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.

G’Day, Mates! This Fatherhood Friday, I wanted to give you the update on Kat’s Australian adventures!

We’ve been communicating through text and the leader has been emailing us, so unfortunately, there are no pictures yet. They are in and out of phone service, and don’t have access to email very often, but here’s what I know so far:

They have repelled off of the Blue Mountains, swam at the Olympic Park, toured the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Aquarium, visited the Opal Museum, took a cruise of Sydney Harbor, visited the Parliament House, swam at Edith Falls, visited Aborigines, and Kat wrestled a sheep.

Yesterday, because only really important things are put off until the last minute, I called a Travelex in Denver in a panic, ‘Yes, ma’am, do you always have Australian dollars on hand?’ I blurted right after the nice young lady’s spiel about Travelex being the greatest company ever or something.

‘Of course, sir. But it is available on a first come, first serve basis, and sometimes we do run out…’

Oh my God, there had been a run on Australian currency! Poor Kat will be wandering around The Land Down Under without legal tender paying exorbitant ATM fees!!! The horror! The unadulterated horror!!!!

After much deliberation, it has been decided that Joanne Owens (@hangglided on twitter) is the winner of my Sweet As Sugar Milk contest. She’ll be receiving her copy of Sugar Milk in the mail soon, I’m shipping it today! Congrats, and thank you so much Joanne!

With that, I am pleased to announce that through the generosity of my blog readers, friends, family, and a few impromptu garage sales (not to mention most of my tax return), Kat’s trip to Australia with People to People is now reality! She flies out on the 16th for 17 days in the Land Down Under. I can’t believe that it’s that soon! Incidentally, on the graphic above, I found a font on Artweaver called ‘Australian Sunrise’. What else would I use? Here’s a glance at Kat’s itinerary while she’s down there:

Good morning and Happy Fatherhood Friday to everyone! I am very excited to have my good friend, Ron Mattocks, author of the wildly popular fatherhood memoir, Sugar Milk, here for a guest post. Ron’s alias is also Clark Kent of Clark Kent’s Lunchbox, and since you never tug on Superman’s cape, I am going to quickly step aside and let him explain why he’s here:

An Idiot’s Guide To Australia

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:

Since I was a little boy, I’ve wanted to make cartoons. The dream has taken many forms, from animation to comic books. I look at my children today, and I don’t want them to see a man who didn’t accomplish his dreams.

I’ve already detailed here how I’m putting more effort into developing a webcomic based on the very family I hope to make proud, so I hope it will not come as a surprise that my blogging will become less frequent as I focus on my webcomic.

It’s Fatherhood Friday once again, and I’ll get right down to business. I would like to take this heightened traffic opportunity to once again ask for your help.

We just recently found out that Kat needs to finish raising the money for her People to People delegation to Australia by May 14th! If you are able, please make a donation of any comfortable amount by clicking on the Chip-In button to the right of this page. Kat and my wife are working on hand drawn thank you cards that will be sent to you from Australia, time allowing, or when she gets home. If you’ve already donated, you’re already on our mailing list!

What do they say about what the road to Hell is paved with? I had every good intention to knock out a very thought provoking ‘Sunday Sermon‘ today, but I didn’t get all of my research done. In keeping with one of my New Year’s Resolutions, if I can’t post the best entry ever, I won’t. Hopefully I get my act together next week and post something great…

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.