We're so excited to have Chef Julia Crookston as our in-house cooking instructor at MaxFunCon, where she'll be helping us make delicious zucchini pickles. Head over to the MaxFunCon site to get our podcast -- you'll learn a thing or two about Julia and get a mini-lesson in making your own salad dressing.

The MaxFunCon podcast continues apace... this time around it's a new video from our friends in the New York sketch group Elephant Larry, who'll be performing at this year's Con. It's a full-length parody of pre-film entertainment called The Wow. You can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes to download it to your portable media player. And while you're at it, check out last week's show, an interview I conducted with Merlin Mann.

It's our host's contention that MaxFunCon.com will be back up tomorrow, but in light of its disasterous collapse the past few days, I've decided to extend the scholarship deadline to Monday.

Click on "read more" for the full application guidelines.

Merlin Mann shared his thoughts on creativity and producing creative work in a very popular talk at last year's MaxFunCon.

Maybe you couldn't make it in 2009. Well, luckily enough for you, Merlin will be joining us again this year. In anticipation of next week's podcast, in which Jesse will be talking to him about his upcoming book, we're sharing the advice he gave at MaxFunCon 2009.

Merlin is great at breaking down the process of making art, or writing, or however you choose to be awesome and helping you think clearly about how you can stop stalling and just get started. So what are you waiting for? Help him help you by heading over to the MaxFunCon site to get the podcast.

A few months ago, MaxFunster Merlin Mann (of 43 Folders and You Look Nice Today fame) conducted a live interview with MaxFunster John Hodgman (of Daily Show and Areas of My Expertise fame).

Want to know what kind of persimmon-kickery these two might be capable of at this year's MaxFunCon? Get the podcast of their conversation over at MaxFunCon.com.

We guarantee the always epic Andrew WK will be ready to motivate and inspire you at this year's MaxFunCon. Need to get pumped up now? Head over to the MaxFunCon site to hear his live interview and performance on an episode of The Sound of Young America in NYC.

Al Madrigal is a super guy. He's hilarious, for one: You've probably seen him on Conan or on Craig Ferguson, and he was the Jury Award winner for Best Stand-Up Comedian at the Aspen Comedy Arts Festival.

We've actually known Al since our college radio show days... and even then he was always helpful, friendly and all-around awesome. And that is the kind of folks we want to surround ourselves with at MaxFunCon. He was recently a guest on Jordan, Jesse Go! - head over to the MaxFunCon site for a sneak of his standup as "Smiling Al Madrigal" at MaxfunCon. You can also subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.

Jonathan Coulton returns to perform at MaxFunCon after touring his new DVD/CD combo of live performances, it's called: BEST. CONCERT. EVER. If you've never heard his songs before then seriously: get ready to have a new favorite person in your life.

Jump over to Maxfuncon.com to grab it or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.