Blog Nerd

Christmas Break

Blog Nerd MUST take a Christmas Break from blogging.

I will continue with our regularly scheduled programming when I return (probably somewhere around Little Christmas.) 

Until then: 

Merry Christmas.  May Santa bring you a pony and a plastic rocket.

Or the sci-fi DVD box set of your choice.

FOR UNTO US A CHILD IS BORN.

Peace Out,

A Harried but Happy Blog Nerd

Hamlet: The Sequel

I can't wait to see this.

Hounded by a ruthless 13-year old critic, has-been (or never-really-was) actor, Dana Marschz, is challenged to come up with something new for his school productions--something other than his signature high school theatre remakes of popular films like Erin Brockovich and As Good As It Gets.

(The title of the movie is Hamlet 2.)

This sounds like the kind of movie that puts theater nerds into the kind of hysterical laughter that resembles terror. You know--like in Waiting for Guffman.  As a young director this film haunted me.  Am I Corky?  Oh please God say I'm not...say I'm not...

Some funny people are attached.

(THIS IS MY 100th POST.  NERD TO YOUR MOTHER.)

Nerds in the Movies #5

5.  Mean Girls

I really liked this script a lot and I hope Tina Fey keeps at it---and she is a Girl Nerd Role Model in her own right, describing herself as a high school  Happy Go Lucky Nerd to an interviewer on a biography website.  Aside from writing for 30 Rock, she's got a new one coming out soon called Curly Oxide and Vic Thrill.  The premise--Curly Oxide is the stage name of a punk rock Hasidic Jew--promises to be, well, funny.  I have big hopes.  Anway.   Pre-emaciated Lindsay Lohan is convincing as the kind of Nerd who is both Born and Made, the progeny of two Nerds whose own passions in life create a stimulating and eccentric Nerd-verse for the budding Nerd.  Such a Self-Aware and Well-Educated Nerd is destined to conduct an outrageously successful social experiment on her own Nerdiness.  This IS a case of Nerd Pygmalion but of course smart Fey bucks the trajectory at the end.   A girl Math Nerd is always appealing because they are so rare.  Bucking both society and biology in one mighty Nerd Leap.  At the risk of sounding all X-Files-y and whatnot--They Are Out There.   Oh wait.  That's The Truth.  Okay.  You get my meaning.  Girl Math Nerds Are Out There.  Okay.  I'm tired.  Holiday madness may kill all the rest of my brain cells.  Then this won't be Blog Nerd any more.  I'll just be Blog. 

Someone save me from myself.

Anyway.

Best line.   Okay it's from the Anti-Nerd, Karen.  "It's like I have ESPN or something."  Mmm.  Maybe it's "There's a 30% chance it's already raining."  Yeah.  That one is better.  Fey is funny.

That's A Lot of Candles

Some Nerds at UC Davis think they've found an estimate of the Universe's date of birth. 

According to them: the universe is about  4,658 million years old--give or take 2,080,000 years. 

I'm skeptical about the accuracy of their process and the manufactured certainty of it (it reminds me of carbon dating--we STILL don't know how accurate it really is though we like to give it the same sort of credence that were once reserved for crystal balls). 

But it is awe-inspiring to contemplate such ancientness.  Even some roughly estimated SWAGs. (Scientific Wild Ass Guesses.)

And we think we're the cat's pajamas because we have increased the average human life span to about 67 years. 

Funny, that.

Funnier still--the Nerd Cat Fights in the comments section.  Especially the dueling Math Nerds.  Arguing about just how narrow a margin 2,080,000 is in the context of  4, 658 million. 

L for Love, yo. It's all good.  We're all lovin' the Nerd News.   And the Nerd Fallout therein.

Jackson Is Going There...

...and Back Again.

The party is on at Chez Nerd.

Dust off your hairy hobbit feet!

H/T: I read it at the Blue Boar first.

Oh Scrabulous Day!

Callooh! Callay! 

Um.  Facebook. 

Talked into it.  Did it.

Found SCRABULOUS.

Currently have six different international games going at once. 

Oh sweet Lord. 

I may have to ask some of you to stage an intervention. 

but for now, I'm feeling no pain...

posting will likely be, er, light, until I  get this out of my system...

SIX GAMES, I tell you.

Did I die and go to Word Nerd heaven?

Webstop: The Parkbencher

...a place for Nerd Girls to congregate. The future is here.

Fat Head Interview

In this post I told you about this documentary I'm excited about.

Well, Jimmy Moore scored an interview with Tom Naughton, the maker of Fat Head.   

I knew I smelled a nerd--the guy is a stand up comedian by night and a computer programmer by day.  He mentions, HL Mencken, The X-Files, Monty Python, and his "math-loving brain"--right on.  I hope Naughton gets a distribution deal.  It's a Nerd Product, fo' sho.

Well and anyway.  Documentary. Nerd Genre, yah?

Nerdoscopes

Nerdoscopes for the Week of 12/17/07
by Blog Nerd

Aries
You know that piece of clothing you have with the cartoon character on it?  Stop wearing it.  Or at least, put it in your pajama drawer.  It's okay that you think its cool but let's make it our secret. 

Taurus
If your background is <div style="background-color:lightgreen;width:150px;"> </div> and your text is <p style="font-family:fantasy, cursive, Serif;font-size:20pt;color:lightgreen;"> </p> no one, I mean no one, is going to be able to read your content no matter how snarky it is.  Content matters but so does style.  Readability is key.

Gemini
Good for you Gemini!  Everyone raised their eyebrows.  No one wants to listen.  Your significant other keeps asking, "why?" But still you insisted on taking up the bag pipes.   It's important to stick by your guns.  It's passionate folks like you who keep the dead instruments alive.  Partially.  I think that makes them "mostly dead" instruments, but whatev.

Cancer
Telin le thaed. Lasto beth nîn, tolo dan na ngalad. Andelu i ven.  Nadath nâ i moe cerich. Ae ú-esteliach nad...estelio han.  (Okay.  So I can only write predictions written in Elvish that was spoken in the movies.  But it's still meaningful, yah?)

Leo
It isn't a personality change.  Too much C8H10N4O2 is just making you slightly more irritable than usual.  Cut back and your old mellow self will return in no time.

Virgo
The fact that two rocks and two sticks have something in common (NUMBER) was once a breakthrough in human thought.  It's the simple things that change the world.  Simplify, Virgo.  If you want to find the breakthrough that's right under your nose.  Simplify.

Libra
Someone's Karma may have run over your dogma, but you still know what you believe and stick to it.  This will get you through a crisis this week.  Just follow that star.

Scorpio
I know you were disappointed when you realized there was no probability distribution for life.  But, now that the initial shock has worn off, can you see that makes things sort of, um, FUN?

Sagittarius
A famous 17th century Sagittarian once said:  "Happiness is a virtue not its reward."  You can't make yourself happy through what you do or what you get or what you achieve, Sag--you can only BE happy.  It's a choice.  Are you brave enough to choose it?

Capricorn
While Christmas shopping for that special someone you will realize exactly what YOU want for your birthday.  Buy it for someone else and watch them enjoy it.  You will feel surprisingly gooshy inside and, wonder of wonders, someone will actually ask you to carve the Roast Beast. 

Aquarius
Before you spend time calculating the hypotenuse,  Aquarius,  make sure that is  truly a right angle.  I know you think you are sure but check again.  Sometimes we think we see things that aren't there just because if they were there life would be much easier.  Unfortunately, this is one of those times.

Pisces
ComicCon is a scant two months away.  If you go something wonderful will happen.  To someone else.  If you don't go something terrible will happen.  To someone else.  (I know.  But I can't change what's in your chart, Pisces.  What?  Do you think I just make these up?  Out of thin air?)
      

Nerds in the Movies #6

6. Ghost World

Chalk up another one for Nerd Realism.  Steve Buscemi's Collector Nerd, Seymour, is about as real as it gets when it comes to Nerd Representation.  It's an odd movie but good odd like Nerd Odd not Odd Odd like Bjork.  You know.  Stylized not Stupid. 

The motivations of the two Wannabe-Suspiciously-Hot-Nerds--Thora Birch and Scarlett Johansson--are kind of opaque and its a strange case of Reverse Nerd Pygmalion.  Not your usual Nerd Fairy Tale.  But Buscemi saves it for me by delivering his usual top notch performance with the brand of ease some people exhibit in respiring and little else.