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May 29, 2008

Advanced organization and social interaction

Reason #3,045 that I want a Mac: Delicious Monster, which is software for people with supersonic OCD. I love using LibraryThing to keep track of all of my books, but damn that Delicious Monster makes me drool. Of course I don't have a Mac. Yet.

Someday.

In the meantime, my other new favorite (and free!) application for organization is Todoist.com. I am a habitual list maker and procrastinator, and so far this magical website has both satisfied my base need for list organization and for friendly (yet hard to ignore) reminders of the stuff for which I'm procrastinating. You can upgrade for $3/month to get extra task management perks like text reminders, if you like.

I also went back to del.icio.us to help me keep track of my bookmarks. When I initially signed up a while back, I didn't quite understand why I would need to bookmark sites on a web page when all the sites I needed were in my Firefox bookmarks. After a little more time in the Web 2.0 world, and probably largely because of the fun I had with tagging my books on LibraryThing, I finally get the need and wondrous delight that comes with tagging and organizing sites on a web page. I can access my bookmarks from work (even though that's not an issue at the moment), from my old and occasionally used laptop, from a friend's computer or from anywhere.

But as ooey-gooey as I am over these organization applications and their social interaction integration, I still have a hard time embracing MySpace or Facebook. They contradict everything I ever learned about privacy on the internet, no matter how private they say that can set your profile. And while I accept them as a part of 21st century media, I do not love them.

I have, however, fallen in love with Twitter. When I'm not blogging here, chances are good that you can find me twittering here, especially now that I have a small text message plan and a QWERTY keypad on my new phone (the LG enV2).  I guess I'm not too old to be enticed by all this new stuff the kids are talking about these days.  

 

May 27, 2008

"When Fangirls Attack" blog for geek girls

The feminist geek letter to Toyfare magazine that I posted on my blog the other day showed up in a compendium of links on the fabulous "When Fangirls Attack," which collects links of topical interest to geek girls of all kinds. Officially, the blog is "A Compilation of Articles on Gender in Comics and Comics Fandom."

I salute the efforts of the three women who run the blog, as well as all of the fangirls who create the linked content, for their dedication to the ever-broadening field of Feminist Geekiness.

May 22, 2008

A Qualifying Micro Geek Test

Sam Murray from the UK shared this link with me: http://www.getitornot.co.uk

It's an IT recruiting company that has a 5-question geek test on their homepage as a barrier to entry. Nice work, CW Jobs! I approve that message!  

May 20, 2008

A feminist geek's letter to Toyfare Magazine

Dear Toyfare Magazine,

The June issue (#131) of your magazine has a feature article entitled "The Big Picture Show" which boasts that "Toyfare has everything a fanboy needs to know about the 10 biggest summer releases."

But what about the fanGIRLS, Toyfare? Don't we also need to know the important things about this summer's movies?

I know that most of your staff and probably most of your readers are male, but come on. There's no need to alienate your already under-recognized female readers by using gender-specific terminology.

It's not that I have a problem with the word "fanboy" (in fact, I love it). I just wish that you would have been more inclusive with your wording. Perhaps you could have used "fanboys and fangirls" instead.

Too wordy, you say?

Well then, I would like to propose a new, non-gender-specific name for fanboys and fangirls. How about "fangeeks?" Yes, I like that.

I would also like the fangirls out there to move away from the sidelines and show these fanboys that we're not just pretty faces in frilly dresses (or black leather, as the case may be) and that they're not the only ones who collect toys MIB, read comics, enjoy OCD geek speak, and drool over wonderfully geeky magazines.

Sincerely,

Yvette Beaudoin
Feminist Geek Girl

May 19, 2008

Am I really that geeky? Coworkers say yes.

Because I'm a "high functioning" geek, I can typically blend into normal society and maintain a normal job for a non-geeky company. Even though I'm more comfortable in a geekier environment, I can still go for hours on end without mentioning the new action figures coming out or how the story arc of my favorite graphic novel has left me hanging.

But sometimes I realize what a geek I really am when geeky topics find their way into my mainstream conversations.

At work today, a few coworkers (who are in their mid-twenties) started talking about the Iron Man movie and how much they liked it.

I made a comment about how some people have a hard time with Iron Man's character because of his responsibility for the recent death of another comic book hero (because saying "Captain America" wouldn't mean anything to them).

"What do you mean?" one coworker asked.

Happy to play the knowledgeable geek, I told her a little about last year's Civil War comic book arc.

"I didn't know those things are still going on," she said.

"..." was my initial response. She was referring to comic books in general.

And then I blurted out something like, "Yeah, of course they are! How could you not... I mean..."

And my coworkers started at me, probably wondering if I was going to spontaneously combust into amusing little geek particles.

I returned to my cubicle and took solace in the plastic Spiderman toy that I got at Burger King last year. His eyes light up when you stick his magnet feet to metal, so I popped him on and off my metal shelf for a little while as I pondered my status as "high functioning" geek.

"Maybe not so much, perhaps?" I said to myself in a Zoidberg voice.

May 17, 2008

Currently: Planning for Comic Con 2008

Comic Con 2008 is July 24-17. I have been wanting to go since my first con experience at Wizard World Philly in 2003 (hey, I was a late con bloomer, okay?).

[Also because of Comic Book: The Movie, starring Mark Hamill. It's my favorite mockumentary. Netflix has it, but if you're any sort of comics fan, you probably should just go ahead and buy it. Make sure to watch all of the extras, which mostly consist of  documentary footage of the mockumentary.]

Now that I live in Utah, a mere 10 hour drive from San Diego, my desire to attend Comic Con has grown stronger. The hardest part is justifying the expense of the trip, because to stay anywhere in proximity of the convention center means shelling out a couple hundred bucks a night.

The second hardest part is to convince Ben that the cost is worth it and that he needs to come along. He's not into comics or the whole geeky convention scene as much as I am, so that has been a little bit of a challenge. The San Diego Padres will be playing a home game against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday, though... and a baseball games always a way to draw him toward my side.

But regardless of what the final outcome of my wishing and hoping and planning may be, yesterday I took a solid step forward.

I have a hotel reservation in San Diego! It's 5 blocks away from the trolley line, which will drop us off right in front of the convention center. And it has free breakfast and free internet access. I was able to get a (relatively) good rate, even though it's still waaaay more than I'm used to paying for a hotel room. Then again, I used to work for a hotel and got insanely cheap rates at any chain hotel in the family.

The next major decision (after Ben says yes to going) will be whether to fly or drive. With the cost of gas creeping toward $4 a gallon, it might be worth a little extra money to NOT spend 10-12 hours in the car together and opt instead for a 2 hour flight.

Anyway, I'm totally stoked and will probably be very, very crushed if it turns out that I don't (finally) go this year. Ben, are you reading? CRUSHED.

May 13, 2008

Almost time for Kids in the Hall!

Tonight, I'm going to see the Kids in the Hall "in concert" in Salt Lake City. Yes, those Kids in the Hall! Fangirl rave in motion!

Special thanks to Liz, who tipped me off to their tour in time for me to snag center seats in row N. I wonder how different the show will be in Utah vs. the show in Seattle on Thursday? Or how it will be for my Chicago friends on May 29th? Or if you've already seen the show in another location, what did you think of it? Are the KITH still as hilarious and relevant as they were 15-20 years ago?

At least the KITH know their way around a Whirlyball game, according to my friend Steve. That lucky son of monkey's uncle!

May 12, 2008

Iron Man movie: 4 stars

Iron Man MovieYesterday, after finally posting the list of 2008 Summer Movies for the Geek, Ben and I went to see Iron Man at the theater.

Wow. If more movies were like this one, I would go to the movies more often. Robert Downey, Jr. embodied the pretentious, self-righteous Tony Stark and made a very believable transition from an egotistical billionaire playboy to the accountability-driven billionaire superhero (with a much more loveable egotistical streak).

The Story: Strong overall, though there were some parts that took me out of "the dream" for a minute, like when Gwyneth Paltrow ran for her life in a tight skirt and 4-inch stilettos (over a grated walkway, even).

The Acting: Really good overall.

The Style: Perfect. 

The Effects: *DROOL*

The Ending: Without giving any spoilers, the end of the movie leaves itself open for a sequel. Black Sabbath was the perfect segue music into the credits, which Ben and I sat through and then were very satisfied with the short clip played after the credits... as in, I probably geeked out for the next twenty minutes talking about Teh Awesome of the newly introduced character (played by a well-known badass actor) who will undoubtedly play a large role in the clearly inevitable sequel even if they only loosely follow the comic books.

And to the sequel, I say bring it on. You have me right where you want me because I'm ready for it now. 

May 07, 2008

Introduction of Handmade Vegetable Instruments

I think I just found another point for the Geek Test: "I have made playable musical instruments out of edible and perishable materials, like broccoli."

Seriously, I'm in awe of this guy's enthusiasm and vegetamusicability in a mad, mad way. 

May 06, 2008

Hey First Generation Transformers Fans!

Naturally, Ben and I moved away from Cincinnati and BotCon decide to go there this year. Lucky WithaK!

g1 Optimus Prime 25th anniversary reissueAll will be forgiven in light of Hasbro's recent announcement of their 25th anniversary Optimus Prime Pack. Just in case you missed their 20th anniversary re-release of the generation one Optimus Prime (and several other Autobots and Decepticons that now reside Mint in Box in our house, even the spare ones that were purchased with the intention of taking them out to play with them). 

This one comes with the G1 Optimus Prime re-issue (what smart people at Hasbro: the molds are already made, so let's recapture some of that secondary market money!), an "Autobot Shield" that recreates sounds and phrases, the original 3-part animated "More Than Meets the Eye" series (presumably on DVD) and a re-release of the original comic.

All for the low, low collector's price of $69.99.

But, if you recall the G1 Transformers-induced age-regression of my husband a while back, I'm sure that this little gem will find its way into our home somehow. Knowing that if I purchase a second one for Ben to take out of the box that it will still stay in the box, at least I don't have to worry about buying two!   

(I have no idea what that little white car thingy is in the photo, which is from the hasbro.com article.) 

May 05, 2008

Red paint makes me play console games more

What do I have to say for myself on this Monday morning? I had a good weekend, though not a hell of a lot really got done. I ended up having to work a half day on Sunday (blargh, I thought weekend work was over after quitting my hotel job). I didn't finish any of the posts I wrote; even the one I'm most excited about which is an overview of all the 2008 summer movies for geeks. Iron Man is the first one on the list, and it opened already... man, I wish I had finished that Friday night. But now it's Coming Soon to a blog near you.

But Free Comic Book Day on Saturday!  W007! Last year, I got there too late and a lot of the free stuff was gone. But this year I got a nice stack that hopefully will turn out to be good swag when I read through them. I did read through the Simpsons comic, though, because it's generally my favorite free comic book.  

But the family room has a third coat of red paint on it now, and while it still needs more touch-up work (plus a second coat of white on the ceiling and new canister lights installed and Ben wants to tear out the two doors so they're straight and put on new trim), it's getting closer to the Most Awesome Hang-out Room Evar!!!1111 

I've been pushing for a foosball table ever since we moved in. Ben will someday give in and we will play and he will pwn me and I will be sad. But it will be worth it because foosball rocks! And my occasional victories will be cause for celebration! Fuzzy navels all around!  (Or just orange juice with 7up in it if you're my Mormon friends or my friends' kids.) A pool table would be cool, too... but same story on the pwning I'm sure and really, I've been spending too much time console gaming lately (in our beautiful red-walled room that I really love despite it's unfinished nature) to even think about having another worthy piece of gaming equipment in my house. Besides, we have a big screen TV in the spot where a pool table would otherwise go.

Also, I beat The Simpsons Game last night. I had to play "Dance Dance Revelation" against God on three consoles: the Praystation, Xodus Box and Hii. The existensial ending wasn't as contemplative as it could have been because I found out that I'd only "completed" 68% of the game... so now, if I want to be OCD about it, I have to go back through many of the challenges and collect game cliches, bottlecaps, coupons, Krusty cards and Malibu Stacy cards. Which of course I'll do, and probably rely on a game cheat website for the really hard ones. Hey, OCD doesn't necessarily mean not lazy, m'kay?

Here's what the final Dance Dance Revelation scene resembled (though I played it on the Xbox 360, with all the family members on the dance pad rather than just Bart). The best part (aside from the Scorpions' "Rock you like a hurricane" song) are God's lines. And the fact that he's a gamer. But don't watch it if you plan to play the game and want to experience the whole story line for yourself....  

April 22, 2008

Geeks who are vegetarian AND atheist?

In response to my previous post, "What percentage of geeks are vegetarian?" (prompted by an interesting email), I received this sub-question from "Mankoi" via email:

Just a thought on this, FYI. Most of my friends are geeks, and actually most are vegetarian. The ones who aren't are usually the less geeky ones. I'm not though. Meh. I know it doesn't really matter. Actually another interesting thing I found is that almost all of my geek friends (myself included) are Atheists. Do you think there is any connection?

Well, anybody want to share their thoughts on a connection between geekiness and atheism?

April 21, 2008

Starting to Twitter

If you want to read my random thoughts throughout the day, and I haven't posted on my blog, maybe you'll find something interesting in my new twitter feed:

http://twitter.com//innergeek

I think that this may come in handy if/when I go to San Diego Comic Con in July, since I can post a thought to twitter from my mobile phone. How exciting! Seriously, I can't stop thinking about Comic Con and how much I really want to go. 

April 17, 2008

Mornings are better with toys and caffeinated web surfing

Here's how I get myself into trouble when browsing teh interwebz first thing in the morning while waking up with coffee. I attribute today's "shiny!" attention span to the splash of French Vanilla International Delight non-dairy coffee creamer in my normally black--and-strong coffee.

So I remember that my subscription to Toyfare magazine needs to be renewed, but there's no "renew online" on the stub that I got in the mail (btw, Wizard: that's stupid). So, refusing to renew by mail because OMG who does that anymore, I go to wizarduniverse.com and find that of course you can renew online. And, for only a few dollars more, you can get an exclusive Futurama Series 1 Variant Dr. Zoidberg action figure by Toynami. 

Then, still budget conscious despite the caffeine high, I price check to find out how much the toy would cost without the subscription: $15 plus shipping. HELLO, I can get it way cheaper than that if I just add it on to the subscription that I was going to buy anyway!

But there are other Futurama Series 1 action figures in the regular line that I don't have.

Doo d'doo... off I go to toynami.com/futurama.html and click "Where 2 Buy" and yes, I just ignore the fact that I had to click on a button in which a company has chosen to use the number 2 instead of the word "to." Whatevs, just show me where to buy mah toyz!

I recognize WickedCoolStuff.com and go there, but find that they don't have what I'm looking for. What do I instead see that I think is awesome and would be the perfect addition to the garden of my looks-normal-on-the-outside house? A Wizard of Oz Wicked Witch of the West frickin' LEGS PLANTER. Nothing says domesticated oddball quite like one of these!

Wizard of Oz Wicked Witch Legs Planter

I don't know if Wizard of Oz stuff can really be considered geeky, considering how ingrained in pop culture it is. But do you think that having this planter on my front porch or front garden would be geeky? Or just freakin' awesome?

I wonder how quickly something like that would be stolen in my nice suburban Mormon neighborhood. Hey, it's vandalaized once in a while just like any other suburb where meth and cocaine use are on the rise... I mean, Ben found toothpaste on his car one day, and neighbors informed us that they got toothpaste in their mailboxes. Dang kids and their petty vandalism. *shakes mouse like old man shakes a cane* 

Anyway, I need to go renew my Toyfare subscription and get my exclusive Dr. Zoidberg. I'll hold off on the other action figures because I don't really need them right now. But that reminds me... I think that the new Futurama DVD is out and I should order that, too... 

Aw crap. I don't even have a PS3 or a Blu-Ray player yet, but Amazon.com has a Buy 2 Get 1 Free offer right now for Blu-Ray discs. Luckiily, the new straight-to-DVD Futurama movie (The Beast with a Billion Backs) isn't coming out until June 24th.

April 12, 2008

What percentage of geeks are vegetarian?

You'll never believe what I'm doing today.

I am working on innergeek.us and going through geekmaster emails that have long been neglected. Which mostly means deleting all the spam.

Occasionally, there are curious emails about specific questions on the geek test. It's not that I don't appreciate the fact that people still email me when the site and test are clearly outdated, but just how exactly am I supposed to respond to emails like this?

Hi,
one of the questions in the geek test is "I have looked forward to dissecting a frog, pig, etc.".  Perhaps you didn't notice, but relatively a large percent of the geeks are vegetarian, or close to be ones. So I afraid that this is not so good question.

I guess I should put that one on the list of crazy emails I've received in the past.  It's not really crazy... just weird. I would argue that geeks are more likely to be meat eaters than vegetarians. Feel free to leave your own thoughts in the comments. 

In other news, the whole ansty situation of what does my website mean in conjunction with what does my life mean and will I ever be a writer is really getting on my nerves, and maybe this is the finally-somewhat-like-spring-weather talking, but I'm ready to do something about it. With baby steps, I think, to prevent an insta-overwhelm.

Of course I still need to finish up my taxes and get that off my shoulders by Tuesday. Blech. Normally I love figuring out taxes (nerd alert), but this year it's a little more complicated and it's making me nervous that I'm going to screw it up. And that's just asking for procrastination... 

April 04, 2008

What to do on the first saturday in May

May 3, 2008 is less than a month away.  

It's a day that falls between my wedding anniversary and our started-dating anniversary (not that we've celebrated that since we got married). The date combination is the same as the Cincinnati-based banking institution 5/3 Bank. The date's translation into 1337 is May e, zoob (which sounds Latin). 

  1. Visit your local comic book store for free comics and swag in honor of Free Comic Book Day
  2. Visit your local scrapbook store in honor of National Scrapbooking Day
  3. Go to Louisville, KY for the Kentucky Derby (or watch it on TV) (if you go to Louisville, be sure to see the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory with the huge bat on the outside)
  4. Go see the racehorse documentary "The First Saturday in May" (which ironically opens in theaters on April 18th)
  5. Go to a local SCA event
  6. Go to a baseball game
  7. Spend the day playing the newly released Mario Kart (Wii)
  8. Spend the day playing the newly released Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3, XBOX 360)
  9. Begrudgingly ignore everything and work, do homework or work on your house all day
  10. Ignore everything and sleep all day

For me, numbers 1, 6, 7 and 10 sound like attractive ideas. What about you? Am I missing any events or plausible choices here? I don't know why, but it seems like now is a good time to start planning what you're going to be doing on May 3rd. 

I originally wrote this post on Friday morning, but lost it in another retarded instance of Movable Type software being an asshole. So I had to rewrite it and get the links again and post it late. But I left the original "publish" date because dammit, that's when I wanted to post it! 

February 26, 2008

Scrolling Problem

I have been scrolling pages on Teh interwebz too much lately and it's catching up to me.  

For as much time as I spend with my hand on my mouse (that's not innuendo, thanks very much) and on the computer, I'm fortunate not to not (yet) suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome. Today, however, I realized that the underside of my middle finger is tender.

At work, I use a semi-ergonomic wireless Microsoft mouse with a scroll wheel. My middle finger logs many hours on the slightly raised bumps, pulling repetitively as my brain demands more, better, faster visual input on the screen in front of me. My right hand middle finger is much more of a workhorse than I give it credit for.  

(My left hand middle finger also works diligently in tandem with my left hand thumb, resting on the Tab and Alt keys respectively as I frequently switch views on my taskbar.)

Logitech trackball mouse At home, my preferred mouse for the last couple of years is a Logitech with an optical Trackman Wheel. It stays in one place and I move my on-screen cursor around with a red track ball... and I absolutely love it. It took a couple days for my thumb to adjust to the new movement, and now I can go effortlessly between different mice without even noticing (like hopefully someday I will do with  Dvorak and QWERTY keyboards).

But it also has a scrolling wheel upon which I rely heavily for my internet needs. And isn't it always embarrassing to talk about a seemingly benign injury that is related to a cushy desk job? Well, whatever. At least the underside of my middle finger gets a break when I'm playing the Wii.

On a side note, it absolutely drives me crazy to watch people surf the internet, wholly dependent upon their mouse to scroll down a page, etc. in a painfully slow manner. If I just described you, dear reader, please do not take offense. Just learn the faster way or let me do the fingerwork while we're looking at something together next time, okay?

In the meantime, I better go check into what kinds of rehab I might expect to endure if I continue to abuse for my poor, tender middle finger. But I'm thinking that there also has to be a fancy gadget out there that will allow me to scroll down pages through eye movement!

February 23, 2008

I'm not at WonderCon, but...

There are 12 costumed people featured in Wired's Geek Chic Gallery: Costumes of WonderCon 2008. Number 12 looks like he just wrapped a blue sheet around himself and is carrying a length of chain. WTF is that all about?

My expectations for "cosplay" (as the kids are calling it these days) are more along the lines of showing the only way that one can get away with wearing a wife beater to a geekfest like WonderCon... *SNIKT*.


 

February 21, 2008

Is it science, sci-fi, or conspiracy?

I usually save my smirks for later in the day, but a headlining CNN.com article caught my smirking attention this morning.  I've heard about the uncontrollable satellite that could come crashing to earth in the next couple of weeks, and that The Man was going to attempt to blow it up with a missile before it entered our atmosphere.

Here's the first sentence of the article: 

"Pentagon officials said they think a Navy missile scored a direct hit on the fuel tank of an errant spy satellite late Wednesday, eliminating a toxic threat to people on Earth."

Everything sounds great, right? No danger to life as we know it? Hold a sec. Was the phrase people on Earth really just used? Eliminating a toxic threat to people on Earth? That sounds like a sci-fi B-movie to me. Or maybe a fantastic sci-fi cartoon. I hear it in the distance...

"I am Lrrr, ruler of the planet Omicron Persei 8 and controller of a toxic threat to people on Earth!"

Seriously, it doesn't sound real. It's weird, scary and humorous at the same time that stuff like that makes it into real news articles. Here's another snippet, where you can guess which phrase made me smirk a second time:

"China is continuing to closely follow the possible harm caused by the U.S. action to outer space security and relevant countries," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said Thursday."

If you guessed outer space security, give yourself a shooting star. I love that China is (supposedly) suspicious because of the USA's potentially devious actions involving outer space.  I'll probably never know anything detailed about our government's full story with this whole thing (or, if you believe any of the conspiracies you see on TV and in the movies, if we're really the good guys or if we have top secret alterior motives). Maybe China is just cranky about it because this news is stealing their New Year thunder. Or the Rat does not approve of outer space hulabaloo in his/her Year. For chrissake, people, the Rat only gets one out of every 12 years!

Overall, I'm happy to hear the reports of the spy satellite being shot down. I don't know what naked pictures of me might have been on there, you know? And it's a really good thing that the spy satellite didn't fall into China's territory, because they really don't need to be seeing that stuff.

Speaking of outer space, I'm bummed that I didn't get an opportunity to see the lunar eclipse last night. It was cloudy and raining/snowing. Or maybe it was a government cover-up so we couldn't see the explosion of the spy satellite....

*cue the X-files music* 


February 20, 2008

Death of HD-DVD follow-up: Converting to Blu-Ray

There's now an easy-peasy way to convert your now-antiquated HD-DVDs into now-high-fashion Blu-Ray DVDs, according to a Wired How-To Wiki article.

(In the course of writing the subject line and that first sentence, I just used a record-breaking 10 hyphens... wow! Plus one for that sentence!)

Here's the quick-and-dirty (I can't stop using the hyphen! Augh!) process for each one:

  1. Rip the HD-DVD
  2. Burn to Blu-Ray

See how simple it is? All you geeks should be done by lunchtime. 

Alternately, if your player and discs are still in pristine condition, you should pack them carefully back into their original packaging and put them on a closet shelf to allow for proper fermentation of nostalgic value. Unless you already have one there, you MOC collector.   

If you still have some repressed anger about HD-DVD losing out in the end, you can put on your Wikipedian hat and add helpful and/or false information to the Wikipedia entries for HD-DVD and Blu-Ray.

February 19, 2008

Winner Takes All: Red vs. Blu

HD-DVD vs Blu-RayThe nail is in the coffin for HD-DVD, and the people at Sony are surely ecstatic to finally have a Booyah! in their pocket after the 1980s embarrassment of Betamax. And there's no doubt that Blu-Ray will rock my world and wreak havoc on my finances in the next couple of years.

I'm very much looking forward to it, though I think I have the majority of the movies and TV shows I need on plain old DVD, most of which look great on my bigass HDTV with my under $100 upconverting player. 

So my acquisition strategy will be different for these new-fangled discs (once I have a player, or a PS3 if Ben has his way). I'll probably lean more heavily on Netflix, which fits better into my long-term strategy of being less materialistic without giving up my entertainment budget.

I'm not saying that I won't buy any Blu-Ray DVDs, because that would be complete insanity. I claim only partial insanity. There are select movies and shows that I am already looking forward to... remember that little TV show called Heroes? Please allow me to quote a covetous Wayne Campbell:

It will be mine. Oh yes, it will be mine.  

All future Pixar films will also come into my home in delicious Blu-Ray HD glory, plus a smattering of other fantastic new titles as the average prices (hopefully) decline.

Amazingly enough, it was less than a year ago when I first posted about this format war. And at that point I was considering one of the dual-format players... I'm glad I waited. The thanks should really go to Ben, who convinced me to be patient until a clear winner was revealed.

Now everyone can move forward and Think Blue in '08! (Aren't thinly-veiled political statements okay in election years?) 

 

January 07, 2008

Sock Gnome Accused of Misdemeanor Shot Glass Theft

Like every person who washed their clothes, I occasionally lose a sock. Sometimes I find it and reunite it with its lost mate, but sometimes I don't. Common folklore blames it on the mysterious sock gnome (or elf, in some areas of the world).

Now I'm wondering if the sock gnome became bored with my socks (though I don't know how, since I have lots of fun, stripey socks) and moved on to other household items, such as shot glasses. I have a handful--less than 10, anyway--that came to my cupboards over the years in their own way... a couple were gifts, a couple I inherited, and the remaining couple I received as freebies in college. I'm not a big shot drinker and though I am a collector by nature and love glasses and mugs of all kinds, I never really felt the urge to collect shot glasses.

Anyway, I can only account for three shot glasses in my cupboards, once of which is technically a liquid measuring device. I haven't been able to locate the other shot glasses since our move to the house... though I think I might have pulled them out at some point after we moved into our temporary apartment in Utah. So if the sock gnome did borrow them, hopefully he or she will return them to one of the few cardboard boxes we have still left to unpack and we'll find them again someday.

Also lost: a really cool sweatshirt from my 8th grade volleyball team that had "VETTER" printed on the back.  That was where I first got the nickname... I was Vetter the Setter. And then all of my classmates kept growing and I didn't make it past the freshman volleyball team even as a setter. But the name stuck, and then one of my coworkers after college pluralized me and it's been "Vetters" ever since.

How's that for a tangent? I really just want to find my stupid shot glasses.

December 18, 2007

A new old-school text-based online game in the works

The article in the Roanoke Times seems innocuous enough: Tech trio seeks market for new game. But hey, open it up and read and you'll find two things:

  1. These guys from Virginia Tech have created a NEW text-based online game (remember Zork?) in the middle of a graphics-whoring gaming society.
  2. Michael Ringenbach is a friend of mine from college who won the title "Geek of the Year" at the 2001 Geek Party.Geek of the Year 2001 Mike Ringenbach

Are these guys crazy? Perhaps. But I think it's pretty gutsy (and geeky cool) to move forward (and yet somehow backwards) with a text game. Then again, maybe not... the popularity of texting among teens (God, I sound old) is soaring and most phones could handles this kind of gaming on a mobile level... and it would make sense that if people became addicted to the story, it wouldn't matter if there were no mind-siezuring graphics like World of Warcraft.

I just got another email from Mike saying that the game is definitely not yet ready to be released, so you can't play it for a while. The website isn't quite ready, either. So hopefully he'll let me know when those are ready so that I can pass them along to the readers of this blog (and maybe the website, if I ever update it....). Speaking of WoW and his in trueness to gaming and geekhood, Mike also wrote this:

On the more geeky side of things, I'm working on my third 70 for World of Warcraft, with 2 other retired 60+ on a different server. 

Best of luck to you and your geeky buds, Mike.

 

November 19, 2007

Cool Science Tattoos

Have you seen this cool selection of Science Tattoos? I like the DNA dragon one a lot.

 
I've also had a dragon of a cold for over a week now, since I caught whatever virus I encountered in Ohio (or on the plane?). It got better before it got worse, so I'm wondering if I actually caught another virus on top of the one I already had. Awesome. But really, green is not a color that my body should be producing. Gross.
 

 

November 15, 2007

Far over the Misty Mountains...

misty Utah mountains
 
Far over the misty mountains cold
To dungeons deep and caverns old,
We must away, ere break of day,
To seek our pale enchanted gold.

I played the hobbit Dwalin in a 1993 high school production of "The Hobbit," and I think of this stanza when I see mist over the mountains here in Utah. (Is it geeky to know it by heart and repeat it to no end in my head?) In the play, the whole hobbiting troupe of adventurers repeated it during an exeunt with fade to black. The full poem is longer in the book. This photo is a zoomed image taken from our backyard after the first snows appeared.  

I'm back in the West now. The trip to Ohio went well. Effective communication astonishly occurred between me and my mother and between Ben and both of his parents. Ben wished he had spent less time fixing his sister's computer while we were there, but I know that she was happy just to see him again... and during my shorter time with her, I feel like we connected more than we have before. We all had a nice lunch at the Olive Garden on Sunday... me, Ben, my mom, Ben's mom, Ben's sister and his sister's friend instead of Ben's dad. Ben and his sister forgot to tell their mother what time to be there, though, so there was a lot of apologizing when she finally arrived.

We also spent almost three hours visiting Ben's grandparents, which we skipped last year while we were in town. I'm so glad that we went. We brought them fresh flowers (Grandma later told Ben's dad over the phone to save money and just bring short stem carnations next time, and only one... even though we'd only spent $11 for the fresh bouquet from a local nursery). Grandpa has had a couple strokes recently, but was doing way better than my step-grandmother had even 5 years after her stroke at a much younger age. Having asked my own grandparents about their family histories before they died, and being thankful that I did, I worked in a question or two that led to me and Ben learning more about his family history than he had previously known. That was cool, and Grandpa was more than happy to share what he knew... and both he and Grandma were impressed with how much he actually recalled.

Great, now I have two sides of family history to research, though I think a lot more of my own family history is recorded than Ben's. And Ben will probably be more interested in helping with the detective work of his own family.

I came down with a cold while I was in Ohio and I'm still feeling it. WTF? I rarely get sick and I've been sick with a cold three times in the past 6 months or so.  

November 06, 2007

A little Transformers geek-out

Ben and I finally watched the new Transformers movie this past weekend. We didn't see it in the the theater because Ben was afraid to be burned by the mangling of his childhood heroes. I had heard that the special effects were awesome, but the plot left much to be desired. Well, duh, it's a live-action Transformers movie.

But we both really liked it, and sideways glances at Ben sometimes reveals a partially-open-mouthed look that preceded a man-boy giggle and the words, "I just geeked out a little."

I didn't mind all the blowing up of things because there were neato transforming robotoids to watch, plus little nods to geekhood everywhere that even I, who didn't own a Transformer while growing up could appreciate (I didn't have Barbies, either, just Lincoln Logs, some Legos, one Cabbage Patch doll, a few generic toys and several books).  The Camaro Bumblebee hit an old yellow VW bug in the used car lot, for example. My head is still too morning-fuzzy to remember the other nods to geeks in the movie, but they'll come to me.

My first taste of the live action Transformers transforming was in early 2005 when I came across the new Citroen C4 ad online. What I found on YouTube made me geek out a little because I had never seen the intro to the commercial before! Watch this with the sound on for the awesome music. And then watch the parody version that someone made with an old Citroen 2CV! I wish I could link to higher resolution versions.

October 28, 2007

Geeky Mac o' Lanterns and other awesome pumpkin carvings

Wired has asked readers to submit photos of their geeky jack o' lantern carvings, and the people have delivered.  Here are my top three favorites, with links to the owners' photos and hopes that they won't be mad for me touting their awesome dedication to a geek-filled Halloween.

 

Bobomb carved pumpkin
 
Bobomb. A pumpkin painted black with glowing eyes and what looks like edible accessories. Awwwwwsome! (There's also a traditionally carved Mario face on Wired's online article, but this one beat it for my personal top 3)
 
Death Star carved pumpkin 
 
This one wins top awards for carving. The Death Star! That's a ton of detail! Not enough detail for some geeks out there, I'm sure.
 
 
Macintosh jack o lantern 
 
The Classic Mac Pumpkin. This is the icon of my childhood, and very well done at that.
 

 

October 26, 2007

Famous Geeks: You might be surprised.

There's an article today on computerworld.com, under "careers," called Geek stars: The secret (nerdy) life of celebrities.  It lists forty celebrities with "some serious science and technology chops."

There are some I knew about and some I didn't, but it's an interesting little read. Obvious ones to geeks like me include Wil Wheaton, Natalie Portman, and Danica McKellar. One of my sister's childhood heroes is listed (Bill Nye the Science Guy), as well as her could-be neuroscience colleague, Mayim Bialik.

I feel like they cheated by listing Weird Al... he was an architecture major. I don't think architecture is particularly geeky or nerdy by itself (correct me if I'm wrong) but everyone knows he's a geek otherwise. Dr. Demento's Tom Lehrer is also on the the list, but he actually left Dr. Demento to pursue a career in mathematics! Most other people on the list started out studing math or science and then left for acting, music, or whatever.

Other quick notes: Sharon Stone is a self-described nerd? Interesting. Robin Williams is a big gamer and gadget freak? Well, he had to replace his crack habit with... another potentially dangerous crack habit (albeit with an admittedly lower death rate). Kurt Vonnegut and Huey Lewis studied engineering, Alfred Hitchcock studied mechanics and navigation, Trent Reznor studied computer engineering, Art Garfunkel has a masters in math, and Mr. Bean (Rowan Atkinson) studied electrical engineering. There are many more names that you may or may not recognize.

The most surprising to me was Hedy Lamarr, the Black and White movie actress whose name I really only know because it's included in the lyrics of the "Little Shop of Horrors" musical number "Feed Me" (...How about a date with Hedy Lamarr?  You gonna git it...)

She was a pioneer in spread spectrum technology... the stuff behind two little things called Ethernet and cell phones. So maybe we could blame her for the resultant txt msg cultr and interweb sp33k.  It seems that she wanted to become an inventor, but was instead encouraged to smile and shake her booty for soldiers to raise war bonds.

Also, her full first name is Hedwig, which was also my great-grandmother's name before it ever became associated with a snowy owl. She just jumped to my own personal "cool people" list.

 

October 24, 2007

Phoebe luvs Spidey and I luvs Phoebe

My Spidey, let me show you it.

 
Phoebe luvs spidey
 

This is my adorable little Phoebe, who's now about six months old. She's growing too big for the basket in this photo, but loves to sleep in it while I'm sitting at the computer. That is, of course, if she's not being an annoying little shit like right now and standing in front of my monitor... playing with a loose emery board, drinking from my water glass or pulling thumbtacks out of my newly hung corkboard.

I put a loose Spiderman 3 action figure in her bed one day and took a bunch of photos. He had been hanging from a plastic web that was suction-cupped to my filing cabinet. I left him on the desk because it was the lazy thing to do, and the next day, and the next, Phoebe wanted to play with him like she loves to play with her little colored toy mice (she's kind of racist... she prefers the blue, orange and pink mice to the black, white or rattly ones). I afeared she might damage Spidey, but was also incredibly amused. He's tucked away now until I put the camera on video or I desperately need her to get out of my hair.

She must have sensed that I was getting annoyed, because now she's tucked herself into bed again. How fucking adorable can you get. It makes me sick with love.

I didn't realize how much I could fall in love with this little kitten when I brought her home a few months ago. She squeaks, really, instead of meowing. She purrs almost any time I pick her up. She cuddles up with my bare ankles and my slippers every morning when I stand at the counter making coffee. She made fast friends with Loki, our middle-aged fatty, with whom she plays/plagues and who seems to enjoy the attention rather than be annoyed with it. She lies down next to him, literally right up against him, quite often. See the Lazr Kitteh photo below.

Team Lazr Kitteh

Lazr kittehz

 

Of course Loki just lays on top of her to let her know that he's done playing. Our other cat Isis now tolerates Phoebe much better, and we've even caught her playing with her little nemesis a few times. Mostly Isis still looks with disdain upon us giving Phoebe attention. We try to hold Isis, but she still has all of her claws and has never been much of a snuggler unless she initiates the attention.

I'm blabbering on like a crazy cat lady. I don't have kids yet, so I guess all of that mothering love is being poured into my cats right now.  Look at these photos and tell me how I could not!

 

Phoebe 
 
 
 
 

Let me finish my telling you that the last photos were posted while Phoebe licked the computer monitor and pawed with her soft, declawed paws at Spidey and herself on the screen.

And she's purring. 

October 19, 2007

Friday Night Sounds

The windows are open in our house this evening because it was a really nice, somewhat warm and sunny day. I can hear the local high school football game announcer because we only live a half mile away from the field.  

I've never seen the show "Friday Night Lights," which is apparently about football. The last football game I attended was in the fall of my first year at Miami University when I was in the marching band. In fact, the only other football games I attended were while I was in the high school marching band. Okay, there were also a few early attempts at socialization while I was in middle school that took place at Friday night high school football games.football phone

I don't watch football on TV, I don't play football video games, and I've never had the experience or the urge to toss the ol' pigskin around while growing up--even though I was somewhat of a tomboy.  And even though I love quirky and eccentric consumer goods, I never wanted a free football phone with a paid subscription to Sports Illustrated. Would it surprise you to discover that I still don't understand how the game works? Even though I've attended two or three Superbowl parties and even dated two different guys in high school who were on the football team?

(One dumped me as soon as he discovered that I wasn't going to put out. I didn't feel bad at all because he wrote me a break-up note and was clearly not even of average intelligence. The other was actually a Varsity soccer player whose only role on the team was Kicker. We were in the same circle of friends and I went to prom with him... then he graduated and we parted as friends.) 

So hearing the sounds drift into my house this evening evokes different memories for me. When I hear the band play "Let's Go Team" I smile and think about sitting with the other baritone and trombone players on the top bleacher in the band's reserved section.

marching baritone instrumentWhen I hear the announcer getting excited about some play, and the roar of applause follows, I think of laughing with my fellow band geeks and half-assedly playing a song or two and not caring at all about what's happening on the field. When I hear the local band playing what must be their halftime show, I remember how incredible it felt to march in step in my crisp and scratchy white and red uniform with polished white Dinkles shoes; to stop in the middle of the field, tilt my silver marching baritone up in the air so it glittered in the bright lights; to place my lips on the suddenly freezing mouthpiece and blare my horn as mightily as I was able. It didn't matter if I played the wrong notes here or there because it was a big band and I was there to have fun.

And then, after halftime, my band went back to the bleachers to play second fiddle to the "real" stars... the athletes.  I bet none of the football players ever had a right pinky muscle built up like I did from holding that heavy hunk of an instrument, though! I also had a killer upper lip muscle.

I need to get my scanner back from Ben so I can start including more photos. The one I'd like to include here is a dorky-cute posed picture of me in my marching band uniform with my instrument. Well, the school's instrument. There are occasions where I really miss playing low brass. I wasn't ever a great player because I didn't practice very much, but I was tolerably good. Huh. I really didn't think I'd spend the evening reminiscing about high school.

Maybe I'm feeling chatty because of the cool music I'm listening to: the Life Aquatic soundtrack, with David Bowie songs translated into Portuguese and sung by Seu Jorge. I had a really crappy morning, but at least it's ending well. 

October 14, 2007

Funnest Burthday Card Comments

funnest burthday card everOn my birthday, my coworkers made this card for me and did their best to shock me with the worst, most  horrifying grammar inside. I'm one of those people who correct the grammar of friends so that they might learn through experience what they did not learn (or were not taught) in school. My own grammar is not perfect, but I strive to use the American-English language as well as possible. I have my own limits, which means that I do occasionally end sentences with prepositions when the alternative is to sound like an 18th-century grammar textbook. Two of the biggies that cross the line, however, are when people say "how come?" instead of "why" and when they use "at" unnecessarily, such as "here's where I'm at" and "where at?"

My coworkers are very good sports. They respect my knowledge and often use incorrect grammar on purpose just to annoy me. Of course they only know that it annoys me because I've corrected them before. Using "funner" or "funnest" is a common source of personal anguish for me, so I suppose it's only natural that they went out of their way to make that card. I pulled out some of the best comments from inside, because I'm really proud of them for making such an effort on my behalf.

 

 

I have the Best. Coworkers. Evar.

 

 

October 13, 2007

Halo 3 Birthday Card

Happy Birthday, Ben! Even though I gave you an Xbox 360 as an early present and you already beat the one game that matters, and were disappointed in it, I still wanted to send you some extra digital love in a public manner.

And as a bonus for any readers out there, here's the graphic I snagged and altered for his card!

happy 30th birthday in halo 3 logo 

October 09, 2007

Mario Papercrafting

I have been meaning to post this for a long time, and now the time has come:

Mario PapercraftIt's 3-D Mario World Paper Crafting like you've never seen before!!! Thanks to WithaK for originally sharing the nerd-craft blog post with me. 

Naturally, since I love Mario and work in the scrapbook and paper craft industry, I found this particularly amusing and awesome.

Many people (yes, 99% women) who scrapbook and do crafty things are hot for all things Disney. If I were in control of licensing for my company (or other scrapbook industry companies), I would defintiely skip Disney in favor of stalking the good people at Nintendo for their approval to use characters from the Mario World in many varied crafting products. 

Though if I were a SAHM (stay-at-home mom, acronym courtesy of all those scrapbooking forums I occasionally read for work) I would probably spend my free time actually playing Mario on the Wii than filling my scrapbook with his likeness. And maybe taking care of my child.

But if/when the time comes to have a baby, I have a bitchin' idea for a maternity t-shirt. Oh yes, you will just have to wait and see. Until then, I will leave you with a wonderful example of other other Mario merchandise that is currently available on ThinkGeek.com : a USB Mouse in your choice of Mario or Star!

 

September 26, 2007

Halo: The Future of Gaming

Ben, this one's for you.

Yay, I figured out how to embed video with the stupid pared-down version of Movable Type through Yahoo webhosting! However, workarounds are not a good solution. But I will work with them for now.

September 25, 2007

Heroes season premiere last night

Did I forget to mention that the main catalyst for cleaning a large portion of our house this weekend (hey, it's a big house so we didn't get to all of it) was because we planned to have company over for the premiere of Heroes? Well, my coworker Laura came over a little after seven and we ate pizza and drank root beer like typical Utahns (or maybe Ben had a real beer, I don't know) and watched Antiques Roadshow as a prelude.

It was a "goldmine" edition of AR where most people are flabbergasted that their stuff, like a Civil War era silk flag emblazoned with an eagle, is worth $75,000-85,000. And there was a woman with outrageous pins and other decorations all over her hat and shirt. And a guy with a NASCAR t-shirt. Dude, is that really how you want the whole world of AR followers to see you? In your McDonald's-sponsored racing fanboy gear? Whatever. I'm not saying you should wear pearls. Well, actually, I think that you can wear whatever you want. Because then it's a topic of conversation and ridicule with my friends at home!

We (okay, me mostly) were giddy with excitement and anticipation for Chapter One of the Second Season of Heroes, and it did not dissapoint.  I think it was good that they had a break to work on some aspects of the writing... there were some twists and turns that kept me quiet and not calling out sarcastic or snotty remarks. The worst part of the whole hour was the very end, when the big "To Be Continued" came up on the screen. As Cathy so commonly says: Ack!  

Laura left at the first commercial break of Journeyman, which the commercials made out to be Quantum Leap with less quirky humor and less needs-suspension-of-disbelief-sci-fi and a less cute main character. Ben and I watched it all the way through, and I liked it. It was different with flashbacks to the nineties, not the fifties, though. And of course the fact that we have very little idea of why this guy (uh.... so memorable that I forgot his name) is being sent back into the past to alter other people's lives and possibly cheat on his 2007 wife with with his fiancee who died in 1999 or so. Weird. I bet there's a lot of fanfic already brewing on that show.

Next Monday, I will be staying in Brooklyn with my aunt and her family. I'm attending a one-day seminar on Tuesday for work in Manhattan, so wheeee! I'll get some more Delta miles and maybe learn me sumthin' good about email marketing and writing for the web. I've visited her in NYC when I was a kid and did some of the tourist things, so I don't care too much about that.

But I haven't asked what kind of TV my aunt has... though I can only assume that it's not a big-screen with an HD Receiver of Entertainment Glory. I know that Heroes will be just as good on the small screen, though maybe with a little less mind-boggling Entertainment Glory. I'll have to learn to live with that. 

 

September 21, 2007

Heinlein's Complete Works now available online

The Heinlein Archives are now available online. They've already been slashdotted, but I figured I'd share the link anyway. Also, for some reason, I thought they were simply "available online." Silly me.... everything is "available to purchase online!"

Incidentally, it was thanks to my friend Sam Gordon that I decided to pick up Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land" several years ago, with which I learned to grok the influential mainstream beginnings of the literary sci-fi genre. Also that Heinlein extended some pretty crazy chauvinism in his writing and "Dorcas" is a real name.

September 19, 2007

Rrrrrrrrr!

It's Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Just click here if you're a skeptic and need to know WHY you should talk like a pirate today. My friend Carole sent me this yesterday, in preparation for today's festivities:

pirate keyboard

 

My favorite part?  The "avast" key!  Yargh, it be good fun, it be.

In non-pirate news, I have another softball game tonight. I don't really have the option of not going, since co-ed teams are always short on girls (though luckily we haven't had to forfeit any games this year because of not enough girls... though it's been close)

Ben tried making a comeback last Wednesday and did a nice job pitching. He can't throw overhand because of an old shoulder dislocation problem (what a baby, I know) so pitching is really the best spot for him. And he has really perfected his underhand throw to first base... so much so that when he threw someone out, a guy from the other team's dugout said (loud enough for me to hear at second base) "Wow!  Did you SEE that guy's underhand?!?"

And then, while at bat, Ben re-injured his quad muscle while running to first base. He didn't fight too much when I made him give up the base to a base runner (who scored a run, which Ben could have done if his leg wasn't bum). I had already told him that I wasn't going to spend another evening at the emergency room... that if he injured himself again, I would only drive him to the hospital and mayve pick him up when he was done. Luckily for him, he didn't need to go to the hospital again.

Meanwhile, I played with sheer mediocrity at second base. But I generally have fun, so at least there's that!

We have a double-header tonight at 6, and then the last double-header of the season next week. Playoffs are in October, but we're the last team in the league right now... so I doubt we'll play in them.  The teams we play against are mostly there to have fun, which is different from the league we used to play in Cincinnati. Last week was the most fun we've had, because the team we played against was first in the league... so they didn't have to play very hard and totally weren't jerks about it. If I were on a winning team, that's how I'd be, too.

I hear my inner voice telling me to go to work again. Damn voice. But at least today it's saying "Get yer booty to work!  And smartly, me lass!"

Rrrrrrrr! 

September 17, 2007

I can has Mictrotek scanner?

As the amateur historian/archivist of my extended family, the Microtek ScanMaker 9800XL Scanner with Transparent Media Adapter would be AWESOME. But even without the Transparent Media Adapter, the thing still costs over $1,000. Damn. I might as well build that into the cost of the iMac purchase that is somewhere down the road... ooh, and I'd also like to add in an HD camcorder... and some nice audio recording equipment... I think I'm experiencing a gadget-geek moment right now. More domestically speaking, I've been pining over how to incorporate the Cansolidator into our kitchen cabinets. Maybe I should go to work and try to earn some spare cash or something.

September 04, 2007

Everything from TV stands to Expectoration

I went to RC WIlley yesterday evening, which is a furniture store chain (with appliances, electronics, etc.) here in Utah and other nearby states. The sales people swarm like mosquitoes to get their blood commissions. But I had an expiring gift card, so I had to go in.

After long discussions over time with Ben about which TV stand to buy for our rear-projection big screen that we purchased several months ago (and love watching, sometimes to the point of tears it's so wonderful... I'm talking about you, NBC's Heroes), we finally agreed to purchase the stand that was made for our TV. It's the end of the TV stand season, apparently, because I read somewhere online that many stores have them on clearance.

So I walked in and up to a sales guy in electronics and told him what I wanted. But I had seen it online for $100 cheaper because they're going out of style for next year's model, so could he do anything about the price? He said he would check and walked over to his manager, presumably. Then he came back and said that they could take $50 off.... and I said I'd take it. Because with shipping, the onilne stand would have been just as much anyway.

But. And there's always a but like this when something is going well, right? The only TV stand in that model that RC Willey has anywhere, including all of their warehouses, was the one on display. The one with a big scratch on the front. Forget it, and also, dammit. Ben and I finally agreed upon a piece of furniture (a huuuuuuge deal.... we're also still trying to find a decent couch to replace the one that I received from my parents when I went to college... the one that's almost as old as I am and yes, you'd think that we'd have replaced it by now). Oh well.

For now, the TV will stay on the coffee table that Ben received from his parents when he moved into his first apartment... the one that used to hold his Commodore 64. The DVD player, cable box, Wii and topless modded Xbox (Ben doesn't want to replace the lid for some reason unbeknownst to me) will continue to sit on the carpet until we find that TV stand somewhere else or, probably, change our minds and pursue a different one.

The problem was that I still had a $30 gift card to use before it expired yesterday. That was from a billing problem we had, and the girl who issued it wrote 9-3-2006 on it by mistake, even though it was issued in March 2007. I was prepared to fight the cashier if necessary. I had another gift card for a forgotten amount, procured through some crap "cash rebate" promotion that earned us another gift card 6 months after buying the TV in the first place.

So I called Ben (who stayed home to clean the storage room because he didn't need to go because we knew exactly what we were going to buy) and we decided to purchase a second DVD player. One that upconverts. So now we can move our old one up to the still-quite-nice-but-not-HD 27" tube TV. That will be nice.

Ben did some quick review research of the models available and we decided on the Sony DVP-NS77H and are pleased after testing it with portions of Pixar's Cars and Star Wars Episode 3. Though it still didn't make the Padme/Anakin "So love has blinded you?" balcony scene tolerable.

I think this player will hold us over until the HD format war is finished and prices come down on the HD players and DVDs.

Enough about TV stuff. I need to get moving and get to work. I'm still sick... though it's mostly in my chest now. I have a pretty bad cough. Bad enough for Ben to go out and buy me some Robitussin, which has been helping. Though I hate artificially cherry flavored anything, and that's the only flavor Robitussin has. Well, I don't like artificially fruit flavored anything, really, so I'd probably lose out no matter what the fruit. I don't even like Jolly Ranchers. Anyway, Ben reported that all the cough syrup is available on the shelves, even though labels clearly state alcohol levels up to 10% on the bottle. WTF?

No wonder kids are experimenting with cough syrup these days. But they still can't buy 0.5% alcohol O'Douls beer until they're 21, and all Claritin-D purchases are recorded on the Big Brother file to monitor illegal drug manufacturing (which can probably look worse if you've also got severe allergies). Not that it's ever affected me directly, but I'm glad there aren't any holes in our government's drug rules and policies.

Who am I to complain? I got my cough syrup and I'm expectorating as expected.

August 03, 2007

Super Paper Mario 8-4

I made it to level 8-4! And I have 55 hit points! I leveled-up just in the nick of time, too. So tonight I have a date with Count Bleck. I hope to whoop his ass so that I can get on with my life.

Actually, it's been really nice having a game that I'm into. Yesterday and the day before, I worked in my company's warehouse as we prepared to ship a major order. I'm a Marketing Editor, so I don't normally work in the warehouse... but it was definitely all hands on deck that past couple of days. I worked on the assembly line next to our company president for a little while. Not too often you hear about that, right? And that's with over 100 employees. I wonder if he's feeling as sore as I am in my knees and arms!

A guy from Pella Windows should be here soon to talk to us about replacing our skylights upstairs. He just called to say he'll be here in five minutes.

One other thing... it's possible that all of the photos we've taken since December are lost, plus a lot of other data on our home network Linux server. I don't know what because Ben was too busy cursing at it and trying to find out what happened and if there's any chance of recovery. Hopefully I'll have better news later tonight. Ack.

July 03, 2007

Pit of 100 Trials

I tried to comment on my own blog, and Typepad is barfing out on me. WithaK, I have this to say:

Ben has already expressed interest in Resident Evil. It will be interesting to see which games he decides that he wants first. As for me, Zelda is on the list!  Thanks!

In other Wii news (what else is there right now?), I finished chapter 2-4 last night and have the third heart right now. I was going to find the pillar so that I could just place the heart and go to bed, but I got distracted by the pipe that led to the "Pit of 100 Trials." It's easy so far... just kill all the Goombas or whatever and one of them will have a key that leads you to the next room.

Except I got tired and offed myself. I enjoy the fact that I can restart the game from before that point when I go back to it. Tonight, maybe? My parents are both coming to stay with us for a couple days to celebrate the holiday of BBQ. I'm going to set them up playing some of the mini games on Wii Sports and Wii Play and I think they each might find at least one that they enjoy. That will be amusing.

I have a big day ahead of me at work today, so I better get going. Especially if I want to take advantage of the low-key "sneak out a little early the day before a holiday" tradition.

Ben and I need to get a new camera before the family reunion in two weeks. We have a nicer digital camera from a few years ago that is sputtering more and more at inconvenient times. It's probably okay that we missed taking a few more pictures of our adorable cats (hey, we don't have kids to brag about!) but there were some other things that we missed, too. And all of our other cameras died long ago.

Maybe with the new camera, Ben will be motivated to share the photo files with me over the network...  our computers are on different floors now, so it's even harder for me to keep tabs on what happens to the photos after he pulls them off the camera. I want to post more photos here.

Also, I want to fix the blog fugliness that currently spreads across your entire browser and doesn't look like anything fun. Don't worry, I'm not going to make it black with green type. I just need to spice it up a little. But using Movable Type through Yahoo! Web Hosting makes it a little difficult... I'm not technically a Movable Type customer, so they don't want to support me, and Yahoo! has told me that Movable Type is its own thing so they don't support it, either. Niiiiiiiice.

Gah!  Must go earn paycheck!

July 02, 2007

On geeks and lolcats

One more thing before I call it a night: two links.

Wil Wheaton's blog entry, Patton Oswalt on geeks vs. nerds

Neil Gaiman and his guest blogger daughter Maddy get the lolcats treatment on Livejournal's new community, lolgaimans.

July 01, 2007

Wii are in love!

My darling Ben set his alarm clock this morning for 7:30 so that he could check the Sunday ads and race out to Target if they advertised the Wii console. He woke me up to tell me that it wasn't in the ad, but he was going to go shopping anyway to at least take advantage of the 4th of July pop sales that are going on right now. Sigh, another week until potential Wii ownership (we're too stubborn to pre-order the bundles on ebgames.com).

I woke up later and Ben still wasn't home, so I made some coffee and started reading the paper. He came home with armfuls of 12-packs that will surely get us through until Christmas 2009. We chatted a little about that fact and other mundane stuff, and then I went to the front room to retrieve the paper...

Lo and behold, there was a Target bag sitting on the couch with a brand new Wii console inside!!!  Note to self: must clean up that pile of bricks I left behind.

Yes, Ben is a smart man. He went to Target first because, you know, just in case. And they had pop on sale. So he walked over to the electronics area first and looked in the Wii case, not expecting to find anything. Yet he saw a handful of boxes too big to be games or accessories...

Yes, some Targets do actually put out the consoles on a Sunday in which they don't run the ad, contrary to what I had been told. They only had about 7, not the 30 or 40 that they get when they run the ad in the paper. So it's a good thing that Ben went early...

Did I mention how cool it was and how grateful I am that I could sleep in while my husband ventured into scary commerce and valiantly conquered the dragons of bad fortune? Ben, you R0xx0R!

So instead of working on anything website-related, I spent many glorious hours in front of our insanely big TV with an insanely awesome game system that didn't take long to win me over completely. I started with the game it comes with, Wii Sports, and played tennis, baseball and bowling like never before. The Wiimote is quite intuitive, and I'm impressed. I also spent some time creating a few Mii characters... though that function has yet to be fully explored because we don't have the LAN adapter. 

What else did Ben buy at Target? The one game that I REALLY wanted: Super Paper Mario. O.M.G.

I'm an old school Nintendo gamer, and had a hard time getting used to the more complicated controllers of recent years as well as the games. I don't have enough testosterone in me to love all those shooters (as much as Ben wants me to play Halo 2 so that I'll want us to get a 360 so that he can play Halo 3). Games in general just haven't been as exciting and intriguing for me since the original NES. And for some reason, I never owned a Gamecube. Things might have been different if I had, but I only played it at friends' houses where they whooped my ass because they were used to playing and I wasn't. Everyone knows that's always a bummer.

It's late and I'm geeking out over Super Paper Mario. The gameplay is incredible, with just enough old school Mario Bros. thrown in to make me giddy. The whole flipping between 2-D and 3-D I thought was going to be a nightmare for me, since my G.Q. (Gaming Quotient) is pretty low and the idea of 3-D Mario was intimidating. But the new tricks came easily and I played for hours (sorry, Ben). Awesome. Just awesome.

It's going to take me a little while to get through the game, as I'm only on chapter 2-2. But I'm looking forward to it (even the times when I repeatedly die trying to figure something out). 

No wonder it's been so freaking hard to find a Wii in stock. Nintendo did an amazing job. In the words of Wayne Campbell and Garth Algar: We're not worthy! We're not worthy! 

Maybe not worthy, but very, very happy!

</ gwiik out > 

June 16, 2007

The Zombie Apocolypse

34%

Mingle2 - Free Online Dating

What a fun little quiz! Thanks for pointing me to this, Mala! I'll have to go brush up with the "Zombie Survival Guide" I got Ben for Christmas.

And then I noticed that I missed the day of zombie reckoning for bloggers on June 13 because I was working an 18-hour day. That might have been fun to participate in! Oh well. I hope to share a little about my past couple days of working my brains out after I wake up a little more... I feel really jetlagged right now, which may have made the Zombie Apocolypse quiz even funnier.

June 01, 2007

Must...have...HD DVD player

Heroes DVD news: Box Art and Extras List for Heroes - Season 1 on HD-DVD | TVShowsOnDVD.com

Well, there it is. I haven't been purchasing many DVDs lately since we started Blockbuster Total Access, the copycat Netflix. I'm enjoying the whole catch-and-release, watching without owning concept. There are a surprising number of films (and TV shows especially) that I really wanted to see and afterwards am glad that I didn't just buy the DVD. Maybe it's helping me scoot away from the innate materialism of the world.

HA! Until I see something I KNOW that I "can't live without owning!"

HD DVD players are now going for $300 and Blu-Ray players are down to $800 with the format war still in high gear. Why on earth would people spend that kind of money (assuming they're not filthy rich or completely obsessed with having the next new thing) on a player and system that's still so up in the air as far as longevity goes? Well, now I understand a little more as I've tasted HD tv and "Heroes" arrives on HD DVD August 28th for $69.95 (on Amazon.com; SRP is $99.98). My birthday is in October. Can I wait? Or will there be a temper tantrum in August when my husband insists that we wait until the format war reveals a clear winner?

Last question for the day as I stall our carpooling departure time (Ben's car is in the shop): When will I stop obsessing over Heroes? Why am I so addicted? Damn, it's like biting my nails. I just can't stop.

May 24, 2007

My notable bookpile for LibraryThing

LibraryThing: Cooking bookpile winners

Well, I didn't win the $100 AbeBooks prize, but my photo did rank in the "notable entries" list. Cool! Mine is titled "I'm an eclecticook." LibraryThing's Abby would apparently attend a dinner party based on this photo; I say hooray to Ben Franklin's "Fart Proudly" on every plate!

I'm an eclecticook.

Just visit that top link if you have no idea what I'm blabbering about.

Time to Lick Harry Potter

Britain's Royal Mail is releasing Harry Potter Stamps on July 17th. There will be one for each cover of the seven books (as published in Britain... they don't look like any American covers I've seen) and the crests for Hogwarts and each one of the houses (Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff). Here's a little more info.

Looks like France is getting in on Harry Potter stamps, too! That page states that Australia, the Isle of Man and Taiwan have already released Harry Potter stamps. Good for them.

I guess the US is too busy licking George Lucas' ass with its new Star Wars stamps to think about Harry Potter.

star wars stamps

May 22, 2007

Heroes, Unico and... My Little Pony?!?

Okay, as far as geeking out intelligently over TV, Monimala made a lot of the points I wanted to make about the season finale of Heroes last night. Some of it was a little hokey (a la the last two episodes) and pushed my otherwise willing suspension of disbelief a little too far. But overall, I think it was a sound episode especially considering that viewers already knew a lot of the story line.

(I have more to say that is not TV-related... maybe not in this post, but soon)

Continue reading "Heroes, Unico and... My Little Pony?!?" »

May 08, 2007

Forum update and morning-after Heroes

Okay, I'm getting some good feedback for punBB, so I think I'm going to set that up and try it out for the new forum. Thanks to everyone who sent me emails regarding their opinions on that. I need to start getting ready for my trip to Norway on Thursday, so I'll probably be motivated to set up the forum before I go. Procrastination is a funny motivator.

On a Heroes side note, it was not as great of an episode as I expected last night. I felt like there was a lot that was being set up, and I hope that next week's episode (and the season finale the week after) will make up for what was lacking this time.

II still find it interesting that the first story arc had a strong narrative from Mohinder, but that went away and wasn't replaced by anyone else's. I liked the narrative story arc, but I suppose the story is too complicated for it to "belong" to any one character right now. Ah well, I'm hooked and they'd really have to mess up the story to disinterest me at this point.

I really want to to know what the hell is up with Mrs. Petrelli, though. Does she have powers? Does she have a connection with Linderman other than through her husband? Also, toward the end of the episode when she pushed Nathan toward Linderman's decision, was that really her? Or was it scary Mystique-lady?

Speaking of Mystique, I read recently that Tim Kring wasn't a comics fan and didn't know anything about X-Men. I say Yeah Right. How could you not know anything about X-Men in this time period? The first movie came out in what, 1999? It's impossible that you can't know anything about it! And as a writer, writing in this genre, he should have been responsible enough to at least do research into what might be similar to his plot and/or characters. Maybe he's too important and he has a staff of geeks to feed him his information.

Grumble, grumble. I'm sad about missing Free Comic Book Day on Saturday. I was hanging out with my parents, who came into town. It's my own damn fault for not making it primo priority! With my luck, though, I probably would have made it there just in time to get the free, all-that's-left, lame-ass Archie comic. Thbbbt.

April 21, 2007

This American Onion

Oh, the Onion. I love you for so much more than the fact that I used to occasionally say I was an Onion when I really meant to type Ohioan.

Thanks for taking time out of your day to include an article about This American Life and a photo of Ira Glass. I especially enjoyed the quote from Sarah Vowell while she was dressed as Betsy Ross.

This American Life Completes Documentation Of Liberal, Upper-Middle-Class Existence | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

I apparently missed the episode on Coffee Addiction: One Woman's Tale of Survival. I'll have to see if I can find it in audible.com's archives. By the way, if you're incapable of catching an entire This American Life show on NPR on Fridays, Saturdays or Sundays (not because you're busy, but because you're lazy and/or forgetful), you can sign up for their free podcast. They run old shows often so I'm getting to hear lots of shows I missed. That way you can be cheap and not have to pay $0.95 for an archived copy... as long as you have patience as you wait for the show you want to hear to come into rotation.

I have a long car trip coming up this weekend to Las Vegas to celebrate the realization that "Yikes! We've been married for three years!" feeling. So I will probably get some device that will allow me to play my iPod over the car stereo. Yes, there is a chance I will have my first-ever detachable-face-front car stereo! Don't expect to see anything else pimped out, though. Not while gas is hovering at nearly $3 a gallon. Yikes! Maybe I'll win the penny slots again to help offset the cost of the trip.

Here's to hoping!

March 20, 2007

Dammit!

Dammit! My left speaker just died. This is just under 24 hours after my iPod (30G I bought in August) froze up AGAIN. Only this time, I can't rescue it right away because I don't have a direct power source, only the USB cable to charge and sync it to my computer.

Why don't I have a direct power source? My dad bought me an iPod dock in the shape of a yellow VW Bug for Christmas (from Sharper Image) and it stopped working a couple weeks ago.

Fuck you, technology. I'm up too early this morning to be dealing with you, anyway.

March 17, 2007

Polynomials, Grammar and Love

My friend hud_callahan is taking a math class this summer so that he can teach eighth grade math next year, and he keeps mentioning polynomials in his excitement. His latest blog entry reminded me that Ben likes to use this phrase when I correct his uncaring grammatical structures and/or pronunciation:

"You say tomato, I say fourth degree polynomials."

Continue reading "Polynomials, Grammar and Love" »

March 16, 2007

High-def Capitalism

The HD-DVD and Blu-Ray format war is on. I didn't really care about it until we got a monster of tv with HD capabilities... and it still was a "maybe someday" luxury in the back of my mind at that point.

Then we got a three-month trial deal for HDTV. OMFG.

Granted, there are only a handful of channels that actually broadcast in HD, and Ben and I have never been huge watchers of the television. We go in spurts (like watching Heroes in drippingly detailed loveliness, and I'm just trying to not think about it until new episodes return on April 23). Last week we signed up for the free two-week trial of Blockbuster's Total Access, their answer to Netflix. They offer some HD-DVD and Blu-Ray discs in the plan.

What's a geek to do? History is repeating itself and it's VHS vs. Betamax. It's the freakin' Marvel Civil War, and I'm a freakin' Switzerland who wants to be involved but finding little solace in neutrality. I want to involve myself, but I don't want to choose a side that will end up losing. I remember going to the Perry Public Library around 1986 when they had a small movie selection with both VHS and Beta. My family had just purchased a VHS player and every time we went to the library, I pined for a Beta player so that we could borrow Mary Poppins. Don't worry, I saw it eventually. But what a scarring memory, you know?

Betamax and VHS

So I'm glad that capitalism is stepping in before this thing gets out of hand. HP and LG have both announced DVD players that will work with both formats. They're still in production, though, and I'll probably wait to purchase one until they come down in price and get some of the kinks worked out.

What have we learned from all of this? At least Sony didn't start out this war with a name like Beta, which was clearly destined for second place. Maybe this time they'll pull through.

I'd still prefer a Wii to a PS3, though. And I'd prefer not to wait any longer... but I am. Stupid non-discounted bundles with games I don't really want that are making me wait until I can find one a la carte.

March 14, 2007

It's Pi Day, NOT Steak & BJ Day.

Happy Pi Day!

piday.org


Today's the perfect day to finally memorize Pi to at least 10 digits to honestly take that extra point on the geek test! Say it with me: 3.1415926535

It's easy to remember the numbers. You should have learned at least up to 3.14159 in school. After that, it's 265, which is similar to Indianapolis' area code 765... and then 35, which is the minimum age for the President of the United States. Also possibly the minimum IQ, if you have enough of Daddy's Texas oil money to buy your position.

Ahem. So make that goal for today! Learn Pi to 10 digits! You just don't know how handy that knowledge is in real life.

Oh, and some pouty, horny guys apparently ignored the fact that today is a national math holiday and thought they would be clever by naming it Steak & BJ Day (NSFW, duh).

March 12, 2007

Pi Day Approaches

Okay, one last entry for this morning.

All geeks worth their NaCl know that Pi Day is celebrated on 3/14 every year. For some reason, it's considered Breaking News on Lycos where, better yet, the title of the AP story even has a parenthetical "Get it?" to ensure the general population that they're being let in on a cute joke for math geeks.

Durrrrrrr.....

Pi Day article snippet

Yet in the article, the date is explained with the afternote "Obviously." The author, Erin McClam, clearly assumes (as she should) that her readers have passed at least one high school math class. Yahoo's title for the same story is "Pi fans have their day" which I like much better. I found the Lycos article because I was looking for a news link with less ads than Yahoo annoyingly has on every page.

To first approximate Pi, Archimedes used the method of exhaustion. I sometimes exhaust myself when trying to understand the general public.

Medieval Tech Support

Medieval Tech Support

This one's a winner because:

1) I haven't seen it before.
2) It's in Norwegian (don't worry, it's also subtitled in English and Danish).
3) The thematic content includes a book, a geek and an average user... all set in a dank medieval room!

February 26, 2007

Fun with Binary

I had some fun yesterday afternoon with my friends' kids and the under-used system of counting to 31 on one hand using binary. They're some of the coolest kids I know... and not just because they aspire to gain a higher geek quotient by using the Geek Test as a study guide.

It started because my little six-year-old friend asked me if, when counting to six on my hands, I held up my thumb or my index finger to mark the sixth digit (digit here meaning finger or thumb). I of course told him that that's not how I count to six, and showed him how I count in binary... and that what he saw as the number 2 was really the number 6 to me.**

So he went around to other adults and kids for a while with his index and middle finger held up, announcing that he was six. When he wasn't being ignored, a couple geeky friends laughed... though some people didn't get it. I realized that I may have just screwed up this poor kid's ability to succeed in math by learning binary before he knows enough about counting with plain old numbers. I'm sure he's going to show all of his friends and teachers at school today... but then, that's better than my other friend's story about an uncle (I think) trying to teach her that her nose was called "banana."

Okay, so that's the start of yesterday's binary story. With the older, geekier girls (16 and nearly 12), I had fun figuring out what hand gestures were synonymous with certain numbers. For example:

562 = Rock on
28 = OK
19 = I love you (pulling in a little sign language to the mix)
17 = Call me
4, 128, 132 = important numbers to know while driving in Utah

And of course there's "Gimme 31," High 31" or "High 1023!"

**It's important to note that I hold my hands with the palms facing me, thumbs out. You won't get the same results if you start the sequence by counting with your pinkies out. That is the first time I've ever used the word "pinkies" in a written sentence.

February 24, 2007

Which Hero Am I?

I don't normally post these silly tests from OKCupid, but I'm on a big Heroes kick right now and I came out as Mr. Bennett! Who, until at least the next episode wherein we may learn some of his secrets, her remains quite mysterious. Heh heh.

Mr. Bennet
You scored 54 Idealism, 50 Nonconformity, 41 Nerdiness
Are you on the list?
Congratulations, you're Mr. Bennet! You are one mysterious person with mysterious motives. Despite all the mystery, it's clear that you believe what you do is for the greater good, and you are obviously a well-educated person in your field. Your best quality: Dedication to your work/organization/etc. Your worst quality: Keeping too many secrets



Link: The Heroes Personality Test written by freedomdegrees on OkCupid

February 14, 2007

Wii could be in love

We can't find our Wii!

It's white, has an output resolution of 480i and should be packaged with at least one controller and a couple of games. We haven't met it yet, but we're already in love. If only we were all together... just me, Ben and Wii.

Seriously, I wasn't in a big rush to get one as soon as they came out in what, the end of November? It's February and I still can't find one. For a while they weren't advertised in the Sunday newspaper ads, but I got my hopes up this past Sunday when Target had an ad. I called around and nobody has them in stock. I even called Wal-Mart and the helpful customer service asshole laughed out loud.

Anyway, I found this link that apparently is connected to Target's database of Wii products and tells me that all of Utah is out of stock. Grrrowl. To check your local area, just change the zip code in the URL.

Bonus Geek Test percentage point if you can tell me what URL stands for RIGHT NOW. You get negative karma if you Google it and come back all like, "I totally knew what it was right then when you asked." Shyea. Like I don't know how quickly Google changed my life. Google and I have been together since the late 90s. We're solid.

I just hope they stop eating internet startups like they were Lays Barbecue Potato Chips made with the new recipe (ohmygod those are dangerously tasty). I don't want Google to get so big that I have to criticize them like other Monopolizing Companies That Shall Remain Unnamed. Eh, they're probably big enough for me to criticize now. Especially because I didn't buy any shares when their sock went public.

Why is it that math wasn't one of my strongest areas when I'm so good with tangents? 

February 09, 2007

I live in Dilbert's world [and an NPR sidetopic]

Happy Friday! I think I'm coming down with a cold.

I have a daily Dilbert tear-off calendar at work, and I pass them around the office almost every day. Every day it occurs to me that Scott Adams is a genius of the corporate world. I don't even work in an extremely corprate environment - I mean, I can wear jeans and my black t-shirt with a big yellow Star Wars logo on it if I want. I love many of my co-workers, but there are a couple who drive me batty on occasion or all the time.

I recently learned about Scott's problem speaking (Spasmodic Dysphonia) and the ironic fact that Dilbert is never drawn with a mouth. Then I did a quick search and came up with a post on his blog last October that, if you haven't read, I would recommend: here. For those of you who listen to NPR, it's the same condition that Diane Rehm has. In fact, when I first tuned in to the Diane Rehm Show when I discovered streaming radio, I thought she must have been as old as Mama Jazz from the local NPR station in Oxford, Ohio... who, incidentally, I presumed to be a large black woman (given her extensive Jazz knowledge and gravely, drawled speech). I was totally wrong. Mama Jazz is a little old white woman who's been on the show for over 20 years and just turned 75.

Just goes to show that perceptions of Radio voices can be totally wrong.  Speaking of NPR, if you didn't already know, the weekly This American Life broadcast was recently made available as a free podcast.  W00t, for sure!

December 17, 2006

More Book Blahs

Wired has a review of "She's Such a Geek" written by one of the editors of the book. It links to the book's blog.

This is the book for which I submitted an essay, which I haven't read or touched since the Rejection. I know that I'm going to read this collection of essays eventually, but I am dreading it a little. I'll try to be positive, and I'll probably geek inferiority complex while reading all the deliciously geeky things these other ladies have done. What have I done? Oh, pretty much been interested in geekology. Hmph. 

I also purchased a big screen tv tonight with my husband. It will be delivered on Thursday. It's a good thing that there is a lot of time of work starting next Saturday, because I have a feeling that my productivity will fall with 60" of gorgeous talking pictures to watch and interactively manipulate (game playing). So booyah, editors of She's Such a Geek!

Oh, and here's an early New Year's resolution: to get off my ass (er, rather, stay on it?) and write something goddamned worthwhile. Including updating the geek test and returning some of the clever emails I've received of late. Do I dare to look at the first blog post I wrote this past January? Jury's still out on that.

In the meantime, if all goes well, Ben and I will be running PVC pipe through walls in the house tomorrow and then snaking more coax and Cat 5e cables through them to wire additional rooms.   

November 27, 2006

Sexiest Geek of the Year

Wired is asking for submissions to determine the top 10 sexiest geeks of the year:

http://blog.wired.com/biotech/2006/11/2006_sexiest_ge.html 

November 13, 2006

Transformers take 20 years of hard-earned maturity away from my husband!

The new Toyfare magazine (#113) came in the mail today. I started to browse through it after dinner while I was eating a cookie and drinking some soy milk. Ben looked over my shoulder when I called "Transformers!" and scoffed at Hasbro's "A Blast from the Past" ad for a redesigned Megatron. "That's not Megatron," he said, and walked away.

I ho-hummed a lot of the Incoming! annoucements, but perked up at the news of a new series coming out next summer from DC Direct: Fables! I love that series, so of course I put down my cookie and starting gushing about the new toys to Ben, who was by now sitting at his computer absorbing remnants of the 2006 baseball season. He (predictably) rolled his eyes, called me a geek and said that we didn't need more toys, but that didn't stop me from squealing and gushing, nor from giggling about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on the next page.

Then I called "Transformers!" again and quoted from page 53, "New Transformers Classics run rampant over Kentucky at BotCon 2006!"

"New Transformers Classics?," he hissed. "They all suck."

I brought him the magazine and he did his whole spiel of "they'll never be as good as they used to be, these aren't real Transformers, etc." peppered with a little "Why didn't I know there was a BotCon in Lexington when we lived in Cincinnati?" I said that I would be happy to take the magazine back, and he said "In a minute." He turned the page and giggled a little "cool!" to himself and kept reading.

Then he turned to page 58 and I watched my husband (a self-proclaimed Not-a-Toy-Collector, except for model railroads which don't count) turn into a nine-year-old boy. 

"SOUNDWAVE! The ORIGINAL! They're re-releasing it just like they re-released some of them a few years ago!"

(I bought him the G1 reissues of Jazz and Optimus Prime to his pure, unabated delight) 

He proceeded to read me the blurb about the reissue as well as the captions... "And then Soundwave says 'My crotch says 'STOP' but my heart says GO' and Ravage, the cassette, says '...what does an MP3 look like?' Tee hee! This is a GOTTA have. I have to have this! I can't live without it! SOUNDWAVE!" 

I smiled as he geeked out and reverted to little boy excitement. "When does it come out?" I asked, taking the last bite of my cookie and a swig of milk.

"Let's see... Spring 2007." Wait for it. "FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

I knew it wouldn't be out yet, and I knew he wouldn't like having to wait. Yet I sat there with my mouth on my glass and inhaled with laughter at his reaction... then spit, as in near-vomit spit, all over the table and across it, all over Ben's jacket that was hanging on the opposite chair.

I started choking and crying and when Ben came over and asked if I was okay, I nearly peed myself. I haven't laughed that hard... ever, actually! It was a mix of pain and trying to gasp for breath with some milk still in my mouth and that cookie, that precious cookie that I did not want to lose.

I ran to the bathroom to let loose the flood of urine that threatened my dignity, laughing and crying all the way. It took me about 10 minutes to recover, and my chest still hurts. None of it came out of my nose, but wow.

Thank you, Transformers, for making my night.

August 25, 2006

The iPod is Coming: the Story of a Vicitim

I deliberated for a long time over which totally awesome portable music player to purchase. My initial reaction was the video iPod. Clearly I am a victim of  Apple's awesome marketing tactics, because I had no reason to want it other than it's the only one I'd really heard much about.  Good things about it, too.

Ben asked my why I wanted the iPod more than its competitors.  "What competitors?" I asked (only partially sarcastically).  So then I started researching.

30G is enough for me, I said to myself. That's the max on all brands besides the 60G iPod video right now, anyway. Most of the competitors weren't really competitors, and it came down to the iPod and the Creative Zen M. This morning when I woke up, I was ready to buy the Creative Zen. Better display, supposedly better battery life (though many disputes were made in everything online), more versatility with music downloads/file transfer, plus it has a built-in FM receiver and a voice recorder. It still has proprietary software, though... and I'm already using iTunes to play my music. Don't worry, when I rip my CDs they import at MP3s, not AAC files.

The geek inside screamed "don't go with what everyone else has just because they are the majority!"

The victim of marketing inside screamed "it'll just be easier with the iPod, and you'll never use the FM receiver. I know you! You're a vicitim of marketing so of course you want that extra feature! And you know that a lot of those reviews were from people who are anti-Apple!"

In truth, I want to be the cool Apple guy, not the chode monkey PC guy from the commercials. And I'm not even a guy. So is there some underlying penis envy to go along with the serious Mac envy I have of the Art Department at work? Who knows.

I bought the 30G Video iPod and it will arrive on Tuesday.

A victim of marketing? Perhaps. At least I did some homework to know about my options. I will never know if I made the best decision unless I buy both (not likely) or until I actually talk with someone who has a player besides an iPod... and you'd think that some of my geek friends would have a different kind of player. But they don't. They all have iPods. Even the Linux users.

Dude. 

 

June 23, 2006

The Book Bar and The Beer Belly

Words cannot describe the desire I have to make a book bar of my own.

Freakin' awesome book bar 

the amazing full story (and this photo) linked from http://www.vestaldesign.com/projects/bookbar/

On a sort of related note, you can now have a beer belly and drink it, too.  Or something of the sort... best of all, remove the beer belly at the end of your NASCAR event for easier access to the Porcelain God! Biting sarcasm aside, it still made me smile.  I don't drink a lot of beer, but I'd rather wear that than one of those benign pregnancy bellies.

link: http://www.thebeerbelly.com/ 

February 23, 2006

No book yet

I received this email today from the editors of the upcoming book, She's Such a Geek:

----- 

Dear contributor:

Thanks so much for submitting your work to She's Such A Geek. We were blown away by the number and quality of submissions we received, and really excited that so many cool geeky women wanted to share their stories with us. We received nearly 200 submissions and had to choose around 20 from among those.

We really enjoyed your piece, but unfortunately we weren't able to use it in the book. This probably doesn't have anything to do with the quality of your work. Many of the pieces we received were well-written and interesting, but covered the same topics as too many other pieces, or didn't work with the format of the book. Thanks again for submitting it, and best of luck with your writing.

Best,
Annalee and Charlie

-----

I'm bummed, but at the same time, this may open up my essay to expansion into a full-length book.  I have a lot to say about geekhood, and who knows - somebody else might even be interested in what I have to say.  

I haven't been updating the site or this blog very often because I just started a new job and am also in the process of buying a house.  Wish I had more time in the day.  As it is, I've found that I'm sincerely enjoying my sleep-time of late. 

January 31, 2006

A geek by any other name...

"What's in a name?  That which we call a geek
By any other word would smell as l33t."


-From Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)
[with liberties taken by the geekmaster]

January 19, 2006

"She's Such a Geek" essay: Submitted.

Last week, when Friday the 13th was almost over, I was doing a string of searches for some geeky stuff related to my website.  I came across a call for submissions for an anthology of essays entitled "She's Such a Geek," to be released in book format this fall.
The problem was that it was due at midnight on Sunday the 15th, and the word count requirement was 3,000 to 6,000 words.  I wasn't sure that I'd be able to do it.

But I did!

I wrote a little about the story of the Geek Test and about the acceptance of my own inner geek as time progressed.  That's a summary.   I think that I was able to put it in a more descriptive, literary form.  The final word count was just over 5,000 words.  Unfortunately, I was writing and editing right up until midnight, so the piece that I submitted was probably not the absolute best that it could have been, particularly towards the end.  The actual ending was good, I think, because I had already thought it out.  My husband read it and said he like the Tarantino/jumping-around-in-time effect.  But nobody died in my essay, so I don't think I would ever call it true Tarantino style.  I wanted to keep fixing it, like every non-published writer out there, but I decided to submit it as it was because the other option would not have even allowed for the chance to be published in this anthology.  The subject matter requested was just too irresistable not to submit something!  I do, after all, consider myself to know a few things about geeks, and certainly my own experiences as a geek.

In any case, the pain of waiting should last until Febrary 15th.  If I don't hear back from them by then, I am supposed to assume that they have thrown my essay into the trash or into their slush pile (to be discovered years after my death, I'm sure).  Here's the actual post on Seal Press' website:

SHE'S SUCH A GEEK
An Anthology by and for Women Obsessed
with Computers, Science, Comic Books,
Gaming, Spaceships, and Revolution

Slated for Fall 2006

Geeks are taking over the world. They make the most popular movies and games, pioneer new ways to communicate using technology, and create new ideas that will change the future. But the stereotype is that only men can be geeks. So when are we going to hear from the triumphant female nerds whose stories of outer space battles will inspire generations and whose inventions will change the future?

Female geeks are busting out of the labs and into the spotlight. They have the skills and knowledge that can inspire social progress, scientific breakthroughs, and change the world for the better, and they're making their voices heard, some for the first time, in the upcoming anthology She's Such a Geek. This anthology will celebrate women who have flourished in the male-dominated realms of technical and cultural arcana. We're looking for a wide range of personal essays about the meaning of female nerdhood by women who are in love with genomics, obsessed with blogging, learned about sex from Dungeons and Dragons, and aren't afraid to match wits with men or computers. The essays in She's Such a Geek will explain what it means to be passionately engaged with technical or obscure topics—and how to deal with it when people tell you that your interests are weird, especially for a girl. This book aims to bust stereotypes of what it means to be a geek, as well as what it means to be female.

More than anything, She's Such a Geek is a celebration and call to arms: it's a hopeful book which looks forward to a day when women will pilot spaceships, invent molecular motors, design the next ultra-tiny supercomputer, write epics, and run the government.

We want introspective essays that explain what being a geek has meant to you. Describe how you've fought stereotypes to be accepted among nerds. Explore why you are obsessed with topics and ideas that are supposed to be "for boys only." Tell us how you felt the day you realized that you would be devoting the rest of your life to discovering algorithms or collecting comic books. We want strong, personal writing that is also smart and critical. We don't mind if you use the word "fuck," and we don't mind if you use the word "telomerase." Be celebratory, polemical, wistful, angry, and just plain dorky.

Possible topics include:
• what turned you into a geek
• your career in science, technology, or engineering
• growing up geeky
• being a geek in high school today
• battling geek stereotypes (i.e racial stereotypes and geekdom, cultural analysis of geek chic and the truth about nerds, the idea that women have to choose between being sexually desirable and smart, stereotypes about geek professions such as computer programmers)
• sex and dating among geeks
• science fiction fandom
• role-playing game or comic-book subcultures
• the joys of math
• blogging or videogames
• female geek bonding
• geek role models for women
• feminist commentary on geek culture
• women's involvement in DiY science and technology groups
• Stories from women involved in geek pop and underground cultures. These might include comic book writers, science fiction writers, electronic music musicians, and women interested in the gaming world.
• women's web networks and web zine grrrl culture
• Issues of sexism in any of the above themes

EDITORS: Annalee Newitz and Charlie Anders are geeky women writers. Annalee is a contributing editor at Wired magazine and writes the syndicated column Techsploitation. Charlie is the author of Choir Boy (Soft Skull Press) and publisher of other magazine.

PUBLISHER: Seal Press, an imprint of Avalon Publishing Group, publishes groundbreaking books by and for women in a variety of topics.

DEADLINE: January 15, 2006

LENGTH: 3,000-6,000 words

FORMAT: Essays must be typed, double-spaced, and paginated. Please include your address, phone number, email address, and a short bio on the last page. Essays will not be returned.

SUBMITTING: Send essay electronically as a Document or Rich Text Format file to Annalee Newitz and Charlie Anders at sheissuchageek@gmail.com.

PAYMENT: $100 plus two books

REPLY: Please allow until February 15 for a response. If you haven't received a response by then, please assume your essay has not been selected. It is not possible to reply to every submission personally.

January 16, 2006

Geek for the Week of January 16

Reling from Germany is the winner!  You can view his bio and read the updated submission guidelines here: http://www.innergeek.us/geek-week.html

I also updated the guidelines for holding an officially sanctioned Geek Party

That's all for now... 

June 2008

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