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.

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.

Twilight has left me frazzled

So me being a future librarian and Lindsay being a crazy fast reader means that I’m constantly urging her to read this or that–basically using her as a test case for how good my reader advisory skills are. Well, everyone I know (well everyone I know who reads YA fiction) has been telling us to read Twilight for the past year or so–Jenn and Sarah being the most vocal. I was eager to get to it and put it at the top of my list–which only means that I picked up up every time I went to the bookstore and felt immense tempt to purchase it, but knowing that it would sit on my bookshelf for a looooong time because there are ALOT of books at the top of my list. I was always baffled though why Lindsay had not read the series yet–she is the fastest reader I know, and being an engineering student with lots lots and lots of homework but little reading, meant that most of her reading was fun reading. She just never seemed interested–readers can be very fickle. I know, I am. Or maybe it just wasn’t time yet–it seems like books can sense when it is their time to be loved. Well, for Lindsay, the Twilight time has come. for sure. Which I’m sure all our faithful readers could tell from her last several posts. And that means I and Lindsay are going to go crazy for awhile. Why? because although Lindsay is already on her re-reads of the series, I just finished Twilight last night (at around 1am) and will probably not get to the rest of the series until summer.

I can hear several of you gasping–“Omg, how can she wait that long to read the next one????!!!!” well for two reasons:

1. being a library student means I have a lot of reading to do already and am lucky to get one free-reading book in per month (I’m very very slow. and I like TV. and the internet.)

and this second reason pains me

2. I don’t really feel the urge to. there, I said it. I’m soooo not obsessed with Twilight after reading it. I loved it–absolutely, positively loved it. I couldn’t put it down–my heart panged and stung and beat really really hard. I was scared out of my mind to take my eyes off the last hundred pages because I was sure to see the vampire James sitting calmly across the room from me (it was very very late at night). But…sigh, I felt very little emotion when I finished–

All of my favorite books I ever read have haunted me afterwards–have left me feeling like I was not the same–like I had experienced something. Basically, I’m immediately a little shaken and crazy for a bit which subsides but then a little part of me always holds on to that feeling. My gosh, after reading the seventh Harry Potter I was an emotional wreck for weeks. I’m still so shaken by that book that I have yet to feel ready yet to reopen it. After reading “The Golden Compass” I swear I can feel a little fox daemon wrapped cozily around my heart. “I Capture the Castle”–my favoritest book ever– makes my heart race just thinking about it. I knew who I was after reading that book.

So I was very disappointed when, after finishing “Twilight,” I made an easy return to reality. Yes, I was very shaken and my heart felt frazzled and I tossed and turned before going to bed–but I felt like the book stirred me up and then left, just left! leaving my heart very confused on what was going on. So confused that I felt an intense need to read “I Capture the Castle” (and not “New Moon” the sequel to “Twilight” weird) in order to get my heart all confused and tortured and thrilled for the good long time it was expecting.

soooo boooo! I wanted to be all obsessed with Edward and Bella, too–like the rest of the world. And although I am very interested, I feel like I’m interested in the way I’m interested in Kate Hudson and Owen Wilson’s relationship. . . Maybe I’m just too distracted right now. Maybe it just wasn’t my time. I’m sure the obsession will come, right? golly.

amberj.