Not so great from where I’m standing. Apparently, to these chains, men do not matter because these groups consist of mothers and mothers only. I
understand that this is a great move to get to know the levers and barriers to selling their food to the next generation of fast food eaters. But to disregard the father’s role in these types of lifestyle decisions is absurd.

Any trip to a fast food restaurant would see that most of the time
the lines are packed with men, not women. I’m not saying that there
should be dad-only groups, just that we would have the opportunity to
join in on the conversation.

Hey McDonalds: I have consumed more fat content under your roof than any other establishment. And me and my stomach have been around. I used to even work there in high school. I know a thing or two about fast food and what it means to my family. I should be part of your group. Give me a ring.

There is discussion on this topic at Quickservekids.com .

I read the news. I see what guns do 

I have never felt compelled to own a weapon of my own.  

Here’s what you need to know:
-The pregnant man’s name is Thomas Beatie.
-He is a transgendered man.
-He used to be a beauty queen.
-He has a uterus.

Now, here’s what you need to know when your wife starts to talk about it:
-There was an article on Thomas Beatie in the latest issue of People magazine
-He was on Oprah

If your wife asks if you would ever consider being pregnant instead of her I have found the only acceptable answer is to not say anything, avoid eye contact, quickly change the subject, and then go do something nice like fold some laundry.

In the end, if you don’t have a uterus, you ain’t got the goods to be pregnant so you don;t have to worry about accidental pregnancy. But knowing these facts, I wouldn’t consider yourself covered and say that you would consider getting pregnant. The reason is simple:

Your wife will tell her friends that you said you would do it. Then her friends will tell their husbands and then you will be known as the “dude who wants to be pregnant” at the next poker game.

This public service announcement is courtesy of Noodad.com.

He quickly cleared away debris and wood and accidentally hit his son on the head with a cinderblock. Matt dove in after his son and pulled him out. Watch video about (not of) the event here: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/03/28/dnt.ia.boy.well.kcci

Connor John Corkern is a 15 month old boy from Amite, Louisiana and he was born with two rare conditions, Congenital Panhypopituitarism and Optic Nerve Hypoplasia. This means he is hormone deficient and blind.

The good news is there is a procedure that has been proven to help and even give Connor a chance to see. The bad news is it is performed in China and is not covered by insurance. So Connor’s family are trying to raise $60,000 to send Connor to China to get the procedure and spend a month in China to recover.

Connor is the nephew of a friend of Noodad and his story has touched me greatly. As an artist and designer I know the importance of sight. As a dad I know the feeling of looking at your kid and your kid seeing you back.

If you wish to donate to this cause, go to www.connorsquestforsight.com or click here.

The point is, it is damn cute and thousands of people have watched it and have made comments on the YouTube page. But then something happened.

It was a subtle move. The author of the video disabled the comment feature on the video. Then he posted the following update to the video:

02/26/08 Update: Wow. What was expected to be a short movie that would circulate within a small circle of friends has turned into something much more very quickly. I’m thrilled that so many people have enjoyed this video but also somewhat mortified that I added this without my daughter’s knowledge or consent. Maybe someday she will find some humor in it.

Comments: Have been disabled. I think they have run their course. To those who have sent positive comments, thank you very much. You’ve made us appreciate what we have even more than we already do. To those of you who’ve said you’ve changed your mind about having children, well, have at it.

Business inquiries/agents: Thanks for your interest. At the current time we have no intention of exposing our little one to the destroyer of youth that is the entertainment industry. Hopefully if she chooses to follow this path on her own someday she will find a door still open for her.

Other things:

She has never seen Pokemon so I don’t think she’s making a reference to the ball on that show. I think she just means pokey ball as in “a ball that is pokey.” (And yes, I know what the pokey balls really are! Stop emailing )

Three year olds can’t read. I’m sure there are exceptions to that rule.

Here’s the scary thing. When you post a video on YouTube and share it to the general public, there is a chance that it will catch fire and it will be plastered all over the internet. Then jackasses will post creep, absurd, or downright racist comments about your kid!

Let this be a lesson. Be careful.

Would you change your mind if you thought that this could prepare them for a career that made a difference? Video game tester? Hardly. Pro gamer? Nope. Surgeon. Maybe! A study showed a strong correlation between the ability to play video games and the abilty to succeed in surgery drills.

While I still do not advocate putting your kid in front of a console or PC (or a Mac for Noodad) before they are 7 years old (social skills article link), maybe there is some value to all those hours of Warcraft 3 I played. I think I’ll go practice operating on Noodad right now!

How do you deal with video game usage in your household?

“Peter Hieber, a spokesman for police in the Bavarian town of Krumbach, said the baby was placed in the care of youth services in the southwestern Allgaeu region, although the child’s 23-year-old mother insisted that the ad was only a joke.”

Of course it was, however the only ones who thought it was funny were the baby’s parents as they are now in custody and the kid is in child services.

<a href=”http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/05/24/ebay.baby.ap/index.html”>Click here to read the article about the baby who was listed on ebay at cnn.com.</a>

Come on people. It’s one thing to think about something, it’s another to follow through. Once the name is released, we are revoking his noodad membership.

“The children in the group where breast-feeding was encouraged scored about 5 percent higher in IQ tests and did better academically, the researchers found. Previous studies had indicated brain development and intelligence benefits for breast-fed children. But researchers have sought to determine whether it was the breast-feeding that did it, or that mothers who prefer to breast-feed their babies may differ from those who do not.”

What the article fails to state though is kids who are breastfed are lucky X 2. Not only could they grow up to be smarter, they get to suck on breasts every day. Ahh, to be a kid again…