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Resolution Conclusion

January 1, 2013 TechyDad FollowerHQ, Goals, Life

Last year, I made a series of New Year’s resolutions. Let’s see how they panned out, shall we?

Sort My Photos

I had a LOT of photos to sort through. They were all jumbled in an “unsorted” folder and stuck in the (partially date stamped) folder that the camera assigned them. It took a lot of time, but I finally sorted every last photo from 2011… and then promptly fell behind in sorting the ones from 2012. Luckily, however, I spent some time on those and now have every last photo sorted.

Improve FollowerHQ

You’ve checked out my Twitter follower management website, right? If the answer is yes, then thank you. If the answer is no, then get thee to FollowerHQ! It will let you see who is following you that you aren’t following back. Then you can decide whether you want to follow those people back or not.

I had a bunch of ideas to improve it, but couldn’t find the time to work on them. I would do a bit of work here and there, but things always seemed to get in the way. My latest effort was my best one, though. Spurred on by some big Twitter API changes, I’ve come up with a pretty radical alteration to FollowerHQ. I’m tentatively calling it FollowerHQ Version 2 (because I’m just that awesome at naming things).

I did a ton of work on it, but have recently gotten side tracked. I had a good excuse, though. I was invited by Disney to preview their New Fantasyland. (See the ongoing posts at that link.) Now, I’ve just got to pick up where I left off, get it ready for beta testing, and then get it ready for release. (If you are interested in beta testing, let me know in the comments or on Twitter.)

Promote Blog Posts

At the time of my resolution, my only promotion of my tweets was an automated “Hey, this post is now live” tweet. After that, I relied on remembering to tweet about it. That is to say, I never tweeted about it. You can write the best blog post in the world, but if nobody knows about it, does it matter? Now, I could spend every second of the day promoting my many posts and doing by best to drive traffic to my blog… except that I have a day job. I can’t spend all day promoting blog posts when I have day job work to do. I can’t spend all night promoting blog posts either because I have to work on new posts as well as make dinner, clean up, organize photos, etc.

The solution? I found a WordPress plugin called Tweet Old Posts. It did just what it sounds like. At an interval specified by me it would take an old blog post of mine (how old is up to you, I set mine at 2 weeks) and tweet it out. It took some minor fiddling with the settings to find the sweet spot of “too much tweeting” and “almost never tweeting”, but I’m happy with the result. No, it’s not a hand-crafted promotion, but it’s the best I’m going to get given my limited time.

Cook More

On one hand, I love cooking. Spending time in the kitchen turning a bunch of raw ingredients into a delicious dish. On the other hand, I hate cooking. Especially when I’m tired from work, put in a lot of effort to cook a meal, and then hear a rousing chorus of “Ewwww…. I don’t want that…. I don’t eat that… I want something else!” Nothing punctures my Will To Cook faster than the prospect of making one meal for B and me, one meal for NHL, and one meal for JSL. If I’m going to do this, I might as well toss some food in the microwave and hit the buttons to get dinner ready. Why bother doing more just to hear how nobody likes the food? Especially when I can hear about how great a cook I am when I toss frozen chicken on a paper plate and heat it in the microwave for 3:30.

I’ve had my cooking moments, though. The weekends have been taken over by making eggs, toast, and “fakin’ bacon” (soy bacon – we’re Kosher in the house) for breakfast. It’s a simple thing, but so much nicer than cold cereal or pop tarts. NHL has been getting more adventurous with his eating too. Now, if I could just lure JSL away from the “I don’t eat anything different than the things I’ve always eaten” camp.

Give B More Breaks

I’ve had quite a few Just The Boys days. We’ve gone to parks, museums, restaurants, and more. They love spending time with me and I love spending time with them. It is a refreshing change from the usual times I see them during weekdays (before going to work when I’m in a rush to get out the door and after coming home when I’m tired and not looking forward to the nightly fight over dinner. About the only reason that I’d say I haven’t done this enough is that I can never spend too much time with my boys!

More Date Nights

We’ve gotten a few nights out alone. We’ve even had a trip to Disney World where we (*gasp*) didn’t bring the kids! In the case of the former, it’s great to get out so it is just the two of us. In the case of the latter, it was great to not only have a few days where we didn’t need to worry about the kids, but it was nice being able to decide what to do in Disney World ourselves instead of catering to the boys. We could walk for longer, ride rides that we wanted to go on, and go sightseeing in a way that would have led to a pair of very cranky kids. We returned home exhausted, but also refreshed. Yes, we love our kids more than anything, but it is good to get away from them from time to time as well.

How did you do with your 2012 resolutions?

Splitsville: Two Stories of Bowling Fun In Downtown Disney

December 20, 2012 TechyDad Disney

There is a lot to do and see in Disney World. You can ride rides, meet characters, eat great food, and bowl. Yes, I said bowl. Yesterday, in Downtown Disney, Splitsville officially opened. While I was there earlier this month, I got the chance to preview the new two story bowling alley.

The first story contains ten lanes and features a sushi bar, seating areas for eating, a shop, and a bar (of the drink variety).

Up the escalator is a second level of bowling alleys (twenty additional lanes), billiard tables, more seating for meals,

While I didn’t get to bowl (the lanes filled up quickly), I did get to wander around, try the food (very good), and take in the ambiance.

There are plenty of retro looking signs as Disney touches. When I ran into Steve Barrett (aka Hidden Mickey Guy), he pointed out a hidden Mickey on a painting of an orange on one wall.

My only warning with Splitsville would be regarding children with sensory issues. When we went, there was loud music playing upstairs. If this is to be a regular feature of Splitsville, families with sensory issues would be better off staying downstairs. No matter which level you stay on, though, Splitsville looks like it will be a very entertaining addition to Downtown Disney.

Disclosure: I was invited to the New Fantasyland media event December 5th through 7th. Disney paid for my travel, our park tickets, room, and a few other items. I was able to take B along as my guest, but we paid for her own travel as well as an extra night in the resort. The opinions expressed above are my own.

Aloha Friday: Test Track Power vs. Fuel Efficiency

December 14, 2012 TechyDad Aloha Friday, Disney

On the new version of Test Track at Disney World’s Epcot, you get to design your own car from the ground up and then see how it handles the testing course. In building your car, you need to balance four factors: Capability, Efficiency, Responsiveness, and Power. As you choose items, you might increase one section but decrease another.

When I built my car, I wound up pushing up the power section above all else. Plasma engine? Sure. Side and rear rocket boosters? Yes, please. Top electrical box that sort of reminded me of a flux capacitor? Ok, that one wasn’t for the power as much as the geek factor.

In the end, I came up with this vehicle:

My car wound up coming in first in all of the Test Track courses. Except for the environmental test. It came dead last there.

My Aloha Friday question for today is: Would you design your Test Track car for Capability, Efficiency, Responsiveness, or Power?

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 #168

Ultimate Blog Party 2014

April 8, 2014 TechyDad Blogging

Last year, I participated in the Ultimate Blog Party for the first time. When it came rolling around again this year, I decided to give it a go again. So, for anyone who is new here, I decided to answer the question: Who is TechyDad?

This might be a long post. Please make yourselves comfortable.

First, of all, I’m a husband and father. My wife is B, aka TheAngelForever, my two boys are NHL (age 10) and JSL (age 6). I’m a web developer by trade which is a good thing since I love making websites. (I do it as a day job and am also available for freelance work should anyone need some website work done.) I’ve been blogging and on social media for almost 6 years.

I’m a huge geek. I love technology (and just wish I could afford more of it). I’m a big superhero fan, as well. I love Star Wars, Star Trek, Farscape, and many other geeky science fiction shows. Most recently, I’ve become a huge Whovian. So much so that I made my own fez and bowtie so I could "become" the Doctor. Now if only I could find my TARDIS.

For a long time, I held my geekiness in check, but recently decided to explore my geekier side with an "Extreme Geekery" series. The first one explored how much paper would be produced if you printed out a hard drive.

I’m a big fan of Disney also. We all loved Frozen and we’ve been to Disney World many, many, many times. (Here’s hoping we can go again soon.)

I’ve long written about my history of being bullied. It took me a long time to fully come to grips with that and I was heartbroken when NHL was bullied in school.

Speaking of NHL, he has been diagnosed as having Asperger’s Syndrome. Since his diagnosis, not only have we become Autism advocates, but he has as well. He’s learned to stick up for himself when people expect him to "just act normal" as if Autism is a switch he can flip off should he decide to.

Furthermore, as we read the many, many books and articles about what Asperger’s Syndrome is, something became perfectly clear: I’m an Aspie as well. When I was a kid, Asperger’s Syndrome wasn’t diagnosed. Children were just stamped with a "shy" label and that was it. Unfortunately, getting a diagnosis would cost money we can’t afford to spend. As it wouldn’t help NHL at all and as I’ve clearly learned my own coping techniques, I’ll remain an "undiagnosed Aspie" for the time being.

For more reading, I’d suggest my post for World Autism Day/Month which summarized and linked to a year’s worth of Autism posts.

Other things I enjoy doing are playing video games, cooking, and reading books.

You can also find me on Twitter and Instagram.

Thanks for stopping by!

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