Okay, I have to admit my weakness to artistic diversions of various musical and colorful persuasions. In simple english, I have become throroughly addicted to Rock Band! I can honestly blame my musically inclined daughter, who loves to sing. She talked me into challenging my musical talents, and now we are totally hooked!

Yep, when I got my first ‘flawless’ on Bon Jovi’s ‘Wanted, Dead or Alive’, it was all over. Next thing we knew, we had earned a new manager, and started getting popular enough to go on tour, hire some roadies, compete for a new tour bus, and we even played our booties off for our very own jet plane! Now we were travelling in style… yeah baby!

I think I started gaining the most enjoyment once we moved out of easy mode, into medium difficulty. By then, speaking for myself, I was much more comfortable, and it seemed much easier to kick back and enjoy playing the guitar without stressing over hitting the correct keys. I was totally comfortable enough to let my fingers fly and have loads of fun with the songs. Some songs are really fun to play, and sound totally rockin’ when we hit the notes just right.

What I love most is that I can do really well singing the songs. I really like to challenge my voice to make each song my own, while keeping the essence of the song intact. Some songs kick me in the butt, and I struggle to match the tones, and I sometimes give up and just hum… LOL

But hey, I did get that ‘flawless’ score in singing ‘Wanted, Dead or Alive’ by Bon Jovi… one of my most favourite songs ever! Although ‘Orange Crush’ by R.E.M. nearly killed me… again, and again… hehehe. I really think all this singin’ action has placed a bit of stress on the mic. I am thinking the Rock Band Official Microphone (PS3, Wii, Xbox360) seems the best option, and I am certain it is the standard mic already in use. I would totally appreciate any feedback on this particular mic, or a preferable option.

Speaking of Rock Band, I think it is just about time for a rock break! Enjoy…

Barbie Girls is a place for girls to connect with each other online in the Barbie Girls Virtual World. They can stimulate their fashion senses by styling their own Avatar, decorate their Virtual Room, and earn “B Bucks” for playing various games. Barbie Girls also allows you to walk around with your avatar and meet other members and chat with other girls in a controlled environment.

The site can be a bit slow to load, but the different areas are colorful and imaginative. The games are standard fare and girls can view videos featuring their favorite Barbie™ movies. She can also enjoy an enhanced Barbie Girls® experience with a V.I.P. membership, which would grant her access to exclusive areas, allow her to adopt virtual pets, “spend” B Bucks®, and play a number of great members-only games.

Did someone say fashion and boys all the same sentence? Two of the hottest subjects of most girls, so this Virtual World just may have some kind of special appeal to those girls between the ages of 8 – 15.

Cost: Free for basic membership, $5.99/month for VIP (multi-month discounts available)

As always, our kids safety is top priority. Please always remember to visit a site with your child to decide if it’s the best site for your family rules and values. Although the best of safety measures have been incorporat

My daughter thinks it would be a great idea to pay particular attention to the education of my grandson, since we will be spending a lot of time with him while his mother goes to school. Mom wants to jumpstart her career options, so why not give the little guy a head start as well? Since I am totally into the home taught thing, my daughter and I can get pretty creative when it comes to teaching, as well as learning.

So I decided to find some great tools to help get us started. Of course, I am already a fan of LeapFrog, so it was an easy guess that I would find something quite simple to get us going. When I saw the LeapFrog Scribble and Write, I knew I was on the right track. Let me just post a couple of reviews to let people see how others have responded to this cool little gadget.

BoysMommy says…

This was an Amazon gift from the grandparents to my 4 year old. He LOVES this! It teaches your child the proper way to make their letters. (My 8 year old needs one LOL!)He loves tracing the dots and sliding the eraser. It cheers the kids on after they push the paw print. He will sneak to play with it when he is suppose to be sleeping. It is currently at show and tell at his pre-k, he loves it that much. One week of use and he is going all over the house writing the first letter of his name. He has shown off his letter writing skills at the Drs. office. He now writes his letters better than his big brother in 3rd grade!

Daddy B Me writes…

My 3 year old is starting to write and draw and this is really helping with her learning to write her ABC’s and shapes. She really loves the dog Scout and the cute audio. The size of it is right on the money and is easy to take along in the car. Every letter brings out some cute responses too.

Mother of 2 Boys tells us…

My 3 1/2 year old son got this scribble and write for Christmas. He loves following the dots to draw, does great with the letters, still a little slow with the picture part but is so proud when he writes the letter properly. And the best thing of all, he enjoys using it (and he’s learning without even knowing!!)

Well then, I am definately of a mind that this is a great gift, as well as a sweet little learning toy. For the price, it is worth checking out… what a wonderful addition to our travel toys to keep those little ones occupied on the road as well!

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Charter. All opinions are 100% mine.

Although I love to spend a lot of time outdoors, there are times when I just like to kick back and catch a good movie or watch my favorite shows. This doesn’t happen often enough with my busy lifestyle. Since I don’t always have the time to run out and look for an entertaining flick, I like to be able to take advantage of the virtual options available to me. I also get pretty tired of missing my favorite programs when my life takes me out of the room during the best parts!

In comes the totally cool feature of On Demand. Since I am pretty picky, and like to take advantage of my best options, I have decided to hop on over to learn more at charter.net/ondemand to see what they have to offer. You may not know it, but if you have Charter digital, you have On Demand. And it’s totally free to access with your service.

If you are anywhere near as busy as I am, you will be happy to learn that there are over 6,000 movies and shows to watch anytime you want. This is especially convenient when the grands stop by for a visit, and are looking to me for their entertainment. No more waiting for Dora or Spongebob… just click and go!

From what I have learned, Charter also has hundreds of HD shows available. I mean, after all, HD is totally the new thing in our modern virtual world and I like to take advantage of a good thing when I find it.

So if you are tired of missing your favorites, like The Office, Heroes, or 30 Rock, well then perhaps it is time to check out what Charter On Demand has to offer. You can even get updates and fun extras on Charter’s Facebook page. This is definately worth taking a few minutes to take a look and see what all the buzz is about.

When it comes to being creative, my daughter is really on top of things. She is always taking pictures and loves to tape lots of videos. In fact, I cannot seem to keep enough film on hand to keep her happy! So I am thinking I really need a video camera that can take great, quality videos without using costly film. As active as we are, we can really go through a lot of video in a very short time!

I would like to get her something small enough to carry around in her pocket or purse, yet still have enough virtual memory to get plenty of footage. We need something simple to operate, with enough features to make it fun, and allow her to express her creative nature. We are always looking for new material to work with in our Artistic Expressions class. She loves to share, so the video camera will also need to carry the proper software to upload videos easily onto YouTube and such.

We are quite fortunate that technologies are advancing as quickly as they are, because I do believe I have found the perfect fit for our needs. Creative Labs Vado HD 720p Pocket Video Camcorder with 8 GB Video Storage and 2x Digital Zoom comes loaded with the features we are looking for! Let me give a quick view of what this sweet little pocket video camcorder has to offer.

Technical Details

~ High definition 720P pocket video camcorder with 8 GB of video storage capacity
~ Fits easily in your pocket purse or the palm of your hand
~ One touch recording with a spacious 2 inch display
~ Record up to two hours of HD video footage or up to four hours of video at VGA resolution
~ Connect your Vado HD to any HDTV with included HDMI cable

Manufacturer Product Description

From the Manufacturer Catch the perfect snowboarding stunt, your baby’s first steps or your kid’s graduation, share it online and save it for a lifetime with Creative’s Vado HD Pocket Video Cam. The thin, lightweight Vado HD is small enough to fit easily in a pocket, purse or the palm of your hand, and it captures video in 720P high-definition quality with just the touch of a button.

Sharing videos online is simple with built-in software that helps you post videos to YouTube, Photobucket or Box.net. The Vado HD is the only pocket video cam to feature true HDMI connectivity and an included HDMI cable for a superior viewing experience on an HDTV. Take the Vado HD Pocket Video Cam with you everywhere you go and never miss a moment.

Product specs include 720p high-definition video, wide-angle glass lens, 2x digital zoom, 8GB of video storage capacity, up to two hours of recording and playback per charge, up to eight hours of recording time at 640×480 at 30 frames per second, HDMI and RCA connections for TV, HDMI cable included, A/V cable sold separately, removable and rechargeable lithium battery, Vado Central software for simple video editing and sharing.

System requirements include Windows Xp Service Pack 2 or Vista, Intel Pentium III or higher, 512MB of memory, USB port, 500MB free hard disk space, and 16MB of Video Memory or above. Product ships with soft pouch, HDMI cable, and USB cable.

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Moviestorm. All opinions are 100% mine.

As I teach my daughter her academics from home, I am always on the lookout for new ways to spice up our curriculum. She is really into writing stories, taking pictures, and putting slide shows together to share with family and friends. This is an art in itself, and when I showed her Moviestorm she got pretty excited! The timing is perfect, as we were looking for a cool movie maker that carries more features than our basic windows movie maker, and we decided to check this out.

My daughter has a project planned for our Artistic Expressions class, and I am interested to see what she can do with this software. She is totally into fantasy, so I imagine she can put her talents to the test with a great plot using her imagination, with colorful characters, animation, and totally cool sets to grab the viewers attention.

We were happy to discover that it is free to download the software, create avatars, and so much more. It sounds great, even for beginners, as it takes no experience to get started. The basic setup is free, yet we do have the option to pay for additional characters, animations, and props. This can definately serve to take a persons creativity to a whole new level!

Basic Features

~ Get going quickly with our library of ready-to-use stock sets, including interiors, exteriors, and even spaceships!
~ Customise the stock sets or build your own from scratch
~ Save your sets and re-use them in other movies
~ Buy more props and sets from the Moviestorm store

Customization Options

~ Use the customisable complete buildings or assemble your own
~ Tintable textures for walls, floors and ceilings
~ Fully animated doors and transparent windows
~ Add your own images to pictures, posters, etc.
~ Resize, modify and recolour props to create unique variants
~ Place props at any angle – no square grids!
~ Add videos to TV and computer screens
~ Animated textures bring props to life
~ Multiple skies give you night, day, sunset, etc
~ Add lens flare from the sun
~ Fully controllable ambient and directional lights
~ Add extra lighting with on-set lights, including streetlights, table lamps, moving spotlights, lasers, and concert lighting rigs
~ Switch shadows on or off for different effects
~ Add background sounds and sound effects
~ Quickly create unique sets by pasting photographic images onto backdrops
~ You can change your set, even in the middle of making a movie

Advanced Features

~ Greenscreen floors and backdrops make it easy to combine Moviestorm footage with other video sources
~ Share your stock sets with other Moviestorm users
~ Import items from Google Sketchup (requires Modder’s Workshop – currently in beta)
~ Create your own props and set dressing using standard 3D modelling tools (requires Modder’s Workshop – currently in beta)

Oh yes, I am pretty sure I am not alone on this one. One of my greatest passions is music, and I love to bring my music with me when I am traveling around on my many adventures. So, in order to fulfill my greatest desire to listen to my favourite tunes as I travel, I am in avid pursuit of a new toy! Hmmm… this one is a no brainer, since I am pretty good at finding exactly what my sweet little heart desires! Of course, I do like to take advantage of getting the latest opinions from my family and friends, so I will post my current choice and see what my people have to say.

At the moment I am swaying heavily towards the Apple iPod touch 8 GB (3rd Generation). This just so happens to be the newest model, and comes with a price tag which is within my budget.

Technical Details

* NOTE: This is the 3rd generation 8 GB iPod touch that comes installed with iPhone OS 3.1 Software

* IMPORTANT: To get started using your iPod, charge your player using the USB cable for at least 2 hours

* 8 GB capacity for 1,750 songs, 10,000 photos, or 10 hours of video

* Up to 30 hours of music playback or 6 hours of video playback when fully charged

* 3.5-inch widescreen Multi-Touch display with 480 x 320 pixel resolution

* Supports AAC, Protected AAC, MP3, MP3 VBR, Audible, Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV audio formats; H.264 and MPEG-4 video formats; JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF

* One-year limited warranty with single incident of complimentary telephone technical support

* Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.

Apple iPod touch is a great iPod, a great pocket computer, and a great portable game player. Listen to a mix of songs automatically put together by the new Genius Mixes feature. Watch a movie. Surf the web. View rich HTML email. Find your location and get directions with Google Maps. Discover games and apps you’re sure to love with new Genius recommendations for apps. And since iPod touch now comes with the latest 3.1 software already installed, you can start using fun, convenient features right out of the box.

This is a sponsored guest post written by Matt Kelland on behalf of Moviestorm. Post powered by Sponzai.

Moviestorm is enabling a new generation of amateur film-makers to realize their visions.  It offers easy, affordable animation tools that can produce sophisticated high-quality films on practically no budget. After several years in development, Moviestorm has demonstrated that home movie-making needn’t be limited to cheap hand-held cameras and clips of the kids goofing around. Its virtual movie studio allows users to break free of the limitations of the real world, and allows them to direct, film, edit and distribute 3D animated movies without any knowledge of animation techniques or 3D modelling. And best of all, it’s free, and comes without any copyright restrictions. 

Iain Friar, known as IceAxe, is one of Moviestorm’s many successful film-makers.  His short film, Clockwork, a dystopian vision of a totalitarian Britain after a Soviet invasion in the 1980s, is winning accolades and awards around the world, most recently the audience prize at the Atopic Festival in France and the Grand Prize at the Machinima Expo.  Clearly influenced by both 1984 and A Clockwork Orange, with a visual style that evokes both Communist era propaganda posters and more recent animated movies such as A Scanner Darkly, it is a stark, powerful film that belies its modest origins.

Iain, who’s 42, works in marketing, and started making movies just 18 months ago. “I’ve always been a hands-on person, in music, sport, and everything else,” he says. “I thought it would be fun to shoot a music video, but I’m not the most technical of people, and it seemed extraordinarily hard.  I remember when computer games started using in-game animation to tell the story instead of video clips, and this interested me, especially now that game technology has become so sophisticated. So I bought a book, Machinima for Dummies, which had Moviestorm on the CD, and I was hooked. I liked Moviestorm because it did what I was looking for, even though I didn’t really know what I was looking for at the time, and the Moviestorm community was very supportive.  I initially made comedies, but I could see that the movies people respected were more dramatic, so it seemed that was the direction to go in.”

He spent four months working on Clockwork, and then the same again on his next short, Cloud Angel, a steampunk thriller set on board an airship.  Apart from the voice acting, he made the entire film himself at his home in Basingstoke, England.  “I’m lucky that my friends are so willing to step up to the mike and read my silly scripts!” he laughs. His next film is Gridlock, a science fiction comedy which he is co-producing with another successful Moviestorm director, James Thorpe.  For this, they’ve stepped up the production costs a notch: they hired a recording studio and got the local amateur dramatic group to do the voice acting.

Iain is realistic about his future, though.  “Am I ambitious? Yes. Do I want to keep it as just a hobby? Well, probably yes, because I imagine that if it became a full time activity, the fun might go out of it. I make movies as escapism. That said, I think that this industry would be really interesting to work in, because it’s embryonic; I’m not sure what direction it will go in. It’s exciting!”

Moviestorm’s CEO, Jeff Zie, is hugely enthusiastic and supportive.  “Iain and the many other Moviestorm users are an inspiration to us all,” he says. “We’re really proud that we’re giving talented people like this the tools they need to unleash the creative potential they never knew they had, and to produce these wonderful films.”

Try it and see!

You can download Moviestorm for free: Windows and Mac versions are available. If you want, you can expand your virtual film studio and buy extra costumes, sets, props, and sounds in their marketplace. If you’ve ever wondered whether you might be the next Tarantino, Ang Lee, or J J Abrams, now’s the time to find out!

Tis the Season for gift giving in a big way once again. Whilst giving gift in our very large family encompasses the entire year, many in our family do celebrate Christmas. Personally, I could just as well skip the gift giving part, as the majority of my family just had birthdays!! Alas, I to will pick up the spirit of the Season and spread some joy, in spite of this.

Searching around for new ideas for gifts is fun, and it also gives me a chance to add to my own wish list as well. At the top of my list of course is the Kindle Wireless Reading Device (6″ Display, Global Wireless, Latest Generation) which can be found at Amazon. This device simply has to be the coolest gift for an avid reader such as myself!

Let me give just a few examples of why I think this a virtually awesome gift for book lovers (pick me! pick me!). First of all the Kindle is 3G wireless, which lets you download books right from your Kindle; no annual contracts, no monthly fees, and no hunting for Wi-Fi hotspots. Just imagine how wonderful to be able to pull out my kindle wherever it pleases me! Oh yeah, that’s what I’m talking about.

This sweet little device reads like real paper, without glare, even in bright sunlight. Plus we can read for up to 1 week on a single charge with wireless on, a significant improvement from the previous battery life of just 4 days. Holds up to 1,500 books… not that I really need that many, but heck let’s just build a virtual library, shall we?

The Kindle Store has more than 360,000 books available, including 101 of 112 New York Times® Best Sellers, plus top newspapers, magazines, and blogs. So there are little or no worries that avid readers will find what they are looking for. Whether you prefer biographies, classics, investment guides, thrillers, or sci-fi, thousands of your favorite books are available. The ultimate vision for the Kindle Wireless Reading Deviceis to have every book ever printed, in any language, all available in under 60 seconds. Now that is a lofty goal!

I actually discovered The Kindle last spring and mentioned it in another post, which gives more details about the features, and of course more of my own thoughts. All in all, I believe this to be a Virtually cool gift!