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Top 10 Signs You (And Your Friends) Are Addicted to Candy Crush

Candy pieces dance around in front of your eyes as you drift off to sleep every night. You know which levels are the hard ones because of the sheer amount of people complaining about them (30, 35, 65. 97, and 98). That damn. Last. JELLY. You know which of your friends are slackers at work, and/or have too much free time on their hands, by their response times to your life requests and episode unlock requests. Thinking about chocolate bars makes you clench your fists in anger and frustration. You regularly scroll forward to see who's ahead of you. You regard those who are like 45 levels ahead of you with a mixture of awe ("I'm not worthy!"), envy ("Man, I wish I had that...

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Prey: An Essential for Gadget Lovers

I left one very important item off my Samsung Galaxy Note II review. (And as soon as I finish writing this, I will be updating the review with a link to this post!) And that is Prey — an open-source software that lets you track (and potentially recover) your stolen laptop, cell phone, or tablet. I know there exist tons of anti-theft software in the market today. What makes Prey stand out from the rest is that it is powerful, versatile, and FREE (for up to 3 devices). Here's what happened when I reported my cell phone as missing. I immediately received an email alerting me that it was marked as missing, and within minutes, I received a follow-up message with a link...

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The Search for the Most Comfortable, Most Natural-Looking Circle Lenses…And an EyeCandy’s Giveaway!

Ever since I discovered the Neo Natural Touch Brown circle lenses, I had been on somewhat of a circle lens craze. This is not to say that I have been mindlessly purchasing circle lenses of every color and every design. Rather, I had a specific goal in mind: to find the most comfortable, most natural-looking lenses for my plain brown eyes. And I think I've accomplished my mission! (And they're not the Neo Natural Touch Brown lenses!) Since I had so much trouble researching natural-looking circle lenses — reading through hundreds of reviews, comparing how they look via the photos on various online retailers as well as beauty blogs...

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THE Best Lounge Pants for Petites! (And Talls!)

A few weeks ago, I realized that the ratty old lounge pants I was donning were more than a decade old. They were stretched out, pilling, stained, and just plain ugly from age. Luckily, Old Navy was having a huge sale, so while picking up some new PJs for Claire, I decided to get a pair of the Petite Women's Wide-Leg Active Pants for myself. Admittedly, they don't look that great in the product photos. BUT YOU GUYS. These pants are just...

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My Samsung Galaxy Note II Review

A couple of weeks ago, I gathered up some information (how long I’ve been with Verizon Wireless, how much I spend per month, how I always pay my bill on time, and what other carriers are offering) and made a call to customer service.

“My current phone is DYING,” I pleaded. “I’ve taken it to the Verizon Store several times, and even performed two hard resets in the past month. I still need to restart it at least once a day to keep it running. I know I’m a few months away from my upgrade eligibility date, but is there any way you can move up that date for me?”

After some more begging (“My phone can’t even handle Candy Crush!”) and ass-kissing (“Verizon has the best network in the nation!”) and even a veiled threat (“So…how much will it be if I were to cancel my contract right now and switch to a different provider?”), a manager came on the line and voilà! I was granted an early upgrade!

(When I bragged to J about getting an early upgrade, he pouted, “What about me?” when he already has a kickass phone — an unlocked Galaxy Nexus — that is less than a year old. Still…CHALLENGE ACCEPTED. 😎 After an hour on the phone with T-Mobile, I was able to get him an unlocked Nexus 4 for $50. BOOYAH!)

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I had been eyeing the original Samsung Galaxy Note ever since it was released in early 2012 because I hate most soft keyboards. These days, physical keyboards only seem to accompany crappy phones; I figured a stylus would be a nice compromise. The HUGE size was attractive to my fat clumsy fingers as well.

(I’ve been noticing that the older I got, the larger I preferred my gadgets. 🙂 Has this happened to anyone else?)

So when Samsung announced the Galaxy Note II. AND that it would be available on Verizon…

It’s probably obvious by now which phone I ended up getting. (Also, the title of this post. Duh.) 

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Oh, Galaxy Note II, shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and blah blah blah…

Who cares how the sonnet ends, because I FRICKIN LOVE THIS PHONE!!!

I will not be going on the specs nor analyzing the phone’s performance here. I trust that anyone with access to Google can easily obtain that information.

What I will be doing is to highlight my favorite features of the phone, talk about my favorite accessories, and address the biggest issue that concerns most consumers about the Note II.