Categories
Blather

Boys (what is more dense than lead?)

Damnit, Reddit, I want a boyfriend: a self-described shy 20-year old girl asks for advice on a predominantly male board about how to get a boyfriend.

10 helpful comments advise her to look past her sense that it is  “social unacceptable for a girl to ask a boy out” and make the first move.

500+ comments follow, in which guys talk about that time they totally missed it when a girl made a move in their direction…

Guys (well, geek guys at least) don’t understand subtle. I froze in the face of such flashing signs as “I wish I had the courage to kiss you now” (but you have a boyfriend!) and barely discerned the call to action in such cues as “I will sit here and not budge from this couch until you kiss me” and “please touch my breasts so you can admire my bra”.

The counter-argument is that guys aren’t missing (all) those subtle flirting attempts, they’re actually imagining (some of) them. Those retrospective regrets we obsess over  (“That girl smiled at me! She was really into me! If only I’d done something… I could kick my younger, dumber, better-looking self! “) are tricks of the mind to comfort our loneliness and make us feel better about ourselves.

I’m sure that girl was just being nice.

Categories
Resources

Nancy Wake AKA the White Mouse

From The New Zealand Edge : Nancy Wake.

Nancy Wake was the Allies’ most decorated servicewoman of WWII, and the Gestapo’s most-wanted person. They code-named her ‘The White Mouse’ because of her ability to elude capture

…

In late April 1944, Nancy Wake and another SOE operative, Major John Farmer, were parachuted into the Auvergne region in central France with orders to locate and organise the bands of Maquis, establish ammunition and arms caches from the nightly parachute drops, and arrange wireless communication with England. Their mission was to organise the Resistance in preparation for the D-Day invasion. The Resistance movement’s principal objective was to weaken the German army for a major attack by allied troops. Their targets were German installations, convoys and troops. When dropped over Auvergne Nancy’s parachute became stuck in a tree. Her agent said he hoped all trees could bear such beautiful fruit. Nancy told him not to give her ‘that French shit’.

[via the Strategiest blog, found on an image search]

Categories
Comics

Sir, I have to ask you to Exit The Donut

Iron Man 2 footage from San Diego comic con:

If it’s been taken down, here’s the flv (via pwnyoutube)

Categories
Roleplaying

The 10 Most Shameful RPG Dice

The d34, from Topless Robot’s list of  The 10 Most Shameful RPG Dice.

[ via SJGames Daily Illuminator]

Categories
Comics Oddities Science Fiction and Fantasy

The Privileges of Age

A little gem of WTF buried in an otherwise rather bland San Diego Comic-Con report:

I sat in on most of a Ray Bradbury panel in the same room, which was cool because, a. Ray Bradbury is still alive and b. he’s at that age where he can say completely crazy things and people just think it’s adorable. Today, for example, he talked about how specifically he remembers the flavor of his mother’s breast milk, and we all just sort of went with it. No, really!

– Comic Con Day 3: Comics, Pilots and an Elderly Illustrated Man | Books | A.V. Club.