After a brief hiatus last week (sorry about that) there’s another new episode of The Flickcast for your listening pleasure. We know it was tough last week without a new episode. We’ll try not to disappoint you again.

On this week’s episode, Chris and Joe discuss and debate a whole bunch of stuff including the amazing new trailer for The Force Awakens, the Daredevil series on Netflix, the not-so-stellar Batman v. Superman trailer and, of course, a whole lot more, more, more. And it’s not even your birthday. You’re welcome.

Picks this week include Chris’ pick of the military sci-fi novel Terms of Enlistment by Marko Kloos and Joe’s pick of the short film This Is Not What You Had Planned.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship, or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, at Facebook, Google+ or via email.

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If you’ve ever wanted to soar over Gotham like the Dark Knight, San Diego Comic-Con 2014 is making that dream come true. CW’s new series Gotham is inviting fans to take a ride down the zip line as the city’s skies fly past.

San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer kicked off the annual convention by taking the inaugural ride on the zip line. Fans flocked to follow after him because everyone secretly wants to be Batman. Almost more impressive than the zip line itself is the enormous outline of Gotham city, which perfectly erases all traces of sunny San Diego as you go zipping past.

If you’re down in San Diego, experience the zip line for yourself. It’s open Thursday through Sunday 10 am – 6 pm and is located between the Convention Center and the Hilton Bayfront Hotel.

Check out the zip line in action after the break.

Every now and then, those of us who have been around longer get on our high horses and dispense what we consider guidance while those we speak to may consider it unsolicited rambling. But hey, we’re older so you have to respect us dammit — especially the young geeks of the world.

We know it’s a hard life but let’s be clear, you have it a lot easier than we did. Back when we were younger, playing video games, Magic: The Gathering and AD&D 4th Edition usually meant you’d catch some teasing and probably not get laid. Well, in some circles by the time you hit 30, the latter two may still be true but at least now gaming is incredibly common and not a symbol of geekdom.

But if you’ve done the whole growing up thing right, you wouldn’t be so worried about what people are going to think by the time you’ve hit 30 and have probably found yourself a quality group of cohorts who won’t be making fun of you for playing AD&D 4th Edition. They will be the ones who will be giving you a hard time because you rolled a 1 and fell onto the blade of your own sword by accident.

So when you find these friends you can pull out your Monster Manual and get cracking… except for those who “fell off” their game when they stopped playing around 15. And while some packed their cards and games and figured neatly away just in case, we know tons who got rid of everything. They sold it off way cheaper than they knew they should have or in some cases just got rid of it.

That whole “getting back on track” thing we were harping about before? Yeah, well, it worked this time. Sorta. We did get two episodes in a row, they just came out a day late each time.

Well, what are you gonna do, right? At least there’s now a brand new episode of The Flickcast for you to enjoy. That’s what counts.

As you would expect, this week Chris and Joe take on some new topics and revisit old ones. Some of these include the new season of Game of Thrones, casting news from the world of movies and TV, new trailers, a bit about the new Captain America movie, 3D movies, the beauty of language, safety on set and the dangers of helicopters.

Just listen. You’ll enjoy it.

This week’s picks include Chris’ pick of the new Fire TV from Amazon (see his written review here) and Joe’s pick of actress Scarlett Johansson. Why? Not why you think. Well, a little why you think.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship, or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, at Facebook, Google+ or via email.

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All over YouTube, you’ll find product placement. It’s a matter of fact today more than ever that advertisers are feeling the power of influencers on the space to help push their wares. And who can blame them with the success that companies like Tiger Direct or Dodge had with personalities like Rhett and Link or FreddieW? But it is rare you’ll see a channel so focused on pushing their own product and not just having it lead to sales but be a successful YouTube channel as well.

Best known for the world’s largest gummy worm as well as the world’s largest gummy bear (which cumulatively totaled over 30 million views, the team at Vat19 have amassed a following of over a half a million subscribers and over 500 videos featuring their products. The team at Vat19 gets their audience. They don’t just want their products to be fun, they want the advertising and feel of the brand to match it as well.

It may sound gimmicky on the surface. If you tell someone there’s a special pair of glasses they can wear while gaming that will reduce eye strain, it sounds like hype to sell overpriced goods that don’t actually work. And at first, I would have agreed with that assumption. But trying to be a fair and unbiased person, which is really a challenge for me, I put in a request for a pair of Gunnar glasses and to my surprise, they actually accomplished the job.

I won’t get into the science behind it. That’s mostly because any of the science I would know about it comes from reading the Gunnar website and as we all know, websites can provide whatever “facts” they need to in order to make a sale. Yes, a wonder drug may reduce hair loss but that’s because it kills you but at least they are still telling the truth that your hair doesn’t fall out.

Instead, I just did my own test. After a busy week at the office where I spent between 7 to 9 hours each day in front of a monitor I decided to spend the better part of a Saturday marathoning a game. It’s been some time since I have done a full on marathon but after the initial few hours it usually resulted in taking breaks to get up for various reasons, just to get my face away from the screen. Eventually, the time in between started to reduce and after a full day I’d have a nice headache to deal with.

You may know Dungeons & Dragons, the venerable role playing game, turned 40 recently. Our own Chris Ullrich even did a post about it over at his personal site.

Turns out, D&D is still pretty much as popular as it ever was and people from all walks of life enjoy it. But that wasn’t always the case. Back in the day it wasn’t as well regarded and the depiction of it on popular media, like TV, was often inaccurate, to say the least.

Moving forward on that topic, the folks over at Geed Dad have put together some of their favorite clips showcasing D&D’s appearance on TV. From Freaks & Geeks to 60 Minutes to Community, D&D has been pervasive in popular culture for a long time and shows no signs of slowing down.

Check out most of the clips after the break.

In September of 2005, both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel had finished their runs while Smallville was about to kick off their fifth season. As for me, I had a very busy 5 year-old (hey kiddo; daddy loves you) and another on the way, and my wife and I were looking for a bigger house.

Needless to say, when I started seeing promos for Supernatural – The WB’s latest genre-infused drama – I decided to take a pass as time had become a precious commodity. Almost a decade later I set out to rectify that slight…

Basic premise of the show is simple: John Winchester (played by George Clooney-lite, Jeffrey Dean Morgan) witnesses his wife Mary (Samantha Smith) murdered by a demon. Years later, his sons Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) reunite to track down dear old dad and kill whatever goes bump in the night along the way.

This set up allows for the “freak of the week” template that Smallville had used for most of their seasons, and it works well within the realm of the spooky. Another aspect that clicked in that first season were the genuine scares, of which there are plenty of. The amount of times I jumped could almost be categorized as a work out.

Many mid-thirtysomethings like myself got a little excited back in 2009 when G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra hit theaters. Happy memories of action figures and cartoons dancing in our heads, combined with the technology we have today; what could possibly go wrong?

Well, also like myself, many of them walked away not very entertained. If you’ve seen that movie, odds are you have two prevailing thoughts: “Well, that sucked,” and “I got burned by the first; no way I’m checking out the sequel.” Allow me a moment to convince you otherwise…

First off, if you want a proper review of G.I. Joe: Retaliation our own Nat Almirall wrote up a doozy in March, 2013. There be spoilers there, matey.

We’ve all been there. Either a marathon day of Call of Duty online at launch, just cranking through those final levels of Grand Theft Auto even though it is 2 AM, or that all day guild raid in World of Warcraft, every one of us has spent too many hours in a single sitting playing games.

At the time it seems like a great idea but then almost immediately after, the pounding headache starts. You don’t realize it until it’s too late but you have strained the hell out of your eyes and now you’re going to suffer until the next morning. But there are solutions better than “playing less” because screw that, that’s not an option. Gunnar glasses actually work.

Gunnar lists all their benefits below that you can check out but they’ve also unveiled their latest series, the Intercept line. The current pair I have looks kind of bookwormish but this latest line actually looks like something I would wear out on a nice California weekend. As you’ll see in the pics below, there are a number of different color frames to get your personality out. You know, to all the people not seeing you sitting at home playing games.

Another week, another new episode of The Flickcast. Exciting, right? We hope so as Chris and Joe are back to discuss all the major (and minor) geek news of the week.

Topics this week include the new Dawn of the Planet of the Apes trailer, Ant Man casting news, Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Sandman, the rise of Netflix and the problems with Amazon, the “greatness” of the movie Running Man, the actual greatness of the movie Brick, holiday movie choices, what movies Chris should watch on his birthday, how to get free porn and a whole lot more!

Did we mention all the more! Well, there’s a lot of it. More, in fact.

This week’s picks include Chris’ pick of the movie Prisoners and Joe’s pick of the actor Matt Smith, who will portray Doctor Who for the last time on the Christmas special next week.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship, or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, at Facebook, Google+ or via email.

Happy Holidays!

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As mentioned before, the geek lifestyle isn’t a cheap one. Even when we find things we like that aren’t individually expensive, we end up buying enough of them at once so it ends up costing us more than we would have wanted in the first place on one single larger purchase. That’s the danger of the impulse buy.

It is easier to mentally justify to ourselves a spend if we get more items out of it, even if it costs more than what we wanted to spend because we as geeks value both quality AND quantity. As long as something isn’t terrible or poorly made, it is good enough for us. And if we can get a bunch of them on the cheap, we want them all.

This week on Whiskey & Waffles, WallE and I address our recent disaster of impulse buying with Mash’Ems. After WallE had already begun purchasing the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, I got pulled into the mix too which resulted in the blind box purchase of some TMNT, Power Rangers Samurai, WWE and Marvel Mash’Ems.

If you aren’t familiar with Mash’Ems, they are little oversized heads and shrunken bodies (except in the Marvel series which is just heads). They are soft and squishy and perfect to have on your desk as a miniature stress ball just in case.