What?

By Roz Young, October 20 2011

            This blog was going to be titled “What I’ve Been Up To”, but I just left it the way you’ll actually feel when you finish reading this.
I’ve been playing Portal. It’s awesome. Matt too. Is playing Portal I mean. Oh, he’s also awesome. It’s too early to drink this much coffee. We’re on to Portal 2.

            We’ve also decided that we name pets now. Well, rename them. They start out with boring, lame names and we give them spectacular ones, with titles. For example, we ran into an adorable golden retriever, who might have actually been named Hailey, and we decided to call her Sergeant Perkins. Much better. You’re welcome people who can’t name their pets properly. There was also a crazy tiny puppy we called Admiral Tinkles. We work with a Carmen, and her giant Pomeranian is now called Commander Pufflebun.
Do you have a cat that looks like Chemistry Cat? His name is now Flufferton vonFuzzybuttons.
How about Business Cat, or rather Mr. Benjamin Wiggles-Jones, Esquire?
            In more exciting news, we did not lose by 12 this week while curling! Increasing our score infinitely from last week, in a sort of divide by 0 kind of thing, we lost 8-7. Or something, I stopped paying attention when it became apparent that we would not be getting free beer. I wonder if I could order butterbeer at the curling rink.
Spoiler: This cake is a lye!
 I had the thought this morning that we could solve a huge problem the geek world over by marketing nerdy bath products. Portal themed soaps, WoW shampoo, hobbit home care pedicure products… It’s an untapped market! Genius! I’d like the ladies section to have all the colours geek chic, because who doesn’t want nail polish in lightsaber green?

I’m Not Reading This, But I Wish I Was

By Roz Young, October 17 2011

            So, I find that I often purchase things for people that I think look interesting. And then I wish I’d bought a copy for myself. Because I have excellent taste. I’ve done this a few times lately so I’m going to post some links to things as a review of awesomeness to come. As in, I think these things are probably amazing, but I can’t really say for sure because I haven’t actually read them yet. Make sense? Gravy.
            http://cowboyninjaviking.blogspot.com/
This link is to the Cowboy Ninja Viking blog about a comic that I wish I was reading. I will go out and buy this. You might want to as well. This badass dude has multiple personalities, and he is ALL three things: cowboy (hells yes), ninja (amazaballs!) and Viking (/sexy). So… I’m sold. The art looks crazy cool and the copy I bought for someone else has been well received.

            http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We3
Next, We3 is the comic series I almost bought and now have serious regrets about leaving behind. It looks intense, emotionally, and beautifully strange. Three animals, a dog, a cat and a rabbit, are turned into robotic soldiers and attempt to escape to find “home”. I was worried that they don’t all make it and wasn’t sure that I’m not a fragile girl who would just sit and cry constantly reading about adorable pets in pain. But, I think I’m missing out on something awesome. I’m going to put on my big girl Hello Kitty shirt and pick up the three issues.

 This book is a debut novel that I’m told will blow your socks off. I’m going to read it. When I finish reading all the other things I’m supposed to be reading but I’ve been very distracted.
            
In other news, I play Portal now. Portal is cool. It’s been a long time coming, but I’ve finally taken the plunge and now I have a problem. Also, I want cake. Understandably, I now must have the sequel. But first, I will bake (Is this game equally as addictive as sugar?). The internets are full of recipes for the Portal cake, which, I gather is a bit of spoiler for the game’s sequel so I’m avoiding actually reading too much. Here you go, if you want some cake that isn’t a lie.http://jedifreac.livejournal.com/714209.html

I Needed The Giggle

By Roz Young, October 6 2011

Oo, autocorrect wants that “The” to be lower case. Well, suck it Word, I’m leaving the title the way I wrote it. Do you ever get angry at autocorrect, because it’s so superior thinking it knows you are a passive sentence little bitch that always gets the wrong thier? Yeah, just try and change it, I’ll change it back, I’ll do it.
Ok, enough of that. I was actually feeling super crappy this week. Unrelated to my epic battle with the word processing feature that knows so much more about grammar than I do. No, I’ve been remembering that last October was bright, and sunny, and my dad died. Sucky. Right? Well, I got better. And I must thank my friends and family for all the kind words and silly messages or emails. You guys are da best.
What’s going on today? Well, we went for Vietnamese food because it’s delicious and we could. Today is cold in Edmonton, I’d like to say unseasonably cold, but I always think that means bland and tasteless rather than unusual, and I’m not really sure but both things are true. It’s gray and boring out there and won’t just give up and rain properly. So I had fried tofu on noodles and mmmmmmm. On our way back, I wrapped my sweater around my body and hugged myself tight and a “brrr” escaped. Matt started laughing at me. Apparently I sounded more like a “baby rainbow unicorn revving a toy tricycle” than a grown woman who has math to do and is avoiding calculations in excel by writing this blog. Also by making this picture because the idea made me laugh. And sometimes you need a giggle more than you need to figure out continuous stirred tank bioreactor stuff.

Shame, I have music shame

By Roz Young, September 30 2011

Matt and I spend a lot of time in my car. Not like that, don’t be gross. But in order to get places, we’re in my vehicle and I’m a radio gal. I like the local modern rock station, shout out Sonic 102.9. But I also like to browse the airwaves and flip stations. I have a short attention span. Matt is a budding hipster and can’t help himself. He brings music with him and likes to introduce me to bands I’ve never heard of and songs he knows I’ll like (they have horns or strange sounds or just generally kick ass… or the only lyrics are panda, panda, panda). So, Matt leaves CDs in my car and makes me mixes of awesome. He endures my penchant for le radio with only an occasional tantrum. Also, he likes classic rock that shows up on the radio every now and then.
Now, here is the secret shame I’m revealing to the internet. When Matt isn’t in the car, sometimes I listen to the bad stations. These are the stations that actually played Rebecca Black’s “Friday” and reduce your IQ logarithmically for every minute of listening. Yes, most of it is epic shite. Yes, they play Britney. Still. Yes, the lyrics are awful and the music is unoriginal and this stuff is so fucking catchy I can’t help myself. Mostly, I tune in only to switch stations within two pumping bass beats of crap, but there are two songs on the radio right now that I shamefully admit to liking. I’m sorry Matt. I’m so very sorry. I like “I’m Sexy and I Know It” by LMFAO and Nicki Minaj’s “Super Bass”. I feel dirty just saying it. I’ve posted links to the songs below. But, be warned. You might listen and then have this creeping feeling all over, as the notion that you actually enjoyed that crawls across your skin. They are fun and kind of weird and I don’t care that Matt is going to read this and shake his head.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyx6JDQCslE&feature=aso

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JipHEz53sU
            To show Matt that I appreciate his attempt to culture me (as I’m clearly the musical equivalent of The Woman), here are two songs from a recent mix that I heart most enthusiastically. The first is Fiona Apple’s “Extraordinary Machine”. Lovely. The second song has rockin’ horn action, “Monkeys” by the Mad Caddies. Can’t I like all the songs?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6d3hMLewyU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i40nlJqIbg