Since approximately the year 2001, I’ve been addicted to my DVR.  My hubby and I bought one when they first came out.  Recording TV shows and watching them whenever you want is THE AWESOME.

Except now, you can watch TV shows online whenever you want for FREE and THAT is THE AWESOMER!   I recently heard about a new site where you can do this, Fancast.

We had a channel lineup change on our cable right at the beginning of the new TV season, so my DVR messed up and didn’t record the season premiers of two of my favorite shows, Dollhouse (Don’t judge me! I LOOOOVE Joss Whedon!) and The Office.  I was SUPER-SAD when I discovered this, but thanks to Fancast, I don’t have to wait to see it in re-runs! I already watched them online. Yippee!

Fancast has a huge catalog of shows, even this morning I just checked and it has last night’s shows up already!   And it pulls content from over 100 sources, including Hulu, and even features celeb news, gossip, blogs, and more. (For instance OMG BFF I just found out Ashlee Simpson-Wentz was let go from Melrose Place thanks to Fancast. THE HORROR!  How will she afford $1000 booties for her rock star baby now!?)

I’m enjoying being able to watch my shows for free whenever I want online.  Hope you do too.

Oh, and BTW, Fancast isn’t paying me or anything for posting this. I hear I will be entered into a drawing to win a $100 gift card because I posted about them, but I don’t expect to win, however if I do, I am buying Mountain Dew for EVERYONE!  Except Ashlee Simpson-Wentz’s baby.

It’s Things I Love Thursday at the Diaper Diaries, and I’ve recently come to love Swagbucks.   Swagbucks is just a really beneficial way to do your internet searches.  If you’re like me, you go to the “University of Google” for all your adult education needs.   I usually google things a couple of times a day, whether it’s “need-to-know” or “just being nosey”.   Swagbucks is a search engine that uses Google to get your answers just like you usually do, but rewards you for certain searches with Swagbucks that you can then redeem at the Swagbucks store for prizes!  I am going to use mine to get Amazon.com gift certificates since just about everything I could ever want is available thru Amazon.  I’ve only been using Swagbucks for 2 weeks and I’ve already got 25 Swagbucks just from doing my normal internet searches! It rocks!  To get started searching and winning your own Swagbucks, you can sign up here.

Swagbucks is what I love! To see what everyone else loves, check out Things I love Thursday at the Diaper Diaries.

However, I am going to stop being a Photoshop hack because I have found a program that makes digital scrapbooking SUPER easy. It’s called Digital Scrapbook Artist, and it is GREAT. It contains a ton of different themes and elements and you can customize your design in a lot of different ways. The program is unique in that it enables users to edit every object on their scrapbook page and perfect their designs to look exactly as they would in a traditional scrapbook. All of the paper backgrounds and embellishments in the program are hi-res and the program comes with a built-in photo editor.

Additional features of Scrapbook Artist include:
– Choice of 8”x8”, letter-size or 12”x12” pages
– Photo paintbrushes
– Decorative edge scissor cut out tool
– Filter effects for every object
– One-click sharing to post designs for others to see
– 10 free themed digikits

I made this in about 10 minutes:

Digital Scrapbook Artist retails for $39.95 and you can order it at www.serif.com/scrapbook. As a special offer for Reviewin’ It Up readers, you can get $5 off by entering coupon code DSAUSPR04. Woohoo!

It’s official, thanks to the good folks at Sony, I am now fully obsessed with taking pictures and I am a wannabe/aspiring photographer!  I am having so much fun with my new cameras and I have literally taken hundreds of photos of my kids in the past four days.  Thanks to some instruction from Me Ra Koh, I have taken some really beautiful photos with my Sony Alpha DSLR 300K. 

Photos like this:

And this:

And this:

This camera truly makes it easier than I could have thought to get great photos.  And thanks to Me Ra, I am now beginning to understand things like aperature, ISO and shutter speed so I can take my camera off of “AUTO” mode.  (None of these shots were taken in auto!!) 

The features I like best about the Alpha DSLR-300k are the incredibly high picture quality – it takes 10 megapixel pictures!  I had to size the above photos way, way down to get them to fit on the blog, because the original files are huge and the quality amazing.  Also, it has a large tiltable live preview LCD screen which is fabulous!  You can view the pictues immediately as you take them.  Finally, I love that it allows you to continuously take pictures really quickly – at up to 2 frames per second – so you don’t miss any action shots!  That is very important when you have active kiddos running around and constantly fidgeting.

This camera retails for around $700, but if you can swing it, it is well worth the money because the pics it produces are the shizzle and it really is EASY TO USE!!  Of course I had some instruction on it but I have – gasp! – actually consulted the manual a couple of times and it has been – double gasp!! – helpful!

So that’s my opinion on the Alpha.  For more photos I’ve taken with this camera, check out my Flickr photostream!

When I first got the email inviting me to an all-expenses paid trip to California courtesy of the Sony Corporation, I was both shocked and dubious. I mean, things like this just do not happen to me!  Plus, they were offering spa treatments and free gifts!  Crazy!  What really got me hooked on going, though, is that it would a) give me a much-needed break from my daily life and b) we were going to test cameras!  I love taking pictures but wish I was a lot, lot, better at it.  They had booked a professional photographer to give us lessons (more on her later) and I was very excited about that!  But really – free trip?  They had me at “free”.

The flights there were long but uneventful, and I was tickled to see a driver with my name on a sign at the airport when I got there. Again – a surreal experience! I wish I would have gotten a picture of that!  When we got to the hotel, we were given a voucher for spa service and for dinner.  I ate a fancy dinner with Kim and Christina, had a great time, took some pics, and went to bed. I was very jet laggy.  Since I went to bed at 9 p.m. Cali time, I woke up at 5:30 a.m. Cali time!  I was still on my Ohio schedule!  Our sessions with Sony didn’t start until 9 a.m. Ha! I had puh-lenty of time to get ready, since I only had myself to worry about!  It was weird just having to take care of me, but great.  I mean I got a shower without the kids being in the bathroom with me! That’s luxury, baby.

There were 14 other Mommy Bloggers at the event, and when we all walked into the conference room, we were greeted with a very special treat: three of Sony’s cameras, the ones we were going to be testing, at our seats, waiting for us, but also given to us. FOR KEEPS!  I could hardly believe it!  We were not only testing the products we got to take them home!  We got the Cybershot DSC-T2, the Alpha DSLR-A200K, and the Handycam HDR-SR11. I was floored. Give me a free trip and a couple grand in free products?  Did I have to sign over my firstborn child? Join a harem? Was there a catch?

Believe it or not, there really was no catch.  Just a room full of Sony folk legitimately wanting to know what moms think about their products.  It was so refreshing.  All the presenters with Sony told us the different reasons how and why they wanted to market to women, and moms in particular.  I must say this is a first for a technology company.  I think it goes without saying that most technology products are produced for and marketed to the male consumer.  But Sony is looking to change that. And dangit if they weren’t so nice about it.  I kept thanking each Sony rep I’d meet for bringing us to La Jolla and for all the great treatment we were getting.  The response was always the same: “Thank you so much for coming and giving your valuable time to give us this important feedback.”  They were as grateful to  have me there as I was to be there!

After some introduction and training on the cameras, as well as a great lunch, we got into our photo tips session with photographer Me Ra Koh.  (Pronounce it “Meera” like it’s all one word.)  She is amazing.  Not just as a photographer, but as a woman, a mom, and a  blogger. We had the best time with her.  I encourage you to check out her photography site and her blog.  She has also recently produced a set of DVDs that I’m going to be reviewing and giving away soon, so stay tuned for that!  After some practice shooting with our SLRs, we had a little free time, and I got a wonderful massage. THANK YOU SONY!  That was the best hour I’ve had in a looong time.  Oh my gosh. It was awesome!  Although I did get into a small non-relaxing debate with the masseuse about whether or not  it was ok to give Sophie whole milk while I was gone. (I was of the opinon that it was fine. The massage therapist…not so much.) Yeah…we had to drop that subject.  I’ll have to blog on that later.  After that, I left feeling all relaxed and happy, and we all went to a fancy-schmancy dinner at a restaurant called Azul’s. It was sooo good. I had a great time!  I got to sit next to the fabulous Me Ra and she was so nice.  We had a great talk and a lot of laughs!

Then it was off to bed…the next morning was early and busy.  We had just a couple of hours of sessions before it was time to go home!! We made prints of some of the photos we had taken the day before and Me Ra and her husband Brian critiqued them for us.  It was really fun to see the shots everyone had gotten!  Then, it was  over and I was whisked off to the airport by a uniformed driver (who, me??).  In all the rush I somehow lost my laptop power adapter.   Very sad indeed! I am not sure if I left it at the hotel (called, haven’t heard back) or in the airport…I had to unpack my laptop bag to get thru security, and again when I was pumping my breasts in the airport bathroom. So, that was kind of a bummer, but considering all I gained on the trip, not so bad! 

Let me share a few pictures I took with my CyberShot. Sony is shipping my other two cameras to me and I am going to do a full review of all three cameras once I have tested them thoroughly!  I am even going to try and do my first VIDEO review of the CyberShot. Exciting stuff! In the meantime, here are some shots:

They were a sight for sore eyes indeed!