Interesting links for January 20th through February 1st:

• Social Venn Diagram – A Venn diagram, explaining the differences between Geek, Nerd, Dweeb and more.
• The 10 greatest post-kill puns – Some of these are just cheesy… well, puns are almost always cheesy… but still good.
• LOST: The Complete Chart of Characters’ Past Connections | The Scordit Blog – Cool interactive map of the relationships on Lost. I do think they're missing a couple though (but it's been some time, so I can't remember what it might be). Also love what happens when you click on 'Kevin Callis'.
• International Makeup-Artist Trade Show London (IMATS) – Awesome makeup.
• A CUP OF JO: Calligraphy tattoo – I'm not really a fan of tattoos, but this calligraphy one is gorgeous!
• How to Tell if Your Cat is Plotting to Kill You – LOL

I blogged about DUO Boots a couple of months ago; these boots are just so gorgeous! And yet I still haven’t gotten a pair yet (mainly cause my current set of boots are still fine and I can’t really justify getting a new pair), but now they’re having a sale… so I’m tempted. So very tempted.

The great thing about DUO is that they offer calf-fitted boots. So besides just giving your foot size, you also get to specify your calf width for the perfect fit. Here are a couple of my favourites:

Sicily: Platform leather boot with stacked heel, flattering double stitched front panel and a softly sculpted almond toe. Colours: Black leather, Brown leather. Lining material: Fabric. Heel height: 9cm heel plus 1cm platform. Zip: Full-length. Cushioned insole. £120 £75 (black) and £95 (brown)

Madeira – Opulent over the knee boot with an asymmetric toe and a covered platform & heel and button detail. Vary your look with the optional turn down cuff. Colours: Black leather, Teal suede. Lining material: Leather. Heel height: 8.5cm £245 £170 (teal) and £185 (black)

Olbia – Classic, elegant knee high boots with pointed toe and leather covered heel. Colours: Black leather. Lining material: Fabric. Heel height: 9cm. Zip: Full-length. £145 £115

Rochelle – Captivatingly sleek stiletto heeled boots with front panel detail and neatly rounded toe. Colours: Black leather, Cocoa brown leather. Lining material: Fabric. Heel height: 9cm. Zip: Full-length £145 £85 (brown) and £100 (black)

Jesolo – Stunning crinkle patent leather boots with covered platform sole and heel. A beautiful sleek silhouette with minimal detailing and a flattering front seam. Colours: Jet black crinkle patent. Lining material: Leather. Heel height: 9cm. £205 £140.

Toscana – Stylish asymmetric toe knee high boots made from soft suede and glossy patent leather with suede covered buckled straps and button detail. Colours: Black suede & patent leather, Amethyst purple suede & patent leather. Lining material: Leather. Heel height: 9cm £215 £155 (purple) and £170 (black)

Besides offering these lovely boots they’ve also got normal shoes (which you can also order with a specific shoe width). My favourites:

Alina: Beautifully flattering leather high heels, with tonal patent trim and neat velvet bow. Colours: Black leather & patent leather, Toffee leather & patent leather, Violet leather & patent leather. Lining material: Leather. Heel height: 8cm. Cushioned insole. £75 £35 (black), £50 (toffee) and £60 (violet)

Mona: Elegant 1930’s style two tone Mary-Jane. Incorporating brogue detail and velvet lace tie with a rounded toe. Colours: Black & white leather, Chocolate & cream leather, Jet & ruby crinkle patent leather. Lining material: Leather. Heel height: 8cm. Cushioned insole. £80 £40 (chocolate & cream), £55 (jet & ruby and black & white)

Cecile: Mary-Jane shoe with an almond shaped toe and double strap. Colours: Emerald green patent leather & suede, Amethyst purple patent leather & suede, Ruby red patent leather & suede, Jet black patent leather & suede. Lining material: Leather. Heel height: 9cm. Cushioned insole. £80 £40 (red), £55 (purple, black, teal)

There are tons more on the DUO Boots site. I have no idea till when this sale is though, so if you want to get a pair, I wouldn’t wait too long!

Another two dresses I’ve fallen for:

Graphic Garland Nelly Sweater Dress in black/red/purple and black/cream – $375

Broome Street Rosie Dress in black/cream – $355

I love the black, red and purple colour combo in both dresses!

A comic book store in Nova Scotia is holding their first Ladies Night tomorrow; only women will be allowed in, only women will be working in the store, and a few local female cartoonists will come in to talk about their work. On the one hand, I like the idea of this, cause I know how intimidating it can be for girls to walk into a comic book store the first time. On the other hand… I wish we didn’t need things like Ladies Night to make it *not* intimidating.

To be honest, my first experiences with comic stores were pretty good. I never felt intimidated or scared to walk in, but I kind of have a feeling that was because the ones I visited in the Netherlands were aimed at a less geeky crowd. Those shops were full with the European comics and stuff like Donald Duck and Suske and Wiske, which are aimed at quite a young audience.

As a girl pursuing the more geeky pursuits though, there have been quite a few occasions where I can relate to being a bit intimidated by entering a new unknown place, be it a store, school, or networking event. The first thing that came to mind when hearing about the Ladies Night was my own experiences going to board game stores and fantasy stores. It happened so often that they were only filled with guys, all staring at me as if I was some weird alien creature that didn’t belong there… and then acting as if I couldn’t possibly know what I was talking about because I was a girl.

Same goes with studying computer science at university, being 1 of 5 girls and 90 guys. There’s one encounter that still riles me up, and I wish I had said something at the time. I had just completed an assignment, one that a lot of people was struggling with and had it signed off by the student assistant. I was pretty chuffed with myself, being one of the first people to have finished it. Moments later that was ruined by the student assistant telling another (male) student: “if she can do it, you certainly can”. Most of it wasn’t that bad, especially cause I proved pretty quickly that I was smart and belonged there (but again: why did I have to prove I belonged there?).

What annoys me though is that stuff like that still happens. Since moving to London, I’ve visited the Forbidden Planet tons of times. I love the place, it’s filled with wonderful geeky delights, and if I could I’d buy everything that caught my eye. And yet… almost every single time I go there by myself I get hit on. Okay, I kind of get that (geek store, geeky girl, chances of possible perfect match increases). But half of the time they open with something along the lines of whether I “needed help in finding a present” or something else that completely neglects the fact that I might be there for myself. The thing is it almost always happens when I’m browsing the comics. If I’m at any other part of the store (like the fantasy/scifi books section or the manga section) that type of stuff doesn’t happen. It’s as if most geeks have accepted that girls are into geeky things, like fantasy and manga, but comics… then it’s suddenly “you don’t belong here”.

Seriously, guys? Why assume straightaway that a girl doesn’t belong there? I thought that by now it should be obvious for guy geeks that the geek girl does exist, but it’s moments like I’ve described above that some guys are completely oblivious to that fact. And it’s those guys that are making it difficult for new geeky girls to feel comfortable with being a geek and going to places like comic stores. I know there are tons of guys out there who do understand and don’t make stupid remarks like those above to girls, but it’s that small oblivious group that do that mess it up for everyone.

So to wrap things up: yeah, I like the idea of the Ladies Night. It’s a great way to get those girls involved who never dared stepping into a comic book store filled with mainly guys. But the mentality of some of the guy geeks out there has to change; they have to realize that girls can be into comics (and whatever other geeky pursuits), and that they have a right to be at comic stores without being stared at as some weird seven-legged two-headed panda. Until then, things like Ladies Night will have to be around to get girls who get intimidated, along to comic stores.

I’m still a bit hesitant about The Last Airbender movie. I loved the Nickelodeon cartoon on which it is based (Avatar: The Last Airbender, renamed to only The Last Airbender so that people wouldn’t get confused with Avatar) and I’m still not sure whether we even need a movie version of this.

Still, I am curious to how the visuals of this is going to be. The world of The Last Airbender is so rich, with weird creatures, cool powers and a ton of beautiful settings. I can’t wait to see how this translates to the big screen, seeing all this stuff in “real life” (well, calling it *real life* is a bit silly, cause we all know it’s going to be CGI, but you know what I mean).

So far everything I’ve seen is spot-on and these two new posters add to that:

As I said I am really loving the look so far of The Last Airbender. I’m just hoping the kids in this can act and actually make the characters as likable as in the TV show. And that they don’t butcher the entire story…

Via /Film

I’ve never really gotten the whole Moleskin thing. I mean, I love notebooks and own tons of them, but I’ve never seen the appeal of specifically the Moleskin notebooks. They don’t seem any more special than any other notebook, right?

Well, this line of Moleskins might just convince me to finally get one. They came out last year October some time, but somehow I managed to miss them. The Passion Moleskin collection is specially designed for your life passions; so far, there are six different categories: Book, Film, Music, Recipes, Wine and Wellness. Each journal has dedicated pages for the different passions. For example, Recipes has 6 separate sections for appetizers, first courses, main dishes, side dishes, desserts, cocktails, while Film has alphabetically organized sections to fill in.

I do like the idea of these, but I still would really want to see these in real life before getting one. Especially the Film and the Book ones seem appropriate for me, but I wonder how the pages exactly look like and how they’ve been labeled.

Each of the journals are available on the Moleskin website for £15.99.

These boxes are just too cute!

The designs are burned in with a wood burning tool and stained in a golden oak finish. The bigger box is roughly 5×5 and the smaller box is roughly 3×3. On the etsy site there are multiple designs for the smaller box (mushroom, fire plant, gold star, etc), but I couldn’t figure out if you can specify which design you want or if this is done randomly.

The boxes are available in the etsy store gogita724 for $25.00 plus $5.00 shipping.

Via ChipChick

Episode 157: “I just can’t get enough of these. I think I’m addicted to creating them.”

Awesome room illusion with Pac-Man:

I love how a part of the drawing is actually the reflection in the mirror.

In the past week alone I’ve come across 4 different laptop decal shops and 3 pretty laptop bags, and I knew it was time to start blogging more about these pretty things I stumble upon.

I’ll start with a laptop decal design store that has been around for some time now and most of you might have come across already: the etsy store Movie Magic Man. He’s got some wonderful MacBook designs there, each integrating the Apple logo into the design. Here are my favourites:

Iron Man Decal – $16.00

Batman Decal – $16.00

Eve, The Serpent and Your Apple – $17.00

Snow White – $15.00

Mickey Mouse – $13.00

There are even more designs in Movie Magic Man’s store, like Street Fighter, Lego and even Twilight designs. Shipping costs are $1.00 if you’re in the US and $5.00 for everywhere else.

I can’t wait till this game comes out in March! Regular readers here will know how much I love the Final Fantasy series, and this latest installment looks gorgeous. I haven’t heard that many good reviews about the storyline though, but even that won’t stop me from getting this game. Enjoy: