Robo-babe of the Day: Felicia Day

My friend Krol used to say, "Redheads are our most precious natural resource." Had I been capable of arguing with him(He's now a lawyer), I would have said, "While redheads are in fact rare, the female nerd is just as rare, if not more so."

In this day and age of Geek Chic, many would side with Krol. Everyone is a nerd these days, or at least that's what they'd have you believe. I could write a novel length dissertation about what it takes to be a real nerd, and why most of the Johnny Come Lately's to the scene are not in fact real nerds, but it's sufficient to say that having made a web page once for a class, or having a WoW account do not make you a real nerd.

The space x represents the Nerdy Redheaded Girl, a rarity normally reserved for four leaf clovers, unicorns, and Honus Wagner Baseball cards.

(The X is not only the center of the diagram, it's also the center of my heart.)

But I digress. No matter who you side with in this imbecilic argument, you can agree that the intersection of this Venn diagram, the Redheaded Nerd Girl, is quite rare indeed. One could easily argue that this intersection would be so rare that it could very well not exist. In this case, "One" would be wrong because "it" does exist, and "it's" name is Felicia Day.

1. Felicia is the creator, producer, and star of the web based series "The Guild", a show about a bunch of nerds who play a video game together. While it's absolutely hilarious if you're familiar with the subject matter, it's probably still amusing if you're not.

2. Felicia starred in the previously mentioned Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, which, if you haven't watched by now, don't bother. You're already dead to me.

3. On a scale of 1 to 10 I'd say she's absolutely adorable.

4. She made her own website, where she also keeps a blog. Read the following snippet and tell me you're not in love(Ignore the fact that she spelled usability wrong. Felicia is a busy girl, far too busy for what you mere mortals call "spell check"):

If PayPal were a man, I would punch him. I would cold-cock him into tomorrow, even if I had to break my hand. I think this is a perfect example of a monopoly gone wrong. The useability of the site is a nightmare: The documentation, laughable. Combine this with a Brother Q500 label printer that is bundled with software that was created on Fortran, and you have the perfect storm for driving a girl over the edge to a day job, abandoning web video forever

5. She started college at 16 and got a mathematics degree from the University of Texas. Nothing says nerdy like math.

6. She's an honest to goodness nerd. And how's this for a coincidence? She even hangs out on the same Internet that I do! I know, right?

So, like Link with 3 hearts and a wooden sword I've begun my quest to win her heart. I regret to inform everyone that this will be the end of the blog. I've sold my laptop to pay for a ring and as you're reading this I'm probably on my way to L.A. to propose. Wish me luck!

Robo-babe of the day: Shirley Manson

For well over 10 years now I've had a slight crush on Shirley Manson. She's cute, slightly emo, red headed, and has a thick Scottish accent, what's not to love? She's also in one of my favorite bands(Garbage) with Butch Vig, one of the biggest producers of music in the 90's.

I didn't find out until recently that she was also a fan of mine. Exhibit A:

When was the last time your celeb crush wore a shirt declaring his/her love for you?

I actually met her once(sort of), and pulled my usual nerd/turtle move and didn't say anything, but this isn't about me, it's about her.

Robo-babe of the day: Hedy Lamarr

In general I try to avoid the celeb worship... at least I avoid it in my blog writing, but a recent jaunt through the Internet led to the wikipedia page for Hedy Lamarr. I won't go through the particulars as to how I got there, but I will take the time now to point out why I now have a major crush on her.

1. She was a Jewish woman who fled from Germany in the mid-30's by drugging her husband(A friend of Hitler's) and the maid he had hired to make sure she didn't get away. "So?" the average reader may ask. Let's break it down...

First, she's Jewish. This came as big of a shock to me as anyone, but apparently I'm in to the ladies of the Jewish faith.

Second, she kicked more Nazi ass than Indiana Jones, and that's saying something. The only way she could be cooler is if she had also piloted a star ship with a big hairy side kick. Unfortunately she died in 2000 before such a dream could become a reality.

2. She ended up being a famous actress in Hollywood and starred in Samson and Delilah as well as a few other films.

3. She's an absolute knock out on the robo-babe scale:

4. If you're a nerd, you probably remember the CorelDraw 8 box which featured her face rendered in vector graphics. Not necessarily a reason to love her for the rest of the world but hey, I'm a nerd.

5. This is the big one...

Hedy Lamarr (under her then-married name of Hedy Kiesler Markey) and composer George Antheil received U.S. patent #2,292,387 for their Secret Communication System on August 11, 1942. This early version of frequency hopping used a piano roll to change between 88 frequencies and was intended to make radio-guided torpedoes harder for enemies to detect or jam. This idea was controversial and ahead of its time and technology.

She helped invent frequency hopping which is basically used everywhere now from CDMA(Cell Phones) to 802.11(Wireless computers). Some say she invented it just to help kick Nazi ass and piss her ex-husband off.

A robo-babe, nerd, and Nazi hunter? I've written stories in my dream journal involving me having magical powers, the two twins being in love with me, and a magical journey with a Pegasus named Chauncey that were more believable than this girl.

If I don't update the blog for a while it's because I'm currently working on rebuilding my time machine so I can go back in time, win her heart, and live happily ever after. I built one last week, but I forgot to put in the crystals and ruined it.