Oh, snap, Creatures.
I’ve just joined Good Reads. I don’t know how I managed to wait this long to join. Expect me to start telling you all what to read (and possibly what not to) in the near future.
That is all.
And of course, as always: Thanks for reading!
Good morning, Creatures.
I am what I like to call a Legacy Nerd.
My parents are nerds, and I am one too. Dad’s a rocket scientist (No. Really.) and Mom regularly schools me on things trending on the internet before I’ve even heard of them. Apparently, I’ve also been going to Sci Fi conventions since before I can remember. Or walk, for that matter. Not to mention the fact that I grew up in a city nicknamed “The Rocket City.” Sure, it’s in Alabama, but it’s not really what you would expect from the state when everyone there is an engineer and there are literal rockets included in the skyline (although, they took down the Saturn 5 rocket and lay it on its side to preserve it in its own massive building.).
What the heck does this have to do with Star Trek?!
Both of my parents were pretty big Star Trek fans when I was growing up, both regularly watching The Next Generation and Voyager. Though Mom gets slightly more nerd-cred here for watching all of Enterprise and owning the Star Trek cartoon series on DVD. I, on the other hand, recall Star Trek to be about the most boring thing in life when I was growing up. Not even deigning to be in the same ROOM when it was on.
Imagine my surprise when I went to go see the first installment of the J. J. Abrams’s flavor of the series. Despite my best efforts, I had a small emotional attachment to the original series. I recall listening to my parents fondly recall their favorite episodes from the original series and how much they loved the show when they were growing up, so I guess a sort of nostalgia had rubbed off on me by default. Plus the movie looked like it was going to be a crazy action flick in space, so I was in. I expected it to at least be entertaining.
I was NOT expecting to suddenly and inexplicably want to watch everything having to do with Star Trek ever.
It was like some huge, cartoonish nerd switch had been flipped over in my brain. I would devour ALL the Star Trek EVER. Including the cartoons. Including Enterprise. I would watch it while clutching my squeaky tribble plush that I got at a Star Trek convention my parents dragged me to when I was ten and RUE the fact that I hadn’t paid better attention at the aforementioned convention because I could have learned Star Trek things at it and I had missed that opportunity forever.
I knew where I could get the episodes. Mom and Dad, after all, have a lot of it in their DVD collection. I called Mom and told her what had happened and asked if I could borrow them at some point….
And she laughed.
TRIUMPHANTLY.
And said, “Ahahahaha! Your GENES are kicking in! Sure, you can borrow them.”
Well played, Mom. Well played.
I will begin my voyage on the Starship Enterprise today. Love or hate the latest incarnations of the franchise, know that they have brought another fan into the fold. Given my family’s history with the series, some might even say “home.”
That’s all for now, and as always: Thanks for reading!
Hello, my Creatures.
Since the most recent Life On a Stick comic took place during our excursion to the Georgia Renaissance Festival, it occurred to me that I never posted any pictures of myself in costume, here on the site. It’s a well-known fact that I will use the flimsiest of excuses to dress up in a ridiculous costume, and the Ren Fair is no exception. Heck, it’s not even really a flimsy excuse. It’s a great one.
I’m not really big on historical accuracy, so I usually go for fantasy-themed garb. This time was no exception, especially since my pal Jennie (of Devil’s Panties) TOTALLY twisted my arm and convinced me to go dressed as a kobold…Erm. Short version, for the non-Dungeons & Dragon-initiated out there: a kobold is small, lizard-like humanoid, of distant dragon lineage. Think of them kind of like really industrious, lizard-like vermin. I’ve come to adore the under-appreciated kobold (not surprising, given my affinity for real world under-appreciated creatures…I’m looking at you, possums! <3 ), and cobbled together a costume that went something like this:
Oh glob. Those pants.
Though, I must say, I am proud of how vibrant a shade of turquoise they turned out (thanks Rit Dye!)
And that is correct, folks. Costume comes complete with detachable tail that doubles a both a decoy AND a quick snack. This concludes this session of Pictures of SurlyQueen Dressed Like a Total Idiot!
That’s all for now, and as always: Thanks for reading!
Hello, my Creatures.
For those that have been following my sporadic Sunday Yard series, you may have learned that my back yard is full of Wonders and possibly Terrors.
I love having a yard, but I’m a grown person (or so I’m told) and THAT means that I have to take some responsibility for said yard. Growing up, my mom taught me that part of this responsibility is weeding. It’s hard work, but truth be told, it’s kind of turned out to be a zen like experience for me, and quite satisfying when I get to see a bucket full of weed-corpses drying in the hot Georgia sun. Mom made sure I knew the difference between what was a weed and what was not, so I was fairly confident when I marched out the front door to clear the land of all the stuff that didn’t belong there. Most of the stuff I was digging up was pretty standard: dandelions, little tree sprouts that had to come out because where they were growing was never going to be enough room for them once they got big…Anyway, the usual.
But then there were these Mysterious Other Plants.
Okay, I’m pretty handy when it comes to identifying plants, but I’d NEVER SEEN anything like these things before. These weird, little spriggy plants that stuck up above the grass line. They’re clearly not part of the grass itself, so I figured they must not belong there and went to dig them up.
I walked over to the largest patch of this Mysterious Other Plant and bent down to pull them up…
And nearly had a stroke.
Right there, in the front yard.
Because as I touched the Mysterious Other Plant, a swarm of something LEAPT INTO MY FACE.
This is the part where I nearly lost it, thinking I had stumbled upon some horrible insect swarm rising to defend their Mysterious Other Plant home and it actually took me a second to realize that I was not, in fact, covered in some sort of insectoid nightmare, since there was no buzzing, biting, or creepy crawly sensation of bugs taking a stroll on my precious skin.
Since there were no adverse effects, I decided to take the totally, completely, scientific approach and poke the Mysterious Other Plant again….which yielded the same result. They were seeds. SEEDS.
Sure, plenty of plants disperse seeds in a variety of airborne methods. Dandelions puffs, maple propellers…All kinds of stuff. But unlike the gentle release caused by a cool spring breeze, seeds dropping gracefully to the ground below, THESE seeds, the seeds of the Mysterious Other Plant EXPLODE FORTH INTO THE AIR WITH ALARMING VELOCITY.
Which is ACTUALLY………Pretty cool.
Which THEN led to me poking ALL of the Mysterious Other Plants in the yard…..
Which will ultimately result in my entire lawn being utterly wrought with this fairly invasive, difficult-to-get-rid-of weed (which, by the way, I finally learned is called bittercress!)
*sigh*
That’s all for now, and as always: Thanks for reading!
Hello, Creatures.
It occurred to me that most of you might not know how to play hopscotch.
In fact, I was not entirely sure I remembered how to play hopscotch, so I had to turn to the trusty Internet for answers. Guys, this game is crazy old, with variations dating all the way back to Ye Olden Times…which, I guess shouldn’t have really surprised me, given that it’s a pretty simple game. Turns out I did pretty much remember the game, and I will REVEAL ITS SECRETS TO YOU!*
You can play by yourself (you know if you wanna) but it’s better if you get a gaggle of kids together, draw out the court, and grab a couple of rocks to get started.
Each kid takes a turn tossing their rock down in each successive numbered box, one for the first turn, two for the second, etc. Then they hop over the box with the stone in it and proceed down the course. When they get to the tenth box, they turn around, head back down the course, stopping in the box ahead of their rock to pick it up, hop over the box that had the stone in it again and finish the turn.
That was confusing.
The first turn would go like this: The player tosses the stone down in One box, then hops over the One box and into the Two box, then proceeds up the course, hopping in every box until they get to the Ten box. In the Ten box, the play turns around, and proceeds back down the course, once again hopping in every box until they stop at the Two box to pick up their stone in the One box. Once the stone is retrieved, the player hops over the One box to finish the turn. Repeat the process with each successive box. The player loses the turn if they throw their rock outside of the designated box, if they step on a line, or put both feet in one square. First player to complete the entire board: A Winner Is You!
*Seriously, this is the reason why women live longer than men. Here’s a video (Eddie Izzard explains hopscotch. It’s Izzard, so there’s some language in there. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.)
Hello, Creatures!
Statistics say Sunday’s a slow internet day, so we’ll take it nice and easy with another humorous backyard adventure.
This is mine and 1950s Dad’s first spring with our very own back yard after moving out of our apartment and into the wilds of suburbia. And while Atlanta seems reluctant to let go of it’s brief, and out-of-season cold weather (it’s APRIL, already. Let’s dispense with the 55 degree mornings, please!), Winter is truly over, and that means cleaning up the yard that we’ve had the luxury of neglecting all season.
It’s here that I should mention the previous owners of the house were kind of yard nuts and so we inherited this crazy-landscaped back yard, complete with a waterfall. That you turn on with a remote. I’m serious. And while it was something that I probably never would have considered putting in the yard, myself, I have to admit it’s pleasant to hear the sound of gently running water while I’m sketching out on the back deck.
Before you start thinking that I’m a total hippie, lounging in dappled sunlight sketching fairies whilst butterflies alight on the end of my pencil (NONE of this is true by the way, except the part about doodling fairies outside), let’s talk about the upkeep of said water feature.
The thing got choked with leaves this fall, because I didn’t have the foresight to cover it with a tarp to keep the leaves out. Pro tip: it’s impossible to rake rocks, so borrow a leaf blower from a friend. The leaf blower, however will NOT be able to get all the horrible rotting leaves that have collected in the middle pool of your waterfall and sunk to the bottom in a disgusting sludge. And neither will you be able to dip the rake in to scoop them out.
…
So you’ll find yourself up to your elbows in frigid standing water pulling oozing leaves out and dumping them into a bin, like I did. I’m sure there was a better way to do this, but this was the fastest, and I clearly don’t have any sense when it comes to sticking my hands into the unknown. After several handfuls of what-used-to-be-leaves is when I started pulling out:
The creatures.
These bizarre little grub things that seemed to be fine living in the water considering I was pulling them up from the bottom, but also didn’t seem to be bothered by the fact that they’d been dredged up on to dry land either. They’d just sort of…I dunno grub around like you’d expect. And they had tails. Really long whip-like tails, adding to their creep-factor.
After panicking about weather or not I’m inadvertently breeding some kind of suburban version of Cthulhu, I turned to the all powerful Internet for help. And God bless Google for catering to the layman because after several attempts I finally typed “What the hell is this weird grub with a whip tail in my pond” and got what I was looking for.
Allow me to introduce the Rat-tailed Maggot.
Hold it.
Maggot. That means this creepy grub thing is going to turn into a fly. Which is pretty gross, considering they generally eat things like poo. But fear not! I got lucky. These guys actually turn into something called a Drone Fly. Which I discovered is fly that likes to pretend it’s a bee. They’re even good pollinators and they don’t bite or sting, so I guess I shouldn’t really complain. Now I just gotta figure out how I can keep them around, but still kill of the mosquito larvae that reside in the same pool. Oh yeah! And that tail that I thought was for swimming is actually a snorkel for them to breathe. Nature is weird!
So concludes your lesson in weird backyard fauna! That’s all for now, and as always: Thanks for reading!
Hello, my Creatures.
Yesterday we had 1950s Dad’s birthday party. He’s complaining that he’s an old man now (Which is a complete lie, because we’re both not-so-secretly-12-on-the-inside, and I’m sure there’s a few viewers out there shaking their fists at their monitors), but I think that’s mostly just part of being 1950s Dad.
A good time was had by all. Well, probably with the exception of Harley, who spent most of the evening curled up on the bed, staring warily out into the hallway. I think she has a limit of Five Extra People. We did pretty well for ourselves, as evidenced by the recycle box. It is QUITE full, and, no it is not entirely filled with bottles (there’s a fair amount of Dr. Pepper and Root Beer cans as well. Got to have our sugar rush, after all.)….Though it is mostly filled with bottles. Because we are card-carrying grown-ups (drivers’ licenses and debit cards TOTALLY count.).
Happy Birthday, 1950s Dad, glad it was a good one ^_^
That’s all for now, and as always: Thanks for reading!
Good morning, Creatures.
I assume you’ve noticed (in particular new audience members) that sometimes it may take awhile for your comments to show up when you submit them. Just wanted to make sure you guys know that I DO see them and read them all. In fact, I approve them each individually. If I didn’t, we’d all get to see comments like this:
“I reside in quotation that means extreme temperatures area. With breezes evening chill it is always like memorable like 48 beneath. My personal sibling i the two own personal often the Bailey Control button shoes with red soles designer not to mention passion him or her. Wine beverages they are extremely cute using the lengthy parkas not to mention hats, however are hence stylish. Some hearken to sshoes with red soles designerestions to advance one half proportions smaller sized as a result of I always bring in fluffy clothes under in order to keep my very own your feet excessive stylish, along with without the need for clothes they are excellent. I started only just giddy your current free they can arrived in often the postal mail and also him or her on the subject of swiftly (despite that it was actually August). Avoid purchase a copy tens of thousands of periods in excess of. Truly worth the cost!”
Yeah.
I’m currently looking for solutions to this issue, so that commenting will be immediate, yet not require a bunch of extra hoops for you guys. In the mean time: Dear spam bots, no one on the Internet calls them web-logs. It is a dead giveaway that you are a spam bot. Ya jerks.
That’s all for now, and as always: Thanks for reading!
Hello, my Creatures.
Nothing fancy tonight, it’s been a long day, and more stressful that it had any right to be! Some days in the retail world are longer than others.
Got a couple of Stick comics out of it though, so all in all….Totally. Worth. It.
Short and sweet tonight, and as always: Thanks for reading!
Good morning, Creatures!
Finally, it seems as though Atlanta’s weather has recalled that it IS, in fact, April and MAYbe it should be warmer than 55 degrees.
I don’t know about the rest of you guys, but I feel like Atlanta has gotten more winter out of March and April than it did in the ACTUAL designated winter-months. This does not change the fact that in another month or so, everyone (myself, included) will soon be complaining about the oppressive heat and praying for fall again.
What HAS changed is that 1950s Dad and I have a house now, and all the spring-time trappings that come with it. Complete with zoysia grass (mentioned in an earlier Stick comic), the best grass in life. I was inORDinately happy to discover that the house came with a patch of this grass. We had nearly an entire lawn of it in the house I grew up in, and it’s just fantastic. Now I just have to encourage it to grow all over the yard because I am in love with zoysia grass and need to spread that love around. Man. I’m pretty sure the fact that I’m nerding out about grass is proof of my eventual slipping into adulthood. Nonetheless, I’m actually pretty thrilled about having a yard, even though I know it’s going to be a ton of work (what we have to get a lawn mower now?), but now that it’s finally gotten a little warmer (and stopped raining every other day), we’ve been able to start working in it. More adventures to follow, I’m sure.
That’s all for now, and as always: Thanks for reading!
