Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Nerdcore Halo Thing



"Space. It seems to go on and on forever. But then you get to the end and a gorilla starts throwing barrels at you."

~ Fry, Futurama







This story is simultaneously groan-worthy and strangely heartwarming.

Apparently, Xbox LIVE has discontinued support for Halo 2 on April 15th. Players weren't automatically disconnected, however, and several have been hanging on to the last vestiges of their online world by keeping their systems up and running and logged in as long as possible.

Ah, the resiliency of the nerd spirit . . .

Carnal Thing



"All jocks think about is sports. All we [nerds] ever think about is sex"

~ Lewis,
Revenge of the Nerds







Date: Saturday, May 8th
Time: 7 or 8 pm to 1 am - the posters and facebook event say 8, but their actual website, ticket-ordering page and several other places say 7
Cost: $15 in advance/$20 at the door, or $50 for VIP access

This is a fairly young annual event in Oklahoma City celebrating the sensual side of life and art. Local artists, performance groups and other talent will ply their trades and hopefully make for an interesting evening.

The theme this year is Pandora's Box; the idea is Greek Deities, Sexy Underworld and Mythological Stuff. Costumes are encouraged.

I've never been to one of these before; I'm hoping it will be fun. I've got a pair of 8-inch heels and a costume idea that says it should be!

White Wolf (Role-Playing)Thing



"Remember to always be yourself. Unless you suck."

~ Joss Whedon




http://thegrandmasquerade.com/


White Wolf (the company behind the World of Darkness games, including Vampire: the Masquerade) has announced a rather vague get-together in New Orleans this September. It'd be nice if they'd actually tell people what they're going to get for their money.


On a similar note, one of my current creative quests is finding a decent 1920's-style male outfit for my character in an upcoming game. A big enough fedora will be a tricky find . . .

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Random Haiku Thing


"Aesthectics are irrelevant."

- Seven of Nine,
Voyager

chicken


Here's a haiku generator for you. Refresh the page for more results.



Some examples:


Box wine bandit.
Tokyo kid sings the blues.
Cryptonomicon.


Disgruntled snowman.
Oh, how ruthlessly absurd.
Conjunction junction.


Can you handle this?
Privacy is not a right.
Could be your giblets.

Clicky Things




"On screen!" - Star Trek


Things for you to click!







kittenwar

purple




watching grass grow


Google things


"Lisa, vampires are make-believe, like elves, gremlins, and eskimos."

- Homer Simpson, The Simpsons


vampires


This is a screenshot I took today. Apparently, we are a culture of supernatural delusions, runny noses and a wariness of bananas. On the bright side, Google's logo for Earth Day is quite pretty.

Things about which you should already know.



"The hunt begins, Number One." Jean-Luc Picard, Star Trek: The Next Generation



When thinking about what to post on here, I find there are a lot of awesome things on the 'nets and just in general that I feel people should know about but which would be old news to many savvy readers. Think of this as a "catch you up" post for anyone unfamiliar with the links to follow.




kol

This free, browser-based game has rapidly gained a huge following for its wit, easy to pick up gameplay and ever-expanding world. With classes like Seal Clubbers (who hail from the Frigid Northlands, because you always need a class that hails from the Frigid Northlands) and Pastamancers (I cast Spaghetti Spear at the darkness!) and pop-culture references to everything from the Final Fantasy games to classic literature, it makes reading item descriptions and battle messages as entertaining as beating down the various denizens on your way to free King Ralph. The game doesn't end there, oh no....it features a "reincarnation" ability that allows you to play through again and again, and enough versatility and new stuff that it doesn't get boring to do so. I've been playing for years and still haven't gone through all the content yet....




One deal. One day. One website that makes rotating orange lights sexy.

Each day woot.com features one item, usually nerd-oriented, at a cheap price. The item is only on sale until midnight central time (when something new is posted) or the product sells out. Their product descriptions are laboriously crafted to provide accurate descriptions and humor, and the website encourages community reviews and conversation about the items it sells.

Shipping is always $5 for the entire order, and you can usually buy anywhere from one to three of the item listed.

Tuesdays have a two-for-one theme, where the offer includes two of whatever it is they're selling (for those of you who like doing the math, that means if you buy your maximum 3 you'd get 6 items).

There are now several different woot sites, including shirt.woot.com (which offers one t-shirt a day for $10 with free shipping), kids.woot.com, wine.woot.com, and sellout.woot.com.

The best part of woot.com, though, is the ever-so-addictive "Woot-Offs", which I'm sure cause huge productivity slowdowns in the world of cubicle-dwellers. These events feature extra stock at even more heavily reduced prices. One item at a time goes up, complete with a status bar to show how many are left, and as soon as it sells out they throw another up. You can tell a Woot-Off is in progress by the spinning lights graphics on the page and the aforementioned progress bar.

Not only can you get great deals on Woot-Off days, you might also be one of the lucky few to land a Random Crap item (otherwise known as a Bag O' Crap). These sell out within seconds. They cost $1 with $5 for shipping and you'll get at least 3 items of some sort. This could be anything from the super-cheap to the super-expensive; the mystery's half the fun!





One of the most quotable sitcoms in years, especially so if you consider yourself at all nerdy. The plot centers around three physicists, an engineer, and a waitress who works at the Cheescake Factory along with a veritable rainbow of colorful supporting characters that includes Will Wheaton. If you haven't yet, go watch it. Now.

Things about which I'm currently giddy.


"Hola, nerdmigos!" - Howard,
The Big Bang Theory


I figured a post about what I'm currently geeking out about would be a good way to get into this blogging thing. You get to see a little bit of who I am and I don't have to bore/intrigue you with some of the shadier, more personal details of my life.



In the last month:

Oh lordy, Photoshop CS5. If you haven't yet, watch this promotional video. It starts out a little slow, but it's about the sexiest thing I've seen a computer program do since that purple ape that tried to read my screen out loud back in the 90's.







In the last year:


craig

Craig Ferguson has done something to me. Maybe it's the puppets, maybe it's the show's bad running jokes, maybe it's his fascination with robot skeletons....

Anyways, if you haven't seen the Scottish Conan Guy on his Late Late Show, it's worth a late night, a DVR, or going to the show's website to watch clips or full episodes. His guests are great, the interviews are quite . . . different . . . and his monologues and skits are usually hilarious. If nothing else, his soothing Scottish accent and goofy grin are quite charming in that dorky sort of way, and the plethora of running jokes and the constant evolution of the show will draw you in and make you feel like part of the cult.





For the OKC locals:


Club Albee doesn't exactly have the hippest name and isn't exactly the most happening club in town, but if you're looking for a place to dance in Bricktown with decent drink prices you could do a lot worse. The reason I'm currently excited about this place? A friend had a birthday celebration here that included free cover for well over 20 people, a hookah rental, champagne and a very nice VIP seating area for $125 on Saturday night. $3 well drinks didn't hurt either, though the bar was understaffed for such a busy time and waiting got annoying. DJ Saad was energetic and decent, though he's one of those types that doesn't seem to like letting a song play longer than 20 or 30 seconds. Overall, it was a very good time.