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Massive Star Wars Sculpture Created with 3,500 Tons of Snow at Japanese Snow Festival

May the Force be with you. Even in snow.

Darth Vader, Stormtroopers and TIE fighters were the object of amazement at the 66th annual Sapporo Snow Festival that kicked off yesterday.  The Star Wars snow sculpture was created by Japan’s army troopers, or the 11th Brigade of the Ground Self-Defense Forces, using bulldozers, moving over 3,500 tons of snow to create the ginormous, 23 meter wide, 15 meter tall sculpture of StarWarian fantasy. The Sapporo Snow Festival is one of Japan’s largest winter events, attracting more than 2 million visitors a year and displays more than 200 snow and ice sculptures.

FYI: The design was approved by Lucas Film Ltd,…just in time to promote the December launch of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, you think?

Images courtesy of rocketnews24

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Image courtesy of la_negra_les

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Image courtesy of takeoi

Nerd Alert: Ever Wonder How a Football is Made?

Meet Jane Helser.

Jane recently retired after working for nearly 50 years at the Wilson Sporting Goods factory, the source of the N.F.L.’s handmade footballs. She knows a little bit about making a handmade football.

Us Geek Girls LOVE our Football! Whether you are a Patriots or Seahawks fan, your team will be using many of these footballs this Sunday. Preferably at proper inflation. Ba dum ch

Here Jane she explains how they are made and her 50 year career at Wilson and all the Super Bowls she has gone to. New Orleans, Miami, and this year will be the third time going to Phoenix. She claims she has never been to an Ohio State game, though.

We love Jane. Anyone that passionate about footballs is a winner with us.

Why I Love Geek Girl; And Why You Should, Too

In all the years of creating events for Geek Girl we always knew we had a lot of fans out there. Little did we know how truly awesome and from how far away they really are.

 

I’ve been meaning to write this post forever. And I am kind of glad I waited until now because today was one of those days that I just could not get out of my own way and could not get focused or even excited about sitting down to work on new, exciting and important Geek Girl updates and changes. Maybe because it’s Monday. Ick. Maybe it’s because I am just ComicCon-ned out from this weekend. Or maybe the abnormal San Diego humidity just wiped me out. Or maybe dreaming of blood-sucking vampire worms crawling inside my face from watching Guillermo del Toro’s The Strain last night made me restless. Thanks Guillermo. Or maybe the fact I cannot find my dark French roast coffee beans and I had no coffee. Whatever the case, I definitely needed a kick in the ass.

Then I saw something that just made me light up and smile. If you can manage to take a few minutes and read this, I guarantee you that it will make you smile as well.

This past March at our Geek Girl Boston South TechCon, I was notified by our staff that a family of 3 were interested in coming to TechCon who were from out of town. At the time, we were so crazy-busy, “out of town” mostly meant they were driving down from New Hampshire or, God forbid, might be coming from Rhode Island where they have to pack their passport, a change of clothes and a picnic to drive more than an hour. I’m originally from Rhode Island so I can say this. Because it’s true. ;-)

If you have ever been to a Geek Girl Tech Conference in the last 6 years since we have been doing them around the country, then you know how fast the day goes by and if you don’t focus or you look down for a minute, you might miss something. I might have missed an incredible opportunity to meet the people who we essentially are creating the events for: women and girls who want to learn more about tech to get ahead in life, find their dream job, start their dream company and become Geek Girls themselves by kicking aside the notion that there are not a lot of women in tech.

This was the first time at a TechCon that I tried to spend as much time as possible on the floor and talk and meet with as many people as possible. It’s always proven difficult being pulled in a million different directions, but with a competent staff and awesome volunteers, it is getting better every year. And I am so glad I learned to stop finding what is going wrong at an event and quickly fix it, but rather take it all in that which is going RIGHT. It’s quite the feeling to see the accomplishments and see how far we have all come in the 7 years. And for that I am forever grateful to the friends, instructors, volunteers, supporters, attendees, fans, evangelists, sponsors, advertisers, and all of you lovely people with Geek Girl stickers on your cars and laptops who have never been able to get to an event yet but who support us from afar.

As I was walking in the expo area, one of my cohorts introduced me to the VendeVen family.

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Our extended Geek Girl family from Louisiana!: Kristen VandeVen, Anna Camille VandeVen, and grandma Brenda Funderburg.

 

Mom, daughter and grandma. All hailing from the great State of Louisiana. Newellton, Louisiana, to be exact. Near West Monroe where maybe a few of you have heard of some bearded guys who put together duck calls.

So there I met the lovely mom, Kristen, who works at Cross Keys Bank in town, and her sweet gem of a daughter, Anna Camille. And grandma, a very young at heart grandma, Brenda Funderburg, who made the trip as well.

They came up to TechCon after finding us online, booking their flights to Boston, getting a rental car to drive to Plymouth, MA. and getting their tickets to TechCon for March 22nd. Mind you, we are not talking about a family raised with a silver spoon. These are your average middle-class, hard-working, salt of the earth people from a small town where community is everything. They believe in education, improving themselves and making things better for their kids. And having that dream job.

All because they believed that learning and educating themselves on technology was not defined by age, distance or not knowing one soul when they arrived. Kristen was determined to learn as much as she can to bring her knowledge back home and use it at the bank and educate others. I had the opportunity to speak to them all that day, that night at the reception, and our team invited them to come join us for an instructor breakfast the next morning. After all, they were family now. Geek Girls united!

Since that time, the family and I have kept in touch by text and email, they are constantly online checking out what we are doing on Social Media and we send gifts back to each other. They are constantly pleading with us to start a Geek Girl group in northeastern Louisiana and do a TechCon because their community needs it, they tell us.

Anna Camille drew me this Geek Girl! I love it!

Anna Camille drew me this Geek Girl! I love it!

 

I never want to let this family go. And I cannot wait to see them again.

Because they brought back to me the reason I started Geek Girl back in 2006. To democratize and make technology accessible to everyone and take the difficulty out of learning and make it fun, from 8-88, women and men, and empower, educate and inspire those who want to come along. THESE were my people. THIS was my mission.

Whenever I get disheartened when a woman who needs help with her computer just gives up and has her kids do it, or calls herself stupid or too old to learn, I used to feel sorry for them and poo-poo them, spending hours convincing them why they need get confident in their abilities and do this themselves. Not any more. We are all about tough love here and if you want to get things down and get ahead, always remember the family from Louisiana who just made the decision to come and did it. That’s confidence. Just get it done. It’s hard work to learn something you don’t know about, especially for women and men passed over by technology. These include our seniors, our immigrants and the underserved and underrepresented areas all over the country where confidence and new computers are lacking.

If you ever think you can’t learn something new, then call me, email me or text me. I will prove you wrong. I know everyone has the ability in themselves to improve, grown confidence, get that dream job, build your dream business and most of all, kick some ass.

If you need help, come to one of our Geek Girl TechCons, or one of our events, workshops, meetups or seminars to learn more. Or Hire a Geek Girl. Our reach is limited at this time but we are growing.

And if you already ARE a Geek Girl, then why don’t you become a part of Geek Girl and help others in your community.

Oh, and just so you know, YES…we are planning on doing a Geek Girl TechCon somewhere in Newellton, Louisiana…some day…..

Little sister Katie sporting her Geek Girl camo at camp!

Little sister Katie sporting her Geek Girl camo at camp!

 

Wait: Let me Toast a Selfie…

And to think you don’t even have to be Jesus to get your own image on your morning toast.

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We bring you: the Selfie Toaster.

REAL toast. With your REAL face toasted on it. Customized with your favorite selfie image by the Vermont Novelty Toaster Corporation. No joke. No Photoshop. No shenanigans. 

And for only $75, you can have one of these babies shipped right to you. It comes in blue, red, yellow, green or powder. They also sell a logo toaster, a note toaster, the Virgin Mary toaster, the Poe toaster, the Peace toaster…and of course…the toaster that got it all started…the Jesus toaster.

But, it’s not a perfect science, as their caveat reads:

We are good but remember fine detail is darn near impossible to achieve with heat and toast. If we squint and can’t see your face we will cancel order and refund your purchase.

I’m buying one right now…

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Giant Dead Parrot Unveiled in London to Promote Last Monty Python Show

No one expects the Spanish Inquisition, never mind a giant dead blue parrot in London.

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Not something you see everyday, but if you were in London recently, you would have seen a 50 foot giant dead parrot being unveiled on London’s South Bank promoting the live broadcast of the final Monty Python Live stage show on July 20th. It’s been revealed that this famous Norwegian Blue dead parrot was created as a homage of sorts because it was the #1 Monty Python sketch voted on by the nation on British Comedy TV Gold channel. It took a team of three sculptors over two months to create the prop.

I personally thought the Spam, Spam, Spam vignette or the Lumberjack Song would be right up there as well, but the dead parrot was classic Python.

If you’ve never seen the sketch, well we just happen to have it here…

 

 

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Pictures courtesy of Taylor Herring via Flickr

Word Nerds: Don’t Commit Word Crimes; Use Good Grammar like Weird Al (Video)

Grammar Gods and Goddesses Behold!

Weird Al Yankovic has created the song and video for you. On his newest album released this week, Mandatory Fun, Weird Al takes to dissing the Robin Thicke Blurred Lines hit to his own “Word Crimes”. Never has grammar been so incredibly delightful and melodious. The best thing since Schoolhouse Rocks’ “Conjunction Junction“, in my humble opinion. (And if you remember that oldie but goodie, then you are as old as dirt like me.)

So for all of you who are using R U in your tweets, dangling those participles, and trying to break the habit of Oxford commas, this is a great lesson from the guy who brought us “Eat It”, “White and Nerdy” and another recent one, “Tacky“, murdering Pharrell’s “Happy” hit. Yes, Weird Al has to remind the Internet how to use good grammar.

Some of our favorite lyrics:

Saw your blog post
It’s really fantastic
That was sarcastic (Oh, psych!)
Cause you write like a spastic

Enjoy, you Word Nerds…

(via Weird Al)

 

Star Wars is now on Instagram and Selfies Just Got Insanely Better

Just when you thought the Internet could not be more awesome…Star Wars gets its own Instagram account. And the Selfie will never be the same.

What is cooler than Darth Vader taking his own selfie? Awesomeballz….

Follow Darth Vader and everyone else at: http://instagram.com/starwars

What Star Wars character do you think will be the next selfie?

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