Why so few posts lately? It’s August and I’m on vacation, relaxing with the family.
Lazy days at the beach are absolutely wonderful, but we’ve been faced with more than a few rainy days. What’s a family to do? It’s yet another example of that saying, “It is what it is.” We can’t change the weather, so how do we make the best of it? We found a toy store and sifted through shelves and shelves of games until we found some gems. If you find yourself in a similar situation or have listened to your kids say, “I’m bored” too many times to count, check out these games which have provided hours of fun for our family:
Coda is particularly good if you have kids who love to crack codes or enjoy games like Mastermind. Players select black and white numbered tiles and try to identify their opponents’ codes. When a player says the correct number, his/her opponent must turn over the identified tile, making it visible to all players. Play continues until the last person with tiles still standing wins.
Bottom line? It’s a quick, fun challenge game that’s best for kids 10 and up.
I like sports just as much as the next mom, and my son regularly rattles off statistics and scores, but this game still proved fairly challenging for our crew. Game play took so long that we never finished the game. Having said that…if you have intense, competitive sports fans in your family and/or circle of friends, they’ll probably be all over this game. In that case, it would be more fun than many of the other trivia games out there, but I’d recommend that you save it for large groups of kids (who can play in teams) over thirteen who are all sports fanatics.
Bottom line? Family full of sports fanatics? Great!! Family with one kid who likes sports and another who would rather be listening to music? Pass on it.
Life? Seriously? A game that’s been around since the 60s? Yep. Frankly after suffering humiliation with that ESPN game, I enjoyed playing the familiar role as banker, and used it as an opportunity to explain basic financial concepts like the risks associated with gambling and going into debt compared with the benefits of investing in a college education. Definitely more fun for me than all those obscure sports questions. Actually, everyone in the family enjoyed this game (except that sports fanatic) and we completed the game in about an hour.
Haven’t heard about Life? Game tokens are little plastic cars with holes for people-pegs that players insert as they move around the board doing things like getting married, choosing college or career paths, having kids, getting paid, earning salary increases and so on. Simple, silly fun with a spinner (kids always love those). Younger kids will probably lose interest before you finish, but tweens and preteens might get a kick out of it. We had fun!
Bottom line? Simple fun with topics that parents can use to share their thoughts about values or to tell stories about their own lives.
Mille Bornes, pronounced (meal-born) is a fun auto race card game which is easy to learn and fun for the whole family (older kids only unless you play in teams with the younger kids). Recommended for kids ten and up, the objective is to be the first player to travel 1000 miles. Bonus points awarded for safe driving (i.e., making the trip using only low speed cards) and for other strategic game play. Players can try to hinder opponents’ progress by playing hazard cards (e.g., flat tire, accident, out of gas) which can only be remedied by appropriate fixes (e.g., spare tire, repairs, gasoline). My tween and I can’t get enough of this game.
Bottom line? Most people haven’t heard of this game, but when they do, they become instant fans. It’s worth a try.
That tee shirt pictured above is my daughter’s favorite piece of schwag from BlogHer 08. Thank you, Cathy Brooks of Seesmic, who graciously bestowed it upon us before she spoke at a BlogHer session about videography.
We’ve been watching that little raccoon for many months now and were hoping that someday we could have a sticker or a laptop cover or just anything with that little raccoon on it. My son likes him, too. He likes the way his ears reach beyond the circle and his right eye is larger than the other, so he looks as if he’s popping through a hole to come closer and peer at you. And now we have him - on a t-shirt!! Woohoo!
Oh, you have to go and give it a try! It’s a bit like Twitter with video but not nearly as fast. It’s a site where you can record (or upload) video and publish it, then have people respond to whatever you’ve posted. You can ask questions, start debates, host a show, whatever strikes your fancy. One member of Seesmic, Frieda Wolden, has posted thousands and thousands of videos, all of which she’s recorded while wearing a hat. Very nice woman. She makes me laugh.
Take just a moment or two and check out Seesmic. At the very least, watch the video (click here) that the Seesmic folks produced as the introduction to their site (on the landing page). It’s a hoot. Or, if you want to see that little raccoon in action, look at the intro to any of the Seismic du Jour shows (with Loic Le Meur, founder of Seesmic). In this episode, Loic and Freddy Mini of Netvibes tell you about a new Seesmic widget on Netvibes (that you can also put on your own blog).
If you don’t want to leave my site, you can just watch the video below to find out about how Facebook Connect will integrate Seesmic into Facebook:
Have you heard about this yet? Blog Nosh Magazine launched this week. Led by editor-in-chief, Megan Jordan , it’s the new online magazine that, as described by the tag line (below), will "satisfy your craving for fresh voices and delicious content."
Imagine picking up a magazine filled with a great collection of articles from a wide variety of topics like art, politics, design, education, business, tech, and more. That’s what BlogNosh offers - high quality blog articles which have fallen off the front pages of blogs but are still worthy of your valuable time.
Let’s say that you began reading your favorite blog in March. Did you go back and read all the posts starting from day one? If not, you missed that great post from last October. BlogNosh finds those articles that fall into the archive heap and brings them to you, so you get the best of the blogosphere, conveniently arranged by topic (or "channel"). So you can just nosh on what you like.
Delicious content, fresh voices, compiled for you in one place. New posts daily!
If you’re a blogger and have posts that deserve to be brought into the spotlight, send me an email or DM me on Twitter , because I’m happy to say that I’m part of this venture. Let’s just say I’m one of the gummy bears (see, now you have to go and see BlogNosh to figure out what that means!).
Accomplished author, food critic, and mother of three, Julie Halpert was my guest on Soapbox Radio - recorded live today.
Based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, she’s been a journalist for twenty years with articles in the New York Times , Newsweek , the Washington Post and many other publications. Halpert is currently teaching a course on environmental journalism at her alma mater, the University of Michigan (go blue!).
What’s she doing now? She’s touring the country to talk about her new book (which she co-authored with Deborah Carr, Ph.D.) and she made a stop on the Soapbox .
I finally carved out some time to see SATC this past weekend.
Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha
My hubby and I (yep, he used to watch it with me) were loyal, regular viewers of the series with Sarah Jessica Parker , et al. So it was fun seeing the ladies up on the big screen. I wasn’t expecting much, considering most TV-to-movie attempts just don’t work (at least for me). But, at the end of the day, here’s what I got out of it.
Many women identify with at least one of the characters, whether it’s Samantha, Carrie, Charlotte or Miranda. I always saw a little of myself in each of them, but probably with a tad bit more Charlotte. Always positive, hopeful, and romantic.
In the movie, however, Charlotte (played by Kristin Davis ) was over-the-top uptight, particularly when she packed little pudding cups on a trip to Mexico because she feared the safety of the food and water. Come on now. Last I checked they have pills you can taketo prevent acquiringMontezuma’s revenge . No need to starve or subsist on Jello pudding packs. A bit absurd… But then I realized why that stance was necessary. It ultimately gave Charlotte her “bad thing” for the year (see below). And that moment was hysterical. Really funny. Made Carrie laugh at a time when she wondered whether she would ever laugh again.
When I first heard about a balance board used as part of a video game for the Nintendo Wii, the reviews were less than glowing. I remember seeing videos that poked fun at it , and questioned why anyone would want to use a goofy looking plastic rectangle to find out whether or not they were standing still.
Early video - WiiFit Parody (July, 2007)
But, as months passed, I started hearing more positive reviews and before long I wanted one of those WiiFit contraptions.
I’m one of those parents who loves playing video games with the kids, so I really liked the concept of a workout game. I often talk to my kids about the importance of staying fit and exercising, yet I rarely make time to work out.
Would this thing actually motivate me more than the gym a couple of miles away?
We here at Soapbox Mom are excited about the latest addition to the site - a podcast called Soapbox Radio . It’s a show for moms, dads, men, women, and kids about anything and everything. I kicked off the show by highlighting bloggers, particularly those whom I know relatively well and think are just so amazing that I want the world to hear about them. I’ll have show notes and links after the shows as well as previews about upcoming shows right here on Soapbox Mom and also on my Soapbox Radio site .
I’m especially excited to say that on Tuesday, May 13 I was joined by my first guest, BD (or Jim) author of the Busy Dad Blog and BusyDad Tales - the comic (illustrated by Jim’s childhood friend, Jeff Day). Jim is a tremendously talented guy with an adorable young son, whom he fondly refers to as Fury. You can see Jim and Fury in the entertaining videos on his site and read all about them on both sites.
I’m thrilled to say that my tween daughter and I were selected to be guest post writers (and photographers!) by Pete over at My GPS Camera Phone.
Pete has an amazing, unique blog in which he inspires people to use their camera phones creatively and freely without hesitation or intimidation. Those teeny cameras within your cell phones can make better pictures than you might think. Click here to see one of my favorites. Spend some time on Pete’s blog and you’ll find video tutorials along with plenty of beautiful examples.
After following his blog for a while, I was inspired to look at my phone in a whole new way. Now I snap pictures whenever I see something that strikes me in an interesting way, whatever it may be, even just a basketball net:
Pete will show you how to manipulate and improve the photos after you get them out of your camera. Just look at what Pete does with his then go out and make some beauties of your own.
