Geek Dad Intros

[Tango Alpha Delta]

Being a Geek Dad my own self, I love the "Geek Dad Intros" that Steve occasionally does.  Since I'm catching up Merlin Style (working my way backward through the stories I missed over the last year or so), usually listening to 2 or 3 EP stories a week, I'm getting a strange, backward-moving concentration of those types of intros that regular listeners might not experience.

Some of the things that come up - the usual behavioral concerns, development issues, and the obligatory "guess what my goofy kid did" anecdotes - make me want to run to the forum and offer a "me too" or a "don't worry - he'll outgrow that!"  Of course, because I'm temporally out of touch with the rest of you (Steve included) I didn't want to weird out any of you (Steve included) by busting in on the story threads with comments on random Geek Dad stuff.  I start to post things, and then stop and think "that sounds out of place in a 'zombie-rapists in Christian SF' thread", or "I'll sound like a freaky stalker if I bring up that kid comment 5 months later."

So, now that I've got the long-winded intro part done, I've run out of time to tell whatever personal anecdote it was that I was going to tell... but I hope a few of you will chime in with your thoughts.  I promise to come back when I figure out what it was I was going to say... and Steve: don't worry!  He'll outgrow that... whatever it is. 

[Darwinist]

Some of the things that come up - the usual behavioral concerns, development issues, and the obligatory "guess what my goofy kid did" anecdotes - make me want to run to the forum and offer a "me too" or a "don't worry - he'll outgrow that!" 

I feel the same way.  A lot of the things that worried me about my kids turned out to be minor but worrying about your kids is what parents do. I remember when my oldest son was 10 he got this bizarre skin condition and his parents' minds were filled with all kinds of horrible ideas about what it was.  We visited some specialists, got some drugs, and after a few months it was gone and he no longer needs drugs. 

Some kid stories -
My wife and I used to watch X-Files on Sunday night religiously and my dad would call me on Sunday nights for our weekly chat.  So one Sunday he called during the show and I growled to my wife "why does he always call right during the X-Files?".   My young son answered the phone and told grandpa "my dad is mad at you because you always call during the X-Files".   

My dad gives my kids Best Buy gift cards for their birthdays.  He spends more on them than he ever did on his kids, which is fine.   So I made the comment to my youngest that when I was a kid we didn't have a lot of money so all I got for my birthday was a pat on the back and a kick in the butt.   So my dad calls on night and I hear my 12 y/o my son say "My dad says that the only thing you ever gave him for his birthday was a kick in the butt". 

[Tango Alpha Delta]

.... So my dad calls on night and I hear my 12 y/o my son say "My dad says that the only thing you ever gave him for his birthday was a kick in the butt". 

I would have been yelling, "You forgot the pat on the head back!"

But, I remembered which intro inspired me ... the one where Steve told how Alex would hit him and yell "No" when Steve would sing to him.  This sounds like my younger boy, Lars.  The others have always loved a lullaby and a story at bed time, and I used to tell them my own versions of the Navajo coyote stories and sing Peter, Paul, and Mary songs (Puff, the Magic Dragon was a big hit, of course).  Then Lars took it into his head that he didn't LIKE to hear me before going off to sleepy-land.

At first, he just yelled "No!" once or twice when I started, but I would explain that the other kids wanted to hear, and ask him to just be quiet.  But then he started heckling me!  I don't care who you are, being heckled by a 5 year old is just plain demoralizing.  So, now I just tuck them in, and only sing or story them if one of the others really needs me to.

You just can't please everybody every night, you know?

[Stucarius]

I am such a total Geek Dad. My 9 year old son came to me last week and said it was so cool he has a Dad with all this awesome stuff and all his friends were jealous. Felt good. My son has an open invitation to hack our home network anytime he wants and is welcome to any content he can steal from me. At 9 he is already deconstructing the network so he can get through my security. He asked me a few months ago if he could install Linux on an old Palm I gave him to play with. I heard me talking about putting Linux on my PSP. When my wife and I upgrade our iPhones next year we will give one of our old ones to him. I will hack the other one. We build robots, computers learn programing together, play miniatures, WOW as a whole family with Mom included, Xbox, PSP, Watch Sci-Fi channel together.

Of course we also, Hike, go to football games, he plays Little league everything, hunting, fishing and all the other good stuff.

As a "Geek" dad I am beyond excited to see what he does with his life after having technology as commonly part of his life as bread. He is already beginning his first video Podcast next week with some friends he has asked me to help him with. He wants to review toys, video games, movies, books and other stuff for kids his age. It is just amazing.

I do not know how other parents are but my son can sit down at or grab any of the 16 computers in the  house and do anything he wishes. Since he knows his every keystroke is logged I never have to worry about his use of the  Internet etc...I consider it my responsibility to over see his activity in such a way that his explorations are completely unlimited.

How about other Dads and Moms?

[KMITA]

Similar with my wife and kids. My 2 daughters, my wife and I all like to sit down in front of our PC's and have a great time looking up goofy stuff on Youtube or play a good LAN game. When I give them free reign over the PC the girls tend to pop in educational games like http://shop.knowledgeadventure.com/Departments/JumpStart-Series.aspx. Only problem is that we recently moved to southern Mississippi and my daughters tend to get teased. Most of their classmates only see PC's at school. They are also the only 2 kids in school that have MP3 players. I know this for a fact since the principal called me up and wanted to know "If such HI Tech devices could be used for cheating on tests?"

Anyway, we also enjoy shooting, fishing, biking, hiking, and long road trips on the weekends.

[Darwinist]

I do not know how other parents are but my son can sit down at or grab any of the 16 computers in the  house and do anything he wishes. Since he knows his every keystroke is logged I never have to worry about his use of the  Internet etc...I consider it my responsibility to over see his activity in such a way that his explorations are completely unlimited.

How about other Dads and Moms?

Same here, and my 16 y/o now knows more about computers than I do.  My 12 y/o and his buddies made some videos and put them on YouTube.  Both of them use our home computer every night for homework.  And the 16 y/o and his buddies put their headsets on most nights and run around together on Xbox 360 live, I think its Call of Duty 4 now.  They keep active in the winter with ice skating and indoor soccer.  I seem to recall when I was in high school my friends and I got together and ran around in the physical world - but I guess we were usually up to no good so maybe blowing things up in virtual Europe isn't as bad as I think. 

[gelee]

Too true.  I'm sure we'd all love to see our kids outside more, I don't think I'd like them to get into the sorts of trouble I managed to find when I was their age. 

[Russell Nash]

But, I remembered which intro inspired me ... the one where Steve told how Alex would hit him and yell "No" when Steve would sing to him.  This sounds like my younger boy, Lars.  The others have always loved a lullaby and a story at bed time, and I used to tell them my own versions of the Navajo coyote stories and sing Peter, Paul, and Mary songs (Puff, the Magic Dragon was a big hit, of course).  Then Lars took it into his head that he didn't LIKE to hear me before going off to sleepy-land.

At first, he just yelled "No!" once or twice when I started, but I would explain that the other kids wanted to hear, and ask him to just be quiet.  But then he started heckling me!  I don't care who you are, being heckled by a 5 year old is just plain demoralizing.  So, now I just tuck them in, and only sing or story them if one of the others really needs me to.

My son likes me to sing Billy Joel songs to him.  Mostly "Lennigrad" which is not really a song for a 4 y.o..  My daughter puts her hand over my mouth and says, "no."  She started that when she was a little over a year old. 

[Tango Alpha Delta]

My son likes me to sing Billy Joel songs to him.  Mostly "Lennigrad" which is not really a song for a 4 y.o..

But children live in Leningrad! 

When you stop and think about most lullabies, though, a lot of them are inappropriate for bedtime OR for children.  I mean, Puff the Magic Dragon is about loss of innocence and the death of childhood fantasy; Rock-a-bye Baby is a terrifying journey through a hurricane; and I don't know exactly what All the Pretty Ponies is about, but the version we have is by Kenny Loggins, and no child should be exposed to that!

My personal favorite lullabye, though, is by Ben Folds Five.  (Free, full version, paying BFF royalties at that link, there.)  It is about a nighttime flight in a small aircraft with James Earl Jones... too bad Mr. Jones couldn't be available to sing it!

[Tango Alpha Delta]

Okay... I'm too boggled to put it into words, but... am I the only Geek Dad who just wishes he could deal ONLY with his own kids for the next, well... forever?


Neighbors' kids (who won't leave the yard when our kids come in... to go to bed), school friends (who call the voice mail and say "Are you there?  Pick up if you are?" even though they KNOW it's not a machine that we can hear), and kids in Wal-Mart (don't start).

I'm just sayin'... maybe I wasn't too boggled after all.

[Darwinist]

Okay... I'm too boggled to put it into words, but... am I the only Geek Dad who just wishes he could deal ONLY with his own kids for the next, well... forever?


Neighbors' kids (who won't leave the yard when our kids come in... to go to bed), school friends (who call the voice mail and say "Are you there?  Pick up if you are?" even though they KNOW it's not a machine that we can hear), and kids in Wal-Mart (don't start).

I'm just sayin'... maybe I wasn't too boggled after all.

Add me to that group.  I deal with the same things you mentioned.  My middle-school aged son's friends all have cell phones so our caller ID is full of calls - they don't leave messages - they just call every five minutes until he's home and picks up.    The violent little neighbor dude who loves to flatten my downspouts and who smashed the duck eggs in the nest behind our garage last spring.   Yeah - don't start on the Wal-Mart kids, a lot of parents nowdays are afraid to say "NO" to their kids or physically get them under control.  The behavior of some of these brats is maddening - I would say a lot of it goes back to soft,wishy-washy parents.  ARRRRGGGHHH!   

[birdless]

Similar with my wife and kids. My 2 daughters, my wife and I all like to sit down in front of our PC's and have a great time looking up goofy stuff on Youtube or play a good LAN game. When I give them free reign over the PC the girls tend to pop in educational games like http://shop.knowledgeadventure.com/Departments/JumpStart-Series.aspx. Only problem is that we recently moved to southern Mississippi and my daughters tend to get teased. Most of their classmates only see PC's at school. They are also the only 2 kids in school that have MP3 players. I know this for a fact since the principal called me up and wanted to know "If such HI Tech devices could be used for cheating on tests?"

Are you kidding me?? I live in MS, too (albeit northern MS), but I don't know of any kids around who would get teased for being PC knowledgeable (quite the opposite, in fact) and MP3 players abound. Please tell me you live in a tee-niny community!

My son is only 19 months old, but I hope I'm a geek dad. I'm sure my wife would give me every assurance that I needn't worry about that at all.

[IT_Spook]

I will chime in as well that I also enjoy the Geek Dad intros. I often wonder if Steve has a junior podcaster in his house.

I make this comment because of my middle daughter, who fondly goes by her Internet handle of Sister Flame (age 7). They say that children follow their parents and my three daughters are no exception. While she shares many of my geek tastes, there is one thing we both take great plasure in: games. It doesn't matter if it is board or card or video, Sister Flame is there in a heartbeat and ready to play.

I didn't realize how much my Geekiness had rubbed off on her until she asked to play City of Heroes with me (a PC MMPOG involving superhroes). She started at 4 1/2 just moving around the city and swimming in pools of water. I never thought nothing of it and figured she'd get bored and move onto dolls or something.

Flash forward 2.5 years. My little princess can now login to my computer (using my password!), start things up and get into the game by herself. I made a post on the game forums that she likes to play City of Heroes and it turned into a 30 page thread. She was featured in the player newsletter and had one of the devs send her a few little gifts. She still loves to play and prefers to play with her dad.

I posed this question to her: "Do you think it is geeky to play video games?"

Her answer: "Yes, because geek is cool."

My two other daughers may not have the Geek bug, but I feel a strange sort of happiness that I have a little technoshadow. Maybe she'll start a podcast someday... once I tell her what they are.

[Tango Alpha Delta]

Her answer: "Yes, because geek is cool."

That just makes it all worthwhile!  Put on your asbestos jacket, and give Sister Flame a big hug from me!

[stePH]

I'll chime in with a differing opinion (as skimming this thread I see that I will be the first to post this):

I'm one of those self-absorbed bastards who doesn't care for the company of children and considers reproduction and child-rearing far too dreary to be worth devoting any of his own precious time to, so for me the "geek dad" intros are of little to no interest.  I prefer them few and far-between, if they have to be there at all.

[wintermute]

On the subject of lullabies, I can strongly recommend the Rockabye Baby range of CDs. Lullaby versions of Nine Inch Nails, The Cure, Pink Floyd, The Ramones, Led Zeppelin...

We have The Beatles and AC/DC, and our 15-month-old loves them. Hopefully, iy will help her grow up with good taste in music

[Listener]

My daughter's only about 20 months, but she already loves reading more than anything else, can SORT OF read a few pages of some of her books (I think it's just recognizing parts of books and pictures on the pages, but still).  She also is slowly developing my sense of poop humor.  That makes me laugh.

[gelee]

Mine were both largely grown when I got them, so I missed out on a lot of the good stuff.  Sadly, they find my tastes in both fiction and music 'weird.'

[Tango Alpha Delta]

Mine were both largely grown when I got them, so I missed out on a lot of the good stuff.  Sadly, they find my tastes in both fiction and music 'weird.'

...like 'weird' is somehow not 'good'. 

[Planish]

I love the "Geek Dad Intros" that Steve occasionally does. 

We need more cameos from Alex, too.

[Darwinist]

I love the "Geek Dad Intros" that Steve occasionally does. 

We need more cameos from Alex, too.

Or maybe some narration or stories from him.  Save money, put family on the payroll.

[Tango Alpha Delta]

I've been working backwards through the episodes I missed, and got back as far as my feed permits (around EP 104)... so I went to the archives and started downloading everything from Episode one.  (Check out this "Episode Compilation" thread, by the way).  But I discovered the very first Geek Dad Intro: EP 3 "Three Wish Habit".

It got me thinking, anyone interested in helping out with the Compilations could also help out by including a note by each episode link that tells a bit about the Intro; Geek Dad, Con Talk, etc.

And remember... if someone asks you if you're a god: You say "Yes!"

[Russell Nash]

And remember... if someone asks you if you're a god: You say "Yes!"

I would never do a thing like that!

[Tango Alpha Delta]

And remember... if someone asks you if you're a god: You say "Yes!"

I would never do a thing like that!

Perversely, that is why I don't believe in you.