May 19 2023

I’m a Doesband But So What?

New term alert – doesband. A husband who does, presumably. It’s a British thing. I am indeed a doesband. Always have been. But so what?

Writing for the Guardian, Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett says that this shouldn’t be a big deal. But she also acknowledges that it is.

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May 17 2023

What I Will Leave To My Children

This story about kids who stopped talking to their father over a will made me think about what I will leave to my children. Speaking for me personally, I have very little. Since my wife and I are a unit, we have a lot.

My wife is the one with a job that has a 401k and retirement and stuff. I have an IRA but it’s pretty minimal. I dutifully contribute the maximum every year and it’s probably a few thousand at this point. OK, it’s more than that, but it’s not much. I will almost certainly burn through it when I retire. (An argument could be made that I’m already retired since I don’t have much of an income, but I’m technically still working.) Speaking of retirement, I don’t really want to do that. If I can ever get my acting career going, I would love to keep doing parts well into my later years. On the other hand, maybe I’ll enjoy just hanging out with my wife, assuming she hasn’t gotten sick of me. I would also like to keep writing, but that means finding someone to actually publish one of my novels.

As for what is mine personally, I have way too many computers, including an IBM ThinkPad from many moons ago that I have deep affection for and refuse to get rid of although I really should because it’s just taking up space. I could install Linux on it and use it for… what exactly? I’m perfect happy with my MacBook Pro. I’m not really a programmer, I’m just programmer friendly. My daughter programs, so maybe she’d want a Linux laptop. But really it’s just junk.

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Nov 23 2022

Download Large Files From Google Drive

Do you want to know how to download large files from Google Drive? It’s not hard, but it’s also not obvious. And it takes a bit of patience. Here is a DaddyTips Tech Tip.

try native google drive desktop client
Try the native Google Drive desktop client

Recently I got a file that was over 2 GBs in size. I’m a standup comic and frequently deal with large video files. This one was from a longer set and was higher quality and was therefore bigger. I tried downloading from the browser and kept getting an error message.

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Oct 18 2021

Stop Sending Robin Williams Impression Video To Zelda Williams

I can’t believe we have to say this but stop sending the Robin Williams impression video to Zelda Williams.

Weird? Hell yeah. It’s an amazing impression but come on. Sending it to his daughter is just mean. And weird. Did we mention weird?

I’m forced to think about my dad every time I see a TV show or movie with daddy issues and that’s pretty often because I love superhero stuff. My dad was not famous. And Robin Williams wasn’t just famous, he was mega famous. He’s everywhere. So she has to think about her dad, who died in a terrible way, constantly. “Spamming” the video to her is cruel. Cut it out.

Source: Zelda Williams wants people to stop sending Robin Williams impersonation video to her – CNN


Nov 11 2020

How To Remove Noise From Audio in Audacity

I have a podcast called Comics Who Love Comic Books. Today I was editing it and the file had a buzzing noise. Turns out you can easily reduce that in Audacity. Here’s a video.


Apr 28 2020

Download Twitter GIFs

EZ GIF lets you download Twitter GIFs easily. Go to the site, enter the URL and it converts it into an mp4. Then click Save. If you prefer a a GIF it can do that too. Fancy!

Source: EZ GIF Optimize animated GIF


Nov 12 2018

Stan Lee and Superhero Parenting

What is Superhero Parenting? It’s parenting like a superhero. It’s using lessons from comic books to raise your kids. It’s allowing comic books to teach lessons to your kids, lessons they might not want to hear from you but will gladly absorb from a fictional character in a costume.

The biggest lesson of all – “with great power there must also come great responsibility” – comes to us from Stan Lee.

Stan Lee

One of the best things my father did for me was introduce me to Marvel Comics. (Note: my father was, at best, something of a putz.) My first was Doctor Strange, and I still vividly remember the splash page – the colors, the small words. (Compare the letters on a Richie Rich comic to a Marvel or DC book from the late 70s/early 80s. It’s a big difference.)

Later I got into Spider-Man and learned the immortal lesson of great power and great responsibility, maybe the best thing parents can learn. Think about it – what greater responsibility is there than parenting a child?

I’m hardly the only person thinking about parenting on the day Stan Lee died. Kevin Smith wrote on Instagram, “Outside of my parents, you were the one adult who gave me the most useful life skills I still use today.”

I think this is true for a lot of people. In some cases Stan might be MORE important than their parents. That’s not true for me; my mother had a huge influence on my moral compass. But so, in his way, did Stan.

More Stan:

Famous people remembering Stan

Stan shows up on these great old Fantastic Four radio shows

All of Stan’s cameos, or “Staneos”

Image: Wikipedia