internet favorites for december: the only apps i've ever loved

As a rule, I dislike trying out apps or downloading things. Technology-wise, I am a late adapter. But these three apps have made themselves essential to my life, and I wholeheartedly recommend them!

1. Unroll.me
Eve showed me this. It combines all the subscriptions you choose (how about some Madewell promo emails? Everlane? Bookcourt?) into one single email, and sends it to you every morning. It has saved my inbox!

2. VSCO Cam
I know this is old news for smartphone owners, but this is an awesome app for photo-editing on your phone--more subtle filters than Instagram, and lots of fine-tuneable options.

3. Camerabag 2
I can't afford Photoshop or even Lightroom, and this $20 thingy allows me to edit my digital photos to the extent that I want. And it's been invaluable for my Fusion freelancing. I love it! It's like VSCO Cam for a desktop, but with even more options. And if all your images from an event have the same problem--like, they're all too yellow--you can create your own filter and save it.


PS Here are the other internet favorites.

Norwegian arctic cuisine, 2013

 nathalie caught a cod

The midnight ride, Nordvoll, 2013

Marrakech Rouge, 9 months later

The trick of the long-term traveler: when the lights go out, make a lantern by putting a water-filled water bottle on top of a flashlight.

End of times at Nordvoll, Norwegian Arctic

 Around midnight on my last day. When the sun doesn't set you feel like the end of the world is just around the corner.

 This are photos from the last two days of my time in Norway and as a Shaw fellow. I haven't uploaded them before (they're from June) because I really couldn't tell, looking at them, if the photos were interesting or not. It's like a magic trick how waiting 2 months can change your photos from boring to utterly filled with longing.

Just on my last day we found three strawberry flowers

me and michelle

 part of what I wrote in the wwoof book

 The same field and beach, Snarby, at the end of April

The same field in mid May

When I think about Michelle or this last day in Nordvoll, I hear Ida's "My Fair, My Dark." The readers who know me know I don't listen to music that often, but when I do I get all emotional, and Norway and "My Fair, My Dark" are so perfect together. Michelle sang me a song she wrote while we stood on the beach, maybe that's why I remember her and the end of the Arctic with a melody.

Please listen to the song I mean here.

my watercolors of the beginning of my stay, and the end

Musée d’histoire de la médecine, Paris

Some medieval knives used for amputations

The museum of the history of medicine is on 12 Rue de l'Ecole de Médecine, and the Odéon metro stop. It's on a side street right next to the Starbucks. The winter hours are 2-5pm, except Thursdays and Sundays. A full-price ticket is just 3.50 euros. The museum is hidden away on the third floor of a grand university building from 1803.

I have betrayed my values

I got a digital camera (a Sony rx100). It's half as expensive in the US, and fortunately, Norwegian customs didn't catch it (it probably helps that my mom put it in a little boring box).

The thing I hate most about digital photography is how fake the light always looks. I particularly hate those bright-turquoise skies that even the fanciest cameras end up with. I don't have Photoshop so I guess I'll have to try out a lot of different things with Picasa's editing tools. I kind of hate myself and what I've been reduced to, but already I was thinking about all the things I can do now that I could never manage before: Videos, photos in low light and photos of auroras and other risky subjects, even street style photos, for God's sake. This camera also has a zoom, which I've never experienced before. Given that it's twenty dollars to develop a roll here, I'll make up the cost of the camera in 35 rolls--which, when I'm traveling, is about two months' worth.

 The blackberries here go long and slow and are only somewhat ripe in mid-October.
I need to figure out how to stop the camera from focusing on the first thing it sees, holy crap. I took a film photo of this same briar and once it's developed I will put it up here and we will all cry our eyes out.

The two black cats of Lygra Gjestegarde. This photo's all right except for those dreadful kool-aid blue spaces in the upper left.

A neighbor's house.