Funny track

Flight of the Conchords... Business Time. You have to listen to the whole song... it made me laugh out loud at work.

For those with daughters...

and those who want to understand women better. Last night I finished a book I'm going to recommend to anyone who now has or may have daughter(s). The book, by Meg Meeker, was Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters: 10 Secrets Every Father Should Know, I think the part about 10 secrets makes it sound gimmicky but don't let that discourage you. You can even get an excerpt here if you want to read some without buying it, or just use your local library like I did.


As far as the book itself... it was a very compelling read. The author draws on twenty plus years as a medical doctor to give you a health shot of nightmare fuel. She tells stories that will make you want to find a rusty dull knife that will come in handy so you can be whittling with it on your front porch when your daughter's dates come over, making sure he gets a good look at it. The gist of the book is that fathers underestimate their importance in the lives of their daughters. The good news is that after see tries to make you wet yourself thinking about your daughter's future, she also does a nice job talking you back from the ledge.

The best part of the book is that she focuses on straight talk and doesn't care about trends, or political correctness, or any of that stuff. She wants fathers to do everything in their power to keep their daughter healthy and safe and she doesn't sugar coat anything. She wants dads to know the hard work ahead, and to understand the rewards. She does a good job of explaining the difference in male and female psychology... so you might have a better idea why it sometimes seems every woman you've ever know is at least a little bit crazy (no offense ladies). I kind of wish I had read this while I was still dating even so I would have better understood the pressures that women feel. She really puts the emphasis on being a good dad through... establishing a structure of rules/expectations, consistent enforcement, and the (and this is a real shocker) spending time with your daughter. A novel approach, right?

Meeker takes a pretty conservative viewpoint on a lot of things, so not everyone will love all her ideas. You might be rubbed the wrong way if you're into feminism or way into political correctness, as these are things she feels do not always best serve your daughter. I feel the book is well done, and has ideas I think everyone would find useful even if you don't agree with everything she says. The book is also a really quick read, so I think it is well worth the time invested in the reading.

Basic Instructions

In my quest to provide links to all things funny on the internet I bring you... Basic Instructions! Another awesome webcomic, enjoy a recent comic that is pretty funny. Notice his face in the third panel... Sarah really cracked up about this, and if you read the comments on this strip she wasn't the only one. Here's a recent one that I liked.
Not much else going on this week, I've actually been pretty busy with some other stuff so haven't had as much time to do blog stuff. On a more serious (because the book is a serious one) note I'm reading a good book right now that I'll probably try to post about next week, so look forward to that.

Here's one idea

Here's part a column I read today, I thought readers of this blog might find interesting. This is taken from Bill Simmons, aka The Sports Guy from Espn.com. In the column he makes predictions based on the Vegas lines for the games. Here's this weeks write up about the Lion's game.

LIONS (+10) over Vikings
So, here's my plan that I hatched during an unfathomably depressing Thanksgiving game in Detroit: If the state of Michigan were a struggling athlete, we'd say, "Man, he needs a change of scenery." Well, why can't we give Michigan a change of scenery? What if we sold Michigan to Canada since it's right on their border?

Think about it. Canada gets the spiritual lift of purchasing one of the 50 states, as well as musicians like Kid Rock, Bob Seger and Eminem, a second NBA and MLB team, an entry into the Big Ten, another NHL team, its first NFL team and, of course, more territory. Canadians would be flying high ... so high they wouldn't even mind that they were now involved in the WNBA. Meanwhile, America would escape billion-dollar buyouts for the car companies, and if we need a 50th state, we can always use Puerto Rico as long as it doesn't put us over the luxury tax. Michigan natives get universal health care, a fresh start and a chance to feel like they're spending more money than usual with the Canadian dollar. Everyone wins! I'm a genius. Just wait until I become Sports Czar and I talk my man Barry* into this.

*Not to insult your intelligence but if you didn't know he's referring to Barrack Obama, who used to go by Barry, and that Barrack will make a new post for a Sport Czar.

Interesting, and kind of funny... also a little depressing. Feel free to comment.

Want to learn a new language... or brush up on one you know? Try this website. It was started in Japan to teach Japanese people to speak English but has grown. It is still most useful for English and Japanese, but if you dig around you can find other languages too. I'll be sending invitations to you guys too, so we can be "friends" on there... because my ego is fragile and I need reassurance.

A follow up of historic proportions

I wanted to add my own two cents about the alternate history park. After giving it some thought the first thing I realized is there is no wrong answer here... is there a time in human history that wouldn't be better with some dinosaurs thrown into the mix? I guess the only answer that is not a good one is a specific time and location that puts them in too close a proximity to me, otherwise when it comes to alter-dino history count me in for any era. Now, I know that's not why you're reading this... so far all I have done is state the obvious, oh course a dino-human history is more interesting than the real one. So without further ado my take. What about the new world... like when Columbus arrived. I like this one because it works two ways... what I mean is do you think Columbus and the subsequent conquistadors would have been so excited with making land fall if he'd been greeted by some Aztecs riding on the back of a freaking triceratops? Yeah I think they'd have filled their Spanish pantaloons and turned it back around. I guess I'm saying I think dinos beat small pox and gunpowder. On the other hand think how motivated the old-school European powers would have been to try to harness the raw dino-power to unleash on each other back on the continent. It would have been awesome to watch them try to rig some boat capable of bring dinosaurs back across the Atlantic. I know it probably wouldn't have been possible, but if they were gullible enough to think they'd find the fountain of youth or a city made of gold you know these guys would have tried anything. Good times. Anyway I appreciated all the comments and answers so feel free to continue to discuss this important topic.

I guess the future could be cool with dinosaurs too... and if for those of you who were wondering, the answer is yes; I only said that so that I could put this picture. Enjoy.

Back in the saddle

Well, faithful readers I'm back from a longer than expected vacation, and ready to crank out some posts for your reading pleasure. Sarah did a nice write up of the family vacation to Chicago, so click here to read that. I thought I'd add a track from James Hunter, and some tidbits about the trip. First the track. It's Jacqueline and it's catchy. James is a great guitar player, and his band is really good. They even got me liking saxophones... that's saying something that they could undo the damage done by Kenny G. The live show is a lot of fun. Those of you who know me probably know that while I like the blues it's typically not my favorite. But I really like the CD, and the show so go to the James Hunter website here, listen to the CD (you can listen free) and if you like it buy it then go to one of the shows if he's coming anywhere near you. He'll be in Austin in February so I think we'll be heading out to see the show. Anyway, I don't mind plugging the band or the shows because they are really good and were such nice guys. It really was an awesome experience.

The rest of the trip was a lot of fun, I love Chicago. The location of our hotel was fantastic so we were definitely in the middle of the action of the big city. It's funny when you stay at hotels you otherwise wouldn't/couldn't afford. It makes me feel like a fish out of water sometimes, but it doesn't take long for me to embrace the good life.

I also have a new life lesson. When on the road, no matter how tasty, don't get a doggy bag for Thai curry. I'll leave it at that, but the trip went smoothly until I finished up my leftovers... or I guess you could say they finished me.

As soon as we got back and I'd had a day or two to recover we were back on the road. This time driving up to Oklahoma City to visit Sarah's family for Thanksgiving. It was a good trip, but I was remind how much I hate traffic and how crowed Texas is. People, don't move here... just don't. I know you think Texas is big, but don't bother coming here there's no space so just stay home. Seriously though road trips with young kids are not fun when you're in a freeway style parking lot for hours at a time. I was going to start a protest group and march on the capitol, but then I remember what a hassle getting downtown is with all the people and how there's never any parking, so anyway...