Nerd for costumes. Or: I forgot I was the one writing this and thought Lulu was making fun of me.

That's right. And true.

GREETINGS FELLOW NERDS. As we've previously (seriously, click that link, I spent a long time on it) discussed, we are nerds about some weird things.

I am a nerd about costumes. For realzies. Yeah, I said it.



Anyways, I found what we in the industry call "renderings" of the Disney princesses in accurately period costumes. Enjoy!

Some kind of tutorial

For all you LADIES that read this, you may be wondering how good ol' Felix made that awesome Fallout 3 Bra. Right? You remember, this one?

Well, GOOD NEWS!

I'ma show you.

Only with a shirt I made as part of the plan Lulu and I have to seduce and capture the boys over at Penny Arcade.

It looks like this:


And the tutorial is after the jump.

Summer Roundup

Okay, yeah, I'm sorry for this roundup. It IS SO RANDOM.

However, it's got some good stuff! Promise!!!

And Thursday it looks like we might even have a video ready! So enjoy this!!!!!!!



Dr Who Related Art:


Fail vs. Flail:



I'd like to someday be as cool as this mom:



More amazing nail art:


Gamers, you know this is truth:


A GIF Loop of the most amazing beard ever.


Two hard core cellists play Welcome to the Jungle:



A clear reasons Wonder Woman got canceled:





If this doesn't make you miss the 1990's, nothing will:





An AMAZING superhero short made on $300:




A Nerd "Sex Tape" (no real sex, don't worry. No real nudity, either, but probably NSFW):




Best Dr. Who-related comedy yet:

Nerd-girl Style Icons Vol. 2: Wonder Woman

That's right, we're going there. Enter:

WONDER WOMAN!

The Kick-assiest of super heroines

Wonder Woman is a Princess of the Amazons, also known as Diana of Themyscira. Originally created by William Marston to be "tender, submissive, peaceloving as good women are," combining "all the strength of a Superman plus all the allure of a good and beautiful woman."

Silly Women, with their thinking.

To be fair, Marston also said he wanted Wonder Woman to be a "distinctly feminist role model whose mission was to bring the Amazon ideals of love, peace, and sexual equality to a world torn by the hatred of men."

In the early years of Wonder Woman (Marston named her Suprema originally), you can find many allusions to bondage- Wonder Woman often physically restrained her enemies, as you can see for yourself:

That's how I learned to do it, too.

Later, Wonder Woman grew to be a well-liked super heroine. In 1975, Lynda Carter portrayed "The New, Original Wonder Woman".

Great Hera!

Set during WWII, it followed closely the original plot of the comics. Since the show, there have been several remakes, as well as a just-nixed NBC TV show. They probably stopped production because Kevin Kirkpatrick (who is otherwise a genius in my book, as the makeup artist for titles like True Blood, The Wolfman, Nightmare on Elm Street and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides) decided to redesign the classic Wonder Woman costume into something more... horrifying.

AH!!!! GET IT AWAY!

Then they modified it to looks less horrifying last minute because of the outcry on the internet (waita go, guys!), though the picture is still pretty terrible.

I can't figure out what's going on here...

Sure, DC Comics also recently re-designed/ re-conceptualized Wonder Woman's image, they did something that's quite popular these days, which is doing a "gritty reboot". What happened here is something I don't quite understand- from all American super heroine to some kind of... biker chick? Wearing Spiderman's shirt-come-corset?

No.

So what does this all mean?

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Because any good nerd girl knows that there is only one Wonder Woman costume, and it stands proud in red, white and blue... and gold.

STYLE STAPLES:

• Red top
  
• Star-spangled blue bottoms (sometimes panty bottoms, sometimes a skirt)
  
• Red Boots
• Gold cuffs
• Lasso of Truth (optional)
  
• Power stance (not optional)
  

PRACTICAL APPLICATION:

As previously stated, I'ma go ahead and say no white stars on blue background bottoms. Seriously, guys. Jeans of some sort are acceptable, preferably jean shorts, like your daisy dukes (you have them, I know you do). A simple red shirt and gold belt will suffice in lieu of red strapless corset (but if you own that corset, please, rock it). As I don't have any red boots, I chose to go with a more subtle approach- white knee high socks and chunky wedges. Red socks are preferred, of course, but I also do not own any of those.

Oregon Geeks

Here in Portland, we're geeks for the outdoors.

If you take a look at the month of April alone, you'll notice 6 days with no precipitation, and 4 days above 60. This is clearly not stopping us anymore, as an adventure photo shoot in torrential rains I took with a friend recently proved, but when the weather clears up, we're out there. And last weekend, it was a glorious day. Behold:



I went on a hike out in the gorge, where there are some amazing views, and many wonderful waterfalls. The view going up looked like this:



and this:



The view from the top was amazing:



And the view heading back down?



Now, I'm not saying that hiking with your mini vintage leather backpack is a BAD idea... but...

This was the only picture I managed to get of the many, ahem, "colorful" characters I saw on the trail. Apparently, the uniform for middle aged women is zip off pants, "hiking" sticks (ski poles that people use as walking sticks...? Why?) and conversations about email forwards. I kid you not, there were several groups that fit all three of those. Another highlight was a group of about six guys in their early 20's, who looked to be gamers, all hiking with their resealable cans of Diet Rockstar.

Perhaps my favorite hiking outfit I saw was a young woman in equestrian boots and a sun dress. Perhaps not the best attire for a 2770(ish) foot trek up the hillside.

But hey, to each their own, right? I'm sure my jeans and BRINK shirt (sawg from PAXEast 2011) drew some skeptical looks.

I'll avoid the geekery I feel about the recent Royal Wedding, but I'll end with my stupid excitement over a recent purchase... cover art by one of my favorite artists ever, "Gabe" (Mike Krahulik) of Penny Arcade (if you don't know who they are/ what that is, get out, get out now) and some magic cards, STFU.