A few months Several months ago my friend Angela published and gave me her book called Backyard Farming on An Acre (More or Less). For a suburban-raised guy like me who’s now living in the country, it’s become my go to book on how we can lead a more sustainable, eco-friendly, healthier lifestyle.

How You Can Get Started

First, buy the book. It’s a quick but detailed read and helps you understand the basics of growing your own food regardless of the size of your property. With a quick trip to the home improvement store I was off an running with a bunch of 2×4, my circular saw, a cordless drill and some screws. For every three pieces of wood, we were able to cut one in half and make a nice raised bed for our 20′ x 20′ garden.

Once you get the hang of it you can literally have a raised bed put together within minutes. I saw kits recently at Home Depot for making raised beds, but it’s cheaper to buy the wood yourself and do it yourself. Plus, it’s not exactly an intimidating project as you’re not building a house or solid structure – you’re just screwing 4 pieces of wood together in a rectangular shape. Simple, right?

My wife and I then plotted out our garden based on the flowers, herbs, fruits and vegetables we wanted to grow. A quick drop off of soil from the local nursery and we’re off and running. We’re even giving some vertical gardening a try with a trellis that we picked up for a few bucks from the garden center. It’s also crucial that you pick up heirloom seeds so that you’re getting non-GMO products. Unless, of course, you like those bland, apple-like tomatos.

They say the biggest barrier to getting started is just your will to do it. Hopefully this post shows you it’s a lot easier to get started than you think. And, in a short while, you’ll be able to reap the rewards of a weekend’s worth of work.

Food You Can Trust

As my pal Vincenzo says, if he can’t make it he typically won’t buy it. Growing our own food is just one way we’re teaching our kids about taking responsibility for their actions and specifically the food that they eat. It’s also going to be a treat when they go out back to the berry patch or tomato plans and snag a few out of the garden.

You can DO IT!

Will you give Backyard Farming a shot? If you are and are blogging/tweeting about it, please drop a link in the comments to share your progress!

The X4 Razor from Dollar Shave Club

If you’re not a bearded member of the Duck Dynasty

family, the daily (or for some of us, every-other-day) grind of scraping your face with expensive metal and varying degrees of foamy cream isn’t our favorite part of being a man. In fact, for those of us with less rugged genetics, shaving can sometimes be a painful and burning experience.

That’s why I spend a ton of cash on buying more expensive razor blades like the Gillette Pro Fusion Power, which are thinner and supposedly better for my wussy of a mug. The price for making sure my face doesn’t end up looking like Freddy Kruger: $32 for eight blades. No, that’s not a typo.

Despite the fact it severely impacts my kids college funds, I gladly pay the Gillette man his vig because if I don’t, I walk around with cuts and burns on my face. It’s not pretty and it’s a pain in the ass. Since I’m not a fan of strutting around with little pieces of toilet paper all over my face, I go with what works despite the exorbitant amount the company charges for its products. It had become my new normal.

Now, thanks to Dollar Shave Club, I’m reconsidering my loyalty to Gillette.

Most of the Klout perks I usually receive are not spectacular because I don’t work very hard to “up” the score. Just at 70, most of what I get are smaller perks of free mints or free hamburgers from fast food joints. But this time, the perk from Dollar Shave Club intrigued me so I actually ordered it. In a few days, it arrived in the mail with some blades, a razor and shave butter. Now, being what I’d consider an “old school” man – meaning I don’t wax, I don’t pedi/mani, and I usually don’t fuss with fashion in general, to put something called “butter” on my face took some convincing. But I digress.

I decided to put the DSC to the test. I had been a fan of its irreverent ad campaign and it’s really dialed-in brand voice. Besides loving their marketing, I have increasingly become more interested to actually try their service and products. Klout made that possible for free, so I said “what the hell.”

Good stuff but $8 price is a little stiff

Let’s look at the products I was sent and my experience with each:

1. Dr. Carver’s Shave Butter: Again, the word “butter” on my rotund face isn’t exactly something that excited me. But I figured I’d give it the old college try. When I opened the shave butter, it did smell a lot like many of the lotions my wife keeps in the house. That wasn’t building confidence. I squeezed it onto my hands and then proceeded to rub my face. Although it didn’t lather like my usual gel shave cream, it nicely slicked up my face. Although I was a bit concerned that when I put the blades on my face, I might end up looking like Sissy Spacek in Carrie. Note: having a little one with Celiac Disease, I did notice that the shave butter was not gluten free and included barely and oats – and despite listing the ingredients, if you have Celiac or a gluten sensitivity, this isn’t for you. I hope DSC will change their packaging to include this warning. Retail Price: $8 -not exactly cheap.
2. The 4X Razor: When I pulled out this bad boy, it looked a lot like the Gillette I had become accustomed to. I am sure that’s by design. The razor was nice and well built. I’d recommend it but also found some drawbacks on this model – one of three that DSC offers its customers. The chief drawbacks for me were two-fold: the small length of the razor and it’s too active, 90-degree head. Now, perhaps I’m just shave science ignorant but with a head that pivots too much, it doesn’t feel like I control the razor or its direction enough. The head also snaps back quite a bit and it left me feeling a little concerned. DSC promotes this as the “Lovers Blade” because it can be used by both men and women. While men and women may be equal in almost everything, shaving isn’t one and perhaps their other razors are more in tune with just what a man needs, dunno. The handle was also a bit danti for my liking. Yes, length does matter – at least with razors.
3. The 4X Razor Blades: Built like many of the common multi-blade razors these days, the 4X blades did a very nice job on my three day growth. Working in conjunction with the shave butter, the blades glided over my beard and did a nice job and gave me a very close shave. They include a lubricating strip on the top and the shave was easy and painless. I really didn’t notice a difference between these, which retail for $6 a month for four blades, and the blades usually spend almost three times as much on. Well played Dollar Shave Club, well played.

Up close and personal with Dollar Shave Club…a good shave!

So there you have it. My quick experience with the Dollar Shave Club. So the question is: did they get my business?

Although I am opting to upgrade to the more super-duper Executive razor, my experience with the trial pack Dollar Shave Club sent me has me convinced. I’m going to give it a run and see how it goes. Who doesn’t like a nice, close shave at almost 1/3 the cost? I like the way the products worked and I love the brand voice and how the company operates. In many ways, it reminds me of Warby Parker but without any pretense. I love that brand and, after one shave, I’ve become a Dollars Shave Club member.

Will I buy the $8 Shave Butter? Not sure I’m there yet.

What do you shave with? Would you consider the Dollar Shave Club?

Disclosure: This post was prompted by a free sample of Dollar Shave Club’s products sent via Klout.

The New York Times published a story about daddy bloggers and the recent Dad 2.0 summit. It’s about how daddy bloggers are the new mommy bloggers in a less crowded space.

Personally, I think the story is old news because this daddy blogging thing has been going on for quite some time now. The issue is, brands aren’t capitalizing on those of us who are publishing content online and have influence to the point that it can actually convince people to take an action.

The question is: why have brands hesitated to embrace daddy bloggers in the same fashion that they have mommy bloggers?

My guess is that us dad’s sort of don’t give a rat’s ass.

We’re not in this to make money. A lot of us are working and blog as part of our existing jobs or we do it because we like to write, not “blog” as my buddy Curtis says.

And, because we don’t give a rat’s ass, we might not as publish as much. While we have influence in small circles, we’re not getting the millions of pageviews some of the higher profile mommies are.

Another reason why daddy bloggers are still in the “start-up” phase of word-of-mouth marketing is that brands might not how to market to us, as opposed to at us.

Yea, commercials showing big ass trucks plowing through a bunch of mud, through the woods, while on the job, etc is cool and, sure, it’s manly. Is that going to get us to buy a truck?

Nope.

Yea, commercials with hot chicks in bikinis holding crisp beers are entertaining to watch, but they aren’t going to get us to rush into the liquor store to buy a 30 pack.

I think the Times has it right about brands having to get past the “men are morons” thing and really get into the mindset of today’s dad.

We’re busting our ass day in and day out. We’re time starved. We’re trying to maximize every dollar we have because of the economy being in the crapper. Our purchase decisions, typically, impact the family both positively and negatively. We want to do our homework before we slap down $500 bucks on a laptop for our teenagers. We want to test drive that truck to ensure that it’s going to fit all the crap we need to take on our family road trips.

So listen up brands.

If you want us dads to pimp your stuff, ask us. Tell us how your product, service, app, is going to make our daily drivels as dads easier.

After all, it’s always about us, not you.

LOLZ…

Best team name: New Orleans Saints

The team was named on All Saints Day and the infamous “When the Saints Go Marchin’ In” make this team name a winner. Add in a French fleur de lis and you have the total package: It’s local, it’s relevant to the city’s history and it’s unique.

Best team name that came from a legend: Buffalo Bills

There aren’t any buffalo roaming the plains of Buffalo, but Buffalo Bill’s legend is well known. And while the team bears no semblance to the Wild West or the 4,280 buffalo William F. Cody claims to have killed, the name works even though the buffalo on their logo should probably have its eyes X’ed out.

Worst team name: New York Jets

Yes, Madison Avenue has cooked up some of the most creative things we’ve  witnessed in advertising. And while the Jets and Namath are legendary, when it comes to New York creativity they clearly outsourced this gig to Jersey. The Jets were named because it sounds like the Mets and they’re close to LaGuardia airport. No, they don’t make planes in New York. No, it’s not considered the birthplace of flight.

Worst team name submitted by fans that was chosen for another reason: San Diego Chargers

Did you know that the Chargers were named by a resident of Hollywood? It’s true, and he won a vacation for submitting the winning entry. This would be enough to earn a pass (or a huge “win” if social media had been around back then) but we’ve also found that the Chargers name stuck because the team had a horsie on their stationery and the team owner was the founder of the Carte Blanche card. Get it? You can charge your credit card! Hilarious! Marketing! Win! Or not.

What do you think? Which team name is your least favorite?

Source: Football Happenings

That brings us to the current college football season. A season, which saw the rightful return of Notre Dame to the top of the polls, the continued dominance of the SEC, and even a BCS party crasher in Northern Illinois. It’s been one of the best college football seasons to date so perhaps that’s why choosing the one player that stands above all others has been so difficult.

Yesterday, it was announced three finalists for the Heisman had been selected: freshman sensation Johnny “Football” Manziel from Texas A&M, Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o, and Kansas State quarterback Collin Klein. Of the three, only one player in my book stands out as the best in the country and the player who had the most impact on their team: Colin Klein.

Being a rabid Notre Dame fan myself, it’s hard to say as I’d love to see a Domer back with the Heisman Trophy.  Te’o is a great player and his story over perseverance after the death of his grandmother and girlfriend are the stuff of Hollywood movies. He deserves to be in New York but we all know how the votes feel about defensive players: they just don’t vote for them. There have been better defensive players than Te’o that didn’t win the Heisman so I don’t think that will change.

Then there’s Johnny Football. Manziel is an amazing football player who electrified college football with his shootout with 2012 BCS Champs Alabama. That game, and a few others captured the attention of fans, writers and prognosticators throughout the nation. There’s no doubt he’s a great QB who will only get better. But as a freshman – no freshman has ever won the Heisman – I don’t think Manziel deserves it. First, he had a handful of bad or subpar games. Yes, he’s now playing in the SEC but several of those games he significantly hurt his team. No matter what he did on national TV against the mighty Alabama, Manziel is still young and will be a top college quarterback for the next three years. In my view, he doesn’t deserve the trophy for those reasons.  I also believe the writers, even though many are enamored, won’t muster enough votes for Manziel.

That leaves Klein from Kansas State. Yes, the Big 12 is not the SEC. No matter as Klein has elevated his program and his team to a one-time #1 ranking and has been the

most consistent and impactful player of the three who will make the trip to New York.

You’ll read a dozen or so statistical breakdowns of the top three candidates so I’ll spare you that exercise here. What Klein did at Kansas State is remarkable and his past few years will be a resume builder for why he should be voted this year’s best college football player.

Klein is Tim Tebow but with more talent and ability. He’s not a circus sideshow. He’s got size, a great arm (albeit under utilized at K-State) and great speed. He accounted for 37 scores this year and 22 have been via running the ball – the most for any quarterback this year and second to all players this season. Klein became just the fourth quarterback from a BCS school in the BCS era to rush for 20 touchdowns and throw for at least 10, joining Cam Newton, Tim Tebow, and Erich Crouch. I believe he will be a good NFL quarterback and a sleeper in this year’s draft.

To me, the choice is simple. Although you can’t vote on previous seasons, it’s clear that Klein has been consistent in his career, and sans one awful game against Baylor, he’s been the model of consistency. If this was another year where an offensive player had not had a bad game, Klein would be on the outside looking in. But he’s not and this is a thin year.

While everyone focuses on Manziel and Te’o, Klein will win the Heisman Trophy and the honor will be well deserved.

At any rate, grinding out every game for last year’s posts was tedious, to say the least. And after seeing the final regular season BCS standings before the bowl season even begins, I’m ready to pick every game right now.

Here’s no surprise, especially to those down South: The SEC will win every single game it plays. Notre Dame will have their mud shoots literally stomped in by Bama, LSU will decapitate an opponent on a kick return, Florida will score a billion points while allowing negative thirty billion and A&M’s Johnny Football will be christened as New Jesus.

And when I say the SEC will win, it’s not just in the bowl season — I’m talking about all time, forever, in every game it plays. In the event that a SEC school takes a break from beating up on a glorified high school team the week before their final SEC game and schedules another SEC school, the little known NCAA “reverse academic rule” comes into effect whereby their higher ranking academic school, Vanderbilt, will be forced to lose the game by forfeit — not because they didn’t field a team that Saturday, but because they’ll be busy taking all of the final exams for SEC bottom feeder schools like Mississippi State and Ole Miss. Vandy, by default, will then be allowed to play in the “NCAA (cough cough, laugh laugh) Title Game” against whichever felons from Ohio State that aren’t incarcerated in January, with the Commodores undoubtedly skipping their way into the end zone through rival conference’s “top defenses” — whilst reciting sonnets from Shakespeare and Pandya theorem.

Given this inevitable outcome, the SEC is going to make such short work of next year’s college football “schedules” that EA Sports will be forced to put the entire SEC on the cover of the 2015 NCAA Football game. Eventually the NCAA will be forced to do something unheard of in college sports: Split the SEC off into its own NFL D-League. In this new format, every player will be paid slightly more than they already pocket from team boosters while automatically being drafted from 1-253 into the NFL. Other NCAA players will be forced to play for the London Sillynannies in Europe, where Tom Brady will make his triumphant return (he did attend That [pussy] School Up North, after all) to England and lead the Sillynannies to a European Kittens and Girly Things Bowl championship. His team will be awarded matching pink lederhosen, pinky rings and castrations.

Eventually, with the second rate NFL players out of the way, every SEC player will dominate in the “New NFL” and break every record ever held throughout all time: a 50,000-yard rusher, 99-yard field goal records and team defenses that allow negative points will all force the NFL to burn the NFL Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio and move it to Buloxi, Mississippi. There, Southerners will take annual pilgrimages to pray at the feet New Jesus and curse at all of the Blue States for even messin’ with their game.

Could the NCAA change their rules to stop God Nick Saban from forcing players to enroll a semester late, only to redshirt them so they’re closer to 23 years of age when they hit the field than 18 year old kids as “Freshmen”? Sure, but we don’t live in a world where an unchecked governing body like the NCAA could put a stop to this… right?

You might be thinking “Well, isn’t this whole scenario just a LITTLE overboard?” — and the answer is “YOU CAN’T SPELL ‘SECEDESCREW YOU’ WITHOUT ‘S-E-C’.”

I won’t bore you with the details, but I was up 7-2, then 11-7 and 15-12 before he finally won at 16-15. I didn’t mind losing but here are a few lessons learned (and one exhibited):

1. Have a goal before starting something. I kept scoring, thinking “Ok it’s 7. Game over. No? Ok, 11 then. No?”

2. Don’t settle for what’s easy. I shot a lot of 3′s. Like, an inordinate amount of them. They kept going in, but eventually I got so used to not playing hard that I held back on a few drives to the basket — so instead of lowering the shoulder and making a layup I pulled up and missed easy shots.

3. Know when to quit. I should’ve said “Ok, that’s 7.” or “Game — 11.” but instead let him dictate when his younger legs and athleticism would let the game end.

4. Make adjustments. Admittedly I was tired after having lifted weights earlier in the day and played a few games with my older boys, but I let him jack up threes (that kept going in) because my legs were tired, I was winded and it gave me a chance to rest. Even with my height advantage I wasn’t playing up enough on him out of fear that he’d drive past me for an easy layup.

5. Be a good sport. I didn’t talk smack or gloat when I was up. I could tell that was how he gained his confidence, so he was calling points after he let go of the ball (as in if he had 4, he’d shoot and say “5″, for example). I made a point of shaking his hand after and saying he played a good game, then asking him what his name is and asking him a few questions about the program at the high school since he had played there.

Anything I forgot?

This blog post is the consumer in me complaining about what has been horrific service by Kenmore and it’s at-home repair arm, Sears Home Services.  It’s been so unsatisfying and uncomfortable, I will never buy another Kenmore branded appliance again. And that’s not an idle threat.

Just to first establish: I have been a loyal Kenmore customer – 2 washers, 2 dryers, a refrigerator, a toaster, etc. Throughout my adult life I’ve invested in the brand and had a pretty good run. The appliances have been reliable and, when needed, the service fine. My brand loyalty was washed away in just a few weeks time thanks to shoddy service, rude technicians and a brand that’s inconsistently responsive.

Long story short: our 2 year-old washer started leaking. As soon as my wife noticed this, she called to have someone come out and look at it. As a family with five growing children at home, we rely on our washer and dryer quite a bit. We maintain it according to the manufacturers standards and had never had any problem with it before.

Once arriving, the tech diagnosed it as a hose leak and replaced the hose. The entire service call was just over $150 dollars and we moved on.

Just a few days after the leak was allegedly repaired, my wife – in the middle of her laundry routine, noticed the washer was leaking in the same exact spot it was before.  It was inconvenient but these things happen sometimes.

My wife, once again called Sears Home Services to let them know the repair did not work and that the original diagnosis was incorrect. We expected they would send out a tech post-haste to fix a problem we had already paid them to fix once with out any success. We were told at that time we had to “get in the back of the line” and wait 10 days for their first available appointment for it to be fixed. Clearly the man on the phone didn’t have five kids or know what it takes to keep their clothes clean

When I started to lose my patience, I asked him if they held back appointments for situations like this. There has to be times when the original diagnosis is wrong and they just have to come out again and make it right. He answered no and that anytime it happened your only recourse was to get the first available appointment.

I even vented in social media and was responded two once asking if my problem had been resolved. I answered no and never heard from them again there or on Facebook. That’s not surprising as their social properties are littered with negatives with no or little response.

Ugh.

So let me get this straight: a brand like Sears and Kenmore do not leave for the possibility that the job isn’t done right the first time. And, if after having an appliance down for sometime, and having paid hard-earned money to repair it, and said device is still malfunctioning, their answer is simple: sorry, go to the end of the line and wait your turn.

How ridiculous is that?

But what else could we do? We took the first available appointment, which was a week later. That’s right: seven MORE days without the use of our washer. Imagine how my kids would smell if we didn’t have the means to wash the clothes elsewhere.

So we now had waited in line twice. We were also told that when the technician came out, if a new problem wasn’t discovered we might have to pay for the service call again. You heard me right: Sears Home Services and Kenmore wanted me to pay AGAIN for them NOT fixing my washer the first time.

This is where my wife put it to them and refused to pay anything until the original problem was fixed. So the numskulls at Sears at Home relented and scheduled for the repair guy to come out again. And we waited.

The day finally arrived and the service technician came to fix the washer. Upon arriving he asked my wife – again – what the problem was. My wife told him and despite her insistence, and the fact he had said before he diagnosed it as a hose leak and fixed it wrong, that he could see no evidence of the leak. My wife lifted up the wet towel after she had run the machine the night before to which he gave her a blank stare.

He than to basically tell my wife there was nothing wrong with the washer. My wife insisted he try and diagnose the issue but he could not replicate while he was there. So he left without doing anything but pissing my wife off for basically telling he she as imagining the leak.

Three hours later, guess what happened? The washer started leaking.

So now we find ourselves at the “back of the line” for a third time with no remedy in sight. We spent significant money on our washer and dryer and now have waited weeks for a problem to be fixed and it’s no closer to being fixed than the first time. We’re out $150 and all we’ve received is bad service.

In a world where consumers are more connected than ever before, the world needs to know how poorly this brand treats its paying customers. They can’t be bothered with “getting it right.” Instead, they put you through a repeatable cycle of inept customer service reps and unprepared repair technicians.  That’s as broken as the washing machine I paid them for.

At the end of the day there is little they can do to win me back as a customer. Having children ages 15 to 1 year old, I’ll be at this appliance thing for a long time. I’ll buy more washer, dryers, toasters, refrigerators, vacuums, etc. What I will never do again is buy Kenmore or Sears. It’s no wonder Sears is a shell of its former self. When you treat your paying customers like nuisances, they tend not to buy things from you.

Goodbye Kenmore and Sears. May your demise be quick and may other customers pay heed to my tale of caution.