Reviews on Children’s Toys, Children’s Video Games, ATV Gear and Fishing Stuff.

I do a lot of cycling, in fact I’ve got a cycling coach that pushes me and makes sure I’m biking to my limits.  All the biking I do is endurance biking - long distances.  And that means not only do I need to train, I need to recover.  (stay with me here, I’m going somewhere).

So I’m down at my local health food shop getting stocked up on power/energy bars for my long bike rides and me and the clerk get talking about endurance athletes.  She claims that a lot of the long distance folks that shop at her store use some type of Omega 3 fatty acids supplement.  Basically, fish oil.

These omega 3 fatty acids are a modern, and actual, miracle drug.  Except they’re not a drug, they’re just a type of food supplement.  We get a some of it through our foods, but not enough these days.

This stuff has been proven (actually proven) to have a long list of benefits.  Helps you think better, makes you brighter.  Helps athletes recover.  And on and on.  In fact, here’s an example from wikipedia:

where 132 children, between the ages of seven and twelve years old, with poor learning, participated in a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blinded interventional trial. A total of 104 children completed the trial. For the first fifteen weeks of this study, the children were given polyunsaturated fatty acids (n−3 and n−6, 3000 mg a day), polyunsaturated fatty acids plus multi-vitamins and minerals or placebo. After fifteen weeks, all groups crossed over to the polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) plus vitamins and mineral supplement. Parents were asked to rate their children’s condition after fifteen and thirty weeks. After thirty weeks, parental ratings of behavior improved significantly in nine out of fourteen scales

And it helps with cholesterol, and helps guard against cancer and heart attacks, and on and on and on.  Why are you and your children not taking this again?  We are.

There’s a variety of sources for this, the most common ones are:

1. Fish oil
2. meat

Fish oil - you probably remember the old old days with talks of cod liver oil.  That’s basically what we’re talking about here, just in a nice tablet form.

Fish don’t create these acids on their own.  They get it from the algae that they eat.  By eating fish (and fish oil) you’re basically getting the omega 3 fatty acids from the algae, but concentrated through the fish.

In terms of meat, unfortunately most of our beef is grain/corn fed these days.  That produces meat with low amounts of omega 3 fatty acids.  So once again we turn to the fish alternative.

Now, as an active fisherman, I know there’s immediately an issue with eating lots of fish and fish products - heavy metals.  Fish are also aggregators of all those heavy metals.  In fact, most provincial fishing guidelines provide specific recommendations on the maximum amount of fish you should eat.  The larger the fish, the less you should eat.  Anything over 4 feet, don’t touch.  Even if it’s pulled from a nice northern Canadian lake.  And pregnant women and children need to be even more sensitive.

So how to get around that? Enter Krill oil vs. fish oil (see for example KrillOil.com).  Krill are tiny shrimp like critters that feed directly on the algae.  The claim (apparently as yet unproven) is that they don’t accumulate heavy metals like fish do.  So bingo, all the benefits of Omega 3 fatty acids, without the concerns of fish oil.

One way or another, you and your children should be reaping the benefits of omega 3 fatty acids - it’s easy these days with supplements in gel cap form (it’s what we do here).  Whether you use fish oil or krill oil will depend on your beliefs and preferences, but use it you should!

Posted by Dad.

This is a hovering helicopter imitation with sensors for a non crash flight.(not that they work!!) IT comes with 2 different wing designs and 2 replacement propeller . IT takes 6 batteries and charges for 20 minutes for 5 minutes of flight.

It is pretty fun to place your hands in front of the heli and it slowly backing into your best friend. it can crash pretty hard onto the ground which hurts. !!WARNING!! Don’t hold it in 1 hand and touch the prepeller in the other !!WARNING!! I have several cuts and many scars from being stupid! Stay safe.

You can buy it at any Source for about $100 or $60 on sale. It’s a good toy when used safely and great for kids 11-14.

Another post by Dad….

Speaking of internet marketing and businesses, so far we’ve had the posts run by a youngster, as a lesson in business for him. But what happens when things take off business wise? Then it may be time for some funding.

From what I’ve gleaned in speaking with people who’ve dealt with venture capital, there’s a couple of different scenarios.

First scenario, are internet business. I believe many of these have a rock star approach - they want to be the one in a million that makes it. Unfortunately most of them don’t make it, the days of huge money for nothing but an unproven idea are mostly dried up. Venture capital for these tech startups has dried up substantially. And i think that’s for the best - tighten up on the tech bubble syndrome. However there are still some opportunities for cash floating around in the tech arena. My understanding is that some of these tech companies are flush with cash and looking to buy up other sites with traffic. If you’re big enough and diversified enough online (and have the cash) substantial opportunites may be available that wouldn’t be available to the individual site owner. For example, say a big tech company has a huge automotive site. By buying an online insurance agency they can not only monetize the online insurance agency aspect of the site they bought, they can further drive more car insurance leads through to the insurance site from their main car site. So there’s synergy opportunites there; that’s the market that I’ve seen as still being available out there.

The second opportunity is the more traditional angel/venture capitalist type of structure. Businesses may be looking to grow, but not have the cash to grow. Selling off their souls to venture capitalists can be a way to get those costs. A few problems arise however. First, the venture capitalists are looking not to grow your business. They’re looking to maximize their income. So what they’re looking to do in many cases is flog your company hard enough and fast enough, then take it public to get the fattest and fastest return. As a business owner, that may not be what you want - but if you’ve taken on investors it may be what you get, and no choice in the matter. The next issue with this more standard approach is that the investors typically aren’t looking for ‘good ideas’. They’re looking for proven money performers. What that means is that, as much as watching the Dragon’s Den might be exciting, the reality seems to be that you’re only going to get investor money once you’re already making money. If you’re not already making substantial money - and proven that you can do so - then you’re apparently unlikely to get any investors to cough up the money.

A note from Dad…..

Internet marketing and search engine optimization is a flourishing business, even in today’s depressed economy.  As someone who is actively involved in the internet I am asked at least weekly by my clients to recommend an SEO Expert.

Mostly what I tell them is that it’s difficult to judge.  However there is one thing that I suggest you consider when looking at who not to work with, and one thing to consider when deciding who to work with.  What to look for as a trigger to not work with them is their leading with a promise or guarantee of rankings.  Be careful - nobody, not even the experts can guarantee what Google’s going to do with your site.  So if the push is tasty promises of rankings, be cautious.  However, when deciding who to deal with it’s surprisingly easy to get a bit of a feel.  Just ask them to show you some rankings in your industry that they’ve done.  Now again be cautious - search engine optimization companies are prone to being proud of rankings that are basically nonsense.  Ranking on “red hot dog widgets for under $100 in arizona” first of all isn’t particularly going to do you much good  If that’s the case you can be confident you’re not dealing with The Seo Expert Now there’s one exception to that - if they can explain why you want to rank on those terms then you really may be speaking to an expert.

How does all this tie in here? Simple.  Internet marketing is something anyone can do - even a child.  If you’ve got access to the ability to set up a website, then it’s a pretty good small business/entrepreneurial thing to do.  Even a youngster can make a few bucks writing on a website - as is the case here. Nothing to crazy, a paper route earns more money but the blog we’ve set up here is intended to teach some responsibility, have some fun (earn money for lego ) and at the same time teach the young fellow to research and write without actually having him realize that’s what he’s doing.

This is a shout-out to everybody who has visited my site! Thank you all sooo much and have a good year!!

P.S-Family Guy RULES!!!

This is the newest nerf gun to come out. It comes with an ammo box, tripod and 25 darts and a belt. It can fire 2 ways. 1 auto and 2 manual. In auto it fires 3 darts per second and needs 6 d batteries. This nerf gun is AWESOME!!!! You can even buy it with a strap!

I got this for Christmas from my cousin and we had a full out war! The gun takes long to load and only 8.7 seconds to unload!! The Recon and Longshot are good, but not good enough compared to the Vulcan. I think it is awesome for wars with up to 8 people and it packs punch. The main feature is the size and speed. It weighs around 15 pounds with everything including the tripod and ammo box.

You can find it at any Zellers or Toys”R”Us in Canada. It is great for anyone ages 11to 18.

Starwars the force unleashed is about being Darth Vader’s apprentice and trying to “overthrow” the Empire. But near the end you find out a horrible truth which is for you to discover.

The game is funny but also serious. Killing the Wookies is the best part. Later in the game you return to Kashyeek and the Wookies are on your side.

The best part is customizing your light saber. The hardest boss is the Bull Rancor. The other Rancors that glow are easy.I wonder how an apprentice can train a rare and vicious Bull Rancor.

Here is the order of jedi bosses:

Rahm Kota

Darth Desolous

Junk titan

Drexel Roosh

Junk Guardian

Kazdan Paratus

Darth Phobos

Rancor

Shaak Ti

Shadow Guard

Rogue Jedi

Ozzik Sturn

Bull Rancor (pictured above)

Maris Brood

Shadow Guard (again??)

Kleef

Basilisk

Chop’aa

Darth Vader or Emperor Palpitin (You get to choose!)

The craziest thing happened to me on Felucia. The clip scene after you defeat Shaak Ti. Your enemies which are also Shaak Ti’s minions the felucians begin to ignore you completely. I would be pretty ticked if some random guy wielding a light saber came and defeated my leader.

This game is best for people ages 11 and up. I also recommend it for star wars lovers across the “galaxy”.

Introduction

This set comes with 132 pieces and two motors that need 2 aa batteries(not included). You can build 4 cars and 2 at a time. Most sets only come with 1car!

This Knex dueling racers cost 29.95 which is very cheap for a k’nex set. It works with Lego too so you can build tonnes of cars.

BUILDING

It took 1 hour to build the first 2 and an hour to build the second 2. Yet I’m an advanced builder.It is a medium difficulty. It was fun to build.

RACING

It was way faster then any other k’nex but not that fast. The car with treads went a bit faster. But not much.

I had a crash-up derby with my friend. We charged the cars at each other from about 5 feet away.We did that about 10 times and only 1 piece fell off!!

We also had fun with our dog. We found out that our dog was high strung. We chased our dog with the cars and she ran. Later on when she was used to it she just walked away and growled.

SUMMARY

The set was way better than I expected at that price. It was fun and challenging to build. I think its good for kids 7-13. It’s not for people with highly strung dogs. It was fun to build and race and I liked how it came with 2 motors and 4 cars.

Where to buy: online and at master mind toys.

Halo 3 is the last part of the halo saga. With new weapons and a new mission, this game is awesome.

I love to play this game! As you try to destroy the ark before the covenant destroys the galaxy. You can do so much more like tearing apart turrets.
Everything is awesome in this game. You can find it at any Eb games. There is nothing bad about the game.

It is good for kids 13 and up.

4 stars/