Joeprah - Anecdotes of a Stay at Home DadJoeprah - Anecdotes of a Stay at Home DadWhy is a stay home dad's life funny? Stop by and find out. Its all about the kids! Articles
Shaving and Stay at Home Dads
2008-04-29 23:16:00 *Note: All the pictures in the post are clickable. For the full effect that each picture posseses click them. Once clicked the larger image will appear...just click 'em and see for yourself, k?*So, I have been meaning to write about something that is both a bonus and a cross to bear for stay at home dads--facial hair. Personally, I hate shaving, but I like the fresh feeling that one receives after a nice shave. Shaving ones face is just not natural. Did the dinosaurs do it? I think not. Shaving irritates my skin because it's just plain wrong. Seriously, who thought this one up. The guy wThe Real Housewives of New York City (http://www.bravotv.com/Real_Housewives_N YC/season/1/index.php) . Horrid stuff that. Ok, anyways, the post is going somewhere and it will be so cool when it gets there I promise. First, let's examine the Stay at Home Dad in his natural state: So here we have the stay at home dad or SAHD or as I like to call him me. Notice the hat on t...
Can You Spot the Zombie?
2008-04-28 22:58:00 As a parent in the age of technology I inevitably have set my kids down in front of a TV show once or twice (or maybe many hundreds of thousands of times more than that) and it always scares me to see what happens to the kids once they begin to watch a show. They turn into something else, something frightening. Why write about it when I can just show you what I mean in video format. Enjoy this movie which is part metaphor, part entertainment, part some other thing I can't think of. Scary stuff. Uxx629hcX_4 More About: Spot , Zombie
The Braid Off
2008-04-28 08:31:00 I am a competitor and I love to win, ask anyone. I was challenged by a blogging peer of mine, Mr. Lady (http://www.whiskeyinmysippycup.com/) , to a braiding competition to formally be named the Braid Off, and like any individual fueled by Coke Classic at midnight I accepted her challenge. After about a half dozen solid burps reality set in, what did I just agree to? Apparently, she is a champion braider where as I am just a lowly recruit in boot camp learning my way around brushes (some may call them horse brushes) the size of my children's heads, headbands, pony tails and yes--the occasional braid. So, sit back, enjoy my post modern production that shows off my braiding skills (or lack there of) and after you are done, head over to Mr. Lady's site (http://www.whiskeyinmysippycup.com/) (we posted simoultaneously--kinda cool) and watch her movie. This is a battle for the ages. Battle of the sexes. Man vs. Woman, Dad vs. Mom, Rookie vs. Veteran, Moron vs. Genius.....
The Hot Wife Interview
2008-04-27 18:00:00 Like the title says this post is an interview of my loving wife nicknamed Hot Wife . She is funny, opinionated and impatient. What's not to like? She is my hero, and one of the most naturally funny people alive. She is humble and talented. She is Hawt and sweet. Without further ado, here is the hot wife interview:tYlYPpyS_uc What do you think? Am I a lucky guy or what? More About: Interview
Recognized, Recognize
2008-04-24 23:44:00 I had to pass on a bit of news to my loyal readers about something very exciting in the land of Joeprah. It may not seem like a big deal to many, but for me--it's huge. I have a place on the Examiner.com as the National Fatherhood Examiner. What does that mean? It means I get to expose my smart ass self to a larger audience and as a bonus I get to champion common sense parenting for a large media outlet. I plan on delivering some articles from Joeprah on my National Fatherhood Blog, but I will also feature some articles there that can only be found there. This makes all those times that my wife was like, Why can't you stop blogging tonight and watch (insert horrible chick flick title here, if you can't think of one Coyote Ugly will suffice) with me? and I was all like, Sorry, this is important. seem somewhat realistic. If you care to make my day/week/month/year, why don't you stop by my new home and say hi, you'll be glad you did.If you care to subscr... More About: Recognize
Not Part of the Club
2008-04-23 18:58:00 Being exclusive for the sake of being exclusive is wrong in all its forms. It's strange looking at life from the side of the fence I am on, on one hand I am this average guy who has a great family and a terrific group of friends that are always there through the good and the bad. On the other hand I am a stay at home parent that really doesn't fit the mold of the stay at home parent that is very gender specific. Although I have had my growing pains in the latter, I have come through it all as a wiser person and parent. I have some very close mom friends and I think that for the most part they regard me as an equal. Apparently though, I was mistaken--at least in one instance. I recently received an email to a joint email account that my wife and I share and it was from a stay at home mom friend. She emailed me to let me know that she was starting a wine club that would meet monthly and she wanted me to pass the invite on to my wife. I asked if I could participate ... More About: Club , Part , The Club
The Braid & The Slumber Party
2008-04-22 13:41:00 This past weekend, like I mentioned in my earlier post, was hectic with a slumber party among other planned activities we had, but I wanted to give folks a look at the slumber/birthday party festivities first hand. In this video I also feature another tool in my hair styling arsenal--the braid. Take a look and see how this dad braids hair and also take special note of my wife's jump roping skills in the middle portion of the video, you'll thank me for it. 4SN8kutkSjk More About: Party , Slumber Party
The Broken DVD Player
2008-04-21 19:36:00 I apologize, I have been absent for over 48 hours and my google reader is filled with blogs I need to read. I had a busy weekend. We hosted a birthday party/slumber party for our oldest daughter complete with relay races and dancing competitions, nail painting and movies, pizza and cake (not to mention all the snacks needed to make a slumber party a success). Anyways, I am lame and haven't posted anything about it. Tomorrow. As for now, I leave you with this fine video documenting the tale of the Broken DVD Player . wVMHONF4J2k
My Kids are Idiots: Volume II
2008-04-17 22:33:00 I love my kids. They rule. Sometimes though, they push my buttons. You know, like when you just got done cleaning the house and they run through with mud on their shoes. Well, mine would never do that out of fear for their lives. The things they do are subtle and yet still very destructive. They plant little 'bombs' all around the house for me to find, and most often I find these 'bombs' when its too late. That sufficiently sets the picture I believe.Enter my middle child. She is artsy and likes to do her own thing. She is as sweet as they come but forgets what you tell her the second you say it because she is thinking about other things in her head. Anyways, she made me a picture the other day out of a flower from her dance recital bouquet (content/view/182/1/) , tape and some of her heralded imagination. The only problem was she never actually gave me the picture--that plus she modified the reverse side of the picture (see below). When I picked up the ... More About: Idiots , Kids , Volume
I Said What? Volume I
2008-04-17 21:16:00 This is a series that I owe all to my good friend Momo (http://momo-fali.blogspot.com/). She had a post the other day (http://momo-fali.blogspot.com/2008/04/ca rrots-are-more-appropriate.html) that reminded me of a log I was keeping of all the crazy things I have said to my kids in my short tenure as a parent. You know, parental type things like, Get your feet out of your milk! or Don't ride your car on the wall! or Don't put your finger in your ear, who knows where that thing has been! Anyways, instead of use my old material, I will just call upon fate to provide me with content. This shouldn't be a problem, because A) my kids routinely do stupid things, and B) I am not shy in calling them out on being thick headed. Anwyays, as fate would have it, today (the first day I was on alert) my youngest child made me say, Don't put your french fries in your chocolate milk! Click the photo below for the bigger version. Is she too cute or what? More About: Volume
Behind the Curtain: The Making of a Joeprah Photo
2008-04-16 23:39:00 First, I would like to start by saying the following demo is for photoshop newbs. Second, the subsequent photo is amazing. To set this up, I have a three year old little girl that is as smart as they come and knows when and how to get into our candy dish. That is the muse for this post, a toddler with ingenuity. The video below shows you just how I edit my more basic photos (in case you wondered). 2BxFmmRW9YE Next, here is the resulting photo. Worthy of a click if I do say so myself. Any questions? More About: Photo
That's My Tail
2008-04-15 09:28:00 I have been wanting to post/brag about something for a long time. Since Christmas my youngest daughter potty trained herself and as a family we have been out of the @-!-i-t for about four months. It is absolutely amazing! I am sure other graduations or new stages in our children's lives are important, but having all three of my stinkers out of diapers will always have a special place in my heart. Anyways, I put a video together with the potty theme in mind that shows everyone an image I see before my toddler and I get ourselves showered in the morning. Don't worry, the video is clean. Also, I would like to give mad props to Olympus (http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_sectio n/cpg_vr_digitalrecorders.asp) for their awesome digital recording products. I have been using the VN-3100PC (http://www.radioshack.com/product/index. jsp?productId=2473173 cp= sr=1 origkw=digital+recorder kw=digital+recorder parentPage=search) to record my daughters voices for the last month plus an... More About: Tail
Hell Week
2008-04-14 15:18:00 Hell week came and went and I am happy to say that I survived with my sanity. Many of you out there are scratching your heads asking, Joeprah, what is hell week? Let me define it for you: Hell Week : Any week in a parent's life when they have over 25 hours of scheduled extra curricular activities for their kids. Our H.W. consisted of 11 practices and 3 recitals. Legendary, epic, friggin' insane are all things people say to describe the week I just lived through. Let me start by saying my week wasn't horrible in the traditional sense of the word, but in many ways it was just that. I suppose it is probably best to just set this up for you via a day by day play by: Monday: Piano practice and my oldest daughter's birthday party (also my mom's birthday). We managed, somehow, to go from cake and ice cream to a full blown dinner for 10. We typically, for our daughters' birthday, allow them to choose what's for dinner, our oldest being super smart chose cr... More About: Hell
Traffic Report: Cre8Buzz Up There With Stumble
2008-04-11 10:51:00 I just checked my traffic reports for the month of April so far and I was surprisd once again by the power of the emerging social networking site Cre8buzz (http://cre8buzz.com/) . Cre8buzz (http://cre8buzz.com/) has consistently referred me a ton of traffic since I joined back in October, but now the referrals seem to be on steriods. To better paint this picture let me draw up a comparison of two sites: in one corner we have a huge social bookmarking site with hundreds of thousands of daily users--stumbleupon.com (http://stumbleupon.com) ; in the oppisite corner we have cre8buzz (http://cre8buzz.com/) , a new face on the scene with only around 2,000 registered users, they are a content based social networking site. Stumble (http://stumbleupon.com) always drives a ton of traffic to my site, and lets face it--my site rules and deserves lots of traffic. Cre8Buzz (http://cre8buzz.com/) has never really been able to touch stumble traffic...until now apparently. Click picture below... More About: Traffic , Report
Word of the Day Volume VI
2008-04-10 09:35:00 Hello everyone. I have been cleaning my computer and editing a ton of videos lately and I will be posting a few more over the course of the next few days, but I couldn't resist posting this gem. In this video, my youngest daughter (known in this series as 'Professor Toddler') shows off her fashion sense and her powers of diction. Hope you like it!pLITsRsLXB4 More About: Word , Volume , Word of the Day
Big Kids Gettin' Their Stuff Owned
2008-04-09 10:04:00 Just more amazing original content. In this movie Joeprah bids farewell to winter with a fun clip. Enjoy!PvKa_YmKIS4 More About: Kids , Stuff , Owned
Blogs, Blogs, Everywhere Blogs
2008-04-09 08:13:00 So, I decided, against better judgement, to post a video I made later on in the day when I made my first hair video. This video continues my bloggy shout outs and mentions all the blogs (which I could remember) that are currently in my feed reader. There are sooo many folks in my reader I managed to leave out plenty, and if I left you out...I apologize. This post is also a testament to what the blogging experience is, and how folks who blog a lot generally read a lot too. Enjoy this seven minute plus masterpiece compliments of team Joeprah. zgydXJexU18 Here is a list of blogs I mention in the video (62): RedMonkey (http://www.coyotethunder.com/RedMonkey/) Cre8buzz (http://www.cre8buzz.com) Anthill (http://cre8buzz.com/anthill) My Gps Camera Phone (http://mygpscameraphone.com/) JoBeaufoix (http://www.jobeaufoix.com) Joeprah (http://www.joeprah.com) (yes, I mention myself) Marsha Loftis (http://www.beartribenet.com/marshaloftis /) Momo Fali (http://momo-fali.blogs... More About: Blogs
Stay at Home Dads: Do They Do Hair? Part II
2008-04-08 12:06:00 **OMG, I have had so many issues with this post. Adobe Premiere Elements fails me once again, and then, YouTube is horrid. This post is amazingly resilient and will not be denied.** So, after my first video (content/view/140/1/) which put the issue of Stay at Home Dads and little girls' hair under a microscope I have received a ton of feedback. Comments ranged from folks (http://www.zoesdad.com) thinking I was using a horse brush (http://momo-fali.blogspot.com/) on my toddler, some think I basically abused her with my brushing technique, and others still asked questions and basically talked trash about the end result of my demo video. Some moms (http://www.whiskeyinmysippycup.com/) even challenged me to a braiding contest. First, my general response to all of these comments is--thanks for caring enough to comment. Second, I would like to say that I am not a hair hack and I can do a much better job with my girls' hair than that video indicated. Enter video #2. T... More About: Hair , Part
5 Tools I Wish I Knew About Back When
2008-04-06 23:37:00 Greetings Gentle Reader. Joeprah is here to lay the smack down in the form of blogging tips to anyone who reads this blog. These aren't just blogging tips, they are webmaster tips as well. You see, when you are a blogger, you run a website. And since you run 'said' blog you are its Master. So, if you blog you are a webmaster--the way I see it anyways. So, that being said, here are some really cool tools I wish I had known about long ago as a blogger. I mean way back, like over a year ago. That would have been so awesome. I am here now though, riding the wave so to speak of technology. Before I reveal my secrets (which really aren't big secrets), I would like to say why I am doing so. My philosophy as a blogger is A) to entertain by manipulating my kids and writing about my life as a stay at home dad, and B) to help all other bloggers be successful by sharing information because I believe in doing so we will only help each other and ourselves. Now, on... More About: Tools , Back
Stay at Home Dads: Do They Do Hair?
2008-04-05 09:21:00 Stay at home dads are a curious phenomenon. A lot of people really don't have any idea what to make of them. Do they just watch the kids during the week in addition to rocking out the lawn (mowing) and taking out the trash. Are they kept men? Are they lazy? I can only, for certain, speak for myself and what have become my traditional responsibilities. I do the trash and lawn, but I also cook, clean, and take care of the kids. Basically, a stay at home mom plus heavy lifting and boxer shorts. When I say take care of the kids for me that means three little girls. I grew up in a household that was the opposite of the one my girls are growing up in. I had no experience with girls. My girls require clothing (so much laundry) and to be primped. Admittedly, in the beginning I had no idea how to primp them, but in time you learn. The most important part of being a stay at home dad, in my opinion, is to be able to thrive in new experiences. From playgroups to doing girls ... More About: Home , Hair , Stay
Proof
2008-04-04 06:35:00 Nuff Said If you look closely at the larger image, maybe not even too closely, you will notice I had to photoshop in a couple letters. There was actually glare on the key chain when I took the pic and through using the smudge and blur tools in photoshop I was able to make that go away, but a couple letters remained casualties. **PS - I have all my videos up and running again. With new URLs (thanks again Via-bomb (content/view/135/1/) ) Let me know if you run into any dead links, but I think I got them all...sigh.** More About: Proof
The Mildew Load: Unstoppable
2008-04-03 11:43:00 *Note: This article is amazing. Both Adobe Premier Elements (you'll see) and Viacom (content/view/135/1/) tried to stop its creation, and both were unsuccessful. Recognize.* Sometimes a family gets going at like a million miles an hour and sometimes said family can forget to complete certain chores. Sometimes chores go undone altogether. Families are like that. What with school, after school activities, athletic practices, dance practices, birthdays, games on the weekends, and requisite visits to family and friends houses it's really a miracle that anything gets done in Joeprah's house. There are times though when these elements are combined with other forces, natural forces, in what can only be called a perfect storm . Its kinda like a TV weather guy dancing around talking about low pressure systems and sub-tropical lows moving up the coast, except replace those with PMS and a husband desperately in need of a minute to relax. See animated Gif below for more help... More About: Load
Banned: Viacom Sucks
2008-04-03 08:24:00 I woke up this morning to finish a post and upload a video onto YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/user/JoeprahMan) (shhh ) only to find I have been banned from the site. All my old videos are currently down, but I will have them back up and running soon. Let me take this moment to explain what happened. YouTube, bless their hearts, is a great tool and very useful in a pinch, but they are constantly bombarded by Viacom to protect their holier than thou Copyrighted content. Here is where I get really #@$%ing confused, why am I banned? I tried to post a Yo Gabba Gabba video, as pathetic as that sounds and as hard as it was for me to type those letters together in that sequence without laughing--its true, and even though there are like a thousand Yo Gabba Gabba (http://www.nickjr.com/shows/yo-gabba-gab ba/yo-ga-about-the-show/yo-ga-about-the-s how.jhtml) videos on YouTube, which is why I uploaded mine (again I am pathetic) assuming their would be no issue. I find today that my accoun... More About: Banned , Sucks
Our Recent Trip to D.C.: Messin' with Photoshop
2008-04-02 07:21:00 So, our family, decided to take a trip to Washington D.C. to check out the natural history museum and the national art gallery. How did we decide those two? We did what any self respecting family that loves the democratic system does--we voted. Our littlest one wanted to see rocket ships (space museum) and the oldest two wanted to see art, and they all wanted to see dinosaurs. What were the highlights? Our daughters all agreed that riding the metro (D.C.'s subway system) was by far the highlight (you know, like when you get your kids a really special gift and they play with box all day), after that the iMax on dinosaurs ranked second and finally the actual dinosaurs came in third.We recorded the trip on both our digital camera and digital camcorder. The below pictures are clickable (remember that bosssanders (component/option,com_comprofiler/task,us erProfile/user,107/Itemid,32/) ) and I would like to get everyones take on them. I used three separate adjustment layers to cre... More About: Photoshop , Trip , Recent
Monthly Traffic Report: Giving Props
2008-03-31 21:30:00 I have been analyzing and over analyzing traffic over the course of this last month more than I have ever done so before in my blogging career. I have been looking at unique visitors, referrals, page views literally more than one should. What do all these numbers mean to me? I have to say that once again I have been literally blown away by the amount of traffic my site receives from the dynamo of the social networking sites called Cre8Buzz (http://www.cre8buzz.com) cre8buzz (http://www.cre8buzz.com). Now, you also notice that stumble upon gave me the most referrals but most of those referrals came from an article I did on traffic and cre8buzz (http://www.cre8buzz.com) . Of course, you will have the big boys like images.gooogle.com (http://images.gooogle.com) and searchlive.com bringing a site like mine a decent share of traffic but cre8buzz (http://www.cre8buzz.com) still, ultimately, more than holds its own. As far as my other traffic stats, I really don't want to bor... More About: Traffic , Report , Giving
The Feuding Sisters: A Music Video
2008-03-26 11:51:00 So, I have been away from blogging for about a week and it has been in large part due to the holiday, but there are always other factors that add to time away from the blog. I had a laundry list of problems come up (around the house) and had to deal with each one of them immediately (post to follow) and these domestic concerns coupled with the holiday kept my able fingers away from the keyboard for too long. Anyways, onto this post. My family decided to make a music video to the tune from Alicia Keys called No One. The theme for the video is feuding sisters. Our daughters are peace loving creatures for the most part, but from time to time they do fight with each other. This video highlights the importance of the relationships between sisters. Some of the footage, as the credits indicate, come from a recent trip to Washington D.C. Enjoy compliments of team Joeprah. 8IyYBlcfidY More About: Video , Music , Music Video , Sisters
Unknown Name, Unknown Number
2008-03-19 19:19:00 The following is a letter to those unknown people who call me from unknown numbers: Dear Unknown Name that calls me from an Unknown Number , Why do you call me? Do you know that I instinctively answer the phone without checking the number first? How could you know that I am programmed through muscle memory to be proficient at picking up a cordless phone and pressing a single button connecting us in a two way conversation? Do you know when I am eating? Is this why you call me? You want to talk to me when I am eating a piping hot piece of pizza and guzzling a perfectly poured soda that has already had the foam dissipated by my nose sweat, don’t you? I made that soda for my enjoyment and as the ice starts to melt the flavor intensity declines and I become a beast of my former self, I owe this to you my new friend Mr. Unknown. The pizza was at the correct temperature, piping hot—not piping warm, Richard. Mr. Unknown Name, why do you ask me if I would like ...
The Lifetime Channel: Just Say 'No'
2008-03-18 14:29:00 Let me set the stage for you, it is around 10:30 PM and I am pluggin’ away on my blog. I am in the morning room of our house and my wife is in the nearby family room. I am about to write another masterpiece and then I hear it--the unmistakable sound of estrogen-fueled-poorly-written-dialogue. This sound is way more disturbing to me than fingernails ran across a blackboard. The Lifetime Channel is on and my wife is watching another “Made for TV” movie that, on top of being written by women who think all men are evil, is as laughable in the acting department as it is in the writing. Each time I hear melodramatic music playing and a heroine sob I get about as annoyed as a Swiper the Fox at a snapping convention (see really annoyed (images/stories/Swiper%20Owned.jpg)). Now, let me be clear, I love my ladies and I empathize more with women now, being a stay at home dad, than I have ever before. I am pro-women. Women rule. What I do not like is mushy gushy, insul...
In Joeprah's Blogging Bag
2008-03-16 19:52:00 I have had literally at least five people ask me questions like, What video editing software do you use? or What type of camcorder do you use? I thought it would be helpful if I came up with a list of the tools I use to make my blog. My blogging platform:First, I would like to say that my blogging platform is not the typical, run-of-the-mill, Word Press or Blogger platform. I use the content management system called Joomla (http://www.joomla.com)GoDaddy.com (http://www.godaddy.com) for my hosting services. Here is what I would like to say about GoDaddy, they are cheap. Besides that I would like to refer to the if you don't have anything nice to say don't say it rule. My Photo Editing Software:I aspire to have photoshop, but I currently use photoshop elements 2.0. Photoshop elements 2.0 has a lot of the basic capabilities that photoshop has and although it lacks some of the bells and whistles of its big brother it is handy enough to get the job done for just abou... More About: Blogging
Burger King: You Aint No Chick-Fil-A
More articles from this author:2008-03-11 19:31:00 So, by now, you may have guessed that I prefer Chick -Fil-A (content/view/95/82/) over all other fast food joints. Sometimes though I need to remind myself why I love Chick-Fil-A so much--enter Burger King . Recently, I went on a play date to a local Burger King when the kids had off from school. What I found during my brief but excruciating stay at BK was a laundry of list of things that not only annoyed me but also had me thinking about my true love--a Chick named Fil-A (content/view/75/69/) . Reasons why I hate BK: 1. They think they are cool. Have you ever not liked something just because they thought they were so cool? Like in middle school. You remember those kids that wore Polo shirts and Guess Jeans and sat at a special table where they could discuss why you were ushering in the grunge look 10 years too soon. I proudly also ushered in the your-pants-are-falling-down-exposing-your -boxers look unintentionally because my parents could only afford the clearance guess je... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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