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2012 Gift Guide: My Teenager’s Favorite Games

November 24th, 2012 Comments off
After much poking and prodding, I finally go my 14-year-old gamer son, Joseph, to cough up his favorite games and picks for your kids’s Christmas list this year. In no particular order, here are his picks.
 
 
 
“I like it because it is all about strategy — micromanagement and macromanagement. You having to be thinking about the big and the small all the time. Startcraft 2 is all about the community. It is one of the biggest e-sport games today. I like to watch it — videos of past matches — as much as I like to play it.”
 
 
 
“Diablo was basically the creator of the ‘hack and slash’ genre. It is great fun to hop into a lobby with 3 of your friends and for an hour you are basically a family — everyone communicates and works as a team.”
 
Planetside2
 
 
“A free-to-play, MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game) shooter with a tug-of-war aspect to it. You are taking and losing factories and facilities all over the map and it can hold up to 2000 people at a time on a map. It is another game where teamwork is essential.”
 League of legends
 
 
“A free-to-play – RTS (Real Time Strategy) game where, again, teamwork is essential. You are constantly waiting for other team to mess up so you can take advantage of that. It is a crazy game!”
 
Minecraft
 
 
“One of the world’s greatest sandbox games and as been under development for the past 2 years where you can do anything your heart desires. Single player is fun but it is the multiplayer is where it shines. The great thing about Minecraft is it is so flexible that people can create games within the game that take it to an entirely different level.”
 
 
 
“Possibly the #1 selling game of 2012 and the newest installment of the Call of Duty series. It sends you into near-future warfare and continues the story of Black Ops 1 directly in the campaign. Most of the most energetic and face-paced FPS games and the most balanced Call of Duty since Call of Duty 2. It is also trying to be introduced in the eSports community like Starcraft 2.”
 

Event: Metrolink’s Holiday Toy Express kicks off November 16, 2012

November 14th, 2012 No comments

We have attended a Metrolink Holiday Toy Train event in the past and it is a great time. The kids especially enjoy it as it has trains (every kid LOVES trains, right?), music, lights and, of course, Santa! Check out the schedule to see when Metrolink Holiday Toy Train is visiting your neighborhood.

From the Metrolink Web Site…

HOLIDAY TOY EXPRESS

Santa’s glittering train, the Holiday Toy Express®, is once again preparing to travel from city to city to entertain families and collect toys for the less fortunate. This year the Holiday Toy Express will bring joy to all of the communities we serve as it marks its 16th year of operation. This 41 stop tour, which passes through six counties, brings a brightly packaged gift to Metrolink communities – a 450-ton train decorated with holiday displays and 50,000 twinkling lights – and delivers a live musical performance, Santa and community fun.

Join us, ABC7 and Southland Firefighters who will be collecting toys at the station stops as a key part of their overall annual “Spark of Love Toy Drive” in the region.

See the entire 2012 schedule

 

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Here are some photos from the 2008 Holiday Toy Train event at Van Nuys station.

Can’t see the slideshow above? Watch “Metrolink Holiday Toy Train 2008″ on Flickr

Video: The Biggest Pinball Light Show Ever! Effects play all over the house!

November 3rd, 2012 No comments

A friend of mine with a bit of an obsessive streak…although we all benefit from it! (LAUGH). Ric outdoes himself every year with his Halloween and Christmas light shows.

Can’t see the video above? Click this link to watch it on YouTube!

“Light Show is controlled by the action on the pinball machine. Microcontroller detects Start, Ball Launch, different modes, multiball, game over etc. and triggers custom light shows in a 160 channel Light-o-rama system featuring a giant flying Saucer and 6 martians on the house. Visitors on Halloween night had such a good time that some of them forgot to ask for treats! Pinball is a 1999 Williams Revenge From Mars with game video that was projected on the garage door. Audio was also broadcast on 99.1 FM for viewers in cars.”

Categories: California, DIY, Fun, Gaming, LA, Los Angeles, Make, Technology, Video Tags:

Contest: Calling all cookie bakers…Share a recipe for your chance to win a KitchenAid Appliance!

October 25th, 2012 No comments

Calling all cookie bakers…Share a recipe for your chance to win a KitchenAid!   

Post your awesome cookie recipe on the Bakespace.com Facebook page to enter the BakeSpace.com Cookie Contest and get a  chance to win a KitchenAid® 7 Quart Stand Mixer. The recipe with the most votes from the BakeSpace community wins the grand prize mixer. You can invite your friends and family to vote… so what are you waiting for? In addition to the grand prize, we’re also giving away a KitchenAid® Food Processor, Waffle Baker and Hand Mixer for recipes based on best presentation and creativity.

Visit the Bakespace.com/KitchenAid Cookie Contest Today!

Categories: Cooking, Event, Food, Fun, Recipe Tags:

Video: Angel’s Flight in Downtown Los Angeles

July 25th, 2012 No comments
Categories: California, Fun, LA, Los Angeles, Places LA, Video Tags:

Farmer Doug’s Minecraft Pig and Chicken Farm

July 24th, 2012 No comments

Things are looking pretty good on the farm. If only the Endermen would stop taking blocks out of the wall and letting them all out.

Farmer Doug's Pig and Chicken Farm

See more of my pictures from Minecraft

Categories: Fun, Gaming, Photos Tags:

Photo: My vacation…via Instagram

July 19th, 2012 No comments
Categories: Fun, Photos Tags:

Photo: Oatmeal Cookies

July 15th, 2012 No comments

Making some oatmeal cookies for a friend’s going-away party.

See all my Instagram pictures on Instagrid.em

Categories: Food, Fun, Photos Tags:

How to use a paper journal effectively – my first Snapguide

April 4th, 2012 No comments

Yesterday, I had an opportunity to play around with a new iPhone App for Snapguide.com. It allows you to quickly and easily create guides about anything you wish. In my case, I did a quick guide about how I use the paper journal I always carry with me. You can include video, pictures and text to build your guide.

You can view this Snapguide using the iPhone app or directly from the web site.

Snapguide journal

Categories: Fun, Technology Tags:

Home-Made Toys for Boys and Girls

March 23rd, 2012 No comments

Home made toys

A post on Pinterest earlier today lead me to OpenLibrary.org and this book, Home-made Toys for Boys and Girls. The lovely collection of instructions and diagrams was first published in 1915 and harkens back to an earlier age when parents and kids would make toys at home instead of buying everything at the store.

I can imagine a farmer sitting around on a rainy day or night putting something together for his son or daughter or even building something more complex for a Christmas gift. There are projects here that can be assembled by a handy boy or girl themselves, too.

You can read the entire book, including illustrations for FREE in a number of different format including an online reader, PDF, ePub, plain text, MOBI and even have the book sent automatically to your Kindle over WiFi.

OpenLIbrary.org has a goal…

“One web page for every book ever published. It’s a lofty but achievable goal. To build Open Library, we need hundreds of millions of book records, a wiki interface, and lots of people who are willing to contribute their time and effort to building the site.

[…]

Open Library is a project of the non-profit Internet Archive, and has been funded in part by a grant from the California State Library and the Kahle/Austin Foundation.”

Visit the page for Home-made Toys for Boys and Girls

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Categories: Books, DIY, Fun, Make Tags:
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