Earlier this week we had the opportunity to attend a screening of the movie Big Miracle followed by a Q&A with lead actress Drew Barrymore. The way the Kiddo obsesses over Shark Week on Discovery, Nat Geo and every Animal Planet and BBC wild animal re-enactment film made, we simply couldn't miss it. Big Miracle arrives in theaters February 3, 2012.
The movie is based on a true event in the 1980s when three gray whales find themselves trapped under the Arctic ice on their annual migration to the Baja coast in Mexico. Big Miracle chronicles the events that led to freeing the whales and guiding them on their way - highlighting the "it takes a village" concept where political and cultural enemies from around the country and globe come together to save the whales.
It's a little bit romantic comedy, but has a lot of story to it - family-friendly and heart-warming. How could it not? It stars Drew Barrymore, John Krasinski (from The Office), Kristen Bell (have loved her since Veronica Mars!), Ted Danson, Dermot Mulroney, Rob Riggle and others.
We each enjoyed the movie and the real-life news recaps interspersed reminding us that it really happened. When asked afterward, the Kiddo's favorite character was the whale affectionately known as Bam Bam. When you see it, make sure to stay through the credits so you can see where all of the real life characters are today. :-)
It astounded us that neither @c2cDad or me remembered this whale rescue happening, but maybe we were too young . . .
Because I write about technology and see a lot of tech devices before they're available on the market, I'm often asked which device/laptop/game console/phone, etc someone should buy, whether they should wait for the next upgrade, and which apps they should install for their kids. The next most popular question is how we set rules for using electronic devices in our family . . . which always makes me happy to discover that others are being mindful of screentime, but I also feel a little uncomfortable answering because what works for us may not work for them.
Basically, we use the moderation is key approach at home as we guide him through using the technology. Just because we happen to have a lot of electronics in the home, doesn't mean the Kiddo gets to spend a disproportionate amount of time online. While on the road for family travel, though, we actually have situational rules for using electronics on vacation.
The reason we take a vacation or go on a trip is for the experience, the opportunity to connect and make family memories, and lastly, to relax, rejuvenate and just get away! I grew up in a small rural Midwestern town and often marvel at the places I've visted and the things I've seen that are so completely unlike my environment growing up. So it's important to us that we expose the Kiddo to these things and underscore an appreciation and respect for them as well - by being present, engaging the senses and taking mental snapshots (or having him take real snapshots or video!).
Along our coast-to-coast roadtrip last summer, we shared some of the documentation duties with him, and he was thrilled. He loved using the FlipCam to record portions of our trip with his own narration. As you can tell above, he loved watching the video back too. ;-)
Did he watch movies in the car along the roadtrip and play games on the iPad, Nintendo DS and LeapPad? You bet! Although not while we were curving through the Rocky Mountains, or cruising by Joshua Tree National Park. Definitely not while we were on the lookout for each state's welcome sign! Certainly not while we visited the hotel pool, walked around the cities, or waited for our table at an authentic restaurant. We were sure to clear the devices away as we crossed the Mississippi River and watched people rafting along the Colorado River.
Of course, the real reason we wouldn't want to completely curtail using tech devices on our trips is that @c2cDad and I would be hurt the most. We plan our trips on the fly using our phones and laptops to look up recommendations, ratings, directions and such. We're usually so busy working up until the last second before we leave for vacation that much our trip is left unplanned awaiting our full attention. We also document our trips with our cameras, cell phones, social media check-ins and video cameras. We're capturing and sharing our adventures with family and friends who may never have the opportunity to do what we're doing.
However, once we've gotten the shot we want, the recording devices go away until the next share-worthy moment crops up. Then it's back to singing along to the radio, playing the alphabet game, looking for more state license plates to flip over on the Melissa & Doug game board, and our own entertainment.
How do you regulate using electronics on vacation as a family with being present and enjoying your travels? You can join a TravelingMom.com Twitter party tonight to chat about just such a topic with other traveling families, and here's how another blogger, Kim Orlando from TravelingMom, incentivized her kids on a recent trip to Aruba:
Despicable Me 2 is in production and making its way to theaters next year, and I just learned that a toy line is brewing for 2013. Universal Partnerships & Licensing (UP&L), Illumination Entertainment and Thinkway Toys announced earlier this month that they'll partner on the global production of toys based on the highly anticipated follow-up to the blockbuster hit Despicable Me.
Thinkway Toys has been awarded the master global toy license for Despicable Me 2, and will develop a wide variety of toys featuring the Minions and other key characters including interactive toys, figures, plush, dolls, playsets, vehicles, role play and novelty items.
Despicable Me 2 arrives in theaters July 3, 2013. The toy line will arrive on store shelves in summer 2013.
Despicable Me came out in July 2010, grossed more than $543 million at theaters worldwide, and went on to become the 10th-highest-grossing animated film in U.S. history. Despicable Me also debuted on Video on Demand in January 2011 and has become the No. 1 most ordered animated film since that time.
Also exciting, this summer (2012) Universal Orlando Resort in Florida is launching a 3D theme-park attraction based on Despicable Me. We found the Minions so funny, and we smiled the instant we came across one at Universal a year ago.
I was recently introduced to the Bipper bSafe mobile app by my friend Leticia, and it was so easy to install and FREE that it was a no brainer for me to quickly set it up on my phone. The bSafe app is one of those apps that everyone should have, but you hope that no one has to use.
bSafe turns your smartphone (iPhone, Android or Blackberry) into a personal safety device. By opening the app when you're out and about, you can alert your chosen contacts that you're in danger and share your location with the push of one SOS button. It's the peace of mind that if you need to reach someone in an emergency, you can do it within seconds without pausing to think or search for info.
Brisk Iced Tea is launching a new mobile app called Brisksaber, in conjunction with the theater release of Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace in 3-D. When I first read about it, I had a huge grin on my face because I couldn't wait to share it with the Kiddo and @c2cDad.
The Brisk app, Brisksaber, brings iconic Star Wars lightsaber battles to smartphones, and makes players choose to play for The Light Side or The Dark Side right off the bat. If you choose The Light Side, you'll battle evil characters like Darth Maul, Jabba the Hutt, Darth Sidious and Darth Vader. If playing for The Dark Side, you'll be up against Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jar Jar Binks, Luke Skywalker and Mace Windu. The app includes a progression of content allowing players to unlock new characters and objects based on the redemption of codes found on specially marked packages of one-liter Brisk Iced Tea.
They've even created some fun commercial spots with Yoda and Darth Maul to promote the app, which will air on January 15, 2012 be featured in movie theaters and online. . .
The Brisksaber can be downloaded via UncaptheApp.com, Facebook.com/Brisk, or in the iTunes Store and Android Market now. The "Uncap the App" promotion and limited-time Darth Maul Brisk Tea packaging will be available until April 30, 2012.
Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace in 3-D arrives in theaters February 10, 2012.
Ford has launched a fun new app in advance of the 2013 Ford Fusion debut next week at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. The 2013 Fusion augmented reality experience gives you a peek at the new car and the opportunity to try it before you can actually test drive the vehicle with the Ford Fusion App.
Whenever you snap a photo of a Ford logo with your SmartPhone or tablet - the logo can be on paper, on the back of a car, on a Ford website - the logo becomes the start button that you tap to begin playing the app. The Tron-like experience gives you new driving tracks as more of the digitally camouflaged 2013 Fusion are unlocked and exposed each day, culminating in full views of the car when it's revealed next week.
We had fun playing with the app on our roadtrip home for the holidays and back. We used our iPad2 to hone in on Ford logos as we passed Fords on I-80, and even on the cars in my parents' driveway. :-) Here's what it looked like:
It's a pretty big app, but we were able to download it to @c2cDad's iPad2 while driving through Pennsylvania. There are four different worlds and you can watch videos that describe some of the innovations that are built into the vehicle too. We thought it was pretty fun as a FREE augmented reality app, and as an iPad racing app to just play with. Download it if you get the chance these next few days to try it out for yourself http://www.fordfusionapp.com/
Samsung kicked off the new year announcing the newest member of their DuelView camera family, the DV300F set to hit store shelves in March 2012 and retail for $199. What's significant about the DV300F is that it offers WiFi connectivity, so you can snap a photo, and instantly share it to a social media or photo-sharing site like Facebook, Picasa, Flickr and YouTube - if you'd like . . .but you don't have to.
Maybe you'd prefer to conveniently save the photos from the camera's microSD memory card to your laptop or PC using the Auto PC Backup feature, or instantly upload the photos to Samsung's AllShare Play and Microsoft SkyDrive cloud-based storage and sharing services. However you use it, the WiFi option helps to get those photos off of the camera and into your files or sharing sites. (I know there's a photo of @c2cDad and me on my parent's camera from my sister's rehearsal dinner that has been held hostage on their memory stick in their camera for literally years.)
As you can see, the 1.5" LCD screen on the front helps you to line up shots, which is great for self-timer photos, but the Child Mode feature is exciting for tots as it becomes an animated screen to help draw kids' attention to the camera. The DV300F captures 16 Megapixels with a 5x optical zoom and 25mm wide-angle lens for long-distance shots. This newest model will come in shimmery metallic colors: black, silver, navy and red.
Although a dualview camera is inherently ideal for people wanting to get themselves into the shot, there aren't many people this camera wouldn't entice. Obviously I see tweens, teens, college students, post-grads and young families trying to chronicle their lives with proof of their exploits . . . but doesn't everyone try to capture themself at every little experience or gathering these days?
We see teachers snapping pics during big reveals, assemblies and field trips, coaches taking shots, chefs with their creations, lunches with colleagues, even two of our local pizza places have a wall of frequent patrons celebrating over their pizza and pasta! Besides, what grandparent wouldn't like to have a photo of themself with their newest grandbaby to prove once and for all which genetic family features have made their way to the new li'l one?
Even we would have loved to have had a dualview camera along on our coast to coast roadtrip last summer. Of the 4000 photos we took over those three weeks, we don't have one with all three of us in it. :-o
The $199 price point tells me that it will make a terrific graduation or off-to-school gift, and will be well-priced by the time the holidays come around again.
We decided to celebrate our own Star Wars holiday this last day of vacation (yes, I know it's Jan 2nd and not May 4th, or "May the Fourth Be With You" day). The Kiddo's been such a trooper throughout our travels, errands and home organization the past two weeks that we wanted to spend the day doing something special just for him.
We were inspired last night by his Star Wars pj's, and the fact that we hadn't yet watched Star Wars The Complete Saga, which would be phenomenal to watch on our new TV and Blu-Ray player. Besides, we were sick of catching the Star Wars movies on Spike and having to suffer through their low budget commercials.
We started the day with Star Wars character-shaped pancakes, using the William-Sonoma pancake molds that the Kiddo received last Christmas.Then when we were ready to slide the Blu-Ray disk into the player, the Kiddo ran for his Star Wars reference books:
The past two weeks have been a welcome reprieve from my online social life as I focused exclusively on our family life and our plans and goals for 2012. Although I did get twinges of guilt that I was neglecting my social media friends and this site, it was refreshing to be present with whomever I was with and whatever I was doing all day long without checking my email, Twitter or Facebook every chance I got. I even managed to shut off my laptop (which BTW is brand spanking new and I can't wait to share with you later this week!)
Of course, our offline time hasn't been all relaxation as we work so much that we've been using this time to catch up on the tasks and projects around the home that needed tending to. As we put our holiday decorations away and look out at 2012, there's quite a bit of excitement on the horizon for us. As 2011 came to a close, there were several pieces of my life that have fallen into place that make planning and visibility for 2012 more manageable.
Over the fall, I joined Techlicious on a full-time basis, making it the sole place I'm contributing other than here on Coast to Coast Mom. This is freeing from the standpoint that I'm not running in a dozen different directions and can more fully think things through from the Techlicious perspective. Exciting things will be coming on this front soon.
There's so much to be excited about this month: the Consumer Electronics Show next week in Vegas, weathering our first real snow storm of the year (no, the freak Halloween snow storm doesn't count), a return to a family and school schedule, and the refreshing gleam of a new start with 2012. (Even numbered years just feel better to me.)
While I attended the Ford sustainability press event, I had the opportunity to check out REPREVE, the eco-friendly fiber filling for the seats in the Focus Electric. This is the first use of REPREVE in the auto industry, but you've likely seen or used REPREVE material in other products, including the North Face Denali jacket, and bags on BlueAvocado.
REPREVE is a polyester fiber blend of recycled materials - mostly plastic drink bottles and post-industrial waste, and is manufactured by Unifi, Inc. based in greensboro, N.C. By switching to use REPREVE fiber in the seats, each new Focus Electric will keep about 22 plastic bottles out of landfills.
According to Carol Kordich, lead designer of Sustainable Materials for Ford, “Not only does the use of this fabric in Focus Electric help reduce waste, it also helps to offset the need to produce new raw material from crude oil – a process that consumes precious energy and natural resources.”
Almost three years ago, Ford mandated that fabric suppliers use a minimum of 25 percent recycled content for all 2009 and beyond model year vehicles. They've upped their game by mandating that fabric be 100 percent sustainable in vehicles with eco-conscious powertrains like Focus Electric.
I love seeing more and more innovative environmentally-friendly products working their way back to consumers. :-)
