Aloha Friday Archives - Page 8 of 34

Aloha Friday: Own The Strange

May 18, 2012 TechyDad Aloha Friday, Geeky Pursuits, Life

The other day, I came upon a question that asked if someone was strange. It puzzled me so much that I asked B: "What do they mean by strange?"

Perhaps they meant that a person likes to read about esoteric subjects when most folks select their books from the New York Times Bestseller list. Or maybe if the person enjoys cartoons involving superheroes over football and other sports programs, they are strange. Some people might consider it strange if a person would rather spend time by themselves on the computer instead of going to a bar with friends.

Personally, though, I wouldn’t. I would say that these people care more about pursuing their own interests than fitting in to what their peers expect of them. Far from an alarming trait, I’d call this healthy. If anything, I’d be more worried about someone who forgoes his real interests because he doesn’t want to be seen as different.

The more I thought about it, the more I wondered: Why is being strange a bad thing? Plenty of great and interesting people are strange. Look at Jenny Lawson (aka TheBloggess). How popular would her book/website be if it was about her perfectly ordinary, not strange in any way life? Would CakeWrecks be as funny if the cakes they presented were plain sheet cakes with no distinguishing features to set them apart from the crowd? Would people know who Jim Henson was if his life’s ambition was something more normal than making hunks of fabric speak? Where would Bill Gates be today if he stayed away from those "strange computer things" and took a more normal-for-the-time career path? Would Lady Gaga be as popular if she wore only grey dresses and sang monotone songs about boring subjects?

I decided that it was time to stand up and be counted. I don’t choose my interests by what is popular. I follow my own path even when I’m the only one taking it. I’m strange and I’m proud of it!

My Aloha Friday question for today is: Do you consider yourself "strange" and why?

P.S. If you haven’t already, try out my Twitter applications: FollowerHQ and Rout.

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 #139

Aloha Friday: Solo Movie Night

May 11, 2012 TechyDad Aloha Friday, Movies, Superheroes

My boys love comic book superheroes. We watch Ultimate Spider-Man, Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, and other shows featuring super-powered individuals fighting evil. With the Avengers movie in theatres, you’d think I’d be dragging them to see it. Unfortunately, the live action Avengers movie (like the Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America movies before them) are a bit too much for an 8 year old and a 4 year old.

Meanwhile, B isn’t a very big superhero fan so she has no interest in seeing this movie. I had pretty much resigned myself to catching it on DVD, but then I got to thinking. I’m a man in his mid-thirties, not some teenager without a date on Saturday night. I don’t need someone with me to prove anything to anyone. Why can’t I go see the movie alone? (Of course, finding the time to get out to actually see the movie is another story.)

My Aloha Friday question for today is: Have you ever gone to see a movie all by yourself?

P.S. If you haven’t already, try out my Twitter applications: FollowerHQ and Rout.

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 #138

Aloha Friday: Lost and Found

May 4, 2012 TechyDad Aloha Friday, Disney, DisneySMMoms, NHL, Travel

Packing is always a stressful endeavor. Packing for a return trip from Disney World is especially stressful. And what happens when you are packing some remaining items early in the morning after getting way too little sleep when you need to leave to return home in an hour and a child’s favorite stuffed animal is missing? Apparently, that’s when my brain locks up.

NHL has a "travel buddy" that he takes with him on every trip. It’s not something he sleeps with every night at home, but he likes taking it with him on vacations. Unfortunately, this seemed to have disappeared a few nights ago and we only realized it as we were ready to leave. Fortunately, when I called the front desk of Disney’s Yacht Club, they mentioned that they never throw anything out. Unfortunately, their lost and found department didn’t open until 8:30am and our Magical Express pickup was at 7:30am. So I left a very coherent voicemail message.

Ok, who am I kidding? I left a semi-rambling description of the lost item followed by my name and my phone number. Well, I tried to leave my phone number. Remember that "brain lock" from before? Well, that happened. Suddenly, I couldn’t remember my number. B tried to help by giving me her number to tell them, but that only confused my locked-up brain more. We hung up (feeling completely embarrassed, of course) and I composed myself. I looked at B’s phone number on my phone as I called back and left a better message.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t think we’d ever see the buddy again. I figured it was gone for good. But, as we approached the TSA carry-on check, Disney called us. They had found NHL’s buddy! They confirmed our home address and told B that they’d ship the buddy to our home. This was a nice, magical resolution to what could have been a very sad end to our Disney trip.

My Aloha Friday question for today is: Have you or your kids ever lost anything on a vacation? If so, did you find it again?

P.S. If you haven’t already, try out my Twitter applications: FollowerHQ and Rout.

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 #137

Disclaimer: We paid for our own trip to Disney World to attend the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration. Though we were given an incredible deal from Disney, they never asked us to blog about this event.

Aloha Friday: Arrrr You A Pirate Fan?

April 27, 2012 TechyDad Aloha Friday, Disney, DisneySMMoms, JSL, NHL, Photos, Smartphone/Tablet Apps

My boys love all things pirates. This is partially (ok, mostly) fueled by Jake and the Never Land Pirates on Disney Junior. So we were very excited when we found out that there would be a Swashbuckler Soiree at the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration.

Since I’m writing this post in advance (from my couch at home, not from Disney), I don’t have any photos of the pirate party. Instead, here are some pirate-ified photos of my boys and I courtesy of the free Android app Make Me A Pirate:

My Aloha Friday question for today is: Do you and your kids like pirates?

P.S. If you haven’t already, try out my Twitter applications: FollowerHQ and Rout.

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 #136

Aloha Friday: Social Fears

April 20, 2012 TechyDad Aloha Friday, Disney, DisneySMMoms, Fear

With the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration approaching, I’m going to soon face one of my biggest fears. No, I don’t mean the Wild Africa Trek’s rickety bridge over the crocodiles (though that’s sure to trigger a big fear too). This is the fear of socializing.

You see, I might seem like quite the extrovert online, but put me in a room full of people, especially people that I haven’t known face-to-face for awhile, and I become a huge introvert. The idea of approaching someone I don’t know and talking to them terrifies me. The possibility that I’ll "introduce" myself only to find out that we’ve met in person before fills me with paralyzing panic.

I’m much more comfortable in the online arena where I can more easily remember if I’ve conversed with a certain user before and take my time to craft my response for maximum wittiness. In many ways, my "online persona" is closer to the real me than my "in-person persona."

I suspect that I’m more extroverted in public than I give myself credit for. While I’ll often feel like the socially stunted high school kid I used to be when dropped into a social situation, I try to keep reminding myself that I’ve grown so much since then. I’ve attended two Disney Social Media Moms Celebrations already (albeit as B’s guest), I attended BlogHer in 2010, and I’ve been in many social situations at work where I spoke with people I didn’t know well. I tell myself that my fears are unfounded, but they still dog me.

However, I’m a big advocate of facing down your fears. I might have a fear of falling, but I’m not going to let that stop me from walking across the bridge on the Wild Africa Trek. Neither will I let my fear of social situations stop me from talking to people at the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration.

Just do me a favor and be patient with me if I introduce myself and we met before, ok?

My Aloha Friday questions for today are: Are you an introvert or extrovert in person? How do you face down your fears?

P.S. If you haven’t already, try out my Twitter applications: FollowerHQ and Rout.

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 #135

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