I had a perfect storm of difficulties last week, which included but were not confined to a old kitty finally passing away, a sick child in the middle of the night, and a writing deadline nearly destroyed by a problem with MS Word 07.
There wasn’t much to be done about [...]
Happy Comic Release Day!
Today’s spotlight is on Caliber. I received the trade paperback as part of a review packet that Radical Publishing sent out, as Geek Dad Jonathan detailed last week.
Summary:
Caliber revisits the myth of King Arthur, this time setting it in the [...]
When I started contributing to this blog, I knew I would feel at home, even though I’m a Geek Mom among Geek Dads.
But I’ve quickly discovered that there are a lot more Geek Moms out there than I thought.
Case in point: this photo was sent to me by Vanessa, a [...]
Uncanny X-Men #137, the original end to the Dark Phoenix Saga, far superior to the move version.
Whenever there’s a new superhero film coming out, my friends who know my interest in superhero comics ask me if [...]
When I bought my first car, I had my brother the mechanic come with me, and simply listened to his excellent advice. But if your daughter is not so lucky, this is the book you need.
The subtitle of “In the Driver’s Seat” is “A Girl’s Guide to Her First Car,” [...]
COOKIE!!!
Cookie Monster is no doubt the least good-for-you part of Sesame Street but it was always my favorite. And then there’s Oscar the Grouch, who’s already been the subject of a Geek Dad post.
One of us.
Likely the Cookie Monster is the favorite of many [...]
With the recent furor around the balloon boy hoax fresh in the minds of the public, tonight the Discovery Channel is dusting off a classic episode of Mythbusters which tested how many helium-filled balloons it would take to lift a four-year-old child.
It’s not impossible. A lawn chair balloonist did [...]
First, disclaimer. I think my local schools are great and the vast majority of teachers that I’ve worked with have been wonderful.
But this emphasis on getting children to learn “creatively” is not always more fun and a better way to teach.
Not for me. Not for my kids.
For the past week, [...]
Superman has “Up, up, and away!”and foiling the plans of Lex Luthor.
Batman has jumping around rooftops and fighting the Joker.
Cover to Wonder Woman #39, due in December. Copyright DC Comics.
Wonder Woman has, um, well, a twirl.
Not that [...]
I like to encourage my kids to read comics but can’t always get them to read the stuff I like. (Annoying when they have minds of their own.)
However, the eldest daughter found exactly what she was looking for in Marvel’s Runaways series.
It’s like Sunday Comics. With Superheroes.
Images from Issue #1 of DC's Wednesday Comics mini-series
Wednesday Comics is DC’s twelve issue newsprint miniseries, a modern twist on the adventure strips first popular in the 1930s. The series features some of [...]
My family spent the summer without a formal vacation, making the most of day trips, especially to local places that we’ve never been.
Quassy Amusement Park in Middlebury, Connecticut had never been on my radar before. We’re closer to both Lake Compounce, which I blogged about earlier this month, [...]
SuperSecret.Com is a new PC on-line game targeted to tweens. It’s designed not only to entertain but also help foster social interaction with their peers.In the game, players can age from eleven to eighteen, earning more privileges and responsibilities while playing games, going on quests, [...] There was a meme going around my Live Journal friends list about comic books that people wish they’d never read. And it started me thinking about science fiction/fantasy books that I not only wish that I’d never read, but wished had never existed in the first place. It would have [...]
My youngest son, just ten-years-old, showed me his custom-designed Linux operating system yesterday.
He had been unhappy with his Windows XP system and downloaded the Linux start-up software on my computer and used the discs to install everything on his, then fiddled with all the programs to get what he wanted [...]
Wooden roller coasters rock.
This was the verdict from my crew of four after a visit to Lake Compounce Family Theme Park in Bristol, Connecticut.
My kids are no strangers to amusement parks. In the last three years, they’ve been to Hershey Park and Walt Disney World. But despite the fact [...]
For decades, there were three untouchable deaths in the Marvel Universe: Spider-Man’s Uncle Ben, Captain Mar-Vell of the Kree, and Captain America’s original partner, Bucky Barnes.
Uncle Ben, of course, died to provide Peter Parker’s reason for becoming Spider-Man. Mar-Vell died of cancer, in an [...]
The White House
I came away from my tour of the White House earlier this month with two distinct impressions.
The first is that the White House is smaller than I expected. The famous East Room, where Presidents have lain in state, is 2,844 square feet. While [...]
It was a show that premiered seven years ago and lasted only four months, yet Firefly today not only entertains viewers but inspires writers, including romance writers.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, Lessons of Firefly: Learning from the Works of Joss Whedon was one of the workshop choices [...]
It is definitely better being a geek girl now than when I was my eldest daughter’s age. None of her peers finds it odd that she loves science fiction and comics or that she can quote from any number of books, movies, comics and television that would have once been [...]
Before I started reading and writing romance novels, I never would have thought there was anything remotely geeky about romance writers.
Wrong, wrong, wrong. They’re some of the most geeky people on the planet.
So while I was attending the annual Romance Writers of America National Conference last week in Washington, [...]
Movie Time Air Popcorn Maker From Back to Basics Toys
Our family is still in search of ways to occupy four energetic children without summer camp or much funds for day trips. Our next step was to get [...]
It’s well known that George Lucas used Joseph Campbell’s writings as the basis for Luke Skywalker’s heroic journey in Star Wars.
But to the people of Mythopoeic Society, Campbell is just a short paragraph in a long-running book of how myths inhabit our fiction.
The society will be getting together for the [...]
High over the Connecticut River sits an estate that is probably the closest anyone in the continental United States will get to 221B Baker Street.
Gillette Castle State Park in East Haddam, Connecticut
It’s the former estate of William Gillette, a Hartford, [...]
While the recent disappearance of the governor of South Carolina was eventually explained as a mundane case of sexual misadventure, it started me wondering:
What would be a mundane excuse for disappearing in a superhero universe (assuming disappearing wasn’t one of your powers, of course)?
A quick list:
[...] 
Definitely Time to Panic
With the school year winding down to zero, my annual impending panic is setting in. The lack of funds for camps and day trips has only increased this year’s sense of impending doom.
Four active and inquisitive kids, two of [...]
On a lazy summer day a few years back, my two oldest children were playing with toy swords outside.
Her: Okay, you be Xander.
Him: I wanna be the Slayer!
Her: Only girls can be the Slayer.
Joss Whedon's Best-Known Creation (image: Dark Horse Comics)
On behalf of [...]
I have three voracious young readers in my house. They love fantasy, science fiction, romance, comic books, manga and whatever story I happen to be writing at the moment. (I occasionally take requests.)
But I have one kid who doesn’t have the focus to read chapter books. She’s ten and reads [...]
Barack Obama poses with the city’s most famous landmark.
Metropolis, Illinois, officially known as the Home of Superman, kicks off its 31st annual Superman Celebration today, Thursday, with festivities continuing through Sunday.
There are planned activities for all ages, including a carnival, kid’s' [...]
Free Comic Book Day, held on the first Saturday of May, is sponsored by a host of comic book companies and is designed by the comics community to reach out to a larger audience.
But what happens when the signing are all done and the comics handed out? [...]
1. Will I like it?
Yes, unless you have a heart of stone. This movie tugs at the heartstrings and yet has enough action and humor to keep the kids occupied.
2. Is it anything like other Pixar movies?
Yes, because while it does have amazing visuals–almost a [...]
The Cast of Jonny Quest
It’s not often that I find a cartoon show that I loved as a kid that also appeals to my own kids. So far, we’ve settled on Warner Brothers cartoons and Scooby Doo. The Warner Brothers cartoons are, of [...]
As parents, we’re usually focused on the more obvious social dangers of the internet: the predators, the local kids who reach through the internet to harass and intimidate, or the links that can lead our children to extremely inappropriate content.
Given those worries, it can be easy [...]
Cover of "Was Superman a Spy?" by Brian Cronin
Did you know that Superman began to fly because of budget constraints on the Superman cartoon? It was easier to just lift a picture of Superman over the background than to draw him crouching [...]
