Geek/Nerd

Happy New Year – With Butter!

Brianne Bilyeu, , 1,263 Comments

Eye-roll warning – Below is way too much modern city-person excitement about discovering a process that’s been known to this world for thousands of years and probably a number of young students who have done cooler science experiments in class than I did.

You guys – I made BUTTER!

I made some whipped cream for the New Year’s Eve party that I attended, and while I was there one of the guests asked if I had ever let the cream whip too far and accidentally made butter. And I was all like, SHUT UP I CAN MAKE MY OWN BUTTER JUST BY WHIPPING CREAM FOR TOO LONG!?

This was happening. But, you know, after lots of caipirinhas and ringing in the new year.

Fireworks

Happy New Year, 2013! Photo by bayasaa on Flickr (CC-BY)

The next morning:

I had a half pint of heavy cream left over so I threw it in the Kitchen Aid mixer and set that puppy to eight and waited eagerly for sticks of butter to arrive.

And waited.

And waited.

After about seven minutes I had thick whipped cream, but it wasn’t until the fifteen minute mark that I started hearing slurping, splashing noises from the bowl. After about another minute I had this:

Fresh Butter

Fresh butter caught in the whisk and buttermilk left in the bottom of the bowl.

I pulled out the butter from the whisk and strained the buttermilk. All of the butter went into a bowl and then I smooshed as much liquid as I could from it with the back of a spoon. Then I transferred the butter onto some wax paper and made a butter stick…err…roll:

IMAG1064

Mmmm…agitated fat globules.

Of course, then I needed something on which to try out my new butter, so I made pancakes (gluten-free).

Pancakes with Butter

Butter on cherry pancakes.

Oh, and then I used the buttermilk in some alfredo sauce that night.

Yum.

And because I read a lot of time travel books, one of my thoughts during this process was how I’m now totally set for work if I ever accidentally get transported back in time (I assume that most of my science know-how will be a bust because if I start talking about little tiny bugs that make us sick, or other up to 21st century science, I’ll get burned as a witch or locked in an asylum). I’m going to be the butter QUEEN! But I’ll have to figure out how to harness electricity and invent a Kitchen Aid first because that churning crap looks like way too much work.

Happy New Year – With Butter!
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JT and JTs Videogameathonapalooza!

Brianne Bilyeu, , , , , , , , , 1,077 Comments

The first game system I played was the Atari 2600. I have memories of playing E.T., Berzerk, Pitfall, Asteroid, Space-Invaders, Frogger and DigDug.  I still remember the pain of Atari Thumb.

Breakout was my favorite game for a long time.

Remember this bad boy? And unlike some of the other games, this one used the paddle rather than the joystick controller.

After Atari my parents picked us up a Nintendo (NES), and then we upgraded to Super Nintendo when I was in Junior High. I was a HUGE Mario fan. We conquered Super Mario Bros. 1, 2 and 3. I even got the cheat guide for Super Mario 3 so I could find all of the hidden flutes, learn the trick behind scoring five 1-ups at the end of every three levels, and memorize the grids of the memory cards bonus levels.

My other favorite game was Trog! Frickin’ green Trogs were the worst. This was the heyday of my video gaming; we played Duck Hunt, California Games, TMNT, Contra Force, Legend of Zelda, MegaMan, Kid Icarus, Paperboy, Donkey Kong, Tennis and Q*bert. My mom kicked all of our asses in Dr. Mario and Tetris, and my dad and I liked to play one of the casino games, Bases Loaded and Black Bass. The Nintendo was downstairs in our unfinished basement, so often times we would drag over the space heater and play Nintendo while we did laundry.

I completely missed Sega and didn’t pick up a console again until Thanksgiving 2011 when I bought a WII. I rock the new Mario Kart, the Hubby and I like to hunt each other down in Goldeneye 007, and I’m smitten with this one diving game called Endless Ocean. But one of the first things I did when I plugged in the system was download the old SNES Super Mario Bros and Dr. Mario.

Ah memories.

And do you know what starts in, like, NOW? Jason Thibeault and JT Eberhard’s 24 hour Gamers For Godlessness Gameathonapalooza! They’re going to be playing all sorts of retro videogames. For CHARITY.

I KNOW, RIGHT?!

GO HERE TO START WATCHING THE LIVESTREAM

What’s a gameathonapalooza? I’ll let JT explain:

Jason Thibeault from the Lousy Canuck blog and I are going to be playing retro games for 24 straight freaking hours on Saturday!  We’ll be live-streaming our lovely faces along with our games.  We’ll be talking about all kinds of interesting stuff from atheism to politics to gaming history, and we’ll be taking call-ins, email questions, etc.  We’re doing this to raise money for Camp Quest and theWomen in Secularism conference.

 They’ve got all sorts of crazy challenges, stunts and guests – including me at 10pm EST – set up for today and tomorrow.12PM EST today through 12pm EST tomorrow (Sunday). Check out this post by JT for some last minute updates. It’s also the thread for comments, questions and challenges at Chez WWJTD. Click that link/visit that blog post at lot, because JT’s donating all of the money from hits to that post to the cause.

The hashtag for the event is #GDLS

See you over there!

JT and JTs Videogameathonapalooza!

Gaylaxicon Fun

Brianne Bilyeu, , , 738 Comments

This weekend I’m at a GLBT Science Fiction/Fantasy Convention called Gaylaxic0n. It’s a national event, and it’s being hosted in Minneapolis this year. It’s a smaller, more relaxed convention; I’d guess there are about 300 attendees tops, and there are three panels per time slot. Guests of Honor include Gary Russell, Lyda Morehouse, Kyell Gold and Barbara Schulz.

Continue reading “Gaylaxicon Fun” →

Gaylaxicon Fun

6 O’Clock BS: Kitteh Film Festival

Brianne Bilyeu, , , 624 Comments

Oh yes. This is happening. The world-famous, dare I say hallowed, Walker Art Center will be hosting an outdoor Internet Cat Video Film Festival this August 30th in Minneapolis. From the Walker Blog:

Walker Open Field welcomes cat lovers (and challenges haters – c’mon, you know who you are)* to openly release your cat-video-induced giggles and emotions that are otherwise muffled by computer screens and constrained by cubicles. […] Let’s transform this singular small screen viewing experience into a shared celebration with the larger-than-life projection of these silly clips out on the Open Field.

Also borrowed from the Walker Blog

What’s your favorite cat video – classic or new? Post the link below so we can share in the kitteh mania. Mine’s below. At almost seven minutes, it’s longer than any kitteh video should have a right to be, but An Engineer’s Guide to Cats is no ordinary cat video.

*They mean Crommunist.

6 O’Clock BS: Kitteh Film Festival

6 O'Clock BS: Kitteh Film Festival

Brianne Bilyeu, , , 559 Comments

Oh yes. This is happening. The world-famous, dare I say hallowed, Walker Art Center will be hosting an outdoor Internet Cat Video Film Festival this August 30th in Minneapolis. From the Walker Blog:

Walker Open Field welcomes cat lovers (and challenges haters – c’mon, you know who you are)* to openly release your cat-video-induced giggles and emotions that are otherwise muffled by computer screens and constrained by cubicles. […] Let’s transform this singular small screen viewing experience into a shared celebration with the larger-than-life projection of these silly clips out on the Open Field.

Also borrowed from the Walker Blog

What’s your favorite cat video – classic or new? Post the link below so we can share in the kitteh mania. Mine’s below. At almost seven minutes, it’s longer than any kitteh video should have a right to be, but An Engineer’s Guide to Cats is no ordinary cat video.

*They mean Crommunist.

6 O'Clock BS: Kitteh Film Festival

6 O’Clock BS – Board and Card Games

Brianne Bilyeu, , , , 685 Comments

Something fun and light-hearted for this Friday’s 6 O’Clock BS, I think. Since it is Geek Pride Day (many froody returns) I think that board and card games would be a fitting subject.

I grew up with the Hasboro classics, but it wasn’t until a couple of years ago that I started paying closer attention to the games rooms at the relaxacons and scifi conventions and discovered the awesomeness of learning a new random card game or board game.* Some of my recent favorites have been Zar, Kittens in a Blender, Elder Sign and 7 Wonders, which I recently picked up:

7 Wonders – yay! Who wants to play?

Also, the reader for whom the 6 O’Clock BS is named has informed me that her husband has started a board game blog called Tim Win Game. It’s completely devoted to the fun that is playing board games. So, you know…you could check it out…if you’re interested in that sort of thing.

What games do you play?

************************

*I did play Lunch Money in college, and have fond memories of sitting at Perkins at three in the morning, jittery on too much cheap coffee, trash-talking across the table (I’m not nearly as good at trash-talking as I like to pretend I am…you…goofus.)

 

6 O’Clock BS – Board and Card Games

6 O'Clock BS – Board and Card Games

Brianne Bilyeu, , , , 930 Comments

Something fun and light-hearted for this Friday’s 6 O’Clock BS, I think. Since it is Geek Pride Day (many froody returns) I think that board and card games would be a fitting subject.

I grew up with the Hasboro classics, but it wasn’t until a couple of years ago that I started paying closer attention to the games rooms at the relaxacons and scifi conventions and discovered the awesomeness of learning a new random card game or board game.* Some of my recent favorites have been Zar, Kittens in a Blender, Elder Sign and 7 Wonders, which I recently picked up:

7 Wonders – yay! Who wants to play?

Also, the reader for whom the 6 O’Clock BS is named has informed me that her husband has started a board game blog called Tim Win Game. It’s completely devoted to the fun that is playing board games. So, you know…you could check it out…if you’re interested in that sort of thing.

What games do you play?

************************

*I did play Lunch Money in college, and have fond memories of sitting at Perkins at three in the morning, jittery on too much cheap coffee, trash-talking across the table (I’m not nearly as good at trash-talking as I like to pretend I am…you…goofus.)

 

6 O'Clock BS – Board and Card Games

Random Fun Stuff

Brianne Bilyeu, , , , 1,395 Comments

What if all the Avengers characters posed like female superheroes?

Seen on Twitter.

Awesome USB drive

Thanks for the tip, Paul!

Pro-Vaccination Billboard

Photographed by moi on southbound 94 in Wisconsin

This billboard on southbound 94 in Wisconsin made me happy. There are so many church signs and pro-life billboards along this route that I could have cried upon seeing a rational, science-based message. Vaccinate Your Baby is an awareness campaign that was launched by Every Child By Two, an organization devoted to raising awareness of the critical need for timely immunization and to foster a systematic way to immunize all of America’s children by age two.

Porn and Pancakes

Thanks to Louise for the tip!

Sign says: PORN AND PANCAKES – A morning filled with straight talk about porn and the issues surrounding porn. From the people who get it. XXXchurch pastors, porn industry insiders and people who have struggled without hope. The breakfast is open to men and boys in junior high and up.

Louise had this to say about the poster: “I was really excited when I first saw this. You know 2 of my favorite things until I realized I couldn’t go nor did they show porn. Boo!”

Random Fun Stuff

Chuck Norris – Eat Your Vegetables!

Brianne Bilyeu, , 936 Comments

Continuing in the geektasticness that is May the 4th, I saw this on Facebook this morning.

Caption reads: Molly Weasley makes Chuck Norris eat his vegetables.

Thanks to Madeline for sharing.

And that led me over to Pintrest ScifiSiren Geekery group, where I lost valuable minutes of my life, but really it’s more like I sold valuable minutes of my life because I got these in return (below the fold):

Continue reading “Chuck Norris – Eat Your Vegetables!” →

Chuck Norris – Eat Your Vegetables!