If you haven’t seen his blog, you wouldn’t call it optimized by any stretch of the imagination. He rarely posts a picture, and when he does it is only to illustrate his point.
He doesn’t allow comments and he doesn’t use excessive links.
He’s a busy man, and it’s a wonder that he blogs at all, let alone daily.
He uses social networking in ways that maximizes his exposure without wasting his time.
This highly successful marketer/business man/author has taught this Daddy Blogger something very important:
I like to think that I’ve optimized my life by using Twitter to update my Facebook, or using Social Oomph to broadcast that I’ve written a new post every two hours on the day it’s posted.
But I still write all of those posts. Each message, even at 140 characters or less, represent time. Time I could have spent with my wife and kids. Time I could have been using improving myself.
My wife and I have discussed these ideas since I began this blog a year and a half ago. I’ve justified that time countless ways. It increases traffic, I’m making friends, it benefits my writing by helping me write quickly and directly.
As life moves forward, I see these justifications less as explanations and more as excuses. Actually, not just as excuses, but procrastination from doing the real work. The real work of finding myself and my family living lives that we can all be proud of.
Blogging and tweeting will slow, but the quality bar will be raised. If you enjoy what you see here, please subscribe to my RSS feed, because I won’t be telling you every two hours that I’ve blogged. Hopefully, I’ll find a voice worth listening to, and like Seth Godin, optimization (i.e. begging you to read me) will no longer be necessary.
You’ll just want to be here.
I’m about to hit ‘publish’ on this post at 11:00 pm on the Saturday night before the final game of the World Cup. I’d say when it comes to non-optimization, I’m off to a great start! 😉
G’Day, Mates! This Fatherhood Friday, I wanted to give you the update on Kat’s Australian adventures!
We’ve been communicating through text and the leader has been emailing us, so unfortunately, there are no pictures yet. They are in and out of phone service, and don’t have access to email very often, but here’s what I know so far:
They have repelled off of the Blue Mountains, swam at the Olympic Park, toured the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Aquarium, visited the Opal Museum, took a cruise of Sydney Harbor, visited the Parliament House, swam at Edith Falls, visited Aborigines, and Kat wrestled a sheep.
Let me tell you, I’m uber-jealous. I just texted Kat, and she said she won against the sheep, by the way. I can’t wait to see the pics!
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Stateside, I’m still working on that regeneration I talked about earlier, with some of the life changes possibly interrupting my launch of the webcomic. Trust me when I say everything will be better for it…
Speaking of webcomics, I have been surfing around for others that have a family-friendly feel. If you haven’t seen these, check them out:
Calli doesn’t seem to be that jazzed about T-Ball… when she’s there. At home, she can’t wait to go again.
Tristin is really testing out his legs, and has even taken a couple of steps! He’ll be running marathons any day now…
This post brought to you by Dad-Blogs' FatherHood Friday. Be sure to swing by for all the other great Dads and Moms who love to share their lives online!
That’s all I have for today, be sure to stop by Dad-Blogs for more Fatherhood Friday fun, and have a great weekend!
Yesterday, because only really important things are put off until the last minute, I called a Travelex in Denver in a panic, ‘Yes, ma’am, do you always have Australian dollars on hand?’ I blurted right after the nice young lady’s spiel about Travelex being the greatest company ever or something.
‘Of course, sir. But it is available on a first come, first serve basis, and sometimes we do run out…’
Oh my God, there had been a run on Australian currency! Poor Kat will be wandering around The Land Down Under without legal tender paying exorbitant ATM fees!!! The horror! The unadulterated horror!!!!
I gave myself a few quick slaps to sober up, but she spoke first: ‘Depending on when you’re coming in, I could hold the money for you.’
The rain that has been crashing down on Avon, CO suddenly eased, the clouds parted, and, I swear on a stack of books that aren’t the Bible, Handel’s ‘Messiah’ was sung by strong, disembodied voices in the fresh new light.
The wonderful, dear, sweet, lovely young woman on the other end of the line promised, swore, crossed her heart even, that fresh, clean, unmarked Australian currency would be waiting with our name on it, and they accept cash, credit/debit cards, and checks.
What service! What hospitality! What the heck was I thinking?!
After much deliberation, it has been decided that Joanne Owens (@hangglided on twitter) is the winner of my Sweet As Sugar Milk contest. She’ll be receiving her copy of Sugar Milk in the mail soon, I’m shipping it today! Congrats, and thank you so much Joanne!
With that, I am pleased to announce that through the generosity of my blog readers, friends, family, and a few impromptu garage sales (not to mention most of my tax return), Kat’s trip to Australia with People to People is now reality! She flies out on the 16th for 17 days in the Land Down Under. I can’t believe that it’s that soon! Incidentally, on the graphic above, I found a font on Artweaver called ‘Australian Sunrise’. What else would I use? 🙂 Here’s a glance at Kat’s itinerary while she’s down there:
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This post brought to you by Dad-Blogs' FatherHood Friday. Be sure to swing by for all the other great Dads and Moms who love to share their lives online!
In the spirit of Fatherhood Friday and Week In Review, here’s what’s happening in the Howefitz world:
At the park yesterday, Calli claimed that I was a strong guy because I ‘pick up small childrens’…
Wednesday was Calli’s first day of Tee-Ball! She learned the ‘alligator’ and how to hold the ball, throw it overhand and catch. And even though practice went in to nap time and somebody got a little cranky, we all had a blast! Here are a couple highlights:
Practicing sccoping up the ball with 'the alligator'.
I could totally do 'the alligator'...
Then Calli got ahold of the camera:
'She's only 3, she's probably not even getting a picture of me. I'll just look crazy to play along...'
'Sissy has the camera. Ready penetrating gaze.'
Yesterday, we went to a park in Dillon, CO that we don’t get to very often. Pics!:
Tristin's working on his 'Superman'...
Attempts at a nearly complete family portrait with small children on a bouncy dock in high winds:
After the park, we went to a bookstore where Tristin saw a Batman book. He started shaking his fists in excitement, and, I swear, whispered an excited ‘Baban!’ It was better than if he had said ‘Daddy!’ At nine months, the fanboy training is paying off…
In other news, (Last, but not least) I bought the domain name for my upcoming webcomic. It will be called ‘Howefitz Sequential’, in honor of my web moniker and the more intellectual way of identifying comics: ‘sequential art’ (the art of telling a story in a sequence of pictures and words). Plus it kind of sounds like one of my favorite movies, ‘LA Confidential’, so I’m pretty proud of myself for coming up with it! 😉 Don’t visit the site yet, I’m busy building it and completing at least three weeks worth of material before I launch. I’m shooting for an official launch date of July 5. I’ll keep you posted!
Thanks for stopping by, and Happy Fatherhood Friday!
Good morning and Happy Fatherhood Friday to everyone! I am very excited to have my good friend, Ron Mattocks, author of the wildly popular fatherhood memoir, Sugar Milk, here for a guest post. Ron’s alias is also Clark Kent of Clark Kent’s Lunchbox, and since you never tug on Superman’s cape, I am going to quickly step aside and let him explain why he’s here:
An Idiot’s Guide To Australia
When I found out that Justin’s step-daughter Kat had earned the chance to visit Australia as part of People to People’s Student Ambassador Program, I thought wow, that’s pretty darn cool. What a wonderful opportunity for a young adult to experience the bigger world and export good will to such a culturally rich country like Australia. Almost makes me kind of jealous.
Australia is, like, one of my most favorite countries in the world, right next to Chad and Turkmenistan (they really don’t get enough credit). In fact, you might even consider me something of an expert on the topic given my Wikipedia-like knowledge of the place. So, for Kat and all you readers who might one day visit, here’s a few tidbits that might prove to be useful during your trip.
Australia lies in the Southern Hemisphere, which is why it’s winter occurs during our summer and vice versa. (It’s also why the toilets spin in the opposite direction after you flush.) It is the smallest of the continents in land mass, and boasts a population of an estimated 22 million people who reside primarily near the mainland state capitols.
The earliest inhabitants of Australia were known as Umpa Lumpas, and they can still be found living in the bush country of the island’s interior. Umpa Lumpas are typically small in stature and enjoy singing, dancing and playing instruments such as the didgeridoo. They are also well known for their mastery in making fine confectionaries. (Their Everlasting Gobstoppers are to die for.)
This wild area, commonly referred to as “the outback,” is also where Danish Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke established a coffee plantation in 1913 which later, using the pen name Isak Dineson, she wrote about in her now famous memoir entitled Out of Africa.
Schwarzenegger was quoted as saying, "Good on ya, extra prisonahs!" as he saluted the early Australian colonists.
Following its discovery by Sir Isaac Newton, Australia was colonized by convicts and felons who had been freed under California Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger’s early release initiative aimed at reducing prison over-crowding. Australia remained a colony until 1986 when humble, screen actor Paul Hogan using the alias, “Crocodile Dundee,” led a successful rebellion resulting in Australia’s birth as a Commonwealth. His rallying war cry, “That’s not a knife. This is a knife!” became the country’s official motto.
Crocodile Dundee ruled benevolently until 2001 when his popularity began to wane following an adventurous visit to Los Angeles. Eventually he handed the responsibility over to his charismatic nephew, Steve Irwin the Crocodile Hunter, who sadly was killed by a mentally unstable stingray with a strange obsession for Jodie Foster. Currently Australia is presided over by the Crocodile Hunter’s daughter, the much beloved Bindi Sue.
Let’s see, what else? Oh, the country’s national anthem is, “I Come From a Land Down Under” written by the patriotic group Men At Work who were inspired by the sight of the Australian flag still flying over the capitol, Sidney, after invading Californians tried to burn the city to the ground.
Economically, Australia is very solid. Their chief exports are shrimp, barbies and an odd-looking shoe known internationally as Crocs which were modeled after the bill of a duck-billed platypus.
Australia’s cultural influence has had a great impact on the world, especially here in the United States. Few realize, for example, that in 1989 an exchange student from Melbourne attending the University of Texas at Nacogdoches taught fellow classmates how to crush over-sized beer cans on their forehead which lead to a national craze in fraternities all across America.
We can also be thankful for Australia’s artistic contributions which includes a long list of unparalleled actors and actresses such as Errol Flynn, Hugh Jackman, Heath Ledger, Nicole Kidman, and Tina Turner whose breakout performance in Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome has become legendary. Also worth noting is the interpretative dance troupe Thunder From Down Under, now one of Las Vegas’ top shows, and a must see for any family that gets the chance.
I could probably go on, but at this point, I think it would only be seen as bragging. Besides this is more than enough for Kat to use in impressing the great people of the Australian Commonwealth. I hope it serves her well. (*see note)
One more thing. In support of Kat’s trip, I’d like to donate a copy of my book Sugar Milk which is filled with even more fun facts about, not just Australia, but for Chad and Turkmenistan as well. At the end of this post, Justin will explain how you can win a copy of this very handy book by helping Kat with her needs for the trip. I’m thinking she will make a way better ambassador to Australia than I ever would. Your support will be greatly appreciated I’m sure. Thank you.
*Note: This post has been thoroughly denounced by the Australian Department of Tourism.
W O W! Thanks, Ron!
So. How can you get your very own autographed copy of Sugar Milk? How can you win the book that founder of The Good Men Project Tom Matlack said ‘captures the real American Man of 2010, and the American family, with honesty and humor not found in the stick figure portrayals so prevalent in popular culture.’? Keep reading and I’ll tell you!
Donate to Kat’s trip. Yes, I am asking for money, but you decide the amount. $1, $5, $10, more. It’s all good. Each donation earns you an extra entry in to the contest. Simply use the Chip-In button on your right. If you have already donated, thank you very much, you’re already entered.
Bonus Points (be sure to let me know in the comments after you complete each entry):
Share and share alike: Share the contest on twitter with a tweet that sounds something like ‘I just helped a smart kid get to Australia, and got a chance to win an autographed copy of Sugar Milk! You can too! http://su.pr/1MLwsW‘
Blog Australia: Write your own blog entry about Australia and why you support Kat’s ambassadorship. Post the link in the comments here.
Give us some sugar: Have you read and reviewed Sugar Milk? Post a link to your review here in the comments and let others know why they NEED to own this book!
Stumble and Digg! Stumble or Digg this post and comment here. If you followed the su.pr link, there’s already a like button at the top of your screen! Easy!
I’ll end this giveaway on Thursday, May 27. I’ll use random.org to choose the winner, and announce the winner here next Fatherhood Friday!
I’d like to thank you all for your help. A very special thanks goes to Ron Mattocks for the donation of the book, and the amazing guest post. You’re the best!
This post brought to you by Dad-Blogs' FatherHood Friday. Be sure to swing by for all the other great Dads and Moms who love to share their lives online!
Yesterday, I gave a little more details in to the motivations of my creating a webcomic. I honestly thought I’d hit on a new idea: chronicling, with sequential art, the life of a dad and his family. However, in my quest to find knowledge and inspiration, I Googled ‘Daddy Webcomic’, and the screen filled with hits from a site called sillydaddy.net.
I am not alone.
Silly Daddy was/is created by Joe Chiappetta of North Riverside, Ill. I found some interesting facts about Silly Daddy over at the Geek To Me blog at chicagonow.com:
Silly Daddy is the longest running comic about a family by a father. (It hit it’s 500th comic in November.)
Mr. Chiappetta is continuously exploring new tools for the trade, consistently using a Pocket PC to create his comics, as well as being the first cartoonists to explore comics made on a mobile phone, calling them ‘telephonics’.
Every comic at Silly Daddy is fully accessible to the blind or those with low vision. Every comic posted has described narrative that assistive technology software such as JAWS or ZoomText can read to the viewer.
I would like to take the time to thank Mr. Chiappetta for being a pioneer not only in webcomics, but in the world of dads chronicling their lives online! I hope I am worthy of crawling in your shadow, sir.
One more sidenote on Joe Chiappetta, he has also written an all-ages space opera called ‘Star Chosen’. Check it out!
Since I was a little boy, I’ve wanted to make cartoons. The dream has taken many forms, from animation to comic books. I look at my children today, and I don’t want them to see a man who didn’t accomplish his dreams.
I’ve already detailed here how I’m putting more effort into developing a webcomic based on the very family I hope to make proud, so I hope it will not come as a surprise that my blogging will become less frequent as I focus on my webcomic.
I still absolutely love Daddy Blogging, and I will continue to do it, but I feel that now’s the time to pursue my very first passion: making cartoons.
It feels odd. I haven’t seriously picked up a pencil for probably 10 years! And now the ‘pencil’ is on the computer screen. I hope you all will join me on this journey of rediscovery for me, but be forewarned: I will be first and foremost drawing cartoons that I enjoy. Sometimes, it will deal with parenting or marital issues that are near and dear to all of our hearts, sometimes I may go off on some geek tangent. (In other words, it’ll be a lot like this blog!) But here is my promise to you: I am going to have FUN! Hopefully, I can pass on to you a little enthusiasm for the artform known as comics, or if you want to sound all high-falutin’: ‘Sequential Art‘.
I appreciate your understanding, and I look forward to any constructive criticism or just plain jeering and heckling you may have.
One more thing before I leave you today: Have you looked in the mirror lately? Have you become who YOU want to be?
This all came out of me looking into that mirror and realizing that I didn’t want to be a ‘wannabe’ or a professional admirer. I didn’t want my kids to see me looking wistfully at a comic in print or on the web with a tear in my eye for what might have been.
Have you achieved your dreams? Have you given up? I refuse to believe that it’s ever too late. Find that thing that gets you going. Whether it’s a career change or simply an exciting new hobby, but stop cheating yourself and find that thing. I wish you the best of luck on your quest, as I step off of my soapbox.
I’ll leave you with my newest completed cartoon (click for larger image):
A funny thing happened at the park...
Incidentally Calli already gave me feedback on this one: she’s disappointed that I didn’t draw the entire playground.
I would love to hear about your passions, and whether you’ve achieved your dreams! Please feel free to share in the comments below!
This post brought to you by Dad-Blogs' FatherHood Friday. Be sure to swing by for all the other great Dads and Moms who love to share their lives online!
It’s Fatherhood Friday once again, and I’ll get right down to business. I would like to take this heightened traffic opportunity to once again ask for your help.
We just recently found out that Kat needs to finish raising the money for her People to People delegation to Australia by May 14th! If you are able, please make a donation of any comfortable amount by clicking on the Chip-In button to the right of this page. Kat and my wife are working on hand drawn thank you cards that will be sent to you from Australia, time allowing, or when she gets home. If you’ve already donated, you’re already on our mailing list!
A work in progress by my wife...
One of Kat's Thank You cards
In other news…
Calli, the 3 year old, has become increasingly bossy, despite the constant reminders to say thank you. The establishment of who’s boss seems to be constantly on her mind. A few nights ago, as we were getting ready for bed, Calli pointed at me and said, ‘You can’t boss me, Daddy. Mommy can boss me. That’s her job.’
She must have doubted that fact a couple nights later. ‘Mommy, you’re not the boss of me!’ Only to quickly recant, ‘Oh. Wait. You ARE the boss of me!’
This post brought to you by Dad-Blogs' FatherHood Friday. Be sure to swing by for all the other great Dads and Moms who love to share their lives online!
What do they say about what the road to Hell is paved with? I had every good intention to knock out a very thought provoking ‘Sunday Sermon‘ today, but I didn’t get all of my research done. In keeping with one of my New Year’s Resolutions, if I can’t post the best entry ever, I won’t. Hopefully I get my act together next week and post something great…
I am in Denver right now, and I just dropped Kat off to hang out with her boyfriend who lives in the area. We have a People to People meeting this afternoon to learn more about what she’ll be doing in Australia. If you missed it, Kat (The Teenager) got excepted in to the People to People Student Ambassador program. Her delegation is going to Australia this summer. It’s a great opportunity for her to travel abroad and earn college credit while doing so! We need help raising the funds, however. That’s where you come in. If you enjoy reading my stories here and would like to help us out, please find the Chip In badge to the right and donate what you can. I completely understand how the world is right now, so if you can’t give we’ll still be friends.
We received a call yesterday from Kat’s aunt. She held a garage sale and raised $850! You’ll see that reflected in the Chip In badge as soon as we receive it. I just got too excited about that to not tell you now!
Thanks to everyone that has contributed so far, every little bit helps.
I’ll be posting later about what we learn today, for now I’m going to take advantage of Whole Foods’ Wi-Fi and the lack of children to do that research I was talking about above…
Today’s kids are spoiled. They can have cartoons 24-7, on demand, no questions asked. Here at Howefitz Blog, I’d like to start a tradition of making Saturday morning an event again. Cartoons belong on Saturday morning!
Please excuse the crudeness of the above comic. When inspiration strikes, I have to get it down on paper. Since discovering the blogging lifestyle, I now feel like I should share everything online…
If you follow me on twitter, you’ve probably picked up on the fact that I’ve been geeking out on my favorite webcomic, Hijinks Ensue. In fact, I went back to the beginning earlier in the week, and got to the end late last night.
If you’re not familiar with HE, it’s a ‘Geek Webcomic’. Creator Joel Watson has effectively cartooned himself and his friends, and four times a week, he draws strips of himself and his friends poking fun at popular culture and each other.
So it got me to thinking: My family cracks me up every day. My wife consistently provides just the right words that convey what we were both thinking. In short, my family would make a great webcomic.
Not willing to wait for the Wacom tablet I just ordered cheap on the internet, this first strip was penciled on actual paper with one of those wood sticks with graphite inside, then scanned in and ‘inked’ in Artweaver using just the pad on my laptop. When I actually launch the strip, I plan on using color, and between now and then I’ll figure out how to draw a straight line.
The strip shouldn’t interfere with the sporadic schedule of the normal Howefitz Blog, so don’t fret, fair readers. If anything, I’m hoping the comic will enhance the entire Howefitz Blog experience!
If you can’t wait for me to get my act together, I plan on posting early design sketches on my Facebook Fan Page for Howefitz Blog. If you’re not a fan yet, what are you waiting for? 😉
So what do you think? Is the Daddy Webcomic Blog the wave of the future? (If I have my way…) or am I just being silly?
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