Lists | Nicole DiGiose

12 Festive Things You Can Do for the Holidays

Posted on December 19, 2015 by Nicole DiGiose

The holiday season has officially begun! Here are 12 magical ideas to get in the spirit this winter.

If you already haven’t, decorate your home

There’s nothing like kicking off the season with wreaths, ribbons, a sparkling tree, or some glistening candles by the frosty window. Of course, the best way to decorate is to…

Crank up those catchy holiday tunes

Although you may be sick of “Feliz Navidad” by the end of December (since the music most likely started near Thanksgiving), once the holiday season has officially started, the music is a must to get you jingling with joy. Read More

10 Ways to Stay Creative

Posted on December 5, 2015 by Nicole DiGiose

Take on new experiences: Leaving your safe haven and launching yourself into new territory will certainly get the wheels in your head spinning. Seeing new sights and experiencing mind-opening adventures will bring about fresh thoughts and different ideas.

Embrace your quirkiness: You’re the only you who will ever walk this planet. Be true to your spirit — speak your mind and express your personality, because there’s nothing else like it. The odds of you existing were slim, but here you are. Read More

10 Tips to Help You Out of Your Comfort Zone

Posted on October 6, 2015 by Nicole DiGiose

You only grow as a person if you’re willing to feel uncomfortable or awkward when you try something new. Life is all about change — and living — not about repeating yourself. Put yourself out there and try something you normally wouldn’t — it could bring out talent and feelings you wouldn’t have known you were capable of otherwise. For starters, check out the points below and give them a go. You’ll be amazed at your own amazingness, and if not, you’ll walk away with knowledge and appreciation for something completely different from your norm. Feel free to share tips and experiences in the comments section. Read More

These Eight Inspirational Quotes are Ready to Motivate You

Posted on October 3, 2015 by Nicole DiGiose

Need a dose of inspiration? Below is a list of eight pretty pictures sprinkled with motivational words of wisdom. All photos were taken by yours truly. If you like ’em, feel free to save and share! If you’ve created your own inspirational pieces of positivity that you would like to showcase, visit my new website, sprangled.com to submit.

Five Tips to Make Each Day Count

Posted on May 10, 2015 by Nicole DiGiose

Don’t count every hour in the day, make every hour in the day count.

Express yourself

My boyfriend and I took a fantastic painting class, after not painting for years. It was pure fun.

Everyone has a creative side, and you don’t have to be a van Gogh to express that. Allowing yourself time to be creative opens the opportunity to express yourself with activities you enjoy, and you very well may surprise yourself. There are plenty of ways to express yourself, including making music, painting, drawing, planting flowers, fixing cars, writing, or photography. And those are just a few, of course. Stimulate your mind!

Try something different

My boyfriend, Tim, at our trapeze class in the summer of 2013. Exhilarating.

Whether it’s skydiving, shark-diving, trapezing, parasailing, volunteering at the animal shelter, sitting in on a new class, running a mile, cooking a big meal, or writing that novella, there are so many extraordinary things this world has to offer. There’s an infinite amount of learning and experiences to be had, and all you have to do is step outside of your comfort zone to open your life to rejuvenating, exciting adventures.

Laughter

Me acting like a weirdo as one of my best friends took my picture in Manhattan in 2010.

Everybody knows that an eye-tearing, stomach-aching laugh can bring immense joy to ourselves and those around us like like nothing else. As children, we laughed with ease. In fact, most of us seeked fun or funny things on a daily basis. As adults, we often need reminders to allow ourselves to be silly and see the humor in everyday situations. Bonus: laughter is also good for your health. Research shows that laughter may strengthen your immune system, and it reduces stress. Read More

Tips to Get Inspiration Back in Your Life

Posted on January 18, 2015 by Nicole DiGiose

Skydiving, June 2010.

Your life is unique, your life is yours. You might often find yourself tangled in what seems to be the routine of your everyday life, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Here are some life-expanding tips I’ve put together in hopes of lighting a spark in all who read these words from my mind-spill.

Create a bucket list

This will give you something to look forward to; this will pave the path to mingling with goals. Want to jump from a plane? Travel across the world? Learn a new language? Write a story? Run a mile? You have a life and you have a mind, so use them, love them! Life has so many gifts for you — you have to unwrap them. Once created, it’s good to keep your bucket list in a place where you will see it. Showing it off to others can help you get moving on it too, since then they can either join you on some epic quests or support your life-loving ideas.

Get physical

Being uninspired can often leave you feeling stagnant. Know that being physically strong and flexible also makes you mentally strong and flexible, cooking up the recipe for an open mind. A good way to guide yourself to a better mental state is to get your body involved in some good fun. Hiking, rock climbing, biking, dancing, kick-boxing, yoga. An open mind and a strong body go a long way, and these experiences make for good stories to inspire others. Read More

Top smartphones of 2014

Posted on December 28, 2014 by Nicole DiGiose

Looking to buy a new phone this holiday season? Check out our list of some of the best smartphones you can purchase today.

Samsung Galaxy S5

With high dynamic range resulting in amazing picture quality, the Galaxy S5’s 16MP camera is its main feature. But of course, that’s not all this brilliant phone has to offer. Samsung has also improved the phone’s durability and usability from its S4 predecessor, with improved resistance to dust and water. Its awesome apps include fitness-tracking abilities, which have been enhanced since the Galaxy S4, along with a dedicated heart rate monitor. Its fingerprint scanner makes this phone one of the most secure Galaxy phones ever created. Although its silver edge and Elastoplast-style back won’t be of everyone’s taste, the market for its use with companion products such as the Gear smartwatch and Gear Fit fitness band are growing, though relatively small.

Dimensions: 142.0 x 72.5 x 8.1mm Screen: 5.5” Weight: 172g Storage: 1GB, Internal Memory: 16/64/128GBProcessor: Apple A8 Camera: Front-facing: 8MP Rear-facing: 1.2MP

iPhone 6

No doubt about it, the iPhone 6 has a very pleasing design, and along with its user-friendly simplicity, it’s one of the best phones to ever hit the market. It picks up where the 5s left off, with a larger 4.7-inch display, improved battery life, and a slimmer body than ever before (just don’t bend it!). Although no one feature stands out, as they’re all nothing short of astounding, Apple proved again that it can reinvent existing ideas into a whole new product.

Dimensions: 158.1 x 77.8 x 7.1 mm Screen: 5.1” Weight: 145g Storage: 2GB, Internal Memory: 16/32GB, microSD slot up to 128GB Processor: Qualcomm MSM8974AC Snapdragon 801 Camera: Front-facing: 2MP Rear-facing: 16MP
Read More

5 strange patents owned by Google

Posted on June 20, 2014 by Nicole DiGiose

A look into the future through Google’s eyes

Gadget that projects a keyboard onto your hand

Image via patentimages.storage.googleapis.com.

By now most people know of the voice and gesture-activated wearable computer with an optical head-mounted display that is Google Glass. Though the idea of this device frees us from being tied to a desk and eliminates the need to carry around a smartphone or tablet, there’s still a downside. Voice commands don’t work well in noisy environments, and for those used to typing brief emails into a computer, anything lengthier could make for quite a tricky process. But it looks like Google has a solution to that.

Just last year the tech giant filed for a patent for a technology called “Methods and Systems for a Virtual Input Device.” The patent outlines a variety of projector and camera systems that would allow a keyboard to be laser-projected onto surfaces or onto a user’s hand. According to the patent, the projected QWERTY keyboard of the Glass would measure 295 mm by 95 mm. Read More

Four negatives about hosting a party

Posted on March 30, 2014 by Nicole DiGiose

Don’t get me wrong, I love hosting get-togethers and being responsible for fun times that still come up in conversation years later. But it you’ve ever hosted a happy little shindig yourself, you can probably relate to these few occurrences that are guaranteed to happen and will most likely throw off your beaming confidence, at least a little bit.

People breaking up into groups

The first few people to show up will stick together, but once more guests flow in, everyone flocks to those they’re most familiar and comfortable with. It makes sense, but this always has me wondering how to get the group sitting at the table, the clan standing near the barbecue, and the tipsy ones laughing at the bar all together. That amazing solution, whatever it may be, would also save you from jumping from one group to the next.

The one shy person clinging to their phone Read More

Four young technologies that will change the world

Posted on March 1, 2014 by Nicole DiGiose

An article I wrote for Electronic Products.

A look at some of the technologies that will affect the way we live in the near future

While the 20^th century was packed with technological breakthroughs and discoveries, the 21^st century could go one, or many steps further. In the last decade we’ve seen iTunes turn the music industry upside down, and the social media revolution forever changed the way we communicate, along with the rise of the smartphone. Check out the list below to find out which technologies are expected to affect the way we live in the years to come.

The Internet of Things

TIoT

Image via silabs.com.

If you think the Internet is all about your smartphone and staying connected with friends, you’ll be surprised to know that the Internet is increasingly becoming about objects communicating with other objects. Actuators and sensors are appearing on more devices so they can monitor surroundings, receive instructions, and share feedback. Currently there are over 9-billion devices connected to the Internet, and that number is expected to rise to a trillion in the next decade.

According to the director of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Carnegie Mellon University, Ed Schlesinger, traffic among devices will exceed the conversation among people and between people and devices. Read More