Who’s Who Geek Edition: Teresa Jusino

I decided to do a set of mini interviews with people I’ve interacted with and have extraordinary backgrounds. Many I’ve met via Facebook and many I’ll meet when I attend SDCC for the first time this July. Next up is geek traveler, Teresa Jusino!

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Name: Teresa Jusino
Online Handle:  Just my name. It’s easier that way. Though if you’re looking for my earliest internet incarnations (or my account on YouTube), it’s rafefan. Why? I’ve been a huge Ralph Fiennes fan from the time I was 15, and whenever people would pronounce his name “ralf” instead of “rafe” it would really piss me off! Heh. I was such a pretentious 15-year-old…
Site:  My two main hubs for my stuff are The Teresa Jusino Experience and my Facebook Page
Age: I’m 32 years old. Gonna be 33 in July. Shout it loud and proud, because dammit, I’m ADORABLE and will be until I’m 100 years old. Age doesn’t freak me out. Not aging gracefully does. I embrace every grey hair (yup, they’re coming in all right…) and every laugh line (it means I smile/laugh a lot…and what’s wrong with that?).
Fave cartoon/book/movie/whatever: What?? There isn’t enough ROOM for all my answers to this, but I’ll give it a whirl…
Fave shows currently on-air: Doctor Who, Grimm, Once Upon a Time, Fringe, Smash, Mad Men, Breaking Bad
Fave shows ever: Star Trek (in all incarnations), Battlestar Galactica, Caprica, Spaced, Six Feet Under,The X-Files, Buffy, Firefly, Lost, Alien Nation. I was the biggest fan of Beverly Hills: 90210 and Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman EVER when I was a kid. Also love oldies like The Honeymooners, I Love Lucy, and The Twilight Zone.
Favorite Books: 1984, by George Orwell; anything by Jhumpa Lahiri; The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins; Everything Is Illuminated, by Jonathan Safran Foer; How to Breathe Underwater, by Julie Orringer; Mrs. Dalloway and The Years by Virginia Woolf;East of Eden by John Steinbeck; The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, by Michael Chabon; The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell; anything by Neil Gaiman (though American Gods could’ve been way shorter and still been a great book); White Teeth by Zadie Smith.
Favorite Comics/Graphic Novels: anything by Brian K. Vaughan; anything by Neil Gaiman (except Eternals); just about anything by Paul Cornell (can’t bring myself to read Stormwatch or Demon Knights. Just not my bag.); Ultimate Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, Takio, and Scarlet by Brian Michael Bendis; Buffy: The Vampire Slayer; Demo and The New York Four (and The New York Five) by Brian Wood; anything by G. Willow Wilson; Fables by Bill Willingham; Transmetropolitan and Orbiter by Warren Ellis; Marvel’s Civil War, by Mark Millar, as well as Civil War:Frontline and the Young Avengers/Runaways tie-in book; Kick-Ass by Mark Millar.
Favorite movies: Gone With the Wind; Forrest Gump; Sliding Doors; Shaun of the Dead; Kill Bill (Vols 1&2) – hell, anything Tarantino; Adaptation and  Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – hell, anything by Charlie Kaufman; Bridesmaids; Before Sunrise;Before Sunset; Citizen Kane; Amelie; It’s a Wonderful Life; anything Pixar. I think I’ll stop there. That’s plenty!

L: That is indeed an extensive list! Now, you have traveled a large part of the globe for your Geek Girl Traveler blog (geekgirltraveler.wordpress.com). Is there one place in particular that was your favorite?

TJ: I can’t pick just one of anything! While I haven’t covered them for Geek Girl Traveler (yet!), my favorite cities are Dublin (I lived there in college and still miss it!), Lyon (the food capital of France, which is the food capital of the world! Also, it’s got a small village vibe and a cosmopolitan, big-city vibe all at once. Love it more than Paris!), and Barcelona (vibrant, loads of awesome Gaudi architecture, hot boys, and great tapas!). Domestically, my fave city (other than my native New York!) is New Orleans! What a vibrant, artistic, amazing place! My favorite geek site abroad is the James Joyce Tower and Museum in Dun Laoghaire, Ireland. It’s the tower in which the first chapter of Ulysses is set, and it’s an amazing, beautiful site to visit right on the beach. Lit geeks will love it, and be inspired! My fave geek site in the US is definitely the EMP Museum in Seattle. It’s geek heaven, whether you love sci-fi, fantasy, horror, or music. 

L: You also contribute to Tor.com, a hub for all things sci-fi, ChinaShop Magazine and are contributing to several Doctor Who anthologies…how do you find time for all of this!?

TJ: Just barely! :) I’m definitely a procrastinator, but I get stuff done. Mostly, I just keep taking projects on, because I love being busy, and the sheer number forces me to finish something. Also, paychecks help. Paychecks allow me to make time. Finding time for my personal projects in the face of that is a whole other story…

L: Since you seem constantly doing something amazingly cool, what kind of projects do you have in the works?

TJ: I’m very excited for the two Doctor Who anthologies I’ll be in soon! Can’t divulge details yet, but I’m very excited to be working for such quality editors on such fun projects!

I’ll also be doing a panel at Geek Girl Con in Seattle this August on “Moffat’s Women,” based on my Doctor Who series at Tor.com! There will be more of Moffat’s Women on the site leading up to the con. Hope to see many of you there!

I’m also hoping to do more video stuff in the coming year! Stay tuned…

And in addition to the Geek Girl Traveler blog, there’s also The Gender Blender (tumblwithteresa.tumblr.com), where I discuss gender issues in pop culture. Because I dig that sort of thing.

L: Everyone has a science fiction property that means the world to them, be it Star Wars, Back to the Future, or even E.T. What’s yours?

TJ: As much as Star Trek and Doctor Who mean to me for various reasons, the property I really hold close to my heart is Caprica. That show resonated with me in ways that surprised me. The Adama family storylines, and particularly the character of Sam Adama,resonated with me because of how I feel about my culture. The fact that the show was so female-heavy and captured so many different types of women also gave me something to relate to. Caprica allowed me to fully see myself on television in a way that few other shows have, and when it was cancelled it affected me more than I thought it would. It kinda felt like I was being cancelled.

L: Since almost everything you’re involved with is heavily science fiction, I have to ask. What about the genre pulls you in so that it influences all that you do? Do you think science fiction as whole, should be something everyone should try at least once?

TJ: I love science fiction, because it allows us to examine present-day society through the prism of something AWESOME! It’s able to take chances that mainstream TV/films/books can’t or don’t, which allows it to address things we might be afraid to address anywhere else. Also, aliens and space travel are cool.

L: I ask this question of everyone, so be honest: If aliens landed in front of you and, in exchange for anything you desire, offered you any position on their planet, what position would you want? I know I’d crap my pants.

TJ: Any position? Third from the left. 

But seriously? Whatever the highest position is. Queen/President/High Exaulted Mystic Ruler/whatever. This way, there’s no way that anyone could do something to me unless I approve.

Unless, of course, it’s tradition on that planet to attempt to kill the leader a la Mirror Universe on Star Trek, in which case scratch that plan.