Categories
nerdly

don’t even try to out-nerd me …

I love Quicken.  A lot.  More than any normal, healthy person should, I mean.  I balance my checkbook almost every day just so I can see all the pretty charts, calendars and graphs it makes for me.

Before Quicken, there was no balancing my accounts.  There was just the knowledge and hope (mostly hope) that I had money there.  There was the checking of the atm receipt, and the occasional phone call to the automated system to make sure there was still money.

And then there was Quicken!  I could download my bank statements right into it!  I could set up spending categories!  I could make up a budget!  I could enter all my monthly bills and have it remind me to pay them on time!

Most importantly, though, was the pictures it made with my money!  A pie chart that showed that ‘rent’ took the biggest bite out of my check.  A calendared bar chart that showed my daily balance over the last month.  Comparison charts so I could compare this month’s spending to last month’s.

Who knew, all that time, I was just a graph and a chart away from fiscal responsibility.

Categories
nerdly

don’t even try to out-nerd me …

I like Chuck. It’s a great new tv show that stars a guy who works at “Buy More” for the “Nerd Herd.” As if that isn’t nerdly enough, Chuck manages to get a special email one day – an email that, when he opens it, programs his brain into some kind of supercomputer that holds all the nation’s deepest secrets.

So, tune in to NBC on Monday nights! And if you’re as intrigued my Ms. Strahovski as my husband and his coworker are, be sure to check out strahotski.com.

Categories
cats nerdly

don’t even try to out-nerd me …

I keep a camera in my bathroom, so I can be sure to capture a picture of my cat drinking out of the toilet. And why is this so nerdly, you might ask? Because once I capture that perfect picture of my cat, standing on his tippy toes of his back legs, with one paw wrapped around the porcelain bowl, and with his head sunk deep in the basin, I will have a most perfect lolcat.

(If you don’t know what an lolcat is, you really need to check out the link, or google lolcats. Otherwise, you might as well stop reading.)

With a picture of my cat with his head in the toilet, the possibilities are endless! From hangover-kitty, to reconsidering-that-mexican-place cat, to plumber-kitty, to oh-what-tastiness cat – I could go on and on. And with the help of my husband – and my loyal readers – I’m sure I could come up with a myriad of hilarious captions.

So – what have you? I’ll keep working on the picture – give me some captions!

Categories
nerdly technogeeky

don’t even try to out-nerd me …

I have a lego collection. That’s right, I’m a 28-year old woman with a lego collection.

And not just any legos; mostly Star Wars and Batman, but also a Spiderman and a Steven Spielberg set or two. My pride and joy would have to be my Millennium Falcon and my Batmobile.

My favorite thing about legos, though, is the little people. I have a batman, cat woman, two-face, spiderman, mary jane, steven spielberg, yoda, chewie, han solo, princess leia in white robes with buns, princess leia in metal bikini, luke skywalker, darth vader, darth maul, r2d2, anakin, and jabba the hut. I have little lego light sabers. I have little lego flames. I have little lego wheels, and little lego steering wheels.

I first discovered legos when b3 got a pirate lego set for Christmas one year – and yes, I did insist on putting it together for him. There were lego sharks, lego monkeys, a lego parrot, lego cannons, and lego palm trees. Not to mention the castle and pirate ship! It was awesome, and I was hooked.

If you haven’t given legos a try lately, consider it. At the very least, go to a lego store and marvel at the wonder that is lego.

Categories
fashion nerdly

don’t even try to out-nerd me …

I almost got invited to a ninja vs. pirates party. And I was absolutely excited about it!

I contemplated dressing like a pirate – I do have knee-high pirate socks. But when it comes down to it, ninjas are just cooler. A touch of the supernatural, finely honed fighting skills – plus awesome clothing. I have two kimonos, one chinese dress, and a vietnamese pantsuit-dress thing – so I had the outfit down. All I needed was a samurai sword, and I woulda been totally ready to get my lucy liu on.

But, alas, the party never happened, and I was never invited. I’m still keeping my eyes out for a samurai sword, though – I want to be ready for my next invite.

Categories
nerdly

don’t even try to out-nerd me …

I love spreadsheets. A LOT. Especially google spreadsheets! With google spreadsheets, I can update my spreadsheets whenever I get the hankering – I don’t have to wait till I get home to my computer.

I have a spreadsheet to keep track of my vacation time. There’s a sheet for my husband, a sheet for me, and then a sheet to track all the vacations we’ve taken over the year. In a glance, I can tell how much money and time we’ve spent on trips – as well as how many mental health sick days we’ve taken.

I have a spreadsheet to track all my loans. I can see the monthly payment, the amount left for each loan, as well as the final payoff date. And I update it as necessary, whenever I start ‘paying extra’ toward any loan. I leave the mortgage off that spreadsheet, as I like to feel like I’m making some progress towards less indebtedness …

I have a spreadsheet to track all of the colleges I think my sister should go to. This spreadsheet is shared with my sister, of course, who can update the list as she sees fit. With her college spreadsheet, she can quickly see what different schools cost, as well as how well they are ranked in the US News rankings.

I have a spreadsheet to track all my nerdly topics. As I write about each topic, I check it off. And as I think of new topics, I add it to the list!

Spreadsheets are awesome. They are the perfect way to dump what I’m thinking into something a little more logical – and a little more permanent.

Categories
confession nerdly

don’t even try to out-nerd me …

I saw Transformers. Twice. And seeing as I just found out it’s playing in IMAX, I’ll be seeing it a third time.

It surprises me, the number of people I work with, that have NOT seen transformers. I don’t understand how my fellow developers and engineers, who grew up on the cartoon, can resist the temptation to see it. Even with the oft-repeated excuse: “my wife/girlfriend doesn’t want to see it.” Well … then go out with the guys! How can you NOT go see Optimus Prime and company brought to life on the big screen?

Transformers is not going to win an oscar. It doesn’t have a bullet-proof plot. But … it’s Bumblebee! And Optimus Prime! And Megatron! And for the guys, it has two amazingly hot girls. (Sorry ladies, we get Shia … while a fine actor, not exactly ‘eye-candy.’)

All I can say is, if you consider yourself at all nerdly – and you loved the cartoon as a kid – then do yourself a favor and see the movie! Just tell the gf you’re going out for ‘poker night.’

Categories
nerdly technogeeky

don’t even try to out-nerd me …

ding!

After two years, and over 16 days of solid play, I finally made it to level 70. By all accounts and purposes, that is a shamefully long time to level a World of Warcraft character to maximum levelage, but, you know, I have way more hobbies than the average wow-er.

So now, at level 70, I finally have my flying mount. Which means I can fly over mountains, instead of running around them. Or land right in the middle of a field of baddies, without having to fight my way through. Or just fly somewhere, in a straight line, instead of running along a meandering road.

In most games, once you hit the top, that’s the end. You put your name in the hall of fame, and you start again, or you move on to a new game. But that’s not how wow works.

If I save up 5000 gold, I can buy a super-fast flying mount. Which means I can fly even faster! Unfortunately, that flying mount is really ugly – which will provide motivation for me to do the quests that will let me buy other super-fast flying mounts that don’t look like flying lions covered in spiky, neon armor. (Seriously, nobody can ride one of those and feel good about themselves …)

I still have 25 more levels in my leather-working to go. In order to get higher, I have to find the right vendors who sell higher-level patterns, and then I have to gather the mats to make the stuff. And then I’ll be able to sell that stuff on the auction house, to move toward my 5000-gold goal!

And then there’s this thing called ‘raiding.’ I don’t think I’ll ever get into that – it sounds way too intense to me – but my husband has already started getting my rajali ready for raiding. Because, well, he wants to take rajali raiding. And that’s a-ok with me, because the reward for raiding is some seriously nice gear. And, well, all of rajali’s clothes are a horribly mis-matched hodgepodge of things I’ve picked up along the way. He only recently traded up his halter-top chestpiece (Seriously? A chestpiece for a boy character that looks like a halter top? That’s just degrading …) for one that actually looks like armor.

So, there’s plenty more for me still to do. In fact, some would say that the game has just begun.

Categories
nerdly technogeeky

logitech harmony: it will change your life

logitech remote5 years ago, as a single gal, my home entertainment system consisted of a tv, a digital cable box, and a dvd player. The cable guy was kind enough to program the cable remote to work the tv. And when I wanted to watch a movie, I had to break out the dvd remote. So I had 3 components and two remotes. And I knew how to work them. And life was simple.

Then I got married. Enter surround sound, directivo, an xbox and a game cube. And a universal remote. It was a mid-range universal remote, one that could “learn” from any remote, so you never had to worry that it wouldn’t have the right codes for your stuff. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite have all the right buttons for all of our devices, so my husband mapped a few buttons to things that weren’t labeled what they were.

One remote is easier than 4, and it’s certainly less to get lost in the couch. The remote worked fine, and for the most part, I remembered which buttons did what. I could go from watching tv, to watching a dvd, and back again. But if my husband left it set up for gaming, I couldn’t always remember which buttons to push to get the video and audio back to where I wanted. There was many a holler through the apartment when I needed to know which video input the directv was on, and which button to push again to change the audio. Even when I could remember which sequence of buttons to push, it was a fairly involved process that took 5 or 10 button-mashings. Certainly not beyond the ability of a capable adult, but remembering each sequence for the 4 different options (directv, dvd, xbox or gamecube) could be challenging, especially when I didn’t use all the options on a regular basis.

When we bought our house, I made a deal with my husband: If I got a house, he could get a fancy new tv. What with the nearly half-million dollar mortgage (welcome to 45 miles outside of dc …), it didn’t seem so crazy to spend a few thousand on a tv. I almost balked at the $250 logitech harmony remote – there are tvs that cost less than that! – but, again, what’s a couple hundred when you are signing papers for a couple hundred thousand? I didn’t get why this new universal remote was so much better than the universal remote we already had – that I had almost mastered – but he was so in love with it, I gave in. Plus, it was made by logitech, and, well, who doesn’t love logitech?

To program it, he had to hook it up to his computer, via usb cable. It took an hour or two, and needed a few quick tweaks over the next week or so. But once he was done – once it was finally ready – I understood what was so awesome about it. It became very clear to me that it was the best remote. EVER.

When you pick up the remote, the lcd screen lights up, and you see the list of ‘Activities.’ The activities on my remote right now, for example, are ‘TiVo’, ‘DVD’, and ‘PS3.’ You push the button next to the activity you want, and the remote figures out what it needs to do in order to get you there. It knows what state the system was in last, and it sends all the right signals to all the right devices to get you to your final destination. It gets to the right video input, and to the right audio output. I push ‘TiVo’, and then I am at my tivo list, with my list of available shows. One button push. If I want to then watch a dvd, I press the ‘Activities’ button at the top of the remote to get my activity list back. And then I push the button next to the ‘DVD’ option. Two button pushes. And I’m ready to roll.

The other great thing the remote does, is it makes the rest of the remote buttons control the right things. When I am in tivo mode, the fast forward/rewind/pause/play buttons control the tivo. When I am in dvd mode, they control the dvd player.

(There are more advanced options available – using the lcd screen, for example, you can get to every single button on every single remote for every single device you have. I, for one, have never done it. I’ve never had a need to. But, the remote is capable of more than just the simple stuff I outlined above.)

This is the year 2007. We send rovers to mars. We do surgery using itty bitty cameras that are threaded though people’s bodies. We have cars that parallel park themselves! It is high time we had a revolution in remote control technology. This isn’t 1970 when a home entertainment system meant you had a television set – we are in an era where home entertainment systems are composed of multiple components, all intricately connected. It is a little silly to use 4 remotes just so you can sit down and watch the evening news. It’s even silly to have a clunky universal remote that makes you push 10 different buttons just to go from playing your PS3 to watching a DVD. In fact, It is downright ridiculous for someone with a high end system – a tv that cost over a thousand dollars, dvd player, sound system, etc. – to NOT have a logitech harmony remote. (Or one with similar capabilities.) I mean, honestly, if you spend $2000 on a tv and $200 on Monster cables, and then you skimp on the remote – that’s like wearing $2 old navy flip-flops with a designer gown. If you are going all out, then finish the package, and get the nice remote.

I love the logitech harmony remote. We started with the $250 logitech harmony 880, but just replaced it with the newly released $170 ($120 at Costco till October 31) 720. It is one remote. With one button to push to get you where you want to go. There is no more frustration. There is no yelling across the house. There is just me, enjoying my home entertainment system. I will never again live without such a remote. Trust me ladies, this remote will change your life. Logitech has several models in different price ranges (I actually prefer the cheaper 720 to the 880), so you do have a little flexibility as to how much you spend. (It looks like currently, Best Buy has models that range from $100 to $400.)

Categories
fashion nerdly

don’t even try to out-nerd me …

I own an atomic watch. No, that doesn’t mean it’s extra small. Ironically, it’s a rather large watch, almost as large as a man’s watch.

The great thing about it, is that I don’t have to set it. Ever. I just have to tell it what time zone I’m in. As long as I’m in North America, it picks up the signal from Colorado, and I don’t have to do anything. Congress can mandate daylight savings to happen 100 times a year, and I don’t have to worry about setting my watch; Colorado will tell me.

I got this lovely gem for Christmas last year. And it’s wonderful, I wear it every day. Recently, however, I discovered that Casio has unveiled a new women’s atomic watch, something a little less sporty. And I hope to soon become the proud owner of not one, but two, atomic watches.