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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In which Daniel, Drew and Joe talk about… My Little Pony. Seriously. I know, I know. Also, combining Facebook and Spotify, upgrading to iOS 5 and all the headaches it caused, Shoemoney vs. the PMA and a bunch of other fun stuff.

The first thing I had to bring up was My Little Pony. You see, there’s an interesting situation happening right now where grown men are watching the new My Little Pony series, Friendship is Magic. They call themselves bronies. Drew’s take on this trend is interesting, and he provided a few helpful links:

http://bronies.com/

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/subcultures/my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic

http://equestriadaily.com

Next up, Joe and I talked about Spotify and Facebook music. I love me some Spotify and I went into great detail about the hows and whys of the service as well as the Facebook aspect of it. The published playlists that I mentioned in the show are these:

(Me) Instrumentals While I Work

(Me) Awesome 80′s Metal

(Me) Your New Favorite Playlist

(Missy Ward) TheMusicIListenToEveryday

We’re dealing, with varying degrees of success, with upgrading our devices to iOS 5. It seems like this one has been more plagued with issues than past updates. We also beg the question… what else can you put in a phone?

Lastly, the story behind the Inside Internet Marketing episode, Shoemoney and the PMA. I tell the story of how that came to be, what my role was, and what I learned from the experience. It was very educational.

Drew knows a guy named Scott who is writing a book about Daddy/Daughter dates, which is very cool.

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 the death of an icon, updates from the kids and the genesis of the Shoemoney/PMA episode of Inside Internet Marketing.

We began this week with a discussion about Steve Jobs‘ impact and the legacy he left. It was not my most shining moment. 56 is just too damn young for anyone.

Next up, Drew’s daughter’s birthday celebration is in full swing, with cupcakes and crowns at school. There’s a local artist’s collaborative that has a kids’ birthday party area. For Eva’s party, princess-themed sock monkeys! And more cupcakes.

There was a big discussion about peanuts in school. Where did all these kids with peanut allergies come from? We don’t remember it being like this when we were kids. Schools all have different rules about how peanut products can be brought in for lunch, and Joe’s daughter’s school says that if you bring in a peanut butter sandwich, you have to sit at a table away from all the other kids in the cafeteria.

Last Tuesday was National Night Out, which we participated in. My wife and kids and I headed to the neighborhood park met a few neighbors (including everyone from the homeowners’ association and the mayor of our town, who lives near us). Unsurprisingly, Joe and Drew had never heard of this event. Neither had I, though my wife swears she’s known about it forever. You’d think after ten years of marriage, she would have dragged me to at least one of them by now…

One of Joe’s neighbors is missing a cat. You will not believe the lengths to which they are going to get it back. Listen to this segment and tell me you’re not thinking of joining the search.

The episode of Inside Internet Marketing that pitted Jeremy “Shoemoney” Schoemaker against the Performance Marketing Association is the most downloaded episode of any show I’ve ever produced. It was an insightful show and if you’ve not yet checked it out, you should! Here, I explained how that episode came to be and how it was produced.

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 get fired up about the Kindle, give updates on the state of the comics wall, and talk a lot about toys – some of which were for the kids.

The big tech news this week was the announcement of the Kindle Fire, the new tablet that is… well, it’s a… it’s really good for… oh, it’ll totally kill the… hm. Having a hard time with this. There’s a lot to say about the Fire, but the big question seems to be: is there a place in the market for it or will it fall by the wayside like every other 7″ Android tablet so far?

We moved into the realm of comics next. Without Joe to temper us, we get geeky, but you know, it’s right there in the name of the show: Geek Dads Weekly, so we’re allowed sometimes. I gave an update on the status of the shelves that I built for my collection and also talked in detail about the software that I use to catalog all my comics: Comic Collector by Collectorz.com.

Drew had a really big update after his trip to New York for the 2011 Time to Play Holiday Showcase event, which he attended along with fellow dad bloggers Adam Cohen, Chris Lewis, Josh Becker and Mitch from GayNYCDad.com. His really big update story can be found in more detail and with way better links than I can come up with on my own, at BenSpark.com. Go check it out, I’ll be here when you get back.

We wrapped up with some talk about getting free wi-fi in fast food restaurants, getting free swag at conferences (and how to get the best stuff while making the best personal connections) and Drew has a question about teaching kids how to ride a bike. If you have any tips or tricks when it comes to riding bikes, hit us up by email or on Twitter (me or Drew). We’d love to hear your suggestions.

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 child chefs, the Netflix drama, and the idea that not every kid has to be a winner.

After Darren Rowse mentioned it on Twitter, I discovered Junior Masterchef, an Australian cooking competition for children aged 8 to 12 years. It’s brilliant. I described it on the show and opened up the discussion to cooking-related topics. When is a kid old enough to start cooking with a parent? How might that affect kids who are picky eaters – would helping cook make them more likely to try new things?

That led into the idea that not every kid can come in first place. More and more we’re seeing situations where parents are insisting on everyone being a winner and eliminating the concept of losing. None of us are on board with that.

Drew went to a wedding last weekend and his daughter was a flower girl. You’ve got to hear Drew describe how she charmed the crowd, she was adorable.

Everyone is all abuzz about Netflix this week, and we’ve got some theories about it. Netflix isn’t the only company that has its users in an uproar – Facebook is at it again! While you’re listening, check out this cartoon from The Oatmeal that describes the Facebook phenomenon.

Drew wrapped us up with an iPad app called Bobo Explores Light and I followed with a demo of The Going to Bed Book by Sandra Boynton.

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 Joe discuss “bad” television for kids, throwing away your kids’ stuff and accepting jobs outside of your comfort zone. Oh, and the nearly complete destruction of major studio equipment. Good times.

Earlier this week I took my first job designing a website for a client. Design work is something that I’ve been doing for myself for many years, but I’ve never done it for anyone else. Last week I was contacted by Greg Hoffman, who asked me to take a crack at redoing his site, Greg Hoffman Consulting. I took that job and he was very happy with the way it turned out, so I couldn’t be happier myself.

My awesome microphone, the one I love so much, very nearly ended up on the floor. The clamp that was holding the boom arm to the table loosened and disconnected, causing a pretty major situation. Thankfully I was able to get it all together – and later in the day, after the recording, I checked the mail and found that my desk mount had been delivered. Oh, if I’d only checked the mail before the show…

Joe and I were both profiled on the Dad of Divas site. That’s a great site and we strongly recommend checking it out. You can read my interview and Joe’s interview.

School is going well for our girls. They’ve both got boys that they’re a little smitten with. We talked about packing lunches, getting them dressed and off to school on time, and dealing with the weather.

Joe and I discuss the pros and cons of getting rid of their stuff. Do you just surreptitiously bag things up and hope they don’t notice? Do you convince them to donate some old toys to charities? We’ve tried both. Right about at this time, my son Ian showed up and talked about how he’s been potty training. It’s… amusing.

We wrapped up with some talk about kids’ television. We reaffirmed our hatred of Calliou and lamented the recent “study” that “showed” that SpongeBob Squarepants will make you… what, stupid? He’ll melt kids’ brains? Couple of years ago, SpongeBob was supposedly making kids gay. So… now… apparently, SpongeBob Squarepants will turn your perfectly normal child into a idiotic gay kid.

Yeah, we don’t buy it, either.

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 cover the new school year, rant about advertising to girls vs. boys, and romanticize the immortal mix tape. Oh, and something about sweaty balls.

It’s that time of year again – school is starting all over the country. Mine started about two weeks ago, Joe’s started recently, and Drew’s is starting up soon. It’s a particularly notable time for all of us because our kids are young. When they’re teens, we’re not going to think twice about the first day of school except to thank god that they’re out of the freakin’ house for 8 hours a day again FINALLY. But for now, with all of our kids either in pre-school, kindergarten or first grade, it’s bit of a sentimental time. We covered a lot of ground related to school: the classrooms, the lunches, the school stores, and carrying milk back to the classroom.

Next up, advertising to girls vs. advertising to boys. Drew and I have stories about companies contacting us to promote their products, but only if we focus on boys. Hey, our daughters might like that stuff, too!

Borders is closing all over the place, and I gave a rundown of everything that I was able to pick up for a heck of a price. If you’ve got a Borders near you and it’s closing, you’ve got to get in there and see what they have. You could save upwards of 80%.

How many of you grew up in the era of the cassette tape? How many of you used to make mix tapes for yourself, your friends, or that special girl/boy in class that you really liked? All three of us were mix tape fans, you’ll want to hear the stories if you were, too.

Lastly, Ben & Jerry’s has a new flavor. You’ve probably heard about it, but if not… let’s just say that I hope it doesn’t really taste like… well…

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 getting mellow with the neighbors, rude hurricanes, and comics. Without Joe to restrain us, we went nuts with the comics.

Drew has some… interesting… neighbors. Apparently, they smoke so much weed that it permeates the neighborhood. I can’t decide if that’s good or bad. This revelation follows the landing of Hurricane Irene, which affected Drew and his surrounding area. It could have been much, much worse, but things are definitely a little worse for wear up there right now.

We spent the bulk of the show this time talking about comics. Sorry, all you non-comics geeks. This week was a huge week for the industry as DC Comics rebooted their entire line of comics with a new universe, new takes on old characters and a new perspective. But is that perspective really all that new? Drew and I hashed out everything from the contents of the story of Justice League #1 to the backdoors that DC left open to the old universe, to the pricing strategy of the books. I should have started a comics podcast by now… I could go on for hours about this stuff. Hope you like it.

Due to the odd time of day and the last-minute scheduling of the recording, we didn’t do this one live. Next week we’re back on the live schedule, which you can see on the QAQN Live! page.

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 attempt to recover from Affiliate Summit East 2011, make sense of it all, and tell you all about it.

This show was recorded live on Mixlr. To participate in the next recording, keep an eye on the show schedule at QAQN Live! and the QAQN Twitter stream.

Drew and I were all about Affiliate Summit East 2011 this time, with a rundown of the event. If you’re interested in the quality of the sessions, the food or the incredible networking opportunities, we’ll cover all that. We also had a lengthy discussion about Kim Ann Curtin behind her back. Shh. Don’t tell her.

We had a great time with this episode, and had some excellent interaction with the live chat room. We’re really loving the live format, and we hope you are, too!

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 flies solo, Superman gets his big reveal, and Obama turns 50. None of which have anything to do with the others, but wouldn’t it be cool if they were all three related?

It’s a bit of an abbreviated show this week as Joe Magennis is on maternity leave and Drew Bennett is on assignment in the Middle East. That’s the story I’m going with for the show notes, anyway.

I read over at Comic Book Fury that the first official image from the new Superman movie was revealed, and it’s a good one. I did a few minutes about comics history.

Today is President Obama’s birthday, so that got a mention.

And… yeah. Like I said, short show. I had a good time. I hope you like 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.

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In which Daniel, Joe and Drew give away $2,200 worth of passes to Affiliate Summit, talk about Captain America and Chevy Camaros. This was quite possibly the most American show we’ve ever done. Pass the apple pie.

This episode was broadcast live. Check out QAQN Live! for show schedules and live chat.

The Pets.com talking puppet that opened the show.

This is one of my favorite episodes ever, I have to say. I’ve been having a blast doing the live shows, and with a good-sized crowd listening and participating in the chat, it’s just awesome. Today we covered a lot of ground:

• We gave away four Gold Passes to Affiliate Summit to live listeners!
• We covered the new Captain America movie, which Drew says is just great. I’ve yet to see it, but I did watch the post-Captain America trailer for The Avengers on YouTube.
• Drew was given a Bitchin’ Camaro (look it up) to drive for about a week. He connected with Rob, the HotDogMan, and the story here is pretty entertaining.
• Poker! And the benefits of living near Atlantic City or Las Vegas. If I ever have ten grand to spend, I’ll play the World Series, for sure.
• Huggies is running a campaign to help parents afford diapers for their babies.
• All About the Cookies is available NOW! For a limited time, support Affiliate Marketers Give Back and receive a free Gold Pass to Affiliate Summit West 2012. It’s $19.99 for a great cause and a fantastic freebie in return.

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 live streaming issues, Apple news and Spotify. Glorious, glorious Spotify.

This week’s episode was broadcast live through Mixlr.com. All QAQN productions are now being broadcast live and you can join the party on the QAQN Live! page. There you’ll find a show schedule and (soon) a chat room so we can interact during the show.

We started with an introduction to Mixlr.com listeners and the troubles that I’ve had with streaming to UStream, Mixlr and recording to my local hard drive concurrently. For the time being, it’s Mixlr only.

In Apple news, there’s the new Mac OS X, and Joe is considering making a Macbook Air his next computer.

Next up, Spotify! This is a great addition to the U.S. line-up of online music services. Joe and I are both users, and Drew will be checking it out shortly. This leads into a great discussion about renting vs. buying your media – music, movies, and magazines. At what point do you spend more on physical copies than you would on paying for a subscription? If you spend more than $120 a year buying music (which is what, only a dozen albums?) then paying for a subscription that lets you listen to anything you want whenever and wherever you want makes a lot more sense. Are we entering an era where – finally – it makes more sense to rent than to own?

Drew gave us a report about the new Transformers movie. Best of three? Mmmmaybe.

Also: comics, selling your stuff for beer and cigarette money, the Anarchist’s Cookbook, and a rundown of Affiliate Summit East 2011 (we’re doing a panel!).

NEXT WEEK: We’re giving away FOUR Gold Passes to Affiliate Summit East 2011 in New York City. We’ll be giving away the passes during the live show to four lucky folks in our chat room. For more information, visit QAQN Live!

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 Joe talk about suicidal cockroaches and Google+.

It’s an abbreviated show this week as we had technical difficulties at the top and then had to cut it short so my exterminator could come in and service the property. Two nights ago, I was attacked. It was late, the lights were low. Music was playing softly in the background. Something by Peter Gabriel, I believe. The attacker snuck into my office/podcast studio upstairs, studied me for a moment, then flew at me in a murderous rage! I could practically hear the scream: “YOU WILL DIEEEEEEE!!!”

Arms flailing, I deflected my opponent into a bookshelf. Cautiously, I got up. I went into the hallway, keeping one eye on the bookshelf and then closed the door. I whisked downstairs to get a weapon. I knew I’d need something because this was no ordinary situation. Upon my return, my attacker was still in the bookshelf. I coaxed it out. The damn thing was at least two inches long, had spiny legs and murderous black eyes. I shot him full on with a can of Raid.

Twenty minutes later, it was dead. I’ve never seen such a tough customer, but he didn’t get the best of me. I’m a survivor.

Oh, and we also talked about Google+ for a while.

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 the guys talk about one of the most unpleasant subjects for parents: child pornography. Your faith in humanity may well be shaken after this one, folks. Also, Google+ and dealing with bad neighbors.

We opened the show this week with a bit of talk about QAQN Live! and what it means to the show. I’m broadcasting episodes live on Ustream and Mixlr as they’re recorded, and for my fourth attempt at doing a show this way, it worked pretty well! Almost perfect! Oh, there’s a chat room, too. Keep an eye on my Twitter to learn when the next broadcast will be – there will be a set schedule someday, but right now, days and times vary.

Do you have bad neighbors? Drew does. Listen to find out why… it’s entertaining!

The main segment this week is probably the most sobering conversation we’ve ever had on this show. We’ve talked about child safety before, but this is a whole new ballgame. To paraphrase a popular movie, it’s not the same ballpark, it’s not even the same sport. I participated in an online discussion (I know, that was my first mistake) about child pornography. There are those that were defending it in the name of art “because who’s to say what art is or isn’t?” and because it’s protected as “free speech” under the law.

NO IT ISN’T.

Are you someone who uses the label “art” as a shield to defend free expression? We’ve heard this a number of times in the past. Everyone’s art is valid. Everyone’s art is special. Everyone’s art is not to be censored. But photographed, painted or drawn, child porn isn’t art. Please listen to this segment and speak out if you run into one of these lunatics in your life. Putting children in sexual positions isn’t art, it’s illegal.

Moving on to a happier subject… Google+. We’re not 100% on board with it and Joe is pretty annoyed that because he runs Google Apps, he can’t tie into Google+. Peter Shankman had an article about this yesterday. We’ll see how it shakes out in the next few months. Will it be another Google Wave? Or will it turn out more like Google Maps? Could be huge… could be a massive failure. Anyone want to place bets? [side note: aw, man. I just saw that Peter used the same play on words I did in the title, Google plus, minus. Oh well, I'm sure he wasn't the first and I won't be the last.]

We wrapped with some updates from Drew about TeleNav and Kodak, and a voicemail entry into the Affiliate Summit Gold Pass Giveaway. If you would like a free Gold Pass to Affiliate Summit coming up in August, you need to enter the drawing! There are lots of ways to stack the deck in your favor, so check it out, all the details are in the show notes of episode 83.

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 care not about getting cooked by a solar flare. The rest of you are toast.

But look on the bright side, if you get hit by a solar flare, there’s a slight chance you could get turned into the Incredible Hulk. Think of all the money you’ll save on clothes if you just run around in torn pants all the time.

Assuming we live through the solar flare, Missy Ward and her Affiliate Marketers Give Back crew are walking to support the fight against breast cancer this weekend. Please help out by making a donation – any amount will be appreciated – and follow their progress to cheer them on! I interviewed Missy on today’s episode of Inside Internet Marketing; listen to learn more about Missy and her passion for the fight.

Next up – the winner of our first Affiliate Summit East 2011 Gold Pass Giveaway Contest Extravaganza! Our winner is…

…wait for it…

…Eric Shwarzer! Congratulations, Eric. We’ll be in touch via DM on Twitter to give you a special code to use when registering at the Affiliate Summit website.

We’re starting up another Affiliate Summit East 2011 Gold Pass Giveaway Contest Extravaganza! This one will run the same as the first, so read on for the rules and methods of entry. It’ll close in two weeks, on July 7th, 2011.

Joe’s becoming quite prolific as a podcaster. He was recently a co-host on Affiliate Thing with Lisa Picarille! Check out the episode!

Lastly, we have updates from Drew’s new house. It’s a bit of a project, but the pride and happiness that comes through hearing him talk about it is fantastic. On the show? Cleaning the basement and finding some dead, petrified mice! AWESOME!

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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Affiliate Summit 2011 Gold Pass Giveaway Contest Extravaganza #1

Official Rules and Entry Methods

Entry is based on comments left here, below. There are lots of chances to stack the deck in your favor, so make sure you take advantage of all these opportunities! You must leave one SEPARATE comment for EACH entry. All but the first are completely optional.

• 1 Entry – Mandatory to Enter – To enter the contest leave a comment below telling us why you’d like to attend Affiliate Summit East 2011 in New York City. Leave this as your FIRST comment. We’re interested in what you think about Affiliate Summit and why you want to go!
  (If this is not done your entry will not count)
• 1 Entry – Follow @QAQN on Twitter
  (Leave a Comment with your Twitter name)
  
• 1 Entry – Follow @BenSpark on Twitter
  (Leave a Comment with your Twitter name)
• 1 Entry – Follow @joemagennis on Twitter
  (Leave a Comment with your Twitter name)
• 1 entry – Like QAQN on Facebook.
  (Comment here after you’ve done this.)
• 1 Entry – Subscribe to the QAQN Newsletter – in the sidebar, to the right, up top. Right over there… see it?
  (Leave a comment letting me know you signed up)
• 1 Entry – Tweet about this contest… something like
  An Affiliate Summit #giveaway from @QAQN – free Gold pass! http://qaqn.com/gdw83 #ase11
  (Leave a comment with a link to your tweet.)
• Bonus! TWO entries! Call our listener feedback line – 281-241-QAQN(7276) – and tell us why you’d like to go to Affiliate Summit and what you hope to accomplish while you’re there.

Disclosure: These passes were provided by Affiliate Summit to be given away to our listeners.

Contest Rules: Each eligible comment will be assigned a number, and a winning number will be chosen using Random.org. Trackbacks don’t count. You have until 11:59am EST on July 7, 2011 to enter. The winner will be chosen at noon. The winner will be notified via e-mail. Contest is open to U.S. residents only. Please do not use multiple names to enter… let’s be fair.

Here we go!

In which Daniel, Joe and Drew talk about hockey riots, Affiliate Summit East 2011, and going the f**k to sleep.

It’s the QAQN: Rebirth episode of Geek Dads Weekly! We began the show this week by reintroducing ourselves – who we are, where we live, what our lives are like, and why we are geek dads. If you know someone who would enjoy a show like ours, this is the perfect episode for them to get to know us and get up to speed on what’s what around here.

We jumped right into the big news in the hockey world. Not that Boston won, but that Vancouver lost – and lost spectacularly… as a city. They played a good game by all accounts, but the post-game focus wasn’t on the game, it was on the rioting that went on in its wake. We each have some thoughts about that careless and brazen lack of self-control by the citizens of that beautiful city.

Next up, Affiliate Summit East 2011. I’m leading a panel called Affiliate Improv! for the second time along with Drew, Mike Buechele, Jen Goode, and Wade Tonkin. It’s going to be a great time – the session was good the first time we did it, and we’re taking what we learned and making it even better! Along with this news comes the announcement of a contest! We’re giving away several Gold passes (a $549 value) to lucky listeners of various QAQN podcasts. We’re beginning with the first pass this week; details on how to enter and win are below!

Samuel L. Jackson narrated the audiobook version of the children’s(?) book that our title this week references. If you haven’t read Go the F**k to Sleep yet, you need to stop what you’re doing, go to Amazon—here’s a link—and get it. Then log into Audible—here’s another link, see how helpful I am?—and download the audiobook for free. If you’re put off by profane language, it’s not for you, but if you’re cool with the language, it’s hysterical. Disclaimer: we blew out our iTunes Explicit setting on this one; normally we do a profanity-free show, but this was too good to pass up. The show is clean with the exception of that segment, which we warn you about as it comes up.

We wrapped up with my story about surprising my wife with an overnight trip to Austin to see Rush play at the Frank Erwin Center earlier this week. It was a fantastic trip and a great mini-getaway for us. I wrote about the trip a few days ago, and told a couple of stories here that I didn’t relate in text.

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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Affiliate Summit 2011 Gold Pass Giveaway Contest Extravaganza #1

Official Rules and Entry Methods

Entry is based on comments left here, below. There are lots of chances to stack the deck in your favor, so make sure you take advantage of all these opportunities! You must leave one SEPARATE comment for EACH entry. All but the first are completely optional.

• 1 Entry – Mandatory to Enter – To enter the contest leave a comment below telling us why you’d like to attend Affiliate Summit East 2011 in New York City. Leave this as your FIRST comment. We’re interested in what you think about Affiliate Summit and why you want to go!
  (If this is not done your entry will not count)
• 1 Entry – Follow @QAQN on Twitter
  (Leave a Comment with your Twitter name)
  
• 1 Entry – Follow @BenSpark on Twitter
  (Leave a Comment with your Twitter name)
• 1 Entry – Follow @joemagennis on Twitter
  (Leave a Comment with your Twitter name)
• 1 entry – Like QAQN on Facebook.
  (Comment here after you’ve done this.)
• 1 Entry – Subscribe to the QAQN Newsletter – in the sidebar, to the right, up top. Right over there… see it?
  (Leave a comment letting me know you signed up)
• 1 Entry – Tweet about this contest… something like
  An Affiliate Summit #giveaway from @QAQN – free Gold pass! http://qaqn.com/gdw82-1 #ase11
  (Leave a comment with a link to your tweet.)
• Bonus! TWO entries! Call our listener feedback line – 281-241-QAQN(7276) – and tell us why you’d like to go to Affiliate Summit and what you hope to accomplish while you’re there.

Disclosure: These passes were provided by Affiliate Summit to be given away to our listeners.

Contest Rules: Each eligible comment will be assigned a number, and a winning number will be chosen using Random.org. Trackbacks don’t count. You have until 11:59am EST on June 23, 2011 to enter. The winner will be chosen at noon. The winner will be notified via e-mail. Contest is open to U.S. residents only. Please do not use multiple names to enter… let’s be fair.

Here we go!

In which Daniel and Drew manage to do almost a whole show without Skype crashing on one of us.

I guess I shouldn’t complain too much, it’s not like Skype crashes are a regular occurrence. It’s very annoying when it happens, but at least we were on the last few minutes before it happened. Some have been blaming the larger spate of Skype issues on Microsoft, noting that the service was more stable before the software giant bought Skype, but that’s not exactly how things work, folks.

We kicked off the show with an update about the QAQN: Rebirth inititative. I’m creating a jumping-on point for each of the QAQN shows to make it easy for new listeners to come on board. This is something that I intend to do every summer – if you know someone who might like Geek Dads Weekly, next week’s episode #82.1 will be the one to introduce them to. All the QAQN shows will be delineated with a ‘.1′ episode to mark the occasion.

Speaking of updates – Drew’s getting ready to close on his house! It’s a stressful time, so don’t hassle him more than usual. Maybe just a little more than usual, because, you know… fun.

In talking about houses (both of us are recent/about-to-be homeowners again) we brought up the idea of home automation and home security. Is home automation voice activated yet? Can I call Jarvis, the automation AI from the Iron Man movies? Jarvis! Turn up the lights! I want a Jarvis; I’m going to start looking into home automation options since we’ll be in this house a good, long time. Oh wait, someone already did. On the security question, my brother-in-law uses NextAlarm.com, which seems like a really good product/service.

Next up, movies. Drew has had a chance to see X-Men: First Class, whereas I have not. That doesn’t stop me from sharing my opinions about the flick.

Do you shop online? Do you shop online just to save on sales tax? Yeah, me neither. Sure, I shop online – but it’s because Amazon will ship almost anything to me for free in only two days, whereas I hate the very thought of walking into Walmart (which I do, sometimes, because let’s be honest… cheap).

Lastly, Drew has some recommendations for iPad apps for kids:

• Spot the Dot
• Ansel & Clair’s Adventures in Africa
• Crayola ColorStudio HD

We wrapped with a short bit about our friend Jim Kukral’s new eBook, How to Catch Happy: A Guide to Reeling in the Biggest Fish of All! It’s only 99 cents on Amazon, and it comes highly recommended.

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 we discuss the upcoming Rapture, what to do with your pets in the event you get taken, feelings of insecurity in mom-dominated situations, and computer security.

If you’re reading this after May 21st, 2011, congratulations (or condolences), you weren’t taken in the Rapture. As I write this, it’s a day away, and we’re running out of time to prepare. What will become of your pets should you be taken? Thanks to a link shared by Logan Thompson on Twitter, I see that the small furry ones are covered. *whew*

As work-at-home/stay-at-home dads, we are often called to take the kids places that are dominated by moms. Gymnastics, swimming lessons, ballet… very often, we’re the only male in the room. In this segment, we talk about what’s going through our heads in these situations. You might be surprised.

Lastly, computer security and passwords. Do you have one password you use for everything? Do you use unique passwords but keep them written down on paper next to your computer? How strong are your passwords? We’ve got some good ideas in this area.

Coming up, we’ll be giving away complimentary GOLD passes to Affiliate Summit East 2011 – keep listening to Geek Dads Weekly to learn when you’ll have a chance to win!

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… wait, there’s three of us? All at the same time? On the same episode?

Aw, yeah Geek Dads! We got the band back together. We are once again a trinity, a three-piece, a triad, a trio, a… threesome, if you will. Drew has made the transition to weekend night shift at his company and is now joining Joe and I on Thursdays.

The past few weeks have seen the QAQN podcasts in a state of flux, with all of us Geek Dads going through some serious life events that have prevented regular recordings of this and other shows. Drew’s aforementioned job, Joe’s transition from work-at-home-dad-with-kids to work-at-home-dad-with-kids-in-daycare, and my own struggles to balance time between work and buying, fixing & moving into a new home. This week’s show almost didn’t happen either, but here we are.

After some witty banter (is there another kind?) we jumped into the heady topic of… punctuation. Yes, thrilling, I know. But what if we were to suggest that the smiley face emoticon – :) – might, in fact, be worthy of the descriptor “proper”? Listen up, grammar nerds, because we suggest exactly that.

Next up, comic books, iPads and piracy of 70 years’ worth of printed material. Drew pointed out an article to me that was posted on TUAW titled “Publishers’ choice: Will the iPad be the hero or villain of the comic book industry?”. The premise is that the comic book industry – a multi-billion dollar industry, make no mistake – is in a similar position to what the recording industry found itself in about ten years ago. It’s not hard to demonstrate. Check out this Google query: DC Comics Chronology torrent. Do you understand what you’re looking at? The results have titles like “Post-Crisis Pack 089″ and “Post-Zero Hour Pack 72″. People armed with scanners are scanning comic books, old and new, bundling them into torrents, and making them available online. How bad is it? The Google query I linked to? The Chronology series? That’s every single comic book that DC Comics has ever published. Ever. EVER. Well, apparently there are a few missing, but if the torrents’ contents lists are to be believed, it’s probably upwards of 90-95% of every issue DC has ever put out. And that’s just one company. Marvel fares no better, nor does Image, Dark Horse, Boom! Studios, IDW or any of the others. Ah, but I shouldn’t ramble on about it here in the show notes… listen to the podcast to hear me ramble about it!

We finished up with a surprise announcement from Drew, and I’m not going to spoil it here, it’s just too good. Fast forward through the—fast forward? What is this, 1988? Are you listening to the show on cassette?—skip to the end if you like, you’ll not want to miss this, because the official media blitz won’t be coming for a little while longer.

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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PS – just realized that episode 79 didn’t get posted. Like I said, it’s been a rough few weeks. Well, apparently I didn’t hit Publish in WordPress, and my show notes got nuked, too. So much for autosave. I’ll be posting that anew over the weekend. Sorry. If you just want to listen and not wait for the notes, you can access the MP3 file directly.

In which Daniel and Drew talk about massive computer failures, backups and other… stuff.

It’s been a rough couple of weeks. I was in a really great groove right before I went into the hospital, but that visit totally derailed me. I found it hard to work for a few days after, and just when I was feeling like I could focus enough to get going again, I had a catastrophic operating system failure and had to reinstall OS X. In the five years I’ve been on a Mac, that’s a first (I used to reinstall Windows three or four times a year, so I’m feeling pretty OK about it).

This episode was recorded four days ago, on Sunday. Clearly, I’m still not caught up yet, but if I have any hope of getting back on track, I’ve just got to put it out there and let it go. I just can’t find the time to listen to the show again to come up with the rest of the show notes – we closed on our new house yesterday, so we’re in full-on moving mode now. The next few weeks might be a little hectic.

This was a great show though, and I hope you give it a listen despite the lack of a preview by way of detailed show notes. I’ll be back in the groove soon enough, and better than ever. This, I know.

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 Joe catch up.

After a couple of weeks between shows, me and Joe are back for the Thursday 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.

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In which Daniel and Drew catch up after a couple of weeks off.

We kicked off this week with a detailed review of my hospital visit and surgery. I’ve been out of commission for just about a week now, and I’m struggling to get caught up! I gave a good account of the three days I was at the hospital and the time being drugged up since then. Fun. (he said, sarcastically)

Drew had more upbeat things to share. He’s starting a new position at his company, and he’s buying a house! The whole house thing was rather whirlwind, but the best things in life usually are, I find. He doesn’t have a closing date yet, but the offer has been made and accepted. The house that I’m buying closes (hopefully) on April 20th. Can’t wait.

Drew’s birthday just happened last weekend, and he spent some family time behind the scenes at a Panera Bread and at the Museum of Science. I love the Museum of Science – I used to go there when I was a kid, when I lived in that area.

Finally, check out Death Rally for iPad. Drew’s raving about it, and it sounds awesome!

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 Joe talk about decades of kid safety, our Lightboard contest, and awesome toys (Matchbox > Hot Wheels!).

Family issues take center stage this week as we kicked off with Joe’s news that the girls are now in daycare. We talked about car seats and kid safety over the past few decades and that led into an update about our Griffin Lightboard contest.

Would you like to win a Griffin Lightboard accessory for iPad? The contest ends Sunday, March 27th and all the details are available in the show notes from Episode #74. Go enter! Lightboards are great!

Joe came down on the side of Hot Wheels, while I was – and am – a fan of Matchbox. Since I’m the one doing the show notes, I can say NYAH NYAH NYAH Matchbox is BETTER!!! There, I feel better now. During the show, we were far more civilized. In this segment, we ponder, where have all the hovercrafts gone?

I used to race boats when I was a kid, and I told a couple of stories about racing Sunfish and Lasers when I was 12-13 years old. I didn’t recall his name during the show exactly, but the kid who took first place for the year when I was 13 was Ames Kaiser.

Update on the house buying process! The home we’re buying had inspections, and they came back mostly positive. The foundation is good, but the roof needs work. How much, we don’t know, but the previous owners nailed a satellite dish into the roof! Right through the shingles!

Baseball season is coming up soon, and Joe’s all about baseball. In fact, he’s got a new community tool running over at baseballisms.com called Team Baseballisms. It’s a curation platform created by Scott Jangro called Shareist, that’s been plugged into Baseballisms. Awesome stuff, go check it out!

Lastly, Joe is involved with the new podcast from WhatsWhat.me, a great resource for parents of young kids online.

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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Wherein Daniel and Drew talk about entrepreneurship, multinational corporations and affiliate marketing. You know, fluff.

We opened this week with some talk about South by Southwest. Neither of us went, so… moving on.

Entrepreneurship is a tough road to walk. It can be immensely rewarding, but those folks that work the 9 to 5 and go home are not to be scoffed at. Too often, we see insults (thinly veiled and otherwise) aimed at people who choose to have a job, rather than work for themselves. If you do that… please stop. Not everyone wants to work for themselves, and not everyone can work for themselves. Besides, if you’re working for yourself, and everyone else is working for themselves, who are you going to hire to come work for you?

My podcast consulting business (speaking of entrepreneurship) launched last week, and I’ve already seem some positive results. If you’re looking to start a podcast or make one better, get in touch! This segment of the show details the steps I took to get to this point.

Right before the short break we talked a little about dealing with email spam and with Google AdSense. Drew is the new king of AdSense.

AT&T buys up T-Mobile! While Drew is rather indifferent about it, I’m not happy about the situation at all. This squashes competition, is bad for consumers and puts all the US cell phone business in the hands of just three mega-corporations. Not cool.

There’s a few contests going on and coming up! Drew’s started a contest newsletter, and coming soon, he’s got a Tron movie collection to give away. That got us off on a tangent about movies that are a geek rite of passage… things like Blade Runner, Star Wars, Tron, War Games, and Labyrinth. Neither of us has seen Tron, and neither of us likes Blade Runner. Does that mean we’re not really geeks after all? Will we have to rename the podcast Dads Weekly? That seems rather bland.

Drew’s also doing a giveway of WinX DVD Ripper Platinum, during the announcement of which I mentioned the death of Zune. His last contest is a giveaway of a Puzzle Pod.

Now, on to our contest! We’re giving away a Griffin Lightboard! All the details are coming up just a few sentences from now.

We wrapped with some discussion of the Quotes Collection plugin for WordPress, Golizza on Twitter, and the very first character I ever invented when I was a little kid, Mr. Fuzzball.

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.

The Griffin Lightboard Contest

(Leave 1 SEPARATE Comment for EACH Entry. All but the first are completely optional).

• 1 Entry – Mandatory to Enter – To enter the contest visit QAQN.com/gdw74 and leave a comment on this post. Tell us what your favorite thing to draw or color was when you were a kid. Leave this as your FIRST comment.
  (If this is not done your entry will not count)
• 1 Entry – Follow @QAQN on Twitter
  (Leave a Comment with your Twitter name)
  
• 1 Entry – Follow @BenSpark on Twitter
  (Leave a Comment with your Twitter name)
• 1 Entry – Follow @GriffinTech on Twitter
  (Leave a Comment with your Twitter name)
• 1 entry – Like Griffin Tech on Facebook.
  (Comment here after you’ve done this.)
• 1 Entry – Subscribe to the QAQN Newsletter
  (Leave a comment letting me know you signed up)
• 1 Entry – Subscribe to BenSpark’s Giveaway Newsletter
  (Leave a comment letting me know you signed up)
• 1 Entry – Tweet about this Griffin Lightboard giveaway… something like
  @QAQN has a @GriffinTech #giveaway. Check out the Lightboard accessory for iPad! http://qaqn.com/gdw74
  (Leave a comment with a link to your tweet.)
• Bonus! TWO entries! Call our listener feedback line – 281-241-QAQN(7276) – and tell us what your favorite thing to draw or color was when you were a kid.

Disclosure: Joe and I each received a Griffin Lightboard from the company. Drew bought his. The opinions about the Lightboard are 100% ours.

Contest Rules: We will not respond to any comments so that we can run the numbers at Random.org correctly. Trackbacks don’t count. Only legitimate entries are counted. You have until 7:59pm EST on April 3rd, 2011 (new closing date) to enter. Once 7:59pm EST rolls around comments will be closed and the winner drawn. The winner will be notified via e-mail and will have 48 hours to reply with their mailing address. Contest is open to U.S. residents only. Please do not use multiple names to enter… let’s be fair.

In which Daniel and Drew wonder about parental decisions, riff on television programming and scoff at people who tell us how to live our lives.

We opened this time with a bit about child safety – namely, putting your kids’ names on a sign in front of your home or on a sticker on the back of your car. We’re thinking that, although it’s not real probable, you’re just asking for trouble doing that… and yet parents still decide to do it.

Speaking of weird adult decisions concerning kids, whose idea was it to put The Cat in the Hat on PBS? Further, whose decision was it to make “your mother will not mind if you do” his catchphrase? The whole thing as a creepy vibe to it, really.

We talked about our Griffin Lightboards. I just got mine and the kids love it. Look for a contest to be announced next week – we’ll be giving one away! Drew thought that some of the artwork was reminiscent of Jen Goode’s style (Projects for Preschoolers).

There’s one thing we don’t do on this show, and that’s tell people how to be “better dads” or “better husbands” or better anything. People that do tend to really bug me. Would you say that buying an iPad 2 makes you a bad father or irresponsible husband? Someone recently did – and I’m not linking to it because I don’t want to give him any more exposure than he’s already got. Suffice to say… we disagree.

We wrapped on a couple of really bright notes. Kevin Smith is expanding his SModcast podcast network to Stitcher, and also, there are a couple of awesome videos you need to check out. First, the remixed Ferris Bueller trailer. Second, the Disney Princesses get Sucker Punched. All kinds of awesome.

Thanks for listening!

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Wherein Daniel, Drew and special guest Brendan talk about dealing with in-laws, car trouble, kids media and not having time to ride.

We’re joined this time by the winner of our Barefoot Books contest, Brendan! We kicked off the show with Drew’s recent drama with his in-laws and raised the question: have you ever had to deal with family drama with your in-laws? How different is it compared to dealing with your own family?

Drew’s drama didn’t end there as he spent an inordinate amount of time dealing with his car over the weekend. It’s all about where the rubber meets the road – and speaking of rubber, Drew burned quite a lot of it on his high speed chase from the cops after leaving the salon where he got his hair done. Yeah, you’ll want to hear that story.

Brendan gave us the run-down on the Barefoot books that he won in our contest, and that sparked a conversation about what our kids watch and read. Are kids really growing up so much faster these days? Generations ago, kids were read the Grimm fairy tales, unsanitized. Today, they get Teletubbies, and people freak out.

Next up, Brendan, an avid cyclist, explained the meaning behind his twitter name and website, NoTime2Ride.

At the end of the show we played a voicemail from a listener – our “biggest fan in Vegas” – who wanted to know what QAQN stands for. Listen around the 53:30 mark for the segment, but as long as you’re reading this, check out how Google Voice transcribed the voicemail:

Hey, it’s your biggest fan of work, but I guess I’m tired of looking. What they had the Q A Q and standstill. I’m right, the about page ever an M rebate is website and there’s no point Tuesday. 128 Q and stands for. I can only get The. Linda.

I know who this is, and his name isn’t Linda.

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

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In which Daniel and Joe discuss the kids for the better part of the hour and briefly chat about the iPad 2. Also, there’s a great story about destroying a BMW. You can see where the priorities were in this episode.

Yes, it’s a very kid-heavy show this time, with Joe nearly at the end of his rope being a work-at-home dad. I think this is a show that all work-at-home parents can relate to. Somehow we got to talking about the old Thunderbirds and Monkees TV shows and that led into a segment about discussing death with a pre-schooler.

Yeah, it’s a real upbeat show.

It’s not all a big downer though, because we got into a couple of stories about Winter being accepted into the GT (Gifted & Talented) program at school and how I skipped Kindergarten for much the same reason. If you’ve got a child that you’re thinking about skipping a grade with, you might want to listen to this part in particular.

After that, TV habits. I’m a big fan of television as a teaching tool.

We got into the iPad 2 announcement briefly. I’m rather down on it, I thought it was pretty lackluster, but Joe is more bullish about the new device. We’ll tell you why – and why touch devices can never truly replace mouse-based devices.

We wrapped with a bit about our cars. Joe’s is inching closer to 300,000 miles, but his wife’s just broke down. I related the story of my destruction of a BMW 318i when I was 16. I blame it on skipping kindergarten.

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

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In which Daniel and Drew talk about some of our favorite podcasts, Charlie Sheen (of course), not watching the Oscars, and going on man-dates. Seriously.

We started the show with a throwback to last week’s episode, breaking down the meaning of the title and discussing the future (there might be one) of Bill & Ted. From there, we got into a bit about some of our favorite podcasts:

• Sarcastic Voyage
• Chuck vs. Mal
• Jordan, Jesse, Go!
• The Nerdist

and we’d be remiss in our duties if we didn’t mention Charlie Sheen in this episode. As we’re posting this, Sheen is going crazy. Personally, I think there’s a good chance it’s all an act. We’ll see. We’d like to see Sheen show up on The Nerdist podcast with Chris Hardwick. That would be epic.

Speaking of Charlie Sheen, we spent a bit of time talking about movies and about how we didn’t watch the Oscars. I gave my Incomplete List of Oscars More Interesting than the Awards Show.

Next up, Drew got pitched recently – I don’t want to spoil it here. Let’s just say it involves Red Robin (awesome), a man-date, and some $20 gift cards that he’ll be giving away in the near future. Of course, any mention of Red Robin (awesome) has to give us pause, because as great as they are… we’re supposed to be on diets and getting into better shape.

Drew is gearing up – pun totally intended – for Gadget Month. Throughout the month, he’ll be putting to use all the various gadgets that he’s collected over the years for his photography. Keep an eye on BenSpark.com for the coolness. Drew also touched on some internet problems that he had recently and how T-Mobile came to the rescue with a mobile hotspot.

Lastly, we touched a bit on the impending iPad 2 event and a few of the rumors surrounding that device. Neither of us is so jazzed about it right now that we’ll get rid of our current iPads, but you never know, Apple has been known to come up with some doozies.

My wife and I are putting an offer in on a house tomorrow, cross your fingers for us!

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

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In which Daniel and Joe catch up after a week off and talk about the kids, the new Macbook Pros, buying new cars and the Pulse Network.

Joe and I kicked off with a bit of discussion of fellow Geek Dad Drew’s appearances on Fitarella and Digital Dads over at the Pulse Network. Go check out Drew’s big debut over there; I’m sure it won’t be his last appearance.

In somewhat of a coincidence, Joe and Greg Hoffman interviewed the new affiliate manager at Legacy Learning, Patrick Vesperman, on the Affiliate Juice podcast earlier today. The somewhat of a coincidence is that I interviewed Patrick’s predecessor, Matt McWilliams, two days ago on Inside Internet Marketing. The guys had some issues with Skype and the Pamela plugin, but fortunately, we weren’t plagued quite as much by that today.

My two-year-old, Ian, got in on the show a bit today. He was using the iPad to watch Netflix, and we talked about how he’s a master of the device. He really likes Pingu. Talk of the iPad led into discussion about the device’s future in education and the decline of printed textbooks.

Next up, Joe’s test driving cars. He’s coming up on 300,000 miles on his Jeep Grand Cherokee, and once that odometer rolls over, the game is done. Time to move on. From there, we got into buying a home and making it your own. We compared the housing markets in Atlanta and Houston a little bit, too.

We talked a little about the new Macbook Pros that Apple released today. I thought it was a little lackluster, myself. There are some great improvements, but nothing that really jumped out at me as being particularly new or innovative – with the exception of the Thunderbolt port.

We wrapped up with a bit about measuring and marking the kids’ growth. Joe’s got a nice, portable piece of wood, customized and mounted on the wall to measure the girls. It’s got their names on it with some decorations, and the best part is that you can take it with you if you have to move. No more leaving your historical markings in a doorway of the house you’re leaving.

Lastly, did you catch the reference in this episode’s title? Be honest, no Googling for it.

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

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Wherein Daniel and Drew congratulate Sarcastic Voyage, talk about steampunk vs. Renaissance Festivals, and examine Drew’s new gadgets.

I’m healthy! It’s been a long time coming, but after nearly two weeks of illness, I’m back with a show that doesn’t feature me being sick. And look! Show notes!

We kicked off with a shout out to Aalgar and Matt of the Sarcastic Voyage podcast for their 100th episode. The vast, vast majority of podcasts don’t reach that milestone, and those guys rock it every week. Listen up in the final ten minutes for the Adventures of Neil and Willikins, an awesome take on Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore. Well done, gentlemen.

Next, steampunk. Waltham, Massachusetts is becoming International Steampunk City from May 6-8. This should be a fun event for people… living near Waltham. For the rest of humanity, we’ll just have to watch from afar and hopefully, should it go well, we may see similar events in other locales. Down here in Houston, we get the Renaissance Festival, and that’s about it. Unfortunately. I’d like to see something new… or old… or new-old, or oldish-new, as it were. Steampunk can be hard to define.

There’s a site called Evolving English that features recordings made from all over the world. Are you into accents at all? Marvel at the range of accents on these English speakers from around the globe. Very, very cool.

We talked next about the Hello Bar, which you can see deployed at QAQN. Drew’s working on getting it set up at BenSpark.com, but he ran into a little trouble – his GoDaddy-hosted site got hacked. Again. If you would like a beta invite to Hello Bar, tell us in the comments. We have a handful to give away, and are happy to spread the love.

Drew’s got some new gadgets. We talked about Griffin Technology’s Lightboard for iPad, followed by some awesome camera lenses from Photojojo. From there, it was all about Drew’s family experience with Toy Story on Ice – because all the best shows are on ice!

Links!

• Steampuffin
• The steampunk house
• TellingDad.com
• Drew’s Branding Bootcamp
• ABC’s Wide World of Sports (for all you under-30′s)
• Tell Me a Story and Win (a new contest!)

Lastly, Drew’s going on Fitarella.tv today, Monday. He’ll be appearing in a matter of hours at 1pm Eastern, so head over to the site and catch him! (I unintentionally misspelled Fitarella when I spoke it on the show. Sorry about that.)

And for the encore… here’s the Agony of Defeat guy. His name is Vinko Bogataj and he’s the only constant in all the opening montages that ABC put together for Wide World of Sports.

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

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In which Daniel and Drew talk about Transformers across various media and announce the winner of the Barefoot Books contest.

This is the third – and hopefully last – episode in the Daniel’s Sick mini-series. I had intended to do a quick ten-minute show just to announce the contest winner, but Drew actually had a topic so we ran with that for a little while. I’ll have some nice links up later on. I’m actually heading to the doctor in about a half hour because this illness has gone from “just an annoying cold” to “holy crap, my throat is swollen and I can barely breathe, much less eat or drink anything”. Needless to say, I’ve not been able to concentrate on much of anything besides breathing the last two days.

Well, enough about that.

We have a winner!

The winner of our Barefoot Books contest is………….. notime2ride (Brendan)! We’ll be contacting Brendan directly later today to make arrangements for delivery of his prize. Thanks again to Barefoot Books for sponsoring this great contest, and thanks to everyone who participated. We had a great turnout, and we’re looking forward to the next contest!

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

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In which Daniel and Joe prove that podcasting while sick is not a good idea.

Yeah… I know. I know I said show notes for the last episode were forthcoming and I haven’t done ‘em yet. Well, I’m not doing them for this episode, either (yet). I’m still very sick, and still quite unable to get anything done. This sentence took me 20 minutes to write. So, yeah… no show notes just now. Sorry.

In which Daniel and Drew discuss Super Bowl ads, movie trailers, buying a fixer-upper and the revised Barefoot Books giveaway.

Detailed show notes forthcoming, sorry. I’m very, very sick since Sunday. Oddly, despite being sick last night, this turned out to be one of my favorite episodes lately!

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

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Wherein Daniel and Drew discuss home buying troubles, comic books, our friend’s plea for help with his mother, and our Barefoot Books contest.

Well, it looks like we’ll be leasing a house rather than buying. Between the large down payment required and the taxes & fees (Homeowners Associations suck), it’s just not feasible right now. The new plan is to lease a house so we can get out of this little apartment. Drew’s been looking at houses up north for a while, too.

We haven’t talked about comics lately, so we discussed a few character deaths, the new Infestation crossover from IDW (Transformers, GI Joe, Ghostbusters and Star Trek – for real) and new TV shows GI Joe and Young Justice.

Our friend, Jason Rubacky, is going through hell right now. His mother was hospitalized last week and his father was hospitalized over the weekend. The medical bills have been mounting, and Jason took to social media to help raise some funds to help his mom out. Learn more at SaveJasonsMom.org and please, give if you can. My great-aunt suffered from the same affliction, and I can tell you, it’s not something I’d wish on anyone.

Lastly…

We’re continuing our contest thanks to Barefoot Books. We’d like you to call our feedback line at 281-241-QAQN and tell us two things: what your favorite book was when you were a kid, and what you think your favorite Barefoot book might be. That’s all there is to it! The winner will receive 5 free books from Barefoot. Here are the official rules:

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

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In which Daniel and Joe welcome special guest Jim Beeghley to talk about cyberbullying, kids getting “sick” at school, and inappropriate media for kids.

[Sorry for the delay in getting the show notes up - I felt it was better to get the show out there notes-less rather than hold it until life slowed down enough for me to get them done!]

Jim Beeghley, someone I’d helped with a podcast recording dilemma a while back, heard our Cyberbully episode and got in touch with us. Jim has first-hand experience with cyberbullying, as it happened to his daughter. You’ll want to hear Jim’s story and how he and his family dealt with this tough situation.

The next segment was devoted to the stories that kids tell. Winter had an issue last week with getting “sick” at school. Yeah, those are we’re-not-so-sure quotes right there.

We finished up with a bit on advanced technology going into the next few decades (download your brain to a computer, anyone?). All in all, some really good stuff, here.

Here’s a few links:

• Jim’s Secrets of Harry Potter podcast at sqpn.com
• Jim’s blog, Civil War site, and Twitter
• Jim and I met via Cliff Ravenscraft’s GSPN
• Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer
• We all hate – as parents – iCarly.
• WhatsWhat.me is live! A safe social network for kids.

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

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In which Daniel and Drew discuss Barefoot Books, Late Night Parent and a new contest.

We kicked off the episode with a recap of our weekends. Mine was pretty relaxing, though Angela and I missed a prime opportunity for some alone time by falling asleep at 8:30 on Saturday night. Drew reported back on a tremendous pizza place up near where he lives.

The major segment of the show this time was our discussion of Barefoot Books, an excellent publisher that Drew and I are both really enjoying right now. Drew loves their books so much that he resurrected an old project, Read to Me, Dad, over at BenSpark.com. He and his daughter Eva are recording videos of themselves reading Barefoot books each night and talking about them. Drew and I are both Ambassadors (affiliates) for Barefoot Books, and Drew is using the commissions from the sales he generates to fund Eva’s future education. I didn’t say so on the show, but I’m committing to do the same with Ian and Winter. Any commissions generated through my affiliate link, qaqn.com/barefoot will go directly into an account for the kids. Drew’s link is benspark.com/barefoot.

We have a new contest to announce thanks to Barefoot Books! We’d like you to call our feedback line at 281-241-QAQN and tell us two things: what your favorite book was when you were a kid, and what you think your favorite Barefoot book might be. That’s all there is to it! The winner will receive 5 free books from Barefoot. See below for the official rules.

After we finished our praise of Barefoot Books, we talked about getting an email from Twitter saying that we’d both been followed by @LateNightParent. Further investigation revealed it’s a live show on Monday nights starring Adam Cohen and Josh Becker, two guys we’ve come to know through Twitter and #DadsTalking (and Adam was a guest on the show a few months back). Check out the Late Night Parents show on Mondays at 10pm Eastern on MomTV.com.

As we got near the end of the show, Drew talked about a project to raise awareness of Sanfilippo disease. Please check out Drew’s post about it!

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

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In which Daniel and Joe discuss potty training, DVD vs. hard drive storage for home movies, podcasting gear and upcoming video productions.

We opened the show with updates from “Potty Trainin’ Joe” on the progress of his youngest. In an interesting take on using rewards to encourage potty use, Lily blows out a candle each time she successfully goes. She’s really getting into it! Angela and I are on the cusp of training Ian, so we’ll be giving that a try.

Next up, we talked about storing home movies on hard drives or discs. Hard drives fail, but discs can break (and break down, over time). My current solution is to put things in three places: the internal hard drive, the external Drobo unit, and online to the Backblaze.

I brought all my new podcasting equipment to Las Vegas, and I described on the show how I traveled with. It all fit in the carry-on suitcase, and TSA was surprisingly cool with it. It was very portable! Listen to learn why I would never, ever pack expensive electronics in my checked baggage. Affiliate Summit was great, and I devoted a bit of time in the show to talking about the Blogger Lounge and the reaction that I got to my little portable studio.

Will we be doing video anytime soon? Maybe not soon, but there will be video coming from both QAQN and Joe’s Baseballisms.com. One of the first things I’ll be trying is something that Randy Cantrell of Bula Network does: an in-studio camera setup, a simple one-shot that shows me doing the show. Joe’s a little more ambitious in what he wants to do over at Baseballisms.

Next, a few of my plans for QAQN… I’m thinking of bowing to the pressure of the crowd and just calling it “Quackin’”. It seems to be what people like.

We wrapped up with coverage of the Amazon.com/Living Social deal – over 1.3 million gift cards sold in 24 hours. I bought one, did you? I’m not a massive fan of the Living Social/Groupon deals generally because it seems to be little more than teeth whitening, spas and laser hair removal half the time. This somehow led into a bit of a rant about companies buying other companies and how that kind of behavior stifles creativity and competition.

Check out WhatsWhat.me for a safe social networking experience for kids. It’s live, and it’s awesome!

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

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In which Daniel and Drew discuss a recent hospital stay, Affiliate Summit West 2011, the North American International Auto Show, and trying to get home in a massive snowstorm.

I kicked off the show today with a report from my stint at the hospital this morning. I went in for some tests related to the abdominal pain that I’ve been having for the past few months and they found some fairly distressing things. The good news is that it’s all reversible through diet, exercise and [possibly, if needed] medication. I’ve been trying to lose weight anyway, so this is just one more reason to kick that into high gear.

The big keyword this time is TRAVEL. We talked about Affiliate Summit West 2011, Drew’s made-up drink winning the contest at the buy.at party, and our session – Affiliate Improv – which got great reviews. Eric Nagel had my favorite feedback of all – in the hall later on he was very constructive and offered suggestions on how to make the session even better. Drew had to blast out of there nearly immediately after the session ended because he had to catch a plane to…

The North American International Auto Show! Drew was sponsored by GM to attend the show and report on it. Before Drew gave his take on the show, I talked about my stunning defeat in the Purpose Inc poker tournament Sunday night and how a random stranger made me feel better about it.

Drew’s story of getting to, attending, and getting home from the auto show is a harrowing one, full of fluffy white drama at the end: the snowstorm that New England enjoyed last week kept him from getting home for an extra couple of days. Not cool. But his report is pretty awesome.

[Incidentally, the Sonic restaurant chain is not the chain that operates under different names in different locations. I was thinking of Checkers, a similar drive-in-style chain, that operates under the name Rallys in some markets.]

In other news… deep fried turkey, the Hub channel, and an introduction to Barefoot Books (the monster story that Winter liked so much was “Rona Long-Teeth” from Tahiti).

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

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In which Daniel and Drew discuss hardware, flying with an iPad on the cheap, our kick-ass Affiliate Summit session and Boston Media Makers.

It’s a new year! Last year, we celebrated by changing the name of the show. This year, we’re celebrating by changing the theme music; we rather like the name and figure we’ll keep it.

Drew and I open with a short recap of the past few days and then I played a bit of feedback that we received from Greg, a listener who had a bit to say about our Cyberbully episode and his $10,000 bike (side note: *choke* – ten grand??) Bike riding is great exercise, if you can find the time.

Next up, Affiliate Summit! I talked about how I’m already packed and mostly ready to go – a first for me. I’m the guy that runs around like a maniac hours before I’m supposed to leave for the airport getting things ready, usually. Part of getting ready is my makeshift iPad stand for the plane. No way I’m paying $40 for a piece of molded plastic to hold up the iPad on the tray table… let’s see how a $2 mousepad works instead.

During Affiliate Summit, Drew and I will be doing a session called Affiliate Improv, along with Jen Goode, Mike Buechele and Wade Tonkin. Listen up for all the details, it’s going to be a ton of fun!

Drew attended Boston Media Makers and has a full report, including his time spent with Fitarella.TV‘s Jacqueline Carly. The Pulse Network is an exciting new network of productions that you should definitely check out.

(The bluetooth speaker system that Drew mentioned is the Jabra Cruiser2. Worth a look!)

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

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In which all three Geek Dads record together to say goodbye to 2010 and recap the year-that-was.

It’s been a great year for Geek Dads Weekly. Back in January, we re-branded the show from Geek Dads @ Home to Geek Dads Weekly, and in April, brought on Drew Bennett as a third co-host. Both Joe and I moved to new parts of the country, and all of us has seen some amazing milestones in our kids.

We can’t thank you, our listeners, enough. The upcoming year promises to be even better, and we’re looking forward to sharing our experiences with you.

See you in 2011!

Thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-826-2112. Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

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In which Daniel and Drew talk about snow, video games, and plans for the new year.

After a rough start (the record button is your friend, never forget that), we kicked off with discussion about the blizzard-like conditions that Drew is dealing with in the Northeast. Being a New Englander originally myself, I find myself not really missing that part of the country at this time of year… though the skiing is probably amazing right about now.

From snow blizzards to video game companies named Blizzard, next we talked about my recent foray back into World of Warcraft. It’s a great geeky topic, folks. ‘s why we call the show Geek Dads Weekly.

We also got into our various plans for the new year, which is coming up way sooner than I think either of us would like. We’ve both got some exciting stuff coming up – Drew talked about his plans for BenSpark, Road to Thin and a couple of other things, while I talked about QAQN and launching a podcast consulting service.

The show notes are a little thin this week because I’m super short on time. Comcast decided that my 20Mb internet connection would be better off performing at under 1Mb for two days, Adobe Audition gave me editing headaches (I figured out what was wrong, so at least I learned something) and we’re still recovering from the holidays. So… you’ll just have to listen to the show if you want to find out what else we talked about ;)

There’s one more episode coming before the end of the year, so stay tuned!

Thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-826-2112. Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

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In which Daniel and Drew discuss the failings of Yahoo, the pointlessness of StumbleUpon, the difficulties of physical fitness and Drew’s status as a Mommy Blogger.

It’s not all negative! True, the leaked information about the closing down of Delicious is yet another nail in Yahoo’s coffin (I’m amazed they’re still in business, to be honest), and true, we did go on a bit of a tear about StumbleUpon’s usefulness (there is none). But we weren’t all negative.

We also talked about fantastic Christmas displays at La Salette over the years and the strange fact that my family used to drive by Drew’s house to get there 25-30 years ago. All this time later, here we are co-hosting a podcast. Weird. That led into a bit of a trip down memory lane, talking about points of interest to us in New England (incidentally, the restaurant we talked about that was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives was Evelyn’s, in Tiverton).

Drew gave a run-down of what we’ve been doing with Road to Thin and his latest article about how technology keeps him honest. It’s good stuff; if you’re into weight loss at all, Road to Thin is an exciting new project you might enjoy.

We talked next about Facebook games and World of Warcraft and how these things can really suck you in and make you lose track of time. Still, a little willpower, a little planning… you should be able to set aside some time for fun, right?

When you’re done sitting in front of the computer or TV, how about a little exercise? We talked about treadmill desks, iPad attachments for treadmills and my ideas for the new house we’ll be in early next year – and we also covered Drew’s YMCA membership and its benefits.

Lastly, Drew had tickets to a great show, comped to “Mommy Blogger, A. Bennett”. We might have to change the name of the podcast if Drew’s going to count himself among the moms, but we’ll see.

Thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-826-2112.Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

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Wherein Daniel and Drew talk Battlestar Galactica, hard drive crashes and Dads Talking with Jim Turner.

We opened with a bit of discussion about back pain, then went right into Battlestar Galactica, my new all-time favorite television show. Never has a TV show affected me as frequently as this one has. There is nothing not awesome about it, and it’s all available for streaming on Netflix.

As we get closer to 2011, thoughts of future podcasts begin to take shape  - Battlestar? Thundercats? Go-Bots? Snorks? Rainbow Brite? Yeah, probably not any of those. Probably. Maybe. We’ll see. The world is begging for a SilverHawks podcast, after all.

Speaking of podcasts, as I’m working up a new episode of Daniel Destroys, I’ve discovered that blip.tv works for video distribution to YouTube, iTunes and other services. If you’re thinking about producing video but are concerned about hosting, they’re worth a look.

Following that, we talked about the tragedy of losing media in a hard drive crash. Back a few years ago, I had a hard drive crash and lost thousands of music files and movies that I’d ripped from my extensive CD and DVD collection. Unfortunately, there were a few items, like Sponge’s New Pop Sunday that had gone out of print. My CD had been broken, then the drive crashed. What do you do then? Drew and I talked about backup options. [Follow-up: apparently, that disc is available as an Import on Amazon now. Very cool - guess I know what I'm ordering next from Amazon.]

Have you ever tried to coordinate a conference call between five or six people spread out in different time zones? Drew and I talk next about the trials and tribulations of coordinating schedules; I’m using tungle.me to help keep things straight.

Drew will be heading to the North American International Auto Show, which is happening at the same time as Affiliate Summit. He’ll be in Vegas for Summit Saturday and Sunday morning, then on a plane to the auto show Sunday afternoon. That means he gets to participate in the Affiliate Improv panel, but he and I won’t get to do that footrace down the strip that we’d been talking about.

Next up, we brought on Jim Turner from Dads Talking (@genuine on Twitter). We haven’t had a ton of guests on the show, but when we do, we’re always thrilled with the result, and Jim’s appearance here was one of my favorites.

Dads Talking began as little more than a collection of dad bloggers using the hashtag #dadstalking on Twitter. Jim gave us the history of the hashtag and his site, as well as his involvement with Blogworld and his efforts at building a community of dads online.

One of the first things I asked Jim was, how can dads turn ‘daddy blogging’ into a business? The ‘mommy bloggers’ have their own gig, how can dads make a go of it? He has some great insights there.

Jim turned the interview around on us, and asked what our plans are for the future of the podcast. Are we shopping this thing to Rupert Murdoch? [no.] I explained a bit of the history of the show and what our ideas for 2011 are. We’re looking to bring on guests – and in fact, we mentioned that if you’re using the #dadstalking hashtag, you’re probably someone we’re interested in talking with. Give us a shout!

Like Jim did at Blogworld, I’ll be at Affiliate Summit with a recorder and a microphone. I’d love to talk with you in person. I’ll be spending a lot of time in the Blogger Lounge when I’m not out making the rounds. If I don’t find you, feel free to come find me!

I’m barely scratching the surface of all the great stuff Jim had to share with us, and if you’re anything like me, and I know I am, you’ll really enjoy this interview.

Thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-826-2112. Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

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In which Daniel goes again on his own. Walkin’ down the only road he’s ever known. Like a drifter, he was born to walk alone. But he’s made up his mind… he ain’t wastin’ no more time.

Whitesnake lyrics? Srsly?

It’s just me this time, as Joe is down in Atlanta packing up the rest of his house to finish the move up north to the Boston area. I decided against bringing in a co-host because as I get closer to 2011 and the launch of new podcasts, I decided that I want more time behind the mic solo. Practice makes perfect, as the saying goes. I opened the show with a bit of a podcasting lesson about the differences between solo and co-hosted recordings.

I then announced the winner of our fifth Affiliate Summit Gold Pass – John from WickedFire! I’ll be DMing him on Twitter shortly after I post this with his special registration code. Thanks for participating, John.

Speaking of Summit, I signed up for Purpose Inc’s poker tournament in Vegas on January 9th. Wish me luck. I hope to be able to do both the tourney and the ShareASale Under the Stars party.

Next up, I talked a bit about LinkedIn and why I don’t use it. My time is limited, and I have to pick and choose how I spend it, and LinkedIn just isn’t on the list right now.

Penultimately, a synopsis of the recording schedule through January. In a nutshell, it’s like this: up through December 19th, normal. December 23, 26 and 30 are up in the air depending on what my co-hosts have planned for the holidays. January 2nd should be back to normal, but then we’re in Las Vegas for Affiliate Summit. We’ll be putting out shows while we’re there, but not on our normal schedule. More on that as we get closer to the event.

Finally, there was a short bit there at the end about the differences between talk radio and podcasting. If you’re a podcaster, if you produce podcasts, don’t call your show “an internet radio show”. It’s not radio. Radio’s got nothing to do with it. It’s like going to see Avatar and calling it a play.

Thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-826-2112. Also, you can email us at feedback@qaqn.com.

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In which all three Geek Dads talk about cyberbullying and a great new startup aimed at providing a safe social network for kids. Also: Drew rides a $2,000 bike. Srsly.

Joe sent me a message about an article in the New York Times about cyberbullying, a topic that hits us both as geeks and as dads. Is cyberbullying fundamentally different than bullying that has gone on in generations past? What do you do when you find out it’s your child that’s doing the bullying? What tools are available? We barely scratched the surface of this complex topic, but it’s one that we will be spending some good quality time on in shows to come.

Using facial recognition for the login process is something that startup What’s What hopes will keep its community safe from bullying behavior (as well as from identity theft and potential adult abuse). It doesn’t stop there. Check out WhatsWhat.me to learn how this new social network aimed at 7-14 year olds is trying to fight the good fight. Our prediction is that will be one of the services to watch in 2011. Here’s the survey that Joe mentioned.

Moving on, Drew’s made an offer on a house for the first time! Sweet! Fingers crossed.

After that, I gave an overview of the Attention! This Book Will Fight Breast Cancer charity project. Author Jim Kukral was my guest on Inside Internet Marketing a few days ago, and made a generous offer that we hope will generate more interest in the project. The signed book will be up for auction during Affiliate Summit West 2011.

Drew then spilled the beans about “that thing with those guys” that we’ve been teasing about for the past couple of shows. The project is called Road to Thin, and it’s five guys on a mission to drop at least 50 pounds each – myself, Drew, Kevin Metzger, PJ Mullen and Donny Claxton. We’ve got a site set up, a bi-weekly podcast, and it’s going to be awesome. We’re on Twitter, too.

Lastly, Drew had a test drive on the EliptiGO that he mentioned on last week’s show. It went really well, but… it’s $2,000. For a bike. Still, it’s pretty damn cool.

We wrapped with a short bit from Drew about a press conference that he did with some of the cast of Leverage, including noted joke thief Wil Wheaton.

Thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-826-2112.

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In which Daniel and Joe discuss friends and family, Angry Birds, another Affiliate Summit pass giveaway, and why Derek Jeter needs to be a Yankee.

We began this time with some family talk – high school reunions, the perils of moving kids from school to school, and settling in new places. We also talked about Facebook/Twitter usage among the general population (I meant a hundred and four or five million, not “four or five million” Twitter users. Sorry for the misspeak. Don’t know where my head was in that moment.) Also, Ancestry.com.

More on the kids – my daughter Winter will be tested for the “Gifted & Talented” program at school, which is awesome. Joe and I talked about what that means exactly, and I told my story about skipping Kindergarten and how that affected me in later years.

Next up: Angry Birds! The expansion was just released and it’s… weird. You get 25 new levels, but they’re doling them out one per day, like it’s an Advent calendar. Ugh. I’m not a fan. Gimme mah levels!

Groupon is (apparently) being bought by Google. We kicked a few thoughts around about Groupon and I pose the question: does Google have to buy everything?

Joe’s Sports Minute is about Derek Jeter this time, with the free agent currently out of a Yankee uniform. We both agreed that’s ridiculous and the club needs to sign the guy and be done with it. He’s a Yankee. Sign him.

Lastly, we have one more Gold pass for Affiliate Summit to give away! Call us at 281-826-2112, leave your name and Twitter handle (or email), and a reason you’d like to attend Affiliate Summit. We’ll draw one name next Thursday morning (at noon Eastern). Gold passes are valued at over $500, enter today!

Thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-826-2112.

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In which Daniel and Drew talk about weight loss, give away some Affiliate Summit passes and wonder about celebrity replies on Twitter.

This being a milestone episode (half a century old!), it’s only fitting that we celebrate by having some technical difficulties, in the spirit of Geek Dads @ Home and Geek Dads Weekly episodes of yore. I’ll get to that in a minute.

We started out with a brief discussion about weight loss and the new podcast at QAQN.com, Yet Another Weight Loss Show. I’m on a mission to drop about 50 pounds, and if that’s of any interest to you, the new show might be right up your alley. I’m sharing my strategies, my successes and my setbacks – and I’m not doing any kind of fad diet, either.

Next up, speaking of food – Thanksgiving! Drew and I each recapped our holiday, and we both agree that a great time was had all around.

Leading into the segment about the winners of the Summit passes, I mentioned that I was using WireTap Anywhere to route audio around my Mac. It’s what made it possible to play the voicemails from our winners in realtime rather than add them in post-production. Turns out, that wasn’t a great idea. The software caused major Skype latency, and actually killed the call at one point. The whole thing was just a mess, and I strongly recommend against this software unless you do some thorough testing first. Maybe it’ll work for you – it didn’t work for me at all.

We do have some winners to announce! Each of our four contest entrants has won a Gold pass to Affiliate Summit West 2011 – congratulations! Our winners are:

• Patrick Hughes
• Amanda MacArthur
• Michele Hall-McCaffry
• Randy Cantrell

We did have five passes to give away, but four entrants means we’ll be giving away that final pass at a later date. Winners will be contacted shortly and given a special code to use when registering for the event.

Drew followed that up with an update of his SwagsGiving contest, which, depending on when you’re reading this, might be over. It ran the month of November and Drew gave away some amazing stuff. Mark your calendars for next November, because there’s sure to be a sequel.

Next: have you had a celebrity reply to you on Twitter? Was that a special moment for you? Did you feel like you connected somehow with the celebrity? I got a reply from Kurt Busiek (okay, not exactly a Kanye-level celebrity, but someone I hold in very, very high esteem). It made me think about celebrity Twitter connections, and we discussed this on the show… right before WireTap crashed the call. Erm. Anyway.

We came back and wrapped up with a bit from Drew about getting ready to try out the new EliptiGO bike. This thing looks awesome in a funky way, and I can’t believe nobody came up with it sooner. Very cool stuff. I wouldn’t mind seeing a bit more of a… realistic… price. Yow.

Thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-826-2112.

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It’s the Sunday… okay, Tuesday, episode with Daniel and Drew!

We kicked off the show this time with a reminder that we’re running a contest: we’re giving away five Gold passes to Affiliate Summit West in January. Call into our voicemail feedback line (281-826-2112), let us know why you want to go, and we’ll put your name in the pile for the drawing at the end of the month! Your voicemail should include your name, Twitter ID or email, and a comment. Voicemails may be played on the show, but your contact info (email, if you give it) will be masked out, don’t worry. We played two voicemails from our first two entrants, Amanda and Patrick!

[Update: it occurred to me that we haven't clarified this... each winner will receive one Gold pass, not all five. There will be five winners. Sorry if there was any confusion!]

Drew had a great weekend, starting last Thursday with a meeting of Boston Parent Bloggers at Barefoot Books in Concord, MA. The event was catered by the Pea Pod service in partnership with Stop & Shop.

Later, Drew went and saw Tangled, and gave it very, very high marks. It was Eva’s first experience going to the movies, and she had a great time. You’ve got to hear Drew explain it, it’s precious.

We talked about a few other movies, including Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I, Tron: Legacy, Starman, and the Chronicles of Narnia series.

Next up, we did a bit about comics and ancient Greek & Roman gods.

Drew wrapped up his weekend with Boston Media Makers and Southern New England Media Makers. The greater Boston area is shaping up to be a real hotbed of geeky social activity. Drew spent two hours talking with the group about tech, what they’re doing with video, audio and internet efforts including affiliate marketing (related links: stevegarfield.com and buzzfarmers.com)

We wrapped up the show with a short discussion about Patch.com and then an upcoming race that Drew and I will be having in January during Affiliate Summit West 2011. We’ll have more to share as we finalize those plans, but we’re planning on a walking race down the strip. Listen for ways that we’re going to make it interesting!

Thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-826-2112.

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It’s the Thursday episode with Daniel and Joe!

Before today’s episode, I fired up my RSS reader to look for topics to cover on the show today. What we ended up with was a list of topics that all (almost all) in some way or another were related to social media. Weird.

We kicked off with, of course, The Beatles on iTunes (affiliate link). It’s hard not to talk about that, as it was the thing on a lot of lips (virtually speaking) on Monday and Tuesday. What’s Apple doing now? Is it streaming music? Is it the Beatles? Is it iOS 4.2? What do those clocks mean? Hey, that kinda looks like the cover of the Help! album. Gotta be the Beatles…

Neither one of us was particularly enamored of the way Apple handled the situation. A day you’ll never forget? Hardly – and Joe’s been a fan for several decades. This discussion led into a bit about bands remastering and re-releasing albums. Are you an audiophile? Can you tell the difference between the Beatles’ 1987 remasters and the 2009 remasters?

Next up, Joe melted some rock recently with the Rockmelt browser – the new browser that seeks to integrate social media into the browsing experience. Time will tell if it’s able to make a dent in the browser market – or if it will ignite a new round of browser wars (something one of its creators is intimately familiar with).

I proved that I know way too much about silly things when we talked about the Smurfs’ Village game for iOS and how it’s the biggest grossing game now, beating out Angry Birds. It’s not without controversy, though.

There were two Twitter-related pieces that we covered next. First, in a bit of a funny story, Shaq gave out his phone number on Twitter. And if you think it was his real number… yeah. Nobody ever accused Shaq of being dumb (not twice, anyway). It was a fun prank. The next story was that of Target buying the #BlackFriday hashtag on Twitter. Neither of us are really on board with the whole Promoted Trend thing, but we kicked it around a bit and tried to come up with some justification for it.

Penultimately.. Google Voice is back on the iPhone. *Yawn*. We both have it, neither of us is going bananas over it.

Joe’s Sports Minute this week is not about baseball, but about NASCAR. As ratings decline, there is some real drama happening in the sport going into the final few races. Some great drivers are neck and neck going into the final standings, making for some pretty exciting stuff. Situations like this could serve to catch the attention of the casual fans that seem to have their attention elsewhere.

Thanks for listening! We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a voice mail at 281-826-2112.

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It’s the Sunday episode with Daniel and Drew!

We began this week with a major snafu – I sort of… well… forgot to hit the record button. Once we got it rolling though, things were good. We started with a bit of a rant about the afternoon that I had to spend at our local Chuck E. Cheese’s (we won’t be taking them on as a sponsor anytime soon, trust me).

Drew had a much better day than I did, hanging out as he did with guys like C.C. Chapman and Steve Garfield at Boston Media Makers. Drew followed up his description of his afternoon with an update on some new video production equipment he just picked up – a Sony ECM Condenser Stereo Microphone and a Sima SL-20LX Ultra Bright Video Light (affiliate links).

Next up, we discussed two contests that we’re running. Drew is still running his SwagsGiving contest over at BenSpark.com – definitely go check that out for some awesome prizes – and here at Geek Dads Weekly we’re giving away five Gold passes to Affiliate Summit West 2011! Want to win the first pass? Give us a call! Pick up the phone, dial 281-826-2112 and tell us your name and why you’d like to go to Affiliate Summit West in January.

We wrapped up with a short discussion about a story that’s been getting a lot of media attention this week: the mom that went along with her five-year-old son’s desire to dress up as Daphne, from Scooby-Doo, for Halloween. Neither of us have a problem with the kid’s choice of costume – but we agreed that it’s strange that a mom who takes care not to mention her son’s real name on her blog thought that it was A-OK to put an unaltered picture of him in-costume in the article. Hm.

Thanks for listening!

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It’s the Sunday episode with Daniel and Drew!

Well, Monday, really. With Halloween falling on a Sunday this year, Drew and I decided to do the show after the kids had gone to bed the following night. We lead off with discussion about bedtime routines for our young kids – what works, what doesn’t, what mistakes have been made. Following that, staying on the family topics, we recapped Halloween. Drew went out as Peter Pan, or alternately, Robin Hood. I went out as a podcaster. Or a web developer. Basically, I went out as whatever you can think of that would be well represented by a white t-shirt and jeans. All of our girls – wives and daughters alike – went out as fairies.

Drew talked about Swagsgiving next, which is an awesome contest that you need to be involved with. He’s giving away a ton of conference swag that he’s collected and if your first thought was “yeah, like I want to win a crappy t-shirt”, think again. He’s giving away autographed books, cameras, and all sorts of really awesome stuff. And his method of giving away the prizes is pretty cool, too.

Peter Shankman wrote an article that we discussed next, about the dangers of free wireless hotspots, or wi-fi. There is a vulnerability in the way websites serve up their pages that allows anyone with the Firesheep add-on for Firefox to see you on the network and login to whatever website you’re logged into. Signed into Facebook? Someone with this add-on can get into your account using your login name and password. Same with Twitter, Yahoo, and any number of similar sites. We highly recommend you read Peter’s article about this.

Also in the news, Twitter has rewritten a few of its rules. First, you have to capitalize the T in Tweet. No, seriously. That’s a new “rule”. Listen for more “rules” and how we feel about them.

We wrapped up with a discussion about profane language – when it’s appropriate, when it’s not. What happens when the kids discover profanity? You might be surprised at my answer.

Thanks for listening!

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This is the Sunday… no… Tuesday… wait… Thursday! episode with Daniel and Drew!

Episode 40 was recorded on location at Shareasale’s Think Tank event  on Tuesday, October 19th. The full report about Think Tank will come later (as it was still going on at the time) but Drew offers up his full run-down of his time at Blogworld.

Show notes are a little sparse this time, sorry about that. My post-Think Tank hours have been packed with work and family, so I’m planning on adding to the notes over the weekend. It’s not ideal, but it is what it is. Drew’s recap of Blogworld is awesome, well worth a listen even without a summary.

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It’s the Geek Dads Weekly Thursday Edition with Daniel M. Clark and Joe Magennis!

We’ve got a great show for you today. Joe and I start off with an update on each of our living arrangements – selling houses and doing it digitally when possible. We then jump into an exciting new development from Google – the automated car. It’s a car that drives itself, folks, and if you don’t think that this is the single most important advancement in human transportation since the invention of the car itself… well, you might be right. But we disagree. In fact, I take it one step further in suggesting that this might be the first step toward the mythical flying car. Jetsons here we come!

Joe has connected Facebook to Skype and explains a bit of the whys and hows of it. Doesn’t it seem like Facebook is just everywhere right now?

Joe’s sports segment – we’ll have music for it eventually! – is dedicated to Atlanta Braves manager Bobby Cox, who retired recently. Cox was the manager of the Braves for over two decades, and will be missed by fans of the team. His managerial record is astounding. Enjoy retirement, sir.

We close with a lesson learned from the previous episode’s production – and then another podcasting lesson as Skype disconnected our call. Things happen. Nobody and nothing is perfect. You just do your best and if something goes awry, you learn from it and move on.

(That said, Sunday’s episode 40 will definitely be late. Drew and I are planning on recording possibly Monday from Think Tank since he’s on a plane home from Blogworld on Sunday and I’ve got an early flight Monday morning.)

Thanks for listening!

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Hey, Daniel here. Remember last Thursday’s episode wherein I was saying how doing two shows a week was great because I work well under pressure? Remember how I was saying that the schedule was good for me because I know that I can’t be posting Sunday’s show on Wednesday because there’s a new one to post on Thursday?

Check the post date on this episode, recorded Sunday the 10th.

But you know what? These things happen. I’m not going to explain why the show is late being posted because it’s not important. The important thing is the lesson that no matter what your best intentions are, sometimes mistakes get made and you just have to accept that. Your blog posts won’t show up on time, your newsletters will get hung up on the server, your podcasts will be late. As long as you make your best effort and it’s not a regular occurrence, you just have to apologize to the audience and let it go.

So… sorry. Moving on!

This is the Sunday show with me and Drew!

I’m not gonna lie to you kids, this is an especially geeky episode. We talk at length about things like Smallville and whether or not Superman should put on the cape or not. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Here’s the rundown:

We open with a great idea for a new award: The Poddys! If they can have Webby awards, why not an award for podcasters? Poddys, potties – we talked a bit about potty training as well. What works, what doesn’t, and how I’ve never subscribed to Bosnian Parenting magazine.

Speaking of magazines, SkyMall is awesome. Well, awesome in ironic way, in that it’s not awesome at all. It’s quite bad. In a good way. You follow? Drew took some pictures of a few things from SkyMall and put some funny captions to ‘em. If you’re connected to Drew on Facebook, you can see them there.

Right at this point in the show we start talking TV – How I Met Your Mother, Smallville and all the geeky stuff that goes along with it. Then we tear apart the Fantastic Four movies thanks to an awesome quote from Gail Simone. More superhero TV as we talk a bit about a new show called No Ordinary Family.

Sunday was Eva’s third birthday! Drew’s got the recap of the big day. That leads into a discussion about cup cakes – what on earth is the deal with these $5.00 cupcakes? How insane is that?

Drew’s checking out the Kodak M580 and has a bit of a review for the show.

I dropped the big news about my new podcast! It’s called Inside Internet Marketing. It’s an interview series and the first few episodes will be recorded at Shareasale’s Think Tank event next week. I’m not linking to the site yet because it’s not complete, but soon… very soon… like Geek Dads Weekly, it’ll be hosted at GeekCast.fm. I went into some detail about how I’m going to be recording the interviews while on my trip, and what equipment I’ll be using.

(I got the Blue Snowball USB mic (in black) delivered last night, it’s pretty great.) [affiliate link]

I also go over my plans for a couple of other podcasts related to comics, which may or may not see the light of day before the end of the year. They’d be video podcasts most likely (shout out to Jim Kukral’s Online Video Toolkit here).

Drew has more details to share about Blogworld at this point, and if you’re going, be sure to check out his panel because there’s going to be prizes! (and because it’ll be a great panel, of course). Kodak is giving out some great stuff at the panel. He’s heading to Blogworld courtesy, in part, of Seagate via Collective Bias.

Thanks for listening!

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This week’s Sunday Edition with Daniel and Drew leads off with discussion of the proposed Affiliate Improv session at Affiliate Summit West 2011. This is a panel that both hosts are a part of, and it could really use your support! Visit the voting page and give it a tick, won’t you?

According to Todd Farmer, Daniel is an amazing podcast master. With the relaunch of his AffPlan podcast, Todd got some inspiration from the intro format that has been used on Geek Dads Weekly. The short, five-minute relaunch episode (similar to something GDW did with episode zero) is great – though it sounds like Lisa Picarille has a cold. Get well soon, Lisa!

Drew just returned from spending a week at Disney World, and the bulk of the show is dedicated to discussion about the most magical of kingdoms. There were ups, there were downs, if you’re planning a trip to Orlando in the near future, Drew’s tips might be helpful.

The comics segment this skipped week, the pair deciding instead to touch on a new DVD release from DC Animated (affiliate link) and Drew’s experience with Transformers media.

The show wraps with a bit of coverage for the Flipboard iPad app (Drew likes it, Daniel finds it too unorganized for his liking) and a plug for Drew’s upcoming panel at Blogworld – you won’t want to miss that if you’re hitting Vegas next week!

Thanks for listening!

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It’s Geek Dads Weekly Thursday Edition with Daniel and Joe. The show kicks off with Daniel explaining why the Sunday Edition got skipped this week, and there are some valuable tips for new podcasters in there. It turns out that producing a show with a co-host is vastly easier than going it solo – and Daniel’s got some good advice in that area.

Next, Joe reviews Seesmic Desktop 2, a  significant upgrade from past iterations of the venerable Twitter client. More than just Twitter now, Seesmic supports plugins for apps like feed readers.

Daniel saw Rush perform in Houston over the weekend, and was blown away by just how awesome it was.

From Rush to Star Wars, as it was announced this week that George Lucas will be re-releasing (again) all six Star Wars films converted to 3D. What do you think of the 3D craze? Daniel’s not a fan, and despite his being a life-long Star Wars geek, he might sit these out.

Joe wraps the show with a bit of baseball history unearthed – a film of the 1960 World Series, game 7, was recently discovered in the closet of Bing Crosby (of all people). This is significant in that no other footage of the legendary game exists. It’s a major find, and will be shown to the world in just a couple of months.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes, and hey, why not leave a voicemail at 281-826-2112 for the guys? Your message could end up on a future show!

Thanks for joining us!

Links for this episode!

• Seesmic Desktop 2
• Rush interviewed on CNN – Rush.com
• Star Wars to be released in 3D
• The 1960 World Series film surfaces

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[more show notes to come, sorry. just wanted to get it posted before lunch & putting the kid down for his nap.]

Links for this episode:

• A previous show wherein we discussed CSAs
• Melding a modern DSLR camera with a 108-year-old lens
• The Wall Street Journal article about the Flying Baseball Bat of Death (not exactly what they called it)

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Blargh. Blaaaaaargh. Forget pirates. September 19th should be Talk Like Golizza Day. Blargh.

This is Geek Dads Weekly Sunday, with Daniel and Drew.

Daniel didn’t have a very good day. The show begins with a story about a very, very rude woman at the coffee shop and how his day went from bad to worse – but it got better toward the end, and by the time the show got recorded, he was feeling better. There’s a great Busch Gardens story, too.

Speaking of amusement parks, Drew is heading to Disneyworld! He’s doing it old school and low tech, bringing only his cameras and an iPad (a non-3G iPad, so internet access will not be a given). One cool part about this is that Kodak is sending him a M580 camera to test out while he’s there. Sweeeet.

Next, Daniel goes over some of his podcasting plans for the next few months, which include a couple of new shows and the resurrection of Daniel Destroys.

Drew has been working with Seagate, and goes over his experiences with their GoFlex line of products. This is pretty awesome stuff, you don’t want to miss it.

The team discovers that microphone problems – what we call Cyloning – isn’t a show stopper after all, especially when you’re recording a double-ender.

Daniel has a funny story about Winter’s lunch that his wife… well… it wasn’t a very good lunch. Winter, ever the drama princess (she’s too young to be a queen) had an awesome reaction.

Our comics segment this week was pretty thin. Neither host has been to his local shop to pick any up in a couple of weeks. There was a bit of talk about the iPad comics apps, but the big comics-related story was Daniel’s trip to the downtown location of his local comics shop for a poker tournament Friday night. He did quite well.

Drew has a bit of Transformers history to share, then wraps the show with some Blogworld news – prizes and giveaways galore, so if you’re going to Blogworld, make sure you catch up with him there!

This episode’s links:

• Talk Like a Pirate Day
• Go, Go, Golizza!
• Kodak M580
• Daniel Destroys
• Seagate GoFlex
• Drew’s GoFlex setup video
• Blogworld Expo

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Joe’s back! Show co-founder and co-host Joe Magennis is back from his extended hiatus. He’s settled into his new location and ready to start talking again.

This week begins a new format for Geek Dads Weekly. The show is now being produced twice weekly – Daniel and Drew will do an hour-long episode on Sunday nights, and Daniel & Joe will be doing 30-minute shows on Thursday afternoons.

Topics this time include:

• Updates from Joe – moving, how the girls are dealing with school
• The trials and tribulations of selling a house – Daniel’s going through some drama with his, and Joe is still trying to sell his. If you’re selling – or thinking about selling – a house, this segment of the show might be of particular interest to you. Shawn Collins’ use of Google AdWords and Facebook Ads in selling his house was very impressive to the guys.
• Discussion of Facebook Ads and Shoemoney’s Facebook Ads session from Affiliate Summit East 2010.
• Sports! Being a geek is not dependent upon having a passion for comic books (Shawn!). Whatever topic you’re passionate about, that’s what you geek out over. Joe is a baseball geek, and this week marks the beginning of his weekly baseball/sports segment (the name of which will be determined at a later time).
• MLB At Bat for iPad is Joe’s favorite new baseball-related iPad app. It’s awesome.

Thanks for listening!

This episode’s links:

• Shawn and Lisa poke fun at Daniel on Affiliate Thing
• MLB At Bat for iPad

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This week begins with an update for the Affiliate Marketers Give Back charity project we’re doing with Jim Kukral’s Attention! book. As of the time of this writing, the book is either with Chris Brogan or on its way back. Depending on how many more signatures we can secure, the auction may be happening in time for the holidays, which would be a great present for the organization.

Drew gives us the rundown of the Modern Media Man conference that he’s attending later this week, including details of his session, which leads into a broader discussion of industry conferences.

Apple had their event recently, announcing the new iPod line-up, the Apple TV and iTunes 10. We cover a bit of photography with HDR on the iPhone 4 and the new Ping service.

We talk about one of our favorite podcasts, Sarcastic Voyage. Hi, Aal. Hi, Matt. Go check them out, they’re awesome.

Next up, Affiliate Summit and the session that two of your Geek Dads are planning. We’ll have more details about that as we get closer to the session submission deadline, but basically, it’s an improv session that will take suggestions from the audience and build ideas around them.

[Additional show notes forthcoming. Kids. What can you do?]

It’s August and that means it’s back to school for a lot of kids all over the country. Winter wrapped up her first week rather successfully. We announced the creation of our newsletter and our call-in number! Call 281-826-2112 and leave us a message – if it’s a good one, we may play it on the show!

We discovered Cliff Ravenscraft, the Podcast Answer Man, this week. The iPad Camera Connection Kit has many more uses than simply connecting a camera to the iPad – almost anything with a USB connection can be jacked into the iPad. Keyboards, headsets, and more. Drew discovered that the iProRecord app was on sale for 80% off (might still be, check the link below) and immediately bought it. An iPad + iProRecord + USB microphone + Camera Connection Kit = mobile interviews made super easy.

The title of the show comes from the discussion about the lack of Dr. Pepper in Las Vegas – the worst thing about attending Affiliate Summit West. Daniel figures the mafia is controlling all the soft drinks in Vegas.

Next up, discussion of the changes Drew is making at his blog and the two-week experiment. We set the stage for sponsorships – more info about that in upcoming weeks & months.

Adobe Audition is coming to the Mac! It’s not exactly new news, but Daniel just found out and is excited about it.

Comics! We cover the Marvel & DC iPad apps and Daniel informs Drew of the existence of the Image Comics app. Then it’s on to Marvel Essentials, DC Archives and the value of each.

We wrap with discussion of iTunes going social and a bit on social media – Drew’s using Pixelpipe to manage his content at various locations.

This week’s links

• iPad Camera Connection Kit
• iProRecord iPad/iPhone app
• The Podcast Answer Man
• Adobe Audition
• iPad comics apps: Marvel, DC, Image and ComiXology
• Marvel Essentials and DC Archives (affiliate links)
• Pixelpipe
• and the show’s sponsors, Legacy Learning and MacSpeech

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Follow-up: Drew reports that he was able to get his wireless headphones to work with his iPad by plugging the headphones’ dongle into the iPad camera connection kit adapter. Also, Daniel got the DC-equivilent of the Marvel Essentials wrong. DC Archives is a hardcover, full color collection. The low-cost black & white collections are DC Showcase (affiliate link).

This week we’re talking with Chris Brogan about needlepoint. No, of course not – we’re talking with Chris about being a dad, balancing work and family, food & photography, blogging, our favorite conferences and comics.

This show marks the first appearance of the Shawn Collins Comic Book Segment. We have yet to decide if the name will stick, but we’ll be closing the show each week with a new segment all about the wonderful world of comic books and comics-related stuff. Excelsior!

This week’s links:

• Chris Brogan .com
• Chris on disclosure
• Camera Tossing
• Audience Conference
• Third Tribe
• Blogworld
• Affiliate Summit
• Daniel Saves the Comic Book Industry
• Daniel Destroys
• and the show’s sponsors, Legacy Learning and MacSpeech

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It’s finally here! We’re all at Affiliate Summit East in New York City! This isn’t a typical episode of Geek Dads Weekly. We recorded in the Blogger Lounge, and entertained a number of guests to talk with us about Summit, the industry, what they’re doing, and all sorts of great geeky things. Our guests today were:

• Adam Cohen
• Heather Smith (The Blogger Lounge Mistress)
• Nadia Aly
• John Chow
• Debbie Carney (Loxly)
• Mike Buechele

We had an awesome time – the conference is going great!

This week we’re talking with Jim Kukral, author of Attention! This Book Will Make You Money. We get into Affiliate Summit experiences, iPads, comics, sailing, Kevin Smith movies, meeting famous people, waiting in lines for hours at a time and much more!

Full Show Notes

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This week we’re talking about family reunions, Affiliate Summit panels and parties, and buying books on the iPad. We get into Disney princess movies and ask the question – what if Peter Jackson remade the Wizard of Oz? We wrap up with a bit on comics and a teaser for next week – may we have your Attention please?

Full Show Notes

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This week we’re talking about Drew’s My Blog Spark dinner adventure, speaking at Blogworld, and the iPad (one of the hosts just caved in and got one). Discussion about iPad apps leads into some comics talk; San Diego Comic Con is going on right now. There’s a story of terrible parenting at the Robert Plant concert in Houston, and Drew wraps up with a kayaking story in Providence.

Full Show Notes

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This week we’re talking with Kevin Metzger of The Dadvocate Project. It’s all about being a modern dad, 3D movies, media, and publishing books.

Full Show Notes

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This week we start off with Twitter and fundamental shifts in communication. Drew gives his recap of his panel discussion from the EVO conference, and we talk about television – is it good for us? Bad? Neutral? There’s discussion about leaving the kids overnight with relatives, and we close with harrowing tale of near death.

Full Show Notes

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In this episode we’re talking about moving and the headaches associated with it, like dealing with phone companies and dumpster divers. Rush kicked off their tour Tuesday night, and we discuss the merits of Twitter and online communities for getting the play-by-play from the concerts as they’re happening. And we’ve got a million dollar solution for bands – sell your own bootlegs at the venues! Drew is back from the EVO conference, and he’s got the full report – and a couple of new iPads for his effort.

Full Show Notes

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This week we’re talking about concert tours and the expenses associated with attending a big show, and the end of the era of fantastic album artwork. Drew is attending the EVO conference, where he will be in the gender minority. We turn to the issue of image licensing and licensing images of our kids for various things. We wrap with a brief discussion of the just-released iOS4 and a certain Dad’s about-face on the topic of getting an iPad.

Full Show Notes

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This week we’re talking about the countdown to Joe’s cross-country move, the upcoming release of iPhone 4 and reeva