Sunday, February 26, 2017

15 mobile applications that impacted my life...

I don’t think I can be away from my mobile phone for a very long period. Should I be worried? Maybe… However, I do believe that each thing has its advantages and disadvantages if we don’t push it to the extreme… It is not about being addicted and ignore all our surroundings while using our phone. This is wrong and we live it everyday. But we have to admit that technology made a huge evolution and it made our life more practical.
Today, I am not here to list Facebook, Whatsapp, Snapchat or any other social media applications that invaded our life. But I rather wanted to share the list of the applications that had an added value in my life.
Let’s start!
  1. Google Maps: This is the application I use the most in my road trips and travels. I loved it mostly when the traffic got activated for our region. I can estimate how much I need time to arrive to the destination with the correct address.
  2. Google Photos & Google Drive: I use those two applications a lot especially to share photos and documents with friends. I love the feature that can help you check all the photos per people. It can do some collages and videos as well. I use them to back up part of my documents on the cloud which can help me access them wherever I am without having to carry on my external hard disk everywhere.
  3. Uber: This is one of my favorites. Whenever we don’t feel like driving, we order an Uber Taxi. It is on time, accurate and fairly cheap inside the city. Plus you can pay by card or cash. I don’t recommend it outside the city as it can have high rates. I use it locally and during my travels.
  4. Zomato: This is the application I use by excellence to try new restaurants and food. Plus I bookmark places I want to try.  I started a while ago writing reviews to make my friends benefit from my experience.
  5. Sound Hound or Shazam: I am always up to date in the music world using these applications. Whenever I hear a song that I like, I check it and put it in my favorite list.
  6. Calendar/Notes/Keep/Asana: These applications are part of my memory. I am engaged in lots of activities and sometimes,  I forget things to do or new ideas suggested by friends. Calendar is to keep track of my schedule, Notes is to write random thoughts, Keep & Asana are for tasks.
  7. Anghami: My favorite music application in summary…  ðŸ™‚
  8. 30 Days Fitness Challenge:  I wanted to boost my fitness level by adding some good habits into my daily life. You choose the challenge that you want (arms, abs, legs, …) and you have to commit between 5 to 7 minutes a day. If you can’t find 5 minutes for yourself, you should reconsider your life priorities. 🙂
  9. Duolingo: I always wanted to learn a new language and I had other priorities. Using this application, I got to learn some Italian by dedicating 5 to 20 minutes everyday. I am not saying you will become fluent. But this is for me a fun application full of benefits.
  10. Pinterest: You choose your areas of interests and you pin relevant posts. For example: ideas to decorate your home, trips that you love to do, recipes you want to try, high tech you want to buy, tattoos, plants and flowers, fitness exercises at home…
  11. Photogrid: This is very good to resize pictures and do lovely collages to share on social media. There are plenty of applications that do the same.
  12. Visited: My dream is to visit every corner in the world. So I listed it all the cities and countries that I already visited and I tagged all the ones that I wish to visit.
  13. Flipagram:  Keeping only static photos can be boring. After a beautiful trip or remembering lovely moments throughout the year, it helped me gather lots of photos while adding some music in the background as a nice memory to share with friends.
  14. Meetup: You will be surprised how many people in your area have the same interests. You just need to subscribe to subjects of interest (book club, technology, outdoor activities, cross culture, foodies, sports, photography, running, etc…). You will be notified about events organized around you. This is excellent to meet new people (not randomly) and do activities you like.
  15. Goodreads: This can be the bookstore. This is where I check new books review and I bookmark the ones I want to read.
Some Lebanese applications that got trendy lately but didn’t have time to try:
  • Onlivery (Online Delivery)
  • Blink My Car (Car Services including Tyre ones)
  • Kholsit (Find the right handyman)
There are some general applications that I find very useful but I can’t name them in the list above because they are very specific:
  • Movies
I have “Movies in Lebanon” and “Lebanese Movie Guide” that are sometimes not updated unfortunately. I use frequently the cinemas applications directly like Grand Cinemas or Cinema City or Vox. The one of Grand Cinemas is the best. I faced some problems while buying tickets with the others. IMDB is always good to check some international reviews and rating.
  • Bank Apps
I  find it really easier to check my account or pay a wedding list online rather than go there and wait without mentioning the traffic and the opening hours.
  • Mobile Operator Apps
I find it useful to check quickly my bill and activate a new service.
  • Airlines
Some frequent used airlines can be very handy especially in case of business trips. I use them to do especially the online check-in.
  • News
I have some local news and few international ones like CNN, BBC, etc… One of my close friends recommended Quartz for international news. I trust her! 🙂
Hope you find it beneficial for you! I would love to know which applications you use especially if it is not on my list. Have a wonderful week and keep curling! 

Sunday, February 19, 2017

Resolutions in the air…



We always tend to start new resolutions at the beginning of the year, month or week. How many times did you or your friends promise to start diet on Monday or sports in the beginning of next month? How much do you hear or make resolutions at the beginning of the year?
When I used to be young, I always promised to start studying in the next beginning of the hour and if I missed the first 5 minutes, i would postpone starting another hour. There should be something special relating beginnings & resolutions…
“New Year, New Me”… “Don’t make resolutions, just live in the moment with passion”… Big titles and a lot of humor between friends and then we drop them many times…
Although we might fail in these resolutions, deep down inside, they are really motivating and define our personal objectives. If we really care about them, we do our best to do them but sometimes, either we don’t care at all but couldn’t admit it or life gets us busy and we drop them because of other priorities.
I always loved to read general articles about list of resolutions and things to do and I always counted how many were achieved. The more they are, the more I feel powerful.
16 things to do in your twenties… 27 things to do before you settle down… 33 things to do before you get forty… 50 destinations to visit in your life… Why 16, 27, 33, 50? No idea!
This time, I decided to write my own list on a very random date of the month. I really enjoy such lists. When I write them, I relate to them. It won’t be my one and only list since I’ve got infinite things to do. But I listed the ones that are mostly significant in this stage of my life.
You might relate to many of them and think I am crazy in the other part. Plus you might have achieved many as well. Each one has his own list. What matters is nothing but the happy and healthy moments in our life and the one of our loved ones! Life is too short to see it pass without doing what we really love.

30 things to do for my new 30s 

  1. Take good care of your body. It’s the place you have to live: Drink more water & eat healthy, slowly and do yearly check-ups
  2. Get fit: do push-ups, plank & rope jumping like a boss
  3. Be punctual and avoid last minute running
  4. Meditate
  5. Go somewhere you’ve never been before every month
  6. Read one book every 1-2 months.
  7. Learn to Cook
  8. Visit new countries and discover a new continent
  9. Face one of your biggest fears (Skydiving, Diving, Skiing…)
  10. Travel Alone
  11. Watch your favorite international concerts & plays (Coldplay, Swan Lake Ballet in Russia, Phantom of the opera in Broadway, Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas…)
  12. Hike once in a while and enjoy nature
  13. Start Biking and rent a bicycle the next trip
  14. Volunteer for a good cause (Mission in Ethiopia or Far East or even in your own country)
  15. Do the Headstand
  16. Join a public speaking group
  17. Learn a new hobby by your own
  18. Learn a new language
  19. Join a dance group class (Tango, Salsa, …)
  20. Live alone
  21. Personalize your own appartment
  22. Live elsewhere
  23. Apply for your dream job
  24. Know more your favorite things (favorite dish, drink, sport, bar, restaurant, anything…)
  25. Do a long cross countries roadtrip with your best people
  26. Drive manual and get your driving license ready for the next trip to live it to the most.
  27. Hang out full weekends at home watching series
  28. Save money for the tough days
  29. keep a journal and display photos in a digital frame
  30. Find a new passion and start your own thing
Cheers to happy and healthy days and keep curling! Have a wonderful week!
P.S.: Why 30 and not 16, 27, 33 or 50? because 30 is my new lucky number! ðŸ˜‰

How I learned to make choices…


I always used to be this girl that rarely expressed herself and avoided discussions with different opinions in order to escape confrontations…
Then I reached a stage where I don’t take lots of decisions and I struggle even in the smallest ones…
This reminds me of a film that I used to love when I was a kid which is Runaway Bride. Julia Roberts didn’t know how she liked to eat eggs because she always ate them the way her new boyfriend likes it… I asked myself the same question and I had no idea what was the answer.  Scrambled, Poached, Omelette, Boiled, Sunny?
When doing shopping, someone had to be there to choose which dress to pick else I had to pick them both… #GoodExcuse… LOL Although deep inside, we always know which one we prefer…
When choosing my major, i didn’t think much… I was very good in math and I always believed that computer engineering is a fair accurate major that doesn’t need philosophy… 1+1=2… But when you are a kid, decisions are more natural… ðŸ™‚
While growing up, you start reconsidering choices and decisions… you ask yourself if you are happy… You start losing loved ones and the quote “Life  is too short” becomes more and more real…
Why do we postpone choosing what makes us happy? Why do we have to think much even in the smallest decisions? why are we in doubt?
I struggled a lot asking myself why I cannot choose anything without having a doubt. I worked a lot on my self-development and I did some observations and discussions with dear friends. I reached a conclusion that I will summarize in beautiful quotes:
  1. A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new. – Albert Einstein
    • Being afraid of doing mistakes can stop us from making choices. Even if we choose the wrong option, we should stay aware and remember our preference for the next time. Experience is very important to know better ourselves.
  2. It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; What is essential is invisible to the eye. – The Little Prince
    • The conflict between the heart and the mind… I had trouble understanding this but trust me this was the main thing that helped me take more decisions. Thinking too much made me always hesitant.
  3. It is never too late to be what you might have been. George Eliot
    • Few years back, growing old was a bit stressful but then I met beautiful people much older than me in age but much younger than me in body and spirit. Take care of your body and positive energy and you can do whatever you want. Choices are always possible at any age.
  4. Practice makes progress
    • Whenever you have to choose, stay aware, follow your heart and take the decision of always choosing no matter what. Pizza or Pasta? Blue or Green? Cinema or Theater? Going out or staying home? Project A or Project B? Beirut or Paris? Tango or Salsa? Mr X or Mr Y? Buying a car or buying a house?
  5. Comparison is the thief of joy
    • You can take the opinion of close people but you better make the choice alone and not compare with anyone because it will make you in doubt again.
  6. If it was up to me, I’d choose the hard path with the easy ending, not the easy path with the hard end. – Kim Harrison
    • Train your mind to choose the hard path will make choices easier. This can be a good exercise for big decisions especially. It is not easy to do but practice makes it easier. For example, while being in a group, talk to the person that you are least comfortable with… It was part of an exercise I did in a camp a couple of years back and that helped me a lot.
This said, here I am writing my first blog post and exposing myself to the people… it took me around four years to decide to start it and some friends were encouraging me but still it was a choice that I had to make…
But then I remembered choices and decisions and how much I am more in peace with them…
Finally I decided to start this journey! It will be a diary about anything that makes me happy or I want to express myself about…
Hope you will enjoy the journey with me and my Infinite Curl!
Curling in progress…
P.S.: if you are wondering if I got the answer of how I like to eat eggs the most… well omelette with mushroom is my favorite and yes I am shopping most of the times alone! 
🙂