Join the nerd herd

I took a test and I'm officially a:

Modern, Cool Nerd
73 % Nerd, 52% Geek, 39% Dork

According to the test:

A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia.
A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one.
A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions.

I scored better than half in Nerd and Geek, earning me the title of: Modern, Cool Nerd.

It goes on to say:

Nerds didn't use to be cool, but in the 90's that all changed. It used to be that, if you were a computer expert, you had to wear plaid or a pocket protector or suspenders or something that announced to the world that you couldn't quite fit in. Not anymore. Now, the intelligent and geeky have eked out for themselves a modicum of respect at the very least, and "geek is chic." The Modern, Cool Nerd is intelligent, knowledgable and always the person to call in a crisis(needing computer advice/an arcane bit of trivia knowledge). They are the one you want as your lifeline in Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (or the one up there, winning the million bucks)!

The test tracked 3 variables which compare me to other people my age and gender:

I scored higher than 99% on nerdiness
I scored higher than 99% on geekosity
I scored higher than 99% on dork points

Link: The Nerd? Geek? or Dork? Test written by donathos

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Now I know that some of you who read this are similar in age, gender and some or all of nerdosity, geekiness and dork points - you need to take this test to help make their data set more representative.

The shortest distance between points

I walked past a cafe and overheard a woman say "... and my London daughter ..." and I saw a future where H & K are scattered across the world and suddenly I ached to touch them.

I am so lucky they are so close.

Fairy ring

I just read a lovely post on beautiful monsters about fairies. K is very keen on fairies and the last couple of days she has been drawing lots and lots of fairies. H has been drawing some too. H drew a fairy - circle head with dots for eyes and nose and a huge smile, blob body with dot for tummy button, stick legs, small wings like handles on the body, no arms. (I'll scan it for you if I'm ever allowed to take it to work.)

H: "Mum, do real fairies have arms?"
me: "There aren't any real fairies. Fairies are just pretend."
H: "There are real fairies, the white things in the air."
me: "You're right, we call them fairies, there are real fairies."
H: "And real fairies don't have arms?"
me: "Yes, real fairies don't have arms."
H smirks and spins in delight.

That's my girl - logical, whimsical and pedantic.

In which Sony are given brickbats and bouquets

Until last week I had a wee computer that I was very fond of. It was little, fast, wireless and copper.

It had a problem though. It was very picky about DVDs, particularly burnt DVDs from friends, particularly burnt DVDs from friends with TV shows that I am very keen to watch (Regenesis and Heroes to be precise).

So I took it into Sony on 2 March. I told them about its problem and they told me that it was the disks. So I took it into Sony on 5 March with two disks of different makes that both had the problem and showed them that they were OK on other computers but not mine and they told me to come back with the recovery disks. So I took it into Sony on 6 March with the recovery disks and they sent it up to Auckland.

I told Sony it must be back by 14 March for i to take away with her. They said OK.

I rang Sony in Auckland on 12 March and they hadn't even looked at it yet. Sony in Auckland rang me later that day and told me that it was a codec problem and I explained to them that the files can't copy (which it said on the job description). Sony in Auckland rang me on 13 March and told me it was the disks so I explained to them slowly in words of one syllable that the disks work elsewhere and that it is disks of different makes burnt by different people. Sony in Auckland rang me on 14 March and told me they would replace the DVD drive but they didn't promise that would fix the problem and they'd courier it back to Wellington to arrive on the 15th.

Note: 15 ≠ 14.

I talked to Sony in Auckland on 15 March and they told me there appeared to be a problem with the motherboard as well so they'd replace that and courier it down to me to arrive on the 16th. Then they rang me and told me that there appeared to be a problem with the hard disk drive and was it OK if I lost all my data? Go ahead I said. Just get it back, fixed, by the 16th.

Note: 16 ≠ 14 but I had some contingency built in to my original estimate.

Then they rang me to say that they were no longer sure what was wrong with it and they weren't sure when it would be fixed by. So I asked them to provide a replacement, either for i's trip or permanently and they said "I'm sorry but we can't do that".

So I went into Sony in Wellington full of the righteousness of the just and Sony in Wellington were lovely, understanding, calm and kind.

Until last week I had a wee computer that I was very fond of. It was little, fast, wireless and copper.

Now I have a new computer that I am very fond of it is little, wireless and copper. On the outside it looks just like my old computer but the windows have a new vista. The vista looks sexy and so far all the things I've tried on it work. I haven't had enough time with it to know how fast it is but i told me my computer "is being VERY good and super convenient!"

There is more to the saga of why I haven't been posting so much. The second part involves other computers which I am not fond enough of to tell you about and will now blow a raspberry at:

*pbthpbhprtbp*

[I still haven't worked out how to do angle brackets without blogger eating them.]
[This post seems to have mysteriously unpublished itself sometime.]

Always take this weather with you

After a very slow start we are finally having a fabulous summer. Three moments to celebrate:

Spontaneously ending up at Khandallah Pool without togs and discovering not only is it free but they lent H & K togs and towels free too. Two very happy little girls playing in the water, surrounded by the bush.

Coming home on a hot day and watching K run around on the footpath naked except for a pull-up on her head, a local family walking past and the mum quietly saying to me "Good show."

Standing by our garage one night and gazing at the milky way, sugar spilt across the sky, listening to plaintive call of a morepork across the valley - "Ru ru ... Ru ru ... ."

Out and about

Yesterday H, K and I went to the Gay and Lesbian Fair.

K went in a lavender fairy dress and H wore a muscle shirt that says "Sweetie". Most 4 year-old girls do camp without even trying, K has worn the fairy dress every waking moment she's allowed since she got it from the toy library last weekend and H picked out the "Sweetie" top without knowing where we were going.

I'd like to award a funniest T-shirt prize to my pregnant, lesbian friend C, who was wearing one like this:

So many different levels of dubious.

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In other news H & K's daddy is back. Yay!

Can you smell the burning feathers?

In November our wonderful nanny gave us notice, in December she left, in January we employed a new nanny, in February we fired her, now it is March and our new new nanny starts on Monday.

Surprisingly my new nanny angst is less than usual. I am overjoyed to have hope of certainty going forward after two months of patching together childcare day by day. I'm thinking she has to be better than the last one. Her referees gave glowing verbal reports peppered with words like fantastic and awesome.

My expectations are taking wing and I fear they may suffer Icarus's fate.

Ordinary person, extraordinary powers

Normally I am one of those super efficient people who mere mortals either avoid or are organised by. Currently the combined forces of the alignment of the planets, a scientific experiment gone wrong, radioactivity from my glow in the dark alarm clock, D being away for two weeks, not having a permanent nanny, H, K and my temporary nanny having colds, and being overloaded at work have turned me into Flakey Woman.

Flakey Woman has special powers. These include:

• causing technology to malfunction (my cellphone, laptop and blogger)
• losing small important things (my watch and driver's license)
• forgetting appointments (one yesterday and one today)
• driving slowly and gently into another car
• forgetting to call people back.

Unfortunately I don't have glasses so I can't nonchalantly put them back on.

Youth before beauty

I was trying to sleep in this morning, a forlorn hope as the only adult in the house. At about 7:45 both girls climbed into my bed. After a bit the following conversation took place:

H: "I'm hungry." Pause. "Mummy?"
me: "Yes?"
H: "I'm hungry"
me: "Oh."
H: "Mummy?." Pause. "Mummy!"
me: "Yes?"
H holding up her pyjama top: "Look at my tummy. It's flat. It's not supposed to be flat. It's supposed to come out to here." H holds her hand a couple of centimeters out from her tummy. "It's flat because I'm sooo hungry."

She's right you know.

Stone age slogans

Inspired by Gary Larson and a little boy I saw today with a T-shirt which I couldn't quite read but it might have said "Save the Dragons". The caveman is borrowed from here.