Young Biblical Scholars

Posted on July 15, 2008 by The Daring One

On the way home from church yesterday we had this conversation.
moses
Me: What did you learn about in nursery Magoo?
Magoo: Bubbles.
Me: Fun. Did you have a lesson?
Magoo: Bubbles.
Me: You did a picture of Moses. Did you learn about him?
Magoo: Yes.
Me: Awesome. Was he a prophet?
Magoo [looking at me like I’m a total MORON]: NO. He’s a BABY!

Laylee was a little more willing to share her great knowledge. I guess they learned about Jesus healing the ten lepers. She said that Jesus probably felt pretty medium about the whole thing. Happy that the one guy said thank you but sad about the other nine. So, just sort of medium.

He was a baby too at one time, as evidenced by our Little People Nativity. But it seems that he grew to maturity, at least old enough to heal people and feel medium about it. I hope Moses will too.

Posted in faith, fun, fun, fun, kid stuff | 8 Comments

Tally of Radness

Posted on July 13, 2008 by The Daring One

My sister Becky is about to pop. She’s at the taking-crazy-potions-to-induce-exodus point of her pregnancy and I like to do things to help keep her occupied, like play Doctor Mario online with my wii. I’m selfless like that. And also rad.

Today Laylee was watching us play and talking to Aunt Becky on the speakerphone. Suddenly she got very serious and whispered in my ear, “Can persons be ‘rad’?”

I told her that yes, people could be rad. She got so excited and ran off to grab a piece of paper. “You’re RAD Aunt Becky!” she cheered, “I will give you 2 points and a rock because you also rock.”

She then drew a picture of a rock and 2 hash marks on her pad of paper. Throughout our game she kept a tally with a running commentary about who was rad, who was more rad, who rocked and who rolled. If you rolled, you got a picture of a bottle rolling around.

I mostly was mostly the most rad and rocked the most. According to the tally, I’m far more rad than my little sister. I’ve had more years to cultivate that certain quality.

At one point we played a game where we both sucked it up big time. Disappointed, Laylee shook her head, “You guys did NOT play with radness. You are both still rad though, even though.”

Well thank goodness.

While Laylee was tallying radnesses, Magoo was practicing his potty skeelz. From the potty room, I heard him yell, “Woah! That was a weely big one! It’s like a big T-rex or somesing.” I wonder how many radness points a log that big would get. I mean, a big T-Rex? That’s pretty impressive.

Don't Make Me Take a Radness Point From Yous

Posted in fun, fun, fun, kid stuff, nintendo, Random | 23 Comments

I’m Somewhat of an Expert

Posted on July 11, 2008 by The Daring One

Find out how I’m simultaneously saving my children thousands of dollars on shrink fees and causing them to miss out on the millions they’d make for their book deal about how their parents ruined their lives.

[read more at parenting.com]

Posted in parenting | 2 Comments

You Really Should Know Some Things

Posted on July 10, 2008 by The Daring One

At night, in the dark laundry room, I call myself Uhura as I work the controls. Because I am way not a dork who should be filed away with all the other PZ4s. At all.
washer
While I was working out listening to New Kids on the Block (NKOTB as they’re known in the hood), I was ever so slightly tempted. Is it just me?

I’ve been trying to get Laylee to pump her own swing for just decades now. She finally did it today because I pushed her a bunch and then said she could stay at the park as long as her swing was still going and I walked away. Some skills are mastered through patient persistence, others through sheer desperation.

He got his sweetness from Daniel. His chipmunkness is all me.
chipmunk

Posted in Random | 16 Comments

Sony Reader Digital Book — Giveaway

Posted on July 10, 2008 by The Daring One

I was so excited to get my hands on the Sony Digital Reader, give it a spin and tell you all what I thought of it. When I supervised the media department at a public library after college, we were always talking about the latest technology in video, music and book readers. This was about 5 years ago and digital books were out there in the market but none of them truly felt like you were reading a book. I thought they’d never catch on.

For a few years now I’ve had the scriptures and a few other books uploaded to my PDA and it’s great for quick reference but not particularly enjoyable to use and I don’t want to feel like I’m reading from a computer. I wanted to review the Sony Reader Digital Book so I could tell you how the technology was coming along and all the reasons it wasn’t good enough.
sony
Well, that was a couple of months ago. The reader showed up at my house and I pulled it out of the box and started using it immediately. And it feels like a book. It’s small and lightweight and the screen is such that it looks like paper, truly. The font and spacing feel like a paperback except that you can CHANGE the font size. I like to keep it somewhere between itty bitty Lord of the Rings font and granny-needs-glasses large print.

There’s no backlight, which may seem like a downside, but what book glows? Not this one. It’s really like you’re reading from paper, only it always saves your place, you can fit hundreds of books in one small device, and most importantly you don’t have that lopsided page flipping problem. You know when you’re lying on your side reading and one side is always more comfortable to lay on, depending on how far along you are in the book and whether you’re reading the left or right page? But then you switch to the other page and you have to flip over on your other side or hold the book in some really weird way?

You don’t have to do that with this book. It is never lopsided and there are buttons on both sides to turn the pages.

If you’re looking for an all-in-one digital blog reader and wireless device, this is not the toy for you. But that’s not what I’m looking for. I’m looking for this. It does also have a black and white picture viewer, an MP3 player, and two storage card slots so you can use it to store and use a TON of media. You can even play music while you read.

It has a long battery life and the screen is viewable even in direct sunlight… like… I don’t know… a book!

There are a few negatives. The books do load slower than I’d like because you know, I like it fast. The software interface for downloading and uploading books is not super user-friendly. I fancy myself somewhat of a techie and I had some trouble figuring out how to get the books on the device the first time. There is no way to use the book while it is plugged in your computer to charge and you have to buy the DC power adapter separately, which I would highly recommend. Sony also doesn’t have the greatest selection of books in the world. They have a good amount of classic titles and a lot of new releases but the selection is not as broad as that for the Amazon Kindle.

However, I prefer the Sony reader to what I’ve seen of the Kindle because I want a book, a real book, but better. I hope they continue to grow their inventory of content.

I waited weeks to do this review because I’m so enjoying using it and because of my advertising contract now I must pass it on to one of you. So weighing in at a retail value of $299.00, I give you the Sony Reader Digital Book. It also comes with 100 free classic titles from Shakespeare to George Eliot.

Now does anyone want to give me one? It’s on my wish list. Oh the joys of carrying my entire library around all the time!

If you’re willing to enter this giveaway, even though the reader is lightly used and has my cooties on it, leave a comment listing 2 non-religious books you’d like to carry around with you everywhere. I know you all love the Bible and the Koran. What else do you love? (I’m willing to ship within the US. Anywhere else, I’ll be happy to send it if you pay the postage.)

I’ll randomly choose a winner Sunday night at 10pm PST. Oh, and Sony wants me to let you know that they’re not responsible if you fall and hurt yourself while reading it or if it self-destructs when you disassemble it to see the little men turning the gears on the inside.

Click to Read My Product Review Policy

Posted in contests, I can read, Reviews, technology | 213 Comments

Signs Of Motherhood — Today Edition

Posted on July 8, 2008 by The Daring One

You find that your purse is suddenly inexplicably filled with legos and orange crumbs.

People abruptly unveil way too personal parts of their bodies and ask you if they look red.

Your chapstick is filled with dirt.

Several times throughout the day you notice that there is ketchup on your arm again but you can never find the source.

You have a 5 minute conversation with a very small person in which they will say nothing except, “BUT MO-O-O-O-MEEEE!” in a pitiful sob.

You are filled with overwhelming pride when your daughter not only learns the words to Take a Chance on Me by ABBA, but upon mastering it begins to make up verses of her own.

Posted in Random | 15 Comments