Your Friday Awesome: Sonia Sotomayor, "being a princess is not a career"

Your Friday Awesome: Forget the RNC, Meditate On These Water Balloons

That is all.

Your Friday Awesome: Ode to Joy Flash Mob

Okay, I have a quibble with the definition of "flash mob," but the beauty of this is amazing. I love the close ups of the crowd reaction, and as a choir nerd the cut to the dad in the choir with his kid on his shoulders makes me want to find a choir to join yesterday.

h/t Shakesville.

Your Friday Awesome: Forget Unicorns, Whale Spouts Magical Rainbows

Wait for it...shazaam!!!

Your Friday Awesome: Calming Manatee

Who doesn't need a little manatee in their day?

Your Friday Awesome: Gertrude (Beer) Stein

As an English and Women's Studies major, and a lover of Amy Poehler I think this might be the most awesome thing ever. scATX of Speaker's Corner made this and shows you how you can to via Zazzle. 

Your Friday Awesome: US Suffrage/Bad Romance Parody

I love me a good history lesson with costumes, choreography and humor.

Your Friday Awesome: Feminist Harry Potter (and Hermione, and Ron)

Another YA series is taking over popculture, but this is still awesome.

Your Friday Awesome: Circle of Six

There is a lot of talk about how technology can be dangerous for (especially young) women - sexting, check-in apps, etc. But technology can also be really useful. Circle of 6 does what a lot of people do already - use your friends to get out of sticky situations.

With two taps (and the tap to get to the app) you can let your friends know where you are if you need a ride or get separated, have a welcome interruption, or help advise you out of an unhealthy situation.

People, myself included, have being doing this with our friends for years, but now you don't need to excuse yourself to go to the bathroom to call or text a buddy. The app does it for you based on a predetermined circle of trusted friends, which is pretty awesome.

The only thing that Circle of 6 doesn't do is my #1 rule of dating: Make sure someone knows where you are and who you are with before you go on the date.

Your Friday Awesome: Children's Gendered Advertising Remixer

Pick a commercial targeting boys and one targeting girls and swap the audio. The result is pure awesomeness. Sure its hilarious, but it also points out the extreme division of constructed gendered norms.

What really strikes me is that the cuts and punctuation in all of these commercials is exactly the same. Further proof that many children's toys are derivative and void of any true thought. So yeah, the state of kids toys? Not awesome. Screwing with the system? Totally awesome.

This also makes me really glad that we don't have cable. When the kid finally gets to watch television he can watch Sesame Street and Yo Gabba Gabba commercial-free.

Your Friday Awesome: Jailbreak the Patriarchy

Jailbreak the Patriarchy is a Chrome extension that swaps the gendered pronouns in your browser. Technological genderf*cking. Pretty awesome.

Your Friday Awesome: The Longest Shortest Time

Do you have a baby? Do you know someone who has a baby? Are you about to have a baby? Are you thinking about having a baby? Soon? Ten years from now? Are you now, or may you in the future be around anyone that may have a baby?

Yes? Good. LISTEN TO THIS PODCAST.

I read all the books. All the blogs. I had a few friends that had babies. I was once a baby who was parented by a mother who shared stories about my babyhood. I was not prepared to have a baby.

The first few months are hard. Those first few weeks are very hard. You need to know that everyone else thinks they are hard too, but most importantly you also need to know that those first few weeks and months that feel like they will never end, that you will never stop being required to keep a person alive solely with what is made of your own body, that you will never stop smelling like spit up and spoiled milk, that you will never be able to control your hormones...that will all end. It will end soon. It will end faster than your required quarter of Western Civ. It will end more quickly than a season of American Idol.

It will end.

And the moments that are amazing, that make you laugh, that make you think you might just be totally capable at this, that make you think you could never love any person more (but not so much that you sob every time you think about it) will be much more frequent. The moments that you enjoy your baby will greatly outnumber the moments that are hard, and you will begin to forget the time when they didn't - and that, my friends, is awesome.

Your Friday Awesome: Everyone Wants Grandbabies

This is family. This is love. This is pretty much the exact same reaction I got from my mom.

Rick Perry and the rest of the homophobes can suck it.

Your Friday Awesome: Adorable Arthur Recreates Movie Scenes

12 Angry Men Bunnies and Bears

Meet Arthur. He re-enacts scenes from movies. Seriously, how do these moms have the wherewithal to be so darn creative during postpartum hormonal craziness?

The American Beauty one is a little cringe-worthy except that Arthur looks absolutely adorable - and quite like my kid.

Your Friday Awesome: Hurry Up and Wait

That was the view from me on Tuesday. You'll note that my toes are nowhere in sight. What you don't see is my swollen feet and sausage fingers that almost made me drop my phone while I took it. On Tuesday, I was 37 weeks pregnant and still at work. Today, I am still 37 weeks pregnant, but on my couch archiving all of my email and making sure (one last time) that my fabulous coworkers have what they need to take care of things while I'm on maternity leave...which means that come this Monday, I do not have to haul my 38 week pregnant butt through downtown San Francisco - and that, my friends, is awesome.

Your Friday Awesome: Don't Be a D!ck About It

While I think this should be embedded before most comment threads, there are a number of people in real life I may start singing this to.

Your Friday Awesome: HATS!!!

"Beatrice! It’s like fallopian tubes meet Mickey Mouse ears." - Jill, Feministe

Seriously, I could kind of give a crap about the royal wedding, though I'm glad this time around it seems we have less "young, naive girl becoming a princess" and a bit more "worldly, educated woman becoming a princess" who actually seemed to enjoy herself a bit.

Either way, the hats did not disappoint.

Your Friday Awesome: 10 Year-Old's Rant on Gender Stereotypes

A couple of weeks ago I got to hang out with a friend's 10 year-old daughter. She was pretty awesome. We discussed how growing pains suck and the finer points of popular culture (Tiger Beat still exists!). Turns out she is not alone.

10 year-old Eliza in Indiana was inspired to write an "editorial" to the boys of the world after reading answers to the question, "What's the biggest difference between boys and girls?" in a Mini Boden catalogue.

Some highlights:

Dear Boys from around the World,

There is just one ting I have to say before I go on. STOP BEING SO STEREOTYPICAL!

...Like I said I HATE pink. I despise it. HACK See I spat on it. That's how much I hate pink.

...For one thing though I do like nail polish, but not just Boys like soccer. For example my friend Heidi is a master soccer player. You mess with her, she kicks you in the shins, or maybe just trips you on the field. Seriously I think you should stay away. For reals.

I'm with 'ya, Eliza. I also hated pink, purple and dresses. You can read the whole thing here.

Your Friday Awesome: Cool Chicks From History

Cool Chicks from History might just convince me that Tumblr is all its cracked up to be. It would have been my go-to source in junior high and high school every time I got to pick a subject for a research paper.

Your Friday Awesome: The internet is made of cats

Its been a week. I am suddenly very pregnant, have a cold, am nursing my cat back to health - not to mention our government is full of fuckwits. Thankfully the internet is made up of videos about cats being cute.