How To Make A Geek Girl Cry

Being chronically behind the rest of the world, I just now watched the last three episodes of Doctor Who, Season 3. I sobbed like a baby at intervals throughout, but especially at the SPOILERSPOILERSPOILERSPOILER. I never thought I would cry at the SPOILERSPOILERSPOILERSPOILER, but I did.

Damn you, xkcd!!!!!

So...

I had to do WAYyyyyyy too much research to get the joke, there-- meaning exactly the right amount to make me happy, because I am a huge nerd. And it was so worth it. Because now it is my FAVORITE COMIC EVER, and I want a huge poster of it to put on my wall, as it is simply my favorite take on a zombie apocalypse EVER, and NOW I AM OBSESSED WITH FIGURING OUT MY OWN ERDOS NUMBER!!!!!! It's going to be quite huge, I suspect. ;)

Also, how to pronounce that name. I'm not typing it correctly here, 'cause I dunno how to get Blogger to do a Hungarian umlaut over the o, which looks like two forward-slashes. Hungarian is a tricky language for the non-native speaker. Found this page LOADED with soundfiles, though! :) While this page says it's a lot like "air-dish," but this one indicates it's closer to "err-desh," as in "to err is human" and of course, the Hungarian speakers would use a gently-rolled 'r' on the "err," which, as the Google Answers page points out, is really hard for an American to do without making the rolled 'r' into an extra syllable!

What I'm curious about is how people in the mathematics community habitually pronounce it-- mathematicians, being notoriously nerdy and detail-oriented (and I say that with all the reverence of one who ASPIRES to that level! :)). I mean, MY GOODNESS, if I were to confront the Zombie Erdos and ask him to sign a paper, I WANT TO KNOW I'M SAYING HIS NAME RIGHT!!!!!!!!

Art: It's a dangerous business!

Eeee, I can't believe it has been a MONTH since my last entry, gahhhah! I got swamped with art assignment. Which is a good thing! But also, YOWZA, what a tight deadline-- I got given one month to get it all done! ...Er, which is the same time for which I did not blog-- non-coincidentally, I think! :)

Art is not an easy profession. You sit on your butt for HOURS on end staring into a computer (HOW is this different from blogging, again? :D), obsessing over tiny details (perfect job for me), and toward the end of the project I was putting in 18-hour days, and one twenty-hour day. The latter broke my brain a bit, but I'm recovering, mainly with the ol' "hair o' the dog" cure, meaning coffee and lots of it. (Am I the only one who drinks hot coffee in this weather? According to the baristas in my neighborhood, yes. Yes, I am.) Coffee used to make my hands shake so that I couldn't ink when I'd had too much. I solved that problem by replacing all my blood with coffee and just drinking hemoglobin now and again! (Why, yes, I AM still a bit punchy from my long sleepless week, why do you ask?)

Do not ask me how much my pay for such projects typically translates into hourly earnings. No, really. Don't ask. I don't want to weep. No, we artists, especially in the gaming industry, definitely do it for the love. Of sitting on our butts for hours on end staring into a computer. Which is something I believe everyone here can relate to. HA-cha-cha!!!

Best of all, my contract for this set of pieces has me under a non-disclosure agreement forbidding me to talk specifically about the project for five years from date of signature! This amuses me greatly, as to the best of my knowledge, the book is due for release in AUGUST. Ahhhhh, gotta love lawyers! :)

I haven't had much skepticky content on the blog lately, though while I did the art, I listened obsessively to the Skeptic's Guide to the Universe podcasts! Wherein I learned that sitting still for many hours on end, such as on long plane flights or, I dunno, staring at a computer for hours on end, may put one at higher risk for blood clots, yay! (Here's the press release for the actual research.)

The best thing I took away from this month's listening?-- Get up and stretch, or at least flex your calves. :)