A couple weeks back I tweeted this but it deserves a full blown post.   Vancouver had it’s FanExpo back in April, but something extraordinarily special happened at the one in Calgary.  Jennifer Black-Moar who just had a brand new baby daughter asked Wil Wheaton to explain to her daughter “what does it mean to be a nerd.” and his response is what captured on video and is as follows.

My name is Wil Wheaton. It’s 2013. And you’ve just recently joined us on planet Earth. So welcome. I’m an actor. I’m a writer. And I’m a Dad. Your mother asked me to tell you why it’s awesome to be a nerd. That’s an easy thing for me to do because I am a nerd.

I don’t know what the world is going to be like by the time you understand this. I don’t what it’s going to mean to be a nerd when you are a young women. For me, when I was growing up, being a nerd meant that I liked things that were a little weird. That took a lot of effort to appreciate and understand. It meant that I loved science, and that I loved playing board games, and reading books, and really understanding what went on in the world instead of just riding the planet through space.

When I was a little boy, people really teased us about that, and made us feel like there was something wrong with us for loving those things. Now that I’m an adult, I’m kind of a professional nerd, and the world has changed a lot. I think a lot of us have realized that being a nerd … it’s not about what you love. It’s about how you love it.

So, there’s going to be a thing in your life that you love. I don’t know what that’s going to be … and it doesn’t matter what it is. The way you love that, and the way that you find other people who love it the way you do is what makes you a nerd. The defining characteristic of [being a nerd] is that we love things. Some of us love Firefly and some of us love Game of Thrones, or Star Trek, or Star Wars, or anime, or games, or fantasy, or science fiction. Some of us love completely different things. But we all love those things SO much that we travel for thousands of miles … we come from all over the world, so that we can be around people who love the things the way that we love them.

That’s why being a nerd is awesome. And don’t let anyone tell you that that thing that you love is a thing that you can’t love. Don’t anyone ever tell you that you can’t love that, that’s for boys … you find the things that you love, and you love them the most that you can.

And listen: This is really important. I want you to be honest, honorable, kind. I want you to work hard. Because everything worth doing is hard. And I want you to be awesome, and I will do my very best to leave you a planet that you can still live on.

The message is universal for those that have felt they were on the fringe for displaying the love of what they love, and as he says, “it’s not about what you love, it’s about how you love it. ”  And for me those people love with a passion.

Simon Pegg has his a similar spin on it,

Well, Dave DeGobbi’s Crawler Town is in the news again.  Late last week, the organizers of Vancouver Mini-Maker Faire were impressed and called us up asking for some hi-res images of his creation for the Vancouver Province newspaper to use.  Fortunately, builder and designer Dave DeGobbi had these photos taken already and here’s the end result.

For the full article, please visit the Province newspaper website.

For more photos head to Dave’s Crawler Town Flickr page or better yet come see it for yourself at Vancouver Mini-Maker Faire next weekend, June 1st and 2nd, 2013 at the PNE Forums from 10am to 6pm.  As well, you’ll see for the first time a LEGO steam punk version of Star Wars Cloud City and Fun Haus!, an amusement style ride for minifigs based on the Mexican Day of the Dead.

Did you miss out on attending the One Year Anniversary of the LEGO Brand Retail Store at the Oakridge Mall and the 8 foot tall LEGO Yoda build?    Well, if you did, no fear,  Novus TV captured a portion of the build with LEGO® Master Builder Dan Steininger along with the countless many youngsters (and young at heart) who came out to help.

Congratulations LEGO Store Oakridge Mall on your one year anniversary and here’s to many more years!  Fortunately, they don’t celebrate the one year with paper, but in ABS brick.

This was one of the instore free giveaways with purchase.

Vancouver LEGO Club brick artist Paul Hetherington has released his photos of LEGO Lady Gaga castle tour set including a video of it all in action and set to Lady Gaga’s song Just Dance.  Crank up the volume and click on the photo below to start the video.

Paul has taken the time to recreate many of the iconic moments and outfits from Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Ball tour.  It went to BrickCascades in Portland earlier this year and I’m not sure where this MOC is going to show up next on display (but we’ll let you know when it does).  For more photos of Paul’s LEGO Gaga, please go to BrickBaron’s Flickr photostream

Lego Lady Gaga, Black Jesus, Amen Fashion