Recap and Announcement: Season 2 Episode 1 and a new cast member!

First and foremost: thank you to all the ladies and gentlemen who have supported us in the past year! We have had a great run, and have met so many amazing people.
In continuing that tradition, we celebrated our first birthday last Friday!

Door prizes!

Shauna and I

Oh my!

Mingling!

More photos on flickr

We had a lot of fun, thanks in part to Hundred Bar and Kitchen, Wild Game Consultants, and Absolut Vodka for the delicious food and drink. As well, we’d like to thank Sue and Dean Heuman of Focus Communications, Threadhill, BioWare, d’Lish Urban Wine Bar, On Spec, K97, Bunches Edmonton, Teresa (@GlamSlamT) and OutInc for all the door prizes! Of course, a large portion of the fun is also because you all are so lovely to be around! (And I’m not just saying that!)
In the next year, there are a few changes coming. One of those changes is fairly obvious. Now that Shauna is living in the centre of the universe, there needed to be a new cast member to fill the void.

Drumroll please…

Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like for you to meet Dana DiTomaso, my new partner-in-crime! Dana is a lovely geek – who, get this – is originally from Ontario. She is fantastic, and if you don’t already know and love her, you will soon.

Watch for Dana’s bio, and a brand-spanking new website (which she is working hard on!), coming this season.

What else is happening this season? Glad you asked! Our next dinner is August 11th, so mark your calendars.

But before we plan too much, we need your help! Go take our survey: http://svy.mk/yggd1. Be (brutally) honest! Tell us what you loved, hated, and want to see in season two. We’ve already received some good feedback… But would love more! Help us make this year better than ever!

Thank you, and see you at the dinners!

Brittney

Season Two begins, cast member leaves the series.

I can’t even begin to tell you how very excited I am for our YEG Girl Geek birthday party tonight. This past year has been incredible.

You guys have been unbelievably supportive. Coming out to our events, not heckling my demand for painting robots, my late recaps, or my terrible photos, and by spreading the word. Every dinner we seem to get more and more ladies and gentlemen coming to the event. You are a diverse, fantastic, and friendly crowd – and I’m honoured to call you my friends.

People often ask me what type of geek they need to be to attend a dinner. Just who goes to these things? I’m pleased when I can tell them that you really defy labels. There are ladies from video game geekery, tech, science, space, pop culture… and so much more. I’ve learned so much throughout this past year, and can’t wait for the next season.

Of course, with a new season, there comes a casting change. I am extremely sad that tonight is Shauna McConechy‘s last YEG Girl Geek Dinner.  As you probably know by now, Shauna has accepted a position with IBM in Toronto. Like everything Shauna and I do, this became a reality super quickly, and she will be leaving on Sunday.  This job is going to be fantastic, and Shauna is going to take over the “centre of the universe” in no time at all. Because, that’s just what she does. She’s a force to be reckoned with, and they aren’t going to know what hit them. This is a great move for Shauna, and I wish her all the best. I’ll be supporting her the best I can from here in Edmonton, and sad that we will never finish our game of Super Mario Bros on Wii.

This is where I get mushy.

Shauna has been one of the finest mentors and friends I could have ever asked for. We met, by complete fluke, thanks to this incredible thing called Twitter. Shauna’s convinced we would have eventually met otherwise, but I have my doubts. Words can’t describe how much I’ll miss her. She’s a networker beyond comparison, she’s genuine, passionate, someone who actually gets things done, an amazingly hard worker, a fantastic marketer, and as you well know, a super snazzy dresser. (Remember the Girl Geek Dinner when she dressed up as Batgirl?) Without Shauna, YEG Girl Geek Dinners would never have happened. I would probably never have seen Buffy the Vampire Slayer if she hadn’t borrowed me the whole series. I probably would have opted to stay home and read books rather than attend so many fantastic events around our city. Without Shauna, I never would have dreamed of pulling off something like the Hackathon last October.

I’m going to miss having her around. I’m going to miss our trips to see scary movies in theatres, even though we’re both chickens. I’m going to miss long meetings where we get a little bit accomplished while watching Big Brother or Across the Universe. I’m going to miss our super fun video game nights, when I learned not to bubble if she’s bubbled, and Shauna learned that I will never leave a man behind. (Surprisingly, both from Mario.) It’ll be hard not having someone around to tell me to wear some damn heels or to dress up. And I’ll be sad not having someone around to vent about work, or geekery, or other things, and that she won’t be able to tell me to suck it up in person anymore.

Of course, she isn’t dying. She’s just moving to Toronto. There will be Skyping, texting, long phone calls, and hopefully, visits in our future. But this is definitely a huge loss for Edmonton Girl Geek Dinners.

That’s not to say we’re stopping. Oh, heck no. We’re going to keep-on keeping-on. We’re going to kick so much ass in the next season. And I won’t be alone. Shauna and I have already discussed who will be joining the cast this season. Our people are still talking to their people, so we’ll let you know as soon as we can. (Although you can send audition videos in if you’d like to…)

So on our first birthday, I want to say goodbye to one of our lead actresses, and thank all of you. You’ve been the finest cast and crew we could’ve asked for. Let’s hope for many more years, so we can be around for Karen’s daughter (our future speaker). And of course, keep your fingers crossed that there will one day be painting robots.

Brittney

We want to see your smiling faces!

Hey geekettes & geeks, we would love if you wished us a Happy Birthday! We’re composing a video of pix of YOU wishing us HBD!

Please take a pic of yourself wishing us Happy Birthday; make banners (with sparkles please), have balloons, wear a hat, it doesn’t matter just make sure we see that you are wishing Edmonton (or YEG) Girl Geek Dinners a happy first birthday. Email your picture to us yeggirlgeek[at]gmail.com.

Pix need to be to us by June 22nd (updated)! We will be running a reel of all the pictures at our Birthday Bash on the 24th. Please help us celebrate in a BIG way!

Luv,

Shauna & Brittney

X-Men: First Class was surprisingly good… now what?

I’ll admit. I was a non-believer. After being done wrong with four (unfortunately super successful) X-Men movies, I looked at shots during the development of X-Men: First Class, and completely wrote it off. I haven’t bothered watching the trailers, and there has been no fangirl excitement, event though X-Men was one of the first comic book series I ever read. It was the X-Men cartoon that really fostered my young geek girl, and as such, it’s something that I don’t want to open my heart to again. They’ve hurt us, dear geeks, so why return to theatres? I think that is why the movie only did $56 million this weekend in the US. Don’t get me wrong, I would freak out if anything I ever did turned into $56 million, but the studios expected more. (It’s fair to note that this is nearly $2 more than the first X-Men movie did.)

Fellow geeks, let me quell your fears. It’s actually a pretty good movie! When friends of mine announced they were going to see it last night, I joined them, not expecting much of anything. When we left, my friend was comparing its quality to Batman Begins.

Photo: The Box Office Junkie

Let’s get some X-Men fandom out of the way: we all know the REAL first class contained Angel (who is a BOY), Cyclops, Jean Gray, Beast, and Iceman. Okay, so we get that Beast, Angel (the girl also known as Tempest), Mystique, Havok, Banshee, and Darwin, weren’t really the first class. Havok, you’ll recognize, is Alex Summers… Scott Summers younger brother. So… where was Cyclops? It was weird to me that Havok was included in this, considering they were keeping this somewhat in the same universe as the prior movies. If he’s Scott’s younger brother – what is he doing in a past time?

That is never addressed, and, let’s be honest, the average moviegoer isn’t going to know that something is amiss with it.They will, however, notice the terrible Beast makeup. Wow. I felt bad for Dr. McCoy. Moira MacTaggert is also in this movie, but not how you might think she would be. I hope both her placement, and Beast’s makeup are fixed in the future – as Fox has said that they would like to continue this into a trilogy.

Where do we go from here?

I have hope for the first time, in a long time. They may make these films a little darker, and perhaps, a girl can dream, a little less fast-and-loose with the characters.

So what would I like to see in the next two movies?

• ROGUE. Oh my goodness, Rogue. Rogue is my favourite character, and the whiny Anna Paquin version did absolutely nothing for me. I want to see some tough southern belle action. Perhaps showing her with Mystique. It may be too much to ask – but I’d love them to work a bit of Ms Marvel in there, so Rogue joins the X-Men loaded with issues. Because, after all, we all love that Rogue. (Don’t we?)
• GAMBIT. Don’t ever bring up the X-Men: Origins Wolvervine movie and Gambit in the same sentence. Ever. I can’t even begin to tell you how upset I was after waiting so long for a Gambit in the movies (they kept promising but not delivering) – to see *that*. Bring Gambit in during the second movie. Let’s show him on the Brotherhood’s side. We all know he and Rogue will be together come the third movie, tearing up the X-Men mansion with lovable banter and fighting.

• ICEMAN. I’ll admit. I was never a huge Iceman fan… but how he got played in the other movies, just plain sad.
• SHADOWCAT. Yes, I understand the annoying kid that she would be. But three actresses in three movies just to play this underrated character? Unfair. Let her join the team, she doesn’t need to be the star, but a few lines wouldn’t be terrible for her.
• NIGHTCRAWLER. Kurt, son of Mystique, half brother to Rogue. So much drama, so much fun, and so underused in the movie. A total shame.
• DAZZLER. This may be crazy-talk, but perhaps in the third movie, the X-Men have a few vocal ‘outed’ mutants. Jean Gray can lobby the government, while Dazzler, a popular singer, will come out as mutant and proud.
• DR. MOIRA MACTAGGERT. Yes, a Doctor. Is it too much to ask that she moves to Scotland, studies genetics, and develops a bit of a Scottish accent? Everyone is always so American in these movies.
• Not a character, but let’s make it dark. Moody. Let’s make it very new-Batman-esque, where it’s not all dating, fun, and heroes. X-Men were always treated poorly. They were rounded up, they were experimented on. We need a bit of that, the fighting with emotions and mutations. We need the angst of Rogue. A mutant who can’t touch, and the troubles that causes her. We need Scott and Jean in love, but still leading the team and making the tough decisions. We need Beast in better makeup, with a little more acceptance of himself. We need Magneto leading a group of mutants, who are really fighting the same fight as the X-Men, just in a much more violence and rash way – but we need the moral dilemma of it all.

Those are my requests. Obviously, there is so much more I’d like to see, but there’s only so much to type. Mainly, it needs an awesome Rogue. It needs strong female characters. It needs flaws and it needs solid character development. From what I saw in First Class, it could happen. Now we just need to see if they want to make a movie like Batman, that makes money and is still very much Batman, or if they want to continue making the movies in the style of those previous X-Men movies.

Have you seen it? What did you think? Got any requests?

Look ma, we’re famous!

Our thanks to Jasmine Franklin of the Edmonton Sun/24 Hours for featuring the Edmonton Girl Geeks for International Women’s Day!

We’re honoured to have had the opportunity, and hope you grab a copy of 24 hours to see a great big picture of our smiling faces.

If you weren’t able to see it in the paper, here’s a copy of the article:

 

recap – s1e7, Dr. Anny Sauvageau and Forensic Pathology

After season 1, episode 7 of Edmonton Girl Geek Dinners, I’m staying away from snowbanks. (Which is difficult during Edmonton winters.) I also won’t be sucking on pennies any time soon – not that I ever really considered it.

The things we learned last night were phenomenal and definitely out did my very high expectations. Our speaker was Dr. Anny Sauvageau, Edmonton’s Deputy Chief Medical Examiner. Formerly from Quebec, the vegetarian Dr. says she gets tempted by Alberta Beef and considers herself very much an Albertan now. She still hasn’t given up her high heels, and is far and away more stylish than I would have pictured a Medical Examiner to be.

She started out by telling the 50 Girl Geek Dinner attendees that reality isn’t as sexy as the type of forensic science we see on television. There’s no glamour, and bodies are a lot juicier and smellier in real life. (Also of note: we learned that kitty litter does NOT cover up the smell of dead bodies. Thanks to an interesting case she worked on for that tidbit.) Dr. Sauvageau also pointed out that in real life, teamwork is very important. There is no Horatio Caine standing over everyone and figuring out the case, it takes a lot of hard work from everyone involved. DNA samples, toxicology tests and the like – actually take months. There’s no wrapping up a case in a neat little bow within 24 hours. (Sorry Bones, it just doesn’t happen like that.)

Dr. Sauvageau took 12 years of schooling to get to where she is today. She studied for five years to be a Doctor of Medicine, five years of specialization in anatomo-pathology, and two years of specialization in forensic pathology. She uses her expertise to help determine the who, where, when, why, and how of death. Dr. Sauvageau has worked on many cases and shared some of the more unique ones with us.

I’m not going to go into detail, but some highlights: a man who choked on a bent penny because he was trying to quit smoking, suicide by broken glass slicing through the buttocks, aqua-erotic asphyxiation (yes, aqua), and an unusual case of smothering secondary to ingesting raw pet cat. (Ew)

Dr. Sauvageau cleared up any misconceptions we had about forensic pathology only dealing with homicides. She also described reversing the esophagus in a manner similar to reversing clothes. Doing laundry will never be the same.

Once again, we want to give our thanks to Dr. Sauvageau for taking the time to come speak to our group. I think I speak for all of us when I say we’d love to have her back again! It was a fascinating talk, and she definitely had everyone hanging onto every word.

Our thanks also goes out to Amanda Babichuk of  d’Lish Food and Wine Bar for the oh-so-delicious meal. The raspberry mouse was light, fluffy, and very tasty and the meat-atarian chicken was phenomenal!  I’m sure we’ll be visiting Amanda and her team again soon!

Thanks to everyone who attended our dinner! Don’t forget to share any photos you may have of the night with us on flickr or Facebook.

And mark your calendars for April 14th, our next Girl Geek Dinner!

• Update: You can also read Maria’s recap of the evening over at her blog. It was Maria’s first YEG Girl Geek dinner!

Saucy new game or awkward party ingredient?

Mark this date on the calendar: March 11. That’s the date the new adult Wii/PS3 game “We Dare” comes out. That’s also the day that you have to start asking people who invite you over to play video games whether or not they want to shoot mans in Halo, rock out with RockBand, team up in Mario, or pretend you’re back at an awkward party in Junior High.

Junior High awkwardness you say? Sounds like fun, right? How about rubbing up against a Wiimote with your face… one that’s just been in the back pocket of your friend? That’s in store for you if you play the saucy new game by Ubisoft: We Dare.

Here’s the commercial Ubisoft released:

That doesn’t look awkward in the slightest.

I don’t know about you… but as much as I love my friends, I don’t think I’m comfortable enough to strip for them while we play a Wii game. It’s already embarrassing enough shaking the can in Wii Mario Party 8. (Yes, it does look like you’re doing something naughty…) But doing something that looks naughty in gestures, thus making friends giggle like 13 year olds is one thing. Actually having a naughty Wii game? I don’t know if I’m ready to cross that line.

And does your relationship really need a video game to spice things up?

What do you think? Are we being trolled? Is this perfect for the awkward junior high party crowd? Or am I wrong – is this something you would play with friends?

Thanks to @PhysicistLisa and @ArkhamAsylumDoc for the tweets that pointed this out to me.

Update: looks like the game is a Europe-only release. But the question still stands… would you play?

s1e6 – dinner recap

Hi Geek Girls and fans!

It’s me again, the ever-so-chatty, and really forgetful Brittney. One of my New Years resolutions is to be a better poster here on the yggd blog… but so far, it’s not panning out.

Don’t worry, it’ll get better. Promised. Shauna and I have a lot of great plans for this space and for the events this year… just you wait and see!

Anyways, onto the dinner recap. I’ll keep this one short and sweet.

On January 13th, we gathered at Two Rooms on Whyte Avenue, a fantastic little restaurant owned by the lovely Connie John. There she had planned for us a dinner of local delights, complete with the tastiest spicy broccoli I had ever had.

Everyone mingles before dinner is served.

 

We had a really interesting wildcard question too: “What website has made the biggest impact on your life?” We had answers ranging from Match.com – an adorable story from Kiri, to support.microsoft.com, to tumblr, boingboing, goldfishlegs, and geocities. Of course, Google dominated the evening. (Do I REALLY need to link to Google?) By the way, I know I’m forgetting bunches, so please feel free to remind me with a comment below – or add your own if you were unable to attend.

The speaker of the evening was the dynamic Candace Brinsmead, the vice-president of technology advancement, for the Edmonton Research Park. I think we can easily say that she was the most inspirational speaker we’ve had to date, and I think a lot of us left with girl-crushes on her. (At least I did.) She spoke about how there aren’t enough women entrepreneurs, and why we women need to pick up our socks and take over the world. Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating a little. I absolutely believe we’ll have her back to speak again… and when we do, be there!

 

Oh! And if you weren’t at the dinner, you missed your opportunity to be on TelusTV! Kari and Tom were there filming for My Edmonton, a new show dedicated to events around town. As soon as we get the link from the dinner, we’ll share the video with you… or if you order your tv from Telus, you’ll be able to find it on there.

Our next dinner is March 3rd! We’ll get the details out to you as soon as we plan them. (There is no February dinner as Shauna is out at Social Media Week in Toronto and Brittney is out of commission for the second half of the month.) Plus, Shauna always refers to February as the ugly-unliked-stepchild of months.

As always, more s1e6 photos are on flickr. And if you take photos, add them into our flickr group.

By the way…  if you’re wondering how I found that sweet geocities site… (no, it wasn’t one of mine…) I used the Geocities Archive to look it up. Terrifying what they’ve kept… they are the hoarders of the Internet.

TwitterTalks and you’re invited!

Last month @unmarketing (Scott Stratten) came to town care of Bossy Mama, Carol McBee and chatted about the amazingness that is Twitter and social media. Well since then Carol has been inundated with requests to have a similar follow up event, so she is… and guess who’s gonna be there?

That’s right! Your two favourite girl geeks (yes Brit & Shauna) are going to be chatting about Twitter for new users, and we think you should be there.

Make sure you read on and sign up soon. We KNOW this one is gonna sell out!

Twitter Talks
Thursday, February 3, 2011

After Scott Stratten wowed us with his intriguing insite on his experience with Twitter, it left many of us craving more information! Well, you got it! We have found 2 of Edmonton’s most dynamic members and educators in the Twitter community. Whether you are still deciding on the perfect Twitter handle, or if you Tweet daily we have something for you! Shauna McConechy, from Out Inc., and Brittney Le Blanc will kick off the evening with a more basic introduction of Twitter and Adam Rozenhart from Calder Bateman will give us an in depth review of how to really leverage what Twitter can do for your business. This isn’t your usual “social media educational event!” Come to socialize in person with the Twitter community, check out the gorgeous AGA and meet some new people.

*The AGA’s wine/snack bar on the second level will be open for any snacks or refreshments until 7pm*… … …

Click HERE to read on and to REGISTER…

**Cancelled** TEDxEdmonton Women… it’s right up our (and your) alley!

Bad news girl & guy geeks…

Dear TEDxEdmonton supporters:

After much thought and deliberation, we regret to announce that the upcoming TEDxEdmonton Women simulcast event on December 7 & 8 has been cancelled. While we were looking forward to sharing the inspiring talks from TEDWomen with you all, a few circumstances beyond our control have come up that would have prevented us from delivering the type of quality event you’ve come to expect from us.

However, you can still catch the live webcast of TEDWomen next week by registering for a TED Associates membership that gives you access to the full TEDWomen live webcast from the comfort of your own home or office. It’s only $100 and you can register online now. We’d highly recommend it. Here’s some links for more information about the program:

http://www.ted.com/registration/tedwomen

http://www.ted.com/registration/register/event/tedwomen/code/TWWB7788

A full refund will be issued to everyone who had purchased a ticket to our event. In addition, we’re offering ticket holders a 15% discount to the second edition of TEDxEdmonton, coming in May 2011. Our team is already hard at work on this event and we hope you’ll be able to join us next year!

Should you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact myself or one of the other members of the TEDxEdmonton Organizing Committee. We thank you all for understanding and your continued support!

Ken Bautista

Chair, TEDxEdmonton

Co-Chair, artsScene Edmonton

info@tedxedmonton.com

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

We can’t even begin to tell you how excited we are for the upcoming TEDxEdmonton Women event in December. We are excited to help organize and promote this event along with artScene Edmonton. As you know we truly believe in supporting and encouraging the success of women and this event falls right inline with those beliefs. Check is out…

TEDxEdmonton and Edmonton Girl Geek Dinners presents a live simulcast of TEDWomen on December 7th and 8th.

TEDxEdmonton Women is a day and a half event for women and men taking place on December 7 & 8, 2010 at the Fairmont Hotel MacDonald. This day and a half will be an opportunity for you to hear over 50 women and men from all over the world simulcasted live from TEDWomen in Washington, DC.

It will provide you with the occasion to be inspired by other individuals that are in business, art, design, science and education and are leading in their area of discipline. While also connecting and networking with local community members and inspiring one another to grow in your own areas of expertise..

Some of the speakers include:

• Halla Tomasdottir, co-founder of Audur Capital, has been instrumental in rebuilding Iceland’s economy since the nation nearly went bankrupt in 2008. Her approach: applying female values to financial advice.
  
• Johanna Blakley, Media Maven – studies the impact of mass media and entertainment on our world.
  
• Tony Porter, Educator – Educator and activist with international recognition for his work to end violence against women.
  
• Sally Osberg, Champion of Social Entrepreneurs – As President of Skoll Foundation she identifies the brightest new social enterprises and lends much needed support to innovative problem-solvers.
  
• Kate Orff,Landscape Architect – She asks us to rethink “landscape”- to use urban greenspaces and bluespaces in fresh ways to mediate between humankind and nature.
  

For information on all the additional speakers check out the program at offical TEDWomen site.

Your two day pass to TEDxEdmonton Women is now available to you for $99 which will give you full access to all live simulcast sessions with TEDWomen event in Washington, D.C, generous breaks between session blocks to share and discuss, refreshments, lunch, and snack breaks, along with a ticket to the official TEDx Edmonton Women Closing Party.

There is limited space available for this event so register today!

Event information – http://www.tedxedmonton.com/TEDWomen/

Tickets – http://tedxedmontonwomen.eventbrite.com/

Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/pages/TEDxEdmonton-Women/142399735811060

Note: You are receiving this email because you signed up to the artsScene Edmonton, Edmonton Girl Geek Dinners, or the TEDxEdmonton mailing list through our website, one of our event websites and/or filled out an information card at one of our events.

To unsubscribe from our mailing list, click here.