Amy's Kitchen® (I could eat their veggie loaf with mashed potatoes and corn or the scrambled tofu all day long. Whenever I don't feel like cooking, I go straight to the grocery store [usually Dominick's] to buy one of these meals.)
Amazon.com (I write reviews for products regularly and love to read others' comments.)
AOL Radio (When I want to charge my mp3 player or just see what's new on the radio without all the blabbering, I go straight to this site and choose a category, usually "New Country First," "Neo-Soul" or "Top Jams.")
Avon Express Center (When I was the Chicago Fragrance Examiner for Examiner.com, I used to check out all of these fragrances at Carson's and different store specialty products, like Victoria's Secret, but I happened to walk by this shop one day and I've been loving it ever since. Emma Sosa is always pleasant and professional. I only go to her for Avon products.)
Black Heritage Stamps (I wasn't interested in collecting stamps until I saw a Black History Stamps promotional card in my mailbox. Now I own all 80, plus the album. Click the image of Harriet Tubman at the top of this page or click here to find out more info on my collection.)
BlogTalkRadio R2C2H2 Tha Artivist (R2C2H2 is an excellent online radio personality for news in the African American community. If not for Tha Artivist, I wouldn't have found out about the Jena 6 case, the Schlumberger case, and other imperative issues happening in the African American community. In my mid-20s, I looked to his show more than I did the news. My favorite session was "Why I Defaced the Tupac Shakur Statue: The Deconstruction of the Hip Hop Generation.")
Celebrating Black History 365 (This site is pretty cool for reference material when reading about Black History. There are some beautiful shots of Barack Obama and family, and plenty of shots of folks you may know and may not know. Check it out.)
Chicago profiles in Black History: Check out these prolific people in the Chicago area. I'm happy to say I've met a few folks on this list. Cool!
Chicago Public Library (I was so relieved when this library database was set up. I can search for reference books or books I don't necessarily want to buy but want to read from home. If I don't want to buy them at bookstores or online at Half.com or Amazon.com, the online library site is easy to use to find out what's in my area and gives the reference phone employees much less stress trying to find my books.)
Chi Tung (I have never been to this restaurant when it hasn't been packed. I love Asian food more than any other type of food, and Chi Tung has Chinese, Thai, and Japanese dishes. The menu is endless, and I could go there for the next month and never want to eat the same thing. Best of all, their tofu is off the hook!)
Do Not Call List (When you register on the government's Do Not Call List, all of the telemarketing calls stop. Feel free to do so today!)
Half (Most folks go to Amazon.com, but compare their prices to Half.com. Sometimes they beat their competition, including Ebay.com.)
Heritage Books & Music (There aren't too many African American bookstores left, and this one is no exception. I just found out on the second week of March, and I'm disappointed. This was the first bookstore that gave me an opportunity to sell my work in his store and put it in the front window. The owner always has buried books that are so beneficial to those interested in African American history and literature. However, the online site is still up and running. Peek in there and tell the owner I sent you!)
Hyde Park Alliance for Arts & Culture (I was dead tired of listening to negative hip-hop. I'm a hip-hop head, but I prefer conscious music. However, I was beyond frustrated with the radio and ended up listening to WNUA 95.5 [remember the song that went with it?] for jazz. That station has switched to a new Chicago station now, but I liked 95.5. When I got put on to jazz, I started searching for jazz events and learned about HyPa. I volunteered for the 2009 Hyde Park Jazz Festival, courtesy of HyPa and from then on, I continued to be a volunteer. I blogged about the jazz fest last year and became a volunteer who happened to be a freelance writer this year. I've only blogged for HyPa's site once and I volunteered to just be a Passport volunteer, but I enjoyed the events so much that I wanted to bring attention to them. If you click my Hyde Park 2010 Jazz Fest entry, you'll find all of the events I've covered in 2010. If you like jazz, check out HyPa.)
Kohl's (I didn't used to go to Kohl's for anything but accessories, but the clothes started looking better and the clearance racks are addictive enough to clear a whole rack. Next to NY & CO, this is my favorite place to be in a mall.)
The Krazy Coupon Lady (Kourtney Kardashian put me on to this website on an episode of "Kourtney & Kim Take New York." I'm always using coupons for clothing stores and the occasional coupon I get via snail mail, but in 2012, I'm going to spend more time finding ways to spend less on groceries. I need groceries more than my millionth sweater cape or jeans. It's own logical.)
Local Call Finder (Do local toll charges irritate you? Want to know if a number is local or local toll? Just type in the prefix here.)
Mapquest (I've been using this site for years when I need directions, and they've only steered me wrong twice in over a decade. To me, that's magnificent. In addition to directions, most people don't know that Mapquest has an option to find out where the cheapest gas is, and with the War on Gas happening right now, I'd definitely suggest all drivers take advantage of this. The maps show all locations near you, the prices, and the route to get to that gas station. I use this option all the time.)
Merriam-Webster Online (This is a useful dictionary for those too lazy to get up and go to their paper dictionary.)
Morning Magician's Photography (When searching for a new cover for "Round Trip," I was introduced to Luke Schierholz's artwork and loved it. He takes very simple images and makes them somehow poetic and interesting to look at. Pieces like "The Tip," "Waiting to Leave the One You Loved," "The Empty Gym," and even "Afternoon Lull" (even though I'm a vegetarian and cringe at people fishing) are my favorite shots. He's very professional, and if you are looking for artwork, I suggest giving him a try.
Morningstar Farms® (I don't believe I'd have ever been able to be a vegetarian if not for these products. They have everything from veggie chicken strips, veggie steak, veggie ground beef, veggie burgers, and a bunch of other stuff. I'd definitely recommend checking out their products. They're sold in all frozen food sections in your local grocery store.)
Moviefone (I use this site to find out what movies are out, read reviews, and see what theaters around me are showing the films I want to see.)
Netflix (I had co-workers during my days at Kaplan Financial who used to talk about this company all the time, but I didn't get the appeal. I was still loyal to Hollywood Video at the time. Now? I like this site almost as much as Amazon.com. I rent all kinds of movies just to see if I want to buy them. It saves me those ridiculous movie theater prices when I kinda sorta want to see the movie but don't want to pay dinner prices for popcorn!)
New York & Company (There is rarely a day when I enter a mall and don't hit up this store. NY & CO is my favorite style of clothing for business and casual wear.)
Parfums de Coeur (If you like perfume or cologne but aren't interested in spending a wad of money on it and have no shame in the knock-off game, this is the site for you. I wore Fly With Me for years until I smelled Heavenly. However, I still like this site and one of the representatives can even pronounce my name right because I ordered from them so much.)
Pdf-Converter (If you don't have the office version of Microsoft Word and/or you don't have a program that converts Word documents to PDF documents for free without a huge stamp across the pages, this is a useful site.)
Photobucket (This image site is great for holding photos to use for albums or refer to for HTML images. It also creates great slideshows.)
Project Playlist (This is another website I use to listen to music that I cannot find without buying it. I use the music box on my HTML pages and visit this site when I want to listen to my favorite songs without hearing all the talking on the radio or advertisements on online radio stations. You can simply add them after you've done a search on an artist or song title.)
Quench! (The idea of a fast food restaurant with healthy vegetarian food excites me. Even better, I won't run my family and friends away if I want to visit this restaurant because it has meat items too. Their food and service is excellent. Read my restaurant review.)
Redkid (Are you a Peanuts fan? Ever wanted to make up a line for one of the Peanuts characters to say? Here's your chance!)
RTA Chicago (Are you trying to get to a designation in Chicago and avoid driving? This site gives directions using Metra trains, el (subway) trains, buses, and walking distance and time.)
Shutterfly (Once I stopped getting photos developed at Walmart due to the auto department's horrible service, I had to find another place to develop photographs. Lucky for me, Target started selling produce at the same time so I started going to that retail store more. That's when I found out about Shutterfly. I've been a loyal photo customer [and retail grocery customer] for all of 2011.)
"So you think you can be a vegetarian?" (I write so many vegan and vegetarian restaurant reviews, and it's hard keeping up with all of them on different sites so I created this entry to put them all in one spot. I update this entry regularly when I complete new reviews or interviews. If you're interested in the lifestyle, this is your one-stop shop.)
TeamBeachBody (It's a great reference site to record my fitness goals and progress. I started using it after I was working out to the "Hip Hop Abs" DVDs.)Victoria's Secret (I absolutely do not believe in buying cheap undergarments. I'm all about comfort, and Victoria's Secret undergarments fit exactly how I want them to. I never let my Heavenly glitter lotion and perfume run out either.)
VistaPrint (I've used this site for years because they have excellent designs for business cards, postcards, and stamps that I use regularly for marketing. If you subscribe to the newsletter, you'll find great deals on these items, and so many times, you can get supplies for free and just pay for shipping.)
Yahoo! Contributor Network (Yahoo! Contributor Network, formerly called Associated Content, is one of those sites that specializes in everything: editorial writing, tech writing, politics, fashion, etc. You can get paid a base price plus per 1,000 visits or just get paid from visits. I have written for this site for five years, and I love the feedback, the opportunity to network and the opportunities to get news out.)
©2008 Shamontiel L. Vaughn| All rights reserved
