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Every year, my father in law goes hunting for wabbits deer. He's hunts during both bow and rifle seasons, and in more recent years, has pretty reliably gotten at least one or two deer, if not more. We've always been happy benefactors to that fact, taking whatever venison they are willing to give up. It doesn't get any fresher, either. He and my mother in law butcher their own, because the professional butchers he's tried have taken too long (I remember hearing one story about the meat spoiling! Ew!), and can be expensive.

This year, they've informed us that we get to help with the butchering if we want a cut (pun intended) of the meat. That's certainly fair and you won't hear me complaining, but I'm just not sure if I can do it.

I am 110% willing to try… It's something I would like to say I've done. It would make me feel more self sufficient and capable… and yes, probably slightly more macho too.

But let's face facts, here. I can't watch the surgery channel without getting squeamish. The same goes for fictional characters in movies getting cut up or going under the knife — especially with todays special effects. The more real it looks, the more it makes me squirm.

So I've promised to try, and try I will. But I'm sure that they don't want me in there vomiting, so if it comes to that I may have to excuse myself. I don't plan on bringing the camera in to that session, either.

Hunting season starts in September!

So I was catching up on blogs while I ate my lunch yesterday, one of which was Greeblemonkey. In that post, she makes an offhand comment that "she promises" that her son hasn't watched Dr. Horrible. That one sentence sent my mind spinning. I can sum it up in one question — the title of this post — but of course there's more to it than that.

I think that, right now, I am incapable of drawing a line of what is or is not acceptable for Dylan to watch. Right now, about the only TV he sees is a few minutes of the occasional Phillies game that I watch, or parts of the morning news. In general, we just don't put him in front of the tv yet. Our time with him is a little limited (mine more than Megans, due to my longer commute), so we try not to turn the TV on in the evening until he's gone to bed, which is a guideline we put in place so that we get as much play time with him as possible. I know, that sounds restrictive (and possibly dumb!) to you but it works pretty well for us. :)

Anyway, this all made me remember a situation about 7 years ago. A coworker asked me if it would be safe to take her young (maybe 10 year old?) daughter to see the movie Spider Man, and I told her it was fine. She all but physically beat me on the following Monday. For whatever reason, I guess that movie isn't appropriate for children under 10? It's rated PG-13 for "Stylized violence and action," whatever that is.

There is some … "choice language" … in Dr. Horrible, and a girl dies, so a certain maturity level, and the ability to tell the difference between fantasy/fiction from reality is definitely required. But how do you know if your kid can tell fantasy and reality apart without exposing him to some fantasy material in the first place? I guess just all happy-go-lucky fantasy material? (Do I enjoy any happy-go-lucky fantasy stuff? I have no idea! Even Harry Potter is a little dark now and then…)

I know that after Dylan grows up a bit more, has more life experience, and we can see his reaction to different things, we'll better understand what he is definitely capable of handling, and what he definitely isn't. But at this point, I can't imagine figuring out anything that's in the gray area.

I've long said that we will (probably) follow The Lego Rule, but aside from that, I've got nothing. Little help, here?

It's no secret that I'm on a community service kick lately. I still hope you'll go give blood.

On Monday I saw a tweet from Google that sent me to a post on their blog about a new site they launched that day. The site is AllForGood.org, and they explain the purpose and reason for creating the site pretty well in the blog entry. In addition, a new government site — Serve.gov — has been launched, and appears to be spearheaded by Michelle Obama, that apparently just links to AllForGood. On either site, you can search for volunteering opportunities in your local area.

Now, of course it's not all-inclusive. There are surely lots of opportunities in your area (and everywhere else) that aren't listed, but there are also lots that are. There aren't any listed within a reasonable distance from my home, but it did inspire me to look for other things that are.

I'm still looking for some way to get involved with the American Cancer Society locally, but I'm not sure if there's a local branch/chapter I can help. I did find another organization locally that I'm interested in though. Our county SPCA needs volunteers, and (I'm still looking into it, but) the time requirement seems like it might even fit my schedule.

When we lived in Maryland, Megan and I would spend some of our weekend time down at the Humane Society walking the dogs. The Chester County SPCA has some similar volunteer opportunities that they say involves training, exercising, and socializing the dogs. Sounds like fun to me, and if I can do it for a few hours, one Saturday a month, then that would be a perfect fit.

So even if you can't donate blood, I hope you'll try to find something that you enjoy doing, near you, that's easy for you to participate in, for the good of the community.