Sunday, January 31, 2010

The Nokia N900

So far, I am really liking this phone. Excuse me, to those literal people out there that would rather call it the tablet computer that it is sold to be. And it is a tablet computer, but I'm not quite ready to get into the computing power of it just yet. Right now, I am just wanting to port over all of the phone and email aspects and then I can start branching out.

This truly is a beautiful device and I can see so much potential in it, but it is not for the casual cell phone user. Setting it up takes more thought than other phones and it may take a couple of tries before something works exactly right but it is well worth the effort.

Because some people have asked, I chose this over an iPhone because it has a physical keyboard and I don't have to go over to ATT. I chose it over the Droid because it has resistive touch rather than capacitive touch. The difference? Capacitive screens allow for all the fancy multi-touch functions that you see on the iPhone and Droid. Resistive screens allow for stylus input which allows better use of hand drawing and note-taking applications which I wanted. Not to mention, I have had trouble with capacitive screens when my hands are too cold which they often are.

But this phone is meant to be a potential replacement to my Blackberry Tour so I will do a more in dept analysis of the differences between the two devices soon.

So, what new technology are you trying out these days?

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Well, That May Change Things

I’m a very brand dependent person so it’s a big deal for me to not only change the kind of cell phone (really it’s a min-computer) that I am using, but to also change my service provider. But I just read that Verizon will cut 13,000 jobs before the end of the year. I don’t feel so bad anymore. Verizon just last week lowered it’s prices on some of it’s plans. Is this the true cost for that reduction?

Joy in the Palm of Your Hand

Tomorrow, I take delivery of a brand new toy. The Nokia N900. I won’t bore any of you with how excited I am. The only potential negative is that the phone is GSM which carries me over to T-mobile, but I’m willing to give a try. For the next few weeks (or how ever long I have to decide to return the phone), I will be transferring my life over to T-Mobile and Nokia to see how things go. If all goes well, I’m bidding a fond farewell to Verizon and the Blackberry (I shall miss you though BB--you’ve been so good to me). Look for some geekyness from me in the next few weeks. :)

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Sunday, January 17, 2010

A Little Bit of Sewing-the Nissan Leaf

If you have a lot of t-shirts that you don’t wear laying around or you have shirts that are stained and no longer wearable, consider recycling them into other projects. Lately I have been more into projects that are designed to reduce waste. On Friday, Nissan was in town for their road tour announcing their new electric car called the Leaf. Since they were in walking distance of our office, some coworkers and I walked over to take a look. We didn’t stay to take a test drive, but we did sign up so we could get a free t-shirt. it was a beautiful t-shirt, but I would never wear it, so I up-cycled it.

I didn’t think to take a before shot of the t-shirt so you could se what it looked like, but this is what it looks like now.

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I told you it was a nice shirt. That logo was begging to be the centerpiece of a bag. The pattern is the Amy Butler Swing Bag. The dark blue external fabric is the Nissan Leaf t-shirt. The internal is a white t-shirt from Lane Bryant that I had stained but had not thrown away. I would often wear it to bed because the fabric felt so good. Now, it has a new life. The bag is lined with Peltex to give it some stiffness. It is reversible but I would never walk around with a white bag. I attract stains too much to be that brave, but having a white interior gives you that extra brightness that makes finding things a little simpler.

But I couldn’t leave it there. I’m constantly looking for ways to organize all the stuff that makes it’s way into my bag. Mostly I do this with little zippered bags. I made two to match my new Nissan Leaf Swing Bag.

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These zippered pouches are made from the cap sleeves of the t-shirt. These are improvised and far from perfectly square, but they are very utilitarian and ready to toss in any bag.

So, what do you think? Are you off to make new use of your old t-shirts? Let me know.

Happy crafting.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Drink Anyone?

I love to cook and entertain at home and while dating a vegetarian, I got away from that as I’m not so good at cooking good vegetarian dishes and he was extremely picky. So I stopped cooking. Then he started drinking more than I was comfortable with so I stopped buying wine and liquor. But he is gone and that part of my life is dead and today, I started restocking my wine cabinet. I made a visit down to the Georgia Winery and bought 2 cases that are a mix of what I consider to be their best stock and a few flavors that I have never had before. I still need about another case to be fully stocked and I need some liquor staples but I am well on my way to some wonderful twenty-ten dinners. I hope you will be my guest one day.


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Friday, January 1, 2010

Happy New Year

I thought I should start the year off with a very profound blog post to get this year off to a fantastic start. I can’t think of anything to say. I am very happy to welcome in this new year, but I have spent the first day of it relaxing and recovering from a very crazy 2009. Last year brought the end of a romantic relationship and the end of several friendships that proved to be quite toxic to me. It brought a higher salary and greater earnings potential my way which in turn allowed me to not only spoil myself a bit, but also help some family and friends as they encountered financial hardships. I gained greater perspective and I know more than ever what I want in my life and what I am no longer willing to put up with. This is my world and I plan to fully take advantage of it in twenty ten. I wish you all the best as we embark into this new year. May all the joy and prosperity and happiness of life come your way as long as you put forth the effort and hard work to obtain it. I plan to. Why don’t you join me?

Shall we?