Let's Do This

Warm today. Warm yesterday. A perfect time to write the first ever GeekNights Newsletter before heading out for a bike ride. If you're the type of nerd who shields yourself from the searing rays of the sun by staying indoors, why not pass the time with some GeekNights podcasts, the latest book club selection, or this first ever edition of the GeekNights newsletter!

Meta Moment

Convention Season

It's probably going to be warm again two weeks from now on July 13 - 15 in Hartford, CT for Connecticon 2012. We are not just giving lectures at Connecticon, we are in charge of the whole panels department. That means we probably won't have much time to mix and mingle, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't show up if you live nearby. The same way that GeekNights covers all geekeries, Connecticon is a convention of all geekeries. No matter what kind of geek you are, there is something for you here. Also, we can not lie, Connecticon has the best board gaming of any convention we have ever been to.

Also, don't forget about PAX Dev and PAX Prime. They are coming up sooner than you realize!

Book Club

This month's book club selection is 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. Murakami is perhaps the most popular contemporary Japanese novelist, and is often cited as a major inspiration of geeky writers around the world. You owe it to yourself to read his work to gain a greater perspective on the scope of his influence. 1Q84 is his latest novel. It tells the story of two people trapped in a world where things are not quite right. It's relatively long compared to our other book club selections, but don't let that scare you away. Podcasts are not time sensitive. Whenever you finish reading, the episode will still be there waiting for you.

Shownotes

People want podcast shownotes. They are great for being able to reference a podcast without actually having to listen to it again. They are also great for the hearing impaired and to help Google to do a better job of searching for old episodes. The problem is that it's a lot of work we just don't have time for. It's the year 2012, so let's crowdsource it! The GeekNights shownotes are now powered by Github. If you would like to contribute, just fork the shownotes repository and send in a pull request. If you can't figure it out, we are more than happy to help you help us. Big thank yous to Techparadox, Paul Sanja, and patrickburden for their contributions. Join them!

New Videos

GeekNights 20120620 - Some Anime Reviews

Google+ Hangouts on the Air are pretty cool. They allow you to have a video conference call, but also stream and save it to YouTube for non-participants to watch. We've been experimenting with using these to live stream GeekNights recordings. Now you can look at our ugly faces while we record a recent anime episode. These streams may appear sporadically in the future as we continue to experiment. The main benefit of watching them is that they are unedited and may contain content not included in the audio podcast.

Radio Free Equestria 08 - Changeling Origins

The Canterlot wedding was attacked by a race of shape-shifting creatures. Just where did these changelings come from in the first place, and why were their true forms so pony-like? We discuss in our newest episode of Radio Free Equestria.

New Podcasts

Cards Against Humanity and Real Money Auction Houses

During a recent trip to the beach we had the opportunity to play Cards Against Humanity which can best be described as a dark version of Apples to Apples. We review that game and also discuss recent fiascos in the Diablo III real money auction house and the consequences of RMAHs in general.

Hats

In the olden days of black and white movies everyone wore a hat. While hats are less common nowadays, they are definitely back in style. Listen to some nerds with very limited fashion knowledge discuss their hat experiences in our most recent Thursday episode.

Forum Weather Report

We say it all the time, but if you are reading this newsletter or listening to our podcast, you should probably be a member of our forum community at forum.frontrowcrew.com. Here are some of the hot discussions going on right now.

I -need- username suggestions, and soon!

User VentureJ needs to come up with a clever username that includes his very common first name of Justin, but isn't already taken. Our forum comes up with some amazing suggestions. Maybe you can come up with some as well?

Why can't Lego release sets like this?

All geeks love LEGO, but most geeky things are not officially licensed by LEGO. In this perennial thread you will find all sorts of wonderful fan LEGO creations that make you want to say "shut up and take my money!" Most recently someone created a LEGO homage to our juggling forum member Luke Burrage. I'm not sure if that's double meta, or triple meta.

Closing

That's all we've got for today people. Send us your suggestions and comments about this newsletter. It can't get better if we don't know what we're doing right and wrong. Some ideas we've got for future newsletters include fanart, things of the newsletter, responding to your e-mails, and more. If email is your preferred way of keeping up with our content, you have to tell us how you want it. Here's to not shit-talking this thing.