Have I mentioned how much I love Twitter?
It isn't just because it was the shortest distance between the Wheaton and me/I/myself (damn English). I mean I never really expected to ever hear from him. And lo! In the midst of his busy writing shedule, little 'ol me gets a retweet. And it isn't because I get a front row seat to Brent Spiner's very active mind. It isn't even because I keep getting these great ego boosts from new friends. I love Twitter because I have new friends.
I already told you about the friends I've made through the comments in Spiner's real time feed. Since then there have been even more followers, all of a similar mindset. And as we go along, day by day, we see the sacred and the profane of what makes our lives tick. Not just for oursleves but for the other people in our lives. It is amazing.
I think that the thing that I like most is that Twitter allows me to be a cheerleader and tweet things that mostly say "yea @_________" when the people I follow have great news to impart. I can send sympathy, virtual hugs and share emotions via music quotes with my followers/following. And Twitter forces brevity on my verbose inner Mr. Data. I don't feel bad "bothering" Wil when he is writing cause I keep it short. And I do try not to bother him with too frequent posting. But it is the great commeraderie with my new friends that makes Twitter most special. Sure without Wil and Brent I wouldn't have met them. But they are there, wating to be found, waiting to find me.
I've no grand illusions that Twitter will open portals to fame, fortune or some other lofty thing. of course it could. But I'm just this little poster and tweeter of geeky things. The grand things are for others. I just like expanding my Universe without all the negative quantum consequences. Twitter is good.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
geek love
Have I said, lately, how much I love my new mouse? It's purple. It's smooth and handle great on corners. Loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooove. Exciting and new.
Till the bloom fades from the rose, any way.
Till the bloom fades from the rose, any way.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Not just a Trek geek
The typical instructions began somewhere in the middle of no where and never got around to stating the objective of the game. That is usually how a new game is introduced into the family rotation. It leaves me and my sister at a decided disadvantage. It doesn't last very long. Once we get the hang then its all out War on the instructor. So when he gets half way through his ineffectual spiel, I brek out in a grin.
ME: Wow, that sounds so D&D.
HIM: Yeah but without all the Satanist stuff.
ME: (mumble mumble gripe) Wil Wheaton.
HIM: What?
Nothing.
So he continues his lecture while my sister-in-law continues to shuffle and deal. She turns up the top card. It is very Egyptian looking. But I am not paying that much attention. So there are all sorts of cool things to see on all the cards graphically and I squealed when I drew the DeLorean. It throws my bunny three turns into the Future to avoid a nasty attack from a host of devilish kitchen untesils and a grumpy Farmer. Actually, the Grumpy farmer is the only thing missing so far.
When he dumps the dice onto the table I make an off hand comment in that dismissive tone I take when I think that everyone should know what I know because I think my interests are mainstream. Yeah, if you thought that was a run-on sentence then you ain't seen nuthin' yet.
HIM: What?
ME: I said I guess I better not use Jerry's dice. (I know he is thinking that he is thinking I mean the old attorney.)
HIM: Why would you say that?
ME: Cause his dice have epic fail.
HIM: What?
ME: Paraphrase the Penny Arcade podcast. Sing "Jerry Holkins rolls a one he cannot roll a twenty" to King Wenceslas tune.
HIM: Ohhhhhh-kay.
Play continues with me bumbling through the uncomplicated game mechanics, forgetting to save Special and Very Special cards, wishing there were a Chanukkah card inthe stash. My draws suck. I have nothing to play. Nothing to do but watch everyone suck the bunnies out of the deck. And then, I draw the "Choose a carrot card."
Choose a carrot means that you go through the character cards and find one that suits you. As Bro hands me the deck I squeal.
ME: I get the Vulcan.
BRO: You don't even know what the cards are.
ME: The developers/designers are geeks. There is a Vulcan.
Then I look closely at the cards. Before I get to the Vulcan I find the Jaffa.
ME: It's Teal'c!
HIM: Who?
ME: Teal'c.
I grab the discard pile to find the card that my sister-in-law first turned up. I look at the glyphs. The wall has all sorts of bunny glyphs. No big deal. But the cartouche in the center...
ME: Ohmygod Ohmygod Ohmygoditsearthsgateaddress.
HIM: What?
ME: Its Earth's gate address?
HIM: what's that?
ME: *(Takes a deep breath and launches self off the geekboard) Agateaddressismadeupofsix symbolsthatcorespondtostarswithinourgalaxytheseventhsymbolisthepointoforiginthattellsthegate
systemfromwherethesignalbeginsthis (points to the bottom)isearthsthisaddressopensastable
wormholebetweentwogates,makinginterplanetarytravelpossible.
HIM: And that guy (points to Teal'c carrot)?
ME: **IsajaffafromChulakwhousedtoserveasfirstPrimetoApophis,sonofRa,buthehelpedSg-1 rescueabunchofslavesandcametoEarthtojointheSGCinriddingthegalaxyofGoa'uldsystemlords.
A stunned silence fills the room while I bask in multiple joy. First that this game has so many cool geek references. And second, that I singlemindedly stunned him with as much geeky fangyrl enthusiasm for Stargate as he assumed I could have only for Star Trek.
ME: The only prblem is that he is in his first Primey garb.
More stunned silence.
Then I find an carrot with a sword in a gi.
ME: Sulu!
HIM: What? There is no Sulu in this deck.
He was kinda right. The carrot's name was Hikaru.
Me: Hikaru is Sulu's first name.
He just looked at me as though I had mathematically disproven Hawkings' string theory/unified field theory invalid to Hawking. Priceless.
I lost tremendously badly. Epic fail seems like not quite an epic enough description for how much my carrots were pureed in the end. But I out geeked myself... to the point that when I referenced Castle's mom's Martha-isms about pea pod existence and finding my Pod among the cyberverse he conceded that he may have to be cut loose.
So I guess I could have used the word tribe. But tribe is so "Up North" Michigan and not nearly so space nerdy as pod (see Invasion of the body Snatchers, 1978), I chose pod. Besides, I like what Martha said about peas in a pod. Which is kinda a reference back to my friend Michelle Ward who used to use a similar concept for her famly unit.
And for those who can not decipher my breathless dissertaion, assume Daniel Jackson's mannerisms and begin:
*A gate address is made up of six symbols that corespond to stars within our galaxy. The seventh symbol is the point of origin that tells the gate system from where the signal begins. This is Earth's. This address opens a stable wormhole between tow gates making interplanetary travel possible.
**Is a Jaffa from Chulak who used to serve as First Prime to Apophis, son of Ra, but he helped Sg-1 resue some slaves and came to Earth to join the SGC in ridding the galxy of Goa'uld system Lords.
ME: Wow, that sounds so D&D.
HIM: Yeah but without all the Satanist stuff.
ME: (mumble mumble gripe) Wil Wheaton.
HIM: What?
Nothing.
So he continues his lecture while my sister-in-law continues to shuffle and deal. She turns up the top card. It is very Egyptian looking. But I am not paying that much attention. So there are all sorts of cool things to see on all the cards graphically and I squealed when I drew the DeLorean. It throws my bunny three turns into the Future to avoid a nasty attack from a host of devilish kitchen untesils and a grumpy Farmer. Actually, the Grumpy farmer is the only thing missing so far.
When he dumps the dice onto the table I make an off hand comment in that dismissive tone I take when I think that everyone should know what I know because I think my interests are mainstream. Yeah, if you thought that was a run-on sentence then you ain't seen nuthin' yet.
HIM: What?
ME: I said I guess I better not use Jerry's dice. (I know he is thinking that he is thinking I mean the old attorney.)
HIM: Why would you say that?
ME: Cause his dice have epic fail.
HIM: What?
ME: Paraphrase the Penny Arcade podcast. Sing "Jerry Holkins rolls a one he cannot roll a twenty" to King Wenceslas tune.
HIM: Ohhhhhh-kay.
Play continues with me bumbling through the uncomplicated game mechanics, forgetting to save Special and Very Special cards, wishing there were a Chanukkah card inthe stash. My draws suck. I have nothing to play. Nothing to do but watch everyone suck the bunnies out of the deck. And then, I draw the "Choose a carrot card."
Choose a carrot means that you go through the character cards and find one that suits you. As Bro hands me the deck I squeal.
ME: I get the Vulcan.
BRO: You don't even know what the cards are.
ME: The developers/designers are geeks. There is a Vulcan.
Then I look closely at the cards. Before I get to the Vulcan I find the Jaffa.
ME: It's Teal'c!
HIM: Who?
ME: Teal'c.
I grab the discard pile to find the card that my sister-in-law first turned up. I look at the glyphs. The wall has all sorts of bunny glyphs. No big deal. But the cartouche in the center...
ME: Ohmygod Ohmygod Ohmygoditsearthsgateaddress.
HIM: What?
ME: Its Earth's gate address?
HIM: what's that?
ME: *(Takes a deep breath and launches self off the geekboard) Agateaddressismadeupofsix symbolsthatcorespondtostarswithinourgalaxytheseventhsymbolisthepointoforiginthattellsthegate
systemfromwherethesignalbeginsthis (points to the bottom)isearthsthisaddressopensastable
wormholebetweentwogates,makinginterplanetarytravelpossible.
HIM: And that guy (points to Teal'c carrot)?
ME: **IsajaffafromChulakwhousedtoserveasfirstPrimetoApophis,sonofRa,buthehelpedSg-1 rescueabunchofslavesandcametoEarthtojointheSGCinriddingthegalaxyofGoa'uldsystemlords.
A stunned silence fills the room while I bask in multiple joy. First that this game has so many cool geek references. And second, that I singlemindedly stunned him with as much geeky fangyrl enthusiasm for Stargate as he assumed I could have only for Star Trek.
ME: The only prblem is that he is in his first Primey garb.
More stunned silence.
Then I find an carrot with a sword in a gi.
ME: Sulu!
HIM: What? There is no Sulu in this deck.
He was kinda right. The carrot's name was Hikaru.
Me: Hikaru is Sulu's first name.
He just looked at me as though I had mathematically disproven Hawkings' string theory/unified field theory invalid to Hawking. Priceless.
I lost tremendously badly. Epic fail seems like not quite an epic enough description for how much my carrots were pureed in the end. But I out geeked myself... to the point that when I referenced Castle's mom's Martha-isms about pea pod existence and finding my Pod among the cyberverse he conceded that he may have to be cut loose.
So I guess I could have used the word tribe. But tribe is so "Up North" Michigan and not nearly so space nerdy as pod (see Invasion of the body Snatchers, 1978), I chose pod. Besides, I like what Martha said about peas in a pod. Which is kinda a reference back to my friend Michelle Ward who used to use a similar concept for her famly unit.
And for those who can not decipher my breathless dissertaion, assume Daniel Jackson's mannerisms and begin:
*A gate address is made up of six symbols that corespond to stars within our galaxy. The seventh symbol is the point of origin that tells the gate system from where the signal begins. This is Earth's. This address opens a stable wormhole between tow gates making interplanetary travel possible.
**Is a Jaffa from Chulak who used to serve as First Prime to Apophis, son of Ra, but he helped Sg-1 resue some slaves and came to Earth to join the SGC in ridding the galxy of Goa'uld system Lords.
make a new plan Stan
I will have to unlock all of my latent mutant powers to work out this situation. I have three weeks to move and no where near the cash to make a permanent move elsewhere, as planned. Bro feels that the house won't sell at all with my makeshift kitchen. It won't, I know that. But I also know that an empty house for as long as it will be on the market isn't good either.
Oh well. He's back to the whole sell everything because having it in storage is heart sickening and expensive. Well duh. Kinda like being with out a permanent address is heart sickening. And yet, when I explained again the series of unfortunate circumstances that put me in this position there was no "Oops."
He took and sold dad's plow before the house sold. He killed my trade deal that was getting the lawn mowed and would have gotten the driveway plowed, thus forcing me to spend almost 400.00 mo on plowing fees. But I'm an idiot. Of course he is now sugar coating everything. So the only one who thinks I'm an idiot is me. Wonder how that happened.
Kidding, I know how that happened. And I am an idiot. I am an idiot for believing that the people who were programmed by my mother are capable of behaving contrary to their programming. It serves neither my brother or my sister to rise above their program limits. They aren't computers. They are capable. They just choose not to. And I am not very good at reprogramming anyone but me. And even then it is a patch job. Sometimes its enough. Sometimes not.
It's just so frustrating. He says he'll help me move my stuff. But he broke two chairs and a love seat last time. And I only have so many pieces of my grandparents left for him to break. I know, I should be doing something other than blogging about it. But I have to be to work in a few minutes and I've only slept for about 5 hours.
So now that I have a great project to submit to Somerset started, I am upending everything again. Damn.
And because I can't end a blog on a curse... fill in this blank with whatever you feel appropriate. _______________.
Oh well. He's back to the whole sell everything because having it in storage is heart sickening and expensive. Well duh. Kinda like being with out a permanent address is heart sickening. And yet, when I explained again the series of unfortunate circumstances that put me in this position there was no "Oops."
He took and sold dad's plow before the house sold. He killed my trade deal that was getting the lawn mowed and would have gotten the driveway plowed, thus forcing me to spend almost 400.00 mo on plowing fees. But I'm an idiot. Of course he is now sugar coating everything. So the only one who thinks I'm an idiot is me. Wonder how that happened.
Kidding, I know how that happened. And I am an idiot. I am an idiot for believing that the people who were programmed by my mother are capable of behaving contrary to their programming. It serves neither my brother or my sister to rise above their program limits. They aren't computers. They are capable. They just choose not to. And I am not very good at reprogramming anyone but me. And even then it is a patch job. Sometimes its enough. Sometimes not.
It's just so frustrating. He says he'll help me move my stuff. But he broke two chairs and a love seat last time. And I only have so many pieces of my grandparents left for him to break. I know, I should be doing something other than blogging about it. But I have to be to work in a few minutes and I've only slept for about 5 hours.
So now that I have a great project to submit to Somerset started, I am upending everything again. Damn.
And because I can't end a blog on a curse... fill in this blank with whatever you feel appropriate. _______________.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)