This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of NAVTEQ. All opinions are 100% mine.

Ah, Summer. Truly we’re at the height of roadtrip season. Warm weather, sunny skies, cool breezes… just makes me want to roll the windows down (possibly in Tim and Mikey’s Fiesta) and blast Free Fallin’ while driving down an open highway. However, getting lost whilst speeding down that beautiful road isn’t on my to-do list.

I’ve taken a number of roadtrips in my day, especially when I used to tour with bands, and let me tell you, having an updated GPS is a must. It helps you avoid bickering over where to get gas, what rest stop to visit, and most importantly, ends the fighting over directions. Sigh, we could have avoided sleeping in so many Walmart parking lots, if only we had a better navigation system.

Well, luckily for you, dear readers, NAVTEQ, the leading provider of digital maps, wants you to keep your GPS and in-car navigation system updated. This way, you don’t get lost while driving to the beach, the water park, or acting out your favorite scene from Jerry MaGuire.

Updating your GPS is incredibly simple. Just head over to NAVTEQ’s website, www.updateyourmap.com, and follow the menus that correspond to your device. Installing a fresh map will take a few minutes, and hopefully, save you a few hours (and gas) on the road. There are well over 100,000 items on NAVTEQ’s map. Chances are, you’ll need at least one or two of ‘em while you’re out driving about.

For more information on NAVTEQ and their map updating service, visit their official website, www.updateyourmap.com.

NAVTEQ [ www.updateyourmap.com ]

The guys over at Restore The Gulf, a team of college grads working to help out around the oil spill, sure could have used a better GPS. With over 1200 miles of open road to travel, from Philadelphia to New Orleans, I’m sure they bickered plenty about where to stop for gas, food, hotels. And hopefully, this post will help them out. All proceeds from this sponsored post will go towards Restore The Gulf. Good luck, guys.

The past four months went by pretty quickly. And in those four months we’ve had the fantastic opportunity to host a great series of events. From the creation of the Geekadelphia Fiesta Mural (RIP) and our awesome party at North Bowl to our rockin’ outdoor concert at The Piazza at Schmidt’s, we’ve all had quite a blast.

Ironically enough, our quiet and quaint event, a Roxy-inspired Fiesta Movement art show at Brave New Worlds is what garnered us a win. I’m entirely proud to announce that the t-shirt design formed from some creative chit-chat and consultation from the female gender helped us win Mission #3!

The t-shirt will be featured as a promotion in Roxy’s Fall Catalog and worn by one of their athletes in an upcoming competition. So ladies, be on the look out for this one.

With that being said, we are oh-so-hungry for more. You might’ve missed the Fiesta Day Premiere w/ Prince of Persia the other night. I’m sorry if you couldn’t make it (for you foursquare fans, we achieved the uncommon “Swarm” badge!). Thanks to the wonders of today’s modern marvels you can view it on YouTube. A hearty thank you goes out to Johnny Zito, Tony Trov and Woodshop Films. Without them and the 70+ other people who helped bring this film to life, it simply wouldn’t have been possible or as awesome as it is.

Let’s close this Fiesta Movement out with another win:
text GEEK4 to 44144 to cast your vote
and send Fiesta Day to Hollywood!

Kaiju Big Battel is a very wondrous thing that definitely has to be seen to be believed. It’s described as “performance entertainment,” and basically entails people dressed up as really bad Godzilla or Kaiju style monsters beating the living crap out of each other. How can you possibly go wrong with that?

Meant to be a mixture of professional wrestling and the Tokusatsu Kaiju (special effect monster) movies, it began as a video project by students at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. While said video project was never realized, another student suggested that more characters be created to fight at live competitions or Big Battels. The first Battel occurred on Halloween night in 1996 and they have been battling ever since.

Kaiju will be batteling at the Troc this Saturday night at 8:00pm for the Philadelphia Comic Con after party in an all ages show that promises to be a Battel to end all Battels! Tickets are $18.50 for adults and $11 for children and can be purchased here. Still want to attend but afraid you will spend all your cash in the Dealer’s Room? Don’t worry we have you covered; we have 3 pairs of tickets to giveaway to our loyal Geekadelphia readers.

All you have to do is comment with; if you could be a giant monster which one would you be? Which city would you terrorize, and why? The best 3 will be picked Friday night notified and put on the guest list for Saturday.

Till then, check out a video of the greatness that is Kaiju!

It’s about that time again. Wizard World Philadelphia (or the Philadelphia Comic Con as they are now calling it) is set to descend upon our fair city. With 3 days of epic cosplay, parties and more special guests than you can shake a stick at, this looks like another weekend not to be missed. Tickets for this event are $25 a day and $45 for the weekend, which is fairly reasonable, and you can pre-register here.

The festivities start off this Friday at our very own Pennsylvania Convention Center and will continue through to Sunday night. This year’s the guest list seems very focused on Star Trek, with some other great guests thrown in as well; in case your fandom is of the Star Wars variety.

This was supposed to be the con of 2 captains originally but William Shatner could not attend at the last minute. However, Patrick Stewart (X-Men, Star Trek) is still scheduled to attend, and will be signing autographs and doing panels both Saturday and Sunday. Also on the guest list are such great guests as Linda Hamilton (Terminator), Adam West (Batman, Family Guy) James Marsters (Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Caprica), and Ernie Hudson (Ghostbusters). One guest in particular I have to say I huge fan of and am excited to see will be Bruce Campbell of Evil Dead and Army of Darkness Fame.

There are some great panels scheduled, and if the dealer’s room and artist alley is even half as epic as it was last year, I honestly can’t wait. After the con shuts its doors, if you’re still looking for something to do, both Friday and Saturday just head over to the Troc where they will be hosting some fantastic after parties. Friday you can join the Zombie Beach Party, and Saturday will be Kaju Big Battle. You can get tickets to both parties at the Troc’s website here.

UPDATE: 7th Dimension has to delay the event a week. We’ll post again about this next week. Til then, brush up on your D&D skills, kids.

If you’ve been looking to get into Dungeons & Dragons but still aren’t quite ready to make a commitment, 7th Dimension Games is the place to be this tonight. 7th Dimension Games is a gaming store located at 1128 Easton Road, just a few blocks from the SEPTA R2 Roslyn train station. The store runs events every Tuesday through Sunday, ranging from tabletop wargaming to Friday night Magic the Gathering.

Beginning tonight at 6:00 p.m., 7th Dimension Games will be hosting D&D Encounters sessions. D&D Encounters is a new program from Wizards of the Coast which involves small group events that only last an hour or two. This allows for players to jump right in and get some quick missions under their belts. It is also ideal for those who lack a regular group to play with and are looking for a weekly game.

Other events at 7th Dimension Games this week:

Wednesday night: 5:00 p.m. Figure/miniatures painting
Thursday: 7:00 p.m. Legends of the 5 Rings
Friday: 6:30 p.m. Magic the Gathering
Saturday: 12:00 p.m. Blood Bowl; 6:00 p.m. Open Gaming
Sunday: 12:00 p.m. Flames of War pick up games

Visit www.7thdimensiongames.com for further event details and directions.

Regardless of what you New Jersey haters have to say about my beloved home state (haters gon’ hate), we’ve got some talented folks pouring out of that (occasionally strange smelling) piece of land. One of whom, as long you pretend Cop Out never happened, is visiting World Cafe Live later this month.

Kevin Smith is bringing his hit weekly podcast, Smodcast, to University City’s World Cafe Live. Featuring his long time producing partner Scott Mosier (pictured above with Smith), the podcast is released every Sunday. Swing by World Cafe Live for a live taping on Monday, June 21st. All guests will score a free autographed comic book.

It’ll all take place downstairs at the venue, with tickets ranging from $40 to $50. For more info, visit World Cafe’s official site.

Smodcast @ World Cafe Live [ www.worldcafelive.com ]

We are all big fans of The Guild here on Geekadelphia. I mean, Eric gave a copy away just a week or so ago. When the great folks over at New Video NYC asked if I wanted to review a screener of the DVD release of the third season I had to say yes.

It’s hard to believe anyone reading this site hasn’t seen this great series yet. But for the uninitiated The Guild is a web series written by gamers for gamers, and follows the Knights of Good – a Guild of 6 very eccentric gamers in a MMORPG titled simply The Game. The Guild follows their lives and exploits both online and off, in a mock documentary fashion. The Guild stars Felicia Day, whom you might recognize from Doctor Horrible as Codex.

After the success of Season 2, the folks behind The Guild were finally established enough with a larger budget to expand the story’s universe, in both location and character. This season will probably be best known for the introduction of the Axis of Anarchy, an evil rival guild led by Wil Wheaton himself. I thought Season 3 definitely raised the bar from Season 2, and definitely has me looking forward to the now-in-production Season 4.

Now for the review, after the jump!

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We are all truly heartbroken over what happened to Sabina Rose O’Donnell a waitress at PYT; one of the favorite burger joints of the Geekadelphia crew. She was a friend to several folks here on the blog, and will be terribly missed. For those of you not from the region, or if you’re unfamiliar with the heartbreaking story, you can read about it on Philly.com, here.

Sibyl & Sharif over at Xipwire, a service that allows you to securely send and receive money using a text message (you might have seen them at the Rittenhouse Row Festival), have set up a text donation number which will donate 100% of the proceeds to the Sabina Rose Memorial Fund.

Simply text SABINA to 56624, to donate $5.00.

Sabrina Rose O’Donnell Memorial Page on Facebook [ www.facebook.com ]

Words simply can not describe how awesome this shirt is. So I wont even try. Just look at it! And here you all thought the three wolf craze had subsided. Remember the keyboard cat version?

You can pick up this hilarious shirt, in all it’s Ewokian glory, via the Star Wars shop for a little over $20.  This of course begs the question… what does an Ewok howl sound like?

Moon Over My Ewok [ starwarsshop.com ]

Here in Philadelphia, you might feel like the whole BP Oil Spill disaster is something relatively far away. What can we do, here in our lovely city, besides lament on Twitter and make donations? Well, the there guys behind Restore The Gulf, a blog that launched over Memorial Day, have the right idea. They are heading down there to do something about it.

The blog, headed up by Matthew Tucker, Chris Bellis, and Gordon Rhoads, will detail their roadtrip down to the Gulf, and their experiences volunteering down there. You can also follow the guys on Twitter via Restore The Gulf.

“We are ALL frustrated, and we must come together. We will not just wait for a newscast,” says Matthew Tucker, who I was fortunate enough to meet at Geekadelphia’s Zombieland screening. “We will travel however far and however long we need to. We are not heading to New Orleans to expose disaster, we’re taking action to lead by example.”

They’ve made enough in donations to get down to the Gulf, but could still use your help. Head over to their website to make a donation via Paypal, and help these three recent college grads make a difference. Cause seriously, people like these guys make me proud to live in this city. Geekadelphia’s made a donation. You should too.

Restore The Gulf [ http://restoringthegulf.blogspot.com/ ]

UPDATE: Appears the events listing for movies in the park has been removed from Jefferson Square’s website. We’re looking into this. Thanks for the heads up Hannah. We want Star Wars in the park too!

According to Jefferson Square Park’s website, they are screening Star Wars in the park next week, on Wednesday, June 9th.

The screening starts at 8pm. The website currently says they are screening Star Wars, but they don’t specify which film. New Hope? Phantom Menace? Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure?

I guess we’ll find out. See you there, geeks.

Jefferson Square Park [ Events Page ]

Illustrator Rosemary Trevale is currently asking for submissions for Picard Day, starting June 16th and running through June 23rd. Sure it’s a weeklong  celebration instead of one day, but whatever, it’s Jean Luc Picard.

For those of you who have never heard of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Jean Luc Picard is captain of the Enterprise and is played by Professor X from the X-Men films. He’s awesome of course, and that’s why you should go to Rosemary’s Picard Day Blog and send over your illustrations, comics, or any other Picard celebrating items you may create. Head over to Rosemary’s Picard site here, and submit your work.

Illustration by Rosemary Trevale / Picard Day Blog