Category Archives for Ramblings

Various posts that don’t really fit into other categories, such as updates on what’s going on in my life or what’s going on with the blog.

A Week With the Surface Pro 2

I don’t generally write hardware reviews here – mostly because I tend to just pick up technology as I go, get all excited about it for a few days, and then once it incorporates itself into my daily life it simply becomes mundane.  But recently, I got a new piece of technology that really, REALLY stands out.  I find myself using it pretty much all day – in fact, right now, outside of work it’s my sole computer.

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… if you look really closely you can see my ghostly reflection in the HP monitor. Creepy. XD

I ended up picking up a Surface Pro 2, after the untimely death of my laptop’s battery.  I’d done a fair amount of research, and got to see the Surface Pro 3 in action a couple of times at work (a co-worker of mine teaches workshops from his), and I figured, if I got one with decent enough specs, I’d be fine with a Surface Pro 2 instead of a pricier Pro 3.  I mean, if my co-worker could teach entire workshops off of it, it had to be at least a halfway decent laptop replacement, right?  So I stumbled across an open-box Surface Pro 2 on Amazon with a 256 gig SSD and 8 gigs of RAM (pretty much an exact replacement for my laptop, aside from the SSD, which is a major upgrade) for a relatively good price, around $900, and I jumped on it.  So what if it was older hardware?  It should suit my needs without breaking the bank.

And I have not been disappointed, not one bit. 😀

First things first – I love the fact that I can hook up various peripherals through USB.  This is the only tablet I’ve owned so far that’s had a USB port on it!  I’ve even gone so far as to hook up a USB hub and run a wireless keyboard and mouse through it, before I picked up the Type Cover.  With that awesome little USB port, I can hook up an external hard drive, use my USB headset to deliver a workshop, use a mouse for when I need something more than a tiny trackpad… I think that’s quite possibly my most favorite feature about this tablet.

The fact that I can also hook it up to a monitor with the help of a dongle is awesome, too.  With the external monitor and mouse, it almost feels like I’m using my full desktop.  It’s not quite the same experience as using my desktop, as my desktop has twice the RAM, but it’s an incredibly smooth experience, especially for a tablet.  I’ve worked in Dreamweaver, Photoshop, and InDesign on here so far, and the only thing that reminds me that I’m on a tablet is the keyboard for the Type Cover.  In fact, this thing runs better than my work desktop – far better.

And the keyboard?  Pretty impressive for something so small.  I’ve had varied experiences with tablet keyboards, and more often than not they’re too small for me to type comfortably on.  I remember trying to type with the keyboard for my old iPad Mini – I had to squish my two hands together and take a few minutes to adjust to typing on a keyboard crammed into such a small space.  And there was no trackpad, either.  The Type Cover feels like I’m using an actual keyboard.  And it’s backlit.  Having laptops with backlit keyboards have spoiled me in the past, what with my old Macbook Pro and my recently out-of-commission Asus laptop, and in low light conditions I rely on the backlighting to make sure my fingers are on the right keys.  And this little keyboard does not disappoint, either.

Might be a little difficult to see, but those keys are all lit up.

Might be a little difficult to see, but those keys are all lit up.

Last of all – but certainly not least – is the battery life.  Oh lord, there’s nothing that makes me giggle with glee quite like hovering over the battery icon and seeing I have ten hours of battery life left.  I’ve been able to use the laptop tablet casually all day long, and have only needed to plug it in at the end of the day.  When doing more intense work like using Creative Suite, I have plugged it in just to be on the safe side, but that’s just me being the paranoid designer that I am.  (Save early, save often, or you will be very sad if your machine dies)  But for simply browsing the internet and listening to music (and oh gods the sound is amazing for such a little tablet!), I’ve been able to go most of the day without plugging it in.

And there you have it – my impressions of the Surface Pro 2 after spending a week of quality time with it.  If you’re considering getting one for yourself, keep an eye out on Amazon for good deals, and shoot for a Pro 2, as they’re cheaper considering the Pro 3 has just come out with some new models.  The Pro 2 will do you just as well, but without entirely breaking the bank!

 

Things I Want to Make (when I finally get my craft room back)

Four more days until I move!  Oh, you have no idea how happy this makes me.  Not only will I not be limited to wearing whatever clothes I didn’t shove into vacuum sealed bags and toss into the treacherous cave that is the storage unit, I will also have access to ALL my crafting stuff.  Not just one crochet hook and a blanket that’s too warm to sit under while I crochet it.  And there are a number of things I want to be making…

Crocheted Toothless

Amigurumi Toothless – yes, I want to make another one of these little guys.  The one in the picture here, I ended up giving away to a friend – and they’re so quick to make, too, so why not make another one?  (or six, or eleven, why not a whole tiny Toothless army?)

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The Modern Poncho – It’s no surprise that I have a fondness addiction to making shawls and ponchos.  And I think this one would look very lovely in a nice warm shade of brown or combo of browns and reds.  It’s a good thing I’m moving closer to my favorite yarn shop…

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I’d really like to finish the third Fourth Doctor scarf I’m working on – I’ve got less than a third of the scarf to go, and I was hoping it’d be done in time for GenCon this year, but no luck.  Plus, the only part of my Fourth Doctor costume I can locate at the moment is the coat… so unless I can magically find all the other parts in the week before GenCon as I unpack, no Fourth Doctor for me this year… :/

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Crocheted Scooter – In seafoam, naturally.  Or I could make four of them – red, blue, seafoam, and red/cream, one for me and each of my housemates…  And having at least one of these would be pretty cool, considering the theme for the living room in the new place is going to be scooters…


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And finally, last but definitely not least, the first project I’m probably going to work on as soon as the dust settles and I can find my various costume pieces is the Cupcakes Pinkie Pie costume (the video above is the least violent reference I could find to it, hahah).  I’m not going to lie – I’m afraid it won’t be done in time for GenCon, but Ross says he’ll help me out, and this is the only costume I’m really working on, so here’s hoping I can pull it off…

I’m going to be busy after I unpack, haha.

Why I haven’t been all that crafty this summer

I know, I know – I’ve not only been slacking in the blog department, I’ve also been slacking in the craft department.  The last crafty thing I did was make Ross that Rainbow Dash t-shirt back in May.  “What’s up with that?” you ask.  “I thought this was The Crafty Nerd, not just The Nerd.”

Well, I’ll show you what’s up, my friendly readers.

Can't exactly craft when all my craft buckets are in the middle of a pile of stuff...

Can’t exactly craft when all my craft buckets are in the middle of a pile of stuff…

Yep, The Crafty Nerd (and Mister Crafty Nerd, and Ross, and our other housemate Gina, who is also crafty and nerdy) is moving.  And because of the joys of moving (packing, filling up a storage unit, and waiting for the new house to be ready), I haven’t had access to my craft supplies since… oh, June?  It’s a sad existence.  Not to mention pretty much all of my My Little Ponies are in storage as well (see the box under the trash can, at the back of the unit?  Yeah, all my Build-a-Bear ponies are in there, as well as some other pony plushies), and my office isn’t very fun without them.  Plus, I’ve only had my laptop for computering for most of the summer, and the poor laptop’s decided to give up on its battery, which is frustrating.  Grr.  My poor NyanMachine – you can see it there, on top of a small dresser, just gathering dust and waiting to be used to craft blog posts.

So, all my crafting has been put on hiatus, aside from one crocheted blanket and the Cupcakes Pinkie Pie cosplay I’ve been stalling on all summer, simply because I lack the motivation to get it done (and every time I think of something I could add to the costume, I realize it’s in storage and let out a sigh).

Post-GenCon, though, I promise there will be loads of crafty stuff.  And while you all wait, I can at the very least post some nerdy stuff and share some fun craft tutorials!  Until then, be patient – I promise I’ll make it all worth everyone’s while! 🙂

Book Review: The Hunger Games

Hunger_gamesYes, I admit, I hadn’t read The Hunger Games trilogy until, well, this past week.  I finished The Stand sometime on Thursday night, and needed something to read that wasn’t Stephen King… so I poked around on Amazon until I saw The Hunger Games, and realized that while I’d seen the movie, I hadn’t read the books yet.  And usually I’m the type to read the book WAY before the movie comes out!  (With the exception of Twilight.  I only read the books after the first movie came out because I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.  I’ll hold back on my opinions on the Twilight series, haha.)  I was in the mood for something new to read, and I really did enjoy the movie version of The Hunger Games, so I sat down and read it.  And blew through it in a day and a half, and ended up signing up for Amazon Kindle Unlimited when I realized it would cost less than buying Catching Fire and Mockingjay combined!  (And once I’ve got some more experience with that, I’ll likely be reviewing that too!)  And then blew through most of Catching Fire.  And then I realized – hey, I should write about these books.  They’re good.  So, here’s part one of my review of the Hunger Games trilogy!  There will be spoilers.  You have been warned.

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How To Train Your Dragon 2: The Review

Well, the movie’s been out for a couple of weeks now, so I feel it’s only right to finally get around to posting this: a review of How To Train Your Dragon 2.

The plot of the movie, without really giving too much of the story away, focuses on Hiccup becoming an adult and discovering more about himself as he discovers more about the world he lives in.  This movie’s set five years after the first one, and Hiccup is 20 years old at this point – an adult, but still the same Hiccup we grew to knew and love in the first movie.  There’s a lot about HTTYD 2 I want to talk about, so I’ll get the non-spoilery stuff out of the way first.

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First off, I’d like to gush about the graphics.  I’ve watched both movies pretty much back-to-back lately, and it’s very obvious how much technology has advanced since the first movie came out in 2010.  The textures look so much more real, the characters look more lifelike – at times it felt like I could just step through the screen and into this lush fantasy world.  And, strangely enough, the first thing that stood out to me when it came to just how much technology had advanced was Stoick’s beard.  It looks far better in HTTYD 2, much more realistic…

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It’s not just the beard. Stoick in his entirety looks much better this time around.

Another thing that I absolutely loved about the movie was Toothless’ antics.  When he wasn’t a central character in a scene, he was still stealing the show in the background, with his silly antics and ridiculous cuteness.  I loved him in the first movie, and I love him even more now.  And I’m incredibly glad I’ve seen the movie twice – because I won’t lie, there may have been times where I was paying more attention to Toothless goofing off in the background than I was to the main plot.

How can you not love that face?

How can you not love that face?

After the jump, there will be spoilers.  If you haven’t seen the movie yet, and don’t want to spoil the story for yourself, don’t read any further!

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Indy Pop Con: Cosplay Photos!

I meant to post this sooner – however, back spasms and blogging sadly do not go together well.  (I may have spent the past three days in bed, becoming best friends with Netflix…)  But!  Here are the cosplay photos from Indy Pop Con last weekend!  There were many, many amazing cosplayers there, and I didn’t get nearly enough pictures of everyone, but here’s what I do have!

Prepping for PopCon

Technically, PopCon starts today!  Woo!  Due to transportation issues and work constraints, though, I won’t be able to go until tomorrow.  BUT.  That gives me all of today to prepare!  And there’s a lot of work that goes into preparing for a convention.  Costumes need to be dug out of closets…

Yes, cute fluffy Pinkie Pie and evil genius Rainbow Factory Dash share a closet sometimes.

Yes, cute fluffy Pinkie Pie and evil genius Rainbow Factory Dash share a closet sometimes.

…wigs need to be detangled and styled…

I admit it. I suck at taking good care of my wigs, as you can tell from the deflated lump of pink hair.

I admit it. I suck at taking good care of my wigs, as you can tell from the deflated lump of pink hair.

and sometimes a brand new costume idea hits you and there’s only a day or so to finish it.

I'm not kidding. The idea to make a Rainbow Dash cutie mark shirt hit me yesterday afternoon.

I’m not kidding. The idea to make a Rainbow Dash cutie mark shirt hit me yesterday afternoon.

And doing all this stuff is part of the fun of getting ready for a convention!  And, admittedly, part of the stress, too.  Inevitably I end up forgetting something, or there’s a costume malfunction, or something else out of the blue that makes things a little crazy.  But stress aside, I’m super excited about PopCon tomorrow.  It looks like it’s shaping up to be much better organized than Indiana ComicCon was earlier this year, and there are SO MANY big names.  I won’t list everyone – but you can take a look at the guest list and see all the stars that’ll be there.  John DiMaggio (voice of Bender, Jake, and Wakka, among other characters), Nicholas Brendon (Xander from Buffy! *flail*), Ron Glass (Shepherd Book from Firefly and Serenity), and Kristian Nairn (HODOR OMG) are just a handful of the awesome people who’re gonna be there.  You have no idea how excited I am!  Not only will so many stars be there, but there’ll also be a comic book museum featuring Action Comics #1!  And, of course, a ton of exhibitors to spend money at, and a costume contest… so much fun packed into three days.  I wish I’d been able to get a press pass for PopCon – but maybe next year.  I plan on cramming as much fun as I can into the next two days, and taking as many pictures as humanly possible.

So!  Keep an eye out here for my PopCon report in the next couple of days!  I can’t wait to see what the convention’s got in store for me.

Toothless comes to Build-a-Bear!

Edit 6/24/14: For those of you out there looking for a Toothless of your very own: Build a Bear is sold out! However, you can sign up to be notified when he’s available again via the link, so for those of you still waiting for a Nightfury of your very own, be patient – I’m sure Build a Bear will do a re-release!  (And to show you just how quickly they sold out: I bought mine the first day they were available, and then a friend of mine went to buy one three days later and they were gone!)

Yes, you heard that right – you can get your very own Toothless, right from Build-a-Bear!  And considering the great job they did with the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic crew, I had pretty high expectations for BaB’s Toothless plush – after all, you can’t get much worse than this, right?

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Ouch. Toothless, what did they do to you?

No wonder so many of us went and made our own Toothlesses (Toothli?) so we could have a Night Fury of our own to cuddle.  Well, I went to Build a Bear today, and I definitely was not disappointed!

Here he is, with my handmade Toothless for scale.

Here he is, with my handmade Toothless for scale.

He’s about 17 inches tall, not including the tail, and my gosh is he adorable!  Look at those big eyes, that adorable mischievous smile… Yup, Build-a-Bear did a great job with this little guy.  He’s super soft, and very huggable.  I had to resist the urge to carry him around the mall for the rest of my shopping.  There is one weird thing they did with him – his wings are actually detachable.

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As you can see in the image above, he wears his wings like a tiny little backpack.  Considering most Build-a-Bear plush are stuffed from the middle of the back, the detachable wings make sense – otherwise, you wouldn’t be able to stuff Toothless from the usual BaB spot.  I do worry about losing the wings at some point, but right now they’re held on with a plastic tag-holder thing (I never know what to call them, and I even worked at a consignment shop where I stuck a bunch of those things into clothes when tagging items!), and I plan on leaving it in there for the time being.

Along with Toothless himself, they’re also selling a little tiny Toothless hoodie for your bear to wear!  I say bear, because I found out the hard way that it’s not quite suited for a pony.

Toothless and... Toothless?

Toothless and… Toothless?

I had to practically maul Pinkie to get the shirt over her head, and when I wedged her front legs into the armhole, it was pretty clear that this shirt wasn’t exactly meant for ponies or other similar four-legged friends.  Ah well.  If you don’t put the front legs in the arm holes, and kind of use it as a Toothless cowl, it does work, somewhat.  Pinkie looks freakin’ adorable in the Toothless shirt, I will say.  You should be able to find Toothless at your local Build-a-Bear – not sure how long he’ll be there for, though – probably at least through the end of June.  I’d say get him while you can – he’s clearly the best Toothless plush out there!

Coming out of nerd hibernation

Yes, I’ve been quiet lately.  It’s that time of year – I get swamped with class projects that are due and random work obligations to take care of – but after the end of next week, well, it’s the start of my summer vacation.  And we know what that means.

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That’s right!  SUMMER FUN TIME.  And this summer, I’ve got some big plans.  Hopefully they’ll result in more posting!  Here are my fun summer plans:

  • I’m going to read as many books as humanly possible.  There are so many books I’ve wanted to read over the past year, but have been either so exhausted that I pass right out during prime book-reading time (which is just before bed), or I just simply don’t have the time at all.  I want to keep a running tally of what I’ve read, too – and I’ll be doing that on this page.
  • I have a new costume I’m putting together for GenCon!  I unfortunately didn’t get an early enough start on the Toothless costume I was thinking of doing, but I’ve got plans for something else – I’ll be going as Rainbow Dash one day for GenCon!  More specifically, I’ll be doing a tamer version of Rainbow Dash from a not-exactly-kid-friendly story involving cupcakes, as well as a much more kid-friendly version of RD as well.  Ross, also known as Rainbow Factory Dash, is going to be my partner in crime, and he’ll be debuting as Pinkie Pie.  (Not sure if he’s going to be a manly Pinkie Pie or what, though)  Actually, Ross and I changed our minds – GenCon will be the last hurrah for Rainbow Factory Dash (albeit an unpleasant one, haha) and I’ll be going as the creepiest Pinkie Pie to ever grace the fandom.  I also need to do some tweaking to my Pinkie Pie costume to get it ready for Indy PopCon in a few weeks!
  • I’m going to finish up all those crafts that are stashed in a corner of my room.  Yes, I will finish the new version of the Season 18 Fourth Doctor scarf.  And that second Downton Abbey themed shawl.  And the scooter counted-cross stitch pattern I’m gonna turn into a pillow.
  • I’m going to spend some time working in Codecademy with some of my Information & Library Science buddies!  My plans: finish the PHP curriculum, maybe learn some Ruby, and refresh my Python knowledge.

Yeah, it sounds like I’m going to have a busy summer – all that plus two conventions, plus who knows what else – but it all means I’ll hopefully have all sorts of fun stuff to talk about on the blog!  I’ve missed posting, and I hope you guys are ready for all the cool stuff this summer will bring! 😀

Indiana Comic Con 2014: The Review

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Last weekend, I went to Indiana’s first ever Comic Con!  Held at the Indianapolis Convention Center (where Gen Con is held), Indy Comic Con promised to be a fun little convention.  As it was in its first year, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but I planned on having a fun time anyway – after all, how can you not have fun dressed up as Pinkie Pie? 😀

Come on everypony, smile smile smile!

Come on everypony, smile smile smile!

A friend of mine (Ross, whom I met at Gen Con and became friends with thanks to the magic of the internet) and I planned on going all three days, and Mr. Crafty Nerd and another friend made plans to join us on Saturday and possibly Sunday.  And come Friday afternoon, Ross and I ventured to the Convention Center to see what Comic Con would be like.

Rainbow Dash dislikes waiting in line...

Rainbow Dash dislikes waiting in line…

The first thing we ended up doing was waiting in line – despite having bought our tickets online.  Comic Con used Ticketmaster to handle the registration process (which made paying for our tickets painful, what with all the fees), and sent us a strip of tickets like we were going to a concert.  (Tickets don’t fit terribly well into badge holders.)  Once we got to the convention, there were a number of lines you could enter to get into the convention, all snaking around together – we ended up going through the will-call line, despite having our tickets already, and then got funneled out when getting to the part where we’d need to pay for tickets.  It wasn’t a long process, as we got there maybe an hour after the convention started, but it was still somewhat confusing and tedious.  We had our tickets checked, and then received three wristbands – one for each day of the convention.

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The section of the convention center that Comic Con was being held in was one of the exhibition halls (D and E, for those familiar with the convention center), and that was all.  One part of the hall was sectioned off for the theater (where panels and the costume contest were held), another was sectioned off for the entry lines and ticket purchasing, and the rest was exhibitor booths and artist tables.  All in all, it was… small.  I made one circuit around the exhibitor area, bought a handful of things, and decided I was done with the booths.  After a few hours at Comic Con on Friday, Ross and I decided we’d save our energy for Saturday and went home.

Ready for action on Saturday!

Ready for action on Saturday!

 

We got to the convention center around 10 or 11 am, and as we ambled our way over to where Comic Con was being held, we noticed there were way more people there than on Friday.  I mean, the con was practically a ghost town, compared to what I’m used to with Gen Con and I-CON and such, and then Saturday? BOOM.  Everyone wanted to be there Saturday.  Ross and I made one circuit through the main room where the convention was being held, pushed along by the insane stream of people surging through the aisles, made a quick stop at the costume contest registration booth, and then didn’t spend much time inside the main area for the rest of the con.  We weren’t at the convention for more than an hour when we heard that they were turning people away at the doors, and the convention was at capacity.  Apparently the organizers didn’t realize that 10,000 people wanted to attend Indiana’s first Comic Con.  (They also picked a pretty poor weekend to host it, as the majority of the convention center was host to a public librarian conference that weekend.)  Bryan, Ross, Gina, and I ended up spending the majority of our time roaming the halls and taking pictures and talking with people about how crazy things were, how the convention could have been planned better, and so on.  After lunch, and more wandering around the convention center, Ross and I figured we should go wait in line for costume contest pre-judging.

The line was INSANE.  I think over half the people in line hadn’t actually registered for the contest, and about 15 minutes into when pre-judging was supposed to start, rumors floated down the line that pre-judging was canceled, they were just going to send a judge down the line to check everyone out, and that anyone who didn’t have a number wasn’t getting in.  After the abbreviated pre-judging process (where a judge came by and asked us about our costumes, what our inspiration was, did we make them ourselves), we all filed into the theater (which was packed!  apparently everyone wanted to see the costume contest), all nearly one hundred and thirty of us.  They didn’t realize so many people were interested in participating!  Everyone in the contest had amazing costumes (I was in line next to a girl dressed as Toothless who made her costume in A WEEK holy crap), and it was fun getting to prance across the stage with Ross as Rainbow Factory Dash.  However, the costume contest could also have been handled a little better…  By the end of Saturday, the four of us were exhausted, and decided it’d probably be better not to go on Sunday.

All in all?  For the inaugural year of Indiana Comic Con, while it had its issues – mostly organization related – I had a lot of fun.  I got to see lots of cool costumes, and being part of the first year of what promises to be a big convention was pretty exciting as well.  I got to meet one of the writers/artists for the My Little Pony comic, I got to see lots of fun art and cool toys, and I had loads of fun (as always) dressing as Pinkie Pie.  I think I will go back next year – here’s hoping they take up more of the convention center, though.  The rough start for Indiana Comic Con makes me a little leery of going to Indy Pop Con at the end of May, even though there’ll be many big names there (like Sylvester McCoy and Nicholas Brendon!  XANDER OMG) – instead of three days, I’m going to stick to Saturday – and definitely register ahead of time, in hopes it holds my spot.  I do believe they’re taking up more of the convention center, which will be a good thing – I anticipate Pop Con being very popular.

Alright, enough rambling about the convention – on to the pictures!