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.

This highly successful marketer/business man/author has taught this Daddy Blogger something very important:

I like to think that I’ve optimized my life by using Twitter to update my Facebook, or using Social Oomph to broadcast that I’ve written a new post every two hours on the day it’s posted.

But I still write all of those posts. Each message, even at 140 characters or less, represent time. Time I could have spent with my wife and kids. Time I could have been using improving myself.

My wife and I have discussed these ideas since I began this blog a year and a half ago. I’ve justified that time countless ways. It increases traffic, I’m making friends, it benefits my writing by helping me write quickly and directly.

As life moves forward, I see these justifications less as explanations and more as excuses. Actually, not just as excuses, but procrastination from doing the real work. The real work of finding myself and my family living lives that we can all be proud of.

Blogging and tweeting will slow, but the quality bar will be raised. If you enjoy what you see here, please subscribe to my RSS feed, because I won’t be telling you every two hours that I’ve blogged. Hopefully, I’ll find a voice worth listening to, and like Seth Godin, optimization (i.e. begging you to read me) will no longer be necessary.

You’ll just want to be here.

I’m about to hit ‘publish’ on this post at 11:00 pm on the Saturday night before the final game of the World Cup. I’d say when it comes to non-optimization, I’m off to a great start!

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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:

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This post brought to you by Dad-Blogs' FatherHood Friday. Be sure to swing by for all the other great Dads and Moms who love to share their lives online!

In the spirit of Fatherhood Friday and Week In Review, here’s what’s happening in the Howefitz world:

At the park yesterday, Calli claimed that I was a strong guy because I ‘pick up small childrens’…

Wednesday was Calli’s first day of Tee-Ball! She learned the ‘alligator’ and how to hold the ball, throw it overhand and catch. And even though practice went in to nap time and somebody got a little cranky, we all had a blast! Here are a couple highlights:

Practicing sccoping up the ball with 'the alligator'.

I could totally do 'the alligator'...

Then Calli got ahold of the camera:

'She's only 3, she's probably not even getting a picture of me. I'll just look crazy to play along...'

'Sissy has the camera. Ready penetrating gaze.'

Yesterday, we went to a park in Dillon, CO that we don’t get to very often. Pics!:

Tristin's working on his 'Superman'...

Attempts at a nearly complete family portrait with small children on a bouncy dock in high winds:

After the park, we went to a bookstore where Tristin saw a Batman book. He started shaking his fists in excitement, and, I swear, whispered an excited ‘Baban!’ It was better than if he had said ‘Daddy!’ At nine months, the fanboy training is paying off…

In other news, (Last, but not least) I bought the domain name for my upcoming webcomic. It will be called ‘Howefitz Sequential’, in honor of my web moniker and the more intellectual way of identifying comics: ‘sequential art’ (the art of telling a story in a sequence of pictures and words). Plus it kind of sounds like one of my favorite movies, ‘LA Confidential’, so I’m pretty proud of myself for coming up with it! Don’t visit the site yet, I’m busy building it and completing at least three weeks worth of material before I launch. I’m shooting for an official launch date of July 5. I’ll keep you posted!

Thanks for stopping by, and Happy Fatherhood Friday!

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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!

Calli: Did she have a brother named Tristin?

Me: Yes she did! And he was a Prince! He was as handsome as Princess Calli was beautiful.

Calli: Yeah!

And so on. It’s kind of cool, actually, she makes my job easy!

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As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m playing around with trying to create a webcomic based on my family. I posted my first design of Kat as a manga character on DeviantArt last night, but if you missed the tweet, I’m posting it below. I’m taking my time with this, and I want to have three weeks of the comic done before I launch. But I’ll be posting sketches and ideas at DeviantArt and Flickr, and of course, sharing it all through Twitter and Facebook. So feel free to follow, friend, or fan me to see if my excitement will translate to the electronic page!

Speaking of Kat, we’re in serious crunch time for raising money for her Student Ambassadorship to Australia! They need all the money by May 14! We’re having a garage sale this weekend in a last ditch effort. If you would like to contribute, please see the ‘Chip-In’ badge to the right of the blog. Every little bit is appreciated, and we’ll make sure you get a Howe original thank you note from Kat either from the Land Down Under, or as soon as she gets home!

This post brought to you by Dad-Blogs' FatherHood Friday. Be sure to swing by for all the other great Dads and Moms who love to share their lives online!

Twelve days without a blog post is an eternity in Blog Years. I could come up with a million excuses as to why I haven’t sat down and written anything, but that would go against my latest efforts to be a better Dad and Citizen of the Universe. (You can read about those efforts at my post, 21 Days. No Complaints. No Excuses.)

Let’s just say that life happens. Everything is ok, and soon future posts will give hints as to what I’ve been up to. If you follow me on twitter, you probably already have a good idea…

So don’t cart this blog away just yet, it is not yet dead!

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I’d like to take this opportunity to show off my shiny new donation widget for Kat’s delegation to Australia. From there, we’ll be able to track the progress we’ve made. Thank you so much to anyone who’s already made a donation! If you like more information about this wonderful opportunity for The Teenager, see the following posts:

Fatherhood Friday: Kat’s On Her Way!

FatherHood Friday Quickie: Australia Update

Fatherhood Friday: Week In Review

The Sunday Sermons here at Howefitz Blog are generally intended to explore the philosophies and religions of the world, and to hear your take. Today I’m bending the rules a little, but still discussing a way of thinking that our entire world is possibly embroiled in: that of complaining.

On Thursday, I told you about my attempt at going 21 days without complaining or making excuses. If you missed it, it’s at 21 Days. No Complaints. No Excuses.

I have gotten a lot of positive feedback through the comments and on twitter.

This led me to create a facebook fan page for this very idea. I would invite anyone that has joined me on this journey to fan the experiment and share your experiences.

As for my results? Let’s just say that Thursday was 4 days ago, and I am on day 2 of actually not complaining. That may be because it’s my second day off of work.

Who doesn’t complain about their job, right? That’s where I’ve found that it’s the easiest to break down. I don’t care how much you love your job, you’ll find things that you don’t like. I think this stems from the fact that in most jobs, it’s a team effort, with people making up that team of various skills/competencies. Someone’s bound to do something wrong, or as you would perceive as wrong. Maybe they’re lazy. Maybe they just don’t know.

If you’re not where you want to be in life, stop and ask yourself what the root cause is. Don’t be so quick to blame anything outside yourself. Every where you look, everything is changing. It’s how you deal with that change that matters.

In case you haven’t noticed, this message is just as much to myself as it is to anyone else. I feel like getting this off of my chest, letting the world know how I think, is a form of cathartic release. I can now begin to change myself.

The journey is far from over…

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@KitiaraTomsen He has to watch his Bat-figure! in reply to KitiaraTomsen #

Spending more time reading an actual book than online the past couple days. I may have a fever. I'm sure it'll pass… #

Currently eating a muffin top infused with vitamins. No kidding. http://bit.ly/GvY3g I'm really sacrificing to be healthy here. #

@tysdaddy We pretty much just got sidetracked. Two little ones can do that to you… in reply to tysdaddy #

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@CK_Lunchbox If you're gonna RT one of my posts wait for the one I'm working on now! And 'Broke Back Tweeting'? You've gone too far, sir! in reply to CK_Lunchbox #

@CK_Lunchbox Thanks! I haven't had my coffee either, which is probably why I'm blogging about Mormons… in reply to CK_Lunchbox #

@melisalw Agreed! @CK_Lunchbox #

@DeeshaPhilyaw Thanks. Next week I'll tackle politics. Seriously, thanks for reading! in reply to DeeshaPhilyaw #

@CK_Lunchbox Thank you! I was hesitant to start this, but I must admit, today's responses have been very… encouraging. in reply to CK_Lunchbox #

But of course, @rreimund, we should. Are there any fathers out there having a great #FatherhoodFriday #

@melisalw Yeah, she's great at this stuff. I, however, usually wind up owing more money by the end of the conversation… in reply to melisalw #

He left me off of his "good men" #FF but I think I left him off of my 'cool dudes' list. So I guess me & @johncaveosborne are even! #FF #

@melisalw in reply to melisalw #

@CK_Lunchbox @melisalw @SeattleDad Make mine a Jaeger! #

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@ned_perry Oh, she’ll get hers… Anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering… in reply to ned_perry #

@LiLAsha Glad you liked it! Details on punishment to be determined and revealed at a later date… #

@JRReedradio Have a good one! I’ll be sure to pimp your page while you’re gone! in reply to JRReedradio #

After the wild ride of today, I’m getting an icee. Those who are tracking the progress of my diet: don’t. Not today. I deserve this! #

@jennifer8582 Sounds like your kid’s doing just fine! I’m actually planning my next blog post about that very thing! (shameless plug!) #

@daytonward re: twitter updates: I’m at 2,975 updates. Race ya! (Don’t worry about it, you’re one of the best twits out there!) in reply to daytonward #

Just had to drop the blog post I was writing to take The Teenager and Some Boy to school. Serious crimp in my #FatherhoodFriday style! #

@PapaBradstein LOL! and I thought my name was common! in reply to PapaBradstein #

@comix VINDICATION! My wife’s response? ‘Well, you’re a guy. You can’t deal with distractions! in reply to comix #

@CK_Lunchbox If you’re blushing now, you must not have seen my most recent email yet! in reply to CK_Lunchbox #

@CK_Lunchbox @melisalw I was trying to work the word ‘bromance’ in to a tweet. Glad you guys beat me! #

@melisalw LOL! It’s not any fun without an audience! Whoa. Now I’m creeped out… in reply to melisalw #

@SurprisedMom Yes we do! Thanks for understanding! in reply to SurprisedMom #

@melisalw Ooo! DM me, please! in reply to melisalw #

@CK_Lunchbox Seriously? What are you still doing here? in reply to CK_Lunchbox #

@rreimund Wow! Don’t know if I deserve all that! But, OK, I accept. The world of goodness bounces off me and sticks to you! #ff in reply to rreimund #

@Frumph And thus, the Master becomes the student! in reply to Frumph #

It always makes me happy when I can reference Star Trek in texts to people from work! #

@PapaRocks6 Pandora can be dangerous if you’re trying to be productive, though… in reply to PapaRocks6 #

@SurprisedMom I should tell my wife. She thinks women are better then men at multi-tasking! ;D in reply to SurprisedMom #

@PapaRocks6 I just tried one of the sausages. They are good! I always taste before I serve! in reply to PapaRocks6 #

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@CK_Lunchbox Definitely my pleasure! Working on my own post now… in reply to CK_Lunchbox #

My proficiency in Rhythm Parade on the Wii Fit makes me wonder why I never joined marching band in high school… #

@WeaselMomma @melisalw As long as we're debating twitter apps, I also use @tinytwitter from my phone… in reply to WeaselMomma #

@WeaselMomma You're hubby's a fanboy? Is he on twitter? Can we hang out? in reply to WeaselMomma #

Speaking of acting, Pandora is playing music from 'Braveheart'. Was there a bad actor in that one? (Off screen life aside… ) #

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@twistedxtian …and a couple holes where the plastic doesn't meet the frame, but it's still better than before! in reply to twistedxtian #

@CK_Lunchbox I'm thinkin about starting Bruce Wayne's Lunchbox! http://twitpic.com/y3a01 #

@Psiqueue re: VDay: I can always count on you to make me feel better when I feel like I've gone off the deep end! #

Currently eating an apple and trying to strike poses like Kirk taking the Kobayashi Maru. It's cooler than smoking! #

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