Charts and Graphs: A Nerd's Guide to the Universe

Last week as I was finishing up my report for my contract work, I worked on some fun charts and graphs. It reminded me (yet again) how nerdy I am--and how I love that about myself. I love presenting data in a visually interesting way and creating fun, vibrantly-colored visual aids. In fact, when I was much younger, I went through a phase when all I wanted to be when I grew up was a worker at Kinko's so I could design and print cool things on various textures and weights of paper and other materials. (Yes, the nerdiness goes back a looooong time, my friends!)

So this clip of Marshall from How I Met Your Mother sings a happy song to my nerdy little heart. I dedicate this to all of you data nerds out there everywhere. You know who you are.

P.S. This is sooooo something I would do! LOL!

 

If you were to include charts or graphs in YOUR story, what would they represent about you and your life / interests?

TV MFM (Television Made for Me)

If I could create a fabulous television series just for me, I'd include the following elements:

• characters with accents (especially those from the UK)
• science fiction / fantasy
• humor--and lots of it
• action and more action (a la Bourne trilogy)
• great acting by the cast
• well-crafted episodes that reference to previous episodes and foreshadow future events (basically, great storytelling!)
• and something so unbelievable that I could suspend reality and actually believe it.

Surprisingly, all of that is found in the he BBC television series Doctor Who. I've only watched the post-2005 regenerated (pun intended) series, so I don't know everything there is to know about the whole of Doctor Who-dom and am not quite ready to go to ComicCon dressed as a Dalek and I won't go around brandishing a sonic screwdriver. Notwithstanding, what I've watched so far, I've loved.

Doctor #10 David Tennant is by far my favorite Doctor primarily because he has some of the best lines, like this one!

And this schtick! ROTFL!



If you could create a television series just for YOU, what elements would you include? Who might star in it? What would the plot be? Special features?

Sometimes A Nerd Just Wants to Belong

Do you ever feel like Moss--wanting to "fit in" with a certain crowd at work, in your neighborhood, etc? 

How do you change your story to feel included with this group? And how does changing your story make you feel about yourself...and about the people in the group?

When Things Don't Go As You Planned

When things you've been planning for ages don't go as you planned, how do you act / react? How do you feel about yourself? 

Does it make you want to run and hide (like Moss tries to do)? To where do you run when you feel like this? What or who can help you stop hiding / running?

If You're Nerdy and You Know It...

Another TV show KShum introduced me to: a Brit-com called The IT Crowd. Huh-lare-e-us!

My favorite character is the socially awkward, nerdy Maurice Moss: he has THE best lines and bits! KShum and I quote them often.

Some of the most extraordinary ones are below. Enjoy!

The Happiest Place on Earth, Part 2: We Have Arrived!

After spending time at Liberty Island, we caught the next available ferry for Ellis Island. I was sooooooo excited! (Poor KShum...!)

And here we have Idaho, er, Ellis Island, winning her way to fame

We first wandered through the main floor of the building, first running into (of all people) 2 sister missionaries from the New Jersey mission who volunteer at the Ellis Island family history center once a month. (I'll post about that story later!), and then viewing an immigration exhibit.

My fascination with family trees, pictures of trees, and tree decorations continues

From a display about accordions and their ties to immigration

Leave it to the Germans to introduce the accordion to Mexican immigrants. I can thank my own people for the music I listen to whilst I am doing my laundry!

Wisconsin German immigrants introduced kindergarten to the US. You're welcome.

The concentration of German immigrant settlement in the US. Looks like a weather map you'd see on the nightly news, though. I don't think the burnt orange color means that it'll be in the 100s tomorrow....

A nation of immigrants, starring Germany. Size of font indicates size of immigrant population in the US.

And then...THEN we got to go upstairs to the Registry Room, which was by far one of the coolest things I've ever seen. (Again, go with my nerdy-ness on this, okay?) I tried to imagine what it would've been like to be in that room, how it felt to have come such a long way and to be stalled (sometimes quite literally) in the place with your future in the hands of people who could either make your dreams come true or send you back. Being in the Registry Room, imagining the millions of immigrants who endured this great uncertainty (including my great Uncle Jack and his sister Lena), I started to tear up...probably, you know, from all of the dust there, and what with my allergies and all....

The Registry Room as it looks today. A very special and sacred place to me--and to the millions of immigrants who passed through Ellis Island.

Ceiling of the Registry Room at Ellis Island

As we did more exploring through the exhibits, I learned much about the process an immigrant endured once arriving in the Port of New York. Fascinating stuff.

Literacy test given to immigrants. This card is for native Swedish speakers; Uncle Jack and his sister would've been tested with a card similar to this.

When restoring some of the pillars, they discovered original carvings made by immigrants who passed through Ellis Island. This is an example of some of those carvings.

A photo I took of a photo of the Registry Room with immigrants waiting to be processed

My artistic take on a set of the "separation stairs" the immigrants took during processing

A drawing of Castle Garden, the predecessor of Ellis Island. Castle Garden was in what is now known as Battery Park in Manhattan. Most of my immigrant ancestors arrived here.

Immigration brought the prospect of a new life, but it was also a hardship.

The Happiest Place on Earth, Part 1: Getting There

For some the "happiest place on earth" (thanks to a great marketing team at Disney) is thought to be Disneyland.

Not so for me. My nerdy "Disneyland" isn't a theme park: it's Ellis Island. (I know, I know. SUPER nerdy, right?! Well, welcome to my world.)

And until last Saturday, I'd never been, which is kind of pathetic for a genealogist who is enamoured by the immigrant experience. However, every time I'd visited NYC, something always came up and I never made it; and my layovers at JFK, though quite lengthy, weren't long enough to leave the airport and trek to Ellis Island and return in time to fly out again.

My luck changed last weekend, though, when a very generous friend (Jenga) offered her tickets to me because she wasn't going to be able to use them. Would I take them, she asked. Um, HECK YEAH I would!

Thanks to our awesome tickets (thanks, Jenga!), we walked right by the loooooooooong, general admission line and quickly passed through security to board the (appropriately named) Miss Ellis Island ferry.

No, not a beauty contestant -- although I'd vote for her!

We made the obligatory stop at Liberty Island to see the Statue of Liberty, etc. I kept thinking to myself, "Green statue, yeah yeah. Let's get to the good stuff, people!"

Lady Liberty pic from the ferry

View 1 of the Liberty Bike. Couldn't Tell if it was a Harley Davidson or not....

View 2 of the Liberty Bike at Liberty Island

I did learn some cool things about Lady Liberty and her connection to the immigrant experience from some of the displays outside of the gift shop.

The Statue of Liberty welcomed over 14 million immigrants to the United States between 1886 and 1924

A poem written by Emma Lazarus captured how the Statue of Liberty offered hope to immigrants seeking refuge from the misery of their homeland situations.

White and Nerdy

I love efficiency. Love, love, love it! If there is an efficient way to do something, I will find it--and quickly.

For years, I've been saying that there must be a more efficient way to do some of the extracurricular stuff at church, e.g. pay tithing and sign up for a Potluck.

Thankfully, I learned about paying tithing online a few years ago (very efficient!).

And yesterday, I learned from my apparently very efficient and progressive RS leaders in my new ward that there is a way to efficiently organize volunteers for potlucks and taking meals to someone. Behold the future, ladies and gentlemen!

TakeThemAMeal.com

PerfectPotluck.com

Brian Regan Was Right!

Yes, yes it DOES say "WE DELIVERY."

Lynne Truss Would Be So Proud

I admit it: I am a nerd. I appreciate a well-placed semi-colon, and I rejoice in selecting the best possible font for a document. One of my favorite books is "Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation." When its author, Lynne Truss, spoke at a conference, I arrived at the meeting at least an hour in advance so I could get a good seat--and then I waited in line for her to autograph the book.

You might not be as obsessive about sentence structure or document design as I am (and yes, obsessive might be the best word to use...), but I hope you can appreciate the humor in the clip below. It is entitled "Font Conference." (My favorite part is what Wingdings says. LOL.)