Honea Express

Posts Tagged ‘Video’

It’s almost spring, and that means it is in the air. Almost. Or maybe someone is just having a barbecue. Sometimes it is hard to tell with things in the air.

Spring, as you know, is when a young beagle’s heart turns to eggs. Also, roller coasters. That’s why the Easter Beagle (aka Snoopy) and his friends at Knott’s Berry Farm theme park in California (about ten minutes away from Disneyland) are hosting “Knott’s Spring Fling” with activities and decorations that the whole family will enjoy (even the dog, apparently).

My family has been invited by GigaSavvy to attend Knott’s Spring Fling, and so can you! I am giving away two (2) tickets to Knott’s Berry Farm to one (1) lucky reader. Are you feeling lucky?

To enter do this stuff: Read the rest of this entry »

If I’ve learned anything from the wonderful video that Philips Norelco has created to showcase the New Face of Dad (without product placement!) it’s that most of us would be better off making wonderful audio. Don’t hate us because we’re not pretty.

We, meaning Jim from Bobble Head Dad, Clay from Dad Labs, Jon from Blurbomat, and Seth, The Didactic Pirate are, however, a good group of guys doing our best to support fatherhood, bust stereotypes, and love our kids with everything we’ve got. I’ll take that over good looks any day.

The video can be viewed below (or on YouTube):

And that’s not all! The guys spent countless hours (really) sharing their stories for you (they’ve been edited down), the audience, and they are touching, funny, and great examples of the new face of dad, which, as far as I know, is not proprietary.

Please check them out: Jim Higley, Clay Nichols, Seth Taylor, and Jon Armstrong. They are the new face of dad. I have an extended dance-mix, too:

Philips Norelco and Doug French, the man that helped make it all possible, hosted a Twitter party last night to launch the video, and the response was humbling in its support. That’s a good thing for dads.

I want to thank Philips Norelco for sponsoring this post and the videos above. If you are on the Facebook you should visit them and give them some Like.

The boys are home sick today. One is legit. One is an opportunist. The sick one is actually feeling much better (UPDATED: Now the fever has turned into a bunch of snot and a hacking cough, which is awesome), but the school won’t allow him to return until he goes 24 hours without a fever (Pringle lovers excluded). The opportunist played the right card at the right time, and seeing as the dealer was fighting his own fits of fever, he took the hand. I’m the dealer in this scenario (see, fever-induced ramblings). Stay off drugs, kids.

Basically, we’re going into extended weekend mode, indoor version. Put Flood on repeat. Release the Legos.

An aside — This literally just happened as the song Istanbul was ending:

Z: If they leave why can’t they go back?

A: Because Istanbul changed its name.

Z: To what?

A: I don’t know. New York maybe.

Stay in school, kids!

When I was at the Dad 2.0 Summit in Austin (my recap, DadCentric recap, and the one where I was quoted) I had the rare opportunity to meet a LEGO Master Builder named Chris, a second-generation Master Builder no less (there are only seven people holding that rank). He told me about his passion for building with Legos when he was a kid and, I’m totally paraphrasing here, how his dad was so supportive that he went out and became a Master Builder himself (Chris followed when he was older). That is so much more refreshing than the stereotypical parent response about being practical and the confines of reality. It was downright inspiring.

He told me about a new Lego website called Build Together which has all kinds of activities for parents and children to do together. And then we did them. Apparently Chris has Jedi-like powers.

Our favorite part of BuildTogether.com is that it gives instructions on additional items that can be built from existing sets. That is, if you own a LEGO set that builds A, they give you instructions on how that same set can also build B. My only suggestion to LEGO is that they list items by set required than additional items created as we kept clicking on things that looked cool only to realize that we didn’t have the set needed. If we could click on the sets we know we have and then see the additional items that would save a lot of apologies and heavy sighs.

I do like that LEGO is featuring fathers in a non-doofus role, which is something of a hot topic these days, rightfully so. However, I feel that I must go on record as saying that my wife does a lot more of the actual LEGO building than I do. That is, she’s more of an analytical type and helps the boys with items straight from the box. I’m more of a “hey, let’s make random stuff out of whatever bricks happen to be in front of me” kind of guy. It takes all kinds.

And we’re the kind that build together. Which is a good place to stop writing and get back to the fun.

Disclosure: Would you believe this post is not paid for or sponsored by LEGO? Sure, I told them I would write about BuildTogether.com, and we do have some very awesome things planned together, but this post was all me — and the kids. True story.

Blogging hasn’t made me rich, unless you’re one of those saps that thinks friends make you rich, then sure, I’ve made a few bucks. But here’s the thing, friends don’t pay the rent, unless they are really great friends, which I’m sure some of them are. Call me!

What blogging has done, in addition to the many friends I’ve met (especially the great ones), is allow me opportunities that I never would have had with a regular job like a job. For instance, in the past year I’ve drank too much whiskey while talking to Bog Iger in Hawai’i, chatted with Steve Whitmire (Kermit the Frog) while hanging out at Jim Henson Studios (get The Muppets on DVD/Blu-ray tomorrow!), and watched my oldest son get his Jedi on at Skywalker Ranch. All of these experiences (and more!) have been incredible opportunities and I am thankful for them. Sure, they were the result of lots of hard work, and they themselves resulted in even more hard work, but every single one of them has been worth it. And then some.

Which leads me to my next great adventure: Next month I will be Disney’s guest at Pixar Studios in Emeryville, CA, and all will be right with the world. Well, my world anyway. I don’t know what you’re into.

I’m fully aware that you probably hate me a little bit right now, and I can say, with all honesty, I’m okay with that.

The trip includes a tour of Pixar Studios, a screening of Disneynature’s Chimpanzee (in theaters on Earth Day), a sneak peak of Pixar’s Brave and La Luna (the Oscar-nominated short to be shown before Brave), and a day at the wonderful Walt Disney Family Museum, which I just took my son to for his report on Walt Disney because I’m THE. BEST. DAD. EVER. True story.

You still hate me. I can feel it.

Here’s where you, the reader, come in. If you have any questions for Mark Andrews, the director of Brave, or any of the film’s animators, then please leave them in the comments below and I will ask them (unless your question sucks) during the interview process. It’s just like being there! Especially for me.

Hey kids, do you have the Facebook? Then you can “Like” Brave, Pixar, and Disneynature at your leisure. You can also like me. You can really like me. But I totally understand if you don’t.

Disclosure: This trip is on Disney’s very kind dime, but the opinions will be mine (something they know quite well).

Are you feeling good in the neighborhood? Are you staying at a Comfy Inn with a bunch of models? Do you like dining at places that aren’t quite Chili’s or T.G.I.Friday’s? Then you, my friend (or random Internet user), are already a winner. Also, giveaway!

I’m giving away a $50 (USD) gift card to Applebee’s, home of hot, horny women (according to the clip below) and great family dining! It’s a win-win!

Here’s how you win: Leave a comment below (one per person please) about your favorite Applebee’s item or Owen Wilson movie.

Business socks:

• You must live in the U.S. because I’m paying for shipping myself and I’m way too cheap to send mail to Canada or any other country that may have an Applebee’s in it (do they have Applebee’s in Canada?).
• You must include a working email address (not in the body of the comment, but when prompted — it won’t be made public).
• On Tuesday, March 6, at 8:00 p.m. PST, I will have one of my kids do something cute in which they pick the winner at random from all eligible entries. Winner will be contacted via said email. If the winner does not respond within 48 hours of receiving the HUGE NEWS, then another winner will be picked (although not in the original cute manner), and so forth and so on until I’ve tried to contact all three of you. Good luck, and may the force be with you.

This contest is courtesy of Gift Cards Rock! an online community for people who love to give and receive gift cards (you know who you are). You can also get more gift cards for Valentine’s Day* at your grocery store.

*This giveaway was supposed to be for Valentine’s Day, because who doesn’t love a romantic dinner at the ‘Bee’s? However, due to family matters (if I may, a sincere thank you for all of your kind words in that regard) I missed the allotted post time. Please apply the above statement to the special occasion of your choice.

Disclosure: The good people at Gift Cards Rock! sent me a $25 gift card that I used earlier this month. It wasn’t to Applebee’s, but we still managed to enjoy ourselves.