David Colello's Blog: SciFiParenting, page 4

How To Survive The Twilight Zone Of Stay Home Fatherhood

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PVB5Y6J My book on how to get your life under control as a stay home dad is available at the following link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PVB5Y6J Be sure to get it ABSOLUTELY FREE during my upcoming promotion on May 3rd-6th! Save $1,000's in day care costs by becoming a stay at home or work at home father! Let an expert dad convince you to make the switch in this hilarious short read. Parenting is hard, but becoming a stay home father? That can feel as if you've just entered the Twilight Zone! Why is this book right for you? Simple. Most parenting books ask you to study a 300 page manual full of sunshine and roses. Don't waste your time! New parents don't want step by step instructions (this stuff isn't rocket science). What dads like you need is a tough as nails soldier who has seen the horrors of the parenting trenches firsthand. You need someone to slap you hard in the face and get you back onto the battlefield ready for war. In short, this book has everything you need to hear, but none of the empty page fillers found in most parenting books. The author David Colello is a grizzled veteran who you want by your side. He has been a stay home dad for six years and counting with two young boys of his own. If that isn't enough experience for you, he also watches three more children full time ranging from an infant to a teenager. David doesn't pull any punches in this quick read, and gives solid advice to dads transitioning to the role of primary caregiver. “I want you to dominate parenthood so completely that you stop defining yourself as ‘just’ a stay home dad, and start seeing yourself as a rock star human being who also just so happens to parent like a boss.” Main Areas Of Focus ●Why Do You Stay Home?
●Your Plan For Going Back
●Get Yourself Organized
●Make Some Money
●Make Some Memories The main topics you'll learn in this book are how to take charge as a parent, make winning plans, and learn to more fully enjoy your family and your home. We go by many ridiculous names: Mr. Mom, Stay At Home Dad (SAHD), manny, house husband, domestic engineer, work at home dad, housedude, and full time father. All that these names prove is that most of society still has no clue how to describe your new job. Just be yourself, and know that “dad” is the most important name you'll ever be called.

Annihilation Review

Science, thrills, intrigue, interpretive dance? Annihilation is pretty much what I expected, which is both good and bad. It has surprises, and beauty, and creepiness. Despite all of that, it comes off as too artistic and esoteric to pull off in a movie. It follows the aftermath of an alien meteorite crashing into a lighthouse in the American southeast. An eerily beautiful Shimmer expands out from the impact, threatening to slowly take over the whole world. Everyone and everything entering the Shimmer never comes back out, until...Natalie Portman's husband of course. The plot mixes pure sci fi gold with parallel tracks of romance, loss, and self-destructive personalities. The characters are all colorful, but a bit one dimensional. Kudos to them rocking a full team of smart women as the main group, though. I'll file this one under "glad I watched it, but doubt I'll ever think about it much in the future." It delivers great entertainment (the interpretive dance would give away too much plot to explain) with enough complex ideas to keep it from being just eye candy.

Where Can Minds Wander When The World Gets Small?

An Information Age Dilemma Faces Sci Fi. For those of us raised on the epic space operas of Asimov, today's sci fi seems plagued by the smallness of reality. Back when the space race was only a pipe dream, rockets to Mars were a vivid landscape for our imaginations to fill with stories. However, now that technology has put us mere milliseconds away from every place on Earth, sci fi has had a harder time choosing the next best background. Cyberpunk took the lead in the 80's, trading the cramped real world for the infinite expanse of the datasphere. Steampunk, fantasy, and apocalypse fiction have all taken turns carrying the sci fi flag, but each new leader seems to tire quicker. Now with the explosion of books on the digital market, sci fi has splintered into endless niche markets, with no real overall direction. So where does it all go from here? As space exploration becomes commercialized and more common place, space will surely regain traction as a popular setting. The digital world is also here to stay, with augmented and virtual reality being the newest incarnations. Science fiction has always had a special place in my heart. It allows people to better understand the present day world by imagining alternate or future versions of it. Perhaps it's just that in the Information Age, we've been overwhelmed with too much reality. In a world which changes faster than it takes to write a novel about it, maybe it should be the changing itself that takes center stage. Rather than focusing on genres, sci fi authors should take fresh looks at how new mediums can better connect them with their readers and the strange world around them. Consider flash fiction, short reads, the rebirth of serials, interactive fiction, multimedia fiction, and augmented reality as the future. There will always be a role for science fiction, as long as authors are daring enough to tackle the challenges of their world. Let's hope we get our own Asimov of the Information Age to help us make sense of it all! Have any suggestions or tips on new sci fi on the cutting edge? We all want to hear from you!

Book Review: "Here We Are" by Oliver Jeffers

A charming and lighthearted introduction to Earth and space that every child should read. When I came across "Here We Are: Notes For Living On Planet Earth" I bought it right away, and I can't think of a better book to review as my inaugural blog post. I created SciFiParenting in order to celebrate science fiction, kids, and the parents who love them both. This book is the perfect blend of all three of these topics. Oliver Jeffers offers a simple introduction to the Earth, space, and humanity. It has adorable illustrations which glide the story effortlessly forward and give your children plenty of fun scenes to explore. All throughout, the book is infused with a sense of togetherness and inclusiveness that I found wonderful. How many kids books have Sufi dancers, astronauts, and everyone in between hanging out as equals? The only feature which I found a bit disconcerting is the way the story seems meant to be read to an infant, yet delves into topics that only older children will understand. Infants won't care either way, of course, but my kindergartener was reading this on his own and encountered lines like "I know you can't talk yet." In the end, if a little narration issue is my only complaint, it's because I loved nearly everything about this book. I'm more than proud to make it my first recommendation to the SciFiParenting community. Enjoy!