My first bag!

Now that I made the reversible tote bag, I’m a little over this one, but it was still a nice way to get into sewing bags. I spent a ton of time on this bag, mainly because 1) I’m not so good yet at sewing straight and 2) I work slowly when I’m confused. Still, I think this came out reasonably adorable for a first effort.

Side 1. I didn't notice until just now that both sides have the same pattern in the same place on the top row.

Side 2.

I used the same pattern for both sides of the inner bag.

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?

Books, books, books

I find Top 100 (or 10, 50, etc) of anything lists fascinating to read but generally meaningless. Tastes are so subjective, and even when I’m familiar with the subject being evaulated, I don’t always agree with the items that are chosen for inclusion. Still, I’ve found out about good books, movies, music, and web sites this way, so I’d be crazy to discount Top whatever lists. Today, while reading Newsweek’s Top 100 Books, I thought it might be interesting to work my way through the list and read everything on it, even books that I’d already read before. I used to hate classic literature, but now  I realize that I just hated the way that a lot of it was taught in schools, with all the joy removed and too much focus on minute, boring analyses. Then I read books like Anna Karenina and Pride and Prejudice on my own, and realized that a book doesn’t have to be terrible just because it’s considered classic literature.

At first I was going to give myself a time frame in which to do this, but there are few things in life that I enjoy as much as completely ignoring deadlines, so I’m not even going to bother to assign an end date for this. I’m in the middle of a fun, lighthearted Jennifer Cruisie novel right now, and I have a few other things lined up for the rest of the week, but I’ll get started on this at least by the end of the month. I’ll keep track of my progress.

I knew all that tv watching would eventually pay off

I asked Alan Sepinwall, tv critic for the Newark Star-Ledger and blogger, a question for his mailbag column, and he answered it for me! Maybe he answered my question first because it was the best (yay!), the worst (boo!), or possibly because I am from the state the paper is based in. Whatever, I found out what I wanted to know. It’s nice to be the one asking questions, for a change.

Happy Monday!

One of the pictures that I took when Satanski and I went to the American Museum of Natural History has been added to the New York Schmap Guide. How exciting!

Things I did not buy today

I didn’t buy any of the very pretty ToyWatch watches that the Gilt Group had for sale. They were reasonably priced for the brand, but that still meant that every watch I liked cost at least $175.

I did not walk into BCBGMaxMara, even though the sign on the window said that items inside were up to 70% off.

I did not need anything, and I did not buy anything.

It’s a nice feeling.

In which I welcome myself to the neighborhood

Yay! I have a new blog, and will soon have a new domain. I guess I don’t know yet what this blog will be. I already have a knitblog and a more personal one, so this might be a mixture of those, or something entirely different. Right now, I’m scouring the Internet for a new theme. After that, I’ll try to figure out how to use it! Be back soon.

If things were different, today would be exactly ten months before I got married.