the lion's share

because i clearly suck at sitting down and doing the necessary after a long, fantastic vacation (by writing an account of the trip and putting together a nice slide show of photos), i am going to submit to the fact that it will come at its own pace. and because i had such a long hiatus, i've been storing up links to share like crazy. so in no particular theme or order, here are some early week treats:

• future me: e-time capsule a note to yourself.
  
  
• stickk: this site helps you commit to your personal goals by helping you create a timeline to reach them and if you fail to, you forfeit an amount of money to a good cause. participating organizations include american red cross, CARE, doctors without borders, feed the children, freedom from hunger, multiple sclerosis society, UNICEF, and united way. i haven't tried this, mostly because i'm short on the dough lately after my big trip. but i like the element of credible threat it provides. and the threat just happens to include good-doery.
  
  
• original oregon trail: i don't think i need to say a lot about this program. oregon trail is fun and even though facebook has an OT application, it just isn't the same. so, whenever you get that itch for the real OT experience, see the link above.
  
  
• quizlet: quizlet was started in 2005 by a fifteen year-old. makes me feel unaccomplished. anyway, the site is great because it's basically a web-based program that helps you create digital flashcards. you make a list of words, and the site teaches them to you. you can also browse other existing sets of cards.
  
  
• metremade: free, pretty wallpaper designs for your desktop.
  
  
• nine months of free credit monitoring: transunion, one of the three major credit bureaus, apparently lost a class-action lawsuit and the settlement involves offering up to nine months of free credit monitoring service to anyone who has ever held a credit card over the last 20 years (i.e. lots of people). this includes free access to your credit score in addition to the report, as well as e-mail alerts when something changes. you don’t need to supply your full social security number (needs last four digits) or a credit card number, and you won’t be automatically signed up for any paid subscriptions after the free period. see this website for more details.
  
  
• fivethrityeight: developed by nathaniel read silver, this site features a system for tracking and forecasting the outcome of the 2008 US presidential election. the site is highly regarded, as forecasts based on demographic analysis proved to be substantially more accurate than those of the professional pollsters.
  

wierd, awesome, and weirdly awesome (nsfw)

i had a really terrible weekend and i still don't know what to think about it. and if a dog is the point of reference, i am sicker than it. i can't remember a time i had a case of the flu this bad. and worse to know, i got my damn flu shot for the first time a few months ago. i guess i got a new strain of bug, lucky me.

anyway, enough crybabying. it's sharing time. the internet is a birthplace of weird. and these three sites are more examples. please, enjoy or be disturbed or some combo of both:

http://arianeb.com/dateariane/default.htm: virtual one night stand: the game
http://www.lasagnacat.com/: garfield the movie, but not that movie
http://www.fatalfarm.com/tvthemes.html: our favorite tv show intros, fatal farm style

on fairies, kings, and vampires

inga introduced me to goodreads.com, which is yet another networking site, but i really enjoy it because i get to see what my friends like to read and what new books they’re interested in reading in the future. if you’re not on it already, you should be, because i’d like you to be (see above reason).

anyway, when i was adding books into my digital library, ann rice kept popping up on the site for me to review and i kept avoiding it. i didn’t want the world to know i poured through her novels the moment they hit the shelf. and it wasn't just interview with the vampire, but her whole friggin’ collection of perverted ghosts and antebellum-era blood-suckers. but i finally broke down and realized i had to be fair. i am not just a connoisseur of the classics like great expectations and othello (which to my credit, and i need it, are among my favorites). no, between austen novels i was also enjoying much more explicit, and a lot less classic smut. i’ve come to grips with the fact that i will never be “cool” because most of my truest pleasures have been guilty.

after acknowledging my rice addition in my digital library, inga mentioned she had a rice phase too (though didn’t admit to the extent of her shame). but it got me thinking about my tastes and modes of thinking as an adolescent and how much those can change. it was strange going back and rereading (or really glancing at) a book of rice's, because i kept thinking, 'why??'

so, i made a list in the spirit of that nostalgia. and i hope that if you’re reading my embarrassing admissions, you feel like sharing too.

a short list of things about my adolescence i often roll my eyes at myself for:

-lace chokers (especially matched with doc martens): i missed boarding the glam-grunge boat when it floated aimlessly through the early 90s. but when i discovered, finally, how cool flannel shirts were (and i still feel strongly about that), i was all about it. i have an old photo of me from some informal school dance next to a boy from my trailer park (in flannel) with me wearing a floral printed “baby doll” dress, with fake docs, and a thick lace choker. i never smoked pot in high school, but i guess i unwittingly looked like i did.

-tori amos: i was a huge fan, saw her live, owned all the albums and most of the vinyl (under the pink was actually pink). i imagine that i used to sing her songs aloud often, which is cringe-worthy considering just my singing voice. and yeah, i have to admit she’s an extremely talented performer. it’s just, well, the dark, dorky fantasy of it all that i can never quite feel right about today. and yes, i know some of you still love her, but i just find myself wanting nothing to do with anymore melodramatic, croony songs about fairies.

-early engagement: i fell stupidly hard for the first boy that ever touched me down “there.” and three months after we were “going out” after the homecoming dance, he got on bended knee and proposed marriage. and i literally thought ‘um, i guess that sounds like a good idea’ and said yes. six years later and after many break-ups and make-ups, he broke it all off over AIM one christmas eve because he was bored (and i guess, so was i). love's first sting!

-king’s quest (and worse, the fiction related to it): computer games are much more prevalent now, so admitting that you are into a computer game isn’t a big deal. well, unless you’re my friend’s 50-something, single mom who is a huge (and successful) WOW fan, which is weirdly endearing. more than ten years ago, though, i was playing the whole series of king’s quest games, which was an rpg-style game in which you went around a country-side as a disguised royal solving a family mystery. i spent so much time playing these games that it seemed only natural to buy and read the helpful, yet really unecessary fiction that went along with it. let’s just say that the only person i had to talk about it with was the pasty, socially-latent kid from high school nicknamed “richard underwear.”

wii will rock you

dear web journal,

i'm back. it was a good, short vacation. and it gave karl and i a healthy amount of time to miss each other a bit.

i spent about four days back home in the mojave desert with my very closest friend, mike, and my expecting step-sister, tabitha. and for the record, my niece OR nephew is stubbornly holding out on his OR her gender by hiding coyly behind tab's umbilical cord. needless to say, i am thrilled by the idea of my upcoming role as an aunt and i could really care less, girl or boy. but maybe i'll have news in a week or so.

and it was great seeing mike. saturday, we saw the decemberists (with the LA philharmonic) at the hollywood bowl with his siblings. i'm not a big fan of the decemberists, but i enjoyed the show, nonetheless. the band of horses and andrew bird opened the show; i enjoyed them both quite a bit.

the rest of the time, we all (including tab and her dude, josé) played hours and hours of nintendo wii. i want one soooooo bad. so bad. it'll probably be christmas time or so before we get one. but until then, i will dream of kicking mike's mii butt on wii darts for the wiillionth time.

**photo courtesy of the iconfactory.

check-mates

dear web journal,

i’m a competitive person and i love playing games. my friends back home can attest to this, as any get together we have usually includes some sort of board gaming. i’m also a huge fan of video games, though that usually limits my company to stinky, fast-food-eating dudes.

this past weekend, dmytro (karl’s buddy, a ukrainian post-doctoral engineer) took us out to a local pub where we played several rounds of the dart game, cricket. it was spectacular fun! and karl and i have started up nightly games of chess too. we both enjoy playing each other; mostly because i think we’re both at the same skill level and games remain closely matched.

there are a lot of pretty dart boards out there, but that’s just one of those things that i enjoy the pub setting over playing from my home. but i do like the look of this chess board—-modern and simple. i can’t spend any money these days, unless it is life-sustainingly necessary or essential to the wedding. but i can lust, can’t i?

have a favorite indoor or outdoor game? any especially good board games i should know about?

i’ve got spring fever

dear web journal,

i haven’t had a cold or the flu since i first moved here, which is pretty great. but i think you could safely say i’m sick of being indoors. the weather, as of late, is coyly calling to me from outside the office window and i can barely concentrate on grant budgets.

this weekend, karl and i enjoyed a good hike through mt. sequoia and around lake fayetteville. but like yesterday, when i am not content enough to just walk and i feel the need to nerd it up a bit, i pull out karl’s fancy GPS device. he’s got a gpsmap 60csx, which primarily is a hiking/exploration gps device, but is also driver friendly (which helped us navigate our alternate snow route this winter when driving back to CA). what i love most about it, however, are its games.

now, if you’re the type that might scoff at a wii player wriggling around, you probably wouldn’t be interested in the public display of total geekdom that gps game play requires. it’s nice that i have such a big yard to play in, which functions as the game board. there’s a maze game, a chase game, and my favorite, a memory game. i like it because i get to be outdoors and i’m slowly learning how to navigate myself more acutely with the device. karl has a few more advanced adventures (geocaching, treasure hunts, confluence hunting, etc.) planned for us that’ll be sure to update with as the weather continues to pull us outdoors. if you know someone with a garmin, i suggest trying some of the games out and then stealing it for your own adventures.