Truett Cathy said it best...

Often times at work I overhear many of the women I work with say things like, "That's just like a man," or, "you can never trust a man," and I think about speaking up, that there may be some men out there you can trust. Then I just get sad, because from their experiences they really can't trust a man, and who am I to defend a gender so notorious for selfishness?

Wednesday Wake-up

Flashback: Remember all of those Russian, Polish and Italian immigrants at Elis Island that had their children taken from them because they didn't speak English? Oh wait, that didn't happen...
Well, an Oaxacan woman living in Mississippi had her newborn taken from her because she doesn't speak English or Spanish.
What is this, The Giver?
When she arrived at the hospital with her Oaxacan relative who is bilingual, he was replaced by a Puerto Rican social services worker, who only spoke Puerto Rican Spanish. The woman hardly speaks any Spanish at all. The social services worker claimed she wasn't fit as a mother because she went to the hospital without a bassinet or formula. The crazy thing is, Chatino indians use slings instead of bassinets AND BREASTFEED THEIR CHILDREN YOU CRAZY SOCIAL SERVICES NIMWIT!!!

In other news, the city of Gainesville is now charging residents a $52 business tax for letting people pay to park on their lawns on Gamedays. They say it is to "level the playing field" with legitimate businesses. I have two thoughts: 1) I thought it was illegal to run a business out of a rental property, and most of these homes are rented by students, and 2) let's call a spade a spade, the city needs money and this is a great way to get some.

Bangarang!

I recently discovered an article posted on another dad blog about the loss of adventure for kids these days. I can do my best to suspend nostalgia, and still imagine days and evenings overflowing with adventure when I was a kid. The woods across the street from my neighborhood, the clearing behind Nathan’s house, even the 50 foot long dirt bike-path that I took as a short cut to school.
This great article points out the extreme choke-hold parents put on their kids’ imaginations because of irrational fear of abduction or some other monster. Did you know that no more kids are abducted today than were abducted 50 years ago? It’s about 115 kids a year. Terrible, I know, but I think because of the availability of information these days (we have 24 hour news channels that have to find something to talk about), parents are tempted, or even forced by fear, into cutting their kids off from the mysteries and adventures that have filled suburban childhoods since suburbia first showed up.

The obvious dad tip is to let your kids play. The trick will be finding a balance between dad’s theory (“What are the odds that anything will happen”), and your wife’s theory (Our child is going to get kidnapped tomorrow”). I guess the best thing you could do is move next to some kind of protected public land somewhere; or just near an acre of trees even.

Three years!

On this day 3 years ago I woke up at about 5:00 in the morning, as nervous as I can remember being. I wasn’t nervous about what I was about to commit to, but about doing it in front of 250 people. Well, I made it through without sweating through my suit and I can honestly say that my life every day since then has been better than the day before. Also, it recently occurred to me that we've been married longer than we were dating/engaged. That is crazy! I guess time flies when you don't spend hours and hours making out.

Coincidentally, last night Valerie and I finished our first monthly budget with the impetus given us by Financial Peace University. Cheesy name, I agree, but this junk works. For the first time in my life I would say that I am completely comfortable with our finances. I can also say that income-wise we are the most strapped we’ve ever been. What a miracle that these two things can coincide! But, we’re absolutely committed to living within our means. So much so that to celebrate our third anniversary we are foregoing the original plans of getting sushi at Dragonfly, the best sushi restaurant in town, and instead going to Leonardo’s for good pizza served by Gainesville’s “I’m-so-indie-I-wear-my-attitude-on-my-tattoo-sleeve” finest. I can’t begin to tell you how much more I will enjoy Leonardo’s, eating peacefully within our means with a wife that is, in every aspect of our life, on the same page as me and infinitely supportive of me.

Dad tip? Listen to your wife when she is concerned about finances. Don’t take it personal even though it is on your shoulders to provide. And for a second, free dad tip, make your requests made known to God, because what if He really does care for you?

Mechanics

I just finished reading one of the most interesting articles I’ve read in a long time. It’s about Tim Lincecum, a 24 year old starting phenom for the SF Giants. This kid’s dad taught him his incredibly wild throwing mechanics from the time he was five. And now, weighing a measley 175 lbs, he throws 98 with an incredible curve ball, and maybe even more importantly, his arm doesn’t get tired or sore. It turns out that working on your mechanics for hours and hours over days and years can make you a great baseball player. This is one of those old fashioned ideas that they taught me in little league.

Today’s sollution to baseball success seems to be getting bigger and stronger, and let power overcome any need for technique. It is only fitting that baseball is riddled with steroid abuse and controversy. Just today it was announced that Manny and Papi tested positive back in 2003. I actually didn’t think Manny had it in him to take steroids. I figured some kind of pride would have gotten in the way of that. I guess not. But honestly, who cheats at baseball? This has got to be some kind of cardinal sin if you ask me. I’d rather you cheat on your taxes before you cheat at baseball; at least you can make the argument that there isn’t anything sacred about taxes.

Meanwhile, out in San Francisco this 24 year old kid who weighs just 175 lbs is already being compared to history’s greatest pitchers.

The dad tip? Buy Tom Humanski’s baseball mechanics videos and teach your kid to work hard at something. He could be the next Tim Lincecum!

Money Monday

From the time I moved out to go to college until just a few years ago, I struggled with the idea of giving. Well, i guess I still do from time to time. But I have learned a lot on the subject, and that leads me to my tip today. It is extremely important to be generous. Our preist says that there are a handful of principles that get repeated over and over in scripture, and one of these principles is, you reap what you sow, or an eye for an eye. These two examples relate to consequences of sin and brokenness, but Jesus shows us the other side of this coin in the sermon on the mount. He says "be merciful, ad your Father is merciful. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged. Condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned. Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven. Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.
Now, I am not saying that this is a way to get rich. I'm not saying you can assume God will give you money, so you can do whatever you life with what you have. I am saying that God tells us that one of his principles is to reward a generous giver. In essence, we reap what we sow.
Now, with all that said, I know of an incredible cause that is in pretty time sensetive need of some funds. If any of you have been feeling led to give, please call me or email me and I'll explain it to you in more detail. Just putting it out there.

Dad Fail Friday- Escher Meets Freud

I have a calendar on my desk at work that shares a trivial fact with me every day. Most days it fails at impressing me, but today is not one of those days. I will quote it verbatim.

“At age forty-seven, the Rolling Stones’ bassist, Bill Wyman, began a relationship with thirteen-year-old Mandy Smith, with her mother’s blessing. Six years later, they were married, but the marriage only lasted a year. Not long after, Bill’s thirty-year-old son, Stephen, married Mandy’s mother, age forty-six. That made Stephen a stepfather to his former stepmother.”

Wow. I’ve decided to represent this graphically, and I think you’ll agree that when you mess with genealogy too much it starts to look like an M.C. Escher piece from when he was five…or maybe an interdisciplinary piece of art designed by both Escher and Freud.



Dad tip of the day? Don't marry an adolescent!

Boiling Points

So my new plan for finishing my master's thesis involves going straight to the library to write as soon as I get off work. This way I don't sit down at home for even a second to distract myself. Well, the problem with said plan is that means Valerie's day with only Carver now goes from 6:00 or so when she first feeds him until 7:30 in the evening. Don't get me wrong, he's incredible, but on fussy days I know it gets really frustrating. Its easy for people to assume that staying home with kids is some sort of easy task, and any old Sailor Jerry could accomplish the same task, and even bring the kiddy along for a round of frolf. It's not true. It is at least as much as a full time job, and then you are still at home when 4:00 rolls around.
The dad tip? Don't let your wife get to this point!
That's a poem I read in a poetry class I took as an undergrad. It is incredibly written, and incredibly believable. Who doesn't picture perfectly the situation? The mouth that is the oven, the baby, the ironing, the boy silently walking down the hall with his world completely turned upside down.
Protect your wife from this type of event! Go home and play with your kids while she does whatever the heck she wants for half an hour. Yeah, you worked hard today, at a job you may not enjoy, and in your mind she has her dream job. Well, chock it up as storing up your reward in heaven, and getting to play with your incredibly valuable kids. Do it today!

George Washington Carver Meets Ghandi

I bet something a lot of us associate with dad's is eating lots of food. My dad, for example, eats ice cream every night, usually out of some large cauldron type vessel that no one can really argue with him about...except when he goes back for another bowl.
Anyway, today's dad tip. Get some Kozy Shack rice pudding, mix in some peanut butter, maybe some cayenne pepper, and enjoy breaking down the barriers that hold non-dad's in their flavor boxes. Some may say its an absurd idea, but did Ray Kinsella listen to his brother-in-law when he called him a moron? Was Jimmy the Bulldog Braddock crazy for stepping back into the ring and knocking out Max Baer? Did Peter, Michael, and Jack turn their backs on that little baby left on their doorstep? No, cause they're dads. Enjoy your pudding.