Yvette's Inner Geek Blog

I have been unable to finish a blog entry lately, which is horrible considering the amount of crap that I’ve wanted to share. So, in the meantime, I hope you enjoy today’s xkcd.com comic that made me swell with enjoyment. The last panel made my day. (Perfect weather this morning also helped, but my semi-worthless evening definitely got a boost from another viewing of this comic.)

Oh, and if you’re not already an fan of xkcd, a “webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language,” you should seriously consider it. It’s one of the only comics that makes me love it a little more when I don’t always get the joke—because I know that other people wouldn’t necessarily get the ones that I do.

This extraordinarily clever “Crisis of Credit Visualized” video summarizes in only 11 minutes why our economy is currently in the shitter. I give it an AAA rating for the animation, subtle humor, and overall educational content. It lends itself* to being shared.

It was created by Jonathan Jarvis, an interaction and media designer who is “exploring the use of new media to make sense of a increasingly complex world.” It looks like he’s succeeding.

*HAR HAR HAR, I feel so punny!

March 4, 2009

Originally uploaded by innergeek

It was sunny and in the 60s yesterday, so I was surprised to see 2 inches of snow on the ground this morning. It’s slowly melting, but as of noon, most of the backyard is still covered in snow.

(I’m also posting this to test how Flickr’s “blog this” feature works on my blog.)

Isis is doing wonderfully.

It’s been 5 weeks now since I took her to another vet for a second opinion of her inexplicably failing health. He put the “food allergy” idea into my head, and that’s exactly what it was—though the “hypoallergenic” Hill’s Prescription Diet z/d cat food he recommended didn’t help. (You can find the full and lengthy story on my previous Obligate Carnivore post.)

I started researching feline food allergies on January 29 after coming home from the vet. She refused to eat the z/d food at first, but the vet sent me home with four of those $2.29 cans and I was not going to give in that easily.  I mixed them into the only food she would eat, and though she made it clear that she wasn’t thrilled with the new food, she transitioned in a couple of days. There was a slight improvement in her, um, deposits, but definitely not enough to convince us that it was the best treatment for her (especially considering the food’s price tag).

Meanwhile, I purchased a whole chicken from the grocery store and dusted off the meat grinder attachment for my (favorite!) KitchenAid stand mixer.

The idea of putting raw chicken into the pitifully unhealthy digestive tract of my little kitty made me tremble Read more…

Happy Square Root Day! Even Scientific American is talking about it! This holiday comes only 9 times a century (and 9 is my favorite number), so please do something to celebrate.

For example, choose to eat square foods—preferably made from some sort of root. You could cut a potato into a cube, then cut it into 15 slices and fry them up. Eat the slices in groups of 3, 3, and 9. If you don’t have any square and/or root foods available, just try to eat or drink in groups of 3 and 9.

Or watch the trailer for the upcoming Tim Burton Movie, 9, and send it to 3 friends with the instructions that they should each send it to 3 friends. (But that’s it, okay? It’s a mathematical celebration, not a chain meme.)

It’s also a great day to learn shortcuts for typing the square root symbol (√)!

Mac OSX: option + v

Windows: alt + 0251

Number code: √

Character code: 221A

If you choose to celebrate Square Root Day, please leave a comment to share what you did!

In related news, I would like to publicly apologize for disappointing my friend John on Febrary 13. I neglected to blog about 1234567890 Day. Perhaps this little factoid will help with my redemption: I cherish the memory of my mixed 4th/5th grade class pausing to celebrate sequential numbers at 1:23:45pm on 6/7/89.

March of ’09 is pretty special because it’s the only month in each century wherein one may celebrate both Square Root Day and Pi Day (3/14). It’s also my dad’s birthday!

Dad is a scientist and fairly geeky in his own right, so I happily explained to him over the phone what a special day it was to have a birthday. He told me to have fun with whatever fumes I was huffing. Happy Birthday, you crotchety ol’ smartass! Love you!