Mr. Bumpy's Karaoke Cafe

Geek Love

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 21:10:06 GMT

2009’s Sexiest Geeks

Wired Magazine has renewed its Sexiest Geeks of the year voting (warning: yesterday it had photoshopped naked people, so possibly NSFW), and let’s face it: that list is crap.

Instead of a list of Geeks Who Are Sexy, the submissions to Wired list People That Geeks Find Sexy—an entirely different category. Most of the men and women on the list aren’t geeks, they just play them on TV! Just because you want to schtupp their geeky alter-egos doesn’t mean they’re eligible for the title, and the list of actresses, models, and porn stars is way off-base. So we have to be stricter in our eligibility: demonstrable geekiness in private life.

But more than that, I'd like to see a list that highlights at least some men and women who are stimulating on more than one level. Men and women who make you feel giddy because they can quote “The Defence of Poesy,” make a Big Daddy or Predator out of household materials, or contribute to the breadth of human knowledge with research in science and history. Sexy geeks are people whose writing or videos make your heart flutter when you see them pop up on the RSS; people you make sure to Tivo even when they just guest-star on Law & Order. People who make geeks look good.

So who would you nominate?

Click article for the list.

Math + Art!

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 21:14:30 GMT

See the whole post here.

For used_songs specifically, and all of you as well.

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 20:17:06 GMT

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 20:42:13 GMT

Oh, and apparently the Thanksgiving leftovers were still good. ;)

I'm not ashamed...

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 05:35:11 GMT

I watched Night at the Museum II - and laughed my ass off. Yeah, silly comedy FTW.

Crafty knitty blah blah blah

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 03:14:17 GMT

Weekend projects:

Tree decorations, for the county shelter's donation barrels. Bells and stockings. Need to flatten out the lil' stockings a bit. Their toes are curling, and not from anything salacious.

Beginning of a sleeveless top, in the round, in a twisted stockinette stitch. It'll take a while, but is pretty mindless.

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 03:47:23 GMT

Ah, thanksgiving week! The week of food, of family, of neuroses. We're keeping it pretty simple. Angel's folks are coming up for dinner on Thursday, we're going to keep it basic. My father can't make it, unfortunately; he's going to spend it with his sister and her husband (both of whom are in poor health).

Then, we're going to spend the rest of the long weekend doing whatever we want. Including, but not limited to: watching movies. Watching old TV shows. Sleeping. Eating. Reading. Puzzles.

I am working this week, through Wednesday. It's surprisingly busy, despite the fact that a large number of staff have the week off. It's good, though - I can get a lot done with fewer emails coming in.

It has been officially determined that my cholesterol level is beyond my control, so I'm going on medication for it. While this doesn't give me license to completely blow my diet, it does give me a little more flexibility in my indulgences. With my father's genes, it really doesn't matter what I eat or don't eat at this point: I'm stuck with high cholesterol. So bring on the ice cream!

What are you all planning for the week?

About sums it up.

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:54:00 GMT

Ennui:

[a. Fr. ennui, OF. enui:—L. in odio: see annoy, ennoy, which are older adoptions of the same Fr. word.

So far as frequency of use is concerned, the word might be regarded as fully naturalized; but the pronunciation has not been anglicized, there being in fact no Eng. analogy which could serve as a guide.]

The feeling of mental weariness and dissatisfaction produced by want of occupation, or by lack of interest in present surroundings or employments.

[1667 Evelyn Mem. (1857) III. 161 We have hardly any words that do+fully express the French naivete, ennui, bizarre, etc. 1732 Berkeley Alciphr. ii. §17 They should prefer doing anthing to the ennui of their own conversation.] 1758 Chesterfield Lett. IV. 117 In less than a month the man, used to business, found that living like a gentleman was dying of ennui. 1789 Mrs. Piozzi Journ. France II. 388 Muse! prepare some sprightly sallies To divert ennui at Calais. 1801 M. Edgeworth Angelina i. 10 She felt insupportable ennui from the want of books and conversation suited to her taste. 1871 Darwin Desc. Man I. ii. 42 Animals manifestly enjoy excitement and suffer from ennui.

~OED, Second Edition

Holy Befuddlements, folks

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:55:47 GMT

Obama? Nobel Peace Prize?

I mean, yeah, I like the guy, and I appreciate that he's trying different methods to achieve consensus. But, well, he hasn't actually accomplished any successes in that area yet, really, has he? I mean, shit, this puts him on par with Jimmy Carter - and frankly, kiddos, there's absolutely no comparison to what Carter has achieved.

And I think this is gonna hurt him more than it helps him. He's already suffering from the Cult of Personality curse.

OK, that's my two political cents for the month. Back to your routine.

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:51:40 GMT

Yesterday was a lovely day. Warm, clear, not a cloud in the sky or a hint of a breeze. So why did we lose power at 7:00 pm? Someone must have driven their car into a power pole or something. Angel was in the middle of making dinner, so she moved all that out onto the grill to finish it up. Dinner on the deck by candlelight - not bad! I'm not positive, but it all came back on around midnight or so. Still have no idea why. I didn't see any evidence of car crashes anywhere.

I"m in the middle (well, the front end of the middle) of Hellboy: The Fire Wolves. The novels aren't quite as much fun as the graphic novels or the films, but some of them are entertaining. This one's proving to be pretty interesting so far.

A long slow work day ahead of me. Don't have a single meeting on the calendar, either. I think I'll put on headphones and dive into some report writing. Yay SQL!

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 14:27:41 GMT

One of our chickens is having gender identity issues. She's trying to crow. It's such a sad little squawk...

Ah, one of the last

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 20:04:58 GMT

Summery days, that is. Looking to be mid-80's and sunny. I'm plotting on how I can get out of work early, but I'm afraid it's going to be difficult. Haven't given up yet, though!

I've been suffering from new music deprivation lately. I just remember that our public broadcasting station has a 24-hour music offshoot, opbmusic.org. And they have an iphone app - woot! I've heard some very interesting stuff today. I'm happy again. I also asked the louts over on damnportlanders for their suggestions, so I have a few to check out. How about you all? Discovered any new interesting, funky, weird bands or musicians lately?

ps - HPL film festival tickets on sale! Woohooo!

Thursday Thanks - after a long absence

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 22:07:25 GMT

Well, the week is going very fast, I guess that's something to be thankful for. Weekend is just ZOOMING up on me. I'm also grateful that my eyebrow is healing well - right now it looks like a reddish birthmark across my eye. Hardly looks evil or forbidding at all, though, darnit.

The bill I just received from the plastic surgeon, now, that's another matter. Shiver. So I'm also thankful for my health insurance - which is especially poignant now, in the context of the greater debate. My bill is large, but is still only 1/4 of the total cost. If we had to pay the whole thing - YIKES. Morgan would be out trying to find work to pay it off. I'll bet he could get a job as a security guard, the little bastard.

Finally, I'm very grateful for all the work Angel has done on the laundry room remodel. It's looking awesome - and we finally have lots of room to handle the piles of washed unmentionables (and mentionables, too, of course) that have heretofore had to be carefully balanced in covered containers to keep the cats from making beds in them.

Cheers!

Well, that explains a lot...

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 13:29:49 GMT

Syndication (RSS):

Many syndicated accounts are not updating, with an error message of "500 Can't locate object method "new" via package "HTML::HeadParser"" visible on the account's profile page. We apologize for the inconvenience.

I've been missing my daily webcomic fix. Now I have to go find 'em individually. So much for instant gratification!

Happy Monday.

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 19:32:54 GMT

I'm sitting here with a mild migraine, I think. So I'm not too keen on eating lunch. Instead, I've been surfing the 'net for a few minutes, until I realized there's almost nothing that's holding my interest. It's a funny thing, really - with a whole world full of people talking and sharing ideas and posting weird crap, you'd think I could find something entertaining, right? Maybe it's Net Burnout.

I got a good laugh this morning, though. I haven't posted any pictures recently, but The Mauling has left me with a small bandage across my eyebrow for the past two weeks, and for at least another week ahead. The wound is only in the center, but it's situated such that the bandage lies right across my eyebrow. I could run it vertically instead, I suppose, and tape my eyelid shut, but this seems generally easier.

So, a co-worker has been teasing me about drawing an eyebrow on my bandage. Today he showed up with little baggie containing four bandaids, each wtih a different eyebrow drawn on: One normal, one angry, one tired, and one "evening wear". I just about fell over laughing. I may have to put one on later.

The weekend was quiet, I've been reading a lot lately. Finished "Dark Waters" (story of the smallest nuclear submarine in the navy, the NR-1) and Monstrous Regiment (Terry Pratchett). The previous week was "The Silent Scripture" (thanks to wonder_diva for the rec); Sheri Tepper's "King's Blood Nine", the first in the cheesy Sookie Stackhouse vampire series, and something else I'm forgetting. It's been a good couple of weeks.

Now back to the budget. Again. It never seems to end...

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 17:43:16 GMT

Because I know you're not sick of hearing about my face yet, I just thought I'd mention that the Doc seems to think it's getting better. Although he has a strange way of showing it. It looks worse today than yesterday, but supposedly that's an improvement.

On a silly note, I just received an instant message from Magog. I laughed out loud and disturbed a phone conversation. (Our company sets usernames as last name / first initial, and somewhere in the wilds of our help desk, there is someone named G. Mago.)

(edit for useless links)

Oh - and I managed to successfully avoid the Box O' Donuts today! Woot!

Checkup

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 04:36:13 GMT

The doc says my eyebrow patch job is healing well! Another checkup next Wednesday.

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 13:35:37 GMT

My friend Rog takes some of the best underwater photos ever.

Sat, 15 Aug 2009 16:27:33 GMT

The second wave of blackberries is ripe. Time for another cobbler - although, perhaps, a more healthy version.

Invented word-of-the-day:

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:49:28 GMT

Uniquify. To impose a unique identifier on a database record, overheard in an absurdly long meeting this morning.

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 04:00:23 GMT

AAARRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHH! (insert picture of Charlie Brown flipping over backward from the force of Lucy's scream)

OK, feel better now. It's a bizarre week at work. We have financial auditors AND reporting overhaul auditors in the office this week - all scheduling lots of meetings. We have our close meeting on Thursday, the prep for which I'm largely responsible. And I'm in meetings - reporting audit meetings - for 6.5 of the official 8 hours of workday. Fun stuff! At least it's not the normal routine - I do like a bit of shakeup.

The cholesterol-busting routines are doing pretty well so far. I'm feeling a bit leaner already (even if it is just psychological), and holding my posture a bit straighter. That's good.

Angel's Twin is visiting for a week and a half. It's great to see her, great to have her here. They're having fun, arguing, having fun, arguing, etc. Ah, sisterhood.

I don't have much more of great fascination to impart. Hopefully I'll get some down time this weekend. In between watching Mutant Wars and reading Dresden Files novels. And napping.

I never thought I'd grow so attached to a machine

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 14:10:05 GMT

Ah, IPhone. I have found my holy grail of workout companions: on-demand public radio podcasts at prx.com. (IPhone app: search prx.com) Not just all your favorite NPR programs, but also Democracy Now, FSRN, and a host of others.

Heavy sigh.

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 19:12:17 GMT

All right, y'all, it's official. My cholesterol is higher than it has ever been. You know what that means, right?

and

Grumble and grump. Time to go vegan, I guess. Something we've thought about often anyway, but still, depressing. Gotta get exercising more too.

Growing up sucks sometimes.

Mmmmmmmmmmm....

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 14:05:36 GMT

BLACKBERRY COBBLER FOR BREAKFAST!

Really, is it any worse than the so-called Breakfast Pastries hawked by coffee shops across the country? I don't think so!

Thought some of you might appreciate this one.

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 13:45:47 GMT