The Geek and Inkwell

You sick of "Prometheus" stuff yet? Good, me neither. :) New, much more revealing "Prometheus" trailer:

If it weren't for Etsy, I might never discover delights such as the work of  tiedyejedi.  The avid Tolkien fan will find on this shop's page a wide array of sweet, touching, or just plain cool decorations straight from Middle-Earth. The shop owner will even translate your name into Sindarin and turn it into a beautiful print. Where has  tiedyejedi  been all my life? <3 "Oakenshield's Dwarvish Red" ( Product page ) "Home Sweet Home" ( Product page ) "Speak Friend and Enter" ( Product page ) "One Lifetime With You" ( Product page )

"The Hunger Games' Secret Romance!" reads the title of Ok! Magazine, just under the photos of Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, and Liam Hemsworth. "Intimate hotel room rendezvous!" Obviously, I will never know to which apparently scandalous event Ok!  magazine is referring, because the cover has precisely the opposite effect on me that it is meant to have. I am sure the editors of Ok!  were betting on grocery store or book store or eReader customers being tempted enough to discover these young stars' "juicy secrets" that they would purchase the magazine. I sincerely hope they were disappointed in the number of sales they actually made. When you consider a story like "The Hunger Games," trashy, sensational magazine cover-speak such as that featured on Ok! positively reverberates with irony. I loved "The Hunger Games" film adaptation. It was one of the best and most respectful adaptations I have seen, and the creators c...

Image credit:  Patricio Clarey As I've said before, I'm relatively new to the world of graphic novels and comics. The first graphic novel I ever read was Watchmen, but fortunately, being initiated into the genre by such a monumental and canonical work did not set me up to be disappointed by everything else I encountered. To the contrary, I realized how powerful and moving such a style of storytelling can be. One of the things I like best about the graphic novel genre is that it isn't shallow in the least to make your next reading selection based entirely on the art. In other words, there's no shame in "judging a book by its cover" when it comes to graphic novels. In fact, so far, for me this has proved to be a most rewarding method of choosing my graphic novel reading material. Once you visit the  Archeologists of Shadows  site, it should become self-explanatory why art was the basis for my decision to purchase it.

Two days ago,  Graphicly , an online resource that I have found incredibly neat, announced that they have undergone some changes. For those of you who aren't familiar with Graphicly, it's a service through which, as a reader, you can purchase and download graphic novels, comics, and other visually-based stories. Graphicly is also a place where authors and artists can upload their precious work and begin to distribute it digitally to a very large community. As far I can tell, the changes to Graphicly's services are not drastic - they are simply retiring their old set of applications for iPad, Android, etc. From here on out, if you own an eReader (Barnes & Noble Nook, Kindle, iPad), there will be a larger variety of products available to you, with optimized viewing. (If you downloaded a Graphicly app in the past, it will still work for you, and will always be able to view and read your purchases through that or through the Graphicly website.) I know the whole digita...

So there's this incredibly talented girl named Lindsey Stirling who is known for totally conquering songs (often scores from video games or movies) with her violin and her cute, wide-eyed style. She can sing, dance, cosplay, make beautiful music videos, and of course - play the violin like a boss. This girl does it all. I am a big fan of her projects - particularly  this Lord of the Rings medley  and  this Zelda medley  - but I think I may have a new favorite. She has recruited the skills of a one  Peter Hollens  to create the awesome Skyrim theme violin cover, which you can watch below: So good, right? The music of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is gorgeous and stirring, and I think the two of them do it justice. You can subscribe to Lindsey's YouTube channel  by clicking here.

I first heard about Pinterest through a close friend of mine. Then I was hearing about Pinterest through about five friends of mine. I didn't want any part of it. I thought, what do I need a virtual bulletin board for? I keep my craft ideas in my head or at work, I keep my recipes in my recipe book, and when I have the money to decorate a house (first on the list, buy a house), I will figure out what kind of kitchen I want then. WRONG. I was wrong A) because Pinterest is not just for people who like to cook and craft and B) it is a handy tool in more than one way. What eventually won me over to Pinterest was the fact that I could promote my blog through my account (not aggressively, mind you - Pinterest is not primarily for advertising). My first board was  Geek Gear , which I used to remember geeky objects and art that I thought were adorable so I could share them with fellow geeks and blog about them - bringing attention to the artist - if I felt compelled to.