browsing Geekery

Talk Like a Pirate Day

Posted on Monday 22 September 2008

Beings that it is coming up on Talk Like A Pirate Day, I was doing a little musing. If Han Solo was a smuggler (pirate), and Chewie was his first mate, shouldn’t Harrison Ford have brought a little more “mateys” and “arrghs” to the role. Or maybe, just maybe, Chewbacca’s pirate accent was so heavy that it came out in his trademarked roars.

Makes you think, huh?

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Exurb, exurb, exurb. Exurb is a word.

Posted on Sunday 4 May 2008

I’m excited!  I just learned a new word.  Not only is it new to me - it’s really, REALLY new.  And no, I didn’t make it up.  I read it on CNN so it must be out there.  I looked up the definition in wikipedia so it’s been around at least long enough for someone to put an article in there about it.

It’s ‘exurb’.

Let me use it in a sentence for you.

‘Gilbert is an exurb so it takes a lot of time to people to drive to work but they can afford the gas.’

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Define That

Posted on Thursday 10 April 2008

My children’s definitions of things just boggle my mind.  Exactly how they come up with these definitions, I don’t know.  For one, being a bully must involve a rectal attack.  For another, yesterday means any day before today and can preceed any time greater than a day as well.  Like ‘yesterday last month’.  Or if it’s Friday and he wants to talk about Tuesday but can’t remember the name of it he says, ‘yesterday Wednesday’.  My favorite is ‘yesterday yesterday’ which is the day before yesterday.

I asked my oldest if he knew the meaning of a word yesterday (out of curiosity) and he told me to look it up.  I’m a bad speller, so there’s no hope of me being able to do that.  My parents once told me to look up sikolojy and it wasn’t in the dictionary at all.  I suppose I need to get an unabridged version.

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Your very own time machine

Posted on Wednesday 9 April 2008

News update!

You no longer need a Delorian to travel through time. Coming soon to a store near you are replica flux capacitors that will allow you to turn any vehicle from a Yugo to a Gremlin into a 4th dimensional automobile. Bat wing doors and flying cars not required.

The only question remaining is where to mount it in your ride.

Popularity: 2%

Cool Gear Clock

Posted on Tuesday 8 April 2008

Sometimes the coolest stuff just kind of falls into your lap.

My brother stopped by the other day to drop off something that he thought I might like. It was a clock. My first thought was, “Not another clock.” I think we managed to get a dozen clocks from different people when I got married. Maybe all my friends and family think I don’t know what time it is.

However, this was no ordinary clock. A coworker of my brother didn’t want it anymore, gave it to my brother, who passed it along to me. It’s  a giant gear that turns around a stationary hand. There are other gears that serve only ornamental purposes, but it is still one pretty cool clock.

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Drumming Robot

Posted on Sunday 30 March 2008

In the category of “cute robots” and just in time for the upcoming Pixar movie “Wall-E”, comes a drumming robot called Yellow Drum Machine. The thing can drive around, look at its environment, find something solid to drum on, and then start thumping away a cool little tune. It seems to have two arms to hit whatever it runs into, a thumper that can knock on the ground, and a little speaker to help with other sounds and beats.

Get a few of these things together and linked up on a network and you could make your own, real-life version of Animusic.

Popularity: 3%

Star Trek XI teaser

Posted on Wednesday 23 January 2008

It doesn’t look like they’ve got any actual footage in the can yet, but the first trailer to the upcoming J.J. Abrams relaunch of the Star Trek franchise has hit the web. It may be gone soon, but here it is for now.

Marvel at welders… welding. Thrill at the fade ins and fade outs.

Seriously though. I really hope this is good. I’m definitely seeing it if for no other reason than to see Simon Pegg play Scotty.

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Are You Smarter than a First Grader?

Posted on Tuesday 15 January 2008

I have been helping my first grader with his math homework and I’m surprised at some of what they have covered.  It may just be my memory failing me but I don’t think I covered greater than and less than until 3rd grade and today they actually introduced the word function.  It’s nice that they aren’t going to spring that one on him in high school when the concept is so abstract that it’s impossible to understand.  This sets some groundwork for him understanding it later.  Of course, if they don’t mention it again between now and then, this has been pointless.  I’m optimistic though.

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A D&D Christmas

Posted on Wednesday 19 December 2007

Well this is a pleasant little surprise just in time for the holiday season. A look into the possibility of LARPers acting in a nativity scene.

O, the horror.

Start with the peaceful scene of the Holy Family. Mix in D&D fanatics dressed as their characters. Animate it like a Japanese action anime.

It’s a wonder nobody’s thought of this particular mix of themes before!

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Picard and Fermat

Posted on Friday 7 December 2007

On a little side note, how many of us got a hoot and a holler out of Picard’s remark that went something like, “much like Fermat’s Last Theorem, we may never know the answer” at the very end of “The Royale” episode? This even got a mention in Wikipedia. I still giggle about that fictional futuristic anachronism (I think that’s an oxymoron).

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