Friday, May 05, 2006

Geek Ahoy!!!

My poor poor poor children. They are doomed to be geeks. It's in their DNA, after all. The Dearest is a computer consultant who grew up around 'puters and loves to work on them. My own exposure to computers started when my mom's boyfriend brought home a Texas Insturments/TI99. It was a little keyboard that didn't even come with its own monitor; you had to hook it up to a TV. I spent a whole, hot summer between fourth and fifth grades learning how to make a white ball bounce up and down on the tv screen using Basic.

The Dearest and I met through the precursor to the Internet: a local BBS (Bulletin Board System). There were *so* few women online at that time that the SysOp who owned the board would call to make sure you were actually a live person (cuz lots of guys would log on, pretending to be female just to play jokes on the other users). The BBS was all text and ran at 1200bps over a regular phone line. Looking back, it was sooooo slow and clunky compared to the 'net!

Anyhew, I think with all the backstory, you can see how doomed the boys are to be geeks. And if their background isn't enough, I'm doing my best to geek them out. Like so:

Another freezer paper shirt

click for larger pic
Yes, that's right, Monkey Boy has his very own freezer paper stenciled shirt, proclaiming our status as BSG geeks. I think the shirt is especially appropriate for MB and his evil little grins.
BTW here's the back of the shirt, which I did with an iron on transfer:
Back of Tshirtcloseup

Devinemom asked me in the last post what ink I used for my stenciling. I got the original idea from a tutorial on Craftster.org (I would link to the post, but Craftster is soooo slow lately. Just search for 'freezer paper' and it'll come up). I use the cheapy acrylic craft paint from the local hobby store. It's the stuff that is 89cents a bottle and comes in about a gazzillion colors. I also use the "extender" stuff, which is sold in the same aisle. You add the paint to the extender (2parts paint to 1part extender), mix them up and go to town. I use a cheap sponge brush to apply the paint, and I've found that it's better to use a really thin coat & add more later than try to goop it all on right at the beginning. Less chance of bleeding if you do the thin coats vs. the thick application.

Oh, on the knitting front, I'm almost completely done with Sis's sock. All I have to do is sew up the toe and weave in the ends. Hopefully I'll be able to post some pics tonight.

Finally, for those SAHMs out there, check out Cheeky Lotus's Manic Momday post. So true!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I want one of those tee-shirts for Joe, LOL! LOVE the shirt...

BTW, the post on Cheeky Lotus was AWESOME!

Anonymous said...

hmmm, my DH and I met online about a decade ago too. And we love BSG. I see geekdom in my little son's future too ;)

Karen said...

Wow. Someone else who knows what a BBS was!!! Shocking! That's how my husband and I met. We both ran a bbs way back when and the rest is history. Mine was called The Ivory Tower and his was called Reservoir Dogs. Hehe Good times... :)

wendy said...

love the shirt!

Anonymous said...

My hubby and I met on IRC a gazillion years ago =) And we too are BSG fans - I just showed him the shirt and now he wants one too - which means I need to learn the freezer paper stenciling =)

ADORABLE!!

Anonymous said...

It's never too young to start 'em on BSG.