I spend every Monday afternoon volunteering at the 826LA writing center in Venice. If you are looking for a fun way to get involved in the community and work with kids, this is a great place to go. Beyond the homework assistance, writing help, field trips, and activities for the kids, 826 does a great job of entertaining its tutors.
To prepare for the impending release of “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”, 826LA East, the newly opened location in Echo Park, is going to be screening all three films this Saturday. It should be a fun time with good people, so click below to get more info.
Last year was my first spring in LA, and with it came an amazing indulgent moment of geekery. The “i am 8-bit” exhibit brings together a phenomenal group of artists to create works inspired by this classic era of gaming. It featured a fantastic array of styles ranging from the hyper-real to the absurd. The opening-night party sported a gigantic Atari controller which people had to climb onto in order to play. I picked up this amazing Megaman piece, and my blue bomber bliss cemented my love of this show.
I check in with their website periodically to make sure I keep it on my radar screen. For the past couple of months it has said, “new site coming Monday!”. After enough new weeks came and went, I stopped taking stock in this claim. This past week, I was greeted with another message: “New Show. New venue. New website. August 2008.” So now we know that we will know more in the future. It isn’t much, but I’m still excited…
This Friday, Party Scammers is throwing “Clash of the Tetris”, a Tetris Tournament and party at Vine Bar in Hollywood. I attended their rock/paper/scissors tournament last spring and it was one of the zaniest times I have had since moving to LA. I’ll definitely be there, and you should drop in (pun intended).
Clash of the Tetris
Friday, April 25th
9pm
Vine Bar: 1235 Vine St.
Luckily, the New York Comic-Con happened to overlap with my trip to the Big Apple to visit my family and catch up with some old friends. I found a couple of hours on Saturday and rolled over with a fellow geek to witness the con craziness. Here is a video of some people doing a lightsaber stage combat performance. I don’t want to think about how many hours of practice went into this…
This morning I arrived in NYC courtesy of a JetBlue redeye. This weekend is going to be filled with family, friends, and, by a lucky coincidence, comics. That’s right, New York Comic-Con happens to fall during the same weekend as Passover, and so I’ll get to enjoy both. After the great time I had at the San Diego Comic-Con I am excited to see what this will have in store. I do know that the creator of my favorite web comic, VG Cats, will be there. Enjoy this video featuring Leo and Aeris from his strips.
To celebrate my birthday, my friends and I went to witness the mayhem that is the LA Derby Dolls, LA’s all-women roller derby league. It was an incredibly raucous and fun time, and it now rivals hockey as the live sport I enjoy seeing the most.
Next Saturday, the Derby Dolls match pits the “Fight Crew” against “The Tough Cookies”. I will definitely be there, and if you are interested, be sure to pick up your tickets as soons as possible. These matches always sell out, and a bunch of people got burned last time by not snagging tickets in advance, so don’t dawdle. I hope to see you there!
Here is a fascinating article about a ban by Bowling Green State University on Nerf guns. Live Action Role-Playing, or LARPing, is a sub-genre of of RPG’s that takes gameplay into the real world. At Bowling Green, students began a game of “Undead”, which is a flavor of the LARP “Humans vs. Zombies”. The game involves two teams, the Zombies and the Humans, and the goal is for the humans to evade being “bitten” by the zombies. The humans can fight of the horde of undead by defending themselves with Nerf guns, among other weapons.
Apparently, the LARPers started causing a commotion and disrupting campus, and so the administration cracked down and forbade the player from using the great foam defense. They were allowed to fight of the zombies with socks and marshmallows, but this limitation still upset the participants. This has caused a bit of controversy on campus, and the LARPers are rallying to get their weapons back. The story continues with more interesting twists, including a relative who worked at Nerf coming to pay a visit to campus.
I am very interested in the phenomena of LARPing and Alternate Reality Gaming (ARG’s), and so, as these forms of entertainment become more pervasive, I am sure there will be more conflicts as we see play continue to spill over into the real world.
This Saturday I witnessed two fantastically ridiculous events in Downtown LA: the “Pillow Fight Day” flash-mob at Pershing Square and a gigantic, block-long water slide set up for a Dodge commercial. Check out the Flickr slideshow below to see the silliness that ensued…
So for you other LA folks, I am sure you have seen “The Rental Man”, the guy dressed up in a superhero costume who dances to help promote “Westside Rentals”. Well, I just received an interesting piece of spam from the company informing me that they are holding auditions to find the next “Rental Man”. Here’s the skinny:
What: Rental Man Open Audition When: Friday, March 14, 2008 @ 2pm Where: Westside Rentals HQ (1020 Wilshire Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90401) Who: You! Why: $60,000 a year plus all expenses paid for great seats at Lakers, Clippers, Kings, Ducks, Dodgers, Angels, UCLA, USC and THE SUPER BOWL!!!!!
See you on Friday!
I had no idea it paid so well! Guess that furious dancing comes with some serious benefits. If you are intrigued, you can find more at:
While I try not to discuss work-related things, I will take a quick moment to let you all know about the just-announced 2nd Data Sharing Summit. The event is on May 15th at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. While I sometimes find that web conferences are all talk and little action, I did find the first Data Sharing Summit to be an interesting chance for discussion and tangible collaboration. The organizers use the “unconference” which creates a more flexible and participant-defined schedule. There has been a great deal of activity since the first meeting around data sharing, and so hopefully we can work to tangibly further the progress.
In addition, there is a 2-day Data Sharing Workshop taking place at SFSU on April 18th and 19th. I won’t be able to attend since I will be in NYC, but I am sure it will be interesting as well. So, for those of you in the bay, check out all the info at: http://datasharingsummit.com/
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