Tales
From The Dadside
Entries in Deserving Plugs (4)
Is This Thing Mine? *TOOOT* *TOOOOT*
Blog closed for repairs. I'm going to send you all on a little detour to Discovering Dad, a very cool dad blog written by Jeremy Biser. This dude has like a hundred blogs, but I like Discovering Dad best. Why? Because this week's Spotlight on Dads is shining on yours truly.
While you're there, make sure to give him props and of course subscribe to his feed and/or bookmark him. He features a different dad every saturday. AND, he's doing something that I wish I had thought of: he's getting the scoop direct from my favorite mom bloggers about issues that men care about, but were too scared to ask. He showed me a preview. It is GOOD. And he gets to email them without getting in trouble. I told you he was wikid smaaaat!
So Who Snuck into My House...
... and gave my kid drawing lessons? Seriously. When they say that if you blink you miss your kids growing up, they're not kidding. I'm on my laptop the other day blogging away. Fury asks me if he can draw. I give him an old notebook. With nothing more than his box of markers, he gets to work.
"Hey Dad, look. The Ben 10 guys!"
It's not that I doubt his crazy talent in everything he touches, but the last time I really looked at his drawings, he was churning out stuff like this by the ream:
So you can understand my total amazement when I saw these (actual subjects provided as a reference).
Ok, so he used the same concept in different colors for the last two, but the kid is 5 and he did these with zero reference. I'm dumbfounded. I guess he was serious when he told mom that when he grows up he wants to be a "show draw-er."
Does Cartoon Network take interns? What if I plug this cool contest?
The Ben 10 "Ultimate Alien Hangout" Sweepstakes
One lucky kid will win a room transformation that will feature Ben 10 decor and a messload of toys. You know, basically a prize that will make the kid's head explode if he or she is half as into Ben 10 as Fury is. Deadline is April 10 (Fury's birthday is April 15, by the way, Bandai/Cartoon Network/Ben 10 corporate executives). Winners will be announced April 20. Always wanted to see what a Ben 10 room makeover consists of? Check out this clip from Designing Spaces.
Yo Mama Reads Alltop!
Well, at least mine should.
Because her son's blog is on it! Right here, front and center (well, go to the right, then scroll down... a little more, yeah yeah, your scrolling finger is sore! stop complaining, keep scrolling, we're scroooling... aaaaand stop!) BOOYAH!
Alltop is the brainchild of venture capitalist/entrepreneur/tech celebrity Guy Kawasaki. Did you click on the link to Alltop yet? Did you think "what? that's it? a page that aggregates RSS feeds?" Yeah, so did I. But that's because I'm not the visitor Guy is trying to reach. That's the genuis of this website.
If you are reading this blog, chances are you are a blogger. Chances are you are a mom blogger between the ages of 24-45 (don't think I don't do my homework, I am a wily counter-stalker). Chances are you have 234 unread posts in your Google Reader right now. Alltop wasn't built to appeal to you.
Guy Kawasaki built Alltop for my mom. My mom who after a 5 or 6 emails and phone calls back and forth finally figured out how to configure a reader, and after many attempts managed to successfully subscribe to my RSS feed.
My mom, who several months later had this conversation with me:
"So, I can get your blog on my Google, but isn't just as easy for me to just go to your website?"
"Yeah mom, you can get the same thing by going to my site, but then you have to do the same for all the other blogs you visit. Isn't it a lot easier to have the most recent posts show up in one place?"
"But I only have your blog on my reader. I don't read other blogs."
*forehead smack* "oh... yes, just go to my website then."
Ok, on second thought, maybe he didn't build this for my mom. Maybe your mom, or the average non-blogging internet user who has probably seen the ubiquitous orange radar looking doohickey but is too intimidated to figure out what it's for. To these folks, Alltop is everything they ever needed: the blog feeds and excerpts from of all the top sites organized by category (e.g. small business, celebrities, humor, gadgets, green living, dads, moms...). Sure, it's simplistic. But so is Craigslist.
[Editor's note: look at me getting all excited and not minding my manners! Big THANK YOU to Guy Kawasaki for adding me, and to anyone who recommended me to him of which I know Amy T Sharp of Doobleh-Vay is one, and to Jenny (aka The Bloggess) for clueing me into the significance of Guy and all he does!]
Getcha Some
If I need to upgrade my belt this season, it won't be due to Newcastle, Onion Rings, In-n-Out Burger or the usual suspects. No, I will blame my newfound girth wholly on the Sunshine company. Forever playing second fiddle to Nabisco, the time has come for Sunshine to de-throne the cracker giant. Their ace in the hole? These bad boys:
One day, they will do a Dateline NBC report on these
It started out innocently enough. They were on sale at the supermarket and I like White Cheddar Cheez-Its. Sure, I'll try their spin-off product, why not? I bought them to put in Marcus' lunch, and as always, I tried the product first to make sure it would be palatable for a five-year old. Whoa!! Like crack laced with really good crack (whoops, there goes my family-friendly rating!). Light, crispy and bursting with cheesy goodness through and through. As I snarfed handful upon handful of these delicately baked sensations, Krypto walked over to see what the commotion was about. I broke him off some. Tail waggin' goodness!!
I'm now hooked on these. Not as hooked as Jenny is hooked on CVS ExtraCare Bucks but I'm closing that gap real fast and furious-like. Do yourself a favor and pick up a box. I really, really, really hope that someone in Sunshine's marketing department is doing his/her due diligence and scanning Google for mentions of this product (ok search engines, this one's for you: Sunshine Cheez-It Stix, Sunshine Cheez-It Baked Snack Crackers, Stix Super Tasty Irresistibly Xtra-cheesy White Cheddar) and then decides to send me a year's worth of these things for plugging them.
Man's Best Friend my ass!
[EDITOR'S UPDATE] I'm currently the 8th entry on Google when you type in "Cheez-It Stix" - my year's supply of Cheez-It Stix may just become a reality. I really hope they have diligent PR/Marketing people.
[EDITOR'S UPDATE] 12/19 7:48 pm PST - Now 7th entry and rising.
[EDITOR'S UPDATE] 12/20 6:00 pm PST - I've now disappeared from Google's search results for Cheez-It Stix!! That's it. I hate Google (I just sealed my fate to ever rank for "Dad Blog" too I bet, because Google is spiteful like that). I'm bitter now. Everybody, please use Ask.com from now on.
BusyDad
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