Category Archives: Nerdy Stuff

Lego! Pirates!

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So for some reason, Kitti bought me a present. Lego Pirates of the Caribbean! It is, for lack of a better word, adorable. Watching Lego Captain Jack Sparrow flailing around is priceless. It’s got a lot of the usual features of the Lego games (bash all the furniture and plants) and a few new silly little things. So far it’s actually been much easier than the Indiana Jones and Star Wars, but I’ve only played through Tortuga, so it could get harder as it goes on.

Hopefully I’ll get to play a little tonight before House. Although I really should be practicing the violin. I need extra arms.

Write Story. Get Tattoo.

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This is my plan:

1. Write a short story.
2. Sell it.
3. Get my next tattoo with the money.

That’s how I got my Kindle. I sold “The Pardoner’s Tale” and when I got my first royalty check I used the money to buy a Kindle.

I know the tattoo thing is a weird motivator, but my mom and I were talking about what my next tattoo should be and she suggested the 4th Doctor’s scarf around my leg. Four was my first Doctor, I learned to knit so I could make the scarf, and I did make the scarf, so it’s a fantastic idea.

Now to just find something to write about….

Amazon’s MP3 Cloud

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Do yourself a favor. Use the Amazon mp3 cloud.

Seriously, this is a thing of beauty. I can now sit here at work, buy mp3s, and instantly they are in my cloud, safe and happy, waiting to be listened to. I can listen to them immediately on my Droid (music streaming is not allowed on work computers), download directly to my Droid, download directly to my home computer where I can back them up or put them on my iPod, and oftentimes the price is cheaper and the selection greater than iTunes. Right now I’m listening to The 99 Most Essential Violin Masterpieces, which was under three dollars and because it’s in the cloud, took no time at all to get.

The playback is also spectacular. I am using my Clear wireless widget so I’m not using my phone’s dataplan, and a good connection makes a difference, but even at home with a less-than-stellar connection the quality doesn’t suffer — it just has to buffer (hey, a poem!).

Amazon’s not paying me to say this, either, guys. Just so you know.

A New Kindle Isn’t Everything

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So last night we were watching television and an ad for the new Kindle comes on. Kitti moves over like he’s about to cover my eyes. I glared at him. “I’ve seen it, you know.”

I don’t need the current Kindle, anyhow. My First Gen is still working great, despite one scary moment on Sunday when I thought it was dead. I turned it on and the Amazon logo popped up. And stayed. And stayed. And stayed. So I turned it off. The logo stayed. And stayed. And stayed. I thought it was totally fried. I panicked a little. I Tweeted about it. And then I used a size 2 knitting needle to poke the Reset button and everything was okay again.

(side note: so far this week I’ve used knitting needles to fix the vacuum cleaner, reset my Kindle, amuse one of the cats during a vet visit, scratch another cat’s back, and break the tape on a package. Sock needles are also really good for getting shrink wrap and anti-theft stickers off CD cases).

I love my Kindle. It was the thing I bought with my very first ever royalty check. I’m going to keep it and love it and use it daily until it won’t work any longer. I’ve had to replace the battery, but it took about 2 and a half years before it wouldn’t hold a charge. Everything else is still perfect. I’m actually going to be kind of heartbroken when I finally have to replace Bertie.

That hasn’t stopped me from putting the newest one on my wish list, though. I mean… c’mon. I’m only human(ish).

The Two Greatest Things of 2010

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1. Amazon finally made it possible to send Kindle books as gifts. Anyone with an email address can now receive a book and read it on their Kindle, computer, and most smartphones.

2. Amazon made it possible to share Kindle books. Again, anyone with an email address can receive a book and read it on their Kindle, computer and most smartphones. It’s yours to read for two weeks. During those two weeks the sender cannot read the book.

These two things combined are very good for me — and for my mom. She had a bunch of Kindle books on her wishlist that I didn’t get her for Christmas because I wanted to read them, too. I would’ve bought them for her in print form because then I could borrow them from her. Now I can give her books in the easier-to-read and easier-to-handle Kindle format and still borrow them.

Because while I love my mom and like giving her books, it’s really all about me.

Jesus was a huge Kenny Loggins fan.

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The year I learned that Christmas did not, in fact, originate as a celebration of my amazing ability to temporarily transform into a “good” child for a few weeks was the year my grandparents took me to see their church’s nativity play.  My dad’s parents were heavily involved in their church and felt that, at six years old, it was time that I start appreciating the miracle of Jesus instead of using Christmas as an excuse to whore out my integrity for presents.  Even though my parents weren’t religious, they let me go to the play because it was important to my grandparents.

From my grandparents’ flowery explanation and frequent use of the word “miracle,” I went in expecting to be blown away by the production. Unfortunately, the church moms and the pathetic excuses for actors that they called their offspring failed to bring the characters to life in the way I had hoped.  And the story just seemed to center around everyone being really impressed with Jesus and there wasn’t much suspense and not a single battle scene.

They laughed and laughed until I thought they were going to asphyxiate on their own wretched spittle.

Reading this … I laughed and laughed until I thought I was going to asphyxiate on my own wretched spittle. My dog apparently thought I was having some sort of a seizure and started licking my face and pulling on my shirt collar.  One of the cats stood on the coffee table and stared at me.  I think she would’ve called 911 if she knew where the phone was.

Shhhh…. SHHHHHHH… Just go read it.

Twitter

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If you are/were/would like to be following me on Twitter, I’ve changed my name to “the___ninth“. That’s three underscores, kids! If I’d known it would come down to that, I would’ve stuck with dataangel.