Mike Evans was a founding member of the touring neo-swing band, Big Tubba Mista, and runs the family fun website, Secret Dad Society. He built a remote control seagull to see what real seagulls thought of it. See the video below!

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mikeevansOur guest this week is Mike Evans: musician, teacher, husband, and father from Pennsylvania. He was a founding member of the touring neo-swing band, Big Tubba Mista, and currently performs with The Greatest Funeral Ever, Gumbo Junk Brass Band, and other local bands.

When not performing, he recruits his two kids, who are too young to know any better, into doing zany projects and exploring curious new hobbies….Anything from kite aerial photography, geocaching, or remote control seagull-cams, to juggling, science experiments, or making stop motion movies.

He has yet to win his "webby", "emmy", or author his best-selling book to promote on Gweek, but in the meantime, he's thrilled that his wife Jen set up this guest spot as her 10th wedding anniversary gift to him.

You can follow his adventures in fatherhood on his blog, Secret Dad Society, or on Twitter at @secretdadblog.

Above video is from Mike's blog: "The kids love to visit the seagulls that congregate in a local strip mall parking lot during fall and winter months. This year, we're getting ready early, and we've concocted a crazy plan to get a much closer look at the seagulls without the threat of being pooped on or pecked at. We made a paper mache seagull, attached it to the chassis of an old R/C car, and outfitted it with a small keychain camera. We aptly named our goofy creation the Scuttlecam, after the famously wacky seagull from The Little Mermaid."

Mike's picks:

  • Geocaching.com. My kids and I sculpted a geocaching travel bug modeled after a character from the Boing Boing Family logo, and I've been blogging about his adventures for over a year now. It's been so much fun! I'm trying to send it from the East coast all the way to you out West. It finally reached L.A.!
  • Lateral Thinking Puzzlers, by Paul Sloane. My wife and I have been reading one of these lateral thinking puzzles to each other every night and are having a blast! The idea came from a recent weekly challenge on the Futility Closet podcast. It was so fun listening to Greg and Sharon work out a puzzle, that I immediately ran out and grabbed a book to try at home. I can't wait to try this out with a larger group as well.
  • In the Beginning There Were Coins, and Muscle Pass, both Penguin Magic DVDs starring Jay Noblezada. I love coin magic because you don't need any special props, just coins and some practice. I always keep a few coins in my pocket and have been practicing daily.
  • Recordsetter.com. People from around the world submit videos providing evidence of them setting all sorts of crazy records. The records can then be challenged by anyone. My daughter and I just unseated someone.
  • The Mad art of Caricature, by Tom Richmond. Just got this excellent book and I have a pretty cool strategy for how I plan to use it.
  • Rat Queens, a new, ongoing comic published by Image. A funny homage to D&D that features an all-female party of foul-mouthed adventurers.

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