Let me help you slack

We all know that a little bit of procrastination just revs us up for when we get back to work, right? Right??? Anyway, in case you’re addicted to the mobile version of Angry Birds but are also aware that hunching over your phone at your desk is really conspicuous, I have good news for you: Angry Birds is now available as a web app for Google’s Chrome Browser. I don’t know how this could have seemed like a good idea.

The sexiest thing I have ever seen today

Of course stuff like this gets me all hot and bothered. I am a librarian, after all!

(Pay no attention to the jailbait-masquerading-as-a-professional photo that accompanies the article.)

I did it!

I said that I’d root my phone and install Froyo, and last Friday I did! Go Nicole, go Nicole! I’m pretty good with computers, and I had lots of experience putting new roms on my HTC Tilt2, but I was really intimidated by the thought of touching my precious Android phone. I LOVE my phone, the Samsung Captive (AT&T’s version of the Samsung Galaxy S). It’s great for lots of things that I love, such as playing WordFeud, reading my NOOKBooks, and listening to podcasts, and I didn’t want to break it. The only thing I didn’t love about it was how slow it was. Slow is relative, since it was still faster than any other phone I’d previously owned, but I knew it was capable of more. Android 2.2 had been out for several months before I even got my phone. In fact, I’d bought it in October believing that AT&T would be updating it to Froyo almost immediately. Why? Oh yeah, because that’s what AT&T kept saying. Then November, December, and January came and went without any timetable for the upgrade. I kept holding out for AT&T, partially out of fear of messing up my phone, but also because I wanted to give them the chance to give me the official Captivate version of Froyo. What finally convinced me to take matters into my own hand was the announcement that the next line of Galaxy S phones was on their way.

I thought that rooting my phone and installing a new ROM would be a difficult process, but actually it was very easy. I guess I lucked out a bit, due to waiting for so long (I love it when my indecision works for me). Right after I decided to do the upgrades on my own, I ran across this post, How to Root Samsung Galaxy S, Captivate and Vibrant, which provided a one-step rooting process. So neat, so simple! Then I went to my good friends at XDA Developers and read this guide to learn how to put a new ROM on my phone. If you can follow directions, it’s pretty simple. I did everything in the guide (except for the rooting part, since I’d already done that), and it turned out exactly the way things were supposed to. So now I have the very sweet Phoenix Rising ROM on my phone, and I couldn’t be happier. See?

If you don’t love this, you have no soul

Do not approve

I’m not as sick as I was during the latter half of last week, but I’m hoping that my weakened immune system is also responsible for lowering the threshold for what makes me cry, otherwise I am at a loss to explain why BOTH of these videos made me teary-eyed (and they aren’t remotely sad).

What is “Something I’m going to regret faster than I would have expected,” Alex?

The answer: Legally changing my name to the ridiculous nickname of a television character.

Although Castle has recently supplanted Chuck as my favorite still-running tv show, I am still really enjoying this season of the nerd/spy dramedy. Chuck as both a show and a character had been getting on my nerves ever since the most recent, and probably final, death of Agent Superman (whose actual name I have aleady forgotten).

His abs I remember just fine.

Luckily, the show somehow turned around for me over the last several episodes, and now I’m firmly back on Team Chuck. Even at its worst, Chuck is a smart and funny show that turns its minuscule CGI budget (I guess they’re not too flush after paying all the cool guest stars like Richard Chamberlain, Summer Glau [reunited with her Firefly co-star, the delusional Adam Baldwin], and Nicole’s Future Husband Isaiah Mustafa) into a selling point, instead of a reason for despair.

I guess I’m  not the only one whose life is enriched by Chuck. I watch it for the lulz, and the former Douglas Allen Smith, Jr. watches it for…motivation? I say former because this man’s legal name is now Captain Awesome, which is the nickname of Chuck’s ridiculously good-looking doctor brother-in-law.

Another shirtless/towel pic, merely for comparison's sake. You're welcome, comparison.

I get why this show is so cool and Captain Awesome in particular is pretty special, but why would anybody do this? The real-life Mr. Awesome’s new signature, which is a smiley face bracketed by arrows, has been rejected by his bank because it’s too easy to forge. I can’t even imagine what other stupid consequences he may have to face because of his new name. I think that the judge who granted the name change was smart to allow this; sometimes you have to do really stupid things in order to learn valuable lessons. Unless the world is nicer than I suspect it to be, I give this name change 5 years, tops.

Sharpies…is there anything they can’t do?

This Miata’s unique paint job is actually the result of 22 days and $100 dollars’ worth of Sharpies. That’s pretty amazing. My arm aches just thinking about it.

Futher evidence that the French are the luckiest people on the planet

Even though their retirement age has been raised to the beastly age of 62, the French really have it good. They strike all the time at the barest provocation, and they get approximately a million days of vacation per year. It turns out that their kiddos are rather lucky, too. An 18-month-old, who was somehow unattended by her parents (they must have been suffering from ennui or taking a siesta), fell from a sixth-story window, bounced on a business’s awning, and was then caught by a doctor. How much luck can one person have? It’s amazing enough that the awning broke her fall, and then she landed in the hands of a doctor? I want that kid to pick my lottery numbers.

Not the child in question.

Standing up to hatred

If the zombie apocalypse comes (note: do not watch that show right before bedtime), the college students I’d want saved first would be these kids from Minnesota State University, Mankato : http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/11/01/mankato

German, where have you been all my life?

I love language. I find it fascinating certain ideas are more easily expressed in one language than another. For example, there is no complete, direct English translation for the French phrase “l’esprit de l’escalier.” The phrase defines the act of thinking of a clever comeback when it’s too late to say it. You may be elsewhere, or maybe it’s just that too much time has passed. Whatever the reason, the phrase encompasses the regret one feels that this response was not thought of when it could have been employed.

German is another language that has given English these types of words: schadenfreude, zeitgeist, and my new favorite word ever, fremdschämen. This word means to be vicariously embarrassed for somebody else. I feel this all the time. It’s part of the reason that I gave up Ugly Betty in early season 3, and can’t watch sitcoms at all. I feel embarrassed for the characters on the show, and often the actors who portray them (I feel that 200 grand an episode is the least the producers can give them for having to play such stupid characters).

Oddly enough, I have a reality tv star to thank for bringing this word to my attention. Reality shows are another type of program that I usually avoid, unless they’re on HGTV or involve Tim Gunn. That means that I’ve never watched a single second of Keeping up with the Kardashians, although I’d have to be living under a rock not to know anything about these people. A Jezebel post entitled “Germans Outraged by Sexy Oktoberfest Outfits” featured a picture of Kim Kardashian in a sexy (but, dare I say it, not completely unadorable) dirndl.

Although it wasn’t linked to, the quotes used in that post came from this Wall Street Journal article. It quotes Ursula Fröhmer, a Munich tailor tailor who specializes in traditional folk costumes, who really doesn’t care for the modern spin that people are putting on tracht, traditional Bavarian clothing. She describes her reaction to these clothes in this manner:

“I’m overcome with fremdschämen, and I’m ashamed that I’m from Bavaria when I see things like that,” Ms. Fröhmer says.

Way harsh, Tai! Since I don’t have any historical connection to dirndls, I just appreciate when I see a cute one, nevermind that it may not be in keeping with tradition. I’m sad for Ms. Fröhmer that she has to watch her cultural costume become commercialized, but I’m happy that this occasion gave me a word for what I’ve been feeling pretty much all my life.