Star Trek	Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince	Terminator Salvation	Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
Angels & Demons	G-Force	Julie & Julia	My Sister’s Keeper
	Four Christmases	Santa Buddies

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

Sorry I have not been out in the blogosphere lately (I’ll be back soon). Things are really hectic around here. My wife and baby are essentially quarantined in the TV room. The baby isn’t contagious. We just want to minimize the risk of baby getting infected with something else while his immune system is down. Right now I feel like a single dad with three young kids. Have I ever mentioned my kids like to bicker with each other? ALL DAY LONG.

Reminder: enter the Maghound Magazines Giveaway now (who can’t use a one year subscription for up to 15 magazines a month?). There’s only one entry so far. You guys are making me look bad and you’re suppose to make me look good. And don’t forget to enter the MAGnificent Makeover Sweepstakes ($1500 shopping spree, trip to New York for two, and a makeover). You can enter the sweepstakes once a day until December 15th.

And finally, the winners of the Novosoft Handy Backup Software Giveaway (sorry for the delay): Seattledad and Ruthie.

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

1. MAGnificent Makeover Sweepstakes ($1,500 Shopping Spree in New York)

2. Maghound Magazines Giveaway

Monday was the first day of the MAGnificent Makeover Sweepstakes (sponsored by MAGHOUND and People StyleWatch). You can enter once each day (for a total of 44 entries). The sweepstakes is open to legal residents of the 48 contiguous United States and the District of Columbia. The MAGnificent Makeover Sweepstakes will end on Tuesday, December 15, 2009. Here are the prizes:

MAGnificent Makeover Sweepstakes Grand Prize

• Roundtrip airfare for two (winner and a guest) to New York City (Thursday through Saturday)
• Airport transportation to and from the NYC airport to the hotel
• Hotel accommodations for a three-day, two-night stay at a NYC hotel of the sponsor’s choice
• Hair and makeup for the winner at a People StyleWatch recommended salon — includes a salon consultation, hair cut and color, make-up application, and eyebrow shaping
• $1,500 shopping spree for the winner with a People StyleWatch Editor who will advise on trendy outfits and wardrobe suggestions at a retail store of the Editor’s choice

Three Runner-up Prizes

• $100 gift card to either Sephora or Macy (winner’s choice)

Maghound Magazines Giveaway
Thanks to Maghound, I’m giving away two memberships to their magazine subscription service. The membership is good for one year and you can sign up for 15 magazines each month (no extra charge for premium magazines). The giveaway is for US residents only. There are two ways to enter. One winner will be selected from each category. You can enter both categories.

1. Leave a comment telling me your favorite magazine on the Maghound website.

2. Tweet about the Maghound Magazines Giveaway with a link to this post (http://daddyforever.com/2009/11/03/magnificent-makeover-sweepstakes/). Use this retweet link (you need to be logged into Twitter) or write your own tweet. After your tweet, leave a comment with your Twitter username.

Use the comments area below to enter the Maghound Magazines Giveaway and/or go to MAGnificent Makeover Sweepstakes page to win a trip to New York.

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

BTW, the doctors think baby’s seizures were caused by his fever (103 degrees) and not as a direct result of the H1N1 virus. It appears our baby’s body does not tolerate heat very well. So now we have to be prepared for the possibility of more seizures whenever he has a fever (another thing for dad and mom to worry about). The doctor even prescribed anti-seizure medication. The drug is administered rectally, but at a cost of $750 for a twin kit, I feel like I’m actually the one getting reamed.

I’ll blog more about our fun later (including the really bad advice we got from our HMO). Now I have to write a post about a contest that started last night. I’m a little behind. I wonder why.

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

• A Baby Einstein book AND a Baby Einstein music CD of their choice
• A coupon for 25% off the purchase of one Little Einsteins product (redeemable with promotion code only at DisneyStore.com)
• Refund for the current retail value of the DVD ($15.99)

Like many dads and moms, I bought several Baby Einstein DVDs and let my children watch them. At the time (five years ago), I heard it was not a good idea to let your kids watch TV before they are two years old. But I thought the Baby Einstein DVDs were OK because they were designed for babies and toddlers. Turns out I was wrong.

According to a study conducted by the Child Health Institute (University of Washington), each hour per day of viewing baby DVDs/videos was associated with a 16.99 point decrement in CDI score for infants (age 8 to 16 months). In terms normal dads and moms can understand, DVDs like the Baby Einstein series are likely to result in poor language development (a vocabulary decrease of about six to eight words for each daily hour of watching).

Wow, every time I let my toddler watch a Baby Einstein DVD, I was essentially stunting his development. I’m a bad dad. I should have known better.

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

Baby Bug

Baby Tigger

Baby Devil

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

Currently, there are over 300 magazines to choose from (such as American Baby, Family Fun, Parents, Sports Illustrated, Time). Now you too can try out Maghound magazine subscriptions service for free. Read on to find out how (and about an upcoming giveaway trip to New York).

Dads and moms can try out Maghound magazine membership service for free for one month. In addition, parents can receive a 20% discount off the first six months. All you have to do is sign up for an account. The sign-up process takes less than five minutes. They’ll ask you for basic info like name, address, email address, etc. Note: they’ll ask you for billing information too, but they won’t charge you for the first month. And if you’re not happy with the service, you can cancel at anytime (you can even cancel during the free trial period to avoid charges). BTW, in order to get the 20% discount, you have to sign up by November 30, 2009.

By now you are probably wondering how much does the Maghound magazines subscription service cost. Obviously, that will depend on how many magazines you subscribe to: 3 magazine titles for $4.95 per month, 5 magazine titles for $7.95, or 7 magazine titles for $9.95. Each additional magazine above 7 is only $1.00 extra per month. There is a small additional charge for premium magazines (about 10% of the titles listed on Maghound).

Here’s another cool Maghound feature: if one of your magazine selections is not published in a given month (like magazines that are published bimonthly), you have the option to select a substitute magazine to receive in it’s place for that specific month. What a great way to try out a magazine you normally wouldn’t consider subscribing to. Cool, right?

I don’t have the details yet, but in the near future I will be giving away two memberships to Maghound. In addition, one winner will receive a trip to NYC. More details coming soon.

[Disclosure: I received a one-year Maghound membership to tryout the service. However, I am not required to write good things about them. In addition, I had to provide billing information for my free trial. If I don't cancel my membership after my free trial, I am on the hook like everyone else that signs up.]

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

With Halloween just around the corner, I decided to search the National Sex Offender Public Website for sex offenders in our neighborhood. Yeah, I know. As a dad, I should check the sex offender public website year round instead of just around Halloween time. My bad. I’ll do better. Luckily for us, the search only turned up one hit for our zip code. And he doesn’t even live in our neighborhood — he’s over four miles away.

For the dads and moms who don’t know, the Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Website is coordinated by the U.S. Department of Justice. It is a cooperative effort between the Jurisdictions (ie – states) hosting public sex offender registries and the federal government. The website is a search tool that enables users to submit a single national query to obtain information about sex offenders.

With the website, moms and dads can obtain public information regarding the presence or location of offenders who have been convicted of sexually violent offenses against adults and children and certain sexual contact and other crimes against victims who are minors. Parents can use the website to educate themselves about the possible presence of offenders in their local communities.

Note: the default search is a standard search that only lets you query by name. So unless you know the names of all the sex offenders in your area, you should use the advance search instead. The advance search lets you query by name, zip code, county, city, and state. Tip: you should enter adjacent zip codes (maximum of five) in the search box. Otherwise, the search will be limited to the zip code you entered.

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

With billions of pumpkins, it shouldn’t take two hours to find a pumpkin, right?

Not that one. It’s too tiny. Is that even a pumpkin?

Don’t pick that pumpkin. Someone sucked the soul out of it.

Dad, can we play in the maze now? We’re tired of looking for pumpkins.

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

Here is the I am Woman video I uploaded to Motionbox. I originally uploaded this video to YouTube a couple years ago. The source file is in 320×240 format so the quality isn’t great on YouTube or Motionbox, but that’s not their fault. [Note: the embedded video below is limited to 100 views a month. If you can't see it, click on this video link to view the I am Woman video on the Motionbox site.]

Song: I am Woman by Helen Reddy

In comparing the privacy setting on You Tube and Motionbox, I noticed that YouTube has two privacy options:

• A Limited Access URL lets dads and moms share their video by creating a special link that only 25 people can view. I’ve noticed that when you click on the Limited Access URL, you have to be logged in before you can view the video. Otherwise, you’ll get redirected to a Sign in page.
• Private Sharing with YouTube friends gives parents even more security by limiting the 25 people to only their YouTube friends. Moms and dads can choose which friends when they upload the video or change the privacy settings.

With Motionbox, there is an open access option (anyone can view video) and two privacy settings: 1. Protected (only contacts can view) and 2. Private (only you can view). Unlike YouTube, your private video is not limited to 25 people. In addition, your friends and relatives don’t have to be registered in order to see the private video. All they have to do is click on a special link in your email invite. In my opinion, not forcing your friends and relatives to register is the compelling reason for dads and moms to use Motionbox for private video sharing.

I signed up for the free basic account, but Motionbox also has a premium account with more bells and whistles ($40-50 per year):

[Disclosure: I did not receive any compensation for writing this review of Motionbox.]

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

Here’s my tip for frugal dads and moms: a lot of places offer special days when you get in at a discount or for free — that’s when you should go. Duh. Thanks to these special discount days, our entire family can go to OMSI or the zoo for only $10. That’s a saving of 77% to 80%. And thanks to the Internet, you can find the special promotion days listed on the attraction’s web site. You might have to look around because most of these places don’t highlight their special promo on their home page. Try looking on the pricing or special events page. If you still can’t find it, do a Google search on the name of the place and the word free or discount. And if that fails, call them and ask if they have a special day when admission is discounted.

Here are a few places in the Portland, Oregon area with free or discount days for moms and dads:

Oregon Zoo
On the second Tuesday of every month you can tour the zoo and pet the lions for the discounted price of $2 per person.
Regular rates:

• General Admission (12-64): $10.50
• Seniors (65 and over): $9.00
• Youth (3-11): $7.50

Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI)
During $2 Days, OMSI visitors pay only $2 per person for general admission on the first Sunday of each month, as well as discounted admission of $5 to the Planetarium, OMNIMAX Theater, USS Blueback submarine, and Alderaan.
Regular rates:

• Adults: $11.00
• Youth (3-13): $9.00
• Senior (63+): $9.00

Portland Children’s Museum
Thanks to a grant from Target, the Portland Children’s Museum is open and free on the first Friday of each month from 5pm-8pm (they normally close at 5pm).
Regular rates:

• General (1-54): $8.00
• Military or Senior (55+): $7.00

Portland Art Museum
The Portland Art Museum offers free admission on the fourth Friday of every month from 5-8 p.m. The Museum also offers four free Sundays a year scheduled in conjunction with Museum Family Day (the next one is November 8, 2009).
Regular rates:

• Adults: $12.00
• Seniors (55 and up): $9.00
• Children (17 and younger): Free

Portland Classical Chinese Garden
Last week on October 8th, the Chinese Garden offered free admission to all visitors in partnership with the Oregon Cultural Trust to celebrate the Oregon Day of Culture.
Regular rates:

• Adults: $8.50
• Seniors (62 and above): $7.50
• Students (6-18 and college students with ID): $6.50

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

Save the Cheerleader, Save the Underworld

Demon Lightyear – To Neverafter and Beyond

Lady Trickster and the Evil Sidekick

Princess Sinister

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

According to Novosoft, Handy Backup is different from other backup software because it features plug-ins that are designed to backup not only data, but also the settings, playlists, skins, and other specifics of individual applications that you’ve personalized to your liking. Most software only backs up the data, not the settings. Handy Backup includes plug-ins for popular programs (such as Windows Media Player, Winamp, Adobe Photoshop, Skype, Yahoo Messenger, Outlook, and Windows Mail). And geek dads and moms can even create their own plug-in (as an XML specification) for their special application.

Handy Backup Standard Version Features

• Selective data backup
  Backup individual files and folders such as music, video, photos, My Documents, Favorites, etc.
• Backup presets
  Fast backup of all messages, contacts, settings of MS Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Mail, ICQ, system registry, etc.
• Variety of backup storage media
  Backup to CD, DVD, HDD, LAN, any removable disks, network drives, remote FTP servers
• Backup options
  Enable data compression, encrpytion, verification, and other options for convenient and smooth backups
• Flexible backup scheduling
  Perform backups of your data on a regular basis by assigning a schedule
• Run as Windows service
  Windows service mode allows performing absolutely inconspicuous backups, not requiring the user to be logged in
• Backup Android devices
  Back up data of Android-driven mobile devices, such as the T-Mobile G1 Google Phone

To enter the drawing for the Handy Backup Software (Standard Version), just leave a comment. Two winners will be randomly selected. The deadline to enter is October 31st (Pacific time). In the meantime, you can download Handy Backup and try it out for free for 30 days. The Standard version of Handy Backup is available for only $39. Sorry Mac users, Handy Backup only works on the Microsoft Windows operating system.

[Disclosure: I accidentally disabled the camera feed during NASA's attempt to blow up the moon last Friday. That's why no one saw anything when the rocket crashed into the moon. Sorry, my bad. Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention I did not receive any compensation or merchandise (other than the giveaway prizes) from Novosoft for writing this post.]

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

Huh? Maybe it’s just me, but what I was going to wear in the delivery room never crossed my mind. For the clueless, expecting dads, here’s my super secret father-to-be tip: Pack some t-shirts, shorts, sweats, underwear, socks, slippers, toiletries, snacks, and camcorder in a duffle bag. Then leave the bag in the trunk of your car until the big day.

Now if you’re looking for something to let everyone know you are a new dad, then by all means consider purchasing a set of DaddyScrubs. I have never tried on a set of DaddyScrubs, but they are suppose to be comfortable. The company also has a line of I’m The Daddy t-shirts for $20 each. The t-shirts would actually work better for me because I prefer shorts over long pants. Shorts are much more comfortable for me because of my sensitive skin (I guess that makes me a sensitive guy — and yes, I did pass my sensitive skin gene to three of my kids).

Warning! If you value your life, do not ask your wife to hold in her contractions while you change into your DaddyScrubs.

[Disclosure: I was wearing black and orange underwear when I wrote this review. However, I did not receive black and orange underwear or a set of DaddyScrubs as part of this review. I was also not compensated for wearing black and orange underwear or for writing this review of DaddyScrubs. And no, we're not planning on having another baby.]

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

Now thanks to Rollip.com, you can transformed your digital photos into an old Polaroid. The GenX app gives your photo a vintage look. However, the converted photo doesn’t magically develop right before your eyes. And of course, you don’t get the instant gratification of the classic Polaroid cameras.

Original Photo

Rollip Polaroid Photos



(note: my little girl claimed she was a boy after her recent hair cut)

I like the Rollip photo app, but there’s a problem with the flow of the application. In the current process, you select the Polaroid effect first. Then you select the template (decoration and text). And in the final step, you upload your photo. Question: How do you know what you want to write if you have not selected a photo? In my opinion, it makes more sense to upload the photo before you type in the text for the photo.

The other change that is needed is the ability to make changes without starting completely over. For example, in the six Rollip Polaroid examples shown above, I had to upload the same photo six times and type the exact same text six times. Once I’ve uploaded a photo, I should be able to easily change effect, template, or text. Dads and moms don’t have time to start over every time they want to make a change.

Another improvement I would like to see is the ability to crop manually. As you can see in the Rollip photos, part of my daughter’s head was cropped off. If it was up to me, I would cropped the bottom of the photo.

BTW, the text caption is limited to 26 characters but Rollip doesn’t tell you that. In fact, the app lets you enter as many characters as you want and then truncates the text during the final processing. Then you have to start the whole process from the beginning if you don’t like the truncated text.

In summary, I don’t like the process for creating the finished photos, but I do like the vintage Polaroid photos at the end of the process. Rollip is a free web service and is worth trying out.

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

As I mentioned previously, Little Disney has really bad eczema. In July, we found out he was allergic to milk, eggs, and peanuts. Last week, we learned he was also allergic to tomatoes and shrimp. Hopefully there isn’t anything else our baby is allergic to because I don’t think he has any more blood left to give to the lab vampires. Plus the food he’s already allergic to causes his rashes to flare up, which make him very cranky. And when baby is cranky, mommy and daddy are cranky too.

According to our doctor, our baby also has Failure To Thrive (FTT) Syndrome. I thought the doctor was making it up so I googled the term. According to Wikipedia, Failure To Thrive Syndrome is a real medical term that means poor weight gain and physical growth failure over an extended period of time in infancy. That sounds about right. In seven months, Little Disney has dropped from 75-90 percentile to the 17th percentile. At his current rate, Little Disney will be below the 10th percentile by the time he’s nine months old and below the 5th percentile by the time he’s one.

The doctor is very concerned about his FFT. That’s why he referred Little Disney to a pediatric gastroenterologist outside of the HMO network. If the doctor didn’t tell us he might have to eventually hospitalize our baby and stick a feeding tube in him, I wouldn’t be very concern about his slow weight gain. All of our kids are on the skinny side, but our other three children didn’t struggle as much at six months (Little Monkey and Spiderboy were around the 50th percentile and the Little Princess was at the 25th percentile).

Our doctor seems competent and he calls us weekly to check up on Little Disney. None of our other doctors have ever called us at home. We usually have to make an appointment to talk to the doctor. It’s nice to have a doctor like that, but he’s also freaking us out with his concerns. It’s probably nothing, but it sucks being a dad when your kid has health problems and you can’t do anything to help him.

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

Wee Sing for Halloween
Dads and moms who are fans of the Wee Sing series will also like this Halloween CD. Of the five Halloween CDs I checked out, this is my kids’ favorite. They love the cute kids’ voices on the CD. And with 50 tunes on the disk, you’ll get your money’s worth. My kids and I could sing I’m a Pumpkin all day long. The tune is catchy.

• Halloween, Halloween
• Five Little Pumpkins
• Spooky LooListen View
• Pumpkin, Pumpkin
• Orange Pumpkins
• Old Farmer Dan
• Three Scarecrows
• Carving Pumpkins
• I’m a Pumpkin
• Jack-o’-lantern
• Halloween Is Almost Here
• Halloween Action
• Have You Seen the Ghost of John?
• Five Little Ghosts
• The Ghosts Go Flying
• Ghost Toast
• If I Were
• The Dark HouseListen View
• There’s a House In the Middle of the Wood
• There Was a Little Witch
• Little Witch
• The Witch Rides Her BroomListen View
• Guess Who?
• Creeping, Creeping
• Halloween Is Here
• Skin and Bones
• Bones
• Dry Bones
• The Black Bat Sat
• Flit and Fly
• The Bats Are All Asleep
• The House That Is Haunted
• The Haunted House
• Three Little Witches
• A Funny Little Lady
• A Witch
• Chickamy, Chickamy
• Witches’ Brew
• The Witches’ Stew
• Popcorn Ball
• It’s Time to Go Trick-or-Treating
• A Teeny Tiny Turtle
• Halloween Night
• Four Little Spiders
• Spin, Spider, Spin
• Thump! Thump! Thump!
• Scary Eyes
• Trick-or-Treaters
• Halloween Candy

Halloween Party Music
If you’re having a Halloween party for adults, this might be the Halloween CD for you. My kids didn’t care for the Halloween Party Music CD. Too be honest, I only liked a few songs on the CD. It doesn’t hurt to check this one out at the library, but I wouldn’t buy this one.

• Monster Mash
• Ghostbusters
• Purple People Eater
• Werewolves of London
• Rock Lobster
• I’m Your Boogie Man
• Disco Inferno
• Time Warp
• Love Potion No. 9
• Spooky Listen

Kidz Bop: Halloween
This CD is a nice blend of songs sung by adults and kids. Two of my favorites are Haunted House and A Nightmare on My Street. If you enjoy the Kids Bop series, you’ll like their Halloween CD too.

• Ghostbusters
• Monster Mash
• The Addams Family
• Witch Doctor
• A Nightmare on My Street
• Thriller
• Scooby Doo
• Werewolves of London
• Purple People Eater
• Haunted House
• Time Warp
• This is Halloween
• Somebody’s Watching Me
• Little Shop of Horrors
• Ding Dong The Witch is Dead
• Who Let The Ghosts Out

Spooky Favorites
Most dads, moms, and kids will probably like the Wee Sing and Kidz Bop Halloween CDs better, but this is actually my favorite Halloween CD. My kids like Spooky Favorites too. I think the songs are clever. Like the Wee Sing CD, the songs are sung by kids.

• I’m Not Scared
• Witch Is on Her Broomstick
• If You’re Scary and You Know It
• Bring Back My Neighbors to Me
• Jack-O-Lantern
• I’m a Mean Old Witch
• ‘Tain’t No Sin
• Cockles and Mussels
• Green Gremlins
• Stirring Our Brew
• Old Roger
• 5 Little Pumpkins
• Spider on the Floor
• 12 Days of Halloween
• There Was an Old Woman
• Dem Bones
• Thing
• Which Witch Is Which?

Casper’s Spookiest Songs and Sounds
This is another Halloween CD with both kids and adults singing. My favorites on this CD are I’m Dreaming of the Great Pumpkin (I’m Dreaming Of A White Christmas), Twelve Days of Halloween (Twelve Days of Christmas), and Pumpkin Pumpkin (Twinkle Twinkle Little Star).

• Casper Theme [Remix]
• Monster Mash
• Addams Family
• Pumpkin Pumpkin
• Ghostbusters
• I’m Dreaming of the Great Pumpkin
• Time Warp
• Spooky Ad 2005 [Remix]
• Twelve Days of Halloween
• Thriller
• Spooky Sounds

Halloween Howls
The songs are sung by adults, but the Halloween CD targets kids. The kids and I like Halloween Howls, but I’m use to the original version of Monster Mash, Addams Family, and Ghostbusters.

• It Must Be Halloween
• The Monster Mash
• Spooky, Scary Skeletons
• Trick Or Treat
• The Addams Family
• Ghostbusters
• Gimme A Smile (The Pumpkin Song)
• Don’t Scream (It’s Only Halloween)
• The Creature From The Tub
• Halloween Party
• Witches, Witches, Witches
• In Our Haunted House

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

Dental Care Contest Details

• Shoot a two minute video of yourself telling us what you don’t like about your smile and what you want to fix. Be sure to show your teeth. Upload your video anytime by November 10th.
• Include details about how your smile affects the way you feel and how you interact with others as well as personal anecdotes.
• Make your story compelling (keep it honest).
• Each contestant video will have its own page, including a personal summary. This is where moms, dads, and the rest of America can cast their vote.
• Ask dads, moms, aunts, uncles, friends, co-workers, and pets to cast their vote from November 10th – December 1st (noon PST). Only one vote per entity per day allowed.

More info: 1-800-DENTIST $30,000 Dental Care Contest

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

Painting Stairs Walls Options

1. If you’ve got the money, save yourself the trouble and hire a professional painter to paint the high stairwell for you.

2. Rent a scaffold from a place like Home Depot.

3. Purchase a ladder leveler for $90.

4. You can place one end of a plank on a step ladder and the other end on the stairs.

5. Place the extended legs of a folding table on the lower part of the stairs and the folded legs on a higher part of the stairs (see photo below).

I didn’t choose the first three options because those options cost money and that’s goes against the Frugal Dad’s creed. I thought about using a step ladder and a plank, but I would need a long plank for my stairs. That would make the plank too springy. Plus I wasn’t sure if the plank could hold up the weight of the ladder with me on it.

I went with the folding table option because a table is sturdy and wide. Plus I have a folding table so it didn’t cost me anything extra. However, I did have to build a platform from scrap lumber to level out the table for the extension ladder (see photo below).

Warning

• Use a sturdy table that is supported by a metal frame (underneath the table).
• Check the underside of the table for loose screws. Three screws popped out while I was standing on the table. I was lucky the table didn’t collapse.

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

Little Monkey (4 yr, 1 mth) and Little Disney (7 mth) – 2009

Little Princess (3 yr, 6 mth) and Spiderboy (6 mth) – 2003

Sorry about the quality of the last photo. I scanned it from a Christmas card. I didn’t have a digital camera six years ago.

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

Last year, I discovered you could reserve library books and movies online (anyone remember the old library card catalog?). The library’s online reservation system works great for books, CDs, and DVDs that are not in big demand. But if you want to save money by reserving a new item, then good luck to you. From my experience, there’s usually a couple hundred parents that have already requested a hold on a popular book, CD, or movie.

Now take a look at the screen shot below. As you can see, I was number four on the hold list for Dan Brown’s new book (The Lost Symbol). Last Tuesday (when the book was released), there were 645 people who requested a hold on the book at our library (currently: about 800 hold requests for The Lost Symbol). Cool, huh? Read on and I’ll reveal the secret to reserving new DVDs and books at the library.

The secret to my success is this: I reserve the new DVD, CD, or book before it arrives at the library. With our online library system, you can place a hold on an item as soon as it is ordered. As you can see in the screen shot above, I put a hold for The Lost Symbol more than three months ago (6/1/2009).

Right now you’re probably thinking, how in the world is a non-psychic dad or mom suppose to know when the librarian places an order for new movies, books, and CDs? Well, if you’re got a lot of time on your hand, you can conduct a daily search for a title using your library’s online system. Yeah, I know. Moms and dads do not have time to do a search every day until the item is finally order. That’s where our library’s saved searches feature comes in handy. With our library’s saved search feature, moms and dads can easily setup a search to run automatically and have the results emailed to them. A very awesome feature.

A couple of more tips for reserving movies, books, and CDs at the library:

1. Run the saved search manually
   Our library’s saved searches feature can only be run automatically on a weekly or monthly schedule. You can improve your chances of being at the top of the queue by running the saved search manually. Even though it’s manual, all you have to do is click on a link. You don’t have to re-enter the search parameters each time you want to run the search.

2. Setup your saved searches as soon as possible
   The earlier you setup your saved searches, the better off you will be. You should create a saved search when you first see a trailer or an ad for a book, movie, or CD you like. You can also consult Amazon for titles of CDs, movies, and books that will be released in the near future.

Note: The saved searches feature is probably not available with all library systems. Our library uses the Polaris Library Systems.

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

I have not decided which photo I’m going to have enlarged and proudly display in our home. I have too many photos to choose from. How’s a dad suppose to decide? Right now, I’m leaning towards the cool kids photo in sunglasses I’ve shown previously:

As you probably can tell, the sponsor of this giveaway, Large Format Posters, offers poster printing (they specialize in large format printing).

To enter the Large Format Posters giveaway, leave a comment explaining how you would use the poster print if you won. The winner will be randomly selected. The contest is open to US residents only (sorry international readers). The print will be shipped for free via UPS ground shipping to US residents. Please use a real email address. I’m not going to track down the winner if there’s a problem. The giveaway ends Sunday, September 27th (Pacific time).

Disclaimer: By entering this giveaway, you agree to hold me (Daddy Forever) and Large Format Posters (largeformatposters.com) NOT liable for any problems you may encounter with this contest.

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

Cool. The Little Princess and I read the Harry Potter series this past summer. She’s pretty excited about the theme park. I am too, except I have no idea how I can afford to go there next year. Florida is on the opposite coast from us and it’s expensive to fly a family of six all the way over there. Maybe we could use our broomsticks, Portkeys, or Floo Powder. Look out muggles! Here comes daddy and his Forever wizards.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal’s Islands of Adventure

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter Highlights

• At the entrance of Hogsmeade, billowing steam and an iconic whistle signal the arrival of the Hogwarts Express into Hogsmeade station
• Across the way is Zonko’s, a joke shop with a collection of tricks and jokes, including Extendable Ears, Boxing Telescopes and Sneakoscopes
• Honeydukes is next door and full of treats like Chocolate Frogs and Bertie Bott’s Every-Flavour Beans
• The Three Broomsticks and adjacent Hog’s Head pub will feature traditional British fare and drinks including Butterbeer and pumpkin juice
• Across from the Three Broomsticks is The Owlery, where owls roost and await their next delivery
• The Owl Post sends letters with a certified Hogsmeade postmark and sells official stamps from The Wizarding World of Harry Potter
• Ollivanders wand shop is an incredible interactive experience where the wand chooses the wizard
• Completing Hogsmeade is Dervish and Banges, the magical instruments and equipment shop featuring Quidditch equipment, Triwizard apparel, Spectrespecs and Remembralls
• The first attraction, Dragon Challenge, features a twin high-speed roller coaster with many iconic elements from the Triwizard Tournament
• Next is Flight of the Hippogriff, a family coaster simulating a Hippogriff training flight over the grounds of Hogwarts castle
• Located in Hogwarts castle, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey is a thrilling new state-of-the-art attraction that uses entirely new technology to bring the magic, characters and stories of Harry Potter to life in ways never before experienced
• Before exiting back into Hogsmeade, Filch’s Emporium of Confiscated Goods is full of Ministry of Magic and magical creatures merchandise, Omnioculars, and even remote control Golden Snitches

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

If you can’t see the YouTube video, it’s located here: Kung Fu Styles. I also included artist and download info in the hopes YouTube doesn’t disable another one my of videos for the use of third party content. Shouldn’t this video fall under fair use as a parody? Song: Kung Fu Fighting by Carl Douglas

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

A cool ooVoo feature I like is the video special effects (via WebcamMax). It’s not very useful, but fun to play with:

With ooVoo, you can record your video calls with your kids and save them for a video scrapbook. Another nice feature of ooVoo is the ability to embed a video chat room in a blog. Personally, that would drive me crazy if strangers kept trying to call me 24×7, but I could see value in a video chat room for a business or a private blog for friends and family.

Like Skype, ooVoo has both free features and premium features (pay per use or pay per month plans). In addition, ooVoo displays an ad banner at the bottom of your screen. You have to pay extra to get rid of the ads.

ooVoo Free Features

• Video calls, 2-way (ooVoo to ooVoo)
• Audio calls, 2-way (ooVoo to ooVoo)
• Record and send video messages to friends or to email address
• Video and audio call with friends who don’t have ooVoo
• Basic video effects for video calls
• Text chat and text chat history (ooVoo to ooVoo)
• Embed a video chat room in a website
• Send files up to 5MB

ooVoo Premium Video Features

• Video (and audio) calls – up to 6 participants
• High Resolution Video – 480p video quality
• Record and save video calls
• Record and save audio conferencing calls
• Store and post recorded video calls
• Desktop Sharing
• Send files, up to 25 MB

While ooVoo edges out Skype in video features, Skype still has advantages in several areas. First, Skype has about 443 million users versus about 7.5 million users for ooVoo. Plus you can use Skype on your cell phone and make international calls (ooVoo is limited to US, Canada, and UK). In addition, Skype supports voice conferencing for over 25 people (don’t confuse this with video conferencing like I did initially).

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

In our area, you can’t recycle fluorescent bulbs and batteries with the regular recyclables. And the garbage company won’t recycle them for you. Before Home Depot came along, I had to give the bad stuff to people in funny suits at the hazardous waste facility on Mars (it’s really far away because no one wants hazardous waste near their home for some reason). Now thanks to Home Depot, I can recycle my fluorescent bulbs and batteries easily. Once again, dad has saved the earth for his kids. You’re welcome kids and future grandkids.

Warning! Do not lick batteries before recycling.

Halloween recycling box for fluorescent bulbs

Dual use: potty for toddlers and recycling box for batteries

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

When I was going through the sites, I used my gut feeling to determine if the blog should be included in my mommy and daddy directory. Just because a blog is written by a mom or dad doesn’t mean it should be included (ie – a blog written by a dad about the kinky mating habits of seahorses). At some point, I need to define the criteria to be listed in my directory (a big bribe?).

I also need to decide if I should include non-blogs. I’ve noticed some “blogs” are so slick that they are more like an online magazine than a blog. Should they be listed? Not sure yet. And what about the big media publications that have columnists write parenting blogs? Then there are the blogs devoted entirely to giveaways and reviews. Yeah I know, I run reviews and giveaways on my dad blog too. But my blog isn’t entirely devoted to giveaways and reviews like some blogs. There’s nothing wrong with sites that are like that, but should they be listed in a mom and dad blog directory?

At some point, I’ll probably need to assign blogs to categories. Otherwise, I’ll just end up with a really long list as the directory expands. I actually started to put blogs in categories in the first pass, but it was too much work. And some blogs were too hard to place in a single category.

Anyways, I just wanted to let my regular readers preview my dad and mom directory. Feel free to offer feedback. Inquiring minds want to know.

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

This school year should be an interesting one. The school district redrew the school boundaries and our kids had to transfer to a new K-8 school. Both of my kids were well liked at their old K-5 school. At the new school, my kids only know two people in their classes. It’ll be interesting to see how the kids will adjust to being the new kids. Will they fit in or will they be one of dweebs that gets stuffed in a locker?

The kids at the new k-8 school

We made our kids carry these signs to class so they could look like dweebs

This is what my four year old thinks about not being able to go to school

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

Congratulations to Spoodles. She will receive the following prizes:

• HP DV6 Laptop (Intel Core 2 Duo P7350, 4GB RAM, 16″ screen (1366 x 768 pixels), 500GB SATA HDD, BluRay LightScribe DVD drive – specs may be different than the one I reviewed)
• HP Mini 110 Netbook (Intel Atom 270, 1GB RAM, 10.1″ display (1024 x 576 pixels), 160GB SATA HDD, 6 cell battery – specs may be different than the one I reviewed)
• Timbuk2 Laptop Bag (the notebook bag may be different than the one I reviewed)
• Syncables Software (for syncing files across multiple computers)

There are still three sites left in the Back to School: Better Together Giveaway. Here is a list of the remaining sites in the giveaway:

• Clinton Fitch — September 3-7
• Zen College Life — September 4-8
• Gear Diary — September 5-9

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

How to Enter
There are four ways to enter the HP Notebooks Giveaway. You can enter up to four times, but only once in each category. No sad stories, bribes, or blood sacrifices please (the winner will be randomly selected). Below are the four ways you can enter:

1. Select Your Own HP Companions
   HP is giving away the DV6 laptop and the Mini 110 netbook as a companion set. In other words, the DV6 is your main computer and the Mini 110 is your computer on the go. If you could pick your own companion set, which computers would you select from the HP web site? Let me know by leaving a comment. You can select the DV6 OR the Mini 110 as part of your combo, but you can’t select the DV6 and Mini 110 together (ie: DV6 and xyz OR Mini 110 and abc, but NOT DV6 and Mini 110 — that would be too easy). You can select two HP notebooks or a HP notebook and a HP desktop computer as your companion bundle.

2. Suggest a Mom or Dad Blog
   In the comments area, recommend a dad or mom blog. List the title of the blog and the web address. To prevent copying, you can’t suggest a mom or dad blogger that someone else has already recommended. You also can’t suggest Daddy Forever or your own blog. By mom or dad blog, I’m going to define it as a blog written by a father or mother. (Note: Some comments are held in moderation for various reasons and will be inserted in the appropriate time slot once the comment has been approved. If this results in a duplicate of your suggestion, you may recommend another mom or dad blog. It’s your responsibility to check before the deadline.)

3. Tweet or Retweet About the Laptop Giveaway
   You can enter by tweeting about the HP Notebooks Giveaway. Use this retweet link (you need to be logged into Twitter) or write your own tweet. Be sure to include the url to this post (http://daddyforever.com/2009/09/02/hp-laptops-notebook/ or the tiny url version) and the hash text (#HPBTS) so I can find it. It would be a good idea to let me know about your tweet in the comments area or via the contact form (just in case I missed the tweet).

4. Write About the Laptops Giveaway
   If you have a blog or web site, write about my HP notebooks giveway and link to this post (http://daddyforever.com/2009/09/02/hp-laptops-notebook/). Let me know the URL of your post in the comments area or via the contact form (in case the trackback doesn’t show up).

Giveaway Prizes

• HP DV6 Laptop (Intel Core 2 Duo P7350, 4GB RAM, 16″ screen (1366 x 768 pixels), 500GB SATA HDD, BluRay LightScribe DVD drive – specs may be different than the one I reviewed)
• HP Mini 110 Netbook (Intel Atom 270, 1GB RAM, 10.1″ display (1024 x 576 pixels), 160GB SATA HDD, 6 cell battery – specs may be different than the one I reviewed)
• Timbuk2 Laptop Bag (the notebook bag may be different than the one I reviewed)
• Syncables Software (for syncing files across multiple computers)

Remember, other sites are also giving away HP notebooks. You can enter on all the web sites in the promotion, but you can only win once in the Back to School: Better Together Giveaway. Here is a list of the remaining sites in the giveaway:

• The 2.0 Life — August 29 – September 2
• Geeks room — August 30 – September 3
• Debt Free Scholar — August 31 – September 4
• One Day One Job — September 1-5
• Daddy Forever — September 2-6
• Clinton Fitch — September 3-7
• Zen College Life — September 4-8
• Gear Diary — September 5-9

Disclaimer: By entering this giveaway, you agree to hold me NOT liable for any problems you may encounter with this contest.

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

Oh no! I’m turning into a moose.

I can’t hold my head up. My brain is too heavy.

I have to go to sleep, but first I have to poop.

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

• In CHEAP We Trust: The Story of a Misunderstood American Virtue by Lauren Weber
• Six Pixels of Separation by Mitch Joel
• Close Encounters of the Third-Grade Kind by Phillip Done
• NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman
• The Love Revolution by Joyce Meyer

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

Did you hear? The Walt Disney Company bought Marvel for about $4 billion. Under the deal, Disney will acquire ownership of Marvel — including over 5,000 Marvel characters (Spiderman, Iron Man, X-Men, Hulk, Fantastic Four, Doctor Strange, Elektra, Avengers, Daredevil, Ghost Rider, Thor, Punisher, Blade, Black Panther, etc). And according to a secret document obtained by the ultimate dad blogger (that would me according to Google), Disney is planning to merge the Marvel and Disney universes together. The following are some of the changes that are in the works:

• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs will feature mutant dwarfs with special powers. The new title will be called Snow White and the Seven Naughty X-Men.

• In the sequel to A Bug’s Life, Flik will take on vampires. The movie will be titled A Blade’s Life.

• The next installment of The Chronicles of Narnia will include a powerful sorcerer. The movie will be called The Chronicles of Doctor Strange.

• The soon to be released Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure has been changed to Tinker Bell and the Lost Elektra.

• Pirates of the Caribbean will spin-off a movie that features a team of muscular men and volucious women in colorful tights and capes. The movie will be called Avengers of the Caribbean.

• The classic, Fantasia, will be combined with the Fantastic Four series. The next FF4 movie will be called The Fantasia Four.

• The Lady and the Tramp is going green and will be called Lady and the Hulk.

• The fourth Spiderman movie will be combined with The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The title of the new movie will be called The Spiderman of Notre Dame.

• The second Iron Man movie will tie in with The Little Mermaid series. The working title is The Little Iron Man.

• The Man Without Fear will join the cast of the Baby Einstein series. The next DVD will be called Baby Daredevil.

• The sequel to Finding Nemo will feature an avenging fire fish. The movie will be called Finding Ghost Rider.

• The fourth installment of Toy Story will feature the god of thunder. The movie is titled Thor Story.

• Beauty and the Beast will take a stand against crime. The next movie will be called Beauty and the Punisher.

• Mowgli, the man cub, grows up in the The Jungle Book and becomes the ruler of the Wakanda. The movie will be called The Black Panther Book.

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

Giveaway Prizes

• HP DV6 Laptop (Intel Core 2 Duo P7350, 4GB RAM, 16″ screen (1366 x 768 pixels), 500GB SATA HDD, BluRay LightScribe DVD drive – specs may be different than the one I reviewed)
• HP Mini 110 Netbook (Intel Atom 270, 1GB RAM, 10.1″ display (1024 x 576 pixels), 160GB SATA HDD, 6 cell battery – specs may be different than the one I reviewed)
• Timbuk2 Laptop Bag (the notebook bag may be different than the one I reviewed)
• Syncables Software (for syncing files across multiple computers)

Remember, other sites are also giving away HP notebooks. You can enter on all the web sites in the promotion, but you can only win once in the Back to School: Better Together Giveaway. Here is a list of the remaining sites in the giveaway:

• Green Panda Treehouse — August 24-28
• Building Camelot — August 25-29
• Mocha Dad — August 26-30
• College Candy — August 27-31
• Studenomics — August 28 – September 1
• The 2.0 Life — August 29 – September 2
• Geeks room — August 30 – September 3
• Debt Free Scholar — August 31 – September 4
• One Day One Job — September 1-5
• Daddy Forever — September 2-6
• Clinton Fitch — September 3-7
• Zen College Life — September 4-8
• Gear Diary — September 5-9

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

The people over at MojaMix sent me a bag of their premium custom-mix cereal to try out. MojaMix is a company that gives dads and moms the ability to create their own custom cereal. Most of their ingredients are organic, most are locally sourced (MojaMix is based in Berkeley, California), and all of ingredients are 100% natural. In addition to being able to create a custom cereal, parents can also keep an eye on the nutritional information for the cereal while they build it.

If you don’t want to create your own cereal, you can select one their popular mixes. The sample I tried was the Happy Camper mix. It contained great granola (granola made with coconut, spices, and toasted almonds), mango, golden raisins, strawberries, cranberries, brazil nuts, cashew nuts, and walnuts. I loved it. Actually, I loved everything in it except for the dried mango (I guess I’m not into mango in my cereal). This is one of the nice things about MojaMix. The company believes in do-overs and stand behind their satisfaction guarantee. If you’re not happy with your custom cereal mix, you get a choice between a coupon for a fresh batch or your money back. Nice!

MojaMix Happy Camper Mix

The downside of MojaMix is the price. A 12 oz bag of Happy Camper cereal mix costs $9.59 (plus another $2.95 for shipping). It’s a bit spendy, but worth it if you want something better than the mass produced cereals found in grocery stores. Also, as I already mentioned, if you’re not happy with your mix, you can get a refund or a coupon for another mix.

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

Hybrid Dinosaurs

Normally, you need to purchase the Xtractaurs Starter Kit in order to create your own dinosaur on the Xtractaurs site. However, for a limited time, Mattel is letting people try out their new dinosaur game site without the starter kit (we don’t have the kit and was able to use the free access pass without any problems). Obviously, Mattel is hoping kids will love the games (in other words, Mattel wants moms and dads to buy the Xtractaurs Starter Kit and several other dinosaurs).

Creating a Xtractaur in the Hybrid Creator

The Xtractaurs Starter Kit contains a T-Rex dinosaur action figure, extraction tool, and installation CD. Kids can use the extraction tool to extract the dinosaur’s DNA and then download the DNA to a computer. Kids can mix and match DNA from 15 different dinosaur action figures to customize their virtual dinosaur’s attributes and fighting powers. Once created, kids can train their Xtractaur hybrid dinosaur in one of five arcade style games to gain skill and power, and ultimately take on the mighty Megavores (bad guys) in the online Battle Zone.

Xtractaur Battling Megavore

My oldest son (age six) tried out the Xtractaurs web site. He’s not into dinosaurs, but he had fun creating his hybrid dinosaur. In our trial, we were limited to creating a dinosaur from a T-rex and Stegosaur. My guess is that the more Xtractaurs you purchase, the more DNA you have to play with. Even though the games are for kids aged six and up, a parent or an older sibling needs to be around to read the instructions for younger kids. It would be nice if there was an audio option for the instructions. My son also didn’t understand you should create a dinosaur to be as powerful as possible instead of as weird as possible. Oh well, at least he had a good laugh.

The free access is only good for a three-day trial. The length of the free access is a bit disappointing, but that’s better than no free trial at all. As I already said, you don’t need to purchase the Xtractaurs Start Kit to take advantage of the free trial. To access the online games for free:

• Go to the Xtractaurs site
• Click on the “new member” button
• Select “no” when asked if you have the Xtractaurs Start Kit
• Accept the “terms of use”
• Select a user name and password, enter a parent’s email address for confirmation, then click on the “create my account” button

The Xtractaurs Starter Kit (wouldn’t it be nice if Mattel offered the kit as a giveaway prize?) is currently selling for about $20 at Amazon. Additional dinosaurs (Pteranodon, Triceratop, Stegosaurus, Utahraptor ) sell for $10 to $12.

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

On the KidsEatFor website, you can search by zip code, restaurant name, and other criteria. You can also browse by city and state. The community base site also offers voting. Parents can vote a deal up or down based on the accuracy of the deal. The vote is anonymous. However, voting a special “down” is not exactly the best way for handling expired deals. A nice-to-have feature is a button for removing deals that are no longer offered.

There is also a new KidsEatFor application for the iPhone. The iPhone app has the same features as the website plus a few enhancements. For instance, the iPhone application can use GPS information to present you with deals near your location.

I like the idea behind KidsEatFor. However, the site is still in start-up mode and needs more parents to submit restaurants with free or discounted meals for kids. For instance, in my area (Portland, Oregon), iHop is the only place listed. I don’t eat out often, but I’m fairly certain there is more than one restaurant in the Portland metro area that offers special deals for kids.

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

The answer is this: HP is promoting the concept of companion notebooks. The idea is that you would use a high end laptop like the HP dv6 as your main computer (bye-bye desktop computer) and the HP Mini 110 as your netbook (hello ultra tiny notebook) when you’re on the go with the kids. As I mentioned in previous posts, the dv6 has a big 16″ screen, but it’s a bit cumbersome to lug around everywhere (especially if you have little ones with you). On the other hand, the Mini has a small 10″ display, but it’s extremely mobile (if you’re daring you can have your kid can carry it for you). With the dv6-Mini companion notebooks, you can go big at home and small on the road.

I like the idea of a companion notebooks set. However, a problem with a multi-PC setup is keeping track of files on two computers. When you’re ready to go mobile with your netbook, you have to remember to copy files (work documents, photos, videos, mp3 and iTune songs, emails, browser bookmarks, etc) from your main laptop over to the smaller notebook. And if you make changes to these files on your mobile netbook, you have to remember to copy them back to your main laptop. This is a major hassle if you have a lot of files you want to sync between the two computers.

This is where software like Syncables Desktop comes in handy. With Syncables, files are synchronized automatically for you. It can transfer and sync content to your desktop, laptop, and USB devices. You can also use Syncables Desktop to publish photos and videos of your kids to sites like Facebook, YouTube, and SmugMug. Syncables Desktop also lets you sync your emails, which is very handy. Having to sync my emails across two computers is the reason why I switched to a browser based email client. Now with Syncables, I can go back to a desktop mail client like Microsoft Outlook if I wanted to.

Syncables Desktop is pre-installed on the HP Mini. But in order to synchronize files with another computer like the dv6, you need to have Syncables installed on each computer. This is the part where I ran into trouble. The installation instructions are buried at the bottom of the welcome screen. If you clicked past the welcome screen without reading it (I do this a lot), you’ll miss out on the instructions for installing Syncables on another computer. I clicked on almost every button in the main menu before I found the installation instructions in the Help menu (I should have gone there first, but my kids have made me dumbererer).

To install Syncables on a laptop, you have to copy an installation file to the notebook. Maybe it’s just me, but I think it would be more convenient to download the software to the pc instead of manually transferring the install file from the Mini to the dv6 via a flash drive [note: I could only find a download link to Syncables Sampler Edition, which limits syncing to seven files at a time]. [Update: I just found out the reason you can't download the full version is because the software is currently exclusive to HP customers.]

Configuring Syncables is fairly straightforward. As you can see from the screen shot below, all you have to do is check off the appropriate boxes.

In the Sync menu, you can specify if you want to sync back and forth between multiple computers or limit the transfer to one direction. You can configure Syncables to sync once every hour, day, week, or month.

As you can see in the next screen shot, you can specify only one location for each category of files. So if you have documents located in two completely different folders, then you will have to move one of the folder into a sub-directory of the other folder.

You can view the contents of the files that will be shared via the My Computer Library in Syncables. From there, you can also sync manually by clicking the sync button (lower right corner of the screen).

After you are done setting up your computers for Syncables, the software will automatically sync your files for you. In my test, I noticed that the Mini had one photo and one document more than the dv6 after the sync. For a reason probably related to the timestamp of the files, the extra document and photo were not copied over to the dv6 from the netbook. I took care of the problem by re-saving the extra document and photo on the Mini (new time stamp). After that, Syncables correctly synchronized all the files on both laptops.

In summary, Syncables is a nice tool for synchronizing files on multiple computers. Once you followed the installation instructions buried at the bottom of the screen, you’ll find the software easy to use. However, you should compared the files count in the My Computer Library on both notebooks to determine if the software is syncing correctly. Syncables Desktop is available for only $30.

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

Electronic submissions are preferred. However, you can also send hard copy materials to:

Sean De Simone Casting
P.O Box 20347
New York, NY 10009
Telephone Number: 917-475-1411

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

Thanks to Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, and Timbuk2, twenty-five lucky winners will each receive:

• HP dv6 laptop (Intel Core 2 Duo P7350, 4GB RAM, 16″ screen (1366 x 768 pixels), 500GB SATA HDD, BluRay LightScribe DVD drive – specs may be different than the one I reviewed)
• HP Mini 110 netbook (Intel Atom 270, 1GB RAM, 10.1″ display (1024 x 576 pixels), 160GB SATA HDD, 6 cell battery – specs may be different than the one I reviewed)
• Timbuk2 laptop bag (the notebook bag may be different than the one I reviewed)
• Syncables software (for syncing files across multiple computers)

You can enter on all 25 web sites. However, you can only win once in the Back to School: Better Together giveaway. Here is the list of sites and their giveaway dates:

• Student Bloggers — August 12-16
• Geekzone — August 13-17
• Kill Jill Goes to College — August 14-18
• Study Successful — August 15-19
• Gear Live — August 16-20
• CampusGrotto — August 17-21
• Poorer Than You — August 18-22
• Notebooks — August 19-23
• ThePrereq. — August 20-24
• Hack College — August 21-25
• College Times — August 22-26
• OSNN.net — August 23-27
• Green Panda Treehouse — August 24-28
• Building Camelot — August 25-29
• Mocha Dad — August 26-30
• College Candy — August 27-31
• Studenomics — August 28 – September 1
• The 2.0 Life — August 29 – September 2
• Geeks room — August 30 – September 3
• Debt Free Scholar — August 31 – September 4
• One Day One Job — September 1-5
• Daddy Forever — September 2-6
• Clinton Fitch — September 3-7
• Zen College Life — September 4-8
• Gear Diary — September 5-9

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

First thing I would like to say is: the dv6t notebook is AWESOME! It’s even better than an ice cream sundae with lots of fudge and sprinkles. The dv6t laptop comes with a super cool finger print sensor. I can log into Windows by swiping my finger across the sensor. BTW, the fingerprint sensor also works with toes. I tried it and the toe sensor works great. Now I don’t have to worry about Swiper the sneaky fox swiping my fingers to log into my HP dv6. Only kids and my dad would think of using a toe to log into a computer (I wonder if I can use my tongue). Wait, there’s more. The dv6 also comes with DigitalPersona software, which enables you to log into your online accounts by swiping your finger or toe.

The HP Pavilion dv6-1299lx laptop features a big 16″ display. I’ve never used a notebook with such a big screen before. The graphics on the high definition HP BrightView Infinity Display is stunning. The 16″ screen shows better details than my daddy’s 22″ desktop monitor. Even though I love the notebook display, I did have a problem with it. The screen is very reflective and it’s hard to see clearly in a sunny room. I had to play around with the angle of the display to reduce the glare.

The dv6t notebook features a 2.0 GHz Intel Centrino 2 Processor (Core 2 Duo Processor P7350). For you daddies and mommies who don’t know, the Intel Centrino 2 processor gives you the power to run resource intensive software (like those games with super cool graphics and sound effects) while also conserving battery life on your laptop. It’s probably overkill, but I can’t wait to play my PBS Kids and Nick Jr online games with the dv6. I wonder if the online games will run any faster? I want to check, but my daddy won’t let me play them until I’m done writing the review. Sometimes my dad can be such a poophead.

Unlike other laptops that come with only 1 gig of memory, the dv6 I tested came with 4 gigs of RAM. Having 4 gigs of memory means you can run more applications at the same time and it also means Microsoft Windows Vista will run better on your notebook. Speaking of Vista, the dv6 features the Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit operating system. To be honest, until I played with the HP laptop, I didn’t even know Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate existed. Apparently, the Ultimate edition offers extra programs and features — like BitLocker Drive Encryption, which prevents a thief like Swiper from breaking Windows Vista file and system protections or performing offline viewing of the files stored on the protected drive. BTW, you can also upgrade to Windows 7 for free when the new version of Windows comes out.

The dv6t I tested has a built-in LightScribe Blu-Ray player. I popped in a dvd and the movie looked great. The audio on the notebook is also awesome. It’s the best sounding laptop I’ve ever used. Even better is the cool mobile remote control. Now daddy can watch movies and listen to CDs from the sofa without having to get up to pause, skip, or adjust the volume. The remote control is perfect for someone like Homer Simpson my dad.

The dv6t notebook keyboard features a full size keyboard — including a separate numeric keypad. Thank goodness. The smaller keyboards found on most laptops drive daddy crazy. According to daddy, using the triple function keys on notebook keyboards is kinda like playing the Twister game with your fingers when you’re trying to do something productive. The laptop also has a touchpad with a built-in scroll bar. I like the builtin scroll bar, but I couldn’t use the scroll bar to move up and down the programs list in the Start menu.

Other nice features of the dv6t laptop include:

• Wi-Fi (I can’t wait to hang out at Starbucks with the other gifted preschoolers)
• “Tap to click” touch pad (you can use the entire pad like a mouse button)
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 (great for playing videos of me)
• 500GB hard drive (plenty of storage space for photos of me)
• Low-light webcam (hey, I’m a movie star!)
• Dual-array digital microphone (I wonder if that means daddy can record me in stereo)
• ProtectSmart hard drive protection (detects if your notebook is being dropped and locks your hard drive to help protect your data)

Also included with the notebook is HP MediaSmart webcam software, which lets you add cool effects like cube, cell, fade, and motion to your photos. Check out these web cam photos (isn’t my baby brother cute?):

The dv6 laptop comes in Espresso Black or Moonlight White. The price for the base configuration is currently $650. The notebook includes a one year warranty. I recommend the HP Pavilion dv6t notebook to moms and dads who need a high end computer. However, because of it’s 16″ screen, the dv6t can be a bit bulky if you like to be extremely mobile with your laptop (the dv6t is a lot bigger than our Barbie and Spiderman laptops).

HP Pavilion dv6-1299lx (dv6t) Specs

• 2.0 GHz Intel Centrino 2 Processor (Core 2 Duo Processor P7350)
• Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit with Service Pack 1
• 16.0″ High Definition HP BrightView Infinity Display (1366×768)
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 (M96) with up to 2815MB total available graphics memory with 1024MB dedicated
• 4096MB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimms)
• 500GB (5400RPM) Hard Drive (SATA)
• LightScribe Blu-Ray ROM with SuperMulti DVD±R/RW Double Layer
• HP Webcam with integrated digital microphone
• Intel WiFi Link 5100AGN
• 6-Cell Lithium-Ion battery
• Remote Control
• 5-in-1 Digital Media Reader
• ExpressCard/54 PC Card Slot
• Fingerprint Reader
• Expansion Port 3

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

We’re hosting the Back to School Giveaway from Hachette Book Group. This time, five books will be given away. Five winners will each receive a set of all five books in the giveaway. Just leave a comment to enter. The deadline to enter is August 31st. The giveaway is limited to US and Canadian residents. No PO Boxes please. Here are the books in the giveaway:

Six Pixels of Separation by Mitch Joel
Is it important to be connected? Well, consider this: If Facebook were a country, it would have the sixth largest population in the world. The truth is, we no longer live in a world of six degrees of separation. In fact, we’re now down to only six pixels of separation, which changes everything we know about doing business. This is the first book to integrate digital marketing, social media, personal branding, and entrepreneurship in a clear, entertaining, and instructive manner that everyone can understand and apply. Through the use of timely case studies and fascinating stories, Six Pixels of Separation offers a complete set of the latest tactics, insights, and tools that will empower you to reach a global audience and consumer base — and, best yet, you can do this pretty much for free. Digital marketing expert Mitch Joel unravels this fascinating world of new media — but does so with a brand new perspective that is driven by compelling results.

Close Encounters of the Third-Grade Kind by Phillip Done
A twenty-year veteran of the classroom, elementary school teacher Phillip Done takes readers through a lively and hilarious year in the classroom. Starting with the relative calm before the storm of buying school supplies and posting class lists, he shares the distinct personalities of grades K-4, what he learned from two professional trick or treating 8-year-old boys, the art of learning cursive and letter-writing, how kindergartners try to trap leprechauns, and what every child should experience before he or she grows up. This is the perfect book for teachers, parents, and anyone else who is looking for a lighthearted, nostalgic read.

NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children by Po Bronson, Ashley Merryman
In a world of modern, involved, caring parents, why are so many kids aggressive and cruel? Where is intelligence hidden in the brain, and why does that matter? Why do cross-racial friendships decrease in schools that are more integrated? If 98% of kids think lying is morally wrong, then why do 98% of kids lie? What’s the single most important thing that helps infants learn language? NurtureShock is a collaboration between science journalists Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman. They argue that when it comes to children, we’ve mistaken good intentions for good ideas. With impeccable storytelling and razor-sharp analysis, they demonstrate that many of modern society’s strategies for nurturing children are in fact backfiring — because key twists in the science have been overlooked.

In CHEAP We Trust: The Story of a Misunderstood American Virtue by Lauren Weber
What does it mean to be cheap? When is stowing money away wise, and when is it miserly? How might American interpret the economic downturn after years of indulgence and over-spending? To answer these questions, In CHEAP We Trust considers our hot-and-cold relationship with thrift and offers a colorful ride through its history in America, from Ben Franklin and his famous maxims to the branding of Jews and the Chinese as cheap in order to neutralize the economic competition they represented. From Dumpster-diving and the psychology of hoarding to Americans’ thrifty responses to war and recession, In CHEAP We Trust teases out the meanings of the word “cheap” and explores the wisdom, virtues, and pleasures of not spending every last penny.

The Love Revolution by Joyce Meyer
Joyce Meyer is not satisfied with the status quo. She believes that we each need to become a revolutionary and practice love every day. And if Joyce has her way, the revolution will spread — person by person, house by house, town by town, until the old culture of selfishness and greed gives way to a new culture of concern for others. Love Revolution focuses on personal behavior on the local scale. It’s not just a call to action; it is a call to being: being the person who goes out of your way to encourage someone who’s out of hope; being the one who smiles at a stranger; being the one who is willing to do something for nothing. The paradox: when we do something for nothing, what we often get is something far greater.

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

To get the discount, purchase the dv6t and Mini 110 XP together. Then use the coupon code “NBW48735” (without quotes) to redeem the offer.

Legal stuff from HP:

Valid for HP Home & Home Office (www.hpshopping.com) internet and call center purchases only. Coupon valid on first 100 redemptions, or while supplies last. Any unused portion will be forfeited. Each coupon code is limited to one usage per customer; one coupon code per checkout. Offer void where prohibited, taxed or restricted by law. Non-transferable. Not valid retroactively on previously purchased items. Not valid for any resale activity as defined by HP Home & Home Office Store. Coupons may not be used to purchase gift cards. Not valid on clearance sales. May not be permitted with certain bundle offers. Not valid on: Academic and Employee purchase programs, HP Employee purchase program, Refurbished products, Extended Service Plans. For complete coupon conditions, see “Coupon Information” in the “Customer Service” section at www.hpshopping.com.

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

Here’s a short intro to the BoneMan’s Daughters from the Hachette Book Group’s website:

They call him BoneMan, a serial killer who’s abducted six young women. He’s the perfect father looking for the perfect daughter, and when his victims fail to meet his lofty expectations, he kills them by breaking their bones and leaving them to die. Intelligence officer Ryan Evans, on the other hand, has lost all hope of ever being the perfect father. His daughter and wife have written him out of their lives. Everything changes when BoneMan takes Ryan’s estranged daughter, Bethany, as his seventh victim. Ryan goes after BoneMan on his own. But the FBI sees it differently. New evidence points to the suspicion that Ryan is BoneMan.

At some point in the story, the BoneMan tells Ryan to kill someone. If Ryan doesn’t do it, then the BoneMan will kill Ryan’s daughter. So Ryan has to either kill an innocent person or let his daughter die. What an awful situation to be in. I’m not going to tell you what Ryan did, but I was wondering how many people out there would be willing to kill an innocent bystander to save a loved one. Would you?

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

HP Notebook Promotion Details

• Valid for two days only: August 6-7, 2009
• Get $300 off when you configure to $999.99 or higher on HP Pavilion dv6z
• Free 3GB memory upgrade
• Free 320GB hard drive upgrade
• Free color upgrade
• Free shipping

Disclosure
Valid for HP Home & Home Office (www.hpshopping.com) internet and call center purchases only. Coupon valid on first 100 redemptions, or while supplies last. Any unused portion will be forfeited. Each coupon code is limited to one usage per customer; one coupon code per checkout. Offer void where prohibited, taxed or restricted by law. Non-transferable. Not valid retroactively on previously purchased items. Not valid for any resale activity as defined by HP Home & Home Office Store. Coupons may not be used to purchase gift cards. Not valid on clearance sales. May not be permitted with certain bundle offers. Not valid on: Academic and Employee purchase programs, HP Employee purchase program, Refurbished products, Extended Service Plans. For complete coupon conditions, see “Coupon Information” in the “Customer Service” section at www.hpshopping.com.

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd

Now I’m all grown up and I find myself clipping coupons. I have to, but not because we’re poor (someone please tell my wife that just because we can’t afford a $1000 purse doesn’t mean we’re poor). Ten years ago, we were a double income family of two. Now, we’re a single income family of six. Kids are not cheap. Actually, four kids are kinda of expensive. In order to stretch our dollars, my wife and I use coupons, check the weekly grocery ads, buy used items at thrift stores, and sell ads on our kids’ foreheads.

I can’t believe my wife and I have become coupon clippers just like my dad. But we take it a step further. We also encourage our kids to use coupons. For instance, whenever my kids want to buy a book at full price, I tell them they could buy the book now for ten dollars or wait for a 40% off coupon at Borders and get the book for six dollars. But unlike me, my kids are not embarrassed about using coupons (yet?). Instead, they ask me if Borders has emailed me a 40% off coupon (I just wish they would stop asking me several times a day).

Below are three of my favorite places for online coupons. Feel free to share your sources for good coupons.

• Coupons.com
• CoolSavings
• SmartSource

Find a Job : : Free Magazines : : Daddy Forever : : iZachy : : Embedded Star : : EDA Geek : : EDA Blog : : FPGA Blog
© 2009 Online Destiny Ltd : : Daddy Forever is a trademark of Online Destiny Ltd