Living With Less Clutter, Part 1: Breaking the Paper Pile Curse
My wife and I are winning the war against our accumulated mail and paperwork and it took learning from our previous mistakes before we got it right.
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Author: Ryan Carlson
Top Reasons This GeekDad Loves His Bluesound HiFi Audio System
The latest contender in the high-fidelity audio market is Bluesound. They are using the latest in embedded-computing, wifi, mobile apps, and streaming audio integrations to offer products that look and sound amazing.
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Living With Less Clutter Part 2: Going Paperless With NeatConnect and Evernote
The problem with going paperless in any meaningful way means that it was doomed to fail if it does not follow the kiss-method. I share reasons for my current organizational success and failure in my past.
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Kickstarter Alert: MERCS Recon – Cooperative Squad Based Board Game
You like really good cooperative board games? Well Megacon Games (creators of MYTH) just announced the official Kickstarter for their new cooperative board game MERCS Recon.
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My Preview of A Druid’s Duel, a Whimsical Turn-Based Strategy Game
A Druid’s Duel is a map-based strategy game that pits you against other players in a druid-fueled land grab. Safe for kids and entertaining for parents. Check out the demo and see if you like it, I know I did.
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A Very Special Dog Collar for My Scruffy Looking Canine Co-Pilot
I didn’t want a cosplay prop for my dog, I wanted an honest to goodness heavy-duty dog collar like you might see on german shepherds and doberman pinchers. Instead of a spiked black collar with stainless rivets I was on a quest to find a brown leather dog collar that resembled the bandoleer worn by the famous wookie co-pilot Chewbacca.
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Hiku: The Shopping List Application That Finally Replaced the Notepad on My Refrigerator
If you are like my family we always struggle with remembering what we need from the store when we are at the store. Sure, I have a list on the refrigerator of the things we ran out of but I’m at the store now and can’t remember half the items on the list. I’m proud to say that a product called Hiku has become the supreme overlord of list-making in my household.
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Creating a Better Experience for Buyers and Sellers of Kid Stuff With Kidizen
When Pinterest and eBay had a baby, they sold the clothes it outgrew on Kidizen, a new marketplace for buying and selling pre-loved kid stuff. I invited the entire team that created the iOS app Kidizen to share their story about how it came to be, what the app does, and give a demo of how it works.
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How Word Lens Translates Text on Google Glass
I recently downloaded Word Lens for my Glass (aka. Google Glass) and I was so shocked at the text translation feature I had to share what it could do.
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Hero Kids: My Kids’ First Role-Playing Adventure
Hero Kids is a fantasy role-playing game for children ages 4 to 10 years old, written by Justin Halliday. As soon as I had read through the beautiful 20-page full color PDF I knew without a doubt that my daughters would love it.
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Tech21: Using Science to Provide Impact Protection for Mobile Devices
Tech21 is a company out of England with a wonderful story about how they applied modern scientific materials to better protect our electronics from impact without adding additional bulk.
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Nakamichi 2.1 Soundbar with Wireless Subwoofer Review
My experience with the Nakamichi NK 2.1 sound bar with wireless sub-woofer has me wondering how they can pack so much sound into such a slim audio component. How does it hold up against other audio equipment on the market?
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Loop & Tie: The Alternative To Giving Gift Cards to The Non-Geeks in Your Life
Don’t know what non-geeks like for a gift? Loop & Tie is an online gift giving service that lets you send a collection of gifts and lets the recipient choose their favorite item based on their own tastes.
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The Next Best Thing to Teleportation: 360-Degree Live Streaming Video
The Bublcam is a 360-degree video camera that can live stream in HD and was successfully funded in their Kickstarter. This tech is going to be a game changer.
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A Gadget for Grilling Geeks: Grill Daddy Pro Review
Being a grilling geek I didn’t want to pass up the chance to see if the Grill Daddy Pro steam powered grill cleaner could get my neglected grill clean.
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How I Use Role-Playing Games to Create Teachable Moments For My Kids
Playing kid-friendly role-playing games has given me a special opportunity to share one of my geeky passions with my girls and create teachable moments.
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Costume Hoodies: My Costuming Protip for Geek Parents
We recently discovered the existence of costume hoodies and they are a new family favorite. In addition to having an increase in fun super hero imaginary play, my kids haven’t fought me a single time these past few weeks about having to put on something weather appropriate for a chilly afternoon.
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Golem Arcana: The Unique Miniature Wargame That Needs to Be Made
Golem Arcana is a very interesting game concept that combines miniatures, strategy, digital content, and a mobile device integration with an iPad or Android Tablet. Players get detailed miniatures that come fully painted and play tiles and terrain tiles.
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MERCS: The Miniature Skirmish Game I Can Play During My Lunch Hour
MERCS is a fast-paced miniatures skirmish game set in a future that is run by global corporations known as MegaCons — with a wide variety of team options and amazing miniature sculptures based on the game art of creative designer Keith Lowe. Each MegaCon has at it’s disposal it’s own well-funded and highly trained rapid deployment team of mercenaries.
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Magic: The Gathering's Theros Set Releases Tomorrow!
Magic: The Gathering‘s Theros is the latest expansion for the venerable CCG, and features 249 new cards hot on the heels of the M14 Core Release. The setting of Theros is incredibly cool from a world-building perspective, and the new special rules are fantastic and show great promise for interesting games.
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Back in Print – Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition Core Rule Books
For those that would like to revisit their roots there is some great news. Wizards of the Coast has gone back to the digital vaults and is now offering reprinted copies of the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition rule books.
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Myth Board Game Opening Kickstarter Stretch Goals to Public Pre-Order
The fine folks over at MERCS miniatures have opened up pre-orders to the public for the Myth board game until June 17th, and you can qualify for all of the Myth Kickstarter stretch goals.
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Star Wars Rebels, New Animated Series Between Episodes III & IV, Announced
Production has just started on Star Wars Rebels, an all-new animated series that will begin to fill the gaps between the end of Episode III and the start of Episode IV. The big names that are on this project tells me that the force is strong with this project.
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Dungeons & Dragons Publishers Cast Resurrection on 3.5 Spell Compendium
Wizards of the Coast just released a reprint of their new hardcover Spell Compendium for D&D 3.5 This sourcebook has taken spells from Dragon magazine, web articles from the WotC website, supplements such as Complete Arcane and Manual of the Planes. The quality of this printing is just supurb and is actually the best looking D&D sourcebook I own with foil artwork and and embossed cover.
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Terminal World: A Book Recommendation For World Builders
If you are a fan of good science fiction, world building, airships, and reading stories with something unique to contribute, I would like to draw your attention to the standalone novel Terminal World by Alastair Reynolds.
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May The 4th Be With You on Free Comic Book Day
It just so happens that May 4th is both Star Wars Day (may the 4th be with you) and the annual Free Comic Book Day at comic book shops around the country. What are you doing to celebrate this confluence of geeky hallmark holidays?
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High Heavens Board Game Pits Norse Gods vs. Greek Gods
Play the High Heavens strategy board game that lets you pit the classic Greek pantheon versus the Norse pantheon for control of earth. For the love of Odin and Zeus, if this sounds like the game for you check out their Kickstarter and see that it gets funded.
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Kickstarter Project: Is PlaneQuest the Wii of Tablet Games?
A new game called PlaneQuest is being featured on Kickstarter that combines physical 3D miniatures within tablet game play. This is accomplished by using capacitive sensors built into the physical character model’s base to identify the character and its orientation on the game surface.
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Kickstarter Alert: Robotech RPG Tactics Miniature Game by Palladium Books
The folks at Palladium Books are taking the Robotech RPG and are expanding into a line of 3D plastic miniatures by promoting it on Kickstarter. The game is called Robotech RPG Tactics and will include a standalone set of rules for fast-paced miniatures combat.
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E-Book Recommendation Terms of Enlistment by Marko Kloos
I couldn’t put the book down and had the final chapter completed the day after starting it. I may have selfishly given the older kids an extra hour of screen time Saturday morning in order to finish the book.
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