DadCentric

Family Halloween Costumes: Daddy's Little Vice

Family costumes are a popular part of Halloween. Go to any Halloween party and you're bound to see moms, dads, grandparents, brothers, and sisters working together to make the best group costume that Target can sell. It's sweet. In fact, my own extended family was thinking about going as the cast of Parenthood. Dibs on Coach!

If you need some ideas, this gentleman knows what works:

Booze and smokes were living in perfect harmony long before Wonder met McCartney and/or Sinatra. (Would also have accepted peanut butter and chocolate).

What do you think of this family costume? Is it missing Brother Blunt and Mommy Martini, or do you think they should be in hot water?

Please note, despite the pack of cigarettes, this is not a Herman Cain ad.

Another note, this Friday Funny is actually Jason's find, but his computer is on the proverbial toilet, so long story short, you're welcome.

The Best Halloween-Themed Family Photoshoot Ever

Is Ivan Owen the Greatest Dad Ever? Possibly. The owner of Chain Crafts, an Etsy store specializing in interesting jewelry and armor, got an interesting request from his wife: she wanted to do a Post-Zombie Apocalypse Family Photoshoot. The Owens contacted Bakan Photography, and the results? Awesome. Here's a peek; you can see more at Bakan Photography's blog. (And yes, I'm kicking myself for not thinking of this.)

(Source.)

Posterous: Summer Means SPF - Sharing Privacy Factor

I am not the Family Photographer, for a couple of reasons. First, I take horrible pictures; my attempts to pass off pictures of the tops of my kids' heads as "art" have met with resistance. Second, I'm a bit reluctant to post family photos on The Internets. There's the obvious reason (namely, creepy people who like to collect photos for their own nefarious purposes), and one that I hadn't really thought about until people actually started reading my blog - creepy businesses who like to collect photos for their own nefarious purposes. A few of my blogging friends have had personal photos lifted from their sites and posted on other monetized websites without permission or compensation, and that's why I used to save those pictures for Facebook. But even Facebook isn't 100% secure: like many paid writers, I use it to publicize my online writing, and thus total strangers as well as Friends can get access to my personal pictures. Now, I know Facebook says that you can make your pictures 100% secure, but like many of you I see the constant flow of articles on techy websites about ways that Facebook is trying to work around your privacy settings and it makes me slightly twitchy. 

The folks at Posterous reached out to me (FULL DISCLOSURE: This is a sponsored post, meaning that I got paid to endorse the product, which I do, because I like what it does) about their sharing platform. Posterous allows you to post all kinds of stuff: photos, links, musings, diatribes, and the nice thing about it is that it's simple. And that includes the privacy settings. You can make everything public, or you can make your stuff visable only to Posterous subscribers, or you can password-protect everything and keep out the riffraff. It's easy to set up a page, and the post-via-email function makes it great for busy folks who don't have time to deal with uploads and Albums. Subscribers to your page can opt for an email notification when you post something new; nothing revolutionary, of course, but if you're looking to build a social network of friends and family around your Posterous page, it's a good feature. 

And maybe that's why I like Posterous, and plan on doing more with it. While Facebook is nice, like many of us bloggers who unexpectedly found ourselves in a small spotlight, it's nice to have some exclusive, Members Only Internet space. I take comfort in the fact that when I do end posting blurry, tilted pictures of my kids with their eyes half-closed, I'll actually know the people who'll be making fun of me.

Friday Fun: Untitled

(via Microkosmic)

The Unsustainable Cuteness Bubble and Resulting Photography Glut

It should have been the happiest day of my parenting career.  I had just been tapped by Jason, the Don of DadCentric, to enter the inner circle of the most powerful group blog in the dad-o-sphere.  I was a made man.  The future was spread out before me in a pastiche of Scorcese-esque images: luxurious homes and automobiles, custom-made suits, diamond-encrusted chinchillas for my wife, and a small but swanky apartment for my brassy, psychotic mistress. And of course, only the best boarding schools for my 19 month-old twin girls.

But before plowing ahead with my new life, I had to get my proverbial house in order.  There were bills to pay, travel plans to be shuffled, long-time acquaintances to be snubbed, and tracks to be covered.  Fortunately, my wife takes care of all that shit.  All I needed to do was to back up the data on my iPhone.      

I had bought the phone back in August and blah blah blah boring blah exchanged phone blah blah didn't bother backing it up blah blah boring. So I plugged the phone into my ancient MacBook, and absentmindedly clicked on an option in the dropdown window that had the word "restore" in it, which, my wife later told me (repeatedly because I'm a slow learner), is a code word for "destroy everything you hold dear." 

Toy Story 3 Plays for Keeps

I've had a lot of friends over the years. Together we've saved lives, sneaked across international borders, taken gunfire, worked with children, won championships, lost games, reached milestones and drank ourselves under. I've seen friendships stretch, bend and break. They've ended in fits of passion and faded slowly into the dust of memories. Some have survived things like time and distance and some have grown stronger despite it all.

And then there is Facebook.

So it is with Woody and Buzz and the gang. They've suffered through egos, jealousy and distrust.  They've risked their lives to save one another and they've risked everything to save the happiness of a child.  They've kept John Ratzenberger from slipping off his barstool.

I read somewhere that the respective storylines of the very successful Toy Story trilogy (which, in my humble opinion, ranks among the best trilogies of all time, including the original Star Wars films, Indiana Jones, and the Godfather series) reflected the lives of the many wonderful people at Pixar (and subsequently, Disney) that helped to create them.  Meaning, at the time of the first Toy Story film many of the people involved had young children, and now with Toy Story 3 sending the toys' owner, Andy, off to college, they too are seeing their own offspring packing up and leaving home.

And the tears were sure to follow. 

Filling Spaces With Plastic Rainbows: The Lego Art of Jan Vormann

Our good friend Jett posted a link to this ReadyMade piece about German artist Jan Vormann. Vormann travels the globe in search of cracks, chips, divots, and gaps - and fills them with Legos. We've posted some cool Lego-based stuff here in the past, but Vormann takes the ubiquitous plastic bricks in an unexpected direction. Simple in theory, and so, so cool in execution. 

 

 

Photos courtesy of Mr. Vormann's website, Dispatchwork.

And The Winners of Our Worst Santa Photo Contest Are...

Thanks to everyone who sent in a picture. You're all winners, and you can tell yourselves that when you're taking your kids to the therapist because they keep waking up screaming about the Scary Red Suited Man who's going to drag them down to Hell. Third place will receive a Bugsby Reading System; second place will receive a Jungle Gym Giraffe, and the first place prize is a doozy: a VMotion console and - AND! - a Kidizoom camera! So, without further adieu (well, unless the jump counts as an adieu), here's the Best of The Worst...

Wordless Wednesday: Mourning (Daguerrotype, Year Unknown)

It takes a moment, but the sadness will hit you. Take a good look.

(I got this pic off of the ever-interesting Daddy Types, run by our friend Greg, collector of rare Internet antiquities.)

Our Side of the Mountain

My boys like the complaining.  Car rides are too long.  Walking hurts legs.  This Chateau LeBlanc is supposed to be served slightly chilled, not room temperature.  They never want to go anywhere.  Once they are there they never want to leave.  They never want mustard on their burger unless you make it without it.  They want interest on any money I may borrow. You know, all the standards. It's kind of pathetic.

So it was against all things better judgment and common sense that we took them on a hike.  Their first hike.  A long hike.  A hike filled with switchback trails and steep paths.  A hike that many adults have complained about.  Actually, it was kind of an accident.

Do you know what the boys said?