The stupidest company in the world...

I am a big fan of Game of Thrones and have been looking forward to watching Season 2 since they announced it was being picked up last year.

I don't have cable, so in order to watch it on my TV I'd have to pay for an entire cable package, plus HBO on top of it. They have HBOgo, which is their online arm, but it is only available to people who subscribe to HBO through a cable network.

HBOgo's infrastructure is already entirely setup. Selling it to someone requires only a link to sign up and give credit card details. Nothing further, but HBO won't do this. You have to go through a cable provider (which are becoming more and more obsolete as the internet progresses anyway).

And that's it. That's the only option. Game of Thrones is not available anywhere else but through HBO.

Oh, I could torrent it. Be a pirate. In fact everyone I know is doing just that because none of us have cable. Why would we? We have youtube and 90% of what's on TV is either horrible, or available to watch online somewhere for a fee or even free with adverts. I'm cool with that. I will pay what I deem fair for something I enjoy. But I will not pirate something I support, because that's a very good way to ensure that what you support will cease to be made.

I honestly do not understand HBOs logic here. A subscription is a subscription, what does it matter if it's through comcast or suddenlink or their own website? This whole system is just encouraging me to pirate for the first time ever - and at my age and in this time that is saying a lot. (I don't even download music.)

In short, what we're talking about is a company refusing to make money by selling a service to people - a service they can sell at no additional costs to themselves. It makes absolutely no sense from a business perspective. None.

Therefore, by the power invested in my by the gods of the internets I hereby proclaim HBO to be:

(If you're wondering, I managed to watch it last year because my brother had HBO.)

Children under...

Oh thank god I'm old enough to order this...

The Whos down in Whoville will all cry boo-hoo

Merry Christmas Eve everyone!

As promised, I have used my super powers of prize-giving to choose the two winners of the Grinchmas giveaway.

There were 16 comments and 15 entries (William Zed graciously bowed out since he won during my birthday giveaway this year). I numbered 16 snowflakes, then pulled out number 14 (Zed's number) because I forgot to not give him a number in the twelve seconds between deciding to make snowflakes and actually making them. The first person to comment was 1, the second 2 and so on.

I then shook them up in my hands and dropped them onto my Christmas tree skirt. The goal was to get as close to the circular wreath the kangaroo is holding as possible. In retrospect, that might be a reindeer.

So it's not the most scientific approach to winner selection, but it is certainly random which is all I ask for when I do these things.

As you can see, the winners are numbers 2 and 12 - Triskelmoon and Caroline by my count. Yay for them! Luckily, they picked separate items. Sorry to everyone who didn't win, but my birthday is coming up in February which means there's a pretty good chance I'll be giving things away then.

I hope everyone has a truly wonderful Christmas and best wishes in the New Year.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Dark Knight.

Then the Grinch got an idea...

..an awful idea. The Grinch got a wonderful, awful idea.

Okay, it's way more wonderful than awful.

I was cruising around the store the other day (more like a month ago but I lost track of time) and I thought - My, we have some neat stuff. Who do I know who would want this? Or this right here? Wait, I know, everyone I know online would like this.

What do we have? We have AWESOME things.

Like this...



Do you know what that is? It is a Death Star Planetarium. It includes a regular star map as well as a Star Wars universe sky map. Also, space ice cream. But Star Wars Planetarium. Like whoa and damn you know?

I also really wanted to do a dinosaur themed gift, but what could possibly compare to a Star Wars Planetarium?



Wait...?

A LARRY!


Yes, you too could have a Larry of your very own. Along with some other dinosaur things including a replica fossil, a dilophosaur puzzle, dinosaur temporary tattoos and a dig and play set. You know you want it all. And Larry will drop large boxes on the other toys you own. He does that you know.

This is my first solely blog based giveaway, and judging from previous times that means your chances are really really good. Because no one reads my blog. It's cool, I don't mind. I do it mostly for me. *sniffle*

So leave a comment with some sort of way to contact you and whether you prefer space or dinosaurs. It's going to be a tough decision but you're really going to have to pull through for me okay? Okay. [For the record, the presents are of equal monetary value - Death Star Planetariums ain't cheap.]

I'll find some suitable way to pick a winner on Christmas Eve, and put a package in the mail to you the next Monday. Thus, you have until noon pacific on Christmas Eve to leave a comment on this post.

YAY CHRISTMAS!

Larry chooses a winner

Larry is here, hard at work to chose a winner from today's drawing. He chose this particular method, and you must forgive him, his handwriting is atrocious.

See what I mean, I can barely make out what this one says - wait a second. Larry, give me that.

The Hell? You are not eligible for this... no I don't care if you're hungry we will find you... dear god how many of these did you make?

Did you really think I wouldn't notice? Did you honestly think you would get away with, look at this! [Like a dog, sometimes you just have to rub your pet dinosaur's nose in the mess he's made.]*

Once I'd removed all of the ones that Larry had entered in his own name, I was feeling magnanimous and let him go diving for the winner.

And here we have it! I told you his handwriting was bad.

@purehero has won the walkable dinosaur of his choice, or he can have the adorable stegosaurus. Stegosaurus was his favorite dinosaur so there's that.

Thanks to everyone, even Larry who's a big fat cheater. Yes you young dinosaur. Here's a breakdown of the choices people made, compys were a surprise to me, and deinonychus were my write-in.




*I don't actually subscribe to this method of punishment, for the record.

Walk with the Dinosaurs

Is there anything in the world more adorable a tiny stuffed animal dinosaur on a leash? I maintain that there is not.

Look at that. Look at that. That is the definition of adorable. The very definition.


Want one? Of course you do. Either reply to this post or drop me an @ reply on twitter (@nerdheroine) telling me what your favorite dinosaur is and why, and I will send you the walkable dinosaur of your choice. Perfect for kids or those of us who are still five years old at heart.

This isn't really a contest, you don't have to retweet anything or do anything other than reply. If you reply to me on twitter you do need to be a follower of mine there, but you can reply on this post as well. Please leave an email when you reply so I can get in contact with you. 6pm central is the cutoff.

Larry has graciously agreed to be the arbitor of the day's events - but I've already had a talk with him so don't think choosing Velociraptor will get you anywhere.

Edited: As of 3pm, more than 50% of respondants have chosen the stegosaurus, as such, the winner may choose this non-walkable but still adorable stegosaurus plush.

A very Hobbity Birthday Part II

Hi! It's been a great week, thank you so much to everyone who's taken time out to tell me Happy Birthday. I do really appreciate it, my track record with birthdays is really not all that great.

So you want to know how the winning of stuff went? I know, I know, but I just wanted to get gushy for a bit.

I was going to pull names out of something, like I did when for the twitter secret santa. Then I thought about it some more and that simply does not reach the level of awesomeness my birthday should aspire to.

So I did this instead....


Everybody got a paper airplane with their name on it. This is @J3551C4's...


The airplanes went into a box....


And the box got thrown into the air, and this was the result...




So here are the winners, there was a tie for fourth, but it was okay! They didn't want the same thing, so it was all good.


1st: @badvillemojo - Star Trek DVD
2nd: @steelwoolwookie - Box of Mystery and Excitement
3rd: @corpzombie - Star Trek DVD
4th: @KatAKlism - Chew Volume 1
4th: @angryfatgeek - Darwin Poster

(Edited to add who chose what...)

All gifts were, given, everything will be mailed tomorrow, and the Heroine saw that it was good.

A big thank you to everyone who wished me a Happy Birthday, and congrats to the winners! If you want to know what your place was, just ask!

A very Hobbity Birthday to you!

It is a time-honored tradition here in the Shire that one gives birthday presents on one's birthday, rather than receive them. In that spirit, I am going to give out some gifts to my online friends who may or may not want them.

Simply comment on this post or @nerdheroine a 'Happy Birthday' before midnight (CST) on February 20th and I will spend part of my birthday (the 21st) handing out presents. I'll send you a DM or email as applicable to arrange shipping. Sound good?

This is ONLY open to people currently following me on twitter and people who read my blog. Please don't RT this, I know exactly who my last follower was (because I just wrote it down) and I have a fair idea of who reads this blog. This is a just a thank you for being around and being funny/interesting folk these past six months or so.

So what are the prizes? Mostly things I have around the house I somehow manage to have two of. All are brand new, I just have two (or more) of them due to a series of bizarre circumstances. Did you know I got four copies of Star Trek for Christmas? Yeah, like that. Let's see...





Star Trek (2009)










Chew "Taster's Choice" - includes Chew Issues #1-5









Darwin's "I think" journal entry from the Museum of Natural History, London (poster/print, approx 50x70cm)

One box of mystery and excitement. A miscellany things too small to offer on their own. Includes but is not limited to cards, comics, pins, figurines and/or books.



So if you think you might like to have any of the above drop me a tweet on twitter, or a comment below.

Happy Birthday to me!

Not so Secret Santa

I accidentally got involved in the #notsosecretsanta on Twitter. What happened was, @geekgirldiva tweeted that she wanted to do a secret Santa. In my experience, a secret Santa is like a gift exchange, only you don't know who is getting your present.

So I tweeted back that I'd love to join and offered up a DVD as my gift.

The thing is, #notsosecretsanta was more of a #we'reofferingfreegifts. Which is cool and all, but not what I thought. Once I realized this, is was too late to be all "Not what it thought I was getting into..." And anyway, I really enjoy giving people things they might enjoy.

So I got the DVD in question, which was Fern Gully and added in The Lorax since I saw it there next to it.

It was an interesting experience. I got several new followers and a lot of replies (a lot for me anyway, the other #notsosecretsanta gifts were a Taun-Taun sleeping bag, a Boba Fet poster and Rock Band so I was definitely the least awesome of the gifts).

Picking the winner was easy... I made slips of paper (I photographed with my phone which I couldn't hold still as the dog was investigating)...



And into the Cyclops Santa stocking the slips went...


And someone named @uberdorkgirlie won! Go to Twitter and send her congrats if you get a chance...

All in all, giving things away on Twitter was interesting. No one who had been following me previously replied so there was no chance to cheat and play favorites even if I wanted to. (I totally would have too.) I'd do it again, and think I will, but under my own steam next time.