Wonder Woman Cupcakes: Frosting for the Cause

Way back in January, GeekMom posted about a site called Frosting for the Cause.  The idea behind Frosting for the Cause was that every day in 2011, bakers and bloggers would create a baked good and give a tutorial about making it to raise awareness for cancer research, especially for cancers specific to women. It’s not just about raising awareness either, it’s about giving both our time and treasure to help those with cancer. Each blogger not only provides an inspired recipe, but also donates their baked goods to those dealing with cancer and donates $25 to cancer research.

Cupcakes and community service? I simply had to get involved.

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Happy Birthday … to us!

Just about anyway! On March 30th, 2010, I posted our very first post Fangirls Don’t Wear Pink and got this whole whirlwind of the last year of my life started.

It has been an incredible year. Through this blog, we have met so many wonderful people, fabulous geeky women and men, and really explored, I think, the breadth of geekdom from a number of different angles. From a numerical standpoint, in a year we went from nothing to averaging 150 hits and 100 unique visitors a day. We have over 1500 of you following my rants and links on twitter. We have published 280 posts and 14 original Venn Diagrams. Whew!

#15: Sisters and geeks are an overlapping Venn Diagram on this blog!

It Gets Better for Geeks Too

Lately, I’ve been watching some of the “It Gets Better” videos. I think this is a great movement. It is so inspiring to see people from all places talk about their experiences and to encourage youth and young adults to get through the tough times. I want to get involved, so here is my testimony to the “It gets better” movement, because I know someone out there needs it.

I’m not gay. Somehow, though, a lot of this stuff has been resonating with me too. I mean, I grew up a geek. I was watching Star Trek, and learning to solve Rubik’s cubes, and playing cutthroat games of Monopoly and Scrabble with my family. Actually, High School Me can be pretty well summed up by this Venn Diagram, and the fact that I enjoy making Venn Diagrams to sum myself up.

I’m sure many of you recognize yourself at this intersection, maybe with a few of the details changed, but the idea is still the same. Geeks tend to get picked on. We make people uncomfortable due to our obsessions over seemingly stupid and childish things. We take part in activities that others can’t understand the joy of. We like to learn and always have a head full of facts, which can make others feel that you are a know-it-all.

Warren Spector: The Intersection of Awesome!

While at PAX, I got to see the keynote by Warren Spector. Spector is a pretty awesome guy. First of all, he’s a Disney Geek, and since I’m also a Disney Geek, that’s pretty freaking awesome. He’s also an everything else geek. He gave us his brief life story and it included comics, and science fiction, and DnD. Look, I even made a Venn Diagram to explain him. Not surprisingly, my husband and I pretty much fall in the center too! Oh, and yes, that’s a hidden Mickey in the Venn Diagram, or an obvious Mickey. Still cool.

Anyway, I just want to mention a few brief points from the keynote that stood out to me.

Geeking Out Together: A Geeky Relationship in Retrospect

Yesterday was my 3rd wedding anniversary. We both had to work, but we did dress up and have a nice dinner. During dinner, we spent half of the time discussing our plans for PAX Prime this year (less than two months, so exciting!). I was thinking about how appropriate this was to the two of us and our entire relationship, so I thought I would talk for a bit about how two geeks found each other and made something work. I’ve mentioned bits of this here and there, but putting the whole thing in perspective is nice sometimes.

Mostly Harmless Guide to Life

In honor of Towel Day, I decided to resurrect something that me and a friend put together a few years back for a meeting of the spiritual group I was a part of in grad school. We had a lovely leather-bound copy of the 5 book trilogy of The HitchHiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and we put together a list of the 42 things we think could be learned from it. We also thumped it like a bible during our presentation. It’s like the Geek Bible, right?

I now present to you that list in it’s original form. It’s long, but worth it. Each “verse” is marked by book abbreviation (SLTAF = So Long and Thanks for All the Fish), page numbers, and I believe starting word for the fancy leather-bound copy. The words are all Douglas Adam’s, but picking out the important ones in order was all us. Now, everything you need for a full and complete Towel Day service. Enjoy!

A Mostly Harmless Guide to Life, The Universe, and Everything

There are of course many problems connected with life, of which some of the most popular are: Why are people born? Why do they die? Why do they want to spend so much of the intervening time wearing digital watches?