Grailwolf's Geek Life for this week will be coming a bit late. Unfortunately, preparations for a friend's wedding have rather gotten in the way of media reviews, and SinginGypsyGrrl and I are leaving tonight for Virginia Beach, and the wedding itself (I tried to get out of it, but since I'm performing the ceremony I think they really want me there).

The good news is that this gives me an opportunity to try something new. A car cast! For those who don't know, a car cast is when you take a portable recorder along in a car and record on the fly. I have a fairly cheap mp3 player with voice recording capabilities, so we'll dust that off and see what it can do.

If the file is halfway decent, then I'll put it up on the feed as soon as I can. Possibly even from the beach if I can find a good Internet connection.

No promises though. If the recording needs work, I'll have to wait until I can get it home and clean it up (so Sunday at the earliest). And if it's really bad, then we'll scrap it and just get episode #7 out next week.

And, as always, thanks for listening. You guys are the greatest!

Hurdy gur,

-Marc

We're up and running with a new voicemail line!  What does this mean for you? 

1. I'll now be able to use voicemail comments directly in the podcast.  So all you folks who want to hear your voices on the show, just drop me a line!
2. A new, easier to remember phone number!

The new line is +1-206-222-4695, that's 206-222-HOWL.  So give me a howl-out, and I'll try my best to get you in the next show.

Hurdy gur!

-Marc

Back in episode zero I said that I'd put up a link to the Iron Man movie poster when it became available.  Well, SuperHeroHype.com has come through with the top-secret, first prototype image from the new film.  This will probably not be the final look for the armor, but it gives an interesting glimpse of what's to come!

Clickety clickety

I'd planned to have a new episode out this weekend at the latest (see last blog entry) but due to some truly bizarre and fairly life-changing events this weekend I wound up with Sunday night being my only free time.  And Jonathan Coulton was playing tonight at Jammin' Java, right up the street from my house.

So it came down to a choice between making a half-assed version of Grailwolf's Geek Life or seeing a live performance by the man who wrote Code Monkey.

No contest.

Frankly, if I'd put out an episode this weekend it would just have been an audio version of my apologizing for not getting a real episode up, so I think it's better to just charge ahead and get episode two up this week.  Besides, now I'll be able to review Jonathan's show and I got permission to play a song.  Sweetness! :D

Hurdy gur,

-Marc

As I mentioned in the last episode, I had planned to have a new show up on Tuesday.  Alas, the gods of technology are fickle, and they seem to really like screwing with anything that's free.  Yes, my Audacity crapped out on me.  I was able to afford a more robust product, but there's a learning curve involved so I'm expecting to get the next show out either tonight or Saturday. 

Thanks for sticking with me.  A wise man once told me that it takes about five shows to work out all the kinks, so we're almost half-way there. :)

Hurdy gur,

-Marc

Just wanted everyone to know (yeah, both of you) that I'm still here and still working on the podcast.  I've hit several roadblocks, some technical, others of a more time-management nature, but I've got most of them worked out, so I'm hoping to have an actual podcast ready to go out the door very soon.

I had no idea what a pain it was to throw in some intro music.

Hurdy gur,

-Marc

Turns out that I had to help the family with some computer issues, so episode zero didn't quite get off the ground yesterday.

But, hey, this gives us some time to get to know each other.

My name is Marc, and... well... I'm a geek.

It took me some time to realize that fact because I'd spent so many years thinking of it as a negative term that I just couldn't bring myself to embrace it.  But then I took a look around and realized that I fit the profile.  I love all things fantasy and sci-fi. I'm a total technophile (gotta have the latest gadgets... at least, as soon as I can afford them).  I've been using the Internet since before the Web.

And then I started hearing more and more geeks coming out of the closet.  Hollywood and the TV networks started producing geek-friendly content (and realizing that they could make money from it).  In short, we began entering a Geek Renaissance.

So now I find myself being quickly buried under an avalanche of cool, geeky media; books, movies, TV series, websites, you name it!  Problem is that with a 9-5 job, a fiancé, and a lot of other demands on my time, I'm quickly losing ground.  I've already missed a lot of great sci-fi over the years, and it's starting to look like I'll never catch up.

Now, I invite you to come along with me as I start the long voyage to embrace my geekdom.  Along the way I'll tell you about cool geek media and toys that I discover (some new, some embarrassingly old) and let you know which ones I think might be worth your time.  You can also expect some occasional essays, maybe even some by guest contributors if I can ask sweetly enough.  And if I really hone my begging skills, we might even have an interview here and there.

I think this will be a lot of fun, and I hope you can come along for the ride.  Drop me a line at grailwolf@gmail.com or leave a voicemail at 501-642-4863 if you have any ideas, complaints, compliments, or just feel like shooting the breeze.

See you on episode zero!

Hurdy gur,

-Marc

This is the bare bones beginning of my new podcast.  I'm still learning my way around, but I'll try to keep from mucking up too badly. For now I'm just using the basic template, so any suggestions or help on sprucing things up around the place will be gratefully accepted.  Meanwhile, episode zero should be ready before too long, and you'll hear all about it (and be able to download it) right here.

Stay tuned!