For the longest time, I thought that my father was magic.  He really only had one power, but it was impressive: he could turn off the rain with a snap of his finger!  Another snap, and it turned back on!

For some reason, he didn’t use his powers for the greater good, solving droughts and clearing up the weather at my soccer games, he only exercised this amazing power in two second intervals while driving in the rain at night… and going under overpasses…

Wait a second…

As an adult, you have a distinct intellectual advantage, and it is your right, nay, your DUTY to mystify your children/nephews/granddaughters with your brilliance and superpowers.  MJM Books wants to know: how do you put one over on your little ones? If we all share, we can increase our magical powers faster than a whole year of Hogwarts.

Please leave a comment and check out how other parents are fooling their trusting little angels.

After having spent an hour uncovering my driveway with snow last night, I began to think back to when a heap of snow was a blessing instead of a curse.  That was, of course, when it snowed so much, they cancelled school.  Then it was on with the snow pants, coat, gloves and hat, and off to the sledding hill.   As I grew older, it meant on with the snowboard pants and up to Loveland pass, where the snowboarding was free so long as you didn’t mind the avalanches.

If for you, however, snow has lost its novelty, I have a fun project for you that just may remind you of the wonders of frozen sky water.

It’s called a quinzee, a safe, inhabitable snow hut, and we’re going to build one!  I’ll show you how.

When I was a Boy Scout, I made a couple of them; one at Okpik, where we snowshoed up into the mountains without tents and constructed them in pairs; and another at the Winter Jamboree, where nervous scoutmasters wouldn’t let us sleep in it even though it got to below zero in the tents.  Oh, did I mention that these huts are super-duper warm?    Well, relatively.  If it’s zero degrees outside, 32 degrees (the temperature of snow) is pretty darn toasty.

Let’s get started!

1)      Make a big snow pile.  Pile up the snow as high as you want it, but DO NOT pack it.  It will pack itself as more snow gets piled on.

2)      Wait.  Now, we were instructed by our Boy Scout leaders to wait 4 hours (but as I’ve already pointed out, they were the over-cautious type) this quinzee INSTRUCTABLE suggests only 30 minutes.

3)      Hollow it out.  An easy way to make sure your walls are uniform is to insert 8 inch, pre-cut sticks or dowels directly into the walls all around.  Then, while you are digging from the center you know to stop when you reach a dowel.

Tada!  Your quinzee is finished.  And with all the snow you’ve removed from the interior of the hut, you can make a nice wind wall or awesome snow throne as seen here…

The Internet is growing exponentially. New content pops up every second and, with “high speed” Internet service becoming a staple in most homes, that content is more readily and rapidly available than ever before.

While this is great news it also comes with a few caveats… for every kid friendly page we see on the internet there are probably a hundred pages most parents would rather their kids never find.

It’s no secret; kids are curious. If you put a group of adolescent boys alone in a room with a computer it won’t take too terribly long before a Google search for the word “boobies” is entered.  So what can parents do to keep their kids from viewing content that is not age appropriate?  Parent’s can’t watch and monitor their kids every second of the day.  Parents need an “always on” solution that will help filter the content their kids see.  Fortunately there is a solution to this, and best of all it’s free.

OpenDNS is a free service that acts as an “always on” content filtering system. With OpenDNS you set up a free account and then configure the type of content you’d like to allow or disallow.  You can filter by category or even specific web pages (ladies you can even keep your husband off those “questionable” sites… but don’t say we mentioned it!).

On a very basic level here’s how it works…. Computers use a DNS server to change a name to a numeric value. So when you open up the web page yahoo.com a DNS server translates “yahoo.com” to its numeric IP address (or 209.191.93.53).  Since yahoo.com is a heck of a lot easier to remember than 209.191.93.53 these DNS servers are pretty handy things to have.

All Internet service providers (ie.. Cox, Qwest, Charter, Comcast to name a few) also provide DNS servers for their customers to use.  Basically when you use OpenDNS you simply use their DNS servers instead of the ones given to you by your ISP.

So if you have concerns about where or what your kids are looking at on the web check out OpenDNS.

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Many parents are alarmed at the amount of time their kids spend mashing buttons on their X-Box or Playstation controllers.   They worry that, instead of being enriched and ennobled by the wonders of literature, their developing brains are being turned into ooze by these hypnotic machines.

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It may come as a small surprise, but all three of us at MJM Books enjoy a video game now and then.  In fact, World of Warcraft has given us a place where, despite our geographic separation, we can all “hang out” together… killing bandits and ogres.

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So what are we as publishers to think?  Aren’t video games the enemy of higher thought?  A place were we go to spend mindless and fruitless hours?  Shouldn’t kids be reading instead?

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It may surprise you that the choice isn’t either/or.   In fact, our books are based on the same principle as many video games: immersive, interactive adventure.  Video games (and our customizable kids’ books) place you directly in the story, making you the protagonist.  Often, the games involve an epic story that… wait for it… you read over the course many hours of playing.   The examples of this are everywhere from Zelda to Paper Mario to World of Warcraft.

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Even if there isn’t an epic story to read, there are often many on-screen instructions to be read during the course of a game (which buttons to press to move around or instructions about the goal of the game), and even more still if you pick up a game guide (a magazine that tells you how to access all the hidden secrets in the game).

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Some games have more emphasis on story and incorporate more reading than others so if you’re worried about junior’s lack of reading, consider the middle road and get him a game that will secretly and seamlessly fuse reading and zombie evading.

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You’re lucky, games nowadays focus more on story than ever before.  Remember “Pong”?  No story whatsoever.  Interestingly, this may be changing…  I just discovered a new version of Tetris that is First Person…  Instead of explaining, I will simply direct you to this awesome site.

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Game on!

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If you’re like us, your heart is breaking at the suffering and devastation in Haiti caused by the massive earthquake.  That’s why from now until the end of February, MJM Books will donate $1 from every book sold directly to the Red Cross’s Haiti Relief and Development fund.

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To be clear, if you REALLY want to do the most good with your $15.95, you should go directly to the above link and donate it all, or Text “HAITI” to 90999 to send $10 to the Red Cross Earthquake Relief.   After we’ve all done that, if you had been thinking about buying a child in your life one of our special books, you can know that you’ll be helping just a little more.

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For more information about donating to Haiti, avoiding donation scams, and why money is more important than canned goods, go here.

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• Windows XP, Vista, and 7 all have a nifty built in program called, oddly enough, Backup.  Use this program to backup all of your stuff to an external hard drive.  Why an external hard drive?  Because it’s “external” to your PC.  The theory being that it’s unlikely that both devices will crap out at the same time.   Unless of course your house gets hit by a meteor… but then you have bigger problems.   External hard drives can be bought just about anywhere they sell electronics and can be found for under 100 bucks.

• Back your data up online.  Now a days there are tons of companies out there that will for a fee backup your data and store it at their facility.  This is done via your internet connection.   Check out: http://mozy.com/  or http://www.idrive.com/ for a couple of examples.  The nice thing about backing your data up online is that your data is now stored at a separate location.  So in the event that something catastrophic does happen at your home (see meteor) your data should be safely resting at a quiet climate controlled facility for you to retrieve… once the fire department puts your house out.

• Backup your data to CD or DVD.  While a bit cumbersome by today’s standards, the tried and true method of copying data to a CD or DVD is still a perfectly acceptable means of storing your info that you’d rather not lose.  In some cases, say like for storing photos or documents, it is even preferred as there are no moving parts on said CD/DVD to break.  Thus for long term data storage, backing info up on those round coasters is a great idea.  Again, Windows XP, Vista, and 7 and Mac OSX all have the capability to copy info to a CD-RW or DVD-RW.  If for some reason your PC/Mac does not have a CD or DVD burner in it you can probably buy one online for 15 bucks.

So I hope I’ve given you a couple of ideas on ways you can save yourself from a real headache when the inevitable computer crash comes around. Don’t be a slacker. If you’re not backing things up regularly… get on it. Remember, it’s not “if”… it’s “when”.

We’ve pointed out different public domain children’s book sites like Project Guggenheim and the Rosetta Project before, but those might have been too dated and retro-awesome for some modern mommies, daddies and kiddies.

Over at ChildrensLibrary.org they have full color scans of hundreds of kid’s book titles that are a little more current than my favorite from the 19^th century, The Children’s Friend!

As you can see from the image above featuring a lovely dung beetle, the buttons at the top make flipping through (and even enlarging) the books easy, though it will never be the same as having a REAL book in your hands.  For the price, though, who can complain!

Another great reason to check this site out is the international translations.  A book written in both English and Spanish could be great study tool or presentation topic for your high schooler!

  NOM!

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Part of the fun of writing a children’s book is the unlimited palate of fanciful characters and situations available.  I have said it before, but I would purposefully compose scenes that I thought would be murder to illustrate.  Ruler Of Space really let me “go crazy”, so we found our main character zooming through space on Nintendo-esque X-rays and having their hair cut by cats wearing rocket packs.

Compared to those, playing hockey on Neptune was pretty tame!  Perhaps I forgot to mention the opposing team… take a look.

So a little while back we decided to have another caption contest.  And of course we promised that we’d reveal the winner of said contest on October 31st.

Ummm… Hmmm… not really sure who dropped the ball on that one.

However, since I’m the one writing this article I can promise you this:  justice will be done!  This oversight will not go unpunished.  Someone (Matt) will be blamed.  Someone (Matt) will be thrown under the bus for their blatant laziness.  Someone (Matt) will be named guilty and may a thousand fire ants descend upon their head and chew their ears off!  Okay, so maybe that last part was unnecessary.  The point that I’m trying to make here is, well, better late than never.  (work with me people)

So without further adieu I give you your caption contest winner, Scot P

Congrats to "Scot P" for his reminder that texting while doing pretty much anything else is perilous to your health.

In other news I am also pleased to announce that we got our very first entry into our online coloring contest! Since this young lady did such a spectacular job of staying inside the lines we have decided to award her 1st prize and a free book as her reward.  Congrats to 6 year old Emma Powers from White Lake, MI for her wonderful rendition of our ”mascot” Olivia!

Artwork by 6 year old Emma Powers

Well folks, that’s all the news for now. Be sure to check back regularly though as you never know when we may have another shot at winning your very own, one of a kind keepsake.

Also, remember, Christmas is just around the corner. Don’t let the perfect gift slip through your fingertips. Check out our store and get that great gift for those hard to buy for nieces and nephews!

Santa baby, slip an JigSaw under the tree, for me

I’ve been an awful good boy

Santa baby, and hurry down the chimney tonight

Santa baby, a stainless steel propane outdoor grill,

BTU’s

I’ll wait up for you dear

Santa baby, and hurry down the chimney tonight

Think of all the games I’ve missed

Think of all the chores that still persist

Next year I could do so much more

It’ll help me check off my Honey-Do list

Boo doo bee doo

Santa honey, I want an Autobot and that’s

Not a lot

I’ve been an angel all year

Santa baby, and hurry down the chimney tonight

Santa cutie, there’s one thing I really do need,

The feed

To the Heavyweight Fight

Santa cutie, and hurry down the chimney tonight

Santa Baby, Fill my stockings with TexMex

And sex

A T-Rex would be fine

Santa baby, and hurry down the chimney tonight

Come and trim my Christmas tree

With a Hedge Trimmer, lifetime guaranteed

I really do believe in you

Let’s see if you believe in me

Boo doo bee doo

Santa baby, forgot to mention one little thing,

An X-Wing

The real thing

Santa baby, and hurry down the chimney tonight

Hurry down the chimney tonight

Hurry down the chimney tonight

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