When multiple people see a product in your hand and instantly begin to rave about it, you know it’s something special. When that product is a water bottle, it must be a freaking epic water bottle if people RECOGNIZE IT let alone love it. Contigo water bottles, with their Autoseal technology (mixed in with some witchcraft, I’m sure) is definitely the Chuck Norris of water bottles.

I ended up purchasing the sleek stainless steel travel mug with the west loop lid, a pack of two was on sale at Costco for $14.99. FOURTEEN DOLLARS AND NINETY-NINE CENTS FOR TWO WATER BOTTLES THAT MUST’VE COME FROM THE TWENTY-SEVENTH CENTURY. Damn straight. The normal price apparently runs around $20 for the two pack. It’d be worth it even if it was $30 for two.

The first thing I did was, of course, to fill it with water, flip it upside down, and shake the shit out of it. The first time I ended up getting water all over the table since I stupidly was holding it by the lid, and had my hand resting on the Autoseal button that you press to drink. Second time I held it from the base and yup – not a drop fell out. As a student who carries my water bottle in my backpack together with those notes and textbooks I never actually read, that’s a plus. I’ve had numerous issues with leakage in the past with less-impressive water bottles. Felt bad man. But this Contigo thing has changed all that. My faith in water bottles has been restored.

Their stainless steel mugs are meant for holding both hot and cold beverages. My old stainless steel travel mug was a piece of crap and burned my hand whenever I poured in that sweet brown stuff. It also cried on the outside when I filled it with ice, piece of trash that it was. BUT THE CONTIGO. JEEZ. Filled it up with boiling hot water – I’m not exaggerating when I say IT DOESN’T EVEN FEEL WARM ON THE OUTSIDE. If you were nursing a stunned baby squirrel back to health, sticking a hot-water filled Contigo mug beside the creature WOULD NOT HELP IT WHATSOEVER. The sorcery continues when you add in ice – not a drop of condensation appears on the outside, and it doesn’t freeze your hands. If you got punched in the face and needed something to stop the swelling, the Contigo would be USELESS. This water bottle isn’t there to help baby mammals and prevent pain, no – it’s there to be EXCEPTIONALLY MAJESTIC.

The coffee I’ve drank from the Contigo remains blistering hot for at least 1-2hours, and warm enough to be enjoyed for a while after. If your beverage is iced, don’t expect much meltage – I used to fill up my old bottles to the top with ice to anticipate the melting, which would give me more liquid to drink. With the Contigo, I fill it up halfway cause I know the ice is going to take it’s own sweet time to melt. I’ve set this water bottle beside my bed half full of ice and still had one or two icecubes floating around in there when I woke up (after around 8 hours – that’s right I get my proper amount of sleep biaatttcchhess).

The only possible downside of the Contigo bottles is the difficult of cleaning the moveable parts in the lid, especially if you don’t use a dishwasher. Pressing the button does two things – it opens up the drinking hole so you can chugga, and opens up another hole which does something-something-airpressure-something to increase the flow of liquid. Problem is these holes and the mechanisms to open them can get difficult to clean. If you don’t mind spending a little extra time soaking it in hot soapy water and forcing some running water as well over the moving parts, it’s a small price to pay for the happiness this water bottle will bring you.

Contigo water bottles – spiffy? HELL YEAH. Buy one. Buy two. They’re seriously just that awesome.

IT'S A SCREENSHOT

OKAY DAMMIT GUYS. After trying out multiple screenshot apps, those that promised they could work on unrooted phones, those that worked on rooted phones, etc. I was getting fed up at how freaking COMPLICATED these apps were (you had to go through like ten steps to set up your phone for it to work). Coupled with the fact that some of these screenshot programs were trials, and you would need to spend $4-$7 bucks just to get over the screenshot limit or w/e, I finally came across the BUILT IN WAY TO TAKE A SCREENSHOT.

YEAH. There’s a built in way to take a screenshot in ANDROID. Call me an Android noob, I’ve only had this phone for like a month but JEEZ. DID IT EVER MAKE MY LIFE EASIER DISCOVERING THIS.

Pretty much, hold down the Power button > Take a screenshot. It’ll save it automatically to your Pictures folder, which you can then retrieve through USB or what I prefer – the Dropbox app.

Yeah yeah, laugh if it’s common knowledge, but I’m just hoping I spare some other Android noob pulling their hair out.