Yvette's Inner Geek Blog

I wasn’t able to watch the new Muppets Christmas special, Letters to Santa, when it aired last week. Thank the Muppety Gods for hulu.com, which has the streaming video available with limited commericals until the end of the year.

Unfortunately, the special wasn’t as good as I’d hoped. It was more painfully contrived than any other Muppet special I’ve seen and in that way it felt a lot more Disney than Muppet. Still, there were a few cool things in the 44-minute special.

[SPOILERS AHEAD] Read more…

Earlier this week I went to the local post office to mail some letters (haven’t gotten around to Christmas cards yet). There was a small seasonal mailbox inside labeled “Letter’s to Santa.” As I noted in a Twitter update a few days ago, I was happy that someone else had already blacked out the apostrophe because I didn’t have a pen with me.

Improper use of apostrophes makes Santa cry, Post Office employees. Stop making Santa cry.

The crowd wasn’t bad, so I was still in a good mood when I reached the front of the line. The woman behind the counter was friendly and my transaction went smoothly. “Happy Holidays,” I bubbled as I took my receipt and turned to leave. The woman leaned in to me a little before I took off and said in a half whisper, with a little knowing nod, “Merry Christmas.” Then she smiled and called the next person in line.

I walked away a little befuddled. If she had just said, “Merry Christmas” as a normal greeting without the hushed tone or added body language, I would have gone on my merry way without thinking twice.

But she leaned in as if Merry Christmas was our little secret. Perhaps to suggest that I should feel comfortable saying Merry Christmas to her instead of Happy Holidays. Perhaps assuming I’d wanted to say Merry Christmas in the first place.

But I didn’t. I wanted to say Happy Holidays—which includes both Christmas and the New Year for most people, yet doesn’t assume that the recipient celebrates either. It could mean Hannukah or the Winter Solstice or an end-of-year holiday from work or school. It’s typically said with warmth and good intentions, just like Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and Happy Birthday are.

I occasionally say Merry Christmas to people with the same warmth that I say Happy Holidays, and I’m certainly not offended if someone wishes me a Merry Christmas (or Happy Hannukah or Kwanzaa or Chinese New Year or whatever).

Something just rubbed me the wrong way about how the post office employee made me feel like my parting words should have been Merry Christmas instead of Happy Holidays.

I went to the post office again today, but only to drop off Christmas packages to which I’d already affixed shipping labels. Nobody had a chance to say Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays to me. I did note, however, that the same “Letter’s to Santa” sign with the blacked out apostrophe was still there. Bah Humbug to that.

I’ve been sitting on this comment for a while, not quite sure what to do with it.

Sorry, but to me you just sound like an normal wife and all out action girl. Which is not a bad thing, honest, its cool, but I would hardly call it geekdom! To me, geekdom (true geekdom) is hating beinge away from the computer (remeber your Laptop is your only true friend,) never going on holiday unless you absolutely HAVE to. Living on your own and NEVER socialising. And being self contained in your own little world. Which describes me, perfectly!! I do love you blog, and have read loads of it, but being married, leaving the house to have your hair done, and especially socialising (YUK!) is hardly geekdom in my eyes!! Sorry if I offend!!

I did take offense at first, because this guy questioned my geekiness based on his own idea of its meaning. And then I realized that he clearly has Asperger’s Syndrome or some form of social phobia, and I felt kind of sorry for him. His definition of “true geekdom” encompasses the definition of Asperger’s and with that comes a lack of social awareness. Sure, lots of geeks may have Asperger’s, and certainly that’s the sterotype among non-geeks. But there are many, many people who are very geeky and very social.

When it comes right down to it, few people agree on the exact definition of a geek. That’s part of the wonderful journey I’ve traveled for almost ten years… figuring out what makes a geek a geek and encouraging people to embrace their geekiness no matter how big or small.

I don’t think that being married or getting my hair cut affects how much of a geek I am. There’s lots of geek love out there, and everybody gets a haircut at some point in their lives. If you read the actual post on which he left this comment, you’ll see that the the mention of getting my hair cut was directly related to my new geeky business card that I was really proud of.

The label of “all-out action girl” is flattering, I suppose. I’m guessing this came from my previous posts about all the action I reported from Comic-Con. You know, the ones where I was gushing about Wil Wheaton, Futurama, and Battlestar Galactica? I can see how there’s nothing truly geeky about any of that. (Whoops, let a little sarcasm slip out.)

I considered writing a cranky response because I don’t think that the commenter had solid grounds for his judgment. But I’m sure that there are plenty of other people who will read this blog and agree with the commenter that I’m not a “true geek” because I don’t include technical specs in every post. Their idea of a geek is different than mine, which is okay.

But keep in mind that this is my personal blog. Right at the top of my blog (unless you’re viewing it in an RSS reader) you can see how I call it out: Geeky topics and my life as a Geek Girl. “My life” includes my cats, my routines, and lots of other stuff that is not geeky at all. But it all makes me part of who I am, so if you enjoy my blog, then read it for whatever reason(s) you enjoy it.

Just don’t call me a normal wife, m’kay? My husband doesn’t, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

With the holiday season in full gear, I’ve been busy making side dishes for potlucks and sugary, calorie-laden goodies for friends and neighbors (though sometimes my procrastination causes me to present a decorative bag of red and green M&Ms and “cleverly” declare that they’re homemade, ha ha, let’s concentrate on how clever I am and not how lazy I am, okay?).

Cool-weather potlucks are easy because I fulfill my duty as a Midwesterner to make green bean casserole. Throw some green beans, cream of mushroom soup, milk, and some French’s fried onions together and heat until bubbly. Best served with loud discussion, poultry, and wine. And an extra can of those fried onions because who can eat just one (can)?

My new favorite sugary treat is also easy to make, but a little hard to share: Cranberry-Almond Ghirardelli Brownies. Mostly from a box.

My family never really baked from scratch, so I didn’t start out with a box full of secret family cookie and cake recipes. I started out with a box of Betty Crocker brownie mix.

I’m not a huge chocolate eater—something related to an overdose of fundraiser chocolate bars when I was eight— but having a box of brownies on hand for chocolate emergencies is standard protocol. So when I found a big 4-pack of Ghirardelli brownie mix at Sam’s Club, I decided to give the fancy mix a try. With the standard recipe, they’re really good. But if you add almonds and cranberries, they are AMAZING brownies.* And I don’t even really like cranberries.**

Would you like the recipe? I’ll walk you through step by step with some commentary (because I’m feeling clever). Let’s start with the ingredients. Read more…

did you ever see a llama
kiss a llama
on the llama

You can blame my friend Jenny for my conveyance of this video with a catchy little tune. You can even view and listen to it on a neverending loop here.

I hate to admit it, but I CANNOT get enough of that song. I may have listened to the loop for a little too long… but it just melts my brain into goo and makes me stupid and happy.

Given that this is typically the kind of email I receive,

HI I WANT TO BE THE GREAT GEEK OF WORLD ,WILL YOU HELP ME OUT ?

–
ASHISH KUMAR RANJAN
IT,NIT PATNA

I really appreciate the people who take the time to email me with praise, constructive criticism, their personal geek stories and geek test suggestions, and serious questions about a range of topics. I recently received an email with questions regarding the making of one’s own Christmas lights and don’t really know what resources to suggest. If there’s anyone out there who can help out Celia, please leave a comment. I’d appreciate it!

Yvette,

Your web site is delightful; a bright beacon of geeky goodwill.

I just spent way too much time cruising Craig’s List looking for a local electronics shop and/or resources.  What I found instead was some surprisingly mean-spirited bickering (reminiscent of some of the troglodyte emails you posted on your web site – your responses were hilarious, by the way).  I feel the need to embrace more of my inner geekiness through playing with LEDs (I’m not, however, ready to enlist in the Navy to study electronics, as suggested by several helpful individuals on Craig’s List).  I want to learn how to safely make my own christmas lights, basically.  Can you suggest any links or other resources?  I’ve got “Electronics for Dummies” but I’m not ready to build a robot, just make some cool bling for my living room.  I couldn’t find a links page on your web site (was I imagining that there used to be one a few months ago?)

Thank you for offering such playful, welcoming energy to the countless geeks out there who may not realize how desperately they need it (myself included)!

Celia

I consulted my husband on this matter while he was busy playing with wires and electricity and power tools upstairs. He said there’s a booklet series he’s seen at Radio Shack called “Electronics Handbook” that looked as though they were written on graph paper and featured small circuits that might be useful if you’re looking for timing circuits or driving LEDs. So that might be a place to start.

If you want to purchase LEDs in bulk, there are lots of websites out there like Mouser Electronics where you can find those. However, if you just want to create strands of LEDs like the ones that you can find at the store… it will be much cheaper and easier to purchase them at the store.

Hope that helps, and if any other readers have comments I hope you’ll post them here for Celia to see. Thanks!

I was so excited about being NaBloPoMo’s Blog of the Week that I managed to skip a day of blog posting yesterday. Whoops.

But the house finally has some lights up in electric holiday fashion, and the tree is also up in the living room. Ben wants to add some more lights before we put on the ornaments… but it’s very pretty even without ornaments, as it turns out. Usually we start decorating the tree as soon as it’s up so we rarely leave it partially naked like it is now.

Yesterday we took in our friends’ three girls so that their parents could get some Christmas shopping and wrapping done without them around. We probably fed them too much sugar, but we had a lot of fun playing the Wii and watching one of my favorite Christmas specials that they’d never seen: A Muppet Family Christmas.

The only copy I have is a VHS tape that I bought in college because my taped-from-TV version had worn out… but unfortunately the “flashback” scene of the Muppet Babies singing “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” is edited out because of licensing issues. Bummer. And now that Disney owns the Muppets, the chances of seeing them on DVD together with the Fraggles (still owned by Jim Henson Company) and the Sesame Street Muppets (now owned by the Sesame Workshop) are pretty slim.

The girls have grown up watching the Fraggles on tape and, more recently, DVD, so they were really pumped about seeing some new Fraggle material. (Um, unless the fact that it was actually made 21 years ago disqualifies it as new.)

They were extremely disappointed that there wasn’t more Fraggle interaction and that they weren’t discovered by any Muppets except Kermit and Robin. They also thought that the Christmas Carol medley at the end went on a little too long. But they loved the rest of it, and the oldest (who is 13) recognized Jim Henson’s cameo at the end. That made me happy.

I’m starting to feel more comfortable with my shiny new MacBook Pro, though there are still plenty of awkward moments as I transition my programs and data and occasionally realize that I have to adjust my rote expectations of how a computer works.

Here are some of the things that I’m noticing and find different/wonderful/frustrating, etc.

• I miss the standard PC laptop touch-click… I can press down anywhere on this new trackpad, which is nice, but it’s a little more resistant than I’d like. Maybe it will loosen up a little with time?
• The keyboard feels wonderful. The only thing I don’t like about it so far is that the space bar seems really loud, especially in comparison to the rest of the keys.
• I miss some of the keys that come on a standard PC keyboard, such as having both Backspace and Delete. The Mac has a Delete button that functions in the backspace manner… though Stephanie left a comment with the helpful info that if you press fn+delete on a Mac, it will delete the letters in front of the cursor. Hooray! It will take some time before it becomes an automatic keystroke for me, though.
• The muscle memory that I developed for PC shortcuts to copy, paste, undo, etc., is very strong. Though the letters are (mostly) the same for the shortcuts, I find it awkward to use the Mac’s “command” key instead of Ctrl. Ctrl is always the bottom left key on a PC keyboard and is in the perfect position for my pinky finger. The two command keys are located on either side of the space bar… maybe in time it will feel right to use my right thumb. But it’s really awkward right now. (Using the left thumb is out. It goes against my personal standard of ergonomics.)
• Still figuring out when to use the Command key, Option key, and Control key with each hotkey I’m used to or new to. In my WordPress window where I’m composing this entry, I press ctrl+i for italics. But in OpenOffice, I need to press command+i.
• I don’t like that special characters, as seen on the incredibly awesome reference Blambot chart of International Characters, seem require a lot more conscious effort to create with hotkeys. On my PC, I just hold down the alt key and type the corresponding 4-digit number. I have a crapload of them memorized. Comparatively, the combinations required on a Mac are akin to the British monetary system before decimalization. Again, with time, I’m sure that I’ll memorize the hotkeys I use most.
• I visited a long web page and was bemoaning the lack of Page Up and Page Down buttons on my keyboard here. Then I remembered that I can use a 2-fingered swipe on my trackpad to scroll quickly. That works much smoother than paging up or down ever did!
• I’m adjusting to the way that files are downloaded and installed. It’s pretty streamlined so far, but there’s still a small learning curve to that streamlined method.
• The internet is moving at lightning speed—wirelessly.
• I’m mad at every little spot of fingerprint grease that sticks to the keys or pretty glossy screen.
• I’ve been using a keyboard with a number pad on the right. I use it a lot, so unless I want to get one of those USB number pad attachments, it looks like I’ll just have to get used to the standard numbers.
• The battery life on this thing is stupendous. There’s a little indicaor at the top that estimates the amount of time I have left… on a full charge it’s well over 4 hours. The old Dell laptop I have requires A/C power if I intend to use it for more than a half hour.
• I miss my fonts. Sure, I only used a tiny percentage of what I’d collected over the years, but all those Windows .ttf files are dead to me now. I had a few .otf files that made the transition, but not many. I’m sure I’ll build up my collection again over time.
• OS X Graphics. YUM.

Have you made a PC to Mac transition lately? What have been your biggest headaches?

Experienced Mac users: When you’re forced to use Windows, what is your biggest headache?

My recent daily blogging is caused in part by National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo). It’s an alternative to National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) in that instead of attempting to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days, it encourages participants to post at least one blog entry each day of the month in November—or in any other month of the year.

I halfheartedly added my name to their blogroll for November, but I started late and didn’t follow through. Well, I started off December with a bang and I intend to keep up the daily blogging routine. It’s good for me, it’s good for you (assuming that you enjoy what I write), and now that I’m telling you about it, it’s good for NaBloPoMo.

Today’s happy surprise for me was to realize that my blog, this very one that you are reading, has been named NaBloPoMo’s Blog of the Week on their home page. I don’t know exactly what the requirements were for this honor to be bestowed on me, but I’m flattered and all giggly about it.

And because the monthly theme is THANKS, I feel that it’s appropriate to thank the person/people responsible for this honor. Thank you, NaBloPoMo!

Here’s my profile if you’re signed up and want to be my NaBloPoMo friend. Now that I’m all popular, etc.

I have a profile on NaNoWriMo, too, but after four years of participation that resulted in failure, I’m not sure that I’ll attempt it again. But who knows what will happen for me in 2009. Maybe I’ll get some other stuff published and fell up to the challenge again.

My late birthday present and early Christmas present arrived a day early today! It was supposed to arrive tomorrow, and I almost didn’t get it today because I wasn’t home when UPS attempted delivery. Shortly after I returned home, though, I received a personal phone call from my UPS driver. (We’re on a first name basis because, well, I generally hate shopping in-person. It was a little weird to get a personal phone call, but whatever.) He suggested that I go to the local UPS store at 5:30, his scheduled stop, and sign for it there–which is exactly what happened.

Ben and I got home about the same time and celebrated together. I affixed a permasmile on my face and he celebrated by taking photos, laughing at my excitement, and making tacos while I oooohed and aaaaaahed and started to set things up. I somehow managed to tear myself away long enough to eat dinner. 

And now, after all the updates have been installed and the battery is fully charged, I’m still setting things up and getting used to the new OS. Some things are beautiful and wonderful, but some things are still very awkward. (I already miss the Delete button that erases letters in front of the cursor–didn’t realize how much I toggle between the PC’s Backspace and Delete.)

I’m connected to our home server, so I have delightfully convenient access to all of our MP3s and photos and other shared files on our database. I’m going to take my time transferring files from my PC so that they’re in a more streamlined organization here on my MacBook.

My MacBook. Hee hee!

Of course I still had to do the crude partial desaturation of that photo with Photoshop on my PC… the teensy bit I’ve played with iPhoto made it crystal clear that I need/want Photoshop or at least GIMP.