The Geek Fu Morning Show

If any long-time listener can mail me a copy of the very first geek fu action grip, along with their home address, I will send them one of my prototype Geek Fu Action Grip t-shirts.

I can’t believe I don’t have a copy…. sigh…

[EDIT] OK, my husband wins. He keeps better backups than I do. But he already has a shirt. So I will have to come up with some other giveaway…

Ahem. Yes, the SQL database did not like all you zombies looking at it. It pouted and stamped its foot. It whined. And then it held its breath until it passed out.

This is a temp fix. Be nice to this site. Like the sun, don’t stare at it too long. Like Jenga, don’t pull the wrong support out. Like a bad simile, don’t talk like Mur…

Thanks for your patience. I’ll be back online Wednesday.

If you get the latest podcast twice, I apologize. My server is screaming at me, and I switched the RSS to point to Nicole Simon’s server, as she is lending me space and bandwidth. Thanks, Nicole, you rock! If RSS makes you download the file twice, I apologize.

I wanted to have a guest star for the next podcast, and he had to leave town to see his father-in-law. So we’re recording tomorrow night. Thanks for your patience.

If you want a sneak peek at what I’m reviewing this week on the podcast, check out the Email Mystery.

More on Saturday.

I failed to mention in my podcast that The Coyote Kings of the Space-Age Bachelor Pad is up for the Philip K. Dick Award, the Compton Crook Award, and now, the Locus Best First Novel Award.

Good luck, Faust!

I so wanted this podcast to go out today. Then I recorded it. Listening to it for editing purposes, I sound like Max Hedroom in several instances. Is this my mic? Is it Audacity? Regardless, it’s not fit for release. Dammit.

Will try again later. Sorry.

Hey all - my interview with Rob at Podcast411 is live! Check it out, and some of his other interviews while you’re at it!

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Savvy viewers will note (and non-savvy viewers will know as soon as they finish reading this sentence) that I’ve submitted to the podcast alley pressure. So there’s a link. Please vote. You can also vote for me at Podcast Pickle. (I think. The site seems really slow right now.)

New podcast soon. I promise.

The Raleigh News and Observer finally ran their article on podcasting. You can see it, and pictures of me, my dog, my daughter, and Brian and Jennifer Pipa, at their site.

I’m pleased with the article. It was less condescending that others I’ve read, and more “look out Clear Channel and NPR!”

[EDIT]
All right, dammit, first I could look at it, now it’s demanding registration. Sorry.

Also, I found it interesting that he said I was an avid role-player, but did not mention that I write for the damn things. And I even showed him a couple of my books.

Ah well. If you have found this site by way of the N&O, welcome, take a look around, and I hope you like it.

[EDIT THE SECOND]
My friend Andy, of the Podcrumbs podcast, was extremely quick to point out to me that I did not, in fact, learn about podcasting on October 28. It was October 26. He has the log to prove it. You can see the log at his Webcrumbs blog.

If you like Geek Fu Action Grip, you should check out The Dragon Page, as their latest Between show features an original essay from me. You won’t hear this essay on this podcast, so if you want to hear about my heartbreaking decision between City of Heroes and World of Warcraft, you’ll need to listen to this podcast.

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I have to have words with iPodder - I’ve been missing Tokyo Calling lately and I don’t know why.

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What do you do when you support the right of podcasters to swear, but you also want to listen to podcasts around your toddler?

I don’t know the plugins people use to catch comment spam, so comments are currently moderated. If your comment doesn’t appear, don’t worry, I’ll approve it when I check email.

I’ll work on trying to figure something out, until then please be patient.

I am still sick. Some may say I am sicker than I was last week, and they’d be right. What’s more, the medication I am taking to make me less sick makes me feel bad in all sorts of new ways. So I am postponing this week’s podcast until I can speak without a shaky voice or without coughing.

No podcast this week. The laptop is wonky and the former-sysadmin husband is working lots of hours, so I’m not sure when it will be fixed. As soon as Marvin is up and running, I’ll be doing a podcast.

Every time I hear about a new number, it’s already outdated. This morning it was 63,000 dead according to NPR, now we’re up to 80,000.

Eighty thousand. Holy shit. I can’t even comprehend that many dead.

Please help. Here are easy ways for you to give a hand:

American Red Cross (through Amazon.com - or call 1-800-HELP-NOW)
Direct Relief International (including item donation)
Unicef (site down when I tried it, but hopefully that’s because so many people have deluged it with donations)
World Vision

If you don’t like giving money over the web, each of these sites will have information about how you can donate through the mail or phone.

Eighty Thousand. Christ. The survivors need help, and fast. Please do what you can.

OK, the podcast works now. The person who spent six years in web design had the link wrong.

Some days you’re the bird, some days you’re the statue, and some days you’re the goddamned fool who lost the map of the park.

As I get older, I’m starting to notice my desire for materialism is actually going down (believe it or not). Now all I want for Christmas is:

A massive block of time to complete a task force on City of Heroes.
A weekend at the Grove Park Inn. (I guess that falls under materialism as it costs money, but it’s not a tangible thing)
Babysitting.
A morning where I can lie around in bed and read.
A plug for my podcast on the Evil Genius Chronicles.

Really, most if it (except for the plug) comes down to time. Suddenly it’s precious, and I worry that I squander it when I am gifted with an unexpected chunk. (Like, say, right now, as my daughter is taking an unexpectedly long nap and i have spent the afternoon playing CoH and blogging.)

Just random thoughts, I suppose. Something else I’d like to do with podcasting is work on a radio play, and that would take writing, sound effects, acting, and editing. And oh yeah, time. Sigh.

EDIT - then again, I wouldn’t say no to this…

Car is smelling better. It’s *still there* - or at least, I can smell it, but it’s getting better.

If anyone wants to buy me this for Christmas, I would be very amused.

Podcast the Second will be coming as soon as my husband has a spare moment to help me out, as this essay has two voices, and I am not cool enough to do them both.

And thanks for all the kind comments and thoughts about Podcast the First.

Almost a month ago, a glass half-gallon jug of milk broke in the back of my (2000-but-new-to-me) car. Unbeknownst to me, the milk trickled down to rest underneath the backseat carpet where it lay hidden and stealthy, only to announce itself four days later. I spent a full day with enzymes, carpet cleaner, Febreeze, and baking soda to take care of it. Nothing worked. I took it for professional cleaning, and that only worked somewhat well.

Keep in mind that I’ve had this car for two months. One full month of it has been smelly. I was facing several years of sour-milk car.

I finally got it professionally cleaned again, by people who also used enzyme cleaner. I have smelled nothing so far, but I worry that I’m so hyper-sensitive about detecting odors in that car that I’m going to freak out if I smell anything (like the smell of wet carpet, which is what it smells like now.)

But I think, I think that it’s over.

Now to knit fuzzy dice to hang from the mirror.