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The Con is on!

It’s back! Just when you thought that gaming could get no geekier Rowley Con strikes again.

Our friends, Jeremy and Amber, recently hosted their second annual Rowley Con: a weekend of gaming and geeky debauchery. Their house overflowed once more with nerds bent on becoming the Supreme Geekolator. This year’s battles for dominance came in the form of Hoard, Dance Central, Agricola, Space Truckers, and Twister. Each category had its own winner and then an uber nerd was selected based off overall scores. I am proud to proclaim that this year’s geekalo was my own skilled hubby. Yes, Jason ruled the other nerds with a level 10 ironclad fist! Okay, technically he tied for first place with our friend Adam but, through a series of tiebreaker tests, he proved himself the rightful champ.

My attempt to look supremely tough as Supergrirl here somehow just made me look super ornery. Superheroes are allowed to give crusties too, right?
People seemed to leave their children to their own devices through most of the Con, which of course led to raging chaos. But the kids did settle temporarily on the couch Saturday afternoon to watch the Muppets and eat suckers.

Various other contests were going on simultaneously throughout the weekend making it impossible to take part in everything. Our friend Lee contributed to the Con with old school Nintendo 8-bit game competitions: Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, Galaga, and Tetris. These were popular with both the little kids and the once-little kids. Amber also set up a cute table specifically for Phase 10 challenges but, sadly, I never got a chance to phase-in.

Jason fittingly sped around in his Flash outfit flashing as many people with his bursting tights as possible.
I may have forgotten to put on the mask but my Batgirl outfit still made me super tough. I literally broke our metal sliding door handle in half with my overpowering strength just minutes after donning this costume.

The costume contest provided yet another means of demonstrating one’s shameless geekery. I would have dressed up whether there was a prize involved or not, I’m just that nerdy, but the prospect of geeky glory certainly added to my motivation. This year Jason and I decided to disguise ourselves as the super duper. We both came up with two different superhero costumes so we had unique iconic eveningwear each night. I made me a Batgirl costume and upgraded the Supergirl outfit I sewed a few months ago for our polar plunge by adding some additional pieces. My Batgirl costume was mostly the workings of my imagination, not any pattern, so I was happy that my creativity didn’t end up upside-down or inside-out. Yeah! But, alas, I did forget to wear my bat mask to the Con, which ruined the secret part of my secret identity. As for Jason, his package seems to have become an integral part of the Rowley Con package. He, with some of my encouragement, decided, once again, that a pair of super panties was perfect attire for this affair. He flashed us speedily and readily in his Flash Underoos on Friday night. At least his Captain America outfit, Saturday’s costume, was adequately covering and didn’t reveal any mysterious bulges. Bulges notwithstanding, apparently no one can resist a brazen man in leggings because Jason and I owned the costume contest once again.

The dark recesses of the basement appropriately became home to the Dungeon Master.
The last part of Jason and Adam’s tiebreaker test was a finger sword fight wherein Jason finally claimed victory with a plunge of his index finger.
Jason’s Captain America outfit covered all of his bits properly but, strangely enough, everyone seemed to miss his red tights.

Dungeon masters, gold hoarders, dot munchers, sheep breeders, and alien garbage gatherers: they were all represented at the Con. Practically anyone, except sufferers of chronic too cool syndrome, could find something to please their inner gamer at this event.

Who can resist the tighted superhero?
Jason’s costume contest prize was a latex horse mask, which he promptly convinced Jacob to prance around in.

Many thanks to the Rowleys for graciously hosting this fest. We came, we played, our children trashed your house. It was good geeky fun and perhaps, if Jeremy’s dearest wishes come true, we will do it all again next year.

Rachel April 19, 2012 3 Comments

Nerds at the Park

When a bunch of chemistry geeks get together you might expect the periodic table of elements to get dragged into casual conversations and redox reactions to be discussed as if they were the flavor of the week. Perhaps your assumptions aren’t too far off but you may well be surprised by what else goes on when chemists gather. We don’t just enthusiastically gossip about the latest trends in silicones and quaternary ammonium compounds, as intriguing as those topics might be. Merely chatting about the functions of keratin is not enough for us; we scientists like to grab life by its keratin covered bones.

Jason was so toasty he opted for jeans when we were tubing regardless of whether they transformed him into Mr. Soggy Bottom or not.

Last week Jason and I spent a couple days in Park City with my chapter of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists. Admittedly, there was some hardcore nerdery involved. During the seminar portion of our meeting we learned how to develop green actives that target cell receptors. Additionally, one of our presenters, Chris Kilham the medicine hunter, talked about sustainable harvesting practices in the Amazon. You may have seen Chris featured on The Dr. Oz Show or Fox News. Yes, we mingle with the famous.

At Canyons Jason coached me on how to do a wall hit. My first attempts were sad indeed but eventually I started getting the hang of it.

After filling our heads with data we were off to Gorgoza Park to let our butts soak up the soggy snow. It was an incredibly pleasant afternoon. Most of our tubing group just wore light jackets or skipped jackets altogether. We geeks linked our tubes in a variety of geometric configurations as we traveled downhill at an accelerated velocity. Wahoo!

The view from the top of the Echo run was pretty spectacular.

That night Jason and I headed off on our own to sample Reef’s Restaurant. We’ve long wanted to try their Middle-Eastern cuisine. Yum! The food there was just the right mix of spicy and surprising.

Jason used to board at Canyons a few times a week in his college days so he was pretty excited about riding his old stomping grounds again.

We couldn’t have asked for better weather the next day when we hit the slopes at Canyons. With a high near 57 degrees Jason didn’t even bother wearing more than a thin hoodie. I did sport my coat but mostly for its plethora of pockets; I unzipped everything to allow for massive air circulation. We hadn’t been to Canyons for a few years and I have to say that it was hugely gratifying to go on some of the runs that I distinctly remember having difficulties navigating before only to find their terrain super easy now. Yes, I suck less!

By the end of the day storm clouds had gathered but after hours of uninterrupted sunshine it was okay.

What a nice mini-excursion: celebrity speakers, fun snow activities, and warm spring sunshine. Geeks know how to have a good time, just ask anyone who’s attended a D&D party in their friend’s mother’s basement.

Rachel March 22, 2012 No Comments

Battle of the Trek Geniuses

I have been a Trekkie, or a Trekker if you want to be politically correct, since adolescence. My teenage heartthrob was Mr. Data. Need I say more? My brother-in-law, Ryan, is perhaps an even more despicable fan. You know, the type whose basement is packed with impenetrable airtight/waterproof containers full of model ships, autographed plaques, and unopened communicator collectibles. So naturally when Star Trek Scene It? came out an epic battle between me and Ryan to determine Trek supremacy was imminent, as imminent as a warp core breach after an antimatter containment failure. That historic skirmish happened on stardate 65599.2 AKA last Saturday.

Ryan and I each prepped for our cosmic competition by watching a great deal of Trek. The Star Trek franchise is a galactic behemoth. Between all the various series there are over 600 episodes and 500 hours of television. Since we’re not Peggy Bundy, and don’t have unlimited vegging time, our “research” had to be selective. I have been slowly re-watching The Next Generation, my favorite Trek, since Jason bought me the box set a year ago and a few months back I started supplementally tackling a mix of Voyager, Enterprise, and The Original Series. Ryan decided to concentrate his efforts on The Next Generation and Enterprise before our big showdown. He completed viewing both in their entirety. Not that it did him any good. Wahaha!

Everyone wanted to try on Jason's Starfeet uniform. At least it wasn't a belly shirt on Benson like it is on Jason.

Finally, the chosen day came and our battle was afoot. The difficulty of the game’s questions varied considerably from super easy to nearly impossible. Although each of us had a couple teammates, teammates that proved more useful than those red-shirted security fellows, it was really Rachel vs. Ryan for the most part. With a little luck, and some super amazing memory recall skills, team Rachel warped ahead at first. Eventually Ryan got his dilithium crystals aligned properly and he sped up to nearly take the victory. But in the end he just couldn’t make her go any faster. He basically choked on his last couple questions. One involved some simple Enterprise trivia and the other an Original Series query about the Botany Bay. I guess some people just can’t handle the pressure of command. Fortunately, I was able to quickly identify the Botany Bay for the win before Ryan could regroup his forces.

Ryan was "stunned" by his defeat.

I know Ryan considers himself a venerable vault of Trekkie trivia so I’m sure this defeat will haunt him and fill him with the deepest shame for many years to come…or until we have a rematch. He made a good effort but you just can’t win them all, especially if your opponent is me or Q.

Rachel March 1, 2012 3 Comments
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