Geek Force Utterz #019 - Rearviewmirror

When I have no idea what to talk about on Geek Force Utterz, this is what happens.

Oh, and if you can’t see/hear the embed above, remember that you can always listen to the call directly on Utterli.

Geek Force Utterz #016 - Grammie Sue’s Heart Walk

There are a lot of unhappy and unpleasant things going on in the world right now, so I’d like to take a moment today to celebrate something good and awesome in the world. This weekend, my mom (better known to some on the Internet, particularly the folks at Viddler, as Grammie Sue) is participating in the 2008 Start! Heart Walk in Lowell, Massachusetts. The event is a fundraiser for the American Heart Association, and Mom has set a very reachable and reasonable fundraising goal of $200. In today’s episode of Geek Force Utterz, I speak for a few minutes on why I think you should donate to help the cause.

If you’d like to donate $25 or more, you can donate directly through the Heart Walk site. But if you’d like to make a more modest donation (and who could blame you, given the state of our economy?), you can donate through the Donate link on GeekForceFive.com and I will forward all proceeds directly to Mom’s fund.

Every little bit helps, and almost all of us know someone who has been touched by heart disease. Please consider making a donation. Thank you!

If you can’t see/hear the embed above, you can listen to this call right on Utterli.com.

Geek Force Utterz #015 - Seeking Writers

I am seeking four writers to join the Geek Force Five staff, and today’s episode of Geek Force Utterz is all about that search. Writers should be willing commit to a weekly or biweekly column on one of the following topics: Lost, Nine Inch Nails, View Askew, or Apple. If you are interested, please e-mail me at with a writing sample, plus a brief blurb about your qualifications (including general level of geekery).

If you can’t see/hear the embed above, you can listen to this call right on Utterli.com.

Geek Force Utterz #014 - The Debate Must Go On!

I don’t often feel like I have very much to say about politics, but this is an important election year here in the United States, and I think we’re going to see a lot of people like me coming out of the woodwork over the next month or so to talk about their choice for president, and why it’s the right one. In today’s episode of Geek Force Utterz, I talk about presidential politics in general, and about tonight’s scheduled presidential debate specifically. I’ve gotten to feeling that everything that happens before the presidential debates is really just hype for the main event (or events) which culminate in the general election on November 4.

If you can’t see/hear the embed above, you can listen to this call right on Utterli.com.

Geek Force Utterz #013 - Being a Writer Rules

After yesterday’s seven minutes worth of poor-me horseshit, I decided that, just to balance things off, today’s Geek Force Utterz should be about the reasons why being a writer rules. Of course, the major point I meant to bring up on the call was the one point I forgot to mention at all: Being a writer rules because I always have a world of my own design to escape to, whenever I can find the time. But the rambling that I did do is good stuff, too.

If you can’t see/hear the embed above, you can listen to this call right on Utterli.com.

Geek Force Utterz #012 - Being a Writer Sucks

Yesterday, I watched Gary Vaynerchuk’s Web 2.0 Keynote Address and ended up really, really, sad. In today’s Geek Force Utterz call, I talk a little bit about why I was so sad. It has a lot to do with how the written word (specifically fiction, my drug of choice) seems like it’s supposed to stay as far away from modern technology as it can. I also talk a bit about the stigma of self-publishing and the frustration of trying to make money doing the thing you love when the thing you love isn’t really valued by all that many people anymore.

It’s a really upbeat, inspiring call! No, I swear!

If you can’t see/hear the embed above, you can listen to this call right on Utterli.com.

Geek Force Utterz #010 - TalkShoe for Podcasts

Last night, I had the pleasure of being part of a roundtable discussion on how educators might make use of social media technologies in their classrooms. The discussion was hosted by Leslie Poston of Uptown Uncorked and was recorded for posterity by TalkShoe.

In this morning’s Geek Force Utterz, I talk for a few minutes on how the call went (from my perspective) and on how Geek Force Five might use TalkShoe in the future.

If you can’t see/hear the embed above, you can always listen to the call on Utterli.

Geek Force Utterz #009 - Geni.com

Unsure what I was geeking out about this morning, I rambled on for a little bit about Geni.com, what my family’s doing with it now, and what I’d like to do with it (and other social networks) in the future.

If you can’t see/hear the embed above, you can always listen to the call on Utterli.

Barack Obama’s Plan for Change Ad

...We interrupt this geekday for an important political advertisement, which we feel strongly that every American of voting age should watch.

Thanks to Jon Armstrong at Blurbomat for pointing this out. I’m not sure if the campaign has found the money to air this on national television yet, but I hope that they do. This is a concise distillation of everything that Obama stands for and I think it would do wonders to educate the masses who may still be in the dark about who this man is and what kind of change he will bring to our country.

And now we rejoin our regularly scheduled geekery, already in progress…

Geek Force Utterz #006 - Organizing RSS

Today’s episode of Geek Force Utterz focuses on how to use Google Reader (or a similar RSS reader) to get more news out of the Web on a daily basis, and how to better organize how you take in the news and information you’re consuming.

If you can’t see/hear the embed above, you can always listen to the call on Utterz.