:: Wednesday, May 28 ::

In my inbox today:

• My friend Tom wrote to say that if he had a blog, he'd definitely link to Cat Prin (it being very dear). I would totally link to that, too, if I had a blog.
• My mom e-mailed me to ask why anybody would ever want to sit in the front row at a movie theater. I'm really not sure, as it usually causes my neck to ache, and makes me feel even more icky than the thought of bacteria on toilet seats. I put it to you, web audience: why? Why?

:: Tuesday, May 27 ::

So, it's far from over, but I'm pleased to announce that I've recaptured the top spot for the contest. It's not really over until June 30th, at which point I'll hopefully still be #1, or at least ahead of gristle. The efforts of Cherz, Axis, and Ruben notwithstanding, I owe my current ranking to the fact that there was some invisible text on gristle. Google frowns on such behavior, and this is probably what caused them to remove his site from the search results altogether.

Perhaps, when this contest is over, I'll compile a list of what I've learned about search engine ranking tips. In the meantime, I don't want to give away any more secrets than I already have.

:: Friday, May 23 ::

At lunch today, we sat outside because the weather is beautiful. Our table was near a parking lot, and an old woman pulled her car into the spot nearest where we were sitting. She was ancient, hunched over, and wearing those dark plastic sunglasses that come from the eye doctor -- the kind that old people wear over their bifocals. She took at least a minute to get out of her car, her movements slow and careful. She closed her door and walked inside the grocery store with the help of a cane. On the driver side door, just under the window, were these words, presumably written with a Sharpie pen:

HA! HA! DEVIL YOU MISSED

I'd like to thank Cherz for leading the "Nerdygirl #1 (text removed for tactical reasons)" campaign. Usually, I'm not one to suggest that anybody link to my site, but there are nine scoops of gelatto and some nerdy girl pride at stake here. Link popularity does make a difference as far as search engine rankings go, so if you have a site and you want to throw up a link for me, that would make me happy. You can take it down again after June 30. Thanks to everyone for your support.

:: Thursday, May 22 ::

Because it really finally feels like spring, and because I do this every year, it is time to once again bring out my favorite springtime poem:

sweet springtime
is my time, is your time, is our time
springtime is love time
and viva sweet love
--ee cummings

:: Monday, May 19 ::

Over the weekend, I was puttering around in my yard, trying to make it look decent, and I saw a little tree growing in a place where I don't want a tree to grow. I was pulling weeds when I saw the tree, and thought, "I shouldn't pull that out because it's a tree, not a weed. But a tree wouldn't really work there." So I yanked it out of the ground, and it surprised me because it came with its own walnut. Actually, the tree was growing out of the walnut, and I'd never seen that before.


"Wow," I thought to myself, "an oak tree." And then I remembered that oak trees grow out of acorns. Then I realized that a walnut tree is the only tree likely to grow out of a walnut. So I revised my earlier thought to, "Wow, a walnut tree." 'Cause it was pretty cool looking.


I then braved the spiders in my backyard because my back lawn needed mowing. There are approximately 4800 spiders in my back yard (I estimate 8 per sqare foot, but that might be a somewhat hysterical estimation). While I was out there, I saw another little tree that was starting to sprout. It, too, was growing out of a nut, but I'm not quite sure what kind.


All in all, I found three nut trees, and I pulled them out of the ground. I should state here that I have nothing against nut trees; they just happened to be growing in unfortunate locations. Now they're in a bowl in my kitchen because they just look cool and I'm not sure what else to do with them.

On Friday, I went to see This American Life (thanks to Sydney for getting tickets). It was so cool to see Ira Glass and Sarah Vowell in person. They really exist.

I think they said the show we were at airs on June 18th. There was this super cool old guy in the band who played both the theramin AND the musical saw. He played a solo of "You Are My Sunshine" on the saw. It was oh-so-very excellent.

:: Thursday, May 15 ::

I like it that Willie Nelson sent bandanas and whiskey to those rogue Texas Democrats. From afar, this is a pretty amusing standoff. Closer up, I'm sure it's incredibly frustrating, not just for Texas' Democrats and Republicans, but also for the people who live there and who probably want their government to work. In a way, though, it seems like the government is working. The Republicans tried to strong-arm the Democrats into legislation that seems to be patently unfair, so the Democrats are employing strong-arm tactics of their own. Both sides have shown that they do have quite a bit of power -- certainly enough to cancel out the power of the other side, at least on this one issue.

On another subject entirely, Chimera pointed out that there's a lunar eclipse tonight, so don't forget to look up.

:: Wednesday, May 14 ::

Yes.

:: Tuesday, May 13 ::

I hate it when I open the milk carton from the wrong side. It's surprisingly easy to open the wrong side (seems like it used to be a lot more difficult), but it doesn't open as smoothly, and then, when you drink from the carton, it's all raggedy and you're much more likely to dribble a little out and get it on your chin and maybe even your shirt. That's the worst.

:: Sunday, May 11 ::

I am very pleased to announce that the 2003 edition of Where's My Rocket Car? is now live and available for your viewing/reading pleasure. Enjoy!

:: Friday, May 9 ::

There's a new competition in the works. A co-worker (owner of gristle dot org*) noticed that nerdygirl.com is the number one google result for "bacteria on toilet". He has vowed to oust me from the number one position, but I can't let that happen. Therefore, if you see this phrase popping up every now and again, fear not. I am merely attempting to hang on to the number one spot.

* I'm not linking to the site, because I don't want to increase his cred with the search engines.

:: Thursday, May 8 ::

Today doesn't seem to fit quite right. I feel disheveled. Messy. Wouldn't it be nice if there was a way to hit the 'rewind' button, go back to bed, and start the day over?

:: Monday, May 5 ::

It recently became apparent to me that the majority of my male friends are hoping to someday become "that crazy old guy." I suppose I'll be their "batty old lady" friend, assuming we can all remember who we are.

:: Saturday, May 3 ::

One of the many good things about my friends is that they're all pretty nerdy, too. This was made even more apparent yesterday when I got my birthday surprise day. My birthday is actually in March, but we're not picky about such things. See, there's a group of us and we have a tradition where we plan a special surprise day around each other's birthdays, and we usually end up missing the actual day by 2-6 weeks.

Yesterday was designated RebeccaDay 2003. I left work a little early and was taken South on I-5 for quite a ways, to a little town called Silverton. I'd never been to Silverton before, and I had no clue where we might be going. Eventually, we pulled into the driveway of a ranch style house with the garage door open, and some reams of paper and machinery visible through the door. I managed to just barely catch the sign that was overgrown with bushes: "Oregon Bookbinding", it said. So cool.

Florence of Oregon Bookbinding gave us a tour of the facility. It was cram-packed with books and machinery, and we got a good lesson on how books are bound. Turns out we were the first tour of adults Florence had seen in her 25 years of working there. Oregon Bookbinding does a lot of repair work on old bibles and other books, and also does small-press (under 1000 copies) binding. They don't do any printing, so all the pages have to be delivered to them ready to go. They then sew the pages together and put the covers on them and emboss the covers with whatever the customer has requested. I got the impression that embossing the covers was not Florence's favorite part of the job.

At the end of the tour, Florence presented me with a mostly-finished journal that my friends had pre-arranged to have made for me. I got to pick out a font to have my name embossed on the front cover, and watch as the binding was completed. So, I guess you can say that my friends aren't merely nerdy; they're also incredibly thoughtful.

After the book binding tour, we went for a super yummy dinner at a place called Rose of Sharon. So good! Many thanks to Duane, Nancy, Kathleen, Chris, Amy, and Rainer for being such wonderful, nerdy, thoughtful friends.

where's my rocket car?

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