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Welcome to The Genre Traveler! Please sign up using the form to the right so that you'll get all the latest updates to the site. You also might want to sign up for the RSS feed, which you can do via email or your favorite RSS Reader. Once upon a time, I lived in Southern California, and it was good. Then I got married, moved to Northern California. Moved to Florida. Moved to Texas. Moved to Arizona. Moved to Maryland. And then moved back to Southern California. Well, I've been here a year and it is now time to pick up my Tarot cards and tambourine and move again -- this time to Phoenix, Az. (Again.) Why am I telling you this? Because it impacts the posts I make to this blog. Due to the nature of what I post here, I can't pre-schedule posts to keep going while I pack, move and then unpack. So, if you notice a few less posts -- possibly even a week or two without them -- never fear. I'm just in the throes of moving and will return to posting again once I've settled.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be abducted by aliens? Well, you might soon get your chance if Bryan Temmer, a Florida-based computer technician, gets his way. He wants to build an alien-themed amusement park in Roswell, N.M., and one of the attractions will be a thrill ride that simulates an alien abduction. According to KOAT TV7 Albuquerque, Contour Entertainment, a company that has worked closely with Disney, Universal Studios, and Sony, has been contacted by the city to research and provide initial development plans.

MGM and Dimension Films will have an advance screen of Stephen King's The Mist tomorrow (Nov. 15) at 2pm in Beverly Hills. To get your pass for two, send an email to mist@alliedadvpub.com and include your name and date of birth. The pass does not guarantee admission, so arrive early. Seating is limited and is on a first-come, first-served basis. This pass is nontransferable and is not redeemable for cash. NO one will be admitted once the screening begins.

A new one-of-a-kind dinosaur exhibit is opening soon at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, Pa. Dubbed "Dinosaurs in Their Time", the exhibit is hailed as "the first permanent exhibit in the world to showcase dinosaurs in scientifically accurate, immersive environments spanning the Age of Dinosaurs." The exhibit, which opens to the public on Nov. 21, showcases dinosaurs in precise reconstructions of their ecosystems, interacting with their environments and the other animals and plants that lived alongside them. "Visitors will get the feeling of literally stepping back in time and walking among the dinosaurs," said Dr. Matt Lamanna, the museum’s Assistant Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology, principle dinosaur researcher, and lead scientific adviser for Dinosaurs in Their Time. "We’ve painstakingly recreated the worlds of the dinosaurs, from the plants they ate and walked on to the animals that shared their respective ecosystems; everything that is displayed together actually lived together. This is the first time so many dinosaurs have been shown like this in a museum."

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Penguicon 2008, which will be held April 18-20, 2008, in Troy, Mich., recently announced that Vernor Vinge, noted science fiction author, will be the Science Fiction Guest of Honor. Penguicon is a both a science fiction and Linux open source convention. This convention, in addition to typical science fiction con fare, features:

• a computer lounge where attendees can check their email, browse the web, and perhaps find out a little bit more about open source software;
• a multiplayer computer gaming room;
• a giant customizable marble roller coaster; and
• Ice Cream Made With Liquid Nitrogen!

For more information, visit www.penguicon.org.