Jess
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Posts by Jess
From the Win Files: Squishable Android, Wookiee the Chew, TG App Magnets
Sep 3rd
It’s been awhile since I’ve made a Win Files post. I have amassed a collection of things that make you go squee. Here is a sampling.
First up is from my most treasured Internet gem, Squishable.com: The Squishable Android! In June, the lovely folks at Squishable.com auctioned one of these adorable guys for the Child’s Play Charity. Just when I thought I couldn’t love these guys any more, they go and do that. Maybe if I’m a very good girl, Santa will leave me one under the tree when they go on sale in December. (HINT HINT)
This second example of pure win comes from artist James Hance in the form of Wookie the Chew. I love love love the original, classic, timeless artwork from Winnie the Pooh by E.H. Shepard (and many times imitable stories by A.A. Milne). The way he has merged Star Wars with Winnie the Pooh tugs at my nerdy heartstrings making me ridiculously happy. Prints are available at the link provided. He also has t-shirts and released a book this past Wednesday, September 1. I’m pretty sure Santa will have to beat me to the punch for getting “Most Likely Lose It Again, Anyway” in t-shirt form. WANT!
Last, but not least, another example of win from the fine folks at Think Geek, App Magnets. As Motorola Droid user, and recently indoctrinated member of the Cult of Android, I can’t help but poke a little fun at my iPhone using brethren. As appears to be the theme of today’s Wins, the magnets are simply a-dork-able. As testament to their awesomeness, they are currently out of stock. Think Geek has long been a purveyor of fine nerdy goods and I enjoy recommending them to many to fulfill multiple and sundry nerd-ly needs.
Baltimore Comic-Con, Death, and Sandman
Aug 30th
or “How after 12 years I came closer to completing my oldest collection and won the con at the same time”.
I started collecting Sandman comics around 1998 or so. This was back in the days when huge swaths of the San Diego Comic-Con floor was nothing but booth after booth of comic books. I would plop down with a box of $1 comics and a list written down on notebook paper and carefully pluck out the little treasures.
Terrible Loser
Aug 3rd
I saw yesterday’s PVP and it was like Scott Kurtz was inside my mind! (It’s incredibly important you view that comic before continuing. Go on ahead and look. I’ll wait.)
Did you read it? Good. (If you didn’t, go do so, but we’re not waiting for any stragglers. Keep up with the rest of the class!)
Explanation of Scott Kurtz’s mind-reading powers: I suck at losing. Which is a big problem for me, because I lose a lot. Munchkin? Settlers of Catan? Halo? (OMG am I terrible at Halo) Super Mario Brothers for the Wii? (There was much stress from badly losing the game)
The way it works for me is a series of if/then/else statements. If everyone has the same experience level then I am generally fine with losing. If I am the only one new to the game then I probably won’t play. My chances of winning are low and I won’t learn by continually being beaten. If I am the one with the most experience then I will play confident that I will win. When I lose, it is infuriating.
Wherever possible, I prefer cooperative play. Best-case scenario is playing a game where I am my only opponent. Example: DJ Hero. There are no goombas, orcs, flying-turtles, or spike deathtraps for me to blame for my failure. DJ Hero is learning music in easy mode. If I mess up a mix, I know I’ll do better next time and get five stars to boot. DJ Hero was the tincture that soothed the Super Mario Bros rage-beast (See Dex-Starr above for example of rage-beasts).
Now I have Starcraft II. Trey and I played each other last night and the first match, he crushed me. I got irritated, knew I couldn’t win and just surrendered. It made me grouchy. He gave me some pointers on how to do that role better and we played again. I won the next match, but he went a little easy on me so as not to upset the marital household. After last night, the PVP comic was just perfectly timed.
Honeymoon Recap
Jul 27th
Absentee Blogger
Jul 17th
I am a bad blogger. I promised an update during the long weekend and didn’t deliver. I apologize. Lots. I even had a fun post about shoes drafted that I never bothered to post. Some day soon. Promises.
It has been super hot here the last few weeks. We haven’t hardly had a chance to enjoy our kickass patio set we bought because the heat and humidity has been so oppressive. Such is life in Maryland. Our in ground garden has been pretty productive now that we’ve fended off the deer and weeded it. Our container garden has not done as well. Note to other container gardeners: ceramic pots create too much heat and cook the roots of your plants. Next year we’re going to fork over the cash and go with some whiskey barrel pots instead.
The most exciting thing was the earthquake yesterday. It woke Trey and I both up at 5am when it happened. I remember my cat growling waking me up. Apparently, Trey woke up and asked why the headboard was shaking. I told him the whole house was shaking and that it was an earthquake and to go back to sleep (I do not remember saying this, but he swears I did). He told me it wasn’t an earthquake, this is Maryland, it was just a low-flying plane. When he got up and checked the Internet, my earthquake claims were confirmed.
It is a little known fact that there is a very large, dangerous fault line underneath the Eastern seaboard. It is often forgotten because it is not very active at all. We’ve been hearing a few more reports of other earthquakes steadily moving west. Like dominoes.
Next week, we head to San Diego for our honeymoon. This includes two days at the San Diego Comic-Con. We are very excited. Trey gleefully enjoys telling people where we’re going for our honeymoon. Then, even more gleefully, he enjoys telling people that it was MY idea to go to Comic-Con for a honeymoon. I am the nerd girl. It is true.
So, that’s really all I’ve got going on. Work has been picking up in busy-ness rather steadily the last few weeks. Planning for the honeymoon has consumed a lot of my leisure Internet time. Sitting down and writing has not been foremost on my mind, sadly. I hope I’ll have more to say post Comic-Con.
Radio Silence
Jul 2nd
It’s been quiet here in the country the last week or so. I’ve had to drive in to the office every day this week which is soul crushing and draining to say the least. There’s a very good reason I take full advantage of my ability to work from home.
Any of the time I’d normally use for blogging has otherwise been occupied with commuting this week. It stinks. I promise some fun stuff next week. There’s a bunch of different ideas floating around my head wanting out. And the spam has been hilarious the last two weeks too.
For now I just have to shout out to my friends who have unknowingly made this week bearable, the tiny victories of finding Chinese food that delivers and the caffeine consumed miraculously keeping me awake.
I would be a horrible wife for not also giving love to my husband who has suppressed his own bad day dealings to comfort me. His week has sucked just as much but he’s let me be the whiny one. I win at life because I married that guy.
Naughty Decoy
Jun 22nd
Our house has a really nice sized deck. It has an excellent view in the winter and a good mix of view and privacy in the spring and summer when the trees have leafed out. It also gets quite a lot of sun. This is both good and bad. Good for container gardening and plants that needs lots of sunlight. Bad for just hanging out on the deck because it gets ridiculously hot. And you can forget spending any amount of time on the deck barefoot.
Because of this particular limitation, I refuse to purchase a metal patio set. It would get too hot to sit on and then what’s the point of having it? So, I insist on buying a wood patio set. I found a perfect teak one at a seasonal store a few months back. The season came and went and I do not have a teak patio set, unfortunately. I was at Lowes the week before the wedding for something not patio-related and saw a 5-piece wood patio set. I decided to come back after the wedding and get it. My patio set problem appeared to be solved.
Trey and I went to Lowes this weekend to purchase said patio set. As we pulled out the chairs and sat down in it, I came to a horrible realization. The chair was cold. Cold? Wood doesn’t get cold in air conditioning? The wood patio set was metal painted to look like wood. Naughty decoy patio set!
I would not be foiled. We continued shopping around Lowes in the hopes that something else would catch my eye. Such a set did, it is dark brown wicker and on clearance! The naughty decoy was trying to keep me from finding the killer deal in the next room. Obviously.
I honestly would have much preferred the teak patio dining set from the other shop, but I will be very happy with the set we found. Now the tricky part is getting my victorious find delivered. It was supposed to arrive yesterday. No such luck. Some sort of mishap involving no one having put together the thing and it not getting onto the truck yesterday. I should get it tomorrow. Expect a volcanic hissy fit if they fail a second time. Lowes, you’re on notice. I usually <3 you, don’t disappoint me.
From The Win Files: A Font’s Story, The Best Wedding Invitations, and a Documentary
Jun 16th
From The Win Files will be a list of nifty things or links that I just find completely and utterly awesome. Welcome to the first installment.
I Am Comic Sans, a short imagined monologue from an oft-maligned font found on every personal computer from here to Timbuktu. If you have delicate sensibilities regarding foul language, this here be your warning.
I have the uncontrollable urge to place a tiny little 100×100 preview graphic of the awesome in the next link but I can’t bring myself to preview it and cheapen the full reveal. While I was very proud of my own wedding invitations, I would have been just as happy with these and take no personal insult in declaring them the Best. Wedding Invitations. Ever. Serious nerd points with this one. Serious. Like whoa.
Morgan Spurlock of Super Size Me fame is working on a documentary about people who <3 Comic-Con. My husband and I are going to Comic-Con this year for 2 days of our honeymoon. I’m trying to decide if I’m going to be outgoing enough to send in a submission for the documentary. How much will I kick myself if I miss out on it?
Comcast Bought My New Xbox
Jun 15th
For whatever reason, Comcast sent me a $150 Visa rebate card. I vaguely recall why having something to do with an account creation deposit and accepting the terms of service for my contract. Needless to say it was a pleasant surprise!
Last week, our Xbox up and red ring of deathed. First it was doing some fun video locking up accompanied by loud crackling. I found a trouble shooting article on Microsoft’s website for it and determined it wasn’t the hard drive. Yay! It was the actual console.
To be fair, it lasted almost 4 years of infrequent use as a first or second gen Xbox. Not too shabby. The timing of it just sucked. Trey was very much looking forward to getting his couch potato on in advance of the wedding weekend. We wandered out to Best Buy and bought the plain olds arcade Xbox with no hard drive. My rationale being if the hard drive from the old console was crap, it would still be cheaper to buy that console and a huge drive separately than the elite.
My cunning plan worked fine however and we plopped the hard drive on the new Xbox and were up and running right away. It was really nice not having to recreate gamer tags and restart all our games.
Yay technology and thanks for the happy surprise Comcast! I take back all the nasty things I’ve said about you. 
Wedding Day Recap
Jun 14th
Goal #1: At the end of the day, be married to the person you love most in the world.
ACHIEVED
Things did not all go as planned, which if anyone will recall, was planned. And everyone loved it anyway which was so much more important to me.
