New Look!

As you’ve no doubt noticed if you’re here reading this, the site’s undergone a major visual overhaul. The new WordPress theme is a work in progress, but hey, enjoy the new design!

A Hole in the World

“But I don’t understand! I don’t understand how this all happens, how we go through this. I mean — I knew her, and then she’s… there’s just a body, and I don’t understand why she just can’t get back in it and not be dead anymore! It’s stupid! It’s mortal and stupid! And… and Xander’s crying and not talking, and… and I was having fruit punch, and I thought, ‘Well, Joyce will never have any more fruit punch — ever, and she’ll never have eggs, or yawn, or brush her hair, not ever,’ and no one will explain to me why.”
–Anya Emerson, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Episode 5.16, “The Body”)

It’s a weird feeling when someone you know and talk to on a regular basis passes away. It’s like a giant mental disconnect — this weird, surreal blot that your mind can’t fully process. A hole in the world.

It’s even weirder when the person in question dies a tragically young death, as was the case with Rannie Yoo, who passed away last weekend at the age of 33, after an 11-month battle with cancer. I knew Rannie through Triple Point (previously Kohnke Communications), the San Francisco-based gaming PR firm where she worked. Her funeral was today (well, I guess technically yesterday, at this point), and — between her friends, family, and gaming industry buddies — the room overflowed to the point where the crowd spilled out the door and into the hallway. For nearly two hours, a great many of these people took turns coming to the front of the room and relating stories and memories about Rannie, and how she’d touched their lives.

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Nominate The Geekbox for the 2009 Podcast Awards!

The nominations for the 2009 Podcast Awards are open through October 18. If you’re a fan of the podcast, please click on the banner above, and nominate The Geekbox in the People’s Choice and Gaming categories! You have until this Sunday night to get your nominations in. Make me proud, Geekbox listeners!

Geekbox Listener Survey

Do you visit this site regularly? Do you enjoy our podcast? Then please, take this reader survey to help me gather some important demographic information! I promise that your e-mail address will not be sold or otherwise redistributed as part of this. And, to incentivize the survey process, I’ll draw one random name from the participants and send you a free current-gen game of your choice (it can be any platform, though it must be a reasonable and not out-of-print selection).

The Geekbox RAW EDITION: Episode 17 (and a special announcement)

Here’s this week’s episode, which will be our last time together before E3 Expo 2009! We’re planning to deliver a good show full of E3 insights next week, and hopefully with some special guests.

I also have a very cool announcement: As some of you may have heard via this press release, we’ve partnered with Hammersuit (in conjunction with our pals at Bitmob and Rebel FM) to form a loose podcasting network (that’s shorthand for “we’re all still publishing our content independently, but cooperating for a much-more-impressive packaged traffic number”). Exciting! I’ll be directing folks to a brief reader survey very soon, so please check back for that. And thank you, everyone, for making this a podcast worthy of such an alliance — I can’t do any of this without your support!

You can discuss this episode on our forums here, and you can discuss the Hammersuit announcement here.

The Geekbox RAW EDITION — Episode 17 (2009-05-27)
Wherein we discuss the terrible Terminator Salvation, our building excitement for Burn Notice, next week’s E3 Expo, Plants vs. Zombies (and why Ryan can’t stop playing it), Oregon Trail on the iPhone, swine flu, and the latest Fitch Hitch update. Another raw edition, by popular demand! Starring Ryan Scott, Karen Chu, Andrew Fitch, Greg Ford, and Ryan Higgins.
Running Time: 1h 13m 54s
Direct Download — iTunes — Zune Marketplace — RSS

Where’s the podcast!?

Just a quick note to let everyone know the podcast is skipping a week, due to a confluence of scheduling conflicts for all the regular members. Don’t worry — we’ll be back next week. In the meantime, we’re being kept alive by a Dharma Initiative food drop (see above) created and sent to us by a loyal fan (loyal fan, I apologize for not having your name handy right this second, but I will get it from Master Higgins!).

See you all next week — we’ll have lots of Lost, Wolverine, and Star Trek to talk about!