Daddy, where’s your vagina? on iTunes

Monday, November 23 2009 09:28 Written by Joe Schatz

Ok, so you know the podcast I made last week? Now you can subscribe to the podcast at iTunes. I plan on making weekly updates to the podcast until I get through the first section of the book. So, you can either subscribe to the podcast feed here at Joeprah, or you can go straight to iTunes and download the podcasts for free and listen to them on the go. It took a little longer than I anticipated to get the podcast approve at iTunes (a week and half), but I'm just glad it's on there now. Anyways, stay tuned for my next podcast update—which I should hopefully have done later today.

A Dad of Daughters on the Twilight Phenomenon

Thursday, November 19 2009 23:49 Written by Joe Schatz

On the eve of New Moon, I have been inspired to voice my opinion on the Twilight series as it pertains to a dad (a stay-at-home dad at that) raising three daughters. This post is one of a series of posts from other dad bloggers as part of The "Twilight" Dad Bloggers Experiment over at Dad Blogs. First, let me begin by saying my daughters are young (9, 7, 4) and they have not seen the movie nor read the books in the Twilight series. As far as censoring what my daughters see, we don’t let them read books that aren’t age appropriate or see movies and TV shows that contain subject matter that is of PG-13 or greater in nature. As they grow up the question will be, what is my role as a dad in guiding them through the possible pitfalls that the teenage years present? Is Twilight one of those possible pitfalls?

My wife and I saw the movie and many of our neighbors (mostly moms and one teenage girl) have read the book. What we have learned about the series over the last several months is that Twilight has its good points and bad points as well. Overall, the message is of dark, vampiric/werewolf teenage love. The themes include the feeling of being an outsider as a girl and the awkwardness of the teenage years. More disturbingly, one of the bigger messages is that a unsuccessful and abusive relationship are OK.

Read more...

Something I have been wanting to do forever

Tuesday, November 17 2009 23:32 Written by Joe Schatz

As some of you may or may not know, I am nerd. I am a full-blown nerd. Not your average everyday guy who casually says he's a nerd just be ironic and cool--I am the real deal. I have started my own chess clubs--on multiple occasions. My heros include Nicola Tesla and Paul Morphy (ones a chess guy). More than that though, I am super nerdy and snobby when it comes to two things in particular--movies and music. Maybe one day I will break down and start a section of Joeprah just for movie reviews, but right now I am going to concentrate on music. That's what Joeprah's Playlist is all about.

Have you ever wanted a friend to give you some cool songs and groups to check out? Have you ever wondered, "Who sings that song from that Bacardi commercial?" Have you ever thought to yourself, there has to be something else out there besides this pop-top 40 junk? If you answered yes to any of those than you should add Joeprah's playlist to your feed reader or just bookmark the site and stop by as often as you can. I plan on updating this as often as I can with short reviews of songs and bios of bands along with additions to the jukebox you see on the sidebar. The juke will contain complete MP3s for your listening pleasure that will divided into genre's.

Sure, Joeprah's Playlist is a part of Joeprah proper but it will look and feel different than Joeprah.com because--well--it is different. So, have fun and enjoy it here because it's here for your benefit. ~ Joe

Intro

Podcast

Monday, November 16 2009 10:14 Written by Joe Schatz

Tyra Show Update

Thursday, November 12 2009 23:53 Written by Joe Schatz

So, a long awaited Tyra update.  A lot of people have been asking what it was like? Two words—nerve racking. Not simple walking on stage and seeing the audience, not just waiting for hours in a green room—the entire experience.

Tuesday before the Wednesday Taping

Tuesday, the day before our trip to NY City, I waited for my book to arrive. I needed the book for the appearance on the show and I was promised it was on its way and at my post office the day before. The only problem—when the mail came the book did not. I was bookless and freaking out. I had promised the Tyra Show a book and I didn’t have it. After hours of tense conversations with my publisher and my local post office I found out that the publisher inexplicably shipped the book to the wrong address—a non-existent one at that. So, the day I was expecting my book was actually the day it was returning back to the printer. I was told there was a chance the book could be shipped overnight, priority to the show’s studio, but it was a long shot.

After running chess club at my daughter’s school and taking the kids to twenty different activities I came home to find out that option 2, overnighting the book, wasn’t a possibility either. One more option was to print a copy of the cover via Kinkos and have it slipped over a similar sized book. I ran that option by the Tyra Show and they said, thankfully, that if I send them a jpeg of the cover they could run with that instead. Score! This was around 9:00pm Tuesday evening and we were about to leave around 6:30am the next morning for New York. I was super relieved—that is until the next morning.

Read more...

Happy Halloween

Saturday, October 31 2009 12:25 Written by Joe Schatz

Happy Halloween from our family to yours!

Tyra Show and Book Drama

Thursday, October 29 2009 22:12 Written by Joe Schatz

This post is designed to increase the tension leading up to our trip to NY and prolong the posts associated with the Tyra Show appearance*

So, my publisher was supposed to send me a pre-production copy of the book so I could give it the final ‘thumbs up’ this past Monday. That meant I would the book in plenty of time for the taping of the show on Wednesday.  The show wanted me to bring the book—so I started to count down the hours to getting the mail on Monday.  That day the mail was delivered but the book wasn’t, although it was confirmed to be in my post office that morning. My confidence in a federal government controlled health care plan sunk to new lows. I called the post office that day trying to track down my book. They couldn’t locate it in the post office or on my truck—maybe I just needed to give it one more day.

Nervously Tuesday came but the book didn’t. This time the post office asked me to check with my printer to see which address they mailed to book out to. Apparently the printer thought it would be fun to send my book out to a made up address in my zip code thus assuring that it would be sent back to them. The book did reach my post office on Monday and on Tuesday I found out it was shipped back to where it came. It wasn’t the governments fault after all.

After hours of tense conversations with the publisher I discovered that the book wouldn’t be making its way to my house or to the NY studio where the Tyra Show was taped in time for my appearance.

With my tail between my legs I let the Tyra Show producer know. They told me, “Don’t worry about it, we’ll just use a jpeg of the cover instead.” Crisis avoided. This brings us up to Wednesday morning and when Jodi and I made our trip to NY.