Week 3 Challenge: Apps

An iPad is like a tiny computer, but in my opnion, it’s better. Some of my favorite apps were actually websites first, but it’s just so much more convenient on a pocket-sized object. These apps are the reason I love smartphones and tablets.

Netflix: Every little fantasy world I live in, every thing people get annoyed at me for constantly talking about, and every cheesy rom-com that I won’t admit I’m obsessed with- it all began on one app. Anything that looks remotely interesting instantly broadcasted at the simple touch of a button. I find myself clicking on the next episode, even when I promised that was the last one. They have recent movies and shows, old 70’s and 80’s movies (my personal favorite,) documentaries, musicals, and so many more. There are even categories inside categories. For instance, inside the romance genre, the movies are organized into romantic comedies, romantic dramas, etc. Netflix is the perfect way to kill time and something exciting to look forward to at the end of the day.

Spotify: This app is the perfect way to discover new music, see what your friends like, and organize every favorite song into a playlist. If you’re anything like me, you’re in a different mood everyday. It might not seem like it, but I feel like a different person every minute, because my thoughts and ideas are constantly changing. I change my future job, future college and the way I act almost each day. One day I think,” Maybe I want to be a poet,” and the next day, I’m a bio-medical engineer! For someone who can’t make up her mind, do you really think I want to listen to the same list of songs everyday? That’s why I need something to organize music for the kind of mood that I’m in on that particular day. These are my reasons, but spotify is perfect for everyone, not just the girls who can’t make up their minds.

Pinterest: One of the reasons I love Pinterest, is that I love cooking. Pinterest has the most innovative recipes that I’ve ever seen. They also have very helpful cooking tricks, and things to make that I would’ve never thought of in a million years! One trick that I read, and haven’t been able to forget since, is how to make chocolate bowls:
Step 1. Melt some chocolate.
Step 2. Blow up a balloon to your particular size.
Step 3. Dip the balloon in the chocolate, and set it in the fridge to cool.
Step 4. Once the chocolate has hardened, pop the balloon, and take it out.
See how cool that was?
Pinterest is great for discovering fashion tips, quotes and well, almost anything. I find myself constantly screenshotting everything that I see.

HeardonTV: HeardonTV is an app that helps you find a song that you heard in a TV show, or movie. Some of my favorite songs were found with this app. They have almost every TV show imaginable. When you click on them, they show every season, and within that, every episode. Also, people can contribute songs that they recognize. It’s like Shazam, but better, because if on the show, the song plays in the background, and the characters are talking, Shazam won’t recognize it. HeardonTV will.

Bandsintown: Everytime this app sees a band that I liked on Facebook, they instantly send me an email telling me if the band is close and their proximity. I have gone to countless concerts, buying countless tickets with this app. They also recommend bands that I should listen to. I have so much fun with the resources this app gives me.

Apps are great. They are convenient, fun, and useful, but everything I just listed has sentimental value to me. Spotify helped me bond over music with my sister, my mother and I read cool cooking tips on Pinterest, and my dad and I watch Battlestar Galactica on Netflix almost every weekend. They aren’t just tools to help me have fun; they are common interests, the beginnings of friendships.

Week 2 Challenge: The Perfect Place for Austin, Texas

Non-cooked pizza? Dairy-free chocolate cheesecake? Sounds gross right? Wrong. There’s nothing I like better than eating at my my favorite restaurant in town. Sure, it might be an acquired taste, and not everyone may like it, but real Austinites will.

Right down the street from Town Lake, nestled in a corner between propaganda, the hair salon, and a jewelry repair place, is a raw food café. Beets: the only place in Austin that doesn’t cook their food. Vegan uncooked food might sound unappetizing, but it’s actually delicious.  The vegan cashew cheesecakes taste just like real cheesecakes, because when they soak the cashews and grind them up, it tastes kind of like milk. All the food substitutes at Beets are spot on, and taste just like real food, if not better.

If there’s anything that I like better than the food, it’s the people. Every time I’m there, somehow me and the people next to me strike up I conversation. In the background I can hear cooks and waitresses humming, trickling of fountains, and people laughing. Health posters and paintings of nature are tacked up on the walls.  To the left, there are cooking classes, everyday. They show how to make and have vegan raw food 24/7.

All in all, the family feel makes everyone welcome, and the fact that it is so close to Town Lake is convenient for most hungry health nuts, who like to exercise. The reason why this is my favorite place in Austin is because of how perfect it is for the only hippie, up to date city in Texas.

Sunday Morning

Sunday morning, just a typical day in our family. As usual, I was the last one in the house to get up at about One pm. My mom had gotten up about half an hour before me, and was acting all smug, in a funny, show-offy kind of way, but she would instantly have my back as soon as my dad made a sarcastic comment about how I should be having lunch instead of breakfast, or something like that. Dad had a right to be smug, because nobody in the house was quite sure when he woke up on weekends. He works from home, and of course, gets weekends off, but sure enough, if I ever have a reason to get up early, he’s in his office. Either working hard, or pretending to work hard. I don’t ask. I’ve tried asking about his work, but whenever I do, he gives an extremely vague answer, not wanting to go into detail. With our family, he’s a pretty goofy guy, who tends to fake-pout a lot, and with strangers, he’s a sarcastic know-it-all(in a good way). Then my sister stumbled down the stairs. She was up before everyone but dad, but had chosen to stay in her room and check Instagram or Vine or Facebook or Pinterest or maybe just text her friends. Something like that. My mom was enjoying her daily breakfast of avocado, sprouted toast, feta cheese, and ginger tea, and my dad just had black coffee. My sister began to make eggs, and not talk to us, because of how grumpy she was in the morning, and I just didn’t eat because I couldn’t decide what to eat (Just like I never can when the time comes for breakfast). Then we all gathered around the Television just like we do every Sunday morning to watch Friends or King of Queens or Everybody Loves Raymond of some cheesy show like that before we start our homework.