cool stuff

[[deleted user]]

Hey, I managed to find Geeks and Sundry through watching The Guild and found sword and laser through that and now listen to the podcasts and watch the youtube videos and am really enjoying getting to know other writers other than fantasy writers and it is opening up sci fi books to me which I hadnt read much of. Also I really enjoy Tabletop and have got into boardgaming because of it.
Im really starting to enjoy the culture and community of all these things im into and its something I havnt really experienced before, I just read the books played the games and didnt really get involved so I was wondering what other cool sites you go to or blogs you read or anything of cultural value you might like to share and think we might be interested in.

p.s sorry if his has been discussed before.

[Brandon]

Io9.com is good for odd science, science fiction, and fantasy. They have a monthly calendar they publish of upcoming sci-fi and fantasy books movies and events as well.

Reddit.com has a ton of different feeds from science fiction and fantasy to regular news and cute cat pics and everything in between. Their fantasy subreddit gets a fair amount of authors who do a Q and A post there.

[Richard]

Events like Mega-game-a-romiCon happen all the time. If you post your general area (country & state is close enough), we can probably find some close to you. They really are just as crazy & fun as it looked on The Guild.

[[deleted user]]

Cool thanks for all the sites. Mega game a romiCon sounds awesome but im in England if they have one here that would be great.

[Robert]

Here are some sites to find SF cons near you:

http://www.scificonventions.com/

http://www.upcomingcons.com/

You might also enter the term "science fiction convention" and the nearest city into your favorite search engine to find cons.

[Ruth (tilltab) Ashworth]

I'm not sure about specific gaming conventions, but there are plenty of conventions in England for Sci-fi, comics, anime and the like.

Haha, you can always try enrolling in a Japanese course at university to find a nice, geeky sci-fi/fantasy and gaming loving community. Somehow, on my course, you can reference various obscure things you expect no one to know, and at least 5 people will profess a love for it - it's strange but wonderful. :)

[Richard]

For England, start here: http://www.lotna.org.uk/cons.htm

Looks like there is a Vampire Diaries con going on RIGHT NOW in Birmingham. http://www.rogueevent.co.uk/wordpress...

Chances are, most of the kids taking Japanese are serious Anime fans to begin with.

[[deleted user]]

wow richard that a great site theres an rpg convention going on right near me and a gaming convention in leicester. Think ill pass on the vampire diaries but thanks anyway.

[Ruth (tilltab) Ashworth]

Great links, thank you! :D

And yes, Richard, that is certainly true about students of Japanese often being serious anime fans, but the range of geeky interests goes well beyond that, and everyone is so lovely. :D But I gotta admit conventions are probably a more, ahem, conventional way of finding like-minded folk. :P

[Richard]

Long before this whole DVD fad made anime readily available, I hung out with a fan-club called Super Deformed Sushi that would get relatives stationed in Japan to tape it & send it back to the US. Sometimes I think it's better when you don't understand a word they're saying. I encountered this group through a flyer picked up at a Con.

I do kind of wish we had had an Evil Geniuses (or was it Mad Scientists?) Club in my High School. A couple of my friends would have taken it over and then conquered the world!

[Rasnac]

My main source of enjoyement and enlightment in Youtube (other than GeekSundry and Nerdist channels) is The Young Turks Network.

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheYoungT...

http://www.theyoungturks.com/

In their own words "The Young Turks is the largest online news show in the world, covering politics, pop culture and lifestyle"

It is basically a progressive political news show but they also cover a wide range of subjects. Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian host the main show. I'm not American but I watch because I do enjoy following American politics(mainly because it is tooo wacky) and hosts Cenk and Ana are smart and funny people.

But even if you are not interested in politics at all there are many shows and channels under TYT Network. I recommend What The Flick movie review show with critics Ben Mankiewicz, Alonso Duralde, Christie Lemire and Matt Atchity:

http://www.youtube.com/user/whatthefl...

And TYT University with Ana Kasparian and John Iadorola. I especially enjoy Common Room and GeekSpeak segments of TYTU, which are new additions to the show to reach out to us, the online geek community.

http://www.youtube.com/user/tytuniver...

[Ruth (tilltab) Ashworth]

Richard wrote: "Long before this whole DVD fad made anime readily available, I hung out with a fan-club called Super Deformed Sushi that would get relatives stationed in Japan to tape it & send it back to the US. Sometimes I think it's better when you don't understand a word they're saying. I encountered this group through a flyer picked up at a Con."

:D I was randomly invited to an anime group via myspace of all places - it wasn't even from anyone I knew, or at a place I could easily get to, but I went along and made a lot of friends (this was before I decided to return to education). Some of the guys there had also been into anime way back when; one was involved with folk trying to get anime into the uk.

By the way, I love the name 'super deformed sushi'. Brilliant!