All These Things

Lately I've had these "things", I call them. They're basically quirky likes that I have.

Thing Number 1: Plaid. I love plaid. I have a pair of plaid shoes that I cannot get enough of! Plaid, plaid, plaid!


Thing Number 2: Hearts. And not cutesy little hearts, either, just simple hearts.

Thing Number 3: Robots! But only cute robots.


Thing Number 4: Rain. I love the rain. I get kind of cranky if it's too sunny for long, and my dream is to one day live in a town that is A) not sunny or B) rainy often.



Thing Number 5: The color gray. It happens to be one of my favorite colors, but it has to be the right kind of gray. I go for either gunmetal, or dove gray.

A Meme

Yay, another meme! Another random idea to get to know me better. It's your lucky day!




1. I generally don't like people, so it's kind of strange that I want people to "get to know me better" on this blog. It's not that I'm weird, it's just that people generally talk too much, or they're idiots, or something. If I don't seem to be warming up to you, it's because you fit into this category. :) Cheers!



2. I don't like to drink water. I avoid drinking it, but I will accept your offer of milk, juice, soda, Gatorade.


3. I also don't drink alcoholic beverages.



4. I think potatoes are the yummiest food ever. I will eat them boiled, roasted, fried, seasoned, mashed, smashed, or any other way you can think of. Just not raw.

If it seems like these are excessively food/or drink related, it's because I'm starving. I may revisit this meme at a later date.




5. I love to read, and will read anywhere and everywhere I can get away with it. Even as a child, when my dad would take forever comparing prices at the local grocery store, I would pull a box of food down and read all the information on it.



6. I think white is a great color for every household product. My laptop is white, my towels are white, my tea kettle is white, my toaster is white. If it wasn't so dang expensive, my cell phone would be white.



7. Even though I am female, I hate to talk on the phone. I prefer face-to-face, especially if I feel it is an important subject, and if I can't be face-to-face, I prefer texting. If I sound grumpy on the phone, it's because you are talking too long, and I'm contemplating how to hang up on you.



So, there you have it. Seven random things about me. That was the meme. Seven random things. If this meme makes me sound grumpy it's because a) I usually am and b) I am so hungry!

The General Public . . .

I know that television networks base their shows contracts on viewers' preferences. The more people who click in, the more rave reviews and recognition a TV show and its cast receives, the better the chances are that the show will continue on for seasons to come.

Examples: Desperate Housewives, ER, Friends. Shows that the public have gone absolutely nuts over. And the seasons kept on rolling on out. Or keep on going, in Desperate Housewives' case. But what is the deal with the newer shows, or am I just now noticing the trend?

The sex/drugs combo sells, and it seems that lately, it has been selling quite well. Nip/Tuck, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, even a newer show where a rich family has its own dirty laundry of sex and drugs that is probably going to enjoy a long spot on its network all seem to have people tuning in religiously (or Tivo-ing, in more and more cases).

This blog isn't to rant on an amoral society. I don't like that stuff, so I steer clear. What I'm annoyed over is the fact that the shows that I like -good shows with strong followings!- are getting the shaft! Come on, people, one season of Firefly? I KNOW Firefly has a huge following, even now, and yet it was only one season long. I blame a lack of advertising. I'd never even heard of it until it popped up one day on SciFi. And what about John Doe? I'm just now getting into it, right into season one, and I realized that one season is really all I'm getting. And why do I have a feeling that Bionic Woman is going to go the way of these others?

The only science fiction show that has really taken off is Battlestar Galactica. That thing is like a soap opera and a scifi flick all wrapped into a nice burrito of oh snap, that just happened. It's as though if a show does not keep our ADD public constantly inundated with more and more drama, the show isn't worth it. Not fast-paced enough? Good-bye, show. Someone actually knows their baby's daddy? Trash. The in-laws aren't killers? Not worth the effort.

All I'm saying is this: we geeks like our techie, geeky, fact-full shows. So support a geek, and give our shows a chance. We'll thank you for it by making books and crazy fan fiction and hosting conventions and dressing up in crazy-weird outfits for the movies that will inevitably come. :) Oh, and we'll probably shake your hand. . . if you come to our conventions.

Books, Books, Books

I've gone through a myriad of books at a surprisingly fast pace, even for myself, I think. As a teen, I read because it took me elsewhere, and now I've returned to that habit, pushed there from boredom, or sadness, or anxiety. I could list the many books that I've read in the past two weeks, but I'll only mention two: the first I finished last night before drifting off to sleep at one in the morning. I've noticed Lillith Saintcrow's books on the sci-fi/fantasy shelves for quite awhile, and I finally bought one. I enjoyed the book, but as of yet have not been able to get a hold of the following two in the series, which are apparently available, but always sold out. So, I moved to her more well known series, the Dante Valentine books. Or the first one, at least. Working for the Devil was so good, despite it's sadness. It mixes a futuristic view of the world with a unique twist on how close Hell is to the world at large. I can't say that I appreciated her view of Hell as less evil and more a parralell universe with different ideas of how things are, or even the idea that we, as humans, were created -not by God, but by demons. Yet somehow it all combined into a fascinating, fast-paced, magick-filled story that makes me really look forward to the next in the series.

The book I moved on to today is Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, by Gregory Maguire. I've read a few of his books, beginning with Wicked, and I keep coming back to them. There's something about the way he takes a well-known fairy tale and flips it around, letting you see the other side of what it could be; somehow fitting his ideas into the fairy tale and yet making an entirely new one at the same time. When you read a fairy tale as a child, the story is what it is: oh, yes Hansel and Gretel survive after almost being eaten by a wicked witch. The End. But Gregory Maguire seems to see beyond the story: why was the witch the way she was? What brought her to that point? What must her life have been like? Were Hansel and Gretel really good little children? Or was there something beneath the surface that, in the end, makes you wonder if the witch should have won instead?

I've only just begun Confessions, but already I am enthralled. This story does not use the point of view of Cinderella, or Clara as she is so named in this book, but is told through the eyes and voice of Iris, the younger step-sister. Already the fairy tale is taking shape, and yet forming a new one all its own.

Yet Another Thing I Suck At

Ask any woman to show you her "fat jeans" and she'll know exactly what you're talking about, where they are, and what circumstances would have to befall them before they would actually deign to wear them (i.e. natural disaster in which fat pants are only means of covering oneself; laundry day, etc.). I myself have a pair of "fat jeans," jeans that should never sit at my hips unless I plan on not being seen by any sentient being save my beloved, uncomprehending, and non-judgmental dog, Sophie. However, I didn't know about my "fat jeans" until I hurriedly pulled them on and rushed to work, too hurried to notice the issue until it was Too Late. Once at work, I sat down at my desk and noticed that I felt flabby. I looked down and realized that my thighs were not exactly being advantageously covered. Oh, yes, I had found my "fat jeans," but a little to late to save myself from them.

Now, when a woman says she's wearing her "fat jeans," it doesn't necessarily mean that she is fat, it only means that the jeans themselves have the amazing power of making her feel fat. My jeans did a fantastic job of that. Which leads me to wonder: do other women discover their FJs after having worn them or is it an instinctual thing? Do they feel the power of the jeans once they pull them from the depths of their clean laundry pile, or do they wear them one day only to discover the true horror that the FJs could invoke? One thing is for sure: I now have a pair of jeans to wear in case of an emergency, like I am the last person on earth and there are no sheep close enough to shear in order to wool, card, and knit a decent pair of sweats.

If I Had a Quarter. . .

for every time someone told me something should not hurt, there would be a lot of people with black eyes. Okay, so the saying might not work with the changes I've made, but still. Yelling at me because a Nerf ball is foam, and foam doesn't hurt does not change the fact that getting smacked as hard as someone can possibly bat the ball at me in a very sensitive place hurts.

It doesn't change the fact that even though it's just water, and water doesn't hurt, when water is shooting full speed out of an outdoor hose into a gaping wound that will not stop bleeding hurts.

It doesn't change the fact that slamming my knee in a funny place shouldn't hurt that bad, even though it obviously does hurt that bad.

So, do yourself a favor. Stop trying to make me feel like a wussy idiot, or listen to me tell you that it's just a black eye, so it doesn't hurt that bad.

My Sister, the Beauty Product Queen

Anytime I come up to my hometown, I stay at my 'rents house, and I get the chance to try all of my sister's beauty products without the hell of actually having to buy them myself, only to discover that they are not as good as they promise.

Last night, before hitting my not-so-comfortable bed, I used my sister's toothpaste, her face wash, and her night cream. The toothpaste is specially made to whiten your teeth, and when I squeezed it onto my toothbrush I had to double check that it was, in fact, toothpaste, because it had the color and consistency of a face mask. When I began to scrub my teeth, I had to re-check the tube AGAIN to really make sure it was toothpaste because it had the taste of a face mask, too. Blech.

The face wash was made to make you up in the morning, with a zesty scent of lemons and some sort of herb, and little round beads that exfoliated. It wasn't life changing, but it did the job really well, clearing up my skin overnight. Afterward, I began to dig in her cabinets to see what other products I could play with. I found night creme. When I think of night creme, I think of old ladies' trying desperately to stem the tide of aging, but it said it would moisturize, smooth, and soften my skin, so I figured why not?

When I smeared little dabs on my cheeks, chin, nose, and forehead and began to massage it in, I was again reminded of old ladies because it smelled like old lady powder. Was it talcum? Was it oldness? Who could say? I sucked it up and finished letting it soak in, then, done with trying to make my face as pretty as it can naturally be without the additive of make-up, I went to bed.

In the morning, my skin was clearer, and my normally ruddy complexion was more evenly toned. My face was baby soft, too. Looking and feeling touchable, all for the low, low price of absolutely nothing. Yay me.

The End

I finally plucked up enough money to let myself buy the new Penny Arcade game, On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One. This game, with it's RPG-style, is usually not my bag of cats, but I decided to give it a whirl because I enjoy Penny Arcade's blog/ web comic, and I've seen nothing but pretty good reviews for it. Instantly I loved the feel of it, the narrators dark and dramatic voice, the comic-esque graphics and cut-scenes, and the ever-present ironic and goofy Penny Arcade humor.
The game starts off with your character's creation, and goes from there, incorporating a giant robot, the two Penny Arcade guys (Tycho and Gabe, for those who aren't familiar with PA), lots of stuff to smash, mimes, clowns, and hobos, among other things. You must complete a series of objectives in order to progress through the game, and should you need hints you are given the option of looking through your case book. By-standers, I discovered, are also good at keeping you going in the right direction. You have a cast of friends that help you in your time of need, including an awesome bright pink robot, which I LOVED. Oh, and a cat, which endeared me to the game as well, although his super secret power had me in fits of giggles, though it was generally not so useful.
I bought and downloaded the game from a reliable gaming source that decided my debit/credit card was A-OK with them (Greenhouse denied me!), and began playing immediately, just to get an overall feel for it. Bad Idea. I immediately became addicted, and played for three hours straight, before my lower back couldn't take it anymore and other duties called. Later today, I came home from work and played for another two, before taking a much needed nap, and then I traveled up to my hometown and played for another three hours resulting in my Pwnage of the game. Yes, eight hours of playing and now my gaming is done.
All I really want to add: they better come out with Episode Two, ASAP.

Putting the "Girl" in GeekGirl

I recently went on a bit of an Internet shopping spree (is there any other for a GeekGirl?), the sales and clearance section of the Victoria's Secret website. I found the cutest pairs of pants ever: twill and trousers and sexy, skinny jeans, oh my! I wanted desperately to find a few good shirts, but all of them are decidedly meant to stay inside the pages of a supermodel magazine, and not on, oh say. . .me. *sigh* Seriously, who, outside of Hollywood stars, wears a shirt (labeled under "tees") that plunges down to your navel?

Their shoes didn't really warrant more than a quick peak, but I managed to find a tankini that I feel in love with: a dark khaki color with lime trimming. Teh cute! I ordered it with extra length since my torso is long and I need one that doesn't hitch over my navel. All in all I bought 4 Victoria Secret items and managed to save over a hundred dollars. Am I an awesome shopper, or what?

One of These Days

Nothing much of interest has happened of late, except for maybe the long awaited release of the Penny Arcade game, "On the Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness." I know I'm a little late on mentioning it, since it's been out for over a month now, but I haven't gotten around to actually buying it yet. When I do, my dear readers will be the first to know . . . well, my opinion anyway.

Since that's really all the geek news I can muster at this point, I thought this could be another blog wherein my readers can get to know me a little bit better. Little known fact about Geekgirl: I have always wanted a koi pond. Not only are they a beautiful fish, and having a beautiful pond a tranquil way to calm my hectic mind, but the symbology behind them also interests me.

The Japanese attribute different symbological meanings to many things, including animals. One of the ways koi are viewed is knowing that they are strong swimmers and like to stir up the waters, in this way symbolizing non-conformity. But that's not what really captures my interest when it comes to these little fishies. Another symbological meaning attributed to the koi is strength in adversity; koi are known to swim against the current.

Another well -known symbol the koi represents is Luck. And I could always use a little Luck!

A Great Big Geeky Heart

In my bid to find some good entertainment, I recently visited Hulu, a site that allows you to watch certain TV shows and movies for free. I watched the first episode in season 2 of Burn Notice, a great show if you're into cute spies and their bad awesome friends. I then decided to try a go at Bionic Woman, definitely a geek venture. The show did not fail my expectations, so I finished off the first (and only) season available (for now).

Then, out of TV shows to keep my attention, I decided to take a trip down SciFi Lane. Destination Truth is on its second season on SciFi, but I never really gave it a proper watch. I have to say, my interest is peaked. Again, I re-iterate that paranormal goings-on were given proper discussion room in my household alongside Politics and Fashion, so to me a show that seeks to investigate tellings of monsters and other things that go bump in the night isn't so out there. And its darn interesting to see their findings when they use tech instead of mumbo jumbo to investigate. Currently I'm viewing a show where they're chasing a Vietnamese sea monster about Ha Noi Bay. Their tech is detecting giant masses of movement under the water, and one of their investigators is witnessing some crazy splashing going on - they're trying to draw it out into the open- and all I find myself thinking is - that poor thing must be so freaked out by all these people!

Making History

In my previous post, I mentioned the books I bought on a recent shopping trip. I started the first one from that grab bag of goodies today, and I am going to have to say something unprecedented, not only about the book, but just in general. My sister was right.

Queen of Babble in the Big City, by Meg Cabot, is already annoying me, and I've only gotten through the first chapter. She talks. A lot. In fact, she blabs on about worth-less things that I'd really rather not have to read about. And she does it in a manner that makes her sound like she is still in the sixth grade. I've noticed a trend among Meg Cabot's characters, and that is that they are all the same. They have the same cadence when they speak; the same sense of humor; the same attitude. It's like she's using the same character in every book and is just applying different names.

Usually, I'm inclined to give a book a chance, but I think I'll lay this one aside and pick another. The Queen of Babble will just have to wait for a day when I have nothing better to read.

Weekends, Weekends . . .

My sister came down this past Saturday to hang out and shop with me, which was a lot of fun. I hardly ever get a chance to be really girly unless I'm with her, and I'm usually not in the mood to be girly unless I'm with her. Lol. Funny how that works out . . . We hit the mall first, stopping off at several clothing stores. I was looking for shirts and pants appropriate for working in, but still cute enough to wear whenever, and my sister was looking for beauty products and such. I'm big on trying to hit only sales racks, but that doesn't mean I'll settle for crap, so it's hard to find exactly what I want sometimes. In the end, I walked out with two t-shirts and an ADORABLE wallet that I did not need, but bought because . . . well, it was adorable. It was just fun in general to be shopping, even if I didn't buy a lot. We went to a few shoe stores, and one of them even had my favorite brand name, SUGAR, which makes adorable shoes, but I wasn't up for buying them because none of them really grabbed me. : (

Afterward, we went to my favorite store on the planet: Barnes and Noble. Of course, I immediately left my sister's side to peruse the aisles. At one point, I think I told her to go do something else besides following me. : P I bought four books: When Demons Walk, by Patricia Briggs; The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova; Night Shift, by Lilith Saintcrow; and Queen of Babble in the Big City, by Meg Cabot, which is a favorite author of both me and my sister. All in all I was very proud of myself, because I didn't spend more than the budget I had set for myself.

We then went to my aunt's house to visit my cousin Sara, since my sister hasn't seen her in forever. We went out to eat and acted crazy and cracked other up. Then we went back to my aunt's place and took some pictures, after which, I got bored and watched TV while they played on MySpace and messed around with make-up and such. I might be in a girly mood, but I am not a big fan of make-up. And I'm not the kind of person that can play on MySpace for hours. I have to have something else to do, or I go nuts. So, I watched Just Friends. At one point I started to get really grumpy and worried because it was getting so late and my sister still had the hour and a half drive to go before making it back home.

When she finally dropped me back off at my house, I told her to call me as soon as she made it home, otherwise I would call her. I was determined to stay awake until that call, so I read a book, and even though I was getting so sleepy my eyes were going blurry, I just shut one and read with the other, clearer one, until my sister called at 1 in the morning to say that she had made. Phew. I fell asleep soon after.

Try to Be a Little Mature

The Discovery Channel is always on at my house, usually for sound background, but also because I like a lot of their shows. Dirty Jobs, Myth Busters, and any specials they have usually keeps my interest. Sundays are a BIG day on Discovery Channel, though, because they have many different specials and documentaries, which I, in my geek-state, find fascinating. Today as part of their extravaganza, they had the "Mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle."

This is nothing new, to me or for Discovery Channel. They usually do something on UFOs and other paranormal stuff often, and I grew up in a household where paranormal things were considered real and significant. On this Bermuda Triangle documentary, they were discussing possible reasons why ships may go down in the Triangle area. They hypothesized about methane gas, and even did several experiments and showed some examples caught on tape, in which methane build up caused the sinking and/or total annihilation of ships. This was an interesting hypothesis; I hadn't heard it before, so it was something new for me to mull over and consider. But I could not help the urge to laugh every time they would say something along the lines of "the methane build up would release a giant bubble that rose to the surface and burst. . . "

To me, it was comical, first the word bubble itself, and second the idea that a "giant bubble" could destroy huge ships. I'm sure it could happen, but every time they would reiterate the "Giant Bubble" theory, I would giggle a little. Because I am a dork, on top of being a geek.

Party Like a Rockstar?

Last night, I went out to a club for a co-worker's birthday party. Originally, I wasn't planning on it, but another co-worker insisted that I should go, because she wouldn't know anyone and she didn't want to hang out alone. So, I grit my teeth, and went.

I hitched a ride with my aunt, which I knew was a bad idea in the first place, since I would stay out later, and could only really leave when she did, but the way things turned out, it was the simplest solution. I met her at work, and pitched in for my co-worker's gift, and then we jumped in her car to pick up her friend Josh. We were 30 minutes later than we said we would arrive because Josh had to do his hair. Yes, you heard it right, Josh spent 30 minutes doing his hair! I jumped out of the shower, brushed mine with a comb, and let it figure itself out. I think I must be blessed, because sometimes I end up with cute waves when I do it this way.
While we waited for Josh, I told my aunt that

1. I don't like big crowds.

and 2. I don't like being touched, or having someone in my personal space.

We got there, and things were going not so bad. I was introduced to my co-worker's brother and his girlfriend, and my aunt managed to stay around me for the first 30 minutes or so, before going off and doing her own thing. My co-worker's brother's girlfriend and I really seemed to get along, and we chatted for awhile, eating the cake and laughing. She told me that she thought I was so little and adorable, and that my bangs were really cute, and I told her that she was really sweet. (I did tell her that she was pretty, but then I worried that she might think me gay, so I just let her know that she was sweet after that. In my defense, she was pretty, with stick straight hair that my sister would admire and a cute outfit to boot.)

After that, things started to go a little downhill. My other co-worker arrived, but with a friend, so we didn't really hang out together. The music wasn't bad, although it was so loud you had to shout to be heard, and even then I didn't know if I was being heard because I couldn't even hear myself. I went home with a sore throat. One of my aunt's friend's got a lot drunk, and thought it was funny to poke me after I told my aunt to stop poking me when she spoke. I then had to tell her drunk friend to please stop touching me, and amazingly my aunt stood up for me. Sort of. She said I was weird about people touching me. Her friend didn't take the hint. It was a good thing she was a she, or I really would have been mad. Of course, I kept wondering if she was a lesbian, so I'm not sure how much her gender really helped her in the long run.

I danced a little, but only around my table, and only with my aunt. At one point, I told my aunt's boyfriend that I was going to sit outside. Being in such a huge crowd, with so many people so close, was starting to make me feel a little sick, not to mention the uber-loud music and the ever constant mist of cigarette smoke that seemed to waft in my direction no matter where the smoker was. Aside from the fact that I don't smoke, I also do not drink, but no one really seemed to give me a hard time about it, which was a blessing.

All in all, I realize that going was a Bad Idea. Next time, my co-worker(s) are just going to have to be happy with the general "Happy Birthday" I manage to grant them.

P.S. That cat up there? Yeah, he's feeling as annoyed as I was.