Sunday Sundries--Geek Edition

Okay, I survived a crisis of faith earlier in the week. I've finished the initial training on my new job and started doing the actual customer service/tech support work and I felt totally overwhelmed and lost for about two days there. I actually started sobbing, driving home after that first shift of taking phone calls and considered quitting several times. Finally, I started praying--I knew God had brought me to this job for a purpose. He was just going to have to help me a bit. I told myself, "Julee, you're going to have to cut yourself some slack here--it is only your first day!" The next day, we got some more training and things got easier. The next day, I wasn't afraid of what was going to be on the other end of the phone line. 

A whole lot of the issue was my long-standing need to be perfect, the whole adult children of alcoholics thing. I've felt so overwhelmed about my last two jobs at the beginning too, though that was so long ago, I'd forgotten. You know another thing that helped? I took all that fear, intimidation, self-doubt and anger at myself and filled a couple of notebook pages to insert into my novels. I send Mary Margaret to Japan in my Seven Months novels and you better believe I'm going to be mining the hell out of these experiences, down to every crumpled, tear-soaked napkin. 

So, in honor of my geeky sister, welcome to The Geek Edition. In my Seven Days novels, Mary Margaret works up all her nerve to ask for a job, when she realizes the man who helped rescue her sister was one of her favorite game designers. She gets it and it comes with the phone and laptop of her dreams. Here's the phone:

                                                                                                                                                                     

 Yes, you can be amazed at the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play 4G, complete with slide out game controller. You can tether it to your laptop and it becomes a mobile hot spot, your own personal wi-fi, wherever you are, for up to five devices. It comes loaded with many fine games and you have access to hundreds more, besides it serving as a phone, camera, etc. Mary Margaret has a major squee attack when presented with it. Her sister, who marries Will, the game designer, not so much. Will forces Elizabeth to go through the on-line tutorials to learn how to use the phone and she curses him for it, while acknowledging she really needs to own it. Have you ever had to learn something you didn't want to or wanted to have someone give you the answers? I sure have and I'm putting that in my fiction too.

On a lighter note, here's some more geeky fun:

Carol Burnett Show - Star Trek Parody

www.youtube.com

"Carol Burnett Show" sketch that was freaking hilarious! 

Another "Star Wars" inside joke.

Obligatory Dune reference. This was our computer desktop for a while.

*sigh* Kind of frightening, isn't it?

Not geeky particularly, but very true, especially of me this past week.

Obligatory "Star Trek" reference.

Obligatory BEM (Bug-Eyed Monster) reference.

I need an app for that.

Too cute! You all have a super week--I'll try to check back a little more often, because I've missed you guys!