Firefly

That was a great show, wasn't it? It made me love Summer Glau, who I've mentioned before on this blog. Her ballet performance as Cameron in "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" was way cool. Add that to her awesome butt-whooping scene in "Serenity" and it equals me as an uberfan. Any female who loves ballet and can kick major ass at martial arts ("sci-fi" martial arts, to boot) is a person I'd like to meet in real life someday. Alas, I didn't make it to her panel at Comic-Con (where I'm sure we would have met, had coffee, discussed politics and martial arts, exchanged phone numbers and like totally become BFFs- or not). The awesomeness of Summer aside, I'm not talking about that Firefly right now. I'm talking about the one that is in the upper right quadrant of this blog. It's a pretty cool little application. Well, it's not really "cool" on my blog (yet, anyway), but go to their website at firef.ly and play around with it a bit. Basically, if you turn it on, you can "tag" my page with graffiti or chat with other users (all one of you). Go ahead, try it out. You can "rewind" the history to see what others have said. "Others" being mostly me and any friends I've forced to use it. You can even send anything you write on my page to your Twitter account. Tight.

Speaking of Twitter, I have been pretty much obsessed with it lately. If you feel that I don't update my blog often enough, just check out that little orange bubble in the sidebar for 140 character (or less) blurbs of randomness 5-10 times per day or "follow" me. Another cool social networking application is last.fm, also on the sidebar menu. It lets you listen to what I (or other users) are listening to, create playlists of your favorite artists and discover new artists that you might like. Finally, the thing I've been using to pull it all together is friendfeed. This application lets you pool all of your social networking tools into one place and gives you updates when your friends post something to flickr, twitter, youtube, delicious, digg, or even when they add new movies to their netflix cue!

I bet hardcore stalkers are a little miffed right now. I mean, it's not that hard to figure out what people are doing at all hours of the day- it doesn't take the skilz it once did. We're pretty much just telling you. I was reluctant to do all of this for a while after someone broke the "online/real life" code of conduct and kind of freaked me out, but I figure psychos will always be out there and it's fun to network with the sane people.

Not only that, but jeeze! What else could I possibly tell you about myself? I'm pretty much telling you everything I do, eat, dream about... "Get out of my tree. Get into my blog!" Could be a catchy tune...

Geek Guide to Dating

This was a Comic-Con afterthought, based on my interactions (or lack thereof) with the opposite sex there. I've had a few of my geekier friends lament about why-oh-why they can't seem to get a date. I've compiled a "Top Ten" list of observations and advice, at least from the female (read: my) perspective:

1. Don't be a jerk. So the girl you're talking to doesn't know the details of the color palette used in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic book. She's at Comic-Con. She's at the Joss Whedon panel. She knows every episode of Buffy by heart and loved Dr. Horrible. Also, she's talking to you. Don't call her stupid.

2. You don't always have to be right. Sometimes, you're not. Deal with it.

3. Related to #2: while you can "agree" and "disagree," there is no "right" or "wrong" to personal taste. Trying to convince someone that they are "wrong" for liking a certain television show or programming language is only going to piss them off and is about as effective as trying to argue someone out of liking the color blue, even if you HATE Lost blue. Grr.

4. When someone pays you a compliment, return it. Particularly if you've failed at tips 1-3. Regardless of gender, this takes all geeks some effort (we are rarely complimented by the outside world, let alone the opposite sex), but it can be done. For example: "Wow! Cool lightsaber!" Right response: "Thanks! I like your Slusho shirt!" Wrong response: anything involving listing other ways in which you think you are cool and/or going into the soldering techniques used to make said saber. Actually, if you are talking to me, you can go into the soldering techniques. But ONLY after you have complimented my Slusho shirt, dammit.

5. On that note, if someone pays you a compliment, accept it. Constantly saying how ugly/fat/stupid/short/geeky/etc. you think you are is NOT the same thing as complimenting the other person. Nor is it a good way to show how "modest" you are. It is a good way to make you seem less attractive (and baggage-laden). Which is generally not good.

6. "Realistic standards" is a concept people who spend a lot of time in the fantasy realm have trouble dealing with. That being said, Wil Wheaton/Summer Glau are probably not going to call you tomorrow night, nor is the Norwegian guy (happily living in Norway) whose blog you read, along with 600 other people. Realizing this early on will save you a lot of wasted time waiting (or a restraining order, depending on how much trouble you have with "realistic standards") and will open up a world of dating possibilities.

7. If you like someone, you've gotta let them know. If that seems too frightening, at least talk to them every once in a while. This is my major fail point. Unfortunately, "I'm afraid I will say something stupid" and "I hate you" are two brands of silence that are so similar in flavor that you might as well just say something stupid. Otherwise that cute guy in your martial arts class is just going to think you're a jerk who hates everyone (ahem).

8. That person that you just said "I can't find a date to prom" or "why won't anyone go on a date with me" to? They were hoping you would ask them. Now they feel like crap because you've evidentially asked everyone else (including their best friend), but you STILL AREN'T ASKING THEM! Yeah, David, you! Stupid boy. (sorry, teenage flashback moment)

9. Sarcasm is nice and often a good way to show off your wit. After a while, though, it's as bad as silence. If you don't really hate everything, stop saying that you do every thirty seconds. Ahem, again me=fail!

10. Take heart! You are not the only geek in the world (see Comic-Con photos below). There is someone out there with a similar mix of geek tastes/faults. And they are looking for you, too!*

*Er... They are not looking for you through my blog, however, so if you found this through a "dating" search, please keep searching.

Geek Goddess

No, that is not a misspelling, for I am a goddess of geek! I'm a 3D artist, a web designer, an ARG player, a film nut, a sci-fi nerd, a martial artist, and an amateur astronomer, yet I love a good Sephora shopping trip, dressing up for a night of dancing, spa treatments, and would own quite a few more pairs of shoes if I could afford them (alas, zBrush is just too expensive and if given the choice, I could more happily live without the Louboutins). The ultimate proof of my geek status is that I can't wait to get to Comic-Con this year! Yes, I am going and yes, I do plan on bringing my mini-laptop so that I can blog away. The ultimate deciding factor for me this year was the strange commercial that played during the season finale of Lost (no spoilers here, I promise). The commercial was for "Octagon Global Recruiting." They claimed to be seeking people to fill a variety of "unpaid" positions that included "former military" and "ichthyologist."

Ichthyologist? When have you ever seen a commercial on prime time television advertising an unpaid position for an ichthyologist (Professor Frink voice: ahem, that would be a fish scientist, m'hey)?

Of course I knew that it had to be the start of a new between-seasons ARG like "The Lost Experience" (glayven)! I missed out on that one, so I wanted to be sure that I caught the start of this one. I immediately went to www.octagonglobalrecruiting.com and entered my e-mail address. Several things about the site caught my attention: their "recruitment dates" and location coincided exactly with Comic-Con, the recruitment was for the Dharma Initiative (big players in the Lost drama), and the site was sponsored by ABC, with a bit of wording in the legal disclaimer concerning "contest submissions." (There are other "interesting things," but I will spare you the details.)

I'm a HUGE fan of the show and its creator, J.J. Abrams. I had a bit of luck with one of his other projects earlier this year, so I figured if there is a contest having anything to do with Lost to be won, I was going to go for it. It turned out that it wouldn't be too expensive for me to go to Comic-Con and there were dozens of other reasons why attending such an event might be fun. And so, off to San Diego I shall travel next moth, Dharma Initiative costume in hand...

Okay, I'm not quite this guy. Yet. (or am I?)

(now in Comic Book Guy voice: for those of you unfamiliar with the show, that would be the outfit of Claire Bennet, the Indestructable Cheerleader from "Heroes." This was her season 1 cheerleading outfit with the Wildcats logo which was changed from the original Trojans logo from the pilot, thank you.)

What Am I?

Fifty points to the insomniac out there who recognizes and solves this equation:  

[latex]V_{esc} = \sqrt{\frac{2GM}{R}}[/latex]

$$y=3x+2$$

It's an easy one ;)

(note: for the Earth, M = 5.97219 × 1024 and R = 6,371km You have to figure out the rest!)