Welcome!
Thanks for stopping by! This is my personal site with musings, things I do, places I go and whatnot.
If you want to check out some of my professional work, head on over to Charon Pictures, which is my production company.
And please visit my other social sites:
My NASA Social Experience
A presentation I gave at the Chabot Space & Science Center as part of the Venus on Mars event in April 2013.
WOW! Over 48,000 views & counting…
PGA NMC Member Spotlight
A nice writeup about little ‘ol me that appeared in the Producers Guild of America New Media Council newsletter.
Member Spotlight – February, 2013
By Elaine Spooner
Susan Bell
“In film and TV, your product is passive – the audience sits and watches. Add transmedia and it’s become active.”
Do you know what a transmedia producer does? What about a transmedia producer of alternate reality games with a social media connection? Susan Bell is just such a producer. She knows what it takes to engage audiences with interactive activities linked to social media in games that automatically advance the story and draw in new players.
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Decide in your heart of hearts what really excites and challenges you, and start moving your life in that direction. Every decision you make, from what you eat to what you do with your time tonight, turns you into who you are tomorrow, and the day after that. Look at who you want to be, and start sculpting yourself into that person. You may not get exactly where you thought you’d be, but you will be doing things that suit you in a profession you believe in. Don’t let life randomly kick you into the adult you don’t want to become.
–Astronaut Chris Hadfield’s answer to the question “Any advice to a young person who wants to get into this field?”, from his reddit IAmA.
NASA Social 4 Years
The social power of SpaceTweeps was seen through a self-organized tweetup in honor of the four year anniversary of the first NASA Tweetup at JPL on January 21, 2013. A Facebook group was created to share ideas and develop a schedule of tweets for the day. I created the above image to use as a Facebook or Twitter header during the day. We tweeted favorite Social moments, photos of friends we had made, memories of group meals, favorite speakers and, of course, tales of Shuttle & rocket launches watched! All in all it was a grand success. Over 21,000 tweets & RTs with the hashtag #NASASocial4yrs.
Check this link out for an archive of the tops tweeps and topics: Tweetarchivist.com. I made it in at #8! And here’s a collection of what I tweeted at Eventifier.
Chabot Space & Science Center
Look who my friend Lesley & I ran into at Chabot: Camilla Corona SDO and Ms Aurora PhD!
I’m a Private Pilot!
After almost 4 months of flying & studying, I passed my private pilot ASEL (airplane single engine land) test in some crazy windy conditions between two storms!
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Goldstone Deep Space Network
In mid-October 2012, I was excited to participate in the first NASA Social to be held at the Goldstone Deep Space Network (DSN) at Fort Irwin deep in the Mojave Desert of California.
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Flying Lessons
As I announced on Twitter in May, I was so inspired by my trip to Dryden Flight Research Center that I decided to start taking flying lessons with a goal of becoming a private pilot.
After much research into what I was getting myself into, I decided to join the Alameda Aero Club based out of Oakland International Airport. My instructor is Drew Kemp and so far he’s been pretty darn patient with such a newbie as I am.
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@ JPL when Curiosity landed on Mars!
The 'Scarecrow' version of Curiosity in the the Mars Yard
Thanks to the amazing program that is NASA Social, I was one of 25 space enthusiasts/tweeps/social media mavens given unprecedented access over three wonderful days at JPL in Pasadena. The event culminated in witnessing the amazing achievement of landing a one-ton rover with pin-point precision on Mars! I got to be there when history was made. How awesome is my life?!?
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Dryden NASA Social
Time again for another NASA event, this time a very full day at the Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Airforce Base in California.
Any space or flight enthusiast will know that the dry lake bed of Edwards is the location of Chuck Yeager’s breaking of the sound barrier, and thus the first step toward launching people into space (as immortalized in the movie The Right Stuff). And Edwards is the site of many Space Shuttle landings, as well as the Approach and Landing Tests with Enterprise.
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The Rifle’s Spiral
The Shins: The Rifle’s Spiral on Nowness.com.
I helped out as a production manager on this stop-motion gem of a music video directed by Jamie Caliri.
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WyrdCon
I’m designing two gaming events for WyrdCon this June. Both involve the Los Angeles Ghost Patrol in a fictional haunted hotel environment.
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The Miracle Mile Paradox
Help fund this alternate reality game (ARG) that I’m producing as a part of Transmedia LA!
Have a Heart for Horror
Get your cookbook with 163 pages of fearfully tasty treats, art and recipes for $45. Every book sold helps to benefit “Get Safe”, a non-profit organization dedicated to preventing real life horrors such as rape & domestic violence. I contributed my famous bloody Sangria recipe which is so yummy & so strong it’s almost guaranteed to knock you on your ass. On sale at Lulu.com.
Shadow Cities
If you have an iPhone or iPad, it is worth checking out the ground-breaking, location-based game Shadow Cities. Continue Reading →
Shadow Cities is a massively multiplayer online role playing game or MMORPG. I have seen it referred to several times as an ARG, but the only alternate reality it involves is its location-based playing field. There is no through story line or character interactions outside of chat with your teammates, who obviously are not fictional. Therefore I don’t consider it an ARG.
