Posts filed under 'REVIEW!!!'
(another) GIVEAWAY! *Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithosonian”
Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment sent me “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian” a few weeks ago and, ‘I’m thinkin’…I’m thinkin’….’ it was pretty darned good!
Ben Stiller did a great job of bringing the comedy, again, and Amy Adams was adorable as Amelia Earhart. In general, the cast was great – Owen Wilson, Ricky Gervais (as the smarmy museum curator) and Jonah Hill as the new security guard – who clearly ‘did not know who he was messing with.’
Larry (Stiller) is no longer a self-involved security guard but has achieved his inventors goals and begins the film hawking his ‘glow in the dark flashlight’ on television – ala Billy Mays. He’s wealthy and important but he doesn’t have as much time for his nighttime friends at the museum so he is caught unaware when he discovers they are to be shipped to storage at the Smithsonian. He promises to find a way to keep them out of storage and after a hilarious exchange with Brundon the NEW security guard he steals a uniform and tracks down his old pals.
All is not well, however, when a NEW pharaoh shows up expecting to take over – and he’s soooo bad, he’s turning bad guy recruits away! Like these guys:
There are all sorts of new, interactive displays in the Smithsonian – such as the artwork (they get trapped in the sailor kissing the girl – I think D-day – picture in one scene), a cherub fountain (voiced by the Jonas Brothers), bobble head Einsteins, as well as a fast-talking and saucy Amelia Earhart (Adams).
I won’t give it all away but it’s action-packed, really cute and best of all, educational. Kiddos will get a kick out of the pharaohs, soldiers, cowboys, and other fun characters come to life.
Teddy R. (Robin Williams) is Larry’s guide, once again, dispensing indispensable wisdom and the movie ends on a definite hight note so no one has to go to bed worried or disappointed. It’s fun and funny and a great family film – perfect for the holidays.
The movie will be released on December 1 (that’s Tuesday) but if you pre-order the DVD on Walmart .com it’s only $9.98 AND there is FREE shipping. Since the retail value is $29.98 – it’s 20 bucks off and you don’t even have to step into a store. You can check it out here: http://tinyurl.com/ygbmm7t
But for a limited time, you can enter to win your very own copy (OK, OK, I guess you could give it to the kids) which includes a gag reel, Curators of Comedy: Behind the Scenes with Ben Stiller, the Cherub Bootcamp, deleted scenes (including an alternate ending) and other fun features.
It’s super simple to enter (just like all of my giveaways). All you need to do is tell me which character you liked from the movie – or which you’re hoping will show up again, if you haven’t seen it yet, and then become a fan of Pineapple Babble on Facebook (http://tinyurl.com/yh7d7wf) – don’t forget to tell me you have!
Pineapple will pick 5 winners on December 1 (that’s Tuesday) – the day the movie will be released. So enter to win! And good luck!
WINNERS UPDATE: Winners of the Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian DVD are Kim, Heather Garland, Rob Laundry, Michelle Pendergrass, and DadLogic! CONGRATULATIONS! Please email me your addresses so I can get those shipped out to you. Hope you enjoy it!
23 comments November 28, 2009
*GIVEAWAY – eos – GIVEAWAY*
Do you know what ‘eos’ stands for?…Evolution of Smooth. And they mean it, too.
EOS gave away some fabulous shave cream and amazing lip balm at BlogHer 09 and I quickly became addicted.
Not only does their Ultra Moisturinzing Shave Cream totally live up to the promise of being so moisturizing that you can shave wet or dry, but it smells clean 
and is creamy – not a foamy mess. I’ve tried the Island Blue, Cucumber Melon, and the Sensitive Skin (fragrance free) versions but I can’t wait to get my hands on the Vanilla Bliss and Lavender Jasmine. All of them also have antioxidants to help skin look smooth and refreshed – and goodness knows, at my age I can use as much antioxidant power as I can get my hands on! Also, they’re not overpriced! At about $3.50 a bottle, they’re worth every penny – they last FOREVER. I just used the last of the bottle I received at BlogHer a few weeks ago. It just kept going and going. And the bottle is soft, recycleable plastic – making it easy to grip in the shower and it doesn’t leave a rust ring in the corner. The texture is more like a lotion than a shaving cream – it’s not gel-ish or foamy at all – it’s creamy and thick and easy to apply. It’s also cute…and I’m a total sucker for packaging…take for instance the Organic Smooth Sphere Lip Balm…don’t even get me STARTED! (OK, get me started….)
First, it’s organic…nice, right?! Then you get flavors like Sweet Mint (little slice o’heaven) and Summer Fruit (a light, citrusy scent that doesn’t make you feel like you’ve been sucking lemons)…seems too good to be true, huh?! And to top it all off, it’s packaged in a cute little sphere that sits on my nightstand table and is easy to grab and use in the middle of the night – when my lips need some moisturizing. When I first saw it, I thought ‘now this is odd..how am I supposed to apply this round ball to my lips?’ But honestly, it’s super easy to apply and makes my lips feel nice and kissy (so says DH). Happy feature?…Pineapple loves the shape of the ball and pretends to put on the lip balm and smack her lips…priceless!
I’ve purchased the Honeysuckle Honeydew Lip Sphere (sounds yummy, huh?!) for stocking stuffers and I thought you might appreciate some stocking stuffers of your own – so, eos has agreed to let me give away 2 BUNDLES of their products!!!! (LUCKY YOU!) They were kind enough to send me the Sweet Mint Lip Sphere, the Summer Fruit Lip Sphere, the Cucumber Melon Shave Cream, and the Sensitive Skin (fragrance-free) Shave Cream…and you can win a similar bundle! All you have to do is follow the instructions below to enter and you can have some awesome stocking stuffers…or fill your own stocking…shhh….I won’t tell!
ENTER THE GIVEAWAY
Visit the eos site and leave a comment below letting me know what eos product you’d love to get your hands on. – 2 Entries
Become a fan of PineappleBabble on Facebook – and let me know you have. – 1 Entry
Become a fan of eos on Facebook – comment about that, too. – 1 Entry
UDATE: Winners of the eos products giveaway are @Photina and @Jenn!!!! Email me with your addresses – and congratulations!!!!!!!
10 comments November 20, 2009
HP Virtual Focus Group – Review Post #2
As I mentioned before, HP recently contacted me about participating in a ‘virtual focus group’ and since I accepted, they sent me comparable models of HP and Kodak photo/print/scanners. This is my second post evaluating the experience. If you’re thinking of getting a new printer that can ‘do it all’ this Christmas, I hope these posts will help!
In my previous post, I was still evaluating the merits of getting the printers unpacked and arranged in my home. I was also considering the very physical attributes of the printers – i.e. the Kodak printer is black and built like a tank while the HP printer is white and silver and doesn’t seem quite as indestructible. Well, the printing has begun and here are some initial thoughts:
- These babies are WIRELESS (cue the hallelujah chorus!). That means that I can sit on my couch and print whatever I want without getting up (because let’s face it, I am WAY to active *snicker*). So, I can be typing away on my laptop in the kitchen and I don’t have to scramble into the office and plug the printer into the usb port to print my New Moon tickets. I just hit print – and voila! *sigh* Of course, if I really WANTED to plug them in, I could. But why on earth would anyone want to do that?!
- I may have mentioned at some point that I do not like (aka LOATHE) reading directions. I like things to be intuitive. And these printers were not going to be the acception. So, setting them up for their wireless connectivity needed to be easy breasy. And…it kinda was. Both of them were very easy to connect to my network with the ‘connection wizard’ waving his magic wand all over the place, making my life that much easier. I love it when things are simple. Don’t you?
- I could NOT figure out how to get the Kodak printer to print a picture. I know, I know – most likely a user error – and given that I loathe (LOATHE) directions, I usually do not even bother unpacking them. So, I could not figure out how to print a picture. Oh, I could print them on paper, just not on photo paper. Grrr.
- And then I figured out that all I had to do was push in the tray. Oh. Hmm. Maybe I should have at least glanced at the instructions.
- In the spirit of keeping things simple, in my opinion, HP has blown it out of the water. And maybe gone a WEE bit overboard. Kodak put a single icon on my desktop – when I click on the ‘Home Center’ it gives me options to print, buy supplies, copy and scan, tips and tricks and a mess of other stuff. HP on the other hand put 3 icons on my desktop – for shopping, a ‘Solution Center’ and then the program application. That’s a LOT of stuff on my desktop…but that’s what the delete button is for…so….
- Where did HP get it SUPER right? In my widget toolbar on my desktop, there is now a little image of an HP printer. All I have to do to print a picture, is DRAG a copy of it to the top of the little printer. And it prints. That’s it. Easy – peasy - 1 – 2 – 3-sy. Seriously. Honestly, that is such an awesomely nifty little thing that for me, that it is a decision maker. Really, I know I say this a lot. But it is the LITTLE things that count.
That’s all for now – I’ll keep printing away. So far I’ve done some document printing, photo printing and a wee bit of scanning…but I’m considering a project for the holidays. A couple of them actually. And I need to find some little cards to put my handmade earrings on…so they look fancy. Ooooh – projects, projects, projects! YAY!
2 comments November 16, 2009
*GIVEAWAY* Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs *GIVEAWAY*
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs was released on DVD yesterday and in my personal opinion, if you have kids and you haven’t seen it yet, you’re missing out.
Granted, Pineapple is still a bit ‘wee’ for movies – she does not sit through them – but we often have a cartoon movie playing in the background early on Saturday and Sunday mornings while she plays in the living room. It provides a little background noise and she will sometimes pause whatever activity she is involved in to glance at the TV – making it impossible for us to watch more adult fare – like Twilight…WHAT?!
Anyway, Fox recently sent me a copy of Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and last Sunday morning when Pineapple and I made our way upstairs, providing DH with a few extra zzz’s, we decided to pop the movie in the DVD player while we played. Following is a synopsis of how the viewing of this movie went:
- The trailers started and Pineapple immediately LOST IT over the preview for the upcoming Alvin and the Chipmunks movie – the ”Squea-quel.” Too cute, right?! We’ll be watching that one for sure.
- Following this theme, as soon as Scrat the squirrel appeared on the TV, she was hooked. I don’t know what it is about little bug-eyed things but she loves them!
- This movie consists of Manny’s obsessive “I’m gonna be a daddy” issues and Diego’s “finding himself/mid-life crisis” with a little “Sid needs to stop adopting random kids” sauce for extra flavor. I don’t want to give away too much of the plot so this summary of the primary themes will suffice.
- Pineapple ate breakfast while the movie was playing and each time the baby dinosaurs, Sid or Scrat appeared, she giggled and pointed and made “oooh-oooh-dat-dat” noises. She was pleased.
- I thought the humor was fantastic! There is a scene when the characters are trapped in a gas cloud that is priceless. Also, the graphics are outstanding! There is a scene where Sid is thrown into a pond that is amazing – it looks absolutely real.
- As the movie ended (and I surreptitiously dabbed at my eyes with a paper towel so DH – who had joined us by this time – didn’t know what a sap I am – as if…) the credits rolled to “Everybody Walk the Dinosaur” as sung by Queen Latifah. Pineapple danced her little hiney off to the song – so much so that when it stopped playing, we backed it up and played the song again and I have since downloaded it for future play in the car.
I thought this movie was great. It’s being added to our permanent collection and I’m sure Pineapple will enjoy it for years to come.
Now to the good part…want a copy? Fox is providing 5 copies of the movie for me to give to you! All you have to do is leave a comment on my site about your favorite character in the Ice Age movies – or your kids’ favorite. That’s it! I can’t make it any easier! Pineapple will be picking the winners – I’m printing out the comments and literally having her pick them out of a hat.
Ready…set….GO!
UPDATE: Did you know that in celebration of the movie release to Blue Ray and DVD, 20th Century Fox broke the Guiness World Record for tallest ice sculpture?! It was 4 stories high (48′8″ tall)! WOW! Here is a pic!
But I think Pineapple would have enjoyed this guy skating around more than the sculpture! : ) Go Scrat Go!
OK – comment away – and GOOD LUCK! It’s a great movie!
WINNERS UPDATE: Following a VERY scientific process, during which Pineapple selected from balled up strips of paper, the following winners were chosen to receive a copy of Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs: Earth_Mommy, ImmeBlue, Peaches, Heather Garland, and Michelle Pendergrass. Please email me with your contact information so I can get those DVD’s shipped out to you! And CONGRATS!!!
26 comments October 28, 2009
HP Virtual Focus Group – Review Post #1
HP recently contacted me to participate in a virtual focus group, comparing an HP printer/scanner/photo printer with a comparable Kodak offering. I agreed, so they sent me two printers: the Kodak ESP 7 and the HP Photosmart C6380. Over the next few weeks I will be posting my thoughts about these printers. I’ll also share some snippets from DH, given that he’s sharing his house with these machines for the next few weeks and has some things to say about it! You can also follow my tweets at the hashtag #PrintWithMe, if you feel so inclined.
If you’re looking for a quality photo printer/scanner and just all-around printer, I’m hoping this series of posts will help you make a decision. If you have any questions about my process or any specific questions about them that you’d like to ask me, I’m happy to answer those to the best of my ability. So…let’s get started!
PACKAGING
I’m gonna go ahead and admit that if I were buying these based on packaging alone, the HP would win. The box is black, smaller than the Kodak box, and the graphics are cool. I also like the fact that the product packaging seems a bit more streamlined. It just looks sleek. Bearing that in mind, Kodak just says “photo” to me and that is some powerful brand imaging.
THINKIN’ OUTSIDE THE BOX
When I pulled the products out of the box, I jotted down some of my and DH’s immediate thoughts and impressions – this is what they were:
Kodak
DH: It looks like a tank!
Me: It’s a monster! It’s huge! And it weighs a ton! I think it may be bulletproof – which isn’t a bad thing when you have a toddler…
Me: It looks like one of those old TV sets – the kind inside the big wooden box with the teeny tiny screen right in the middle…hehehe.
Me: It says on the box that you can “save (on average) $110/yr on ink” and that makes it the “cheapest in the industry.” Is that true? And what is the industry? All printers or just photo printers? Hmmm…
General thoughts: Although it looks like one of those black boxes from an airplane, it feels sturdy and solid. I think it could take a beating and steam right ahead. Because it’s so heavy, I wouldn’t think about moving it around in my house too often, though – once it found a spot, it would stay put. It also had a LOT of packaging – a box for the ink cartridges, plastic wrapping for the 2 cords, manuals and a disc. Not to mention the protective packaging for the printer itself. I did appreciate that the tape tips which held the scanner and other protective items in place were folded down, making them easier to remove. I know that’s kind of silly – but really, it’s the little things that count, right?
HP
Me: Ohh – the HP is lighter – it’s not nearly as heavy!
DH: It looks sleeker – something about the white and grey/chrome-ish color.
Me: Yeah – it looks more stylish and less intimidating for some reason. I’m wondering what would happen if I dropped it.
DH: Don’t drop it!
Me: I’m not, silly…I’m just curious.
General thoughts: Though the HP printer is taller, it had less packaging. All of the items in the box were compactly presented and the cartridges are much tinier and ’streamlined.’ The cord was left to fend for itself without being wrapped in plastic – which is just fine with me. Although I would say the Kodak printer is more minimalist, the HP just seems more stylish and approachable. I’m not as intimidated to take a crack at it – so to speak (I swear I’m not going to drop it just for experment’s sake…not yet). Of interesting note – at least to me – the tape tips were also folded down on this printer, making it easy to remove all of the protective items. That’s just common courtesy, folks.
OVERVIEW FOR POST #1
I’m just at the gazing stage – I haven’t taken these babies out for a cruise around the lake/ride around the block, yet. And the reality is, you can paint a Yugo gunmetal grey, install leather seats, and put a speedy fin on it – but it’s still just a Yugo. Though we often make snap decisions based on the looks of a product (and unfortunately sometimes people…but that’s a different post), style doesn’t really mean anything when compared with functionality.
Next post coming soon!
4 comments October 23, 2009
