Beyond our new gardening adventure, Jon and I are planning to head to a Twin Cities Gaelic Football Club practice tonight! I don’t plan to actually join the team, since most of their games are on Sundays and Jon and I both work weekends, but it’ll be fun to try something new and see what my younger brother has been up to for the past year or so. He’s the vice chair of the club! Here’s hoping we’ll be able to keep up with the regular players, at least a little bit anyway. *chuckle*

Actually…

I DO know how to create chainmaile! *grin* I can’t wait!

If you’re not feeling quite prepared either, may I offer a link to a secret weapon? Keri Smith offered this gem on her blog last year and I just may have to use it to get me through the end of the season.

Also, Geeky Tattoos is a really fun blog. You should add it to your RSS reader!

I’ve considered getting a tattoo someday, but I can’t decide on an image I’d want permanently affixed to my skin. I… change my mind a lot. I’m probably better off sticking with funky hair colors – those can always be trimmed off!

Do you have an tattoos? When and how did you decide to get it/them?

Tonight, I found the MySpace page for a coworker’s band. I mean, I knew he was in a band, but I had no idea what kind of music it was, so it’s highly entertaining having a chance to listen to it. And it’s really fun seeing the artwork my colleagues make when they aren’t working! One girl makes glass ornaments and jewelry, a couple are photographers, etc.

I also love that I can interact with people from all over the country and globe. It’s really neat to know that there’s a girl in New York with a similar personality (we’re both INTJs) to my own. (She’s way more awesome and entertaining than me though, so go read her blog!) It’s also fun to find forums like Lavish where I can follow conversations and also interact when I feel like it. The ladies there are a lot of fun!

I think, if I were a Muppet, I’d probably be a cross between Red Fraggle, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, and Scooter. I’d have some strange mix of Red’s optimism, Bunsen’s experimental nature, and Scooter’s side-kick/behind-the-scenes persona. I know, it doesn’t sound like the most cohesive of character traits, but I think it actually sums me up relatively well.

Now, I haven’t read a lot of fantasy novels so I don’t know how it compares, but a good book is a good book, yes? Even if it’s a genre you don’t usually read! So, if you like good books, you should find a copy of The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. There are stories within stories and I really can’t even describe how cool the writing is. There have been very few books I’ve read so quickly, so that’s a sign. Trust me!

But, what to read now? Should I keep at the Robert Jordan book? Pick up something by Neil Gaiman? Wander through the library stacks til something falls off the shelf and read that? I’ve been contemplating checking out Imager by L. E. Modesitt Jr. since I enjoyed the quick pace of his Saga of Recluce series, but it can be good to branch out. Maybe I’ll finally read the last book my Dad lent to me, Midnight at the Well of Souls by Jack L. Chalker. I’ve started it a couple of times now, but I always seem to get distracted and put it on the back burner, which is a shame because it’s really interesting. Maybe I’ll skip the first few chapters since I’ve already read them twice…

Like an RPG, there are quests and a story line to follow. It is a sci-fi game, so the story involves hacking transport gates, which is done by playing a gem matching mini-game, so you can travel through space and track the enemy ships. You can also mine materials and craft them into new weapons, and haggle at the shops for reduced prices, both with slightly different versions of the gem mini-game.

The game play is more challenging than you might expect. Depending on how you move the gems on the board, new gems can come from one of six sides. It’s not the ordinary drop-from-the-top style you might expect. I like this a lot because it adds an element of strategy many other puzzle games just don’t have.

Additionally, Jon and I have determined that it has some of the best music of any game we’ve played. It’s simple, but it just doesn’t get old. The music for the first game may be slightly better… but Galactrix is still darn good.

Confused? Intrigued? Go check out X-Play’s review, and then check out the free demo! It’s terribly fun!!

Allow me to nerd out for a while…

I’m very tempted to build my own, despite my husband pointing out that it will almost certainly cost more money than buying a pre-built system. Five years ago, I wouldn’t have thought about it at all, I’d have just started looking at the Best Buy ads, or asked my Dad what he suggested and eventually bought a retail rig. But now it just sounds so much more fun to pick out all the parts and make it work all on my own!

As Jon reminded me, the most prohibitive part of building my own machine will likely be buying an OS. When he built his desktop a couple years ago we ran in to that problem. It wasn’t as simple as hooking up his old hard drive that had an HP install of XP on it, nope. We ended up running to the store right before the place closed to spend another $200 on Vista because the HP install was incompatible with his new motherboard. It sucked. He was so excited about his first build, we thought going in that he’d just be voiding the HP warranty, we overlooked the fact that he wouldn’t be able to use it at all. It seems obvious now… the Windows license wasn’t truly his, it was an OEM install and was locked to the original machine.

I can get student pricing on an upgrade of Windows 7 for just $30, but an upgrade doesn’t work on a newly built machine. You need to have a previous version of Windows installed. *sigh* I guess for now I’ll just be dreaming of processors, heatsinks, and graphics cards, and hoping that I can figure out some way to justify building, even if it does cost more. (I already have an ATX form factor chassis and a relatively decent Mushkin power supply! It might be able to keep up with a new build, right?)

Nicci at Hair Police did an amazing job, and she was a riot to talk to while I was hanging out in her expert care!

I feel like I’ve been waiting to turn 30 for a couple of years now. Actually, ever since my husband got there, I’ve been waiting for my turn. I’m almost there baby! Yeeaah! Also, my little road trip starts bright and early at 9am tomorrow and I can’t wait! So exciting!