Day 7 - Loyalty Plans (Yay!!!)

The End of the Quest...

Hello there! Hope your week is painting a big smile on your face so far. It is Day 7 which means this is the last post on this Assignment which has been quite fun.

I was worried about today's topic, "Loyalty Plans", cause I don't have any!!! If they mean a royalty plan for cable I am afraid I cannot discuss about it, since I've said many times before that I do not watch cable. Buuuut... speculating, I can imagine a loyalty plan that perks me up with HBO, Showtime and Starz for unlimited time at a reasonable price LOL!!!

However, I was thinking about the brands I use the most, the stores I shop in and the restaurant chains I love to order from, which made me think about their "loyalty plans", what we call REWARD CARDS. Dontcha LOVE Reward Cards??? --- I confess myself to be an addict. They make my shopping experience just finer, funner and sometimes cheaper. Emptying my wallet, I found out I own A LOT of reward cards that I actually USE. 

Sephora's Beauty Insider offers wonderful rewards, as I get to buy a lot of makeup for theater and presents. Since I am also subscribed to their Beauty Insider Electronic Rewards program, I get lots and lots of emails from them with coupons, perks and gift sets for shopping online with them!!! I consider Reward Cards a Loyalty Plan, since they encourage you to return to them and keep buying, spending, visiting and revisiting their store.

GameStop's Power Up rewards card is awesome. Videogames are expensive. We all know that. So it is a great thing to own a reward card from a store specialized in videogames. Apart from very cool discounts, this card gives you incredible perks like pre-ordering advantage for up-coming games, which normally include amazing in-game rewards, like additional weapons, armors, videos, downloads and such for your gaming experience. With your Power Up card you can also gain access to special events like preview presentations, free demos and Q&A sessions with game designers, voice over actors and producers. Pretty neat, huh? It is for a hardcore gamer like me!!!

I also own the Best Buy rewards card. I have to confess I visit Best Buy at least once a week and end up buying something at least twice a month. Their online coupons and discounts go from 10 to 25% regularly, which helps economize a little. It also offers special pre-ordering advantages on DVDs, BluRay movies and videogames and they have a very flexible return policy for damage goods. 

Since I'm a costume designer I regularly need to buy material like watercolor tubes and paper, brushes, stylos, markers and more. Here is where Michael's rewards card comes in handy!!! This store is the one that provides the highest amount of loyalty points per purchase, allowing me to get huge discounts easily and quite often. Also, being a designer, my Mood Fabrics rewards cards comes in handy whenever I start a project and need to get yards and yards of fabric and trimming. With their online subscription I get previews of up-coming trends, collections and specific discounts on wools, knits, silks and some cottons. Cool!!!

Barnes&Noble has given me a NookColor for only 99 bucks! It is so easy to accumulate points in your card, especially if you read as much as I do LOL!!! Their plan include secret "codes" sent by email that allow you to freely download the "book of the week" to your Nook and get discounts of Nook accessories like covers, pens, reading clip-lamps, etc. 

Other cards I own include stores like Duane Reade, Subway, Pinkberry (make it to the 10th perforation on your card and you'll get one ice cream free!!!), Cosi and Godiva among others I don't use this much.

Talking about loyalty perks, my bank, Chase (and I love my bank) recently upgraded my debit card to the Disney Visa Card, which allows me to get discounts at Disney Stores, selective Disney merchandise, discounts at Theme Parks and Disney Resorts and Cruise Line. Since I am a HUGE Disney fan I'm pretty sure Chase and Visa have ASSURED my loyalty for a long while! 

As you can see, loyalty to certain brands, chains and franchises can have its uses, specially when you live alone in such an expensive city as New York and you do as much as you can to save a few dollars. They not only help you save money, they also make your entire shopping experience a lot FUNNER!!! 

 

Day 6 - Something bigger...

Well...

So, Monday was hectic and got home by 3 am, which of course made it impossible for me to blog since I crawled to bed and fell asleep almost immediately... However, it is never too late to double-blog, right?

Continuing with my "Tasks", I've been asked to reflect on the following statement: 

Latinos today are a force to be reckoned with—growing, not only in numbers, but also in influence—changing the fabric of the country we live in, and thanks to the breadth of today’s technology, able to establish a true sense of belonging.

Well, YES. The statement pretty much summarizes all we've been talking about for a week. We've said before that Latinos' influence has been growing up by the hour, and I mentioned a few examples of Latino people making a difference in the arts, media, politics, etc. 

Technology helps establish a true sense of belonging because it is everywhere and we use it for everything. TV shows, news, blogs, social networks and many, many other sources of technology have, as I have said before, made cultures merge, share and mix in order to create a global hybrid that's expanding a new wave of "being" in the country we live in. 

Social networks have killed distances. What seemed so far away, remote or distant became the number one mean of communication between people, creating social, cultural and practical bridges that allow us to share our lives through posts, pictures, events, tweets, comments, blogs, tags, hashtags, shares and more. They have created a sense of universal community in which people from different paths of life get to comment, talk, exchange points of view, discuss and even advertise themselves and/or their work.

As long as we have something to talk about and someone to listen (or read) us, we will belong...

Day 5 - Being a Latino in NY...

Really?

I've been insanely busy the past two days, so blogging had to be pushed at the end of my day. My eyes are closing and I'm supposed to write about being a Latino in NY, a topic I pretty much covered in the past post, so  I am REALLY having a hard time figuring out what to talk about LOL.

What does being Latino in NY mean today? --- It means you're part of a major minority (and yes, I am aware of the contradiction there lol) that in the past few years has found a way into politics, public figures, arts and more. However being Latino in NY varies from a Latino resident to a Latino temporary worker, which is my case. Since I don't have a green card yet, lots of opportunities mainly concerning work slip away from my fingers because of my limited legal status. Things like getting an apartment or a part time job is also quite challenging, although those issues come with the label of being a temporary immigrant, whether Latino or other ethnic group. 

But at the same time, Latinos are, have been and will always be very supportive to one another. I've noticed Latino theater has a huge community of companies, groups and organizations that helps Latino artists circle around without the necessity of being "Union". 

I think it is very interesting (and important) that Latino theater has created a very solid platform for actors to stand on, giving away awards like the ACE, ATI and HOLA awards and acknowledging the work and talent of our own people in the business. As an ethnic group, it proves that Latinos are aware of their growth and influence in American history nowadays, embracing the million things a city such as NY (the cultural capital of the USA as many people call it) but always keeping their strength and identity as Latinos, bounding people from all Spanish-speaking corners of the planet into one big ethnic family that keeps moving on.

Latinos are trendy, dontcha think? Just look around! Adriana Lima's posing for Victoria's Secret, Sofia Vergara has made a very successful career with "Modern Family" and advertising American brands like Cover Girl and Pepsi, Lana Parrilla stars as the Evil Queen in ABC's "Once Upon A Time" (not to mention she's the daughter of a Puerto Rican former baseball left fielder that played for the Philadelphia Phillies in the 70's), a show whose costume designer, Eduardo Castro, happens to be Latino as well; and popular shows like "Glee"and "Smash" feature at least one Latino character in their story lines. This demonstrates one more time that the USA has embraced Latino culture as one of their more productive and fascinating immigrants. 

I mention actors and artists since it's the world I am most familiar with, but I know that NY has Latino people occupying important seats in politics and other public charges. During Bloomberg's reports on Hurricane Sandy, I heard someone mention his interpreter for the hearing impaired  is actually Latina. Cool, huh? --- It seems we are everywhere. I am not really into politics, but one keeps hearing that after the recent elections, a lot of laws concerning immigration will change for the better, so  assume we'll be hearing more and more from Latinos making it in America. 

Latinos have a sense of identity that makes us UNIQUE. From my elder Dominican male neighbors playing domino on the streets of Washington Heights to the large Mexican communities of Poblanos in Queens frying quesadillas, molotes and gorditas in every corner, each Latino family keeps their traditions alive and incorporates them to the never-stopping agitated lives of New Yorkers. As I mentioned before, NY serves the most delicious buffet of cultures one could possibly imagine. And we Latinos are covering the appetizers, entrees and dessert BY FAR!!! 

Day 4 - De aquí y de allá...

Hey there!!!

I had one of the most beautiful days in quite a while, and it ended with a marvelous screening of Joe Wright's version of "Anna Karenina" with a Q&A session with amazing Keira Knightley. I am thrilled with the movie. I really, really, really LOVED it.

These are the perks you get living in such an exciting city like New York. I mean, of course I miss home, after all I grew up in one of the most peaceful and beautiful cities of all Mexico, and Mexico is a culture that one always likes carrying around no matter where you are. Luckily for me, I do have a lot of Mexican friends in the city participating in my daily life, so we get to keep our culture alive as much as we can.

The food is one of the things I miss the most from my country. Although NY has many interesting Mexican food places that aren't so bad, there is nothing like a home cooked mole, tinga or chilorio. Than God my friends are such good cooks and pamper us with dinner parties, "taquizas" and lots of "antojitos" that remind us why we love our culture. We actually get together to celebrate our "Grito de Independencia", watch our soccer team play and have Mexican parties with mariachi music and "zapateado" dancing (Not kidding!!!)

Language is something I do not get to miss that much. EVERYONE IN NY SPEAKS SPANISH hahaha!!! So I speak it every single day with friends, at stores, restaurants and making conversation on the subway. 

I mislike when people ask what's it like American versus Latino culture and which I like best; or what aspects of both cultures I embrace and which I reject...

I don't think I've been 100% Mexican all my life. I mean, yes, I am so proud of being Mexican and I partake pretty much all of my traditions, from praying to the Guadalupana (although I've never taken the pilgrimage to the Basilica on my knees and will never do it) to eating Rosca de Reyes every Three King's Day, but my generation grew up in a world so close to the USA that I actually learned to speak English when I was very young, and thanks to my social position and blessings in life I was able to travel a lot. The first time I visited Disney World I was only 4 years old, and I spent my Junior High School year as an exchange student in Memphis, TN; so American culture was always around. I grew up with American television, American music and American junk food since chains like Burger King, McDonald's, Wendy's, Dairy Queen, Subway and Dunkin' Donuts made it to my city over the years, as I grew up. It became pretty normal dining on tacos from La Parrilla on Fridays and chilling on Domino's Pizza on Saturday while watching Hallmark movies on cable. Hybrid!!!

However, living in the USA has proven to be quite different than living in Mexico. Apart from the obvious aspects like the size of the buildings, the subway and the immensity of the urban life itself, one of the best aspects NY has is the mixture of cultures and the different people you get to meet. Since I moved here, I can proudly say that I have at least one friend from each different continent in the world, and that is simply PRICELESS. 

If I have to embrace one thing of American culture over Mexican culture would be probably the sense of  comfort and the life quality one gets here in general. Transportation, organization, professionalism are perks I've gained while living and working in an American environment. 

Other thing would definitely be the openness and freedom you breathe when it comes to sexual orientation. Not gonna fall hard on my own people, but I grew up within a society very conservative that, although nowadays seems to be more open minded, still struggles with machismo and prejudices. Ok, I can't say I live a very gay life myself, since I am not really into Gay Pride, gay clubs, gay friends and gay things, but it is nice knowing that I don't have to lock myself up in a closet and that, when the time comes, I will be able to walk around holding hands with my boyfriend and it will not matter.

In NYC I was even able to find a Catholic church that has a LGBT group that hangs out very often. You will never see such thing back home!!! --- And yes, of course I've joined them. It is a beautiful circle of people that share the same beliefs, morals and faith as me.

Technology, as I mentioned on previous posts, has helped a lot to keep me connected to my people, my family, my roots, through Skype, news, Latino channels on TV, smartphones and social networks. I think it is beautiful watching my wall on facebook and seeing a mixture of English and Spanish in so many different posts. It's like having a soup of Here&There, a very nutritious soup that keeps me healthy, since I need to feed myself with a little bit of Here and a little bit of There. 

I am part of both worlds now and at the end of the day they match just fine. They are part of WHO I AM: A Mexican living in the USA. Just add guacamole to your wrap. It will taste DIVINE!!!

   

Day 3 - The (Social) Circle of Life

Wednesday already!!!

Seems the week is flying and the city has been struck by the first snow draft of the season. As House Stark would say in "Game of Thrones": WINTER IS COMING lol!!!

So today I won't be leaving home since I can work from my bedroom editing text, finishing some sketches and, of course, blogging a little bit. Thank God we have social networks so I'm not gonna feel lonely. That reminds me when I first moved to NYC four years ago. I didn't have a facebook account and I wasn't into social networks, honestly. I never had Hi5, not even MySpace. I used the typical MSN Messenger and my regular e-mail to communicate with people. But NYC proved to be a tough challenge when you're on your own...

I am lucky enough in life to have a huge amount of friends and people I know. Back in Merida I would hang out with different circles. I owned a theater troupe there so I have lots of friends that worked with me in several productions and became really close. We call ourselves La Mafia Persa and we hang out very often whenever I'm visiting. We've been friends since 2005 approximately and we had a very fun routine. After teaching or rehearsing, we would end up drinking coffee at Café La Habana, a very nice coffee chain that's open 24 hrs and they refill your cup endlessly. We talk about theater, we discuss projects and we complain about how the Department of Cultural Affairs sometimes mishandles money and lacks organization LOL!!! La Mafia Persa grew smaller when some of our actors left town, moved away or decided theater wasn't paying enough to make it in life (smart asses!!!) But whenever we get the chance to be home at the same time is MANDATORY to hit Café La Habana until the sun sends us cawing back to bed!

A few Mafia Persa buddies at S-nario karaoke bar in Mérida.

 We loved going to our favorite karaoke place, S-nario, to sing our lungs out (awesome singers in this group, actually.) --- I recently found out, last time I was home, that our friend Hugo sold the business and now it's pretty lame. So sad when times change and YOU NOTICE IT!

But we have many good memories of S-nario, like Patty's All Pink Birthday Party many years ago. I LOVE PINK, so of course I enjoyed the theme!

More Mafia Persa members.Some of them are currently away...

 Here I have 2 pictures stolen from Patty's old albums on facebook...

 

The other group I hang out with whenever I'm home is the best friends. We call ourselves Karmitas or Petit Comité and they are the main circle I hang out with. It's funny cause this group is actually younger than me since most of them went to college with my sister Gina. However I've been always very close to Gina, we do a lot of things together and we are actually best friends (I know, brothers and sisters do not share as much as we do, so I consider myself incredibly blessed!) The majority here are lawyers so they're all pretty talkative and smart. Almost all of them are married now which makes the group a big beautiful family.

This is the circle I'm always with. We love to party, play board games, go out, get drunk, spend weekends at Rommina's apartment by the beach and share life. We've been together for many, many years now and I'm sure these are the friends that will last a lifetime. 

The Petit Comité celebrating (not the best picture after a boot of beer but the whole team is here lol)

The Petit Comité subdivided when one of the couples broke up, including my best friend, so he went back to some old buddies and we formed the Mandriliza, an all-guys circle to socialize and just be dudes.

Here's my awesome Mandriliza buddies!!!

Of course I sometimes hang out with old high school buddies, old friends and even my cousins, but these 3 groups are the most beloved ones.

Moving to NYC was a huge challenge considering I left behind a loving family and so many close friends. Thank God my dear friend Paola was already living here. She was one of my closest friends in college, we did a lot of theater together and we shared many good memories since I grew fond of her whole family. She had a circle of Mexican artists (and a few Americans) living in the city already so they embraced me and opened their houses and their hearts to me, so I've been very lucky. We call ourselves The Family and it has grown considerably since I joined them 4 years ago. We share a lot of things together. We love getting together at someone's home (it is a couples group, almost all of them are young marriages) for dinner, indoors karaoke bashes, Mexican food caterings and to share life in the city itself. We get together at least once a week, sometimes even more, so we truly are a family. They all share a connection with the performing arts or similar branches so we're into the same things. And I love them so, so much!!!

Some members of The Family´s version of "The Last Supper" LOL!!!

So, ok. I've always thought that a person should belong to something. We all have friends and family. But, what about Community? I mean clubs, aficionados, geeks, cos-plays... A lot of people are part of something like that. Well I am a Jane Austen addict. We call ourselves Janeites, which means I am an active member of the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) and I'm proud of it!!!

I found out about JASNA a few months before moving to NYC. I was surfing the net in search of information concerning Austen and I opened a very cool blog from a lady that mention on her bio to be a proud member of JASNA. I wrote to her, she sent me some info, I looked for it and voilá, I became a member in November 2008 and I'm still with them.

JASNA gave me a community of enthusiasts, scholars and incredible people (mainly women, of course) who share the same love and obsession for the authoress of "Pride & Prejudice", "Emma" and "Sense & Sensibility". We get together for book clubs, meetings, conferences and conventions, studies, trips to museums, exhibitions, tea parties and even Regency Balls in which we all dress up in period costumes and dance all night long like Lizzy Bennet and Mr Darcy should have done. 

JASNA holds its Annual General Meeting in October every year, and it rotates location yearly. The New York chapter just hosted the 2012 AGM in Brooklyn and we had a BLAST. The topic was "Sex, money and power in Jane Austen's fiction" so we had a lot to learn, share and experience. It was a 5 days convention at the Marriott Hotel by the Brooklyn Bridge and was one of the best experiences in my life.

It is so nice belonging to a club that shares something with you, specially if that something is an unusual activity like celebrating a Pre-Romantic British Author. 

The Juvenilia Branch of NY's JASNA, dressed in Regency garments for their gorgeous ball at the 2012 AGM in Brooklyn.

Yes, I am a social butterfly. So of course technology has become a main TOOL to stay in touch. Thanks to facebook and twitter I always know what's going on with the friends I left at home, as well as knowing about upcoming events, meetings, parties and even birthdays! 

I LOVE Skype. Skype makes me tremendously happy. I connect with my sister via Skype almost every day to say hello. Thanks to Skype I've been able to "attend" parties thousands of miles away just by sitting in front of my laptop and sharing a few hours with my faraway friends. Isn't it cool? Technology has made distances so relative. And what about those awesome smartphone apps out there? Like Viber, Whatsapp and FaceTime! I use ALL of them to stay in touch with my friends and family. Picture tagging on facebook is also a nice way to share something with your friends. So I do it all the time hahaha. 

The social networks have changed the way we communicate today. I don't know what I would do without them now. I would probably get homesick or worse! So, yeah, GOD BLESS TECHNOLOGY and those little things that keep us close to those we love immensely!!!

Day 2 - All about cable...

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

So here we are on day two of my 7 days challenge. 

The task today is actually a real challenge, since I am not a cable person AT ALL and I'm supposed to talk about my Cable TV service!

Yes, we have cable service at home and it's in fact Time Warner Cable. The reason I joined my roomies in getting this service was actually because I can't live without internet and their service is actually pretty good.

As I mentioned in previous posts, I do not watch a lot of TV but I love a good series. I remember when we first got our cable service, we paid around $99.00 which included several goodies for a limited time. For example, we got HD/DVR service for a year and a package of really cool channels like Starz, HBO, Showtime and Cinemax for 3 months. I've always suffered at the fact my favorite channels are never included within the monthly fee and you have to get them paying additional fees. I remember when I was obsessed with "Spartacus" and "Pillars of the Earth" from Starz and we didn't have that channel. Thank God they soon became available for purchase on Vudu, Hulu and CinemaNow, services I get through my Xbox 360 paying a ridiculously low monthly fee (which makes a freelancer quite happy!)

HBO, on the other hand, has been a pain in the ass!!! When we got our cable service, we were within our "free" HBO access when "Game of Thrones" opened its first season, so we had no problem enjoying this amazing show. By the time Season 2 was near, of course we didn't have HBO any longer cause the monthly fee was quite high. Their service is indeed a little expensive so my roomies who couldn't care less about "GoT" decided not to go for the package any longer. So I was hoping HBO GO app would mend my broken heart, but SURPRISE, it didn't!!! In order to get HBO GO on your Xbox, tablet, smartphone and such, you actually have to upgrade your entire cable service. And that SUCKS!!! No wonder why "GoT" has become the number one torrent download in the piracy world. I actually found a very interesting cartoon that explains the many issues we fans of the show have had to deal with while browsing for a solution... http://theoatmeal.com/comics/game_of_thrones and I couldn't agree more!

I didn't go for piracy cause thank God I have friends that actually pay for HBO and would have me sitting on their sofa every Sunday night for a marathon of "Game of Thrones" and "Mad Men" GOD BLESS GOOD FRIENDS!!!

So, I really don't use cable as much as I could since our package no longer includes the channels I like. My roomies are not into TV series but they could spend all day long watching telenovelas, Telemundo and Mun2, so of course they're perfectly fine with their monthly fee for basic channels plus internet. I couldn't talk about loyalty plans or perks since I don't deal with Time Warner myself. I just enjoy the internet connection since there is NO LIFE without internet.

Some friends ask me why do I like to pay for ABC shows such as "Once Upon A Time" or "Bunheads" when they are completely available in any basic cable service. Well, as I mentioned before, I do not stop the world weekly to catch up my favorite shows, but I hate missing episodes when I'm really into it. So buying the Season Pass for each show I love gives me the perk of OWNING a legal digital copy of the series so I can watch it whenever I want. It's good to know I will be getting each new episode an hour after it airs on TV. It will be waiting for me, in full HD with NO COMMERCIALS to watch it over and over again. So, I wouldn't say I'm a cable person. I'm a TV Apps person and believe me, I am perfectly happy with it!!!

Confessions of a Technology Addict, Day 1

Hello there!

There will be a lot of blogging this week... So, I got this really cool challenge. For the next 7 days I am to blog out all my confessions as a young technology addict and talk about how it has changed or affected my daily life. But, since I am also addicted to costumes, you will read about how I combine both addictions in order to create something.

This is actually really cool, since iTruly use a lot of technology all the time. iAm one of those iAddicts (you know, iPhone, iPad, iPod, iTrip, iConfess!!!) and iHonestly don't know what my life was before Siri LOL!!! Specially living in NYC with no sense of orientation... Thanks to Siri iAlways know where to go!

But technology goes beyond entertainment for me as well. It has become a necessary tool for almost everybody in the world. I, for example, use my computer all the time and spend the whole time online surfing for inspiration, searching useful information and exchanging it thru the social networks, which have become a very important part of my daily life.

Since I do a lot of costume sketching, scanning saves me a lot of time and trouble when it comes to try several color options for my designs. I am not a huge fan of digital coloring, I still use watercolors on paper to do my sketches cause I hate the fact that printers sometimes change the color palette when printing an image. There's nothing like true paint. However, sometimes I need to try different color combinations on the same design, in order to choose the one I like best. Drawing the same figurine with the exact same dress over and over can be boring, overwhelming and time consuming. So, what I normally do is, first I draw the sketch on paper with pencil and then I add marker to make the lines bolder. Once I have the final version of the design (with no color on yet) I scan it. This allows me to have an uncolored version of the dress, meaning I can print many copies of the same design and have them ready for coloring. Next I apply watercolor on the printed copies (which are printed, logically on computer paper.) These are NOT final versions yet, just color options. Once I get the colors I think might work for what I'm trying to get, I usually "splotch" the upper corner of the paper with the chosen palette, all colors together, just to see if the combination works. If I like it, I start applying the colors on the sketch.

After several tries, I choose the combination I love the most and then I have to TRANSFER it to watercolor paper in order to get the texture I really want. Before technology, I would use carbon paper to transfer the uncolored printed copy to the watercolor sheet. Nowadays I own a beautiful Light Table. 

WHAT THE HECK IS A LIGHT TABLE? Lol! A very cool tool, indeed. 'Tis a box with a translucent surface that lights up thus allowing you to trace from one opaque paper to other! This is incredibly useful, since watercolor paper is not transparent by itself at all. So, once I can trace the uncolored sketch on my watercolor paper, the final version takes place. Pretty cool, huh?

This is my smart and forever loved Light Table :)

 

Here's an example of my process. The first one on your left is the printed copy. As you can see, on the top corner I put the colors together. I actually loved the palette so this sketch became the final version, which can be seen next to it. The watercolor paper makes my green paint get the velvety texture I needed and the illustration looks richer.

Inspiration comes from a lot of sources, but technology has made inspiration more accessible for us. Man, I don't know what were we without internet. It's fabulous for inspiration. Need Medieval? Type it on Google! Need Victorian? Search for images and information. Blink of an eye, there you have it! Sandy Powell's Oscar winning costume designs for "The Young Victoria" right there, in front of you. I couldn't get better inspiration than that!!! 

Blogs, websites and more provide images, tips, techniques, videos, etc. to enrich my research, my creativity and my spirit. Once I have my design, I can actually go to moodfabrics.com and order my fabrics online!!!

And what about TV?

I honestly do not consider myself an avid TV watcher. However, I am a huge fan of many series, specially those that feature lots of costume designing. Yeah, I am a huge fan of "Game of Thrones", "Downton Abbey", "Mad Men", "The Borgias" and "Once Upon A Time" and I follow BBC and PBS Period Dramas everywhere. God bless APPS!!! I have to mention them! I've always been a gamer. Yeap, a videogames freak. So of course I own an Xbox 360 with its Xbox LIVE Gold Membership that allows me to get apps like Netflix, Hulu, Zune and HBO Go. This apps are actually my approach to TV. I don't have the discipline of tuning a TV show weekly, so it's nice having the option on Xbox that allows me to buy a "Season Pass" for all the series I love... So, it doesn't matter if I can't catch my weekly episode. It will be waiting for me right there, in my Xbox, to watch it over and over and over again!!!

I am an avid reader. I eat books. I am books LOL!!! I get a new book every 2 weeks usually. So, GOD BLESS E-READERS!!! I mean, living in NYC, space is ALWAYS an issue!!! I had only a year here and books were everywhere at home. There was no more space for them anymore. The solution??? GETTING A NOOK by Barnes&Noble. I must confess I became an addict to Nook. Got the original. Less than a year later I switched to NookColor and I ended up switching to NookTablet. Oh, well... it is what it is. But it saves me a lot of space, I swear, LOL!!! 

So, yeah. I couldn't live without technology. It saves me time, inspires me and entertains me. And I BET it does the same to all of you out there.

Peace!

--- Georgie.