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Dustin

Family Vacation

July 3rd, 2010 | by Dustin
Posted In: Blog, Blog, Observations

I just wanted to start out by saying that as much as I’m not a writer, it’s nice to be back. If you’re just tuning in, then you missed out on my move across Oregon followed a few days later by my family reunion vacation. It’s nice to get back into a schedule, a groove if you will on doing stuff. Seeing my family was great but it makes you think and really appreciate what you do and don’t have. It’s this thought that I’d like to share with you today.

Family vacations: Where you learn to appreciate those you love and love what you have.

My theory on family vacations comes in two folds. I believe that family vacations are meant for two things (I’m sure there are more, but this is what I took from my last one). When you go on a family vacation, you learn to appreciate those in your family and the little things about them. Hopefully you have a good family that you love, and if you do then you’ll most likely have a crazy uncle or zany cousin that you love and care about behind embarrassed looks and clenched teeth. You also hopefully have those relatives that you really care about such as grandparents, aunts who always bake you cookies or cousins who are close friends.

When you have a family vacation, you really connect with those who love you for who you are and not what you have. When I met with my family that lives in Washington, we didn’t care how much money we made, how big our TV’s were or what car we drove. As nights would come to a close, we’d just sit around the fire and talk, laugh and enjoy the present while talking about the past/future. Our presence alone was enough because we don’t see each other often enough to brag. It’s not like these subjects didn’t come up but when they did, it didn’t matter.

If you think about it. When you meet someone again that you haven’t seen in a long time, you don’t tell them about the material possessions you have now. You want to know how that person is doing. How their health is. Their sanity. Their life. Yes, we’re Americans and material objects are a part of that but it’s not the only thing we have.

But speaking of material possessions, you learn to appreciate them when on a vacation. While we were out of our home, out of our element and away from our stuff. I’ve learn to appreciate the routines that we’ve come to live by. When my daughter takes her nap, when I do comics and when I relax. And showers! While we were out we had community showers which got the job done but I always felt on edge and never got to relax.

In my original article, I tried to write something that didn’t make me sound so self-centered. I know that people in the world don’t have access to the things I do and that makes me incredibly lucky. I guess I just got to a point where I begun to see what my life is like when I don’t have control. I don’t control how long I shower, when I get to eat or what I’m doing. I can influence but not the way that I can when I get home.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that I really appreciate my freedom to do as I choose and not have to worry so much. When I get the chance to shut my brain down and go into auto-pilot while drawing or working on projects. Yeah, that’s more like it.

And see, if I hadn’t gone on my little family vacation, I wouldn’t have realized how much these things mattered to me. I wouldn’t have had a fresh reminder of how much my family means to me, means to my daughter and means to past. There is so much history, so much love and so much joy when the family gets together. Everyone is happy and a good time is had because our time is limited and we have to make the best of it.

I’ve also gotten a little appreciation for the life I put on hold while I was out. I see now how much my routine means to me, to be able to draw comics and do the things I love. I like being able to eat pizza on Friday when I want or not have to worry about some crazy party waking up my daughter at 2am in the morning.

Yeah, life is pretty good and I couldn’t really ask for much more. Only now, I realize that my life is pretty good as opposed to a general knowing of it.

What about you readers? Any fun family vacations in the near future? Have you had any revelations while on the road? If so, leave a note in the comments!

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Dustin

New layout and CMS

June 5th, 2010 | by Dustin
Posted In: Blog, Blog, Observations

Hello everyone, I’m very pleased to announce the new Plus One website. With the addition of Anna to the cast I felt like I finally needed to clean out the cobwebs and get this place up to speed! Needless to say, I’m off of my old CMS and onto a new one which should help with fun things like SEO, ranks and searchability.

For your average everyday users you won’t see a lot of changes on the surface but know that down below, it’s all good. My plan is to stick with this CMS for sometime so you’ll be able to enjoy it for a while now.

In fact the only hic-up I’ve got so far is that not all of my blog entries came over. IT SUCKS! Anyway, over the course of the new few days I’ll slowly migrate all the missing content but if you happen to find something in the mean time, please let me know in the comments below.

└ Tags: All Night, Comic CMS, Comic Press, GoDaddy, Improved, new, New Design, Word Press
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Dustin

Traveling with Baby – 10 Months Edition

May 29th, 2010 | by Dustin
Posted In: Blog, Blog, Observations, Blog, Techniques

For those who read my blog regularly, you know that I already covered this when my daughter was first born, but this weekend we’re traveling again and the difference between trips is amazing. Last time we talked about this subject, Diane and I were really new at this whole parent thing, so we brought lots of things “in case of an emergency”, which really just added up to more crap. At the time we really did need all of it, if not for peace of mind, it was for sleeping, or burping, or whatever! Now though, it’s a completely different story. When we travel, I feel almost like we’re leaving something vitally important behind because we’re traveling so light.

↓ Read the rest of this entry…

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Dustin

Doormat Parents

May 22nd, 2010 | by Dustin
Posted In: Blog, Observations, Blog, Techniques

The other night, Diane and I had our friends Nick and Julie over for some dinner and late night video games. Since Nick works late on Fridays, it was just Julie for the actual dinner part. Of course my daughter was there as well and as we all crowded around our small dinner table, the little one started to act up. We weren’t sure if she was trying to be cool in front of Julie or just in a mood, but she just didn’t want to take her bottle after she ate her solid food. Normally she’ll suck on it for a few minutes and then put it down rather nice like but this evening she was throwing it over the side of her high chair. The first time she did this we picked it back up and then handed it back to her. By the third time we’d had had enough and calmly told her that she doesn’t get it anymore until she’s ready to be nice. When our friend Julie saw this and how we responded to my daughters little tantrum, she applauded us and said it was nice to see some parents actually standing up to their kids.

Diane and I were both shocked by this comment. To us, this kind of action/reaction was normal, but for Julie it was something of pure fiction. Puzzled, we asked why she would say something like this. She admitted that several of her parent friends often let their kids walk all over them, picking up thrown toys, giving into tantrums and basically letting the kids call the shots. In all, those people had become doormat parents. ↓ Read the rest of this entry…

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Dustin

Guest Post – Single Mother

May 15th, 2010 | by Dustin
Posted In: Blog, Blog, Observations

This week I asked my friend to Sam to give me some input on her life as a single mom. I figured that since she has her son half of the week that she’s be able to give some good advice. Regardless, the following post is from her and it touches on various parts of being a single mother. Enjoy her thoughts, they are unique and insightful:

So a lot of people always tell me how hard it must be to be a single parent, and I suppose some people may find it harder than others. I have gotten so much advice from well meaning people in how to raise my son, I always listen but rarely follow it. For me, the way I choose to raise my son has to be my own because in the end I’m his mom and I have to be able to look back say, “yea that was me”, regardless of how he turns out. It’s a day by day process, since this is my first child, I don’t have prior experience in this field. The most basic thing I have to remember is to always put him first, regardless of whether it’s a social situation, family, and even eating. I’m not gonna lie and say dating is the easiest thing to do with a young child, you have to remember that your child is being exposed the people you bring around, good or bad. I try to remember that and do most of my social stuff on the days I don’t have my son, that way I can feel out the situation and if it seems to be working for me I can slowly incorporate my child and the person I am dating. That’s usually the make it or break it time, if they can handle me and my son, then we go from there. ↓ Read the rest of this entry…

└ Tags: Guest, Sam
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