CacheAlaska Cell Phone Holder

For the past couple of months, my husband has been bugging me to get a phone holder for my car. I thought that CacheAlaska's cell phone holder might do the job. Sadly, it only really worked for about a month.

I have a Galaxy Note 4. The charging port for the phone is on the bottom, underneath the center button on the front. My car, a Honda Fit Sport, has the air vents right above the radio. (You can see this in the photo above.) When I have my charger plugged in, the connector pushes up against the face of the radio. I know that, eventually, either the charger or the phone port will break. The picture below will show you what I mean. 

The only way to keep the connector from pushing against the radio is to tilt the phone toward the driver. This works better for me because it makes it slightly easier for me to see the screen. However, I'm pretty sure this tilting as broken the holder. 

The piece that sticks into the vent is a soft plastic but the piece that holds the phone is a hard plastic. Over the past few days, I noticed that the holder no longer holds my phone upright. Instead, it acts like the phone is top heavy and drops it sideways. 

This picture looks like I have tilted the phone like this. I did not. I put the phone in the holder like I normally do (see the first picture) and the holder slowly tilts sideways. Unfortunately, this makes the phone unusable for the driver. 

I really wanted to like this holder. It seemed like the perfect match for someone who didn't really want a holder in the first place. Just when I got used to having it, it stopped doing its job properly. I think this whole situation could have been avoided if the holder stuck out a little further from the dash. I did try a number of configurations to try to get the phone to fit over the radio but none of them worked. Ah, well. Maybe I'll be able to find a better holder that will work with the layout of my car. 

I received this product for free in exchange for this review. All opinions contained within are my own. 

AmazaPens

I have a bit of a pen addiction. My daughter frequently drags me away from the office supply aisle whenever we are shopping. Needless to say, I leapt at the chance to try out this set of pens. 

AmazaPens is a set of 24 gel ink pens. There are 12 glitter pens, 6 neon pens, and 6 pastel pens. That is a lot of awesomeness in one package. But how well do they write?

I have been using these pens in my blog/vlog planner. And I couldn't be happier with the result. There are more than enough colors to allow me to color code everything I do.  Even though there are some "repeat" colors (for example, the neon pink, pastel pink, and glitter pink), they are still unique enough that I can tell them apart at a glance. 

While it is difficult to see in the picture above, most of the writing was done with the glitter ink. Thankfully, the ink contains the right amount of glitter. It is enough that it can be easily seen in person but the glitter isn't getting all over the place. (I usually have problems with glitter.) I think the glitter colors are actually my favorite.

There are a few colors that are a little problematic. As you can see on the September 1 block, the orangey pastel pen is very difficult to read on light colored paper. There is also a white pen that I don't know how to use. I suppose it might look nice if I'm writing on dark paper but, c'mon, how many people write on dark colored paper? 

Overall, I am in love with these pens. I just might have to buy another set when this one runs out. THAT is how much I love it.

I received this product for free in exchange for this review. All opinions contained within are my own. 

So You Want To Be A Reviewer

When people hear the word "reviewer," the first thing they think of is "free stuff." While you can sometimes get free stuff, that isn't always the case. And a lot of times, that free stuff isn't stuff you actually want. Still want to be a reviewer? Read on!

Whether you have a blog or a vlog, the road to reviewing is the same. Since companies want their product to be seen by the largest amount of people possible, they tend to want to work with established reviewers. But how does someone become established? 

The first step is to figure out what you want to review. Would you like to review baby products or would you prefer to  talk about dog toys? Perhaps your love of movies pushes you into becoming a movie reviewer. It's OK if you don't have a specific niche. Just keep in mind that a more general website might not have as large an audience as one dedicated to a specific topic. 

Once you have your niche in mind, just start reviewing things. Talk about things you already own or things you recently purchased. Talk about that item your best friend uses every day. This is where a majority of reviewers begin. If it's stuff you already own or you are already going to buy, you might as well take advantage of the situation and talk about it! 

Here is where the difficult part begins. You need to get your reviews seen by people. While cross-posting (posting your content on different platforms) sounds like a great idea, you want people to visit your site. Instead of posting your entire review on Tumblr, post the first paragraph and a link to the rest of the review. This won't work for reviews on Amazon, where you will need to post a full review, but you can put a link to your blog at the bottom. And make sure you are posting links to all of this on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and other social media sites. 

Becoming an established reviewer doesn't happen overnight. If you need to find some additional items for review, you can try websites like Tomoson, BzzAgent, or Influenster. There are quite a few websites out there looking to connect companies with bloggers. Do some research to find the ones that fit your style. 

When you have a decent following, you can create a media kit for your site. A media kit is a one- or two-page document that tells a company who you are and who your audience is. (My media kit can be found on my contact page.) Once your media kit is ready, you can send it out to companies to see if they will partner with you.  Don't be discouraged if you don't hear back from them. Companies have a lot of people contacting them. They can't reply to everyone. 

And there you have it. You are a reviewer. I know, it seems much more difficult but it's not. Just make sure that you are in it because you love it and not for the free stuff. Your reviews will definitely suffer if you are reviewing things you don't care about. 

Six Degrees of Everything

The Fine Brothers, famous for uploading React (Kids React, Teens React, etc.) videos to YouTube, have come to TruTV with something completely different. Six Degrees of Everything is a take on the popular Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game. The brothers will try to connect two seemingly random things in only six steps. Since I always try to support YouTubers and their attempts to break into mainstream media, I watched the first two episodes. 

I have to admit that I was fairly skeptical of the premise of the show. It sounds interesting to connect Albert Einstein to breast implants but is it actually interesting? On top of that, Benny and Rafi Fine are usually behind the camera. When they are on camera, they can be funny. But will they have the personalities to hold an audience's attention for a half hour show? 

The answer to both of those questions is "not really."

The connections that they make between "degrees" are often tenuous, at best. Since the rules aren't as strict as the original game's, they can make any connection they want. For example, in the premiere episode, they connect Einstein to Cousin Couple because his second marriage was to his cousin then they connect Cousin Couples to Elvis Presley because he had a song called 'Kissing Cousins.' As you can see, that first connection is pretty strong but then that second connection is, well, weak. And the connections don't get any better from there on out. Elvis is connected to comic books (because he based his look on Captain Marvel Jr), which is then connected to Lie Detectors (the guy that created Wonder Woman also created a component of the modern lie detector) , which is then connected to breast implants (because one way to detect lies is with an EEG and they can be thrown off by  breast implants). See? Weaksauce.

In between these connections, the brothers give us tidbits of information. Sometimes they are slightly interesting but, most of the time, they are not. Instead of feeling like a conversation between brothers, it feels like they just needed to fill space. Sure, they probably did need to fill space but it shouldn't feel like it. 

On top of that, the brothers just aren't interesting enough to keep the audience's attention. I honestly think this show would be better if it were presented as a conversation between brothers. Sometimes they get along, sometimes they fight, but they always get excited when the reach the end of their trail. Instead, everything feels overproduced. Their "fights" are obviously scripted and they don't have the acting chops to make them feel organic. (For an example of a show hosted by brothers that feels like a natural conversation between them, check out Hank and John Green's pocast - Dear Hank and John. There is a little bit of awkwardness as they change subjects but their 'arguments' feel real.) As a result, Benny and Rafi come off as stiff and almost inhuman. This show proves that they need to stay behind the camera.

TruTV only ordered 10 episodes. The first two have already aired. I'm not sure the show will make it through the next 8. Even though I love The Fine Brothers and their productions, this one is a bust. The show's production staff should watch a few episodes of Outrageous Acts of Science on the Science Channel. Everyone on that show has the personality to explain complex science experiments and keep them interesting. While OAoS doesn't connect their videos, I think their format could easily be modified to fit the Six Degrees format. That would be amazing! Since that is unlikely to happen, I'm just going to skip past Six Degrees and hope something better comes out of it. 

Inside the Mind of Social Anxiety

At some point in my life, I'm not sure exactly when, I became a worry-wart. Well, that isn't quite as serious as it sounds. I became an anxious person. Most of the time, I categorize my inner demons as "social anxiety." But what exactly does that mean? I'll tell you.

Social Anxiety Disorder is pretty much what it sounds like. It is a disorder where a person has an extreme fear of social situations. People with SAD spend a significant amount of time worrying about being scrutinized by others. It isn't always just about people judging them. It's about this hyper-judging thing that social anxiety tricks the brain into believing really happens. 

For example: While I am waiting for my daughter to finish her dance class, I sit in the waiting room with other parents. Often times, the other parents will be holding conversations among themselves. Even if I have something to contribute to a conversation, I will sit there quietly (usually playing a game on my phone) until someone brings me into the conversation. I don't jump into the conversation myself because, in the back of my mind, I believe that these nice people will hate me for barging into their personal conversation. (And note, these aren't usually super personal conversations. It's usually about school or an upcoming event.) I don't want to be hated so I simply say nothing. 

These are the extreme thoughts of the socially anxious person. It's not as simple as being uncomfortable in a situation. Situations where we have to interact with other people (sometimes including loved ones) are difficult and uncomfortable because of these dark thoughts inside our heads. We truly believe that others will despise us for inconsequential behaviors. That the person sitting next to us will think we are an awful human being for trying to include ourselves in their lives. 

Yet, I try my best to overcome my inner thoughts. I sit in the waiting room while my daughter dances; I agree to attend parties once in awhile; I occasionally walk my daughter to the door when she goes to a friend's house to talk to the parents. I know what the triggers are for my anxiety and I do my best to avoid those situations. (I don't go into a social situation alone. I always have a 'social buddy' with me who will carry the conversation and allow me to step in when I want to.) And while I don't ask people to coddle me, I do ask for their patience. If you text me, know that I may not respond immediately. But only because I am trying to work up the courage to do so. If I ask you a question, know that it took me hours of agonizing whether or not I should ask the (usually simple) question. My heart knows that you do not hate me. My brain just hasn't caught on. 

So feel free to invite me to events. Feel free to join me in the farthest corner of the room. You may not get more than a smile and a nod but there are a million unspoken words in those few motions. "Thank you for including me. Thank you for not leaving me alone. Thank you for understanding. Thank you for being a friend." 

Paying for college in the United States

Choosing a college is fairly easy. Paying for it is not. Unfortunately, college is very expensive. I'm going to look into some ways that you can pay for your college education. It may not be easy but it is possible!

This won't be an option for a lot of people but I'm putting it out there anyway. There are colleges that are tuition free. Well, sort of, anyway. You don't have to put out the money for tuition yourself but it is considered a scholarship and not just a free school. In some cases, you will need to pay for room-and-board. And you almost always have to pay for books and supplies. However, without the threat of tuition debt, these are much easier to pay.

Talking about scholarships, there are a ton of them out there. You don't necessarily need to have a 4.0 grade point average in order to get them either. Do a lot of research. There are scholarships out there for minorities, veterans and their families, economically challenged individuals...you name it. There are even scholarships for various majors. I received a small theater arts scholarship in my second year of college. You could probably find a scholarship for just about anything. Keep in mind, though, that you are not the only applicant. Make sure your application is amazing so it definitely catches the eye of the board.

If your child isn't ready for college, you can still start a 529 Plan for them. A 529 Plan is a college savings fund operated by the state. (Sometimes they are operated by educational institutions as well.) These work a little like a 401K retirement plan in that they are not taxed right away. I'd recommend talking to a financial planner or accountant to see if there are any tax benefits for you if you decide to go this route.

A 529 Plan is not in your cards? Perhaps you could try some other investment strategies. Savings bonds are one way to lock away some quick cash. You buy a bond for a certain amount of money, let's say $50. After a year, the bond begins to earn interest. A bond bought today will double in value in 20 years. You can cash in it before then but you will only receive the bond amount plus the interest gained until the time it is cashed in. If you or a family member could buy a bond once a year for your child's birthday, they could amass quite a bit of money by the time they are ready to go to college. 

Finally, there are loans. Federal loans are probably the worst of the bunch but there are other private financial institutions where you may be able to borrow the money for a lower interest rate. (Trust me, it's the interest rate that gets you every time.) Make sure you shop around. Do your best to get the lowest rate possible. And make sure you get a fixed rate loan. You don't need the rate fluctuating every year!

In the end, paying for college sucks a lot. Unless you are already wealthy, chances are you'll be in debt for awhile. Maybe one day the way the United States handles college will be different. We're taking some tips from other countries for health care. Why not for college too? 

I hope this little series helped you learn that college isn't necessarily an impossibility for those who aren't rolling in dough. Good luck to all of the new college students out there. Let's get smart! 

A college education without the crippling debt

Last week, I discussed the cost of a college education and the burden of student loans. Students shouldn't have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for their education. Today, I'm going to give you some options on how to get a college education without spending all the money in the world. 

The first option I am going to give you is usually the most overlooked. Instead of doing all four college years at an expensive school, get all of your core classes out of the way at your local community college. No matter what your major is, you will need to take some core classes - mathematics, science, english, and maybe some others. Take a look at the core requirements for the colleges you want to attend. Most community college credits will transfer to other schools. Take that first year or two to get those requirements out of the way for a fraction of the cost. 

Want to attend an out-of-state college? Students who attend a college outside of their state of residency often pay almost twice as much in tuition as those who attend colleges in their state. One option to get around this is to set up residency in the state of that school. Not everyone can afford to move to a different state before starting college. However, this would be a great time to get those core classes out of the way and get some "real world" experience in the working world. Also, if you already have an off-campus apartment set up, you can probably save on those pesky room-and-board fees.

My final tip is the one that most high school advisors give to their students. If you can find a great in-state public school, go there. Both of the colleges I attended were private. And, as I told you last time, the tuition (plus room-and-board) came out to about $50,000 per year. However, tuition at the main campus of Penn State University this year is approximately $35,000. (If you attend one of the satellite campuses instead, that could be around $30,000 instead.) That is a huge difference! 

I hope that these tips helped you or your children find ways to afford a college education. Next time, I'll be discussing ways to pay for your schooling. There is more out there than just loans on top of loans. College really can be affordable, if you know where to look. 

The Burden of Student Loans

College is expensive. I think everyone can agree on that. What everyone can't agree on is how to pay for it. Since this is a huge topic, I'm not going to cover it all in one post. Today, I'll cover the costs of college and a little bit about student loans. Next week, I'll hit you with some information on how to pay for college and some ways to get a college education without spending a ton of money. 

First, let's point out the actual costs of college. I went to two different colleges for one year at each. Since this is what I am familiar with, this is what I am going to use as an example. Yes, I know there are cheaper schools out there and I'll get to that in a minute.

My freshman year was spent at Cedar Crest College in Allentown, PA. I attended from the fall semester of 1994 through the spring semester of 1995. (Yes, I know I am old.) When I went there, the annual tuition was about $14,000. The annual tuition of attending for the 2014 - 2015 year is about $34,000. (Please note, this doesn't include room and board or books. I don't have the numbers for 1994 but, in 2014, that takes the total cost up to about $45,000 per year.) That is a huge jump! 

I transferred for my sophomore year to Beaver College (now called Arcadia University) in Glenside, PA. In 1995, the tuition was about $13,000. Tuition this year is $37,500. (Again, this doesn't include room and board or books. That total is $52,400.) Wow.

My tuition cost for two years of college comes to approximately $27,000. This still doesn't cover room and board or books and supplies, which generally adds at least another $10,000 per year. So it's safe to estimate that my two years of college cost me almost $50,000. Sadly, I didn't fully understand the cost or how to pay for it. And, here I am, about 20 years later, still nowhere near paying off my student loans. 

When I was in college, I double majored in Theater Arts and Communications with a minor in Music. While I know that Theater Arts majors don't rake in the cash, no one really told me that I would still have a difficult time paying off my student loans with a Communications degree. It is rather unfair to expect our teenagers (remember, most people entering college are 17 or 18 years old) to burden themselves with tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt before they can even legally drink alcohol. Yes, there are ways to lower the costs a bit. I did get a little bit in grants and scholarships but nothing that paid the large chunk of money I now owed the school. 

Don't get me wrong. I have every intention of paying off my student loans. (Not that I have much of a choice. Student loans can't be discharged via bankruptcy and, if you can't pay and default, the government will garnish your wages.) However, having these huge monthly payments looming over my head every month means I can't do things like buy a new house or replace my ancient mattress or just go vacation. It would be awesome if the government would come up with a way to forgive student loans after a certain amount of time. (With the assumption that your loan is in good standing.) I mean, there are people on Social Security that are still paying student loans! Your student loans shouldn't last longer than your mortgage. 

Next week: Join me as I'll talk about ways to get a college education without spending a lifetime's income. It is possible! I wish someone told me this when I was young! 

The Importance of Gender Neutral Toys

I wasn't planning on writing about this topic. I figured that it was common knowledge that it is stupid to have a "girl" toy aisle with all the cooking toys and fashion dolls and a "boy" toy aisle with all the building toys and superheroes. Apparently, I have too much faith in humanity. 

If you haven't heard yet, Target recently announced that they are going to move away from gender-based signs in their toy aisles. While this doesn't mean the Easy Bake Oven will now be found next to Bob the Builder's Workshop, it does mean that you won't see a sign that says "Girls' Building Toys." Yes, that sign exists. 

My local newspaper asked their Facebook fans for their opinions on this announcement. There were way too many comments saying it is stupid or they don't believe that the gender distinctions matter. That kids can play with whatever toys they want. While that sounds nice, it just isn't true.

I have a 13-year old daughter. She plays both sides of the "girly" game. During the day, she is building bridges and solar powered cars, but at night she is decked out in a pink leotard for ballet class. Yet, if you walk through the toy section in Target, there is a definite divide between what girls play with and what boys play with. The girl section is bright and pink and, for the lack of a better word, girly. The boy section is a little darker and tends to be filled with blue and black hues. It is definitely a different world.

Let's look at one specific toy now. The almighty Lego. Lego has girl toys and it has boy toys. In the girl section, you will find Lego Friends. I'm pretty sure this is where Barbie went to die. The Lego Friends are a group of girls that play with animals, go on tour as pop stars, and hang out at the juice bar. You won't find any of these things in the boys Legos. 

Over in the boy section, we have castles and pirates and ninjas and Batman and Superman and pretty much every superhero you can name. Granted, no one is coming out and saying only boys can play with these sets. But it can be very difficult to tell a child that it's OK for girls to be ninjas or Batman or whatever. Heck, some adults don't even get that concept. I have seen adults give me the stink eye for buying my daughter something considered "boyish." 

Why is it important to have gender neutral toys? Because we, as a society, need to stop having this disconnect between what girls can and can't do. We have a serious lack of women in scientific fields. While I'm not completely placing the blame on gendered toys, keep in mind that the science kits are generally in the boy aisle of the toy section. There are a lot of adults that won't even walk through the aisles of the opposite gender of their child. Those kids may not even know that there are microscopes and building blocks and robots out there for them to play with. Let's stop making this a boy and a girl thing. Let's just make it a toy thing. Put the Hulk next to Elsa in the aisle. Put the Easy Bake Oven over with the tool sets. And stop making everything color coded. There are more colors in life than just pink and blue. Let's show our kids the whole world, not just the limited slice companies want them to see.  

The Mussorgsky Riddle

When Curiosity Quills Press (an awesome name for a publisher, by the way) approached me to review some of their titles, I figured it was going to be yet another set of boring non-fiction books. I paged through their website and found the most amazing and original book blurbs I have ever seen. They recommended I try The Mussorgsky Riddle by Darin Kennedy so I did.  Boy, am I glad I agreed to read this!

The Mussorgsky Riddle is a paranormal crime thriller. (Yes, I know that sounds odd. Keep with me.) Mira Tejedor is a psychic. But not your run-of-the-mill psychic. While she can get visions and vibes off of people or objects, her specialty lies in knowing peoples emotions. People emit scents when they have strong feeling and Mira picks up on them. So, for example, a vinegar smell means that someone is mad while an black pepper smell means they are defensive. She can use this knowledge to help her clients. 

No, Mira isn't a cop. She's a bit more like a private investigator. In this particular case, Caroline Faircloth has hired her to figure out why her son, Anthony, suddenly went into a coma-like state. He doesn't talk to anyone; he barely responds to touch; he doesn't do anything. None of the doctors or psychiatrists can figure out what is wrong. Caroline is hoping that Mira can. 

Despite Dr. Thomas Archer's, Anthony's psychiatrist, protests, Mira takes a trip into Anthony's mind to find the problem. What she finds is an exhibition of paintings. The characters within the paintings come to life to help (or hinder) her journey through Anthony's mind. 

Meanwhile, Mira finds out that Julianna Wagner, the girlfriend of Anthony's older brother, went missing at exactly the same time that Anthony's problems began. Figuring that the two cases were linked, Mira offers to help the police solve their case while working on her own. Little did she know what she was getting into!

I loved this book. When I first read the blurb, I was intrigued at the difference between Kennedy's psychic and every other psychic character. Mira may have psychic powers but there is no "I have a vision!" type scenes. Every time she has to tell someone about what she has seen inside Anthony's mind, it is almost always prefaced with "Remember, I saw this in a kid's mind so no one is going to believe it." She is a breath of fresh air in the paranormal world.

Another big plus was the inclusion of Modest Mussorgsky's classical music. Mussorgsky was a Russian classical composer in the mid- to late-1800s. All of the scenes in Anthony's mind revolve around his Pictures at an Exhibition piano suite. There are 10 movements in the piece and each corresponds with a painting in Anthony's mind. It was a clever way to give some depth and realness to the world inside someone's head. The best part is that the whole thing came together beautifully. It never felt forced or fake. 

Riddle never jams the paranormal stuff down your throat. I'm pretty sure that everyone, even if you don't like paranormal or science fiction type books, will enjoy reading this. It's just a good crime novel. And if the other titles at Curiosity Quills are anything like this, I may have to figure out how to get more hours in a day so I can read them all. 

I received this product for free in exchange for this review. All opinions contained within are my own.