Men’s Interests

Peering outward from behind a mottled screen of vines and leaves, the Green Man does not speak or sleep; he waits. His meaning and his origins are largely lost to time — the Green Man wasn’t named till 1939. We know, however, that this type of enigmatic figure was the work of artists, anonymous craftsman whose unsigned work adorns the crevices and walls of medieval cathedrals. This year we will appropriate the Green Man and the primeval spell he casts on our imaginations for a modern purpose. Our theme concerns humanity’s relationship to nature. Do we, as conscious beings, exist outside of nature’s sway, or does its force impel us and inform the central root of who and what we are?

Tickets to this year’s Burning Man will be made available on January 17, 10AM PST at http://tickets.burningman.com. The theme is The Green Man.

According to Larry Harvey there were some problems with ticket purchases last year. People logged on before the tickets went on sale and the system crashed. He says they’ve addressed the problem and hopes for a more positive experience this year. He says:

I really don’t want to be too hard on anyone. When you are isolated and feel frustrated it is very easy to lose your temper. But isn’t it ironic that all of the sturm and drang about getting there first, about competing with thousands of other consumers, should arise among a group of people who are dedicated to a non-consumerist event that is devoted to cooperation and collaboration.

If our first allotment of $195 tickets sells out, a second gate will silently slide open, offering another 10,000 tickets for $225 apiece. Finally, when the last gate is automatically triggered, yet another 10,000 tickets will be available at $250.

During the wait for your place in line, if your neck gets tense, if you begin to pound the keyboard, please rest assured - you’re not alone nor need you be alone. There is a place that waits for you in Black Rock City.

Join Parents Magazine and Beliefnet in examining today’s spirituality and parenting by taking this survey.

Visit MAXIM’s 2006 Hometown Hottie Kerry in this video.

From Three parents for Canadian boy | WORLD | NEWS | tvnz.co.nz:

A five-year-old Canadian boy can have two mothers and a father, an Ontario court ruled this week in a landmark case that redefines the meaning of family and examines the rights of parents in same-sex relationships.

In a ruling released on Tuesday, the Ontario Court of Appeal said the female partner of the child’s biological mother could be legally recognized as the boy’s third parent.

The biological father, named on the boy’s birth certificate, is a friend of both women and is taking an active role in the child’s life.

My opinion on this child custody case sets me apart in the fathers’ and equal parenting movements. Many people believe marriage should only be between a male and a female, and every child should have one father and one mother. Fathers4Justice in Canada has announced they do not agree with this court ruling.

While I believe the rights of every biological parent need to be respected, I also know how much children benefit by having other loving, devoted adults in their lives. I believe if a same-sex couple has a child, and both love and care for it, both of those parents should stay active in the child’s life. The children in these cases deserve the protection of the law to have the protection of their parents.

It’s obvious to me how much these women love this child. They didn’t have the non-birth mom adopt the boy because that would have eliminated the father’s rights. Since I wasn’t raised by lesbian moms I can’t say what life will be like for this child. But I’m happy to see three adults who love him so much they’re willing to set a legal precedent to be his parents.

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The crime:

Mother roasts two children alive

INDIA: Nirmala twisted the neck of her one-year-old son Munna before throwing him in flames. She killed her daughter Shelly in the same way…

Petrified after seeing the horrendous act, Nirmala’s third kid Divya struggled for her safety and even clawed her mother’s face. The girl raised an alarm and was helped by neighbours.

The confession:

After committing the dastardly act, Nirmala wept inconsolably for her children. She explained that she wanted to destroy her family in a fit of rage.

The scapegoat:

On being interrogated, Nirmala revealed that it was the torturous behaviour of her husband Mansa Ram Chaurasia that provoked her to take this beastly turn.

Say what?

She further informed that Mansa Ram falsely blamed her for having an illicit relationship and that he beat her very often. Not only this he once stripped her and even hit her.

“…even hit her”? Doesn’t that contradict “…he beat her very often”? Maybe she wasn’t interrogated; maybe she was trained.

Just curious, where is the proof he beat her?

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Here is a short Dads & Daughters self-assessment quiz. It’s a quick way to understand how well you’re doing as your daughter’s father. Answer honestly and add up your score before peeking at the scoring key. If your daughter isn’t school-aged, skip the 5 school-related items and subtract 15 points from the scoring key.

Sample question:

1. I can name her 3 best friends: Often - Sometimes - Hardly Ever

To take the quiz go HERE.

About DADs:

Father Resources

Dads & Daughters improves the lives of fathers, daughters, and their families with outstanding educational resources supporting fathers’ involvement in girls’ lives and advocacy for girls’ well-being.

DADs’ tools and resources help develop supportive and healthy father-daughter relationships. Strong, positive relationships between daughters and their fathers and stepfathers helps girls increase their self esteem, gives them greater opportunities for self-fulfillment, delays the onset of puberty, and provides many other benefits—including improving the father’s health.

More programs:

Daughters®: For Parents of Girls

Making the world safe and fair for our daughters by providing parents and professionals with the best information about girls’ needs and development. This unique bi-monthly print publication delivers effective parenting and communication techniques tailored specifically for parents of girls in all stages of adolescence (ages 8-16). An award-winning, highly-targeted, all-in-one-place parenting resource, Daughters blends the expertise of professionals with the ideas and wisdom of experienced parents–digested, filtered, and compiled in a compact, easy-to-read, take-it-anywhere reference.

See Jane

Gender equity has progressed in many ways, but male characters still dominate television, movies, and other media for young children. Since women and girls make up half of the human race, the presence of a wide variety of female characters in our children’s earliest media is essential for both girls’ and boys’ development.

See Jane seeks to engage professionals and parents in a call to dramatically increase the percentages of female characters — and to reduce gender stereotyping — in media made for children 11 and under. See Jane founder, Academy Award winner Geena Davis, says, “By making it common for our youngest children to see everywhere a balance of active and complex male and female characters, girls and boys will grow up to empathize with and care more about each others’ stories.”

NexGym is the new thing for parents looking for an indoor play facility for the younger set. What sets NexGym apart from other indoor play facilities is their focus on fitness.

Do you have a child who is hooked on video gaming? Have trouble getting him on a bicycle? Take him to NexGym where he can ride a stationary bike hooked to a video screen. The faster he rides, the faster his character rides in the game.

Do you have a child who is hooked on music videos? Have trouble getting her off the sofa? Take her to NexGym where she can play Dance Dance Revolution. She’ll burn calories and get fit, all while listening to her favorite tunes.

Kids 6-14 can play dodgeball or skip rope with other children, as well as participate in all of the high-tech activities like:

Makoto Interactive Sports Arena

This revolutionary fitness game puts you at the center of intergalactic hand-to-hand combat while providing dramatic improvement in hand-eye coordination, reaction time, concentration, and mental acuity. It’s a serious cardio booster to boot.

Cybex Trazer

Step right up and launch yourself into an interactive world where reaction time, acceleration, speed, power, and balance drive on-screen activities.

Treadwall Climbing Wall

It’s challenging, yet anyone can do it. It’s daunting at first glance, incredibly fun once you try it, and entirely safe for even the smallest mountain climber. Kids develop gross-motor skills, grow stronger and more flexible, and exercise their brains at the same time.

Kids FitnessNexfit Bike

An ingenious exercise bike that plugs into any video game and becomes the joystick, putting the rider in control. The result is an effective and entertaining cardiovascular workout.

Sportwall

This challenging team sport uses interactive technology that requires players to simultaneously track a ball, multiple targets, sounds, scores, and a time clock. The faster they play, the higher they score. While they’re having a blast, their bodies and minds are getting exercised.

Southlake Dance Dance Revolution

Hit dance numbers and exclusive new songs are the soundtrack for guided dance steps that teach you all the right moves as you follow along on your connected dance pad. This is a #1 smash hit with kids of all ages and a terrific aerobic workout.

Eye Toy

A digital camera trained on you and hooked up to the game player puts you at the center of the action. Your every move connects with kung fu fighters and other characters on the screen. Playing Eye Toy improves posture, balance, breathing, and stamina.

Potty-trained toddlers can be dropped off for morning playtime, and children 3-7 can take these classes:

Pre-K Sports Skills

This class teaches the fundamentals of sport skills. The emphasis is on teamwork and fun.

Pre-K Dance

Progressing principals of ballet, jazz, and hip-hop, taught by accredited instructors. Proper shoes and attire required.

Pre-K Hip Hop

A fun, high-energy dance class that teaches children the techniques of hip-hop dance while enhancing their coordination and rhythm.

Pre-K Yoga

This is FUN Yoga. Children play yoga by imitating animals and nature, and by using creative expression, games, and storytelling.

Children 5 and over can take Karate.

Traditional martial arts values (Integrity, Respect, Humility, Concentration and Indomitable Spirit) taught with a modern approach for developing self-defense and situational awareness. This challenging and rewarding program will maximize physical and mental development. Students will develop TRUE STRENGTH, not over others, but over their own bodies and minds. Southlake classes taught by experienced instructors from the American Defensive Arts Academy.

Kids 7-14 can take the following classes:

Sports Training

This class pumps you up with speed, agility, strength, and cardio drills. A true fitness class with warm-up, cardio, strength, and stretch segments.

Boot Camp

Come join the troops! You will love the challenge of circuit training, and basic fitness drills. You will learn weight training, cardio endurance, and more!

Strength and Conditioning (Parents Welcome)

This is a customized class, combining Mat Pilates, Yoga, body isolations, balance, core strength, and stretching. Kids Yoga

Yoga (Parents Welcome)

Balance, core strength, and flexibility are the key components of this invigorating class.

And kids 8-14 can take:

Kick Hop

This class is set to the latest (clean) version of your favorite Hip Hop tunes. Using a combo of Kickbox and choreography. A true cardio workout!

Hip Hop

We will do a jazz/ hip hop warm up, progressions, and create a routine so you’ll be ready to perform during half time at the Mav’s game.

You can schedule a birthday party at Nexgym, they have special classes for special needs children, and they offer Music Together classes.

NexGym is now available in Southlake, Texas, with a second location opening soon.

Southlake Town Square
1430 East Southlake Blvd., Suite 110
Southlake, TX 76092
Phone: 817-488-9300

See a News8 video report on NexGym by clicking HERE.

I hope this concept takes off and we see these facilities all over the country.

children fitness play birthday party

Millions Of Parents Miss Their Kids This Christmas

Fathers4Justice activists took to the freeways this week in Boston, Massachusetts, and joined Families4Justice in Vancouver to bring attention to the millions of parents and children separated by family courts. Photos.

From a single dad in the Yahoo Single-Parents- group, about a day in church with his daughter:

When she was five, I dressed her up in her Sunday best and headed off to Mass. This is the really long Mass a week before Easter. Of course she wouldn’t sit still through the long Mass and I kept having to whisper and sign to her to be still.

Eventually she had enough and when I whispered her to be quiet, she yelled “NO!�? at the top of her voice. Unfortunately this also coincided with the priest asking “Do you renounce the devil and all his works?�?

Everyone turned to see the devil child and the priest stared down from the pulpit and yelled back “YES!�?

I had to pick up my devil child and take the walk of shame down the aisle and out of the church. It took me a couple of weeks to pluck up the courage to return to that church.

Being a single dad is interesting at times.

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I hope you enjoy Men’s Interests’ very first podcast, starring Bessie Hudgins from 3 Sides To Every Story. Bessie discusses the candlelight vigil planned for this weekend in Georgia, and the harm families do to children because of divorce.

Visit Three Sides To Every Story

Bessie Hudgins
Phone: 706-882-2897
Fax: 706-884-8137
P.O. Box 1009
LaGrange , Ga. 30241

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I came across the photo above of a beautiful snow sculpture, and I was fascinated. Turns out it’s called Whirled White Web and it was created by a Minnesota team for the 2003 International Snow Sculpture Championship in Colorado. The USA team placed second.

Here are the first and second place winners of the 2006 contest:

The next competition is January 23 to February 4 in Breckenridge Colorado.

You can see a video of how these snow sculptures are made here:

All this snow got me thinking about snowballs. Did you know you can buy a Sno-Baller?

I learned there are dogs named Snowball.

Snowball is also the name of an apparently alien cat.

It’s the name of a bunny.

And it’s the name of a cat who loves bunnies.

I hope you enjoy this music video of teens in a snowball fight.

Here’s a snowball fight game for you to play.

Snowfight Destroy all the snowmen and avoid the other kids.

You can pick up this book on snowball launchers.

You can even get the kids some books on snowballs.

snow snowball snowballfight snowsculpture snowsculpturecompetition colorado teens books video

From WSB-TV:

A senior at an Illinois high school is accused of contaminating food in the cafeteria.

The boy at Wheaton North High School ejaculated into a bottle of ranch salad dressing last week and left it on a condiments cart in the cafeteria for upperclassmen, school officials said Thursday…

…School officials said the boy confessed to contaminating the salad dressing bottle Tuesday, school officials said.

The paper reported that it is unknown whether anyone ate the salad dressing or become ill from it…

…The school’s punishment for the student was not disclosed.

“We’ve taken very severe measures against this student,” Catalani said.

Sodexho, the food service company, has now discontinued its use of smaller bottles for condiments and has started using larger containers that would make it difficult for a student to steal…

…A statement was issued Thursday by the DuPage County Health Department, in consultation with the Illinois Department of Public Health.

“The risk of acquiring a sexually transmitted disease or other disease from the ingestion of food contaminated with semen is considered extremely low,” the statement said. “We are not aware of any documented cases of hepatitis B, hepatitis C, HIV or other sexually transmitted diseases that have been spread through this means.”

The statement did say that the student responsible is undergoing medical testing and if he has an illness that may pose a risk to others, information will be provided to the parents of students who were potentially exposed.