Monday, November 22, 2010

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.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

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.