Selfish Mom

Kung Fu Panda World

Mar 16, 2010 Product Review

Today I took the kids to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Columbus Circle, to a sneak peak of a new online gaming world centered around the places and characters from Kung Fu Panda, hosted by Isabel from Alpha Mom.  After grabbing a cupcake Jake headed straight for the game, and played it for almost the entire time we were there, which is a good sign for the makers of the game.  I had a great time chatting with my friends Kim from Mom in the City and Anna from Mommy Poppins while our kids played the game.

When you start up this browser-based game, you’re asked some questions that help determine which character you should play.  You can change things around, or go with what the game assigns you.  Then you start exploring, playing games within the game, meeting other players, buying and trading goods, and earning achievements.  There’s a filter on the chat function that prevents kids from exchanging personal info, like addresses and phone numbers, and the game is monitored by actual people (college students, mostly) who know kid slang and online abbreviations.  Bullying behavior is flagged (such as a bunch of kids sending one player a frowny-face at once) and if unfair trading seems to be going on, with a kid being taken advantage of, this behavior is pointed out and the player is asked to confirm if he really wants the trade to go through.  I have no idea how successful these things are, but I’m impressed with the attempt.  There’s also a simple dashboard for the parents that, among other things, can control when kids are allowed to log on to the game.

One of my favorite aspects of this game is the free play option.  Most online games will give you a free week or even a month to play before you have to pay to become a full-fledged member.  On Kung Fu Panda world, you can play for free the same as a paid member, up until a certain level – about two or three months worth of play – before reaching the point where you can’t earn any more achievements.  Then you can continue to play for free (you just won’t advance any more in the game), or you can convert to the paid version of the game without losing any of your friends or achievements.  The paid version is $5.95 a month.  The free version “costs” one 20-second commercial for each day of play.

Fiona was more interested in the food and coloring pictures from the Kung Fu Panda movie, and wandered over to the game and started playing about five minutes before we had to leave.  Unfortunately she’ll have to wait another couple of weeks for the game to be officially open and running online, but you can go to the Kung Fu Panda World site and sign up for email alerts letting you know when the game will be ready.

Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 1. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information. Amy also blogs at Filming In Brooklyn, Behind the Screen, and the NYC Moms Blog.

Tags: Kung Fu Panda World

My Frigidaire dishwasher has given me back an hour a day

Mar 12, 2010 Product Review, What's Going On

The Installation

A few weeks ago, my Frigidaire appliances showed up: a refrigerator, dishwasher, stove, and microwave (the washer and dryer are coming later).  If you’re picturing a couple of guys, a handtruck, and 15 minutes to set up and clean up (like I was), you’re in for a surprise (like I was).  Five guys descended on my house and took over.  They were fantastic.  They weren’t ordinary appliance delivery guys, they were event staging guys.  If you’ve ever seen Kelly Ripa standing in the middle of Central Park in a full kitchen, chances are good that these are the guys who got the kitchen there.  Still, my little brownstone probably challenged them in ways that the Javits Center would not.

Getting things into and out of brownstones is never easy: the entrances are small, there’s usually a tight turn right after you get in the door, and the staircases are narrow.  The guys were thrilled that these were going on the ground floor, but they still had to get them inside.  I’m not sure how they did it, especially with the fridge.  I couldn’t watch.  But somehow they did get everything in, and then they got to work installing.  The microwave worried me a little, as it’s basically hanging on the other side of my neighbor’s brick living room wall.  But they got everything set and were on their way, a short five hours later.

At long last, a dishwasher!

Once they had cleared out, I knew exactly what I was going to do first: run the dishwasher.  It’s been three-and-a-half years since I’ve had a dishwasher.  The funny thing was, I’d grown up without one, and only had one in the condo we lived in from 2002-2006.  But once you get used to a dishwasher, it’s really tough going back to handwashing.  It just takes so much time!  During the really intense part of the renovation we used paper and plastic everything.  I was actually a little sad when the plastic tarps came down after about six months, because with them went my excuse for paper plates, and I had to start washing actual dishes.  I became maniacal in watching over how many dishes were used.  If something was cooked in a pot it was served in that pot.  If a drink came in a can it was drunk in that can.  Soup, spaghetti, and cereal were the only foods I didn’t consider finger foods.  I tried as hard as I could to end up with as few dishes in the sink as possible, but still I spent about 90 minutes every single day washing dishes.  And if we had people over?  Forget about it.

I had The Ass bring down all of the dusty boxes of kitchen items that I hadn’t seen in years: the “good” plates (meaning you wouldn’t bring them on a picnic), actual glass glasses, serving items.  Everything had to be washed, absolutely everything.  It had all been in boxes since we’d moved in years ago, packed by sweaty guys who may or may not have washed their hands that day.  He then went into the next room to let me do my thing, but stayed close enough to make sure I actually did it.  He knows me too well: if left totally on my own I would ignore the big picture, and spend the entire evening organizing the spice jars, or labeling everything, or counting the silverware to discover that we’re missing two forks, a knife, and a spoon.  But I was working hard getting our kitchen set up.

After about an hour, he tiptoed and surveyed the mess.  He asked if there was anything he could do to help.  “No, I’ve got it.”  “Are you sure?  I could at least run some dishes through a light cycle to get the dust off.”  Well, score one for the new Frigidaire dishwasher, because it had been on and running for an hour, and he hadn’t even heard it!  I think that’s the best compliment someone can give a dishwasher: I didn’t know it was on.

So, just having my new Frigidaire dishwasher has given me back at least an hour every day, probably more.  I no longer dread clean up, I no longer let the dishes pile up because I can’t stand the thought of washing each one individually.  It’s been heaven.

I wrote this review while participating in a Test Drive Campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Frigidaire and received a Frigidaire Refrigerator, Range/Microwave, Washer/Dryer set, and a Dishwasher to facilitate my review.

Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 2. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information. Amy also blogs at Filming In Brooklyn, Behind the Screen, and the NYC Moms Blog.

Tags: dishwasher, FPHD2491KF, Frigidaire

Your Shape Review

Mar 10, 2010 Product Review, What's Going On

Your Shape Challenge Update

I’ve been part of the Your Shape Challenge for the past eight weeks, and while I’ve mentioned the game a lot and talked about a few different aspects of it, I haven’t really done a full review, so the people running the challenge have asked me to do one.

First of all, I should mention that since the challenge started, I’ve lost ten pounds.  At this point that’s two pounds more than my goal, which was to lose one pound a week.  And of course I can’t attribute all that to the  Your Shape game – I’ve been eating 1,500 calories or less whenever I can manage it (I’d say that was roughly five out of the eight weeks), drinking more non-carbonated liquids (that would be watered-down Crystal Light, averaging about 24 ounces a day) and just generally trying to be more active.  But on top of that, I’ve been exercising with Your Shape two or three times a week (except during those three weeks when I wasn’t eating well – see how that works?!?).  I feel stronger, and with the weather getting warmer I’m also going to incorporate some jogging into my routine in addition to Your Shape.  All of those things together have combined into a pretty smooth and painless ten pound loss.  I haven’t done anything at all drastic, I haven’t been at all miserable, and I’m fitting very comfortably into my size 14 pants – a couple of them are even too big.  That’s been the great thing about this challenge: the people running it never said “Go use the Your Shape game twelve times a week and then tell us how much weight you’ve lost.”  They understand that it’s part of some over-all changes that are helpful for losing weight.

The Your Shape Game

So, the game itself: to recap, there’s a little camera that sits either on top or at the bottom of your TV and connects to your Wii, and that camera shows you onscreen in the Your Shape game.  You’re on the right side of the screen, and a Jenny McCarthy avatar is on left, talking to you and showing you what to do.  The goal is to mimic what she’s doing.  It’s not a good idea to stare at yourself in the game for two reasons: #1, there’s a tiny bit of lag between what you’re doing and what you see on the screen, which will mess you up.  And #2, you’ve really got to watch Jenny.  So why have the camera at all?  That also has two reasons: #1, you can see if you’re doing what you should be doing: getting your legs up high enough, getting your arms straight enough, etc.  In fact, I discovered pretty early on that if I thought my arms were straight out, they were actually hanging down a surprising amount.

Reason #2 for the camera is the whole point of this game: it tells you how well you’re keeping up with Jenny, and  you don’t have to hold anything or strap anything to your body.  The camera just reads it.  It took me a few tries to get it positioned right.  I started out with it at the top of my TV, and that was no good – it was telling me that I was only doing the exercises about 50% right, and I knew I was doing better than that.  Then I moved it below the TV, and it got a lot more accurate.  Finally I got it positioned just right at the very front of my TV shelf, and it reads me really really well – I’m consistently between 80 and 90%.  If it’s telling me that I’m doing an exercise 85% right and I concentrate on getting my arms up a little higher, I watch the % tick up a few numbers.  If I try to slack off a little, I get almost instant feedback telling me that I need to focus.  It’s like having an aerobics instructor in front of you, except you don’t have to put on a perky spandex outfit and leave your house.

The one thing that the camera doesn’t read so well is the floor exercise portion.  My % score usually drops by about ten as soon as the workout moves to the floor.  But, like that five pound weight gain that I get every single month when I have my period, I just expect it and ignore it.  The other problem with the floor exercises is that often you’re supposed to have your head down, or even turned away from the TV, and Jenny does not do a good job telling you that you need to change sides or do the next rep.  For the next version of the game I think the designers really need to focus on those exercises that need more audio cues, and have Jenny count you down and tell you to change sides and all that, every time.  This is never a problem with the standing exercises though, only the floor exercises.

My favorite part of the whole thing is that you get to choose which muscle group you really want to work on, and then get to further choose between burn, strengthen, or tone.  I mean, all of your muscles are going to get some kind of work out, but if you choose abs, expect a lot of crunches and double leg lifts.  If you choose legs, you get less floor work and more jumping.  And if you own hand weights, a balance ball, or an aerobic stepper platform, the game will incorporate those into your routine as well.  Whatever I choose, there’s good variety and after eight weeks I’m not at all tired of the exercises.  There are muscle groups I’ve never chosen, so I’m sure there are a lot more exercises for me to explore.

The workouts that I’m getting are intense.  I almost always do a 30 minute routine, and the first 20 minutes just kill me – constant movement.  After that it slows down a bit, with some floor work and more breaks.  At the end I’m always sweaty, a little out of breath, and tired – just what I want from a workout.  I never felt that tired after a workout DVD, and I realize now it’s because I wasn’t pushing myself hard enough.  It’s so easy to slack of when nobody’s telling you that you are.  As hard as I’m working, though, one small thing on the game that just seems wrong is the calorie counter.  It will tell you how many calories you’ve burned, but it will lie.  Monday, for example, I did a 30 minute burn routine focusing on legs.  It was intense, and I absolutely got a great workout.  But there’s no way that I burned over 600 calories in 30 minutes.  I would only burn half of that jogging.  So until they fix that equation, ignore it.

There are other parts of the game that I don’t really use.  For example, there are challenges that can get you ready for a bathing suit, a New Year’s resolution plan, and a de-stressing challenge that’s basically yoga.  My daughter loves to do that one.  I set her up with her own profile so that she would stop messing with mine, and she’ll do yoga for an hour at a time.

To sum up, I would definitely recommend this game for anyone wanting a tiring routine with lots of variety.  You’ve got the freedom to move around without holding a controller, and the added motivation of seeing yourself on camera.  It’s helped me get stronger and smaller during the coldest part of winter, a time when I usually wouldn’t be getting any purposeful exercise at all.

Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has Compensation Levels of 1 & 8. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information. Amy also blogs at Filming In Brooklyn, Behind the Screen, and the NYC Moms Blog.

Tags: Jeny McCarthy, Wii, Your Shape

Finally unpacking the kitchen

Feb 24, 2010 Amy in the Morning, Product Review

Sorry, the sound level is very low on this.  I love it when my laptop changes levels on things for absolutely no reason.

Disclosure: I wrote this review while participating in a Test Drive Campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Frigidaire and received a Frigidaire Refrigerator, Range/Microwave, Washer/Dryer set, and a Dishwasher to facilitate my review.

Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 1. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.

Tags: Frigidaire Test Drive

My appliances are coming! Otherwise I’d be asleep

Feb 19, 2010 Product Review

Disclosure: I wrote this review while participating in a Test Drive Campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Frigidaire and received a Frigidaire Refrigerator, Range/Microwave, Washer/Dryer set, and a Dishwasher to facilitate my review.

Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 1. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.

Tags: appliances, Frigidaire, kitchen