February 2011 Archives

We tweeted last week that we were working on a pee-in-your-pants-awesome secret project and to please send diapers. To the smartypants who sarcastically asked what size diapers we needed--or if used ones were okay--we hope you've got some protective undergarments handy. 'Cause we're about to punch you in the bladder.

As of today, not only are we officially carrying the collectible Geek A Week card pack #1, featuring the Jonathan Coulton, John Scalzi, Veronica Belmont, Fred Seibert, Rifftrax, Bonnie Burton, MC Frontalot, and Ken Plume, but we've also launched the most amazingly awesome geek auction of your dreams.

Or maybe it's just our dreams, because it really pains us to let these things go. But all the proceeds go to charity so we'll just pretend we didn't just temporarily own:

• Road spikes from MythBusters signed by Adam Savage
• "Pirate Cinema" manuscript signed by Cory Doctorow
• Honey gathered from Neil Gaiman's own private apiary
• Battlestar Galactica's "Chief" figurine signed by Aaron Douglas
• LEGO baseball sculpture & book signed by Nathan Sawaya
• "When I Grow Up" signed by Al Yankovic
• "The Guild" comic issue #1 signed by entire cast
• ... and a slew of equally bladder-pinching items

Are you taking this diaper thing seriously yet!?

There are 30 items total, and they're listed to last 10 days for maximum drool inducement. All proceeds will be split 50/50 between two of our favorite charities, EFF and Child's Play, and a huge, huge, omgyouguysareepicineveryway thanks to all the past Geek A Weeks who donated these items for the auction, and of course artist Len Peralta for making it all happen. It's an honor for us to be a part of the Geek A Week project.

Wait, why are you still reading this? Go bid!

About Geek A Week and the auction

The auctions are in honor of the first-ever Geek A Week Card pack now available at ThinkGeek. The cards began in March 2010 as a one-year art project by cartoonist and generally awesome d00d Len Peralta to draw and interview an admired geek each week. With the copywriting superpowers of Paul and Storm, Len met his goal.

ThinkGeek has taken up the challenge to actually make Len's digital-only project, and this first Geek A Week #1 card pack contains 8 collectible cards displaying the vital facts about geeks you know and love--and maybe some new characters you'll be happy to meet. The #1 card pack is part of a finite run and will not be available again once supplies run out!

Very generous geeks from Len's 52-card stack have donated various items from their own private collections of geekery to share with you, and all proceeds will be split between Electronic Frontier Foundation to support digital rights and Child's Play to supply toys, games, and books for hospitalized children.

The complete collection of GAW eBay auctions can be found here.

Students from Ms. O's Providence, RI class need mathy materials

UPDATE 2/14 10:45am ET:

Here comes our big, sloppy PDA moment--public displays of appreciation, of course, for teachers inspiring the geeks of tomorrow with small budgets and big plans.

In all, 535 projects were nominated and ~3,000 votes were cast in this year's Project Geek<3. Because some of the projects in our top 5 had such large dollar amounts left to go, we decided to split our $1,000 donation between them, rather than completing the first, then moving on to the second, and so on. We think this will be a better way to spread the geek<3, and perhaps some of our readers will be inspired to donate as well...? WONDER GEEK POWERS, ACTIVATE!

So without further ado, our top five classrooms receiving $200 each are:

1. Kinder Pad, Mrs. R.'s classroom in San Fernando, California wants an iPad to use during class activities ($501 to go)
2. Learning in Living Color: LCD Projector, Ms. H.'s classroom in Chatsworth, California needs a basic projector (completed!)
3. ActivSlate For Active Kids!, Mrs. C.'s classroom in Dillon, South Carolina wants to better use their Promethean Board ($47 to go)
4. Why Did The Chicken Cross The Road? To Lay Another Egg!, Mrs. W.'s classroom in Auburn, Illinois wants to incubate a chicken (completed!)
5. Listening Stations For 4th Graders, Mrs. M.'s classroom in Mascotte, Florida wants to improve group reading sessions ($246 to go)

And because our #2 and #4 winners were so close to completion, we had a bit leftover. Thus we randomly drew a project from the stack and found that we could then fund:

6. Feeling The Fractions With Mini Tiles, Mr. C.'s classroom in Rialto, California needs tiles to help visually and physically understand the concept of fractions ($29 to go)

And our randomly chosen $100 gift certificate winner is Linda H in San Antonio, TX. We'll be contacting you via email soon, Linda!

Thanks to our voters, and thanks especially to those hardworking teachers out there making do while inspiring geeklings!

P.S.: We already heard back from Mrs. W., who has her incubator project funded! She writes,

Dear ThinkGeek,
I am so excited!!! Right now my children are at gym but I cannot wait to share with them that our project was funded! They will be so excited to know that we get to have the incubator and hatch baby chicks this spring! This was the best Valentine's Day gift ever!!! Without companies and individuals supporting teachers, great projects like this would not be happening in classrooms around the U.S. Students and teachers are so blessed to have you helping us teach and learn! Thank you from the bottom of my heart!
With gratitude,
Mrs. W.

Talk about warm fuzzies on Valentine's Day. <3 <3 <3

Original entry, posted 2/7:

Calling all robo-cupids and friends of Timmy!

For the third year in a row we're donating to DonorsChoose.org during project Geek<3, our little Valentine's Day tribute to geeklings still in school. And we need your help choosing which needy classrooms should get a little love.

This year we're donating a total of $1,000 to classrooms as part of year-long goal to give $1,000 a month to charitable organizations during 2011. Your votes will determine which classrooms we give to, in order of popularity, until we hit the $1,000 mark.

And your vote will enter you to win a $100 gift certificate. But we know you'll vote because that's the right thing to do, not because you want stuff. Right? Right.

How to vote (and enter to win):

1. Go to DonorsChoose.org and find a classroom you think needs some geek <3ing. Make a note of the classroom id. For example, if the classroom's url is
   

   http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=500537

   the ID is #500537. We're suckers for the Math & Sciences section, naturally, but don't let that stop you from perusing the rest.
2. Tweet to @thinkgeek (that's us!) the ID number being sure to include the tag #geek<3 somewhere in your tweet so we'll count it as a vote. If you don't include the #geek<3 tag, we might miss it and you won't be entered to win. (Yes, hashtag police, we know Twitter doesn't much like the less than sign, but it doesn't matter; we're using our own hashtagparse-o-bot.) Please vote via Twitter only once a day.
3. Or, if you're not into Twitter, use this form to enter: VOTING IS NOW CLOSED. The form has been exterminated.
4. Vote by 6pm ET on Friday, February 11! Votes after that will go poof into the great nothingness, though we're sure you meant well.

We'll tally up the votes on Valentine's Day and announce the classrooms we'll fund--along with our $100 gift certificate winner--here on the blog, Twitter, and Facebook.

So pull on those circuit board wings and solder your bow and arrow--go pick some classrooms and vote!

Finally, an excuse to post this photo of the Tauntaun sack race from Dragon*Con. Thanks, @Rumielf!

Last week we announced our new plan to donate $1,000 to a charity every month in 2011. Thanks for all the good geeky vibes--it's nice to know you guys are into giving, too.

But we have to especially thank the 120 awesome people* who dedicated their orders to Child's Play! According to our super-secret calculator of extra giving, those orders upped our $1,000 donation to CPC by 8.626 Tauntaun Sleeping Bags--but we decided to send 10 because a .626 Tauntaun isn't very snuggly, and we prefer 1s and 0s anyways.

May the Force be with you, Child's Play! We hope our pile of stuff goes for a jillion dollars at auction so you can help cheer up lots more hospitalized kids.

As for February, we're prepping the Third Annual Geek <3 donation machine for DonorsChoose. We'll open up the classroom voting on February 7th here on the blog so you guys can pick your favorites. Like last year, we'll divvy up the donations to as many classrooms as we can until we hit the $1,000 mark. And your vote will count as an entry to win a $100 gift certificate that we'll announce on Valentine's Day.

Got a special charity you'd like to see us support with $1,000 in March? We're still looking for suggestions! Submit your idea below and we'll open up a list of our favorites for voting in the third week of February. Thanks to the over 140 suggesterator users so far!

* Thanks to these CHILDSPLAY code users: Robert A., c. b., Emilie B., Jessica B., Ryan B., Steven B., Erica B., Benjamin B., Larry B., Warren C., Cynthia C., Gary C., Christopher C., Melissa C., Thomas C., Rebecca C., Colin C., Jeremy C., Laurel C., Steven C., Alexander C., Scott D., Christine D., Jennifer D., Emily E., Gena E., Robin F., Stephen F., Wes F., John F., chelly f., Heather F., Kristin F., Angel G., Christopher G., Andrew G., Becky G., Suzanne G., Colby H., Sarah H., Erik H., Debbie H., Martin H., Emily H., Karen H., Sean I., Jonathan K., Greg K., Benjamin K., Brian K., Karen L., Carl L., Dylan L., Jennifer L., Ian L., Brandon L., Kathyrn M., Holly M., Mysteree M., Cody M., desiree m., Timothy M., Lauren M., Jen N., Richard N., Cherylynn O., Kathleen P., Samantha P., Jim P., Benjamin P., Laura P., Jeremy P., Madigan R., Emma R., Jillianne R., James R., matt r., Jeisler S., Alexis S., Casey S., Liberty S., Chas S., Shelly S., JASON S., Peter S., Donovan S., Brady T., Sean T., Katherine V., jess v., Meg W., Jennifer W., Maribeth W., spencer w., Kyle W., Brandi W., Pamela W., Preston Z., Michelle Z.