Geek Girls Unite!

There was a time, not too long ago, when a group of young people took to the streets to protest things they felt where unfair or wrong in our government. These people where called Hippies… and they protested a war they felt was unjust.

Now, in this time of chaos in Iran, there is a new Hippy movement… and it’s not just on the streets.
It’s on the internet and people worldwide are involved.

Twitter, a small blog site that once was considered an annoyance by many… has now become crucial in keeping the world informed on what is going on in Iran. The people of Iran can not, and will not be silent… and they risk their lives to ensure that someone knows.

I have been following #iranelection for days now, and can not tear myself away. The news coming out from students in the middle of this, is both heartwrenching and brave. My heart bleeds that I can’t do more for them, for all these poor children who want nothing more then to have thier voices heard…. but I do my part.

I had someone ask me if I went green because I supported the politics. No. I went green because I support free speech. I do not believe that any government has the right to silence its people, to keep the voice of the youth from speaking, to use the word democracy to cover up a dictatorship. Freedom is not Free. It is fought for, it is earned with hard struggle and constant effort.

I may not be on the streets of Iran, I may be in a country that allows me to express my opinions without fear of jail or worse. But I am, in spirit, a revolutionary… I stand by silenced voices and if I can I will scream what they can not say.

Do your part, don’t let silence claim the voice of freedom. Make it known, keep it going, show the photos, discuss the issue.

Peace can not be found in silence, only oppression.

Let the voices of Iran’s youth ring free!

To speculate on the causes of Geekdom in our society is to ponder the quintessential question… Who Am I? In relation to the world at large, the answer is most often… I am (name). But what is a name when tied to a label and a function?

What is it that makes one person named Bob different from another Bob? Or more precise, is there an inflection in the tone of Bob 1′s name that is different then Bob 2′s name? If both are asked what their names are, will they say it the same way? Or does anyone other then myself really care?

What can I say words, names in particular, fascinate me.  Growing up I had an uncommon name, or what had once been uncommon.  I had heard it pronounced three separate ways, but only one of them was my name. The others where not right. But over the years I have seen a few women with my name as well as one horrible video game character. As I met more women with my name, and that horrible movie based off the video game, I noticed that it was always pronounced different… and that each woman was as protective of their own pronunciation as I was of mine.

OK so what was going to be a blog post about Geek Latin… has turned into something totally different. This, boys and girls, is what happens when you ask my over caffeinated mind to do one thing and it decides it wants to do something else. Yes, my mind has a mind of it’s own… it’s a wonder I get anything accomplished.

So I leave you with one last random thought. Next time you see a name that can have more then one pronunciation, ask… before someone says “There’s no one here by that name.”

So I love to bake and cook . . . but since its just me at my apartment I don’t do it as often as I would like.  The stories below are from some of my kitchen adventures . . . .

First cake:  The first cake I ever made from scratch I made while I was home alone.  I had my mom’s cookbook propped open and when I came to the ingredients list for the chocolate cake I was making and saw cocoa – I naturally assumed they meant hot cocoa mix.  The only mix we had was a big container of Swiss Miss Hot Cocoa with Marshmallows so that is what I used.  The cake went into the oven and I moved on to making the frosting . . . I used granulated sugar for the frosting.  Since the frosting had a sand-like texture I waited until my parents got home to find out what I did wrong.  My mom made regular frosting (with confectioners sugar) and used green food coloring.  We frosted the cake and called it Mystery Cake . . . surprisingly it tasted fairly good.

Burn: I was making an english muffin pizza under the broiler in my parents oven.  It was done so I took it out one handed with the pot holder.  I was going to set it on the table to let it cool, but I only had the one pot holder and I didn’t want to melt the placemat . . . so I grabbed one side of the plate to push it onto the pot holder.  I had some serious blisters on my thumb and fingers.

Frozen Pizza: I was making a frozen pizza for my friend, Kristen, and I.  The pizza had been in the oven for a little while and when i went to check it I couldn’t figure out why the pizza wasn’t cooking up the way I thought it should . . . the cardboard was still on the bottom of the pizza – thankfully it never caught on fire. 

First dinner in Apartment:  The first dinner I made in my apartment was for my boyfriend, Danny, and I.  I was making hot dogs and macaroni and cheese.  I had the hot dogs under the broiler . . . I have an electric oven so there are heating coils at the top and the hot dogs were on the broiler pan on the rack just below the coils.  When the hot dogs were done I put an oven mitt on my hand and reached into get them with a fork and pull them out.  The oven mitt touched the coils and caught on fire.  I talked to my Grandma the day afterwards and she asked me why I didn’t just pull the rack out instead of sticking my hand into the oven like that . . . I had no answer – it had honestly never crossed my mind.

I have other stories and adventures that I can share – please let me know by commenting below if you’d like me to post them too.

~~Rachee~~