Being Geek Chic is a blog about one woman navigating the male-dominated industries of production and tech. It's written by Elizabeth Giorgi, Founder, CEO and Director of Mighteor - one of the world's first internet video production companies. Learn more about Mighteor here.
Alicia Gibb is an artist, an engineer, a rule breaker and a hardware hacker. She’s also the founder of Lunchbox Electronics, a company that creates innovative and playful products with imagination and a hardcore passion for open source hardware. It’s R&D plus art and a healthy dose of geekiness.
And get this: Gibb created Build Upons—LEGO-compatible, light-up bricks. Put us on that pre-order list asap.
In the meantime, check out this stellar lady geek’s Q&A with us!
Q: What was your inspiration for launching Lunchbox Electronics?
A: I decided to start a company to fund my R&D habits and enable me to mass manufacture products. Lunchbox Electronics is an R&D Lab inspired by art and engineering—my two backgrounds. I mostly just wanted to invent things, sometimes artsy, sometimes engineery, and sometimes just plain silly. Having my own company seemed to be the easiest way to accomplish that.
Q: What’s your current favorite Lunchbox Electronics toy?
A: My favorite toy that we manufacture would be our Stop and Go Soldering Kit. It’s a DIY soldering kit that you can keep playing with by integrating it into your existing LEGO sets once you build it.
My favorite “toy” as in favorite piece of equipment at Lunchbox Electronics is definitely the Lulzbot 3D printer.
Q: When did you discover you were “geeky”?
A: When I was 5, I dressed up as an engineer for Halloween, when I was 6 I went as a robot. I think I knew at a pretty early age.
Q: If you could take any fictional character out for a drink, whom would you choose and what would you drink?
A: I would take out a minion for a job interview, because I have a lot of manufacturing to do! I would probably order a banana shake for solidarity since minions are into that whole banana thing.
Q: What would you tell your 13-year-old self?
A: I would tell my 13-year-old self not to get deterred by a few bad apples out there and trust my gut to go into science - but if I had done that, I might have been too busy being a research scientist at NASA to start my own R&D company. So I guess I would just tell my 13-year-old self that she is awesome!
Emma Bauer is a Being Geek Chic Contributor. Clearly, she’s got great taste. She is a PR enthusiast, dog lover, tea drinker, art appreciator, and of course, aspires to Be Geek Chic. Follow her on Twitter: @emmalynnbauer
I will admit that I’m not awesome at wrapping presents. But the one thing I truly love about the whole gift wrap process is the ribbons, bows, tags and trinkets that you can add to the papered package.
However, finding nerdy gift toppings, well, those are in short supply. So how about some free printables. In this case, LEGO tags! Pairing them with our printable LEGO gift wrap would be fun, but isn’t required.
CLICK HERE OR ON THE IMAGE TO DOWNLOAD THE TAGS:
If you’re wondering how to get the best results, here’s the deets on how to make them work the best of the best:
1. Print on a regular size 8.5 x 11 inch paper.
2. Preferably, use a cardstock or heavy weight paper so they can hold up to a little jostling.
3. If you are going to ribbon, use a small hole punch at the top.
And of course, LEGO is not a required gift for inside said present, but if you manage it, it does make you a little bit more awesome and special and meta and whatnot. Just saying.
If you’re a last minute wrapper like me, I would be a total dorkus if I didn’t mention all the other free holiday printables you can find on this here website:
Happy Wholidays Doctor Who Wrapping Paper
Happy Wholidays Doctor Who Gift Tags
Doctor Who Space Ornaments (Could also be used as gift tags!)
The holidays are a weird time. There’s a chaos and a quiet that converge in a matter of days and it’s always easy to forget why we do all this. Why we shop and wrap and travel and wait and eat and then… sit. But one of the moments that always feels special to me is the AFTER. Late on Christmas evening when I’m sitting with my brother and my family and we’re putting together LEGO or playing a game.
LEGO is a common gift at our house. In part because it’s fun, but also because it can be uniquely collaborative. So of course a LEGO themed wrapping paper only seemed logical. And why not make it free for you to use!
DOWNLOAD THE FREE LEGO WRAPPING PAPER HERE.
Here’s the specs:
Print to a standard 8.5 by 11 inch piece of paper. Most printers should be able to manage the edge (we’ve made it .5 inches and .75 inches, respectively, and then trim the remainder.
I used a standard piece of matte printing paper, but a slightly heavier weight may be good for some projects.
Want some other holiday printable freebies? Check out our archives:
Happy Wholidays Doctor Who Wrapping Paper
Happy Wholidays Doctor Who Gift Tags
Doctor Who Space Ornaments (Could also be used as gift tags!)
I’m kind of a weirdo about managing cords. I hate having unorganized cables and nonsense because, frankly, it can also easily get lost or destroyed and replacing an Apple power cord is ridiculously expensive. And really, there is nothing inherently adorable about cord management… But there are definitely some great options out there if you’re willing to hunt and do a little DIY.
So my first tip is actually a shopping tip. But it’s a good one. Go check out the iCat and iMouse cord wraps/cases for Apple power cords. They come in a variety of sizes, but my favorite is easily the iCat for the MacBook power cord. They are less than $10 and while not the most durable of all the cases, they do make up for it in Happiness Making.
My second tip actually comes from my personal archives. One of the things that commonly happens to me is that I lose track of what cords are for, so I use Washi Tape
to label cords according to their devices. Washi tapes comes in so many cute patterns and colors, it would be a shame to miss out on the opportunity to make those cables at least 20% more fun as well. That tip can be found here, but yeah, it’s pretty damn straight forward.
My favorite cord trick of the year is easily this one: Use LEGO Minifigures
for holding cords in place. GAH! SOOOOOOO CUTE. Honestly, why didn’t anyone think of that sooner? I’m told it stretches the hands out slightly over long periods of time, but hot tip: you can buy replacement hands at the LEGO store or on eBay.
So what’s your cutest cord management trick ever?
We have more than a few grown up toys in our house. Between LEGO and vinyl, we have, well… A LOT. Cue awesome tips on making your grown up house feel so much more fun!
So I wrote this post for Apartment Therapy, but I just knew you all would appreciate the tips. Here are a few of my favorites:
Alright friends, how do you master the toy collection/grown up life at home quandary? Or do you fully embrace it? You can read the rest of the tips over at Apartment Therapy.
