Geek Fail

May. 25th, 2010 08:28 pm
wooglethealien: (Default)
I was excited to order my Marie Curie T shirt from the Heroines of Science series at Think Geek

http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/womens/dda3/

The picture looks awesome. I love how it subverts the normal girl t shirt style, first glance you think the swirls are flowers and butterflies and shit, and the woman is probably a fairy or looking at shoes.

Something like this (first thing google found):

http://www.dorothyperkins.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?beginIndex=0&viewAllFlag=&catalogId=20552&storeId=12552&categoryId=154928&parent_category_rn=88619&productId=1756352&langId=-1

But then you look closer and see the swirls are chemical symbols and the woman has a flask. Awesome! Also the colour on the page looks awesome and it looks like a proper babydoll T from the picture.


So I was devastated to discover, that it was in fact on a lethargic pink Bella ‘babydoll’ which is an unflattering box shaped monstrosity made out of that godawful ribbed stuff that goes shapeless with a day.

Something like this

http://www.bella.com/short-sleeve-crew.html

scroll to ‘Berry’. It even looks like crap on the model!!!

To compound the problem, despite me owning several other Bella shirts in Medium (including another one from Think Geek http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/womens/a1ed/ ) the Medium seems to have doubled in size since the last time so its totally unwearable as the shoulder stick out an inch past mine. Humph. Its too much hassle to return it though, plus it was a 3 for 2 offer so I’m not sure I would get any money back. Hump

It’s a shame something that had the potential to be so awesome failed so spectacularly. 
wooglethealien: (Default)
Just finished ‘The God Delusion’. I liked it more than I thought I would. Since reading ‘The Selfish Gene’ aged about 16-17 I got the impression that Dawkins is a bit arrogant, and his TV show, well, his ‘confrontational’ style doesn’t do the cause any favours. Not saying I don’t’ agree with him, I definitely do, but coming across as rabid as the religious nutjobs isn’t really helping. However, having read (or actually listened to ) the God Delusion, I suspect his TV show was ‘sexed up’ by the media, much as the way most media pieces about our dance turn into a sexy nipples tassels disaster.


His iffy explanation of some Physics (although n.b. HE admits is knowledge is iffy because he’s a scientist!) and my recent watching off too much ‘The Big Bang theory’ has made me think I really need to get over my childhood physics hate and start understanding more. I want to know what string theory is etc! I don’t expect I’ll understand, but I at least want to understand what its trying to explain and get a gist etc. Much as I finally got over my hatred of history prompted by an entire year of boring war poetry and trenches , hopefully I am finally able to embrace physics


Re the big bang theory, yes the execution (and acting) is often stereotypical trashy american sitcom at its worst, but it really has its moments. Plus sadly, even though I’m sure the physics in it is dodgy, it is probably the most realistic (fictional) portrayal of actual real science I have ever seen in TV/Film

Anyway, this scene makes me chuckle, a hard days work for theoretical physicists:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5oc-70Fby4

impulse buy

Sep. 2nd, 2009 08:46 am
wooglethealien: (Default)
bought Farida Fahmy's thesis. Quick scroll through - geektastic! Now to find to time to sit down and read it properly . . .

fidget

Mar. 21st, 2009 09:03 am
wooglethealien: (Default)
The final epiosode of Battlestar Galatica is downloading as we speak. I'm not sure I even want to watch it as soon as it is downloaded, I can't bear for it to be the end. I have been rewatching all the series since the beginning recently and have cried on numerous occasions this week. Despite seasons 3 and 4 being patchier than the first 2, I still love the characters so much, I don't know what will fill the hole in my life. I am a bit to obsessed at the moment, its a classic coping stretegy of mine, when life gets shit, retreat into a pre-made fantasy world.

Anyway, figeting and trying to concentrate on other things until it is downloaded.
wooglethealien: (Default)
There is a sort of mental buzz/high I get from ‘working things out’. My first memory of it was the pleasure I took in Maths homework, in Algebra, and later Chemistry, in understanding the patterns and how things work. This higher feeling of understanding the way things are. It’s a mental high – its different to an artistic buzz, your mind goes into this higher zone. I think half the problem with my current day job is that the science is no longer giving me this buzz – doing science as your job, day to day, is not nearly as fun as interpreting and understanding other people’s interesting enough to be published results.

Anyway, my latest drug is Arabic grammar. My teacher is both a good teacher for me and a bad teacher for me. She is a translator by profession (although she has been teaching now for years). She is good for me in that she breaks things down, gives me rules – we spent the last 2 hours (on a Friday night!) dissecting sentences in arabic – is this word Nomanative, genitive, accusative? Why is this? What is the subject, object, predicate? How can the case endings (which no one even uses IRL but I have had drummed into me!!) help us work out which adjective matches which part of the sentence etc. It’s hard to explain unless you know a little Arabic grammar (Hi Monica!!). I would have been a hell of a lot better at English at school if it was like this, all we learnt is how to write newspapers and, shit, what else did we actually learn in English language? All I know is I got 2 grades lower than any of my other subjects!!!

Anyway S is great for me in that we both love this stuff. However, on the other hand, I still read at the speed of a 5 year old (although at newsreader levels of grammar!) and we never really have conversations. I know how to say the minister was late for his meeting and angry with his 2 (duel not pleural) servants, I can make the subtle distinction between house and home, between the man’s old house and the old man’s house, but I can’t ask the way to the station or order some falafel. Well actually I can, but you get what I mean. I am been taught the exact opposite of what I really need to use Arabic usefully for dance/travel. Oh well, I’m paying a lot, and really knowing Arabic gets you nothing other than scorn for being a geek from other dancers, so I may as well learn the aspects I enjoy.
wooglethealien: (Default)
Post 3 things you've done in your lifetime that you don't think anybody else on your friends list has done. See if anybody else responds with "I've done that." If they have, you need to add another!(2.b., 2.c., etc...) Have your friends cut & paste this into their journal to see what unique things they've done in their life.

1) Been to a world Premiere of a film (Serenity - geektastic!)

2) Rejected a job (well PhD) offer from a Nobel Prize winner

3) Lived/worked in Israel (OK only for 10 weeks)
wooglethealien: (Default)
Sometimes I wonder whether the ladies on bhuz were wathching the same show I was . . . .

Seeing as I frequent actual TV geek forums, I'm pretty sure that I am right and they have completely missed the point

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