TechyDad, Author at TechyDad

Video Game Catastrophe

April 5, 2012 TechyDad Games, JSL, NHL, Video Games

NHL loves the Lego video game series for the Nintendo DS, especially the Lego Indiana Jones game that he recently got. He’ll sit down and play it for hours, shattering everything in sight and besting minifig enemies left and right. He prides himself on the progress made, new characters unlocked and new areas found.

Meanwhile, his younger brother loves doing what his older brother does. He doesn’t quite understand how to play the game well and he can’t read the menus, but he loves sitting down with the DS and playing his brother’s game.

Can you see the catastrophe coming?

A couple of nights ago, NHL sat down to play some DS, let out a scream, and began tearing up. We rushed over to see what was the matter. His game was at 0% completed. All of the hard work he had put into his game over the past two weeks was gone. All the unlocked levels and characters, erased. He was sent back to the very beginning and was understandably upset.

What happened was immediately obvious. JSL had started the game to play it, hit a bunch of buttons and somehow deleted NHL’s game. Of course, being upset, NHL yelled at his brother over this which sent his brother into tears (and running into his bed, JSL’s usual "hiding" spot when he’s upset). A parenting split-team play ensued. I soothed JSL and told him that we weren’t mad at him. However, I let him know that he did hurt NHL, even though it was unintentionally, and he should apologize. B reassured NHL that his brother didn’t mean to delete his game. She also let NHL know that he could get everything back by playing the game again.

There were some tense moments between the brothers as JSL obviously wanted things to go right back to normal and NHL didn’t want his brother around for fear he would somehow disrupt his game again. Thankfully, by the end of the night, they made up (hopefully for good). JSL will now refrain from playing that game and we’ll look for another Nintendo DS game for him.

Anyone know of a good Nintendo DS game for a nearly 5 year old?

Bionic Photo Fun

April 4, 2012 TechyDad Photos

Though I’ve been Passover cleaning, I’ve also taken some time to play with my new Droid Bionic. One of my favorite new features is the camera. Yes, my last phone had a camera, but it really wasn’t good. It basically had two settings: Flash Off (aka Extremely Dark Shot) or Flash On (aka Washed Out To The Point Of Being All White Shot). So being able to take actual photos with my cell phone was exciting to me.

Some choice shots that I took yesterday. The only processing I’ve done was to reduce them in size for the web, affix my watermark, and (in the case of 2 photos) removed some personal information from the photo.

Passover Busy-ness

April 2, 2012 TechyDad Blogging, Cleaning, Holidays, Judaism

This coming week is going to be a busy one. You see, Passover is coming. Some Jewish holidays are easy affairs. Chanukah just requires a menorah, some candles, and perhaps a dreidel. Purim is a fun affair involving costumes, triangle-shaped cookies, and noise makers. However, Passover is anything but easy.

There are many rules about what can and can’t be eaten during Passover and, of course, different people observe different things. For me, we essentially need to buy only products that are specially marked as Kosher for Passover (with the exception of fresh fruits and vegetables). There is a general prohibition on any leavened product, so that means no bread. It also means all cookies, cake, tortillas, waffles, pancakes, cereal, etc. are forbidden.

Of course, I don’t just take out the Passover food, cook it with our usual pots and pans and place it on our usual plates. Before Passover begins, I need to clean the kitchen and dining room to remove all crumbs. I need to put away all non-Passover pots, pans, plates and utensils and take out our Passover ones. I need to clean the fridge, oven, stove, sink, microwave, and dishwasher. (Luckily, that last one is pretty self-cleaning.) I also need to make room in the cabinets for Passover items.

In short, there’s a lot of work to do and very little time to do it in. Thus, while I’ll try to post a few times this week, you’ll forgive me if I take a few days off. Rest assured that I’m not just slacking off. I’ll just be very busy getting ready for Passover.

Aloha Friday: Smartphone App Recommendations

March 30, 2012 TechyDad Technology

On Monday, I posted about how we’re going to get our very first Smartphones. I’m pretty sure I’ll be getting a Droid Bionic (though I might spring for the RAZR.) Of course, getting the Smartphone is the easy part. After that is the hard part: Which apps to load onto it. I’ve heard good things about JuiceDefender and extending battery life is always a good thing, so that will go on. Also, my kids will love if I put Angry Birds on my phone, especially the newest installment: Angry Birds Space. (Although, if I put that on, my boys might not let me use my phone ever again!)

Given how many apps are out there, though, I might need some advice. Therefore, my Aloha Friday question for today is: What smartphone apps (for Android) do you recommend?

P.S. If you haven’t already, try out my Twitter applications: FollowerHQ and Rout.

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #132

What Do You Get When You Cross Cee Lo Green and Elmer Fudd?

March 29, 2012 TechyDad Cartoons, Fun, Looney Tunes, Music

There are days when my mind takes a weird turn. Perhaps, I’m overtired or maybe just feeling silly, but my mental train jumps the tracks and decides to head for the hills. There, the bumping around causes me to mash completely unrelated items. Maybe, I’ll pit Papa Smurf against Voldemort or maybe I’ll ponder what drugs Dora might be on to make her think that a monkey is her best friend and that she needs to keep items away from a kleptomaniac fox.

Recently, my boys have gotten addicted to a certain song by Cee Lo Green: Forget You. The original version of the song uses another F word in place of "Forget." However, "Forget You" is the radio – and kid – friendly version. If you haven’t heard it yet, here it is:

Now, my track-skipped mental train picked up this song and headed in a zig-zag manner across my mind’s landscape. It collided head-on with another favorite song, albeit from a totally different genre.

Yes, I started combining Cee Lo Green and Elmer Fudd. You’d think two such different lyrical sources wouldn’t mix. However, as I got the kids ready for bed, I found myself singing the first few lyrics to the song. I stopped, whipped out my phone, and typed them out lest they be lost when my mental train righted itself. Later on, when I had some free time, I pulled the real lyrics to Forget You and wrote out the rest of the song.

Now, at one point, I considered filming myself singing this in my best Elmer Fudd impersonation. Then, I remembered two things: First of all, I’m not a great singer. I’m not horrible, just not great either. Were I to try out for American Idol, I wouldn’t get passed to the next round, but I wouldn’t be one of those weird, horrible singers that they highlight either. I’d be so boringly average that I wouldn’t even make it on air. Second, my Elmer Fudd impression isn’t that great. Sure, it amuses my kids, but that’s about it.

So I’ll leave it to the better Elmer Fudd-impersonating singers out there. If you want to video this, link up to this blog post to let me know about it. (Perhaps I’ll even feature your video here.)

And now, without further ado, here is Kill The Wabbit from the Wabbit Kiwwer album performed by E Fudd Green:

[Chorus:]
I see your footpwints in the woods as I twack you down,
and I say
Kill the wabbit!
I got my double bawweled shotgun and a cawwot twap,
and I say
Kill the wabbit!
Kill the wabbit!
If I wah smawter, I woulda got ya,
Now my gun’s all pwugged up (plugged up)
And though I still twy to bwast, it just bwows me up thanks to that,
Skewy wabbit!

I’m sowwy, but the duck told me
That it was wabbit season now.
You say to shoot him, the duck says to shoot you
And my bwain hurts, it just ain’t fair.
So I take my AAAAAim and fiwe away
(Such a loud blast)
Well
(Duck bill’s spinning)
ooooh
I hit the duck weal good
Yeah. Pwonouns just confwuse me.

[Chorus]

Now you know, I had to twack you
Stick my gun in your wabbit howe
But you tied it, in a knot
Doncha ya know these guns ain’t cheap
I just want to shooooot, that waskily wabbit
(But he kissed ya)
Well
(On the lips, ew!)
Oooooh
He dove into his howe
Ooooh, I hate that skewy wabbit!

[Chorus]

Be vewy, vewy, vewy, quiet look hew are wabbit twacks
(Tracks, tracks, tracks)
I twied to chase ya thwew a wog but wound up fawwing off of a cwiff!
(A cliff, A cliff, a cliff)
Uh, Wabbits. Uh! Wabbits! Uh!
WABBBITS!
Oh! I hate them! Oh! I hate wabbits! Oooh!

[Chorus]

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