Post Halloween Hangover

Well, Halloween is over and I officially have a case of the November blahs.  Sure, I’m doing NaNoWriMo and Movember this year, but that’s hard to top a night of being your favorite superhero duo with your daughter.  Since I love this picture of us so much, I’m going to post it here.  I’m also trying to get it to trend on reddit, so won’t you help out?  If you click on the picture, you’ll be taken to its reddit page.  A simple up vote goes a long way to helping me preserve my stint as a superhero in the history of the Internet.  Who knows, maybe I’ll end up on Awkward Family Photos or become a random Internet meme.

Hope you all had a healthy and happy Halloween!  If you only come to my blog for my Halloween posts, see you next year!  If you’re in it for the long haul, thanks for sticking around!

The Dynamic Duo patrols the neighborhood making sure everyone had a safe Halloween!

 

 

31 Days of Lessons Learned: One Small Idea Can Change Your Course

31 Days of Lessons Learned:  Day Thirty

One Small Idea Can Change Your Course

 

This is one of those lessons that can affect you on a minor scale and on a global scale.  This is a lesson that can affect you as an individual, or the entire world.  When an idea gets expressed, there’s a ripple effect and you really don’t know exactly how far that idea will go.

I’m not going to get that deep with this lesson though.  We’re one day away from being done (and one day away from Halloween), so I’m going to talk about how a little idea affected how Halloween 2012 is going to play out.

I mentioned a few lessons ago that my daughter is going to be Batman for Halloween this year.  Since the only costume I had was a Giant Banana, my plan was to go as a Giant Banana wearing a Batman shirt.  Not too creative, but it’s all we had.  While at work one day, my wife got the idea that I should go as Robin.  Seems like a good idea, but the costume would be pretty tough to pull off right?  Wrong.  This little idea got into her head and she wouldn’t stop until she figured out how to make a Robin costume for me.

She ended up finding this picture…and it was on.

Bat Dudes

Based on this Robin costume, my wife knew is was a doable goal.  She went to Jo-Ann Fabrics and got the supplies, while I raided my closet to make sure I had the right clothes to construct the Robin costume.

After about $10 at Jo-Ann Fabrics and some assistance from Aunt Pam, my wife had this…

Dane, the Boy Wonder

If you ask me, it looks 100 times better than the source material.  We even watched about half of the ’60s Batman movie to make sure we had the right Burt Ward Robin look.

Because of the little idea my wife had, I’m looking forward to the best Halloween ever.  My daughter may not remember it when she grows up, but we’ll have visual proof.

Let this little Halloween blog be a lesson to you.  Don’t discount your ideas, no matter how small they are, because they could change the world…or at least the amount of fun you have on Halloween.

Thanks Rachel – I owe you one.  You outdid yourself.

31 Days of Lessons Learned: Don’t Stifle Your Child’s Creativity and Decision-Making (Girls Can Be Batman Too)

31 Days of Lessons Learned:  Day Twenty Six

Don’t Stifle Your Child’s Creativity and Decision-Making (Girls Can Be Batman Too)

Before I get started on this lesson, let me make a quick note.  While I mention it’s important to give your child the space to blossom and find their own way, if he/she is doing something wrong or potentially harmful, I would recommend stepping in and stopping the behavior and/or decision-making.

OK, on with the lesson.

I think we’re all guilty of trying to force our will on someone from time-to-time and making them be something they don’t want to be.  I’ve learned that I don’t really like it when it happens to me, so one of the conscious decisions I made when I found out I was going to be a dad was to make sure my daughter wasn’t exposed to that type of thing.  While I want to guide her and teach her right from wrong, it’s important for me to let her discover herself and her creativity by the decisions she makes in life.

I was almost guilty of this recently though when we were hunting for her Halloween costume.  At first, she wanted to be a monkey.  Then, with about two weeks to go, she changed her mind to a squirrel.  We had trouble coming up with a passable squirrel costume, so we decided to let her loose in a costume store.  We went to her section and let her choose the costumes to try on.  It was almost costume overload because she had about six costumes she was choosing from initially.  Right when we had it narrowed down to a reasonable number of costumes, Lily added one last costume to the list:  Batman.

My inner geek was extremely proud.  The Batman fanatic in me might have shed a tear.

After that initial swell of pride hit, I started to panic.

Would people confuse her for a boy?  Would people think I put her up to it?  Can I talk her into a Batgirl costume?  What would people think?

Because I had those thoughts, I tried my hardest to talk her into going with a cute little witch costume.  In the end, my daughter’s mind was made.  She was going to be Batman.

The more I thought about it, the more I chastised myself for my original thinking.  How cool is it that my daughter chose Batman as her costume?  I think that’s awesome.  And to think, I was going to impose my will on her and make her settle for a witch costume.

Want to know what’s even cooler than my daughter dressing up as Batman?

My wife is making me a Robin costume.

Watch out come Halloween because the Dynamic Duo is on the prowl.

BatLily – at today’s Detroit Zoo Boo.

The History of Batman in Film

For the last four weeks, I’ve been chronicling Batman’s journey through the cinema on CinemaNerdz leading up the release of The Dark Knight Rises today.  As a matter of convenience, I’m including links here to all of those articles in one place for your convenience.  Happy reading and please be sure to let me know your thoughts.  Immediately, you’ll notice a lack of Kevin Conroy as Batman in Mask of the Phantasm.  Unfortunately, due to time constraints, I didn’t have the time to include the Animated theatrical release.  Now that I’m done with the series, I will probably go back and right this wrong as Conroy is an amazing Batman.

Also, keep checking CinemaNerdz.com throughout the day as my review for Dark Knight Rises will be published today.

(EDIT: CLICK HERE for my review of Dark Knight Rises)

So now, without further ado, here is my four-part series of The Batman on film.  Enjoy!

Batman on Film Part One:  Batman (1966)

Batman on Film Part Two:  Tim Burton

Batman on Film Part Three: Joel Schumacher

Batman on Film Part Four: Christopher Nolan