Howefitz Blog

I’m a big fan of Seth Godin‘s blog, conveniently called Seth’s Blog.

Seth recently wrote a post called The non-optimized life.

If you haven’t seen his blog, you wouldn’t call it optimized by any stretch of the imagination. He rarely posts a picture, and when he does it is only to illustrate his point.

He doesn’t allow comments and he doesn’t use excessive links.

He’s a busy man, and it’s a wonder that he blogs at all, let alone daily.

He uses social networking in ways that maximizes his exposure without wasting his time.

Warning: This post begins with a brief Geek Out, than I wax romantic about my wife. Hang in there reader, there something in this post for everybody! (I hope…)

Begin Geek Out

Waaaaay back on May 7, comics theoretician Scott McCloud posted a blog entitled ‘I Love My Wife’ that detailed how excited his wife was to see Iron Man 2, and how pleased he was that she was so excited.

I’m sure their relationship runs deeper than Robert Downey-helmed super-hero flicks, and my wife and I would have seen the flick too if we could afford the cash and time away from the kiddos. As it is, work takes up all the time from the kiddos that I can stand.

Yesterday, I gave a little more details in to the motivations of my creating a webcomic. I honestly thought I’d hit on a new idea: chronicling, with sequential art, the life of a dad and his family. However, in my quest to find knowledge and inspiration, I Googled ‘Daddy Webcomic’, and the screen filled with hits from a site called sillydaddy.net.

I am not alone.

Silly Daddy was/is created by Joe Chiappetta of North Riverside, Ill. I found some interesting facts about Silly Daddy over at the Geek To Me blog at chicagonow.com:

I don’t think a day goes by that I am not amazed at the stories my three year old, Calli, likes to tell. This is how storytime generally goes in my house:

Calli: Daddy, can’t you tell me a story? (This is how she asks for everything now. ‘Daddy, can’t you…’ As if she’s tired of asking.)

Me: What kind of story?

Calli: I don’t know…

Me: OK. So. Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Calli.

Calli: Was she a Princess?

Me: Yes, she was a beautiful Princess!

Today’s kids are spoiled. They can have cartoons 24-7, on demand, no questions asked. Here at Howefitz Blog, I’d like to start  a tradition of making Saturday morning an event again. Cartoons belong on Saturday morning!

Please excuse the crudeness of the above comic. When inspiration strikes, I have to get it down on paper. Since discovering the blogging lifestyle, I now feel like I should share everything online…

If you follow me on twitter, you’ve probably picked up on the fact that I’ve been geeking out on my favorite webcomic, Hijinks Ensue. In fact, I went back to the beginning earlier in the week, and got to the end late last night.

image from squidoo.com

OK, so maybe this post is a little late. As you continue to read, you’ll understand why…

Happy 2010!!! You geeks out there that read this blog know that this is ‘The Year We Make Contact‘!!! Start striking your timpani drums now! So, my first resolution this year is to make friends with some Russians and go to Jupiter to look for monoliths…

All geeking out aside, I have been taking a lot of time to reflect on where I am as a husband, father, employee, and of course, Daddy Blogger. Since you are reading my blog, I am going to focus first on what I will be doing here going forward in this brand-spanking new year, and why you should keep reading!

Candy Candy candycandycandy...

Yesterday I blogged about our Halloween preparations. Last night we got to put that to the test. Could Calli walk up to strangers and say ‘Chick or Cheek’? Or would she clam up and clutch her black kitty bucket tightly to her Wonder Woman insignia? We went to Minturn’s Trick or Treat village to find out.

Every once in a while, a movie comes along, beats you over the head and changes your life.

I personally have had a few movie moments like that. Some of those were in animated films. But I don’t think any of them affected me quite like Disney/Pixar’s ‘Up‘.

I’ve been a Pixar fan since practically the beginning of the studio, when I saw their short ‘Luxo, Jr.‘ in a presentation called ‘Beyond the Mind’s Eye‘ on PBS. My first post on this blog was ‘Wall-E Restored My Faith In Pixar‘. Needless to say I was excited about ‘Up’, I just didn’t realize how excited I should be.

The air smelled of stale pages and small children. The teenagers jostling in to the room reminded me of the wildebeasts that make short work of Mufasa, leaving Simba fatherless. I shed a tear for my daughter Calli and my unborn son. They will never know what it is like to have a father. My oldest, Kat, had betrayed them. She had led me to this pack of wolves, this den of geeky jockularity. I stood before them, notes quivering in my hand.

I was going to teach comic books to teenagers.

Kirby help me.

The smell of stale gym socks infused my nostrils with testoterone and bravado. I had just finished swimming at the rec center and was changing into my dry clothes when a young muscular man struck up a conversation with me.

“Hey how’s it goin’?” he asked.

“Good, you?” I answered. All the fears of high school locker rooms flooded irrationally back. Does this guy want to kick my ass? Why is he talking to me?

“Great!” he answered. “So do you have kids in here?”