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Jumping Into January – What I’m Missing & What I’m Not and Why It’s Relevant

by Michael Sheehan on January 7, 2013

in Apple, Book, CES, Consumer Electronics, Event, Gadgets, General, Opinion, Parenting, Tech News

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Who would have believed what a busy month January 2013 would be. As is customary for me, I can barely see the end of my nose, the end of the day or the end of an article. How the heck can I look through a month and plan ahead? Honestly, I wish that I had actually planned ahead a bit more as January is looking to be one of those really important months. But “focus” is a key word for me in 2013 so planning will be crucial.

I have to make choices, just like everyone else. While I wish that I could focus 100% of my work brain on HighTechDad, I actually have a day job which pays the bills, ensures my family has health care and provides me with a professional career. (Well, I could say that my writing with HighTechDad is another professional career.) But I digress.

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January has several events that I truly wish that I could have attended but due to budget, work and time limitations, I will be covering, analyzing and observing these remotely. Here are the events that I feel to be particularly relevant to the tech and family world that I inhabit. If you have a chance, try to check them out.

NMX (BlogWorld)

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Klutz Teaches Kids About Basic Electronics While Setting Up Booby Traps Around the House

by Michael Sheehan on November 27, 2012

in Book, Family, Gadgets, General, How To, Opinion

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As part of my ongoing effort to remain as much like a child as possible, I was intrigued to set up  some “Gotcha Gadgets” that would allow me to play 20 tricks on my kids. I wanted to set up trip alarms and motion sensors that would fart when someone opened a door, or set up a push-button applause machine to give myself an ego boost when my kids didn’t laugh at my jokes. The Klutz book “Gotcha Gadgets – Build Electronic Gizmos to Play 20  Tricks” actually turned out to be a fun little morning project for me and my kids.

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Using a simple (included) circuit board, this Klutz book walks you through a variety of different tricks based on motion sensors, light sensors and push buttons.

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You have all of the requirements included with the book. Included are: [click to continue…]

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Want to Fold Some Crazy Paper Airplanes? Get Some Klutz Help!

by Michael Sheehan on October 29, 2012

in Book, Family, General, Opinion, Parenting, Review, Video

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I would like to call myself almost an expert at making paper airplanes. As a kid, I made hundreds of them, but they were always one of two types, either a glider or a stunt plane. When my kids were younger, I tried to teach them the art of folding the perfect plane. I had their attention for a few minutes but when they got a bit frustrated folding, the activity quickly died off.  I tried to introduce them to origami and that piqued their interest. So, I waited a few years, hoping that creative folding passion would come back, but I never really had an occasion to try again. And it did.

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Enter Klutz Books and their paper airplane book – The Klutz Book of Paper Airplanes. I’m not quite sure if the creative names of the airplanes, the easy instructions or the colorful provided folding papers got my kids interested, but we spent a few hours folding almost every plane example in the book. You can see the results of our efforts in the video below (also available directly on YouTube):

The book walks the reader through the folding of 10 paper airplanes as well as provides additional help pages on Folding & Tweaking, Learning to Fly, A Crash Course in Flight and Troubleshooting. There is a handy chart on the inside cover that quickly categorizes the planes that can be folded and in the back are a stack of 40 colored pieces of paper, ready to be turned into flight machines.

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How to Be a Kid Again – An Adult’s Primer with Some Help from Klutz!

by Michael Sheehan on September 25, 2012

in Book, Family, General, Humor, Opinion, Parenting

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I will bet you that I can read your mind…even via a blog post. Quick, think of a country (English name only) that starts with the letter “D.” Now take the last letter of that country and think of an animal that starts with that letter. Ok, now take the last letter of that animal, and think of a fruit that starts with that letter. Are you thinking of an…

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Interestingly, on every adult that I tested this out on, they had the same answer. And I appeared to be a mind reader! This is just one trick that is in a Klutz book that I have been spending some time with called “The Encyclopedia of Immaturity.”

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The word “immaturity” is core here. Just look at the stamp on the cover! “How to Never Grow Up!” This is a book after my heart. It’s something that I’ve been accused of many times. When you are told you are immature, that is usually somewhat negative. However, I like to view it as a positive. As we grow older (and hopefully wiser), we tend to lose sight of that inner child. You know that child…the one that likes to pull pranks on our friends, family or co-workers. (Have you ever switched monitor cables on your co-worker so that their screens are in the wrong order?) Or, it’s that inner child that ensures that magic stays alive and well with your children. For me, it’s tied with laughter and fun.

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Old Fashioned Content Delivery About New Fashioned Technology – Scholastic Discover More “Technology” Book

May 7, 2012
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I usually write about technology and gadgets. Anything bright and shiny really gets my attention, so much so, that I have little to no time to read books as most of my reading is confined to trade publications and articles. My children, however, especially my youngest daughter seem to LOVE reading, which is exciting. However, [...]

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