Peek ahead at Geeky September observances

Ok, since I totally punted the post last night (yeah sorry, but when things pick up on life, cool stuff like writing here get pushed back).  I just thought I'd open up my Google Calendar and check out the geeky holidays for the month of September (which is a great month for geeky observances!) and share what we will be celebrating this coming month.  Of course there is nothing right away, but after the back to school and labor day festivities (and PAX for those lucky enough to be going) settle down we have two weeks of amazing geekdom to close out the month with.

September 18th marks not only the INFAMOUS Talk Like a Pirate (and dress like one if you can too) Day, but it also starts Tolkien Week!!!

September 22 marks the highlight of Tolkien Week - Hobbit Day!  What a wonderful day this is, mmmmmm can't wait!

And after we've recovered from Tolkien Week, September 30 brings every school kids favorite day, Ask a Stupid Question Day!

So you see, lots to do this coming month, and lots to talk about!

Now back to getting through these next couple days of craziness!

No Time For Insanity

My oldest is starting kindergarten tomorrow and I spent the weekend over dosing on Season 1 of Eureka.  I have some half posts, but I won't torture you with now.  Maybe there will be something later, maybe not.

BRRAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIINSSSSSSS

Once upon a time, as a tween (although they called us pre-teens back then), I was in those wonderful two weeks of vacation bible school.  I think it was the last summer I went too.  Every day I walked with my sister, which was a big deal because we had to cross a major road that was normally off limits to us.  It also meant we had the opportunity to go and stop at the little "gas station" that sold all the fun candies that we never got any other time.  At the time I was dating a guy who I'd had an on again - off again relationship with since we were 6, and all of my peers were finally starting to think that wasn't so weird.

I don't really remember a ton from what we "learned."  I'm not even sure what the theme was.  It was obvious that teaching our class was hard for the volunteers, I guess we all must've started to disconnect.  Anyway, I distinctly sitting around a big table in a small classroom in the "adult" section of the church.  It was hot and there weren't any boys in the class, I'm not sure if it was just a temporary thing, or if the class was just girls.  The leader, also a female, decided to talk to us about boys.  I don't know what were on about, I just remember sitting there awkwardly, probably the only girl in the room that had had any serious interactions with the male gender, and having this Mom ask us about our ideal man.

Ow My Hand!

My hand is officially dead as of this moment.  Oh I'm sure it'll feel better eventually, but for now, toast.  I spent many many hours for the first time in a long time working in photoshop.  I hooked my WACOM Graphire tablet up to my laptop (Hermes) and set upon a very specific task.  Sometimes while nursing and holding a baby.  Let me tell you, I may be ambidextrous, but on the couch, without a table, there are just some things I can't do under those conditions!

My task was something special for my hubby, and I think it turned out great!  If it works to help him get a job, I'm totally going to share it, if not, well I'll think about it.  At any rate, it'd make a sweet business card.  I should make one for myself, but not tonight.  I hope to regain feeling in my fingers sometime tomorrow or over the weekend, then I can start writing again, if life doesn't get in the way.... stupid life, it gets like that sometimes.

and What do YOU Want?

Yeah this is late, but I'm going to post it anyway.  I have no idea why, but I am just in a very antisocial mood today.  There is really no reason why I should be.  I mean I even sort of had a date with my husband last night.  Heck, it's afternoon and my daughters still aren't home from their sleep over (partially because my husband took the car to a job interview).  In fact for the functional part of the morning, it's just been me and the baby.  Whom I love to pieces, even if his noisy sleeping did keep me up and producing milk all night.

I had messed up dreams, involving lots of weird stuff from my childhood all smashed into a semi present reality.  But that's not THAT unusual.  I dreamed that my family as it is now had moved into my childhood home, but even that's happened before.  Heck, it's not even that unrealistic since I know the current owners and my kids have been to the house, this summer even.  There have been several times where I have thought what if I lived there.  That's not that unusual, I play that game with every house I'm in.  What if I lived here, how would I lay out the rooms, what would work for me what wouldn't.  Some layouts work for me better than others, and maybe someday that info will be remotely useful.  It still doesn't stop me from feeling in the frump today.

Bones

I don't watch a lot of TV.  In fact I haven't had cable since 1997.  I don't really miss it, although there are a few shows I feel I've missed out on, those few do not justify the costs of obtaining them.  Usually, we just rent them when they are released on DVD or don't worry about it.  Hulu and webcasting has changed that some.  I now watch more shows than I did in the past, but it's still really limited.  In fact I can list all of the shows I regularly watch on one hand.

Normally this isn't a problem, but early this spring I found myself stuck in the hospital for 10 days.  During that time my family was pretty much forced to away while I healed.  My dad helped my husband with our daughters and our one week old son.  My mom kept me company in my hospital room.  A lot of the time we dozed and read books, but after a while, the room just gets to you - and the noise from other patients.  I had no idea what to watch on TV for noise.  I mean a girl can only watch so much SciFi (syfy) before there's some form of unentertaining detritus or wrestling comes on, and I'm well past my wrestling phase.  One night while channel surfing my mom recommended the homicide drama, Bones.  I have watched several homicide shows, some good, some funny, some just a bit ~ eh, not my thing.... since mom wanted to watch it I gave it a go.

Still Neglecting My Keyboard

Sorry this is late, and not long.  I had a great blog for you all, but life prevented me from reaching the keyboard.  So it's gone.  Sorry all.  More later.

Just Say No

You see, there was a time in my life when I was a walking pharmacy.  Seriously, even the teachers at my high school came to me for the good pain killers.  I had them legitimately, I had/have migraines.  By high school I'd made a thorough effort to void any and all warranties on my body.  I had an annual appointment with radiology from 3rd grade through high school (not scheduled mind you, just was there every year for something.)  My long term physical goal is to be able to walk when I'm 60, and before we married I made perfectly sure that my husband is aware that I may need him to carry and care for my broken down self.  But hey, all those owies came with some seriously good dope.

I'm currently in the throws of a horrid summer cold.  My baby got it and of course if you sneeze within 50 ft of me, I get it.  Ok, so I'm totally miserable.  My husband has been a champion dealing with things, but this is the bulk of why I haven't been writing.  Not that the whispers (and sometimes yells) of insanity aren't still pounding at my head, but they aren't the only thing pounding at my head.  But there's a little problem.....

Happy Birthday to the Personal Computer

It has come to my attention that a device that has been not only pivotal to my life, but something near and dear to my interests, the personal computer, better known as the PC, has recently celebrated it's 29th year of public availability.  Wow, can you even begin to imagine life without a computer?  Oh sure there were Apple II's and Amigas, and Commodores, and all those back then, but the PCc was different.  It had an idea of DIY for the masses.  The robust notion of upgrades, which admittedly has been a boon to the whole industry, even if laptops, the current most popular computing device is barely modifiable by most users.

My first computer wasn't a PC, it was a Commodore.  A Commodore 128 to be precise, although relatively speaking, the extra cash my parents forked over to get the "upgrade" from 64 mode, was not really utilized by anyone for several years after the unit made it's grand entrance into our home.  Especially since my school only had 64s, it became the mode I was most comfortable with, and of course the only mode that all our bootlegged (thanks to whatever math student it was in that class that my mom was substitute teaching in when the Commodore came to live with us) games would run in.  And someday I really will play the emulated versions of Twin Kingdom Valley and Leather Goddess of Phobos, that despite my multiple decades of having started the games, I WILL someday finish, with minimal cheats.

Paved With Good Intentions

My life is paved with good intentions.  I've always had all these ideas of things I'm going to do. Ways I'm going to organize.  Clutter I'm not going to keep.  Friends I'm going to make.  Dates I'm going to go on.  Food I'm going to eat.  Places I'm going to go.  Languages I'll learn to speak.  Yup someday I'm going to rock the world, or something like that.  For some reason I keep getting sidetracked by the inconvenient necessities of life.  I need to work, and then eat, and then put the kids in bed, then I'm stuck at home and I never do seem to get around to meeting my neighbors, not that they are out of their houses and busy lives all that much.  I want to organize my kitchen, but because one device can't multi task I have to have several that do almost the same thing in different ways.

Some of the issues stem from the inability to acquire the types of efficient items I'd prefer t surround my chaotic life with.  Some of the issues are from a lack of drive and commitment.  Some are simply because my mind has never learned to limit itself to one set of interests, one focus.  My father could do anything, build anything, fix anything.  Even had an interest in just about every hobby imaginable.  To me he passed on this gift/curse.

I Have A Dream...

We all know the famous "I have a dream speech" of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  Most people can quote at least part of it.  "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character,"  is one of my personally favorite lines.  I have so many dreams for my children.  I always have, even when I wasn't sure I wanted to have children because of the kind of world that I would be bringing them into.  There are so many hopes I have for the future.  So many goals I hope that mankind can attain in the way our societies function within the world.  So many scientific achievements I'd love to see brought forth for my children and their children and for all future generations.

Some of my dreams seem as simple as Dr. King's statement, I have a dream about the character of my children and of those whom they will come in contact with.  I have spent the entire lives of my children molding them in such a way that they will have the manners and outward thinking necessary to permit them the choice of a future in any career they may chose, whether that leads them to the white house or a tree house in the woods.  I desperately hope that those who spend any time with my children find them to be a pleasure and truly enjoy having them around without the need to worry about the state of their house, yard, or other personal property before or after our visit.  As such I love to take my children out to meet the world.  To help to practice in all that I want them to project.  Yet, there are still many elements, those pesky sub cultures, that run contrary to that which I want my children to project.

Equal But Not The Same

"We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal."  If more poignant words are held in such esteem in this country, I don't know what they are.  Even people with only a basic understanding of American government know these words, "all men are equal."  It's a great start for a government.  The idea of living in a world of equals, wow.  Where each person has the opportunity regardless of what their parents chose to go anywhere and do anything that they can reach for.

In the not so distant past these words led people to decry slavery, to decry segregation, to bus together kids from different neighborhoods so that all would have the same opportunity to learn in the prominent public school system.  A system that started as the brain child of the same man who penned the declaration that all men are created equal.   It was his idea that all children should receive a basic education that would provide for them the fundamentals of reading, writing, and maths, which would enable each citizen to knowledgeably vote in government elections, to be able to follow the news of the day, and to figure ones own taxes.

Something just clicked

We recently finally took our first family camping trip.  Totally weird given my background.  I mean I have a degree that involved extensive study of most things living outside of our modern society (and a few things within).  One summer I spent the entire summer living out of a tent!  It was an amazing summer.  Full of great times and memories.  I loved it!  Except I missed my then boyfriend (now husband) and I totally couldn't leave my kids like that now.  The pay wasn't even that much less than I make now, and I've taken several jobs since where I've made less.  Heck if you count the food we were provided I probably made more then!  That was even the summer we won our tent at the bank.

My camping wasn't limited to that summer.  I spent 10 days in the largest continuous wilderness area in the lower 48 states!  It was for a class, and we did have structured accommodation for part of it (a research station), but there were several nights of sleeping with nothing but a bag and the stars.  Before all that "higher education stuff" there were a myriad of yuppie camping (uh I mean car camping and KOAing) as a kid.  I have nothing but good memories!  Driving all day, then setting up camp and cooking dinner before the sun set.  Mom would bring things like stew we had frozen in advance of the trip (the ultimate camp dinner - well ok, steak is good too).  We'd set camp and eat and wash up.  Mom would be scared of the threat of bears.  My sister and I would share a tent.  Sometimes we'd brave the showers.  Sometimes there wouldn't be flushies.  Usually, we'd be there for the night and after breakfast we'd break camp and be off to the next site!

Hi I'm KtC, and I'm a Fox News Addict

Normally I prefer to get my news overseas or at least from as neutral of a news source as I can find.  It's not always possible and I am horrendously lazy about such things, as I've already posted.  Still I don't know whether it's my human obsession with the extreme, or my desire to know the odd.  Maybe it's my wandering along insanity's sharp ravine that makes me crave those stories.  Makes it so I can't stop reading.  So there I sit opening tab after linked tab.

I know there is better things I can do with my time, but it's just so compulsive.  I've even taken to opening a separate browser for my habits so as not to mess up the 30 or so tabs I keep open in the main browser (yes I've abused tabbed browsing for probably a decade - I used to use Opera).  I just can't help it.  I have to learn about the depravity and the heroism, the odd discoveries and the side notes.  I used to be a loyal reader of News of the Weird, and now I find it all on Fox News.

Observations of: Google Ads

I <3 Google Ads, I LOVE 'em.  The genius behind ad words gets a big high five!  The whole idea of scanning text to see what is being discussed and then attempting to tie in to the interests based on keywords to post an ad, well it definitely can be the bringer of admittedly hours of entertainment.  Sure sure, sometimes it's spot on, something way cool and totally appropriate wanna know more kinda stuff, ka-ching.... absolutely working!  Other times, well that's when we let the good times roll.

Surely you've seen it.  You are chatting along on a forum, or reading your email (if you use web mail) and then in the corner, down at the bottom, there are these little ads.  They advertise things many times the likes of which you have never heard of.  There are some great ads for toilets and toilet accessories if you happen to be on a thread discussing lots of crap.  If you are talking about weddings or babies or any of those major markets, WOW!  Oh baby!  Bring on the advertisers.

A Rare Find

There are different cultures and subcultures all over this planet.  Briefly I have already mentioned my own frustration in belonging to a culture and that I also associate highly with geek culture.  This is all still very true.  I strongly identify with the geek subculture.  I feel my parents are closeted geeks who still struggle with allowing their inner geek to come out.  My husband is a geek and several of my real life friends are geeks.  My inlaws are not geeks, my poor husband.

I feel most at ease with people who also associate, at least on some fundamental level as geeks.  Sure I have other things that aren't geeky about me.  Yet, over my life my closest friends have been those that are geeks.  This has posed a real problem for me.  As many of you are starting to guess, that has meant most of my friends are men.  Now I have nothing against my geek-guy friends.  I love them dearly and we have some great discussions, but it is a unique and wonderful day when I meet and am able to befriend that rarest of finds, another She-Geek.

Thanks GeekDad

Not too very long ago Wired's GeekDad wrote a review of a book about Adult Lego Fans, LEGO: a Love Story by Jonathan Bender.  In their post they offered an copy of the book to a fan that replied.  I was that lucky fan.  I never had LEGOs as a kid, but my Dad let my sister and I build with his American Bricks (pre-Playskool).  You can check those on ebay if you don't know what they are.  Eventually one Christmas my sister and I were awarded our own tub of "generic bricks".  Which were cool, but not compatible with LEGO pieces.  Anyway, it wasn't my bemoaning my childhood bereft of the "cool bricks" that got me the book.  It was the random number generator.

Not having much time to read has made my active reading list rather light.  In fact I wasn't reading anything when my copy of the book arrived.  I set to reading it right away, even though it isn't the kind of thing I'd buy for myself.  I'm more of a sci-fi reader (and lately been reading kid's fantasy), but I did really enjoy the book.  I connected with the author on more than one front.  That longing for bricks that I never had, the projects my bucket just couldn't build, and those summer days spent doing nothing but building and playing.  Then my husband, who still has all of his LEGO bricks from childhood despite moving across the country a couple times, read the book.