**REVIEW** 10-foot USB Phone-Charging Cable

There's nothing special these days about a USB cable for our phones. Between my phone, tablet, and vape devices, I have cables in every room of my apartment.

The reason I have so many cables is that they eventually fray around the ends - from being bent, pulled, twisted, and stretched - and I have to replace them.

What is kind of special about this one is the banded protection on each end.

their photo was better than mine

I am really hoping that this kind of protection extends the life of the cable. I am hopeful...

The 2 cords I am trying are each 10 feet long, but the seller, CyvenSmart, has the same type cords in different lengths. They have a lot of other style cords also, but what I needed was this Type C cable for Samsung's S8 phone.

In addition to the length, I like the tough TPE covering the rest of the cord. It's stronger and feels a lot more durable than the fabric that covered my last cords.



The very best thing about this cable is that it is the first I've had in a while that charges as fast as OEM cables that came with the phone.

Not much else to tell you, but I had not seen this type of cable before so I wanted to share the info. Keep in mind that there were cheaper cables and I even found a set of 4 cables for less than the $11 I paid for these 2, but I am not disappointed.

Peace
--Free


I was in the mood to post some spoken word art and was going to post some Gwendolyn Brooks poetry or something by Tupac but... I remember being obsessed with Def Poetry Jam. A friend I and used to sit around, drinking cheap wine and crying over life while we watched video copies of DPJ. For those who missed out, here's a sample.

Maybe for this holiday season, do something to support a starving and brilliant artist.

**RANT** Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy Express 3

If you think we aren't being controlled by our electronics and gadgets, just let something happen to your computer or cell phone. Trust me, I know.

Galaxy Note 4

The day before I was set to travel here to Iowa, my Note 4 phone crapped out. It had been acting snitty for a few weeks - shutting itself down at random intervals and needing to be coaxed into turning back on - but I thought all it needed was a fresh battery. Bought a battery. Spent 30 bucks on a battery. Phone went from having a bad attitude to needing a spanking.

Of course, I searched online for help and suggestions. Apparently, mine wasn't the only Note 4 having toddler-tantrum issues. I found suggestions that actually worked:

• Take out the battery and hold down the Power button before re-inserting battery.
• Turn phone off and hold down the Volume Up button while pressing the Home button.
• Hold phone up to the sun as a sacrifice to Martin Cooper, then toss phone against a brick wall.

Okay, that last one... yeah, not so true.

I think an interrupted software update is what started these problems. Not that I interrupted the update, but that maybe the power went out (or my battery died) during an update. All I know is, I woke up one morning and realized that my phone was shut down (good thing I hadn't needed the Alarm to wake me). When I turned it on, I got a weird message on screen that was all nerd-speak: lots of red, white, and blue letters and numbers up left-top above an urgent message Not to turn off phone. 

Ohhh-kay...

I didn't dare shut the phone off for over an hour. Finally, I popped the battery out (only way to shut it down) and did a re-start. The phone worked fine. For about 2 days. Then the random HAL2000 stuff started happening.

Bricked this thang!

AT&T was zero help. They could only suggest sending the phone back to the manufacturer for a re-set. Great idea except that could take around 4 weeks. Since the phone did start occasionally behaving - with the Power-Home-Volume reboots - I let it ride. Keep in mind, I was in the middle of prepping for a move.

I could use my upgrade to the get S8, but I'm trying to hold out for the Note 8. Of course, 

Galaxy Express 3

Something told me that I might want to have a back-up plan just in case the dang phone decided to go from toddler-tude to teen-tude.  The only backup I could afford was this lovely little, er, phone:

If my broken phone had teen-tude, this thing was just straight out ADHD affected. But it was only $50 and that was all I could afford because my budget is so tight that it has zero circulation.

First, let me say that this is such a first-world problem that I should be ashamed of complaining. However, we do live in a society that is dependent on electronics. Because I would be traveling, I needed a phone to stay in touch. Also, my plane ticket, boarding passes, and luggage tracking were all e-based. 

My entire journey - travel and hotel - were controlled via a phone app. So you can see how I kind of needed a phone. Well, I got that Express 3. Only thing is, it can only be loosely referred to as a phone. Let me bullet-point the ways this phone has tried to convince me to check myself into a mental institution:

• I've used 8gigs storage on device, but it won't let me fully use the 4 gig external storage
• To take and/or share a photo, I have to delete one of my apps, then re-install afterward
• The sound quality is crap
• The picture quality is crap
• Dang phone is so small that I lose it in my purse, the car seat, the deep pockets of my jacket, etc.

Don't get me wrong - I am so glad to have a phone at all. But. Dangit!

If I take a photo and want to view it - let alone share it - I have to delete other apps just to work with the photo, move the photo off the phone to the cloud or other online storage, then re-install whatever app(s) I deleted just to do all of that.

sigh

For now, I have given up on having a decent phone until the Note 8 comes out but, boy, it's getting hard not to run down and sign up for an S8. The other day, I saw someone with a Note 5 and was tempted to offer a price for it. 

In the meantime, I am phone-feigning like an addict and chomping at the bit to show off some photos of my new hometown. Soon, my friends, soon.

Peace

--Free

**REVIEW** Kobert Mobile Premium Waterproof Case

Those of you familiar with this blog know that I am weirdly phobic and you might be wondering why I need a waterproof case for my phone. After all, I don`t swim - or even get close to where water touches beach sand. Besides, I live in Alaska. Beaches are not a main feature in our travel brochures.

Kobert Waterproof Case

But... This is a neat product from Kobert that I am trying out.

I live in Alaska, yes sir. This is the home of almost never ending winters where we (usually) get enough snow to turn our driveways into ski destinations. And when the winter finally decides to make room for what the rest of you call Spring, we Alaskans get our 5th season: Breakup. This is when all that snow starts to melt, giving us puddles and rivers of salty, grimy water. Did I mention that slipping and sliding is another unintended exercise we get plenty of? (An intended sport is that of drivers splashing pedestrians with some of that lovely, um, water!)

And, because of my disability, I am extremely clumsy. So, yeah... I need this waterproof protection for my phone. Of course, I needed to test the waterproofing feature (which the label suggests users do).

I inserted a piece of used notepaper, closed the case, then submerged the case in a Tuppperware bowl of room temp water for around 5 minutes. (By the way, be careful not to insert a too-warm phone in the casing & don't dunk in hot water. #CondensationHappens)

No smeared/blurry ink here

I'm sure "dirty, gritty, icky Breakup water" should be included...

For my test, the paper and ink survived.

Notice the pic showing what all else this protects against.  I myself am not bothered with all that "certified to 100 feet" bidness. If I ever get that far underwater, I'll have no need for any calls other than a direct line to Jesus.

Next up was to see how well my phone fit into the case and how well it worked when enclosed. The label advises that any photos taken while the camera is covered might not be top quality, but the one I took (labelled pic 000) fine. The touchscreen worked well for me even though you'll hear later where I had a minor problem.

Fits just fine

Since I am going to be putting my cellphone on the line (or, rather, in the water), I'll procrastinate by telling you some other points I noticed:

• I spent 2 ot 3 minutes trying to find a place to attach the lanyard. I checked the product page and saw that it's just to be attached to the top of the case. (see pic 2)
• The closure for the case itself was a little odd to me. It was hard to see the "close---> open" embossed on the black casing. Duh.
• Using the phone while its encased is not too difficult. The touchscreen was good. Using the side buttons (Power, Volume) was tricky because I had to sort of contort the plastic to get to them. I am afraid to damage the case because of this:

Read that 2nd bullet point if you can (pic 000)

You know what? Smack the procrastination! I don't have to test this using my own phone (at least until I land tail-down in a puddle later this season) because Kobert already has a video highlighting the features. 

Whew! 

the 2:27 mark is where he submerges phone...

I noticed that the touchscreen didn't seem to work very well for him while the phone was submerged. That's cool with me though. I figure that if I end up testing this in a real-world situation, someone will already have dialled 911 for me. Hah!

My phone is the Galaxy S3, but there are cases for many phones, including the following:

• iPhone 6, 6 Plus(Without Case), 5, 5s, 5c, 4, 4s, 3
• Samsung Galaxy s3, s4, s5, Note 2, Note 3, Note 4
• Nokia Lumia
• Windows Phone 8x
• Nexus 4 
• HTC One/One X/X+

Not bad for the $13 the case is currently priced at via Amazon. Also, the kit comes with that lanyard I told you about and a stylus which are both of decent quality. Finally, for any fraidy cats, here is the best part from the product page:

"ZERO RISK INVOLVED - At Kobert International we stand by our products and offer a no questions asked 30 DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE. We will offer an additional 1 YEAR REPLACEMENT GUARANTEE on the waterproof case. Your satisfaction is our top priority. So try it now. TOTALLY RISK FREE!"

For my fellow non-beach-going but possibly-skiing and definitely break-upping Alaskans, this is a good investment. Considering the price of cellphones and how pricey other protection options are, this works for me.

Peace
--Free


DISCLOSURE:
I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

When Life Hacks Get it Twisted

I love those "Life Hacks," but, sometimes, the best thing I get from them is a good laugh. Some things (in my life anyway) are just un-hackable. Maybe certain areas of my life are just not to be tamed. Here are a few hacks that I've run across that don't work so well for me:

Hack: Beating your phone addiction. My Life: Too late. I need a serious intervention.

I'm advised that instead of checking my phone first thing in the morning, I should spend my time "organizing my thoughts." Yeah. Okay. That would be great - if I didn't need my phone to wake up in the first place. I not only use my phone as a morning alarm, I sometimes use it as a noise machine for getting to sleep in the first place. (I love my phone so much that, if it had warm toes, I'd snuggle with it.) Once I do get up and think I might be able to function, I need my phone to outline my day. I even use this app (sometimes) so that I have something talking to me. (My phone is the only thing that wants to have a conversation with me before I've had coffee.) A few more years of becoming any more dependent on our phones, I imagine some of us will forget to breathe without Siri or her boyfriend reminding us. (By the way, is it sad that I've been thinking of naming my phone? Some days, I think of her as "Lou." Some days, I just call her "unresponsive bitch.")

Hack: Having "organizing stations" around our home. My Life: If I was that organized, I wouldn't need this.

This hack made me actually stop reading to roll my eyes. First off, there are 11 of these suggested stations. Eleven! Come on now. With my illness, I have the attention span of a toddler. I read the first one and started skimming the rest. Here are the listed stations: Mail/Correspondence, Wardrobe, Fix-it, Cleaning House, Gift Wrap, Charging, Bag Drop, Child's School, Recycling, Car Travel, Health/Wellness.

Well, damn. I had to rest after just going through the list. Talk about needing a Health/Wellness station... Actually, I have every one of those so-called "stations." They just aren't exactly organized. I even have a Child's School station (and no kids). That's for all the coloring books and pieces of crafts I collected when I was recuperating and learning to talk again in complete sentences. Some of the stations are just crazy. (A sister-in-law of mine did once have a Gift Wrap room, but she had a 20,000 square foot house. I guess she needed to do something with a good hunk of it to keep me from moving in.) I didn't even check to see what a Bag Drop station is. Unless it's where I keep my big Bed, Bath & Beyond bag of Walmart and Target bags... ~shrug~ What the hell ever.

Hack: Motivation to show up at work. My Life: I owe, I owe, so off to work I go.

Right now, there are days I dream of getting back to work. This whole idle lifestyle is the pits when you are too broke to turn idle time into fun. When I was working, I had all the motivation I needed: house note, car payment, $200 a month shopping habit and, oh yeah - mouths to feed. When I first saw this hack, I instantly remembered my mother and what she would say when I'd complain about my job: "You better get your happy ass up and get to that office. Hungry trumps tired any day." (I laughed so hard, I got a cramp. I really miss my mother!)

By the way, I actually did get a great tip from this hack. I will now be using the "Hemingway Technique" when it comes to writing.

Since I get a daily email feed of hacks, I could go on and on, but you get my point. You can hack some things, but life is, after all, life. Part of the adventure is to live it raw. Of course, I will take help where it helps.

Peace
--Free