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Monday, May 26, 2014

Memorial Day

Photo Credit: USAF

To all my brothers and sisters that served before me, with me, and after me, thank you. Thank you for sacrificing so much of your own time, effort and to some, your life so we might have freedom. Memorial Day is more than a day off, or a day to buy a new car. It's a day to remember that freedom isn't free. So to all my brothers and sisters in uniform: thank you, and stay safe out there.

AOTD Episode 11


Peep and the Big Wide World is an educational cartoon based off an animated movie by the same name. Peep is a small bird and he's joined by other birds named, Quack and Chirp. The series has gone through a some changes over the years, but viewers in the US can catch the series on PBS. The only sponsor of the show at the moment is the National Science Foundation.

Peep Paint Splash is an educational game that's available on Android, iOS and on the Web. It's a very simple game that allows children to learn about colors. Peep will show a color, (like Orange) and the child will control Quack, who can jump on paint tubes containing different primary colors. The game will ramp up in difficulty only if the child gets the simple colors correct.

The game is free and it's good for some quiet time to show your little one about mixing colors, not to mention that the animation when you clear the board for new colors is really funny! Caleb loves to watch the hose get everyone wet.

This is a great series, and the episodes are on Netflix (that's how we found them) and feature an animated portion of the show followed by a short live action segment with kids where the kids explore the concept from the cartoon segment.

I recorded the segment using a new app and I'm on the fence about how it sounds. Please leave me some feedback at John  AT   aspectofthedaddy.com.  Thanks!

Download: Android
Download: iOS 
Download: Browser (Flash Game)

Aspect of the Daddy is a little segment that you can hear at the end of the HearthCast podcast every week. I like to talk about games, tech and sometimes life in general when you have a little toddler/preschooler to handle. Please head to http://www.hearthcast.com/ to download episodes! Special thanks to Freckleface and Rewt for letting me crash on their podcast! 

Monday, May 19, 2014

AOTD Episode 10: Ingress


Photo Credit: Google
Today on Aspect of the Daddy, I am talking about a little (free!) game called Ingress. Ingress is Android only for now, although I've seen port of it on iOS and a ton of rumors about it coming to iPhone, there's nothing official right now beside Android. It works equally well on phones and tablets, as long as the tablet has GPS built in.

Basically, Ingress is a type game that forces you to go outside and see parts of your town you might not have paid much attention to before. At its very best, you get to go out and get some walking in, lose weight and get to know the other players that are in your town as you coordinate attacks on the enemy and set up defences. At its worst, you stay in your car and play as you drive around town. People notice you circle the block 5 times and you look like a creeper.

My first tiny control field. 

Either way, Ingress is a fun game. You find portals in your town, usually public buildings like post offices or fire stations, and you hack them for items. These items can be used to actually take control of the portals and win them for your faction. There are two factions, and the back story is really interesting if you are into that sort of thing, but for simplicity's sake, there are green and blue factions.

When you get three portals won for the same faction, (green or blue) you can link them together and for a control field. The population that lives in these control fields are added to your score. (In the lore, you are actually are controlling the people in your control fields to side with your faction.) So the more people you influence, the higher your score and the faction with the highest score wins.

As you can see, this is a game being played all across the world! It's a pretty neat thing to get into and if you get to high levels, you are really pull off some incredibly large control fields when you coordinate with other people. 

You can really get into the lore and feel like you are really out there to help humanity if you want to, or just go out and have fun and lose some weight. I really enjoy walking around with my son and capturing portals, and he likes the sounds and stuff in the game. I let him push the buttons to hack and place items so we both have a good time. Give Ingress a try!

Download: Google Play


Aspect of the Daddy is a little segment that you can hear at the end of the HearthCast podcast every week. I like to talk about games, tech and sometimes life in general when you have a little toddler/preschooler to handle. Please head to http://www.hearthcast.com/ to download episodes! Special thanks to Freckleface and Rewt for letting me crash on their podcast! 

Monday, May 5, 2014

[Review] Otterbox Defender for iPad Mini with Retina Display

There is something very comforting about knowing that there is an Otterbox on my iPad Mini 2, and in this review I will cover what works and what doesn't. OtterBox is well known for having high quality products, but does that mean you should fork over your hard earned money for an Otterbox? Read on to find out.