All the World Is Waiting for You...

Yes, Wonder Woman might be coming back.  I just hope we don't have to do too much editing to make it acceptable for LG to watch, if she's still a Wonder Woman fanatic by the time it eventually makes it to TV (assuming it actually does make it, of course).

Christmas Presents

Sorry it's been a while...

Christmas is on my mind today.  Anyone interested in doing a bit of early Christmas shopping for me?

I'll take a Batmobile and an Iron Man suit, please!

Help Us, Gail Simone...

...you're our only hope.

OK, maybe not.  But I'd like to think she'd at least understand my complaint here (yes, I'm going to complain again.  That wasn't my original intention with this blog, but it does seem to be what I end up writing about a lot).

I was in Target today looking for a birthday present for a little girl (not my own).  My LG was with me, though, and we went to see if there were any books we'd like to get for the birthday girl.  I had forgotten (bad Mommy!) that today was the day that I Am Wonder Woman (I Can Read Book 2) came out (you might recall LG has a Wonder Woman obsession).  Well, while we were looking at the books, I saw I Am Superman (I Can Read Book 2), which reminded me.  But no, Target didn't have it.  That's OK - they don't claim to have the world's largest book selection.  So I started looking at the other books (theoretically for Tinkerbell, but that's another story) and noticed that there were several early reader superhero books.  Besides Superman, Target had Batman Classic: Meet the Super Heroes: With Superman and Wonder Woman (I Can Read Book 2), which made LG very happy, because even though they didn't have the Wonder Woman book, they had a book with Wonder Woman in it.  Then I noticed some Super Friends books. Excellent!  Surely Wonder Woman would be in those! Hmmm...Super Friends: Flying High (DC Super Friends) (Step into Reading)...nope, no Wonder Woman.  Super Friends: Going Bananas (DC Super Friends) (Step into Reading)...no Wonder Woman there either.  Brain Freeze! (DC Super Friends) (Step into Reading)...hmm, missing there too.  I will admit here that I only flipped through the books, I didn't look at them really carefully.  I'm hoping that I managed to miss Wonder Woman in all three books, and that LG managed to miss her in the one she looked at.  Sadly, though, I don't think that's the case.

OK...so now I'm noticing a pattern here.  First, Target has a TON of early reader superhero books (there were a bunch of Marvel ones also).  But, no, they don't have the brand new Wonder Woman book.  I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt here.  It was just released today, and some sites are actually showing a release date of tomorrow.  So maybe they WILL carry it, but they just haven't gotten it yet.  I'll have to remember to check on that in a week or two (though we'll be receiving it on Thursday through  Amazon Prime).

But can someone, anyone, tell me why exactly Wonder Woman seems to have been removed from the Super Friends?  I don't understand...I know, she's a girl, which might scare away the highly-coveted non-reading little boy demographic, but Wonder Woman really should be there.  A very brief bit of research indicated that the books are based on the Mattel toy line, which from what little I could find on it seems to have eliminated Wonder Woman from its basic Super Friends line up.

Of course, this follows up on the heels of a weekend visit to a local comic store that has a huge number of action figures, and not a Wonder Woman in sight (apparently the only one they had in stock had been sold shortly before our visit).  Why only one Wonder Woman figure?  Needless to say, LG is getting very disappointed by the lack of Wonder Woman stuff in the world, and I'm starting to run out of explanations for her.

We won't even go into the looks we get at McDonald's when we get a kid's meal with a side salad and a Batman toy instead of the doll.

McDonald's Wins

As a follow up to my last post about Wendy's refusing to let LG have a side salad with her kids' meal, I decided to try an experiment.  LG likes McDonald's chicken McNuggets...but she doesn't like the apples that are the alternative to fries.  So tonight, I decided to try an experiment.  I asked if it would be possible to get a side salad with the Happy Meal instead of the apples or fries.  And, wonder of wonders, they said, "Sure, no problem."

LG's response tonight?  "I never want to get apples or fries at McDonald's again.  Only salads."

McDonald's wins.

Healthy Eating for Kids at Wendy's?

Nope. Not if you want a salad with a kids' meal.

We were at the mall yesterday, and LG got hungry.  It was past lunchtime, so I really couldn't blame her, and a hungry 4 year old is not a lot of fun to take around looking for school clothes.  Malls, of course, know this and build convenient food courts for their patrons.  So far, so good.  Mall food court food isn't exactly known for its nutritional and health values, but we have a few decent options.  So we go look at the new sub-and-wrap place.  No kids' menu, and LG has decided that she doesn't like provolone, which is the only cheese this place has, and she has to have turkey and cheese, not just turkey.  OK.  We'll skip the fact that she does like provolone, because that's a battle I'm not going to win at this particular time.  There's a Wendy's right next to the sub-and-wrap place, and she decides she wants chicken nuggets.  Again, OK, not the best thing in the world, but there's worse out there.

Normally when LG wants to go to Wendy's it's because she wants the mandarin oranges she can have as a side for the kids' meal (the alternative to fries).  But not this time.  This time she wants the chicken (and ranch...really, I think it's the ranch that's the appeal here) and a salad (again, I think the ranch is really the appeal, but am I going to argue with a 4 year old who ASKS for a salad?  Not a chance!).  OK, so they have side salads as an option for a side for the value meals.   So I order...and I think everything's fine.  Then someone behind our cashier says something to her, and the next thing I know, the cashier tells me that they can only give side salads with the regular value meals.  Kids only get to have oranges or fries.  What?  Isn't the entire fast food industry supposed to be frantically trying to prove that they have healthy food and they're not contributing to childhood obesity?  Apparently not Wendy's, or not this one, at least.

So I tell LG, "I'm sorry kiddo, they say no salad with the kids' meal," and I can see the tears starting and the tantrum building.  Great.  I look at the cashier, and to her credit, she does look sympathetic, and she glances over at the woman who spoke to her, who happens to be the manager.  The manager just stares back, and the cashier looks back at me.  Right.  No help there.  So, I tell LG, "Don't worry, you can still have a salad.  You just can't have it with a kids' meal.  So you have to choose...a kids' meal with oranges and the toy, or chicken nuggets and a salad we buy separately, but no toy."

To my surprise, and LG's great credit, she didn't even hesitate before she said, "I want the salad."  I have to say, I was very proud of her, but not so proud of Wendy's.

Embrace Your Geekness

Yup, it's an actual holiday - of the made-up corporate kind.. Thanks to http://www.wellcat.com/ for copyrighting and letting us all know about this most excellent holiday.

July 13 - Embrace Your Geekness Day-- Into dungeon games, comic books and doing vampire dress-up? Spend endless hours going strange places on the internet? You're a geek, and this is the day to roar!

What will you do to embrace your Geekness today?

Not-so-Wonderful Woman, Part 2

UGH.  So I just found Jim Lee's commentary on the new costume, which wasn't up earlier when I was writing.  He says, in part, he wanted

"A design worthy of the mantle of Wonder Woman but one that didn’t scream classic superhero! So we played down and scaled back the iconic elements—the stars, the eagles, the double WW’s, lightened up the motifs and added armor which could pass as street gear."

 What, exactly, is WRONG with "scream[ing] classic superhero"??  Why is this a problem?  Why do our heroes have to be dark and "edgier"?  UGH!

Not-so-Wonderful Woman

I haven't written about comics yet, and today's the day.  I have written about Wonder Woman's clothes before, at least indirectly.  So no we're going to return to the topic of superhero fashion, but in comics instead of Underoos.

Yes, Wonder Woman has a new costume, "in partial answer to the many female fans over the years who’ve asked, 'how does she fight in that thing without all her parts falling out?'" according to the DC Universe "The Source" blog.  I have no doubt that's true.  As a good fighting outfit, Wonder Woman's strapless bathing suit leaves a lot to be desired.  I suspect that she actually would've had a pretty easy time lassoing bad guys in that outfit - I'm sure at least some of them would've been momentarily stunned when her breasts popped right out of the top.

So I understand they thought they needed a change.  They also thought they needed to make her "be taken seriously as a warrior."  Why, exactly, that requires making her look like a malnourished waif in bad nightclub clothes, I really don't understand.  Nor do I understand why they thought it was important that her new outfit could "be accessorized."  Yes, they really said that - "it can be accessorized."  I like Darren Franich's quote on EW.com's PopWatch: "I wish they had come up with something slightly more colorful: between the long black leggings and the dark blue jacket, this new outfit sort of looks like Joan Jett with a jewelry budget."  According to Yahoo! Buzz, the pants are actually blue, but they sure look black.  Blue is marginally - only marginally - better, but if they don't actually look blue in the art, they might as well be black.  And if they want to give her a jacket to put stuff in, at least make it a useful one, instead of a fashionable shrug with stars on the shoulders.  Speaking of which, "[s]he can close it up to pass unnoticed…open it for the freedom to fight."  What?  Close it up to pass unnoticed?  Nobody's going to notice that jacket after the first fight or two in it?

Furthermore, take a look at the new top in action (scroll to the bottom to see the comic panels).  It won't fall completely off thanks to the double spaghetti straps, but she's still going to pop out the middle.  Has Jim Lee looked at real women's athletic wear?  Racerbacks, tank tops, wide straps, and higher necklines are what actual, real active women tend to wear.  Why?  They provide support and coverage.  They work - and they can look good too.  Or, heaven forbid, she could wear long sleeves and a scoop neck.

Since it seems pretty obvious based on the drawing that they were really trying to make Wonder Woman sexier and more modern, while appeasing the folks who actually want her clothed, maybe we need to remind Jim Lee and the rest of the artists out there that plenty of guys find women in real active wear sexy - and those artists have the ability to use their talents, with some creative shading and highlighting, to make an attractive, modern, and realistic costume for Wonder Woman.  And one that makes her look like a superhero, not like some urban streetfighter (which is the look they say they wanted.  Again, why? Why is that modernizing?  And is it really modernizing in a good way?)

Of course, my opinions on all this aside, there was only one real, valid test I could administer on how good an idea this costume makeover is.  Fortunately, I happen to have one live Wonder Woman fanatic little girl roaming around my house.  So I showed her the new costume.  LG's answer?  "I don't like it.  It's not pretty.  It needs to have more stars on it, and she should be red, WHITE, and blue, not black!"

Out of the mouths of babes, DC.

Kindroid

It's here!  I've got it!  Look back a few posts and you'll know what I'm talking about.  Kindle + Droid = Very Happy GeekToMom!

I still love my Kindle.  I'm not giving it up.  It's much, much nicer reading on the e-ink screen than on the backlit Droid screen, though the Droid app does help with that.  You can choose from white, sepia, or black for the background color and you can adjust the screen brightness.  However, I can read anytime now, even if I'm somewhere I don't want to bring my Kindle, and that makes me very happy!

Girls and Toys

Fair warning: this is going to be a rant, and a long one at that.

LG likes superheroes and trains.  She's not so unusual in that - lots of little girls like superheroes and trains.  The problem is that the marketers see superheroes and trains as "boys' toys" and they market them as such.  At age 3, LG got really upset about her favorite Spider-Man blanket - because "Spider-Man is for boys."  Apparently one of the kids at school told her that.  It took a lot of convincing that it wasn't true.

Fortunately, all of the marketing in the world couldn't convince her that Thomas the Tank Engine was only for boys.  LG loves Thomas.  Potty training was a bit of a problem, though, because she wanted the Thomas underwear she saw hanging at the store as a reward.  She had a Thomas t-shirt, after all.  Have you ever tried explaining to a precocious 2 1/2 year old why girls could wear t-shirts from the boys' department, but couldn't wear boys' underwear that was hanging on a hook next to the princess underwear for girls? Would it really be that hard to make Thomas underwear for girls?  There are female engines and trucks (Emily, Molly, Lady, Rosie, etc.) if it just makes the marketers too queasy.  And it's not as if they wouldn't sell.  Every Thomas event I've been to - and I've been to quite a few - has had a very high percentage of girls in attendance, in many cases a majority.  In fact, one Thomas event at a local Toys R Us was attended exclusively by girls for the first half hour until one boy - and his two sisters - finally showed up.

While LG loves all superheroes and can identify the major characters from both DC and Marvel, and while Spider-Man will always be her first favorite, she's currently really into Wonder Woman.  Daddy showed her selected scenes from the 70's TV show on DVD, and LG has now become the latest in a long line of girls to do the Wonder Woman Costume Change Spin of Doom.  This ended up eventually turning into a conversation about Underoos, because of course the Wonder Woman Underoos were a favorite of girls in the late 70's.  To make a long story short(er), I did a quick search for superhero underwear for girls.  Any guesses what I found? Sexy Wonder Woman lingerie for adults and pink camo Super Girl PJs for girls.  Ick.  Lots and lots of stuff for boys, of course.  I'm sure there are more out there for girls if I really search - it was just a quick search on my Droid.  But the point is, I have to really search - they certainly don't make it easy like they do for boys.

So at this point you're probably thinking that I'm a big fan of all the "pink boys' toys" that the marketers have come up with to make boys' toys interesting for girls.  You know, pink Legos, pink doctor kits, pink airplanes.  No, not really.  In fact, I can't stand them and generally refuse to buy them.  There's no reason on this Earth why a doctor kit should have to be pink for a girl to want it.  Girls will play with anything as long as it's pink and boys will like it because they're boys?  Please spare me.  The real solution is for PARENTS, GRANDPARENTS, and TEACHERS to get the message across that these toys are for all children. It's pretty simple, really - don't force feed princesses to girls and trucks to boys.  Sure, there will be some girls who only want dolls and have no interest in trucks even without the socialization they get from exposure to other girls and women.  So what?  Other girls will decide they like trucks and princesses, and some will decide they don't like princesses at all.  And that's OK.  But toys have to be marketed to girls - and accepted by their parents - not just have their color changed.

Having said all that, the addition of female engines notwithstanding, the wooden train industry marketers have been remarkably resistant.  No girls' clothes, no girls' bedroom decor, nothing.  This does have its advantages from my wallet's standpoint, I'll admit.  I would like to say they're doing what I believe in - saying that anyone can play with these toys just the way they are.  In reality, though, I think what they've really done is given up.  They hear a story about "my daughter had no interest in trains even when I gave them to her" and ignore the fact that the little girl had never before had anything that wasn't pink, purple, or a doll.  No surprise there the girl didn't have any interest. So they market to boys, classify the trains as boys' toys, and show boys playing with them - and they give up on half the preschool population.

So, then, I didn't know whether to cry or applaud when I saw the Imaginarium Around Town Railway at Toys R Us yesterday.  It's a nice little wooden train set with a bridge, lots of track, an engine, some freight cars, a fountain, a house, a store, and some trees and people.  Pretty typical.  Except that the engine, bridge, cars, houses, store, and fountain are pink.  Not obnoxiously pink like some toys, I'll admit - they're a fairly pleasant shade.  They also put in little extras to appeal to girls.  The trees have flowers on them.  The freight cars hold presents wrapped in bows.  The store is an ice cream/soda shop.  The people are women.  The package shows two girls happily playing.  And the track is plain wood - not pink.  It's not what I'd prefer.  It's not the way I think it should have to be done.  But I also think that half the battle is convincing Mom and Dad and the grandparents that it's OK for their little princesses to be playing with trains.  At least Imaginarium is making an effort without going too overboard.  I'm not thrilled about it, but it's not bad.  And yes, LG got one - she loves ice cream shops.  And she saw the package and said, "Look - they don't think trains are just for boys!"  I could hardly refuse to support Imaginarium's effort at that point.

Now if we could just get some Thomas and Friends underwear or pajamas and bring back Wonder Woman Underoos!

Wii + Netflix = Bad for Blogging

Having a Wii has been a lot of fun.  A little exercise, a few games...really, for the most part, we've enjoyed it.

We got the Wii after we cut our cable back from the ultra-super-deluxe-HD & DVR cable package to basic, local-stations-only cable.  We cut our cable bill in half with virtually no noticeable effect on our lives, because we hardly ever watched TV anyway, and when we did it was usually on local stations.

Except for LG - she watched Sprout.  We were now left with no Sprout, which really just meant our collection of Thomas DVDs got used a bit more.  There were a few shows we enjoyed too, ones we liked to watch but rarely had time.  We haven't seen 24 in two or three seasons now (horrifying that we've missed them), we've missed two seasons of House, and I've missed half a season of Bones.  We started hearing from well-meaning friends that we really, really ought to sign up for Netflix so we could watch whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted, all streamed conveniently to our Wii.  So, finally, after a few weeks of this, I gave in and signed up for the free two week trial.

So far, so good. We got our Wii disc in one business day, as promised.  Our Wii was already set up for Internet access, so no problems there.  Sure enough, within moments of getting the disc, we were able to watch TV shows and movies magically sent to our TV via our Wii.

And that, in short form, is how we ended up watching Thomas episodes we somehow haven't acquired yet.  And how, instead of blogging last night, I ended up watching the first two episodes of Knight Rider.  Who doesn't love a service that can serve up everything from Thomas and Clifford to Knight Rider and Quantum Leap with the touch of a button?

That doesn't explain the rest of the week - we won't talk about the nasty cold I had - but it's much more fun to just blame it on the Wii, anyway.

I Love My Kindle. And My Droid.

And soon I'll be able to have them together, thanks to Amazon finally announcing Kindle for Android. Don't misunderstand me here - I LOVE my Kindle. I've had one since August 2008, and there were times that beautiful little gadget saved my sanity while lying on LG's floor waiting for her to be asleep enough for me to be able to sneak out of the room.  I wish Kindles had been around when I was nursing...one handed reading while holding a baby who fell asleep and woke up instantly if I moved would've been a truly wonderful thing.  Besides which, I've read more books in the last year and a half or so than I have in a long, long time.  And even better, a lot of them were free - and not old-classics-public-domain free, either.  To go off on a tangent a bit, yes, those publishers' promotions do work.  I have bought several books after getting the first one in the series free.

As much as I love my Kindle, though, there are times I don't want to carry it around.  Now that I don't have to carry a diaper bag anymore, I've gotten my purse down to a wallet on a string with a cell phone pocket.  Carrying my Kindle requires me to carry a much larger bag, which I don't usually want to do.  I always have my Droid with me.  While I typically find myself checking Facebook or reading comics or blogs when I'm stuck somewhere with a few minutes to kill (like getting to preschool pick up 15 minutes early because I'm running too late to go home but too early to be there at dismissal), I'm MUCH more excited about being able to pick up wherever I left off on whatever books I'm reading on my Kindle that's sitting at home next to my bed.

I have to admit, I've been frustrated and disappointed that there were free Kindle apps for PC, iPhone, and  Blackberry, but not even a whisper of a Kindle for my Droid.  But I'm happy now, waiting anxiously patiently for Kindle for Android this summer.  Thanks, Amazon!

Sad and Pathetic

Yes, it's now about 8:30 on a Sunday night.  There was a time, a few years ago, when this would be a couple hours away from sadly wrapping up a day-long gaming session because all the players had to go to work the next day.  Bedtime would usually be around 1AM or so, because really, sleep was so overrated.

Fast forward to today...it's 8:30, and I'm trying to decide, after a very long weekend filled with lots of kid activities, whether or not it's too sad and pathetic to just go to bed.

Spike, the Ultra Dinosaur

Little Girl (we’ll call her LG) really, REALLY wanted Santa to bring her Spike, the Ultra Dinosaur for Christmas.  In red, please.  Santa, being the jolly guy that he is, thought it would be double the fun for LG if Mommy and Daddy had one too. Think of the possibilities – dinosaur races, dinosaur fights, dinosaur tea parties…  So, yes, Santa brought not one, but two Spikes.  One in red for LG, the other in the original green for Mommy and Daddy to play with.   Santa just didn’t realize that Fisher-Price hadn’t quite figured out that one family might want two Spikes.

You see, Spike is a really advanced dinosaur.  He can walk in different directions, fetch, play with toys, open his mouth and roar, all sorts of fun stuff.  All controlled by one little wireless remote control – and therein lies the problem.  Both Spikes respond to commands given by one controller.  They all work on the same frequency (confirmed by a phone call to Fisher-Price).  And, according to Fisher-Price, while they were apologetic, there’s really nothing they can do about it.  Including, apparently, warn people – because what family would be crazy enough to want more than one giant, roaring, walking dinosaur, right?

So, no dinosaur fights and no dinosaur races (which made LG pretty sad).  We can still have dinosaur tea parties, though.  Maybe we should consider dinosaur synchronized sports.  Or dinosaur dancing.  They’d make a pretty good conga line.

Welcome!

Welcome to From Geek to Mom…and Back Again.  I’ll be writing about geeky things and mommy things and places where they overlap.  You might find posts about my Kindle or my Droid, RPGs, MMORPGs, Wii games, miniatures games, and the occasional comic book.  You might also find commentary on kids’ toys, especially how they get used (or not) by my own little member of the next generation of geeks.  I hope you find something to enjoy here – I’m planning to write something on most days – and if not, tell me what you want to read about!