This IS NOT my office, by the way. I wish! (Photo Credit: mkosut)
Throughout the course of the last 12 months, I've mentioned more than once that I'm not working --- at least not in the traditional sense. In the last several weeks. My "at home" skill set has landed me some very real interviews. Some have gone bust, some are still in progress.
Because I'm at home some might believe my job is to be homemaker. I know my wife believes this on occasion such as when despite the house being perfectly clean (sometimes Spic and Span clean) because I didn't take something to the cleaners I farted the whole day away.
I spend my days looking for work, creating work opportunities and investing in my most valuable asset --- the gray matter above my eyeballs. What I've always wanted has come to pass, I have become a student of the world.
But being a student in any capacity doesn't put food on the table. Thank God for a wife with a well-paying job, a formerly large savings account, a growing revenue stream from this blog and a potential photography business in the making.
But what is my real job?
To love my kids and make sure they know they're loved everyday --- even when they are wrong.
To provide them with everything that I have to give them.
To have the clarity of vision to see their needs. To have the discernment to prioritize them. To have the ability to address those which should be addressed.
To nurture them.
To talk to them.
To love, cherish and nurture them for who they are while giving little energy to who or what I may want them to be.
To provide them with a happy home. One they will be able to remember for the rest of their lives.
Everything else is secondary. But the secondary responsibilities drive all of the above.
It's Fatherhood Friday. What is your job (or rather the one you think is most important)?
The Princess And The Frog DVD Giveaway You don't have to tweet to enter this contest. You don't have to subscribe to my feed or become an email subscriber. You don't have to mention me, my blog or this contest on Facebook. You don't have to blog about it, trackback, and blah, blah, blah. The deadline to enter is Nevuary 40th, Two Thousand Never.
Why?
Because there is no contest, no giveaway, no nothing. At least not on this blog.
Why?
Well as no one has provided me with any reasons all I can do is run down the first things that came to this writer's mind.
I'm a guy.
I'm a dad.
It's not my demo(graphic).
I don't get enough traffic.
I'm a guy.
Believe it or not, I really wanted to be considered for a giveaway such as this back when the movie first came out. I started by writing what turned out to be one of my favorite posts, The Princess & The Frog - NYC Style! I linked to the Disney's Princess & The Frog Site. I linked to an article about Anika Noni Rose (the voice of Princess Tiana). I uploaded a photo slideshow that included music from the movie. If nothing else, I was certain the music would raise at least one eyebrow and get me shut down. But it never happened and the PR folk who could've easily pushed this giveaway on me never came knocking.
Now here's the facts:
A day hasn't passed since that movie premiered that I haven't spent at least 30 minutes of my evening as Prince Naveen, a general prince, or a king.
Updated: We both know the soundtrack to the movie word-for-word.
A weekend hasn't passed that I haven't helped my daughter slip into one of the two Princess Tiana dresses she owns (one of which I bought).
My daughter has a Princess Tiana sheet set and comforter. A backpack, dolls of all the characters of the movie, a blanket, a pillow book and about 3 books (including a Leap Pad version) that all tell in more or less detail the story of the Princess & The Frog. In fact, as of the writing of this post she managed to read half a new book I bought her on --- take a guess --- The Princess & The Frog.
Bottom line: I've been immersed into all things little girl and I'm used as a prop on a daily basis for fantasies, daydreams and playtime. Because I'm the prince, king, bad guy, frog, dragon, bear, whatever role needs to be filled by a male.
Now here are a few more facts:
My readership/subscribership is well past a thousand and quickly chasing down two thousand.
Out of the above number 65% are women.
Of this 65% approximately 70% are in the 35-44 age demo (people with kids and probably some degree of employment longevity).
And I'm going out on a limb here...I'm willing to theorize that many of these women who read me do so because they've already got the woman thing down (since they are women) and are interested in something different, something new, aka my readers might not read all the more popular mommy blogs and represent an untapped market.
And then what about the 35% male readership, almost all of which are over 35, have kids who I figure 50% (if we consider that there are only two genders) are girls?
And if not me (someone who doesn't use the word "dad" or "daddy" in my domain) what about more prominent dad blogs like Outnumbered Is Jason Mayo, quite possibly the wackiest blog I've ever come across. This guy is a stand up guy in person, a media savvy businessman and he has not one, but 2 daughters and a wife. To say he might be a little batteredseasoned in things women and girls is an understatement. Or my good buddy in Texas, MochaDad, who has a readership that dwarfs mine and as of late seems to be launching a new blog every other week? There's the powerhouse daddy blogger and Photoshop guru, Daddy Scratches. And then there's The Dad Man who is a category unto himself. There are just so many others. Now I don't know if any of them would want to do this promotion, but was the question even asked?
Given the new economy and the resulting new legion of at home dads who are tech savvy, and given that the dads that are blogging don't really give a damn what anyone thinks about their being open with their love of wife, sons and daughters, I cannot believe that a single man with kids with a blog was not asked to promote this DVD giveaway.
Seriously, I cannot.
If there is one or more out there then please let me know. I'd love to stand corrected. Because if not then I would like to simply say HELLO to those who would think a dad blog isn't the right fit for this type of product. Us dads and particularly us dads with daughters might not be at the height of superstardom that mommy bloggers enjoy (nor do I imagine most of us want the demands and rigors that come with that) are a viable and quintessential piece of the tapestry that is family and should be considered for more than just tech items, business improvement/optimization items, music and sporting goods.
After doing my best to stay up with the wife while she studied, but doing a better job of slipping in and out of consciousness, she decided a little after 3 am that it was time to go to bed. So we did and I was happy to be dragged from my sleep station on the couch.
My son (why is it always my son?) had gone to sleep around 9 pm that Saturday evening after a rigorous two days of basketball tryouts for an AAU team. I figured he'd wake up at some point during the night. But I was completely unprepared for what happened next.
My eyes popped open when I heard a drawer slam at 4 am. Side note: I can sleep through a tornado outside my window. I can sometimes stay knocked out for five or so minutes once my daughter starts crying. But if the floor creaks the wrong way from inside my home I will hear it.
"What was that?" asked the wife.
"It sounded like his room," I answered. Maybe he's playing his xBox (he keeps his controller in his underwear drawer sometimes).
"Go check on him."
I dragged myself out of the bed fully expecting to find my son at the edge of his bed playing his games. Instead I saw this boy fully dressed in sweats with a hoodie pulled down over his head.
My mouth fell open.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"Hold on," (to someone on his phone). "Nothing, I just want to go outside in front of the building to clear my head."
"You're on the phone? It's four o'clock in the morning. It's freezing outside. What are you doing?"
"I just need to clear my head, Dad." He began to laugh based on the expression of complete and utter flabbergast on my face. "I'm fine, Dad."
Big Bad Mama was now up and chomping at him from over my shoulder. "What are you doing? Are you out of your mind? You aren't going anywhere. You wanna stand somewhere? Go stand on the terrace."
I looked behind me and then back at him, shrugged my shoulders and went back to bed.
Ten minutes later the entire house was freezing. But I didn't feel it. I grew up old school --- in the winter you wore long pjs and put heavy blankets on the bed because it was cold. But the cold blooded reptiles I live with insist on living in desert climates in the dead of winter so the second the temperature dropped my wife was jabbing me in my back asking me to go check on our son once more. But sleep had overtaken me once more and I mumbled something and only managed to get one leg out from under the covers.
Moments later I heard bumping, banging and cursing (my wife). My son had the terrace door wide open and was sitting on his cell phone giggling like it was eight o'clock in the evening. My wife relieved him of all his belongings, including his phone and sent him to bed.
"What did I do?" he asked like a two year old before closing his bedroom door.
The next afternoon, I had a heart to blank face with my son. I told him he has no common sense whatsoever. And then I took it a step further. "You're not even slick with yours...if you're trying to walk out the house in the middle of the night you don't slam drawers," I told him. I also explained that he was a minor and based on the neighborhood we live in the cops would never believe based on the way he was dressed and his permanent tan that at 4 in the morning he was clearing his mind, suffering through some teenage angst and that he actually lived in the building he was standing in front of. He nodded his head appreciatively and said he didn't know kids couldn't be out all night long. "No son, you have our curfew, and then there's the law."
An honest oversight on his part...I guess.
At dinner the same day I rolled out a new set of phone rules for him because clearly we had not done our job as parents in setting any since he was so blatantly abusing his privileges. It was one simple rule: any and all infractions involve him losing his phone all together. No questions asked. I like to keep things simple. I don't scream and yell. I tell you once, maybe twice. Then I speak firmly and I take. Especially from the ones in my home who pay for nothing but maybe snacks.
I'm not sure my son will ever top his Shoelessness episode, but just when I think everything is going along smoothly he always manages to go galloping (without a horse), full speed into the land of "Who Does That?!"
"As I peer through the looking glass of my life, I realize I'm at an age when the natural cleansing of non-essential/poisonous persons from my life (no matter how messy) no longer hurts."
The movie, Spider-Man, made all my daydreams about superheroes visually plausible.
Batman Begins and Dark Knight made real for me the notion that a man with no superhuman abilities could don a costume and will himself to be a force against crime (if you can get past the fact that his billionaire status completely exposes him to be Batman) and that a crazy person (Heath Ledger's Joker) could easily exist in today's times.
Daniel Craig returned to the 007 franchise the brutality, swagger without schtick, and fine tailoring that disappeared from under our noses once Sean Connery departed the role of James Bond.
And now there's Avatar...
Now that the Oscars have run their course and everyone who was supposed to win has, I feel comfortable in speaking out about my love for this movie. Is the story one that we've seen or heard before? Yes. Were the Na'vi a very obvious sampling (or celebration) of all the indigenous and aboriginal Indian peoples of Earth? Yes. Should James Cameron have given credit where credit was due? Where? In the credits? For all who were up in arms about this movie I have one thing to say...Sci-Fi. Other than the Western European ideology of Eminent Domain and the violence it breeds and the classic science might vs. military might clashes, there was very little that was real about this movie --- from the Robotech derived military exo-suits, to the impossibly large gunship, to the blue (translucent at night) people who were described as being ten feet tall but looked closer to fifteen in most of the scenes with humans, to all that beautiful scenery and all those ugly, UGLY animals.
This movie was so unreal that while watching it the first time, it took me nearly a quarter of the movie for my mind to accept what it was seeing. Suspension of disbelief at the movies has never taken me so long. But then there was the love. And the love was real.
I absolutely loved this movie. I loved everything about it. I loved the celebration of simple living. I loved the visually stunning landscapes and airscapes (if there is such a thing). I loved the love story that evolved between Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), even though it was totally obvious from the very beginning. I LOVED watching her fight for her man. I LOVED that she loved him fiercely and with no drama.
Was the dialog complex? No. But I don't know how complex a conversation can be between people who speak different languages, let alone aliens. (Some of my best conversations ever were had in Brazil when I could barely put a sentence together in Portuguese).
For me, Avatar was a movie that allowed me to escape into a life of simplicity I'm not sure I'll ever know and see through the eyes of someone else. Kind of like an Avatar. I recently saw it again after having seen it just two weeks earlier. It was like watching it the first time. It didn't drag for a second and I didn't sit though a single scene haughty because I knew what was going to happen next. It was like seeing it brand new all over again. And amazingly, I want to see it again. Something I never want to do while a movie is still in theaters. I simply can't get enough of it.
For being able to do that writer and director, James Cameron nailed it. Without seeing or reading about it, it was obvious to me that this was the story he had in his heart, the one that had to wait for all his other movies to be made first. There's a story like that inside of me. It's been in my head since 1985. At the end of this blog and all the other projects cooking in my head I hope and pray I get to share it one day.
