Ok I’ve been talking about doing a post like this for quite awhile. You all know how much I loooove my iPhone and it really has to do with the awesome selection of apps they have. You can pretty much find one for anything. It makes my phone pretty much useful in every situation. It literally has changed my life and I can’t imagine not having it anymore. It’s my all time favorite gadget. Ever. And now…I present to you the must downloads for the iPhone according to me!

The following are all free and at the end of the list I’ll actually mention the ones I’ve paid for and I think are worth it.

My daily apps – These are the ones I use almost on a daily basis and I think are so useful and a must-have

eBuddy: This is the app I use for Aim which is my main chatting service. You can also use it to connect to all of the major ones like Yahoo or ICQ etc. And it’s miles better than the official Aim jailbreak iphone 4
app which is painfully slow and laggy. I remember when I used to use the Aim app and I’d literally want to throw my phone because I hated it so much. This makes me happy to chat on my phone again.

facebook: I admit it…I am a facebook junkie. Love the service and if I ever have a few spare minutes I go on there to read what’s going on with everybody. The facebook iphone app is really well done and the latest update is stellar. Update it if you haven’t already!

Yelp: If I ever need to find a good place to eat this is where I go. It has a “nearby” feature that works great in finding highly rated restaurants or businesses near you and the search and bookmarking future is so helpful. I have all of my favorites saved and with a few clicks I can get the hours and directions of pretty much any place!

Flixster: Boyrobot and I are big movie buffs. We love watching movies and this has been the best app I’ve found so far for looking up nearby movie theaters and showtimes. They also show what ratings each movie gets from Rottentomatoes and flixster users.

Pandora: If you love music this is a must have. Just input a song or artist you enjoy and Pandora creates a “station” for you that will play similar music. It’s a great way to find out about new artists you might like or just to have for some enjoyable background music.

myWireless: This is an app from ATT and it allows me to pay my bill from my phone. I LOVE THIS APP.

Wattpad: The most amazing free e-book reader ever. I’ve been telling everybody about this one. I never thought I would enjoy reading books on my iPhone but I’ve already read 3 books now. Right now I’m reading The Time Traveler’s Wife. They have an amazing selection of books. But it’s random when the books can be found. I’ve found a book and then went back a few days later to see that it’s gone. But as soon as you find a book, just download it and it’s saved on your phone. I’ve found many popular and current books as well as NY Times Bestsellers. And this app has the feature that I wish the iPhone has…a lock button that will lock the screen view if you turn the phone. It annoys me to no end when I’m reading something on my iPhone while I’m lying down and when I turn the screen it auto flips the other way! This app has a lock button! And did I mention it autoscrolls for you?

Ok so those are my absolute favorites. Pretty general. Here are some great ones too that I find myself using pretty often but are more specialized.

Twitterfon – twitter app if you’re into twitter
FML – have you heard of the fml website? it’s great for a quick laugh if you are waiting in line or something
Boombox – if you have wifi, this lets you stream pretty much any song you want to hear
What’s On – this is a tv guide listing which I especially used when I was on travel and wanted to know what was on tv in that city
OpenTable – Ever use opentable to book reservations? Now you can do it from your phone!
Inside Redbox – I’ve posted about redbox before. This app tells you nearby redboxes and helps you to find which box has the movie you want. You can also find codes!
Paypal – If you have a paypal account this is really useful if you need to borrow money from a friend. You can pay them back in a few clicks!
NPR News – self explanatory
NList – I use this as my to do list. It’s simple and has these cute little checkboxes!
Flickr – yay…flickr finally released an official app! Works pretty well with the limited time I’ve played with it.
RepairPal – this is a car app that tells you how much you should be paying for car repairs and includes reviews and links to car repair shops. I didn’t really use this until I had to get my wheel bearing replaced and it was SO helpful! I totally would have gotten cheated on the pricing if I didn’t use this app.

Games – Surprisingly I’ve spent a lot of time playing games on my phone. I’m more of a “puzzle” type game so these might not appeal to everyone. Anyways, some of these I don’t play anymore but at one time I was a d d i c t e d.

Flood-It! – Try to “flood” the board with one color in a certain number of steps
Moonlight lite – It’s the mah-jong matching tile game. Very easy and relaxing game. I went a few months where I played this ALL of the time!
Word Warp – One of the first games I ever played on the iPhone. If you like word games it’s great. You get a bunch of letters and a list. You make words out of the letters. To pass to the next level you have to be able to make a 6 letter word.
PapiJump – one of those games with no thinking required. Just try to get the ball to bounce to the next tier
TapDefense – There’s a bunch of versions of this popular strategy game. I had a lot of fun playing this in the beginning!
Scramboni – A word unscrambling game that you play with other people

Paid Apps – I’m pretty stingy about paying for apps. There’s already more than enough for me to play with without having to dish out money! But there are some exceptions… :)

CameraBag – Let’s you make cool effects on your iPhone photos
Gratitude! – It’s sort of like a daily journal in which you are supposed to write things you are happy/grateful for each day. You can also save a photo each day. I really should use this app more! It has cute graphics to boot.
Sally’s Spa – This was on sale for 99 cents and I just love these types of games. It’s like Diner Dash. Boyrobot doesn’t understand why but most girls I know love to play it too! It’s not very challenging but it’s fun! hehe. Try the free lite versions to see what I mean.
iFitness – this is a very highly rated fitness app which I thought if I paid for it would make me workout more. So far that hasn’t happened but it’s really my fault. This app is very cool and I can see why it’s rated so well. One of these days I am going to use it…
Fuzzle – Another one of the few games I loved so much I had to pay for. I was addicted to the Lite version which stopped after you reached a certain score which was sooo annoying I had to buy the full version!
FlightControl – It’s hard to explain this game but it’s pretty fun

Some other iPhone related links:
Promo Dispenser – get free codes for new iPhone apps
Google Sync – I use google for everything. Especially for the calendar. I was so happy when I was able to sync my calendar to my phone!
Create free ringtones for your iPhone – It’s really easy!!

Any iPhone tips or apps you guys know about?

Here’s a video on the US healthcare debate which is pretty hot right now especially with that whole Joe Wilson debacle. I think the whole healthcare issue is pretty confusing but I definitely know something is wrong with ours. If you’ve ever had any kind of medical condition or had major medical work done you’ll know how retarded our healthcare system is. And don’t get me started on US health insurance companies. They are pretty rotten. It kind of scares me to think of me or someone I know requiring any kind of major medical attention and having to deal with the bills that come with it. And I *have* insurance! Imagine the millions out there who are working minimum wage or can’t find a job because of this horrible economy. It’s just such an unfortunate situation. I just wonder why Americans are so against universal healthcare when other major countries have done it and done it successfully. What are we so scared of? It almost seems like anything would be better than what we have now.

No…this is not going to be a regular occurrence. But after all of these months of not posting my Friday Links I have a huge backlog so I give you a Sunday Link Dump! Enjoy! And watch out for my daily postings to return. I’m baaaack! :)

Today’s KKK – Life magazine takes a look into the current KKK members. Yes…they still exist! Scary!
Miniature Brides – this new trend in Japan made me LOL. I so want to do this with boyrobot. AWESOME.
Douchebag Name Generator – I did this for boyrobot and we proceeded to giggle like the 12 yr olds we are.
Reduce your chances of dying in a plane crash – This won The Guardian’s Visualization prize
Wedding related someecards – These are hilarious after you get married
The best of wikipedia blog – definitely some worthwhile entries to read
Panasonic GF1 – another 4/3s camera. I hear this one is technically better than the Olympus EP-1 but the Pen definitely looks better!
Google Voice can now forward your text messages to your inbox – I was able to claim the number “80-robot” as my phone number with the area code being the same one as the one I grew up in my whole life in Oklahoma. COOZ!
Definition of WWII from Urban Dictionary – ha, pretty accurate!
How to meet and woo a nerdy girl – Definitely #11.
7 Huge Declarations of Love As Seen By Google Maps – These are pretty crazy!

This sweater would be so perfect for boyrobot’s nephew. He is such a ladies’ man!

This accurately describes the past 2 weeks:

Sometimes it’s nice having a blog. Now when someone asks me “how was Bora Bora?” I can just point everyone to this post with details and pretty pictures to boot! In a word, Bora Bora is just plain breathtaking. I kept exclaiming, “Wow! It looks just like it does on the internet. ha ha” I now see why people say it is one of the most beautiful and romantic places on earth. I really don’t think my shoddy camera will do this place justice unfortunately. You will just have to visit it yourself one day!

This is the first picture we took of Bora Bora. It’s from the airplane! How cool is this? You can see some of the overwater bungalows. By the way, the blue in the picture is 10 times bluer in real life!

When we arrived we immediately got “lei-ed” and a free drink complete with the fresh pineapple!

We stayed at a mid-level resort called Le Mai Tai. When we first booked the rooms, we got the cheapest room and was told to upgrade when we got there. This was the best decision ever because we literally saved over a $1000 doing this I think. We got to stay in both a beach bungalow and the infamous overwater bungalows. By the way…I absolutely loved my stay here. It is definitely not the nicest hotel in Bora Bora (far from it) but if we wanted to stay at one of those, they are literally around $700/night for overwater bungalows. We did visit those high-end hotels and OMG they are pretty awesome and beautiful but I wouldn’t trade my experience at all! Ours was quaint and situated in the perfect location. The staff was so friendly and accommodating to us. And the rooms were still the best rooms I’ve ever stayed at in my life!

Here is our beach bungalow:

And here we are enjoying the view from our bungalow:

These bungalows sit right on the edge of the beach and go for much less than the overwater ones. I enjoyed these rooms just as much as the overwater ones. It’s nice having the beach, sand, and water RIGHT there when you open your front door. It was soooooo nice.

Of course we had to splurge and stay a few nights in the overwater bungalows too. The staff at Le Mai Tai gave us awesome discounts on all of our rooms!! It was so nice.

The view from this bungalow is ALL WATER.

The hotel manager gave us free champagne for us honeymooners! I told you they were nice.

And yes, did you notice our own little window in the ground with the view of some coral underneath our bungalow?

It’s hard to tell from this picture but there’s a fish there! We would literally check this window every hour and squeal when there was fish, which was often. We saw so many different types! It was so cool.

Last picture of our tour ends with our own personal access to the ocean:

This ladder is attached to our balcony and we used it to jump into the water at a moment’s whim and go snorkeling which is officially my new favorite hobby. I had the best time ever snorkeling. This is coming from a girl who doesn’t even know how to swim!

One last picture of M enjoying the view from our balcony:

So a lot of people asked us what we did for fun on our trip. Not knowing how to swim sort of limits us but we managed to keep busy enough to not get bored and relaxing enough so we could really enjoy our time off.

One of the first activities we did and one that everyone said was a MUST-DO was to swim with the stingrays and sharks and visit the Lagoonarium.

And yes, I was as scared of this activity as I look. The sting rays kept trying to “hug” me and it was seriously freaking me out. I kept screaming like a little girl. But it was still one of the coolest experiences ever. I love how I am IN THE OCEAN but the water is only chest high. There were sting rays everywhere too. It was so crazy!

Here is a picture I took of one of the sharks we swam with. I liked them better than the sting rays because they kept to themselves ha ha.

More snorkeling at the Lagoonarium:

Hands down my favorite activity we did was swimming with the turtles at Le Meridien. Right before I left I read about this private activity you can do at one of the hotels. A very expensive and high end hotel called Le Meridien has their own private turtle sanctuary/lagoon that is normally only accessed by their hotel guests but outsiders can pay a fee to attend the turtle feeding and then swim in the lagoon afterwards (along with the use of the rest of their facilities!).

Here we are swimming with the turtles! Turtles are soooo cute!!!

There were SO many turtles too. I wish i had caught them all on film. There were baby ones and humongous ones. The lagoon was also filled with so many different fish and beautiful coral! It was so awesome having the opportunity to swim through there. Again, I regret with the lack of pictures but the images are imprinted in my mind!

Along the edges of the water, we would always find tons of fish. It was surprising to me that they would get so close! Here is one of the Trigger fish. I wish this picture had turned out better because these fish are SO pretty:

They are M’s favorite and everytime he spotted one it was like the first time he saw them. He seriously turned into a little kid…it was the cutest thing. M LOVES his Trigger fish!!

We loved the beaches surrounding Le Meridien. The water was this beautiful sea-green-blue and you could walk forever and the water was still shallow.

See how clear the water is???

Other activities:
Lounging on the hammocks – I love hammocks!

Eating the local food!
This is pizza from La Bounty. It’s unlike any pizza I’ve ever had. The crust is so flaky!

This is me trying Poisson Cru…it’s like their version of ceviche. It’s raw fish with coconut and lime juice. SO DELISH!

My 30th birthday dinner. I had grilled tuna which was one of the best grilled fish I’ve ever had and M had the Surf N Turf. We found out their spiny lobster tastes just like regular lobster!

This dessert was so simple but so tasty. Some pastry type thing with ice cream, whipped cream, and chocolate. You can’t go wrong with those ingredients!

Free drinks compliments of the hotel since we were “honeymooners”! I’m loving these freebies. :)

M also tried one of their local beers:

We also had free breakfast every morning. Never had sashimi for breakfast but it quickly became a staple for me! Also loved the fresh fruit.

Ok enough about food…

We did lots of just laying out on the beach

This view just never got old for us.

We both did a lot of reading

I dled this iphone app called Wattpad so I was able to read a bunch of books on our trip. I thought I would get tired of reading on such a small screen but I was able to finish two books on it. I love it!

And since we’re both board game buffs we brought along Carcassonne! It was our first time playing it and we both loved it. It’s a great two person game if you are into those types of games.

We did some kayaking that was offered through the hotel for free

We kayaked all the way to this private motu that is owned by the Sofitel hotel. It’s this really beautiful looking island with really awesome snorkeling points. We found out about it from a random tourist we met who told us they will take you by boat to the motu if you buy a drink from their bar. We got there for free with our kayak! We also went there on our last day but got to go for free when we hitched a ride with other people who were staying at the island. So there’s a secret tip for you!

The island is totally worth visiting because it has the most awesome viewpoint of all of Bora Bora.



I just realized after looking at these pictures that we didn’t do a panoramic picture of the viewpoint. It was so breathtaking and these pictures are missing half the views we were able to see!

Last but not least we did a lot of snorkeling. Especially around our bungalows because there were all of these coral reefs with TONS of fish. We regretted not having more film for our underwater camera.

This picture was taken from inside our bungalow. I’m looking down on M through our floor window…how cool is that!

When it was time to go, it was hard to imagine coming back to reality and returning to work. Bora Bora was SO peaceful and relaxing. I’m so glad we decided to go there for our honeymoon. It was the perfect choice and one of my most memorable experiences!

Here is the view of Bora Bora as we leave by boat to go to the airport:

Last picture we took there. :( (Excuse my hair…it was crazy windy at that time!)

I’ll be back in a week….

This video is everywhere right now but it’s so hilarious. So in case you haven’t seen it:

Ok…I need to get back into the blogging swing of things now that the wedding’s over. Sorry… for the past week I’ve been in the process of moving my stuff and getting into the groove of my new life. Unfortunately, I am leaving this friday for my honeymoon (yay!) so there will be another short hiatus next week. I’m still waiting for my wedding photos but when I get those I will blog about the rest of my wedding :)

So the next big thing going on in my life is that I will be turning the big 3-0 in a few weeks (yikes!). I originally wanted to throw a big summer camp type shindig but I realized it was too close to my wedding and I don’t think I could round up enough people when they did all of this traveling just to come to my wedding a few weeks ago. I definitely want to do this one day though so keep an eye out for it.

Instead…I’m going on a cruise! A really short, weekend one though because I have so many trips planned for the rest of the year (one every month!). It will be a 3-day baja cruise which is similar to one I went on with my family last year which was oh so fun! Tell me if you are interested in going!!

So I ended up getting a quote for the cruise for $191/person!! This is a pretty good deal considering it includes all meals, entertainment, and boarding. So how did I get such an amazing price?????

I used this website called Cruise Compete. How it works is that you pick the cruise you want to go on and the dates and then travel agents will email you quotes! You pick the lowest one and book with them. You can also read reviews on the travel agents you get quotes from. It’s pretty cool and very easy! So if you’re into cruises, definitely bookmark this website for future bookings!

Ok…so this video was the highlight of our wedding in my opinion! My little brother made this video for us. It took over 1000 photos and took over 40 hours (we’re not really sure…it was probably even more than that!) to make. The original purpose of the video was so that nobody would watch boyrobot and I dance because uh, we don’t know how to dance. At all. I think it worked. :)

The song is The First Day Of My Life by Bright Eyes

Here are our engagement pictures. We took them at UCLA where boyrobot and I first met! Our wedding colors were blue and yellow…it was only fitting right?

BTW…all of these pictures were taken by Caroline Tran, the BEST photographer in socal. I might be a bit biased but seriously….if you are in the market for a wedding photographer, she’s awesome! I’ve seen other photographers do UCLA as an engagement spot and none of them were able to create such beautiful pictures as these. Normally I hate looking at pictures of myself but when I got these, I couldn’t stop looking at them! :) I could barely pick which ones to show here…but I know not everybody is interested in seeing pictures of us ha ha.

The obligatory Royce picture:

How many times have I passed this tree…I never realized how awesome it looked!

Yellow balloon. :)

At first I was hesitant about taking a picture with the bear…how in the world could you get a cool shot with the bear? This is how!

This one is boyrobot’s favorite picture. He tried so hard to make this picture look perfect!

I love how our feet are showing at the top of this picture:

We got a few of these silhouette shots in at the end and they were SO amazing:

You can see a few more and view larger sizes in our flickr set!

OMG. It’s 2am and I finally fixed my wordpress (the dashboard has been screwy for the past month). I wasn’t sure what I was going to do cause nobody was helping me on the forums and google had no answers for me either. And then I figured it out!! It feels good. Now I can finally post again!!!

Oh yeah. and I’m married. Happy about that too :)

I can’t wait to post pictures from the wedding! Have to wait for the pro pics to come in though. I’ll post my engagement pics sometime soon in the meanwhile. For those wondering, the wedding went surprisingly well! I’m sooooo happy it’s all over. :) Thanks for all of the lovely comments from the last post. You guys are so sweet!