my morning: a story in four-part harmony.

i tried a new techie-trick today. i'm more than a little proud of myself. and i'll tell you all about it in a minute i swear. but first, there is a little backstory that needs to be told.

THE BORING PART:

i slept in an extra five minutes this morning, because you know how there is always a chance that you got your days messed up and its really Saturday and you dont really have to get up and showered and to work on time? well that was not the case today. so i got up and showered and dressed. i spent too long making myself look presentable, blowdrying and straightening my hair (and did i REALLY need to pluck my eyebrows this morning? apparently so.)  and i pulled out of the driveway an extra five minutes late.

THE EXCITING PART:

so i'm driving on 83, passing the typically obnoxious slow drivers and making good time, when all of a sudden around a corner up ahead i notice a GIANT cloud of smoke obscuring the whole width of the highway. so of course i grabbed my phone and took a picture:

and as i drove by (after the idiot car got done passing me on the right) i took another picture. because the car! it was ON FIRE!*

and from the looks of the scene, with no emergency responders, no flares, no traffic calming anything, it couldnt have happened very long before i drove by. maybe oh, about 5 minutes? funny how those things go sometimes, huh?

*sorry for the lack of actual fire in the picture. it was there i swear. i blame the idiot passing-on-the-right-while-driving-past-a-car-on-fire car for making me take such a bad cell phone picture while i was driving.

THE TECHIE PART:
after i took these awesome pictures of the out-of-the-ordinary-ness of my morning commute, i was sad when i realized that i did not have the appropriate cord to connect my phone to my computer to get the pictures off my phone to share with the world. stupid phone. but then! in a stroke of genius! i decided to play around with the options on my phone, just to see what it could do. and i pushed a button that said 'Send to Online Album' and i got a little happy when it told me 'Message Sent'

and then i realized that i didnt really know where it got sent.

i found it on the verizon website, in an Online Album of all places! my phone might not be a smart phone, but its not a dumb phone thats for sure. i cant believe i haven't known about this before now! oh the pictures i will be able to share with you! without the hassle of cords and cards and oh my Yay!!! i am awesome techie-wonder-girl, hear me roar!

THE HILARIOUS PART:
it just so happens that in my Online Album of wonder, i have options. for Fun Effects. two whole sub-heading's worth of Picture Enhancements and Fun Effects (way to be creative with your naming structure, verizon) so not only is it super easy now for me to share my awesome grainy cell phone pictures with you, but i can ENHANCE them too!

they can be in soft focus, adding a blurry kind of magical, ethereal feeling to any moment:

or antiqued, for that lovely sepia-toned feeling that cell-phone-picture-worthy events in your life actually happened a long long time ago:

as a Fun Effect, you can make your pictures look like a cartoon:

 or add a speech bubble, so now we can know just what that car was Really thinking:

and if you're feeling really giddily excited about your new techie discovery and still laughing way too hard at that last picture, you can even COMBINE the Fun Effects and wind up with gems like this one of a kind cropped black and white cartoon complete with thought bubble!:

all these and more can be yours for the low low price of whatever outrageous monthly fee my phone plan costs. try it for yourself today!

do not use your cameraphone while driving. Amidala is not responsible for car accidents, cars on fire, or making you laugh so hard at that talking car on fire that you involuntarily shot milk out of your nose just now. ok, maybe that last one. but seriously, drive safe.ly.