I heart iHeartRadio

What's your favorite app for your smartphone? Facebook? Words with friends? Twitter? Mine is iHeartRadio!

I originally downloaded the app to listen to my favorite local radio station while my mother was sick and I was travelling back and forth to Florida every week. It was free and it worked great for that, but it wasn't until recently that I realized the joys of custom stations! iHeartRadio allows you to create a custom station based on an artist or a song. While you're listening you are able to give the song a thumbs up, or a thumbs down, to tell the program whether you want to hear more or less songs like the one playing. It's awesome! 

I listen to music mostly in the car and when I exercise. In both places I like upbeat, energetic music. So who do you go to for inspiration? How about Pitbull? Yeah, I know...not your typical mommy music,but I love his music and how it makes me want to move. I plug my iPhone into my mommy mobile and away I go!  I wonder what the people driving next to me think when they see me jamming at a stop light?

If you don't have a particular artist or song in mind, iHeartRadio also has Original stations, like Rockin' Workout Radio, or Love Songs Radio. I haven't used these much, but it's nice to know that they're there, if I want a bigger variety of songs. 

If you've never listened to iHeartRadio, I do have one caution for you. A lot, and I mean A LOT, of the songs on the regular radio are edited versions. Some songs you just know are radio versions, like anything by Eminem, but thanks to this app I now know that Enrique Iglesias isn't "loving" you at all, and Cee-lo Green doesn't want to "forget" you. You might be surprised by what some of your favorite singers originally recorded, but can't be played on the radio!  

So thank you, iHeartRadio, for giving us the uncensored truth!  I love that you keep me motivated to move and you allow me to give you feedback on what I like and don't like. I also love that my custom stations are available on my computer and my phone! I <3 iHeartRadio!

Do you have a favorite iHeartRadio station? Or do you prefer iTunes, where you have complete control?

BTW - I was not compensated or encouraged in any way to write this post. It was all me!

We've come a Long Way - But We're Not There Yet

Today, we have a new President-elect: Barack Obama. Obama will be the 44th President of the United States and the first African American President ever elected in this great nation! I am overjoyed at the renewed feelings of hope that many Americans have right now and I look forward to the change that is coming our way. I am proud that the people of this country were able to overlook race, for the most part, and vote based on the issues and ideologies that they believed in. Unfortunately, some of those ideologies included decreased rights for homosexuals in several states.

Yesterday, Californians voted on Proposition 8, a measure to ban gay marriages in their state by way of a constitutional amendment. Much to the chagrin of many Californians and Americans alike, that measure has seemingly passed (There are still 3 million absentee ballots to be counted with the yes vote leading 52%.). It adds a passage to the state constitution that says “only marriage between a man or a woman is valid or recognized in California.” What I find most troubling about the passing of Proposition 8 is that African Americans voted overwhelmingly for it! I would think that a group of people who understand what it is like to be discriminated against based on something out of your control would have voted for equality. Instead, they voted to ban same sex marriages by a margin as high as 3 to 1. That just astounds me. How can you demand equality for some Americans and not others?

Also voted on yesterday was a proposal in Arkansas that non-married couples, including homosexual couples (already constitutionally banned from being able to be married in that state), not be allowed to adopt or foster children. With all of the children in this world who need a good, loving home and parent s to care them, it is amazing to me that we would let anything stand in the way of qualified individuals willing and wanting to foster and adopt, based on marital status and/or sexual preference.

In Florida and Arizona residents voted to amend their state constitutions to limit marriage to opposite sex couples. Florida’s measure would also ban civil unions, something still allowed in several states.

So while this day marks a historic victory for African Americans and people of all colors, it has been a day of defeat for many in the gay, lesbian and bisexual community, proving that even though we have come a long way, we still do not value every American as equal.