Glinda sez, you are never too young to embrace your inner geek!

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48% of you don’t mind baby showers, as long as you are good friends with the mother-to-be. The rest of the time, not so much. 28% are fine as long as they are not forced to play Baby Bingo and that game where you stick your hand in a bucket and try to identify as many objects in it as you can.  I hate that game.  Ahem.  16% loathe baby showers, and 8% of you prefer to share the pain at co-ed showers.  It is very telling that NOT ONE PERSON said they enjoyed going to baby showers.  I must ponder this.

So far this summer, I have seen exactly one movie in theaters.   It happened to be Bridesmaids, which I highly recommend.  But for almost everything else, I’m going to sit it out and wait for it to come to cable, or at the very least, video on demand.

I am a sucker, total sucker, for great educational programming.

And the History Channel’s How the States Got Their Shapes falls into that category very nicely.

With Brian Unger (former Daily Show correspondent and NPR host) and his completely deadpan delivery, this show manages to make what could potentially be an extremely boring subject and make it sing.  He’s not to hard on the eyes, either, which always makes for a nice bonus.

If you’ve got a mature 8 year old, they should do fine with this show.  There is some historical violence, such as various reenactments of Civil War battles and so far, they have said the word “hell.” But it is totally in context.

You will find out the answers to these utterly fascinating questions: (and I say that not at all facetiously)

-How did an asteroid create the border for three states and change history?

- Why did we almost have a state called Forgottonia?

-Why does Montana look like it took a bite out of Idaho?

-Did the Civil War actually begin… in Kansas?

The season is already six shows in, but I’m guessing you can find it on reruns.  It IS the History Channel, after all.  If not, they’ve got all previously-aired shows online.

And yes, I am officially a geek.

I will comfort myself with the fact that this adorable boy has absolutely no clue as to what he is actually singing about.

This reminds me of when the Munchkin’s favorite movie was “Aladdin” and he was able to perfectly recreate “One Jump,” including a giant leap off the top of the couch. Minus the menacing thugs, of course.

That there was a book that tells it like it REALLY is at bedtime with your kids:

(Pics after the jump as this is mildly NSFW)

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I won’t lie, the only way my family gets through long car rides is by watching videos. 

My son is prone to carsickness (something he apparently will never grow out of, as he has had this since he was a baby) and my daughter?  Well, she just hates being confined in her carseat and the only way to stop her from screaming the entire time is to have some Wiggles playing.  I honestly tried to resist playing the movies for her, but after multiple car trips with non-stop crying and a couple of crying-induced vomiting sessions, I copped out.  We don’t play it on trips shorter than twenty minutes, but after that, all bets are off.

We briefly considered installing a DVD system on the roof of our minivan, but decided against it because with the seven year age difference between my kids, it is pretty much a gurantee that they will never want to watch the same movie.

We also thought about installing some of those headrest monitors, but the drawback was  you could only play one DVD at a time, and they were mucho expensive.

Enter the RCA Twin Mobile DVD players.

You can actually play two different DVD’s since you can load each monitor with its own movie, but there is still a single power source.  The whole thing has worked out perfectly, especially since my daughter is still in her rear-facing carseat, and will be until she is at least two.  Her monitor is strapped to the top of her seat, and my son’s monitor is strapped to the back of the front passenger seat.  My son wears his headphones, and we are all happy.  I would have preferred larger screens, as these are only 7 inches, but they don’t make a system like this with 9 inch screens. 

And the whole set was less than one hundred and fifty, which I consider to be a HUGE bargain.

Given my admiration for Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki’s talents, I find it rather odd to be writing this post.  I have loved many of his previous films, and was looking forward to seeing Ponyo.  I didn’t see it at the theater because I had a newborn at the time it came out, but I patiently waited for it on cable.

Finally it popped up and I eagerly scheduled it to tape on the DVR.  Even though I had taped it so that the Munchkin and I could watch it together, for some reason he had little interest in it, and I decided to keep watching it without him.

Unfortunately, I should have followed his lead.

Visually, the movie was completely stunning.  I was in awe of Miyazaki’s depiction of the ocean and its denizens, real and fantasy alike.

But then came a little something called the plot.

You see, it is basically a love story about two five year olds.

Sure, you can couch it in whatever other terms you like, but that’s basically what it boils down to.  If these two aforementioned kindergarteners can prove that they love each other completely, well then the Earth won’t be destroyed.

So the destiny of the planet hinges on two people who normally can barely decide what they want for dinner, much less choose a lifemate.

Thanks.

I have to admit that the whole thing creeped me out in a BIG way.  Did I mention it’s a love story featuring two five year olds? I suppose you could argue that I’m making it more about love than friendship, but that is the way I took it. Hearing their tiny, immature voices professing their undying love for one another is something I wish to never hear again. Ditto Noah Cyrus’ voice, which I found to be completely grating.   

I’ll stick with Howl’s Moving Castle, thank you very much.

I’ve personally watched the Jedi Training Academy many times at Disneyland, but I’ve never seen this happen before…