Damn. Even Siri Thinks I Talk Too Much

I can't win.

I asked Siri to:

"text my husband:

'Josh's graduation party is tonight. What time do you think you'll be home because I'd really like to crash for a few hours before we go. Is that a possibility?'

The screenshot above was Siri's response.

She quotes M*A*S*H characters now? How did she know I like M*A*S*H???

Hmmmm. Now I wonder if she can do Cheers?

Custom iPad App List for a New iPad Owner

I get frequent requests for app recommendations so I'm starting to make tailored app lists to share with friends and family. Here is an app list for new iPad owners.

App Review: Max's Pirate Planet - A Board Game Adventure

This is our family review of the universal iOS app "Max's Pirate Planet - A Board Game Adventure." Whether playing together as a family of 4 or 1 on 1 or as a single player, this game has been fantastic fun for the whole family!

When we have visitors or play dates, this is the game the kids ask me to set up on the Apple TV to play and share with their friends.

We'd like to thank Slant Six Games for the loot, err, um, for gifting this app for a review!

Click here to get this game for your family, available on multiple platforms:

iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch devices, click here:


Android devices, click here:

Kindle Fire devices, click here:

Here is a home movie (10 minute sample) of one of our first game sessions together. As you can see, there was much delight. Even Keagan, our 3-year-old likes to play with assistance. It's nice to play a multi-player game where he doesn't feel left out for a change.

The graphics are beautifully drawn with careful attentions to detail. I love how the characters sail in their ships when crossing water, but get out and walk on dry land. The voice artists are top-notch. Game play is very smooth and not too predictable.

Form Factors
We have played this game on both an iPhone 4S and a 4th-generation iPad on the local screen as well as streamed to our Apple TV. Both form factors worked great. Playing it on the iPad is nice for when there are 2 players whether it's a parent and child or 2 siblings because of what I like to call the "Hand-Held Device Cuddle Factor." Personally, as much as I love to see my boys play physically with each other like little puppies, I also love to watch them cuddle up on the couch with each other to play a game on our iPad. Max's Pirate Planet encourages taking turns and cheering each other on with a healthy dose of friendly competition. This is something my 6- and 3-year-olds really need right now during these formative years.

Playing this game on the iPhone is more comfortable for 4 players passing the device around while viewing it together on the Apple TV. It's kind of like hot potato. When it came time to do a duel on the iPhone I was initially concerned with two fingers swiping on that smaller scree, but it worked surprisingly well I'm sure it had nothing to do with my ability to kick my husband's butt in the sword fighting challenge

Come On, Girls!
If I had one criticism it would only be to add more girl pirate characters from which to choose. As a mom in a house full of boys, I'm the only girl pirate here, Yarr!

Piratey Pirates
Normally, as a parent, I'm a bit squeamish about the idea of "encouraging" pirate culture, but I have to say, this app has done it tastefully in a fun way that doesn't encourage or promote violence. It allows the player to role play pirate-esque adventures in a creative, challenging and safe way. Even Skully the Skeleton manages to skip creeping me out. He's my oldest son's favorite character and he rushes to choose him each time we play. My younger son is in to all things red, so he loves Rusty the fox.

Go Ahead, Duel Me In.
My favorite part is dueling! I especially like sword fighting. I'd like to see other types of duels beyond just the two currently available: sword fighting and cannons. The family and I discussed what types of duels we'd like to see and we were immediately faced with the challenge of trying to avoid something that might promote violent behavior if not carefully planned out. Lucian, our 6 -year-old, suggested a pistol gun fight duel. We as parents couldn't think of a way game developers could avoid becoming mired in the whole gun violence issue we're currently facing as a nation here in the U.S. so we decided that wasn't something we could get behind suggesting as a feature request.

More Monsters, Please!
We all agreed that we'd like to see new monsters to challenge in future app updates. The current monsters are great — so great that we think the app developers will have fun coming up with more monster characters to eat us — uh — I mean — for us to beat for a chance to win treasure!

I really hope you consider either getting this app for your family or gifting it to a friend. It's a real...treasure!

Check out more from Slant Six Games Inc.

You're Shipping Me

I Just Shipped My Mom

My kids know how to crack me up and I especially lose it when sleep-deprived.

We get such a giggle from this KMart commercial. They don't understand the double entendre so that makes it just that much more hilarious to me.

Happy [early] Mothers' Day

Enjoy a giggle, it's on us.

A Day In The Life - Beloved Labelmaker

Ever have one of these days?

Deep Thoughts From An Angry Insomniac

Ok. I have a question about raising your own chickens. I know people do it to avoid eating eggs with hormones and because commercial farms are disgusting and disrespectful. I agree with that - makes sense to me - IF you want to eat eggs. I do eat eggs because I'm still programmed to want to. I now only by cage-free but even that bugs me because I wonder just what that means exactly and then I think I might not want to know.

Thing is, I'm starting to question: why? There are plenty of plant sources to provide the same health benefits, right? So why do we mess with chickens in the first place?

Isn't it disrespectful to the hens to constantly take their eggs from them to eat them even if you raise them to free roam? Or what if you let her hatch some of the eggs and raise a few chicks, is that much better? Why do we even eat eggs in the first place?

Why don't we convert our animal farming resources to produce more plant crops instead? (yeah - Monsanto - but there has to be a way to drive them out sometime)

Perhaps I play Angry Birds too much! LOL!

Squawk!

I'd like to see an Angry Cows game though, because I'm done with dairy milk, personally. I'm still struggling with cheese, yogurt and ice cream though I'm more conscious about it now and looking for alternatives here and there. I've decided, after having breastfed both my children and having to use a pump to produce for the first few months each time -- and having developed a love hate relationship with that damn pump -- that I can never look at cows being milked the same way ever again. I consciously made an informed choice to strap on an electronic torture device every couple of hours in order to feed my babies because that's what I felt was best. Now, don't get me wrong, I like you, but I don't like you nearly enough to make milk for you full time unless you grew inside my body for 9 months. I don't quite understand why we should expect this from another mammal outside our own species let alone forcibly and cruelly for the purposes of mass production of milk that we have no real right to be drinking anyway. It's quite unnatural, scientifically and the whole process is completely artificial at best. It just seems pointless anymore. (Having been a recipient of WIC (never again!) and seeing the dairy gluttony and subsequent waste - it physically pained me having to dump expired milk down the drain :(  and don't get me started on WIC (nutrition my-ass)

There is scientific proof now that we do not require cow's milk to thrive, but our culture hasn't caught up with that thinking yet and our agriculture supply and demand will likely keep it that way for years to come because many people don't know any other way and it's their livelihood. I get that, but it doesn't mean I need to buy into it.

Don't worry, I don't judge you for drinking milk, eating eggs or other meat as I'm still reviewing my own programming code for efficiency and bugs. I do believe in Karma though, so if you treat dead animal meat as a sport and are wasteful and unkind and an angry boar is headed your way while you're unable to defend yourself, I might just quietly say "oink" instead of "run!"

Food for thought: http://www.idausa.org/vegandays/faq.html#q5

Evolve Already

Hand-Made Mac Tip: Wrangle Unruly Previous Recipients

If you're using Apple Mail and are experiencing issues with failed attempts to send out a message because one or more of your friends' email address is borked, then your Previous Recipients may be to blame. Sometimes your Mac needs some general housekeeping.

It's one of those hidden gems in the Mail app that not many know about. Ok, so perhaps it's not much of a gem, but it is supposed to make life easier for you when it comes to composing and sending mail messages. You see, every time you send a mail message, the recipients — people you send the message To or CC or BCC — get saved into this handy-dandy section called the Previous Recipients window. The next time you go to email someone, you can just start typing a few letters of the person's name or email and the Previous Recipients List will serve up a history of all email addresses that match those letters regardless of if it's been stored in your Contacts (Address Book for those still on legacy systems). Unfortunately though, this same "feature" will also serve up any of the incorrect email addresses as well which in many cases, tired eyes may not catch and then all the fun starts. [sarcasm]

These email addresses congregate there like dustbunnies in heat and periodically just need to be swept up and sent away to never never land.

Like my 3-year old now says,

"But, WHY Mommy?"

Because I said so.

Actually, because, if you're having problems sending messages — and I've seen this too many times to count — (which is why I've decided to make it a Hand-Made Mac Tip) it's usually because you have several wrongly entered email addresses hiding in this list somewhere and it's just a matter of time before one of them bites you back.

How does this happen?

Two words: fat fingers.

Ok, one more word: cats.

It happens whenever you (or your cat) accidentally type an email address wrongly despite being absolutely certain that their email address was someoneawesome@theiremailaddress.con

or, how about: someoneawesome@gmal.com

Can you spot the mistakes? Does your cat care? If you answered no to either of those questions, then you've got issues.

Well, guess what. Mail servers can spot the difference but for some dumb reason, Mail collects and stores these boo boos in your Previous Recipients list despite this fact.

Here's how to clean it out and start fresh.

In Mail, select Previous Recipients from the Window menu. In the next window, select all of the addresses in this list and then click the Remove From List button. (Just do it, don't hesitate, be ruthless! Zap them all!)

Now this list will repopulate over time (rinse and repeat), but any badly entered email addresses will no longer cause problems with outgoing messages.

I hope this was helpful and that you feel all sparkly fresh now!