Comics + Christianity = New Podcast!

Okay, so I haven't posted in a while. But now I'm back with PROOF that I've been doing something real since I posted last! My friend Ben Avery and I have put together our first podcast, the Comic Book Crossover Podcast, and it's almost ready for public consumption. I was going to make a lame joke about the disease once called 'Consumption', but thought better of it - tuberculosis jokes usually aren't that funny. But, anyway, the podcast will be about comic books and other media (usually television and movies, but we've been known to drag in old time radio, web comics, and other stuff as well) and how they are both an influence on and influenced by Christianity.

We're going to try to keep the podcasts under a half an hour for now, until the public outcry for more of our witty banter becomes overwhelming, and probably put one up every 2 to 4 weeks. Some of what we plan to feature includes our Icons Series (Episode 1 features the legendary Aquaman!), and finding out what comics Ben and I are reading. But this is just the tip of the iceberg, as we usually dive right into whatever we need to in order to support our theories about mass media, culture, and how everything relates to Christianity.

If you’d like to find out more about us or the podcast, or if you’re interested in what Christianity is really all about, please e.mail us at ComicBookCrossover@gmail.com. We’d love to hear what you have to say about any of the topics we’ve covered or about any topic you’d like us to cover (you could even suggest a hero for the Icons Series). You can also find us online at http://web.me.com/benavery/Comic_Book_Crossover_Podcast. Thanks to Ben for setting up a website with the worlds longest URL.

At our online site you'll find links to the podcast as well as Ben's arsenal of websites - professional and personal, both with great stuff to read - and my attempts at social networking as well. Let us know what you think!

Mr. Mom Moment #1 - The Bathroom Break

I thought I’d share some “Mr. Mom Moments” with you. I’ve been thinking that someone should remake this movie. After a few more of these moments I’m thinking that maybe I’ll take a crack at rewriting it!

As I have not been taking care of kids for most of my life, I sometimes have to make things up on the fly. Like when my 10-month-old boy and I were home alone and nature called. He’s in his ‘learning to walk’ stage, which is also his ‘stand up and take a few steps then bang your head on something coming back down’ stage. We don’t have a 100% childproof room, and he doesn’t much like being put down in a crib and walked away from (unless he’s sleeping, of course). The playpen was upstairs and the bathroom was not. Thus my dilemma.

Using the limited tools within arms reach, I pulled his ‘piano-toy-thing’ into the bathroom and put one end of it up against the door. This thing is open on both ends and has toys on the sides with big piano keys for him to step on as a floormat. If that doesn’t explain it, it’s not really that important, just that there was still one open end after I put it up against the door. I had time to pull in a footstool from right outside the door as well, so I pushed the footstool up against the open end. Problem solved – until he started to push against the footrest! I quickly grabbed the diaper pail, clothes hamper and waste basket and propped them all up in a line against the offending footrest. Problem solved for the second time!

Then he started to learn how to climb…how do mothers do this 24-7?

That's 'MISTER Mr. Mom' to you, buddy!

Since I've been working from home (or attempting to work from home...sometimes I think of my self as 'self-unemployed'), I've heard the term "Mr. Mom" thrown in my direction more than once. John Hughes wrote the script and Michael Keaton and Teri Garr are the stars in the 80's comedy, and it has some humorous scenes (in fact, it's a wonder that no one has thought to remake it - and why aren't comedies remade as much as, say, dramas or action flicks? And what's the deal with all the parenthetical rhetorical remarks?), but ultimately resolves [SPOILER ALERT!] with Keaton regaining his job and Garr going back home to take care of the kids. True, my wife is now the main wage-earner, and true, I am in charge of the kids during the day (and nights sometimes, if Christa's work is especially harrowing that day), but I initially took offense to the term, until I decided to break down and finally see the movie.

Very traditional values for a Hollywood hit, and, I must say, one that I would prefer for our family (Christa COULD go back to part-time...or work from home...or they could just pay her the money she deserves for running the entire office single-handed), as the stress is compounding at my wife's job!

The problem with being a writer (okay, 'ostensibly being a writer', but that doesn't roll off the tongue as well) is that you kinda need to have something written to get paid, and unfortunately I didn't see the layoff coming soon enough to have something to roll with right out of the gate. And running a week-long Vacation Bible School (I played the part of Paul the Apostle - chained to a desk with writing his only past-time...hmmm, where did I put that chain?) while making sure three kids have a great summer vacation means very little writing time for me in the last few months.

Now it's getting down to crunch time (and hopefully I'm not the one who will be getting crunched!) so, since the kids are close to going back to school, I'll be writing much more often. I should have something to shop around soon, and other piecemeal sidelines should become more prominent in providing a few extra bucks.

So, while I'm nowhere near the basketcase Keaton became during his descent into madness, I can understand the sentiment offered by the well-meaning few who use the Mr. Mom moniker, perhaps not embracing it fully, and use it as an impetus to get back to a sensible family dynamic. I just won't be using it as my 'mom de plume'.

Changes

Well. It's been a while since I posted, and many things have been happening since then.

The big news is that Benjamin Tucker MacDonald was born, happy and healthy, on November 24th, 2008, just in time for Thanksgiving! He is a very pleasant baby – the one before him was born with bi-lateral clubfoot, so she spent the first six weeks of her life in full-length leg casts, which made her a little cranky (but understandably so) that first year or two. She has since made a full recovery, started walking earlier than her older brother did, and now runs around like the crazy kindergartener she is with no problem. But Ben was born with no problems.

The second big news is that I was laid off after almost 20 years. The company laid off 7% of their personnel, which is about 37 people. The stuff that I was responsible for were not big sellers, so eliminating me was not a big stretch of the imagination. It’s not particularly bad for me (more on that below), but it was a bit sudden (“A BIT”?????????) so now I’m going to take some time to network, run the numbers, and see what this next phase of my life is going to look like.

The good news is that my wife just got a new position at her job, meaning more per hour, so my being home frees her schedule up to take those new hours, since I'm home to drive Ben to my in-laws during the day (or take care of him here, which gets a little noisy and time consuming, so he's over at the in-laws more often than not), pick him up and be here when the other kids come home from school. Her new hours give us over an hour in the morning to actually be together with just Ben, which is very nice and relaxing. We hadn't had morning breakfast together on a weekday in a long time. I get more time with her, more time with the older kids, and more time with Ben. Win/Win/Win in my book. And I get to write for the rest of the day. Win^4!

Also, it frees up a bunch of time during the day for me to take paying writing and editing projects. With wifey's new pay increase, all I really need to cover is our insurance costs. I could work freelance as long as some money is coming in. On top of that, the severance package was very generous, so I don't need to scramble to find a new job right away. This is an opportunity that I wouldn't have had if I were still working, so, even though I miss the people, I can now get more traction on what I'd really like to do, which is write and edit.

The bad part was that it was so sudden, although I imagine that I would have tried to line up another 9-5 job if I had any warning, so maybe that wasn't so bad. I already have a few different ponds that I'm fishing in, and one international ministry already asked for my resume, so things seem like they're moving right along. God certainly knows what He’s doing.

We have also been 'blessed' with the wonderful cold/disease/whatever that has been lingering around the Boston area, so I haven't had much time to update this weblog, so I apologize for that, but I should be back pretty regularly from now on.