Yvette's Inner Geek Blog

Virgin Galactic announced the completion of the first “captive carry” of their future commercial spaceship, the VSS Enterprise. Hello, Star Trek, with bonus keywords like “mothership” and “spaceship.” They even posted a nice under-3 minute video of the event:

However. Today’s “NewsPulse” on CNN.com showed that the story of Joe Biden’s smooth “This is a big fucking deal” on-mic remark to our president was waaaaay more popular than the little news blip about, oh, I don’t know, THE FIRST TEST FLIGHT OF THE FIRST COMMERCIAL SPACECRAFT, which was a story on the Tech section if you were paying attention.

Biden’s F-bomb was apparently such a big fucking deal that it was even listed twice in the Top 5 most popular stories. WTF. Why don’t people understand that commercial space travel has the potential to change our lives so much more than a VP who accidentally* swears on-mic?

*Conspiracy theorists may feel free to say that Biden intentionally swore to draw attention away from something else. Whatever. SPACE TRAVEL FOR ME SOMEDAY.

Yes, dear Internet, I am still alive. I just turned in my last project of the fall semester. At this time I would like to quote the first line of Neil Gaiman’s blog post from today:

How the hell did it get to be December the 18th? Ohhh. All the links I meant to post. Arghh.

Links, words, pictures, regrets, promises, poetry, brain-fizzling recounts of my days. These and more are on the list of things I should have blogged about during the last couple months. But didn’t. I’m sort of braindead right now, and probably shouldn’t be blogging, but lack of sleep and/or food with nutritional value is affecting my judgment. (Sorry, she says, in a cute little Canadian accent.)

I’m not going to do a 3.5 month hiatus justice in one post, so here’s the Cliff Notes version:

• 19 credit hours at UVU that kicked my butt
• Filled my brain with useful skills in Flash, ActionScript, Flex Builder, Advanced Photoshop, Audacity, how to file a formal complaint with the department head about a horrid class, how to get an A- in a class you almost dropped because you were failing two weeks into it
• Subsequently made my brain squishy by playing stupid Farmville and watching most of seasons 1&2 of Babylon 5 for the first time
• Took up subversive embroidery
• Turned 30
• Watched Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2 for the first time
• Blog broke
• Blog restored with a little miracle (named Ben)
• Freelance work picked up (triple fuckin’ YAY)
• Created 3 different working(-ish) website mockups for innergeek.us that I mostly hate now
• Saw one movie in the theater since August (Zombieland)

There are some good things on the list, like learning SKILLZ and moving closer to finishing a second degree (in Teh Inernets, in case you were wondering). And lots of stuff I feel guilty about doing instead of blogging or generally being a useful human being. I mean, I couldn’t even keep up my Twittering. That’s saying something.

Anyway. If you haven’t already given up on me, thank you. You are the bee’s knees. (WhateverTF that means.) I plan to get my shit together over the next two weeks. I’m not traveling for the holidays unless you count Avoiding The Mall Entirely as I drive out for groceries and such. That’s not even possible, though, because I intend to catch at least one movie in the theater which is unavoidably located by the Mall. Crap. Will re-evaluate this scenario later.

Happy 8th night of Hanukkah to my Jewish friends, and Happy Your-Upcoming-Winter-Holiday-Here to everyone else. I hope to interact with you more now that I’m done with the Fall of 2009 that is suddenly and thankfully over.

After 20 years on the air, The Simpsons will finally get their own United States postage stamps! Our beloved prime time cartoon family will be available to adorn snail mail and/or stamp collections on May 7. There are five different stamps, each featuring the face of a core Simpsons family member.

The USPS definitely understands the minds of collectors. There are several options to purchase The Simpsons stamps online, not all of which are actual stamps.

• Booklet of 20 (4 stamps of each face) with a random cover
• 4 Booklets of 20 (so completists get all of the covers without that pesky blind box anxiety)
• First Day Covers (envelopes with the stamp and a special digital postmark dated May 7)
• First Day Covers—but with special color postmarks
• “Simpsons Cancellation Keepsake” (all 4 colorized First Day Covers plus a booklet with random cover)
• Stamped postal cards (but since postcards only cost $0.28 to send, I’m assuming they’re ironically not  stamped with the Simpsons stamps)
• Individual 11×14 inch giclée art prints of each stamp, matted
• A family set of giclée art prints, 11×20 inches, matted and framed

So, if you have an extra $250, you can get all of that for your stamp and/or Simpsons collection. I know, I know, it cuts into your Qee budget. But if you’re a real fan, you know that “budget” is synonymous with “oppression” and not even something called “therapy” could help quell your desire to acquire everything SIMPSONS. (And that’s probably why Matt Groening has issued you a restraining order.)

Since I’m not that “real” of a fan, the only stamp collectibles I’ll probably get are the 4-pack of stamp booklets so that I get each cover. The First Day Covers would be neat, but not top priority. However, if I could convince Ben that we should spend $25 on it instead of a gallon paint to touch up the front of the house, I would really love to have a giclée art print of Lisa.

I wouldn’t call myself a stamp collector, per se, but I do have a small stash of stamps sheets featuring images I love. Maybe someday I’ll tell my uninterested children about why I find them so interesting. I hope that they’ll appreciate commemorative stamp issues like Jim Henson and the Muppets, Marvel superheroes, Hubble telescope, etc. I’m not going to hold my breath. (Since my uninterested children are still imaginary, you’d think that I would imagine them as being interested. But since they’ll likely get half their genes from Ben, I’m a little more realistic. He has a pretty practiced BLANK STARE OF INCREDULITY whenever I get excited about my cool little stamp stash. Or my coin collection, for that matter.)

And on days when I’m feeling optimistic and happy, I can get a good dose of bitterness just by looking at my stash as a record of the rapid price increases of stamps from year to year.

By the way, USPS prices are going up again on May 7 to counter your Simpsons excitement. The standard stamp will increase from 42 cents to 44 cents. So if you still send letters via snail mail, you might want to consider buying some more non-denominated Liberty Bell “forever” stamps.

Don’t hang on to them too long, though, because I estimate that the Forever Stamp Bubble will burst around 2011, when nobody will have any use for any sort of snail mail whatsoever. Because that’s when 3D fax machines (aka Transporters, natch) will make it possible for you to receive that adorable bargain-priced kitten calendar from Aunt Helen over the internet.

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.

I’m going to take a little break from geeky topics to mention something that really pissed me off today when I read it in the local newspaper. It’s an ordinance that is now in the works for in several cities across Utah.

First of all, I’m not a smoker and I abhor secondhand smoke. I used to work at the front desk of a hotel and was forced to inhale smoke drafting in my direction from the hotel restaurant, so I was happy when indoor smoking bans started popping up across the country.

BUT.

PUBLIC NOTICE

The Springville City Council hereby gives Public Notice to the citizens of Springville of the adoption of an ordinance at their regularly scheduled meeting held July 1, 2008. This is: Ordinance #17-2008 amending ¬ß8-4-112 of the Municipal Code to prohibit smoking in public parks, playground areas, recreational areas, cemeteries, and near mass gatherings. The complete text of this ordinance is available in the City Recorder’s Office at 50 South Main Street during regular business hours, or by calling (801) 489-2700.

To ban smoking outdoors in a public park? In my opinion, that’s going too far in violation of the basic rights of an individual. Today’s local editorial column declares that it’s not a religious or moral issue; it’s an issue of public health.  I call bullshit! The harm of secondhand smoke is compounded in an enclosed environment like a restaurant, but in my experience, I’ve rarely had to take more than a couple steps away from a person smoking to be relieved of the smoky air in an outdoor setting.

This ban was made primarily for the people who declare “I shouldn’t be forced to have to inhale secondhand smoke on public property because it can cause lung cancer.”

In that case, here are more declarations of behalf of people with their own just causes, and I expect the city council to listen up and ban accordingly.

• I shouldn’t be forced to smell other people’s burning meat on grills in public parks, playground areas, recreational areas, cemeteries, and near mass gatherings. [The smell of meat can sicken vegetarians]
• I shouldn’t be forced to taste bug spray that other people release into the air in public parks, playground areas, recreational areas, cemeteries, and near mass gatherings. [Deet causes neurological damage]
• I shouldn’t be forced to look at other people’s hairy chests in public parks, playground areas, recreational areas, cemeteries, and near mass gatherings. [Hairy chests are just gross]
• I shouldn’t be forced to hear children laughing in public parks, playground areas, recreational areas, cemeteries, and near mass gatherings. [It causes depression in infertile people]
• I shouldn’t be forced to overhear religious prayer in public parks, playground areas, recreational areas, cemeteries, and near mass gatherings. [Expression of religion doesn't belong in public places]

These declarations all make perfect sense to certain groups of people. Which ones do you think are silly? Which ones do you think should be seriously considered? Anything that anyone does can (and probably is) considered offensive by someone else. The great thing about the United States is that citizens are granted (historically, anyway) civil liberties like Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Expression, which limit the government’s ability to abuse its power and interfere with the lives of its citizens.

In general, Utah has a serious issue with separating church and state.  This stems largely from the fact that a majority of the population is the same faith, including political leaders, and people of the LDS (Mormon) faith are accustomed to obeying rules and strictly adhering guidelines set forth by the church leaders even when they directly oppose personal choice.  It is generally not acceptable among Mormons to smoke or drink, for example.

So it’s not really surprising to me that outdoor public smoking bans would pass legislation in my adopted home state. However, I am a nonsmoker who is absolutely opposed to it.

How much longer until I will be fined by the city for swearing in a public park?

Even though I don’t think my opinion would carry much weight in the local political arena, I think I’ll start working on a petition to ban hairy chests just to see how far it would go.

During the writer’s strike, Joss Whedon was busy creating a 40-minute direct-to-interwebz-and-then-to-DVD musical called “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog,” starring Neil Patrick Harris as a “low-rent supervillain” and Nathan Fillion as the hero.

It will air in three parts on drhorrible.com that are FREE TO WATCH between July 15th and July 20th at midnight (what time zone, Joss?). Here’s the trailer:

AND, and, and. You know how I’m all excited about going to Comic Con? Well Joss added to my excitement by writing this in his Dr. Horrible Master Plan:

We intend to make it available for download soon after it’s published. This would be for a nominal fee, which we’re hoping people will embrace instead of getting all piratey. We have big dreams, people, and one of them is paying our crew.

And somewhat later, we will put the complete short epic out on DVD – with the finest and bravest extras in all the land. We’ll go into greater detail about that at Comiccon, but we’re changing the face of Show Friendliness a second time with that crazy DVD.

Did you see that I placed the most important part of that statement in bold? I have no idea if I’ll be able to score entrance to that panel, but this is just a reminder to everyone that AWESOME THINGS WILL HAPPEN AT COMIC CON and I AM EXTREMELY EXCITED OMG YOU DON’T EVEN REALIZE.

I am foaming at the mouth with geek slobber. Note to self: have an absorbent cloth available at all times while in the convention hall.

Thanks to Sam in Australia for sending me the Dr. Horrible details.

Mostly I just want to have my picture taken underneath the 8 foot tall, 36 foot wide Krusty head that marks the entrance to the new Simpsons Ride at Universal Studios (Orlando and Hollywood).

I’m not a huge Disney fan, so this is another pull for Universal Studios vs. Disney World/Land. That and the Back to the Future ride. (Except they’re both motion-based simulator rides, which means that Ben can’t ride them with me. Vertigo is an asshole.)

Disney does, however, have The Muppets 3-D show and the "Star Tours" Star Wars thrill ride. Damn. Someday I’m going to have to pay $3,000 to gain entrance into a Disney park just to see those again (and maybe buy the exclusive toys in the gift shop). 

Finally, Utah has changed the liquor law to allow 1.5 ounces of liquor in mixed drinks instead of just 1.00000 as it’s had for a long time. Yes, it’s that exact because they have special measuring pourers on the top of every liquor bottle in the entire state. Well, except for in private homes (like mine).

They still have a bizarro number of other stupid laws, like the one where you can’t have a mixed drink and sidecar shot with the same liquor in front of you. A different liquor? Different story. Any way you look at it, the laws are stupid and restrictive and the whole state just needs to lighten the fuck up on their liquor laws. Spend some tax dollars tightening things up so that teens have a harder time getting alchohol, or station some traffic cops around the state to encourage the idiot drivers to not be such idiots, okay? I mean, I learned that you’re not supposed to go through a red light when I started driving in Ohio, but that law doesn’t really apply here. It’s on the books, but I’ve never seen anyone get a ticket for it.

It’s the freakin’ Wild West out here about everything except the liquor laws. WTF, Utah?

It never occurred to me that a non-third world country would view cell phones as anything but ordinary at this point in the timeline of the technology-addicted world. But I never paused to think about the possibility that the Cuban government would have prevented people from getting them.

Oh yeah, communism still exists in some places of the world.

That changed today, according to a report from the Associated Press. Good for the people of Cuba. But too bad that the cost to get a phone and maintain a calling plan is so prohibitively expensive for the average person. Baby steps, right? I hope this is a sign of better things to come for them.

How could I not delight with the title of this article on BBC.com?

Daily caffeine ‘protects brain’

Coffee may cut the risk of dementia by blocking the damage cholesterol can inflict on the body, research suggests.

The drink has already been linked to a lower risk of Alzheimer’s Disease, and a study by a US team for the Journal of Neuroinflammation may explain why.

A vital barrier between the brain and the main blood supply of rabbits fed a fat-rich diet was protected in those given a caffeine supplement.

Can I get a big HELL YEAH? This is stuff I definitely want to believe. Also, the quote a little later on: "This is the best evidence yet that caffeine equivalent to one cup of coffee a day can help protect the brain against cholesterol" means that I am taking the right step to avoid ever having to go on statins or whatever other miracle drug of the future they’ve created to lower the is-it-genetics-or-just-freedom-fries surge of cholesterol in Americans today.

Now can just come up with an alternative to Splenda for prevention of high sugar intake that contributes to Diabetes? I’m not a huge afficionado of straight sugary things (like hard candy or even candy bars) and I drink black coffee 99% of the time, but I know that I probably eat more sugar than I should in brownies, ice cream, soy milk, etc. I don’t mind Nutrasweet/aspartame for the most part, but Splenda is Teh Enemy in my book. Too sweet and such a bad aftertaste.

Also, if Coca Cola ever starts making Diet Coke exclusively with Splenda instead of aspartame, they will have to answer to my wrathful rage, bitches. It’s bad enough that I just have to watch for that evil, happy-yellow/white/blue logo on my precious gray and red 12-packs of caffeinated sody-pop. It actually burns my skin if I touch the box, I swear.

Okay, maybe I shouldn’t swear until after this little first thing in the morning caffeine buzz calms down a little.  But boy, I feel good right now!

Except that I really have to publish this post and go to the bathroom stat…