Thursday, September 13, 2012

Make it a Geek Day!

If you're an avid fan of The Big Bang Theory, then you may remember when Sheldon suggests that Raj's sister "make it a train day" for her one day vacation in Los Angeles. Well, yesterday I had the day off from school, and my husband hasn't started school yet, so we made it a geek day! We started with amazing pastrami sandwiches at Langer's Deli, which admittedly isn't necessarily geeky, but gosh, their pastrami is enough to inspire an eccentric devotion, which is one of the definitions of geek...

It's Cera! Did anyone else watch all the Land Before Time movies?
Anyway, afterwards we had a nice, leisurely afternoon at the Natural History Museum. Now, ever since I got my first dinosaur book at the age of seven, I've loved those huge beasts; one might even go so far as to say that dinosaurs were my first geeky interest. I enjoyed the dinosaur hall a lot, but definitely experienced a bit of a letdown when I realized I wasn't learning anything new. The problem with having geeked out about dinosaurs so early is that I've had plenty of time in the intervening years to read up about them (and dream about being an archaeologist paleontologist [thanks for the correction, Claire!], until I realized that almost all digs are in hot, dry, dusty locations, and I hate being outside), so when I go to the nth natural history museum that's primarily aimed at kids, the information gets a little repetitive. Same goes for the mammals exhibits, although I do enjoy a good diorama.

Aaaaah, Sharptooth! I'm sorry, but I cried way more when Littlefoot's mom died than when Bambi's mom died.

Walnut: I'm about to be ignored for hours in favor of these little plastic bricks, huh?
Still, it was fun to go to a museum that wasn't uber-crowded (unlike everything in the UK!) -- I'd almost forgotten what it's like to have plenty of time to read the plaques and take pictures. And if a museum wasn't enough geek fun, we ended the day with watching Sherlock, my new favorite TV show, and working on the brand new Lego Helm's Deep! One of the first truly "adult" books I remember reading was the Sherlock Holmes anthology that my uncle got me in fifth grade, and for the longest time I tried (and failed) to make SH-esque observations and rational deductions about my classmates. And of course, my childhood was all about Legos and saving up for the big sets, building them, then taking them apart to build new things, so a 1000+ piece set is always exciting! Also, I don't need to tell you all that I love all things LOTR. This might be an unpopular opinion, but TTT is probably my favorite of all the movies...but only the bits with Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas. I'm always tempted to fast-forward through all the slow bits with Frodo wibbling. I really just love the Rohirric design aesthetic, so Helm's Deep was a logical first choice for my future LOTR Lego collection.

Walnut inspects the as yet unfinished Helm's Deep.

If only Theoden had a giant cat on his side!
Those Uruk Hai would have been no match for a thick-furred, claws-like-daggers, spider-killing feline monster!

Okay, confession time: these pictures were totally staged, with the help of some strategically placed, tuna-flavored treats.

So yeah, no sewing to show here, but it was an excellent day nonetheless. We weren't able to finish Helm's Deep in one evening, but that only means the fun continues tonight!

21 comments:

  1. This made me so happy. I like to be reminded that I'm not the only adult who still loves putting Lego sets together! They were such a big part of my childhood. And I just learned that BrickCon 2012 is happening at Seattle center in October... Yay for geeks!

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    1. Oh dear, there are so many cool cons happening in Seattle in October!

      Yay for fellow female adult Lego geeks!

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  2. Public Service Announcement - An archaeologist studies people. A paleontologist studies dinosaurs. Also, I think geek day is an awesome idea.

    Sincerely,

    an archaeologist

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    1. Thank you for correcting my error! You would think after dreaming about it, I'd get the job title right! ;)

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  3. Love it! My seven-year-old and I are reading The Two Towers right now, and he keeps telling me that he's going to give me that set for Christmas. I suspect it's more so he can have it himself, but at least I'll be in good company.

    Now if I could just convince him we need to rebuild Hogwarts...

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    1. That sounds like quite an awesome kid you have there! I hope to read Tolkien to my kids one day too!

      There are so many huge sets that I would love to build, including Hogwarts and the pirate ships from the POTC line. Helm's Deep is my first huge set ever, and I'm pretty impressed with their usage of pieces!

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  4. This post made me so cheery! I love TTT too- Eowyn is definitely my favorite character. I even made a facsimile of her mourning gown (which appears for a millisecond in the extended cut).
    I know what you mean about geeking out early--I did the same with Egyptology. After a while, there's not a lot of new info...
    Also, Sherlock is awesome!

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    1. Oh, hands down, Eowyn is my favorite! I would love to make her outfits, and I definitely know which gown you're talking about!

      I didn't go through an Egypt phase per se, but I did go through a gods/goddesses myth phase, so I made my rounds through Isis and Osiris et al. I'm glad someone else knows how I feel, though, about the no-new-info business!

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  5. I am always impressed by Lego construction!! Woot woot! Looks awesome :)
    Aww Walnut is just adorbs

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  6. I wanted to be an archaeologist when I grew up- digging up people's old stuff seemed more interesting than digging up bones. Otherwise, I'm with you there. ;) (Being a cheerful child, I would geek out about Pompeii and the Titanic.)

    But I'm commenting about Walnut. My husband used to play Warhammer (with lots of little metal miniatures not much bigger than minifigs), and we would refer to our cat as the 10,000 hit point monster- a dragon might have 1000 hit points, so the cat was formidable indeed. :)

    And I join you in the love for Sherlock. :)

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    1. Heh, as a fourth grader, I had an unhealthy obsession with the Donner Party...

      Oh man, that cat = 10000HP monster is the best! I play D&D, and Walnut has made attempts to get on the table, so I might have to employ that next time!

      Yay Sherlock love!

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  7. Haha, I grew up with the Land Before Time movies!! They are awesome!!
    Geek day sounds like a great idea, I need to do something like that as well :P

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    1. Do it! Make it a geek day! And I'm so glad someone else know the LBT movies!

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  8. I adore the geek day idea! And yes, TTT is the best of all three - my favorite part is the moment when ... *ahem* ... Aragorn pushes open the door in Helm's Deep after everyone thinks he's dead and he just looks up and the light is shining behind him and OMGIAMINHEAVEN. I will not even begin to tell you how many times I have rewatched that 30 second blip.

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    1. My best friend and I are always talking about how Aragorn has the best entrances. And I am in total agreement about that 30 seconds! It's like the clip in the BBC P&P when Mr. Darcy dives into the lake, only much more rugged and hot :)

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  9. I, too, looooooove Sherlock. I just about lost it when I read that they won't even begin filming the third season until Winter 2013. I have a half finished blog post (it's not letting me post from my blog ID, but it's sixmonthstoayear.wordpress.com) about my love for Sherlock the show, and how it is possibly better (I know, I know - impossible) than the books, but when it started to look more like a thesis than a post, I tabled it for the time being. Happy Geek Day, and here's to many more!

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    1. Whaaaat, seriously? Winter 2013?! But...but...*lower lip quivering*

      I would love to read your thesis! :)

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  10. Oh, good, someone else got the archaeology correction! ;) I'm a palaeontologist by training and the child of archaeologists, so it's one of my little quibbles. ;)

    That sounds like a lovely day, and the lego castle is gorgeous. I wasn't actually a fan of how the Rohirim were portrayed in the movie (not bad, just not anything like what I had in my head, which was more nomadic/mongolianesque), but that would be a lot of fun to build. Glad you're settling in back home!!

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    1. Haha that mistake is becoming more and more embarrassing as I offend more and more paleontologists and archaeologists! ;)

      The Helm's Deep set (now that we've finished) really is pretty impressive! I think the Rohirrim in the movie matched pretty well with my mental picture, so I guess I was lucky there!

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  11. So awesome! I love a good geek day! My man and i are both gamers so sometimes we do "Chinese food and vintage video games" night, just like Big Bang Theory, only it's just the two of us ^__^

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