Monday, June 4, 2012

Procrastination Station 6/4/12

Remember this photo that made the rounds online a month or two back?


(That's Tom Hiddleston, aka Loki from the Avengers, with a young fan on his shoulders.)

No? Don't worry; I don't remember it either. But it's still awesome. And even better, the story behind the photo (plus a few more at the link) is absolutely delightful, and will give you a big ol' goofy grin. It's the stuff fangirls and boys' dreams are made of. Besides, I love hearing about fan encounters that go this well; really restores my faith in geek-manity, you know? (And thanks to Amanda for the link!)


Do you love Calvin &Hobbes? Do you miss it as much as I do? Then you're going to flip, laugh, cry, and generally fall in love with Dan &Tom Heyerman's stupendous...homage? Fan strip? How do you classify this? Whatever. Just read:

 Don't cry yet, though, because there are three more strips at their site, Pants are Overrated. (Scroll down & click "newer entries" at the bottom right to see the rest.) The third one will totally make you get all teary-eyed, if you're not already. And while you're there, please petition the guys to make more of these! (Thanks for the link, Sanna-Maaria!)

And while we're talking fan comics, have you seen Pocket Princesses? I remember when they first started coming out, but thanks to Kelly D. I just caught up on the series:

These oh-so-adorable comics starring childhood versions of the Disney princesses are by Amy Mebberson, and you can see all of them at her site here. Amy's taking a break from the series right now, but she'll be back with more in July. Can't wait!


This next one is far less fun, because it's about an idiotic article from the New York Times crediting men - and only men - with inventing the Internet and technology as we know it, but Xeni Jardon's brilliant and blisteringly sarcastic response made me cackle. Here's her Twitter blurb:  "You guys, ladies suck at technology and the New York Times is ON IT." Go read her article on BoingBoing for the rest - and then read the comments for some great examples of women who've contributed to tech over the past fifty years.

And that's the perfect segue for my final goodie today: Drive Like a Girl.

After my Maker Faire post last week, I had several of you send me information on the robotics organization F.I.R.S.T., which allows high school students to form teams, build robots, and then compete against each other in statewide competitions - very cool. Then Francesca A. told me about her all-female team from New York, the Fe Maidens (pronounced "Iron Maidens") which starred in its own documentary last year. The editing is a little slow at times, but talk about an inspiring 25 minutes: you'll see this group of girls design, program, and build a giant robot completely from scratch, completely by themselves.

Here are a few screen grabs:






There's also some insightful interviews with the team's advisers and commentary on how the girls on co-ed teams are usually overshadowed by the guys, and therefore relegated to non-power-tools tasks. If you have daughters, grab 'em and watch this together; I bet it'll inspire them to start playing with robots and power tools. :D (I can't embed the video, so click here to watch it on the team's website.)


30 comments:

  1. This post was rife with awesomeness. I absolutely loved the little Capitan America story, especially since my 3yo nephew is going through a MAJOR superhero phase. And the Fe Maidens? So fantastic!

    PS Thanks again for getting me interested in cons. We saw Felicia Day IRL over the weekend!

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  2. OMG Hobbes and Bacon, I LOVE IT. My just turned 4 year old and I just started reading Calvin and Hobbes at bedtime and it makes me so happy that he loves them as much as I do. Plus he learns fantastic vocabulary words. Like transmogrofier, and existential crisis!

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  3. It feels a bit weird to say this, but Grown-Up Calvin is kinda... hot? :-P

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  4. So much awesome!! The Cap'n America story was sweet.

    And the Hobbes and Bacon comic....

    *sniffle* I miss the original Calvin and Hobbes. This sequel was awesome and is going straight in favorites!

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  5. lol Reneesance, I just remembered an English course in the university (I am from Finland). One of the tasks was to read sth in English and make a vocabulary list for the teacher of the new words we learned. Mine actually included "transmogrifier" :D

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  6. AH! I love the article about the boy and the heroes! It made me tear up a little... isn't it refreshing to hear stories of famous people being awesome? I'm green-as-Hulk with envy, but I doubt they would have been as generous to a 40-year-old lady as they were to a cute little 5-year old boy!

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  7. This post was one huge 'Squee for me.

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  8. You just finding such awesome stuff to share with us, Jen!
    1.What a sweet story about Edison and his family.
    2.FIRST is wonderful; my son did it all through high school, and it was such a great experience for him. I love the idea of the all-female teams too.
    3.Finally, thank you so much for telling us about Hobbes and Bacon - love it!!

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  9. Sorry, meant to say "you just KEEP finding such awesome stuff...." Guess I need to proofread at least 2x, not just once. ;)

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  10. There's only 4 of the Hobbes and Bacon comics?????!!!!!! It got me all nostalgic and now there's no more. Good thing I have a stack of Calvin & Hobbes books to keep me occupied for awhile.

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  11. I guess I'm allergic to cat cartoons. Yeah, that's it. [blows nose]

    C&H was one of my very favorites 'back in the day'. Nice to see that the story continues.

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  12. Love the Hobbes and Bacon! Pocket Princesses are adorable too. :D

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  13. You have just made my day sharing that story of Edison and Hobbes and Bacon. Big goofy grin is right!

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  14. My younger son use to love to build the transmogrifer when he was little (out of card board boxes, legos, etc) and listen to me read the calvin and hobbes cartoon for bed time stories. His boxes soon became robots and he is still involved with mentoring FIRST teams here locally. Thanks Jen for putting a smile on my face today.

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  15. Ah, FIRST is awesome. But I bet you guys/gals/etc. didn't know that they do a middle school version of the competition with legos! It's called the FIRST Lego League, and I've met a few all girl teams. I was on a co-ed team with the FLL for years, and it was the best experience of my life. It made me the geek girl that I am today!

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  16. I was just thinking about Calvin and Hobbes this weekend and how much I missed them. Thanks!

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  17. Edison's story was the best! I needed that this morning. *dabs corner of eye.

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  18. Awesome post, Jen! Loved an all grown up (mostly) Calvin and Suzie and Hobbes new best friend. :o) *sniff*

    I also loved the story about women and the Internet! Esp. her photo! I regularly read Notalwaysworking.com and they've had several stories of male chauvinist idiots who don't think women should like comics or "guy" games.

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  19. Kaedee already mentioned it, but I ADORE the middle school version of FIRST, FIRST Lego League. My husband and I have been judging FLL tournaments for the last 4 years, and we've seen several all girl teams. FIRST is a great program!

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  20. Along the lines of the Pocket Princesses, have you seen this comic? http://littleleaguecomic.tumblr.com/ It's the kindergarten Justice League. Little broody Batman is just adorable.

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  21. Can I please say how much I love the fact that the kid's name is Bacon? Well played.

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  22. The FIRST teams are great. Here in Vallejo, CA (near San Francisco) we have a robotic cow (Moozie) at a children's educational farm. Moozie is pretty old, and when she started having problems, the Vallejo High FIRST team came out and rebuilt her! My 7yr old was very happy to see Moozie back in business :)

    -babs

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  23. Have you seen this: http://www.threadless.com/product/3796/Halfling_and_Wizard/tab,guys/style,shirt

    I kinda want it...

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  24. Hobbes and Bacon was so awesome...brings back so many good memories of the original *contented sigh*

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  25. Thank you for introducing me to both of those comics! So AWESOME!!!

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  26. I haven't seen the Pocket Princesses before, but if you like those, you'd probably like Torchwood Babiez, which is pretty much my favourite fancomic ever. I just wish it were longer!

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  27. I just wanted to mention my experience with the FIRST Robotics team. I was the first girl to join the long established boy team and I was quickly relegated to the sideline and pit design. At first I was irked, until I learned that the pit design is almost as big of a competition as the robotic challenge. I managed to gather some more girls into the group and we won the Best Pit Design award. To this day, the boys haven't won a single other thing. GO GIRLS!

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  28. Sadly the Pants are Overrated guys have finished up their comic. So sad...

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  29. WHY HAVE I NOT HEARD OF THIS POCKET PRINCESS PERSON BEFORE?? Disney, Ponies, Sailor Moon, Muppets, Art Nouveau, Pin-ups, Jem and the Holograms AND CROSSOVERS FOR EVERYTHING I HOLD DEAR!

    I don't think my brain can handle the sheer amazingness blasting into my life right now. I think I'm going to faint.

    *clunk*

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