How Apple beat Lenovo and Samsung- at least in our house

The kids watch Berenstain Bears regularly. We let them watch it because it teaches them the importance of cleaning up, listening to their parents, behaving etc.

Now the fact that they don't listen to us when we say "stop watching" or "go cleanup and stop watching" or simply say things like "I am going to punch you in the head if you pause it" (that from a five year old girl to her daddy) suggest that the benefits of watching these episodes may be overrated. Nevertheless, there is silence in the house when we need it and so they are allowed to watch!

They used to record it on the DVR when we were with Direct TV and watch it on the big wall mounted TV..

Then we switched to Dish and that channel is no longer available to us on our NEW plan. So the kids started watching "youtube" indefinite reruns on the laptop.

Now they have switched over to the iPad having figured out that youtube is available on the iPad!

We just got an iPad and lost it to the kids. All other options in front of them in bigger and better sizes are moot. I never get to use the iPad now when they are awake.

In other news blogging has taken a serious nose dive because of work, work, and more work. It feels like all the planets, sun and moon have aligned themselves into one straight line which points directly to my rear end.

Add to that, our old TV channels are all gone. Vijay TV apparently had a fall out with Direct TV and decided to pull out and that meant, we had to scram for an alternate Satellite provider with Tamil channels and ended up going through a roller coaster cable switch from Direct to ATT to Dish in a span of two weeks!

On the bright side, we have Netflix online now, thanks to the iPad and watch free movies in bed. We seem to be watching the first 15-20 minutes of many free movies and switch to another movie. What they need is a like a 30 minute fast edited version of most movies with only the highlights. Something like a "Thirai Malar" featuring Jackie Chan, Tom Cruise Harrison Ford and Clint Eastwood. That, would truly make my day!

The kids are keeping us busy and though there isn't much time to go out anywhere and enjoy the sun, there is the odd photo session every time the kids take a shower or wear anything pretty..

The hope is that February will give us more personal time. This level of intensity with two people working 16-18 hour days and taking all weekend to just catch some sleep so we can go do this all over again for another five days is not going to work for the kids.

San wants to start buying lottery tickets soon and I am this close to seconding that thought. Have not been a lottery ticket kind of guy, but why not?

Next weekend no matter how good or bad the weather is, we have decided to go on a short drive to someplace, take some photos and just get back to having some fun.

If we don't the little one might just "punch me in the head"!

.

How does one?

Go make an electronic story book in app form for a Tamizh story?

Would like to try my hand at making an animated story which my grandmother told us, which was told to her by her grandmother..

That means this story is at least a 100+ years old, probably older

The story is about an "eee" ஈ (housefly) who forgot its name and went asking different people/things if they knew its name.

Any suggestions for software, methods etc. greatly appreciated!

Would like to make this a weekend project of sorts.

While in grad school I helped create many educational self teach programs using a software called "Authorware Pro" on a Macintosh Quadra (yep, that was ages ago.. before internet days) and it was given good reviews by many students who used it.

It was difficult even to find these on google search and some of the pages open only on Internet Explorer and don't open on firefox. Was also sad to see my name not on the credits for some stuff I really put my heart and soul into, but I digress.. It does not matter now.

Things have come a long way since those days, what with Flash and Youtube and of course the internet!

Hopefully you will see an animated story titled:

"Kozhu Kozhu Kanne, en peyar enna?"

கொழு கொழு கன்னே, என் பெயர் என்ன?

(plump plump calf, what is my name?)

and the calf says "Theriyaadhe!" தெரியாதே ! (I don't know!)

and off he goes to the next person with the same answer till he finally gets his name!

Jr. and the little one absolutely love this story when my mom narrates it to them and my nephew thinks I am the greatest story teller in the world for my embellished version of this story!

This old dog is up for some new tricks!

So, please, point me toward the right tools..

.