Nifty Things

Well, I haven't posted in a while. Partly because this is a personal blog, and I've not really been having a personal life, and partly because I haven't had any good stuff to write about.

It's all been work, work, work. Chronic, dark, suicidal depression-- and work. ; )

But I've collected some stuff from here and there that I'd like to comment on:

1) I love my SAD light. I have found that, in addition to it's expected function, it works to cure most of my headaches (in midsummer, regardless of the weather)-- 'dunno why. But sometimes, when I wake up all headachy and sore, an hour or so in front of the SAD light and the pain is gone. Hmmm, does a seratonin imbalance cause pain and inflammation? What else does the SAD light do (except maybe make it brighter so my eyes don't strain as much?) that could cure a headache?

2) My favorite video game of 2007 (played, however, in 2008 because of the damned book), Portal, is going to have a second version (aptly named Portal 2 at this point), coming out next year. Woo hoo! I loved, loved, loved that game. Awesome one liners, serious mind-bending antics, great graphics, physics, challenges, logic, characters, all of it. It was seriously too short though. And, just for the record, I have always hated that damn companion cube-- but was kind of freaked when Glados told me to euthanize it. Wtf?! LOL. Great game. Theme song is also incredibly perfect. The voice of Glados (and most of the other devices) was the absolute, hands-down, most perfect bit of casting ever. Genius. Pure genius.

3) I am considering getting an iPhone.

Yes it's true. For those of you who know me, I have been railing against complicated, PDA phones for years, and specifically against the iPhone. So to those people, this sounds like I've gone crazy.

But here's the deal. I have been watching my boyfriend use his iPhone for a year or so. He can do all kinds of stuff with it, and with each update it just gets better.

In the meantime, my motorola phone was dying. It couldn't stay charged, the volume was slowly going mute, and kept losing calls midsentence. It was just old.

But as luck would have it, I won a BlackJack II smart phone at a Microsoft Launch event earlier in the year-- so I simply started using the new phone. It was a timely replacement for the dying motorola.

Now the blackjack II, unlike my motorola, is a PDA kinda phone. Capable of internet access, storing all kinds of data, and generally being more useful.

After watching my boyfriend use his phone, and coveting some of the features, I was all ready to start using the blackjack the way it should be used--- but...

...But the menus sucked. I couldnt' find anything, use anything without sixteen clicks to get there. Navigation sucked. It was too restrictive, I couldn't change settings I wanted to, I could change settings that were meaningless.

It was slow. Battery power sucked, and it powered off without warning, leaving me unaware people were calling me. There were delays in SMS messages up to a day. Some texts sent early in the day actually arrived long after later texts were sent-- causing considerable confusion for all parties involved.

However, I did get a taste of how nice it would be to have a decent, pda-like phone.

There are some draw backs to the iphone:

a) the camera is prehistoric. No camcorder feature, despite the huge storage capacity. Little in the way of controls, which sucks, because even the blackjack has a good camera.
b) no buttons for feedback when you hit them.
c) low volume speakers. I can't hear the iphone ring when it's in my pocket in a quiet room.
d) no voice dialing. A big deal when I'm driving.
e) 3G iphones suck for battery power. However, so did the blackjack.
f) the worst drawback, in my opinion-- requires iTunes.
g) the 3G version of the phone will not have a dock, just a cable. so it'll be another thing lying on my desk to accidentally unplug while syncing.
h) AT&T, almost 'nuf said. It ruins the idea of the second gen. iphone because they are "subsidizing" the phone and starting to rape customers. Seriously. This time around the contract is two years, it is more expensive for less, and you can't activate at home over iTunes, you must wait in line, then wait about 30 minutes to activate at the freakin' store.
i) because it's AT&T SMS messaging cost a mint.

But there are some good features:

a) video voicemail. Now I can skip voicemails in the list, see who called at a glance, and ignore and delete voicemails without listening (well, maybe that's not a good thing...).
b) big, big buttons for dialing or typing. Yeah, they don't "give" when I hit them, but they are easier to get to than tiny keys...)
c) lots, and lots, and lots of nifty apps that I could use on the phone.
d) built in GPS (makes a lot of the apps work)
e) it works, as a phone, which I can't say the blackjack did. It lost calls, simply ignored calls, lost signal anywhere, anytime, broke up during calls for no reason, the list of flaws as a phone is endless. I have watched my BF with his iphone, and it simply works.
f) the handsfree headset comes with the phone.
g) it doubles as a video ipod. You can watch podcasts, tv shows and movies, as well as scroll through your music visually.
h) it has nice touch controls, especially scrolling, and the ability to pinch objects to zoom.
i) while being both an ipod and a cell phone, it can switch between calls and entertainment pretty easily. The BF never appeared to lose a video, song, text, or email after being interrupted by a call.
j) because the AT&T plan requires unlimited data, you do have unlimited data to do internet stuff. There are a lot of free and paid for apps that use that feature (like internet radio, searches, and more). Browsing is real, not requiring "mobile only" pages. It likes mobile pages because of the size of the screen. But because it can zoom, you can read any page. Also, you can IM people instead of SMS, so it can save money on texting.
k) Hard drive space. The blackjack has almost nothing (a few MBs) built in, you have to buy SD cards. The iphone has gigs of space, and I have to admit, it does synchronize with iTunes pretty well-- if you have it configured properly.

And that's why I am considering getting an iPhone. I need a new phone, despite the relative newness of the blackjack-- it was embarrassing having such a disfunctional phone while I was in Florida this summer. It made me look like an incompetent ass.

4) For those of you who might not know, my skin is aging really pretty badly. It appears that spending years writing books in the direct light of the sunny dining room (instead of the windowless cubicles and classrooms I was destined for) has damaged my skin pretty badly.

To compensate, I've been trying out sunscreens and other skin healing stuff. Here's what I've learned-- I am allergic to avobenzone, and sensitive to most all chemical sunscreens. Period. There isn't one that doesn't simply burn my skin anyway, regardless of sun exposure.

So, for a while, I was screwed. Then I found out about the mineral alternatives-- zinc oxide and titanium oxide-- which is in most mineral makeups.

Desperate, and besides I have to do more and more photoshoots and recorded presentations so it'd be nice to have some control over how my skin looks day to day, I started dabbling in the mineral makeup, as a sunscreen in the very least.

And found out that I am really allergic to most of them too. It's primarily the bismuth oxychloride that is the culprit, but I am also sensitive (or allergic, who can tell?) to lavender and coconut-- which is "natural" and in a lot of those mineral makeup offerings. (I also appear to be sensitive to Shea Butter, which has a kind of latex in it-- who knew?)

So, how in the hell was I going to be able to protect my skin from the continuing damage of sunlight exposure without actually hurting myself further? It took months but I found a few products that actually work and don't damage my skin:

- Vanicream sunblock 30 and 60 (but not 35 sport, which is enhanced with a chemical sunscreen). This stuff is super, super oily, and highlights every single pore and wrinkle. *Not* good for flattering your skin. The 60 really, really feels good in the sun though. It's like you're under an umbrella-- absolutely no heat while standing in direct sunlight. It works by coating your skin in minerals that reflect sunlight off your skin (and it's that reflective quality that highlights every, single, imperfection...).

- Sterling Minerals foundations ( my skin grew sensitive to the Everyday Minerals I tried earlier). Although they (Sterling Minerals) are reluctant to state the SPF of their stuff, it is super hypoallergenic and specifically for sensitive skin. I can really tell the difference when I have this stuff on because I, again, don't quite feel the sting and heat of mid-day sun (tested in June, in Orlando Florida). It is a powder, so it does, initially, look like I covered my skin in, well, powder. It does sort of melt into your skin eventually (especially in FL, lol), but you can also wet it down to get it to look less like you are trying to dessicate yourself. Unlike the vanicream though, the powder is not oily, shiny, or unflattering (once it stops being so dry). It works, lasts all day (it is almost waterproof, seriously), and actually helps hide all the broken capillaries under my fragile skin. Sterling Minerals is the only powder I have found that really makes my skin feel better after using it, and is completely comfortable from the moment it's on. However, it is a powder, so when it's dry out, it's not a great choice.

- Jane Iredale stuff. Of course I had to go through months of pain, trying out dozens of mineral makeups that have an SPF, only to find that the first one ever to go to market makes the best stuff...

I was first driven to try out the Jane Iredale stuff because I had to have some headshots done for a conference I was working. The requirement was unexpected, and I was not ready. I had had a disasterous experience with a moisturizer I'd gotten from a spa and still had blisters from being burned by it. And the broken capillaries under my skin, oy, my face looked like a road map with my freckles acting as location markers. Definitely not flattering. Even my boyfriend, who doesn't notice things like that, was concerned.

That drove me to find a healing, all natural, non-drying cover up for my face, in a color that might reasonably match my bizarre skin.

If only I could get mineral makeup, without the bismuth oxychloride, corn, wheat, etc., in a liquid form...

...and I could. Thus I tried out the Jane Iredale Liquid Minerals. Taa daa! Worked pretty well, didn't dry my face out (well, not for hours, then it was like a mask until I sprayed it again), the color was okay, and although it's sheer, it masked the capillaries and redness pretty well.

Then I found that the Jane Iredale line had changed their powdered formulas so that they did not use Bismuth Oxychloride either (hooray). *And* the powders, all of them, are rated at SPF 20! Yay, a sunscreen that is rated *and* is a powder.

So, now my skin is comfy, defended from the sun, and looks okay from a distance (or in the right light). ; )

So that's my update about the nifty things I've been thinking about over the last several months.

If I have time, I'll keep you updated on what happens next concerning the iphone, my continued adventures with being photographed and videoed, and more.