Friday, May 16, 2008 | by nathan

OKAY! We GET It!

Thursday, May 15, 2008 | by nathan

“Our Children Are In Great Danger!”

Sorry to inundate you with videos, but this one’s too good not to share:

Video by Al Ridenour.

Thursday, May 15, 2008 | by nathan

Shut The Hell Up!

Sweet Jesus, Keith Olbermann is my hero.

This in reponse to Dubya’s ludicrous (and, frankly, insulting) claim to have given up his golf game in solidarity with families of Iraq vets. (Which, it turns out, he didn’t.)

This video is in two parts:

Thursday, May 15, 2008 | by nathan

Mmm!

When I was a kid we used to pull the stamens out of these and suck on them. Anybody else used to do that?

Wednesday, May 14, 2008 | by nathan

A Daily Occurrence This Time of Year

Tuesday, May 13, 2008 | by nathan

Things I Learned About My Dad (in therapy), edited by Heather Armstrong

I’ve been reading dooce for almost four years now. When I first discovered Heather Armstrong’s blog I’d already pitched a couple attempts at blogging onto the internet and found myself stymied, not only by the general malaise that tends to come with blogging over a long period of time, but with a general lack of community, role models, or the feeling that I wasn’t just shouting into the void. I started this blog when I started finding more excellent sites like Heather’s, written by people with great perspectives and crazy talent.

I was justifiably excited, then, when I found out that Heather was coming out with an anthology of essays about fatherhood, cobbled together from some of the web’s best writers. Though Heather is often unfairly shunted into the "Mommy Blogger" category, her website - and this book - are so much more than the typical mommy blogger fare.

Oh, and how much more. (Click the photo to order).

For me what’s rewarding about having read this book - I finished it in just a few days because of how compelling it was - is realizing the transitions we go through in life in how we think about our parents. In one essay Heather calls herself out for once immaturely trying to blame all her emotional shortcomings on her parents - who hasn’t been there? With age that attitude seems more and more wrongheaded and useless, and we grow out of it.

The book also features a whole host of men writing about their experiences as fathers, which had me feeling heavy and hot with baby fever there for about half an hour while I was reading it. That is, until I got out the bourbon and was able to stay up until whatever time I wanted without being really responsible for the life and welfare of another human being. Until that. But it did get me thinking about the possibilities of parenthood.

A particular favorite moment in the book, for me, was the essay by Sarah Brown in which she extolls her father’s virtues to the highest heavens. I loved it not only because Sarah’s an Okie and an occasional visitor to this website (hi Sarah!) but because what she says about her dad is almost exactly what I’d say about mine, only I didn’t know it until I read her piece.

I think my favorite thing about this book is that it totally defied my expectations. Other than Heather, Sarah, and a handful of others, I hadn’t read much by the authors included in this book. Despite the fact that I am a blogger and a writer, I sometimes find that the internet is filled with needless posturing by people whose main emotional need seems to be the need to appear cool, and so when I see books written by bloggers I’m skeptical: how is this guy going to tell this story so I’ll think he’s the awesomest person ever and want nothing more in life than to have a beer with him?

What we get here is a bunch of people talking without affectation, without pretense about fatherhood - about their own fathers, about their experiences as fathers and how one informs the other. The essays are occasionally hilarious and always heartfelt, and each one of them made me want to call my dad up and tell him I love him. So - I think I will. Excuse me.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008 | by nathan

Wherein I Try My Hand At Comics-Remixing

Monday, May 12, 2008 | by nathan

Metapost

Two website-related little things:

1) I don’t know if you guys are reading the Weekly Links there off to the side. I hope you are; they’re really fantastic things. Sometimes, when I really like a certain crop of links, I’ll leave them up for TWO weeks just to make sure you’ve had a chance to click them. But in the interest of keeping all this stuff in one place, I’ve created a Weekly Links Archive. It’s under the "Links" tab up top.

2) I’m not completely sure if I can do this, but I do have to say that any political ads that appear on this site should not be taken as representative of the author’s views. You should all know that, but just in case you don’t.

Monday, May 12, 2008 | by nathan

Things You Can Bring Up In Conversation, Should Ever We Meet

Helena has tagged me. I’d like to be all cool and say that I hate memes - and really, I do, the idea of them. But dammit, they’re fun and Helena’s so cool that I was kinda giddy to be tagged by her.

Helena herself posted, before tagging me, about the strange and often-irritating nature of memes, and chain letters, and the superstitions surrounding them that are completely ridiculous. So while I’m not worried that my junk will turn black and fall off, I am in the midst of a major allergy attack and my energy is limited to pretty much the amount it takes to type and to answer questions. So, in the spirit of pooping on superstition, I give you THIRTEEN (THIRTEEN!) random facts about me:

1. Sometimes at the gym, when I’m done working out and my shirt is all sweaty, I find it really hard to get my shirt up over my head because it’s constantly sticking to me. This wouldn’t be so bad except my head inevitably gets caught in there, I start to feel claustrophobic, and panicky. If you catch me on a really bad day you’ll see me jumping around the locker room, my shirt at some weird angle up over my head, my trapped arms flailing about, crying, "Get it off! Get it off!" But not usually.

2. (A follow-up to Helena’s fact about cereal). My favorite cereal is and always has been Rice Krispies, though I realize as I write that that I haven’t had Rice Krispies in probably over a decade. My favorite way to eat them is with a banana cut up in the bowl, though when I was a kid I thought of this as something reserved for special occasions, and so the only time I ever had them that way was when we’d go stay with my grandparents.

3. On July 15 of this year I’ll be exactly the same age my mom was when she had me.

4. I have the phone number of the Public Information Office of the U.S. Supreme Court on a post-it on my computer at work.

5. Like many people, I have very little desire to have children if I can’t be a stay-at-home dad.

6. Riffing on the children theme for a minute - if I ever do have children, I’m going to be THAT parent: it’s highly likely we won’t have cable in our house, though we will watch a fair bit of PBS and The Simpsons, and we’ll do lots of crafts.

7. My phone number doesn’t spell ANYTHING, according to phonespell.org.

8. I can sing the entire Animaniacs "Nations of the World" song right off the top of my head, though I tend to slow way down when I get into Africa toward the end; I always have to think about it:

9. I like Hootie and the Blowfish, and I absolutely DO NOT care who knows that.

10. This morning on the way in to work I was thinking about who I was going to invite to our Christmas party this year.

11. When I was in the 4th grade we all had to write letters to President Bush. I was the only one in the entire school who got a response - some stupid form letter and a book with pictures of Barbara Bush in various rooms in the White House. The other kids treated me like a rock star, but I thought the whole thing was incredibly dumb.

12. The older I get, the more it becomes apparent to me that I have mild dyslexia.

13. I don’t think 13 - or any number - is unlucky.

14. But just in case.

Okay, who do I want to tag? How about these people:

Kevin

Jon

Tish

Palinode

and Whoorl.

Whew!

Monday, May 12, 2008 | by nathan

That’s Three Years I’ve Gone Without Killing Them

Every year I’m convinced that my hydrangeas aren’t going to come back up, that THIS is the year they stay dead because of my negligent and unflinchingly bad care, but every year they’re back.