We’ve all heard those platitudes. If you live with your parents, then you probably still hear them on a daily basis. If you struggle with breakfast, I am totally with you. It is difficult to get up in the morning – even more difficult to chow down breakfast when you are barely awake.

Your best bet? Some cereal. To add a little more motivation, throw in some of these cereal box designs by Ian Glaubinger. This prolific artist has a lot of work in his portfolio, but it’s the cereal box art series that holds my attention right now. Take a look.

Cereal Box Art

I have never seen Gremlins – unthinkable, but I don’t do horror films. Even 80s horror comedy films. I would not mind seeing this creature in my cereal box, though. It’s not that scary. :P

The Ghostbusters is something else. Who wouldn’t want a view of the guys and slimer while waking up and chomping down some crunchy cereal semi-soaked in milk? The only thing missing? Ecto-1!

I can imagine many a child (or child-at-heart) staring at this cereal box design trying to get rid of the cobwebs of sleep. If 1.21 Jiggawatts can give me time travel powers, get me 10 of these Back to the Future cereal boxes!

Roald Dahl on Cereal Boxes

Let me diverge. I also read that the supermarket chain Asda will be putting some art and literature into their own cereal boxes. No Ghostbusters or Gremlins, but something that also delights me – excerpts from the works of child lit author Roald Dahl. Think The Witches and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. No designs have been released, but this is something to look out for. I wouldn’t mind seeing something along the lines of this image, together with the excerpts.

Angry Birds Augmented Reality Game – on a Cereal Box!

Since we’re on the topic of cereal boxes, here’s one more: Angry Birds, no less. The latest installation in the Angry Birds game franchise has already been made into a movie, and apparently, it also made it to cereal box history. All you need is the cereal box (with pertinent parts cut out), a web cam, a computer, and the Internet. The video below shows how the augmented reality game works.

With all this talk about cereal boxes, I can just imagine Sheldon having a blast arranging these boxes alphabetically. Or not.

Tell me honestly – do you sit through the intro of the show every time you watch it or do you skip the intro? Here’s my confession for the week – I sit through it every single time and I even try to sing along. (Yup, I have been told one time too often that I watch TBBT too much.)

In any case, for those of you who have enough time on your hands and are detail-oriented enough, here is a compilation of every single image in the intro section of TBBT. Believe it or not, there are 111 images shown in that seemingly short span of time! It took the guy 2 hours to put this thing together. Unfortunately, the entire image is too large to show in the post, so I just got a snippet. If you click on the image below, though, you can view the whole thing.

I stumbled upon another set of images, wherein the intro of TBBT is dissected. It was done by Harald Kraft about a year ago. The post is more detailed and each image is taken separately, but there are only 109 images included. Here is a sampling of what awaits you.

You might have already figured it out, but this is Christopher Columbus.

This one is Mt. Kilauea in Hawaii.

This is radiolaria, which is a kind of protozoa.

Tell me that isn’t worthwhile reading!

I ran across this freebie that will certainly take you down memory lane. A guy who calls himself Hey Oscar Wilde has decided to play Santa and bring Christmas early to Star Wars fans who like to keep their hands busy. He is sharing designs that can be ironed-on to t-shirts – all of them high quality images. More details straight from the horse’s mouth:

Here’s a Christmas gift for you.
All 16 Star Wars iron on transfers taken from The Star Wars Iron On Transfer Book (Ballantine Books/1978). Download the zip file with all 16 optimized images available here (if this doesn’t work or expires, shoot me a message and I’ll re-up. I just tested it and it works fine).Print the image you choose on the highest quality on special iron on paper (the Epson offering seems to get good reviews on amazon) and transfer to your t-shirt. Actual image size is 5 1/2 inches by 7 inches.
Thanks for following me these past few months.

Here’s the download link for the free decals.

Some of you may already know how to do this, but for the n00bs, here’s a helping hand from WikiHow.

Have fun!

For a while there, The Big Bang Theory seemed to lose just a little bit of its extraordinary humor. As much as I love the TV series, I thought that Season 3 was not as funny as the first two. Then came Season 4. I think many of you will agree that it is the funniest of all the four seasons.

In any case, we all know who the four geeks are. We all know about their girlfriends, or “girl/friend” in Sheldon’s case. But, how many of us know about the guys behind the scientific quips in the show? While I am sure that a good number of you would readily raise your hands if that question were asked of you, let’s take the time to acknowledge the guy behind the “real” physics.

So who is David Saltzberg, and why is he needed by the show? The writers are, after all, knowledgable in their own right. Bill Prady, the executive producer, used to be a software engineer.

David Saltzberg is a physics professor at UCLA by day. When he needs to take a break, he goes to the set of TBBT. Okay, maybe not all the time – his role as a consultant is still a job, but it is one heck of a job! He also provides the writers with scientifically sound information – ideas and props that would not be out of place in a real lab, for example.

For example, those boards that Sheldon and the rest of the guys obsess about? They contain real equations, and one of them actually featured top quark equations that Saltzberg worked on. He also asks for help from his colleagues when he isn’t able to come up with answers immediately.

The next time you don’t quite get the science behind an exchange between the guys of TBBT, I suggest visiting The Big Blog Theory, where Saltzberg discusses his work with the show.

Photo via Big Bang Forum

Nurse: Where is the rest of the robot?

Wolowitz: I only made the arm/hand.

Nurse: Oh, because that is all that you need, isn’t it?

Now go watch that episode – you won’t regret it!

This is not about TBBT, though. It’s about this new robot arm that a team led by Eric Brown has developed. Dubbed the Universal Gripper, the prototype does not have a hand as we conventionally perceive one. Instead of fingers and a palm, the robot has a beanbag. This beanbag is essential in the proper handling of things – force of the grip and the like. I think it is better if you actually see the Universal Gripper in action.

Imagine that – from a tiny light bulb to a heavy shock absorber to a delicate raw egg, this robot can pick them up! It can even write!

One question does stand out: can a simple blob ever replace the functionality that four fingers and a thumb provide? As cool as this robot arm is, I don’t think that Wolowitz will choose it over his own version of a robot arm. ;)

This does not come as a surprise as The Woz is not exactly new to the TV scene. Who can forget his stint on Dancing with the Stars? While he received some of the harshest criticism as he tried to keep up with the rest of the contestants, his supporters did not leave his side. (Does “It was like a Teletubby going mad in a gay pride parade” ring a bell?)

The Woz also used to date Kathy Griffin, and he appeared on her show every now and then. I dare say his appearance on The Big Bang Theory will draw a large audience – maybe even surpass the highest ratings that the TV series has had. His announcement already made a new “convert”:

Thierry Méchain – Just as my wife and I watched DWtS only up until your last performance, we’ll have to watch Big Bang theory. We didn’t know this show.

Another commenter said:

Rico Vaccaro – Hope you get more scenes with Penny rather than Sheldon ;)

I’d have to disagree with that, though. Encounters between Sheldon and The Woz will certainly be interesting. I can already imagine Sheldon saying something about Apple Geniuses, among other things!

Needless to say, I cannot wait for the next season.

Off the top of my head, I can name four reasons.

1. He was forced to go to a mixer courtesy of Raj’s Green Lantern lantern. He went further than acquiring the lantern – he actually went to the mixer carrying the lantern with him in case his ring needed to be recharged1
2. He was bribed to go out with a girl for the second time, again courtesy of Raj – this time he gave up his Hulk gloves. I really need not say more, do I? By the way, these first two reasons are from the same episode (The Psychic Vortex).
3. He has a Cylon toaster. Considering that I am in a BSG mode right now, this really ought to be number one on my list. And yes, there really are Cylon toasters out there.
4. He is smarter than everyone else; he knows it; and he will not hesitate to point it out. Isn’t this trait of his just charming? In other people, it would probably be irritating, but when Sheldon does his thing, you just can’t help but smile and shake your head.

I found a similar list – same concept, different reasons – at TechRepublic about why Dr. Sheldon Cooper is TV’s biggest geek. You might want to check it out.

Parting question for Sheldon fans: what makes him the best geek on TV for you?

The Chinese geeks were what came to mind when I found out about a group of four young men from Fudan University; and unlike the characters in the TV series, these guys are for real. Wang Xinyu, Xu Jian, Zhang Kan, and Lu Yuanda have become celebrities in their country and have even been dubbed as the “Chinese Big Bang Theory” guys.

I am not surprised in the least bit. Someone was bound to do a Big Bang Theory thing one of these days…

They started out making videos of themselves giving “lectures,” called Room 5023 Lectures. Obviously, that’s the number of their room at the dormitory. Their room is typical of what you’d expect from four young men living together in school – messy, cramped, and cluttered. There’s something special about it, though – everything can be controlled remotely. In a dorm where there is no cable TV access, these men somehow have their own cable TV (thanks to a computer they configured). They also have all sorts of inventions lying around.

So what has made them famous (in China, at least)? I watched some of their video series on their web site i5023, and I have to admit I didn’t understand a thing despite the translation that Google Chrome offered me. It seems that they are having a lot of fun, though, and I actually found myself chuckling every now and then even if I didn’t understand a word they were saying. They’re definitely not Sheldon and Leonard, though!

I would really love to understand their videos. Anyone here speak/understand Chinese???

Most of us geeks are fans of the TV show The Big Bang Theory but until recently I could only tell you that the Big Bang was an explosion that created matter and existence. The details where beyond me.

One month ago the Large Hadron Collider in CERN collided particles for the first time to recreate the Big Bang, it was all over the news and yet most people where oblivious to what exactly was done at the CERN. I spend at least a couple of hours on Wikipedia reading up on the Bose Higson particle.

Now you can learn about the Big Bang with an illustrated and rhyming book, Bang! The Universe Verse, created by twenty-six year old James Lu Dunbar.

From the beginning of existence to the birth of galaxies, you’ll learn how matter was created, why stars shine and where we fit in this wild and crazy universe.

This comic book is for all ages and very suitable for teaching kids about the Big Bang. I read it myself and while I still don’t get everything about protons, neutrons, etc. I know a lot more then before I read the comic book. You’ll have a better understanding of what the Big Bang really is, even though you learned it at school, most of us have forgotten what we learned.

The illustration is about an old couple of which the male looks a bit like Albert Einstein. Together they show you the creation of universe while explaining it in rhyme verses.

Well if they explained this to me like this when I was a kid I think chances are very high I would remember it today. Heck I think if everything science was taught like this if you are a kid it is bound to stay with you.

According to the author it will be a four part comic book with this one being the first part naturally. You can read the book online for free or buy a paperback version for 12,95 dollars.

My level of geekyness is not high enough to be familiar with Wil Wheaton, it is thanks to The Big Bang Theory that I learned about him. And since his last guest stint as Evil Wil Wheaton I found his blog with an entry detailing all behind the scene events when he guest starred on the show.

Best of all he had a photo taken of himself last year sitting on Sheldon’s spot after filming “The Creepy Candy Coating Corollary”.

This photo led to the creation of a comic about Sheldon finding out that Wil Wheaton sat in his spot.

This comic is titled “The Revenge and was created by Dragonsden Comics.

Sheldon is always funny, even when used in a fans comic. I regularly come across Sheldon quotes by friends on my Facebook. In a weird way Sheldon makes being a geek cool. I still haven’t grown tired of The Big Bang Theory, they make me laugh every time. And I feel proud of being a geek when Sheldon say stuff like “…the Internet Explorer to my Firefox” and to know there are probably lots of people who don’t get the joke. A certain level of geek cred is required to get most of the jokes.

Wil Wheaton photo from Wil Wheaton

“The Revenge” comic by Dragonsden Comics

The best ones are the get well card with the lyrics from the soft kitty song that Penny sings to Sheldon when he is sick. These will make great cards to give to family and friends who are also a fan of “The Big Bang Theory”. I have boxes full of get well cards and they sure are nice, especially because the person who send it thinks of you. But the cards texts are barely unique now a day, I have cards all with the same text but different design.

If it was me getting this card it would brighten my day!

The other cool “The Big Bang Theory” product on Etsy is the hat Sheldon wore in episode 313, The Bozeman reaction. When he decides to move to Bozeman for its low crime rate. It is that I’m glad that winter is coming to an end otherwise I would have ordered one right away.

If you search on Etsy you will come across more stuff, like t-shirts, magnets, etc. But none are of my taste, unless I come across a t-shirt I like I’m thinking about making my own and have it printed with an online service.

Soft Kitty Get Well Card –
Bozite hat

Anyhow, so what else do I have to say about the show that I need to write a second post about it? For fellow Big Bang Theory lovers, you know that Penny (the hot blonde chick who lives across the hall and who has become one of the guys somehow) and Leonard (the geeky physicist who lives with the geekiest guy in the world, Sheldon) have hooked up. It happened right after the geeks came back from a 3-month expedition on the North Pole, courtesy of a study of Sheldon’s. I guess the separation made them (or Penny, rather) realize that there is something going on between the couple.

This brings me to my question: would anything like this actually happen in real life? Come on, while we have to admit that being a geek these days has become a rather cool thing, it’s still the hunky looking guys that gets the girls at the bar. If you don’t believe that, try going out tonight and hitting on some girls. (I am assuming you’re one of us.)

The Penny-Leonard thing is definitely one of the interesting plot points in the show, but I just can’t help but wonder if the writers are making a mistake on this. What do you guys say?