Thursday, July 29, 2010

AJ


The Thingamababy About page make it seem like it was meant to be just a review blog. Luckily, there's a lot more there.

Like How to build a cardboard fort for your kids' room (which he calls, "The best toy your child will ever own").

Informative and less informative links, like the recent one for The World's Worst Baby Name Generator (I got Momeduche and Naphrt).

And many small moments of fatherhood, all written with a lot of love and humor.

How to build a fun cardboard fort











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Wednesday, July 21, 2010

The DADvocate Project

I wish I could post a blog post every day here. Maybe one day I will start doing that. When that happens, it won't take me three weeks to respond to emails like the one I got from DADvocate's Kevin Metzger.

In his email, he asks to either cut & paste his post or rewrite it. I didn't see any (good) reason to rewrite it, and I was afraid of doing a bad job, so here's Kevin talking about the Dadvocate Project.

Well, I trimmed it a bit.
The DADvocate project is founded on the belief that as culture, business, and society has changed so has the approach men are taking towards Fatherhood and family. I believe there are quite a number of factors that contribute to this change and I wanted to put together a study to find out if my thoughts had any merit. As a result I have put together the largest privately conducted survey of dads ever undertaken. Our goal is to survey 1000 dads and interview 100 of them to get a feel for the modern day dad.

If you are a dad then you'll want to participate by completing the survey. You may also want to sign up to be interviewed. If you do sign up to be interviewed then you'll be entered into a drawing for an Apple iPad to be held on August 1st. The survey is 60 questions and takes about 20 minutes to complete but it's for a good cause. I also want to ensure that I will not be using or selling any personal data. All data will be aggregated and personal details will be removed. If you don't care to be interviewed you can also take the survey completely anonymously.

The DADvocate project is starting to gain momentum and you will want to be part. Here are some quotes from others who have participated in, and/or support the project. . . .

If you’re a dad join as by taking part in the survey. If you’re not a dad share this with all the dads you know and encourage them to participate.

OK, just finished it. It was mostly harmless. Even fun. They ask about my personal income (you don't have to answer), and offer options which go from "Under $30,000" to "More than $50,000,000." And I have to say, it took everything I had not to choose the latter. I didn't read The Secret, and I was only able to make it halfway through The Alchemist, but is that what these books are about? If I chose "More than $50,000,000," would the universe have conspired to make it happen?

Another missed opportunity... Better luck next time.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Daddy Geek Boy


Daddy Geek Boy is one of my Twitter discoveries, and the proof that Twitter doesn't stop us from discovering and reading blogs--it helps us get to the good stuff.

Other than being one of the first people to welcome me when I tried out the Twitter thing, DGB really had me at his Atari Joystick avatar. I have a lot of good Atari memories. Good video game memories in general, actually.

I can't say exactly when it happened, but one day all of us turned away from playing soccer to playing video games. With time, Pong turned to Atari, Atari cleared the path for Commodore 64, which made way for my father's PC, which made way for my own PC, then I got a Playstation, and then a Playstations 2, and then... right in the middle of ridding the world of zombies, we had a baby, and I stopped playing.

Other than being one of my Twitter favorites, and other than reminding me of long hours trying to secure my kingdom on Defender of the Crown, DGB's blog is just a simple, honest, and funny blog by a father who--at least that's how I see it--proves that the whole "A child changes everything" is really up to the parent, and that if like to do something before you become a parent, you don't have to forget about it once you hold your baby for the first time.

Honestly, I'm not really in the mood for zombie-killing right now. But my geek days aren't over yet. Sure, there's a long time before we join forces on Resident Evil, and I might wait a while longer before we solve puzzles on a new Silent Hill, but my boy is not far from losing in basketball on Playstation. Or in real life basketball, for that matter.

Fathers who love football make their kids love football. Fathers who love comic books share the best comic books with their kids. A child brings about changes, don't get me wrong, but that doesn't mean the end of your self-identity, because if it does, you might end up resenting your choices as a father. At least that's the way I see it, I guess.

















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