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! 

Every ten years or so

My friend, Pam Asberry, posted about how we tend to “change” every seven years (Every Seven Years). It has something to do with our bodies producing new cells. I know a hairdresser told me one time, when my part changed and cowlicks started acting up that it seemed to be true. Pam also shared a bunch of fun pictures I hadn’t seen of her with her kids, from the time we lost touch.

She got me thinking. You know how dangerous that is. My life truly seems to change about every ten years or so. Or as I said after I applied for the job I got downsized from last year, “About every ten years, I tend to do something that scares the $#%& out of me.” Life-changing events seem to occur then for me too.

So, here are a few pics that may amuse. Several of the things I have incorporated into my fiction, because that’s how I roll. But, you’ll have to wait for that….

1968. I recognize the dress from 4th grade. Right before this picture, I fell and skinned my left elbow. I still have the nasty scar. It was a weird year, because I'd just gotten my first pair of glasses. Mom noticed I had trouble seeing my brother on the plane and while we were waiting for the glasses to come in, I had to move to the front of the class. Funny how I date most of my pictures by which glasses I was wearing. My vision without correction is now 20/200, despite special drops in my eyes every night during my teenage years. Glasses continue to be an important part of my life. I tried contacts, but my eyes are fairly close together and I think I actually look better with them. My opthamologist said it was the first time he'd ever heard anyone say that. Anyway, my oldest brother was killed the next year, so my life definitely changed. 

1978. College picture. One of the few times I actually liked my hair. College was the first time I'd been away from home for more than two weeks at a time, the first time I was making decisions on my own. The first time I really fell in love. I was still suffering from mono and developed a severe depression my sophomore year, that resulted in me spending four days in the infirmary and missing two finals. I was able to make them up, but it resulted in me changing my major from pre-med. I'm grateful it happened, though it was a difficult time to live through.

1988. How do I know? Hideous dress, old apartment, Elton John glasses and gardenia hairpiece I wore at our wedding at my waist. While I was thrilled to marry Chris and knew it was the right thing to do (he just took out the kitty litter trash and started a load of laundry, God bless him!), the retail store I managed took a hit in sales that year due to construction in the area, so hours were slashed. I worked 65 hours the week of my wedding and many more each week for most of the year. Later that year, we bought our house. I don't recommend getting married and buying a house in the same year, but it all worked out somehow.

1998. Fangirl personified, as this was taken at the Rivercon Science Fiction Convention Chris and I were Fan Guests of Honor for. Chris started the SF conventions in our city and I'd volunteered at a bunch, so we were thrilled by this honor. I'm wearing a T-shirt for Contact 15 (our pro guest was Kris Rusch, who wrote some "Star Wars" novels). Chris and I met at a Contact and discovered we'd both attended as teenagers a "Star Trek" fan club event. Small world. I've met so many friends, authors and artists at conventions, I am very grateful.

2008. Chris and I on top of the Stratosphere Hotel in Las Vegas, celebrating our 20th. No, we did not go on the rides, because we had to get the airport shuttle for our flight home, darn. A good portion of my first novel is set in Vegas and I was thrilled to discover a lot of details to "make it real." While I'd been writing seriously again for almost two years, this was when the story really started coming together, actually walking down The Fremont Street Experience, taking a ton of pictures, playing the "Star Trek" machines in the casinos and discovering the VIP entrance to The Forum Shoppes.
So, looking forward to 2018. I plan on still being here and having a good time! Here are a couple of other fun pictures that fell in between:

1972. Stylin'. Don't know what the damage is at the top, probably my loud pants blinded the scanner.

1993. Contact 11 Toga Party, with me in the classic "Roman Holiday" toga. There was a wedding reception in the hotel, but everyone wanted to party with us!

Thanks for wandering through my photo album and please share a picture of you on my Facebook page from an important time of your life and comment below.