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Hey, hey, hey...

That's supposed to be Fat Albert greeting you to another long-overdue post on the nearly defunct-ness that is my blog, Tappity Tappity. Thanks for stopping in.

Truth be told, I'm feeling like Fat Albert these days. Raising these kids is really knocking me off my working out gameplan. Really. It's sooo dang tough nowadays to get out of the house for a little bit and do that whole Gold's Gym thing. But...it's only a matter of time. Laura and I are gonna work out a gameplane that's gonna let both of us rotate and go...somehow, someway.

But enough about me, how are you?

Hey, that's great!

Well, a few things have happened as of late and I'd be a complete d-bag not to at least touch on some of 'em, so here goes.

Library Visit - Wouldn't it be funny if this was just about me going to the library and checking out a couple o' books? Well, maybe not. But, I had my first author reading/library visit a few Saturdays back. It's been in the hopper for a while, but it just never came to be. So...about a year and a month after the release of Patrick's Super Socks, I hit the ol' Woodbury library and did a good ol' fashioned reading. I had some copies of PSS to sell, along with my newest release, Mount Rushmore.

Apparently the library put an ad in the paper and everything. I'm just glad I put an event thing in Facebook. I had a bunch of peeps from my family along with friends and firefighting pals show up with their kids. It was a good thing. Otherwise, it would've been like Spinal Tap doing their record signing.

Well that's nit-picking, isn't it?

The best part? That's Travis in the light blue sweater.
He's tired of Patrick and his dumb super socks.

Two TKTs for the price of...one?

Big Jake - If you can believe it, our little(st) guy is almost 2 months old. Really. To compound the craziness, he's A GIANT BABY. He was wearing a shirt that was made for 9 month olds. He clocks in (according to his check-up today) at a whopping 14 pounds. I weighed that when I was 6 months, according to the Mom Almanac. He's also 26 inches long. So, in the space of under two months, the little dude has gained 5 pounds and grew 5 inches. Ummm...is that even possible?

Our meaty little man.

Books, Y'all - In other exciting author news, I'm done with my 3 newest books, which will be released with the If I Were a Firefighter book next spring. They're the ones tenatively titled Fairy Tale Stars and there's a Trolls, Elves, & Dragon installment. Pretty crazy. I still find it hard to believe that I've got two books out now and that by this time next year, I'll have 8 out. Good times! They're fun to do, but a part of me is pretty stoked to have them done so I can get back to work on my other projects.

Twitter - I've joined what I used to call 'Blogging for Lazy People' (look who's calling the kettle black!) and I thought I'd give Twitter a try. Find me, uh...twitting at www.twitter.com/tktroupe.

Movies and such - As I mentioned a few posts back, I'm INHALING movies and shows. It's all one can do when you've got a big ol' baby to cool out with at night. So, I won't bore you with details, but here's some crap I've been watching.

Pan's Labyrinth - Stellar! My first movie on BluRay. After seeing this I'm confident that 'The Hobbit' is going to rock the pants right off of me.

Storytelling - I like controversial movies, but this one was a turd of the highest caliber.

Quarantine - I really liked this movie. Not for the easily squeamish or people who get motion sickness. Zombies, face-biting and just plain awesomeness.

Persepolis - Eh... I think it won some awards and it was visually pretty cool, but overall it didn't do a whole heck of a lot for me.

Spellbound - A documentary about the National Spelling Bee. Well done and oddly riveting!

Zombie (also known as Zombi 2) - A crappy old zombie movie that was done in the late 70's. Absolutely hilarious for all the wrong reasons. Over-acted scenes, gratutious nudity, and people getting their faces eaten. Also, shark vs. zombie. I'm not even kidding. So, naturally, I loved it.

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead - Dude. Maybe I'm a simple man who likes simple things, but I REALLY dug this flick. It's all time-twisty and awesome and also has Albert Finney in it who is the closest thing to god in my book.

Website - I think this is the year I get a website built. I sort of need to do some research and see what I want to have done, but I'm putting the feelers out there. I know a couple peeps and if I can round up a few dollars, I think something wicked cool is on the horizon. I'm hoping for a GOODHALO-esqe site, chock full of zombies and such. It'd be one part promotion, another part awesome. How can it lose?

Anyway...I'm going to do my best to be more post-er-ific. Maybe having that dumb ol' Twitter thing going will sort of give me the atomic kick in the pants I need. Plus, these long-winded 'hey everybody here's what I've been doing all month' posts are for the birds.

Thanks for shopping! See you in the emergency room.

Ha ha ha! *trip*

Good morning Tappers.

Hey, is that condecending? You know, that I call my (2-3) readers Tappers? There's another blog I read sometimes and the author calls her readers a certain name and I sort of find it condecending a little bit. I don't think it's so much that she has a name for her readers as much as it's the name she chose.

I don't want to be that guy. So, you know, let me know.

Hi. I'm tired this morning.

You see, I got assigned the mother-of-all tasks last week and this week. They've got ol' TKT under the gun, working on a pretty big video project here at work. Word got around here that I've got a little film/writing background and they thought:

"Hey, we should have that one guy do a video for us. Something fun, something interesting, something that needs to be done in an extremely short amount of time."

CUT TO:

Shot of TKT looking all bewildered-like into the lens. It punches in for a Sam Raimi extreme close-up. The guy never knew what hit him.

So, yeah. That's what I've been doing instead of posting things on the old bloggy blog. My time at work is literally clogged with planning scenes, rewriting stuff, setting up shots, figuring out how we'll ever get this edited in time, and trying to get actors to just read what I wrote for god's sake...

But you know what? It's been a lot of fun. You know, except for the ulcers and the crying.

Oh...right. What the heck am I doing? What's the premise of the video? Well, I'm glad I asked myself. We're doing a send-up of 'The Office' with our own goofy cast of characters. We're making it apply to what we do here at my job and taking shots at management and...

You know, it sounds a lot better when I don't talk about it. Really. I actually bored myself just then. My favorite part? We have fake commercials between the segments and there's one where another guy and I do an homage to the 'Lazy Sunday' video from SNL. Haven't seen it? Before last week, neither had I.

Anyway...progress on GOODHALO is clipping along. I'm just about halfway done with draft 2.5 and I'm already seeing it firming up nicely. By the time I sit down with the ol' scalpel and jackhammer, I'm gonna shape this thing into something magical...

...with zombies.

And no, I haven't forgotten about the contest for your very own copy of PATRICK'S SUPER SOCKS, suitable for reading to, you know, 4-6 year olds. Details on that big ol' beast is coming up.

Okay. My head is about to hit the keyboard. I must be off.

Man, what a dumb word: Oops!

"Oops, I accidentally dropped a 40 megaton bomb on the state of New Mexico."

"Oops, I guess that pistol WAS loaded."

"I just fired myself out of a cannon into a cauldron of hot, bubbly magma. Oops."

Anyway, I just thought I should come right out and tell you that I don't know when to leave well enough alone. I sent off a query letter for my 'little-story-that-couldn't' THE SHORT BUS JOURNAL out to an agent this afternoon.

I didn't mean to. It just sort of happened.

Maybe it's some of my friends kind of prompting me not to give up on it or maybe it's just because I think it still has some life left in it.

I don't know.

I guess we'll see what happens. And hey, you'll be the first to know, deal?

Solid.

RUMOR ALERT: It's been said that a mystery box has appeared on the front steps of a certain house in Woodbury, MN (my house!). In it, there could be a bunch of long-overdue author copies of some sort or the other. Stay tuned for all the details...

...and a contest.

*backflips and spins twice in the air before landing in a dumpster full of Orange Tic-Tacs*

All children mirror themselves through the eyes of their parents.

Our parents reflect our first mirror image, instructing us on our identity

before we ourselves are aware of our own individuality.

That is why it is important to remember the effect our behavior has on our children.

When children suffer from abuse and neglect they are already afraid, angry, and distrustful of

adults, so he helps when non-profit organizations help to strengthen families , and prevent

children from entering institutions or end up on the streets.

Actually many of these parents just need help coping with addictive or mental disorders, and if

given the opportunity these same parents are able to turn themselves and their families around.

Where do kids who suffer neglect or abuse at the hand of parents go in the summer?

Where do parents who want to turn things around for their families go to get help?

These are questions I asked myself recently and decided to fish around on the internet to find

out. You can find many different non-profit organizations who help families deal with crisis

through your local department of social services, the division of mental health, and juvenile

courts in your state. I wish I could write a post on all of them, however I can't, not in a day

anyway, so I decided to write about CHRIS Kids; an accredited member of the Council on

Accreditation of Services For Families and Children, and a member of the Child Welfare League

of America.

CHRIS kids is keeping families together in the greater Atlanta area, together with the help of

Chris kids, parents are developing the skills and the resources they need be effective parents.

Chris kids partners with families, involving grandparents, aunts, and other relatives in helping

parents become self-sufficient and strong.

Chris kids summer camp is a no-eject nine week camp for children who cannot attend regular

summer camps.


Every year Chris kids and other children's non-profit organizations lose the necessary funding

that helps provide families with these valuable resources.

By giving to CHRIS Kids and other children's services you are sending children to camp who

would otherwise lack the resources to attend. Thus, providing these children with strength,

courage, hope, and a summer of fun at summer camp!


Chris Kids -"Healing children, Strengthening families, Building Community"

A Nice Place In The Sun










A Nice Place In The Sun