HOARD! & HODOR!

This last weekend was the weekend of dragons. No-- Dragons. Capital D. Because there were a lot of them.

First, I bought Season 2 of Game of Thrones...and watched it all. Yup. 10 hours of epicness, that resulted in a television-induced coma and mild depression. Sure, it was hard to get over some of the unnecessary changes they made that didn't add anything to the story or surprise fans that read the book. In fact, in some cases the changes made things more confusing, and harder to understand character motivation. Bah. Nevertheless, I still think they did a great job. Book two was hard to get through, and the show did a good job of keeping up the momentum from Season/Book one, and not getting too bogged down with internal dialogue (which wouldn't make sense in this format anyway). Plus- dragons! Dany's story really picks up at this point. And I'm super excited to see what happens next. Although it's not looking good. I think this giant series is an unfortunately mega-entertaining no-win scenario. Martin has deviously made us love and hate every character (except for Joffrey. He is the worst!). And has no problem killing off the single person we grow to love more than hate at the moment we realize it. Gah. I predict this ending with the dragons and Others destroying everything...or maybe its one of those series that just wont end. There is no way to put a bow on this hot mess.

Still Alive

To make up for lost time, today is a two part-er-

Part I. I briefly rave about Portal 2:

Mole-y cow! I love Portal 2. I took about a year to finish, which was not my or the game's fault. Played halfway through on Fiance's Xbox in one sitting. Forgot it wasn't my own xbox and that I didn't have it saved on my own to resume playing later. Then, was gifted his Xbox's hard drive, only to find out Fiance's brother cleared the drive of the game's save!

A Study in Sherlock

Good news! I've finally been allowed to return to civilization, thanks to my dad generously picking me up today while my car remains on a slab of ice. Yay winter...

As you may or may not remember from my last post, I'd spent most of my non-working hours during the snow storm watching Sherlock on Netflix. It's been in my queue for over a year now- number one spot too- but I've never watched it before. Oddly enough here was my thought process for selecting this show:

"Hmm. What to watch? I've been meaning to try Castle, but it's not on here. I could watch Bones, since that looks fun. But it's a crime show, I don't want to watch that...It'll start off with a murder, and freak me out...Hmm. What's this? Sherlock? I guess I'll give it a go..."

Captain's Log - Snowpocalypse 2013

So apparently most of the Midwest was finally pummeled with our dose of winter. Sure it had been in the 70s about a week prior. But who are we kidding- it's February. This was inevitable.

And I've decided that snow days are as close as I will ever be to understanding what it would be like to live in space...perhaps this is heightened by the fact that I work at home, but I think it could be universal.

For those of you that actually got notice that you didn't have to go to work, that likely meant you got to sleep in. I'm going to call that hibernation, for your hyperspace or intergalactic "travel". (Why did I put "travel" in quotes. This whole scenario is entirely hypothetical and made up...silly me.) Those of us whose commute to work includes a hallway and maybe a staircase, the snow makes no difference- we don't get to hibernate through our trip. We're like the captains, that have to report to our desk and command center and keep on truckin'.

Then there's the whole "omgosh-i-can't-get-out-of-my-house-to-go-eat!" factor. Suddenly the few frozen pizzas and cans of soup I picked up on a whim a couple days ago are now my rations?! What ever you've got in your cupboard is all you've got until the journey is over. You are in deep space, my friend. And that box of almost-stale crackers that you've been eyeing to throw away are now a part of your efforts at nutrition. Yikes.

Human contact is also at a minimum. My only space companion is my cat, who is no Chewbacca, let me tell you. So my objective in this isolation is to stay sane and keep contact with the outside world as much as possible...apparently I have failed in this regard, since I'm blogging that my house is apparently like a space ship. (I may have lost my mind). I think for those with fellow travelers, the challenge would also be to stay sane and remain in close quarters with your roommates and/or family for days, witnessing them each freak out with cabin fever, or wrinkle their face every time you offer them another can of soup.

Also, like any good space traveler, it's important to be active and exercise to keep your muscle mass and not dissolve into another plush couch cushion. Working out is now completely mandatory, just for something to do besides watching all of Sherlock in one sitting, as tempting as it may be.

Which brings me to my last point- I don't recommend watching Sherlock if you are traveling (Han!) solo. I just started watching that show when the winter weather started. And everything was great and clever and brilliant as British television tends to be. And then I got to episode three. Moriarty is the creepiest person I've ever seen on a television show. EVER. And being that I was alone on my little space ship, he was as invasive and disturbing as the assassin on the season finale of Firefly (who was actually kind of awesome, by the way.)

"Strains the mind a bit, doesn't it?"

Well. That's my theory. I'm certain you're all now convinced I've lost my mind. But really I just have nothing to report on this week, other than I've played way too many hours of Civilization V. You don't want to hear about that, really.

Signing off,
-BeetHats

Intergalactic Planetary Planetary Intergalactic

...Beastie Boy songs do NOT translate well to written word. Haha. Here's the video....

Well, we all survived Valentine's Day. Which, if you've seen the news at all, you'd know it was a close call. Not only did Russia have to deal with a crazy meteor, but an asteroid flew past Earth closer than some orbiting telecommunication satellites.

For those who aren't fond of links, or the news...isn't that crazy! This is the meteor!

Busy day!

And to think, I had originally thought the highlight of Valentine's was my cat managing to turn off the power strip my computer was plugged into last night, while I was in the middle of a random dungeon that took forever to queue...Valentine's Day is very popular time for World of Warcraft, I've decided. Apparently no one took my advice about watching action movies. Present company included...

But I am pretty excited about this weekend- which will include the new Die Hard movie, Vol. 2 of both Wonder Woman AND The Ultimates (Mega-thanks to Fiance who got them for me! Super hard to find in actual comic shops in town, by the way), a couple hours of D&D, roller derby awesomeness, finally watching Serenity, and don't forget Downton Abbey! May be the best non-Valentine's weekend ever!

I know it's Friday and that means I owe you all pictures. I'm feeling a tad uninspired by what I've found today. Instead of funny pictures, I'm going with more crazy-awesome-cosmic-event pictures.

Backstory: I got some random mailer for The Great Courses, which is actually a pretty cool site selling lectures on CD, DVD or for download, on a wide-variety of topics. I went with Understanding the Universe (currently on sale again- kind of a must), which is taught by Dr. Alex Filippenko-- who you may recognize from History Channel's The Universe. I'll have to let you guys know how it goes after I finish the lecture series! Might take a bit, it's 96 half-hour videos. Whew! ...Anyway, the course included a syllabus (yikes) and recommended reading and websites. One in particular is extra-amazing: HubbleSite. It's pretty much just a collection of awe-inspiring photos taken by Hubble. If you have time to browse, it's definitely worth a look.  I always loved my dad's copy of Cosmos, because of all the great pictures (no, I haven't actually read it...*sigh*)...

So here you go:

Wide View of "Mystic Mountain"

Spiral Galaxy M100

FREAKIN' AMAZING, RIGHT?! Surely, one of these galaxies are a long time ago, and far enough away...

-BeetHats

Geek Love

Ah, Hell Week...uh, I mean, Valentine's Day!

I was going to wait until the 14th to post about the holiday, but I decided better of it. I feel like on this I do have some geek wisdom on how to survive this week, no matter your relationship status...

Heh, didn't we all?

So if you are single, as I have been many many Valentine's Days, let me advise: it's not the end of the world. It may feel completely sucky and isolating, but it shouldn't and here is why. It's a day about love. And everyone knows there are different types of love, and not all of them are yucky, or heart-wrenching. Apparently in Sweden it's treated as Friendship Day, so you can celebrate all the "loves" of your life. I like to imagine that means all the Swedes call each other on this special day to say "hey bro, I love you." So, if you can't seem to ignore the day entirely, I say celebrate all the different loves in your life- friendship, family, etc. The Greeks would be so proud.

If you're still not into it- this is the perfect day to catch up on all the action-flicks you haven't seen in a while. Like, the ones that have zero love story. ZERO. I highly recommend Live Free or Die Hard. Any Die Hard is a good zero-love-story movie. But the 4th seems to go so well; remember how the asian chick and the bad guy were like a thing? Yeah, not a great Valentine's Day for them: in other words, it's a great film for a "misery loves company" approach. Casino Royale is another great way to go. The Avengers is another great one. And the Interpreter. There is no love in any of these movies, really. Just a lot of kicking ass. See what you are capable of when you don't have a significant other holding you back! Epic-ness! Enjoy!

Now, for those of us that do have that someone special, the day causes a wholly different kind of agony. Obligatory gift buying. And I've noticed when it's young love, it's high stakes. My parents have been together 25 years. This means a nice card and chocolates are sufficient. But for young love, it's a mess. When it's young puppy love or what have you, it pretty much means you have to set a price tag for just how much you care about this other person even if it's not something you've had to put into words yet. "I love you x-amount of dollars (or time) now tangible in this gift." But it's kind of a trap; too much too soon, too little after so long- there is no win.

I think Valentine's is much more successful to approach it as reflection and celebration of "how well do I know this person?" and then plan accordingly. Treat it as a challenge, when then makes it a bit of a game. For example, the best Valentine's Day gift I ever got actually was flowers. For the record, I kind of really dislike flowers. A lot. Fiance, he knew this but he also knew we couldn't celebrate Valentine's together. "Challenge accepted!" So he had flowers delivered to my place of work with the lyrics to one of Robin Sparkle's songs on How I Met Your Mother (our at-the-time-and-possibly-still-favorite-tv-show). Hours before receiving said flowers I wished Fiance a happy Valentine's on Facebook with a YouTube video of the other Robin Sparkle's song. 'twas EPIC, because it was like "man, we know each other so awesomely well!"

Also, I've decided Valentine's Day is a great time for geek gals to win some major bragging points for themselves and their equally geeky significant others. Here it is: the secret to an awesome present. This site has been the key to gift-giving success for 13 years. And I've used it consistently since I've discovered it. Like, every present I ever buy, I buy here. It may not be creative, Fiance knows he's going to get a gift there. But he never knows what and it's just pages and pages of epic-ness. Win freakin' win. Pair this with an awesome action flick that you know you'd love to watch anyway (like A Good Time to Die Hard!), and yippee ki-yay, you've got the most epic Valentine's day that not only you will enjoy, but all of your dude's friends will be so jealous while they are stuck in the latest Nicolas Spark's disaster. That or like, Step Up 25 (because they will never stop making those films either).

Happy Valentine's Day, everybody!

-BeetHats

You Can't Take the Sky From Me

So for starters- I finally got my giant lot shipment of comic books. I picked through the ones that I had specifically requested (mostly Marvel, woot) but I have over 100 DC and other comics that I really don't want. Any takers? These suckers are all retro and have pretty wicked artwork...and will end up on Craigslist likely. Unless anyone has recommendations for how to get rid of a giant box of comics. Do comic book stores take donations? Lol But seriously...I have enough of 'em I could turn it into wallpaper.

Not that I would, for obvious reasons...but I could.

In other news, I've recently discovered I, like many others, "suffer" from complete adoration for the show Firefly. Thank goodness for Netflix, am I right? I never would have seen this show if it had just been cancelled and resigned to fan-posted clips on Youtube. Ah, Netflix-- you rock. Firefly- you rock too. At first I couldn't really get into it, I was just so confused by everything and was like, "eh, this belonged on the SciFy channel"...but I gave it another shot. And now I understand it's post-cancellation success. It's wonderful; I love this weird mishmash of western-science-fiction-asian-fusion-comedy-drama-adventure-things. LOVE. I can't say I'm a fangirl of Fillion (who is still awesome, undeniably), but it may be Shepard Book who is my fave. I'm done with the series yet, so no spoilers please!

Fiance and I yell "Let loose the bats of insanity!" every time River shows up.

So...now it's time for your Friday Picture. Yes, just one. If you need more...scroll up, dummies.

Okay. Fillion rocks too. And Jayne...okay. All of them. ALL of them rock.

Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!

-BeetHats