do on Netflix. Only thing I wish it did was let me what movies on Instant Play from my phone :(

Shazam  - Of course. Everyone with an iPhone or Android has to have Shazam. If you like the song playing on the radio, run Shazam to get the name of the song and the artist.

Sherpa  - I am not sure, but I think this app may be exclusive to MyTouch users. Search different categories of locations nearby (restaurants, gas stations, ATMs, etc). Selecting any of the venues listed on Sherpa normally returns options like Call, Directions, Reviews and more.

Shopper - Scans the cover of books, CDS, DVDs or barcodes and searches Google to locate the different online/nearby stores that sell the item and lists the prices. You may also search by name.

ShopSavvy  - Scans barcodes or searches by product name to find a list of nearby/online stores that sell the items and how much they sell them for. I'm not sure which is better of Shopper or ShopSavvy, so I'll keep both till I figure it out.

Taskos - Yay! One of my favorites, because I'm a to-do list LOSER. Keep all your to-do's in this list and check them off once they're completed.

Bill Maher is Stupid

CC by by Patrick McEvoy-Halston

Guess what? Bill Maher is fuckin retarded. Yes...retarded. And all of his audience members who blindly follow him and applaud every dumb thing he says are dumb as shit, too. Think for yourself.
It's not that I simply disagree with his opinions, because whether I disagree or not, I try to respect other people's opinions. And, anyways, I feel I relate more to liberals than conservatives. What I do not relate to, though, are people who belittle others with differing opinions; people who think they know everything there is to know about everything. Having that attitude makes you stupid - in my opinion, of course ;).
Bill Maher is not really open to hearing opposing arguments; "listening" to someone talk only to follow it up with a condescending response is not really listening with an open mind. He speaks with some sort of authority that originated in his own asshole. You should be more open to other people's opinions, because yours are no better than anyone else's - especially if you're just a dumb ass who makes a living off being an arrogant, hard-headed, ignorant shit.

My Big Friggin' Wedding - This is Quality TV

VH1 TV Shows | Music Videos | Celebrity Photos | News & Gossip

Uhhhh, ok so, this show might be "friggin" awesome. Unless they just gathered all the good part and put them together in this preview. It starts on Monday, November 1st at 9PM EST on VHI.

"My mom's f*&@in dead in the bush"

To Animal Lovers:

Photo from Freekibble.com

I came across this Freekibble site that is petitioning to make April 30th National Adopt a Shelter Pet Day. May not be a huge deal, but you don't have to do much to send the "letter" to President Obama. You just click on the little red box on the bottom right that says "Click Here to Email Our Letter to the President" and then you just type in your name, city and email address and submit! They want to get as many letters in as possible by September 30th.
To my best friend, Natalie: Wipe that disgusted look off your face. Animals are cute!

So. Hard. To Wake Up in the Morning

This boxer reminds me a lot of myself and how I feel in the mornings. Had to post it. Cuz me and him...we "right here" ::signaling eye-to-eye::

Great Deal Sites!!

CC by dMap Travel Guide

The last couple of months I've been able to purchase things I always wanted but could never afford. Why? Because of these local coupon/discount sites that offer popular products and services at super cheap prices. The trick is, you have to purchase the deal within the time frame they give you. Normally, it will last for about 24 hours. Each of these sites have multiple cities they cater to. Choose the city you want deals in and it will only send you deals relevant to that location. Sign up in any of these sites and receive daily deals in your email. So far, I've bought 3 power plate sessions for $60, an acupuncture session for $30, 5 yoga classes for like $25, mani/pedi at some swanky salon for $19 and other things. I HIGHLY recommend these sites. At least sign up to see what they have to offer you...if you don't want to buy any of the deal (which I really doubt is true), you don't have to.

Deal Sites

• Living Social 
• Couptessa 
• Groupon 

Do you have any favorites that I didn't mention?

Increase Your Chances of Finding a Lost Pet

I go wacky when I can't find one of my dogs for 1 minute (and he was on my bed, underneath my covers the whole time). I know I would be off the walls if I really, REALLY lost one. Aside from the basics that everyone knows (keep a tag on them, microchip them, check with the animal shelter, post lost dog signs, etc.) there are other things that you can do to increase your chances of finding your furbaby. I always feel so relieved when I hear about one of these stories ending happily, so here is me doing my piece to help make that happen for you.

• Animal Amber Alert - Using an animal amber alert at sites such as FindToto and Pet Amber Alert will send a personalized notification via telephone to all the homes and businesses in your area. Choose the number of people that you want alerted by choosing one of the plans (starting at $79.95 for 300 neighbors).
• Post it up on Facebook/Twitter - Make sure to post of picture!
• Newspaper - Check the Found section of the newspaper.

Did you ever find a lost pet of your own? If so, how did it happen?

Akinator, the Mind Reader

This is a little site that is just for fun. I won't normally talk/write about a site like this but I was kinda fascinated by this one. Its called Web Genius. Basically, think of a character (dead/alive, real/fake, human/animal). With this character in mind, answer some questions. The genie will guess who you're thinking about. If he doesn't guess correctly after 3 tries, you win. But the bastard guessed when I was thinking of Benny "The Jet" Rodriguez from the Sandlot on the first try! Pretty impressive.

Focusing on One Topic

So, I don't know if you've noticed but...my blog posts are kinda all over the place. When I started my blog, I couldn't decide on one subject so I decided to make my blog vague. This eventually began to annoy me. I finally decided no more of this bullshit! I did some summer cleaning. So here's how its gonna work, aight? I now have three blogs catering to three different topics:

Me So Vain - Make-up and Beauty
The Know - Life, sprinkled with a bit of animals, travel and....still pretty general
Miami Copywriter - Copywriting and Advertising

Now, you won't have to see things that are totally irrelevant to you.

Photo credit: CC by bitsandbobbins

Horoscopes are LIARS!

I would just like to say that horoscopes are bullshit. I always thought so but given the good news I was supposed to be expecting yesterday, I decided I would hope and believe and maybe it would be right this time. My horoscope (for Cancer) said that I was going to get some sort of increase in income yesterday in form of a new career venture (i.e. opening up my own company - which, by the way, I did 2 years ago). Being that I knew I would not be opening my own company yesterday, I decided that my income increase would come in the form a raise at my current job. Oh how I eagerly awaited to be called into the boss's office to be told the good news. Still waiting :/

Photo credits: CC by The Cleveland Kid

The Harsh Reality

I have no idea why anybody would sign up to do such a thing, but there is always someone who will. This site that I recently learned about called failin.gs is a place where people can set up a profile for themselves and invite friends to anonymously tell them how they really feel about their personalities. I, personally, can be pretty hard on myself (as my father says, “my own worst critic”), so I don’t need anyone to help pull my ass down to earth. Sorta how the Facebook status update bar asks “What’s on your mind?” the failin.gs homepage has its main, central question in large, bolded font: “What is wrong with me?” 

Seriously? Am I the only person who doesn’t get this? Although they describe it as a place to receive “constructive criticism” so we may improve, it feels like a place to butcher your self esteem. No thanks. I’d like a site that allows someone to pet me and tell me I’m the best. Now, don’t get it twisted, if someone I know creates a profile, I’ll participate in the “constructive criticism.” After all, if they sign up for this crap, they’re asking for it; I just won’t be the person with the profile.
What are your thoughts on failin.gs? Do you or anyone you know have a profile on failin.gs?

Get Your Own Online Resume

I recently came across a really cool site/product called Ceevee that allows you to have your resume online and your own URL free of charge. Aside from free registration, putting it together is really, really simple. I can't wait to be able to just copy and paste my URL into the body of an email. No more attaching! Woohoo! And you can tell people in conversation to just look up your URL instead of having to send them an email. It makes it easier to get my resume out there to more people. Get 'er done at Ceevee.com.