This?

This?

This isn't just a squash.

This isn't just a winter squash.

This isn't just the first (and only) winter squash I've managed to grow.


This?

This is a certified, prize-winning, champion squash.

This is not me. This is Wil Wheaton. Just in case you were wondering.

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Full disclosure: there were only four squashes entered, because crappy summer, but still.

G is for...

Who doesn't see Batman when they look at my blog stats?

... geek!

I admit it - I'm a total geek.

I get so excited over the geekiest things - like slime molds.  And most of my entertainment tends to be geek-based as well.

TV Shows?

Star Trek (all of them).  Babylon 5 - the first series that showed me what a story arc could actually do, and how amazing TV could be.  Buffy, of course!

And Firefly!! - who doesn't love Firefly?

"Were there monkeys? Some terrifying space monkeys maybe got loose?"

Best.  Line. EVER.

OH!!!  Big Bang Theory - pretty much the only reason I still have a TV.


Books?

Asimov, Clark, Piers Anthony (if all you've read is the Xanth series, try his Bio of a Space Tyrant sometime.  We aren't in Xanth anymore, Toto!), Baum (speaking of Toto), Bova, Bradbury, Ellison (shudder), Lovecraft (double shudder), Huxley, McCaffery, Lewis, Norton, Spider Robinson (so want to have a Callahan's in real life!).

HEINLEIN!  Should I be ashamed I have every book he's ever written?  Should I?

Oh, Douglas Adams.  Trust me on this one - driving half way across North America is best accomplished with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on tape playing the entire time.  Really.  And it will also improve your mileage to 42 miles a gallon.  Or something like that.

And Neil Gaiman.  I love Neil Gaiman*.  I want to have his children.  Just don't tell his wife, k?

So many great authors - so many I'm sure I forgot to list.

Movies?

Too many to even start listing.  Really.

So yeah, I'm a geek.  Total geek.


I am not, however, a nerd.  If I was a nerd, my DVD player would actually be hooked up to the TV properly, so I could have that Firefly marathon (plus Serenity, of course) I've been planning for ages...


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*oddly enough, I didn't know him until I was looking for a present for a friend's young daughter, and saw "The Wolves in the Walls", and picked it up, thinking what small child wouldn't like a story about wolves that live in the walls?  Ahem. Anyhow, upon giving it to the child, the father was heard to remark (ignoring the mother's somewhat horrified reaction to the book) "Neil Gamian?  COOL!!!!  You should read his stuff one day...".  And the rest, as they say, was history.

Who put the fun in fungi?

I was taught mycology by Dr. George Barron - one of the best, most inspirational and funniest professors I've ever had the pleasure of knowing.  In addition to being an excellent teacher and an untiring researcher, he is an incredible photographer.

If you are at all interested in mushrooms, or nature, or excellent photography, grab a cup of your favourite beverage, and spend some time on the site.  The links may take a while to load, and some are broken (the site hasn't been updated recently, probably due to Dr. Barron's age), but it is worth the time spent.

Dr. Barron's main area of research, at least when I knew him, was on predatory soil fungi, and one of my most sentimental items is the framed photo he presented to me for getting the highest lab mark in the class.

He is the major reason I am where I am today, and why I was lucky enough to spend 15 years of my life working with fungi.

And why I still get a joy out of finding fungi in nature, from the largest bracket to the smallest birds-nest.

His field guide to mushrooms is on my want list, and I think I'll include it on my very next book order - just for the amazing photographs, if nothing else.

As an aside, he was the first to instill in me the difference between "edible" and "palatable", a distinction more "forage experts" should keep in mind!

 All photos copyright of Dr. Barron, and they are all of spoulating slime molds!  Now you see why I think they are simply amazing :)

Please excuse my inner geek.

So, I'm not saying this is like me AT ALL, or anything, but some might remember the day I found the slime mold on one of my petri plates, and got way too excited...

Source:  The funniest comic on the web.  Click to embiggen.

 

is it a bad thing that slime molds are among my favourite things??  The structures they produce while spoulating are absolutely stunning - in a microscopic sort of way.  And yes, it is actually called dog vomit slime mold :)