Since shopping and buying gifts for the holidays have become so integrated into society’s year-end habitual consumer machine, it’s only natural to follow suit and give into the shopping holiday spirit. As parents, we will do anything for our kids to make the holiday that much more enchanting and special. I know this because my 15-month-old daughter is the first grandchild on both sides of the family, so yah – she’s pretty damn enamored with Christmas.

However, there are some giving folks who have taken to the streets, or Omaha Kmarts to be more specific, to make Christmas special for random families. I like this. I think people like this as well – hopefully not too much.

If I lived in Omaha and found out about this you bet your jolly sweet ass I’d be running out the door to a Kmart, look for a suitor, and put sh*t on layaway.

Interesting fact: Behemoth retailers Target nor Walmart offer layaway. Sears does, but the parent company, Sears Holdings Corporation owns both Kmart and Sears.

I just hope this isn’t an ingenious marketing ploy by Kmart to entice shoppers into a family game of “Santa Chance” – if it is revealed as such, I swear to some f*ckin’ jolly fat dude that I will post a video of myself giving a standing ovation in front of Kmart as an update to this article.

Until then, I’ll just keep believing in humanity.

A young 13-year-old girl, Clarisse Kambire, bent over in a cotton field pictured above in my Photoshop 2-minute masterpiece, caught my attention as a father. When I hear about a child labor scandal involving a national corporation as large as Limited Brands, who owns Victoria’s Secret, and physically see photos of a young girl being forced to work and read a little of her daily life – I automatically go into rage mode.

If you’re a decent person, you’d hopefully generate empathy too with a question like, “What if that was my daughter/son?”. And damn that’s a scary thought as I safely sit in a comfortable chair behind an awesome computer.

As a U.S. citizen and sometimes consumer, I hate to say it but I’m not surprised at this story. It’d be nice to see products like this sh*t made in the USA and sold for 1/2 the price – but that will never happen. The sad fact is the Third World competes to survive off America while America focuses on profit, looking for world bargains, slowly drowning the middle class with corporation’s lust for greed. In 2006, Hanes was found to have exploited children in Bangladesh.

So now that Victoria has finally been exposed, their PR department has found themselves smack dap in the middle of a media sh*t-storm, stiff-arming all accusations of forced child labor so far. There’s no mistake that this is still happening, there’s no doubt it will continue to happen, but right now it’s happening in Burkina Faso.

Big ups to Bloomberg News for uncovering this story, spending more than six weeks reporting in Burkina Faso, including interviewing Clarisse, her family, neighbors and leaders in her village.

Episode 010: Bonfire Of The Sanities

This week’s episode covers the following stories on 8bitdad.com for the week of December 6th, 2011: Would You Rather Your Teen Be Friendless or Too Popular?; Study: Fat Dad-Sperm, Fat Kids; Gay Tween Lies To Internet: A Dad’s Response; Rad Dads Make ‘Legend of Zelda’ Music Video; Solomon Metalwala Custody Battle Heats Up; Worst Handwritten Note Ever By A Dad

Episode 009: Meat For The Wolves

This week’s episode covers the following stories on 8bitdad.com for the week of November 27th, 2011: PQotW – Do You Buy Age-Inappropriate Toys for Your Kid?; Daughter Trolls Dad On TV During Saints Game;  Tide’s Stay-at-Home-Dad Commercial Didn’t Fall on Deaf Ears; WIRED’s GeekDad Reviews 5 Classic “Best Toys of All Time”; Oh Noes! Kentucky Father Leaves Baby in Shopping Cart

So you probably saw this video making the Facebook rounds the past few weeks and thought, “Wow, what a powerful message!” or “This is worth sharing!”.

I admit that I watched this video last night and as a father, I kinda felt for this kid’s story. I had my own experiences in middle school with bullies and others that I didn’t quite get along with – that was with minimal adversity. Thinking about my own daughter, I know it’s bound to happen in her lifetime too. As much as I want to protect her from the evil in the world, she has to learn about the dark side at a comfortable click to appreciate and cherish the good.

As a multimedia guru, I was impressed by the the kid’s video concept. The song fit well with the hand-written cards, appealing to the realness of the message. Never suspected it was lifted from another similar video.

As an internet user, I had my doubts to its authenticity. I hate to generalize, but most little dudes around the age of twelve are not that awesome.

Should you feel foolish that you wasted your time sharing and replying to this so-called “fake” original video? No. I’ll explain why.

As if Monday night’s display wasn’t painful enough for Giants fans, this girl caught my eye with her big blue sign as she made it onto the tele during Monday Night Football, Saints vs Giants. Given her dad has a sense of humor and safely lives miles away in New York, this is a pretty cute, back-handed way to dish out the gratitude in a sports torn household there, missy. Nice job.

This week’s episode covers the following stories on 8bitdad.com for the week of November 21st, 2011: PQotW: Have You Hired, or Would You Hire a Male Babysitter?; Stay-At-Home-Dads Double, Stigma Still Exists; Respect The Bird This Black Friday; Father Says Twins Came From Stolen Sperm; Daddies Away! Connecting With Your Kids From The Other Side Of The World