There is a saying that laughter is the best medicine. Steve Wilson, a psychologist and "Cheerman of the Bored" for the World Laughter Tour, reached out to A Geek Daddy to share his expertise as a laugh expert and to emphasis the importance of laughter when it comes to health, happiness, and self-confidence. According to Wilson, laughter is infectious and empowering and it is unfortunate people don't laugh enough in life because laughing can increase self-esteem, strengthen relationships and enhance overall a person's mood and health.
What does your laugh say about you? Wilson notes more than you may think stressing that "laughter is among the most unfiltered expressions of a person's personality." He encourages people to try out a first-of-its-kind technology called the LAUGHALIZER developed by SunChips working with experts in gelotology, the study of laughter (did you know there was a field dedicated to that?), that will analyze what your style of laughing says about you. Visit LaughwithSunChips.com to try out the LAUGHALIZER for yourself. As an extra bonus, SunChips will donate a $1 to Step Up, a non-profit devoted to helping girls from under-resourced urban neighborhoods become "confident," "college-bound," and "career-focused" every time a LAUGHALIZER user shares their "laugh-print" on Facebook, Twitter, or by email up to $100,000. Help SunChips create 100,000 unique waves of laughter to raise $100,000 to assist young women who are at risk of being left behind in life by society to get a step up.
According to a national SunChips survey on laughter, 97% of people say laughter eases their anxiety and almost half of respondents said laughter gets them through daily challenges. Wilson also mentioned that according to the survey 2/3 of people use laughter as a way to determine if somebody is someone they may want to date or marry. Utilize the LAUGHALIZER to see how your laugh relates to your health and personality plus to get a glimpse out how it portrays you to other people. So what does your laugh say about you when it is put through the LAUGHALIZER?
My daughter had some allowance money she'd saved up burning a hole in her pocket to be spent and asked if we could go to Target so she could pick out a new toy to play with. She was really excited to discover in the toy aisle a new type of super hero action figures that cater specifically to the interests of young girls and began jumping up and down holding the toy box yelling out "Daddy can I buy it!" My little girl hasn't been particularly interested in super heroes because of the rough and tumble nature of many of the characters that includes a big focus on fighting bad guys while she herself has a more gentle side. On the other hand, my daughter finds the stylish appearance of the Super Girl action figure we brought home appealing and appreciates how the character's description puts a focus on utilizing her special abilities to solve problematic situations rather than engaging in fist a cuffs battle royal with evil villains.
The Super Girl toy my daughter bought with her allowance money is part of a new effort by DC Comics, a division of Warner Brothers, to get girls aged 6 to 12 genuinely interested in super heroes. Warner Brothers has created a multi-media / toy product lineup called DC Super Hero Girls featuring teenage versions of popular comic book characters hoping to build a young female fan base for the company's entertainment properties. The premise of DC Super Hero Girls is that age appropriate for young audiences versions of popular male and female comic book characters such as Bat Girl, Beast Boy, Cheetah, Flash, Harley Quinn, and Wonder Woman interact in light-hearted high school themed adventures. Warner Brothers has partnered with Mattel to create 6-inch action figures, like the one my daughter bought, as well as 12-inch action dolls depicting the DC Super Hero Girls that are currently available exclusively at Target. The toy line will be rolled out to other major retailers beginning later in 2016. Additionally, Warner Brothers has released a series of video shorts to tell the story of the DC Super Hero Girls that can be viewed for free at dcsuperherogirls.com website or on their youtube channel.
In addition to the toys, DC Super Hero Girls will also have an app for mobile devices, a Random House middle-grade reading level novel series, a television show on Turner Broadcasting System's Boomerang cable network, and graphic novels from DC Comics telling stories featuring these young ladies during their formative high school years as they begin to discover their full super power potential. At this point in their lives Harley Quinn isn't a villain but rather a mischievous class clown, Bat Girl is an A student technology whiz, Super Girl is the kind-hearted girl next door and Wonder Woman is the class president go-getter.
DC Comics will also be telling the Super Hero Girls story on Free Comic Book Day. They'll be giving out a special free issue on May 7, 2015 during this annual event at participating comic book shops. It will feature two stories from the upcoming graphic novel DC SUPER HERO GIRLS: FINAL CRISIS. In these stories it is
the day before finals...and nothing
is going right for the girls. These stories show how the DC Super Hero Girls find out that fun, friendship and hard work are all part of growing up!
DC Super Hero Girls encourage young ladies to get their capes on! As a dad I like that DC Super Hero Girls promote that super heroes aren't just a genre for the boys to enjoy plus provides the message that girls don't have to choose between being strong or feminine as they can be both. So DC Super Hero Girls gets A Geek Daddy nod of approval.
** Warner Bros. Home Video provided me with some of the materials used in this Blog Post/Giveaway. The opinions I share are my own**
My daughter loves to have friends from school over to spend afternoons playing together with her LEGO® FRIENDS toy sets. So I'm sure these girls, and other kids like them, will adore the new movie LEGO® FRIENDS: GIRLZ 4 LIFE from Warner Brothers Home Video. This movie brings to life (in animated form) the LEGO® construction based toy line LEGO® Friends which aims to inspire girls to engage in imaginative play with fun-loving relatable characters. Join Olivia, Stephanie, Emma, Mia, and Andrea in LEGO® FRIENDS: GIRLZ 4 LIFE as they learn that fame isn't important, it's your friends that count!
Enjoy the music video featuring the real life singing group of girls, L2M, behind the music in LEGO® FRIENDS: GIRLZ 4 LIFE and a downloadable activity pack provided below that will get you in tune with the details of this new movie:
A Geek Daddy has a LEGO® FRIENDS: GIRLZ 4 LIFE Blu-ray to giveaway. To be eligible for this giveaways you must be over 18 years old, reside in US or Canada, follow
@Geekdad248 on Twitter and retweet our original contest tweet which is
embedded below before January 31, 2016 @ 11:59 pm EST. Simple as that!
Each RT will be assigned a number based on the order it was received
and random.org shall select our winner.
Olivia, Stephanie, Emma, Mia and Andrea have their friendship tested when mega pop star Livi comes to Heartlake City. When the LEGO® friends' hit song "Girlz" is stolen by Livi's manager, it's time for a cunning plan. As the girls try to tell Livi the truth about her latest hit single, they all learn that fame isn't everything and sometimes friendship is the most precious thing in the world.
LEGO® FRIENDS: GIRLS 4 LIFE is available now to purchase via Digital HD and will be released on Blu-ray and DVD beginning February 2, 2016. For more information about the real girls behind the music in LEGO® FRIENDS: GIRLZ 4 LIFE, visit L2Mofficial.com.
FTC DISCLOSURE / DISCLAIMER:A Geek Daddy Blog will be
responsible
for selecting the winner of this contest, but Warner Bros. Home Video is
responsible for fulfillment and delivery of the prize.
By participating in this contest you waive any liability towards A Geek
Daddy Blog or its publisher that may arise from your involvement with
this promotion. Winner must be following the twitter account
@Geekdad248 at the time winner is randomly drawn to be eligible and so
he or she can be notified. Must reply to DM within 48 hours of
notification or a new winner will be selected. If you win this prize on
another blog, you will not be
eligible to win again. Must be a US or Canadian resident over 18 years
old. Winner is
subject to eligibility verification. Prize will be delivered by UPS or
FedEx so no P.O. Boxes are allowed as mailing addresses. A Geek Daddy
Blog did not receive any financial compensation or benefits for this promotion other than the prize that is being awarded to one of
our readers for this
contest. A Geek Daddy Blog is hosting this contest as a benefit to our
readers. #Girlz4Life
My daughter loves to solve puzzles and tinker with things so it seems a career path in engineering or science might be something to keep in mind as she progresses through school. While many STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) fields provide interesting and financially lucrative career opportunities these jobs also are dominated pretty exclusively by males which has to be an issue of concern for the father of a little girl who doesn't want to see her future limited from pursuing any endeavor she may choose. According to research from the National Girls Collaborative Project (NGCP), women make up 47% of the overall workforce in the United States but only 28% of females have jobs involving science and engineering. Researchers looking into this huge workforce differentiation have had the insight that boys tend to have more activities and play time as children that relate to STEM so they tend to consider these fields more interesting and fun than girls do. Therefore parents and educators are being called out to become more engaged in encouraging girls to have fun with STEM at an early age so they may have more of an interest in growing up to become a future computer programmer, scientist, or astronomer.
As a parent of a young daughter myself, I was thrilled to discover the Nancy B Science Club from Educational Insights that makes STEM topics fun by encouraging girls to engage in exploring and learning through a variety of cool scientific gadgets. Nancy B Science Club products include among other things a black light illuminator kit for science sleuthing activities, binoculars with a built in compass for exploring parks and nature trails, a microscope to examine the intricate detail of things in the world around us, a Stir-It-Up Chemistry Lab to experiment on how things react and a MoonScope to gaze into outer space. These science club products are actually designed by "Nancy B" who is a science product designer, former science teacher, and an all-around science enthusiast who want to inspire girls to share her passion for science, technology, engineering and math.
My daughter was so excited when I brought home a Nancy B's Science Club MoonScope for us to check out the upcoming super moon eclipse. This is a very rare phenomenon taking place from approximately 10:11 to 10:47pm E.T. on Sunday, September 27, 2015 where you will see a giant red moon. That night's full moon will appear about 14% larger than normal creating a "super moon" effect because it will at the closest point (known as its perigee) in its orbit of the Earth. It will also appear blood red in color during the total lunar eclipse; which is when the Earth passes directly between the sun and the moon. Our planet blocks most of the sun light from illuminating the moon at this time, but some light does reflect through the Earth's atmosphere giving the moon a red tin similar to the effect you see in the sky during an evening sunset. How great is that to start off the Halloween season with a Blood Moon to have a teachable moment with your children and get them excited about science!
So we put together the Nancy B's Science Club MoonScope and tested out calibrating and focusing the lenses to make sure it was ready to go so we wouldn't have to be monkeying around getting it ready when wanting to view the big event in the night sky. It's instructions recommend putting it together during the day and testing it out on some objects like trees to make sure it works properly and to learn how to focus the lenses without it being dark out. Everything worked great and we're ready to go for Sunday night!
The MoonScope, which has received The National Parenting Center's Seal of Approval, does a remarkable job of providing a clear view by magnifying the night sky by 18x to 90x through transferable 20mm and 4mm all-glass eyepieces. The MoonScope requires 2 AA batteries to power a red light at the base of its tripod that isn't used for the function of the telescope but rather provides a way for kids to reference the included activity journal without hurting their night vision. I found the MoonScope, which was a 2014 nominee for Best Educational Toy of the Year by the Toy Industry Association and received a Silver Honor from the Parents Choice Foundation, easy to assemble and most importantly my daughter found it easy to use when she tried it out.
The only thing that took her a bit of getting used to was looking through one eye to see through the MoonScope's eyepieces, which I have to admit I'm not very good at either. Make sure to take advantage of the pre-aligned finderscope next to the eyepiece on the MoonScope to line up your targets as it can be difficult to find things just by using the telescopic lenses. The finderscope even has a glow-in-the-dark ring on it to help you target things in the night sky which we thought was pretty neat. Also you will want to have a table or something sturdy to place the MoonScope on because its tripods aren't very tall making it challenging at times to get the right angle for a view if you don't have something to prop it on.
So we checked everything out during the daylight, gave it a test run the other night, and we are ready to go for viewing the Super Blood Moon! Don't miss out because the last time there was a blood red super moon was when I was a third grader in 1982 - in fact since 1900 it has only happened 5 times (1910, 1928, 1946, 1964 & 1982) - and it won't occur again until 2033. You don't want to wait another 18 years for another chance to get a glimpse of this special astronomical event.
If you don't have a MoonScope of your own to view the Super Moon Eclipse with, NASA will have a live feed from 8:00 pm through 11:30 pm ET streaming views of the eclipse from the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, California, Adler Planetarium in Chicago, and Fernbank Observatory in Atlanta, Georgia among other locations across the United States. NASA solar physicist Mitzi Adams will discuss the eclipse and answer questions from people on Twitter using the hashtag #askNASA during the broadcast.
** Disclaimer: A Geek Daddy received a complimentary Nancy B's Science Club MoonScope to review. The opinions in this post about the product are my own and a positive review was not mandated for this blog to receive the product. **
My twin 6 year old son and daughter really enjoy playing together with super hero themed action figures and I really enjoy that during these play times there tends to be harmony and peace in the house versus the bickering and fighting that often occurs between siblings. One issue though that isn't so nice that often comes up when they are playing "super heroes" is out of the twenty or so action figures my kids have only one is a woman and the rest are men so at some point the question always comes up from my daughter why can't she have more girl super hero toys to play with and why does her brother get to have more toys than her. I explain that the toys are for both of them to enjoy and unfortunately most of the characters just happen to be boys but if we see some girl super hero characters at the store we'll pick them up for her. I also make an effort to explain that just because the super hero characters are guys doesn't mean she can't as a girl enjoy playing with them and she shouldn't worry about something being a "girl" or "boy" toy but rather focus on having fun playing with any toy she wants to. That being said it would be nice to have a few more lady super heroes for my daughter to play with.
Therefore, I was happy to have recently discovered a new line of action figures meant to show girls and boys that women can be super heroes too. Launched last year, IAmElemental is a series of seven 4" articulated action figures that are individually packaged and include a drawstring carry bag, shield, an interchangeable accessory, Elements of Power chart and two trading cards featuring strong, healthy female super heroes. In addition to the super hero aspect of these action figures, the toy line also incorporates STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) to help encourage girls to take interest in these professional fields where women traditionally lag in comparison to men. Individual figures are $9.99 and are available to purchase online and at these retail stores. At 4" these action figures are also a nice size so that they are relatively compatible to playing with other popular action figure lines like DC Comics Justice League, Marvel's Avengers, and Star Wars toys that tend to range in size from 3.75 to 4 inches as standard sizes.
Each IAmElemental action figure has its own unique theme. For the current 7 figure lineup the characters represent bravery, energy, honesty, industry, enthusiasm, persistence, and fear:
BRAVERY does not shrink from challenge or difficulty. She has the ability to create a protective force-field around herself and others.
ENERGY approaches life with excitement and does not do things half way. She has the ability to control electrical impulses.
HONESTY tells the truth. She has the ability to make others tell the truth.
INDUSTRY works hard at all she does. She has the ability to control physical objects and repair anything that is broken.
ENTHUSIASM cultivates and shares a positive mindset. She has the ability to change the negative emotions of others.
PERSISTENCE finishes what she starts and persists in spite of obstacles. She has the ability to push through any obstacle with super strength.
FEAR spreads the impulse to pull away. She has the ability to stop a moving object in its tracks.
IAmElemental action figures were named one of the "25 Best Inventions of 2014" and "Top 10 Toys of 2014" by TIME Magazine. These toys are suggested for children 4 years old and older. In addition to purchasing the action figures individually they can also be purchased in a bundle that includes a lunchbox carry case for $65. For parents or grandparents of elementary school aged girls and boys, these are some action figures this Geek Daddy believes you should check out.
IAmElemental was started as a Kickstarter campaign that met its funding goals in 2 days drawing backers from all 50 states and six continents. According to Julie Kerwin with the privately held New York City-based toy company behind these action figures, "IAmElemental, which was launched to worldwide acclaim via Kickstarter, envisions kids as the creators of a play experience in which they are the active agents in a story of their own design."
This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone.
#AvengersUnite #CollectiveBias
Unleash the power of MARVEL'sThe Avengers through your smart phone with Walmart's Super Heroes Assemble app available on Google Play and through the App Store. This augmented reality app lets you engage in photo ops with characters from MARVEL'sThe Avengers: Age of Ultronmovie, explore their world from a 360 degree perspective, and even suit up to transform yourself into one of your favorite heroes like Hulk, Iron Man or Thor. The powers of the Super Heroes Assemble app are unlocked when you use it to scan special images located on posters and products at your local Walmart store. After downloading the app for my iPhone, my daughter and I headed to Walmart for a scavenger hunt to test out the augmented reality capabilities of Super Heroes Assemble.
Our first find was a poster in the toy department. Each of the locked powers for the app has an Avengers character associated with it that when you click on their face it shows you an image of the poster or product that needs to be scanned to make the feature accessible. The app automatically opens your smart phone's camera so all you have to do is point your device so that the virtual image displayed on its screen overlaps with the real world one. When we scanned this poster a giant Hulk Buster Iron Man appeared to take a photo with my lil Thor.
Searching through the aisles at Walmart we found specially marked Doritos, Dr. Pepper, Kellog's Fruit Snacks, and Cheez-It baked snack crackers products and displays with special images for us to scan. Scanning these images as we found them around the store unlocked access to 360 degree interactive experiences, for example you can run the Mark 44 Iron Man armor through its paces and see what it is capable of through the Hulk Buster Testing Facility, opened access to various character abilities that let you suit up as a favorite Avenger in photographs you take, and others created in-store Avengers photo ops like our picture with Hulk Buster Iron Man.
While the Photo Op feature only works specifically when you are scanning the special images, the Suit Up functions will work anytime after you have scanned the images that unlocks one of the eight featured characters which are Black Widow, Hawkeye, Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, Incredible Hulk, Hulk Buster Iron Man, and Ultron. We had a lot of fun playing around with the Suit Up features around the house and at the playground after we had unlocked all the characters during our Walmart scavenger hunt.
Here's a HINT, if you can't find all the special images while at Walmart they also have them displayed online and you can scan them off the screen from the store's special MARVEL's The Avengers: Age of Ultron web site section by looking for the "unlock more epic content" banner.
The Walmart website also features some coloring pages you can print out for the kids to have some fun with in the MARVEL's The Avengers: Age of Ultron section including the one below.
Make your next visit to Walmart a MARVEL-ous adventure with the Super Heroes Assemble App. Have some fun with your own scavenger hunt while you pick up all the fan essential toys, clothes and food items to get yourself ready to see MARVEL's The Avengers: Age of Ulton which arrives at movie theaters on May 1, 2015. We had some smashing good daddy-daughter time playing with this app (hey remember Avengers isn't just popular with the guys, girls are big fans too!) and I'd encourage you to check it out to avoid becoming green with envy that you missed out on the chance to suit up as one of your favorite Avengers.
So which member of the Avengers is your favorite? Black Widow, Bruce Banner, Captain America, Hawkeye, Hulk, Iron Man, Quick Silver, Scarlet Witch, Thor, or Vision? Iron Man has my vote while my daughter loves to role play as Thor while her twin brother pretends to be Captain America in their adventures at the park and in the backyard.
When you see stormtroopers and other Star Wars characters at public events they are normally part of an organization of move fans called the 501st Legion whose members focus on creating authentic-looking costumes for cosplay, special appearances, and charitable work. Since being formed by Albin Johnson in 1997 the group has expanded from a handful of people carefully recreating stormtrooper uniforms to having more than 6,500 active members with "garrisons" located throughout the world portraying Star Wars bad guys ranging from Tusken Raiders to TIE fighter pilots. Locally, we have a very active group called the Great Lakes Garrison: 501st Legion - Michigan Chapter which is involved in events such as the Detroit Tigers Star Wars Night, Free Comic Book Day, Star Wars Reads Day, and the Great Lakes Comic-Con among numerous other appearances throughout the year. Across the country you will also occasionally encounter a pink astromech droid named R2-KT making an appearance with members of the 501st Legion to meet with children in a hospital or promote the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
There is a special story behind R2-KT. In 2005 a little girl named Katie was diagnosed with terminal
brain cancer. Katie loved Star Wars (like her father Ablin - the founder of the 501st Legion) and loved the color pink. When her
health declined to the point she couldn't get out of bed, she said she
wished she had a droid to watch over her like R2-D2 watched over a
sleeping Padme in the Star Wars movie Attack of the Clones. Word of Katie's illness spread throughout the Star Wars fan community and another club of fans that makes authentic recreations of droids from the Star Wars movies called The R2 Builders knew this was a job for them, and in mere
months they constructed a custom R2 unit all painted in pink and dubbed
her R2-KT. It rolled, it blinked, it even talked: Katie had a droid to
watch over her! And she kept KT by her bedside through her final days. Katie passed away peacefully in her sleep on August 9, 2005.
Katie's legacy lives on in her pink companion. R2-KT now tours
the world, spreading the joy to Star Wars fans and a message of hope for
kids who suffer childhood illnesses. R2-KT attends fan conventions,
visits sick children in hospitals, appears in parades, inspires young
girls that Star Wars has a place for them, and helps raise funds for a
wide range of charities. In 2007 Hasbro produced an R2-KT action figure,
which raised $100,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. In 2008 Dave
Filoni of Lucasfilm featured the droid in a cameo role in the Clone Wars
animated feature film, making her a canon member of the Star Wars
universe! In 2013 KT appeared in the Star Wars Weekends parade in Disney
World, then traveled to be a guest of honor at Celebration Europe II in
Germany. R2-KT has become a symbol of everything Star Wars fandom has
come to represent: spreading the magic of hope.
courtesy www.r2kt.com
For more information about R2-KT visit www.r2kt.com
LEGO SCIENTIST PLAYSET SHOWS GIRLS CAN HAVE CAREERS TOO
My children are twins, one is a girl and one is a boy (no they are not identical...wow I can't believe the number of times people ask me if they are identical twins but that is for a post on another day) which puts me in a unique position to see them playing together a lot. One of their favorite toys is LEGOs and I've noticed that while many of the things that kids can construct could be construed gender neutral most of the playsets that we have in our house tend to include the little yellow action figures that come with them as guys. My daughter has asked me a few times where all the gals are for the LEGOs and could we buy some more sets with girl characters in them. The ones we've found tend to be Disney Princess themed or with characters recreating the movie Clueless under the label LEGO Friends. While I don't mind my daughter being a little girl and enjoying things like princesses, ponies, and dolls, I also don't want her feeling limited to those things being what she feels she is supposed to be playing with. So I was impressed when LEGO recently came out with a science themed playset that featured a cast of women as the assortment of action figures that came along with it. I must not have been alone because the toys sold out on the LEGO website in 1 day!
As a father, I want to see my daughter be happy and successful in life at whatever path she wants to pursue whether that be a princess working at a Disney World theme park, an astronaut conducting experiments on the International Space Station, a future Justice of the United States Supreme Court, or a stay at home mother. I don't want to see her choices limited or biased against her and unfortunately I've witnessed struggles that my wife has had working her way up the management ladder in her career that have demonstrated to me how women often have additional hurdles thrown in front of them. So maybe by confronting stereotypes at younger ages showing that girls aren't all about pink and frilly things it will positively impact both men and women who play with these toys as children when they are adults. On a more realistic note though these are just toys and they aren't going to change the world, but if they can just subtly show girls that there shouldn't be a gender bias when it comes to professional and scientific careers than it could have a profound impact on some individuals. Studies have shown that if parents engage in gender stereotypes it creates a lack of confidence for women to pursue an interest in science, technology, engineering and math. So as a dad who would love to see his daughter become an Astronaut, Doctor, Scientist, or did I say U.S. Supreme Court Justice, I want to thank LEGO for breaking the building block ceiling. Now my little girl is also asking you add a few more female super hero figures to your collection to go along with her Wonder Woman (or as she calls her "Lasso Girl") little yellow action figures.
The new Research Institute playset has everything boys and girls need to explore the world below, around, and above us. It was created by real-life geoscientist Ellen Kooijman and selected to be brought into production based upon its submission through LEGO Ideas which allows fans of the toys to have a say into future products. This set of building blocks includes a paleontologist, astronomer, and a chemist minifigures:
Help the paleontologist study the dinosaur fossil with a magnifying glass
Map the skies with the astronomer through her telescope
Assist the chemist in carrying out experiments in her lab
Hopefully one day a toy set like this can be a mix of male and female scientists working together as equals, instead of a concerted effort to make a point about women in the workplace. This is a nice start to getting there. I know my son would love playing with this just as much as my daughter making a positive impression on both of them that anybody can do anything if they put their mind to it and apply themselves.
CLICK HERE to visit the product page on the LEGO website for the Research Institute playset. While it is currently sold out, I'm sure that based on its popularity, and the fact they haven't taken the page selling it offline, that more will be available sooner or later both online and optimistically on store shelves too. The toy retails for $19.99 which isn't a bad price as anyone who has bought LEGO building blocks knows they can have astronomical price tags. I was thinking of getting the LEGO Death Star for my kids ... and me ... to build until I saw the $400 price tag - wow! The Research Institute in addition to the three scientist figures has 165 pieces and is suggested for children 10 years old and older.
