Category: Nerdy

Strangers in Paradise – a graphic novel

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As you’ll see in an upcoming post about the San Diego ComicCon, Hubs is often encouraging me to read comic books, or moreso, graphic novels. (In fact, the Graphic Novel featured on that Wiki page was one that Hubs had me read, but it was actually a little too “graphic” for me!) So he borrowed out a copy of Strangers in Paradise from the library and I started reading it, and I gotta say, I really like it! Hubs read the forward for the book and it was about a staff member who said similar things to me like “I hate comic books, I don’t read them.” But she read the first SiP (as it’s commonly called… apparently) and after that she waited impatiently for every issue to come out. Hubs thought this might be the book that changes my attitude towards comics.

I can’t even remember which one I’m currently reading – I think it’s Volume 2. And I really want to read Volume 1 (hint hint Hubs??).

I’m finding though, that I get so engrosed in the dialogue that I sometimes forget to look at the pictures. The artwork is quite impressive, and the pictures do really add a great dimention to the story. I mean, even without the pictures I’d be pretty hooked, though, a little confused as to who was saying what!

I’ve always liked “comics” like Peanuts (my very very favourite) and Garfield (my bro’s fave) and really just the newspaper funnies on a Saturday and Sunday, but this is the first time I’ve ever read these graphic novels, and I gotta say – don’t knock it til you try it!

Diamonds are a girl’s best friend

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I was just sitting here at work and I noticed that my engagement ring was a bit dirty so I gave her a bit of a clean and now she’s sparkling once again. I think Hubs did a brilliant job choosing my engagement rings.

The first one, with which he proposed, is a Puzzle Ring. For those of you who don’t know the story, Hubs took me aside while we were on Day Camp, where we had met 7 years prior, and gave me the ring, and after proposing, said “Life with me is going to be full of challenges.” He then took the puzzle ring apart and said “and here’s your first one.” It was a LOT of fun putting it back together again (after declining kind offers from the 12-year-olds in my group to “help”) and I wore it proudly. I was engaged to the most amazing man on earth and he had given me a beautiful ring that was gorgeous and nerdy. Just like him. What more could a gal ask for?

A few days later, he presented me with this:

A platinum, tension set diamond ring. It is stunning. It really blew me away then, and I still catch myself admiring it. A lot.

Again, it’s a bit nerdy, with the tension setting, and Hubs chose it because it was so different and because it is, I’m sure he would say, “teyodally awesome”.

And it is. I love it. Thanks honey x x

A new template

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So it appears that I can’t get my navbar to work on my blog, so I think I need to pick a new template. I will be doing this in the next week, unless someone can tell me how to get it to appear on my page. (Rest assured, I know the steps and from what I can see, it SHOULD be visible, but it’s not. I think it’s because I’m not using a standard template, but that shouldn’t REALLY make a difference right?)

Calling all nerds. Calling all nerds. If you have any ideas, please let me know!!!

Pi

/ Renae / 1 Comment

Hubs: “Honey, I need you to make me a pie for my tutorial tomorrow morning.”
Wifey: “Okaaaaaaaaaaaay. And why would that be.”
Hubs: (shuffling around in some uni notes, holds up tutorial paper) “Cos tomorrow’s tutorial is number 3.14!”

Far be it for Wifey to get in the way of a good nerd joke.

So I spent the day considering my options, and decided on this Pumpkin Pie recipe (from my fave food-blog!). Why? Cos I’ve never made a pumpkin pie before and it sounded FUN! I cheated and bought pre-made short-crust pastry, but made everything else from scratch. It was LOTS of fun, and the finished product? Pi-tastic!

Oh yes. There’s a Pi symbol on top!

Clearly, I’m in the running for Wifey of the year.

I sent it off with Hubs to his tutorial and it went down a treat! A Canadian girl said it made her day! Hubs saved me a piece that I shared around at the office and it really was SO yummy. I have enough ingredients to make another one, which I’m already excited about!

I wonder what my next cooking adventure will be…

I’m not a nerd, but…

/ Renae / 4 Comments

…I married one. I thought this would mean that I no longer had to do ANY nerdy stuff (fix my computer, know which cords plug into the TV/DVD player/amplifier etc etc) and that’s true to an extent. But I HAVE had to become au fait with using a Data Projector, amplifier and Play Station to watch DVDs. Yeah. You read correctly. This hasn’t always gone well for me.

One afternoon I came home and I had a pile of washing to fold, so I thought I’d put on a few episodes of the office and do my folding. Data Projector on? Check. PS2 on? Check. Disc inserted? We have a picture! Amplifier on? No sound. Hmmmm… so I started fiddling with the wireless play station remote, as I’ve seen Hubs adjust the volume through that before, but it didn’t seem to be picking up any signal. I thought the batteries were flat so I replaced them with 2 other rechargables. The problem is, you never know if they’re recharged or not. Still no signal. So I knew I had to find the duva to put in the thingy of the playstation so the remote would pick up the signal (technical, I know. I hope you’re keeping up!) but had no idea where it was.

30minutes later, Hubs came home to find me sitting in front of the data projector , watching the menu page of the office and a little tear streaming down my face. I tried so hard!!!!! (Turns out the lead to the amp was plugged into the wrong socket AND the duva for the thingy was in a “safe place.”)

Not to be deterred, I found myself in a similar position last night. I got everything working, but had the same problem with the PS remote. So what did I do? I channelled my inner nerd and picked up one of the guitars used for Guitar Hero, plugged it in to the playstation and used the buttons and strum bar as a remote.

Yeah. I rock! (In more ways than one!!)

Nerdy McNerd

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I got in touch with my inner-nerd last week and attended “Game On” with Hubsband; “Melbourne’s must-see exhibition of 2008 – the action-packed celebration of games culture that has thrilled over one million players of all ages around the world. Game On tracks the development of videogames from the first computer game to arcade-era hits and the very latest from today’s billion dollar industry.” Make that one million and two players!

I was a little skeptical at first, thinking it was going to be another nerd convention like SupaNova but I was pleasantly surprised at the number of normal people there! (Ha ha. Sorry honey. Just cos you’re a nerd, doesn’t mean you’re not normal.) But seriously, there were children, girlfriends, wifeys, mothers (mostly carrying around jackets and sitting around waiting for hubsbands and kids to get tired) and everyone in between. And the games! We got to play quite a few different games including:

Pong
Frogger
Mario Cart
Star Wars (the arcade game with the vector images)
Tron arcade game
Puzzle Bubble
Gravity
Donkey Kong (game and watch)
Indy 500
Adventure on the Atari
Populous
Chillingham

… just to name a few! There were quite a few people there but there were also quite a few games to play so there was always something to do. We even ran into Yahtzee, but we almost didn’t recognise him cos he wasn’t wearing his trademark hat.

We also checked out the game consoles that had been made over the last 36 years which was actually quite interesting. We finished off with about half an hour in the theatre watching the “Machinima Showcase” which is a “new kind of filmmaking that uses computer games technology to ‘shoot’ film.” Yeah, I found it boring too but Hubs enjoyed it. It gave me a chance to have a rest, so I was happy.

We were there for 3 hours, then I decided it was time to go home. I was all nerded out for one day!

Hubsband playing Populous

Wifey posing with Lara Croft. Yeah, I think I’m heaps better looking too…