DJ Hero Video Game Review

Product Name: DJ Hero for xBox360

My Summary Statement: A Review From a Mom of Tweens -- We Like It!

My rating: 4 stars out of 5 = I Like It


Note: The Amazon Vine program provided me with a demo kit which had 4 songs (not 93 that is on the full game) and a wired turntable (the regular product’s turntable is wireless), so my review is based on limited game play.

Parents, note that the ERSB rating is T = Teen for lyrics and "mild suggestive themes". Since my demo kit has so few songs I can't comment on the song lyrics. Product information also states ERSB rating does not apply to additional downloads.

Our family uses the xBox360 and we own and use three different Guitar Hero (GH) games and own two GH guitars.

We don’t normally listen to mixed music or hip hop but my kids and I still had fun with this game. Not only do the kids think the sound of the mixed and scratched music is fun, we like that the songs are from a variety of music genres that they already know with some new-to-my-kids (but not new to me) songs. The full game has dance, pop, rock and hip hop. The songs include some classic rock and the songs are from the 1960s to present.

The games can be played solo with one turntable that comes in the bundle pack, or with two turntables (which requires an additional purchase). The second player can also use their GH guitar so by using DJ Hero you can inject fresh song tracks to your GH game play. Also if one person (friend or family member) prefers GH to DJ Hero in the end they can still play a two player game together using DJ Hero. The kids are already asking me to buy a second turntable and the full game with 93 songs.

Because our family plays video games together as a family and because visiting kids often play with my kids, everyone in our family is most interested in games that are flexible and are multi-player. DJ Hero fits that bill.

From a mom’s perspective, I’ll share how my two kids and I liked it to give you an idea of how different players of different ages experience the game. One of my sons is a natural at Guitar Hero (and also has been playing a real guitar for almost a year). He wanted to play with DJ Hero as it was something new and different. He took to DJ Hero immediately and found it fun (not frustrating at all). My other son doesn’t do so well with GH and avoids playing it was interested in DJ Hero. He is doing great with DJ Hero and was surprised to find Guitar Hero so challenging for hand/eye coordination with the GH guitar, but finds DJ Hero’s turntable easy and fun (and has no problem doing complex moves on other xBox360 games with the normal controller). Both kids laugh and talk while they play, so far no anger or frustration!

I tested the product and found some challenges with the turntable that my kids didn’t find to be an issue. Most problematic for me is I can’t find a good place to put the turntable so it is comfortable that is also a steady, non-slipping surface. The design doesn’t have enough grippers on its legs so it slides around easily. When I sat on the hardwood floor and placed the unit on the floor in front of me my back cramps up from bending over and down to reach the turntable plus was looking up toward the TV. The floor is not the most comfortable place to sit either and my legs fell asleep in the middle of some songs. I tried putting it on my lap and that didn’t work as it slides around. Losing contact with the buttons messes up the game’s whole score and was frustrating for me. (I am curious how others are positioning the turntable and how they can keep it from sliding around.)

Perhaps the best idea would be to sit on a chair or couch and use a coffee table for the turntable surface (I can’t test this because the wire is not long enough on my demo kit, the normal product is wireless). Sitting on the front of a chair and leaning forward may not be so comfortable and definitely not for long periods of time, and I still worry about the slipping of the turntable. If the whole bottom surface had a rubber bottom or something similar (like a skin) you could sit back with your knees angled up or sit flat and use your lap but the current design is too slippery to allow that.

You are basically tensed up during the game play with much less freedom of movement than any other xBox360 game requires. I don’t know how this can be remedied; I’m just stating a fact. Both the guitar for the Guitar Hero and the regular controller are much more flexible with one’s position, standing, sitting upright, or lounging back, and with the ability to move around during game play to use whichever is most comfortable at the moment is a big advantage over the turntable whose design is just challenging due to the nature of its design. Maybe players who like to be able to move around or shift position during game play may not like those restrictions on their physical movement.

As for what is on the screen, as with GH and Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) the player must focus on their section of the screen that shows their moves. Others in the room can watch the background images which are bright and ever-moving, just like those in GH and DDR of crowds, dancers, and with DJs.

In summary the game is fun for both solo and multi-players, so I’m rating it 4 stars = I Like It. The reason for not getting 5 stars is due to the challenge of the turntable sliding around and the difficulty with finding a comfortable way to sit that allows for proper game play.

Disclosure: I did not receive any payment to write this review. This demo kit was provided to me by the Amazon Vine review program. My demo game has 4 songs on it, not 93 and is not sold in stores. My wired turntable is not sold in stores (a wireless, better version is). The retail value of this demo kit is $0 and I am prohibited from reselling it.

Technorati Tags: DJ Hero review, DJ Hero , DJ Hero xbox360.

Visions of America Book Review by ChristineMM

Title: Visions of America
Author/Photographer: Joseph Sohm
Publication: Visons of America, 2009

Author and self-proclaimed Photo Historian Joseph Sohm has spent over thirty years traveling across America taking photographs. At some point the travel photography journey turned into a more of a quest with a goal to capture in photographed images, the idea of what democracy is and expanded to include visits and photographs of all fifty states. As a self-employed photographer without access to press credentials, Sohm has had to work hard to gain access to locations and politicians to succeed in capturing the wide range of content which he felt was imperative to the project (such as access to photograph Presidents).

I learned about this book by seeing Sohm on CSPAN's BookTV discussing the book. In his lecture, I enjoyed hearing stories behind some of the photos of his passion for photography and his patriotism for America. However I mistakenly assumed the book was ONLY a coffee table book of photography.

I loved seeing the high quality photography and the large number of photographs that should go without saying. But what surprised me about VISIONS OF AMERICA once I had it in my hands, was that it is filled with essay stories by Sohm.

Sohm's passion for America, his pride in being an American citizen and his wealth of knowledge about United States history was clearly apparent. I was so entranced by Sohm's words right from the first story that I decided to not peek at the photographs in the future pages, and instead read the book cover to cover, slowly taking in each image as I read the stories in the order the author intended to reveal his literal 'visions of America'. The images so closely tie in with the stories and the finely crafted chapters that reading it in its entirety and in order seemed the most respectful and best way to approach this book. Of the storytelling I will say that the stories are just right, not overdone, are full of passion (not exaggerated) and seem so sincere.

This winds up being anything but a generic compilation of color photographs of the United States of America, there are surely a number of those types of coffee table books on the market already, good only for their photographs. This book is different and SUPERIOR because it tells a story not just in the images selected in the chapter groupings, painting a picture of America's past and present but it is a collection of stories that reads like a travel journal and also like a memoir. The historical content gives a bit of nonfiction history book flavor to the book as well. Additionally there is a fair amount of discussion of the challenges of taking good photographs and the quest and hard work trying to get a great shot so that photographers who like to read about the photographer’s artistic process will enjoy that element of Sohm's stories as well.

The book is without strong political bias but I detect hints which were not troublesome to me. The books contain images of Presidents. Sohm was hired to photograph President Clinton and so that is the time period when the bulk of his Presidential photographs were taken and the book is heavier on the Presidents post 1992. There are images of the Bush's and a couple of now President Obama, taken close to the publication date. The hot button issue of global warming found its way into the book with the author seeming very worried about it (he's clearly not a validity of the issue doubter). A chapter features some photos of some abuse of the Earth by humans (pollution, garbage dumps and so forth) as a bit of a call to action to treat our planet more gently.

Patriotic Americans will love this book. This is a great book for families too, being a wonderful photographic introduction to our United States of America. If my eleven year old son was any indication, kids will enjoy hearing some of the stories too (he loved the story of the difficulty in getting a clear shot of Mt. Rushmore, when a man in an orange jacket was standing right on Lincoln's head, ruining an otherwise perfect shot).

This is also a great book for public libraries.

This is a great coffee table book for casual flipping for people of all ages, but readers should do themselves a favor and take the time to read through the book cover to cover to savor it to its fullest.

I can't recommend this book highly enough! It is a beautiful book, very high quality paper and printing with stunning color photography with very good storytelling.

Bravo Joseph Sohm and thank you for sharing your Magnum Opus with us!

External Links

Author's official website, see samples from the book

Watch author lecture on CSPAN's BookTV



Technorati Tags: Visions of America, Visions of America book review, Joseph Sohm, photography America, U.S. History.

Word of Promise Next Generation New Testament by ChristineMM

Title: Word of Promise Next Generation New Testament
Genre: Bible, New Testament Dramatization for Children
ISBN-13: 978-1400313273
Full Retail Price: $49.99


My Rating: 2 stars = “I Don’t Like It”

Summary Statement: Mismatched Actor Emotions to What is Being Said, Bad Music Match to Content

I delayed in publishing this review because my opinion dissents from the majority. After discussing this with some other Christian parents they implored me to share my honest thoughts. I was also feeling guilty to share a negative review of a Bible product, to be honest.

I had high hopes for this as I wanted to hear a dramatized version of the New Testament for my own entertainment and information. I had hoped to share it with my tween-aged kids and the idea of them liking it enough to listen to it voluntarily appealed to me greatly.

I think this dramatization is of poor quality, not sound quality but it is a poor translation with a bare minimum of “dramatization”. It is more like an audio book being read aloud with a music track running at the same time. There are not enough sound effects to flesh out the scenes appropriately. In a scene with a crowd there is just music then a few voices at the end. In a scene with a boat there was music then a few lapping waves. Big deal.

I found it weird and distracting that a lot of the time the music track was not the same emotion or pace as what was being said. A serious scene should not have ‘happy and light’ music. The emotions were mismatched. Some of the music is classical type and others seems more of the new age-meditation type music.

The worst thing of all was the voice of Jesus Christ. This ruined the whole thing for me and caused me to give up listening to this a couple of times. There was only one tone to his voice, a monotone kind of hippie Kumbaya voice. To be blunt he sounded like he was high on drugs, mellowed out. In scenes where Jesus says things in anger, the voice was not angry. In scenes where a faster paced voice or a louder voice or a commanding voice was appropriate, the same monotone voice, quiet and calm was used. It was very strange and distracting with a tone one imagines someone saying “peace brother, God is Love”.

I had to keep playing some sections over and over as I was so distracted by the mismatch of emotion or the music that I had missed the content of what was said.

When my kids saw the box they were excited as they recognized many faces and names from the Disney channel shows. However they would have trouble following this as they are used to high quality recordings of audio books from Recorded Books publisher. This is not up to their standards.

As an example of what I think is a high quality dramatized product for children, I have read all the Chronicles of Narnia paper books, heard all the Recorded Books produced audio books and then heard the Focus on the Family Radio Theatre dramatized version of all the books (ISBN 978-1589971493). And I’ve seen the two movies that have been released in the last few years. That dramatization by Focus on the Family is a great example of the way a very good book can be adapted into an excellent dramatization by use of voices talking to each other with appropriate emotion with a small amount of narration and lots of sound effects (not simply reading the book aloud with mainly music in the background and a few sound effects thrown in here and there).

For my children and myself, I think I will find an audio book version of the New Testament and Old Testament with a high quality reader (even if it was produced for an adult audience), and scratch the idea of a dramatization or something special geared toward kids.




Disclosure: I received a review copy of this product from the Amazon Vine product review program.

Technorati Tags: Word of Promise review, Word of Promise , New Testament dramazation.

Considering Shutting This Blog Down

I have been posting my creative pursuits and thoughts on creativity and children over at my main blog, The Thinking Mother.

More and more this blog is just a double posting of some of the posts I do over on the main blog.

I am going to taper down posting here I think.

Luxury Yarn One Skein Wonders Book Review by ChristineMM

Title: Luxury Yarn One-Skein Wonders: 101 Small Indulgences
Edited by: Judith Durant
Genre: Nonfiction, Knitting
Publication: Storey Publishing, 2008
Format: Softcover Book
ISBN: 9781603420792
Full Retail Price: $18.95

My Rating: 5 stars out of 5 (I love it!)

Summary Statement: Inspirational, Lovely Projects, Mostly for Intermediate or Advanced Knitters

This is the third in the “one skein wonder” series, featuring 101 projects made of luxury yarns. As with all books in this series the finished projects are shown in full-color photographs in a gallery in the front of the book. The chapters that follow are divided by yarn weight. This format allows for two options of skimming: you can browse through all projects with a certain weight yarn that you may want to work with, or you can skim through the photographs to find a project that catches your eye as the starting point.

The yarns featured in this book are: silk and silk blends, cashmere, alpaca and alpaca blends, soy, qiviut (arctic musk ox), bison, and corn. Some ‘ecofriendly fibers’ are featured: bamboo, flax, linen, organic cotton and organic wool.

Since luxury yarns are expensive, it is a great idea to have access to projects that can be made with just one skein. It is apparent that the designers tried to get the most and best use from each yarn, giving luxury yarns a project that would show off their unique beauty, or take advantage of the softest fibers to use it in ways that we can appreciate the sensual nature against our skin, such as a very soft scarf or a hat for a baby or an adult. The super fine weight yarns have been made into lovely lacey objects.

It seems to me that most of the projects are for the intermediate or advanced knitter. I feel this is due to the types of complex stitching used to either make a lovely lacey shawl or scarf or perhaps to make the one skein stretch to the largest size thing possible, as with the case with some of the scarves made more for show than warmth, and with an airy baby cap. There are gloves, socks, vests and baby sweaters which are projects or stitches for knitters with more skill than a beginner has.

While at first I was a bit disappointed there were not more easy projects for beginners, after reading through the book a few times I came to realize that this is probably due to wanting to use an expensive and luxurious yarn in the most appropriate way to ‘honor it’, if you will, by matching its cost and level of luxuriousness to a finished project that will really show it off. One would not want to waste an expensive and fancy yarn on a basic garter stitch scarf or a simple ribbed hat, typical beginner knitting projects. Also some of the yarns are delicate and would not hold up to some of the easier to knit projects that might get hard wear and be ruined in a short amount of time.

I love the book because the designers have provided a variety of projects ranging from wearable items for babies to adults to home decor that make good and an appropriate use of the expensive luxury yarns. I am a beginner knitter and feel I’m not yet ready to knit most of these projects. I am inspired by this book to continue learning new knitting techniques and to try knitting with more delicate yarns. This book let me see that I have a lot of options for types of yarn to work with in the future.

As a beginner knitter for one-skein projects I can, for now, use the two other books in this series as I continue to learn. I have skimmed through those two books and highly recommend them too.

Knitters who love to fill their shelves with books that inspire them would like to own this book. Knitters who like to do small projects or who are looking for good projects to make gifts would like this. This is also a good book for a public library to have in their collection.



Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book from the Amazon Vine program for the purpose of writing a review for Amazon Vine at Amazon.com.

Technorati Tags: Luxury Yarn One Skein Wonders, Luxury Yarn One-Skein Wonders, Luxury Yarn One-Skein Wonders book review, knitting luxury yarns, knitting.

A Rite of Passage?

I think I have gone through a knitter's rite of passage.

I was knitting along well with my sweater, working on the body. I tried it on and was shocked at how wide it seemed, but since not a lot was done on it, I kept going.

Then I tried it on when I reached 11 inches of body. It was short at that point, almost like a crop top. It looked too wide and was still too short. I decided to knit more, so I knitted almost another skein. I thought at that point that even if it was a bit wide if it was longer almost like a tunic then the wideness would not matter. I tried it on last night.

It looks terrible. Not my knitted stitches, but the shape. It is just way too wide. For once I was wishing I was larger, fatter, so that it would fit me well! Honestly, if I finish this I'd never wear it.

Don't worry, I'm not depressed about it. A bit deflated, yes, but not even angry.

The directions said to cast on 1/4 the amount of stitches in the sleeve for the underarm. It was 80 stitches and I figured 20 was way too many, so I just cast on 12. The more I knitted the body, the wider it got, which was odd as my stitches were not increasing. Each underarm cast on area added three inches to each side of the body. Back when this was just a yoke, it draped and went almost tightly over my shoulders and bust.

And the bulky Lopi yarn doesn't drape to go against my body, it is stiff and kind of stays 'out', larger than my body. It lies almost flat as if it were ironed, it is that stiff. It would have been warm to wear. This is knit on #8 needles and the stitches are pretty tight.

If I did finish knitting this I would have invested $64 (plus tax) on the yarn. I got it all on sale. I was thinking of finishing it just to have it done, even if I never wore it. However I am too practical, so, I think this will wind up frogged.

Again, I'm not angry. I consider this a learning experience.

And now I feel like I'm part of the club of beginner knitters who took the time and energy to knit a sweater that is utterly un-wearable.

I'm going to slow down on big projects and try to knit a scarf for my mother-in-law. I bought a funky yarn that is hard to knit with because it is a combination of stiff thread, beads, and mohair wool. It tangles and snags. I have started a scarf and frogged it ten times, at least.

After Christmas I will tackle this project again.

Talent and Skill

Mental Multivitamin blogged some good quotes from a book called "Talent is Overrated: What Really Supports World-Class Performers From Everybody Else".

The ideas of this author may surprise you if you believe people are born with a natural talent whose mastery with the art or craft comes easily and quickly.

Now I want to read this book!

So many good ideas to learn about, so little time to read all the books I want to read!

Thank You for Your Amazon Purchases

Thank you to all my blog readers who purchase items through my blog's links.

After you link through everything and anything you put into your shopping cart and then finalize the order within 24 hours means I make a commission on the entire sale. Your purchases are confidential so I don't know who is buying what.

The nickels and dimes add up to dollars as the month goes on, thanks to those of you who make purchases through my blog. THANK YOU!

My commissions are paid in Amazon gift cards which I use to buy materials to homeschool my kids or for my children's or my own life enrichment and pleasure. Often I'm buying things for my children but sometimes I splurge on something for myself, like a book about learning to knit.

Amazon also gives commissions to me for gift card purchases. In case you are considering buying gift cards for Amazon please consider clicking through the link. I'll put the link here and I'm adding it to my blog's sidebar today also.

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas!

Top Down Raglan Sweater Update

Short update: I think I am on the right road with my top down raglan sweater knitting.

I am knitting in the in-between times and while watching (listening) to TV before bed. In the last two days, I have knitted six inches of the body so far. I figured out I'm knitting 100 yards in knit stitch in four hours.

Last night I spent a full four hours knitting, while a passenger in a car to and from a meeting, knitted during the meeting, and before I went to bed, and I knitted up one full skein of yarn.

Sorry I don't have a photo downloaded yet, when I do I will share it.

Block Play

If...

1. They have blocks available

2. They have space to build structures

3. They have limited screen time

4. They have time to play

Then...

They will build with wooden blocks.

Even at ages 11 and 8.

It is true.

It is not baby play, as they grow older their constructions get more imaginative, more complex, and sometimes more structurally precarious and engineering-physics-boundary-testing.

Younger son's creation (using imagination for a pretend building inspired by the LEGO catalog)--




Older son still loves symmetry (sorry Blogger turned it sideways...)--



Older son's creation (pretty complicated, more about testing limits and being elaborate than pretend worlds at this stage)--




Technorati Tags: block play, unit blocks, construction toys, children and creativity, children and play.

Feeling Stupid

I am really hitting a wall with knitting a top-down raglan sweater.

I am at an all time high with feeling like a complete stupid person, a total idiot.

I know that in the beginning it was a good exercise for this homeschooling mom to learn something new. It is good to struggle because it reminds me of what kids feel like when learning something new. Being a homeschooling mom it is good for me to feel like what my kids must sometimes feel like, it keeps me in check so my expectations of them are not too high.

Regarding this sweater I am stuck on the part when the yoke is done and when I need to knit down the body then down the sleeves. I cannot at all understand the directions in this book I'm using which is not written for beginners. A major problem is I don't understand what to do by the steps, if I did I could tell myself not to need to understand WHY I am doing it but just do it and see how it unfolds. But since I can't understand WHAT to do I tried understanding what it is that needs to be done so that I could then approach it from that perspective. Not working.

I also have a feeling once I get this that I will not understand why the written directions were not making sense. But honestly they are not making sense to me right now.

I have the yoke tied off on four pieces of waste yarn. Each sleeve is tied off and the front is one and the back is the other. It fits me well.

I can't understand the method of cast-on the book says to do and I don't understand either what I am casting on for or where. Is the cast on for the sleeve? For the body? Why do I have the cast on anyway? In other words where does my needle go first, do I put the sleeve stitches on the needle then cast on then knit? None of this makes sense to me.

I am completely confused.

Last week I would have gone for the first time to a knitting guild meeting but it conflicted with Boy Scouts and I was being trained for a new volunteer job (small) that I am taking on. This week I can't go either as it is the Court of Honor and my son is earning a new rank. I am going to go to the meeting in ten days time and see if someone can help me.

I went to a local yarn shop for the first time looking for a new yarn. I had been told by two people they are super friendly there. Well they basically had no yarn that coordinated at all. They were nice but man, they had no stock. I was hugely disappointed. The shop's size was tiny and there were too many shoppers so I couldn't get to see all the yarn. Then people were just standing in front of yarn talking with their friend and relatives who were shopping with them and not even looking at yarn and preventing me from shopping. I left buying nothing.

I went to another local yarn shop and they do a sweater class for $150. That is how it is around here, nothing is for free, no help, you have to wait to take a class. That is the same shop that in the first week of July told me I'd have to wait for September to pay to take a class to learn to knit socks. At least another shop locally told me they'd do a private one hour lesson for $25 practically at my convenience. And at another shop out of state the shop worker gave me a private sock making lesson for free, she insisted on it, right then and there, in between helping other customers. Now that is customer service!

I spent an hour at Barnes & Noble yesterday. It was educator discount day so I went looking for a good book that teaches knitting sweaters from top down. I figured if that was all the book was about they'd teach it from a beginner's viewpoint and have good illustrations. And I'd buy the book from them too. No such luck. I found one book and the major focus was on seeing how fancy one can get with that method and there were tons of patters for sweaters with fancy stitches that I feel like I'll never be able to do. The book's directions were poor and mostly were abbreviations in patterns not for a beginner at all.

I have spent now about three hours on Google, You Tube, and Ravelry trying to find the information. So far I have found two posts from people stuck exactly like I am. I contacted one on Ravelry and despite something like 8 months having passed she has given up on it and is soon going to frog it. She never got the answer to her question. Another knitter got an answer that made sense from somone. I printed it off last night and tried doing that and it didn't work.

Another issue is that in other sets of directions some patterns do not call for casting on new stitches at all. They just say "pick up and knit". I also found one online pattern where the person knits the sleeves by themselves and then grafts them onto the sweater in the end. So one challenge is there are all different kinds of ways of doing this, I guess, so other descriptions of how to do it don't match my pattern.

It takes me a long time, about 30 minutes for some reason, to put stitches back on the circular needle from the waste yarn. I did that then I realized the yarn to knit with was on the OTHER side and useless. Now I will have to take this off and put the other side on the needle, I guess.

The good news on the sweater is that I finally found a new yarn for the main color at a local yarn shop. I bought 10 skeins of that dye lot to make the sweater with. So that task was accomplished. I knit four or five rows of the main color for the bottom of the yoke and it does look nice when put together for the sweater.

The bad news on the sweater beyond me being stuck is that one sleeve is 4 stitches wider, so I'll have to remedy that. And somehow the back is 101 stiches and the front is 95 stitches. More evidence of my imperfection!

I thought I had a better picture of this yoke but now can't find it. Maybe it is on the other digital camera and not yet downloaded. Yet another project.

So for now I'll show you my progress on my first sweater, this was taken on 11/26/08.



I could phone my friend who taught me to knit but honestly I'm feeling a bit embarrassed to call her again. She helped me already once with phone counseling about this sweater. I know she is busy and I feel too much like a pain in the butt to phone her.

I've started asking around to others if they've made a top down raglan. So far, no luck, the knitters all say they have not done it yet. One mom even told me yesterday she can't learn any knitting from reading written instructions and she can't read patterns so she doesn't even try. I refuse to not try.

I'm a persistent person. I want to work on this sweater. I don't just want it for a finished product. I want to get back to enjoying knitting it. I bought the yarn and I want to use it, darn it. I'm ready, willing and able.

Maybe later I'll give it another whirl by just winging it.

Update: My Knitting Angel read this post and phoned me with instructions. She completely understood the writing in the book's pattern and re-phrased it in a dumbed down format for my newbie knitter brain. I plan to work on it today. Now it seems ridiculously simple, what I am to do. Stay tuned.

Robot Dreams Book Review by ChristineMM

Title: Robot Dreams
Author: Sara Varon
Genre: Graphic Novel, children, wordless
Format: softcover books
ISBN: 9781596431089

Rating: 5 stars out of 5
Summary Statement: Touching Story, Wordless

Book review by ChristineMM

Robot Dreams is a sweet tale told in comic book style. It is a wordless book. The sweet and innocent nature of this book allows it to be enjoyed by very young children yet the message and story can be enjoyed and appreciated by adults.

The story takes place over thirteen month’s time and the plot is very much associated with the changing seasons. It is a story of friendship between a dog (living and acting as a human) who buys a robot kit and assembles his new robot friend. When the robot rusts and stiffens while at the beach, trouble ensues.

I can’t give the story away so I’ll have to stop with the story summary at this point. The ending was surprising and very much not what I thought would happen.

The take away message for me was that friendships are important and the good memories can live on in our hearts even if due to various circumstances, friends become separated and they go off in different directions.

I’m not sure if all young children will get that same message from the book.

My eleven year old son who is a robot-lover and graphic book lover really enjoyed this book.

My younger son, aged eight, read it and enjoyed it.

I read it and loved it. Due to the nature of the story and despite the characters being male, I think girls might like the story itself, if they are graphic novel lovers. The story may be too juvenile for teens unless they are specifically interested in the storytelling form of the graphic novel.

The book also has an educational component if someone wishes to use it in that way. Teachers could use this to show how a story is built and how the trajectory builds up as the book goes on. Since it is wordless it can be consumed in a short time frame making it easy to teach from. Art teachers could use this as an example of the graphic novel format and to help teach student about drawing comics or using the graphic novel format. It could also be used as writing prompt for writing composition. Students could try to write a chapter of the story using the book as the source material. I am planning to use this book in those ways with my homeschooled children.

I am a lover of books and the written word, however the more I read graphic novels of a different type than Superhero-based action stories, the more I am coming to appreciate the art form and the difficulty of communicating a storyline in purely visual format for the wordless graphic novels, and also for those with far less words than ‘text only’ books. It takes a special talent to be able to portray in all visuals, a complete and touching story. Sara Varon has succeeded with her story Robot Dreams.

While the value of traditional books will never fade, I do hope that the graphic novel genre continues to grow with high quality stories artfully told.

How I Came to Read This Book: I found it on the shelf at a local Barnes & Noble and due to its cost I decided to borrow it from the public library. However we love it so much I may buy it and use it in our homeschooling. After I read it I heard Amy of the Creative Mom Podcast, in episode #113, review and recommend it.




Technorati Tags: Robot Dreams, Robot Dreams book review, Sara Varon, teaching comic book art, teaching writing composition.

Winter's Coming

It is getting cold!

Photo taken by ChristineMM on November 23, 2008, in Cape Cod, Massachusetts

Slow Going on Knitting My First Sweater

My knitting feels like it has come to a standstill.

For the last two weeks I have been trying to knit a sweater.

I have been working on gauge swatches. I realized that yarn #1 for contrasting color will not work. I don't like how it is coming out. And it is a thinner yarn than what I'll use for the main color.

I decided to use a Noro yarn I already have on hand. I believe I own enough (one 100 gram skein) but even if I run out and need more a local yarn shop has more in that dye lot. I chose the yarn that I used to make my hat and scarf. So this sweater will have a 'faux fair isle' band of that same yarn. The bottom of the sweater will be a natural color. That means the sweater will look great with the hat and scarf.

I have done two swatches with the main color.

I just finished the gauge swatch with the new contrasting color.

I am really not enjoying this part of the process. As a consequence I have not been knitting in public. I've been reading a lot and brining books with me everywhere. I have been busy and doing a lot of appointments outside the home or else busy at home doing homeschooling lessons, cooking and cleaning. Also my husband was away for business so I was the 'single mom' living 24/7 with my kids. I have barely been watching any TV so no knitting is happening while in front of the TV.

I miss knitting. I want a project that I can just pick up and work on.

I am beginning to think that this sweater will never happen and that just to get knitting again I should go back to hats.

I'm not feeling so fulfilled as a knitter right now...

Must Have This

After seeing this video preview of "An Illustrated Life" compiled by Danny Gregory I realized I must have this book. Must own. Must read. Must refer to. Must enjoy.



The book is being released on December 16, 2008 and is available for pre-order through Amazon now.

Hat Tip: R. from CMPCircle referred me to this blog.



More About Danny Gregory

Danny Gregory's webpage

Danny Gregory's Podcast Archive

Looking West

View from the front of my house looking west.

The rain and winds have brought down nearly all the leaves, almost in one fell swoop. My eyes are getting used to the new look of the landscape. It always seems other-worldly when the transition from lush green leaves, to wild colored foliage, sometimes too harsh for the eyes, to this.

The bare trees with their fine details, reveal differences between tree species. In my yard, the tall oaks dominate, so obviously dominating the other trees.

Why did I take this photo? The color of the clouds caught my eye. Blue skies with puffy clouds, white on the edges and deepening to dark gray in the center, complicated by the sun setting and the new sky filled with branches not foliage. That's why. Sometimes what I see cannot be captured well by my camera, but it is worth a try anyway. I never know if the viewer of my photos sees the same things as I do and I'm not sure if that matters anyway. What is more important is my seeing it, my appreciating the beauty in nature and small things seen, the fun of the process of photography, that is what matters, the seeing and the process. The final product is different and is not as important as the process itself.

Make It From Scratch Blog Carnival #90 Has Been Published

The Make It From Scratch Blog Carnival #90 was published on today at A Bit of Flour. Check it out and get inspired to make something from scratch.

Consider submitting to this blog carnival if you make things from scratch. It can be anything from cooking and baking to sewing and crafts.