Subscribe to the podcast here in iTunes and RSS.

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Current Science Fiction Television
Friday from 5:30 PM to 7:00 PM in San Tomas
(with Lon Sarver, Ian Grey, D.M. Pratt and Deborah M. Pratt)

Panelists discuss current current SF/F TV broadcast now on ALL
networks, not just the Syfy channel. It’s all prime time now!

The Evolution of Video Games
Saturday from 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM in Ballroom D
(with Lex Scheuble, Tim Crowley, Robert Toland)

From Asteroids and Pong to PC and Xbox 360, our video games have gone
from simple to very complex, from simple arcade games to story-driven
entertainment to exercises in building complete civilizations. Has the
allure increased, or has it turned into a demographic niche? What might
be in our video game future? Join the discussion with our panel of
Gamers and Game Reviewers.

Geek Girls Unite: How Fangirls, Bookworms, Indie Chicks, and other Misfits
are taking over the World.
Saturday from 2:30 PM to 4:00 PM in Ballroom E-F-G
(with Lex Scheuble, Denisen Hartlove, Leslie Simon, Sally RoseRed Robinson, Josephine Gray)

Geekdom, it’s not just for guys anymore! A discussion on how Geek Girls
are influncing the world of SF/F, Gaming, and Comics and becoming a
major force at conventions.

Bof: Sword and Laser
Saturday from 5:30 PM to 7:00 PM in Central
(with Tom Merritt)

For fans of the Sword and Laser Podcast and new VideoCast.

The Evolution of Female Characters in SF and Fantasy
Sunday from 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM in Ballroom D
(with Juliette Wade, Deborah J. Ross, Daryl G. Frazetti, Brandon Sanderson,
Diana L. Paxson)

From damsels in distress to sword-wielding, gun-toting, and military
masterminds, have women found their place, or are they ‘feminized’ men?
Do the women truly reflect the changing attitudes of the roles of
women?

Erotic Science Fiction and Fantasy
Sunday from 2:30 PM to 4:00 PM in Lawrence
(with Lon Sarver, D.M. Atkins, Jaym Gates)

Boy meets girl meets robot meets vampire: what makes for good erotica
in worlds with different rules than ours?

“Hard Science” Science Fiction Doesn’t have to be Hard
Sunday from 5:30 PM to 7:00 PM in Winchester
(with Arthur Bozlee, Scott Beckstead, Norm Sperling, Kyle Aisteach, Eytan
Kollin)

What are some books,movies, comic books, etc. that have used GOOD
science and still managed to be exciting? What was the bad science
that made you howl in pain, could it have been modified to be better
science and still keep the story intact?

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The science fiction and fantasy audio podcast (and community) that Tom Merritt and I have been hosting for the past four years is going video! We’ll be joining Felicia Day’s Geek and Sundry YouTube channel starting April 13th! Here’s the promo for the channel below.

The full website is here, and we’re very excited to be a part of it! Audio listeners, have no fear: we’ll still be doing an audio version of the show every other week, which will dive more deeply into the book club portion of the show. The video show will involve interviews, news, and reviews. Stay tuned for more info!

Also, our set is just amazing.

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My friend and Game On! co-host Brian Brushwood will be competing (and I will be probably epicly losing) in a Team Fortress 2 charity match for Child’s Play called Mix-Up 4 this Spring! It’s going to be awesome, and there are a lot of great folks involved as well. Check out the full line-up here!

The date will be announced soon, so stay tuned!

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Our first episode is up, and we also have a Goodreads group and a Facebook page! Hope you’ll join us! Next episode will tape live on Feb 27th at 8pm PST over on Felicia’s G+ page.

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LOOK AT THAT BADASS

Writer and gamer compatriot Kiala Kazebee recently wrote a post for the Nerdist blog, in which she lists the reasons why Portal 2 is superior to Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. With more than 70 hours of Skyrimming (that’s a thing, right?) under my belt, I present to you, dear reader, my rebuttal. FIGHT!

1. Yeah, I loved Portal 2. The first time I played it. When it was called PORTAL.

2. Oh, you like your little puzzles, do you? I like slaying dragons using massive fireballs and wielding blades imbued with ice and FEAR. Also, you think running around variations on the same room over and over is exciting, Kiala?? I think your brain was in stasis too long.

I am about to stab you in the head

3. If you’re bored walking through the (scenic and gloriously rendered) mountains, let me introduce you to a friend of mine: Skyrim Murder Bear. He’s been looking forward to meeting you.

4. Not funny? Have you seen the bucket head trick? There is tons of funny dialog and moments in the game, if you take the time to look for them. They’re much more rewarding than having Stephen Merchant lob one-liners into your face every 15 seconds.*

5. I have a husband. His name is Farkas, and he makes me hearty and delicious Homecooked Meals™ whenever I ask. Can your potato do that? Also, he’s manly and wears a hot suit of armor and we live together in the awesome house I purchased by being a total badass.

My wedding with Farkas. He's so sweet.

6. Sure, my Dark Elf may not be the prettiest princess on the block, but she has CHARACTER. I’ve seen Chell, ooooh… maybe twice? Plus, I can change my lady elf’s clothes and weapons at will. Just because I’m a gamer doesn’t mean I don’t like to play dress up once in a while. Enjoy your jumpsuit.

7. Skyrim has shouts. I can move at incredible speed, ground flying dragons, freeze or burn opponents, slow time itself, and more. FUS RO DAH!

8. Sure, the singing turrets in Portal 2 are adorable. But I’d much rather have a choir of hundreds of vikings singing an epic song in the language of the dragons.

9. Oh, I’m also a werewolf archmage assassin (and bard in training). So I’m either about to rip your throat out or sing you a sonnet about Mara, Goddess of Love and Stuff. But you won’t know until it’s too late!

10. The “I took an arrow to the knee” line is the meme of the year.

So these are just some of my reasons why Skyrim is a better game than Portal 2**, and why Kiala is wrong about everything (I’m guessing). Feel free to argue with me or lavish praise upon my argument in the comments.

*I will grant you that Space Sphere is the funniest character in a video game in the past 5 years, but even yelling SPAAAAAACE! can get old after a while.

**I actually loved Portal 2, but writing this post was too fun to pass up.

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I will start off by saying that I’m a big fan of Top Chef. I find that your advice to the chefs, while often difficult to hear, is usually rooted in kindness and common sense. You obviously want to see them succeed and prosper in the tough world of (celebrity) cooking. You also seem to be quite knowledgable about food and its preparation.

Which is why this sandwich is so frustrating.

"This is what a sadwich looks like"

I’ve named it the “sadwich.” I purchased it today and attempted to eat it at your San Francisco ‘wichcraft location. It’s called the “Slow-Roasted Pork Sandwich,” and there is apparently a recipe for it here.

I wish (more than anything I’ve wished for lately) that your sandwich chefs had followed that recipe, because that doesn’t read like a bad sandwich.

But oooooh. That sandwich was very bad. Here are the reasons why:

1) It didn’t taste like anything. Except greasy.
Did you know that greasy can be a taste? I learned that today!

2) What I initially thought was misplaced melted cheese was actually globs of wet fat.
Pork has fat on it, and usually that fat is delicious! This fat reminded me of what gets hosed out of a liposuction patient’s thigh.

3) Jalapeño? More like jalapeNO!
There was one tiny slice of jalapeño on my sadwich, tucked into the corner of one of the halves. It had apparently drowned in the fatty, flavorless grease and was thus rendered impotent.

Mistakes happen. Sandwiches (and chefs) have bad days. My only mistake was returning to ‘wichcraft after the great Cold Meatloaf Sadwich Incident of 2010 (c’mon, cold meatloaf should still taste great if the meatloaf was initially delicious!).

Anyhow, I digress. I am not a chef, but I know a sadwich when I see one (though, I have worked at three sandwich shops over the years, so I feel passionately about the subject). I also know that it’s probably hard to oversee a vast network of restaurants like you do and maintain quality. But this should be rule #1 of celebrity cheffing, right? Don’t dish it if you can’t take it.

Update: My friend Scott Johnson has created this artist’s rendering of the Sadwich.

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I’ve been hosting a series of mobile security panels for the AT&T Tech Channel alongside information security specialist Dino Dai Zovi. Above is the third episode, Dealing With Exploitable Mobile Device Vulnerabilities.

The rest are viewable over on the Mobile Security Show homepage!

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This is the (very rough) beta episode, and we’re working hard to get all the kinks worked out in time for our January 15th official launch! In the mean time, here’s all the relevant contact info:

twitgameon.reddit.com
@twitgameon
+twitgameon
game[at]twit.tv

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Living Like the Jetsons: Smart Technologies in a Datapocolypse from Roamz App on Vimeo.

I recently moderated a panel at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco along with Roamz CEO Jonathan Barouch, Nick Bilton (New York Times) and Brady Forrest (Chair for O’Reilly’s Where 2.0 conference) talking location, smart technologies and the future of web based technology.

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BlizzCon 2011: Interview with John LaGrave for World of Warcraft

BlizzCon 2011: Interview with Tony Hsu for Starcraft 2

BlizzCon 2011: Interview with Jason Bender for Diablo III

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Some of Team Qore in London

When I joined the team at Qore in April of 2008 (April Fool’s Day!), I don’t think any of us had any idea of what to expect. Nothing like Qore had ever been done before. A subscription-based digital magazine? Available on the PlayStation? All I knew was that this was going to be interesting.

Since the show launched, I’ve had the opportunity to meet some of the smartest, most interesting people in the gaming industry, traveled the world to speak with incredibly creative game developers, and even had the opportunity to voice characters in the DLC for one of my favorite titles of all time. Plus, we’ve had an unbelievably talented group of people at Future Studios US that made the whole thing possible.

Qore is a growing and changing program, and one of those changes will be a new host for Episode 43 and onward. There will be more announcements coming soon, like who Qore’s new host will be (I think you’ll be super excited to get to know them!), so keep your eyes on the PlayStation Blog.

As for me, well, I’m already in overdrive with new project ideas and possibilities, and I’m excited to get started with the next chapter (I mean that literally too… I’ll be using some of this time to start my first NaNoWriMo novel)!

Thank you so much to the Qore viewers who have made doing the show so much fun, and to everyone on the Future Studios team (and at Future US in general… all my friends at PlayStation: The Official Magazine, GamesRadar, OXM and PC Gamer) for all their hard work, and of course to Sony and the folks at PlayStation for making it all possible.

As always, you can keep up-to-date with me on Twitter, Google Plus, Tekzilla, Sword and Laser, and right here on this blog. I’ll see you on the outside!

And if you’ve never seen Qore before, here’s a preview of Episode 41, out now!

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Hangouts are at least 75% more fun when you bring animals into the mix.

But seriously, I’ve been spending a lot of time with Google+ over the past few days, and I’m really enjoying it. I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed by social media recently, but I do like Circles, and the ability to really filter who I share and view content by.

If I don’t blog much anymore, it’s because most of my time is spent managing Twitter, Facebook, and not Google+. Content overload!

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Bossypants is the kind of book that makes you feel like you could be the author’s best friend. In fact… Tina Fey, will you be my best friend? I really think we have a lot in common. Like this quote, for example:

“My ability to turn good news into anxiety is rivaled only by my ability to turn anxiety into chin acne.”

I also find this to be true! We have the same self-success loathing anxieties! (Is that not a thing? I think I just made that a thing.)

Anyhow, even if we can’t all be best friends with Tina Fey, hearing her talk about her background, rise to glory, and inner-most thoughts on breast feeding is hilarious and enjoyable. Plus, it’s always nice to hear an author read her own book, though there were some audio issues (weird fade-outs, vocal asides that were almost inaudible) but otherwise I give this book two thumbs up!





View all my reviews

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How awesome is this cover of the Game of Thrones opening music? It was done by a sound designer, Roger Lima, and posted on his website WhiteNoise Lab. I think it really emphasizes the brutal undertones of the series and it also gives me MAJOR CHILLS every time I hear it! Nice work! \m/ \m/

And here it is set to the actual opening credits:

How much are you loving the show so far? I made a little tribute to Hodor today on Twitter, and the actor (Kristian Nairn) liked it! Kind of made my week.

We’ve also been recapping Game of Thrones on Sword and Laser a lot lately, so check it out!

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Despite the cold and the rain (check out my awesome rain boots, huh?) I set out to visit the HQ for the Go Game, a company that specializes in creating team building events and get-togethers. From their website:

The Go Game stages technology-fueled, creative games and activities for team building, marketing programs, sales training and just pure fun. Based in San Francisco, we stage unique, interactive events and scavenger hunts for groups of 3 to 10,000 players anywhere in the world

Joined by some of my friends, including my endlessly patient partner-in-crime Ryan Block, we traveled around the Mission district of San Francisco, completing quests and finding clues. Check out the video to see who was victorious!

For more of my Cruzearati videos, head over to YouTube or follow them on Twitter!

Related posts:

1. 3D Laser Backpack at UC Berkeley
2. Getting a look at the Looxcie
3. LG Speed Texting World Cup

Remember I mentioned that I was recording voice over for an upcoming game? I’m excited to say that I’ll be voicing not one… not two… but three characters (not all human) in the upcoming DLC for Fallout: New Vegas Old World Blues! There will be many more details coming in the next episode of Qore, hopefully out next week, including the names and descriptions of all the characters I’m voicing (none of them are named Felicia… sorry everyone!).

Anyhow, I really excited about it! The whole experience of recording voices for actual characters (and not just being myself) was totally new to me, and I loved it. Thanks especially to Jason Bergman from Bethesda, who helped to set the whole thing up! It’s safe to say that this truly is a dream come true for me.

And no, I don’t have any secret insider info on when the PSN situation will be resolved, but hopefully it’s soon!

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Here’s part of their performance from DNA Lounge!

If you want to download the song we (ok… they) made, called Cruzeratta, click here! They’re also on Twitter too.

For more videos, head over to Cruzearati.com, and follow the Twitter account here.

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For more videos, head over to Cruzearati.com, and follow the Twitter account here.

Related posts:

1. Playing The Go Game
2. LG Speed Texting World Cup
3. Getting a look at the Looxcie