June 2011 – Geeky Moms

June 2011 archive

27
Jun
2011

Supreme Court Says No to Video Game Law

categories: Gaming

It’s a great day for parental freedom. The U.S. Supreme Court this morning struck down a California law that restricts the sale or rental of violent video games to minors.

"Even where the protection of children is the object, the constitutional limits on governmental action apply," Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in the majority opinion. The ruling was 7-2.

The Supreme Court’s ruling unambiguously reaffirms that video games, which have become increasingly complex and in some cases more expensive to produce than movies, also qualify for full First Amendment protection.

Government lawyers called attention to Postal 2, which lets players go on murderous rampages.

Scalia noted that books often viewed as suitable for high school students are full of violent material. "Certainly the books we give children to read–or read to them when they are younger–contain no shortage of gore: Grimm’s Fairy Tales, for example, are grim indeed. As her just deserts for trying to poison Snow White, the wicked queen is made to dance in red hot slippers ’till she fell dead on the floor, a sad example of envy and jealousy.’"

The Entertainment Software Association, which represents the U.S. computer and video game industry, welcomed the ruling.

"Today, the Supreme Court affirmed what we have always known–that free speech protections apply every bit as much to video games as they do to other forms of creative expression like books, movies and music," said Michael D. Gallagher, ESA’s president and CEO of the ESA, in a statement. "The Court declared forcefully that content-based restrictions on games are unconstitutional; and that parents, not government bureaucrats, have the right to decide what is appropriate for their children."

15
Jun
2011

U.S. Moms Need a Break

categories: General

Are you stressed out mom? Well, according to a survey by ForbesWoman and the website TheBump.com, many U.S. mothers feel like single parents, whether they are married or not. Not only that, but most moms, workforce or in-home workforce, feel like they never get a break from parenting.

The study found that 92 percent of working moms and 89 percent of stay-at-home mothers felt overwhelmed by work, home and parenting responsibilities. Two out of three resent handling all the household chores even when they prefer their partners to stand aside

"Moms have an innate aspiration to do it all and a secret desire to be superwoman," said Carley Roney, editor in chief of TheBump.com.

The poll surveyed more than 1,200 women. Seventy percent of working moms and 68 percent of stay-at-home mothers questioned said they feel resentful toward their partner because of all they have to do.

"It’s not just that women can’t ask for help; they don’t want to," said Meghan Casserly, a reporter for ForbesWoman. "She feels it’s damaging her sense of motherhood to ask for help. And it’s causing resentment."

Nearly 30 percent of working mothers said they do the bulk of the household chores and 31 percent said they are responsible for all of the parenting.

Much of this self-inflicted grief is encouraged by media images of a super working mom who looks glamorous while cooking, washing, babysitting and holding down a full-time job.

"Moms identify with these tasks. They make them feel like a mother. She wants to be the best parent with the best kids in the nicest house and look beautiful while she does it," Casserly said.

But in reality, "she’ll burn out and head toward relationship disaster," she added.

Mothers handle most of the parenting and household work, yet 79 percent of working moms and 71 percent of stay-at-home moms said their partners are equally responsible for discipline.

About 84 percent of stay-at-home moms don’t get a break from parenting after their partner comes home, even though 97 percent of respondents say they need at least an occasional time out from parenting.

In fact, 50 percent of stay-at-home moms said they never receive a "time out" from parenting, while 96 percent said their partner manages to get a "time out."

To clear up their resentment, which could lead to further problems, Casserly said women need to have an honest conversation with their partners about housework.

"It might take some swallowing of their pride. Open communication is the first step to divvying up those chores and warding off any resentment," she said.

Details of the survey are available on http://www.forbeswoman.com and thebump.com.

09
Jun
2011

Google Fun

categories: General

In honor of Les Paul’s birthday, Google has a fun guitar as their logo, which you can play and record. Check out my recording:

http://goo.gl/doodle/15lw

08
Jun
2011

Nintendo Announces the Next Generation of Wii: Wii U

categories: Gaming

The rumors are true: Nintendo debuted its next-generation console, the touchscreen tablet Wii U, during its keynote address at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

The Wii U tablet screen can be used to navigate and magnify the image displayed on your TV, which could come in handy for browsing the Web. Nintendo also showed off the ability to play your Wii U game directly from your tablet–handy in case someone else needs to use the TV.

While Nintendo was pretty coy about their upcoming game plans for the Wii U, they did show off a game they were calling New Super Mario Brothers Mii, which let your Mii avatars join in the run-n-jump fun alongside Mario and Luigi.

Check out the game play on this video from G4:

07
Jun
2011

I “Lost” My Phone!

categories: Geek Speak

lostphone 5:00 pm on a Friday afternoon is a great feeling. Especially when you have a weekend of fun activities planned! Most of all, the feeling of sleeping in until at least 10 am is priceless.

In the excitement of leaving my office and transporting a fixed computer, I lost my phone. I realized about 30 minutes into my Friday night that my phone was either in my friend’s car, in my car, or lost on a sidewalk somewhere. The feelings of abandonment overcame me, and suddenly I felt naked. No phone! What will I do without it? I couldn’t call my friend to ask her to look in her car, and even worse I didn’t know her number by heart as its stored in my phone.

Fortunately, my Android phone is set to sync my Gmail contacts. I had stopped by another friends house to visit on the way home, so I hopped onto her computer and logged into my Gmail. I quickly sent a Gmail text to my hubby so he would know that I am barren and contactless while I visited my friend. Then, I wrote down my friend’s number, and (gasp) used a LAN line phone to call her! After a few phone calls back and forth, she gave me the bad news that it wasn’t in her car.

An hour or so passed, and the thought of my hubby not being able to get in touch with me kept creeping up on me. I decided I better go home and check on everyone, before I went back to visit for my Friday festivities. Of course, everyone was fine at the house, in fact, they hadn’t even tried to message me. I was very tempted to take my hubby’s phone with me when I went out again, but I realized it would be pointless for him to not have any sort of phone at our house. (We turned off our LAN line years ago.)

So, I lived without it. I realized the phone was probably still sitting at my desk in my office. No biggie. I thought about going to check on it, but the thought of going into the office on the weekend, wasn’t very tempting.

As the weekend progressed, I felt ‘free.’ Free from worrying where I put it, checking to see if I got any messages, playing a random game here and there, maintaining its charge, etc. I didn’t call anyone on my husband’s phone either. I embraced the feeling of being without it. I played with the kids outside. I worked in the garden without music plugged into my ears via my Pandora app. If someone wanted to talk to me, they would have to physically come to my house, or get in touch with my hubby. (He is now my newly appointed secretary!)

The freedom from this experience taught me how dependent to our phones we have become. Remember the days when…you left the house and didn’t worry about carrying so much technology? When you could truly be unreachable for a period of time, and no one worried about you? When you could drive across the country without a cell phone, only to stop at a payphone a couple times on the journey just to tell your Mom & Dad that you were ok? When you didn’t text everyone that you knew, just random forwards or one word blurbs, but actually spoke with them days later?

We’ve become so over connected. I urge everyone to take a ‘phone fast’ for a weekend. Plan it in advance so your loved ones are aware that they need to come by your house if they want to talk to you. The experience is eye-opening and will open up your life to a weekend of intense relaxation!

Oh, btw, the phone was happily sitting next to my office keyboard on Monday morning. It looked relaxed and glad to have had a break too.