The penguins from "Happy Feet" doing their impression of the beginning of a crowded race. Lemming impersonation optional. (c) Kingdom Feature Productions

The assertion that we’ve got happy feet may be a slight overstatement, but it’s certainly more true this morning than it’s apt to be mid-morning on Saturday, when your intrepid scribes (that’d be me and Mike) will be hitting the road, literally, for a 5k race together for the first time. There will be several friends and colleagues of ours there, both from our day job and other circles, not to mention several thousand other other folks.

Much like the first time you step into a PvP arena (I’m partial to Quake ]|[, which tells you how long it’s been since I was any good at that sort of thing), where it’s you against other actual humans, the very act of being surrounded by fellow athletes with an actual scoreboard brings a certain crispness to the proceedings. Sure, it’s just going for a run – in our case, it’s pretty much the same one we do several times a week – but doing it “for real” brings another dimension to it, beyond the fresh route and, shall we say, interactive scenery.

Several of the ShrinkGeek crew are hitting the road for Dragon*Con at oh-dark-thirty Thursday morning, and will be wandering happily among the throngs of our fellow geeks there. A couple of us will be volunteering and/or speaking on the MMORPG Track, which makes us even easier to find, if you’re so inclined. What this means is that things are apt to be a little quiet here while we’re having fanboy/fangirl moments over various SF and gaming personages, punting gnomes, and catching up with friends from all over the ‘tubes.

We promise not to be stinky, and will probably talk your ear off about Cataclysm or our progress or whatever else comes to mind, depending how many energy drinks or protein shakes we’ve had at that point.

And, if we can’t get out of the habit of waking up early, you might even find us at the fitness center being suspiciously healthy… or at least trying to work off the excesses of the previous evening’s shenanigans.

We still love you, but we love William Shatner’s shaman more.

As part of a media campaign to celebrate the release of the sequel to their popular Wii Sports game, Nintendo announced on Thursday they would be touring around the country with a portable island straight out of Wii Sports Resort.

Starting with a huge display in the middle of Times Square, the portable islands will have plenty of fruity (but non-alcoholic beverages), a steel drum band, a reflecting pool and a lounge area.  Oh, yeah…You’ll also be able to try out Wii Sports Resort!

Ah, E3. How we love you. In the mind of gamers, E3 conjures up glitz, glamour, wild displays, and booth babes as far as the eye can see. To the uninitiated, E3 is the Electronics Entertainment Expo, a yearly gaming industry convention held in Los Angeles. New games are announced, new hardware introduced, and for four days, tech and game writers devour all that the gaming companies have to offer and then report back – often before announcements are even officially made by the companies in question.

We also, as a general rule, eat like crap.

Woefully lost in the mix of all the gaming news is the fuel that keeps gamer geek writers going; the food of E3. Some companies are kind and put food out for hungry writers who often have to dash from appointment to appointment. Other companies (seemingly) like to hire caterers from their local Rennaissance faire, offering food of mysterious origin – often bathed in strangely-colored sauces or served on sticks. Then there’s all the local food you wind up consuming during the course of four days of zooming around like a howler monkey on speed – late night diners as you jam out copy; the obligatory airline nibbles; whatever you can scavenge from your hotel’s vending machine or room service to stop yourself from eating the pillow out of starvation. That, and lots of coffee… or energy drinks and vodka.

So join me as I bring you all the best – and worst – in this behind-the-scenes look at the food (and drinks) of E3. Which companies offer the weirdest munchies? The healthiest? What do geeks on the go chow down on? Are there any exotic frosty adult beverages? What’s being served on sticks this year? Whose cuisine reigns supreme? Check in with me every morning as I report back from the previous day’s adventure, and see whats going on in the world of E3 gamer-grub!