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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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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Actually, I should let them speak for themselves:

Both of their books are currently available on Amazon, and they’re well worth the read.

The Thank You Economy by Gary Vaynerchuk
Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World by Jane McGonigal

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The Mary Sue, a new blog dedicated to subject matters of interest to the discerning geekess, launched this week. I learned about it on Twitter from Laughing Squid, who was linking to their most recent post, “10 Women Who Secretly Control The Internet,” and I was immediately impressed by the content on the site.

There are plenty of “geek girl” sites out there, but The Mary Sue has a slightly different MO than a lot of them:

We know the point at which you would be satisfied is to just be able to geek out with all geeks, of any gender, without feeling like your femininity is front and center for scrutiny. To not feel like you have to work harder than guys to prove that you’re genuinely into geek culture. We want simple things, like to be able to visit a comic book store without feeling out of place. To be able to buy a video game without getting the sense that the cashier thinks we’re buying it for someone else.

But mainly we just want to be able to pursue our hobbies with the other people who share them. We want to play with the boys.

So there are two reasons why there should be more out there devoted specifically to the female geek.

Because even if we want to play with the boys, there is a value to having our own space.

And also, because of this.

I did take a little offense to one comment on their mission statement, which proclaims:

I have never met a geek girl who was even halfway interested in almost anything Cosmopolitan had to say. We were too busy reading Cicada and Popular Science when we were the age that Teen Magazine wanted our attention. [...] The only celebrity gossip I care about is who’s on what project next, the only fashion I’m interested is where to get Batman shirts that allow for boobs.

Never? Not once? I don’t know, I like fashion and makeup and other “girly” things… sure, The Mary Sue won’t be my place for info like that, but it also doesn’t mean that I should feel like less of a geek for being into those things. Am I reading into it too much? Perhaps. But girls who are interested in those things, but want to be more involved in geek culture too, could be a little threatened/intimidated by statements like that.

Overall, I’m super-excited to see what The Mary Sue has up her sleeves. I even subscribed to the newsletter, which is highly unusual for me (I want less email, not more). And if I want my daily mix of geek, fashion, makeup and gossip, I’ve still got my fleet of Sugar sites to keep up with!

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All about about.me from about.me on Vimeo.

I love this video that the About.me team created as an introduction to the service (I’m an advisor to the company). Check out the service, if you haven’t already, and let us know what you think! My profile, which you see in the video, is located here.

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I’ve become pretty fascinated with my own DNA lately. While I know a little bit about my background (Irish, Scottish, some sprinklings of various Germanic tribes thrown in for good measure) I’ve always been curious about what I’m made of.

Last year I joined 23andMe, and through testing was able to determine my maternal haplogroup (W1c) and my paternal one as well (R1a1a* — yes, I was able to convince my Dad to spit in a test tube from 3,000 miles away).

All very cool, and which brings me to the photo you see at the top of this post. DNA 11 is a company that makes art based on your own personal DNA. They offered to let me try their service, using my data from 23andMe (though they will send you a kit of their own if you haven’t done one already) to create a QR code portrait containing my ancestry info (maternal line only in this case) called an Ancestry Portrait. This is what you see when you read the QR:

Neat! The portraits aren’t cheap (the one they made for me retails for $440 [Edit: they'll knock off $150 if you bring your own DNA to the table like I did]) but it’s a cool way to have some (extremely) personalized art. I have it hanging in my den of nerddom, and it’s a nice reminder of where I came from.

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One thing makes traveling a cinch for me: technology. There are a few essential apps and tools that I use daily that make life so much easier for me. Without them, I’d be utterly and completely lost.

TripIt
I use TripIt for everything. Flights, hotels, rental cars, car services, etc. If there’s a confirmation email associated with my trip, it gets forwarded to plans@TripIt.com and instantly added to my itinerary. Then, I just pull up the information on my iPhone, and I’ll never forget where the hotel is or what flight number I’m on. I use the Pro account (which has a $60 yearly fee) to keep track of all my frequent flier miles and to alert me to any changes in my itinerary.

FlightTrack Pro
This $9.99 iPhone app works with data from TripIt Pro, and has saved my ass more times than I can count. I typically know a flight is delayed or cancelled before the crew does (well… It seems that way, anyhow). I can use it to cross-reference SeatGuru, find alternate flights, and give me up-to-the-second gate information. A must-have for the frequent traveler.

Expensify
This handy app works on the iPhone and iPad, and allows me to put together expense reports quickly and easily. Using my iPhone, I can take pictures of my receipts, add them to a new or existing expense report, and mail them off to their intended recipient. The only downside is that you need a data connection to work on your reports.

TaxiMagic and Uber
Need a ride to the airport, but don’t know the local cab companies? Try TaxiMagic. In some places, like SF, you can book and pay for Luxor Cabs using the app directly. Otherwise, it lists the local cab companies in your area and helps you to call them from the app. Uber is only available in SF (AFAIK) but this town car booking system is the most reliable and comfortable way to travel. It’s more spendy, at 1.5x the price of normal cabs, but sometimes it’s worth it!

Dropbox and EverNote
I use these apps to sync my data across multiple devices, but I use them differently. Dropbox is mainly for sharing documents (in my case, VO files and scripts) while Evernote I use to keep track of ideas and business cards when I’m on the road. It’s my virtual Rolodex! Instead of taking cards, I snap a photo and upload it to my business cards notebook. Then, once it’s indexed, I can search and access that info from anywhere. 

MyLink from OnStar
If I feel like maybe I forgot to lock my car after leaving it at the airport, I use the OnStar app to remotely lock Terry Cruze. You can also see the cars specs, remotely turn it on and off, and get roadside assistance. Now, if only they had an app for turning off the oven…

3G iPad 
First I felt kind of guilty buying the 3G version. Then I felt even more guilty paying the $14.99 a month data plan. But after two months of using it, I don’t feel that way anymore! You’d be amazed by how many hotels still charge an arm and a leg for Wifi, and how many coffee shops don’t offer it at all anymore. This 3G tablet has been great for emailing and blogging on the go. Also, it means I don’t have to lug my laptop around, which is a big plus. I actually wrote this post on my iPad on the way home from Portland last night.

Kindle 2
Yes! Even with the iPad, I insist on bringing the Kindle with me on every trip. Why, you ask? The battery life is forever, the screen is much easier to look at after long periods, and it’s smaller. 

What are your travel essentials? Anything you can’t live without when you’re on the road?

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Yes, it’s just that easy to get my attention*.

But I wouldn’t have written about it if it wasn’t awesome, so please check out the track on his demos page. Thanks to Doctor Popular for the email alerting me to this fact; he makes some pretty awesome music as well, in case you didn’t know.

*The Carps also figured that out a while back.

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Did you know ThinkGeek sells an Enterprise pizza cutter? They do, and it’s amazing. I will disclose that they sent it to me for awesomeness (err… reviewing) purposes, after seeing my Make It So shirt on Tekzilla last week! Thanks!

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I love this: Google Street View has arrived in Antarctica. Say hi to the penguins!

via The Daily Wh.at, and visit them here!

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Barbie sat on the periphery; a known entity, but not one I was very interested in getting to know better. I was aware of her spectacular outfits and handsome boyfriend Ken, but at the end of the day I was far more interested in my Crash Test Dummies set or my Micro Machines.

My interest in technology, I feel very strongly, was incubated in part because I grew up in a house that encouraged it. I was allowed to tinker with my toys (usually destroying rather than enhancing) and to spend hours playing with my Nintendo or Game Boy. Kids are always going to make their own decisions about what they like or don’t like (and clearly not all of them have the advantage of a surplus of toys around the house), but I believe that one of the main reasons more girls don’t become interested in technology and IT is because they’re taught (or shown) that this is the realm of the boys.

Now, getting back to Barbie. Despite her physically unattainable body shape (which has probably caused more than one case of body dismorphia in a young female), she’s had a lot male-centric jobs in her day: an Air Force fighter pilot, a firefighter, NASCAR driver, and President just to name a few. Her latest endeavor, computer engineer, is interesting for several reasons: it was voted upon online, and won largely due to a campaign on (male-dominated) link-sharing site Reddit; computer engineering is one of the final frontiers where women are still hugely underrepresented; and finally, there’s just not a lot of romanticism involved with the profession. How many 5 year-old girls out there say they want to be computer engineers when they grow up?

Barbie’s popularity could have helped in that last area. When I say, “could have,” I mean that had this happened 10 years ago, when Barbie was still relevant to a young girl’s development, it could have had a lasting effect on the number of women involved in that career path further down the line. While Barbie sales have seen an uptick in the last year, she has a lot of new competition: there are far more interesting and flashy things for young girls to latch onto, like Bratz, iCarly, Moxie Girls, Hannah Montana, etc.

The Society of Women Engineers and the National Academy of Engineering worked with the Barbie designers at Mattel to make a model that fit the “look” of a female computer engineer. I don’t know too many women in IT rocking the sparkly leggings and white leather vests to work at the office (unless… she’s from the future). Clothing choices aside, I think this is a good move. The fact that something as quintessentially feminine as Barbie is out there showing little girls that IT and computer engineering isn’t all for the boys is encouraging. It’s a small step, but hopefully one that leads other toy manufacturers to follow.

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Crazy Cat Lady Hour
WoW for Fun and Profit
Find the Right Cable!
I’m on a Larp!
CSI: Hartford (Nothing ever happens)
America’s Next Top Shaman
Man vs Wild vs Belmont
Chuck’d (Each week a dumpster dive reveals what gadgets V threw out to make room for her new ones)
Deadliest Glitch
The Cat Whisperer
Bacon Today
Homemade Hipster Ham… and Friends
Devo’s Bird Watching Hour
The Awkward Situation Room
Mr Littlejeans Goes to Washington But is Tricked into a Bath
Connecticut Shore

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Doesn’t this totally remind you of the rap battle from 8 Mile? No?

The amazing beatboxer Kid Beyond (who I first heard at w00tstock back in the fall) did a damn good job going up against Jonathan Coulton and his ZenDrum, but in the end I’ve gotta give it to JoCo. I’m a sucker for Beyoncé.

The rest of the show, by the way, was also great. Although, Paul and Storm let me down a little, with only a 12 minute long version of The Captain’s Wife’s Lament. DEJECTED ARRR!!!

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My friend Rob sent me this video, which I had somehow missed when it came out this summer. I agree with the points that Daniel Floyd and Leigh Alexander make, especially how browser-based and casual titles can lead to regular console gaming (I’ve long called The Sims a “gateway drug game”). What I really liked was how some game companies, like Ubisoft, are creating games that “appeal to a younger generation of girls,” in effect planting the seeds for them to grow up with a love for games.

Working for Qore, I’ve had the opportunity to meet a lot of great women working in the gaming industry, such as Amy Hennig (who couldn’t be more brilliant), Tracy Espeleta, and Kellee Santiago. Coincidentially, I read today on Chris Pirillo’s Twitter feed that Sony Online Entertainment is actually offering a scholarship and internship to a girl looking to work in game design and production:

Applications are now being accepted for the 2010 G.I.R.L. Scholarship to help educate and recruit more women into the field of video game production and design. Sponsored by Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE) a global leader in online gaming, and administered by Scholarship America®, a leading non-profit educational support program, applications are available at https://www.scholarshipamerica.org/gamersinreallife and more details, including official rules for entry are also available online at http://www.station.sony.com/girl/.

If you know a girl who may be interested, please pass thing along! It seems like a really great opportunity to encourage more women to become involved in this industry.

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I was watching the Nova episode called What Are Dreams the other day, and I was particularly interested in one bit of information from the show: if you practice enough, you can tell your brain what to dream about. There are some caveats, in that it only works about 50% of the time, and that you’re still not in total control of what happens.

I tend to remember a lot of my dreams, so I thought I’d give it a go. For the past three nights, as I close my eyes, I’ve thought this:

“I’m going to help Sherlock Holmes* solve a mystery. I’m going to help Sherlock Holmes solve a mystery!”

Two nights, and nothing (that I could remember, anyway). But then last night, something seemed to happen! Ryan came to bed after working late, and I woke up enough to say “Shh! I’m dreaming about Holmes!” before I passed back out again. This morning, I actually could recall several dream sequences in which I was in a Holmes mystery-solving situation of some kind. My problem is that I fall asleep almost the moment I hit the pillow, so I don’t usually get enough time to try and convince my brain to dream the way I want it to. It’s more like “I’m going to…” and then I’m out cold.

But hey, it was pretty cool! Dreams are important for helping our brain work through issues and problems from our waking life (and I’m not just talking murder mysteries), but if you can program it to work like your own personal holodeck, how entertaining would that be?

Anyway, give it a shot sometime. This isn’t some kind of weird self-help thing (Learn to ski with your dreams! Come up with your million-dollar idea in your sleep!), it’s just an interesting way to explore what your mind can do.

*I’m going through a Sherlock Holmes phase. It started with reading The Beekeepers Apprentice, then the complete Arthur Conan Doyle collection, and will culminate with the viewing of the movie this Christmas. So, a little obsessed.

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Ryan has been quite taken by the Droid SMS alert sound (as evidenced by the most recent gdgt podcast) so I decided it would be fitting to make it his ringtone on my iPhone when he calls.

Unfortunately, I realized after the fact that it would have been much funnier to make it the default ringtone on his phone for all calls. You can get the sound here for your own personal enjoyment.

I used MakeiPhoneRingtone after converting the .wav to .aac, but you can also use Fission, GarageBand or the myriad other methods available.

Related posts:

1. Talking iPhone 3G S on CNN.com
2. A little iPhone organization would be nice
3. The iPhone app organizer I would love to see

If The Venture Brothers and Aqua Teen Hunger Force came together and had a little lovechild with No Reservations, I have a feeling it would look like the newest project from Anthony Bourdain and The Travel Channel. The aptly-named Anthony Bourdain’s Alternate Universe is a completely animated series that delves deep into the twisted mind of the celebrity chef (and it looks like there will be more than a few Rachel Ray jokes).

Anthony is one of my idols, not only because of his on-air persona, but because it’s so obvious that he loves what he does (even when he’s frustrated during a shoot, which I find especially hilarious and relatable). In the spirit of Tony, I’ll say that I’m looking forward to his new project almost as much as he looks forward to a new, exotic pork dish.

Via Eater National

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And…

Thanks, Newegg. You sure know how to make women feel special!

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Revision3 definitely represented big time in this video, can you spot them all? Thanks for the mention, brentalfloss!

On a totally unrelated note, I forgot to tell you guys that I blacked out during District 9. As a fear response! It’s not even scary! Can you imagine what would happen to me in a real horror movie? Anyhow, I’m a weirdo, and I was fine after 5 minutes or so. Go watch it if you haven’t already, it’s passing out good!

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