Jon Snow knows nothing, but I know what you like. Enjoy this Game of Thrones training montage with some rockin’ 80′s music.

The design set concept I came across today might just be my new favorite.

According to the designer Alatariel:

Although recently LEGO® has started to design and add more female figures to their sets, they are still a minority. A small set of minifigures, which LEGO® has made in the past for different themes, would provide a great opportunity to add women to our LEGO® town or city communities. I have designed some professional female minifigures that also show that girls can become anything they want, including a fire fighter or a paleontologist (main picture).

I’m pretty jazzed about this LEGO idea, not only because of the positive representations of women that both boys and girls should embrace, but also because various studies have shown that women are more likely to get involved in an activity (such as the STEM carreers in these LEGO sets) if they see women represented.

So how do we get these sets into production? Click here, click support, and tell your friends. Then start pestering LEGO, keep talking about it and asking for it. Getting 10,000 supporters only makes LEGO consider producing it, after all. We have to be very vocal about our demand for STEM lady minifigs.

Yep, that’s a little girl cosplaying Stan Lee. AND SHE NAILED IT. Via All That and a Bag of Crackers

I want to talk about my dad a minute.

Everyone who has ever met my dad loves him. He’s funny, bright, friendly, and generous. He’s all around a good guy. Click here to see the man in action, a retired homicide detective and TV star! I love him to bits. And last month, we almost lost him, because Dad was a smoker.

He quit smoking cigarettes using the patch and some medications when I graduated high school, but when he joined homicide, he picked up cigars. Up until last month, he was smoking upwards of four cigars a day.

Like a lot of men his age, Dad should have been getting regular stress tests to make sure his heart was healthy, but he didn’t. He also should have quit smoking cigars, but y’know how dads are. So when he was playing with my nephews last month, he felt a tight pain in his chest and a tingling down one arm. He was ready to dismiss it as gas, (seriously, Dad?? GAS??) but thankfully my nurse sister had the presence of mind to drag his ass to the hospital and forced him to stay until they figured out what was wrong.

He had a 99% blockage in his LAD.

If you go to Wikipedia like I did, you’ll discover that heart attacks caused by the blockage of the left anterior descending artery are called “Widowmakers.” You will die if you have a heart attack if this artery is blocked. If my father was home alone and continued to ignore that pain? He’d be dead. He would have had a full blown heart attack that day and I would be without my dad. My sister saved his life. He got a stent, quit smoking cold turkey, and needs to make a few other lifestyle choices to make sure he sticks with us a long time.

Let’s talk about that blockage for a sec. See, Dad appears healthy. He eats pretty good, he’s not overweight, he golfs and bowls for exercise. But he was a smoker. Smoking is a major cause of atherosclerosis — a buildup of fatty substances in the arteries. People who smoke a pack of cigarettes a day (or cigars, Dad) have more than twice the risk of heart attack than nonsmokers. (Source.)

I wish he would have done more to quit earlier, especially now that there are so many more options for smokers. For Dad, the patch and pills worked for a little while before he started on cigars, but today there’s some cool new technology: e-cigarettes, like those made by Vapourlites.

Here’s how it works, according to the BBC:

In one end there is liquid nicotine, in the other a rechargeable battery and an atomiser. When the user sucks, the liquid nicotine is vaporised and absorbed through the mouth. What looks like smoke is largely water vapour.

Because there is no tobacco in e-cigarettes, there is no tar and it is the tar in ordinary cigarettes that kills.

So it looks and feels like you’re smoking. When my mom quit years ago, she used to say that she really missed the sensation of smoking when she was out drinking with friends. It’s that tangible hole in your routine that can’t really be replaced by a sticker on your arm.

There are risk factors, of course. But any health side effects pale in comparison to what smoking does to you. E-cigarettes are not for kids who want to look cool smoking. It’s a tool to help you quit, not an accessory.

So do Vapourlites work? According to one survey of e-cigarette users:

• 75% of the sample said it had been several weeks or months since their last cigarette
• 91% said that use of the e-cigarette had ‘substantially decreased’ their craving for tobacco cigarettes
• 70% didn’t have as much of an urge to smoke

Look, gang. Dad’s close call aside, I lost my grandfather to emphysema, my grandmother to lung cancer, and my other grandpa hauled around an oxygen tank for the last few years of his life. Yeah, this is a sponsored post, but it’s also something that is important to me. I don’t want to see that pain happen to anyone, and Vapourlites was kind enough to send me some samples of their product. Leave a comment below, let me know that you or a loved one wants to quit, and I’ll pick someone at random for some samples. Thanks, and tell your parents to get regular checkups and stress tests!

It’s the pilot episode, so there’s a few things we can still improve on, but hey! Fun new podcast I made, you guys!

Head over to the podcast website, visit the Podomatic site, and watch for us on iTunes, it should be popping up soon.

Thanks for listening, and special thanks to Keith (aka @RoboDuke), Brad, and Geoff.

via TheForce.net

Check out Ms. Potts at the Iron Man 3 premiere!

So Tom and Lorenzo are torn on this dress. From the side, it shows off a LOT of leg from the side. But if you ask me, if anyone can get away with showing that much leg and still be this classy, it’s Gwyneth “Holly Holiday” Paltrow. I always look forward to what she wears at the Oscars, and she never fails to do something daring with her style… though not always successfully. But this? Work it, girl.

Moving on! Where mah Kaidan fans at?

Luciano Costa, the face model for Mass Effect dreamboat Kaidan Alenko, posted this pic to his Tumblr today. That’s Luciano to the left, and to the right is Raphael Sbarge, the voice actor for Mass Effect dreamboat Kaidan Alenko. This is the first time they’ve met, and according to Luciano:

Had a great time chatting with Raphael this afternoon. It was a pleasure meeting this kind-hearted man and exchanging notes on our ME experience. Check out his grassroots non-profit organization that helps fund L.A.’s green projects  —www.greenwish.com

I can’t even-… I’m fangirling all over my desk, I can’t handle the awesome.

And finally, do you know what today is?

Have a great date, everybody!!

]]> http://femininemissgeek.wordpress.com/2013/04/25/random-picture-dump-pepper-potts-2-kaidans-and-another-relevant-thing/feed/ 0 Bex Gwyneth Paltrow in a stunning white gown at the Iron Man 3 Premiere http://femininemissgeek.wordpress.com/2013/04/24/reggie-watts-improvises-a-misogynist-serenade/ http://femininemissgeek.wordpress.com/2013/04/24/reggie-watts-improvises-a-misogynist-serenade/#comments Wed, 24 Apr 2013 15:07:48 +0000 Bex http://femininemissgeek.wordpress.com/?p=2911 ]]>

He also name drops Mass Effect 4.

Here’s a video of a cartoon dinosaur singing about poop. Not much more needs to be said, really. Have a good weekend, kids.

via the Unbearable Sassiness of Being.