Geek Chica

So I generally don’t do this, but there are a couple people in my life right now that need your help. Please send this along the blogosphere wherever possible (trackbacks are nice so I can thank you!).

The first I am going to mention is a good friend of mine. If you went to PAX East, you may have had the chance to see a staged reading of his play, Of Dice And Men. Well the reading got such good reviews that he will very soon be at PAX Prime with the play’s premiere full production. To get things off the ground (i.e., to pay actors, designers, technicians, etc.), he is in need of some production money. You can see another blog about it up at Topless Robot.

The play is great, and it’s message is very good. If the above video piqued your interest, or if you already know about Of Dice And Men, I urge you to please donate to the cause! You can learn more about the play and the theatre company at Critical Hit Theatre. To donate, visit IndieGoGo. Also, there’s a Facebook page too!

The other person that I wish to implore you to donate to is Athena Hollow. If you have noticed the many, many banners and links to GeekGirlsOnline here on my page, or the link to the blog called Demented Rants on the sidebar, then you probably know who Athena is. It is because of her that I started modeling professionally, and because of her that this website exists! Athena recently found out that she has cervical cancer. You can read from her own words, as well as donate to help her out, here.

If you can donate even a little money to one or both of these worthy causes, you have my eternal gratitude, as well as the gratitude of the recipients. Please pass this information along and please help out if you can.

I know I said there’d be a shibari/kinbaku post up soon, and there might still be. But in the meantime… here’s a cute video about big cats and catnip to distract you!

I know it’s been a while since I posted anything, so I thought I’d bring you a couple cool things I found until I get my next big post up (be on the lookout for my Shibari post in a few days!) Both of these I find via EroticBPM’s forums, so credit goes to the guy who posted them (killshot, owner of EroticBPM). Thanks for the links!

So the first one just brings out the nerd in me, and I wish I could get a-hold of some of this stuff to try it out. It’s spray-on, liquid glass. I can’t find any decent pictures for it, so unfortunately you’ll just have to read, but this stuff is cool!

From PhysOrg.com:

The liquid glass spray produces a water-resistant coating only around 100 nanometers (15-30 molecules) thick. On this nanoscale the glass is highly flexible and breathable. The coating is environmentally harmless and non-toxic, and easy to clean using only water or a simple wipe with a damp cloth. It repels bacteria, water and dirt, and resists heat, UV light and even acids.

Now is that cool or what? Not only that, but this stuff is breathable, which means it can be put on plants in addition everyday items. They found that spraying a vineyard full of grape vines made them more resistant to fungal diseases, in addition to seeds sprouting earlier and faster. Wood with this stuff repels termites! It also keeps sterile surfaces sterile for months at a time and requires only hot water to clean with.

So yeah, I officially want my entire house sprayed with this stuff! Read more about it via Motherboard.tv and Physorg.com.

So there’s a website called The Fun Theory that is sponsored by Volkswagen. The about blurb for the place is “This site is dedicated to the thought that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better. Be it for yourself, for the environment, or for something entirely different, the only thing that matters is that it’s change for the better.”

Okay, sounds cool. Then you start clicking on video links and it goes from sounding cool to being awesome. For instance, getting people to use stairs by making it fun. How did they do that, you ask? By turning the stairs into piano keys!

The piano stairs resulted in a 66% increase of people using stairs over the escalator. Now I’m not sure how long this would last for, but it’s still an amazing number! Thanks to Yes, ICantSeeYou for the link!

I haven’t been around much, and I wanted to apologize for that. Real life combined with me getting sucked back into the World (of Warcraft) has taken its toll. Given that, it probably won’t surprise you that today’s update focuses on WoW!

So the Cataclysm beta officially opened yesterday, and with it the NDA has been lifted. I’ve been a squealing fan-girl trolling MMO-Champion ever since.

Some of the things making me squeal:

1. Talent Calculators! I can finally see how much a pain in the ass DK tanking will be! (Though it looks interesting, to be sure).

2. Models. I love getting to see new creatures. My favorites right now are the druid bear and cat forms for worgen and trolls, though. Check ‘em out!

3. Spells. They’ve released all the spells for each tree of each class and it’s level requirement. I am sooooo looking forward to Outbreak!

4. Screen caps. They’ve been showing us bits and pieces of the new Azeroth in the Screenshot of the Day album for a while, and if you check out Warcraft on Facebook, they actually tell you what area they are in, but MMO-Champion has a huge directory of images that are well worth the look. Everything from new zones and instances to changes to Old World. Soooo pretty…

5. Professions. A head slot item for JCers that isn’t specifically for magic/ranged dps at low level? Score! New jeweler gems… *drool*

So in short, I am really excited. Waiting for my beta invitation now, hopefully I should be getting it over the next couple weeks!

Added in the middle of the night, just before going to bed: And guess who’s download of the beat just started? ^_^ So if you don’t hear from me… well… ^^;

Today is the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year (and the shortest night), and the official start of summer, so I hope everyone is out enjoying it today! The weather is warm and beautiful here today, and the day is long. So I wish you all a happy Solstice, and bid you adieu! I have celebrating to do!

So my good friend Derf of Derf’s Domain sent me a Facebook message today that made me smile. He added Scooby into one of the preview images I have for my Jinkies set, and I just had to share. I absolutely love it! Eventually I intend to have an artwork page up here, and when I do, this will be on it. Anything more like this, or fan art in general, just let me know! I will be happy to add it to the site, and be flattered at the same time.

So I found this via Topless Robot… and I have to say that the prospect of this is both scary and awesome.

You may have heard of Wicked Lasers before. They were the guys who invented and sold an awesome green laser that you could light your cigarettes with, among other things. Don’t bother trying to go to their website right now, though. I think that their servers are crashing from all the activity.

Well now they have a laser that not only can catch a human’s flesh on fire, but it can also permanently and instantly blind you. When it comes back around, here’s the link to this scarily awesome laser.

Oh, did I mention that they put it in a hilt that makes it look like a friggin’ lightsaber?

This is all over the web already. You can read more via Great White Snark, Gizmodo, Dvice, CrunchGear, and probably a ton of others.

…I want one!

So here’s the link to the babydoll shirt. You can also get it in normal tee and spaghetti strap. Check link below for those.

Thanks to Geek Girl Diva for posting about it, or else I probably never would have found it!

Geek With Curves also linked to an awesome post by Pink Raygun with a ton of things I want on it. Check it out. Sooo wish the Dark Vader costume was being sold!

So I ran across an awesome YouTube video today, and it reminded me how many spectacular artists I have run across, so I thought I would do a feature. Some of my favorites are those who can pull off the one-person band or orchestra, so that is what I will be sharing with you today. Loop music I find fascinating, and I give props to anyone who can figure out how to layer their music to pull it off. I will be giving as much info as I can about each of the artists featured in this blog so that you can listen to and enjoy them as well. I will also post one song via YouTube for each.

The first woman I found who I truly found amazing is Zoë Keating. She is a classically trained cellist and is absolutely wonderful. I love her music! The song below, “Escape Artist”, is from her most recent album, One Cello x 16: Natoma, though she has an album coming out this month called Into The Trees.

You can look Zoë up on her website here. You can also follow her on Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace. You can buy her music either from her website, or on iTunes. Also, there are a couple free tracks on her website, so check them out!

Next up is Zack Kim. Zack just returned from his time in the Korean military and is back at his music. While he does write some of his own, Zack is mostly known for his cover work of famous pieces, which he usually plays on two guitars at once. I originally found him because of his cover of the Mario background music, but since have fallen in love with a lot of his other work. I’ll add a couple clips here for you. One of a cover and another of one of his original works.

You can find Zack at his website and on YouTube.

Theresa Andersson was one of YouTube’s featured artists today, and that is how I found her! She is wonderful, and I intend to find more of her music soon. The video I found that caught my attention was “Oh Mary” done in New Orleans’ Le Petit Theatre.

You can find more music from Theresa’s debut album, Hummingbird, Go!, at her website. You can also buy the full DVD of her performance at Le Petit and the album there.

I love these artists and hope you do as well. If you find any others like them, send me an email and let me know! I would love to find more music like theirs.

EDIT: Also, I just found this, and I absolutely love it. “Seize the Day” from Newsies set to “Bad Romance” by Lady Gaga. Not sure who figured out that this syncs perfectly, but they are SO kick ass! Before posting this, the video already had over two hundred and thirty THOUSAND views. ‘Cause it’s awesome.

Via the awesome Geek Girl Diva, who in turn found it at Buzzfeed… who found it from Have you seen this?!.

The interview I did with Derf of Derf’s Domain is now live. Go check it out!