The Digital Audio Player Dilemma

Posted on October 30, 2007 · 4 Comments

I am the proud owner of a ZUNE  (more on that soon).  However, when I purchased a Digital Audio Player (DAP) for TheWife, Zune did not yet offer a flash based player, the style she wanted for workouts and running.  So much to my chagrin, a swallowed hard and bought her an iPod Nano.

Here we are, a year later, and now thanks to my neice having gotten an iPod from her father (my brother in law) last year, LatteGirl has begun hinting that she would like a music player of her own.  Since LatteGirl and I have been doing walks on the days that TheWife has been doing her 5K runs, this has only increased her desires to have the ability to listen to music like mommy does during her runs.

Which brings me to the two part dilemma.  First, TheWife and I are both feel unsure about giving a 7 year old(and a half… sorry honey) a DAP of her own.  TheWife feels it is too indulgent at that age, I am more willing to give into it, so long as she sticks with over the head style headphones and not earbuds.  So question one, how old is old enough for such a thing?  And if it is OK, do we have to start her out with one of those cheesy kid style ones (i.e. Disney Tunes) or do we just go with a normal DAP?

Assuming we go with a normal DAP, that presents dilema number 2.  Most of the music thus far that has been purchased for LatteGirl was done on TheWife’s account… meaning the ever evil iTunes. Sure we can get around that by burning the songs to disk and then ripping them back onto the computer.  And next month (November) Zune will now be offering a Flash based DAP as well.  My inclination of course is to stay away from anything and everything Apple.  But I was the one that bought the Nano for TheWife to begin with, so it is really my fault she is “stuck” with it.  So, do I go with my heart and pick a ZUNE or do I take the easy way out and go the iPod route?  (Just another reason why DRM sucks)

Filed Under: I hate Apple Co., My So Called Life, Where's the Manual?

TVLN Movie Club – Hocus Pocus

Posted on October 29, 2007 · 1 Comment

Silly? Yes. Funny. Somewhat. Too scary for young kids? Nope. Hocus Pocus (1993) is just plain entertaining. Bette Middler’s performance is completely over the top, but perfect for a film that is weak in the script department, the laughs sometimes miss, and is not really scary enough to be a scary movie. Sort of along the same lines of film as Ghostbusters, but with fewer out loud laughing moments, that is only saved by performances that far exceed those of Bill Murray and company.

In the year 1693 the Sanderson sisters, Winifred, Mary and Sarah (Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy and Sarah Jessica Parker) were hanged for being witches. Just before their hanging, Winifred’s spell book allows her to cast one more spell, a curse that when a virgin lights the black flame candle on Halloween light, they will return.

Fast forward to 300 years later, Max (Omri Katz) on a late night excursion to the closed “museum” of the Sanderson sisters, decides to light the candle in order to scare his irritating sister Dani (Thora Birch) and his wannabe girlfriend Alison (Vinessa Shaw), enabling the sisters to return.

The fun ensues as the kids try to set things right, and the witches learn to deal with modern day Salem while attempting to create the potion that will enable them to suck the lives out of all the children in Salem. Now, the three Witches are back ready for a night of fun, magic and horror in the now modern area of Salem.

Not quite the classic children’s movie, like It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, but a lot more fun than some others, especially if you have little ones that aren’t ready for really scary Halloween films.

Filed Under: Movie Club, Triple Venti Late Night

Leopard BSOD

Posted on October 29, 2007 · Leave a Comment


Leopard BSOD
Originally uploaded by akiro.

Somebody at Apple thought it would be funny to show an icon with the Blue Screen of Death for PC Servers. Well, in a bit of kharmic ass biting, it seems that many users upgrading to the latest Apple Leopard, suffered from their own BSOD after the upgrade.

As akiro who was kind enough to share this photo via flickr so nicely puts it, “Betting there will be a new icon in 10.5.1 and one less icon designer at Apple.”

In what should amount to another PR Black Eye to Apple, apparently the company is so worried about people that are buying iPhones, unlocking them and reselling them, that they will no longer accept cash as payment for an iPhone purchase.  You must use a credit card, and only 2 iPhones can be bought on a particular card.  Oh, and before you think you are smart and go purchase Apple Gift Cards (as one user suggested in the comments), it seems that Apple thought of that and will not accept Gift Cards for the iPhone either.

 

Filed Under: My So Called Life

Friday Focaccia

Posted on October 26, 2007 · Leave a Comment

They should have tossed him off the balcony – I am sure there are people who will say that it is “only a dog” and that I am overreacting, but my this was my first impression when I read about the man that got 3 years for tossing a dog off a balcony, and will be elegible for parole in 20 months. Apparently, he got into a fight with his girlfriend and threw the 10 week old Yorkiepoo off the third floor balcony. What do think, anger issues? (I mean him, I know I have anger issues when it comes to idiots like this).

And speaking of uncaring idiots – Next time you look at your politician, that one that says he cares about you and what is important to you ask yourself this… “Why did he (and all these clowns) subvert the American people with the wiretap bill that will grant retroactive immunity to the telephone companies?” For all their talkabout caring about you, the constituent instead it seems that all they care about is the dollars from the telephone companies. The same telco companies that broke the law, and got caught. But rather than have to pay for their crimes in court, they opted to pay off the politicians that “forgive them” for their indiscretion with YOUR privacy.

Can toys just be toys? – Look, I am the first one to admit that since having a little girl that I have become far more tuned into and far quicker to react to stereotyping little boys and girls. Matter of fact I was quick to knock the Daring Book for Girls, just based on the description that what is “important skills for a girl to learn” include pressing flowers, how to put your hair up with a pencil, etc.

That being said, I have been caught somewhere between amused and shocked at the some of the complaining about things like a Tonka Truck ad, because it is targeted towards boys (also another one can be found here), and the horror shown towards the Hasbro’s Rose Petal Cottage, which has {gasp} Rose Petals on it, and is marketed to girls. Horkin Ramblings says it quite nicely when she asks Aren’t There More Important Things To Complain About. She even picked out the most amazing comment, which lamented that this toy was, “polishing the glass ceiling instead of breaking it.”  Seriously?

C’mon folks.  Little Suzy has plenty of time to recover and be whatever she wants to be, and her furture is not going to be dictated by a toy kitchen set, nor will she be irreparably harmed because the ad for a toy truck is not “equally” promoted directly to her.  If she wants a toy truck… guess what, she will play with one, or ask for one, regardless of whether they are advertised for “boyhood.”  Similarly with the kitchen, I laughed at one comment (which I am admittedly too lazy to go back and find) that said because the Rose Petal Cottage has flowers on it, it precludes any boy from playing with it.  Well um, dare I ask, who is defining gender roles now?  Can a boy not play with a toy that is pink?  Can he not like flowers?  You argue against a stereotype but using a stereotype.

In the end.  It is a toy.  And as Freud didn’t quite say, sometimes a toy is just a toy.

Filed Under: Potpourri, Randomness, Rantings

Halloween Rules?

Posted on October 24, 2007 · 4 Comments

Over at Notes from the Trenches (and technically via Parenting before that), there were a question and an intersting issue raised.  Being the windbag that I am on some issues, I thought it better to post a response that fill comments.  Plus I wanted to see what some others thought as well.

Now the first, is the question of is there an age limit for Trick or Treating?  Personally I don’t hold it against older kids to go trick or treating.  I do sort of have my own personal “rules” on it though.  I will usually indulge them less (one piece of candy whereas I tend to give the little ones a bit more since they will not be walking as much, and hence not getting to as many houses), and secondly, I “expect” a costume.  Walking around in your street clothes and carrying a pillow case doesn’t cut it for me.  If you want the spoils of the holiday, you have to at least make an effort.  So do you have an age limit for trick-or-treaters?

The second point was raised, as sort of an aside where Chris ranted “about parents who let their kids run wild on Halloween night with no supervision.”  Now this one I really have to admit struck me as odd.  I guess because my thinking is  virtually opposite.  In a way, I feel sorry for kids today.  When I was a wee lad (granted this was quite some time ago), I think I was six the last time my mother took “the walk” with me to go trick or treating.  After that, she decided it was entirely too much walking, and I was off on my own to go trick or treating from the time I got out of school until dinnertime, and then (when I was a bit older) again for another couple of hours after dinner.

Today, it is so much different.  Going trick ‘o treating after school is a virtually fruitless endevour (at least around these parts) as most people are in work, and even half (or more) of the kids are in some sort of aftercare program.  So the time to gather goodies has become relegated to an after dinner event.  And then after a long day of work, preparing dinner, etc.  a parent has to then waltz their kid around the neighborhood, and they more often (except for the littlest of frolickers) worn out and tired first.  Thus limiting how much time the child has to “make the rounds”

Don’t get me wrong, I completely understand WHY parents do it.  I do it as well.  We worked out a bit of a plan, where TheWife takes LatteGirl out first, and I stay at home to give out the candy, and then we switch roles, this ensures we are home for those looking for candy, while allowing LatteGirl to get her fill of Halloween fun without one of us getting too worn out to continue.  But I still feel sad that I don’t feel safe to let her just traipse around the neighborhood on her own.  And if you live in an area where you feel comfortable with that sort of arrangement, I must admit, I am a bit jealous.  Halloween is about candy, but it is also about a bit of mischeif, mindless frolicking about.  And these days, that is completely lost.

Filed Under: Holidays, Kids Stuff, Rantings, Where's the Manual?
« Older Posts