We’re Going On Tour?! What!??!

 

Hey all you Nerd bloggers out there! We have some pretty exciting news for you - Amber, Jen and I have decided to take a few weeks at the beginning of August (right after Amber gets out of classes) to trek across the country, visiting some of the nerdiest sites the US of A has to offer. I’m incredibly excited that we’ve finally made the decision to go - we’ve been talking it over for a few months now. We wanted to say something about it earlier, but we weren’t sure and didn’t want to get our (or your) hopes up to high if we didn’t get to go. We haven’t made up our entire schedule yet, so that’s where you come in! Where are the nerdiest places you can think of to visit? Leave your suggestions in the comments! Here’s a few places we’ve already thought of to visit (in no particular order):

1) Riverisde, Iowa: Future birthplace of Capt. James T. Kirk (Star Trek, duh)

2) Chicago, Illinois: American Girl Place (we’ve already been there, but haven’t properly documented the visit, plus we just really want to go there again anyways), plus Terminus 2008 (Harry Potter conference)

3) San Francisco, California: Exploratorium (Ready, set, learn!)

4) Richmond, Virginia: ABC Bakers (They make the girl scout cookies!!)

<3, lindsayd.

P.S. As we lock down more details, we will update you.

Fictional Characters I Would Date: Part Three

To get back to much happier topics, here is the next entry in my series of posts:

David from “All American Girl” and “Ready or Not”

“All American Girl” is a fabulous book by our favorite author here at NerdGirlBlogging, Meg Cabot, and “Ready or Not” is its sequel.  It is about an ordinary girl who just happens to save the life of the President of the United States.  David is the son of the president, and boy is he dreamy.  He is tall, with green eyes and dark curly hair (I will always be a sucker for curly hair).  He is the kind of guy who looks great in a suit, but prefers to wear t-shirts and combat boots.

Even though his dad is the president, he has a mind of his own and isn’t afraid to disagree with his parents.  He also likes to sneak away from a formal state dinner to eat hamburgers with you (mine could be a tofu burger).  Oh yeah, and he’s an artist as well.  And when he asks you to come over for the weekend to “play Parcheesi,” he actually means play Parcheesi.

These books are super cute and I recommend that everyone go out and read them.  They make me laugh and whenever David gives one of his secret smiles to Samantha my heart goes a little bit gooey.

Meg Cabot is a way better blogger than me

Ok, so I obviously am the lamest blogger.  I even have a whole bunch of really cool, nerdy things to talk about (a wizard rock concert, author visits, me dancing around the apartment in goth black eyeliner trying on all my clothes)  uuh, sorry, I shouldn’t have said that–it was just a tease because I’m not going to talk about any of those things right now.  I should be showering.  So just so I maintain a presence on this blog–Here is the funniest and most helpful thing I experienced yesterday.  Viva Meg Cabot!  

oh, and here is the scene from Becoming Jane that got me all out of sorts last night (who am I kidding? I have been out of sorts since I first saw this scene in theaters months ago. . .) when I was trying to research a paper on the Harry Potter fandom and copyright. mmm, James McAvoy does the best kissing scenes (see Atonement and Penelope for more evidence) and when he says “I’m yours Heart and Soul” I’m pretty sure I am witnessing what Heaven is going to be like.

success. I love putting youtube videos up and calling it a post.

amberj.

Not to Bum Everyone Out…

Well, on Thursday my hamster, Buffy, passed away.

She was pretty old for a hamster (18 months) and she lived a good life even though she was blind.  I found her by the dumpster in Iowa City on one of the hottest days of the summer.  She was just a little baby and her eyes had been clawed out.  We’ve had a great time since then……..she was kind of the perfect hamster for me to have, since she couldn’t see the two giant cats hovering outside her cage waiting to pounce.

She wasn’t the cuddly type because I never could get her to stop biting.  But I guess if I couldn’t see anything I would bite everything that came into my range as well.

I knew she wasn’t doing well because she had stopped eating her treats.  At least she didn’t suffer long.  Fortunately, my dad was visiting when she died, so he took her home with him and buried her in the yard.

So here’s to Buffy, the little hamster that could, and did, live a long and happy life even without eyes.

Jen

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’m not quite sure how I came across this information, but….Jared from Zoom (circa 1999) died in 2006!?!  He did, PBS confirmed it, http://www.wgbh.org/article?item_id=3188472 .  Seriously, who doesn’t remember Jared from Zoom.  I remember watching him when he was on - I was in junior high, and he was one cute 13 year old (it’s OK, I was also 13 at the time).  I remember thinking that if he knew me, he would totally be my boyfriend (and he would be a darn good one, because he’s just so nice and caring and cute)….but then again, what girl watched that show and DIDN’T think the exact same thing?  I’m just so sad that he’s no longer with us (I know, I’m like a year and half late on this one). 

To lighten up the mood, I leave you with this.

 Once you get over the misery of Jared’s death, you’ll thank you me for your tappin’ toes and snappin’ fingers and clappin’ hands.

<3, lindsayd.

Thoughts on playing dodgeball with a bunch of engineers

Last night I finally experience Mecca week (kind of like engineering is cool week or something) for the first and last time ever (while I am still an undergraduate student at least).  I experienced it in the way of a dodgeball tournament.

My team was comprised of the associate dean of engineering and his son (a freshman engineering student), two graduate students (Beth and Brandy - they are totally sisters), lab Amber (I specify only because not just Amber may read this), and me. It was double elimination and we played a total of 3 games. We lost the first - it was a bloodbath - won the second, and lost the third…obviously. The first game was horrible - my entire team was out in less than a minute and I was the only one left on the court. Now please don’t make the assumption that I’m actually good at dodgeball…quite the opposite acutally. Well, I am actually very good at the dodging part…just not the part where I have to catch the ball to get people out or actually throw the ball and hit someone. Speaking of throwing the ball, I think there should be a rule against boys throwing the balls so hard at girls. Why do they have to do that? I mean seriously, it hurts! The second game we won by fluke - it came down the associate dean against the last person on the other team, and he caught the ball right after he had turned around because the other team guy thought he had won so he didn’t throw the ball hard - he just lobbed it at him. Hahahahahaha. Chemical engineers win! Smack down. The last game it came down to just me again - and so I went to throw the ball at a girl, and I totally hit her!! But then someone caught that ball so then I was out and we lost. But that’s OK - I really had to go do a lab report anyway, so it was good that I didn’t have to stay longer.  Engineers rock!  Specifically chemical engineers: http://www.cbe.engineering.uiowa.edu Oh, do you not recognize the girl in the picture?  You totally should cause it’s me.  Another reason why chemE’s rock - I am the front woman.  Huzzah!

 <3, lindsayd.

Campin’ out in the IATL

So it’s almost 1:30 in the morning and I am thinking about hitting the sack. But not at my apartment. Oh no, tonight I become a full fledged science nerd - I am camping out in my office in the lab building. Why? Basically it’s because I’m a horrid procrastinator who doesn’t like to do her lab reports until the last minute possible, but mainly because I suck at spectroscopy analysis and can’t figure out why it seems that the chloroacetyl chloride is reacting in a way that is impossible due to a little law that says that you can’t create matter from nothing. Where’s my Nobel Prize - I created something from nothing! I can finally get a parking space on the Berkeley campus now, yes! (Seriously, the nobel laureates have spaces denoted especially for them - I saw this with my own four eyes). But anyhow, I’m all aloooooone in the IATL. There’s a cot in an office down the hall, but I’ve decided to camp out on the floor since I can lock my office and the one with the cot doesn’t have a door….you never know what kind of weirdos you’ll find in the IATL at night….

No one ever knows what the IATL is when I say it. They’re always like, “Where’s the IATL?” and I’m always like, “It’s right next to the IMU, it’s hooked on to the building where they store the rowing team stuff.” And they’re always responding like, “I don’t know where that is.” and I’m all totally like, “It’s that big shiny silver crazy looking building.” And then they’re always like, “Oh, I know what you’re talking about now.”

Look familiar? It’s the view of the IATL in the daytime as seen from the bridge from the old art building to the IMU. Duh. As you can see from my amazing illustration, I have pointed out to you where I am right now. No, sillies, I am not stuck to the side of the building, rather I am up on the 3rd floor - I would have pointed to my window, except that you can’t see it at this angle. But when I turn my head and look out the window, I can see the windows that I have pointed to with the green arrow…so that should give you an idea of where I am.

Hmm…the IATL kinda reminds me of this building, the Weisman Art Building…looks like Frank might have been getting a little bit lazy?

Oooh, I wish Frank had decided to design the IATL like this building.

No one would ever be confused about where I worked - I would just be all like, “I work in the building that looks like a fish! BAM!” I would really yell BAM at them too.

<3, lindsayd.

Good grief am I lucky or what??

Lucky strike #1 - my lab report for organic chemistry is a short one (so mainly I just have to answer some questions).  #2 - It’s due Thursday instead of today.  #3 - My lab report for analytical measurements isn’t due today either!  It’s due on Thursday.

I’m feeling so much better right now - I was starting to get that uncomfortable feeling that I wasn’t going to get everything accomplished and then I find out that I still have a day and a half to get stuff done!  Now, knowing me I’ll probably not start working on stuff until tomorrow night, but maybe just maybe I can muster up enough motivation to get the organic report done tonight, and get a real good start on analyzing my data for the other measurements report.  I’m even starting to feel better about the whole lab later this afternoon - I’m getting the prelab part out of the way so hopefully everything will be alright.

Now excuse me, I have to go teach some blackbirds how to fly.

<3, lindsayd.

Just Another Way to Waste My Time….

So I was casually reading Entertainment Weekly today (the actual magazine, not the website) and there was an article about hulu.com. It sounded so amazing that I almost couldn’t believe what I was reading……..it is a website where you can watch tv shows and movies for FREE!!!!

Now, I know there are like 10,000 other websites where you can do the same thing, but on this one, you just have to sign up with a username (nothing scary like a credit card number or anything) and then you are free to watch clips or entire episodes. There are some commercials sprinkled in here and there, but the quality is so much better than YouTube will ever be. This is actually supported by the studios and networks so it isn’t like some of those shady operations (RIP tvlinks, sniffle)

Most of the shows on there now are from Fox and NBC so that means there are full episodes of “The Simpsons,” “The Office,” “30 Rock,” and “Arrested Development.” Anyone who has not seen “Arrested Development” needs to go to that website right now and watch every single one, no excuses accepted.

I am pretty pumped about “Buffy” and “Major Dad.” Yes, that is right, “Major Dad”!!!!!!!! I used to watch that show all the time when it was on. I can’t wait to watch it again and realize, What was I thinking?

I am pretty much going to be wasting my time on this for the next few weeks, so if you don’t hear from me for a while, I am catching up on my Buffy watching.

Jen

We are totally turning this into a Twilight blog.

I am obsessed. I cannot help it. I’m going to have to go get the audio books from the library and put them on my computer so I can do to them what I do to Harry Potter. Have you seen pictures of the cast for the movie? Here’s one of Edward.

And one of Edward and Bella.

Let me just say that every day I become more pleased with the choices for Edward and Bella.  Robert Patterson looks perfect for Edward….I totally want to be all over him (HWSNBNITB, I hope you are not reading this, and if you are, don’t worry, I would not be all over him, it is just because of my over active imagination that has been fueled by Stephenie Meyer).  I’m also really pleased with Kristen Stewart as Bella.  She’s pretty but not so pretty that you look at her and get super jealous because of her looks ( I will get super jealous because 1- she is playing Bella, 2-she gets to be all over Robert Patterson aka Edward Cullen).  Sighs.

Well, I’m really going to have to start doing stuff - I was just informed that on top of my lab reports, I now have a new baby boy, William, to visit!

<3, lindsayd.