Last year on Father’s Day I ran through my current reading list [web, OPML] looking for fathers that blogged about their kid(s).

While some might guard their personal lives very jealously, others are more open about their family and in particular their kids. I like to read an entry once in a while that remind me that I’m reading posts from human beings, from family guys. Family gals too, of course, but mothers have their own special day.

Fathers mentioned last year won’t be included in this post today although I do wish them all the best again this year. Looking for different dads in my reading list to spotlight this year. Will this become an annual Hmm tradition? Dunno, but it seems like a neat thing to do for other dads.

Sterling Camden
First up is currently the most active reader/subscriber to this blog and a fellow Seattlelite Sterling Camden. Ok, maybe he lives across across the sound, but oceanic waters can’t diminish his fatherly powers. He has been improving his own blogging efforts so much that when he hits the blogging big time hopefully he’ll remember me.

Check out this post from Halley’s point of view about their family:

Hi, I’m Halley (SYF). I live on an island with my pet humans: one big male, his mate, and two of their pups … Speaking of chewing, these keys are looking pretty crunchy right now…,jb..ljbn/.,nm.,mnbb/…

Jeff Barr
I’ve been a Jeff Barr fan since coming across his syndic8 site and meeting him at a local Seattle meetup. He also works for Amazon. Last week he showed me a neat area he is developing in Second Life (SL) but since I don’t have his permission to say any more about it, I’ll just leave it there for now.

Jeff is the father of five children and if there is any doubt about him being one of the good guys, check out this blog entry about a project designed to donate school supplies to thousands of children displaced by Hurricane Katrina:

At dinner this evening I told my children about this project and without hesitation they all volunteered their entire month’s worth of allowance. We finished eating, and they ran outside to get three of their friends. We hopped in our car, drove to the nearby Target and ended up with nearly 3 cubic feet of pens, rulers, crayons, erasers, and more.

Lestat
Speaking about that terrible hurricane situation, the next father who blogs and has been a good friend: Lestat from beginnercode, was among the people who didn’t just sit around and say that’s terrible, he got in a truck convoy that headed down there to deliver supplies.

It is a completely bizarre coincidence that he happened upon a PHP scripting course I’d written and offered for free and ended up in our IRC chatroom. One day we got into the subject of Appleton, Wisconsin where I happened to go to graduate from high school and it turned out his wife also graduated — in the same class. The internet isn’t such a big place after all. He is a printer by day, blogger and SL entrepreneur by night, and father too. He’s got a new baby with his wife and my former classmate. I think the baby is letting him sleep now, he’ll have to cook up a blog entry and tell us about that (hint, hint).

Speaking of new babies, Tom Raftery’s blog won the Irish Blog award in 2006. He stopped to tell us about Enrique:

Our newborn, Enrique, was sleeping very well the first couple of weeks, waking only once a night to be fed. But the last couple of nights he has been waking three times a night to be fed - ouch!

. You might remember Tom from the recent O’Reilly Web 2.0 trademark debacle, but it’s infinitely more significant in the grand scheme of life that he’s a fellow dad.

Brendon Connelly
With over 4,200 RSS Subscribers, maybe you’ve heard of or already read the blog Slacker Manager that is authored by Brendon Connelly who describes himself as:

I’m a Fortune 500 refugee, now happily entrenched as a university administrator in the Pacifc Northwest of the United States. I’ve got a B.A. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology and an MBA. I also claim two boys and a wife.

[intermission begin]

Our oldest son, Jowl, just arrived saying: “I had to scarf down a breakfast burrito, dad.” My wife and Jowl and the baby in the family (who’s 13, my goodness, the baby is 13) brought me my favorite: maple bars!

Jowl used to co-host a podcast with me (99 weeks). He likes music and we went to Ozzfest to see Black Sabbath together last year. Ozzfest again this month, but I think I’m going to take a pass this year. I told him I’d be there for Ozzy on the solo tour he’s rumored to be starting in December. It’s nice that we continue to share similar musical tastes.

This brings me to our middle son, Spawn. He went to spend time with his friends for a weekend videogaming session and wants us to come pick him up. We both think videogames are cool. Spawn is primarily responsible for driving our family Xbox Live gamerscore over 3,000. Looks like he is just one achievement short of completely beating Oblivion (1000 achievement points).

BRB.

[intermission end]

Mitch Ratcliffe
A blogger unafraid of controversy and debate is Mitch Ratcliffe, whom I met at the first Seattle Mindcamp, but did you know he had an adopted godson in Germany? I didn’t until he shared this blog entry:

Peter’s mother, who was our son’s nanny 12 years ago, lost her father just before she came to live with us. Peter has no grandfather other than me, the distant American who has the same name (many kids at school apparently prefer to call him “Mitch,” because it is unique, though not very melodious) is his only grandfather and he positively overwhelmed me with his excitement and loving hugs. Mein! he cried and hugged me, making my kids jealous. It was glorious.

Indeed.

Pete Prodoehl
If you are looking for a techie from Wisconsin, perhaps Pete from Rasterweb would fit your company’s needs? I like the ‘classic’ family portrait by emma, age 3 1/2. Our youngest son, Nean, inks me pictures on the tablet PC from time to time. Treasure those pictures, parents. They grow up all too fast. I like how Pete eloquently describes his kids: “I own lots of computers. I own a canoe. I own an air hockey table. I have two kids. They own me.”

Rob Bushway
For those who don’t know who Rob Bushway is, you probably don’t own a Tablet PC. Rob, like the famous Heiny family is a big believer in the tablet. Rob writes about his son and the Origami/UMPC at gottabemobile:

My kids like calling it “the Origami” and “the Oreo”, my son says it feels just like a PSP or Gameboy, others refer to it as a UMPC or Ultra Mobile PC – whatever it is we name it, it is obvious that Microsoft and Intel have isolated a real “personal” niche.

Rob is also a Microsoft MVP and has done some work in making it easier to read bibles and books on the tablet via TabletBible.com. I met Rob at the Tablet PC meetup in Las Vegas during CES 2005.

Unlisted father bloggers
Just like last year, I’ve undoubtedly missed some fathers who blog in my subscribed feeds and there’s a ton of other fathers with blogs out there I’m not subscribed to. It’s easy to become a part of Ode to fathers that blog, just write something about being a father and either leave it as a comment below or trackback in.

Spawn inked his first picture on the tablet for me this year. If you got this far in this post, then you saw it at the top.

This afternoon we’re heading as a family to my favorite sandwich place in the area, MSM Deli on 6th [map/directions] in Tacoma. It’s one of those places that looks a little scary from outside but oh my are the sub sandwiches the best. No Subway on the planet compares. We’re going to take our subs, chips and drinks to the park and throw a ball around.

That’s what Father’s Day is all about to me, spending time with the ones you love doing activities and sharing laughs and making memories together. I’m sure we’ll see other families too, as long as the weather holds out (clouds currently looming in the skies). As a blogger, you can share a little bit with your readers, making them a tiny part of your extended family, if you choose to let them in. Will you?

To all dad’s across the world: Happy Father’s Day.

Did this post make you go hmm?

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