Aloha Friday: Why I Wish I Was Going To #BlogHer12

Aloha Friday, BlogHer, Social Media

In under two weeks’ time, BlogHer 2012 will begin.  I really wish I could go.  I went way back in 2010 and had a blast.  I met so many great people, connected with interesting companies, learned a lot of new things, and – let’s face it – left with some really cool swag.  Sadly, I can’t make it this year.  My schedule and finances simply do not allow it.  Of course, this year BlogHer is back in New York City which means it’s a tantalizing three hours away.

Of course, while the swag was cool, I don’t need more miscellaneous stuff.  And the sessions and company connections, while intriguing, aren’t a big enough draw for me.  What I really miss is the opportunity to see some online friends who I’ve never met in person.  In particular, I’d love to meet Anissa Mayhew and JC Little (aka LittleAnimation).

My Aloha Friday question for today is: If you went to a blogging conference and could meet any blogger or anyone active on social media, who would you meet?

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 Friday by Kailani at An Island Life

Aloha #148

The #DisneySMMoms Report: Poolside In Art of Animation, Part 1

Disney, DisneySMMoms, DisneySMMoms2012, Photos

The Disney Social Media Moms Celebration might have been coming to a close, but there was still one more party to attend.  This was going to be a very special one, which is saying something given how wonderful Disney parties are.  We were going to the then-still-unopened Art of Animation resort for a poolside party.

For those who don’t know, the Art of Animation resort sits right across from Pop Century, a favorite value resort of ours.  For the longest time, there was a half-built resort there.  It was supposed to become "The Legendary Years", themed for the 1900’s through 1940’s to complement Pop Century’s "Classic Years" area of 1950’s through 1980’s.  Unfortunately, various circumstances side-lined those plans and the area went uncompleted for years.

Having stayed in Pop Century many times, we were used to seeing this uncompleted resort just over the water.  We were excited to see what they had built.

As we approached, the exterior of the building showed off the fun spirit of the resort and the characters who inspired the various sections.

outside

As you walk into the main building, Animation Hall, you are greeted by the various stages of animation.  There are rough sketches, plenty of colors, and finished products.  On one side is a colorful check-in area (vacant at the time, but by now likely quite busy) and the other side had a cafeteria (again, not operational when we visited it).

inside

Our main focus lay beyond another set of doors, though.  As we exited Animation Hall, we walked into the Finding Nemo section of Art of Animation.  Everything was designed to make us feel like we were under water.  The sides of the buildings showcased underwater scenes, the tops were waves, Crush, Dory, Nemo, Marlin and company were all around us.  Even the seagulls ("Mine?") were there above the tops of the buildings.   In the center was a huge pool.  (Sadly, we weren’t going in it that day.)

lakeside-1 lakeside-2 lakeside-3

As soon as we got our seats (right near the pool), we went to eat.  We had only just entered and the fun was just beginning.

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. All opinions expressed above are my own.

Note: To see all of my posts on DisneySMMoms 2012, go here.

App Analysis: Doodle Bowling

Games, Review, Smartphone/Tablet Apps

Doodle Bowling - Roll Across the PaperWhen I first got my smartphone, I couldn’t wait to download apps.  I’ll admit that the first app I downloaded was a game: Angry Birds Space.  Since that first download, I’ve installed many, many more apps.  A few I use often, some sit on my phone mostly unused, and some were uninstalled rather quickly.  I’ve come to enjoy finding clever, useful, or just plain interesting apps, especially if they are ones that aren’t that famous.

I’m going to begin a series of app reviews.  Some might be ones everyone has heard of and some might be more obscure.  Some might increase your productivity, some might increase your creativity, and some might distract you with fun gameplay.

Though I’ve downloaded many games, I recently realized that I hadn’t gotten any bowling games.  Now, I love bowling.  Some of my fondest memories of my grandfather are of him attending my bowling league games and giving me advice… and then giving the other team advice when I refused to listen to him.  It’s the sort of thing that was annoying then, but makes me sentimental now.

Doodle Bowling - Pins Fall Down and Go Boom!So off I went to the Google Play store to look for a bowling game.  There were many to choose from, but one leapt off the page, so to speak: Doodle Bowling.  When you load up Doodle Bowling, you are presented with some graph paper and a crudely drawn ball.  At the far end of a pair of lines are ten pins.  You "pick up" the ball by pressing on it and then flick your finger upwards to launch it at the pins.  In addition, by rapidly swiping your finger left or right, you can put some spin on the ball and direct when it finally ends up.  As the ball hits the end of the lane, it "rips" through the paper, sending pins scattering.

The goal of the game is the same as normal bowling.  Knock down as many pins as possible.  Your score is tallied just under the lane and is displayed at the end of the game.

By itself, this would be fun, but might get old quickly.  To increase the replayability, there are many different themes to unlock.  One turns your "graph paper lane" into a chalk board (pins disappear with a puff of smoke).  One brings your bowling experience into outer space.  One even lets you bowl in a normal, ordinary bowling alley.  Each play earns you one credit.  Each theme costs a certain number of credits.  Therefore, there is an incentive to play the game over and over to unlock all of the themes.

Doodle Bowling - Strike!What I most like about this game is that it is fun, quick, and simple.  A single game of bowling takes about two or three minutes.  There is a definite joy when all of the pins fall down and that "Strike" or "Spare" banner appears.  Finally, the controls are so simple that my five year old mastered them almost immediately.

Since this is a free app, there are the requisite ads above the bowling action.  However, I found these to be unobtrusive and not easily clicked by accident.  (All of your interaction tends to take place at the bottom of the screen while the ads are up top.)  A few ads is a fair trade for the bowling fun.

This is definitely a keeper and will surely provide the kids and I with many wonderful, pin smashing hours of fun – in 10 frame, 3 minute chunks.

The Kermit Connection

Fatherhood, Life Decisions, Muppets

Kermit-JSLYesterday, NHL asked me which Muppet I like best.  I thought for a second and answered Fozzie Bear.  However, after giving it a little more thought, I’m torn.  Though I still like Fozzie, I think I might feel a certain kinship with Kermit the Frog.

You see, on The Muppet Show (which I grew up adoring), Kermit was the leader of the gang.  However, "leader" didn’t always mean "had everything under control."  The Muppet Show was barely contained chaos.  Sometimes, the chaos wouldn’t even be "barely contained."

Kermit did the best he could keeping everything running smoothly, but you could tell that there were times when he felt like every problem he solved came gift-wrapped with three more to tackle.  His arm flailing "Yaayyyy" when introducing a guest might have been a bit of stress relief lest his froggy mind snap and have him flailing his arms while screaming out the back door.

The other Muppets would look to Kermit for advice.  If anything went wrong, they’d turn to Kermit as though he had the answers.  He did his best, but it was obvious that most times he was just making things up as he went along.

After all was said and done, he could have given up.  He could have left the Muppets behind and retired to the swamp where his only worry was catching flies.  He didn’t, though.  He kept coming back week after week, putting himself through more and more stress because he saw that the finished product was worth all of that stress and so much more.

Like Kermit’s Muppet Show, my household can feel like barely contained chaos at times.  There are times when it seems as though B and I can’t look away for three seconds without the boys arguing over something trivial.  ("That’s *MY* spot on the couch!" "*I* wanted to play with that toy!"  "No, we’re going to play *this* now.")  Even if the boys aren’t at each other’s throats, there seems to be a list a mile long of things I need to do.  Every one thing I complete seems to lead to seven more to add to the list.  Often people will look to me for advice.  They’ll assume that I know all the answers.  Sometimes I do, but more often than not I feel like I’m making it up as I go along.

I’ll admit that there are days when I realize that it would be easier to run out the door screaming, but I never do that.  Why?  Because no matter how stressful it is, no matter how many fights, no matter how tired I am from trudging through my To Do list,  no matter how much winging it I need to do, it’s all worth it.  My boys and my wife are worth all of this stress and so much more.  So I grit my teeth and shoulder the tough times so I can treasure those all-too-rare moments when the chaos subsides and it all falls into place beautifully.

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