Geek Style: olympic fever

I love the Olympics.

Summer or Winter, it really doesn't matter to me. If there is live content to watch, I watch it.

Because it's the Olympics. It's the pinnacle of sports. And as a sports geek, it's my mecca.

 (Although I admit it, I much prefer Winter Olympics over the Summer)

(And I wish to stress here the word "live." Like most frequent watchers of sports, the event is simply not as much fun or interesting when you already know the results. Which is why I thank God I am a Canadian and therefore not restricted or left to have to deal with NBC's admittedly archaic broadcasting standards with their 6-hour time delay)

And when you combine Bond (especially a Daniel Craig Bond), Mr. Bean, JK Rowling, Voldemort and Kenneth Brannaugh in one's Opening Ceremonies, one can't help but pique my geek-driven interest to the max as well.

Currently I'm living out (and perhaps burning out) my Olympic obsession in an internship with CTV through my school. It not only means I can experience the sad drama that was the Women's Eppee Fencing event where South Korean fencer Shin A Lam stood on the fencing platform for an hour, refusing the leave in protest of the highly controversial and contested decision made by the judges that robbed her of her chance to fence for the gold medal as it was happening, but it also means... five hours worth of Women's Volleyball in an eight hour day.

No offence to the volleyball fanatics out there, but for me, volleyball is not an exciting sport at all. And after one game, it gets rather painful in fact.

Anyway, check out the official Hudson Bay's Canadian Olympic Collection.

It's less streamlined and more classic than it's previous collection for Vancouver 2010 and much much simpler than the one for Beijing.

I like it for that combined reason. It's simple, it's classic, to me, it's pure Canadian.

I particularly like this piece pictured here. It's a red polo with an old school crest on the breast with the word Canada beneath. It's $40 dollars and it reminds me a lot of the polo top that the Canadian Tennis team is wearing at the Olympics.

They also this amazing rugby top that sports the old-school maple leaf.

 But because this top is what defines the Canadian collection for me and represents some of my more favourite parts of the Summer Olympics, here are my outfits based upon it.

15-LOVEThis outfit harkens back to the fact that this shirt essentially does remind me of the wonderfully red polos worn by the Canadian Olympic team (at least the men) in tennis. And regardless of the fact that they aren't considered medal contenders, I still will root for them.

AN OLYMPIC INTERNSHIP

This was inspired by - yes - my Olympic internship. And while the outfit itself is rather bland, with the black pants and flats, I kind of liked the jewelry that was added with it. The art of accessorizing is really one of the few things I have retained as an essential part of sprucing up a normally bland work outfit. Or in one of my job's cases, uniform.

RED WITH PRIDE
It's a tribute to Canada and being Canadian here. What better way than to spruce up the polo in some summery looks with a mix of patterns as a way to support the True North? Wear your heart and your colours proudly.

Geek Toys: sheldon's lego death star

I won't lie, when I saw this Lego Death Star on The Big Bang Theory in one of its episodes, I declared that I want it.

I mean, how is this not awesome looking? And as a fan of challenges (but not the time it can take to deal with facing such challenges) how is this not cool?

And it's massive. I mean, Sheldon isn't a small dude, and in actual measurements, it's 25 inches high (with the display stand I think though)

Now let's be absolutely clear, this is NOT a replica of the original Death Star seen in Episode IV - A New Hope.

It's actually the Death Star Mach II, the one seen in Episode VI - The Return of the Jedi. You know, the one seen hovering over the home planet of the Ewoks?

Hence why its awesome exterior texture and layers, giving it a realistic appearance of said Death Star and it is built to scale. Nerdy sounding I know but for me anyway, this is what makes this much better than the version that supposedly depicts the Death Star from Episode IV.

And going back to the challenges exclamation earlier, it has 3,417 pieces in total. In today's world, you're lucky to find a Lego set that has more than 100 pieces, most of them "specially designed" for the damn set.

There is a problem for the budding geek that is me with this particular Lego set though.


Just check out the price of the beaut on Amazon.

Yeah... you read that right. At least in Canadian dollars, it costs $1200 dollars. That's four times the cost of the other Death Star. That's more than one month's rent for me (almost two). And as a poor student making ends meat (barely) by doing a million small jobs here and there, it's just not feasible in the present day.

And let's be frank, I don't have money lying around in drawers like Sheldon does. In fact, I'd be lucky to have any money sitting in my bank accounts in general. Especially given the "necessary" (or at least, more necessary) purchases I will have to make going forward. Like a desktop. Or maybe a new laptop (mine is getting on the old side. How old? It still runs Windows Vista)

So I can only frown and pine for this piece. And wonder how long did it really take Chuck Lorre's production team and office staff of seven to build this for the show.

Geek Style: bluenotes animal hoodie

Life and my schedule often see me juggling a million things.

Currently, it's an internship, a part-time job, and a freelance gig.

One such day, where I had to work my internship and then my freelance job, I found myself caught in the time crunch, in that in leaving later than expected from my internship, I ended up not having enough time to go home and change.

Now, it wasn't that I didn't have work appropriate clothing on (I did), it's that I didn't have a sweater. And where I work, it's a bad idea not to have extra coverage. When the guys sitting behind you usually sits with a fleece blanket over their legs, you bring coverage.

So I went to Bluenotes... the location for me to find sweaters that isn't expensive but I can generally get away with at work and in life in general.


And found THESE pictured here, wonderfully adorable, geeky animal sweaters for only $20 CDN! They even, as an additional but awesome embellishment, had horns/ears attached to the hood based on the animal they coincided with!

Just look!

Pandas, dragons, giraffes, a little devil, even a penguin! (Although the penguin was sold out by the time I got to the store. Poo :( )
There weren't exactly "work appropriate" I admit (a little too juvenile for work)... but I couldn't help it. I HAD to buy one!

And honestly, I had a terribly difficult time picking between the panda or the dragon (because the penguin wasn't there for me to pick it). I eventually settled on the dragon (which strangely enough, looks a bit like the dragon from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - except blue) because it is a bright vibrant blue, a colour I don't have too much of in my wardrobe.

Plus the panda plays a little too much into the Asian stereotype, doesn't it?

So let's have some fun and fashion some looks using the above dragon sweater!

SUMMER CASUAL

The concept is meant to be summer casual but to still have some colour. The scarf would actually work as a belt through the tan shorts, as scarves with hoodies generally don't make sense. The fishtail braid provides some casual sophisticated class to the whole thing.

DRAGON GIRL GEEK

This was envisioned with a more feminine tone in mind, despite the converse shoes to tone down the overtly female edge involved. Basically the idea is that the outfit could fit right in with the boys of The Big Bang Theory, sitting with them around the coffee table eating take-out. Granted, the dragon earrings are a little out of place, but I did also want a bit of an edge on it too.

Geek Style: tardis earrings

I really like Doctor Who. And I wish I picked up on it back when it first started. But as I was poor and had no means of acquiring the series, I didn't.

I've since caught up to the end of the tenth Doctor saga (in which I must stress with no uncertain terms how much I love and adore David Tennant) and have needs to take steps towards the eleventh. But see, eleventh Doctor episodes are hard to catch on television and I haven't had the time to make moves to acquire the remaining series since.

Anyway...

So I was mucking about online when I found these on Etsy.com by Mombie Zombie and immediately decided that I wanted them. A lot. 

Problem is they cost something like 17 dollars with shipping off of Etsy. And unless I win a decent sized sum of money somewhere, it's likely not within the budget for a good while yet.

But a girl can't help but dream can they? Here are some outfits I dreamed up as inspiration that can be worn with above or really any other Tardis inspired earrings.

TENTH DOCTOR

Note that the vein of the outfit is supposed to be inspiration, not actual "purchase these items here". I don't really expect anyone to be able to buy a $1000 dollar pinstriped blazer or a $200 white button-up shirt (especially since button-up shirts can be had for pretty cheap at H&M and the like).

Obviously the get-up is  inspired by my favourite Doctor (that being the tenth) and all the elements are there to make it a pretty good similarity. Course I lost the tie so as to make it too much of a masculine look and I didn't want the pants to match in order to give it a more casual look.

KEEP CALM AND DON'T BLINK

This is more of a fun, casual "I'm going to Comi-Con" look that I devised that's less costume-y and more "can wear these earrings with anything". Of course I kept to a general theme here but seriously, switch out the t-shirt and the earrings (even the necklace) can still fit in really nicely to the whole ensemble idea.

The Bookworm : tigana by guy gavriel kay

Once upon a time, when I was still in high school, my high school librarian, understanding my insatiable appetite for fantasy novels, and having just managed my way through Game of Thrones, recommended for me to try Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay. It helped too that I read his Fionavar Tapestry trilogy only a while previous.

I couldn't do it.

Today I couldn't tell you exactly why I felt this way, but the introduction simply never hooked me in proper, like George R.R. Martin, Robert Jordan or Terry Goodkind all managed to do for me around this time.

So it has been sitting on my "to-read" list for a long, long time. I even eventually bought a copy of the book at a second-hand book sale in order to have it close at hand if I ever decide to actually try it again.

But still, even when it was there, I forgot about it.

Until a few weeks back, watching Swords and Lasers on the Geek and Sundry YouTube site. They had selected Tigana as their "book of the month" for June (currently, Leviathan Wakes is this month's book).


But that wasn't what caught my attention and had me decide to try to pick up the book once more.

They revealed that BestFantasyBooks.Com listed it as the #1 stand-alone fantasy book out there.

Why did this matter to me? Because BestFantasyBooks.Com was the site that led me to Patrick Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind book. And for that I will be forever grateful, but also forever will defer to its knowledge on the subject of good fantasy.

So I decided to make it my "travel book" (a book I travel around with and generally make a mild mess of due to the nature of my bag, books and travel arrangements) and try again last week.

300 pages later, I am honestly having a difficult time putting it down. To the point that my "read at home" book, Terry Brook's Running With Demons is being rather unjustly neglected.

Tigana's premise that drives the novel and draws the characters together, a word, a place and a name that's been forbidden and forgotten by sorcerous means and the people that cannot forget it is a thing of beauty. There is a real sense of loss and a inward reflection on how ultimately, one's greatest fear is to be forgotten, which is ultimately what is happening to a whole generation of people.

The characters are realistic, vivid and charismatic in the reader discovering who they are and what drives them. It unravels slowly, but organically, surprising you in places and drawing you further into the intrigue.

This is the first time since The Name of the Wind as well that I have also basically refused to read up on any Wikipedia summaries or anything that can account for any sort of spoilers out of sheer frustration of the novel's pace. I want to be surprised and discover what happens in this book on my own truly.

And as I kept reading, I understood why I couldn't handle it in high school.

Tigana was far too mature of a fantasy book for me to understand its art or its subtlety.

Yes I managed to happily devour The Lord of the Rings and the first of George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire books with relative ease, all three being fairly mature books in its own right. But The Lord of the Rings had the benefit of a movie to help encourage me along and Game of Thrones... well it was full of fighting, brawny action from beginning to end and allowed for me to ignore all the politicking in between.

Clash of Kings however involved a seven year odyssey to manage to finally read and enjoy, once I was able to appreciate its subtlety.

I couldn't handle a subtle message once upon a time because it flew over my head. And without such understanding, the story lost meaning and as such, becomes meaningless, leading me to give up on the book because I perceived nothing there that was compelling or made sense. There was nothing there to keep me wanting to see what happened next.

That's no longer the case now. And I'm glad for it because I can definitely see now why it's such a highly acclaimed book. Now hopefully this will help me get through Sailing to Sarantium on a later date.

Geek Living : the joys of a couch

I finally have my couch and coffee table!

After a monumental effort, and a lot of help with transporting it, and then a scary situation with transporting it because it was much bigger than expected... its all home, built and paid for and is now being enjoyed by moi.

(picture pending due to a dead camera battery)

Well, almost all.

They were missing the turquoise-coloured couch cover that I insisted I wanted for my couch. And given each cover cost a good 80 bucks, I wasn't about to buy a "back up" for the sake of having a cover.

So it's currently being covered by a spare fleece blanket that I had in the closet (and sitting on it now, it makes me excited to sit on my new couch wrapped in said fleece blanket) to keep it from getting too dirty until I can buy the cover at a later date.

And I've been enjoying my new couch ever since.

What I like best about it is it really takes me away from my bed.

High school and university has led to a rather bad habit of preferring to do various mental tasks, particularly any form of writing, from the comfort of a soft flat surface where I can sit with my legs crossed. And with a particularly uncomfortable desk chair, studying from my desk has long lost favour for me.

Basically, at home and in my current apartment, it was difficult to separate me from my bed. I did a lot of things from it that I really should not have. Like eating for instance.

It also made me very lethargic too... and I tend to pass out on it. A lot. More than I should be allowed to.

Now with this couch, I've permanently moved my laptop away from my bed and am quite comfortable and happy doing all my work from here, as spending 4 1/2 hours working on notes for an exam proved to me. It takes me into a more relatively respectable working place and allows my bed to simply be my bed.

It's pretty exciting for me.

And before you ask, the giant thing on my coffee table in the picture is a floor fan. The temperature went up to 37 degrees Celsius today, and even having a plant in front of your window to support fresh, cool air won't keep the place feeling like the inside of an oven without a fan to constantly blow semi-cooled air in your face.


Anyway, in addition to the couch and coffee table, I have also found a suitable spot for all my other furniture pieces. So now, needless to say, I'm rather excited about what I can now do with this apartment.

But before I fall precipitously into a decor frenzy - particularly geeky in design - my room has fallen into disrepair due to busy schedules and sheer laziness. For instance, my laundry from last Thursday is still half on the floor, a state that would surely leave someone of the likes of Sheldon Cooper practically gasping in horror.

Not to mention the piles of odd papers that have piled up from a semester of work that I haven't been able to organize, never mind last year's stuff that needs organizing.

So, before I go ahead and decide to make really expensive purchases or random knick-knack purchases for things that don't have a place yet, I have concocted a to-do list of different things to try and tackle every day. Each of those things needs doing, and each of those things have a different level of difficulty. Basically, I need to earn the ability to say, buy some lucky bamboo for my windowsill.

So here's the list, with perceived difficulty, with 1 being a matter of an hour or less to 5 to a couple day task.

• Organize, sort, hole punch and binder all my papers sitting on top of my bookcase (*****)
• Hem and sew the few curtains that are too long for the windows (****)
• Move the router closer to the desk and away from the modem (**)
• Fold and put away the remainder of the laundry (*)
• Reorganize the cubbies in the bookshelf and dust it (*****)
• Clean the kitchen floor (**)
• Sweep all of the wooden floor space (**)
• Frame and hang pictures (***)

So what is on my want list for stuff to spruce this place off that would cost money but not necessarily effort, mindpower and time?

• A black hall two shelf bookshelf for shoe, hat and scarf storage, as well as a place for my keys and mail (~30 dollars)
• A small low stool for next to the bookshelf that can work as a place to put my bag or purse (~?~)
• A long table cover for my coffee table (~?~)
• A decorative bucket to place on top of the toilet to put my brush and hand-towels into
• A decorative candle holder to place make-up items that should be placed in a cup
• A lucky bamboo plant

I have to earn those purchases by completing some of my harder tasks, or enough small tasks that allows me to work on a large task. It'll take motivation but I think I can manage. Obviously the bigger purchases require the completion of a bigger task.

Geek Media: don't do it peter jackson!

So reports are rising from this past weekend's Comi-Con in San Diego that Peter Jackson is hoping to get the OK from the studios so that he can return to New Zealand to shoot more footage for his upcoming The Hobbit movie duology.

That's cool, you may think. After all, did he not return to shoot some finishing details and touches to each of his Lord of the Rings movies before they actually went to theatres?

Well yes, but his reasoning for going back is nowhere near as innocent or "small minded".

He wants to continue filming in the hopes that ... the studio will let him...

Expand the second movie of the two The Hobbit movies... into a third!

Suddenly, The Hobbit duology went may turn into a trilogy.

To that I say WHAT?

At around 300 pages long, that averages 100 pages of the book for the movie. And if any of you have read 100 pages of those books, it doesn't (or rather shouldn't) take very long to go through 100 pages. You can tend to get through them fast, very fast.

Now granted, the Battle of Five Armies lasted maybe... 5 of those pages, if even, and that's mostly because (spoilers) Bilbo got knocked out at the beginning of it while wearing his then-benign-but-later-very-evil ring (note with a lowercase here) by an errant Goblin swing (end spoilers).

That's not going to happen in this movie. Not with Peter "bloody-long-my-bloody-battles" Jackson at the helm. When he can extend the Battle of Helms Deep to a good 1/3 of the Two Towers movie out of a single chapter of said book, you can bet that the Five Armies is going to be a prolonged epic bloodbath where it will actually feel like five armies are involved and not just a bloody hobbit versus the world incident.

Seriously, expect blood.

Also, as it stands, apparently they're also going to be filming stuff from the Lord of the Rings appendices that didn't or couldn't be worked into the first triology helmed by Jackson. So there is that too.

Which is all well and good, and yet, all I can think is...

Don't do it Peter Jackson!

Geek Living : caffeinated edition

I've been busy.

How busy?

I slept a grand total of 8 hours over 2 days. I also have a sink full of dirty dishes and a bin full of dirty laundry that I can't get to until maybe... maybe Thursday at the earliest.

Yeah. That kind of busy.

So before I pass out from the inherent lack of sleep due to the life that I live (and periodically regret while choking down another mouthful of Coca-cola in order to stay awake... though my sanity may have been adversely affected) here's some quick hits of awesome things I think is awesome today... or tonight... at the very least so far this week.

1. "Write Like the Wind (George R.R. Martin)" by Paul & Storm

While I (albeit grudgingly) subscribe to the Patrick Rothfuss and George R.R. Martin school of thought regarding the speed in which books are to be written, I can't say that as a fan I don't totally relate to this song.

It's also catchy enough that I spent the weekend listening to it. More than once. Again. 

And again.

It's pretty awesome isn't it?

Speaking of awesome songs...

2. "Skyrim" by Peter Hollens & Lindsey Stirling

Never played Skyrim and until such a time comes that someone comes along and pays me to play games (as opposed to writing stories on them) likely will find difficulty getting around to it. But the original mix here... is epic. Between the violin playing and the harmonious harmonies, it was also on my repeat list this weekend.

Plus, as a violin player through my teens (thereby fulfilling one of many major Asian stereotypes), it's hard not to have respect for the talent and the fantastic sound she produces with the instrument.

She has other (equally nerdy) violin medleys on her channel as well. Check them out!

3. AEMMA... and swords.

Part of why I slept only 8 hours so far this week is in part because of AEMMA.

AEMMA, short for the Academy of European Medieval Martial Arts, was founded in Toronto some 15ish years ago and specializes in the research and re-creation of Western medieval combat from before 1410. They have three disciplines - grappling, dagger and sword - and the curriculum is built around a historical illuminated text (basically means it was completely hand-written) written by an Italian sword master.

I found it last week while searching for a way to exercise that would be fun and won't force me to have to beg for food every other lesson. It's $22 dollars a session (and you can drop in whenever you want) or $65 dollars per month, one lesson a week.

So what does this have to do with me losing sleep? I'd tell you but it means I'll have to show you, and since I won't have it graded until next Tuesday, you'll just have to wait until then. :)

And here be a not-so-awesome thing...

4. IKEA

I saved up enough money to finally buy my couch.

So myself and my friend Jayce went to IKEA on Saturday to give the couch a butt test and if all is well, purchase it.

First of all, the IKEA nearest to me wasn't packed. Packed would be massively understating the sheer massive insanity that was IKEA that Saturday. And I'm not talking just screaming babies. No we're talking Boxing Day busy.

We found my couch. However, since Jayce's car wasn't large enough to fit a couch, we had to figure out how to get it shipped. And since I never had anything shipped from IKEA before we had to track down an employee to answer the question "What do you have to do to arrange for an item to be shipped?"

Employee #1 brushed me off. And Employee #2, rather than answering my question, went "If you stand in this line here, I can help you."

So I stood in line, that I think was meant for more complicated questions than mine because it took a bloody age and a half to get through it.

I'm not kidding. 20 minutes later, I got my explanation.

"Oh just grab the item, pay and go to the delivery booth to arrange it."

20 minutes. For a five second answer. Time well spent!

To make matters even more special, when we got back to retrieve said couch to pay for it, there were none left. Last one was claimed only 5 minutes earlier.

So much for that shopping trip. Thanks IKEA Employees!

Epilogue: After the fact, Jayce agreed to arrange to rent his parent's SUV go to a totally different IKEA and make the purchase on my behalf. Nothing's finalized though, especially since I'm going to be busy for the foreseeable future as it stands.

Did I mention that I've been busy?

Geek Media: geek and sundry is my new obsession

So recently while re-discovering and catching up on Felicia Day's "The Guild", inevitably led me to her new YouTube Channel, called "Geek and Sundry".

It's genius.

Geek and Sundry launched in April 2012 and is the brainchild of "new media and geek guru" Felicia Day. It is a premium YouTube channel with several independent shows produced by the group.

It really does cater to a niche community that likely wouldn't otherwise get much play-time in the mainstream world with fantasy and sci-fi book club show "Swords and Lasers" or celebrity board game show ran by Wil Wheaton of Star Trek fame called "TableTop".

Granted though, with the incredible popularity of The Big Bang Theory and Glee which seems to largely embrace, even celebrate, the geek-dom that it represents, it likely won't be long before such shows as the above mentioned will become mainstream in our minds and hearts.

Suddenly it's cool to be a geek.

Anyway, I spent entirely too much time this week wasting my life watching various episodes of all the shows. Episode 6 of Swords and Lasers interviewed George R.R. Martin and went chest-deep into the topic of his books series A Song of Ice and Fire and there was so much there worth absorbing.

But Wil Wheaton's TableTop is just downright entertaining and I can't help but feel I'm taking way more away from it than I probably should. Not only is it giving me a terrible urge to go down to Snakes & Lattes downtown, but it's introducing me to games I'd never have considered. The first episode, where they played "Small World" was amazing if only because of how easy and often you can screw over your opponent in just 9 moves. It was probably their most entertaining episode.

And of course, "Settlers of Catan" ... always entertaining to watch people scream in horror as they steal their precious ore or wood.


Anyway I sign off this little geeky discovery with this equally geeky thought: It is amazing how often the British Top Gear uses music from the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

They used the last 30 seconds of "Forth Eorlingas" (heard and pictured below) and then "The Treason of Isengard" (the drum beat and male soprano part) during a segment just a half an hour ago and I couldn't help but look up from writing when I heard it.

I'm bad like that. I've watched the movies and listened to the soundtrack to the point that I probably have the majority of those notes from the music memorized and can also name the scene that corresponds with the song without even knowing the exact name of the tune (which largely gives away what part of the movie the song is attached to). But then again, the music is just that epic, and just that good.

Geek'd: sheldon cooper is the reason i've heard of the higgs-boson particle

That sound you hear is Sheldon Cooper celebrating with joy.

Or maybe screaming in rage that he wasn't the one to make the discovery.

That is, if Sheldon Cooper was an actual person and not simply a character in a very popular comedy series on CBS.

So apparently the real "Sheldon Coopers" of our reality - specifically those working in particle physics at the CERN super-collider - has made one of it's biggest actual finding since Einstein's days of genius.

The Higgs-boson particle, a.k.a. the "God" particle has been theorized since the 1960s, and is a theoretical particle that is considered to be the key to understanding why matter has mass, which when combined with gravity gives objects weight.

It's the missing piece in the Standard Model, a theory that explains electricity, light, perhaps even gravity.

In layman's terms, it is this reality's version of the number 42; that is, it is the answer to life, the universe and everything.

(And yes, I did absolutely make a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy reference)

They've been searching for it since it was theorized. But it has only been since the creation of the CERN super-collider in Switzerland that scientists could seek it out in actuality rather than simply write about its necessary existence.

And this week, they have announced that they have discovered a boson that may be "the" Higgs-boson theorized, a discovery that would certainly make every physicist in the world drool.

Now, they haven't definitively declared it "the" Higgs-boson, simply that it is "a" Higgs-boson, but they say that there is only a one in a million chances that they are wrong because of all the repetitions they have done smashing particles together to find it.

Now, I am not a fan of particle physics, or any physics of any kind. I quit that subject in Grade 12 and has avoided it ever since.

But... I really like the Big Bang Theory and its nerdy physicists (and one engineer) so despite caring not one whit about physics in general, you do pick up some knowledge here and there about the topic... mostly names and some ideas. And in this show, names generally indicate some kind of significant aspect of the subjects they study.

Case and point: Schrodinger's cat.

So reading the word "Higgs-boson" in the newspapers this week definitely triggered the knowledge that osmosis'd into me by watching said show and led me to read the articles where in most other situations I would probably have not bothered with making that time to read and learn even more about it.

And then there's the CERN Hadron collider in Switzerland. While yes, Big Bang Theory plays a role in me knowing why it's amazing and important in the physics world, it isn't where I first heard of or discovered its existence and what it does.

I have, admittedly, Dan Brown and his book Angels and Demons to thank for gaining that knowledge. (The movie did nothing for me)

Although, and this is no lie, Brown decided to explain the search for the "Higgs-boson" in layman's terms, simply calling it the "God" particle with no actual mention of it being the theory of the Higgs-boson particle. So until this week, I didn't realize both were one and the same.

All I knew about the Higgs-boson was that Sheldon Cooper used it in Pictionary and therefore is an important theory in theoretical physics.

The things you learn (or is ignorant of) thanks to the media and its ways of speaking to its audience.

Stylize: long weekend wardrobe

Happy Belated Canada Day everyone!

Canada Day weekend is one of my favourite holidays of the year. I remember it always having wonderful weather, great events and of course... NHL free agency and fireworks!

Oh, and the Euro Cup Finals.

I usually celebrate it by decking myself out in red, but not this year.

Why? Because I don't have red clothing that really is all that work appropriate.

Yes, I worked. Yes, even on my beloved home and native land's birthday, I work. Thus is the industry and the dream that I am striving towards and am employed in. Because there is no such thing as a holiday in my world.

I wore the nerd's uniform: brown slacks and a light blue button up. Work appropriate for sure, but neither weather appropriate nor Canada Day appropriate. Or Euro Cup appropriate.

Really appropriate for nothing but working at generic white-collared workplaces across the globe.

But still, it was the long weekend and in celebration of the great weather we had throughout, here be an outfit in which to enjoy life in.

Really this is me showing off the brand-new shirt I got last Friday - a sheer, lightly tan-coloured button-up sleeveless top from H&M!

I kinda splurged on it, but in the end, I feel it was worth it. I've been looking for this kind of shirt for at least two months. I missed out on a chance in May to get something a little more white in a similar style but I hesitated and by the time I resolved to get it, it was already gone. And I've regretted it ever since. 

I don't really have a fancy enough bra in which to wear beneath it, so a camisole from the Gap's 2011 Winter Collection was worn beneath, therefore masking its sheerness in the shot. The green shorts were worn but not well shown in my last post, but is from Bluenotes, and the brown belt was something I found at Ardene as was the (not pictured) vintage looking collar necklace I wore.

On me feet, I would have preferred to have worn a style of brown gladiator sandals to finish the look, but as they are well down on my "want to buy" list and I haven't yet resolved on splurge on a pair (my feet are tiny and it is near impossible for me to buy shoes. But that's another tale to tell) comfy flip-flops sufficed.

Gamers: re-visiting final fantasy xiii

Once upon a time when I was 17 I started playing Final Fantasy X on my then-boyfriend's Playstation 2. Something like 200 hours later, it was decided. I loved the game.

Then the drive that my game was saved on was lost by his little brother. And I was sad. And I found that it was hard to replay the game when you already went through the whole story discovery and puzzle-solving process.

Quite a few years later, Final Fantasy XIII came out. And I fell in love with the strategy battle style, the story was interesting and the fights was surprisingly challenging for something that was admittedly, largely automated.

But then... I got busy. And it really is a long story why I stopped playing FFXIII, but long story short, I stopped playing.

But then one day... I got access to an XBOX 360. And I remembered FFXIII. I never did finish the game, and I regretted that. So I decided that I wanted to get it.

Took about a month to track the game down. It didn't help that I wanted to play it around the same time that FFXIII-2 was coming out around the time I was looking for it, or the fact that SquareEnix stopped producing FFXIII for the XBOX about two years ago.

But I finally got it.

The playing of the game is slow going though. Mostly because I've played a significant chunk of the beginning already. Granted the little details of the game were largely forgotten and I am enjoying bits of the lore involved, but overall I already know when and what happens and the puzzles involved in beating various "bosses" in the game.

(Except Odin. That guy was a pain in the ass to defeat and I kept selecting the wrong paradigm in my haste of quick flipping between them in order to keep Hope freakin' alive)

So in a way, I'm discovering the one giant downfall of role-playing, turn-based games. It's not easy to replay scenes and story. They're amazing and great the first time around, just frustrating the next.

I do still plan to finish and I'm probably going to try and log my gameplay here just to give myself some motivation and energy to defeat the "Big Bad" for the first time again. 

Nevermind the bloody bike fight with Snow and Hope that always ALWAYS require a precisely timed Gestalt mode ala Snow's Eidolon in order to not get wiped.

Not there yet, but I am completely dreading it.

But I really did miss playing Final Fantasy XIII and it is a great story.

Now... after perusing the FF wiki last night in order to catch up on Vanille's history and eventually getting to the plot of FFXIII-2 ... someone needs to explain it to me. Because it seems inherently convoluted and confusing as Sin.