"In the summertime...

you got women, you got women on your mind..."

And how! But let's be more specific, this is the summer of the nerd for me. I am picking up a new job at the newspaper as a webmaster now, hoping to be setting up a new server for hosting. I might help redesign the website too if I'm bored, but something tells me I won't need to. But I digress...

...women. Queens on the nerd world, to be precise. I love them dearly, but not in the creepy stalkerish manner. More like, the extreme respect for beautiful, smart, tech-savvy, independent, renowned women of the geek and nerd worlds. I should make them crowns. Yeah.

I have more than likely talked about all of these women in the past, but I would like to remind everyone why it is I love them so much. So here is my list of the...

Top 5 Geek Goddesses

#5. Marina Orlova...

She barely makes my list, not so much because of who she is, but because of the website she is poster girl for. I suppose she's not much bigger in the geek world than Obama Girl is in the political world, but Marina Orlova is Hot For Words.

Her definition-related webvideos, russian accent and good looks have skyrocketed her geek fame. Her Youtube channel is one of the most watched on the net, New Yorker Magazine called her "the sexiest Philologist in the world" and in 2007 she was voted "World’s #1 Sexiest Geek" in a contest held by Wired Magazine.

Oh, and did I mention she has two Philology degrees - one for English and one for Russian. Marina lives by her creed "Intelligence is Sexy", and I can see why. The world has grown hot for teacher, and the teacher is hot for words.


#4. The Women of G4...

Ok, so this is a group of women, yes. But nonetheless, it's hard to have any of them without the others...and besides, if Norse Mythology can group the Fates (Norns) together, then I don't see any reason to question the method! This collection includes the current roster of women working at the G4TV Studios in Los Angeles, California:

Olivia Munn - Host of Attack of the Show! (my favorite show in existence) alongside Kevin Pereira, she brings a gaggle of laughter, a fear of balloons and an inexplicable love of pie to my home almost every weekday. Oh, and did I mention she's dressed up as Wonder Woman and Princess Leia Organa in the slave-gold bikini.

Morgan Webb - Host of X-Play (the most spot-on reviews of games you'll ever find IMO) alongside Adam Sessler. She is also known for her awesome ever-changing hairstyles when she worked on The Screen Savers alongside Leo Laporte and our No. 4 goddess (but more on that later). Recently she was a guest on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon as one of the world's best Videogame Experts.

Kristin Holt-Adams - Host of on-again, off-again show Cheat, she has also been a correspondent for American Idol. She recently got married but it doesn't stop this gorgeous Texan from making the list...afterall, she was a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader before she hosted a show about videogame tips.

Layla Kayleigh - Correspondent for G4, she was recurring host of The Feed until March 16, 2009. She is also a host for the MTV reality show America's Best Dance Crew. Even though she left G4, I have to be honest - her British accent was the only thing that made listening to those current events interesting anyway.

Alison Haislip - Correspondent for Attack of the Show!, she's the peppiest blonde at G4, and sometimes helps take over Kevin and Olivia's duties with her own sidekick Blair Herter (aka Man Blair). Why did I add her? Because there is no "y" in the name of this goofy vixen, and I forgive her for being from New Jersey.

Blair Butler - Correspondent for G4 (aka Lady Blair), she is a renowned comic book aficionado! That's right, comic books. She loves all things nerd though. Any woman who can spout off Marvel, DC, Dark Horse and Indie comics like she does definitely bring flair (I'll call it "Blair flair").


#3. Sarah Lane...

What can I say about Sarah Lane that doesn't already speak Volumes? She started out her awesome career as host of Tech TV show The Screen Savers before the merger with G4. Once that happened, a new show was born called Attack of the Show! where she worked as the original female host (there was a brief stint with Chi-Lan Lieu, but Sarah was the major player).

Sarah got married in May 2006 to one of the correspondents on the show, Brendan Moran. They both left the show to begin a world-wide honeymoon trip, and pursue other ventures, so Sarah's hosting slot on AOTS was eventually filled by Olivia Munn (as previously mentioned).

After that., Sarah worked as Production Manager for Rev3 (where another of our goddesses also worked), but when the company started to struggle, she was laid off.

On December 31, 2008, she announced on her blog that she was divorced. In 2009, she began hosting webcasts with her fans on her blog and filled them in on her new happenings! She now works at Current News in San Francisco and also hosts a webshow (courtesy of Leo Laporte) every friday called This Week in Fun. Glad to have you back in the spotlight Sarah!
@SarahLane


#2. Felicia Day

You might recognize her from recent Sears commercials, or perhaps you've seen her spots in episodes of Joss Whedon productions like Dollhouse or Buffy The Vampire Slayer, but in the past couple of years Felicia Day has earned her digital star on the internet celeb hotlist.

During the writers' strike that started in 2007, many local celebs jumped on the bandwagon and decided to stop accepting parts from shows that the writers left. During that time, a long lull set in where new hit shows were no longer in production. Enter: The Internet.

Whedon had an idea for a short webseries/musical that featured an evil scientist as the protagonist, a superhero as the antagonist and a pretty girl as the mutual love interest of the two enemies! Maybe you've heard of it? It's called Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog, and it features Felicia as the cute, laundry-doing humanitarian Penny.

At the same time, Felicia was also responsible for producing/writing a webseries smash-hit called The Guild, about a group of MMORPG (like World of Warcraft) players that meet in real life to help each other become more social. The first season was hosted entirely online and filmed out of pocket, but the second season was picked up by Xbox Live (they recently signed on for a third season).

At the 2009 South by Southwest, Felicia helped host a panel about the future of movies and series programming on the web. She has quickly topped the most-wanted geek list for cameos, roles and help with other web productions. Now if only she'd accept a starring role in my life.
@FeliciaDay


#1. Veronica Belmont

Yeah! I went there! My number one pick of the geek goddesses is none other than Veronica Belmont, the face of our generation in social-networking.

She made her big debut to the world at CNET, where she had interned and then hired full-time. While there she worked on a podcast called Buzz Out Loud. She eventually moved on to video productions at CNET, including Prizefight! where she set tech titans to the test (forgive the alliteration).

Veronica left CNET to work at Mahalo Daily for almost a year before leaving. Veronica plays World of Warcraft as a Tauren named Winema, and in true nerd fashion the first video she worked on while at Mahalo was WoW celebrity Leeroy Jenkins at the 2007 BlizzCon (/jealous).

After leaving Mahalo, she began work at the same place our No. 3 goddess was working - Rev3. But rather than behind the scenes like she had grown accustomed to, she would be front and center as a host for the show Tekzilla. A couple of month after that, Sony Playstation Network also asked her to host Qore, a subscription-based series of what they call "a highly interactive, monthly lifestyle gaming program covering the world inside Playstation".

Veronica still hosts Tekzilla and Qore, but where her geekiness branches out is her attention to social networking sites. Veronica has hosted her own blog for years, maintains her own Facebook (I know, because she just responded to a post of mine), updates her Twitter regularly (personal @Veronica and WoW @AIE_Winema) and even participates in a podcast for her sci-fi/fantasy bookclub called The Sword and Lazer.

She's charming, funny, not ashamed of her geekiness AND still plays videogames (she should PST Sunstrider on Detheroc), and that is why she is the No. 1 Geek Goddess. Still not convinced? Just check her out in this recent photoshoot with The Bui Brothers. Go on, don't be afraid. She won't bite (that I know of)...




There you have it folks, let the Summer of the Geek Commence! You now have your goddesses in place on a pedestal, and plenty of ways to keep up with them from here on out. I hope you learned a little bit about the power of smart women...mark my words, big things are to come by their hands.



Over and out,

David Lucio

↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → B A Start

You are a failure to all nerd-kind if you do not recognize this time-honored traditional collection of button presses, otherwise known as The Konami Code.

It's a cheat code that was first implemented by the Konami corporation (now most famous for their work with the Metal Gear and Dance Dance Revolution series) in one of their earlier games: Gradius.

Since then, it has been expanded to multiple titles, multiple platforms and other game companies even found ways to use this code as a cameo in homage to the legendary sequence.

The internet has trifled with many things since its maturity in the early 90's, including scares regarding privacy, information sharing and especially the concept of hackers. The idea is that a hacker can use a sequence of commands and button presses (sound familiar?) to gain access to something the public might not otherwise have permission to see.

The idea isn't far fetched, and is based of a history of hidden content accessible to people by use of codes. As a new-age homage to the Konami Code, some webmasters even program back-doors (yes, those same ones hackers are supposed to use) that are MEANT to be stumbled upon by the average web-surfer.

A friend of mine recently showed me that the Konami Code could be used on Facebook, and that there is a website that lists other sites that have backdoors. Go ahead, visit the site and type in the following -

(While not in a text box) Press on your key pad: ↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← →
Then press: [B] [A] and [Enter]

See what I mean!? Facebook currently shows lens flares via this code. For a short amount of time, the webmasters at ESPN.com had hidden a backdoor that would flash unicorns all over your screen when you entered the Konami Code. Don't believe me?

It's true. Immediately following the broadcast of this segment during Attack of the Show, the webmaster was asked to remove the backdoor from the site. But still, it was a clever little cookie thrown into a jocks' website. The code will undoubtedly live on in infamy forever, but right now it is the neatest little nook on the internet. Give it a shot some time, you might just get a power-up.



Over and out,

David Lucio

Behind My Giant Robot's Eyes

I've never been big on hip-hop, I'll be the first to admit that. In fact, I despised it growing up; I was too into my punk music and busy hating the popular people in school to really care at all about rap, hip-hop or R&B. In retrospect, my hatred was more of a statement, and an ill placed one.

After a while, I decided to give it a chance, and my senior year I introduced myself to some more popular artists like Jay-Z and Kanye West. It was an instant kind of respect, not so much for their lyrical value, but for the overall feeling I got from the rhythm and harmony.

I grew more disdain for certain artists, and started to pick up appreciation for other names. I adore the efforts of crossover, like Gym Class Heroes who blend hip-hop and rock. But as for pure hip-hop, my favorite has been Lupe Fiasco for a while; his message transcends his music, and in true nerd order he raps about stuff that makes me smile.



"As I spy from behind my giant robot's eyes,
I keep him happy 'cause I might fall out if he cries,
Scared of heights so I might pass out if he flies,
Keep him on autopilot 'cause I can't drive..."

- Lupe Fiasco
Daydream

I actually went to an event and interviewed Lupe for one of my earliest stories as a student journalist. He's as down to earth as one might imagine someone who raps about giant robots could be, and so I stuck with him.

On days like today - 75 degrees outside, sunlight peeking through fluffy white clouds, a cool breeze and not a worry on my mind - his music is the best to get me from place to place. Hip-hop had to earn a spot in my music library, but now it's nuzzled between the indie and the alternative quietly, waiting for its turn to play.

Today is one of those days...give it a shot. Lupe is retired now, busy running his label - F&F (part of Atlantic Records) - but he still keeps on the scene. I remember he was even approached to go over to Roc-A-Fella Records by Shawn Carter himself, but turned it down because his loyalty lies with his crew. Much respect.

Anyway, to anyone who hasn't kept up with me in a while, and if I ever chastised you for listening to rap, hip-hop or R&B, I formally apologize. There's definitely some gems out there, but sometimes you just have to find the beat that makes you nod your head.



Over and Out,

David Lucio