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#28daysoftshirts – Day 20 Black History Month

Today’s a big deal in the Black History month scheme of things! We’ve got a big celebration planned, and I wanted to be ready. Looking at my remaining tshirt wardrobe, it was sadly lacking in African history celebrations. I found a shirt that had a picture of the continent of Africa, but… lamesauce. (For the record, I got this shirt for pulling invasive water chestnuts on the Charles River which is a very fun volunteer activity.)

Color: Black
Fabric: Soft
Front Text: GoogleServe
Back Text: Google.org

So instead I chose to wear a shirt I got at MJ Clothes in Lowell. I worship in a congregation that has a LOT of members from across Africa – including Ghana, Cameroon, Kenya and Liberia. We have increasingly had services where formal African dress was appropriate. And it turns out my friend Jackulin has opened up store in Lowell to sell formal African apparel. So I went a while back to check out the fabric options and get fitted. My formal dress is still in progress (they’re hand sewn) but I picked up this Ghanian top while I was there. In honor of her and my African friends, I decided to skip wearing the tshirt today!

My mom got a formal dress made too! Here she is with Jackulin.

#28daysoftshirts – Day 19 Old Timey arguments

So there was a moment maybe 10+ years ago where programmers were arguing a lot about implicit vs. explicit variable definition. While I programmed in a language that had implicit definition, I definitely had a bunch of moments where I suffered because what I thought was a string was actually a one value array, etc. So I was a fan of, you know, saying what you expected your variable to hold and have it hold only that thing you said it would.

I often question my programmer cred (see also: coding a language that tolerated not knowing whether a variable was a string or an array). But I still have opinions.

Color: Black
Fabric: Stiff
Text: Declare Variables, Not War.

#28daysoftshirts – Day 18 Nothing says “cool” like Nordic mythology in-jokes

So today’s another two-fer, with a tshirt and the soft, cozy, t-shirt like hoodie under it.

This is another great shirt! I love the color and fonts of the text. And I love how it messes with the standard saying. I mean, there is a guy who has a hammer and his problem is usually either Loki, solved by Loki or both. Usually both. I recommend either the Thor movies or Neil Gaiman’s excellent retelling of Norse mythology if this is confusing. Or better yet, both.

Color: Black
Fabric: Medium
Text: When your only solution is a hammer, every problem looks like Loki.

But it’s cold today and snowing and I wanted to be cozy. So I promptly covered said tshirt with a hoodie I got last summer on Mt. Rainier. Very often tourist stuff picks stock art of “mountains”. That drives me crazy when you’re talking about a mountain as iconic as Rainier is. I loved this sweater extra because it’s not just actually Mt. Rainier being shown, but it’s clearly Mt. Rainier as seen from Longmire.

Color: Grey
Fabric: Still soft, not yet pilled
Text: Mount Rainier – Washington

Mt. Rainier from Longmire for reference (smoky version)

#28daysoftshirts – Day 17 Gamer Pride

I’ve always loved rainbows. I loved them as a promise and a sign of hope. I love them for their color and variety of hue. I’ve loved them even more since they’ve come to represent acceptance, love and the brilliant variety of humankind. The rainbow of colors reminds me of all the people I love for whom that flag means welcome. I think of this as my gamer pride tshirt, and like to wear it in dice-related circumstances.

Color: Black
Fabric: Soft
Design: All standard gaming dice in a rainbow of colors

#28daysoftshirts – Day 16 R-E-S-P-E-C-T

This tshirt is the very best combination of funny (to me), soft fabric and great cut. For those of you less steeped in the Lovecraftian mythos, the Elder Gods are ancient evil forces carelessly destructive of humanity and sanity. THEY don’t worry about wrinkles or sagging skin or middle age aches or age discrimination in technology. So why should I?

Color: Black
Fabric: Soft & stretchy
Text: “Respect your elders”
Attributes: Feminine cut

#28daysoftshirts – Day 15 I really love “The Martian”

So a funny story about this shirt. I loved “The Martian” – movie, book & audio book. (I also once went on a camping trip with the author & his colleagues at Curt Shilling’s game studio. He was on the quiet side and I have no photographic proof.) I particularly like the pluckiness and resourcefulness of the main character, and this shirt was a) long sleeved b) captured that sentiment. My husband ordered it for me and triple checked that I wanted the, uh, accurate quote (since I generally am not a great user of profanity). I felt like anything else would be watered down and weak sauce.

One of the first times I wore it however, I ended up needing to have a meeting at my child’s school regarding their, uh, vocabulary choices. I couldn’t help but reflect that the profanity on my shirt was not a good look for that conversation. So now I’m really, really careful about which days I wear it!

Color: Brown
Fabric: Stiff
Text: “Stand back – I’m going to have to science the shit out of this”
Attributes: Long sleeved

#28daysoftshirts – Day 14 at the halfway mark

I have to admit, I kind of forgot it was Valentine’s day today. Although in retrospect, I’m not sure what shirt I would’ve worn instead. This shirt is romantic, because my husband who loves me brought it back from Gencon for me?

Anyway, this is the last of the Tolkien tshirts in my wardrobe (I think). I have to remember when I’m wearing this tshirt, because it’s difficult to read which means that a lot of my colleagues spend an unusual amount of time staring fixedly at my chest trying to work it out, which can be weird until I remember I’m wearing *this* shirt.

I love this shirt.

Color: Forest green
Fabric: Stiff
Text: (in Elvish font) If you can read this I found your ring

#28daysoftshirts – Day 13 is a different kind of nerdy

I’m going to be trying out an orchestra thingy here in Cambridge today. It’s small and unofficial enough that there are no auditions. I still wish I’d, you know, practiced the music ahead of time. But still. Why not try? So in honor of that I went with a music geek shirt. I also wear this when the political situation gets me down.

My only objection to this shirt is that while 13/8 is a hard signature, 6/4 is a downright easy one. Even 5/4 would’ve been better.

Color: Barney purple
Fabric: Stiff
Text: 13/8, 5/4 These are difficult times

#28daysoftshirts – Day 12 continuing the Tolkien theme

It’s a snow day here in Boston – or it’s going to be when the predicted storm hits this afternoon. So I’m working from home. It says… something… that my wardrobe for working from home and attending a team offsite three thousand miles away are nearly identical.

I deeply and dearly love the works of JRR Tolkien. This one is a pretty popular shirt – which is to say I’ve seen more than one other person wearing it. I used to have a green version but somehow it got lost, so I ordered a new one. (I did a different color, so in case the original reappears I know that it’s done so.)

Color: Royal Blue
Fabric: Stiff
Text: Middle Earth’s Annual MORDOR FUN RUN “One does not simply walk”

Do t-shirts get better than this? I think not!!

#28daysoftshirts – Day 11 in Mirkwood

I love National Forests. And I love Tolkien. This shirt is two great tastes that taste great together. It does get some double takes from folks who wonder where Mirkwood is (I have to carefully gauge just how detailed my answer needs to be). But it also gets a lot of knowing chuckles. There were a few missed opportunities to take the joke a level higher (like instead of Department of Agriculture maybe something about Wood Elves? Maybe a little spider in the sign corner?) but I forgive it the opportunity costs.

Would I go hiking in Mirkwood? Probably. But there’s one national forest that doesn’t have to worry about the environmental impact of hikers going off-trail!

Color: Forest Service Green
Fabric: Stiff
Text: Entering Mirkwood National Forest (Department of Agriculture)