DadTalk

Swim School Success

While it’s not been quite a month since DadTalk opened his Swim School for 2, I’m happy to report that we had a major, major breakthrough over the last two evenings.

Sunday
For the past few weeks now, I take turns holding each child’s hand as we submerge into the warm water to retrieve torpedoes from the pool bottom. Both kids keep their eyes clamped shut.

Lael quickly retrieves her orange torpedo from the lowest step on the stairs. Seth holds his nose with one hand as I guide his other to the blue torpedo that’s about 3 feet below.

Both then exit the pool and run 50 feet to dry their faces off on towels that I purposely keep far away. Every day I encourage them to try goggles, but they refuse.

For some reason, I decide that today I want to push Seth and Lael to the next level. My idea: I want them to swim a couple feet from the steps to me.

Old Light Bulbs Redesigned

Could good news be coming to the world of light bulbs? As you may know, energy efficient compact fluorescents have a nasty problem: they contain small amounts of the neurotoxin mercury. And while LED lights are more efficient than CFLs, they are generally too expensive. Aesthetically speaking, both types of light bulbs emit odd color tones that seriously complicate taking indoor pictures and make my wife’s skin appear green.

So it came as a surprise to me that manufacturers are working hard to make energy efficient incandescent light bulbs, reports The New York Times. While these new bulbs don’t save quite as much energy as the two competitors, there seems to be room for significant improvement.

Philip’s is already selling Halogena Energy Savers at Home Depot and on Amazon. The bulbs go for about $5 a piece, but it takes time for new products to come down in price. But researchers are working on a variety of improvements that may soon find their way into homes.

Just the thought of an efficient bulb that doesn’t use mercury and puts off decent light brightens my day.

Growing Up Without Dad

My dad died when I was 9. For most of my life, I would have denied that his death had any real impact on my development.

After all, I was a fiercely self-sufficient young boy with a strong sense of awareness at a very young age. On the day my dad died, I mentally took on the role of “oldest male” in the house and never really saw his death as a negative. I suppose that’s strange, but I’ve always been the type who rises to meet adversity.

Of course, there was a touch of silliness to it. I didn’t get a job as my grandfather did when his dad died. I didn’t take over the role of raising my brother. And in actuality, I didn’t know squat.

But, I did grow up a lot on the day my dad died from an embolism caused by a metal plate used to mend a broken leg. My sense of responsibility was immediate and immutable. In many ways, I acted as adult-like as my immature mind could muster.

It wasn’t until my kids were born that I started to realize something had been lost. Consider:

DadTalk Opens Swim School for 2

A few months after Seth was born, my wife insisted that I be the one to give him baths. Anne simply couldn’t cope with our son’s abject fear of water. I don’t mean your normal, garden variety fear, but top-of-his-lungs screaming. (Water fear runs strong in both parents’ families.)

The worst reaction usually came about when even the slightest drop of water slid down the side of his face, usually when washing his hair. My boy equally freaked out if a single H2O molecule entered an ear.

Within a few days of my taking over bathing duties, Seth calmed down enough to tolerate baths. A few weeks later, Seth kind of enjoyed baths. Within a few more weeks, Seth loved baths to the point I couldn’t get him out of the water. My boy was fine as long as the water stayed away from his face.

Product Review Can Sponges Be Green?

When the publicist contacted me about reviewing environmentally-friendly Scotch-Brite sponges, I almost laughed. But since I happen to already use that brand, I figured why not?

Besides, when I was a boy, my dad WORKED for 3M, the makers of Scotch-Brite. Dad would often bring home cool electronic toys before they were cool. I was like 7 at the time.

What Was I Thinking?

Because I’ve just launched WriteThru.com, which offers free webinars to media professionals seeking to enhance their technology skills, I’m going to cross-post my “explainer” here on DadTalk. Please feel free to spread the word about WriteThru … I can use the help!

I LEFT THE LOS ANGELES TIMES knowing an economic storm was coming, but I had no idea just how hard the media world would be hit. I figured there would be layoffs at newspapers beyond those of the late 1980s and early 1990s, but then mistakenly hoped that the market would stabilize.

Today, I find it heartbreaking to see so many hard-working colleagues and friends suddenly wondering how to pick up the pieces of their damaged careers. PaperCuts counts nearly 16,000 newspaper jobs lost in the United States in 2008 alone and nearly 9,000 more so far this year. And by all accounts, TV, radio and magazine employees all have been equally pummeled.

But I do not believe that professional journalism will die. Hints of what might emerge are seeping through. Think ProPublica. Think VoiceofSanDiego. Consider the possibilities of electronic ink/paper. I don’t know exactly what form this golden era of journalism will materialize, but I do know that many of the journalists who are losing their jobs today will help launch this renaissance.

Food Safety Falls to Us, States That Give a Dang

If it wasn’t for Minnesota, we’d probably still be eating peanuts and lettuce contaminated with salmonella. While I’ve written about the failure of the Food and Drug Administration to keep watch on food growers and manufacturers, it turns out the key to discovering the cause of outbreaks depends on state and county governments, reports The New York Times.

The problem? Only a handful of states take this responsibility seriously, relying on conscientious Minnesota, Florida and Washington to do the hardcore sleuthing and reporting. If you live in states like Kentucky, Nevada, Texas and Arizona, you’d wrongly think that contaminated food didn’t exist.

The key to uncovering the source of a food-borne illness? Speed. Because humans forget what they ate more than a few days ago, it’s crucial for food investigators to question victims ASAP. Many states do not.

Memories of my 20s and 30s brings up a point not covered in the Times story. You see, I used to get stomach ailments on a regular basis, but I never thought to report the problems to anyone, not even my doctor. For whatever reasons, I started to believe getting food illnesses was normal.

While I now know better, I follow some simple safety procedures learned over the years:

Webinar Let’s Meet to Discuss Building a Blog

I’ve never been much of a joiner. Most of my life I’ve avoided cliques, fraternities, religion, political parties, etc.

If there is one group, though, that I’ve always identified with, it’s been journalists. I feel at home when walking around a newsroom, even if I don’t work there. I’ve tried to move on, but I still feel the ups and mostly downs the industry has faced of late.

It’s been particularly painful watching friends losing their jobs. It frustrating to watch highly-skilled, hard-working individuals wondering how to find a job in today’s nasty employment environment as the technological world around them has changed.

While I may not have the answers to journalism’s bigger issues, I do know how to help individuals. At the moment, providing an educational forum seems like the best place to start.

So at 10:30 a.m. (Pacific Daylight Time) on Monday, I’m offering journalists, and of course my readers, a free webinar on how to create a blog. Future courses will tackle topics like free office software, how to find journalism jobs and how to easily record video.

If you feel like donating, to help defray the costs, who am I to stop you?

If you’re interested, click on the link to sign up for a Blog Fundamentals webinar.

Thanks.

Will Obama Plan to Improve U.S. Food Safety Fall Short?

On Friday, I received about 10 emails from the Food and Drug Administration for recalls related to peanut products. So perhaps it was appropriate that President Obama chose this week to announce an effort to fix America’s food-safety system.

From Obama’s radio address:

Food safety is something I take seriously, not just as your President, but as a parent. When I heard peanut products were being contaminated earlier this year, I immediately thought of my 7-year old daughter, Sasha, who has peanut butter sandwiches for lunch probably three times a week. No parent should have to worry that their child is going to get sick from their lunch.

In an unusual show of bipartisanship, Congress may already onboard, reports The New York Times. It’s just amazing to me that it has taken years and years for government to take action.

Consider this:

Letter Dad Implores Lawmakers to Preserve AZ Education

Following cuts to education in Arizona, I decided to send the following letter to my three state legislators and the new governor of Arizona:

Dear State lawmakers,

I ask that you reconsider ongoing and future budget cuts to education in Arizona. While the cuts have been labeled fiscally responsible, I argue that it’s an approach that will cause long-term harm to the people of this great state.

Consider, parents are becoming MORE reliant on public education, not less, as household budgets tighten. And I’m luckier than most, because I live in one of the handful of great school districts found in Arizona. I’m doubly lucky because my son, Seth, has a great first grade teacher who can handle her oversized class of 24 children. But that’s likely to change under continuing budget cuts. By next year, Scottsdale parents can expect larger class sizes. If it wasn’t for an override tax, class sizes would be larger still. The vast majority of children in other school districts are much worse off.