So, it has been decided. Tonight at USTREAM I held a live drawing to decide who won the Sony Cyber-shot digital camera give-away. With 365 entries to the contest from over 70 entrants the contest was, dare I say, a big deal. My three daughters aided me in the drawing. The youngest shook the bag holding all the names of those entered in the contest, my middle child picked the winner, and my eldest read the name of the winner. Who won?
The Winner:
Congratulations to Loomis2!!! Loomis entered a scant '3' times and somehow pulled out the camera.
Thanks
Thanks to all of you who entered the contest. Your participation has pretty much locked that I will be able to give away some more awesome stuff, so stay tuned--k? If you do stay tuned you will be treated to awesome videos of my adorable girls being goofy and funny, hilarious articles (I am so serious) and much, much more. Look around and check out what Joeprah is about if you are a new subscriber. Read, watch and interact. Word.
Here is a list of the folks entered in the Sony Cyber-shot give-away thus far. You are all now mortal enemies. Take a good look at this list. Find your name and make sure you are down for the correct amount of entries. For instance, if you already area subscriber of Joeprah and you weren't given credit for the 3 subscriber entries--let me know. If you disagree with the amount of entries I have you down for, let me know and I will update it. Thanks!
I am in the process of retooling my site a bit and I will be adding some new features along with some of the changes. Some exciting stuff is about to be added that will make the Joeprah experience perhaps even more mediocre than before. I am obvious stoked.
The Galleries
Loomis, a Joeprah user, came up with a fantastic suggestion. Why not allow Joeprah users the privildege of uploading their own personal photos into the new "Gallery" section of Joeprah? I thought about it, and it was such a great idea that I took action--immediately. I will be creating more galleries for any registered user to upload into, but currently there is a section for "Summer Fun I," "Family Pictures I," "Pictures of You I," and "Your Best Work I." To access the galleries to upload into them, simply click on the "My Galleries" link at the top right of the Gallery Section at Joeprah (it can be found here). Uploading should be fairly self-explanatory, but that being said I am sure some folks may need assistance. If you do have problems...enter my next update.
The Forum
I have installed a new forum component. You can go the forum either at its direct link here or by visiting the forum via Joeprah.com itself. If you have any tech questions in regards to using any of the features at Joeprah.com simply go to the forum and enter your questions there. If you are a blogger and want to show of your blog or you have questions regarding blogging, check out the section in the forum dedicated to all things blog related. If you are parent seeking an outlet to vent, or ask advice of other parents on how to deal with some parenting topics that are currently confounding you, check out the section dedicated to that. There are some social sections in the forum and I hope it takes on a life of its own. If you want any new sections or if you want to be a moderator--inquire within. Basically, go, post, and interact. It should be off-da-hook. Awesome.
In addition to all my normal robust and amazingly trivial posts, I am going to post news stories, political windfalls, and or basically anything that stirs the pot so to speak that I think my readers would be interested in adding their two cents to. I would like get folks involved so they can speak their minds, find out what other people think and more or less stay informed. To kick things off in this section I would like to see what people think about this news story (I know it is a few days old, but it is still worth exploring).
The Independence Day Contest
I have been uber swamped lately and I didn't post an update, but I wanted to let those folks still in contention know where they stand as we head down the stretch. Amazingly, there has been some changes to the leaderboard. The top three bloggers up until today are:
Kim, has made some huge strides as of late and the last few days will prove to be pivotal. Some advice; digg, stumble and otherwise promote your remaining blog posts...any sort of exposure will be key. Best of luck and I can't wait to annouce the winner. At the end of the contest, I will spread link love through the valley of blogger-dom. It will be a fantastic celebration and truly there were no losers.
Newsletter
I am about to release my July Newsletter with some exciting results on how much money I made during the month of June and how I went about doing so. Are you as anxious to find out the BuzzFuse results as I am? Word.
I am leaving for Atlanta today to participate in a video shoot. Yep, you heard that right. Me. Video shoot. I am working with Graco on a great project along with some other bloggers. The project will be off the hook, by in large due to my participation, and as soon as I have time I will post all the details of both my trip and the actually project itself.
In My Stead
Over the next couple of days I leave you in the willing and capable digits of one Pete J from MyGpsCameraPhone. Pete is a close bloggy friend of mine and I trust him like I trust myself (see not very much at all). He will continue the tradition of Joeprah by delivering mediocre content. Mediocre, which Pete will assuredly exceed, will actually be a step up, so you may be begging for Pete to stay on full-time.
Contest Winner
I didn't forget. I used my webcam this morning to tape the drawing and I used one of my daughters to choose the winner. The video wouldn't upload although I tried as hard as one man can to upload it. I feel Blip.Tv was afraid of its intrinsic awesomeness, which is understandable. Anyways, you are going to have to trust me when I say that the winner was Smoochie Frog. I will post the video someday...as long as Blip allows for amazing videos to see the light of day. As for the next contest, I will post the details either when I return on Thursday or next Monday. Stay tuned as I have some amazing stuff to give away over the course of the next few weeks. I am totally serious.
I think everyone that reads my blog is a super star to some degree. First, they have put up with how quirky it is. Slow page loading times (a thing of the past I hope, see next post) and obnoxious colors--not to mention how stuck on myself (rightly so) I am. So, if you are reading this, take a bow. Now, there are some elite Joeprah followers that not only stomach my daily diatribe, but they actually think it to be noteworthy--so noteworthy in fact, that they have deemed it acceptable to don me with awards. I would like to call these folks "Super-Dee-Duper-Stars." First, I got a really cool mention from Penny over at Cafe at the End of the Universe, then HuckDoll, this was followed by Christine at Serenity How recognizing my awesomeness, and, to top it off, not one but two awards. Now, these award givers have crazy good taste and I'm just saying, "They're right to acknowledge my smooth ways." There is this rockin' award from Rachel at A Southern Fairy Tale:
It is totally homemade and really cool because it has the tell tale pinkness of a mom blog. And not to be outdone, we have Tara from If Mommy Says Ok dropping some more hardware on ol' Joeprah:
I just wanted to say "You're Right," to everyone that took time to write about me on their blogs and for correctly noticing how insanely amazing I am. Thanks! Carry on.
News Panel
In this section of Joeprah you will be whisked away to all the side splitting posts that made this site what it is. Videos, photos, articles--this stuff is just funny.
Is your blog a 'can't miss blog?' Drop me a
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and tell me why and you may find yourself here during the next update.
I have opinions on all things--especially products. Check out my newest section to see what owns and what doesn't--according to Joeprah.
Let me set the stage for you, it is around 10:30 PM and I am pluggin’ away on my blog.I am in the morning room of our house and my wife is in the nearby family room.I am about to write another masterpiece and then I hear it--the unmistakable sound of estrogen-fueled-poorly-written-dialogue.This sound is way more disturbing to me than fingernails ran across a blackboard.The Lifetime Channel is on and my wife is watching another “Made for TV” movie that, on top of being written by women who think all men are evil, is as laughable in the acting department as it is in the writing.Each time I hear melodramatic music playing and a heroine sob I get about as annoyed as a Swiper the Fox at a snapping convention (see really annoyed).Now, let me be clear, I love my ladies and I empathize more with women now, being a stay at home dad, than I have ever before.I am pro-women.Women rule. What I do not like is mushy gushy, insult your intelligence plots with B-actors and actresses delivering performances slightly better than the voice over talent deliverd in the “Dragon Tales” studio.My performance as a blogger drops intensely whenever I am within earshot of the Lifetime Channel just out of pure frustration as the chart below details.
Typically, I can type around 70 words per minute (wpm) when I am in the groove.That tally may either sound awe inspiring to some of you or pathetic and I can insure you that it is the latter.When I hear the Lifetime Channel everything changes, it's like I am turning into the Incredible Hulk. All my neurons begin to fire sending neurotransmitters across synaptic gaps all with one purpose--to belittle the show my wife is watching. I know she enjoys my witty jabs at her shows expense, why else would she put them on time and time again. As you can see from the chart, I abhor the Lifetime Channel and although I can’t stand CSI and Law and Order, they are no match for the mind numbing idiocy that I hear when my wife puts on good ol’ channel 31.I am not sure what channel the Lifetime Channel is in your viewing area but I will forever view the number 31 (ironically the reverse of lucky 13) as second only to 666 when it comes to being a harbinger of bad stuff.
I could continue on for longer than most people could justify as to why the LC is wicked dumb butI will stop here and find out what other folks have to say on the topic.Do you watch the LC?Are you stupid?Then why are you watching it?Nothing else on?Still, why?Oh, you’re drunk, but still, why?You need to see how it ends?It ends with a sappy/corny/wish you hadn’t watched up to this point ending followed by credits.There, I saved you the trouble now all you have to do is write a comment that says “Thank You Joeprah.”Word.
So, by now most of you stay at homers have seen or heard, as you planted your child in front of the TV, the Nick Jr. show called The Wonder Pets. At first glance one would think that this show would make you want to invent a harder way for changing channels, but I'd have to say, after seeing how my toddler gets a kick out of this show, that it definitely has staying power. Lets examine the key elements of a good "kid show" from a stay at home dad's perspective:
It is engaging enough to have your child excited to watch it thus freeing you up momentarily
It has an original format based on creativity instead of using some canned kids show formula based on statistics (ie Handy Mandy = Bob the Builder + Dora the Explorer)
It has music that is soothing enough to nap to for both parents and children ( critical, most important feature )
Subconsciously teaches while making children happy
It has original characters
Catchy music that won't (key) drive you crazy when you sing it
(Most Importantly) A duck
Happily, all these categories are able to be checked off with the show Wonder Pets. There are two songs that are used in the show and both are quite hypnotic allowing a tired child to be pushed over the edge into a full blown nap. I have found myself humming or singing both songs throughout the day and refreshingly I have not wanted to set myself on fire for doing so. Below I have displayed where The Wonder Pets fall on the Joeprah-Kid-Show-O-Meter scale of annoyingness.
If you have not fallen asleep to The Wonder Pets then I highly recommend it, you won't be dissapointed.
If you like these movies you will love the video section.
Who is Joeprah? I am a stay at home dad to three daughters. I have an amazing wife, and under the direction and encouragement of close friends, I started this site over a year ago. You can follow me at The Examiner.com, Twitter, Stumble Upon and Cre8Buzz. Read more...
In this section
Let me set the stage for you, it is around 10:30 PM and I am pluggin’ away on my blog.
Typically, I can type around 70 words per minute (wpm) when I am in the groove.
Who is Joeprah? I am a stay at home dad to three daughters. I have an amazing wife, and under the direction and encouragement of close friends, I started this site over a year ago. You can follow me at The Examiner.com, Twitter, Stumble Upon and Cre8Buzz. Read more...