Geek in Heels - Page 179

Aug 26, 2009 • In Personal, Pregnancy

Pregnancy Update, Week 5

When the doctor first told me the approximate age of Tater Tot, I was shocked. That’s it??! I thought to myself. But I’ve been having symptoms for over a week!

They say that most women start experiencing symptoms of pregnancy at 6-8 weeks. I started getting symptoms at 3 weeks, which is just one week after conception. I was super-tired, cranky, bloated, and my boobs were swollen and sore. In fact, that is what prompted me to take the pregnancy test.

“You’re pregnant? Are you sure???”

Needless to say, the symptoms have intensified since then. I need to take daily naps in order to function properly. I am an emotional train wreck, being gloriously elated one minute and sobbing into my pillow the next. My hands and feet have swollen to a point where my engagement and wedding rings are uncomfortably tight (I now only wear them when I go out) and my feet look like fat sausages. I am constantly plagued by nausea (luckily I have only thrown up a couple of times), and my boobs…oh geez my boobs. At 5 weeks, my boobs have already gone up an entire cup size. They are so sore that I wear sports bras everywhere.

I guess I am one of those <sarcasm>lucky</sarcasm> women who get their symptoms super-early and in extreme doses.

According to BabyZone, this is what Tater Tot looks like right now:

Doesn’t it look like a cross between a seahorse and the aliens from the Alien movies?

MyFontbook: A Better Font Viewer

Remember how obsessive I am about my fonts? While I love my trusty “Fonts” document, it can be a PITA to constantly keep it updated.

Today I read about MyFontbook – a FREE font viewer that organizes all your fonts (all 700+ of them in my case) in an easy-to-use web interface.

What makes MyFontbook extra-useful are its additional features:

Tags & Favorites
Glyphs Viewer (!!!)
Font Metrics

Go sign up for a free account now!

Video Game Photography

I ♥ these video game photos by Patrick Runte!

Aren’t they just so adorably, creatively geeky?

Via Apartment Therapy Unplugged.

My First Happy Tears as a Mother

Yesterday, I had written that we received a surprise gift in the mail: the book Oh, Baby, the Places You’ll Go! A Book to Be Read in Utero.

As I sidled into bed last night I decided to take the book with me so that I can read to Tater Tot for the very first time.

The book itself is very similar to the one from which it was adapted – Dr. Seuss’ Oh the Places You’ll Go! – with a few changes here and there. I quite enjoyed myself, although occassionally stumbling over the funny words, colorful rhymes and frequent alliterations that is the trademark of the author.

Then I reached the last spread.

You’ll find that this world’s
a great place to begin,
but it could use some help—
which is where you come in.

So now, as my voice
burble-urps in your ear—
with a bump-thumpy sound
that is not very clear—
the words I am saying
you hear in your heart,
and know that I wish you
the very best start.

It’s a scrumptulous world
and it’s ready to greet you.
And as for myself…

well…
I can’t wait to meet you!

My voice started cracking midway through, and by the end I had tears freely streaming down my face.

It’s amazing how you can grow so attached to something that is the size of a sesame seed.

Time Magazine, Vol. 116 No. 23

Take a look at the Time cover from the week I was born:

I think I was destined to become a geek. Don’t you agree?

Go conduct your own Time cover search here.

Via mental_floss Blog.

The Lonely Pregnant Woman

I got married at 27, a fairly young age in my group of friends.

When I returned from my honeymoon, I suddenly felt like a pariah. You can’t deny it – people treat you differently once you’re married.

Invitations to girls-night-outs slowed to a trickle. When you strike up a conversation with a man (even in a 100% platonic manner), people give you strange looks. Dinners with single friends became less and less common as dinners with other couples seemed to become more typical and expected.

Do I no longer like to have fun? Am I a different person from the one pre-marriage?

Now that I am pregnant, the loneliness has grown even more severe.

The majority of my friends are still single, let alone expecting a child. They treat me like a fragile egg or avoid me altogether. Happy hours and thirsty Thursdays have been replaced with my sitting at home, going through pictures on Facebook of my friends having fun without me.

Of course I know that I cannot drink. But who says I can’t join them with a virgin cocktail? An invitation would at least be appreciated.

I am not stupid. I know that this pregnancy is a life-changing event. I know that I cannot do many of the things I once took for granted.

I know that my life will never be the same again.

But is it too much to ask to be included again? To not be treated like a leper?

Did anyone else feel left out after getting engaged or married? How about after finding out you’re pregnant? How did you deal with it?

#songsincode

I love the latest Twitter meme – #songsincode!

Similar to the internet meme Songs in Chart, here geeks are able to flaunt their creativity and programming know-how by expressing popular songs in code!

Some of my favorites:

@cael_gomes try{ make(&me); goto rehab; }catch(){ I.said(“no, no, no\0”); }

@jamesstephenson a = [“head”, “shoulders”, “knees”, “toes”] while parent.sane a.each do |x| {child.pat(x); child.sing(x);} child.volume+=5 end

@glenndavid if (Mc.hammer) { this.touch = false; }

@billreiss switch(day) {case Mon:color=blue;break;case Tue:case Wed:color=gray;break;case Thu:break;case Fri:love.Add(i);break;}

@3rdEden if(rickAstly) { rick.rolled = true; }

@mattmetzger: for each (var person in sky) { if (person == lucy) { add(diamonds) } }

@giovannibassi && (null) else “matters”

This is like geek karaoke, don’t you agree?

Via Designer Daily.

Elephant in the Bathtub

Second mystery of the day:

How did the puppy’s favorite toy end up in the bathtub?

I thought J put it there as a joke (we had just given the dog a bath) but he swears he didn’t.

Comang is a little guy – it is very improbable that he voluntarily placed the elephant into the bathtub.

My guess is that while “killing” the elephant (aka growling and shaking the poor little thing back and forth like a wild dog on Ritalin), the toy flew into the bathtub.

Or maybe the little guy decided that his favorite toy deserves a bath too.

Baby Gifts

I feel so incredibly lucky to have great friends who are as excited about the baby as we are!

We have already received two baby gifts in the mail. The first, a Care Bear from our friend Anna (who has an almost unhealthy obsession with Care Bears and says that we need to train the baby young!):

Thanks, Anna for our first baby gift! It really means a lot to us…I’ll be sure that it will be the first stuffed animal touched and hugged by the baby!

The second is the book Oh, Baby, the Places You’ll Go! A Book to Be Read in Utero:

I have always been a great fan of Oh the Places You’ll Go!, but have never heard of this baby edition. I love it!

The only problem is, there was no note or packing slip included with the packaging, so we have no idea who sent this to us.

Are you the mystery sender? Do you know who the mystery gifter may be?

You’re No Longer My Internet Friend

Pregnancy hormones are not fun. I have been extra-sensitive lately with the littlest things setting me off.

The latest in the series of dramas – some of which I’m sure are only in my head – involve a couple of internet friends. Recently I found out that someone I had considered a good friend (at least in internet standards) de-friended me on Facebook. I know she is still around, because I can see her commenting on others’ status updates, photos, etc. However, now she has set her settings so that I do not even have the option of requesting to be her friend again, let alone shoot her a message to see if something’s wrong.

Now, I have just discovered that another person I considered a friend has unfollowed me on Twitter. Not only has she un-followed me, she has blocked me.

What did I do wrong? Do I have an annoying internet persona? Did I write something that was offensive?

The beauty and the curse of the internet is the anonymity it allows its users. If these were people I knew in real life, I would know almost immediately if they were trying to shut me out of their lives. If these were people I knew in real life, I might try to hunt them down to see where the relationship turned sour. If these were people I knew in real life, I would at least have mutual acquaintances who could give their objective views.

Perhaps these people do have valid reasons for de-friending/un-following me. I only wish I knew the reason why. I feel like they took the cowardly route by choosing to ignore my existence with a few clicks of the button with no prior warning, with no way of getting in touch with them without the involvement of third parties (aka mutual friends/followers).

…Or maybe they weren’t my friends to start with.

Have you ever gotten upset over losing an internet friend?