A little bit nerdy

Once upon a time, Roommate got an N64 for free from a friend. Neither of us are really gamers. If you had to classify us, we'd be "social gamers," which means we can sit down and enjoy a couple of rounds of MarioKart or Super Smash Bros. with a bunch of friends, but we don't really play much aside from that. She's been playing the Ocarina of Time for two years now, if that gives you any idea. It's a long game, but it's not that long. ;)

Anyway, since N64 is ancient and outdated, games are hard to find, and the popular ones are super expensive. She's been saving up for Super Smash Bros. for almost a year now. Well, I had a Christmas bonus at work and decided to splurge on her Christmas present, so I bought it for her.

It was the perfect present, because she'd really, really wanted it, and it was something that we could do together. Also, it was neither super practical nor completely useless (I swear, finding that magic middle ground in gift-giving is the biggest struggle).

So she opened it and, after tackling me with a rib-breaking hug, she plugged it in and we started playing.

There's something else you need to know about me for this story to make the most sense: I'm not that good at video games. Mostly because I don't play them very often. I'm used to being the worst player in Smash Bros. and MarioKart, and I usually prefer to play with people who aren't overly competitive for that exact reason.

But look at this:

That's me. The wreath. The astonishing number of KOs. The dramatic stance in the background. And I was SO excited that I took a picture because it'll probably never happen again. We also hadn't figured out how to turn off friendly-fire damage, so this feat was slightly more impressive because she was capable of inflicting damage on me (and did, several times). Roommate has since gotten better than me at this game, but I savored my brief, tiny moment of Smash Brothers glory for all it was worth.

I did also beat my brother once, in a viciously competitive, all-out duel. I didn't take a picture though. One was enough.

And that, my friends, is about as gamer-nerdy as I will ever get.

Thanksvember: NaNoWriMo

So... don't get too excited, because I'm still not writing a novel in a month, but my aforementioned short story? Well, it's not really a short story anymore. I mean it is, because all I've written is a short story, but it's not done because there's more to the story. Know what I mean?

But it is fun. I haven't written for fun like this in a really long time. So it's fun. Let's see how many times I can say the word fun. Fun is a really weird word, when you think about it. Also, it's always been intended to be a noun, which is why everyone has such a hard time with its adjectival and adverbial  usage. Have you ever tried to say "that was funner than what we did last time" and just cringed? But "more fun" just sounds stiff? And forget trying to say "He did something funly." Yeah. Not going to happen. *whispers* That's because it's a noun. You have fun.

Granted, modern English usage has accepted "fun" as an adjective too, and the preferred method is to say "more fun" or "most fun" when qualifying the amount of funness something has. Isn't English grea--HOW DID THIS TURN INTO A USAGE LESSON?? I WAS WRITING ABOUT HOW I'M GRATEFUL FOR WRITING!

Geez, Lynnae. Get your nerdy little butt back on track.

Did I mention I've been writing for like, two whoa, FOUR hours straight, plus proofreading for 8 hours prior to that, so I might be a little loopy? No?

Well.

Now you know.

Welcome back to Lynnae the Writer. She's a bit of a nut. Editor-Lynnae tends to be more polished. Writer-Lynnae usually takes Editor-Lynnae and jams her in the corner, stuffs her face full of cookies, and bullies her into silence. Incidentally, that's also what we do to Editor-Lynnae while online, so I will never judge you for poor grammar online, because Editor-Lynnae is tied up and gagged to spare her from the pain of it all.

Yes, I'm switching in and out of plural first person. It's a weird world in here.

*AHEM*

Back on topic.

This November, I am thankful that my amazing writer-roommate (who, between you and me, is going to be the real author in this dynamic duo because she's just brilliant) is sending off her writer-vibes so strongly that my own urge to write has lifted its sleepy head. I may not be as dedicated a writer as she is, but I appreciate the creative outlet.

In the meantime, in case Roommate ever reads this: AISLEY. YOU GOT THIS. Own that book. I've been betting on you from day one.

Also, for your enjoyment, a slight peek at what an apartment of two writers looks like on a Thursday night (and if that doesn't sound dramatic enough, don't worry, we'll definitely be holed up like this on Friday night, too... who needs boys? (I'm just kidding. I do. I love boys.)): <-- That is not meant to be a frowny face. It is a colon, meant to present to you the following. Oh, who cares. PICTURE.

Me on my fluffy beanbag typing away. Roommate wrapped in snuggie
and cozy hoodie, also typing away. It's a wild night in this house.

Hobbity Happiness

GUYS.

The Hobbit comes out on DVD TODAY.

I'm about to get all kinds of nerdy in here. 

Also, I'm booked this evening. Unless you're coming to watch this fantastic movie with me, do not disturb.

I sort of adore this comic. And come on, you know you sang it.

And Foxtrot, the classic nerdy comic strip:

One more: just to keep in mind. :)

I'm sorry I'm such a huge nerd. But I love Tolkien. I can't help myself. You can blame my dad. It's all his fault for reading The Hobbit to me as a kid.

Frankly, I'm surprised and pleased that it came out so soon, and they didn't make me wait until next Christmas to re-watch this and see the next one. :) 

To Brighten Your Day

Here's a little book-nerd humor. :)

Love you all.

To You From Me With Love

Happy Valentine's Day.

Indulging the Inner Fangirl

So it's a commonly-known fact that I am a nerd. The biggest collection I have on Pinterest is devoted to geeky stuff. And for those who know me well, it's also common knowledge that Tolkien has held a preeminent place in my nerd-world for over half my life now (in fact, it'll officially reach two-thirds of my life this year (Yes, I calculated that---Editor Lynnae simply had to fact-check herself.))

Well, unbeknownst to me (because I'm inattentive, apparently), part of Tolkien-nerd-Lynnae had been starving because I hadn't read the books since I was about 15. I only discovered this because I was marathoning the movies (my at-least-once-a-year tradition), and my little sister kept asking me "Did that happen like that in the books?" and I suddenly realized to my shame and horror that I honestly couldn't remember.

I honestly hadn't thought about it in years, and had been coasting along on my title of Tolkien Aficionado for years. But how could I claim to be a Tolkien geek if I couldn't remember anything that happened in the books? For shame!

So I've been fixing that. I started rereading the books and I'm glad that I love them as much as I did when I was 8. Honestly, I don't know what my problem was. I stopped trying to reread the books because they felt slow, and my attention span wasn't holding long enough for me to make much progress. Maybe it's because I've been reading reference lists, dictionaries, and indexes for work, but this time around, I'm finding The Lord of the Rings anything but dull.

But watch out! I might be an even bigger nerd now that I'm re-armed with the booklore of Tolkien's world.

Incidentally, I've seen the Hobbit five times already.

Yeah, I loved it that much.

In My Wildest Dreams

Forgive the Nerd. She's going to explode in nerdiness in this post. I found my One True Nerd Love. The one item that I would absolutely love to own, despite its super-high impracticality factor:

Yes, it's a Lord of the Rings collector's edition chess set. (For more luxurious peeks at the details of this beautiful thing, go here.)

Gah.

I want.

I want it so badly.

So if you ever find yourself thinking, "Hey, I think I need to spend $500 on Lynnae today," pleasepleasepleasePLEASE spend it all on this.

In the meantime, I will stare longingly at pictures. (If I stay single for a few more years and retain my large discretionary income, I may dig into my nest egg to buy it. I'm not sure if this is a threat to the "marry-Lynnae-off-when-the-time-is-right" plan or not.)

Incidentally, if you happen to own one, I will bake you a three-course meal just for the chance to touch it.

MindBomb

You know how everyone seems to have that one word (or 50) that they never learned correctly? I just found one of mine today.

Remunerate (verb): To pay, recompense, or reward for work, trouble, etc.

My whole life I have read and pronounced that word as "reNUMerate" and it is, in fact, "reMUNerate." In my proofreading, I tried to correct what I perceived as a misspelling in the Book of Mormon Index, only to find out that it was right and I was wrong (an off-putting situation, considering how many errors that stupid index has...)

I've just been schooled by the Book of Mormon Index.

Elementary, Dear Watson

The new Batman movie comes out today. In honor of that, here's a little comic.

PS: This made me laugh so hard when I saw it.

ASkldhfpaoiwuewoiajd!!!

Yep. That was my reaction when I found out that they're making a Captain America 2. Ask Savannah. I got so excited my tongue stopped working.

Why yes, this is Hawkeye (from the Avengers) doing the
crazy-dance in an interview. How did you know?
Now I really want to find this vid.

Incidentally, that also sums up my speaking ability throughout the entire Avengers movie. Which yes, I have now (FINALLY!) seen. And I can neither confirm nor deny that I was doing this:
<------------
on the inside the entire time.

I am such a fangirl.

Harry Potter Friday

Okay, this made me laugh. A lot.

We Keep Weirdness Here

Today, I'm grateful for work. Well, I'm always grateful for work. But the people I work with are pretty darn funny. I won't try too hard to describe it because most of it is situational humor, which is all about timing and context. It's never funny when you try to tell someone else.

But we laugh a lot at work.

And I love working with other editors. The similar background and training means that many of us are familiar with the same kinds of things. It also means we're drawn to or at least can appreciate the same kinds of movies, books, etc. I don't think I've ever made an Oscar (the movie, not the award show) reference among relative strangers and actually had someone understand it. (Well okay, it happened once, and I then dated him for several months: you just can't pass up that kind of compatibility. (PS: I kid. Quoting Oscar was not the deciding factor in us dating. But it was a nice perk.)) But there is a whole handful of people here who know the movie without me having to show it to them first! Kindred spirits!

Here are some other things that my coworkers do or have that will probably remind you of me:

1. a Star Trek cookbook (and scans of the newspaper spotlight on the Harry Potter cookbook) and a knowledge of exactly what Tribbles are
2. blogs about editing
3. the ability to talk for hours about literary theory and archetypal patterns
4. pen fetishes (you know, the ones where you will tear apart a room looking for that generic Bic pen because it "just writes better" than all the other Bic pens)
5. well-annotated and partially memorized copies of the Chicago Manual of Style
6. a "Hobbit day," which is pretty much arbitrarily assigned based on whether one or more people feel like not wearing their shoes around the office that day
7. a willingness to share books---but only because we know that the borrower will be just as violently protective of the books as we are
8. a movie quote for every occasion (at least one person quotes a movie every few hours or so)
9. debates won by who can get to the most reliable information first
10. mutually shared love for warm fuzzy things, hot chocolate, colored pens, and books---preferably having all of the above at the same time
11. getting ridiculously giddy about discovering an obscure word meaning or grammar rule and then telling everyone else about it
12. any mention of Shakespeare, Jane Austen, J. R. R. Tolkien, or C. S. Lewis has the mysterious ability to draw at least three or four people out of their offices for a brief chat before returning to work---even if they're many feet down the hall or the door is shut

Honestly, this job is awesome. I've never met so many Lynnae-kind-of-nerds in the same place before! The sense of humor and witty banter is straight up my alley, too. There's a couple of men in my office that remind me so much of my dad in that way.

I really hope that this kind of employee-camaraderie isn't unique to the Church Magazines. It probably is. But the fact that we can throw a "Bad Candy Party" (which was really just code for a dessert potluck) and spend an hour playing Signs and whacking each other with a rolled up newspaper is just fantastic. It's nice to know that I don't have to get boring as I get older. Many of these people are twice my age.

So yes, I'm grateful for the people I work with. I have a lot of fun doing the work, and I have lot of fun working with the people. It's the best part of my life right now. :)

Did I Just Make That Sound?

I've been posting a lot of pop-culture-related posts recently. Maybe because, since I've gotten back from Lake Powell, a bunch of good movies have come out and I'm catching up, thus consuming a large part of my life. I'm writing this post at an obscenely late (or early) hour because I just got back from the midnight screening of Captain America.

It. Was. Amazing!

And they had a legitimate Avengers trailer at the end of the credits. Flash of Loki, Thor, Tony Stark, and others. The whole theater roared with applause. Somewhere in the midst of this roar, a small squeak reached my ears just as it hiccuped into a croak because the vocal cords making it couldn't take the stress. I was... unaware that I was emitting that sound. I don't know if I've ever involuntarily made a fangirl squeal like that. I'll be honest, most of the odd noises I make about The Hobbit are semi-voluntary. I'm at least aware that I'm making them. But Marvel just yanked it right out of my mouth, without my brain's knowledge. Hm. Well done, moviemakers. Well done. 

Though my true nerdiness prefers Tolkien (and is obviously very excited about The Hobbit), I must commend Marvel for doing such a good job of building slowly up to the Avengers movie so that even relatively uneducated fans (like me--because, let's face it, I've still never read any of the comic books) are hopping with excitement for the grand finale to come out.

And yes, I may have a crush on Captain America. Just a little one.

Oh, and since some of you may not actually care what I think about pop culture and would prefer to stalk me instead of my movie tastes, here's a brief update:

I'm graduating in just three weeks!

Which means I'm visiting home in Texas (and leaving my current job) in five weeks!

And I really should be packing and moving my stuff to Bountiful this week. Sadly, that probably won't happen. I'll be kicking my butt in gear next week (I hope). If you happen to know of people with spare cardboard boxes to give me, I just might profess undying love for you.

Other than thoughts of moving, I'm pretty much spending my days working, reading books, and (for this week at least) going to see new blockbuster movies. A brief shout-out to my dad who gave me two free movie passes for my birthday, thus enabling this trend of seeing movies in the expensive theater. (Harry Potter 7.2, you and I have a date on Saturday, just so you know.)

And now, sleep. Body needs sleep. And dreams of Captain America (I hope).

And thanks to this blog post, my parents will actually know where I am at three in the morning. :)

Irony

What's ironic, you ask? Here's what's ironic: Getting lost in Middle Earth last night, just in time to come into work and find this video posted all over the place:



I love how crazy some Lord of the Rings fans are.

And you want to know something? I secretly wish that were me.

Happiness Is...

Getting lost in Middle Earth on accident, just because you picked up Children of Hurin to "look at it" before going to sleep. Several hours later...

I'm still lost in Middle Earth.

Oh Tolkien, how I love you. It's been 14 years since I first got lost in Middle Earth, and I've been ritually getting lost there ever since.

I love how detailed his vision of Middle Earth is. He has a more complete history of his fictional world and its characters than most of us do of our actual history and historical figures.

But the biggest reason I love it? Probably because, thanks to the gigantic nostalgia factor, reading Tolkien feels like coming home. I'm instantly taken back to that day when Dad sat down with his eight-year-old bookworm and read her the first chapter of The Hobbit. When he finished, he put it down. "What happens next?" I asked him.

"If you want to know, you'll have to read it and find out," my ever-wise father told me.

Never one to back down from a challenge to my reading ability and curiosity, I decided that I'd do just what he suggested. It took me a year, but I finally finished Return of the King and was hooked for life.

And apparently, I'm incapable of "just looking" at his writing, because he always sucks me back in again, whether I technically have time for it or not.

Always Learning

I keep learning new stuff, and ironically enough, it doesn't usually happen at school. Well, I do learn at school, but telling everyone else what I'm learning in upper-level English major classes probably won't make a lot of sense. Because my professors just assume (correctly) that we all have 3-4 years of background in the subject matter and plow on ahead to their main point.

So me making the point that Elinor Dashwood is a static character because she's always dynamically changing and adapting to her surroundings is not really going to click with most people who haven't spent the whole last semester in my English Novel class. Some of you might still get it, though.

My point aside, the things I learn that make sense to everyone else are often a little less erudite in their origins. (Sorry, couldn't resist the big word. I promise I don't try to show off, it was just the first word that came to mind.)

Now that I've gotten that preface out of the way, here are some of the things I've learned recently:

Stadium Terrace may be slightly ghetto, and we may love to hate on it, but the apartments are pretty darn big for the price, and we actually have a lawn to look out at, rather than into someone else's window.

My favorite form of decorating is building more bookshelves. I love how a room looks with bookshelves in it.

Closely related to that, I suddenly have this huge urge to buy more books in order to fill more bookshelves. Just because having a large book collection makes me unbelievably happy. Someday I will have a room full of books that belong to me. I want to have shelves and shelves of books that my kids can love to read.

The reason we have allergies in the springtime? It's all those little plants getting sexy and messing with our heads. Special thanks to Rae's grandma for that little jewel of wisdom today.

My roommates have the ability to amuse me when I least expect it. I got a phone call from Savannah that went something like this: "Hey! I just thought I'd call you so that someone knows where I am... I went for a drive and didn't realize how far I'd gone until I saw the sign that said 'Welcome to Wyoming!" WHAAAAT?? She just went for a drive and ends up in Wyoming. The exceptional navigator in me (ha. not to toot my own horn or anything) found that to be the most headscratching situation ever. I still don't get it, even though it was hilarious. Granted, I haven't had a car for the last four years, so maybe I'm just out of touch with the "going for a drive and losing track of time" syndrome.

I really, really, really love being clean. I recently organized my section of the bathroom, which prompted Stephanie to do the same, and now our counter looks beautiful and I sigh with secret delight whenever I walk in the bathroom now. And now, since I've finished most of my urgent projects, I can clean my room again. :)

I really am a nerd. I have 6 Tolkien books to my name, three of which are scholarly works that I am reading or have read.

I'm Reading a Book

Hi! I haven't updated in a while. But I found this today and had to share, because reading has been one of the main reasons I haven't updated my blog...

Yeah. Don't you ever interrupt me while I'm reading a book. ;-)

I understand that Julian Smith is a bit of an acquired taste for some, but I love him. Especially when he does things like this.

Happy Happy Nerd

Life is busy. It's hectic. I have way too much on my mind most days. But as if that weren't enough, I received a gift today. A gift with the title The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide. Stephanie said it was a "Happy I love you Day!" present (aka, she won a fat discount at the Bookstore today and just so happened to find the perfect book). And it is probably one of the best spontaneous presents I've ever been given. So my problem?

I can't put it down.

And I have SO much to do! Stephanie offered to write letters of apology to my professors, which, though tempting, is not something I can condone. Because, I repeat, I have so much to do! And all of it needs doing.

Sigh.

My nerd is so very insistent sometimes. I need to convince her to nerd out about magazine articles or something instead. But she's so set on Tolkien.

So basically, my nerd is extremely happy right now. The rest of me is a little worried about the pile of items on my to-do list. A conflict of interests? Oh yes. Absolutely. Given the option, I would be happily curled up under a blanket right now. Unfortunately, being an adult means that responsibility sometimes negates options. And so I plug away at article-writing, flyer-designing, and resume-spiffing. At least they're all fun(ish), so I can keep the nerd quiet long enough to focus.

And what a sweet reward I will have when I'm done. :)

Nerding Out

I think we've already established that I love my British Lit to 1500 class. And today, it was even better than usual, thanks to our discussion on ancient forms of writing in Britain. 

First, there's this old lithic (yes, both meanings of the word, for those of you in the know) form of writing called Ogham, which is basically a series of lines carved along a ridge. It's more of a code than an alphabet, and looks a bit like this:

 Now, since it's just lines, it's not always easy to tell where one "letter" stops and the next one begins. Nor is entirely simple to determine if they're slanted lines or straight lines. All of this is compounded by the fact that the vertical line running down each letter was usually just the ridge of a rock. And since not all ridges are precisely vertical, you may begin to see how utterly ridiculous this language is for us to decipher. Oh, and on top of that, it's really more of a code than an alphabet, so not all the letters are strictly letters; sometimes they're a cross between hieroglyphs and letters. Add that to the weathering that a given stone will endure over, say, a thousand years, and you get this:

It is one of the oldest forms of writing found on the British Isles, even predating the better-known Futhorc runes:

These are most likely familiar to you: Tolkien borrowed quite liberally from them to create the languages of Middle Earth. This was also a topic we discussed in class, since Dr. Petersen pointed out the Futhorc-Elvish similarities, but didn't remember which script they were for. Thus ensued the following discussion:

"Tolkien used these runes for his Elvish languages"

"Actually, he used a more curly, softer alphabet for the Quenya Elves. The runes that look like the Futhorc were used by the..."

"Sindarin"

"Yes! Sindarin Elves."

"And there's a separate variety that the Dwarves use that looks kind of like the Futhorc too."

"OH MY GOSH! I can't believe we're having this conversation right now! This is awesome!"

I didn't contribute to the discussion myself, since my knowledge of Middle-Earth linguistics is a little rusty, but I did follow the entire conversation from start to finish without getting lost. And I did remember enough to know that Quenya wasn't a race: it was the language. The Noldor, or High-Elves, were the race who spoke Quenya. (*ahem* nerding finished now)

In short, we lost all semblance of order for several minutes as we all paused to gape at the utterly high nerd level in the room at that moment. What flabbergasted me was the fact that ALL of us in that room were part of this. I never thought I'd find such a high concentration of Tolkien nerds in one place (well, outside of those weird fanatical conventions, which, I might point out, I have never been to). Oh, the joys of being a literature and linguistic nerd, especially in a class with other literature and linguistic nerds.

So Basically...

The following insights are taken from a discussion in my English Novel class.

In discussing the interrelatedness of print and the digital world: print comes into being through the output of algorithms in a machine's programming that can be broken down into layers. The first is the actual program itself, running smoothly to produce letters on a page that we can see. That program is cloaked in and made up of assembler languages that are in turn made up of electronic pulses (i.e. binary) at their simplest level. (Disclaimer: this is all explained to me by my ENGLISH professor. So I apologize if this dramatic simplification makes any of my more programming-savvy readers cringe a little)

He also drew a connection between those electronic pulses that make up the basis of artificial intelligence and the human brain. Because, once you dig down past all the emotional filters, hormone processing, and cellular specialization, the brain and nervous system essentially run on synapses, or electronic pulses, which turn on and off in patterns that our brain, through its many layers, translates into data input that we can derive meaning from.

So humans and computers aren't so different after all. And obviously, computers are doing a lot of things that we simply don't understand before they get their information to us. All those little programs, running frantically around gathering up the data they need before sending it to the surface to appear as words or images that we understand.

In the meantime, we users are sitting patiently at our computer screens as these programs do who-knows-what in their quest to obtain the information we seek.

Now, we all know I'm a bit of a nerd, so this shouldn't surprise you, but all this talk of personified programs and user-program input-output just distracted me from the point of the lesson (which I still don't really remember) with one simple conclusion:

Basically, we're in Tron.

Cool! Can I have my light bike now?