The StepDude

I started another blog, called The StepDude: www.thestepdude.com

I won't be emailing updates since it's an easy site to remember, and I hope to grow it through other step-parenting and parenting blogs. As much as I like to write about myself, my hope is it will be more topic-based, eventually. I just posted my 2nd entry, and should be updating it weekly at the least. Let's be honest - I'm a new parent and a step-parent. The kids are gift wrapping material for this thing...

More Sea Kittens!

I received some great suggestions for sea kitten menu items & marketing campaigns in that post's comments, plus a play on Arby's "I'm thinkin'..." campaign from Madeline, whom I don't know but is participating in my blog which is great!

So let's continue the fun. "Toonces & Chips" from HPL is my favorite so far, but bring some more suggestions - get creative! I just thought of this one off the top of my head: "Kitty Sticks". See? It's not that hard. And remember, sea kittens = fish, so we're not actually eating kittens (in this country). Comment away!

Cancelled again

Goodbye again to MySpace, this time for good. I recognize and even respect a cultural phenomenon when I see one - COPS, track jackets, "I Brake for Pancakes" suction signs, the Geico lizard - and MySpace certainly is one of the greats. But I haven't cared for at least a year, and the fact that random solicitations and the all important "have you ever"-brand of bulletins are still out there waiting for me was just too much for my conscience. So now I don't have to worry about it.

To the next order of business: based on recent wife, in-law, and friends' conversation history, roughly eleventy-nine people will now cajole me into signing up for Facebook. The main argument "for" Facebook being, "It's sort of eerie - it will suggest friends for you based on your networks, and next thing you know you'll be catching up with Peter from pre-school." First of all, that dude was a narcissist - everything in the world was allegedly his (MINE!) - so why would I care what he's up to? Secondly, I think I do a good job of keeping up with the people I really care about via phone, text, email, blog, and occasionally bumping into them in my house.

Speaking of my house, we are SUCH a 21st Century family. I caught us the other night in the following scenario: Annie was participating in online training on her company laptop, I was on the couch building a new product spreadsheet from my company laptop, Zoey was playing the interactive Littlest Pet Shop game on the Mac, and Preston was downstairs playing Tony Hawk Underground 2 on the PS2. We have up to 4 laptops in the house, a Dell PC, 5 active TVs (3 of them flat screen HD-capable), a Wii, a PS2, an unused PlayStation, all 4 of us have active iPods (plus 2 unused older models), the kids have GameBoys and Nintendo DSs, and we recently obtained four 007-style secret video watches with global GPS and 8-language instant translators! (I made that last one up.) Sometimes, we try and get away from it all by eating dinner together on our holographic, hovering dinner table.

Here's my deal with Facebook: I'm trying to blog more, and I'm pondering if I want to build readership for one of those blogs, and wondering why I would want to do that with the ridiculous amount of material that's out there. It would take more time and mental capacity than I'm currently giving. And I don't know that I want to open a window into the lives of long-gone friends, acquaintances, teammates, classmates, or neighbors. If my wife's recent participation is any indication, catching up with all of them (even if silently, like a virtual voyeur) would take up a lot of that time. Or maybe I don't want to open my own window for all of them. My partial anonymity in this blogosphere is comforting.

What I do know is I'm a sucker for attention and self promotion. Maybe, just maybe, if I receive a flood of comments on this post calling for my entry into the Facebook realm, I might see you there someday soon. For now, I'm going to stop typing and thinking and chuckling at my own jokes and join my wife on the couch to watch some Intervention on A&E. I just thought of a new slogan for that show: "Less depressing than actual addiction, yet half the fun!"

I'll take the Sea Kitten combo

This past Saturday, I was out and about having a "big day" - you know, Home Depot, drop off the recycling, take old clothes and shoes to DI (Deseret Industries... it's the Goodwill of Utah). It was around 1pm and I hadn't eaten yet, but I needed some fuel for my big kitchen counter tile repair grouting project. I realized I was near an Arby's, and the thought of a chicken fingers meal entered my brain...and stayed there. I could smell it, taste it, feel the crispy batter on my tongue.

Back in high school, I played a little sport called "basketball". High school basketball meant plenty of road trips in a van, which meant lots of fast food. One year, on an early season trip to Petoskey (seriously), I remember setting a new precedent for the team by ordering the chicken fingers meal - with Arby's sauce and BBQ for dipping. They all thought I was crazy! Who gets chicken fingers when you can have a Roast Beef, or better yet, Beef 'n Cheddar? But I was so over the roast beef craze. You wanna talk roast beef? You best recognize one of my childhood favorites - Rax. Anyhoo, a few trips later and guess what was all the rage in the b-ball van? Chicken fingers meal, baby.

So I rolls into the Arby's drive thru, tummy rumblin'. I notice the menu board is a bit patchy - a couple of the screens are empty, looks like maybe they're changing over promotions. Who knows. I didn't see the chicken fingers offerings, but this is friggin' Arby's so I says to the box, "I just want the chicken fingers meal, please." The headset-wearer says, "Sorry sir, we don't have chicken fingers" - no explanation, no "we ran out" - just, "we don't have them". This must be a mistake! Defeated, I order a Bacon Beef 'n Cheddar - NO FRIES OR SODA to spite them - and head home with my consolation sandwich. Either that location is going out of business, or there is a serious chicken shortage somewhere. Why is it that on the rare occasions your brain gets fixated on something, you inevitably cannot satisfy that fixation?

On a related note, PETA is campaigning to rename fish "sea kittens". This is not a satire article, they really do. I sort of hope this catches on, just so fast food and restaurant menus can get a little more creative than "fish-wich". I'm thinking "Boots-of-the-Sea Burger", or maybe "The General Bonkers Special".

Some Recent Pics

Starting at Preston's birthday in November thru this past Sunday. Enjoy! (click for larger, the captions tell the stories...)