Over 2 Million Songs to Preview, Buy and Download at iTunes

When “going out” becomes a major hassle and a brief excursion to Home-Depot by yourself is like a miniature vacation, you aren’t left with many entertainment options. Lets just say we watch a lot of TV and movies around here. I also try to maintain the illusion that I’m still “cool”(not that I ever was) by maintaining some knowledge of up-to-date music (Rolling Stone’s weekly list of top “college-radio” songs helps this process along).

Here are some of our current and permanent favorites.

Ever hear of synesthesia? You can go to Wikipedia and read all about it, but if you are lazy, here is the bottom line – it’s a general term for any number of conditions where someone’s experience of one sense leads to the automatic, involuntary stimulation of one or more other senses. A person might get the sense that they are tasting lemon whenever they see the word “yellow”, another person might see something blue and hear the sound of a “C” note. There are hundreds of variations – so many that most haven’t received any real research. It’s interesting though – barring a few experiences in college that may have temporarily thrown off certain senses – mine are all rather bland so it would be cool to experience something like that.

When you think about it – a lot of us do experience this sort of thing pretty regularly, but it’s a voluntary action not an involuntary one. I’m talking specifically about people who play musical instruments. I can’t speak for everyone, but I know that when I am reading notes while playing my piano, in my mind I am translating the written note that I’m visually observing into both a sound and also into the motion of my hands. If the sound that is generated by that motion doesn’t coincide with what I had already translated in my head – well I throw my hands up in disgust and repeatedly tell myself how much I suck.

A company called Delta Creative (most commonly known for making paints, markers, etc) came up with a product that takes this concept to another level. Their “Musicolor” device lets you draw with a set of markers on little paper discs that can then be “played” in a manner that resembles an old-school record player. Instead of using a needle to trace the contours of a groove and generate sound – the system uses light to translate the colors that have been drawn on the paper into musical notes.

If you just read that you might be thinking – huh? I’ll admit that this was my first thought as well. “If you’re that desperate to color and hear some music – then get an iPod and some coloring-books” – but I was wrong, it is actually quite fun. Check out the brief demo below:

Anna is a little young to use this one – you need to be at a level where you can “color inside the lines” consistently and she isn’t quite there yet, so I had to try this out on my own. I didn’t want her to feel left out, so I had her help me out be handing me the right markers when I needed them. I’m not going to lie to you – I haven’t “colored” anything in a long, long time – it was actually pretty fun. I think Courtney and Anna were amused by how focused I was on coloring this silly little disc.

The one we tried out was for “Jingle Bells” (we actually got the Musicolor before Christmas – I’ve been REALLY behind on getting reviews done). Identifying the proper color to use for each section is easy since they are labeled with the correct marker – just like “paint-by-numbers”. It probably took 15 minutes or so to complete the disc – so it’s not something that would require your kids to expend an enormous amount of time and effort in order to be rewarded with an amusing result. You can see my fantastic coloring skills below.

The system comes with 14 pre-printed discs with songs like: Three Blind Mice, London Bridge, Humpty Dumpty, etc. It also comes with 5 blank “create-a-song” discs. These are pre-printed with spaces that you can fill in with any color you want to create your own composition. We tried one of these out as well and I think that these discs really represent the “hidden-value” of this item.

I’m trying to teach Anna to play the piano but having just turned 3, the concept of associating printed notes to a particular key is going to be tough for her. Most instruments for kids “color code” the notes so the kid can just associate the color with the note. The Musicolor can be an extra tool in the music-teaching arsenal. I could have her color in a spot with a particular color and then show her the associated note on the piano. Have her color in a bunch with the notes to “Row-Row-Row Your Boat” and hopefully this will get the sequence of keys into her head. We’ll see how it goes.

Overall I think the Musicolor is great, but there was one thing worth noting and hopefully they’ll address it in future releases. Since the system is based on translating a color into a sound – the color needs to be exact. There was one particular marker – the darker red one that could be “too” dark if you pressed too hard. The system wouldn’t know how to read the note when this happened and would replace the note with an atonal “beep”. I’ve got to think that since they are dealing with a limited set of colors and these are pretty far apart on the spectrum the tolerance could be increased to allow for these variations. If you know about this factor it is easy enough to be careful about the amount of pressure you use.

The “Toy Association of America” agrees with my assessment on this one, the Musicolor is one of their finalists for the “Activity Toy of the Year” award. When you think about all the toys that are manufactured every year – that’s a pretty big validation of a toy’s quality. I’m looking forward to spend more time using this with Anna once she is a bit better about staying inside the lines.

Musicolor has a MSRP of $49.99 and can be purchased from:

• www.deltacreative.com
• www.amazon.com
• www.target.com

FTC Disclosures: We received one Musicolor to review/keep. No other compensation monetary or otherwise received. All views/opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Well, November and December were dedicated almost entirely to our holiday contests and Sam’s Club campaigns and that basically burned me out for awhile. Now I’m back to bore you with further mindless gibberish.

We’ve had a chance to try out some very cool products over the past few months and I have quite a few product reviews to write up. I know that Christmas is over, but that doesn’t mean you didn’t get gift-cards that need spending, or that there aren’t other upcoming occasions requiring gifts (which reminds me that Anna’s birthday is coming soon – she’ll be three- how the hell did that happen?)

So on to the review. The Young Scientists Club makes a variety of kits related to various scientific topics that are intended to provide kids with valuable educational lessons, while at the same time making them feel like they are participating in some sort of an adventure. Their concept is based on the “learning by doing” philosophy which I completely buy into (who would you rather have for a surgeon, the guy that’s read the most books on the surgery or the guy whose done the most of them on real people?). You can see the whole list of kits by visiting their site here.

The kit that we were asked to try out was the “Science on a Gardening Adventure”. The kit includes experiments for soil testing, exploring underground habitats, bug-identification and various other botany related topics. The full description is on this page. There was just one problem with the whole thing – it is designed for children aged 4 and up. Now Anna is a smart little kid, but after looking at the kit I decided it was going to be a bit too much for her. I felt bad since I think this is a great product and I wanted to help publicize it – so I came up with an alternative.

My mom happens to be a school teacher, so I asked if her class would mind trying out the kit and writing up some reviews of their own. I figured that it would be good to get opinions directly from some kids, plus I assumed that what they had to say would be sorta funny – you know, misspellings and all. Also – I’m feeling lazy these days, so this is a good way of having someone else do my work for me.

One thing to note; these kids are in 5th grade, so they’re a little outside the target age range for the product (and they’re more than happy to let us all know that – repeatedly), but they still provide some good feedback.

The kit comes with a soil PH tester and this first reviewer found it particularly interesting.

O.K. here is the thing – I have had the tap water in the town these kids are from – I don’t think a pH test is required to tell you that filtered water is better than toxic swill. I’m pretty sure that if you look at the tap water and it’s brown you should put it down and get yourself some bottled water.

I don't care what that pH test says - don't drink Brockton tap-water...

Monitoring the growth of various plant life is an important part of the projects that come with this kit. The next reviewer appreciated this.

Obviously no shortage of confidence here – but like the kid said, he’s a bit outside the target demographic.

I don't think there is enough water in there kid...

The next reviewer was so impressed that they were left speechless…

I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that someone was a little too busy passing notes to their friends rather than doing their assignment ( wait – do kids still pass notes? man I’m old). Anyway – not much help from this review – I hope you got an F! Pay more attention next time!

I’ve often found that when you buy toys or kits like this the instructions for use tend to be less than satisfactory – this reviewer has something to say about that.

I like this kid – he knows what matters in life – good instructions and some stickers. What more could you want?

This next reviewer was a bit of a skeptic at first…

Yeah kid, that’s right, the sundial works – maybe try things out before you judge them.

Umm-you guys figure out the time with that sundial, I'll stick to using my iPhone.

The kid’s reviews were overall quite positive, but there was one aspect of the kit that they found lacking – the bugs…

So the bugs weren’t a big hit, but I feel the need to defend the product’s maker against this tough crowd.

Come here kids and listen closely – the reason the bugs don’t look real is because – THEY’RE FAKE BUGS! If you’re that desperate for ultra-realistic bugs, then go outside and dig some up!

The point of the activity was to learn the basic differences between types of insects. I don’t think anyone was trying to fake out professional entomologists with these things. Anyway kids, sorry to go off on you like that, but lets have some reasonable expectations here o.k.?

They look realistic enough to me...

There you have it folks – product reviews from my Mom’s class. Thanks to all of the kids (and to my Mom) for helping out. They liked the product and I’m sure your kids will as well. Find out more about this kit ($29.95 on Amazon)and all the others from The Young Scientists Club by visiting this link.

FTC Disclosures: I received a Science on a Garden Adventure kit from the manufacturer at no cost to use for this review, no other compensation monetary or otherwise was received.

Sorry that it has taken so long to announce these winners since these contests ended last week, but we were rather occupied with Christmas and the Wife has been sick for a few days, so I’ve been playing Mr. Mom.

Anyway, here are the winners of the last two contests. As always, the winners have been notified via email and will have 48 hours to claim their prize before an alternate winner must be chosen.

First, the winner of a $50 Sam’s Club Gift-Card for the Nikon digital camera special buy of the day contest is….
Judy Bradley – who won with one of the extra credit entries for posting a comment on the Sam’s Club holiday helper site.

As a side note, I’m glad that Judy won this time – I noticed her comment when she first posted it and it is something that both the Wife and I completely agree with. Jewelry is nice, but not when it comes at the expense of your savings, or overall financial health (did you know that the common belief that a man should spend 3 months salary on an engagement ring was made up by the DeBeers diamond company in the early 20th century as a way to get people to spend more money on diamonds? Think about how absurd this is – imagine if GM or Ford started running commercials saying “never buy a car for less than $25,000″ – you’d be appalled, but for some reason people are just fine with the 3 months salary thing)

Congratulations to Judy, I hope the card comes in handy.

Finally we have the winner of the $50 gift card for the last of the holiday contests…

Congratulations to Tamara B. who also won for an “extra credit” comment. Hope you enjoy the $50 gift card as well.

FTC Disclosures:
This post is part of the Sam’s Club – Sharing the Savings Blogger Program. I have received compensation from Sam’s Club in the form of a complimentary Sam’s Club membership. I have also been provided with membership gift/cards to giveaway to our readers. Regardless of compensation, all views and opinions expressed are my own.

No – I’m not writing a post about doing things according to standard operating procedures (if you knew me you’d know that I don’t do much of anything “by the book”). Actually, “Strictly by the Book” is the name of a bookstore in Salem, NH that I wanted to tell you about.

I don’t know how many of our readers live in Southern NH or Northern MA, but for those of you who do and who like books, this store is sorta like paradise. It is a “warehouse” store, so unlike Barnes & Noble or Borders, you don’t go there to pick up the latest best-seller that came out a few days ago. Instead, they purchase large lots of books from publishers and other retailers – either books that were “over-ordered” by the bookstores and were left-over, or items that might have slight defects that the publishers wouldn’t send out to the primary retailers. When I say “slight defect” I do mean “slight”. We’re talking about a logo on the back of the book being smudged a little bit or something along those lines.

I hate to say it, but most warehouse stores sell crap. That’s not the case here – they have a really broad selection of books that appeals to everyone in our family. The kid’s section is huge, so we always find things for Anna. Courtney loves her fiction & mysteries, and they have plenty of those. I tend to be into non-fiction and they never disappoint in this area either. There is one section though, that totally draws me in every time we go.

I’ve always been into art, and big, coffee-table art books have always been one of those things that I like to buy, but typically avoid because they are so overpriced. Well, somehow or another, Strictly By the Book must have made an arrangement with Phaidon which is one of the largest publishers of art-books, because they have a great selection of items from that company which all seem to range in price from $1 to $5. That was not a typo, I didn’t mean $10 and $50, I meant $1 and $5. These are books that typically retail for $20 to $100 dollars, so you are paying a tiny fraction of that price.

The lower level of my book-shelves, the ones reserved for the big-heavy books, have recently been filled to capacity with art books I’ve bought here. I can’t wait for our next trip to buy some more.

The great thing about this place is that unlike a regular retailer where you always tend to leave wondering “how the heck did I spend so much money and end up with so few items?”, you actually have the opposite experience here. While you are lugging out the enormous bags of books that you just bought you think “how did I get all of this stuff for so little money? It almost feels like stealing…”

The pricing is pretty simple – most items are between $1 and $5 with the occasional book going up to maybe $7. I think that pretty much every paper-back is a dollar, but they have a sheet listing all of the prices posted throughout the store. It’s based on a formula like “if the retail price was between $17.50 and $20, you’ll pay $3″.

To get an idea of what I’m talking about, take a look at this picture of our purchases during one recent trip.

I would guess that purchasing all of those at Barnes and Noble would have cost us in the area of $200. But take a look at our receipt to see what we paid here:

Yep, you read that right – $56.50 for all of it. The most expensive thing was one of my big old art-books that went for $6.

I’m writing about this store not just because we’re big fans and not just because it might be a good place for some of our local readers to pick up some last minute gifts for very little money, but also because I’ve heard that the place might be shutting down in January – to be replaced by a frigin “Sports Authority”. I know that we’ll be making a few more trips before the place closes, but I wanted to let our local readers know in case they’ve never heard of this place and wanted to swing by before it’s too late.

Here is the info:

View Larger Map

FTC Disclosures: I have not received any compensation of any sort from any company mentioned in this post, nor do I have any relationship of any sort with any company mentioned in this post – I just like books.

So this should be the last of my Sam’s Club Holiday posts and the last of my holiday-season $50 Sam’s Club gift-card giveaways. Hopefully you’ve found these posts helpful and for those of you who won the contests – profitable…

So for my last post I’ll be focusing on those last-minute gift ideas that everyone needs right about now – except me. You see, I’ve ranted a whole lot about how much I procrastinate and how I always end up running around the mall on Christmas Eve. I made a concerted effort to avoid that situation this year and I managed to do it – I’m pretty much done shopping – I can’t believe it. The real surprise though, isn’t that I have my shopping done, it’s that the Wife is way behind on buying stuff for me. Our situations are totally reversed this year and I actually find it a bit amusing.

So for those of you who are in the same situation as the Wife – the Sam’s Club site has a page dedicated to some items that you can still purchase and have shipped to you before Christmas. Check it out here. They have some good items left like TVs, Wii consoles, and other toys. If you’re desperate for some last-minute ideas, you should check out the page.

Don’t forget all of the other helpful holiday ideas we’ve discussed over the past couple months:

• You can get individualized gift ideas for anyone you can think of using the Gifter-Stress -Lifter program
• You can help your friends and family know what you’d like to receive using the Wish-List functionality
• You can look up all sorts of gifts at any price point using the Gifts-Galore feature
• Lastly, you could always give a Sam’s Club membership using the Gift-of-Membership

So there you have it folks – no more urging from me to go out and spend your money on shopping – my job here is done (for this year at least). To say thanks again for paying attention – here’s one more gift card giveaway for you.

Giveaway!
I have one last $50 Sam’s Club gift card to give-away and you can win it by leaving a comment on this post. I’ve done all types of holiday related themes for these giveaways so I’ll wrap this one up with a really general one. In your comment mention either the thing that you like the most about the holidays OR the thing that you like the least. Pretty simple – everyone has some sort of opinion on these things. Good luck and thanks again.

Official Rules:
1. You must already be, or become a subscriber to this site in order to participate in this contest.
2.  To enter, leave a comment on this post and mention either: the thing you like the most about the holidays OR the thing that you like the least about them – simple as that.
3. One winner will receive $50 worth of Sam’s Club gift cards.
4. The winner will be selected using random.org, based on the number of your comment.
6. This contest will end at 10pm on Wednesday, December 23, 2009.
7. Winners will be notified by email and posted to this site. Winners will have 48 hours from the time of notification to claim their prize. If the prize is not claimed within that time, another winner will be chosen.
8. Each comment represents a single entry. Those entitled to multiple entries for performing “extra credit” must add a comment for each entry.

Extra Credit:
1. Follow me using the Google Friend Connect widget – 1 extra entry
2. Follow on Twitter and Tweet about this contest – 1 extra entry per day (include link to Tweet in your comment)
3. Blog about this contest – 3 extra entries (include a link to the post in your comment)

4. Post a comment on any of the other posts on this site (from the past month) – 1 extra entry per post (leave post name and comment #)

5. Visit the Sam’s Club “Holiday Helper” page and leave a comment on any of the posts. Include a link to this post in your comment. – 2 extra entries for each Holiday Helper post that you comment on (you can do this for any number of the posts on that website but only one comment for each post counts. You can’t just go and add 5 comments to one post and then claim 10 entries, but if you post a comment on five separate posts you can get 10 entries).

(remember, you have to leave a comment for EACH ENTRY when you do extra credit. We pick winners based on a drawing using the comment number. If you put 5 entries into a single comment, you defeat the whole purpose of the extra credit, since you aren’t increasing your chances of winning. No, I am not going to go through each entry and make sure that you’ve entered correctly, that is up to you.)

FTC Disclosures:
This post is part of the Sam’s Club – Sharing the Savings Blogger Program. I have received compensation from Sam’s Club in the form of a complimentary Sam’s Club membership. I have also been provided with membership gift/cards to giveaway to our readers. Regardless of compensation, all views and opinions expressed are my own.