Twitter Virus: Kill it with fire

On both Wednesday and Thursday this week, I discovered I had unwittingly and unwillingly spammed roughly 10-15 people with a DM saying I recommended a site to them - complete with virus-laden link. One of the unfortunate souls to receive this message: David Della Rocco. [cue facepalm]

He may just call in a favor from some friends.

What Happened

 This virus finds its way into your account via your apps. No, not the apps on your phone, but the apps you give access to - the ones you use to link your Twitter account to other accounts and/or pages.

How to tell if you've been hit:

When you try to login, you'll get a message asking you to verify either your email address or your username. From there, you will be prompted to change your password.

As you enter characters, it will tell you just to the right of the top box how strong your password is. When you verify in the bottom box, it tells you the password doesn't match until you've completed inputting all the correct characters. You're then prompted to check your apps.

If you have apps authorized to access your account, it will look something like this:

From an old acct. I haven't had a Blackberry in a looonnng time.

Since there's no way of telling which app(s) are compromised (unless you only have one authorized, as pictured above), your best bet is to revoke access to all.

If you have not been hit, but would like to take preventive measures, go into your Settings.

From there, you'll need to select Apps, then revoke access on either all (best possible option) or just the ones you haven't used in a while or don't recognize (that's what I did Wed. & it happened again Thurs.).

That should take care of the problem and prevent any further issues until this thing is better wrangled in.

Geeky Tags part 2

Howdy!

I've been so busy with work and   getting ready for Fan Days I haven’t gotten a chance to do much of a blog, So I decided to do yet another Geek tag.  Here we go

1. Warrior, thief or wizard?  Wizard

2. What would your patronus be? I honestly don’t know what this is.

3. Who is your favorite superhero? Captain America

4. Marvel or DC?  Marvel, totally a Marvel girl. I do like some DC characters too.  

5. What is your favorite video game? I am not a big Gamer but currently addicted to Civ5

6. PS3, Xbox or Wii?  Only one I have is a Wii, Again not a big Gamer

7. What is the biggest word you know?  Antidisestablishmentarianism 

8. Old bit game or 3D graphics? Both, all depends on the game

9. What is the nerdiest piece of clothing you own? Cosplays

10. Do you have a random useless talent? I can twist my right hand all the way around.


11. If you could have any super power what would it be? To have all the super powers.

Stay Geeky

~DalekChick 

My Top 5 Favorite Couples' Cosplay Ideas

Con-hopping: the favorite pastime for many geeks all over the world. But sometimes it's dangerous to go alone! These are my top 5 picks for cosplaying couples:


5. Han Solo & Leia Organa

This cosplay has been done so many times, yet it never really gets old. This is possibly the most iconic geek couple of all-time, so why wouldn't you cosplay Han and Leia at some point?


4. Harley Quinn & The Joker

The couple who slays together, stays together, right? Well, at least for these two it's true. There have been many variations on this particular idea, and it seems like people have a lot of fun with it.


3. Link & Zelda

 
I've come across more Link and Zelda cosplays than Mario and Peach, so they win out for me as a top couples' cosplay idea. Everybody who's anybody who's ever played a video game EVER knows who Link and Zelda are.


2. Peter Venkman & Dana (Zuul)

I Googled this one and I've seen a very small handful, but I don't understand why this one isn't more popular! Every geek knows the quote: "There is no Dana. Only Zuul." Now go start your sewing machines, you know you want to do this one now.


1. Buttercup & Westley

There have seen many decent attempts, but I have yet to come across a spot-on couple cosplaying as Buttercup and Westley. And I don't just mean getting hair and mannerisms just right; I'd love to see a Buttercup with an elaborate haute couture gown that could almost pass for being the original, or even lowly peasant Buttercup and Westley.


What are some of your favorite couple cosplays? Share your faves in the comments below!

Doctor Who library event

Hello Fellow geeks and Geekettes!

Last Saturday I went to a local library for a Doctor Who day, they are trying to promote kids into reading.   Well it was fun the kids had little paper crafts and made Tardis, and K-9. While the kids did the dean from A&M Commerce did a little lecture on the Doctors.  He did a wonder job and even shows us this “TimeCrash” He was in his dean robe and thought the lecture he took items off and reveals him in 11th doctor cosplay.  My sci-fi was there with our Tardis and I was there in my Dalek dress of course!  It was great to interact with kids and get them interest in books.  

In other notes, I’ve been super busy with Trek Radio stuff and work of course. I do have some exciting news, I will be become a DJ on Trek Radio soon and so to prepared one of the listener  on Trek Radio  help me create this.

  I want to thank you Sketch for the logo. 

Stay Geeky

Dalek Chick 

Kick Writer's Block in the nads: using writing prompts

Writer's block unfortunately happens to all of us writers at some point;  I was originally going to write on another topic, but I got a little stuck and decided to scrap it for later.  Then I needed to figure out another topic to write instead, so I searched through various writing prompts for something that stood out to me as being interesting and fun to try. Finally, on http://creativewritingprompts.com, I found prompt number 75:

Flip through a magazine and create a story around the first image you see.

I didn’t have a magazine handy, so I headed on over to Flickr, moused over Explore, and from the drop-down menu I clicked Galleries (each time you do this, you’re shown a new picture so if you'd like to try this prompt, you likely won't get the same picture).

This is the picture I got:

She walked through her garden as best she could; these days arthritis made it difficult for her to attempt even the simplest of tasks, but she wholeheartedly refused to let it keep her from her garden. It was her sanctuary, the place she came to remember her first date with George, who had later become her husband and, eventually, the father of her three children. In her garden, George was still alive and she was still a young and slender 18 year old woman in a long white dress slowly walking up the aisle of a little country church. She was the frightened young woman in a hospital bed clinging tightly to George's hand as their first child, a girl, made her grand entrance into the world. She was even the anxious mother sitting in the waiting room clinging tightly to George's hand as that same daughter transformed her into a doting grandmother. She had many happy memories of her life, most of them taking place with George at her side, and she relived each one here among her collection of various flowers and plants every day, even the day she closed her eyes to follow George into Heaven. She pruned her favorite rose bush, the same roses she'd carried in her bouquet all those years ago, and tenderly held some to her nose and inhaled their sweet aroma. Her knees bothered her particularly badly that day, so she shuffled over to the little bench she had placed near the roses only a few months earlier. She sat cradling the pruned roses in her hand; a single tear rolled down her wrinkled and careworn face and dropped softly onto the petals as she whispered his name, the last thing that would ever pass through her lips. She closed her eyes as her broken heart stopped beating, her breath leaving in a soft exhale, and she was whole once more.

Not a particularly "geeky" piece of writing, but I am a full-fledged writing geek. I love writing and learning new words and creating pictures through writing, and I like that I get to share this talent with all of you. If you've always wanted to try your hand at writing or maybe haven't written in a while and would like to jump back in, writing prompts are the best way to start if you're drawing a blank or are unsure of where to start. Using prompts allows you to write freely and discover your own personal writing style. I'd like to challenge all of our readers to try out this prompt and share your creations in the comments down below. I look forward to seeing what you guys create!

~ Capt. Shinypants

Geeky Crafts

Hello my Fellow Geek and Geekette,   I have recently got in the kick of making crafty items, like my TARDIS Garment bag. So I wanted to share with ya’ll some of my finding when I was looking for more crafty things I can do!

Glue gun and Phasers -I first came hear about this person, through Trek radio. They did a live interviewer with her at Star Trek: Las Vegas.  She was how make a tissue box in a Borg  cube and  turning shoes into cool looking comic book shoes, in which I will try to do soon.

Geek Crafts -  This was one I found in research, this one had many different people submitting items they have done.   One of the items I enjoy was the pincushion zombie brain.

Nerdy Girlie- She only has few DIY but they are awesome ones! I have personally done the while bleach the shirt one before.

Priority One Podcast- Now this isn’t a crafty podcast they mainly focus on  Star Trek Online stuff but they  do  little segments and this one was how make TOS Style Andorran Antennae

 Have fun crafting! Please Tweet or Facebook us you creation if you decide to make any of them!

Stay Geeky~Dalek Chick 

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Last week was vacation for me. It kicked off with Space City Con in Houston, TX (pics here!) then I went to Galveston for the rest of the week. On Thursday (August 8th) I went to the NASA Space Center in Houston. They have the Galileo shuttle there now, which was restored using as many pieces of the original prop as possible.

Yup. I sneaked a Tribble into the Space Center.

Galileo! Galileo! Galileo! Figaro!

They also have a DS9 uniform shirt on display that was actually on the International Space Station (ISS).

I also took one of the two offered TRAM tours. The one I rode on went to Mission Control. Luckily enough, we got to see the brand new control room. It's so new, there were photographers down in the room doing a photo shoot while our group was wildly snapping pics of our own.

Lads and lasses, the sleek and sexy new Mission Control.

Our MC guide (middle picture in the center) told us that this week they were going to acquaint employees with all the new technology and run mission simulations to thoroughly train everyone on the new equipment. There are even small touchscreen pads to the side of each desk monitor that allows for text communication between the workstations. Our guide also filled us in on the impending Orion mission.

If you haven't heard of it, where have you been living???

The Orion mission intends to put human beings on Mars. Talk about science fiction becoming science fact! There is a small window of opportunity in which six months is spent traveling to the red planet, 45 days of exploration/taking samples/etc., then a six month journey back to Earth. However, if there is a delay for any reason during this window, the astronauts will have to spend an entire year on Mars before the widow comes back around for the journey back, resulting in a full two-year mission (six months there, a year on surface, six months back).

On a side note, on August 15th NASA held their first recovery test on the Orion module, and intend to begin test flights in 2014.

The Space Center has the 1:18 model on display with a giant wall explaining the Orion mission.

For updates on further tests and such, I highly recommend following @NASA_Orion on Twitter.

I also took in the little ISS program they have, which explains what life is like for astronauts aboard the ISS: how they sleep, exercise, use the restroom, eat, etc. It also explains the impact of testing on cells in microgravity. Up on the Space Station, cells reproduce faster and larger, making specimens easier to grow and affording scientists many samples to work with in experiments. This kind of research has the chance to revolutionize modern medicine as we know it and possibly grant scientists and doctors the chance to find cures faster for some of the most terrible and debilitating diseases.

Is that not AMAZING?!

I highly recommend going, and if you have the chance (unlike myself, didn't have the time unfortunately), you should definitely visit the Johnson Space Center. Knowledge is power, and this place is at no loss for either.

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BONUS:

Guess who got to sit in the Captain's chair of the 1701-D restored bridge at Space City?

Shiny on the bridge!