Yep, that’s right. Here’s the deal. Answer three questions correctly first, win a prize - it’s that easy. In true game show style, I have randomly chosen from the Parent Theme - the category of Children’s Stories. So all the questions fit in the said category.

The Rules: I have a bunch of unopened, never been played before video games that I could sell on Ebay or Craigslist but I am going to try a give-away. Unfortunately, this give-away only works if you are in the continental United States - sorry Alaska, Hawaii and the rest of the planet, nothing personal, I’m just not interested in paying too much for the postal.

Let’s see how it goes. I am going to ask three questions and the first one to get them right wins the prize. I will post the top three winners (correct answers + quickest time) after the contest is over — assuming there are three.

The Prize: The Game Titles include: Ultimate Spiderman, Tony Hawk Underground 2, Wolfenstein, Doom III and Call of Duty. This is a friendly give-away and I will not field any questions about the prizes beyond this information. If you win but do not find a game that you like or can play, I will move down the list to the next person who got the questions correct. Just to be clear, the Winner will get to choose one video game and it will be sent it via U.S.P.S.

Best of luck.

The Questions:

1. What is Tom Thumbs wife’s name?
2. What did Theodore Geisel feel his greatest work was?
3. What Children’s book inspired a video, a ballet and an opera?

You may want to add me to you RSS feed, because if this giveaway is successful (I imagine it will be), I will be doing random giveaways in the coming months.

Good Luck.

   

[coolplayer] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIT87On4ktU [/coolplayer]

A rotoscoped animation using unscripted footage from a hike in the woods with my 8 year old brother Julian. I rotoscoped it by hand drawing every frame, using a wacom tablet, even the titles.” ~ Ben Arthur, Filmmaker and Animator

   

I like to hike as much as the next guy — I suppose. It is quite a different activity when you are in blistering heat and have not been blessed with an adequate amount of melanin. That said, I would say consider hiking throughout the band of canyons (Palm, Tahquitz, Murray, Andreas, et al.), nestled in the outskirts of Palm Springs, during the cooler months.

We experienced the Palm Canyon during the month of July (we really need to stay out of the desert in the summer months, there’s a reason these resorts drop their rates then). In hindsight, the Tahquitz Canyon probably would have been a better pick with its refreshing 60′ waterfall. For those of you who are avid hikers and/or very outdoor-sie types, you will really enjoy this any time of the year.

I think part of the problem for us was we did not take the guided tour (general admission $8 + $2/3 bucks for the hour long guided tour), I think our experience would have been very different. As far as the level of difficulty (hiking) or grading - I would say it is easy, so you could probably stand to bring a toddler who is old enough to have a good sense of balance. In general it is a nice option to get the kids away from the glitz of Palm Springs and enjoy the surrounding flora and fauna.

Related Links:
Head of Palm Canyon, Palms Springs, CA | VR Panorama
PalmSprings.Com
Meta-DAD Review | Parentography
AmericaSouthwest.Com
Palm Canyon on Google Maps

   

My darling husband.

I don’t know what I’m doing. I dress in the morning for Him. I get all quivery in my tummy when he comes to see me. I lust after him hugely. I have fooled around with him, but have not had sex. But not for lack of wanting to…” ~ TrueWifeConfessions.Com

   

I proceeded to teach Juan about birth control. I told him that condoms work OK, but that the pill is much better. I told him that the most effective method would be to get a vasectomy. “It hurts a bit for two days and then you’ll never have to worry about children again. You have a completely normal sex life afterwards. I’ve had it done and I’m very glad.” ~ Shatter the Fog, The Elephant In The Room

I’m not sure which is more evocative the post itself or the ensuing comments. Regardless of your personal thoughts on the subject matter, you must agree this is editorial blogging at its best.

   

The electronic toy, which is called LINKX, consists of blocks that the children must place against a specific object. The objects — for example a table or a window — are equipped with a small electronic device of a certain colour. If the children place a block against such an object, the block lights up in the same colour as the object and the child hears the word that corresponds to the name of the object (this word has been pre-recorded by the child’s parents).” ~ ScienceDaily.com, New Language Development Toy For Autistic Children

Here is a link to the Product/Project Page. Check out the movie about the project, too. It’s ashame this item is not available for purchase, as of yet. At the bottom of the ID - StudioLab page there is an email link to express interest in the product.

Related Links:
StudioLab | LINKX
ScienceDaily.Com | Product Press Release

   

I have been compiling what I hoped to be my own litmus test of sites that give fair and even-handed descriptions of movie content for different categories like violence, profanity, crudeness, et al. Even though, I feel that I don’t need some site to push their moral assessments of what is right and wrong for my children to watch - I kind of feel it is probably a good idea for me to consider what is out there and then judge. My pre-judgment is that these sites are biased in some way — either pro-entertainment industry or anti-entertainment industry — in some vague or not so vague way — even though most claim not to be. I wanted to share with you a couple of the sites while trying to figure out which ones align with the views and opinions my wife and I share. We (me especially) are starting to realize that even though we consider ourselves media-savvy we don’t necessarily know everything there is to know what’s media appropriate for our kids.

Case and point: we recently rented some new animated kids movie (I have daddy-brain right now and can’t remember), we were very excited to establish a family “movie night” complete with homemade caramel popcorn and other consessions. I was sure to make sure the surround sound system was on and balanced (so as not to blow our hair off when a character went “boom”). Well things didn’t go so well. My oldest one lasted about two minutes into the film. Evidently, dark moody scenes of animated mice creeping around the sewers scare the cheese-and-crackers out of him. Thank goodness for Kipper, that’s all I can say. That British puppy equals pure sunshine for my son.

When studying the different entities out there that give good unbiased (even biased, who knows, maybe I agree with their biases) reviews I was looking at one thing when visiting their site - who are they and why they think they have the authority to give fair and honest criticism and more important what are their affiliations with the media they’re judging. I was able to quickly parse the sites into two main groups - those who are sponsored (mostly non-profit) and the non-sponsored or for profit sites that tend to require a fee or membership. The sites that bill themselves as non-profit break into two factions; those that are sponsored by the media and those that aren’t, that may seem “plain and simple” but things get muddy when the idea of “media” becomes dubious or otherwise unclear (as you will see).

CommonSenseMedia.Com has a relatively deep database of reviews on everything from movies and television shows to DVDs and video games. They fall in the category of non-profit entity that are definitely linked to the media industry (there Board of Directors include Marcy Carsey of Carsey-Werner Productions and Mike Tollin of Tollin/Robbins Productions but also has Gary Knell, CEO Sesame Workshop and Ramon C. Cortines, Former Superintendent of Schools - New York, San Francisco on its roster). Although they’re tied to the media industry it is clear to me that both in theory and in practice they do their best to offer information that ultimately allows the parent to decide what is best for them and their children.

I was pretty surprised to see that the Motion Picture Association of America (M.P.A.A.) actually has some bare-bones resources and links for parents. I must admit, they were not my first choice, closer to my last. You will find a small section geared at educating parents about their rating system and providing links to other like minded sites (CommonSenseMedia.Com is one of them). One of the few services it offers is a Weekly Red Carpet Review which is little more than an outline of their general ratings for new releases. I imagine this is good for those of us who are comfortable enough with how the system works and enjoys the one-sheet layout of their weekly service.

The one site the M.P.A.A. recommends is PauseParentPlay.Org which feels more like a well packaged (albeit self-referential) portal. It is laughable. Its partners are humongous industry leaders like (more…)

   

Throughout the summer months I will be sharing some reviews of some local kid-friendly destinations. I should preface this review with some facts about my family; my oldest is two and a half and the youngest is six months. So that said, I will explain that our weekend down in Carlsbad (California) was surprisingly good. I wasn’t sure that there would be enough to do for him considering his age and height, but I stand corrected.

Yes, Legoland will set you back over a $150 not including lunch but it was a great time for all and the lines weren’t bad at all. I used some vacation time, so we were able to go mid-week which makes a world of difference. My understanding is that during the weekend in the summer the lines are quite a killjoy.

Beyond that, the rides were great. Considering my son was too small for most of the rides (36″ minimum), we found plenty to do. He really enjoyed the toddler wet playground (Water Works) by the Pirate Tours Ride. It gave my wife and I a chance to rest our weary feet and take a breather. We found ourselves alternating between sit-down rides (like the Swanboat Ride and Fairy Tale Brook) and the active stuff (like Dig Those Dinos and Firefighters Wanted). We were surprised at how many wet rides and activities there were. Of course my wife was prepared with a change of clothes for the boys.

Seven hours later, my wife and I had to carry him out of there, asleep on my shoulders.

VICTORY!

PARENT TIPS: Learn from our shortcomings and PACK A LUNCH, we did not and we spent $40 for a light lunch (wife, me and babies). I’m talking - a fruit cup, peanut butter and jelly, tuna sandwich (I split with my wife), soda and a water, outrageous! And remember to bring a change of clothes for everybody going, chances are you’re going to want to get wet.

Related Links;
More MetaDAD Reviews @ Parentography
LegoLand, California

   

Jan Willem Wennekes is also known under his designer alias Zeptonn. Zeptonn creates all sorts of funky designs ranging from t-shirts, posters, logos, button badges and books. And now wall graphics for Blik.

(Via Blik)