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Favorite Apps for your iPhone/Android??

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I just recently got myself a new iPhone 4S the other month as my DRIOD X crapped out on me, and for one of my businesses, I really need a smart phone.  Literally being only 7 DAYS away from being eligible for an extra “loyalty discount” on top of my “new every two” deal, I was even contemplating just using one of my old phones until I could use that discount as well. Alas I had an event that weekend that I needed the smart phone capabilities for, so I gave in and went for the iPhone 4s!!!!

*Note to the wise* DON’T charge your phones overnight or keep them plugged into the wall 24/7 to charge!! It will ruin your battery in your smart phone!! That’s what happened to my smart phone apparently… I didn’t know since with all my old regular cell phones, I did this EVERY night, and NEVER had any battery issues with them…. guess these so-called “smart” phones aren’t so SMART after all and are very delicate that way… no matter how well you take care of them. I always keep my phone in a nice protective case and have screen protectors on them from Day 1, so my phone looked brand spanking new, just the battery was all out of whack and wouldn’t charge. The guy even thought I’d only had my phone for a short period of time just by looking at my phone (I had had it for about 1 year and 8 months…) so I got a very good credit at least for my worthless phone that looked very pretty and brand new, but on the inside was shot and dead.* Long story short, only charge your phone for short periods of time and right before you go to bed, but don’t leave it in overnight!! Will kill the life of your smartphone drastically!!!

Anyways….

Now I’ve been playing around with my phone and trying to find interesting APPS to add to it!! These are my favorites so far:

*PLEASE FEEL FREE TO COMMENT AND ADD YOUR FAVORITES THAT I HAVEN’T ALREADY MENTIONED!! I LOVE LEARNING ABOUT NEW APPS I CAN ADD TO MY PHONE!! THANKS!! :-)*

Here are my TOP TEN FAVE APPS so far!!! (*Aside from your usual apps like Facebook, twitter, messenger apps… those are just standard ones you gotta have ;-)*

1. Instagram–  I absolutely love this app! I love the quality of the pics; it’s so fun to take them with my cell phone and play around with the different filters and options and then post for other friends with the app to see! You can get some REALLY amazing high quality pics with this app! You can also post pics directly to your twitter or Facebook accounts as well! FIND ME on Instagram @horsingaroundinla  Quite a few of my pics I have posted on my blog here came from instagram!

2. Foursquare– Fun app to play around with and check into places with.  Keep up with friends, discover what’s nearby, and save money at places you love.

3. Square– Great to have if you have any kind of business of your own, do vendor or craft events. Start accepting all major credit cards,   anytime, anywhere. Sign up and they’ll mail you a free credit card reader.

4. Tiny Tower– My new favorite game on my phone to pass the time with (sorry draw something!) Tiny Tower lets you build a tiny tower (it doesn’t stay tiny for long though in my opinion!!) and manage the businesses and bitizens that inhabit it. You can pick what each level in your tower will be (residential, retail, creative, food, recreation, service) and which store each bitizen works in. You can play for short amounts of time or longer periods, which I love since sometimes I only have a minute or so to play at a time! Look for me on there with my user name: HorsingAroundInLA 🙂

5. Draw Something– Just like playing pictionary! You can play with a friend or with a complete stranger. Pick from 3 words they give you to draw, ranging from easy, medium, to hard leveled words, each worth a different amount of coins. Use the coins to get more colors to draw with or for “bombs” to destroy letters, or get new words with if you don’t like the ones they give you. You draw a picture, your friend guesses. If they get it right you both get coins. If not, oh well, then you just start over. Then they draw a pic for you to try to guess. Then it just keeps going on and on…. you can find me on here through my Facebook account.

6. Disney Parks– I LOVE anything Disney, so of course I would have this app! Gives you all the info you’d need to know during your trip to Disneyland OR Disney World. Gives you the hours for that day, Maps of the parks, Dining info, WAIT times for all the rides, Locations of the Disney characters that are out and about for picture opps, Shows & Show times, and SO MUCH MORE! A MUST HAVE for any Disney passholder or Disney fan!!

7. Shopkick–Like to get FREE stuff? Well then you’ll LOVE this app! You get points for checking into different stores & stores that you already go to anyways (think Target, Macy’s,  Toys R Us, Best Buy, American Eagle, Wet Seal, Wal Mart, Michaels) You can get rewards that are worth different amounts of points. I’ve had this app for about a year now, and have gotten a couple $25 gift cards to Target, and a few $25 gift certificates to use at restaurant.com!! YUM! I still have most of my points, saving them up for a COACH gift card, so I can go by me a new COACH purse!! 🙂 I LOVE COACH!! They also have gift cards for Best Buy, Hotel Cash Cards, Macy’s, Sports Authority, Arden B., Wet Seal, Toys R Us, American Eagle, Old Navy, iTunes, Gas Cards, & MORE!! If you’re interested in joining, send me a comment/email, so I can give you a link to join so we will both get bonus points for you joining!!

8. Lemon– Lets you track your expenses. You can easily scan your receipts & it will keep track of how much you are spending, and what you are spending it on. Very cool to have!

9. Pandora– Who doesn’t love listening to music? If I get tired of what I have on my iTunes, at the moment, its fun to mix it up by turning good old Pandora on. 🙂

10. Dictionary– Being that I am a teacher and tutor, this comes in handy to have.  You can easily look up words & it will give you the definition, part of speech, examples, and it also has a built-in thesaurus. This especially comes in handy when I have my students over for tutoring and we need to look up a word quickly vs. having to go pull the dictionary out. One other thing that is kind of neat about it is that it has a “word of the day” each day, so you will learn something new everyday!

These are just a few of my favorite things when it comes to my iPhone! <3

Thankful Thursday

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Since the title of my blog is titled “Horsing Around In LA” I thought it only fitting to say something about horses and how thankful I am to have them in my life. 🙂

With all the hustle and bustle of the city, and hurry hurry get this and that done, traffic, stress, overabundance of people, and other things that come from living in a  big city, it’s nice to get away for a while to a quite peaceful country like place where none of this exists; the barn. It’s the perfect little mini escape.

Horses are very beautiful, majestic, athletic, creatures that are just amazing to watch and get to know. The bond a girl & her horse(s) can make are priceless. Often times when no human understands you, your horse just seems to get it and vice versa. I also think this goes for most other animals we keep as pets. They just seem to have a sixth sense about these kinds of things, if you’re in a bad mood or had a horrible day. They just know how to make it  all better. 🙂 <3

They give a girl someone to trust when they feel their whole world is falling apart. A mane to cry in, a wise eye that will never judge, unconditional love, and a boy who will never, ever talk back. 😉

Mister hugs after he came back to us from a not so nice place.

Mister having fun in the turnout.

Shadow & I at a Schooling Show at home.

 My cousin  with Moon, a very sweet pony!

Most of us can remember clear as day the first time they sat on a horse. Maybe it was an old, arthritic ornery pony not suitable for anything more than the occasional lead line ride or a hot Thoroughbred racehorse whose trainers were insane to put a 5-year-old on its back. Whatever the case it was a memorable experience because it was unlike anything else. Horses are big and they offer a whole new view of the world. A little girl all of a sudden gets a lot taller when she’s hoisted onto a horse’s back, she’s now on top of the world!  This feeling, along with the feeling of going faster than she could on her own two legs, is very addictive, especially when you throw some jumps in there. Then you really feel like you are flying!

Confidence. Responsibility. Dedication. Respect. Compassion.  All very important attributes one will learn when taking care of a horse and learning how to ride.

Whether you are  6 or 66 you can get on an animal that outweighs you ten times, make the animal walk, trot and canter quietly, and maybe even convince it to jump over something, all the while making it look effortless. Horseback riding, like most athletic activities, is much harder than it looks. What you don’t see as a spectator is how much muscle control, strength and balance goes into even the simplest of movements. Horses don’t naturally move in straight lines and pretty perfect circles. They don’t naturally lower their heads, collect and trot daintily around an arena. The rider is making all of that happen. As a person continues to advance as a rider, you will see their confidence grow. Riding is HARD work and like any other sport takes lots of practice and dedication!

Horses also teach responsibility. If you haven’t noticed, they’re alive and have minds and personalities of their own. They are very much like large,  heavy, overgrown toddlers that poop a lot and make a mess when they eat. Riding horses and taking care of them is very labor intensive. This includes grooming, bathing, mucking stalls, hauling water buckets, unloading hay and other feed, unloading shavings for their stalls, cleaning tack, repairing fences, cleaning the barn, making sure your horse gets out for exercise, and the list goes on. All of these chores have to be done on a daily basis. Kids and others who are involved with horses learn to work hard and take pride in their work; another valuable lesson for life!

You can blossom into a confident, capable and outspoken rider and horseperson simply by hanging out with horses and learning how to ride. When first learning to ride, you may be able to get away with being a passenger at first, but soon you will have to take charge. There are many naughty ponies and horses to thank for timid little girls learning to quite literally take the reins and take control. In the horse/human relationship, the rider is dominant and has to be for their own safety. Riding teaches kids & adults alike to take control and lead, to make quick decisions and to trust their instincts. You may think you’re taking a riding lesson, but really  taking a lesson in life.

I don’t have any little girls myself yet, but I really wish my own parents would have seen the value of this when I was growing up.  In such a vain society where girls are taught that their core value lies in how they LOOK,  horses teach you to place value on what you can DO. Would you rather your pre-teen spend her afternoon wandering around the mall looking for the latest make-up fashions and push-up bras and hanging out with boys or master her position and equitation as she flies over a 3′ jump on horseback? I wonder which one will instill perseverance, diligence, and confidence in her ability to set goals and reach them? Hmmmm that’s a hard one! As little girls grow into teenagers, having horses around can be especially helpful. Your teenage daughter can’t get wasted or high at her friend’s party because she has to be up at the crack of dawn to trailer to a show. She certainly can’t get pregnant if she’s spending all her free time at the barn with the horses practicing and taking lessons. If her boyfriend dumps her, so what? Her horse is cuter anyway. Horses give teenage girls something to think about beside boys, parties and all the myriad superficial things our consumer society is selling.

Best of all, it’s never to late to get started. Wether you are 10, 20, 30, 50, 70 or older, it’s never too late to take up riding! I LOVE that Japanese equestrian Hiroshi Hoketsu qualified for the London Olympics at age 70, although it’s not yet clear if he will actually compete in the 2012 Olympic games this summer. 70 YEARS OLD and he can go to the OLYMPICS if he so chooses to actually compete! So I know there’s still hope for me yet! 😉

I am convinced that horses give back far more than they cost in ways that are immeasurable and priceless. Simply put, horses are good for the soul, and for that I am thankful. :-)

*Shadow & I, Champions in the Modified Division at our first show of the season. :)*

Speaking of horses, my friend came with me to the barn a couple of times this past week to photograph these magnificent creatures, and she has made a post dedicated to them, go check out some of the beautiful shots that she has captured and shared with us!!! Thanks Jamie!

 Horsing Around at the Barn