Aloha Friday Archives - Page 12 of 34

Aloha Friday: Movies, Kids, and Cursing

December 2, 2011 TechyDad Aloha Friday, Movies, NHL

During Thanksgiving, sometime between the end of the meal and the beginning of dessert, everyone split up to do different things. I sat down and searched for something interesting on TV. That’s when I spotted it. Ghostbusters. Sure, it was on a non-premium cable channel and, thus, censored, but still – It’s Ghostbusters!

As I settled in, NHL and JSL began to inquire to see what I was watching. At first, they were upset that I wasn’t watching one of *their* programs. How dare dad not keep the TV glued to Nick Jr even when they weren’t in the room. But then B told them of Stay Puft. After that, they kept bugging me as to when the giant marshmallow man would appear. When he finally did show, they cheered at his appearance and over his destruction and spillage on top of Walter Peck.

In short, my kids were instant Ghostbusters fans. I had a quandary, though. Dare I show the full, uncensored Ghostbusters to NHL? JSL might be too young, but NHL might love it. On the other hand, I worried. Not about the violence, but about the cursing.

NHL has heard cursing before. I’m sure he’s heard it in his school and he’s heard a word or three pop out of B’s mouth. (I’m a bit of a freak in that I never curse… Well, except for that one time I tried to get a reaction out of my friend by saying the C word which caused him to almost drive off the road. Reaction achieved!) But would NHL’s watching of movies with curses cause his language to reach for the potty? Is he, at 8, too young for movies with salty language?

My Aloha Friday question for today is: How old do you think a child should be before they watch a movie that contains cursing?

P.S. If you haven’t already, go visit FollowerHQ and let me know what you think of my Twitter application.

P.P.S. For a bit of fun, try my other Twitter Application, Rout. It’s a +F in Fun!

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #116

Aloha Friday: Thanksgiving Food Memories

November 25, 2011 TechyDad Aloha Friday, Food, Holidays

As I sit here writing this post, my stomach is filled to the brim. I couldn’t eat another bite. I’ve indulged in turkey, gravy, cranberry sauce, sweet potato casserole, stuffing, Asian salad, chocolate rugalech, pumpkin chocolate chip cake, and dark chocolate peanut butter banana ice cream. I can’t eat any more. I can’t even think about food.

Ok, maybe I can think about food a little bit. Thanksgiving, to me, always means certain dishes. It just doesn’t feel like Thanksgiving otherwise. Of course, one is turkey and another is stuffing. The dish that most says “Thanksgiving” to me, though, is sweet potato casserole.

Growing up, my mother and I seemed to have a ritual. Every year, she would make a sweet potato casserole topped with marshmallows. Every year, I would eat the marshmallows and leave the “yucky” sweet potatoes behind. Every year, my mom would bug me to try a little bit of sweet potato. I never would.

One year, I had enough of being bugged. I decided to just give in, take a taste, and show my mother just how disgusting those sweet potatoes were. I took a small bite and… loved them! I couldn’t believe how great they tasted. I went from skimming the casserole for the marshmallows to eating the whole thing. (My portion, that is, not the entire casserole.)

My Aloha Friday question for today is: What Thanksgiving food brings back memories?

P.S. If you haven’t already, go visit FollowerHQ and let me know what you think of my Twitter application.

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #115

Aloha Friday: Man Enough To Cry

November 18, 2011 TechyDad Aloha Friday, Emotions

There are days when the various pressures I face get to be too much. Though I try to keep a strong, stable face to the world, I’ll often feel like I just want to retreat to a dark corner and cry for a few hours. With that feeling invariably comes a small voice that tells me “Real men don’t cry. Real men hide their feelings and show as little emotion as possible.”

I know that society tells us that men who cry are wimps and guys who push their feelings down deep are strong, but I think it’s the other way around. I’ve done the whole hide-what-you-are feeling thing. It doesn’t make you strong. It just makes bad feelings fester in you until they either explode or poison you (or your relationships). I think men who are comfortable enough to cry are the stronger of the two groups. They’re the ones who stand up to the Real Man Stereotype and shatter it.

My Aloha Friday question for today is: Do you think any less of a man if he admits that he cries? Also, have you ever felt like hiding in a dark corner and crying? What do you do when you feel this way?

P.S. If you haven’t already, go visit FollowerHQ and let me know what you think of my Twitter application.

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #114

Aloha Friday: Farewell, Netflix DVDs

November 11, 2011 TechyDad Aloha Friday, DVDs, Netflix

After Netflix shot itself in the foot repeatedly, we began to reassess our subscription. I still think that both the streaming and mailed DVD offerings are nice. I like the immediacy of streaming and the depth of their DVD selection. However, given the recent price hike combined with economic circumstances, we just couldn’t keep both. In the end, we decided to keep streaming (for now) and get rid of our DVD queue. (We’ll just rely more on free DVD rentals from our local library.)

Although our DVD plan has ended, Netflix allows you to keep your DVDs out for a limited time before sending them back. Currently, we have Captain America: The First Avenger and one of the Batman: The Animated Series DVDs. By Saturday, we should be done with these and ready to send them back. Then, our mail will no longer see any of those little red envelopes. Part of me is really sad about this.

My Aloha Friday question for today is: Do you subscribe to a DVD rental service (either Netflix or some other? If Netflix, has the recent price increase made you change your subscription?

P.S. Happy 111111 Day. Or, if you know binary, Happy 63 Day!

P.P.S. If you haven’t already, go visit FollowerHQ and let me know what you think of my Twitter application.

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #113

Aloha Friday: Follower Habits

November 4, 2011 TechyDad Aloha Friday, FollowerHQ, Twitter

On Tuesday, I launched FollowerHQ to help Twitter users manage their followers. I’ve heard that many people follow back whenever anyone follows them (usually via automated tools), but I never saw the use in that. If I auto-followed everyone, I’d probably wind up not caring about most of the updates in my stream. I’d also likely wind up following a bunch of spammers. Instead, I tend to review each person who follows me to see if I want to follow them back. The tediousness of this procedure led me to create FollowerHQ.

I have two Aloha Friday questions for today: First of all, do you auto-follow-back? Secondly, have you tried FollowerHQ yet and, if so, what did you think of it?

Come to think of it, that’s kind of three questions.

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #112

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