The Confectionery - 10

These are the things that I think are great.  So great that I want to sing about them.

OLYMPIC MEMES

I am a sucker for The Olympics, including the Opening Ceremonies.  Any large production that begins with various a capella children's choirs is pretty much tailor-made for me.  Here are 3 of my favourite memes that popped up after the Opening Ceremonies had aired.

For photos with hilarious captions, check out this Macleans article written by Scott Feschuk, author of the Canadian 50 Shades of Eh.  Follow him on twitter for the best Olympics commentary I've seen yet: @scottfeschuk.

ROWAN ATKINSON

While we're on the Opening Ceremony, let's talk a moment about the highlight, shall we?  While I absolutely love that there was a children's literature section (& I had no idea that a hospital was completely funded by the proceeds from Peter Pan, did you?), I found it difficult to swallow.  Spoonful of sugar or not, Voldemort would have SMOKED Mary Poppins in a battle.  The real highlight of the ceremony was Rowan Atkinson's appearance.  When they announced an orchestral performance of Chariots of Fire, I was ready to start crying for the 23rd time since the ceremonies began.  How wrong I was.  

The video isn't on YouTube - we all know how strict the IOC is about these things, but for the time being, you can watch it here.  My son has watched it numerous times now, & spent his Saturday morning watching Mr. Bean clips on YouTube.  Judging by my twitter feed, my son was not the only child enchanted by his performance.  It seems Rowan Atkinson has just gained an entire generation of new fans.

THE LEAP 

Remember how cool those virtual screens in Minority Report looked?  Tom Cruise could flip, rotate, enlarge, cleanse thetans*, zoom in, discard, & do basically anything with a few flicks of his wrist.  A company called Leap Motion has brought us one step closer to being able to do that. 

To read more, & see an in-depth demonstration by CTO David Holz, go here.

*thetan cleansing only available to Scientologists.

I WANT TO DRAW A CAT FOR YOU

THE most bizarre gift I received for my Birthday this year was this drawing, commissioned by my brother & his wife:

Apparently, they saw this guy's video, & thought "Random internet cat drawing?  That is so Lisa."  They know me so well - they also got me this awesome octopus mug.  It was a strange birthday. 

You can order a cat drawing & look at Steve's gallery here.
While I love the weirdness & randomness of my Game of Thrones cat, specially commissioned just for me, I honestly cannot believe this guy has drawn (as of now) 7545 cat pictures at $10 each.  He has made $75,450.  From cat drawings.  I applaud his entrepreneurial spirit (Mark Cuban is an investor in this!) & I love my silly Game of Thrones cat, but I can't help feeling WTF about it.  Also, it did not escape my son that this cat has a human nose & no whiskers, so he drew this for me & then demanded $10.  Thanks.

THE IRONMAN THRONE

Keeping with the Game of Thrones theme, this is just so good.  We're used to seeing Ned Stark on the Iron Throne:

Now we have Tony Stark on The Ironman Throne:

You can order the print from the artist, Eos Victor, here.


Those were my favourite internet sweets of the past week.  Come back next week for more goodies!

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The Confectionery - 7

These are the things that I think are great.  So great that I want to sing about them.

MEGHAN TONJES

Meghan Tonjes is a singer who has been posting her videos on YouTube for years.  As she is a woman who is not a size 0, or hyper-sexualized for your viewing pleasure, she gets occasional comments about her size.  This is her response, & it is amazing & inspiring.

"Why does it hurt you if I don't hate myself?"  Love it.

LEGO BRIDGE ART

A street artist has painted a bridge in Wuppertal, Germany, so it now looks like it was constructed out of LEGO.  How cool is this?

Is it just me, or would you feel safer driving under a LEGO bridge, too?  To see more photos of the bridge, go here.  To see more art by Megx, go here.



 

MAKE A WISH FOR HELLBOY

A boy named Zachary recently made a request to the Make a Wish Foundation. Here's what special effects company Spectral Motion had to say about it: "It was Zachary's wish to meet Hellboy and also to become Hellboy. When the Make-A-Wish Foundation contacted Spectral Motion with this request, Mike thought it would be fantastic to have Ron Perlman reprise his role for the day. Ron loved the idea and donned the makeup once more (with the assistance of Lufeng Qu and Eden Elizalde) and also ordered a Hellboy sized meal of burgers, shakes, and fries for Zachary and his family and the entire Spectral crew to enjoy. Later in the day, Zachary was transformed into Hellboy with the assistance of makeup artists Lufeng Qu and Neil Winn."  That's gotta make you smile.

To see more photos, go here.

WRITE LIKE THE WIND

Geek & Sundry recently posted this song by comedy duo Paul & Storm.  Directed at Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin, the song is a plea for him to write faster.  His recent span of 6 years between books 4 & 5 has left many fans frustrated...& hungry.  "We need 6-paged descriptions of every last meal."

I love the HBO GoT theme that storms in at the 2:08 mark.   Also, my Mom saw this video before I did.  My Mom is cooler than your Mom.

ROBOCOP 2013 TEASER

Set to begin filming in Toronto in the Fall, the Robocop reboot starring Joel Kinnaman is getting lots of buzz.  Now, we get our first look at the updated ED-209 in this teaser, meant to be an ad for OmniCorp.

Read about my first ever viewing of Robocop - last month - here.

STAR WARS LATTE ART

I recently saw this photo of latte art featuring the Death Star & Tie-Fighters.  The most artistic thing I can do with my lattes is spoon foam on top - I am now calling that "The Wampa".

After marveling at this, I searched to see if more Star Wars Latte Art existed, & it does!  Or did, since these lattes were presumably very yummy & disappeared shortly after these photos were taken.

Boba Fett

Yoda

Stormtrooper

Talented, these baristas are.




Those were my favourite internet sweets of the past week.  Come back next week for more goodies!


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The Confectionery - 3

These are the things that I think are great.  So great that I want to sing about them.

LIFE-SIZED IRON THRONE

My living room houses a badass dragon bust (meant to hold a sword, but we just haven't found the right one for us yet, you know?), statues of both Gandalf & Gollum, a bottle of True Blood, Harry Potter's letter from Hogwarts, the Marauder's Map, a chocolate frog, decrees from Dolores Umbridge, & Game of Thrones steins (from houses Stark & Targaryen).  The only thing left to complete this nerd oasis can be purchased here.

Ned Stark + Ice not included.

An Iron Throne of your very own will only cost you $30,000 plus $1800 for shipping.  If I had this, I would consider the game WON.

PROMETHEUS vs JOEL McHALE

There is a Prometheus viral video going around - an advertisement for the android Michael Fassbender plays in the movie.  There are no spoilers, just a little information on the kind of robotic feat "David" is:

Joel McHale did a spoof of this video for The Soup.  It is all kinds of amazing.

At Buzzfeed, they broke both down into sections, for a detailed comparison.  Did chess ever stand a chance against Hungry Hungry Hippos & table tossing?  Joel FTW.

20 SMILING SLOTHS

20 smiling sloths.  That's all it is.  Click on that link & check out 19 more photos of cuteness like these:

This guy didn't even make the list. THAT'S HOW CUTE THEY ARE.

I love these photos & I understand Kristen Bell's over-the-top obsession with sloths.  If you haven't seen her freak out & become overwhelmed with joy at the thought of being near a real sloth, you must watch it now.  Hilarious.

WOOKIIE/EWOK DRESS

At etsy, you can buy yourself (or me) this cute, furry dress that with a few adjustments can be either a Wookiie dress or an Ewok dress:

But where would you wear such a thing?, you ask?  THEN YOU DON'T DESERVE THE WOOKIIE DRESS.

Among other items the seller, Nerd Alert Designs, has on offer is this super cute dress featuring the illustrations from Alice in Wonderland.  YES.

VOICE ACTORS READ STAR WARS

This took place at a Seattle ComicCon in March, 2012.  Voice actors from some of the most iconic cartoons of the past few decades (Ren & Stimpy, Pinky & the Brain, Futurama, Transformers...) pulled out their voices & some impersonations to read the Star Wars script like you've never heard it before.  The characters/voices switch between scenes, but a few of my favourite choices are Bender (Futurama) as Luke, William Shatner as C-3P0, & Christopher Walken as R2-D2.  And the whole thing is narrated by Batman.  EPIC.

STAR WARS RELATIVITY (M.C. ESCHER)

This is just too cool.  Paul Vermeesch has built a LEGO diorama of M.C. Escher's famous mind-bending print, Relativity:

Check out this page, where more detail from each section/scene is shown, including Vader cutting off Luke's hand.  Awesome work.

HIGH SCHOOL YEARBOOK PHOTOS OF METAL/HARD ROCK MUSICIANS

Even the most badass of badasses had high school yearbook photos.  These are funny.  Alice Cooper, Jon Bon Jovi & Scott Weiland made me giggle.  Linkin Park's Chester looks like every single guy in my high school yearbook, but only one made me laugh.  Out loud.

Metallica's Kirk Hammett

Also Kirk Hammett

Those were my favourite internet sweets of the past week.  Come back next week for more goodies!




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The Confectionery - 2

These are the things that I think are great.  So great that I want to sing about them.

THE MOTHER OF DISNEY DRAGONS

I first saw this Game of Thrones/Disney mashup on Popped Culture, a site I can't believe had gone unnoticed by me for so long.  The only thing that would make this better would be the addition of Mushu, from Mulan.  I might be the only person with lots of love for Mulan.  First of all, Lea Salonga.  Second of all, Donny Osmond as a Chinese warrior.  I mean, come on.  Anyway, Mushu is Eddie Murphy's Shrek Donkey, but in Chinese dragon form, & also, MUSHU CAME FIRST.

In the morning, I'm making crullers!

LIP DUB PROPOSAL

This is the kind of thing New Directions would have done for Mr. Schuester's proposal to Ms. Pillsbury, except they had already performed this song at the Hummel/Hudson wedding (which doesn't make any sense, because if we're at our wedding...of course I want to marry you), so instead, they sang Rihanna's We Found Love in a Hopeless Place.  I don't think Glee plans out its seasons very well.

At first, I thought it was a Honda CRV commercial.  Why else would the opening blurb so explicitly state the model of vehicle used?  It didn't matter, because I was sobbing 1 minute into it anyway.  Turns out it's all real, & everyone involved is either a friend/family member.  Very sweet, very fun, very jazz hands.  Love it.

CANDY NECKLACES - NOW WITH MORE BACON

I love bacon.  I am also a girl who wore a candy necklace to both her prom & graduation.  I found this at a site that's a great time-sucker: Archie McPhee.  They do not ship to Canada, so if any Americans would care to purchase 100 of these & send them to me, I'll be forever grateful.

HARRY POTTER/GAME OF THRONES SHIRT

This blog could easily turn into a gift-giving guide for the nerd girl in your life, & speaking of things to buy for me, this shirt is at the top of my WANT list.  As in MUST HAVE.    Buy it here.  Dark grey, medium girly fit.  Thnx.

GARFUNKEL & OATES

These girls are funny, & in this song, they play the same woman, 3 years apart: at 29, & at 31.  That's really all you need to know.

Those were my favourite internet sweets of the past week.  Come back next week for more goodies!


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The Confectionery - 1

The internet is a wondrous beast.  The home of trolling & lurking is also home to creativity, art, & fun.  When you find something cool, there's nothing better than sharing it, & this is when the internet is at its best.  So, I thought I'd start gathering up my favourite things of the week...basically, I have to do something with this candy-coated knowledge I collect.

These are the things that I think are great.  So great that I want to sing about them.

 STEVE MILLER VENN DIAGRAM

This is passing around the internet faster than Willie Nelson can pass his joint to Snoop Dogg.  And rightfully so.

Yes, Jack Nicholson should be a Joker, but it doesn't make this any less wonderful.

8-BIT GAME OF THRONES

I recently discovered this video of Game of Thrones as an 8-bit RPG game.  It's a little old, but I just found it, so it's new to me, damnit.  DO NOT WATCH if you haven't read/watched Game of Thrones.  If you haven't, what's your problem?  Don't like awesomeness?

 #JUNKRAVENS

Another one for Game of Thrones fans, this hashtag on twitter is what makes twitter so wonderful.  On Thursday, the very funny @bazecraze tweeted: "Game of Thrones would be more realistic if people were constantly throwing out junk ravens."  By the afternoon, that tweet had spawned the hashtag #JunkRavens, which when searched, led you to the kind of junk mail that Westeros would be plagued with.  My favourite is from @mariancall: "I am a queen in exile in the East I am owed a kingdom but need some cash & ships up front dear friend can you help".  If you're a fan, check it out.  Lots of clever people out there.

JOEL KINNAMAN

My husband & I say one thing after every episode of AMC's The Killing: Holder is the best part.  I kind of hope they never find out who murdered Rosie Larson, because I want to keep watching him.  Swedish actor Joel Kinnaman plays the greasy Detective Stephen Holder, struggling with an addiction to hoodies among other things.  He is all gangsta talk with a heart of gold, & provides a tiny bit of comic relief to this dark, depressing show.  After last Sunday's episode, I wanted to find out more about him & I was shocked.  He went from this guy:

to this guy:

It could be that he's calling for all kids to drop out of school & shoot up in the streets.  I don't know, but when I stop swooning, I'm going to agree with whatever he said.  100%.  He is going to be the next Robocop in the upcoming remake, & yes, I will be there.

CHILD'S OWN STUDIO

This is so crazy cool, I can't help but be very, very excited about it.  Child's Own Studio is a place where you can have your child's drawing turned into a stuffed animal.  Check out these amazing examples: 

I'm going through my son's drawings to choose which one to immortalize in fabric & stuffing:

His interpretation of Garfield, perhaps?

A giant cross-eyed robot with braces?

EVERY SINGLE GUY IN THIS DRAWING?

FLOG

This is actually my favourite thing of the past month, & it is what inspired me to start this Confectionery series of blogs: Felicia Day's YouTube show, FLOG.  Felicia Day is a heroine for many a nerdy girl.  She is a smart, sexy gamer chick.  Bonus points for being a redhead!  And she was in Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog, for Joss-sakes!  If anyone ever plays a hotter, less-socially awkward version of myself in a movie, please let it be her.

My son just walked by & thought this was me.  He gets ice cream.

New FLOGs come out every Monday, & they are delightful.  Felicia shares her favourite things of the week, goes on a learning adventure/excursion of some sort (sometimes she just plays a retro video game, & yes, it is as awesome as it sounds), & answers fan letters.

Felicia presents her Fave Five list in her show, but I will most likely be keeping this in written form...I've only made this one vlog, for an assignment.  Hopefully, you'll find it charming, but I think we can all agree that the best parts involved Kai.

...so, yeah...not quite as professional as my favourite episode of FLOG so far, where Felicia learns about Steampunk, & creates backstories for each costume she tries on:

She is adorable & I love her, so watch the show, & subscribe to her YouTube channel, Geek & Sundry.

SOMEBODY THAT I USED TO KNOW

Wait!  I know you're sick of this song, but just in case you missed the kick-ass a capella version posted a few months ago by the ridiculously-talented group Pentatonix, I had to share it.  It is my favourite version of this song, over the original AND the 1 guitar version, & the hundreds of other times this song has been covered.  Yes, I'm sick of the song, but I'm not sick of watching these guys sing it.  I still listen to it a few times a week, & like to watch it several times, to give my attention to each part individually.  Because I'm a music nerd who likes to have my mind blown by awesomeness.

Those were my favourite internet sweets of the past week.  Come back next week for more goodies!

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