I believe in living life with passion and, apparently, the good people of the great city of Grand Rapids, Michigan do, too.

Watch this:

Newsweek reported the city as one of America’s dying cities and they made this video to prove them wrong.

I love it.

More details for you over here.

I believe in the magic of math (but that’s a blog post for another day) so when I found Touch Trigonometry via  StumbleUpon, I was thrilled.

You have to visit the site to fully appreciate it (and take advantage of the interactivity), but here’s a little preview:

Fun! Try it!

We hear that players will once again be able to play as Bee Mario and Boo Mario but will also be able to roll over Goombas as Rock Mario (see transmission 8 below) and make platforms with Cloud Mario. Hmm…probably need to see that to appreciate it…and you can! Check out transmission 1 below.

Here’s a sneak peek:

My kids liked this one even more:

And this one – check out that tongue-swinging by Yoshi. Niiice:

And you’ll discover an important little hint in this one:

So you move around the level map in a ship that’s shaped like a Mario head (and they say that you can load up on 1 Ups in one of his ears (always helpful in Mario games, don’t you think?!)). Watch it again if you missed it.

Even multi-player gets a little better, giving a second player just a bit more power to be able to defeat some enemies (in addition to that ability to collect gems). Here’s a tiny peek:

And finally, here’s the first transmission Nintendo released. It’s the one where you see what may be our favorite new feature, Mario can become Cloud Mario and make platforms. Sweet.

May 23 can’t come fast enough.

I also promote philanthropy. Each year I believe more strongly that we all need to challenge ourselves to find ways to be more generous and giving.

Wouldn’t it be great to somehow combine reading and giving? Hmm…

Then I heard about an initiative launched by The Pearson Foundation and Penguin Young Readers Group called We Give Books, and I was excited to learn more.

What a wonderful idea! Read a book. Give a book.

So last week, at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, when the Pearson Foundation gathered together a group of bloggers, authors* and others to announce the launch of the site, We Give Books, I was happy to attend.

*Including Pulitzer Prize winning author, Dave Barry!

How does it work?

Choose a Campaign

Read Books

Share

Here’s the gist: We Give Books encourages parents or caregivers to read with their kids and then donate a book to a charity selected by the reader. Read a book, give a book. For every story you read on the site with (or without!) your child, they donate a book! The reader’s only obligation (if you even want to call it that) is to read the online book. Pearson/Penguin then donates the book directly to the charity you and your child selected.

These are some of the folks behind this initiative.

How easy is this?

1) Choose the charity

2) Read a book

3) Click to donate

For every book read on the site, the Pearson Foundation will donate a book to a worthy charity (selected by the reader(s)) of the book(s) from among those listed on the site).

Just give it a try. The site is very easy to navigate. Your youngest kids can participate in turning the pages of the book. In fact, I recommend that you get your kids involved from the start. Tell them a little about the charities, let them choose which one they like most, then let them pick the first book. I bet you’ll read more than a few (and then donate more than a few).

Mark Nieker, President of the Pearson Foundation, believes “We Give Books gives parents an opportunity to read with their children, and its innovation is that it surrounds reading with those important conversations that can start a young person on a life of giving.”

You can still have that special, quality time with your child in your lap, reading a story but now it’s interactive and helps other kids! This site puts an interesting twist on story time in our hi-tech world.

The only thing that I believe could make this even better and more current? If they had an iPad app for it.

I’ll bet it’s just a matter of time.

Visit We Give Books. And let me know what you think.

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or this,

then you just have to watch this:

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You may have heard of Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, the movie that came out Friday, February 12, 2010.

Many people have been calling it a Harry Potter knock off. To begin with, the book series is not another Potter. The only comparison one could make is that the main characters are two boys and a girl, and the male protagonist doesn’t fully know about his true powers until he goes somewhere away from home (Camp Half Blood/Hogwarts) to train.

Would Potter ever go to Vegas?!

We both read The Lightning Thief (along with the rest of the books in the series) at a young age and were captivated by how exciting it was. Both of us still consider it the best book we’ve ever read (tied with Stephen Colbert’s I Am America (And So Can You!) and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird). We have also read the Harry Potter books and seen the movies and the Lightning Thief series differs in many ways. The Lightning Thief is a fun way for kids and teens to learn about Greek mythology.

The Lightning Thief brings Greek mythology to the modern world, with the gods and goddesses hidden at the top of the empire state building. Camp Half Blood is the where the demigods gather, the only place they are safe. Demigods are the offspring of a god and mortal, so they are half-human and half-god. Harry Potter, however, is about witchcraft and wizardry. Magic. Contrast that with gods and Greek mythology. Nowhere close to the magic that is described in the Harry Potter series.

Have you seen this promo, where water roars behind Percy?

Percy is the son of Poseidon (god of the seas, which must be noted because the naysayers probably didn’t even know that), not a recently-trained-in-magic Quidditch captain. The people who accused The Lightning Thief of being a cheap knock-off probably didn’t even know that the book was released in 2005, before five of the Harry Potter movies were released. Also, one could make the argument (an inane, ignorant argument) that The Half Blood Prince and Camp Half Blood have something to do with each other. Well, unless Snape’s dad was Zeus or Ares or any other god, they have no connection except for the words “Half Blood.”

Anyway, the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series of books was hugely successful, a New York Times #1 Bestseller and given five-star reviews by many, including the writers of this article. The people who criticized The Lightning Thief probably did no (or very little) research and just looked at the ad for the movie while tweeting “Am I the only one that thinks that Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief is a total Harry Potter cop-out? #iamnotamused.” (@clawtooth35) or “hilarious: billboards for ‘Percy Jackson and the lightning thief’ don’t even try to hide the fact that it’s a facile Harry Potter ripoff…” (@estherdbrazil) or “the lightning thief dd not lve up 2 my expctations. almost juvenile for my liking. it’s like harry potter with a better looking protagonist.” (@bookletjeff) Uh huh. To quote @pfpaul, “BF#1: “The Lightning Thief looks stupid. It’s exactly like Harry Potter. Different people, same names.” That doesn’t even… “what?!”

Exactly. Different people, same names?! No they don’t…oh, whatever.

We just disagree.

Go see The Lightning Thief.

Let us know what you think.

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You know about LeBron’s chalk thing? Then you’ll like this one:

Wonderful win.

The iPad.

Ahhh…soak in its loveliness.

My favorite part? It’s too hard to choose.
hi-res color iBooks, the keyboard dock, the revised iCal (that looks much better (and resembles my ancient (no, wait, did I ever actually use one of those?) Filofax)) or the ability to view all my apps on a larger screen.

Here are David Pogue’s first impressions.

Honestly? It is so very tempting for me. To say the least.

I was in a bus filled with middle school kids today and they were all atwitter, excitedly chattering away about how each and every one of them wanted to get an iPad. Mmmhmm.  Those naysayers on Twitter don’t know what they’re talking about.  This baby is going to be sizzling hot. I can feel it.

What about you?

Just another gadget you don’t need or want? Or are you dreaming about it and frequently thinking about it? Giving up your Kindle for this thing? Or sticking with your hardcover bestseller?

Hmmm….

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We’ll fill in more information about each game soon.

Quelf

Quarto

Blokus (and/or Blokus Trigon)

Blurt

Monopoly

Bop It (not a board game, but highly addictive & fun!)

Apples to Apples

Milles Bornes

Electronic Battleship

Last Word