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Seven Things I Love About the X Games

Photo: ESPN.com

I spent most of my childhood unable to do sports. I watched from the sidelines with envy, knowing my deformed foot wouldn’t allow me to jump into the action. Maybe that’s why I love having active kids. At any given time in our house you’ll find ramps being built, new flips being practiced on the trampoline, and skis being loaded and unloaded from our worn out Suburban. I love watching my kids run, board, ski, skate, and jump–all the things I couldn’t do when I was their age.

My boarder, in his Paralympic shirt
Photo: Judy Berna

This is why we are an X Games crazy family. You’ve gathered a bunch of really talented athletes and have them doing extreme tricks on creatively built courses and half pipes? We’ll show up for that.

This week we’ve been gathered around the television, as the X Games hit Barcelona, Spain. As usual, it was a jaw dropping experience. I’ve realized that I love the X Games for many reasons. And if you’ve never tuned in to, or attended the Games, let me tell you why you might think about taking them seriously. Read more →

The Convention T-shirt Makeover

Image: Kevin Bennett

It’s the dilemma of every convention attending lightweight. You arrive five minutes after the rush, and all that’s left in the free T-shirt zone are the XXXL shirts. You want the memento but don’t really need a tent. I used to wear T-shirts all the time, to sleep in, to hike in, to just hang out in but now I very rarely do. I don’t find them especially flattering to this strange post baby body I have been left with. But through sentimentality and just plain awesomeness there are some T-shirts that Goodwill just is not getting! Read more →

The iGo Power Trip 4700: Stylish and Portable Battery Power

iGo Power Trip 4700, Image: iGo

In the never-ending quest to keep all your devices powered while you’re on the road, the iGo Power Trip 4700 is a battery you’re going to want in your charging arsenal. It’s got plenty of power, is lightweight, and comes in fun colors so you’re not stuck with another boring gadget in your bag.

The iGo Power Trip 4700 can charge most smartphones twice before it runs out of juice. This is likely more than most of us need in any given day and means you can charge your own phone and help out a battery-challenged friend.

Star Trek: The Middle School Musical

My husband and I just came home from the movies where we chose to watch Tony Stark ask J.A.R.V.I.S to “drop a needle” instead of watching the Star Trek crew go all dark and broody. However, all was not lost! When I checked Facebook, a friend had linked to Star Trek: The Middle School Musical, which filled my Star Trek void just fine.

The Star Trek: The Middle School Musical video is from the Rhett & Link channel on YouTube. They have other musicals and many videos focusing on the comedy of the geek culture. The channel is worth checking out.

Enjoy.

Is a Robot Takeover Around the Corner?

robot takeover, robot overlords, robots versus zombies,

Dangerous darlings? (CC by 2.0 ricardodiaz11 Flickr photostream)

Zombie fears distract us from a much bigger threat. Robots.

These machines are plotting to become our global overlords, so of course they want us to stay busy preparing for an imaginary invasion by reanimated corpses.

Unconvinced? Consider this. People who most loudly fuel our so-called divides (between liberal and conservative, old and young, mommies who do things differently from other mommies) keep us from noticing the powers-that-be loudly slurping up ever more power. No wonder robots have marked humans as easy prey.

And robots use diabolically clever means to achieve their aims. Read more →

Enter to Win a Samsung Galaxy Note 8

Samsung Galaxy Note 8, Image: Samsung

Mother’s Day has come and gone so now it’s time to plan for Father’s Day. Enter to win our Samsung Galaxy Note 8 and you’ll have the perfect gift for the dad on your list!

We’re giving away a Samsung Galaxy Note 8 to one lucky GeekMom reader just in time for Father’s Day. This mid-sized tablet is small enough to take anywhere and includes an S Pen so there’s none of the frustration that sometimes comes with using a touchscreen device.

To enter the contest, simply leave a comment telling me why the Dad in your life needs a Samsung Galaxy Note 8 for Father’s Day and a winner will randomly be selected after the contest closes on Monday, May 27th at 12:00 midnight ET. Also, be sure you leave a means of getting in touch with you so I can let you know when you win. Contest open to residents of the continental United States only.

Good luck!

Seven Books American Kids Love (That This Brit Never Knew Existed)

Image: Sarah Pinault

A recent behind the scenes discussion at GeekMom about children’s literature prompted fellow GeekMom Sophie to introduce many of our writers, and readers, to the children’s books that are invariably read by British children, and that British parents have memorized! On the flip side of this, having grown up in England only to be the mother of American children, I have been introduced to a whole host of adventures that I had never been exposed to before. Certain books that are considered classic over here, were completely new to me when I started having children at 28. So if you have international friends, this small selection might be just the perfect birthday present you are looking for:

Where the Wild Things Are © Harper Collins

Where the Wild Things Are – Written in 1963 by Maurice Sendak. This book permeates American childhood. It was one of the first Christmas gifts that my eldest son received when he was three months old, and it was the theme of my youngest son’s first birthday party. Max, a mischievous young boy, is sent to his room. Once there, a forest grows and he sails away to an island full of monsters where he reigns as king of the wild things. It is a story of pure imagination that begins with trouble and ends with a mother’s love. It is what I hope happens to my son when he is being a wild thing! Read more →

World’s Largest Lego Model in Times Square

If you’re in or near New York City and a fan of Lego or Star Wars — or both — put this one on your calendar for May 23rd!

Prom Night Memories: The Good, the Bad, and Tears for Fears

Rebecca Angel with high hopes on prom night.

This post was published on the original GeekMom site, then published again on Wired, and now it’s back here! I can’t get enough of these stories, so please add your own!

Do geeks go to prom? In fiction, it depends on the gender. Geek guys rarely go, unless they are the comic relief. Geek girls can often have the “Cinderella” dream happen and become the belle of the ball.

But that’s fiction. What about in real life?

I recently shared my prom story with the community of geekmoms and a few dared to tell about their own:

I asked the guy I liked to my prom, even though he was a junior, and my friends thought I was weird. However, I was convinced he would ask me to be his girlfriend that night…then hoped it would happen the next day. We went to NYC to see Nine Inch Nails, but couldn’t get in the club because we weren’t 21 (even though we paid for the tickets). I was so disappointed. He didn’t ask me to be his girlfriend at all that weekend, and I found out later that was because he already had a girlfriend, but thought it was fun to lead me on anyway. Damn, younger men! - ME

Image: Samsung.com

If you like what you read, be sure to enter our contest to win your very own Samsung Galaxy Note 8 just in time for Father’s Day!

When it comes to personal devices, I’ve been an Apple girl since the very first iPhone came out in 2007 (wow, has it been almost 6 years already?). To me, the Apple iOSs are revolutionary, especially at the beginning when it was incredibly novel to integrate address books with maps, email services, and web browsers. We are a household of iPhones and I recently had received my first iPad — an iPad 2 — for my birthday last year.

When I received an invitation to try out the new Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0, I was excited to get a chance to really crack into Apple’s nemesis: the Android operating system. I had a brief exposure to the Android OS — with Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0 — when I reviewed the Ematic FunTab Pro last holiday season. But that system had a kid-friendly GUI that shielded users from the meat and potatoes of the OS. This time around, I dove right in.