In which Daniel and Greg bring about the end of the podcast, talk about old cartoons and internet-based radio shows, Daniel got all verklempt, and oh yeah, it’s the end of the podcast!?

We kicked off the final episode of Geek Dads Weekly with a rundown of our Affiliate Summit pass winners (I know, I never did get those show notes together. Sorry.) Congratulations to our winners, and we hope to meet you in New York! We then spent a few minutes talking about the event in general.

Wait, what? The final episode of Geek Dads Weekly? Yes, this podcast is officially over. Fear not! We are merely rebranding! From next week until the next time we get antsy, we shall be known as Zap! Why “Zap!”? We explained in this segment why we feel it fits extraordinarily well. The fun begins next Tuesday at 2pm Eastern, live!

Next, Drew couldn’t be with us today, but he passed along a video from his travels. The audio is in the podcast, but you really need to watch (the video will be posted here in the show notes after it finishes rendering – should be later today). It was recorded yesterday from a stop on the National Hot Dog Month tour.

Back to Greg and I, we did a little segment about old cartoons and how they don’t really hold up very well. He’s a few years older than I am, but we have both gone through the disappointment of re-watching the cartoons from our youth. I’m quite jealous of the kids that are growing up on the animation that’s out there today.

Greg is delving into internet-based radio. It’s a bit like podcasting, it’s a bit like terrestrial radio. He’ll be launching it in the next few weeks.

That conversation prompted me to talk about my home studio rewiring. I recently made my own “lack rack“. Using a $7.99 Lack table from Ikea, I created a sweet rack for my lone piece of rack-mounted podcasting gear, my Compressor/Limiter/Gate. Check it out:

Now to tame those wires back there…

Next up, a bit about The Amazing Spider-Man, and how well it has done so far. It hasn’t broken any records, but it is performing quite well. There will certainly be sequels. We also considered the possibility of DC bringing about a Justice League movie.

As we got to the end of the show, I announced my re-opening of Daniel M. Clark .com. I am showcasing original fiction there after letting the site go dormant for a couple of years (I wasn’t a very good blogger). If you have an interest in original Sci-Fi and Fantasy (more of the latter than the former), then I’d welcome your time and feedback on my efforts.

We wrapped up with another video from Drew – this one was shot just this morning from a hot dog shop up in Maine.

See you next week on Zap!

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

Show notes are forthcoming – we have a contest to start though, so the episode couldn’t be held back any further. It’s a good one, it’s just taking a little while longer to get the notes together. See below for the full details of our Affiliate Summit East 2012 Pass Giveaway!

a Geek Dads Weekly giveaway

Please note: All entries will be checked for validity. Clicking on “enter” ensures that your task has been completed. If your task has not been completed, your entry will be considered invalid. If you are chosen as the winner of this contest and you have not completed the task(s) that you claim to complete, a new winner will be randomly chosen. Thanks for your cooperation.

We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

In which Daniel, Drew and Greg talk about Father’s Day, unbelievable luck (and skill) in winning contests at conferences, Affiliate Summit East’s hotel being sold out, and WordPress optimization for site speed. Also, the last time we’ll talk about Game of Thrones until next spring. Probably.

No video this week. I’m sick and trust me, you don’t want me on camera. Here’s the recap:

• We kicked off with a bit about our Father’s Day weekends. Greg is, apparently, Aquaman.
• In the middle of recording, Drew was notified that he won a TrekDesk – a result of a contest he participated in while at BlogWorld recently.
• Contests at conferences? Totally worth it. They often don’t take much of your time and can result in big prizes… we explain the hows and whys.
• Speaking of conference prizes, I won a Blu-Ray player in a drawing at Think Tank last month. It arrived a couple of days ago and it’s awesome. Thanks to Snow Consulting and Paul’s TV. Now I just need a TV to hook it up to…
• We each previewed our upcoming sessions at Affiliate Summit East 2012.
• I talked at length about WordPress optimization and site speed. Thanks to a fantastic session at Affiliate Summit Central, I was able to cut my site’s load time in half. There are details about how I did it in the blog post I wrote over the weekend. The tool I talked about is webpagetest.org. The image scruncher program that I couldn’t remember the name of? It’s Image Optim (free, but Mac only).
• Lastly… Greg did his homework and watched the final two episodes of Game of Thrones. We love talking about the show, and we’re sad that we have to wait until next spring for season three. Until then, we’ll have to find something else to obsess over.

Lastly, here’s the shirt that Drew was talking about at the end of the show:

The Avengers as The A-Team. NICE.

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

In which Daniel, Greg and Drew talk about collections, the benefits of whiteboarding, and inspiring(?) graduation speeches. Also: Game of Thrones and dealing with copyright issues on YouTube.

This week’s recap:

• Greg’s got every Captain America (regular series) issue going back to 1996. The site he mentioned for tracking the collection is collectorz.com
• How Greg utilizes whiteboarding – and how I’m going to attempt it myself to see if it works for me
• Did you catch the “you are not special” graduation speech?
• Saturday Night Live had a cast shakeup recently. Looks like some new blood will be coming in.
• Drew pointed out an excellent Game of Thrones animation. We didn’t get too much into GoT this week because somebody didn’t do his homework.
• Drew and I have both had issues dealing with YouTube copyrights lately.
• Apparently Dallas is making a long-awaited (by the original cast, mostly) return to television. Will Falcon Crest be far behind? What about Dynasty? AND WHERE IS KATE & ALLIE?!

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

In which Daniel and Drew talk about The Battle of the Blackwater, Comicpalooza 2012, Drew’s hectic travel schedule and Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. It was an eclectic episode.

Greg Hoffman is on assignment at King’s Landing this week, we hope he survived the battle and will return next week.

We began with a rundown of this week’s episode of Game of Thrones, the wildly popular HBO program. The focus of the episode, titled Blackwater, was the siege of King’s Landing by Stannis Baratheon. Spoilers abound in our recap, so you’ve been warned.

Next, my weekend at Comicpalooza 2012. This was an especially important event to me, as it has sparked a resurgence in my desire to write. With more than a dozen educational sessions for writers – and not just writers of comics – it was an inspiration. I was fortunate to attend sessions run by one of my favorite authors, Timothy Zahn, as well as legendary science fiction author Larry Niven. I’d like to thank RJ Woods for an incredibly worthwhile three-part workshop as well. It is in this segment that I tease a bit about some future plans regarding QAQN and QAQN Media.

We finished up with a summary of Drew’s recent travels (Drew will be sending me some links later tonight, if you’re reading this, you’re early). No episode would be complete without a really out-of-left-field discussion, so after doing 35 minutes about Game of Thrones and science fiction, it only makes sense to talk about Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. Don’t worry, it all makes sense when you listen.

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

In which Daniel, Drew and Greg talk about the Avengers movie. 

No, that’s it. Just that.

It’s a spoileriffic episode as we talk in great detail about the flick – you have been warned. Don’t come crying to us if you listen to the show before watching the movie. We lay it all out here for the full hour.

Thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

In which Daniel and Greg cover Saturday Night Live movies, The Avengers, the new Dark Knight trailer, scoring sweet concert tickets, and how nobody who uses Google Voice is sane.

We had a great show this week. Here’s the highlights:

1. The twentieth anniversary of Wayne’s World is this year. Also, a segment on SNL movies and how It’s Pat only grossed $60,000. Seriously.
2. The Avengers opens this week. It’s going to break records and set standards, you just watch. I just watched Thor and Captain America again with my wife in preparation.
3. Avengers parodies on YouTube are massive.
4. How It Should Have Ended is must-see TV… so to speak. Go watch. It’s awesome.
5. The Dark Knight Rises has a new trailer out. We’re not enthusiastic about it.
6. I’m trying and failing to sell nearly 4,000 comic books.
7. I scored awesome tickets to see Rush this December. Ninth row!
8. Check out this Circus magazine I got off eBay.
9. Greg says he only ever gets crazy people calling him on his Google Voice number.
10. We have two contests running:
1. An Avengers movie prize pack, including a t-shirt, set of buttons, and awesome character 3D glasses.
2. Help us rename the show! We’re paying $100 to the person who suggests a great new name for the show.

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

In which Daniel and Greg talk about Record Store Day 2012, how much better vinyl is than other formats (maybe), Game of Thrones, Affiliate Summits East and Central, and oh yeah, DANIEL SAW THE AVENGERS MOVIE!

Drew Bennett is on vacation this week down in Florida. Later in the show notes I’ve got a short video from him that explains what he’s doing down there besides relaxing.

We started off talking about the artist-of-the-hour, Gotye, who performed last weekend on Saturday Night Live. I really like the two songs he did but not much else of his stuff. Greg noted that his performance at Coachella resulted in a lot of people predicting he’ll be a one hit wonder.

Next, I SAW THE AVENGERS MOVIE! Don’t worry, no spoilers. If you dig these kinds of movies even a little bit, you’re really going to like this one. It’s the best of its kind. I explained on the show how I got to see the movie three weeks early.

Record Store Day 2012 is coming up this Saturday, April 21st. We had a great discussion about vinyl vs. digital formats. I noted that HDTracks.com is a great resource for studio-quality digital recordings – if you think CD is the best digital format, think again.

Here’s something you might find interesting. We’re renaming the podcast. How would you like a hundred bucks? Help us name the show. There’s money in it for you.

I have a feeling we’re going to make Game of Thrones a regular weekly segment. The show is too good not to. Greg has blown through all of Season One and the first episode of Season Two, so he’ll be caught up by our next show. We’ll be doing recaps weekly, I think.

In Affiliate Summit news…

Affiliate Summit East 2010 videos are up on YouTube.

The deadline for the call for speakers for Summit East 2012 is Friday, April 20th.

Affiliate Summit East 2012 Has Raised $6,576 So Far to Fight Breast Cancer

And lastly, I made a donation to Affiliate Marketers Give Back, along with Taylor West, who won my Full pass to Affiliate Summit Central 2012 in the auction I held last week. He bid $300 and together we donated $101 to AMGB.

Here’s Drew Bennett in Florida. I need to get a peek at his contact list… just give me five minutes…

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

In which Daniel, Drew and Greg talk about holidays, pointless movie sequels, affiliate marketing & OneLoad.com, and the recent discovery of a little-known site called eBay. You can buy stuff from them apparently.

We started this week with a bit about tattoos. Greg is the only one of us that has one, but Drew and I are okay with that. Seems like these days, if you want to be a rebel, you should be the one without a tattoo.

Drew’s birthday was this week. He’s on vacation next week and he’s being given a Kia Sorento to use while he’s there. Drew occasionally gets vehicles to drive around and blog about. Pretty sweet deal.

Easter was this week. All our kids had a nice time with candy and presents and egg hunts. I tell a story on the show about my daughter’s letter to the Easter Bunny. Crisis averted. Barely.

Further proof that Hollywood is running out of ideas, there’s a list of 105 movie sequels that are currently in the works. Bill and Ted III? Beetlejuice II? Really?

Greg just discovered eBay. We’re not sure if that’s a good thing or not. Well – it’s good for his Captain America collection… not so good for his wallet perhaps.

OneLoad.com changed its Terms of Service, no longer associating affiliate marketing with porn. That’s a good thing, but I’m not sure they went far enough.

I have a Full pass to Affiliate Summit Central for sale. If you’re looking for a pass to the sold out conference, I’m your guy. Read all the details and get in touch with me.

Drew has taken and posted a photo a day for seven years. Seven years, not a day missed.

Lastly, Greg has started up a new podcast! It’s about fantasy baseball, and it can be heard at GeekCast.fm. Greg, Mike Buechele, Nate Smith and Eric Souza make up the cast of The Affiliate Boys of Summer.

[update - I found the sensory deprivation goggles that I mentioned on the show. They are these:

I'll take two.

nice, huh?]

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

In which Daniel, Drew and Greg consider 67 books for kids, the return of Game of Thrones, the Avengers and the lack of lottery winners among us.

(Technical difficulties means no video this week. Video should return with next week’s episode.)

This week we were all about:

• 67 Books Every Geek Should Read to Their Kids Before Age 10 - Classics like Where the Sidewalk Ends, Harry Potter, The Tale of Despereaux, Charlotte’s Web and A Wrinkle in Time fill out this list of must-read books for not just geek kids, but all kids. The Wizard of Oz is conspicuous in its absence, as is Alice in Wonderland, but it’s a great list overall.
• Cracked’s 6 Popular Children’s Books that Teach Kids Horrible Messages (#1 on the list is the Arthur entry that we talked about).
• From kids books to television that shouldn’t be watched by anyone under 18, Game of Thrones is back for Season Two this week.
• The weekly comic strip Foxtrot had a great homage to Game of Thrones and My Little Pony.
• The Avengers movie is coming up fast. I’ve got two tickets to an early screening on April 14th, two weeks before the movie opens. You’re jealous, I know. I’ll have a full report afterward.
• The Mega Millions lottery drawing was big, big news. 640 million. None of us won. I went on a rant about how the lottery is a big waste of money.
• Drew went to Boston, into Chinatown, to a Japanese restaurant to eat hot dogs. Yes, it’s just as weird as that sentence makes it sound. Yet it’s awesome somehow. The video is up on YouTube.
• Drew’s a blogger for Johnsonville’s Grill Greats, which he’ll have more information about soon.
• Greg’s all excited about baseball season and the start of his fantasy baseball league. Batter up!

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

In which Daniel, Drew and Greg discuss video games for young kids, pro wrestling for grown-ups, the Walking Dead for mature audiences and Twilight for repressed housewives. Oh, and something about some movie called Hunger Games, which is for pretty much anyone.

We started off with a segment about kid video games and how they can be beneficial to a child’s development. No, we’re not saying they should sit in front of a screen all day, but we each have experience with smart kids that have been using technology and video games in educational ways.

Next, pro wrestling! Greg attended a WWE Monday Night Raw event last night! The last time I had any interest in pro wrestling was when the Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka, Junkyard Dog and Hillbilly Jim were in the ring. Greg spent the better part of six hours at the event though, and had an awesome time. There’s something about attending events like that as an adult that brings back memories of being a kid. Pretty cool. Not sure I’d drop the money on a ticket any time soon, but who knows.

Speaking of Atlanta, my new favorite TV show is The Walking Dead. I just watched both seasons, and I’m hooked. We had a nice discussion about how awesome that show is, and that led – somehow – into a segment comparing and contrasting Harry Potter, Twilight and the Hunger Games. Who are these movies aimed at? What are their demographics? And is the Hunger Games really a cross between My Side of the Mountain and Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome? I’d like to point out that I’m not the one that came up with “repressed housewives”, so don’t yell at me if you’re a repressed housewife who loves Twilight.

TMILFs?

Coming up this Friday, I’m recording an Affiliate Summit podcast with Mary Poiley. We’ll be talking about Affiliate Summit Central and my session, Step By Step: Podcasting for Business. Keep an eye on QAQN.com and AffiliateSummit.com to learn when it gets posted!

Greg and Drew are a little low in the mix for a while this time, sorry about that – I just added a new piece of equipment to the podcasting studio here and it needs a little tweaking.

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

In which Daniel, Drew and Greg talk about the findings of a survey of geek dads, going offline on the National Day of Unplugging, and using a Polar RCX5 training computer (er, exercise monitor. Fancy, right?).

Our major segment this week was about a survey recently published by Cisco/Linksys about geek dads – not us specifically, but about all dads who fit the ‘geek’ label. There are some interesting numbers here, even if a few of them were a little ‘duh’ to me – but we had a really good talk about what it means to be a dad and a geek.

Next, the National Day of Unplugging is coming up this Friday, March 23rd and Saturday the 24th. From sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday, turn off your electronics! Read a book, go outside, do something that doesn’t include television, movies, internet or anything else with a screen (or speakers for that matter). Give it a try. Drew is in, Greg is sort-of in, and I’m on the fence but leaning toward unplugging. Listen in for the reasons why.

We wrapped up with a bit about the Polar RCX5 training computer that I won in a giveaway at Affiliate Summit West 2012 two months ago. This is one slick little device, though I’m not super comfortable with the chest strap. It offers a ton of information about your exercise though, and is a solid product – and I’m not just saying that because I’m an affiliate of the site that sells it.

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

In which Daniel, Drew and Greg talk about webcams, Saturday Night Live being funny again, voting, and old school Sesame Street. Also, no mention of Pintere–ah, nuts. 

QAQN productions are now live on video! Check out the show schedule and streaming video player at QAQN Live!

We kicked it off with some discussion about our foray into streaming video. Greg got a new video camera, the Logitech C920. He was aiming for the C910 but missed and ended up with the better camera.

Saturday Night Live is funny again? Really? Greg says it’s about 50/50 right now. I’ve always thought it was kind of cyclical, with some casts being better than others – if SNL isn’t funny, give it a couple of years and it’ll bounce back.

Today was Super Tuesday in a lot of states. Was yours one of them? Did you vote? Greg explains why you should. Fight the apathy!

Greg’s cough drops have little inspirational messages on each wrapper. He was very smitten with these things.

The Sesame Street martians got some love this week. Now that I have kids, I’ve come to the realization… our Sesame Street is better than your Sesame Street. Suck it, Elmo.

From Sesame Street to reality television. From reality television to Downton Abbey. I’m trying to figure out why people are so interested in it, but failing. It seems to be very popular, but I find it soooo boring. Someone will have to explain it to me, because Greg & Drew haven’t seen it.

We wrapped with some minor talk about the Oscars. Greg’s waiting for a train wreck. Kinda like watching the Indy 500 and hoping for a helicopter engine explosion.

Other things of note:

• Billy the Exterminator
• Cinderella picture disc on eBay
• Sprockets! Touch my monkey!
• G-D-Batman (it’s a Twitter account, but slightly NSFW if PG-13 language is an issue)
• Being Human
• The Crazy Cat Lady

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

In which Daniel, Drew and Greg discuss the upcoming tragic demise of affiliate marketing in Georgia, streaming live video, and choosing the right HDTV for your home.

Although we were recording the show on video this time… there were issues. The battery in my Zi8 died before I realized that I hadn’t plugged it in properly to AC. This is the first time that we streamed out to Justin.tv though, so you can watch my part of it on my QAQN page there. Next week I’ll double check the main camera so I can bring the whole crew together.

Greg went to the capitol building in Atlanta to protest House Bill 993, sponsored by Rep. Matt Ramsey. This is Georgia’s version of the Affiliate Tax/Amazon Tax/Nexus Tax that has already passed in several other states (though it has been defeated in several others). Greg’s takeaway? Georgia is screwed. We spent a good 30 minutes or so hashing this out.

On a more light-hearted note, it looks like Death Stars aren’t really all that expensive to produce, as we had reported last week.

Speaking of stars and planets, two planets and a moon in our solar system lined up for a couple of nights this week.

Do you pay your kids for good grades? We talked about whether that’s a good idea and some thoughts about teaching kids about money. Drew brought up his experience with Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University.

We wrapped with some thoughts about choosing an HTDV.

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

In which Daniel, Drew and Greg discuss Fausnaught Day (that’s totally a thing), affiliate management, rebooting movie and television franchises, and Kevin Smith. Also, Pinterest. Again.

We lead off with Fat Tuesday and Fausnaught Day, a tradition that I have been informed is not actually Klingon, but German. It involves decorating doughnuts, which I think we can agree automatically makes it one of the most underrated days of the year. Why am I just learning about this?!

Next, Greg has launched a new contest for merchants. He gave us all the details – he’s giving away four months of free affiliate program management as part of a case study. If you are a merchant who is interested in jump starting your stagnant affiliate program, this is right up your alley.

We got into a whole thing about rebooting movie franchises. Do we really need new versions of old movies? We’re not so sure. Reboots, re-releases and 3D. Ugh.

Kevin Smith has a new TV show that we talked about in this next segment. Well, sort of. Not all of us have watched it yet. We talked quite a bit about his career though, and Drew actually met the dude. The Death Star conversation that I referenced can be found here on YouTube, and here’s the article that Greg found that calculated the cost of building a Death Star.

And next, yet another segment about Pinterest! Greg has coined a new term: Dispinterest. It’s what happens when you stop caring about Pinterest. There’s been some news lately about Pinterest and Skimlinks, and there’s some new code available that allows site owners to block their content from being pinned.

Drew got his hands on a new Playstation Vita, but wasn’t too impressed. Listen for his review, and you can read more about it at BenSpark.

Greg’s checking out Red Dwarf. You should, too. It’s smegging brilliant. The new series is being shot right now. We chatted a bit about Doctor Who as well.

Lastly, I recommended some software for tracking collections of books, movies, comics and more. Great stuff. Available on several platforms.

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

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In which Daniel, Drew and Greg talk about one of the biggest stories in the intersection of parenting and social media this week: the father who put eight rounds into his daughter’s laptop because she wrote an expletive-filled rant about him on her Facebook page. …or did he?

We began the show with an explanation of the new recording schedule for Geek Dads Weekly and the rest of the QAQN productions. GDW is now recorded on Tuesdays at 2pm Eastern. After a couple of minutes doing that, we dived right into the headline of the week: Father Shoots Daughter’s Laptop, Posts Video on Facebook. We had quite a spirited discussion about this, with Drew coming down on the side of “I hate this video” and Greg coming down on the side of “I love this video”. I’m somewhere in the middle.

• The video that sparked the whole conflagration.
• Tommy Jordan’s Facebook page
• Was it all a hoax?

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

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In which Daniel and Drew (and later, Greg) welcome Rob Merlino to the show. Rob – The Hot Dog Man! – is on the show to talk about hamburgers and chicken–wait, what? Oh. Right. Hot dogs. The Hot Dog Man is on the show to talk about hot dogs. That makes more sense than what I was going to say.

It’s not just hot dogs though, as the three of us chat about life in the New England area, the demise of Kodak cameras (we lament the loss of the Zi8), and the ethics of companies buying other companies. Also, Affiliate Summit, Affiliate Improv, Blogworld, and camping out at the Museum of Science.

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

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In which Daniel, Drew and Greg mull over the next generation, the history of blogging, Gentlemint.com, Drew’s new recording setup, and the travesty that is the grocery store toy aisle.

Todd Farmer recently said, “at what point will kids have no idea what “caught on tape” means?” – probably now. The three of us talked about how kids will not have the same touchstones we have, especially when it comes to language. We agreed though, that phrases can take on a life of their own, beyond their literal meaning. This is one that will probably linger.

Speaking of language, the AP Style Guide has issued a decree: it’s spelled “email”. No hyphen. [Here's the thing - someone on Twitter linked to this story, and I assumed it was current. In writing the show notes, I discovered this change was made 10 months ago. Oops. What does the AP say about doing proper research for a story?]

Next, we transitioned into the history of blogging and general internet evolution. Greg keeps up with rebeccablood.net, one of the earliest blogs – and it shows. It’s an example of an old school blog, from a time some considered blogging “pure”. The layout is minimalist, which reminds me of Sam Harrelson’s new site as well as Devin Tonhaeuser’s - two old school looking sites in 2012. Minimalist. Focused on content.

Are you using Pinterest? Are you a guy? Are you wondering how your super macho, manly interests fit into the predominantly female, DIY aesthetic at Pinterest? Wonder no more, now there’s Gentlemint.com. If you have an interest in sports car shaped caskets, giant pizza tacos, motorcycles, grilling or beer, this might be right up your alley. Speaking of Pinterest, Drew brought up an interesting thing…

Drew’s got a new microphone! He’s rocking the Blue Yeti microphone, an excellent choice. His audio is 1000% better… now we just need a more reliable Skype and all his problems are solved! Several podcasters I know are using the Yeti (or its cousin, the Snowball) with great results. If you’re talking into your laptop’s internal microphone or you’re using a cheap headset (itself a better choice than the internal mic) upgrading to a Yeti is a great move.

Next, I talked briefly about buying toys at the grocery store. Overpriced? Yeah, a smidge. The branded toys – Star Wars, Marvel Superheroes, that kind of stuff, were nearly ten bucks for the little 3″ action figures. Generic action figures, without the big licensing deals, were like, a buck. Moral of the story? When your 3 year old says he wants a toy at the grocery store, just say no. Yikes.

Lastly, our friend Tricia Meyer is running a contest. Ladies, this one’s for you, and Dads (or husbands or boyfriends), this is a big chance to be a Great Guy™. Enter the drawing, then go get on Twitter and spread the word:

RT @sunshinetricia Share your mean mom story and win a gift to pamper yourself www.themeanmom.com/contest

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

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In which Daniel, Drew and Greg talk about a few things revolving around Affiliate Summit in some way or another. Plus, Game of Thrones, which was saved for the end in case people want to avoid spoilers and talk of taboo subject matter.

We started with a catch-up with the guys since last week. Drew’s getting settled with the new house, the new baby and all that domestic goodness. Greg went on a comic book shop tour in the Atlanta area, visiting six shops. He used a site called Comic Shop Locator to find them, and some of the places he went to were pretty funny.

Next, an update on Affiliate Improv!, the new monthly webinar series that kicks off this Saturday, January 28th, at 2pm Eastern. It’s an extension of the three-time Affiliate Summit session that I’ve helmed, and it’s totally free to attend. We demonstrate effective brainstorming and show the process of going from idea to action list. Plus, attendees get inside info on the sites, services and techniques we use on our own sites to blow them up and attract attention. Come check us out and spread the word, won’t you?

We covered Affiliate Summit Central, coming up in May. I’ll be there, Greg will be there, Drew is on the ‘maybe’ list. The Emcee for #ASC12 was announced today  and she seems like an awesome choice. Her name is Heather Romiti. None of us know her yet, but going by her bio and the trust that Shawn & Missy have placed in her, we’re sure she’s fantastic.

One of the more popular and well received sessions at Affiliate Summit West 2012 was Mastermind Groups Exposed: Success in Affiliate Marketing by Eric Nagel, Todd Farmer and Tricia Meyer. I recently got an invitation to join a mastermind group, and thought I’d bring up mastermind groups as a segment. I didn’t realize Greg would have so much to say on the matter! (Sidebar: you know what I just realized as I was typing these show notes? All three of them are Pinnacle Award winners now that Tricia won her award at West 2012. How cool is that?)

We finished up with a discussion of Game of Thrones, the enormously popular HBO series. Tune in to hear Drew and I ramble about how awesome it is and butcher the pronunciation of a few names. Warning: the segment is full of spoilers. Also, full of talk about what makes the show so controversial – the sex and violence. That’s why we held it til the end of the show, so listeners could drop out if they felt they needed to.

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

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In which Daniel and Drew welcome a new co-host to the Geek Dads Pantheon of Awesomeness – Greg Hoffman.

The show notes will be completed later this evening. I apologize for the delay, but I wanted to get this thing posted before it got ridiculously late. Not that MONDAY isn’t pretty ridiculous already, I suppose. I’ll explain later.

In which Daniel and Drew welcome Sam Harrelson back to the show for our New Year’s Special. Topics include spotty resolutions, video games, social media, Shoemoney, affiliate marketing and more.

My new New Year’s resolution is to not agonize over the show notes. Rather than many paragraphs of overview, I’m going to break it down for you more simply. Let’s go!

New Year’s resolutions? Drew and Sam don’t do ‘em. Me? I’m resolving to have fewer paper cuts, listen to more Tom Waits music, and start smoking. Everyone resolves to quit, but I’m a rebel. I go against the grain.

Video games – we talked about the new Godfather multiplayer game from Kabam!,Unreal Tournament, Skylanders, Skyrim, and the granddaddy of all the modern resource allocation games, Utopia.

We talked about social media, Facebook and the “freemium” business model, which Sam wrote about just the other day.

And Shoemoney! Did you hear? Jeremy “Shoemoney” Schoemaker called me “the best podcaster in the affiliate marketing business and a great interviewer”. Now that’s what I call a compliment. The guys and I knocked around some thoughts about Jeremy and his upcoming appearance at Affiliate Summit (less than a week away as I write this!).

If you haven’t heard it yet, check out Jeremy’s 75-minute interview on Inside Internet Marketing #39.

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

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In which Daniel and Drew talk about a forgotten anniversary, the Affiliate Summit Newcomer Program, holiday decoration deals and 2012 being the best year ever for movies.

We started with yes, the anniversary I forgot. Oh, not my wedding anniversary, no. Today is the third anniversary of Geek Dads – the third anniversary of my very first podcast experience. Everything that I am today in my podcasting career stems from that first episode of Geek Dads three years ago today.

And I completely forgot about it until it was too late to plan anything to mark the occasion. I suck.

After that bit of happiness, I mentioned that the Affiliate Summit Newcomer Program closes tomorrow, December 23rd. If you’re interested in participating, please sign up by the end of the day tomorrow so I can make the final matches over the weekend.

Drew brought up late Christmas shopping next. Not shopping for presents, shopping for his tree. Yep, he left it a little on the late side on this one! That led into a nice discussion about finding great post-Christmas deals on decorations.

Our main segment this week covers the movies coming up in 2012 that we’re looking forward to (provided we’re not all dead). We had a great talk about movies and television from the 80′s to today and how things have improved significantly over the last 25 years.

Lastly, the winner of our last giveaway was Christopher Sorel, congratulations! We have another copy of the Green Lantern: Secret Origin hardcover to give out, so enter! The winner will be notified next Thursday!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

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In which Daniel and Drew tackle such heavy topics as cello-based Star Wars videos, joke thievery, Louis CK and a Green Lantern contest.

Right off the bat, check this out:

Awesome, right? We also mentioned Lindsey Stirling and the Barely Political series during this opening segment.

Did you know that The Gutters is a site of lousy joke thieves? It’s true. Someone clearly heard our Emo Wolverine show and decided to do a web comic featuring Emo Wolverine! Thieves! It’s true, as far as you know.

Speaking of noted joke thieves, we were reminded of where that phrase came from. I haven’t kept up with Sarcastic Voyage (or most other podcasts) much this year, but Aalgar and Matt continue to put out a stellar show, according to Drew. Drew was featured on this year’s ClusterFlonk event, so he might be biased, but I’ll let it slide. Keep up the good work, gents!

Next – Louis CK. This guy is my new comedic hero. The story behind his latest comedy special is inspiring. I won’t rehash it here (I do that on the show) but click on through to his site and read up on it. It’s a great lesson for content creators, affiliate marketers – anyone who wants to sell anything online, really.

Lastly, we have a new contest. I’ve got a bunch of Green Lantern hardcovers to give away, and we’ll start with two. I can’t promise delivery by Christmas, but hey, it’s a free hardcover. Call it your New Years’ present if you want. Now, here’s the catch. Well, it’s not really a catch, it’s a request. I’m trying to secure a sponsor for other really awesome contests and I want to show them that QAQN and Geek Dads Weekly knows how to throw a contest. Get your friends to participate! Tweet it! Facebook it! Throw it up on LinkedIn, if you think anyone there would notice! Put it on Google+ if you know anyone who’s actually using it! Join in the fun! Details below!

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

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a Rafflecopter giveaway

In which Daniel and Drew get a late start, don’t do the show live, and have to deal with Ian wandering into the studio. Turned out to be a pretty good show nonetheless. 

It’s the legacy of Geek Dads, whether it’s @ Home or Weekly. We drop the kids in front of the TV for 45 minutes to do a podcast and they invariably get bored and decide to see what we’re up to. That’s probably a good thing, I guess.

This week we’re talking about Drew’s new baby boy and how he’s affecting his family. We also covered Marvel Super Hero Squad Online and classic video games (like Baldur’s Gate, Bard’s Tale and others). I explained how I deal without cable TV – between Hulu, Netflix and various network sites, I’m pretty much okay. Catching live sports is a problem, but I’m not much of a sports guy, so that’s okay.

Drew mentioned that he’s doing even more giveaways, despite Swagsgiving being over and done with!

We wrapped with a segment about DC Comics’ commitment to their New 52 project. I don’t think they’re in it for the long haul.

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

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In which Daniel and Drew welcome Eric Nagel to the show to talk about his epic Christmas lights display. Also, Drew and his wife just added another human being to the planet and we mourn the loss of a Geek Dad. Still great, just different.

The show is divided into three segments this week, the first of which features Eric Nagel. Eric has just debuted his annual Christmas display at his home and is here to tell us all about how it came about, what it takes to plan something is this magnitude and how popular it has become. The event (and it really is more like an event) has its own Facebook page and you can see more pictures and video over there. Here’s one to whet your whistle.

Next, Drew and I announced that long-time Geek Dad, the only other remaining founder of the show, has taken his leave. Joe Magennis and I, along with Sam Harrelson, started Geek Dads almost three years ago. We celebrated our 100th show a few weeks ago. He’s been a rock, and he’ll be missed as he begins a new business venture. Joe’s welcome back anytime, and I hope he’ll jump on an episode periodically to catch us up on what’s going on with him and his family.

Out with the old, in with the new? Drew talked about his new baby, a boy by the name of Andrew Bennett IV: The Quest for Peace. Or Andrew Bennett IV: The Dream Master. I’m not sure which cheesy 80′s movie title to go with. Perhaps Andrew Bennett IV: The Revenge. Everyone is doing well, the baby is great, and I’m looking forward to more pictures. Also – Drew’s got more Swagsgiving goodness going on at BenSpark.com.

We wrapped up with a bit of talk about the new-ish direction of the show. We’ll be intersecting the paths of geeks and of dads a lot more in coming shows. We’ll have topics ranging from video games, comic books and TV to kid-oriented stuff like… well, video games, comic books and TV. But lots of other cool stuff, too (like biking, movies, making fun of celebrities and acting like we’re above all that, books, technology, social media…). If it’s geeky and we’re interested in it, we’ll cover it. Stay tuned. It’s going to be awesomesauce. Not lamesauce. That’s what the kids today say, right? Awesomesauce?

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

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The Affiliate Summit West 2012 Gold Pass Giveaway!

We’ve got FIVE Gold passes to giveaway, valued at $549 each! If you’re thinking of hitting Summit in January, we’ve got your hookup. Follow the instructions in the widget below!

In which Daniel and Drew welcome the Affiliate Marketing Fanatics to show, talk about divorce, Facebook, the Rocky Horror Picture Show and a video game. None of which have anything to do with the other, sadly. Also, Emo Wolverine.

Our guests today were Mike Buechele and Trisha Lyn Fawver from the Affiliate Marketing Fanatics podcast, a great show you can find over at GeekCast.fm. This episode is the first of a two-part crossover, Law & Order -style. I play Detective Munch in this scenario. When this episode finished, Drew and I headed over to their place to sit on their guest couch and talk affiliate marketing. (Their episode hasn’t been posted yet – I’ll put up a link when it is)

We opened with a story of a divorcing couple who have been ordered by a judge to disclose their Facebook passwords to each other. This could have grave ramifications down the road. The story came to us by way of ZDNet.

To satisfy Tricia Meyer’s insatiable need to know more about my history in stockings, I told the story of my time performing in the Rocky Horror Picture Show about 20ish years ago. It was a Friday/Saturday midnight show performance with the actors performing in front of the movie on-screen. I played all the roles at one time or another except for Magenta. Yes, I wore the costumes. Yes, I was smokin’ hot. No, there are no pictures… that I’m aware of.

And from one extreme to another, we wrapped up with a brief segment about a very family friendly video game, Marvel’s Super Hero Squad Online game. The kids, especially Ian, have really been loving this game. It’s not seriously violent, there is quite a lot of well-written comedy, and I highly recommend it for small kids that have an interest in super heroes. Wolverine doesn’t cut anything up in this game (not in the way he does in the comics at least), which led to an interesting note to end the show on. Emo Wolverine. I’m not going to spoil it. Go listen to Mike’s joke about Emo Wolverine (pick it up starting at about 30:41).

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

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In which Daniel, Joe and Drew celebrate the first 100 episodes of Geek Dads Weekly!

You know how sometimes you have a birthday and it’s a giant, no-holds-barred, massive blowout of epic proportions, but sometimes you just stay home and hang out with a few friends, kinda low-key? This anniversary show was the latter.

We talked a little about the history of the show – a few minutes about where we came from and how we got to where we are now. There was a little bit about politics… oh, don’t worry, we don’t get political on this show. We were mostly just lamenting the whole sad state of politics all around.

Drew gave us a big rundown of his Swagsgiving event, and we covered our planetary near-death experience with an asteroid (and noted that there will be an even nearer-death experience in less than 20 years’ time).

Birthday parties, the fall of Joe Paterno and we gave away a Gold Pass to Affiliate Summit West 2012! We’ll have more of those to give away in coming weeks.

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

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In which Daniel, Joe and Drew talk about video game systems, Gmail’s new look & feel, managing giveaways & contests and Zac Brown. Hang on, who’s Zac Brown? Oh, and I’m going to start betting on sports.

We started with a mention of next week’s milestone episode #100! Be sure to hit QAQN.com at 1pm Eastern next Thursday to listen live and get your shot at winning an Affiliate Summit West 2012 GOLD Pass (valued at $549!). We’ve got six to hand out to listeners, so you won’t want to miss that. We’ll have some other stuff, too. Also, a special guest will be joining us, one of the original Geek Dads, Sam Harrelson!

Drew told us about a game he’s been into lately, Skylanders. Sounds great, and a true cross-platform experience. That led us into a segment about which video game system to get for a family with young kids. X-Box? PlayStation? Wii? We decided on X-Box with a Kinect. Drew brought up a great kids game, Once Upon a Monster as well as Kinectimals.

Gmail has a new look and feel, and we spent a few minutes checking that out and offering some commentary. Some users will probably be put off by it, but some users always are.

Drew gave us a rundown on his Swagsgiving event, currently in progress. GO WIN STUFF. He’s giving away some really awesome things in the month of November, you should take a few minutes and go see what he’s got. He makes videos for each thing. In one of them, he sings.

Rafflecopter is a new system for managing contests, and Drew’s using it. I’ve just been accepted as a Beta user, too. It looks great and I’m looking forward to running more contests!

For Halloween, Drew was Zac Brown. I, of course, have to ask the big question: who the hell is Zac Brown? Turns out, it’s this rather famous guy…

Zac Brown. Famous guy. Note: no pink microphone.

…who doesn’t look completely unlike this other not-famous guy…

Zac Brown's beard-brother, Drew Bennett. Not-famous guy. Probably because of the pink microphone.

We finished up with a story about a winning sports bet on the Cardinals winning. The bettor spent $500 and won $375,000. I explained how.

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

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In which Daniel, Drew and Joe talk about Halloween, Pinterest, Pixar movies and the debacle that was Klout this week. Also: more information about the big 100th episode coming up!

We started with a little history and lead-up to the big milestone episode #100. There will be freebies! Live listeners will have an opportunity to score a free Gold pass to Affiliate Summit West 2012 (six of those will be given away) as well as some graphic novels and other cool stuff. We will also have a special guest joining us - Sam Harrelson, one of the original Geek Dads!

Halloween is coming up in a couple of days, Drew has an amusing story about costumes for his pregnant wife and daughter. His wife got some ideas for Halloween party decorations and DIY things at Pinterest.com, which led us into a big discussion about this new site. We all agree it’s pretty cool and has a lot of potential – though it does seem to be overrun by crafters and DIYers right now (not that that’s a bad thing).

We headed next into somewhat familiar territory with a discussion about social media – specifically the following of people on Google+ and Twitter. I’m beginning to sense a pattern… I think I’m getting burned out on social.

Klout had a big shakeup this week, with some people seeing their scores drop by as much as 20 points. We had quite a large discussion about Klout (for the second week in a row!) – is Klout a fad? Does anyone take it seriously? Should anyone take it seriously? There was a report of a social media consultant who lost clients after his score dropped; should people be reliant on the whims of a company like this?

Drew is finally caught up on Flickr! He was behind in posting his Photo-a-Day to Flickr (it has been going to other services) but he’s all caught up now. Go check out his sets!

Next up, Homestar Runner! We reminisced about Homestar, a site we were all fans of in years past. Where are they now? The site was last updated on December 22, 2010, over ten months ago. Will they ever be back with new ‘toons?

We had a great discussion of Pixar and their commitment to quality. They’re not a company to throw a bunch of things to the wall to see what sticks, they take their time and make sure that each project is a good one. Given that they make movies largely for kids, that’s something that we, as dads, really appreciate.

Lastly, congratulations to Joe’s parents on their 50th Anniversary! That’s a wonderful achievement! We wrapped up with a discussion about old 8mm recordings and transferring them to a digital format.

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

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In which Daniel, Drew and Joe talk about girls vs. boys, DC vs. Marvel, grown-up humans vs. a corn maze, and husbands vs. wives (with the new iPhone 4s as the weapon of choice). Also, Klout.

Recorded October 20th, 2011.

We started with me sounding like death incarnate and the lament that the kids were probably to blame.

Episode #100 is coming up! We’ve got a confirmed guest (and working on others) and we’ll have giveaways! The big ticket items for the giveaways are SIX Gold passes to Affiliate Summit West 2012, coming up in January. For the comics geeks I’ve got a bunch of Green Lantern hardcovers to give away. ONLY live listeners will be able to get in on the giveaways, so be sure to hit QAQN.com at 1pm Eastern, November 10th to join in.

Eva’s school does a Dad’s Night in order to accommodate fathers that work during the day and can’t make it to events that take place while they’re at work. While there are exceptions of course, it’s a great effort by the school to get both parents included in their kids’ education. They got to do crafts and interact with the kids in the school environment, which is great.

Drew and I talked next about the segregation of boys and girls and why it’s wildly inappropriate in many cases. This ties into how PR companies treat mom bloggers and dad bloggers very, very differently.

Next up – The Avengers! This is shaping up to be the biggest movie of 2012, certainly the biggest movie ever based on a comic book. If you haven’t watched the trailer, you don’t know what you’re missing. Go check it out! We also covered upcoming Marvel movies and the differences between DC and Marvel in both animation and live action movies. (DC crushes Marvel in animation, Marvel pwns DC in live action).

Have you ever gotten lost in a corn maze? These folks did, and we laughed at them. What? It was funny.

I gave the guys an update about the My Little Pony show that we talked about last week. My wife and kids have all watched it, and they give the thumbs-up (especially – no surprise – my 6-year-old daughter).

Klout is next. We’re not convinced it super-useful, and the topics it assigns to users are truly bizarre. Who influences who? And what is influence anyway? Nobody really knows! What are we influential about? For me, it’s affiliate marketing, internet marketing, social media, New Mexico and Gary Johnson. Will someone please tell me who the heck Gary Johnson is? I really have no idea, and Klout gives me no context. I haven’t lived in New Mexico for the past two years, and I don’t interact with anyone in New Mexico any more than people from anywhere else. Drew and Joe have similar oddities. Klout’s weird, man.

Some Klout competitors include Empire Avenue, Kred, PeopleBrowsr and PeerIndex.

I sometimes feel like social media is starting to get stale. Do you feel that way at all? We talk about it. It seems to ebb and flow for all of us. We talk about the use of Facebook vs. Twitter vs. Google+.

Drew’s got some complaints about another Google product: Picassa. The company made some changes that make using it a lot more of a hassle.

We wrapped up with a story about a suspecting husband and his (allegedly) cheating wife being “caught” using the Find My Friends feature on the new iPhone 4s. It raised some privacy concerns. Should it have?

All this and more – thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-241-QAQN(7276). Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

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