Geek Love

What I remember most about math in high school is my pre-algebra class, which was held in one of those trailers way out the back of beyond where the maladjusted black leather-clad types hung out (in Florida, with 147% humidity). I remember it because I failed miserably and had to repeat it, but also because a friend and I kept a notebook with our desperate, loopy-scrawled, heart-strewn scribblings that we passed to each other between classes. Except this one time, where I forgot the fucking thing under my desk and someone in the next class found it and tacked up the extremely embarrassing contents of my 13-year-old heart, which focused around a Luke Perry-esque upperclassman with penetrating eyes and this great spiky blond hair who was my first kiss. It was this whole big thing.

So, reading the blog of a high school algebra teacher brought that all rushing back in excruciating detail (including the conversation I had with said dreamy older boy, which ended in no more kisses for me but a friend for life, so there's a trade off). I expected to hate this blog with as much searing fury as I hate math, with its stupid numbers and never adding up right and I still don't know how to leave a tip, but apparently I can like the teacher and hate the subject.

And anyway, there's not a whole lot of math going on, except for the inexplicable math-related craft projects, so I can put away my calculator.

The template is nice. I like the dark background and the purple and it has readable black text on a white background. The banner is from the Sookie Stackhouse books, which seems odd, but I love those books, so whatever. There is way too much going on in the sidebar, of course. Move the bling and the awards to another page and roll up the archives. I don't know what the point is of the whole humor blogs pimpage. Do you get a free toaster?

Alice has been a little sporadic with her posting recently. She peaked in March with 41 posts but it's steadily gone downhill in the post frequency department. But Alice interests me (that whole math thing aside). She taught in Kenya with the Peace Corps. More of that, please. She plays poker, and chicks who play poker get instant cool points from me because my card-playing aptitude includes Go Fish, Solitaire (if I cheat), and Asshole.

There are some funnies, too. Mostly of the wry kind, which I enjoy. And she has amusing kids. (Do all parents have pics of their kids on the john? Mine do, evil bastards that they are.) It seems she had a similar upbringing, although how she managed to pee near a pool without worrying about the dreaded purple stain they warn you about following her around and branding her a pool-pisser I'll never know. I can relate to her because I, too, am a hypocritical judger. And I love cheesy vampire fic, and we have similar taste in movies and TV characters. And I in fact do have Mediaeval Baebes on my iPod.

There's lots of Pokemon, to which I jeer superiorly. But she mentions Slap Shot, so I like her again (but then I jeer again because of that whole Mmm Bop thing).

For a math chick, the writing is really pretty good, and I enjoy her humor. I'd like a little more back story, but then I always do. And more sex, but her mom reads the blog so that's not likely to happen. She does tend to go on a bit with the rambling, but it didn't bother me. I like her voice kind of a lot and that makes up for any long-windedness in my view. I'd want to hang out with her, and I wish we'd both been blogging when I lived in Maryland.

Also, the yearbook commentary made this review a delight, as did the Vanilla Ice re-enactments.

I'm gonna go out on a limb on this one, knowing I might encounter a fair bit of disagreement, but I fucking loved this one. I'm adding her to my reader, in fact. It could be that I'm biased in favor of geeky chicks with self-deprecating senses of humor and a penchant for vampires and science fiction movies, but it's my damn review.