So is anyone else obsessed with Instagram?

Well, I finally got a smart phone.  It's not an iPhone, but it is at least capable of being connected to the Internet, and more importantly...Instagram!

I do radio commercials for a beautiful shop called Crimson Ridge, and they gave me a bunch of tulips today!

Here's what Instagram is all about (from their website):

It’s a fast, beautiful and fun way to share your photos with friends and family.
Snap a picture, choose a filter to transform its look and feel, then post to Instagram. Share to Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr too – it's as easy as pie. It's photo sharing, reinvented.
Oh yeah, did we mention it’s free?

I've been going a little nutso experimenting with Instagram.  But here's an apology upfront: I'm sorry a lot of these pictures are of me.  I'm really not that vain.  It's just that I've pretty much been all alone for most of this week and I'm, like, the only subject around.

I do plan to remedy that, and take cool pictures that other people might actually enjoy seeing.

So here we go:

Here's one I snapped of hubby so his picture would show up when he calls me.

Here's one I snapped of me, so my picture will show up when I call him.

Sorry if this one's kinda lame.  I had literally just installed Instagram, and was looking around for anything to take a picture of.  This happens to be a bookcase in my home.

This is what my hair looks like basically in its natural state, albeit helped along with some product.  If you'd like to know what I do when I wear my hair curly (which is about 25 to 30 per cent of the time), and what products I use, go here.

Here's another idea.  I don't have a scanner, but I decided to take a picture of a picture that's never been put  on line.  These are my boys, Jonathan and Justin, at the ages of about 5 and 2.  (They are now 32 and 29.  WHERE did that time go?!?)

Another pic with the flowers--this one taken with a cool, glowy, filtered light effect.  By the way, women of a certain age like myself?  Instagram effects can be quite kind to us.

Now I'm even more excited about Instagram, because I found out how to put my Instagram photos directly into an album on Facebook.  It's called instafb.  Cool!

OK, now some questions for YOU:

Do you have Instagram?

Do you use it a lot?

Anything you particularly like about it?

Any suggestions or tips for me?

PLEASE let me know in my comments section!

Stuff to tell you!

While my husband and I are holed up in our cozy basement TV room riding out the blizzard of 2011, I thought I would do something I haven't done in a while--a "Stuff to Tell You" post. It's a random potpourri of interesting information and link love. Enjoy!

--I've really been enjoying Alison Sweeney's re-vamped blog. It goes hand-in-hand with her job as host of one of my favorite shows,The Biggest Loser, and focuses mainly on healthy eating and fitness.

Recently Ali was looking especially lovely with a gorgeous updo. She explains how to get the look here.

--Successful blogging is often a case of quid pro quo--or as Jeff Roney calls it, the blogging boomerang. Basically it's all about the good things you do in the blogging world coming back to you. Good stuff!

--You know Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers is a great quarterback--but did you know he plays the guitar to unwind?

--Is Facebook generating "online sociability fatigue"? That's one of the questions raised in this insightful article about the social networking phenomenon.

--If (like me) you're still mourning the loss of "Lost," you'll want to read this article by Carlton Cuse: Lost will never really be over.

--Oh, and one more thing--if you haven't yet checked out my book/reading blog, Cindy's Book Club, I do hope you'll do so now!

Cindy Swanson, CyberSnoop: The Case of the Facebook Forward

Is Facebook going to delete your account if you don’t forward a particular message?

The answer is NO…and if you get such a message on other free online services like Hotmail, Myspace, YouTube and others, you can ignore them as well.

This message has been showing up on Facebook for quite a while now, and my co-host Darren Marlar actually just got it last week. It reads in part:

“Facebook is recently becoming very overpopulated,there have been many members complaining that Facebook is becoming very slow. Records show that the reason is that there are too many non-active Facebook members and, on the other side, too many new Facebook members.

"We will be sending this message around to see if members are active or not. If you are active please send to at least 15 other users using Copy+ Paste to show that you are still active. *Those who do not send this message within 2 weeks will be deleted without hesitation to create more space.”

The message is supposedly signed by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Snopes.com tells us that this hoax originated in 1999, but it was about Hotmail at the time...and it’s been falsely used with MySpace, Yahoo, MSN and several others.

And urbanlegends.about.com sums it up pretty well:

“Facebook officials have made no public announcements saying that the service has become ‘overpopulated’ or has ‘slowed down.’ Administrators of social networking sites on this scale don't issue misspelled and ungrammatical chain letters to their members. And even if they did, they wouldn't announce in an email that they "need to get rid of some people" to make room for the rest.

File this one in the trash bin where it belongs.”

Clearing up another internet rumor, this is Cindy Swanson, CyberSnoop…reminding you to check it out BEFORE you hit that “send” button!