on Thursday June 5, 2008

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Confessions of a Stay-at-Home Dad: Part IV

Continued from:

Confessions of a Stay-at-Home Dad: Part I

Confessions of a Stay-at-Home Dad: Part II 

Confessions of a Stay-at-Home Dad: Part III 

Whenever I met someone new and they asked what I did for a living, I found myself saying in an apologetic voice that, “I stay home with my daughter.”  It was as if I was waiting for someone to chastise me for being different.  I'm not saying that didn’t happen; it just didn't happen as often as I had envisioned.  I think male pride can be a tough pill to swallow, but over the course of over seven years and three daughters, I can safely say that I have that sucker almost all the way down. 

Our first year with Bella saw my wife and I complete our degrees; mine in English Writing, and hers in Computer Science.  I quit my part-time job in construction for a night job waiting tables, and my wife got a new job at a higher salary, with a better company.  Our work schedules always kept Jodi and me in a constant state of “ships passing in the night,” as I would leave for work, often times, as she was coming home.  We depended on the supplemental income that my part-time jobs provided, and no matter how inconvenient it was for us as a couple, we seldom complained about our situation. 

As first time parents, we were predictably vigilant; monitoring dropped bits of food like guards at a prison, diving to stop escapees.  Three-second rule?  That was about three seconds too long in our house.  Were we over protective?  Nah.  (Well, maybe just a bit.)  Predictably, as first-time parents, we limited the amount of times we drove with Bella.  The constant fear of a car accident kept us both tied in knots for the better part of a year--at least.  We limited what she could listen to.   Nothing too heavy--Mozart, Bach and maybe Beethoven.  We limited the amount of times we took her out of the house—small pox.  No matter how much she cried during mass, we made it each week to church—fear of possession.  I feel first-time parents are beset with fear.  We think that we are going to mess up.  So, we take precautions to more or less fool-proof every action we take.  First time parents can be more like Secret Service than actual parents; although instead of checking rooftops for snipers, we were putting bumpers on coffee table corners.

We intently read books, magazines, articles, leaflets, flyers, fortune cookies, really anything you could read about parenting as we readied ourselves to deal with the rigors of infants and toddlers.   Here is a quick synopsis of what the books said:  as babies get older they grow, eat more food and do more stuff (i.e. walking, talking, testing your cabinet latches).  The books were gold to us newbies, and we used them mostly to identify the fact that our first daughter was predictably advanced.  As first time parents you think two ways: Either A) our child is advanced—meaning developmentally, physically, or both Or B) our child is slow—cause for great alarm and countless hours of scrutiny.  As parents, we look for ways to qualify our kids in one of those categories (and sometimes both of them for extra points.)  For instance, Bella was amazingly quick walking and was talking early, but she was (like all our children) on the smaller side.  There really isn’t any compromise as parents; we instantly thought Bella was going to be a Hobbit sized rocket scientist—period. 

I don’t think there are a lot of first-time parents who look at their children after all the doctors’ appointments, hours of interaction and conclude their child to be “average.”  Most parents have at least one caveat or accolade they immediately talk about when describing their child, and for us it was basically all accolades.  Bella walked at 9 months and began talking around the same time.  By the time Bella was one-and-a-half years old, she was speaking in sentences, identifying colors and shapes, and off the charts in cuteness.  Around this time, Jodi and I got some incredible news; we were pregnant again! 

Bella was remarkably smart, easy and lovable, and we were thrilled that she was going to be a big sister.  In our three bedroom row home, we converted our last remaining unused bedroom from an office into a nursery and. on Bella’s second birthday, moved the crib from her room into the new baby’s room.  For the deal, Bella became the proud owner of a cool car toddler bed.  We were less than three months away from having our second child.  

Stay Tuned for the Next Installment 

If you enjoyed this post, please rate it and leave a comment over at BuzzFuse.  Thanks!!

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on Thursday June 5, 2008

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This post is the first in a new weekly series entitle "tech tips" which will be available in the "Blog" section of Joeprah under the "Tech Tips" menu item.  I will post anything that I find that helps me hack through common tech issues that I encounter as a blogger and a user of technology in the 21st century.  I will label each post based on its ease of use for the average internet surfer.  What we have today is a free way to get music from YouTube videos.  Even if you are tech-tarded you can get this done as long as you follow the following steps below.

Downloading Music for free From YouTube

Getting the Video :

• Turn on Computer & Internet
• Find YouTube video that contains a song you want
• Copy the link here: http://www.techcrunch.com/get-youtube-movie/
• Once prompted begin download of youtube video
• Find the YouTube video in your computers download section or folder you use to DL files and rename the video to the name of the song with the .flv ending

Converting the .flv Video into an Mp3 still free:

• To Convert .flv file into a Mp3 use Freez FLV to Mp3 Converter (It is free)
• Link to the download for the free file converter is here: http://www.smallvideosoft.com/downloads/freez_flv2mp3.exe
• Find the .flv file in your computer and add it to the converter
• Click Start Converting
• The video is quickly converted into an Mp3 file and stored in a folder of your liking (the default folder is Mp3 Output)
• You are done

You now have a free music file that may or may not be of the highest quality, but it is the cheapest price around.  Recognize.  The better the quality of sound you hear when you watch the video initially at YouTube will give you an indicator of the quality of the forthcoming Mp3.  Why use this format instead of "Limewire" and the others?  Two reasons:

1. I don't see how this can be traced in anyway at all by media mogule fat cats 
2. Some Songs on YouTube I have found there and NOWHERE ELSE, right Melisa?
   

Another great file converter to look into is Tunebite, but that one costs $30.  There are a ton of reasons to get that converter if you mess around with files of many different formats and want to convert them back and forth. Best thing I have found so far.  But, free is always better, right?  If you found this helpful drop me a comment and rate this post over at BuzzFuse instead of or in addition to posting a comment here.  Nice.  

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on Wednesday June 4, 2008

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I

n order to make my blogging life less complicated, I am attempting to streamline Joeprah.com into a scheduled blog of sorts.  In the past I would release articles very randomly without any built in timeline.  I see many bloggers out there releasing certain type of posts on certain days and I find that a helpful way to structure a blog, I just never found a weekly format that I liked—so I started my own.  So, for now, my schedule will be:

Joeprah's Blog Schedule (Not Entirely Etched in Stone)

How I plan to Organize My Blogging Life:

• Spend one day writing and preparing my articles for the week
• Use the week to:
• Keep up with my feed reader
• Read/Watch/Listen Daily news
• Promote my respective blogs

This type of organization will hopefully free me up to spend more time with the family during the upcoming summer months and allow me to be more productive when I am online period. 

If I ever find something extremely noteworthy and relevant to either of my blogs I can write a quick piece and submit this in adjunct  to my normal posts, but by in large I will be using Sunday evenings and Monday mornings as my time to write blog posts, thus giving me 6 days of freedom.  What do you think about my format?  What are your thoughts on organizing yourself as a blogger?  Anything work really well for you?

YouTube @ Joeprah:

Also, as some Joeprah.com users requested, I have added YouTube tabs in everyone’s profile.  For your tab to appear simply edit your profile and add your YouTube home page address in the appropriate location.  Check my profile to see how it looks.  If you have any questions regarding this you can check the profile tutorial video I put together. 

BuzzFuse & Making Money Blogging

If you have noticed over the last two days, I am trying to add a monitize my blog a bit with the addition of BuzzFuse.  I have been inspired to sign up by a bloggy friend of mine CardioGirl, who has had some pretty encouraging success utilizing BuzzFuse.  Over $600 in a couple months aint bad right?  If you want to check it out add me to your friends.  And if you simply like what you read here and want to help Joeprah pay the bills click the BuzzFuse logo thing at the end of my posts and rate my posts their.  Sign up is quick and painless.  To make money with BuzzFuse you need to get yourself a premium account ($14.95 a month).  I will tell you how June goes at the end of the month.  

I have been making money through two other avenues with this blog. One I have been doing very secretly, while the other is obvious.  First, Adsense.  Yep, I get money each month for the ads you see $5 whole dollars on average.  However, that is $5 dollars that I don't count on and in like 4 years that will be some huge sum of money I can't even count.  Finally, Text Link Ads. I currently get $40 a month for these bad boys.  They calculate your worth based on Alexa Site Rank, Google Page Rank and the amount of subscribers you have.  Currently that pays me $20 per ad on my site.  I would guess most of you couldn't even identify the ads if you wanted too.  

Joeprah on Steroids?

I have a new computer and a new camera.  First, I have the computer.  It's a Dell XPS420.  4 2.5 Gig processors (quad baby!) and 4 gigs of 800mhz ram (see fast) all wrapped up in a system containing two 500 gig hard drives and a back up 80 gig for fun.  22 inch monitor and digital TV tuner for watching and recording digital and HD shows.  Insanity.  My old computer would crash if I ran three programs at the same time or if I had more than 4 tabs open in Firefox.  This thing gives me pretty much limitless possibilities.  The new camera?  Awesome.  A Cannon PowerShot G9.  That's 12.1 mega pixels (see WAY better than my old 5.2 MP.  This camera is stupid good.  I have just scratched the surface with this thing and it is amazing.  So, be ready for some awsome Joeprah content in HD and some kickin' high-res photos.  You're lucky.  I will leave you with a couple of photos from just messin' with the new camera today.  As always, they are clickable.  Peace.

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on Monday June 2, 2008

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Has anyone noticed the new ad campaign McDonald’s has been running?  You know the one on all the billboards and commercials?  I’m talking about the Southern- Style Chicken campaign. McDonald’s has just gone nationwide with two new products: The Southern-Style Chicken Sandwich, and the Southern-Style Chicken Biscuit. 

Anyone notice something strange about these products?  Do they remind you of another line of products perhaps?  What McDonald’s has done here is try to duplicate the incredibly tasty products from Chick-Fil-A.  For years Chick-Fil-A has been gobbling up market share in the competitive fast food industry, but now McDonald’s is striking back—albeit with an inferior product.  As you can imagine, a huge Chick-Fil-A enthusiast like me would only find these ads to be outrageous.  To get answers I went straight to the source—my local Chick-Fil-A.  Unfortunately for me, the local Chick-Fil-A is about twenty minutes away, but easily worth the time it takes to get there. 

Why Eat at Chick-Fil-A:

Now, if you aren’t accustomed to going to a fast food eatery that prides itself on service—stay away.  Chick-Fil-A will be a culture shock.  When you go into a Chick-Fil-A you will first notice, “Hey, it’s clean in here.”  Next, you’ll receive fast and friendly service—wha-wha-what!  Finally, their play-places aren’t towering urine depositories, but rather clean, functioning moderately sized playgrounds.  What about the food?  The food is now almost an afterthought.  The food is hot, fresh and really, really good.  It is the kind of good that you start salivating for when you’re a block away.  Also, when you are at a Chick-Fil-A, employees actually come up to your table and ask, “Would you like a refill?” or “Are you finished with that?”  It’s like they actually care.  Weird, right?  So, if you haven’t been to a Chick-Fil-A, be ready for good service—it may actually surprise you. 

The Staff:

Back to the Southern-Style Chicken Sandwic h (SSCS), on my most recent visit to Chick-Fil-A I waited for an employee to come over to my table and ask me if I needed a refill so I could get their candid thoughts on the SSCS.  Predictably, an employee came over and when I asked them the question, “What are your thoughts on the SSCS?” they said they hadn’t tried it but they could send the Marketing Manager over to talk to me.  A few moments later a very friendly woman began talking to me about the SSCS and thought it may be best if I talked to the owner directly.  In about 5 minutes I had scaled the Chick-Fil-A scale of hierarchy.  I was impressed by how prompt, polite and engaging each of the staff members were—they all had time to talk me.  When the owner came over I told him that I was a blogger.  I told him I wanted to get some reaction to McDonald’s campaign from those who work at Chick-Fil-A and he, of course, agreed.

The Interview:

The owner was passionate about Chick-Fil-A and had a great deal to offer about the SSCS from McDonald’s.  When I began to ask him for his thoughts on the topic I got a veritable Chick-Fil-A history lesson in return that helped me understand the issue at hand.  First, If you don’t know anything about Chick-Fil-A, know this--their birthplace is in Atlanta, Georgia.  Chick-Fil-A’s in the Atlanta area actually outnumber McGreasy’s, and the success of Chick-Fil-A’s in this region sent McCopy’s scrabbling for answers.  Over the course of the last 2-3 years, the Atlanta area McStealYourIdea’s have been featuring the “SSCS’s” on their menus to test out the idea and the product.  This, of course, lead to the nationwide campaign we see today.  From a cursory glance it would appear that the sandwiches are very similar; the buns look eerily alike, they both have pickles, and comparable chicken.  Looks, however, can be deceiving. 

The Taste Facts:

The Taste Test:

My wife and I purchased a SSCS from McDonald’s to see how it tasted and we both agreed that the knock off was lacking in many areas.  First, the bun was clearly just flash-heated somehow making it a soggy mess.  The chicken was, at best, imitation Chick-Fil-A.  I found the chicken to be tougher, less tasty and the breading to be messier and a complete and utter disappointment.  I am not a pickle guy, so I avoided them in our testing, but my wife found them to be oddly different than Chick-Fil-A’s.  Overall grade for McDonald’s a D-.

Other Chick-Fil-A Items Being Imitated:

Has Chick-Fil-A been copied before?  Yes.  McDonald’s came out with sweet tea in Styrofoam cups  in a blatant attempt to copy Chick-Fil-A who has been offering sweet tea in just that fashion for years.  Wendy’s, not to be left out, recently came out with a line of “hand spun” milkshakes.  If you have been to Chick-Fil-A you are no doubt somewhat addicted to their “hand spun” shakes and probably find Wendy’s attempt to duplicate them laughable at best.  

Candid Thoughts:

When I asked the Owner of my local Chick-Fil-A what he thought about the SSCS campaign he said, “What McDonald’s failed to realize is that (the sandwich) is not why people eat at Chick-Fil-A.”  I asked him to explain why people eat at Chick-Fil-A and he replied, “Service.  They (McDonald’s) can try to copy our food but they can’t copy our service.”  What about all the money McDonald’s is sinking into this ad campaign?  Do you think this is going to take away from your business?  “Not at all.  McDonald’s is spending millions and millions on advertising only to promote Chick-Fil-A.”  In other words, people are smart enough to see through what McDonald’s is doing and for those folks who haven’t tried Chick-Fil-A, this ad campaign will simply give Chick-Fil-A greater exposure in the long run.  Bottom line, I predict the new ad campaign from McDonald’s will only help Chick-Fil-A.  Folks will have to suffer through inconsistent service at McDonald’s to get a second rate product which will only lead them to Chick-Fil-A where they know they can get the goods. 

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on Monday June 2, 2008

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Dads everywhere know what I’m talking about when I say that children around the ages of 2-3 reach critical mass in the height department.  Once a child reaches “junk” height they become a danger to dads, uncles and granddads alike.  The amount of pain they inflict on an adult male can only be described as shocking.  Toddlers are the perfect weapon. 

Why are they the perfect weapon?

• They have little to no conscience
• Their heads are large in comparison to their bodies thus causing them to lean forward when they run
• They run constantly
• They are very difficult to get angry at
• They attack without notice

Some people think toddlers are cute and I agree—for the most part.  But what many people fail to acknowledge is that each toddler has a dark side.  Toddlers alone aren’t difficult to handle, but rarely do they inflict mortal damage on a guy’s satchel without an accomplice.  Toddler’s accomplices come in all shapes and sizes.  An accomplice can be someone who simply deters a man’s attention away from a toddler long enough for them to get a head start and barrel into their mid-section.  Some accomplices are inanimate objects like the television or an open refrigerator.  Toddlers can sense a distracted male like sharks smelling blood in the open ocean.  Refer to video:   

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