dailyprompt

5 Favorite Apps

| aeporterfield

What are your favorite 5 apps on your phone?

My top 5
  1. Too Good To Go I just recently learned about this app and I’m obsessed. Designed to reduce food waste, Too Good To Go partners with local restaurants and stores to offer food that didn’t sell at reduced prices. My favorite thing to do on Friday nights is to get a surprise bag from a local pizza place and veg out in front of the TV. This is a very reasonable thing for a 50 year old person to do. $5.99 and I get enough pizza for dinner and lunch the next day. I’ve also gotten surprise bags from grocery stores, filled with a delightful assortment of fresh and canned/boxed items, all within date, and all things my family will eat. A $25 value for $7.99. Being cheap gives me such a thrill! And I also like the idea of reducing food waste, but mostly just being cheap.
  2. Duolingo I currently have a 1565 day streak on Duolingo. Super proud of that. I’ve been learning Spanish for over 4 years. I cannot speak Spanish. But I can understand a little (un poco) if the speaker speaks very slowly. I also use it to practice playing chess. I recently learned they do music lessons too! I use the paid version because I accidentally forgot to cancel my free trial, and every February I get charged like $80 and I’m like “Doh! Forgot to cancel Duolingo.” But I enjoy this app so I don’t mind paying for it.
  3. Libby My library app. I have a long commute to work so I listen to audiobooks all the time. I go through a couple of books a week.
  4. Spotify For my music. I use the free version so I have to listen to ads. I just dissociate when the ads come on. They gave me a several months long free trial of premium and it was nice, but I won’t pay for this app.
  5. NYT Games to play the Wordle every day. My favorite games are Wordle, connections, the Mini and Midi crossword, Spelling Bee, and Strands. I did pay like $18 for a year of this app because they locked all the games I liked 😡 but $18 a year wasn’t that much and it was worth it to me.

I do have all the social media apps but I didn’t list them because even though I use them a lot, they are not my favorites. I often delete them off my phone entirely because they are so addictive and I find myself wasting so much time.

Smartphones are amazing tools! It’s hard now to even imagine life without one, even though I grew up in the 80s. My phone helps me organize my life, keeps me connected to family and friends, and literally puts the entire world of information at my fingertips. But doomscrolling eats up hours of my life. It’s a delicate balance.

Look what I found!

| aeporterfield

What’s the best thing you’ve ever found randomly on the street?

I found this cat.
Feathers are always a good find.
I found this the day after my good friend passed.
I found this marble.
I found these gloves in the road after the ice from the big winter storm finally melted.

| aeporterfield

What are your favorite animals?

My favorite animals are the ones that have soft fur, wet noses, whiskers, and soft ears.

But I also like the ones that have feathers and fly and sing.

Oh but then there are the colorful ones that swim. And then there are some of the ones that swim that are really big and curious and smart.

I like the ones with big long necks and the ones with long funny noses that like peanuts but are afraid of mice. Is that really true?

I even like the ones that slither, although I keep my distance. And the ones that crawl, scurry, scamper, or hop. The ones that bray, or neigh, or moo.

I wonder if they like me too?

The oldest thing I own

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What’s the oldest thing you own that you still use daily?

Hmmm… I own a lot of old things. I collect old books, I have some pretty old coins, old photographs, old records. But I don’t use those things regularly. So I would have to say the oldest thing I own that I still use daily would be my body.

My body will be 48 this year and it’s a little worse for wear, with the arthritis, poor eyesight (got my first pair of bifocals last year), and skin beginning to sag.

What a drag it is getting old.

But I do love my body and I’m grateful for it. My body is a vehicle for moving my soul around in 3-D, and while it may not be aesthetically pleasing to some, it is strong and reliable.

If my body were a real vehicle it would look like this one

Classic.

Tagline

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If humans had taglines, what would yours be?

“Let me do the worrying for you.”

I understand you’re looking forward to experiencing a carefree moment of joy? Rest assured I have already imagined every single unfortunate event that could befall you, both probable and improbable.

Do you know where the emergency exits are located? I do. And I have planned multiple paths to access them in many different scenarios.

See the thing is my brain believes that the fabric of the universe is woven together with the threads of my anxiety, so if I were to stop worrying about everything the entire universe would collapse.

You’re welcome for keeping it all together.

Favorite Childhood book? But of course!

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Do you remember your favorite book from childhood?

My favorite childhood book was this one, starring lovable, furry old Grover.

This book gave me all the feels. Fear, suspense, sadness, joy…and it was my first experience with dramatic irony. I read this book over and over. It also taught me how important it is to read with expression. My mother always did a very dramatic read of this book and many giggles were shared. Love, love, love this book.

Three Books

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List three books that have had an impact on you. Why?

“Print media is dead,” she whispered to herself as she realized that most of the books that had an impact on her were made obsolete by the internet…

The first book on my list is this one, from the Survival Series for Kids, What To Do When Your Mom or Dad Says, “Clean Your Room”

(Not my photo)

I checked this book out of my school library in 3rd or 4th grade based solely on the title. Nine year old me was like, “awwww yeeeeeah… we’re about to stick it to the man!”

In reality this book was full of very helpful, practical tips on how to clean and organize your room. I still remember and use the information I learned from this book. From making the bed, to folding and hanging clothes, to vacuuming and dusting. This book was great and I still use what I learned from it 40 years later.

The second book on my list is this one- The Practical Guide to Practically Everything

(Also not my photo)

This book was invaluable to me in my twenties. Like many young people, I graduated from school severely lacking in actual life skills. I remember a conversation I had with my roommate at the time that went something like this, “Please help me, I don’t know how to do this very basic thing.” And she responded with, “You need a Practical Guide to Practically Everything!”

She lent me her dad’s copy and I wore it out. This was in the mid-nineties. Now anything you could ever want to know can be searched up on your phone. These truly are amazing times we are living in, but this book will always have a special place in my heart.

My third and final book is this one, A Complaint Free World by Will Bowen

(Again… not my photo)

I read this book in my thirties when I saw it recommended on a friend’s blog. It’s exactly what the cover says, stop complaining and start living. But it’s presented as a 21 day challenge, which gives you an immediate, practical application of the principles presented in the book. No complaining, gossiping, or criticizing anything for 21 days. And the accountability piece is a bracelet you wear on your wrist, and you move it from one wrist to the other whenever you catch yourself complaining, gossiping, or criticizing anything. I never made it 21 days, but just the awareness of how often I was being negative with my words, or even my internal monologue, gave me the opportunity to turn it around. So over time I became much less whiny and much more solution oriented. I still revisit this book. It’s given me a much more positive outlook on life.

So, there you have it. My three impactful books. Down to earth, straightforward, PRACTICAL advice for living in 3-D.

Can’t wait to read others’ responses!

My Autobiography

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You’re writing your autobiography. What’s your opening sentence?

“I don’t know whose idea it was to drop me – a naked, screaming BABY- into this world, and then give me a LIFE and RESPONSIBILITIES… good grief. I have been inconvenienced. I feel I am entitled to some sort of compensation and I’d like to speak to the manager.”

I know it’s more than one sentence. But honestly, I have this life and I don’t know what to do with it. I feel like… you know how when you were in school and the teacher was giving directions but you didn’t hear because you were drawing or looking out the window and then you look around and everyone is hard at work but you don’t know what the heck is going on and you can’t ask, because you were supposed to be listening. And you don’t want to look stupid, so you just watch what everyone else is doing and try to do that, but you don’t know what THAT is, so you end up looking stupid anyway. And then the teacher is disappointed in you.

I feel like at the end of my life, when I’m facing my final judgement, God will heave an exasperated sigh and say, “What have you been DOING????”

I don’t know. I just really don’t know.