A random list of reminders

First, don't forget that this Sunday at 5pm eastern is the deadline for our latest Living Out Loud Project. The theme for this month is your own personal folklore. The hardest part for me so far is just picking which story I want to tell (but we seem to have a ton of folklore to choose from). Remember that one lucky entrant receives a small prize of appreciation and all participants earn fame, glory and a link on the LOL Members blogroll! Go team! The next reminder is that I'm still pregnant. Hello, I know, right? I'm still getting used to it myself. Having never been particularly fat or particularly pregnant before, I'm still getting used to how this stage has characteristics of both. My boobs are starting to no longer be the part of me that would touch a wall first should I walk into one. I make old man noises sometimes when I get out of a chair. I dropped my favorite pen on the floor at work yesterday right after lunch and seriously considered just buying another one versus trying to bend over to get it. But overall, I still look and feel the same, just with a swimmy person inside me and an insatiable desire for chips and salsa (which counts as well as a paternity test to prove that Rich is the father of this child).

We're going to two SCA events this month. I'm just as surprised as you all are! But Rich has been asked to participate in the Golden Rose Tourney and my favorite Mistress is cooking at our local event so it was a no-brainer for them both. There's a guy at work who has gotten excited at the prospect of heavy fighting within the society and it's interesting to be around such fresh enthusiasm after all my general ennui about modern middle ages stuff of late. It's refreshing. I may get off my ass and sew a new outfit (particularly if I want to be able to fit this ever-expanding body of mine into something other than our pavilion). Wish me luck!

You should be watching TEDTalks

I love watching TEDTalks. One day if I work really hard, when I grow up I may be able to give a TEDTalk of my own. But until then, I hope that you learn to love and appreciate these talks as much as I do. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started as a conference way back in 1984, but now it has stretched out into the Internet. There are over 400 TEDTalks now available, all based on the challenge of someone to give the "talk of their lives" in under 18 minutes.

So it pleased me greatly to find a Google document of all TEDTalks up to May 11, 2009. It's my own little glue trap!

If that list seems overwhelming (and it's quite a list!), I offer you a few links to some of my favorites.

Aimee Mullins and her 12 pairs of legs

Ed Ulbrich shows how Benjamin Button got his face

Scott McCloud on comics

Because I could not tank for Death—

We spend most of our evenings in our home office. Rich plays World of Warcraft, we watch NHL hockey or NCIS on the TV between us and I surf RSS feeds and write blog posts from my computer. Since Rich does a lot of raiding in WoW, he spends a lot of time with his headset on talking to folks on Ventrillo. Because his outbursts have no context for me and I only hear his part of the conversation, I started collecting them as bits of poetry. I present to you ...

Raid Night I got the poison on him. Rogue has got it taken care of. Dessimate in 10. I'll take the Light for you, Glacial. Vezina is on the WALL. Karm is on the WALL.

Did Death come as a Tank? Oh, you won’t be using your talents. Can you see the sparks?! We were rockin’ pretty good until that last spark.

Emily Dickinson would be proud.