I wish I had an award show or grand gala where I could wear a gorgeous evening gown like these. Instead I’m writing this blog post with a snoring cat curled up next to me, while wearing an adorable penguin pyjama (me that is, not the cat). Yeah, my life is sooo glamourous!

My favourite dress of the night was Hailee Steinfeld’s Marchesa, which she apparently helped design. It’s just so cute and adorable; for any other actress it would be too cute and adorable, but at 14 it’s perfect for her.

I initially really didn’t like Cate Blanchett’s dress, but the more I see it the more interesting it becomes. The shape is unique, yet I think she manages to pull it off.

There were a lot of red dresses on the red carpet this year, but my fave was Jennifer Lawrence’s Calvin Kline. It’s a very simple silhouette, and she looks gorgeous:

I’m not a fan of Hilary Swank or feathers, but I’m digging this dress. Just not sure if I like it on her.

Love this dress! It’s quite sparkly and you can’t see where the top actually begins, but that’s kind of why I like of this.

Now on to the ones, that I wasn’t completely convinced by, but still found interesting. Like Amy Adams in this L’Wren. I like the dress, but the chunky necklace and bracelet don’t seem to fit with it.

When I saw NIcole Kidman on stage presenting one of the awards, I remember thinking I really liked her dress. But looking back at all the photos, I can’t help but think this Dior dress looks wrong. And paired with orange shoes? I still need to look back at the footage of her presenting; it was this dress she was wearing, right?

Again, I sort of like this. It’s a great colour and an interesting design, but I’m not too sure about the boob stickers or whatever they are.

So what was our favourite dress of the night?

I managed to stay awake for the Oscars again! Is it just me or does it seem to be easier nowadays to stay awake with Twitter to keep you entertained?

I was really looking forward to Anne Hathaway and James Franco as hosts (Hathaway’s mini-bit during Hugh Jackman’s opening song was awesome 2 years ago), but I wasn’t really impressed with them. Here was their opening:

There’s some funny moments in there, but overall it doesn’t feel like the big grand opening some of the best presenters had in previous years.

I did however really enjoy Hathaway’s version of On My Own, but I haven’t been able to find a video of that to share with you guys. Plus all her dresses throughout the night were gorgeous! My take: pair Anne Hathaway with Hugh Jackman as hosts next year.

There’s also this video that the Oscar YouTube channel has released with the hosts performing Grease:

Stick around, I’ll be doing some more Oscar related posts today!

Last Tuesday we held this year’s first Movie Geeks of London meetup. It turned out to be a bit of a small meetup, but it was still great to see some familiar and some new faces. The theme of the night was the Oscars! I held a short presentation about my boxoffice project and we had Carl hold a short demo about his site Oscar Wager.

It’s a handy site for this weekend’s Oscars. The idea is that you can set up a wager, where everyone has to pick who they think is going to win (for all 24 categories). Whoever gets the most right, wins the prize. There’s also something in place in the case of a tie, but I don’t remember what that was.

So we’ve setup a Geeks of London Oscar Wager. We’re giving away 2 DVDs (most probably whatever wins Best Picture on Sunday, and one of the other Best Picture nominations) to whoever wins our Oscar Wager. Just fill in the form to enter. Keep in mind though once you’ve filled it in, you can’t edit it anymore. Entry closes (of couse) once the award show starts.

Even though my day isn’t going completely as planned, there are some things happening today that are quite awesome. The lovely folks at knomo have given me one of their laptop bags to give away to a lucky reader! And it’s a limited edition colour: Raspberry.

Pretty, right? The colour isn’t even available anymore in stores, so it really is a special sleeve! It’s for a 15″ laptop (37x27x4 cm or 14.6×10.6×1.6 in) and comes with a detachable strap. I reviewed this bag some months ago (read here): it’s somewhere halfway between a sleeve and a real laptop bag. There’s a main compartment for your laptop and a side pocket for your cables, adapter and other stuff.

To enter this giveaway, leave a comment behind with what you favourite post of mine has been. You’ll also get a second entry if you’re following me on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway with the hashtag #missgeeky. The competition ends on March 1st 15:00 after which I’ll randomly draw a winner!

Yay, it’s my birthday today! And it’s a bit of a geeky one, I’m turning 3^3. I’m not sure why but I still get stupidly excited for my birthday.

I really wanted a simple birthday this year. My plan originally was to got out for sushi tonight with a Keynoir voucher from last week, but that got cancelled yesterday (it was a £30 voucher for £75 worth of food, but apparently the restaurant was being evil, so Keynoir refunded the voucher). So instead I thought I’d take it nice and easy today: sleep in, then watch TV and movies all day.

Yeah, no such luck. Today of all days, they’ve decided to work on our main building entrance, stripping the paint, smoothing the walls and other annoying things that make too much sound. Our apartment is next to the main building entrance, and our bedroom is adjacent to the wall and foor they’re working on. So I got woken up this morning by the lovely sounds of drills and whatever those machine are called that they’re using. It’s been going on since at least 10am and they still haven’t stopped.

To make matters worse, I’m waiting for a couple of things to be delivered today, so it’s not as if I can flee the house. Plus, I only just discovered that the dust and rubble of whatever is is they’re doing has been trickling under our front door into our hallway, leaving everything dusty and messy. <sarcasm> Yay, just what I needed today!</sarcasm>

Sorry for complaining, but I just wanted some peace and quiet today! Ah well, they should be gone by tonight.

Thanks to all my readers for sticking with me the past 4 years. And thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday (be it in real life, Twitter or Facebook)! I’ve got two giveaways at the moment for a copy of the zombie tale Feed from Mira Grant and a ticket to the London Funding Conference, and there’s still time to enter both. Plus I’ve got a couple more exciting giveaways coming up, so stay tuned!

One more day to my birthday! As part of my birthday week giveaway, the organisers of the London Funding Conference have extended an invitation to all my readers to attend the conference on March 9th at the British Library Conference centre with a £25 discount! (Just use the discount code: “MGGuest”)

Next to that, they have given me one ticket to give away! All you have to do to enter this competition is to leave a comment behind with the reason why you’d like to attend this conference. The competition closes this Friday at 13:00 and the winner will receive a free pass to the conference. Here are some details about the conference:

The London Funding Conference is the UK’s premiere event for businesses looking for growth capital. Attending the Conference significantly improves prospects for businesses seeking investment and in particular helps delegates:

• Understand the different types of growth capital and how to secure the best one for them
• Meet funding experts and businesses that have recently raised investment
• Talk to potential investors
• Meet other exciting growth businesses

Confirmed speakers include Luke Johnson (celebrated entrepreneur and founder of Risk Capital Partners), Michael Blakey (canny angel investor and founder of Avonmore Developments) and Mark Prisk MP (Minister for Business Innovation and Skills).

The conference will feature hands-on funding support during the day and separately, high level funding strategy presentations during the evening. See the agenda or Book now!

There’s also a chance for you to get your hands on more free stuff: if you fill in their National Entrepreneurship Survey, you can win an iPod Nano (or £160 in cash). I stil have to see if I can make it to the conference, but if you’re interested, leave a comment behind and let me know!

I’ve always been more of a fantasy/romance reader, but ever since reading Feed (you can still enter the giveaway I’m holding) I’ve got a craving for near-distant non-apocalyptic but-set-in-the-future stories. Daybreak Zero looks interesting and has a very intriguing description:

A year has passed since the catastrophic event known as “Daybreak” began.

9 months since Daybreak killed seven billion people
8 months since Daybreak vaporized Washington
6 months since rival governments emerged in Athens, GA and Olympia, WA
4 months since the two governments of what was formerly the United States went to the brink of war
3 months since war was (barely) avoided
2 months since Athens and Olympia agreed to work together
1 month since they discovered that Daybreak isn’t over…

Simple, but it makes me really want to read it!

It’s out in hard cover next month, but I think I should wait till it comes out in paperback (can’t find out when that is, though). I wish I could have a library full of hard cover books, but I’m already running out of space as it is!

It’s my cats’ 3rd birthday today! We only got them last August, so this is our first birthday with them. They’re adorable and can be super cute, yet also very annoying. Lately they have the tendency to knock stuff off tables/shelves/etc whenever they’re hungry, just to get our attention. But they’ve also started curling up with me at night, and have started to even sit on my lap!

Here are some photos of my super cute cats, Casey and Dusty (Casey is the one with a lot of white, Dusty only has a little bit of white at his throat):

My cats so want this bookcase:

I’d really love a book case like this! It’s not only fun for the cats, but I think the 3D design makes it a bit less boring than most cases. It makes me wonder though: are there more furniture concepts designed with pets in mind? Like sofas with a cat nook in it?

Designed by Corentin Dombrecht.

Yesterday was my 4 year blog birthday! I somehow always manage to forget that, but every year I want to do something to make it a little special. Technically it’s not MissGeeky.com’s birthday, but it’s the day I started blogging (and all the posts from that original blogged were moved to MissGeeky when I started that). Plus it’s my actual birthday next week Tuesday, and my cats’ birthday on Sunday, so it’s pretty much a special birthday week for me anyway.

To celebrate this birthday week, I’ll be doing a couple of giveaways! The first is your chance to win Feed by Mira Grant. This was my favourite book from last year, so I think whoever wins this will enjoy it:

All you have to do to enter is to leave a comment behind here with your favourite book. The giveaway ends on Monday the 28th 17:00, and I’ll randomly draw a winner then. This is open to anyone, so even if you’re based in the US, Australia or wherever feel free to enter!

Thanks to all my regular readers and commenters for sticking with me for 4 years! I can’t believe I’ve been writing here for so long, and it’s been amazing. I never expected my blog to lead to so many awesome experiences. On to the next 4 years!