I absolutely LOVE reading and watching other people talk about some of the favorite products and services they recently used. These are commonly known as monthly favorites videos or blogs. So, I want to make monthly favorites videos because I know there are others who enjoy them as well. So, let’s get into my June favorites blog! Note: I will put the cost of the product or service to the side of the title if applicable. L’OREAL PARIS INFALLIBLE PRO-GLOW FOUNDATION | $10.97 I used to go to Ulta each month and spend upwards of $40 on foundation and a few more dollars here and there for things like lipsticks and eyeliner. I decided recently that I could be using that money elsewhere, so I went on the hunt to find a foundation that would cover up my blemishes as well as my red and rosy cheeks. I’d tried a few foundations, but I wasn’t overly impressed. I found this one recently in Walmart and decided to give it a try. This foundation is liquid and I use it along with a transparent setting powder so that it dries matte. It is a 24-hour foundation, which I like because I feel like only a few foundations truly stay on all day. The only thing I don’t like about it is that it is super liquid-y. You have to be really careful when putting it on your beauty blender because it will easily slide off! LOVE CRUNCH ORGANIC GRANOLA | $3.68 I really appreciate a good granola. I know that sounds really weird, but there’s something about adding a bit of a crunch to your yogurt that can take your breakfast or snack to the next level. This granola comes in a pretty decent sized bag and goes great with Greek yogurt. If you’re open for suggestions, Chobani’s fruit-on-the-bottom Greek yogurts are my favorite to enjoy with this. The best one to use it with, in my opinion, is the cherry flavor because the granola contains dark chocolate pieces and berries. WALMART GROCERY PICK-UP SERVICE | FREE If you have children, you’re disabled, or if you’re just in a rush, I highly recommend checking in to see if your Walmart offers this amazing free service. Basically, you can go online to Walmart.com and choose “Walmart Grocery” at the top of the web page. After that, find a Walmart near you that participates in this service and start shopping. This isn’t just limited to basic groceries. You can also shop for makeup, pet food, toys, household essentials, and much more. Search for the items you need and add them to your cart. If this is your first time using the service, I have a promo link you can use to get $10 off your order of $50. After you’ve ordered your items, pick a pick-up time and date. Keep in mind that only a few Walmart locations offer same-day pick-up or express pick-up. When you are ready to pick up your groceries, you can check-in with the grocery app or call the number on the signs in the designated pick-up area. A Walmart team member will come to your car and load your groceries for you! The only downside is that sometimes they might not have what you need. In most cases, however, they will substitute what you wanted for something that is likely better. For example, if you want off-brand cheese puffs, you may end up with Cheetos cheese puffs instead. You are refunded whatever they don’t have and you can choose to reject substitutions and get a refund for the product. MAINSTAYS SINGLE SERVE COFFEE MAKER | $19.92 So, a few weeks ago, I told me co-workers that I would bring my Keurig to the office so we could have access to our own coffee maker. There are only three of us in our section of campus. I brought the Keurig in and it worked great for a few days, but it soon stopped brewing coffee at a normal rate. I’ve had it for years, so I wasn’t surprised that it finally gave up the ghost. I was upset because I had just restocked on k-cups and creamers and sugars, but now I didn’t have a coffee maker that would work. One of my coworkers that works in a different office suggested looking for an off-brand version of a Keurig. So, I scoured Walmart.com for one and found the Mainstays Single Serve Coffee Maker. This little guy is awesome. It comes with a filter where you can add your own coffee or tea grounds, but you can also use k-cups with it, which was perfect because I had just bought several of them. At least one of my coworkers and I use it pretty regularly and it works great. The only downside is you have to pour water into the back of it and it can sort of splash everywhere if you aren’t careful. EQUATE MEAL REPLACEMENT SHAKES | $8.48
Overall, I was pleased with the price and, at 190 calories per bottle, I thought it was a pretty good trade-off for a full meal, especially one from a fast food restaurant. The only downside to this product is you can’t drink it quickly! I found that doing so made me even hungrier. Instead, I tried to use my full lunch time to drink the shake. I was always ready for dinner, but I didn’t feel the need to do any extra snacking. JUNE FAVORITE YOUTUBE CHANNEL My favorite YouTube channel this month has been Hailey Reese’s channel. Hailey talks a lot about the supernatural, which I absolutely love. I am a skeptic when it comes to ghosts and magic, but I am a believer in God, Jesus, and enemies of them, aka demons. Look, I know a lot of people who are Christians frown on scary movies and scary stories and are less inclined to believe in things like ghosts and strange creatures. To that I say that we preach about the supernatural all the time. Of course, there are good and bad entities, we know this from God’s word. Hearing stories about them can serve as cautionary tales and can help us better understand the types of things we deal with as humans. As for the other subjects, I just find them really interesting. My mind is open to them because my mind is open to God. The idea that things exist that we just can’t see applies to a lot. Here is a video from Hailey about a little girl she babysat that seemed to have some sort of demonic entity attached to her. Listen for yourself. Her storytelling abilities are great and she is really entertaining. CONCLUSIONWell, that’s about all I can think of when it comes to my favorites for the month of June. I hope you will keep checking back to my blog for more and more content coming soon! Let me know if you liked this blog and tell me if you’re trying any of the services or products I linked. If you check out Hailey, leave her a comment saying Gabbie from The Opinionated One blogs sent you! LEGAL: All photos are my own. Video sharing is copyright friendly since the original creator receives all views and ad revenue from those views, not myself.
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I'm not too keen on talking about my job on my personal blog, but I feel that this information may be interesting to anyone who uses Facebook. Not long ago, Facebook came under fire, and rightfully so, because of a data breach that leaked the personal information and political preferences of more than 80 million Facebook users to Cambridge Analytica. I'm going to try my hardest not to get too political in this because I find that my more middle-of-the-road stance on some issues bothers both sides and that it might just cause more harm than good. But, since you may not know the history of this breach, it is said that the company that acquired the data worked with Donald Trump's election team and used the data to create software that would predict and influence voters. According to The Guardian, Facebook knew about the breach back in 2015, but they didn't inform any of the data breach victims. They may have thought they could have gotten away with it. After all, according to The Guardian, the "information was collected through an app called thisisyourdigitallife, built by the Cambridge University academic Aleksandr Kogan in collaboration with Cambridge Analytica." People were paid and gave consent to take a "personality test" and have their information collected. If the participant gave access, they may have also unknowingly shared their friends' information.
just be taken like that, but people did consent to this, and they were paid, so I don't know how bad I feel for those who were hoodwinked into offering up their information. Well, Zuckerberg apologized and promised to make things more secure. But how secure...? WHAT HAPPENED TUESDAY MORNING GAVE ME A BIT OF A SHOCK TO SAY THE LEAST...One thing that I do with my job is Facebook and social media marketing. I've had a number of people within my workplace come to me to create and publish these ads on Facebook and Instagram in particular. One of the ads featured a white male police officer. The content of the ad urged viewers to continue their education by obtaining a master's degree in Justice Administration. I had created five different ads with different people or groups of people. All contained the same wording and layout, the only thing that was different was the photo. The content was not approved because it was said to be "political in nature." As I said, the ad did not mention any political party, anyone running for office anywhere, and so forth. So, I decide that I need to look into how to fix this. The folks I created the ad for may be concerned when they see that one of their ads isn't running. So, the first thing it advised me to do was to appeal. I filled out the appeal form and still haven't heard back, although I'm writing this the same day this all happened. There was something else I could do. I could have my account approved to post political ads. I said to myself, "hey, if this is what they think I'm doing and more of my ads will be marked political incorrectly, this might be the best thing to do." So I clicked on it and was astonished at what I saw. That's right, you aren't seeing things. Facebook, the company that allowed a political organization to go under the radar, the company where thousands if not hundreds of thousands of accounts are hacked each day, wants us to provide them with our address, a copy of our photo ID, and the LAST 4 DIGITS OF OUR SSN. I kind of sat back for a minute trying to absorb what just happened. I didn't provide this information of course, but it just seemed so extreme. Why would a company that lost the trust of millions of people then demand that someone who uses their account to boost their posts or post ads give them such personal information? What do you think? Do you think Facebook has gone too far? Let me know in the comments or send me a Snap, Tweet, or DM! I want to know. LEGAL: All photos are my own or come from Pixabay.com, a creative commons website that requires no attribution for photo use. Video sharing is copyright friendly as the original creator gets all views and ad revenue from views on this site.
As an adult, summer may just seem like another passing season. After all, work is still in session and bills still have to be paid. But, there are plenty of ways you can relive the joy you had during your childhood summers as an adult. Here are a few things you have to do this summer to have the best summer ever: 1. MAKE SLUSHEESNothing says summer like a cool, refreshing drink on a long summer night. But, if you’re working or busy with the kids, it might be difficult to find time to break out the blender, buy expensive flavorings, and mix them one by one. Instead, you can use a cool Pinterest hack and make your own slushees with your favorite carbonated drinks. Unfortunately, from what I’ve learned, the drink has to be carbonated. If you have kids and you’re worried about giving them too much caffeine, you can always do this with Ginger Ale, Sprite, Sierra Mist, or another caffeine-free drink. You can do this with cans of soda, but I would recommend doing it with bottles. If you aren’t sure how to do this based off of my instructions, you can watch the video I’ve linked below for a visual instruction. You have to start by taking a room-temperature soda and shaking it to help pressure build up within the bottle. Next, place the bottle in your freezer for 3 hours and 15 minutes. If your freezer is super cold, you can take the bottle out earlier. Lastly, take your soda from the freezer, quickly release some pressure and tighten the cap back on, and turn the bottle upside down. You should see the liquid soda turn to a slushee. This can be a fun experiment if you have children, or can just be a great way to unwind after a hard day of work. 2. GO ON A DAY TRIPFor some people, summer is the slow season. Many teachers (who can afford to) have their summers to themselves. Then there are people like me who work at a small college who just have it a bit easier in the summer and have fewer events and projects to tackle. But, for most, summer is just another time of year. That means that it might be just as difficult to get out of the office to go on a prolonged vacation. But, just because you can’t spend a week in Hawaii doesn’t mean that you can’t unwind on a shorter trip. As long as you don’t work 7 days a week, you can likely find one day in the week to go on a day trip. The trip will get you out of the house and away from work. It gives you the chance to recharge and do something fun. Where you go is up to you and depends entirely on where you can get in a day. For some, this might be a trip into the city, to the beach, or to an attraction nearby. Whatever you do, make it fun or relaxing. As for me and Jonathan, we might be making a trip to the mountains with another one of our friends and her boyfriend. If that doesn’t happen, I really want to make the most of our summer by taking a few day trips here and there. 3. THROW A PARTYJonathan and I have been renting our house for a little over a year, and we’ve yet to have an official housewarming party. I love planning parties. It can be a little stressful, but it is all worth it when you can have a great time with your friends and family. I think it would be so cool to throw a luau party, especially if you have a pool or access to a pool. You could make it really casual with just food and music, or you can do something fun like choreographing a hula dance or making your own leis. And, just because it is summer doesn’t mean you have to limit your party themes. Sometimes, a few of my friends, my husband, and I will get together and play cards or watch a movie. It might not be a traditional party, but it’s a ton of fun and I love spending time with my friends this way! 4. START A NEW HOBBY Aside from New Year’s, summertime is a time of new beginnings. During this time, you can learn a new skill or, better yet, start a new hobby. One of the most popular things people start to do in the summer is landscaping and gardening. We have a cute little walkway in front of the house we are renting that is just begging to be spruced up with something colorful. I am hoping to do something to bring some more life to the front of the house with new plants! However, I have no idea if I have a green thumb, so I am also trying to get into the gym more to make walking and working out one of my new hobbies. We will see how it goes! Choose a hobby that you’ve always been interested in and get started! 5. DON'T NEGLECT THE GREAT OUTDOORSWhen it is hot and, if you live in North Carolina like I do, HUMID during the summer, it can be tempting to lock yourself away in the air conditioning. There are a ton of things you can do inside like watching a movie, going bowling, or catching up on your reading. But don’t forget to go soak up some sun. You can go to the beach, go hiking, rustle up some s'mores on a camp fire. The options are nearly endless! Just be sure that you arm yourself with plenty of bug spray and sunscreen. CONCLUSIONSo, which of these fun summer activities do you think you'll do this summer? Let me know in the comments below, and keep an eye out for more summer content on the blog! LEGAL: All photos are my own or are from Pixabay.com, a creative commons website that requires no attribution for photo use. Video sharing is copyright friendly as the original creator gets all views and ad revenues from views.
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