Dean Kamen, you minx!

Are you trying to impress me?

Now North Dumpling Island is energy self-sufficient? Le sigh. You know, you do not have to work so hard to win my affections. You had me at AutoSyringe.

(SUC- for all your obsessive crushes on supergenius related needs.)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hopefully things are going splendidly for all today.

This year I am thankful for:
1. Having a job. I'm very blessed to not have been laid off.
2. Having a family that loves me. (Even if sometimes I think that they are trying to kill me by annoying me to death.)
3. Good friends, and lots of them. (Even if some of them deserve a nice face punching lately.)
4. NKOTB.

In Thanksgiving news, here is a lengthy article about the not-so-appetizing Thanksgiving food on the Space Station. They say it is kind of gross, but I think in this case it is location, location, location. Dude, you guys are eating rehydrated yams, but you are eating them IN SPACE. My food will be amply delicious, but I will be eating it sandwiched between my great grandma and 13 year old cousin who eats like the Beast in Disney's Beaty & The Beast, before he learned to use flatware.

In non-thanksgiving news:

Best article title today: Japan Polar Bear Mating Stymied by Gender Mixup.
Not it for checking the gender on polar bears. Apparently long fur obscures their sex organs making it difficult to tell the gender of a polar bear (and one assumes the fact that they are 1500 pound killing machines does not help either). Although I think that when you go to breed polar bears, it helps to know what you are starting with.
("Author's" note: there is some bush joke in there somewhere, but I'm tired, so sorry about missing that.)

A brief article about the Tesla electric car. The car for wealthy nerds. *sigh* Why can't I be as wealthy as I am nerdy?
Answer: Not enough money available?

Meep!

I'm a little obsessed with sea creatures. I also am scared of drowning, being stung, etc. etc. (You know, sea creaturey things.

There is video at io9 of a rare (and creepy) Magnapinna. I've never heard of such a thing, but it is a [terrifying] squid.

Hopefully NOT the fickle hand of fate.

This morning as I groggily pushed my birth control pill from its protective bubble package it flew out as though propelled by numerous warp drives.
Pichooooo! it richocheteed off the planter, to the counter where it bounced off the counter and ploonk, right into the toilet.

I feel like to odds of this occurrence are something like 3 bazillion to 1. So I took tomorrow’s pill today and will continue along that path till the pack is done, but part of me can’t help but feel that I am somehow DOOMED.

Vampire Moths.

Yea, you heard me.

National Geographic has a brief video on Russian Blood Sucking Moths, wrote local blogger before keeling over and dying of sheer horror.

Nature= very scary/amazing stuff.

Awesome video from Discovery Science about a giant ant colony that scientists fill with cement to learn what it actually looks like.



It looks like AWESOME.

Thinking about nerdy stuff.

1. Spiders are loose in space and no doubt in the midst of negotiating our undoing with alien spiders. Read all about our eminent demise on i09.

2. Nature and robots distract each other, possibly delaying the naturepocolypse and robopocalypse.


3. Nerd creates Bike Hero.


4. There is a rumor of Tremors 5 aka Tremors: The Thunder From Down Under. Be still my b-movie heart!

5. Check out the Classic Tales Podcast for creepy story fun. It is good stuff! I think I should learn to read well aloud. That would be pretty spiffy.

Carrying deadly plagues makes me over emotional.

I'm saddened by the loss of 2 out of the 3 new shows I was watching, Valentine and My Own Worst Enemy. I think that it is a shame that they failed to promote then buried Valentine, which was the second most adorable thing on TV. I also think that it is a waste to have canceled My Own Worst Enemy, which I thought was very well made. I particularly enjoyed all the interesting questions that the show provoked. Who is he really working for and does it matter if the group is unethical if it is defending American "Ideals". Who is real? Or are both personalities real because they both exist?

So now the only new show I am watching is Fringe. I'm glad it is not being canceled because I enjoy it more with every new episode.

Which brings me two thoughts:
1. Someone is watching Knight Rider? Or rather enough people are watching Knight Rider that they aren't cancelling it. COME ON! Pushing Daises may be canceled and KNIGHT RIDER is still on the air? I call shenanigans.
2. Isn't expensive to create new shows? Wouldn't it have been cheaper to leave these two shows on the air? I'm just saying.
********
Perhaps to make up for stealing all the good TV, Haagen-Dazs has released a new flavor: Fleur de Sel Caramel Ice Cream. Yes caramel ice cream with a caramel ribbon, and small chocolate covered salted carmels. Oh HEAVEN. RAWR.
********
In other news, on the NKOTB CD, The Block, there is a song called "Sexify My Love" in which they rhyme 'concentrate', 'consumate', and 'conversate'. I have not yet decided if that is unbelievably awful or awesome. Also on The Block there is a song about convinving your lady friend to tape sex acts. I mean compared to current songs like anything by Usher that is not so bad. But parts where he says "Baby, I'm gonna make you a star" just sound so exploitative.

On the other other hand, I will (if there is any justice in the world) be rocking out to the numerous steps it would take to get to you, 'gur-ur-ur-url' in less than 4 days. Yay!

Your brains are safe for now...

maybe. Unless this is like in the movies when the victim rallies right before they die, then lurch back to life jaws a'snapp'n.

I seem to be recovering nicely from my brush with death. I know you were all deeply concerned.

I was quite worried because this Saturday is NKOTB Saturday. There will be unhealthy food, numerous cocktails, and ridiculous girlish shenanigans. I need to be at full Quiana power to handle this kind of excitement. Wait for pix! Teehee. Yay!

In other news I watched The Quantum of Solace, which I really liked. You should watch it too. Going to the movies yesterday made me just as exhausted as working for 8 hours today, which either says that I am recovering well OR that work is just butt-sitting.

Where was I going with this?

No idea whatsoever.

Recap:
1. Not dead.
2. NKOTB!
3. 007= good times.

And that was my awesome story about uhm... nothing.

Suck it, NaBloPoMo.

I'm sure that you have all figured it out. I am yet again ill. Quite ill. Darwin was wrong. If there was such a thing as natural selection I would have been de-selected because I am sick all the damn time. I fear I am a cull. Destined by Western justice to be cut off from the herd and made into deliciously tender and pitiful steaks.

Here are some observations from the crypt:

1. Came home from work very sick and fatigued and decided that a pb&j and a 14 hour nap were in order. Mixing mixing mixing my home-made jam, which had separated just a bit, when I hear/feel a smash/sploosh. I look down, the jar is in my hand. Look at the floor, the better part of a jar of jam is down there. (There being the oven door, cupboards, my pants, shoes, and the beige floor tiles with WHITE grout.) Apparently the bottom of the glass jar dropped right out, in a perfect hockey puck-esque whole and shattered on the ground. I then spent the next 45 minutes sniffling and cleaning everything in the kitchen of glass shard/strawberry jam. (That is the kind of jam you make for very bad people.)

2. Watched many (two a day) episodes of the show Las Vegas strictly because Tom Selleck is on that show. (OMG you guys, TOM SELLECK!) I cannot decide if this show is not that bad or if I am so acclimated to the sultery sounds of TS's voice that I think it is good.

3. My very kind roommate brought home a few comics from my box at The Comic Stop and after hungerly devouring them I had the most terrifying feverish nightmares you could possibly imagine. What better to give you good dreams than a potent mix of cold medicine, fever and The Walking Dead. Oh good times!

4. So I've missed something like 6 days of work over the last two weeks. I can't wait to get back to the office. It is going to be awesome. AWESOME.

5. Things I am not looking forward to:
- twenty 13 year old boys at robot club tomorrow am.
- twenty 13 year old boys at an extended by one hour robot club tomorrow am.
- leaving the house (not accomplished since Tuesday am)
- work

6. Things I am looking forward to:
-NKOTB
-NKOTB
-NKOTB
- Breathing through my nose

7. When I am sick all I want to do is sleep and shove delicious tortilla chips and cookies in my mouth. That is pretty much all I want to do. I will be 300 pounds when I regain my 'health'. (Still mysteriously single.)

8. My nose hurts.

That is all.

I know I sound nerdy;

Written early a.m. November 4th. Not published for reasons of attempting to stave off the cold I was catching through (literal) days of mostly sleep.

This is because I am a nerd.

It was very gratifying to be carefully guided to the ballot drop box at the library yesterday. To receive my stickery reward. (I love to see grown men parade around in their voter stickers like I once did with puffy Ewoks.)

It made me feel very happy.

This year I had an option to vote for a person of color for the office of the President of the United States of America. What an amazing thing, just a few decades from desegregation. Just a few years from venturing to Florida with my black ex-boyfriend and finding out, to my surprise, that Florida is in The South.

Being a mixed race person myself, I have encountered many awkward situations involving race, but I had never heard a over six foot tall nearly 30 year old man called “boy”. Never having heard someone say “nigger” (which I am almost too ashamed to write) outside of a TV or movie screen. It easy to forget or never even realize from New York and Seattle that there are still places like The South.

It feels like over night just enough people have evolved to understand what the truth is. Just enough to get a person of color on the ballot for a major party.

Maybe just enough to elect him? Enough to persuade the citizens of other countries and even our own that not everyone in America is stuffed with stale ideas and chubby morsels of hate like fat little worms?

I hope so.

I know that I’m not one of those die hard Obama fans (who will soon be gnashing their teeth when they find out that Obama is just a politician), but it is nice to have a little hope for a change. Not political or economic hope. Just a sliver of hope for Americans as people.

Confusing!

So, I think I mentioned that I've always believed I was Irish (with a little Scott)/Native, Croatian/black.

And here is the thing, I look Croatian to actual Croatians.
I don't look black.
I don't look particularly Native (though I am going prematurely gray).
And I don't look very Irish.

















See, Croatian. Right? (Also, sidenote: Does my head look small to you too?) (Second sidenote: Isn't it nice that the picture cuts off right before any dangerous cleave sightings? That dress was too plungy and in every other picture it was like "Oh, there's me and Mebbie and Righty." Good times.)

Well, apparently my whole life my Mom had merely guesstimated and as it turns out I'm actually Romanian.

Shit, you guys. I don't know what Romanians even look like. I don't know a single Romanian. I know many Croatians and they look like me.

I have been in Croatian-drag for nearly 3 decades.

I am cognisant that the difference between one former Axis nation and the other is something like the distance in miles from Reno to Seattle.

But having grown up with essentially no racial identity, I really really have none now. With so little to call my own, I'm going to miss Croatian me.

Kamen, Kamen, Kamen! All Kamen; All the Time!

I don't want you guys thinking that all I do is sit around all day and Google (RAWR) Dean Kamen. But there is a lengthy and very interesting article about Dean Kamen in the Telegraph:
Dean Kamen: part man, part machine.

I'm pretty sure which part is the machine. (RAWR!)

Interesting (to me) niblet:
Kamen did spend nearly eight years sharing his home with a girlfriend he met in 1994, but now lives alone. He's decided that he doesn't want to have a family: 'I would rather not be married than ever risk failing at that. It's not like failing at a project: pick yourself up, do another project. But if you have kids and you fail as a father... that's an unrecoverable failure in my mind. I wouldn't want that to happen.'

I think it is a little sad that a guy who takes so many risks and is focused on making products that are needed, but will make him little money (i.e. water and electricity for developing nations) is scared of that risk. On the other hand, perhaps Kamen just knows his strengths and weaknesses.

At any rate, I'm pretty sure that the important thing is that Dean Kamen is single.

Dean,

We don't have to get married. All this girl needs is robot penguin bartenders to serve me perfect martinis. I will accept adorable robots in lieu of marital commitments. (Still single! Tell your friends! But only if they are geniuses! With their own islands!)

Hugs!
q.

Additionally, as I had always suspected, Kamen does wear the same outfit all the time. Thanks, Telegraph! Your article contained exactly the two pieces of information in which I was most interested.

Word of the day: Upset

Upset, (ˌ)əp-ˈset: emotionally disturbed or agitated

Example: Quiana was so 'upset' when her temporary crown broke in half at dinner tonight that she could not finish her cannoli.

See also: 'angry with the world', 'pissed', and 'hurty faced'.

Here is where I blather about nothing:

1. Jim and I started watching Valentine. On the CW… with the Greek gods… starring the stalkery girlfriend from Dexter…. Is anyone watching this? Anyone? Just us. Great.
If you like fun, you should watch this show. If you don’t like fun, there is always ER. (Zing!)

2. Halloween approaches and I am stoked. My costume is 90% complete, so that is excitement right there. Now we just have some baking and decorating left. Mmmmmmmm baking (and the required taste testing).

3. I am throwing myself into winter hibernation mode with abandon. Yesterday (pretty much the whole day) I watched TV and drank delicious egg nog. (I know it is early, but it is Monica’s fault for having it last Saturday.) I am enjoying sweatpants and the nestlike bean bag chair. Winter beverages and winter foods. Hooray for cold weather! Hooray for staycation! Hooray for overzealous beverage companies that sell egg nog before Halloween!

4. I think all my blog friends hate me as it seems that so few people are updating their blogs. With all this lack of blog reading time I suppose I could invest in blog writing. Hmmmmmmm….

5. I am wondering about my fascination with Don Draper (RAWR) in Mad Men and why he is so attractive and feeling as though these rawr thoughts are the kind that a good Bryn Mawr feminist should not think. On the other hand, Don's wife is a Bryn Mawr Girl, perhaps we are all a tiny bit defective in that regard? (Or maybe it is just the design I find sexy. I love the clothes. I should have a sexy design party. We could watch Tron, Pushing Daisies, and Mad Men. Amazing design there.)

Occasional Lengthy, Rambling Posts About Nothing…now at SUC.

Things remain awesome on the island. I’m preparing for my Halloween-stravaganza, getting my robotics team prepped for competition, and helping my newest tutoring student (who is a real gem). In fact I feel a bit as though I am dipping my toes into my real life again. Which, honestly, is making me a little stressed out; but I think I need a little balance between the Wii Fit/TV viewing/ reading festival of Mathew McConaughey-level relaxation and my former complicated overly busy life.

I think part of that balance is retaining my 3 nights a week in rule and another part is quitting Smart People on Ice. Some of you probably noticed that I quit updating. I did make my goal and while I enjoyed putting things up there and knowing what I had been up to all that time, I wasn’t entirely honest about my activities every day and it was making my life more complicated. Part of the change is also learning to say ‘no’. ‘No’ is a very useful word, and letting go of all my feelings of obligation has been very challenging, but I am working on it.

In other news, work has been pretty stressful and I think that it is time for me to accept that my job will simply be harder and I will have to work very hard. It has been a while since I have been really challenged in my job either by workload or difficulty/complexity of tasks. (Of course dealing with idiots has been a constant challenge.)

In awesomer news, have I mentioned my ridiculous infatuation with geniuses (Hey, Dean Kamen! Still waiting for your call. Sitting here by the phone. Limbering up. Call me!), and obsessions with terrifying animals and Muppets are all featured heavily in the news lately? Uhm… cause they have:

1. Why Australia is not #1 on my list of vacation destinations, three words: spider eats BIRD. IT ATE A BIRD AND IT IS A SPIDER. If you don’t want to sleep again (ever) click the link. (I can’t stop looking. BLEEEEHHHHHHHH!)

2. Muppets you can make and own at FAO Schwartz.

3. Muppet Noir Murder Mystery being shopped according to The Hollywood Reporter.

4. More Muppet Youtube videos. GENIUS.

5. It looks like I have some tough competition in my quest for the hand of/stealing the life of Sir Richard Branson:

"He's got to be that guy that we all just secretly want to live his life. Even if it's just for a week I mean wouldn't that be incredible? If you had to pick one person he would be the guy for me, I would want to be him for a week." — Charlize Theron on Richard Branson.

Back to the rambling:

Last weekend I assembled the majority of my (awesome) Halloween costume and became aware that even though I had not really intended to be a slutty anything this year, a girl dressed as Big Bird cannot really help but look whore-y on account of the bare legs and feathers. Bare legs + feathers pretty much always = Vegas showgirl. The only saving grace is that my costume looks extremely… homemade so at least I won’t look like I was going for sexy. (Perhaps it is that I actually am unable to suppress the sexy.)

End of incoherent message.

This is why I kind of want to punch people in the face.

So soldiers in Iraq take in stray dogs and then want to bring them home. This I get. It is only natural that in times of high stress, soldiers would form such attachments.

I also acknowledge that the Iraqi dogs, when again abandoned, will have bleak and short futures.

However, 50,000 people signed a petition to force the Army to fly this dog back to the states. 50,000 people signed a petition to fly a DOG to the US.

I just feel like these 50,000 people could maybe be placing the weight of their collective opinions behind something more important. Perhaps better benefits for our soldiers. Or maybe protecting our rights from our intrusive government. Or standing up against the use of torture.

I’m glad the puppy gets to live a good life, but I would like it a lot if people cared as much about other people as they do a dog.

I also wonder how many of these people actually vote.

The shoe on the other foot.

It is an interesting thing to walk with a limp. Normally I walk with a clomping stride.

There was a time when I was younger and svelte, when I ran every day and walked with that hip forward shoulder back posture that characterizes girls from better schools.

Since I injured my foot my stride has been off and I walk with a clompyness that I am foolishly embarrassed by. It isn’t as though people probably notice the boyish clomptitude of my stride. But I do.

My foot has been hurting quite a bit for the last two days. In spite of icing and massage and elevation, my foot has hurt to the point that I have consolidated my trips away from my desk. And even as I walk now I move my hip differently, protecting my foot. When people notice that you limp they look at you differently; their eyes slide to your feet and away in a speedy shift.

I don’t think I’ve ever had that experience; the exhausting combination of shame/pity/curiosity in someone else’s eyes that would make me a hermit if I endured it for longer than a day.

Thanksgiving Update!

Even though Thanksgiving is not until Monday, I always force my parents to do the turkey today so I don't have to deal with Monday traffic on the way back down to Seattle.

So far the turkey has been bathed, had its butter massage, and been stuffed with homemade stuffing. (Which sounds quite relaxing from the turkey's perspective... other than the stuffing.) Last night I made 2 pumpkin pies from the America's Test Kitchen cookbook.

Left to make:
Potatoes
Gravy
Creamed corn (hurl)
Green Beans
Rolls
Cherry Pie
Whip cream

But right now I'm watching some Ghostbusters and drinking Coke made with real sugar. REAL SUGAR!! Wheeeeeeeeeeee!

I think I will peel some potatoes and then lose some Foosball.

Hooray!

Forwarded from my Step-mom.

A new feature! Actual forwards from my step-mom. For your enjoyment.