Naturegeek's Blog (25)

My Mama

My mom died last Friday. She was 89 - would have turned 90 in May. She had Alzheimer's, and I've watched her slow decline for the last 10 years until nothing much was left, so it was time. I've been mourning her loss incrementally, and yet when this final loss came, it surprised me that I could still feel grief, and not just relief. I will miss her. My mom was not a "mom" - she was "Mama." I didn't know any other kids growing up in southern California that called their mothers "Mama." I think i… Continue

Added by naturegeek on March 11, 2009 at 10:30am — 20 Comments

I'm Unique! (so far...)

I took the 43 Things Personality Quiz and found out I'm a

Money Managing Self-Knowing Extrovert

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Added by naturegeek on January 2, 2009 at 6:59pm — 15 Comments

Is Nerdiness Hereditary?

My niece (who is my age) wrote me this email today about the differences between geeks, dorks and nerds, and whether the kind of passion nerds feel about their interests are really obsessions, and whether it's hereditary - it's great food for thought, so I'm posting both her email and my reply - what do YOU think?

Her Email

Earlier this summer I read American Nerd, by Benjamin Nugent, that I found on the “New Books” shelf at the local library. The book was okay, but it spar

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Added by naturegeek on August 7, 2008 at 2:00pm — 6 Comments

How Stupid Are We?

My friend Anita shared this book/website with me - and so I'm sharing it with all of you because it's awesome: http://hnn.us/HowStupidAreWe/book.html I hear so many stupid things being reported as "news" - and I'm not media-bashing, here, I'm talking about people in forums, being interviewed on NPR, in blogs... people get a fleeting impression, it fits with their idea of how it must be, and then before further investigation… Continue

Added by naturegeek on August 6, 2008 at 12:00pm — 27 Comments

Happy Birthday America, here are some protest songs to help celebrate!

Hank's vlog about the 4th of July celebrations doing classically American stuff like baseball and fireworks got me thinking... There are things I love about this country, and things I don't love about it. I actually do consider myself patriotic, but I think peace and protest are some of the highest forms of patriotism - I believe in the sentiments behind "Question A… Continue

Added by naturegeek on July 7, 2008 at 8:00pm — 25 Comments

ADD, OCD, the Internet, and Nerd Passions

I am more ADD than usual today. I need extra arms to try to do all the things I am trying to do at once. I need to make several clones of myself. Maybe one of them should be the responsible one and do the stuff that needs doing that is not getting done while I'm off on all my tangents. Birdwalks. That's what someone once called those - you know how birds sort of walk in loopy circles? Yeah, that's the way my mind works. I have so many links to share, it's impossible - and when I start looking… Continue

Added by naturegeek on June 5, 2008 at 2:00pm — 64 Comments

More Quizzes

What's Your Nerd Type?

My Result: Science/Math Nerd

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Added by naturegeek on June 2, 2008 at 12:30am — 2 Comments

Eye-Opening Books

What books opened your eyes to new ways of thinking? What books subverted your dominant paradigm? What books helped shape you into who you are (still becoming) today?

Books rock our world, but some more than others. Some wake us up. Some show us things we never would have seen on our own. Some change our lives.

I'd like to get a good list of these types of books from Nerdfighters who've read them and been changed by them. I want to know: Title, author, when

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Added by naturegeek on May 18, 2008 at 9:15am — 156 Comments

What Kind of Thinker are You?

Your Thinking is Abstract and Random

You are flexible, adaptable, and

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Added by naturegeek on April 6, 2008 at 12:00pm — 30 Comments

More HTML Lessons

If this is your first look at html and you want to learn how to better format your blogs and comments, you should look at my first post on this, HTML Lessons - Learn and Practice Some Formatting Tricks, before you look at this one, since this is "more" :) Now that Ning has some basic html formatting tools showing up for most people in comme… Continue

Added by naturegeek on March 24, 2008 at 11:30pm — 14 Comments

Attention Nerdfighters: Donate to this GREAT cause and help decrease Worldsuck for a fellow Nerdfighter!

Angel of Life is doing a Walk to raise money for MS on April 13th, and I'm posting here to help get the word out! Visit her MS Walk Fundraising Page to donate, and, besides helping a made of awesome Nerdfighter (and her mom, who has MS), you'll get a p… Continue

Added by naturegeek on March 11, 2008 at 8:30pm — 1 Comment

Nerdfighters Unite to decrease worldsuck on Earth Day!

Check out ZheNerdyLittleKitty's blog post on the Nerdfighter Earth Day Project! In a nutshell, we are decreasing worldsuck in our own areas and tallying our efforts here on the Ning:

Contact ZheNerdyLittleKitty at NFEarthDay08@gmail.com and let her know that you will be participating.
On April 22nd celebrate Earth Day by cleaning up

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Added by naturegeek on March 4, 2008 at 9:28am — 7 Comments

Friend Requests!! Or, How to Make Friends on the Ning Thing...

Friends are awesome!! We all love friends... SO, I have some "friending" advice for all you lonely Nerdfighters out there:
DO explore and comment on someone's page before sending a friend request, so they know who you are!
DON'T just randomly send friend requests without first introducing yourself. It's a little like spamming someone, really. I have no context and don't know why you'd like to be my friend - a little help?
The friend request window is a little weir… Continue

Added by naturegeek on February 28, 2008 at 4:30pm — 31 Comments

Buzzword Buzzsaw

New Tag Game!
KalaniH tagged me on this one: KalaniH said…

I was tagged by Deni and I sharing the wealth. So, tag. This one isn't the five facts one. In this one it's three buzzwords or catch-phrases that you want to see removed from the planet and why. And I think you only tag three people. Have fun! :)

So I've been thinking... I think buzzwords are more funny than annoying, usually. I mean, "think outside the box" is too obvious, as is "24/7".... But I thou… Continue

Added by naturegeek on February 27, 2008 at 9:30pm — 18 Comments

Voting Day!

I love voting!! I get all happy and sentimental and patriotic and love everyone I see at my polling place. It doesn't matter if they are voting the same way I am - they are participating in democracy, and this is a wonderful thing.

I could have gotten an absentee ballot, in fact we thought we would have to, since my husband had a training in Southern California originally scheduled for this week, but we ended up rescheduling that and getting to vote in person. There is somethin

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Added by naturegeek on February 5, 2008 at 7:18pm — 12 Comments

I gave my laptop a bath

I had a lot of crumbs stuck under the keyboard, so I thought I'd wash them down with a glass of water... bad idea.

So it may be dead. But I'm not going to try until morning, after it's been upside down without the battery in the 'tent postion' over a heater vent all night.

It was awful - I knocked over my water glass and water was actually pouring out from the keyboard. It was on, but asleep. I immediately turned it over to hasten the exit of the flood, but didn't take out the b

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Added by naturegeek on February 4, 2008 at 9:57pm — 20 Comments

BLOG TAG - I'm IT! Five Facts About Me

Serenity tagged me - as far as I can tell from tracing back through comments, this BLOG tag, for people who aren't vloggers, was started by Smary. I don't know her, but she can spell blood with her fingers - it's creepy! So what we are supposed to do is tell five facts about ourselves and then tag someone else (or maybe 5 other people - the instructions weren't too specific).

The weird thing is, this is the THIRD time I

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Added by naturegeek on January 30, 2008 at 10:16pm — 12 Comments

Another Nerdfighter Quality: Being Easily Amused

Or amusing yourself with your own thoughts and perceptions. Or just being aware enough of the humor in it all to enjoy a good giggle that makes people stare because there's no one else around. Or, one of my personal favorites, waking yourself up laughing.

I want to hear your stories about how easily amused you are, or funny stories about finding something funny when no one else could see it (like Unicornceiling and the

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Added by naturegeek on January 23, 2008 at 3:23pm — 27 Comments

Decreasing World Suck, One Nerdfighter at a Time

I want to know what other Nerdfighters are doing to decrease World Suck. It can be something really small, or something major. I've seen several other blog posts on this, here and also in My Pants, but I don't think it can be emphasized enough - decreasing World Suck is an essential part of being a Nerdfighter! So, please, comment, share, and DFTBA!!

I should give credit to Filmlady for her "

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Added by naturegeek on January 19, 2008 at 4:19pm — 49 Comments

Science, Education, the Internet, and a Healthy Skepticism

or, Did you know the word "gullible" isn't in the dictionary?

As a Science Educator, I feel ashamed by the general scientific illiteracy of the population. I feel that it's a failure of science education, and I'm part of that. I'm appalled, for example, by the comments on Hank's EcoGeek Blog about environmental technology - there was a post on Cars that Run on Water that had so many comme

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Added by naturegeek on January 15, 2008 at 11:51am — 50 Comments