Blogger Dad » my little pony

My Proudest Achievement Online

David — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:02:19 +0000

The coolest thing about the web is you never know when an article/blog post you wrote will find a new audience. I was pleasantly surprised to find that a forum called the My Little Pony Trading Post had linked to a piece I wrote about my son getting his own My Little Pony. I think they missed my followup post, My Little Ponies for Little Dudes, though, or certainly they would have been all, “Woah, those are some awesome manly ponies!”

So while all you other blogs are getting Digged (or is the correct word Dugg?), Tweeted and Stumbld, I got Ponied! Take that, popular blogs! In your faces!

In other news…

Congratulations to Tracey OConnor whose I Hate My Messageboard was recently named one of the Top 10 Websites for Writers in 2009 by Writer’s Digest magazine. In her post yesterday, she was nice enough to thank me for designing her site, though I imagine they were honoring her more for her content than her site’s appearance. And while as a writer, I figured I would someday be in Writer’s Digest in some form or another, it seems only fitting (in the odd way that my professional life has unfolded) that my artwork would end up in the magazine first (as pictured in the screenshot of Tracey’s site). So, check out the magazine for some other cool sites mentioned in the article and check out I Hate My Messageboard for one of my personal Top 10 favorite sites.

Available Darkness

Sean Platt and I are still going strong on Available Darkness over at Collective Inkwell, even if reader response has been pretty quiet, save for our loyal handful of AD supporters.

Maybe we should market it as the best kept secret on the web.

If you are among the millions who haven’t been reading, and you happen to like suspenseful horror with mystery, vampires and some romantic and fantasy elements, then by all means, go check it out – and tell a few million friends, k?

Speaking of Sean…

He’s really all up in arms about this whole Kanye West thing. First he goes off on Kanye West at his Writer Dad site, but then he also discusses Kanye’s lack of talent over at Collective Inkwell, where he compares a song done by both Kanye and The Fray and tells you which one is the worst thing ever. Can you guess which? He ALSO wrote about Kanye in a post for the kids. This might be the most inspirational thing Kanye’s ever done, if only for inspiring Sean to write three posts! Yeah, it’s a week after the fact but the dude has two kids, a wife and an annoying business partner, so he takes a bit of time to get to the really important things in life, like celebrity screw-ups.

That’s it for today. Come back tomorrow, when I will write about Thomas the Train and … poop. Yes, I will manage to connect the two. Aren’t you excited?

Like this post? Please consider tweeting it and telling others about it.

Want BloggerDad delivered to your email every time I post? Well, you’re not alone. Join the literally tens of others who have already subscribed for free! Email not your thing? That’s okay, you can also subscribe via RSS.

Content is copyright 2009 BloggerDad.com. If you are reading this on any site other than www.Bloggerdad.com or your personal RSS reader, then you may be reading it on a site which steals content. And a site like that is probably up to all kinds of no good.

My Little Ponies for Little Dudes

David — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 01:32:49 +0000

As I mentioned before, my two year old son, E, became obsessed with My Little Pony after his cousins brought their stable to our house. To my surprise, E spent a considerable amount of time brushing a pony’s hair. While I admit my first instinct was shock, I was actually rather touched to see how much care he was putting into the act. After some thought, I decided to go ahead and buy him a pony of his own. Surely, there are some brown or beige ponies, right? Unfortunately, the local stores only had a few options, none of them even remotely masculine. And while I consider myself a fairly progressive dad not tied down to the typical male/female stereotypes and trappings, it was a bit difficult to pony up the cash (pun intended) for a pink My Little Pony with an even pinker flower on its bottom.

I found myself wondering, why doesn’t Hasbro have a boy’s line of My Little Ponies? I wound up driving about 45 miles to find a My Little Pony that was a bit more gender neutral and had a comb rather than a tennis racket, blowdryer or purse. At Toys-R-Us, I found a blue and purple My Little Pony which I gave to him and he seems to enjoy.

My son is not alone

While I was surprised that my son likes My Little Ponies, I was even more surprised that so many readers commented and tweeted that they too, or their sons, enjoyed My Little Pony! So as a service to my readers and to all the boys secretly yearning, but ashamed, to play with their sisters’ My Little Ponies, I offer up some more masculine options for the fine folks at Hasbro to consider.

My Little Pony Soldier

Nothing says boy like guns and a skull tattoo, right? This ultra violent pony comes with his own accessories, including an assault rifle, ammunition, knife and grease paint for when the pony wants to go Full On Rambo!

My Little Pony NASCAR Edition

While some NASCAR traditionalists might question my choice of Jeff Gordon as the masculine symbol and they might even make a “rainbow warrior” joke or two, they are typically the very knuckle dragging homophobes that make boys feel they should hide their desire to play with My Little Pony in the first place. I say, fly your Pony flag high and proudly! And what better way than one of NASCAR’s best, Jeff Gordon My Little Pony, complete with sponsor stickers!

My Little Pony Construction Worker

Boys like tools, right? Move over, Bob the Builder, because this steel toed boot, construction belt wearing, tool toting handypony will delight the young and young at heart. Got an idea for a masculine pony I missed? Leave a suggestion in the comments and I might just draw the best one or two next week. Enjoy this post? Please consider Tweeting it and tell others.

My Little WHAT?!

David — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 19:09:26 +0000

So, my wife’s sister and her four girls have been here a full week as of today.

My son E has loved the company of four kids to play with. The youngest of them is a few months younger than he, the oldest is nine. He is learning to share his toys (with varying degrees of success) and he is also learning to share their toys.

There’s one in particular he has taken a shine to.

In fact, you can say he is transfixed. The other day, I noticed he was sitting quietly at a table. Quieter than usual. His back was to me, so I couldn’t see what was holding his interest so much. Then he turned and I saw in his hands, a purple horse.

No, not a horse, but a purple pony.

A purple My Little Pony.

And he was brushing its hair.

Woah, my inner guy said, that’s a girl’s toy!

Being an open minded sort, the idealist in me has always said that I won’t force my son to play sports, play with masculine toys or do typically ‘manly’ activities like some dads I’ve known. I’ve always been of the opinion that my kids will like what they like and I won’t try to influence them.

However, I don’t want to push my son over the edge by giving him a girly toy. I mean, this thing couldn’t be more feminine if it were pink with a big flower on its rear!

I didn’t react, though. In fact, it was cute to watch him pay careful attention while brushing the horse’s mane with the tiny plastic brush.

To date, he has gravitated towards boyish toys such as cars, trucks and it took him a while to actually WANT to sleep with a teddy bear in his crib.

Suddenly, his cousin realized that E had her pony and snatched it back. She’s not so big into sharing.

E’s mouth opened wide, his face turned red and he burst into tears. My son was crying over a My Little Pony.

“Horse,” he cried out, pointing to the toy which was ‘stolen’ from him.

Something about calling it a horse made it a bit less girly, though.

I began to have an internal debate whether or not I should actually buy him a My Little Pony he can call his own (and brush its pretty hair).

Is this a gateway to Barbie Dolls?

Speaking of which, have you seen how revealing Barbie’s clothes are these days?! I almost felt like I might be carded if I bought one. I won’t even get into the Bratz dolls, those little streetwalking tarts.

So, later on, while I was at my ‘favorite’ store (Target), I decided to look for a My Little Pony. However, none of them had brushes! All of the ponies came with other accessories such as a purse, a hat and a tennis racket. A tennis racket! How the hell is a pony supposed to play tennis?! I would not at all have been surprised to see a My Little Pony with a chef’s hat and a mixing bowl strapped to its leg.

And all the ponies were SUPER GIRLY! Yes, they even had a pink one with a flower on its rear!

I just couldn’t bring myself to buy one. I guess I’m not nearly as open minded in practice as I am in thought.

Then this morning, as my son was waking up, I heard him mumbling to himself as he tends to do, each word ramping up in frustration to be rescued from his crib, eventually becoming words cried out. Oftentimes, he’ll say stuff like mommy, daddy, or he’ll mention something he really wants to do, like watch the movie Cars or play Word World.

Today, he said something else upon waking.

“Horsey,” he cried.

So, I’m going to find a store that has a My Little Pony with a brush. And I will buy it for my son.

Unless its pink and there’s a big flower on its butt.

Enjoy this post? Please consider Tweeting it and tell others.