Over the last few months I’ve gotten into webcomics. There are around fifteen or so in my bookmarks folder and about a third of them are geek related. One of them is the ever-so-fabulous xkcd, which has numerous awesome strips. But this is one of my favorites:
I mean, it’s brilliant. And certainly something I wish I’d thought of. Well, it turns out that a number of xkcd fans were inspired to try it. The first one is my favorite.
(Tip o’ the hat to Wil.)
Yesterday I received a couple of presents in the interoffice mail at work (excuse the poor picture quality – my cell phone camera isn’t as good as it used to be…):
I bet you can guess what that means. As of August 6th, I will be an honest-to-goodness JPL employee. Yea!
Y’all know how much I think this place rocks, so I’m sure you realize how very happy this makes me. It is the epitome of cool.
Excuse my Happy Happy Joy Joy Dance…
Also slipped from Kymm’s blog:
Instructions: Put “I’ve seen ____ of these 168 movies” in the subject line, mark the ones you’ve seen, and repost. If you’ve seen over 85 movies, you have no life. There are 168 movies on this list
(x) Rocky Horror Picture Show
(x) Grease
(x) Pirates of the Caribbean
( ) Boondock Saints
( ) Fight Club
( ) Starsky and Hutch
(x) Neverending Story
( ) Blazing Saddles
(x) Airplane
( ) Braveheart
Total: 5
(x) The Princess Bride
(x) Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
(x) Napoleon Dynamite
(x) Labyrinth
( ) Saw
( ) Saw II
( ) White Noise
( ) White Oleander
(x) Anger Management
( ) 50 First Dates
( ) The Princess Diaries
( ) The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
Total: 5
(x) Scream
(x) Scream 2
( ) Scream 3
( ) Scary Movie
( ) Scary Movie 2
( ) Scary Movie 3
( ) Scary Movie 4
(x) American Pie
(x) American Pie 2
(x) American Wedding
( ) American Pie Band Camp
Total: 5
(x) Harry Potter 1
(x) Harry Potter 2
(x) Harry Potter 3
(x) Harry Potter 4
( ) Resident Evil
( ) Resident Evil 2
(x) The Wedding Singer
( ) Little Black Book
( ) The Village
( ) Lilo & Stitch
( ) Finding Nemo
( ) Finding Neverland
(x) Signs
( ) The Grinch
( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre
( ) White Chicks
( ) Butterfly Effect
( ) 13 Going on 30 (Suddenly Thirty)
( ) I, Robot
( ) Robots
Total: 6
(x) Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
( ) Universal Soldier
(x) Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events
( ) Along Came Polly
( ) Deep Impact
( ) KingPin
(x) Never Been Kissed
(x) Meet The Parents
( ) Meet the Fockers
( ) Eight Crazy Nights
(x) Joe Dirt
( ) KING KONG
Total: 5
( ) A Cinderella Story
( ) The Terminal
( ) The Lizzie McGuire Movie
( ) Passport to Paris
( ) Dumb & Dumber
( ) Dumber & Dumberer
( ) Final Destination
( ) Final Destination 2
( ) Final Destination 3
(x) Halloween
( ) The Ring
( ) The Ring 2
( ) Surviving X-MAS
( ) Flubber
Total: 1
( ) Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
( ) Practical Magic
(x) Chicago
( ) Ghost Ship
( ) From Hell
( ) Hellboy
( ) Secret Window
( ) I Am Sam
( ) The Whole Nine Yards
Total: 1
( ) The Day After Tomorrow
( ) Child’s Play
(x) Seed of Chucky
( ) Bride of Chucky
(x) Ten Things I Hate About You
( ) Just Married
( ) Gothika
( ) Nightmare on Elm Street
(x) Sixteen Candles
( ) Remember the Titans
( ) Coach Carter
( ) The Grudge
(x) The Mask
( ) Son Of The Mask
Total: 4
( ) Bad Boys 2
( ) Joy Ride
( ) Lucky Number Slevin
( ) Ocean’s Eleven
( ) Ocean’s Twelve
(x) Identity
( ) Lone Star
(x) Bedazzled
( ) Predator
( ) Predator II
( ) The Fog
( ) Ice Age
( ) Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
( ) Curious George
Total: 2
(x) Independence Day
( ) Cujo
(x) A Bronx Tale
( ) Darkness Falls
( ) Christine
(x) ET
( ) Children of the Corn
( ) My Boss’s Daughter
( ) Maid in Manhattan
( ) Frailty
( ) War of the Worlds
( ) Rush Hour
( ) Rush Hour 2
Total: 3
( ) My Best Friend’s Wedding
( ) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
(x) She’s All That
(x) Calendar Girls
(x) Sideways
(x) Mars Attacks
( ) Event Horizon
( ) Ever After
(x) Wizard of Oz
(x) Forrest Gump
( ) Big Trouble in Little China
( ) The Terminator
( ) The Terminator 2
( ) The Terminator 3
Total: 6
(x) X-Men
(x) X2
(x) X-Men 3
(x) Spider-Man
(x) Spider-Man 2
( ) Sky High
( ) Jeepers Creepers
( ) Jeepers Creepers 2
(x) Catch Me If You Can
( ) The Others
( ) Freaky Friday
( ) Reign of Fire
( ) The Skulls
(x) Cruel Intentions
( ) Cruel Intentions 2
( ) The Hot Chick
( ) Shrek
( ) Shrek 2
Total: 7
( ) Swimfan
( ) Miracle
(x) Old School
( ) The Notebook
(x) K-Pax
( ) Krippendorf’s Tribe
( ) A Walk to Remember
( ) Ice Castles
( ) Boogeyman
(x) The 40-year-old-virgin
Total: 3
Wow, almost 1/3 of the list. And some folks think I never see any movies!
Gently taken from Kymm:
You are the good Samaritan of the lolcat world. Protecting others from danger by shouting observations and guidance in cases of imminent threat, you believe in the well-being of everyone.
| Link: The Which Lolcat Are You? Test written by GumOtaku on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test |
Like way too many people, I have gotten caught up in the whole LOLcat phenomenon. I tend not to create them, as my brain doesn’t wrap itself around bad grammar and excruciating mis-spellings very easily. But I find many of them cute, if not out and out hilarious.
But then…
I found LOLtheorists.
Made of complete and total fucking awesome.
I’ll be honest. I don’t know a lot of these theorists. Sometimes I’ll look at the picture and say “Huh?” Then I’ll look at the name in the tags and everything will click into place. And sometimes the names mean nothing and I have to look them up. I still love them wayyyy too much.
Then again, there are times when the theorist is just too pretty to be a theorist. Especially of the physics variety.
 |
You scored as Babylon 5 (Babylon 5), The universe is erupting into war and your government picks the wrong side. How much worse could things get? It doesn’t matter, because no matter what you have your friends and you’ll do the right thing. In the end that will be all that matters. Now if only the Psi Cops would leave you alone.
Which sci-fi crew would you best fit in with? (pics) |
I suppose I should watch Babylon 5 sometime, huh?
| What corset are you? |
 You’re a 50’s corset. You’ll poke someone’s eye out with those babies. Take this quiz! 
| Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code |
I’ve heard that before…
(Quizzes yanked from Pooks.)
We’re still hanging in there. It’s been a long and exhausting day. We managed to get out of the building and into a HumVee about three hours ago, thanks to HSTeacher. I don’t know how he got it or where he learned to drive one – he’s not inclined to say more than necessary right now, but I’m so ecstatic to see him, for many reasons. Still, it’s the first time I’ve ever been happy to see a Hummer on the streets of Los Angeles. He managed to grab some weapons, too. The man is just incredible. And another first for me: I’m glad that I’ve handled guns in the past. I was never very good, but they just might come in handy.
We’ve made it to a more secure area, about forty-five minutes away. Well, most of us. One of the secretaries was snatched by her former boss as we dashed out the back door. I started towards them, but HSTeacher grabbed me and pulled me stumbling back to the HumVee. The smart thing to do, I know, but it doesn’t make losing our compatriot any easier. So now we’re down to three, plus my honey and his kids. He was able to get them before heading out to find me. He’s not saying how. I get the feeling he’s seen worse things than I have, but now is not the time talk about it.
It’s amazing that we can get a wi-fi signal here, intermittent though it may be. My trusty iBook is proving to be a life saver, possibly in the literal sense.
We’ve fortified the small building we’re in and are all sitting with guns and crowbars and the like. We also have all the food and water I had hoarded before. I think we’ll be okay for a while.
I don’t know what I was thinking. I’d been preparing for this for months, knowing deep down that this day would come. I guess I thought I’d be safe here, amongst those for whom science is a calling. I thought they’d have the resources to beat off the hordes, to keep us safe.
I was wrong.
I should have known the hordes would head here early in the game.
Game? If only. No rules, no time outs. The only game here is winner takes all. I think the hordes are going to be the winners.
Science isn’t helping. Too many tempting big juicy brains around. No doubt succulent to those who feast upon gray matter for sustenance.
And now they’re gone. The guards went first, in the dead (ha!) of night. The hordes took the poor deer to keep them “alive” until morning, when the scientists and engineers started showing up for work. Poor guys never had a chance, never saw them coming until it was too late. 28 Days was right – those suckers move fast. And they’re a lot less brain-dead than I anticipated. Which is why it all happened so fast.
All I know is that, when I showed up for work, bodies were strewn about. There was no way I could head home – I didn’t have the time. So I ran for my building and locked myself inside. I’m not even sure how I made it – the rush of adrenaline blurs all.
And now I crouch here with other administrative assistants, trying to stay calm, or at least appear calm. All the big brained scientists and engineers are gone, either eaten or turned themselves. We hope we’re not next, but there is the unspoken belief hanging in the air – we don’t have much longer. We listen to webcasted news reports, realizing that, in a matter of hours, this horror has spread across the country and, possibly, around the world. We’ve tried to call out, but office lines are down and cell reception is spotty. I don’t know how my honey is doing, because I haven’t been able to get hold of him. I’m horribly worried about him, and all of my loved ones. I don’t know what to do.
I wish I had been stockpiling weapons for the last few months. I didn’t know if I could get away with it, so I didn’t try. But I’ve got a good stockpile of food and water that I’ve been hiding, so the four of us should be fine for a while. As long as we can keep locked up in this building, that is.
Oh G-d, what was that? I hear pounding that wasn’t there before! And now screeching! Oh please, no! I’ve got to go, but I hope that this record makes its way out until the living world. I pray that there still is a living world…
…and it’s soooo pretty! Came all charged up, ready to run, which was good, since I needed it for meetings on Saturday (which is when I picked it up). At the Coordinating Committee meeting I stroked it lovingly, in full view of everyone, and made MusicianMan sputter a laugh as I mouthed, “My preciousss…” The chair of SoCal Grassroots even made mention of my new acquisition, since I opened it and worked on it while at a meeting at his place earlier in the day.
Later that night, while at HSTeacher’s home, I loaded up some nice programs. The next day the two of us sat in his living room, quietly working on our respective laptops (his is a 15″ Apple Titanium PowerBook) much as another couple would read the newspaper on a Sunday morning. The extent of our collective geekiness made me laugh.
Next step in entering the 21st Century: getting high-speed intenet. Then a cell phone with Bluetooth (which may end up being a hand-held).
*sigh*
So there I am, just minding my own business, checking out the JPL site, when a headline flashes across the screen: Mission Could Seek out Spock’s Home Planet:
Astronomers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have recently concluded that the upcoming planet-finding mission, SIM PlanetQuest, would be able to detect an Earth-like planet around the star 40 Eridani, a planet familiar to “Star Trek” fans as “Vulcan.” 40 Eridani, a triple-star system 16 light-years from Earth, includes a red-orange K dwarf star slightly smaller and cooler than our sun. Vulcan is thought to orbit that dwarf star, called 40 Eridani A.
Yeah, the Trek geek and the science groupie in me both perked up their ears at that.
Even cooler? I actually know people who are working on SIM.
I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, but working at JPL? Rocks beyond all imagining.
BTW, if y’all are in the L.A. area this weekend, check out JPL’s Open House. I’ve been twice, before my days as a JPL contractor, and it is tons of geeky fun. I highly recommend it. I don’t know if I’ll be there – I’ve broached it to HSTeacher, but we haven’t talked about it yet.
