TheIsleofMan.Net Interview: 'Jeff Goins from GoinsWriter.com'

Jeff Goins is the founder of GoinsWriter.com. His blog and the majority of his work focuses on helping writers learn how to become better writers, how to get published and how to keep going when they want to just give up.

The truth of the matter is that Jeff could have easily turned down my interview request and I'd have never thought poorly of him for doing so. He gets more pageviews in a day than I get in a month (and even that may be giving myself too much credit). His willingness to sacrifice some of his very valuable time to answer a few of my questions says a lot about his character and just how genuinely nice of a guy he is.

Without further ado, here is my interview with Jeff Goins:

My Oscar Observations

Billy Crystal being fabulous

The 84th annual Academy Awards were held last night in Hollywood. I tweeted throughout, so if you missed it, go back and check out my wall of tweets to get my full thoughts on everything.

I won't bore you here with all of that, but I did want to recap what I felt were the highlights of the night.

Click "Read more" to follow me after the jump and see my thoughts on the highs and lows of this year's Academy Awards:

We're Having a Boy!

That's right. We found out the gender of our baby. It's a boy!

On Saturday, we went to get a 3-D Ultrasound done. This was amazing, because they place the images on a large LCD flat screen TV in a room large enough for everyone to see. We brought all our immediate family to experience it together.

It took a while, as our baby did not want to cooperate at first. The umbilical cord was in between his legs at first. Finally, he rolled over, the cord moved and we saw the news:

"Boy"

That's all she typed on the screen as she drew an arrow to his "plumbing." It's such a small word (and such a small amount of plumbing), but it had such an impact.

I would have been happy either way. That's the truth. I just wanted the baby to have all its appendages and organs and be healthy.

But there's something special about a man having a son. I'm going to teach him to shoot a basketball, throw a baseball,a football and a punch, swing a golf club, hold a door for a lady and just be man, in general.

I teared up a little. My father and father-in-law teared up a lot.

It was a special day. I cannot wait to meet him.

Aidan Robert Haggerty: We're expecting you on August 12. You, sir, will be loved.  

Check out some more pictures of my baby boy!

TheIsleOfMan.Net Contest: 2012 Oscars Pick 'Em

This week, I'm taking a break from the "Friday Funhouse." I hope you'll understand. There's a lot of other stuff going on. We'll get back to it. I promise.

On Sunday night (Feb. 26, 2012), the 84th edition of the Academy Awards (aka: "The Oscars") will take place at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles, California.

In honor of the awards, I wanted to announce two things:

1) I will be Tweeting all throughout the award show. If you're not following me, click HERE and get on that. I'd love for you to join in the conversation. To aid with this, I'll be using the hashtag: #IsleOfOscar. Hopefully, you will too. 

2) I'd like to make the awards a little more interesting by implementing a contest with a prize for you, the readers.

Check out the details after the jump (click "Read More"):

Gentlemint, start your engines!

Before you say anything -- No, it's not a misspelling in the title.

Gentlemint is a new site that I discovered very recently. It's basically like Pinterest, but for dudes. (If you think I just inferred that Pinterest is not for dudes, you're pretty much right on the money...and I wasn't inferring...I'm straight up saying it to your face.)

It works in much the same way as Pinterest, in that you have to get an invite or request one on the site. In my experience, you're better off finding someone you know who is a member and getting them to shoot you an invite than requesting one on the site. 

Why? Well, it took me two weeks to finally get one. Truthfully, I'd kinda forgotten I even requested it. It's certainly an aspect that Gentlemint should consider refining. I know what they're doing. They're trying to create a mystique and an allure. But there's a fine line between creating curiosity and driving people away.

Anyway, the site is pretty cool, from what I've seen so far. It's essentially just an overload of user-uploaded content intended for dudes. 

But I think it would be easier to show you what I mean, rather than just tell you about it.

After the jump, I'll show you some of my favorite content that I've seen so far, as well as give you information on how you can get an invite to Gentlemint, if you're interested:

TheIsleofMan.Net Interview: 'Rob Shepherd from RobShep.com'

Rob Shepherd has a website called robshep.com that you need to check out immediately if you've not already done so. His blog includes spiritual truths communicated by using humor and real-life experience.

He's a pastor, a husband, the father of twins and just an overall really cool guy.

Oh yeah. We were in a band together in high school. Don't hate.

Rob was generous enough to give up some of his very precious (and usually baby-occupied) time to answer a few questions.

Game on.

Support a Good Cause: IDRN Africa Response

I don't normally do fundraiser stuff or ask you guys to rally behind a lot of causes. This is largely a humor site, and I have every intention of keeping it that way.

With that said, I was approached recently regarding a cause that I believe is special and worth making you aware of.

My friend Kyle Adams (who played with me in college on what may go down as the absolute worst intramural basketball team of all time), works for a company called Humanitarian International Services Group (HISG). If you want more info, click the link and go to their site. The short version is that they go around the world to try and bring food and resources to third world countries that badly need it.

HISG supports a project called The International Disaster Response Network (IDRN). This project is dedicated to helping the 13 million people in Africa who are facing the worst famine in 60 years, as well as an astonishing 3.3 million people in Somalia who are alone and in need of life-saving intervention.

Here's a quick video that will give you a little bit more information about IDRN:

Here's how IDRN has already made an impact with their work in Africa:

- 800,000 meals are already in route to Africa.

- Medical teams will be rotating in from different countries to treat malnourished patients.

- 24 countries in South America are working to raise money (for this cause).

- The focus now is on providing further food relief and making sure famine like this doesn't happen again. To accomplish this, they've used the following: Community gardens, irrigation techniques, crop rotation and nutrition education -- all of these long-term projects will give the region a more stable food supply. 

So how can you help? I'm glad you asked.

- Use your Facebook footprint to let other people know about the famine, and that you care 

- Donate on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/africaresponse  (the click to donate link on the left hand side)

- Text "ACTNOW" to 48510 

- Donate at www.HISG.org/donation-portal/ 

This is a cause I support and believe in. Even if you just give a dollar or simply re-post a link -- every little bit helps!

For pictures of the ongoing relief effort, click HERE. Also, be sure to follow HISG on Twitter for updates on the recovery process.

Are you subscribed to TheIsleOfMan.Net? Get on the ball! To subscribe, click HERE or HERE!

I choose you for my team

When I first set out to start blogging, my original goals were not to get rich or famous in the pursuit. This works out well, as I'm nowhere near either of those mile-markers.

Those are things I wasn't shooting for.

What I did and still do want to accomplish is simple: I want to establish a community of like-minded people who endeavor to share life through their magnifying glass on a regular basis.

It's been fun so far. The site has grown. The number of people who regularly interact both via Twitter and the comment section of my blog posts has skyrocketed since I started. For that, I am grateful. 

Here's the thing. We're just getting started. It's been cool getting to know you guys, but I'd like to take out relationship to the next level.

Don't get freaked out. I'm not going to ask for a lifelong commitment. But hey, it's Valentine's Day. Not a bad time to talk about our relationship, right?

I'll get to the point.

A lot of you check in to TheIsleOfMan.Net quasi-regularly, as well as follow me on Twitter and interact there. But there are two things that I'd really appreciate you doing.

1) Become a follower via Google Friends Connect. It's super easy. On the right sidebar, there is a small blue button that says: "Join this site," directly over top of the avatars of those who already do follow. If you enjoy the content here, it would mean a lot to me if you'd add yourself to that list.

2) Subscribe to the feed. There are two ways you can do this. The first is to simply enter your email address in the box inside the right sidebar, near the top, directly under where it says: "Subscribe to email updates." You won't get spammed or hassled. All that will happen is that you'll get an update email when a new blog post has been published. The second way you can subscribe is to click the blue "RSS Feed" icon on the right near the top. It's in between the Facebook and E-mail icons. Personally, I like to use Google Reader to read my feeds. It's an easy way to keep all my blogs organized. If you haven't used it, I highly recommend it.

If you want you can even do both.

That's it. Every little bit helps. When you follow the site, when you leave comments, when you RT my links on Twitter -- all of that helps immensely and it really means a lot to me.

How did you find this blog in the first place? What was it that kept you coming back?

Book Review: Knox McCoy's Manifesto about Manifestos

I don't do a lot of book reviews or product suggestions. This is for two reasons:

1) It's always been a goal of mine not to spam you to death. I like you guys. Don't get a big head.

and

2) I admittedly have been out of the "reading" game for some time now. I like TV. It has pictures and sounds. I'm easily fixated that way. 

Only recently have I been lured back into reading and it has been due largely in part to e-books. I stumbled across one in particular this past week that I felt was well worth passing along to you guys.

Knox McCoy is a blogger who writes one of my favorite blogs on the interwebs. His "Monday Meatloaf" posts are some of my favorite blog posts anywhere. He also writes weekly recaps of "The Walking Dead" that fans of the show (and humor) will love. 

Mr. McCoy already has one book called Jesus and the Bachelorette that you should buy right away.

His latest offering is called "A Manifesto About Manifestos: A Manifesto." As a blogger who enjoys sarcasm and satire, I can't tell you how much I enjoyed this book. If you've ever read a blogger's manifesto, you will be able to appreciate the jabs given and shots taken. It's written in a way that gets the jaded cynicism across without being over-the-top mean.

I enjoyed it from top to bottom. It's free, it's not a long read and it's hilarious. 

So how do you get it?

All you have to do is click THIS LINK, read the post, then join Knox's email list. You'll get the book in .pdf format as a link in your email...totally free.

You won't regret it.

Any other e-books you'd recommend? 

Friday Funhouse: Feb. 17, 2012

Those of you who follow me on Twitter know that I watched the Grammy award ceremony on Monday night. I did a fair amount of tweeting. If you missed it, well, you missed out. 

In honor of the recent gathering of rock and roll superstars and the people who love them, this week's edition of "The Funhouse" will be Grammy-focused.

Let's rock:

TheIsleofMan.Net Interview: 'Leanne Shirtliffe from IronicMom.com'

Leanne Shirtliffe writes humorous posts for IronicMom.com as well as NickMom.com. She's a middle school teacher, which resonates with me in a big way. Most importantly, she is the mother of twins. You can pretty much count on her having a crazy amount of crowns in Heaven.

Oh yeah. She's also Canadian and has never tasted Chick-Fil-A.

She's a funny lady. If you're not regularly reading her blog and following her on Twitter, your life is not as fulfilled as it could be.

Leanne was a dear and gave up some of her very valuable to time to humor me and answer some questions, both for me and for you, the readers. 

Let's get this party started!

Guest post: 'Husband of the Year'

We all have one of these guys in our life.

He has to "one up" every dude he knows with crazy presents romantic activities that, frankly, make us other normal dudes look bad.

You girls will say it's sweet and that you wish you had this is in your life. But deep down, you know he's trying too hard and compensating for something else.

Today, I have a guest post on this topic that is being running at my buddy Clay Morgan's site, EduClaytion.com. Check out the post HERE.

Would you be interested in advertising for your blog or business on TheIsleOfMan.net? For more info, click HERE.

The Week in Review: Feb. 6, 2012

It's been a big week. Not just for TheIsleOfMan.Net, but for everyone.

Here's some of what you may have missed if you haven't been checking in on a regular basis:

- On Sunday, before they lost to the Giants in Super Bowl 46, I talked about how much I hate the New England Patriots...and why

- On Monday, TheParm.com ran an old post of mine on "Bigfoot"

On Tuesday, I shared a traumatic experience I had a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese's

Wednesday, we got all serious and talked about "The Least of These"

On Thursday, I guest posted at KnoxMcCoy.com about how Modern Science has failed us 

Friday saw another edition of "The Friday Funhouse" that featured a review of Super Bowl 46, "Bradying," Lana Del Rey's scary SNL performance and Harry Potter snobbery

Did you have a favorite post from this past week?

Friday Funhouse: Feb. 10, 2012

TGIF!!

It's been a long week. There's been some good, some bad and a little bit of ugly.

After the jump, I'll cover the highs and lows of the past seven days. Hang on to your socks.

Guest post at KnoxMcCoy.com: "Modern Science Has Failed Us"

Ever since I saw Back to the Future II, I've been expecting the anticipation of the hoverboard. By now, I pretty much expected hoverboards to be sold in toy stores across America and for kids to be using them as a common mode of transportation. It didn't happen. It probably never will.

Modern science has failed us.

Today, I'm guest posting over at KnoxMcCoy.com, sharing my frustrations on this and other ways I feel that "Modern Science" has failed to live up to my expectations.

To check out the best post you'll ever lazily, halfway glance at while you're doing other things, click HERE.

The Least of These

I don't get serious very often, particularly not here on this website. I don't know why, but whenever a serious and deep conversation sparks up, I'm only good for a few minutes before my dumb brain takes a sharp right turn into absolute left field.

I guess I just feel like life itself can be so rough. I don't want to focus on that. I don't want to ignore it either, but if I have the choice between laughing and sober mourning, I'm gonna open up the chuckle jar and help myself.

Today, I'm being serious. As serious as I'm able to make myself be, that is. I apologize in advance if this isn't your cup of tea and will understand if you need to sit this one out.

It all starts with a crazy experience I had last week...

Chuck E. Cheese's: Where a kid can be the center of the universe

This past weekend, I sought to prove that I am the world's most loving uncle by setting foot in an establishment I would otherwise never go: Chuck E. Cheese's.

It was my nephew's second birthday and it was here that my brother and his wife decided to throw the lavished shindig.

No big deal. We would stop by, make an appearance, drop off our present and then hit the road.

I wish.

Before last Saturday, I hadn't been to Chuck E. Cheese's since I was a small child. I found out all kinds of things I either did not know in the first place or had blacked out through trauma.

Here's what I learned:

Bigfoot Cross-post on TheParm.com

My new buddy Mike Mihalo runs a sweet website called TheParm.com. Like me, he is a fellow devotee to the idea that Bigfoot might be real, or at least that it's real-ly fun to pretend.

Mike enjoyed my post that I wrote, titled: "Why I Love Bigfoot." So much so that he has decided to run it on his website for his readers to geek out over.

Check out the article HERE!

Why I hate the New England Patriots

Tonight (Feb. 5, 2012), the AFC Champion New England Patriots will take on the NFC Champion New York Giants at Super Bowl 46 in Indianapolis, Indiana to determine who is the best football team in all the land.

I will be cheering for the Giants, and it's not because I'm a Giants fan.

Nay, I don't worship at the throne of Eli Manning or kneel before the always scowling Tom Coughlin. I don't dislike either of them, but I'd be being disingenuous if I pretend to be a New York Giants die-hard.

I'm a Raiders fan. Always have been. Through thick and thin (mostly thin). So, as you might expect, this time of year doesn't usually give me much to cheer for, from an NFL perspective.

My team never makes it, so I don't really have anyone else to cheer for. Luckily, the New England Patriots seem to make it every year. This is useful, because I may not have a team to cheer for, but I do have a team to cheer against.

Why would I cheer against the "Pats?" The answer is simple:

I hate them.

The Week in Review: Jan. 30, 2012

Happy Super Bowl weekend!

Am I the only one here who thinks we should get the Monday after the Super Bowl off from work? This is a legit concern of mine, politicians. Want my vote in the presidential election? Don't come at me with all that "flat tax" and "stem cell research" jibber-jabber. Just give me "Super Bowl Monday" to recover from the awful, awful food that I stuffed into my stomach the prior night.

Anyway, that wasn't what I wanted to talk about. What did I want to talk about?

Oh yeah. The week in review.

Here it is:

- We had a deep conversation about moral character

- I interviewed Chad Jones from RandomlyChad.com. It was epic.

- We did an advance screening of some of the Super Bowl 46 commercials.

Watch a funny video after the jump:

Are you ready for some football...commercials?

It's that time of year again! 

It's the Super Bowl. The day of the year when hardcore and casual football fans a like get together, eat terribly unhealthy food, make silly wagers and cheer for (or against) a team they are often only vaguely familiar with.

But that's not all.

Some of the main attractions every year are the commercials. It's weird, because usually we all hate commercials. It's why we have DVRs. Skipping commercials has become the new American past-time. But it's different on Super Bowl Sunday.

Why? Because these commercials are almost always epically awesome! Every year, the major corporations battle to come with humorous and/or just flat-out attention grabbing ads. They pay millions of dollars for them, so you know they've made a big effort to make sure they absolutely kill.

Some are winners, some miss the mark. Either way, it's usually a lot of fun. 

Nowadays, everything has gone viral. This now includes the Super Bowl commercials. In an innovative move to ostensibly get viewers to become familiar with the ad spots before gameday, the companies have released the ads online for you to watch them.

I saved you the work and picked out some of the finer inclusions. 

After the jump, you can check out my favorites from this year's batch of Super Bowl commercials.

Enjoy:

TheIsleofMan.Net Interview: 'Chad Jones from RandomlyChad.com'

Chad Jones writes for and runs RandomlyChad.com, a Killer Tribes blog that focuses on some of the every day trials, scenarios and awkward encounters that Christians and non-Christians alike experience regularly. 

He is a husband and father of two children. He is addicted to Coffee and Chick-Fil-A. I consider him a friend of mine, even though he admittedly thinks Tim Hawkins is funny. 

Chad was nice enough to donate some of his time and wit to TheIsleOfMan.Net and answer some questions that will probably have the internet ablaze in conversation for a matter of minutes.

Drumroll please...