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May 19, 2008
May 16, 2008
Camping Gadgets for the Geekdad
Spring has sprung for most of the country, and here in North Carolina, that means it's time for camping. Time to pull the tents and backpacks out of the attic, dust them off and air them out. And since Father's Day is only a month away, it means dropping hints so that you can weigh your pack down with the coolest new camping gadgets available.
Let's look at some great additions to any outdoors-geek's arsenal, and some toys to help introduce kids to the art of the bivouac.
- Black Diamond Wiz Headlamps. What kid doesn't want a headlamp? These are safe, they have an automatic shut-off to save battery power, and they come in kid-friendly color palettes. Finding your way to the toilet in the middle of the night is so much easier when your light source is hands-free.
- SolLight Water Bottle. If you're hiking in to your campsite, you want your load to be as light as possible. Multi-taskers are key, and the SolLight Bottle has a built-in, solar-powered LED Light. It lasts for twelve hours with four hours of solar charge, which means that any geeklets that might be afraid of the dark don't have to worry about draining the batteries in their headlamp.
- Garmin Colorado 400C Handheld GPS. It's a little pricey, sure, but it has everything that a hiker might need in a GPS: topo maps, aerial photography, U.S. marine charts, 65K color display, compass, altimeter, thermometer, and ANT. It's marketed to the marine crowd, but would surely come just as handy on a long hike as it would on the open sea.
- Swiss-Spice Salt and Pepper Dispenser. When we go camping, part of the fun is coming up with new and tasty recipes that can be prepared at the campfire. With a little salt and pepper (and the thrill of eating by a campfire), that freeze-dried beef stroganoff will be one of the best meals you've ever tasted.
- Swiss Army Knife. Say what you will about Leathermans (Leathermen?), when I was a Boy Scout, Swiss Army knives were our tools of choice. Through Father's Day, Amazon is having a sale on Victorinox Swiss Army products. $10 off a $50 Swiss Army purchase, so get a matching pair for you and the geeklet... but only if they've got their Whittling Chip, of course.
What tools are in your pack? Which toys are you looking forward to trying out for the first time this Father's Day? Leave a comment.
May 15, 2008
Must-Install Mac Software
This is mainly a list for myself, so I know what to download the next time I need to reformat. I'll be adding to this, I'm sure.
- Perian: Perian is a free, open source QuickTime component that adds native support for many popular video formats.
Disposable Plates and Cups Do Not a Good Parent Make
Gag me with a (disposable) spoon.
May 13, 2008
Authors@Google: Michael Pollan
Fantastic talk by Michael Pollan, the author of In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto and The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals.
May 11, 2008
Rare Children's Books
Children's literature is big business these days. Just go to any mega-chain bookstore and check out the square footage devoted to the kids. It's fantastic that there are so many options for young readers, but the popularity of children's literature is hardly a new phenomenon.
The bookn3rd blog, which focuses on book history, has some great links and commentary for rare children's book scans from the early 20th century. My favorite is Nathaniel Hawthorne's A Wonder Book For Girls & Boys, from 1893. The color plates (see the thumbnail to the right) by noted illustrator Walter Crane are absolutely amazing.
Rare Children's Books at the Library of Congress (from bookn3rd.com)
Also see: Children's Book Online: The Rosetta Project
Cross-posted from Geekdad
May 2, 2008
Resources for Reading Out Loud
My wife just finished listening to Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere on audiobook. She's been gushing all month about how fantastic of a reader Mr. Gaiman is--he narrated the book himself--and how he gets all the accents just right. This is something very important to the two of us, as we both love stories read aloud, but we hate when they aren't narrated well.
To prepare for our own upcoming adventures in delivering memorable storytimes--our boy is nearing the age where he'll soon appreciate such things--I thought it would be wise to gather together some resources on reading to children and getting them interested in books.
- The Read-Aloud Handbook, by Jim Trelease. This is the book for parents who want to read to their kids. Trelease first details the benefits for reading to your kids--longer stays in school, better vocabulary and comprehension--and then goes on to discuss methodology and reading materials appropriate for kids of all ages. There's also a section of read-aloud stories for you and your kids to enjoy. Excerpts of The Read-Aloud Handbook are available online, and Trelease has an additional collection of great read-aloud stories called Hey! Listen to This.
- How to Get Your Child to Love Reading, by Esmé Raji Codell. Another good resource for finding good books to match your kids' interests. It's more than an index, though, because Codell has lots of fun experiments and activities to make lasting memories about each story.
- United Through Reading Read Aloud Resources. A few techniques and suggestions for reading to your kids, as well as some recommended books.
- The British Library Collect Britain Project. For those of you planning on reading the Harry Potter books to your geeklets, spend a few hours here listening to over 650 extracts from the Survey of English Dialects. Search by place name or date to find that perfect Hagrid accent.
Cross-posted from Geekdad