Howefitz Blog

Martin Luther King, Jr. via last.fm

I recently read a wonderful post by Ron Mattocks at Clark Kent’s Lunchbox about what our hopes teach our children about their futures. Using Martin Luther King‘s ‘I Have A Dream’ speech as a catalyst, Ron tells us stories of his father and the effects his father had on his life and parenting style. It’s great. I highly recommend you head over there and read it.

I have been a fan of Kyle Baker‘s for a while now. Actually, it’s been a decade. I remember seeing a lot of Y2K-themed books in 1999, but ‘I Die at Midnight’ popped from the shelf. It was how I ‘found’ Kyle Baker. The artwork looked more like animation cels than a comic book. And the story of a man who wants to end it all after getting dumped must have struck a chord in my 21 year old heart. The subsequent return of the girlfriend with our hero attempting to vomit the pills he just overdosed on, well, pure comic genius! It is the only Y2K book that I will still pick up and read and enjoy. (You can read the entire graphic novel for free at kylebaker.com!)

I’m so glad today’s FatherHood Friday theme is ‘Books’, because it gives me a chance to review an all-ages comic book I just discovered called ‘Lions, Tigers, and Bears‘.

‘Lions, Tigers, and Bears’ is the story of a little boy named Joey Price. Joey has just moved away from his grandmother who he’s close to, and is scared of being in a new place without any friends. As a going away present, his grandma gives him a set of four stuffed animals called ‘The Night Pride’. The lions and tigers in the set she says will chase the beasties away.

'Aaah, freak out!' Don't let this happen to you!

I took vacation this week and did a lot of house hunting. Right now we’re in a 2 bedroom apartment, which with the approaching birth of my son, will be waaaay too cramped for a family of five! So we’ve been looking for something a little bigger.

We found a townhome that I immediately fell in love with. Nice grassy back yard, another nice grassy area we can play in out front. (with no mowing by me, FTW!) It’s located on a quiet cul-de-sac, so no crazy drivers. 3 bed, 3 bath, fireplace, and a garage. Perfect. The two smaller rooms even already had a pink shade on the window in one and a blue shade in the other!

I’m up way too late, but I have to tell you about a giveaway going on over at the Jolly Mom! They have partnered with Delta Children’s Products in order to give away a toddler bed to one Mom (or Dad, I hope!) of her choice, either featuring Disney’s Fairies or Disney/Pixar’s Cars! Personally, I’m hoping to win the Cars bed, but feel free to enter anyway!

Mine! Mine!

Good Luck! Make sure to stop by JollyMom.com to see how you can get up to eight entries in this giveaway!

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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 Dragon Hunters crew look for the 'World Gobbler' as their planet crumbles around them.

It seems that it’s always on the weekend that I post about children’s entertainment. That’s probably because that’s when we generally watch movies!

Last night’s selection was ‘Dragon Hunters‘, a French computer generated feature film originally titled ‘Chasseurs De Dragons’.

Wall-E dreams of something more...

Wall-E is a fun, thought provoking story of the last robot left active on planet Earth when all the humans leave because they’ve just crapped it up too bad for the planet to be livable anymore. This one small robot is all that’s left to clean up our mess.

Wall-E is that rare find: the film that pays homage to others without seeming pandering or obsessive. Wall-E resembles ‘Short Circuit‘s Johnny 5, but with a much more lovable personality. The guidance computer on the Axiom resembles HAL in ‘2001:A Space Odyssey‘. The main Axiom computer is voiced by Sigourney Weaver, of ‘Alien‘ fame. The list goes on, but I’m sure you’d like to find some for yourself!