Fathers Day

Post image for He May Be Someone Else to You, But To Me, He’s Just My Dad

With Father’s Day just around the corner, we are all hopefully thinking about our dads. Dads have it tough, you know, compared to moms. We don’t have a clue about parenting, or so we are told regularly by our wives. And we don’t have that bond with our kids the way that mom’s do (“YOU didn’t give birth to these kids”). But we do have a special part in the family dynamics but that obviously varies family by family.

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Dads come in all models with a variety of features. There are dads who are “checked out” or work all of the time and don’t spend much time with their kids. There are stay-at-home dads who watch the fort and the captives therein while the mom is out bringing home the bacon. There are hyper-engaged dads who do everything, work and take care of the kids, and make the rest of us look bad. There are jock dads who do a lot of sports with and without their kids. And, of course, there are HighTechDads where technology is considered to be “the other woman” (or at least that is what my wife says). Remember, technology is not a substitute for parenting. It is merely a tool that can occasionally make things easier or provide other experiences.

My dad is an “education dad.” He’s a professor of European History with a specialty in German History at Stanford University. He has taught all around the world including Northwestern, Princeton, and Oxford. He was the president of the American Historical Association and is a recipient of the Pour Le  Merite order, which is a civil version of an order bestowed to the arts and sciences by the German government (there are only 20 German and 20 foreign recipients of this order at any given time and only when a recipient passes away does the order get given to someone else). He even has a Wikipedia entry which I think could use a bit more content.

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Post image for Review of the Perfectly Named Scott E Vest “Expedition” Jacket – An Expedition of 37 Pockets!

37 pockets, that’s what the “Expedition” jacket by Scott E Vest (“SeV” for short) has. I almost think that there are more but it could be the hidden conduits and other innovative design elements that were inflating my count. I have sort of a jacket addiction, always looking for that one that will be the one that I go to time and time again. There are a few that I bounce between either for comfort or utility or based on the weather. I now have one that may rise above the rest. The Expedition is now the one that I reach for first.

Another "Model" Pose

Yep, that’s me striking a “model pose”.

Scott E Vest clothes have long had a reputation of being extremely utilitarian. The company was formed about 10 years ago by Scott Jordan to provide a better way to store gadgets and gizmos than a backpack or “man purse”. This is a man after my heart. I love loading up my pockets or my backpack with all of my devices, and I’m sure that I’m not the only one. If you are a parent, you know that any time you have to go anywhere with you kids, you need to lug along a ton of items to keep them happy or sustain them.

Back View of the SeV Expedition

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Post image for HighTechDad’s 2011 Father’s Day Gift Guide – Products I Have Reviewed & Like

Father’s Day is almost upon us and I wouldn’t be doing my part for the Dads out there if I didn’t put together a Father’s Day Gift Guide. Gifts are obviously very personal in nature so I can’t tell you what to get your dad. What I can do, however, is provide some ideas on some things that might make your dad smile a bit more and potentially appeal to the “HighTechDad” inside of him.

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I won’t be recommending things that I haven’t actually tried, used, reviewed or have myself. That would, honestly, be quite silly. I might recommend some things that I don’t actually possess but know a lot about, but I simply won’t recommend something I haven’t tried first hand. Also not everything that I reviewed is on this list; some gadgets or electronics are just a bit better than others. In most cases, the items below will be linked to my reviews (check the object title for the link to my review) so that you can get details on just about every gadget on this list. But, since blogging is interactive, I encourage readers to leave a comment recommending some other gadgets or consumer electronics that they think are worth mentioning. And who knows, I might see something there that I actually WANT.

The following products are in no particular order or preference or anything apart from being grouped by price range. Do note, the Amazon price listed is as of the day of the writing this article (6/1/11) and is linked to the Amazon listing of that product (an Affiliate link and yes, I get a couple of pennies with each purchase…but that is what keep this blog running!).

Note: all links within the descriptions below are to reviews that I have done in case you want more details and my thoughts on that particular product.

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Dads, Have You Done “The Big Snip”? – Cast of Dads Podcast #24

June 24, 2010

As all 5 of the us on the Cast of Dads have recently recovered from Father’s Day, with a variety of good times and adventures, we spent some time discussing something that “cuts close” to our Dad-dom, that of “The Big Snip”. Can you guess how many of us on COD have actually had the [...]

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Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Mini Pounds Out a MAXI Amount of Quality Sound as an iPod Speaker System

June 16, 2010

I’m back with yet another iPhone/iPod speaker review. But wait, before your eyes glaze over, you really should read what I have to say. This time around, I tested out the Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Mini, which is sort of the baby brother of the Zeppelin (which I personally think is a bit too wild [...]

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Beer, Beer & More Beer (And Father’s Day Stuff) – Cast of Dads Podcast #23

June 15, 2010

Who says that we can’t do a Podcast on a Monday? Well, I guess that I did last week but that was during the day. For our “Happy Father’s Day” episode of Cast of Dads, we did our recording a bit later on a Monday, and lubed up our voices, creativity and topics with a [...]

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The Sony Dash – Not Just a Fancy Clock Radio – An Internet Connected Appliance! (Sony Giveaway too!)

June 15, 2010

My wife now has a digital companion as she puts on her make-up or gets ready for the day in the bathroom. Carefully positioned on her makeup table is a small, digital screen that looks like a clock radio. But it is much more than that! The Sony Dash, formerly known as the “Chumby” is [...]

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