Friday Fragments - Promotional Considerations

It is Friday Fragment time again.  This week's fragments all seem to be self promoting.  Oh well, if I were a true narcissist wouldn't tie them all up in one post, I would write them all out separately.

Fragment 1

If you don't follow my vlog Dave Out Loud. (and at this point no one does) you are missing gems like this . . .





Fragment 2

I have just created a resource for quality home school blogs.  It  takes all 20 Homeschool Blog Awards (HSBA) categories and features the winner in each category.  I also go behind the scenes and say who I voted for in each category and why as well as sharing a sample post form all 20 winners that I think gives us a good glimpse of their work.

Fragment 3.

Mine is apparently not the only resource throwing bouquets to home school bloggers.  It seem that one of those bouquets was even thrown my way.



Yes Teacher Certification Degrees dot com did a fantastic job compiling 100 Homeschooling blogs and a few honorable mentions.  Here is what they said about HSD:

Dave is the “Home School Dad”, White Sox fan and movie buff whose sense of humor shows in creative nicknames and occasional rants; wife Amy adds her voice as a guest contributor to this lively blog filled with ideas for budget-friendly family fun, reports on Lego robotics action and a fresh perspective from the homeschool front.


Occasional rants! I wonder what they mean by that.  Well, I never.   They have a lot of nerve.

Fragment 4.

Speaking of Robotics . . .

The State Robotics Tournament is tomorrow and Saturday.  Unlike last year, Spider Droid's team will not be participating.  They did great at their regional.  Just not great enough to be one of the 3 teams from a field nearing 20 to make it. 

Here are  some pics from the regional. 

Well those are all the fragments I have for today.  For more Friday Fragments click here.

And the Winner is . . . Me, Not Cougars.

Labor Day 2010

If I made a list of things I really like, libraries, winning things, and minor league baseball would be pretty high on it. None of them would be as high as spending quality time with my family. But when I can spend quality time with my family that involves libraries, minor league baseball and winning ,that's what I call fun.
In fact you can even call it fun on a budget.

Let me explain. . .

Fun on a Budget is in a 3-way tie for 12th in the labels I used most in my first 300 posts. Fun on a budget is not really about saving money. It's about having fun without breaking the bank, but it's mostly about having fun.

Let's take today for example. This summer, all 3 of my children participated in a summer reading program at our local library. I have gone on an on in these pages about about how I feel about libraries. Summer reading programs may be the cream of the library crop. The reading program ended over a month a go and we are still reaping the benefits. Yesterday we used a restaurant coupon one of the kids earned and today all 3 kids used vouchers they earned for a ticket each to the final regular season game of our local minor league baseball team. Sure, Amy and I had to buy tickets but that only cost us $20.00 total. That's less money than I spent on parking at last Sunday's White Sox game. (Cougars parking was free.)



The thing I like most about minor league baseball is that it's basically a circus with a baseball game in between. The fans eat the peanuts rather than the elephants. Every 1/2 inning there is some cool event. Today was extra special since it was fan appreciation day. It seemed like they gave something away after every pitch.



Another thing I like about it is the cool teams names. I have seen Bees, Bombers, Chiefs, and Sand Gnats just to name a few. Today it was the Cougars vs. the Timber Rattlers. The home team Cougars who had already clinched the playoffs seem to phone it in, losing to the Rattlers 7 to nothing.



But all was not lost. In one of the every 1/2 inning fun events I mentioned earlier, they picked a random fan to participate in a game called true or false. Faithful readers know that they could not have picked a more random fan than yours truly, and pick me they certainly did.



The idea of the game is they say two statements about the Cougars. I was given a sign that said true on one side and false on the other. With the help of the audience, I have to choose if the statements are true or false. Now, this was my first game of the season so I wasn't exactly up on Cougars trivia. So I did what I did on more college exams than I would like to admit, I guessed.

And I scored about the same as I did on some of those exams, 50%. But instead of getting a fat juicy F, I was given a really cool Cougars cap. I collect baseball caps, so this was really really cool.



Libraries, Minor League baseball and winning things you collect are 3 examples of fun on a budget. I hope this blog post has given you some fun on a budget as well, as all it probably cost you was a few minutes of reading time.



Next Time: Bob Newhart Loves Dave and other Short Stories

And the Winner is.... Me. Again!

Last year I posted this blog about winning this . . . Well I am back to my winning ways. For those following this blog recently you know I was a last minute entrant in the One Million Arrows Blog Tour where bloggers wrote reviews of Julie Ferwerda's excellent tome, One Million Arrows. I was so last minute that I wrote the review without reading the entire book. This is because the tour was from March 1st to the 7th and I didn't start my post (and most of my reading) until the seventh. I only got as much done as I did because I was home sick that day instead of visiting family with my family. On Monday Julie had a random drawing and gave away fabulous prizes to some of the bloggers who participated in the tour. I was graciously (and undeservingly) one of the winners. I won two books and some Ugandan Beads. Julie compared my win to the wages of the workers who only worked at the end of the harvest in Jesus's parable. In my haste to get a review in, I didn't really do the book credit. To rectify that I am including an interview with the off. I want to clarify that I did not conduct the interview nor did I craft the questions. If I did the first one would have definitely been, Mrs. Ferwerda, I understand from one of the One Million Arrows (OMA) blog tour bloggers that you love the movie, What About Bob. With that in mind, how do you expect us to believe anything else you say? It's a good thing I didn't conduct the interview.

Here is the interview in it's entirety. One Million Arrows: Raising Your Children to Change the World Interview with author Julie Ferwerda

1. The title of your book is, One Million Arrows: What is that all about? The title originated with a man I met in India by the name of Dr. M.A. Thomas. He’s received many national awards in India such as the Mother Theresa Award and the Padma Shri for his humanitarian efforts, especially for his work with orphaned and abandoned children that he started in the 1970s. In the 90s, Dr. Thomas read a verse in the Bible that describes children as a gift and a reward, like sharp arrows in the hands of a mighty warrior (Psalm 127:3-5). He realized that all children, regardless of background and circumstances, should be seen as a gift and a legacy to society because they can make a significant and positive impact in the world if given the proper training and opportunities. India has as many as 80 million orphans so he set a goal of rescuing one million orphaned and abandoned children, sharpening them with love, education, and spiritual nurturing, and launching them back into society to bring positive change through the power of the Good News about Jesus. To date he has raised over 16,000 orphaned and abandoned children who have become doctors, nurses, teachers, politicians, missionaries, and leaders, and he has planted over 21,000 churches in India and South Asia. Relating to us…the arrow vision of raising children to be a gift and heritage to their society is for all parents, all countries. So many parents in our culture have lost their vision as to the incredible opportunity we’ve been given to shape—not just tomorrow’s leaders—but today’s leaders and shapers of their peer groups, schools, and communities. But this takes vision and deliberate investment and training. One Million Arrows casts a vision for parents to sharpen and launch our children right now to make a positive impact on society. 2. You mentioned the notion of parents investing in or training their children. Isn’t this what parents already do? Some parents do invest in and train their children to some degree, but there is also a lot of hands-off parenting in our society today, especially in training character development as well as teaching our children how to live for the big-picture—like what were they made to do in this world, what are their unique gifts and abilities, and how can they use them to make a difference now? We have to train our children to serve others—it doesn’t come naturally. But for many of us, once our kids head into kindergarten, it’s easier to let someone else take over a lot of the training, or to allow our kids to fade into their entertainment-driven culture in their spare time. We need to see parenting as a much bigger opportunity and invitation than that! I use an illustration in OMA from 9/11 about victims, bystanders, and firemen, the roles people take when lives are at stake. We must teach our children to see themselves as the firemen of this world…the heroes who are willing to set aside their own comforts in order to make a radical difference for others who are suffering or even in danger. There are so many in our world—whether the world around us or the world at large—who need our help and care in order to be saved from terrible circumstances. I am so encouraged to see a great movement of young people in our world right now who are joining God in His work, coming back to historic levels of competence, purpose, and service for their fellow man. OMA emphasizes helping your kids find what they are passionate about and then training them to use it to serve and positively impact others. 3. Can you give us an example of kids who are using their talents and passions to serve others? Many of these kinds of young people are featured in the book, such as Chloe who is currently majoring in filmmaking in order to positively impact her culture by communicating truths that will spur her peers to make positive choices in life. She’s already received Film Festival awards for her work on the film, “The Enemy God” by (10X Productions), Ivan uses his love for extreme sports to hold events worldwide for sports enthusiasts where he shares a bold Gospel message and then plugs youth into local churches. My oldest daughter Dani uses her love for music and working with kids to impact hundreds of kids during the summer as a Christian camp counselor. These are just a few of many inspiring examples! 4. You have an emphasis in OMA for families to invest in taking care of international orphaned and abandoned children through established organizations. Why is that? Investing in other children is one of the best ways to get your kids hearts interested and engaged in serving and helping others. Also, there are so many children worldwide who are the truest victims and have no means to get out of the gutters of life without help. As mentioned, these kids are currently being rescued and shaped to become spiritual leaders and contributing citizens of their own countries. Our family can make a true difference in the world by impacting lives of these children, which will in turn impact whole villages and cities as they grow up. What a great investment of our time, talents, and money! Many organizations will even allow you to visit the orphanages and ministries you help support. We love to make it known that all proceeds of OMA go to international orphan ministries. 5. Is this a “how to” parenting book? We do share many principles-based parenting tips from several successful arrow-raising families. But there are already many how-to books on the shelves and I’ve had publishers tell me that parents ask for them but then don’t buy them. That’s because parents need inspiration: “What’s possible through our family if I commit this kind of energy to deliberate parenting? Can our family make a true difference in the world?” The major emphasis in OMA is inspirational aspect of parenting—casting a vision of the exciting ways your family can plug in to make a difference. 6. Is there any place parents can go after reading the book for more inspiration and guidance? We are currently developing our website (OneMillionArrows.com) as a community where parents can share testimonies as well as spiritual training helps. We are also adding many resources on our site such as unique orphan ministries to consider getting involved in, suggested books and resources, daily spiritual training helps, and stories of young people around the world who are making a difference.

Thus concludeth the interview. Again for the third post in as many days, I heartily encourage you guys to get behind this book.

Next Time: Just Another Wordless Wednesday

And the winner is ... me.

My wife is an optimist when it comes to contests. Any time there is a giveaway such as $5,000.00 given for doing a phone survey for your latest meal at Bob's Taco Barn, Amy is certain that we won. This is often before we even enter. The truth is we often enter but hardly ever win.

Now, in the blogging world, there are give-a-ways galore. I even host one on this very blog. (Check our next post for more details.) Many enter, few win. I don't often tell Amy when I enter, because otherwise she would be devastated with how often we are not slated to win.

Now for those of you who don't know, Amy loves Cheetos. That is even her screen name in a few places here on the world wide web. So when Carma of Carma Sez was giving away a huge bucket of Utz Cheese balls, I thought to myself, "That's for Amy." It turns out that these particular cheese balls don't have riboflavin, the ingredient that gives Cheetos it's Cheeto-ness. But it's not like we were going to win them, was it?

It turns out we won! Here is Carma's post announcing the winner of her giveaway.

Carma's only contingency was that the winner get a picture of them and the cheese balls at a popular regional locale. Well across from my local Walmart there is what remains of mine and then my kids', first amusement park: Santa's Village. And to celebrate winners, I of course had to wear my 2005 World Champions Cap.

Thanks Carma from all of us for all the Utz. MMMM Tasty!

Next Time: Crazy Dave's Give-A-Ways State Quarters.