While I write many blogs and other types of content throughout the week, the Weekly Column is my weekly feature topic, which will also be the basis of my weekly radio show and #dadchat. Posted on Sunday night or Monday morning, they are a great way to start off your week with something to think about, as well as something to talk about.
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This post will inaugurate a “Best Of” series of column re-runs — early “A Dad’s Point-of-View” columns that may not have seen much in the way of readers. Thankfully, my writing and Social Media work have grown considerably since I began writing way back when. What I strived to do from the onset was to write about topics that had what I like to call evergreen value, meaning the topic was not time-sensitive.
Okay, I haven’t done this list before, but it is now going to be an annual event. Gratitude, as my friend Dennis Prager espouses, is the number one ingredient to happiness. I completely concur. He wrote a whole book on happiness and dedicates one hour of his weekly show to that topic because he believes happy people make a better world. Don’t you?
My boys and I have a habit of telling tall tales. Naturally, I was the one who started this “tradition” and it’s been fun ever since to try and keep a straight face when pulling each other’s leg. Last night I pulled off perhaps the best one ever, aided by the ease of doing it via texting.
I love Andy William’s song It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year, and feel sad at his passing this year. There’s such an irony in how we approach The Holidays or, more specifically, how we are expected to approach them. There’s all the music – EVERYWHERE. There’s all the decorations and there’s all the expectations. Yet, many families truly struggle with Christmas and New Year’s (as well as Thanksgiving).
Note: I wrote this column before the tragedy that took place at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT. Perhaps another lesson to be taken from this senseless act is related to procrastination. Don’t wait to tell those you love how much they mean to you. Don’t wait to do those things together as a family that you often put off. Put down your devices and LOVE your family now.
by Professor David E. Weber and Bruce Sallan
Our technology series continues a bit more on target by remembering the early days of home movies. We mean “movies” like in film, like in 16-mm, 8-mm and Super Eight, which were the primary sizes/forms when home movies were introduced. Professor Weber will lead off with his recollections and memories of this long-gone technology:
A projector casting flickering images onto a flimsy portable screen in a darkened living room: we called it watching home movies, once the only way an amateur filmmaker or chronicler of family life could work with the moving image.
#DadChat is the weekly TweetChat (on Twitter) that I founded and host – often with guest-hosts – every Thursday evening from 6:00 – 7:00 p.m. PT. It has grown to be one of the most popular, busy, and fun chats among the hundreds that exist. On Thursday December 6, I invited our participants to share their tips for surviving the holidays. The idea was simply to compile the best and make a column out of them.
Good idea.
I’ve written and spoken many times about how overwhelming all the new Social Media and Technology can be and feel. Yet, I use more new and old media, I suspect, than any other blogger (I’m aware of). And, it’s not that hard. Let’s explore what they all are and ask why YOU are not taking advantage of these amazing tools. Most of them are free and most of them are easy. What is hard is taking that first step and plunging in!
