By artist Berry Presh. Poor Hulk — he feels left out!

Via Geek Tyrant.

This mashup by illustrator James Hance (previously featured on this blog for his Wookie the Pooh pieces) is too adorable not to share.

Titled “Someone Who Loves You,” this sweet painting features Up‘s Carl Fredricksen and his wife Ellie as Han and Leia from Star Wars. Prints will be available Tuesday on Hance’s website.

Via io9.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

For a sweet Valentine’s surprise, type this into a Google search:

sqrt(cos(x))*cos(300x)+sqrt(abs(x))-0.7)*(4-x*x)^0.01, sqrt(6-x^2), -sqrt(6-x^2) from -4.5 to 4.5

Too lazy or suspicious to try it for yourself? What will happen is that the algebraic equation will plot out a graph in the shape of a heart, like so:

Feel free to share this with your geeky friends!

Via Mashable. 

We do our best not to push our girls into stereotypical gender roles or characteristics. And while we would secretly love it if they turn into tomboys, we never force them to play (or not play) with certain toys and encourage them to allow their own preferences to develop.

As it turns out, our 16-month-old Claire is becoming the exact opposite of a tomboy.

She is, in fact, turning into a frilly girl.

Our suspicions started about a month ago, when we began to let her “choose” her own clothes. (We give her an option of weather- and activity-appropriate clothes to choose from.) And wouldn’t you know it — she would ALWAYS pick something pink.

And just in case it was a fluke —

“Why don’t we wear this pretty blue one instead? Or this brown one?”

She would vehemently shake her head and reach for the pink. ALWAYS.

(image source)

Now that her hair is getting long enough to pin up, we have started to put to use the many hair pins and barrettes we have received as gifts. She loves them and asks us to put them in her hair every morning. She will then take the leftovers and try to put them in my hair, as well as Aerin’s.

She has a jade bangle bracelet that J’s mother gifted to her when she was born…and insists on wearing this every day too. She even shows it off to strangers!

She poses in front of the mirror. She watches intently whenever I put on makeup (and loves it when I take a makeup brush and fluff it over her face). She is fascinated by jewelry, and I can already picture her a year or two down the road, playing dress up and draping all of mommy’s jewelry over herself.

Last week was Aerin’s 100th Day Celebration, so I decided to splurge a little and bought both girls adorable dresses from Baby Gap. When I came home and showed Claire her dress, her eyes lit up by about 100 watts. She laughed, and buried her face into her new dress. She took my hand and led me into her room, and motioned for me to change her.

The dress I had chosen for Claire has a tulle lining that makes the skirt fluff out. She absolutely adored this feature and kept playing with the skirt of the dress, swishing it back and forth. She wouldn’t stop giggling and repeatedly posed in front of the mirror. She spent the next hour or so walking back and forth between the mirror in her room to the mirror in J and my room to check herself out.

And when it came time to take off the dress? Banshees wailing. Niagara Falls. I couldn’t remember the last time she cried this hard.

Yep, we definitely have a girly girl on our hands. 

I cannot help but wonder where she developed these early preferences. Magazines? The little amount of TV we allow her to watch? Observing how others dress and present themselves? We have certainly not purposely encouraged these partialities, but could we have subconsciously done it?

Are we disappointed? Hardly. There are so many things that parents wish for their kids, but we never love them any less for not fulfilling them. If anything, we just see these instances as mere surprises.

Besides, as J — the metrosexual — likes to say, “Hopefully, now there will be at least one female in the household who cares about fashion and likes to go shopping with me!”

It’s been a long day. Looking at these sugar-sweet illustrations from Berlin-based artist Ingrid Aspöck is exactly what I needed — I hope that they put a smile on your face too!

Via Bit Rebels.