When you’re a geeky dad raising two geeky kids, nothing can be better than sharing some superhero lore with your kids.  Unless, of course, you get to play with superhero themed toys with your kids and your friends’ kids in a park on a sunny spring day!  That’s Geeky Dad Nirvana!

To facilitate the party, Mattel and MomSelect provided me with a big box of Green Lantern goodies including some figures (Hal Jordan and Tomar Re), a pair of Colossal Cannons, some Green Lantern comic books, a DVD of Green Lantern: First Flight, and some power rings.

I had seen the movie before and knew that is, while exceptional, wasn’t appropriate for kids my sons’ age.  I also pre-read the comic book and found this to be inappropriate for their age.  (There was a lot of blood and people being killed.)  Again, it was a great comic book, but was just a little dark for kids in the 3 – 7 age range.  Were my oldest son 5 years older, I would have had no qualms about giving it to him to read.

On the morning of the party, we packed everything up (except for the DVD, but including the comics) and headed to a local park.  We brought some snacks and drinks with us and met up with our friends: Christina, Tom and TJ, Ali, Zach and Ro, Irene, Ben and Garrett and Laura, Doug and Isaac.

Each kid that attended the party got a power ring and every adult got a comic book.  (Well, 1 per couple).  I decided that opening the figures in the busy playground was a recipe for lost toys, so we kept those for parting gifts.  Instead, we broke out the cannons.

Now, you may recall that I previously reviewed the Colossal Cannon and deemed risk of injury as a downside.  I need to modify that review now.  As we fired the discs at the playground, I noticed something interesting.  They were flying far and fast but seemed more like they were floating discs than injury-causing projectiles.  Perhaps it was the presence of wind or the open air rather than indoors close quarters, but the toys seemed much less dangerous and more fun outside.  Indeed, on more than one occasion, a projectile hit one of the boys and never did they sustain any injury.

We (or the boys) would fire the projectiles and the boys would run around trying to collect them all.  Other than some tense moments where we thought we lost a few of the discs (green disc on green grass = hard to spot), we had a blast.

If you noticed that the boys were both wearing green shirts, good eye.  B (who wasn’t photographed) and I had green shirts on as well though mine was a darker green that looks more grey in the photos.  Green shirts, green grass, Green Lanterns!

Of course, being a park with a playground, we didn’t limit ourselves to Green Lantern toys in the fields.  The boys played in the playground, in the sandbox and even used their rings to navigate a hedge maze.

By the end of the day, I was exhausted, but it was a good kind of exhausted.  Of course, my muscles may have been tired, but my geeky heart was soaring because another piece NHL’s geeky education was in place.  He could now recite the Green Lantern oath!

In brightest day, In blackest night,
No evil shall escape my sight.
Let those who worship evil’s might,
Beware my power, Green Lantern’s light!

Disclaimer: Mattel and MomSelect provided me with the Green Lantern toys/comics/DVDs to throw the party.  I didn’t receive any other compensation and all opinions expressed above are my own.

In brightest day, in blackest night,
No evil shall escape my sight.
Let those who worship evil’s might,
Beware my power… Green Lantern’s light!

If the preceding verse is familiar to you, then you are probably already a fan of the Green Lantern.  If not, here’s a quick rundown.  The Green Lantern Corps are a galactic police force.  They protect and defend the innocent and bring the guilty to justice.  They are given rings which they can use (along with their willpower) to create objects out of a green energy.

The two toys that I received to review are the Colossal Cannon and a Kilowog action figure.

Kilowog Action Figure

Kilowog won’t be winning any beauty pageants anytime soon, but this member of the Green Lantern corps is a fierce fighter and has a keen mind.  His action figure includes a “blast” green energy construct (which can attach to other constructs) and a Green Lantern ring.

My boys had fun playing with Kilowog, but I’ve got to admit that they were most intrigued by the ring.  NHL claimed it as his own and pretended to be a Green Lantern.  Of course, he decided to play fair (with some coaching from dad) and allowed JSL to wear the ring a few times.  Sadly, the ring was too small for my fingers so I didn’t get to play with it.

Colossal Cannon

This toy, as the name implies, is a big cannon.  A child (or.. ahem… grownup) puts his hand inside it and pulls on a trigger inside.  This fires off plastic “lantern” projectiles, makes the cannon light up and causes it to make firing noises.

This was a hit and my boys (ahem… and I) kept fighting over who would wield it next.  There was just one problem.  As you can see in one of the photos, NHL is firing the discs at couch cushions.  I rightfully surmised that the cannon’s projectiles could hurt a person and forbade them from using it unless a) it was empty or b) it was pointed at the cushions and away from anyone else.

This worked well until one time when we thought NHL had fired all 10 projectiles.  He raised the cannon in the air, squeezed the trigger and out shot a disc.  It bounced off our wall and landed without anyone getting hurt or anything being broken.  Still, I decided not to risk future breakage and confiscated the discs.  I would count this as the only downside to the Colossal Cannon.

Of course, any projectile-shooting toy bears this risk and this can be easily managed by only giving kids the discs under proper supervision.  Even without the discs, the Colossal Cannon is fun.  Kids can put it on and imagine that they are a Green Lantern firing blasts at bad guys.

Disclaimer: I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour by Dad Central Consulting on behalf of Mattel and received Green Lantern toys to facilitate my review and a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.

Have you ever read CakeWrecks?  If not, you definitely should.  People from all over send Jen and John photos of badly designed/executed cakes done by professionals.  These might be funny on their own, but Jen and John don’t simply post the photos.  They include hilarious commentary as well.  The end result is a website that can often result in you laughing out loud thus alerting your co-workers to the fact that the website you’re on is not work related.  (Not that I’d ever do that, mind you!)

Anyway, as we were planning to go to Disney World for DisneySMMoms, I noticed a Cake Wrecks post that mentioned that Jen and John reside in Orlando.  I asked if they’d be interested in a meet-up and they said yes!

While walking through Disney World, I was so looking forward to meeting the folks behind Cake Wrecks that I began seeing Steampunk influences in various locations in Disney World.  Ok, this might require some explanation.

Many of you are probably saying “What the @%^# is Steampunk?”  First of all, you should all be ashamed of yourselves for using that kind of language.  That aside, Steampunk envisions a world in which steam powers everything.  (For a detailed analysis of Steampunk, consult Wikipedia.)  From many readings of Jen’s other blog Epbot, I know that they like Steampunk.  So my brain seemed to home in on Steampunk elements.

One thing about Steampunk is that gears and bronze coloring are big.

Those shots are from the Dumbo ride.  Yes, the ride known for letting kids of all ages fly atop an elephant is secretly a Steampunk ride!

This robot can be found outside of House of Blues in Downtown Disney right near where La Nouba is located.  I’m not positive that Steampunk includes robots, but if it did, I think this is what one might look like.

Of course, my imagination being what it is, I couldn’t help but expand on Steampunk.  Introducing Junglepunk!

These are from the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse.  The river turns the big wheel which pulls ropes to move a series of buckets.  The buckets collect water, get lifted high up and then spill their contents onto a series of drainage gutters which lead to a storage vessel in the kitchen.  I’d bet you could design a whole series of “technology based on running water”  I believe Futurama has already provided one:

Getting back to the Swiss Family Treehouse (which my boys loved so much that we walked through it twice back-to-back and then they complained when we didn’t go through a third time), I loved the look of this piano.

Getting back to the “*punk” genre expansions, though, how about “Toypunk”?

I’m thinking that the Lincoln Logs could be miniaturized and used to replace gears in a Steampunk-esque design.  Steampunk meets Toy Story!

Of course, this post wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the Cake Wrecks-TechyDad/TheAngelForever meet up.  We had agreed to meet in Epcot’s France area.  Twice prior to this, the boys and I (and B on one of the occasions) ate at Patisserie.  Both times, the boys had Cheese Tartine – French bread topped with a touch of sauce and some cheese.  No, it’s not pizza.  That would be found in Italy and this was France!  Both times I had the vegetable quiche.  Both times, I eyed the pastries.  Please excuse the drool as I think of them again.

When we met, we got a seat and then John, the boys and I went to procure some snacks.  JSL wanted chocolate cake, NHL saw John getting a strawberry tart and wanted one.  Me?  I had my eyes on the Napoleon.  (There’s that pesky drool again.)

As good as it looked, it tasted even better.  As we ate, we talked about various subjects both online-related and offline-related.  A good time was had by all.  Even when JSL – with perfect kid-timing declared he needed to use the restroom and I had to walk all the way from France to Morocco to find one for him.  The lengths dads will go for their kids and I didn’t even get any frequent flier miles!

Pretty soon the snacks were consumed and it was time to head out.  We said goodbye and went out separate ways.  Here’s hoping we can meet again the next time we go to Disney or if they happen to be in the Upstate NY area!

While at Disney World, we introduced the kids to the wonders of Vinylmations.  NHL decided to get a Muppet Vinylmation.  He opened it up (video will be on its way) and out popped the Swedish Chef.

The next day, we stopped by Downtown Disney’s DStreet shop to get each of the boys a Vinylmation.  JSL was hoping to get Buzz Lightyear, but he wound up getting a Green Army Man.

NHL, also opted for a Toy Story Vinylmation and found Wheezy in his box.

For my Vinylmation, I went the Geek route.  Disney has a line of geeky Vinylmations with glasses, braces and pocket protectors.  Since my favorite character is Goofy, I got him.  Now, I think Goofy’s a geek as it is.  Think about it.  He’s a bit socially awkward, accident prone and is interested in a wide variety of subjects (including skiing, swimming and gliders).  Add in the accessories and he’s Geeky to the Goofy Max:

This morning, as I was preparing lunches and snacks for NHL and myself, JSL came into the kitchen to play.  As he usually does, he was taking magnets off the fridge and repositioning them.  Then he took a turtle magnet off and looked at it.  Glancing to his side, he spied the dishwasher.  The turtle magnet got put on the door to the dishwasher and JSL was amazed.  It stuck in place!

He quickly brought this fascinating fact to my attention.  “Daddy!  Daddy!  It sticking!  See?!”

After entertaining himself with his new magnet-location, JSL did something that impressed me.  He took the magnet off the turtle and tried sticking it to the cabinet.  Why did this impress me?  Simple.  He was experimenting.  He had found a new and interesting phenomenon and was testing the limits of this.  Magnets stick to fridges (known) and dishwasher doors (new). Do they stick to cabinets?  No.  What about walls?  Also, no.

He asked me about the sticking so I took the time (which still packing lunches) to explain to him that magnets stick to metal which the fridge and dishwasher have in them.  He asked what else was metal and I mentioned that the oven might be, but he would need to try it out.  He excitedly put the magnet to the oven door and… it fell off.  So much for that theory.

Still, his excitement at testing a new theory fills my geeky heart with joy.  I know that NHL has an inner geek (he loves Star Wars, is enthralled by super hero cartoons, loves playing on the computer, etc), but I wasn’t completely sure about JSL.  I’d say this is some good proof that JSL has a bright future on the Geek Side!

P.S.  Sorry for the cell phone photo above.  As I mentioned earlier, I was rushing to make lunches/snacks and get NHL to school.  I didn’t have time to get my camera out for a proper photo.

I usually do a Wordless Wednesday on Wednesdays, but this one needs some introduction.  It’s no secret that I’m a geek on many levels, including (but definitely not limited to) a math geek and a computer geek.  So when I heard that Google was being used to make Venn Diagrams of religious stereotypes, I was intrigued.

The basic premise is that you type “Why is X so” or “Why are X so” into Google’s search box.  Google will, helpfully, supply you with terms that others have searched on.  The resulting terms are written down and charted into a Venn Diagram.  (For the math-challenged, Venn Diagrams are big circles which encompass the terms and perhaps overlap with other circles.)  For example, if you were looking to make a political version, you might use “Democrat” and “Republican” and get this Venn Diagram.

Of course, all of the terms stated above were made by Google users, not by me.  So please don’t pepper me with e-mails, comments, tweets or other forms of contact saying “How dare you call my political party Stupid!”  I’m only here to make the Venn Diagrams and perhaps point out some interesting features on them.  In this one, I’d say that the searches were likely done by members of the rival parties and that each party seems to describe the other with the same derogatory terms.

Then, I decided to move onto Moms and Dads.  However, I also thought I’d be ambitious.  Why not include Men and Women in the diagram?  Make it a four-way chart, like so:

Notice that, apparently, Moms, Dads, Men and Women are all described as “Stupid.”  Perhaps kids googling about their parents while each sex searches to understand the other?  Dads and Men are both mean, but dads are spared the “Selfish and Lazy” aspects of men.  Meanwhile, Women are “emotional, complicated and crazy” but moms are simultaneously “nosy and nice.”  (They are very sweet while they leaf through your stuff?)  Moms and Dads find common ground in being annoying.  (To each other?  Their kids?  All of the above?)

Around now, the computer geek in me took over and I decided to search for Microsoft, Google and Apple.

They are all successful (of course), but Microsoft and Apple are expensive while Google is simply “Big”, “Awesome” and… “Racist”?!!!  I’m at a loss for that one.  Any ideas where that could have come from?

Of course, this led to a comparison of the four major cell phone carriers in the US.

This must be the simplest of the bunch.  All of the carriers are thought of as expensive.  Verizon and AT&T are both seen as slow.  Meanwhile, Sprint and T-Mobile are both Expensive and Cheap.

The results of these searches were quite interesting.  Any ideas on others to do?  Perhaps I’ll do a follow-up post.

Being a geek, I love superheroes.  I grew up watching He-Man, Superfriends, Spider-Man, Batman: The Animated Series, Superman and more.  Super powered individuals who protected the innocent from the forces of evil resonated deeply with me and I spent plenty of time pretending I was super-powered as well.  It should come as no surprise that, when I became a parent, I wanted to introduce my children to the world of superheroes as well.

I can’t remember exactly NHL’s first encounter with superheroes, but it might have been a Spiderman kids’ book.  After that, I expanded to Batman: The Brave and the Bold and Ben 10 (both the original series, Alien Force and now Ultimate Alien).  NHL and JSL love running around pretending to turn into aliens.  I even went online with them to the Superhero Generator to let them make their own heroes.

Unfortunately, I’m not sure if the world of superheroes is having a bad effect on them.  Their playtime together seems to revolve around them “turning into” superheroes and fighting each other.  NHL will also “turn into” a superhero to ignore us/run away from us instead of listening to us.

Part of it is their normal development, I’m sure.  After all, siblings fighting isn’t abnormal.  Neither are kids who want to do their own thing without their parents telling them not to for whatever reason (dangerous, no time, homework to do, etc).  Still, I find myself wondering how much their normal development has to do with it and how much has to do with the folks in spandex and capes.

Thus, my Aloha Friday question for today is: At what age did you introduce your children to superheroes?

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 MckLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha #59

Growing up, I loved Rubik’s Cubes, but I had a horrible secret: I couldn’t solve one. I could get one side all solved, but that was it. After that, I was just helplessly twisting and turning until another color was solved… and the first one was scrambled. Still, I loved spending time twisting and turning them trying to figure it out.

A while back, I won a Rubik’s TouchCube and I loved it. It was just like the Rubik’s Cube, only with touch-sensitive pads. You could have the cube self-solve too. This was cool, but it wound up not getting used often. The problem was two-fold. First, I still couldn’t solve it on my own. Secondly, I didn’t have much time to spend trying to solve it.

These problems turn into advantages with the Rubik’s Slide. Mine happened to come without a manual. While this mistake was quickly fixed, I was able to figure it out in a few minutes. You basically have six possible moves: Slide Up, Slide Down, Slide Left, Slide Right, Twist Left or Twist Right.

Meanwhile, the “playing surface” has been simplified. No longer do you need to get 54 colors into the appropriate locations along a cube. Instead, you need to get up to 9 lit up squares (either red or blue) to match the appropriate pattern. Not only is this easier, but there are three modes of play: Easy, Medium and Hard. You can find the level that suits you best and play that one without feeling like the puzzles are way too difficult.

Rubik’s Slide has two modes of play. In Free Play, you solve puzzle after puzzle for as long as you like. In Lightning Round, you solve 10 puzzles as quickly as you can.

Here’s a video I shot of me solving a few Easy Free Play puzzles. (It looks more difficult than it is because I was videoing with one hand and twisting/sliding with the other.)

This is definitely a fun addition to the Rubik’s family and I would recommend it to anyone. It’s great for involved puzzle solving sessions or a quick game here or there. I’ll even be bringing mine to BlogHer just in case I get the urge to solve a puzzle or two.

Disclaimer: I recieved a complimentary Rubik’s Slide to review. No other compensation was given. The opinions expressed above are my own.

JSL and NHL love superheroes. From Batman to Iron Man to Spiderman to Ben 10, they love watching and acting out the exploits of various superheroes. So they both loved it when I introduced them to Hero Machine. They each had a blast creating their own superhero identity.

First, JSL made himself into Fire Guy:

He was quite adament that Fire Guy be blue and have a cape. Those were non-negotiable. I’m guessing his powers include the ability to throw fire around.

Next up was NHL. He came up with Disco Man:

When I asked why "Disco", NHL replied that it was because of his eyes. They looked like disco balls. (I pointed out a disco ball one time when we bowled a month ago. Good recollection!) He also declared that Disco Man had the power "to die sharks." I’m not sure how useful that power is in the day-to-day life of a super hero. If there’s an evil Shark Dude villian out there, he’d better steer clear of Disco Man.

Of course, I couldn’t let them have all the fun. I designed a superhero for myself and B. Now, we’re a superhero family!

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I believe some evil needs to be vanquished! TechyDad, away!

The GeekDad Book Giveaway has ended.  I used Random.org to pick a winner among the 25 entries.

The winner is comment #8 made by Kevin(The DADvocate).  I’ve e-mailed him and he has 48 hours to accept his prize.  Congrats to Kevin and thanks to everyone who entered.  For everyone who didn’t win, you can purchase the book for under $10 on Amazon.com.  It is even eligible for free shipping if you spend $25 or more.