Violins and Lances

When mom called to ask if I wanted to return south for a week, I was hesitant. There are a number of reasons why I dislike my hometown, hence my lack of eagerness to return. Mom, however, knew this and was prepared. "Barrage is coming to town," she informed me, "and FlaRF starts up the same weekend."

Next thing I knew I was on a plane, leaving my icy driveway behind.

Saturday night was the first time I saw Barrage in about five and a half years. Even though I didn't recognize most of the musicians, it was still the fun, high-energy show that I remembered. But don't just take my word for it; check out the video and see for yourself  :)



Most groups will sneak away to a tour bus after a concert, but not these guys. After their two-hour concert they still came outside, wearing smiles, to sign merchandise and answer questions. (My signed copy of Scrapbook has been playing nonstop since then).

The next day was FlaRF (known to many as the Florida Renaissance Festival). After 11 years of attending, it shouldn't be a surprise when I say that the faire has played a huge role in my life. It's where I had my first job. It's where I learned a bunch of tidbits of the time era...like the belief that women only have half a soul. It is where some great friendships had started. And it also helped me to find Barrage. Lost? Let me explain. One of my friends at the faire was ShaeLaurel, a family band who introduced me to the wonderful genres of Irish and Folk music. A band who showed me that violin music can be (GASP) fun! If it hadn't been for them, I probably would have ignored the advertisement for Barrage. The fast fiddlin' and impressive choreography in the commercial reminded me of a ShaeLaurel show... I knew I had to go. The rest is history.


So thank you FlaRF for the work experience, the memories, and for introducing me to great music.

And I guess we'll never know exactly where this river's gonna flow. And I guess we'll never understand till we reach that promised land. - "River" by Hanson

Personal Soundtrack T-shirt

Have you ever wished that you could have dramatic music play whenever you enter a room? Or perhaps play the Jeopardy song when waiting for someone to answer you? Admit it, it would be pretty darn cool if we could coordinate music with our life like Koothrappali does here.



You may be thinking "Yeah, but that's TV. Not to mention it's The Big Bang Theory-- Raj probably just made the shirt himself." That, my friend, is where you're wrong. This exact shirt does exist! Thanks to the geniuses at ThinkGeek you too can add background music to your life for only $30! I'm seriously thinking about buying the shirt (as well as a couple other goodies from that site). In my humble opinion, it's quite worth it. What are your thoughts on the shirt?

Nerd Level: 5

I never denied being a nerd, but until recently I would have said my nerdiness was mild.

I like video games. OK, so I like the older video games like Pac Man, Mortal Kombat, Spyro, and Pokemon.
Math jokes are always enjoyable.
Physics or Engineering were once appealing majors.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail is hysterical.
And I work at renaissance faires, for goodness sakes.

However...
I've never watched Star Wars
I've never been a Trekkie
Rocky Horror Picture Show is one of my least favorite movies. 
And I can't fix most computer problems. 

See? Mild. But my nerdiness has increased exponentially, and Python is partly to blame.

Intro to Computer Programming gave me a new appreciation for computers. They're a lot more fun when you have some understanding of how they work. So much that I've decided I'm going to take what I learned from last term and apply to a project for this term. For my Science Fiction class, I will be building a "Choose your own adventure" program. And there will be GUI involved. Bear in mind that I've never used GUI before and so, will be teaching myself as I'm building this program and writing the story.

But don't crack your nerd jokes yet! There's still more! I'm currently in the process of making an RSS feed for my entire webstore, a data feed that will be uploaded onto a wonderful search engine that will hopefully bring me more business. With that said, I'm slowing learning HTML. While I can't design an amazing blog (yet) I can make a spiffy button. Go ahead, click it. I dare you.



(I promise to make a separate blog for the store. But until then, you'll have to endure my shameless plugging).

Now, here's the horrifying thought. For the first time in my life, I'm considering watching Star Wars and Star Trek. Yeah...my Sci Fi classmates might be rubbing off on me. I'm not sure if I really want to complete the nerd transformation just yet...