Geek in Heels - Page 142

Jun 24, 2010 • In Art/Design, Star Wars

Pixar Star Wars [Mashup]

These illustrations combining Pixar and Star Wars characters make me smile.

How to Beat Super Mario 3 in 11 Minutes

I don’t care what anyone says. Super Mario Bros 3 is the best Mario game of all time, hands down.

And while this instructional graphic takes some of the fun out of the game, it’s still pretty impressive to say the least. (Click to view large.)

Via BuzzFeed.

Peanuts on Planes

Today I read that the DOT is considering a ban on in-flight peanuts.

This made me very sad for two reasons:

1.) I can’t remember the last time I was offered a package of peanuts on an airplane. And I used to love those suckers! Watch/listen to this hilarious clip from a stand-up show by Ellen Degeneres, circa-1992:

If you don’t have time for the full 6½-minutes clip, just listen to the first two minutes and you’ll understand what I’m talking about. (And if you have the time, I highly recommend that you watch the entire thing — it’s one of my favorite stand-up scenes of all time!)

2.) According to a quick web search, only 0.04-0.06% of the population suffer from severe peanut allergies. I get that those with severe allergies can be affected by just the inhalation of peanut dust, or even the transference of peanut oil via armrests, napkins, etc. However, a federal ban on peanuts on planes in order to accommodate this tiny percentage seems a bit harsh to me.

I mean, there are people out there who are severely allergic to perfumes. Should the wearing of perfumes be banned on planes as well?

What do you think about the DOT’s proposed ban on in-flight peanuts?

Hang Me Some Tea [Package Design TDF]

I love the whimsical, “why hasn’t anyone thought of this before?” design of these hanger teabags by designer Soon Mo Kang.

Via Yanko Design.

Disagreeing vs Trolling

Among the 500+ sites I subscribe to on Google Reader, there has been much talk about trolls as of late.

While I firmly believe that true trollers consist of mean-spirited persons who have nothing better to do, I have also been noticing a trend toward labeling commenters as trolls and jumping all over them simply for disagreeing with a post or giving their honest (but often unpopular) opinion on a topic.

That ticks me off.

Having blogged for almost a decade, I have certainly gotten my share of mean comments. And I would be lying if I were to say that when someone chooses to publicly berate me via a comment, I never get hurt.

However, the internet is open to all (save for those whose companies/ISPs/governments block content). If you choose to blog in an open forum, you are opening yourself up for judgment. Nobody agrees with you 100% of the time. Somebody is bound to pass judgement on what you write or share, and while most people will just choose to go on about their lives without commenting, a certain percentage will feel compelled to give their opinion on the topic at hand.

Sure, it is always better to give constructive criticism over an outright attack. But if that attack has a valid point, my humble opinion is that the blogger receiving the attack should take a deep breath and just step away for a period of time. And in my experience, I have found that malicious comments loses their effect on you as time passes (in my case, usually no more than 24 hours).

As I see it, all bloggers have the following choices when faced with mean comments:

Delete offending comments
Keep all comments on moderation and only approve those that are agreeable
Turn off commenting altogether
Make your blog private
Grow a thicker skin

Personally, I can never choose any of the first four options because I do not want to censor my readers. So I am working on developing that rhino skin required of bloggers who choose to lay their lives out for all to see on the web.

Additionally, while gushing, supportive comments do feel nice and make me feel validated, I also tend to think that only having those types of comments makes for a somewhat boring atmosphere.

I have written that I may be changing my stance on censorship in this blog after the baby arrives — because parenting is a subject that is almost guaranteed to draw judgment and criticism — but I am leaning towards keeping the status quo.

A great marketer once said that you aren’t doing your job if you haven’t offended at least one person each day.

And isn’t blogging essentially a form of marketing yourself?

Think about it.

I now step off my high horse and leave this post open to all comments.

25 Weeks

Things are progressing slowly but surely. I am feeling more and more movements above my belly button, whereas before most of the kicks and punches stayed in the lower regions. I have also started to feel simultaneous jabs this week (ie, one on my upper right side and the other on the bottom left) which can only mean that she is getting stronger and starting to really explore my belly.

My weight gain is now at 25 lbs. With 15 weeks left in this pregnancy, and estimating that I will gain the recommended 1 lb per week, it is very likely that I will hit — and possibly go over — the 40 lb mark. Even the additional 25 lbs is starting to take a toll on my body. I get tired more easily when walking around, I am developing back and pelvic pains, and every bone in my body feels arthritic. I can only imagine how I will feel when I get bigger!

According to BabyCenter, the baby is now about 13½ inches long and weighs about 1½ lbs. She is starting to develop the fat that will smooth her wrinkled skin and make her cute and chubby at birth. They say that hair color and texture should be discernable by now, but we already know that she’ll have the typical Asian dark brown hair. That’s one good thing about both J and I being Asian: we don’t have to guess how the baby will look in terms of hair or eye color.

My current obsession is to peruse the pregnancy boards for updates on women who have given birth at 25, 24, and even 23 weeks — and have had their babies survive. It is amazing how tiny yet so human these premies look, and I can only imagine my own baby looking like that inside my stomach.

I only have a couple of weeks left in the second trimester, and I’m a bit afraid to enter my third. Will I swell like a beached whale? Will I suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome? Will I develop complications like pre-eclampsia or gestational diabetes?

And more importantly, how will I ever get this baby weight off? (You may now commence throwing your stones.)

Swype for Android

Last week, the ingenius text input system Swype opened its beta for the Android platform — for free — and so I immediately downloaded a copy.

image source

Swype eliminates the need to tap out individual letters when typing on a touchscreen device. Instead, you glide your finger from letter to letter, forming words without your fingertip ever leaving the screen. It’s so elegant and fast that one Swype user even broke the Guinness World Record for fastest text messaging, a move that was famously documented in a recent Samsung commercial.

I’ve always preferred physical keyboards to their touchscreen counterparts, but after playing around with the Swype input system for a few days I’ve gotten hooked. I even demonstrated the new system to a few of my iPhone-carrying friends and even they admitted that they were impressed.

If you are a proud Android phone carrier like myself, go download a copy at http://beta.swype.com/. Hurry up, because the free download won’t be around for much longer!

P.S. — Swype is not available for the iPhone, but they say that a version is in development. The iPhone once had a decent alternative in an app called ShapeWriter; however, it has recently been pulled from the App Store due to SDK restrictions.

“Sookie…”

I know we’re only two episodes in, but I’m loving the new season of True Blood so far.

As someone who owns, and has read all the Southern Vampire Mysteries books, I can confidently say that the HBO series is significantly better than the books. There are, of course, some digressions and cast choices with which I disagree. (How exasperating was the Maryann plotline last season? Nevermind the piss-poor choice of casting Evan Rachel Wood as Sophie Anne.) But as a whole, the series is a typical Alan Ball hit: dark yet humorous, unexpected, and quite addicting.

While the first season of the television show was almost exactly like the first book, I was glad to see that the show started deviating from the books last season and left the fans guessing. And if last night’s episode was any indication of things to come, we will have an action-packed third season that will combine elements from several of the books.

To finish my short accolade to my favorite summer television series, I’ve decided to share with you my favorite 12 seconds from yesterday’s episode:

I think I can listen to Bill saying “Sookie…” over and over again. And Anna Paquin does a terrific job of reproducing that drawl — don’t you agree?

Are any of my readers a fan of True Blood? What do you think of the new season?

Social Gaming & Zynga [Infographic]

Even when my Facebook account was still active, I never got into the likes of Mafia Wars, Farmville, and Restaurant City. However, J was — and still is — into his Facebook games and often spends his free time trading weapons, planting veggies, re-decorating his restaurant, and whatnot.

While I have never played these games, I can certainly see their appeal and see firsthand how social gaming has infiltrated our culture (ie, South Park’s “You Have 0 Friends” episode — if you haven’t watched it yet, I highly recommend that you do!). It is precisely for this reason that I found the following infographic by OnlineSchools particularly interesting. For example, did you know that Zynga has become the second largest PayPal merchant in the world due to the popularity of its games?

Enjoy! (Click to view large.)

Via Geeks are Sexy.

What is the Best Way to End a Professional Relationship?

When I quit my last job, I sooo wanted to march into my supervisor’s office, happily declare, “I QUIT!” and go on a tirade on everything I hated about working there.

But all the professional advice I have heard and read advised against it. They told me that if I had major beef with the boss and/or company, I should give it in the form of constructive criticism so that I do not sever any bridges that may be beneficial in the future. So I prepared a list…

…and when the time came for me to quit…

…I chickened out.

More specifically, my boss looked so crestfallen at my announcement, told me that I was the best person that this position had ever had, and sincerely wished me luck in my future endeavors. So as much as I wanted to tell him off, I just couldn’t.

I am now at a point where I must sever another professional relationship for the reasons below:

I do not get paid very well. It is a start-up I joined as a favor about 1.5 years ago and I’m starting to wonder if I will ever see any rewards.
They take me for granted, assuming that I can make deadlines without checking with me first, hardly ever meeting their own deadlines when I am patiently depending on them so I can do my work.
I do not agree with their marketing strategies and believe that our target audience would respond better to different game plans.

They are aware of my pregnancy and have been talking about hiring someone to temporarily fill in for me while I am on a maternity leave.

However, for the reasons above, I am thinking that this may as well be the best time to quit.

I was friends with one of the co-founders of the company before signing on, and I have become friendly with some of the people I have met through the company, so I do not want to leave on a bad note. So my options are as follows:

Just quit, giving them B.S. reasons about how my hands will be tied with the baby, how they will more likely benefit from someone who lives closer to them (they are located on the west coast), how I am too busy, etc.
or,
Quit and tell them my real reasons for leaving. It will sting, but will only benefit them in the long run.

A (more sneaky) third option would be to go on my maternity leave and just never return.

What would you do in this situation?