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.)