First of all, I have an announcement that I’m having an art show at Out Of the Blue Gallery in Somerville MA this May and June, 2021. It’s got a theme of art, photography, and poetry done between 2006-2010 when I was most sick with mental health issues.
You can learn more about it here…
In other news, I did a couple more drawings last night for my children’s book and realized I’m only a little more than halfway done. I still have 14 more to go and I didn’t get any done tonight.
And now here are more of the apps that have helped me…
Zoom – I’ve used Zoom for a number of things this year including Open Mics, high school reunions, human rights meetings, and so far, two very successful Open Mic/Art parties that I’ve hosted. One was for my 42nd birthday, and one was for the New Year. For years I dreamed of having a big party for all my friends all over the world to attend. I’ve also been dreaming of organizing events like Woodstock where all my musician friends would play and artists would make and sell art since I was a young teen. Thanks to Zoom, and even the pandemic a little, that idea became a reality. Each party got an average of 30 people, including about 10 performers or artists talking about their art. Friends I’ve been talking to for twenty years through the internet but who I never met were there to wish me a happy 42nd birthday and to support one another and our creative expressions. It was such a nice time and I’m planning another in April to welcome Spring.
WordPress – Gotta mention this site which hosts my web site and blog. I haven’t fully figured out how to make use of it yet, but it’s nice to be blogging and keeping a web site again, especially now when everything’s faster and more accessible.
DrawingBox – People say it’s a shitty program, but I like it and use it to do most of my digital art on my iPad. There’s a free version, and for just a few dollars you can get the full version which is simple to use and I honestly like it.
Leafly – I don’t make full use of this site anymore, and I should, at least for the weed diary where you can keep a record of every weed strain you get and rate it based on taste and effects. I smoke so many different strains all the time and can never remember what my favorites are. You can keep track in Leafly. It was also how I found a medical place that delivered to me with great prices and it has a record of almost every major strain, and you can look them up by name to see whether it’s indica or sativa, what the THC and CBD content is, and how it will effect you, from dry eyes and mouth which seem to be a universal effect of every strain to being paranoid or anxious, which I like to avoid, and some are better for PTSD, stress, mood swings, depression, pain, etc. I like to look up the strains before I buy them to see which ones are best for my symptoms. It helps a lot and has made it so that I almost never have negative effects of weed anymore.
Amazon Kindle and Apple Books- I use both for downloading and reading books, which has made it easier for me to read more. The Kindle has also offered me a way to self publish my books and make them affordable to people all over the world, so it’s cool. I don’t have an actual Kindle, but the app is free to use to download books from Amazon.
Yummly – When I started cooking again, this was a great tool. You let it know what foods you like and don’t like, as well as what level cook you are, and it generates lists of recipes from all over the internet to make. It helped me a lot with my health.
Instacart – This has also helped me a lot with health. As an agoraphobic person who loves food, I was ordering all my food from local pizza places for years because I didn’t feel comfortable going to the grocery store and still don’t. Instacart has its issues, but I can get healthy groceries for snacks and meals delivered to my door now and that has lead to me losing a lot of weight and getting healthier.
DoorDash and GrubHub – Okay, well, I do still love to get take-out, but now am not limited to the same 5 pizza and sub places or 5 Asian food restaurants that delivered to my home. I’m not limited to pizza and Asian food at all, in fact. Living where I live, I can get food from all kinds of restaurants from at least 7 surrounding cities. Unfortunately, it did add to my weight gain at first because I wanted to try everything, but it was worth it, to sample great food from dozens of places all around me, and now that I’ve sampled everywhere, I know where my favorite places are for the healthier things, although I’m not perfect and get junk delivered too, like tonight I got Burger King because I just wanted a sandwich and something fairly cheap. That’s the down side. They rob you.
Uber/Lyft – If it had not been for these services, I wouldn’t have been able to attend any of the dozen art shows I went to in Allston and Cambridge in the last couple years, as well as a few concerts. I’m not exactly looking forward to getting back into them any time soon, and I absolutely hate being a passenger in a car, but this service has opened up opportunities when I had none.
Paypal – Such a great tool for when you wanna pay people who aren’t a company. I can pay for and get paid for art, I can pay someone to shovel my car, I can send my payment to the gallery, I can pay my boyfriend if he puts my meal on his card, or vice versa. It’s great for so many things. It’s made life a lot easier.
And last of all, I dunno if it counts as an app, but it’s an app that comes with my iPhone and most phones probably have it, and that is the Calendar and Reminders. I set reminders for fucking everything now and it helps me get it all done and not forget. I think without it I’d be lucky if I got done an eighth of what I do now.
So that is it for now. What music can I give you? How bout this instrumental classic everybody knows whether they know the title or not…
And that’s a rap… a wrap? a rap? Over and out…
