I Wish I Had Caught That On Video...

If I had a penny for every video we never shot of Amber growing up, I'd be rich.  I think we didn't get our video camera until she was about 8 or 9.  Once we got one, we were lucky if we remembered to bring it along with us.  Seriously we are doing well if we remember to bring our still camera on most occasions.   There are times though, that I really wish we had those cute but embarrassing moments on tape, just so we could have shown them at her wedding!  (Mean aren't I?!)

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Sakar Underwater Digital Camera For Kids

Sakar SpongeBob Squarepants Underwater Digital Camera Features:

• Use in or out of water
• Case is waterproof up to 30 feet
• USB cable for quick and easy dowloand
• Uses 2 AAA batteries (not included)

We brought this camera on our cruise fully intending to put it through rigorous testing while snorkeling on Castaway Cay.  Unfortunately the ocean was a bit too chilly to spend any length of time in, so like the sissies we are...we tried it out using the ship's pool and hot tub, lol!

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How an HP Mini 110 Would Simplify My Life - Comment for a Chance to Win

As home educators we often school on the go.  Being able to drive when we like to visit family in Canada, take educational vacations, and on the whim field trips is a perk to homeschooling.

Often that means though that we take our oodles of books with us, or we have to forfeit certain subjects because they aren't very conducive to on the go schooling.
 
An HP Mini 110-1100 with Windows 7 (which is by the way seriously awesome, if you use the Windows platform and haven't upgraded, it's fantastic), would really help simplify schooling on the go for us.  

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Ustream - First Live Broadcasting App for the iPhone

If you have an iPhone, and you don't live close to family, there is a new app that you may want to pick up before Christmas morning.

It's the Ustream Live Broadcaster, available in the official iTunes App Store.  It's the first live broadcaster ever available in the App Store, bringing you the ability to share live the joy of Christmas morning, with family and friends far away.  

Wouldn't Grandpa and Grandma be thrilled watching their little ones, opening their gifts, and being able to take part in the sparkle of the little ones smiles and laughter even though they're hundred of miles away?

This free app enables live steaming on 3G or Wifi. 

For more information, go to ustream.tv/mobile or download the live broadcasting app here.

CP Docks ♦ Plug-In-Shelf Giveaway

Ugh, I have charging cords all over my home.  One in a kitchen drawer, a couple around the computer, one on the bookshelf, and who knows where else.  Whenever I need to charge my cell phone, I have to remember where I last shoved placed it.

I now have a safe place to keep the cord, and my cell phone when it is charging, and it makes a great Christmas gift.

The CP Docks line of personal charging stations, solves the problem of large boxy holders that take up counter space, or still have the cords hanging out all over the place. 

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Celebrate Holiday Moments - Gifts from Things Remembered

When it comes to a holiday gift list, there is always somebody that you have to buy for that has everything, right?

So what is it that you get them?  Get them a gift that is personal to them, something from Things Remembered would fit the bill, and there are so many items available!
Things Remembered sent me a personalized gift, so I chose a  Push USB Drive for my Hubby.  This is a great gift for anyone, guys and gals alike.  Professionals, Students even Grandparents for storing all those holiday photos that will be taken this season.  I chose to put a unique saying on the keychain, as you can see below, since my Hubby is always giving me grief for using his flash drives for my data.

This 1 GB USB external hard drive is a compact size for easy storage and portability.  It is easy to carry since it has the added key ring.  There's no software installation required  and it's compatible with most computers and operating systems. You can also choose to have the back engraved as well, and it is available in silver, black (like I received), gunmetal, or you can even get a pen version.  The drives start at $25.00.

I know my Hubby is going to appreciate this gift! It is personal to him and is much classier than a standard flash drive.  And it's something he will be able to carry with him whenever he needs it. To give you an idea of the size it is about 4" long and about 1/2" thick.  It really is a nice gift, especially if there is someone in the business or professional field you need to purchase something for.

You can choose any quote (well any quote that fits!) that you want, Christmas 2009, a Company Name, or something personal like I chose.  This is one that is shown on their website.

That's what makes this a perfect gift, the chance to personalize it the way you want!

Things Remembered has other gift ideas that would be sure to fit others on your list too.  There is the

      *Sterling Birthstone Tree Necklaces with Free Keepsake Box
– Delicately-crafted necklace lets her keep those she loves close to herheart. Choose birthstones to symbolize her children or other familymembers and engrave the sterling silver pendant with her name or afavorite quote about family. She'll wear this heirloom often and keepit forever!

    * Leather Money Clip with Card Holder – the ultimate two-in-one accessory. A magnetic closure on the frontkeeps your cash safe and sound while three slots on the back give yourcredit and debit cards a home. Made with soft genuine leather, all thisgift needs is your personalized message!

* Make-A-Wish Angel Ornament - Exclusive, one-of-a-kind gift that she would have qualities thatlast-like crystal touches and elaborate detailing. And don'tforget-this is a gift that gives back. For every purchase of ourexclusive Make-A-Wish® collection, $2 of every purchase price will goto the Make-A-Wish Foundation®.
  
Things Remembered has gifts for more than just this holiday season.  Personalized items make great gifts for Weddings and Anniversaries too.  I wished we would have had something like these USB Push Drives to give to our attendants at our wedding!  For more gift ideas visit www.thingsremembered.com.

I was provided with a USB Push Drive from Things Remembered at no cost to myself for the purpose of this post.

Sweet & Sassy Gifts for the Tweens & Teens

Here are a couple of gift ideas that are sure to please the tweens and teens that you need to buy for this year.

Yum Drives are a perfect stocking stuffer, or an easy and light mailable gift.

These Jazwares products come in all the "flavors" the kids (okay grown ups too!) like best.  Hershey's Milk Chocolate,

Krackel, Mr. Goodbar, Twizzlers and Bubble Yum.

Available in 1 GB and 2 GB models, there is plenty of room for the kids to store their homework photos, music and other digital files on.

I think the Bubble Yum branded one would make an extraordinary "sweet" gift for those wearing braces, who are otherwise banned from chewing gum!

I received the Hersheys one to review.  I opened it up and placed it in front of Hubby's PC.  He is a chocoholic and tends to inhale any type of chocolate within his reach.  It was quite funny to watch him think it was an actual Hersheys Miniature and thanked me for getting him a chocolate for a snack ☺.

Depending on the storage size Jazwares Yum Drives retail between $14.99 to $29.99.

The sassy part of this review comes to you via Hasbro's I-Dog Amp'd. 

This guy is "awesome sauce" or whatever those youngsters are saying these days (I'm sure my phrase is so last week). 

Plug him into the MP3 player and watch him go.  A written description really won't do, so here's a video of Amber showing off her new "pet".

I-Dog Amp'd is available at retailers nationwide and has an arv of about $34.99.

I received both the Jazware Hershey's Chocolate Yum Drive and the I-Dog Amp'd at no cost to myself prior to writing this post.

Magic Jack Review

VOIP!  Sounds like an alien expletive doesn't it?  Actually it's an acronym for Voice Over Internet Protocol, which in non-geek translates into: telephone service that uses your high speed internet connection to dial in or out.

Voip service can save you a lot of $$ vs. a standard land line phone.

About a month a go we started using Magic Jack for a second phone line in our home.
Hubby works from home on Saturdays and Sundays and needs a dedicated phone line for work purposes, but we didn't want to get one from our phone company.  Magic Jack so fits our needs.

Magic Jack can be purchased for $39.95 plus shipping and handling on their website  that includes a year of service, and then the yearly fee after that is just $19.95!

Many people are dropping land lines and only have cell phones these days.  If you are one of those people consider Magic Jack as an inexpensive backup to have around for calls where you know you many be on the phone for long periods, don't want to tie up your phone, don't want to waste costly monthly cell phone minutes, or drain your battery.

Magic Jack is easy to set up.  Simply plug the dongle into a USB port and it installs the software immediately on your computer.  There is nothing else to install, and the set up for your phone umber and options has you running your new "phone" in literally minutes.  Since you can choose to use a headset or an actual telephone to use with it, it's very versatile depending on your needs.

So far Hubby has been very pleased with it. It works reliably, even when forwarding calls from his office phone to the Magic Jack number.

There was some echoing when he first started using it, but a quick adjustment of some of the controls solved that.

One thing to note is that your computer needs to be running for this to work (seems obvious but that may be overlooked by people who may not be completely tech savvy).  If you're using it in place of a land line, you can't turn your computer off.

The only downsides we could find were that the website is not very user friendly.  You have to do quite a bit of searching in order to figure out how to configure and set up your voice mail.  There also is a lot of advertising bombarding you even after you have your year of service after the trial period.  That gets a little overwhelming when you're trying to find information.

The other thing we'd like to change that you can't is how many rings happen before voice mail pick up.  It is set at quite a high number and there is no option to make it fewer rings. 

All in all if Magic Jack continues working as it has, we'll continue using it as a second phone line, when our first year of service is up.  The cost factor outweighs the other issues by a long shot.

If you currently subscribe to an long distance plan through your phone provider you may want to look into Magic Jack as it includes long distance within the US and Canada within your year of service.

You can visit MagicJack.com to see how you can get a free trial for 30 days!

I received a complimentary Magic Jack with a free year of service to use in my home for the purpose of this review post.

Update on May 30, 2011 by Tammy

After having used the product for nearly a year and a half, after a driver update the Magic Jack would no longer connect to its secure site for log in or contact information. After being on a call with “service support” that wanted us to download some proxy software to get it working again, and then being disconnected from the call before it was resolved, we were beyond frustrated.

Keep in mind that although we were given the product complimentary to review, we had since purchased a 5 year contract to use it, and now it wasn’t working properly.

Magic Jack support was no help to us, my husband finally found the problem with the updated drivers (after about 1 week of not being able to use it), rolled back the drivers and it worked fine. However, Magic Jack’s lack of support and having the call being terminated before it could be resolved was more annoying to me than the product not working.

The Original Disney Princess on Blu-Ray

The original Disney Princess made her debut in Technicolor, but in October of 2009, she made an entrance on Blu-Ray.  It was only natural she make this step, she is the fairest in the land you know, and with the Diamond Edition DVD & Blu-Ray Combo you can't help but see that!

Thanks to One2One Network, I was able to become involved in a campaign that allowed me to receive a copy of the Diamond Edition Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to review.

Being the Disney junkie that I am, my adrenaline was in full force when the package arrived in the mail.  Hubby's was too but for a completely different reason.

For a long time now he has wanted a PS3.  There really was no reason for us to get one, not owning any Blu-Ray dvds and already owning a PS2.  But when that princess and her little entourage knocked on our door, he was humming "Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho, It's off to Best Buy we go...."

There is no comparison between regular dvd and Blu-ray, there just isn't.  The clarity of the picture is incredible on Blu-Ray, and quite honestly with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs it gives you a new appreciation of how spectacular this title must have been when it was first released in 1937.

Blu-Ray dvds also come with immersive activities and special features that the regular dvds don't have.  Take for instance Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs comes with Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Jewel Jumble, Disney View (a unique and seamless way to watch the original 4:3 movie) and more.

With High Definition 7.1 Sound, the soundtrack comes through loud and clear unless you're singing louder than your speakers, which in our home can be a possibility!

Without a doubt, my Prince came through with the PS3 which plays Blu-Rays, and since he has a new toy to play with, and I have crystal clear clarity to watch Snow White and Prince Charming, we'll live happily ever after!

I was provided a complimentary copy of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Diamond Edition from One2One Network for the purpose of this review post.

Disney Princess Pix

As most of you know we vacation with "The Mouse".  A lot.  

I believe that there is nothing more exciting than when you see a vacation through the eyes of a child, and really there is no better way to do it than to allow them to take pictures of an event themselves.

If you happen to be planning a visit to a Disney Park there are some neat cameras that you can give your children to capture the memories in their own way.

Especially for young girls there is the licensed Disney princess pix digital camera.  From as little as $19.99 and up you can get them a real digital camera so their meet and greets with Cinderella, Snow White and Belle are always remembered.

Surprise an aspiring photographer or princess with a starter camera before you leave, or if your trip is after Christmas, this would make a fun stocking stuffer.

This post was

Kajeet Giveaway - Use it for Good

Kajeet is a pre-paid cell phone service created primarily for kids.

If you would have mentioned the possibility of Amber having a cell phone at her disposal, even a year ago, I would have thought it pretty funny.

We don't have a contracted cell phone plan, and only I have a pre-paid plan from a different service.  My cell phone is only used in case of emergencies and we have never thought much about having a second one.

Now that Amber is a teenager though, and doing things on her own, the idea of her carrying a cell phone does not seem as ludicrous.

How Kajeet Works:  Kajeet works in one of two ways;

1) You can either fill your wallet (that's the name they give to your account) and 32¢ per day is taken out to keep the phone active and then each call is 10¢ per minute or each text is 10¢ (incoming or outgoing).

2) You can subscribe to any number of available service plans for a monthly charge.

There are actually two "wallets" associated with each account.  A Parent one and A Child one.

The parent can decide how much money the child can use for things such as ringtones, wallpapers, games etc., or calls to friends, and when the money's gone, well the kid is out of luck.

The $$ within the Parent Wallet will still cover the monthly fee or calls to important numbers like Mom or Dad, so the phone can still be used for emergencies and such.

Parents can also use the control panel online to block picture messaging and numbers that can't be called or have calls received from, as well as limit the time of day the phone can be used.

Our Take:

I'm giving this review as someone who will be giving this to my daughter as an emergency or quick access tool NOT as a way to build her social network, so keep that in mind as you read this.

The Cost:  If you use the cheapest plan Kajeet offers at $4.99 per month for 10 minutes and a month of service, that is really the cheapest way you'll get a cell phone for emergency purposes without a contract.  Plop some extra cash in the wallet for extra minutes just in case you go over the 10 allotted to you and you're covered.  This way is cheaper than the plan I currently use.

Be prepared to use some of the minutes or money you put on to set the phone up.  In order to configure your voicemail box you have to "call" your phone.  At minimum you're looking at 4 minutes to do this.

There is a good assortment of ringtones on the phone already.  Not fancy ones, but for a phone not getting used frequently plenty to choose from.  Songs and other kinds can be purchased through the phone's on board "Navigator" and roughly cost around $2.50.

The Online Configurator:  This is the web based application where you can decide which numbers to allow and block, whether Mom and Dad or Child is paying for particular services and check the balance in your account.  This is ingenious.  My current plan does not have an online portal, and I so wish they did.

I did not switch any money between the wallets personally since I had no need to.  However, I did go in and block picture messaging, and that was ever so simple to do.

My one and only complaint is you can not block texts.  You can block certain numbers so you can't send or receive them from that particular one, but not texts as a whole.  I wished you could block them separately, because at 10¢ a pop, when someone sends you one your phone accepts it.  Period.  We had one from a wrong number.  The text was not meant for us.  Since we're using it as an emergency phone I don't like that.  I can choose to not answer the phone if it rings, but the text will come through regardless.

The Navigator:  I went through this quickly just to try it out.  I think it has a bit of a learning curve, but once a kid knows what they're looking for it could be beneficial.  Both my husband and I had a bit of trouble finding what we were looking for, but no surprise the teens can figure it out pretty quick!  This is where the extra ringtones, wallpapers, games, and other extras (some free too!) are located.

Overall:  I really like Kajeet.  We've already used it for "good".  I dropped Amber off at the orthodontist the other day and headed off to run some errands instead of sitting in the waiting room for an hour.  When she was done she called me to pick her up.  I could learn to like this ☺.

The service is good where we're located (and we don't live in a huge metropolitan area), and the price of the plans is competitive and in some cases blows away the competition.

We're planning on keeping it.  We already picked up a refill card at Best Buy to keep the service going after this review is complete.  So even though there was a feature I didn't care for, it won me over enough to continue using it.

Kajeet is giving one of my readers the chance to receive a phone for their family that also includes $5.00 of airtime.

To enter visit Kajeet, and tell me what your favorite feature would be about their service.

For extra entries after the above is done, you can (please leave a new comment for each one you are eligible for):

1) Follow Kajeet on Facebook
2) Subscribe to Kajeet's RSS Feed by email
3) Follow Myself and Kajeet on twitter and tweet this giveaway (this can be done daily!)
4) Subscribe to my feed via reader or email
5) Follow my blog publicly
6) Add my button to your blog
7) Post about this giveaway on your blog and link back to it

This giveaway will end on October 4, 2009 at 11:59 pm cst and is open to U.S. Residents ages 18+. The winner will be chosen by random.org and will be e-mailed. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to the e-mail or an alternate winner will be chosen. By entering this giveaway you are stating that you have read my **About Reviews statement at the bottom of this page and my Privacy/Rules declaration and agree to them.

* I received a phone from Kajeet and $25 in airtime, so that I could formulate my opinions about their products and services and write this review.

Fiber for your Home Technology

Now don't go stuffing bran muffins into your disk drives, that's not what I'm talking about here! Fiber Optics is where it's at apparently.

When I think about fiber optics I conjure up an image something like this:

Are you thinking something along the same lines? Way back in the 80s fiber optic flowers set in a rotating case were all the rage, well at least they were with my parents and all their friends, and really that's about my experience with it.

After coming across a Re-Tweet on Twitter mentioning FiberForAll (and yeah my first thought was the bran type, that's what made me click!), I was met with this not so new idea that really is the future of our home technology. Yet the idea of it is so George Jetson.

Light speed fast (okay maybe not quite that fast, but faster than my cable!), fiber optics is the choice of the future for the home.

No more choppy video reminiscent of first year video students or garbled discussions. (If you've ever watched a streaming webcast, you understand the frustration of it!) Imagine being able to make video calls with crystal images as if the person on the other side of Earth is truly sitting at the desk across from you.

This can be done because of the major amount of data that these glass cables can provide. As a homeschool parent, the possibility of such clear transmissions via an internet connection would be almost priceless. Correspondence courses with a professor or lecturer, being broadcasted live to computers to teach subjects to students around the globe is a reality waiting to happen.

I often call my sister long-distance, our phone calls are wracked with static and the line cuts out at least once per call. I'm not calling the mountains in Tibet here, just Canada! I'd like to introduce fiber optics to both my cable company and my sisters phone company. It would be great to have a conversation that doesn't sound like my 2 year old nephew is on the phone the whole time (although, I'll have to look into that, perhaps my sister is pawning the handset off to him whenever I call....).

For us as a family, most of our time is spent together, either playing massive mulitplayer games online or watching movies. I imagine this won't change much in the future. However, hopefully our experiences while we engage in these activities will.

If you happen to play online multi-player games you know full well it is almost an impossibility to do it on a dial-up connection, but even with a dsl or cable connection one can lag often, especially at peak playing times on a full server. These are the times that as a family we covet a fiber optic connection. The thought of being able to buy goods and repair, visit the major places in the game, and raid with 40 other people, without lagging, getting a choppy screen or crashing is blissful.

Likewise I conjure the thought of being able in the future to watch the newest Hollywood Blockbusters on demand, in the comfort of my living room, in the coldest days of January with the clarity of (or possibly better than!) HD never having to leave my home (which is a huge deal in South Dakota in January). Movie theaters might become obsolete, but truthfully the only thing I'd miss about that is the popcorn, but for the comfort level, microwave popcorn would be a compromise I'd gladly make.

Yet for now while few can enjoy such intense technological wonders, most of us throughout the country don't have access to the wonders of fiber optics for our homes. If you are interested in learning more about fiber optics, who in your area might provide it, perhaps to even find out how you can be a part of bringing it to your city and the chance to win a FiOS Triple Play Prize Bundle, head over to Fiber For All (because everyone should have the freedom and speed of fiber optics).

Photo credit to http://www.flickr.com/photos/jon_a_ross/

Warm Mouse Heated Keyboard Review & Giveaway

About 5 years ago I was diagnosed with a condition called Raynaud's. The condition causes blood to not flow properly to fingers, toes and other parts of the body. I do take medication for it, but my hands and feet are still cold a lot of the time.



You will find me in socks most all of the time no matter the temperature, and I can't go into the freezer without my fingers turning white so I either have to get another family member to get things out or I have to wear gloves. Of the things I most enjoy doing, many of them are stationed right here at my computer.



Those would be surfing the Internet, blogging and playing World of Warcraft. But having my hand positioned on the mouse all day to do those activities is not comfortable with the loss of blood flow to them, and by the end of the day my hand is extremely achy or numb. When I was offered the chance to try an Infrared Ray product from Warm Mouse Heated Keyboards I was eager to try it. Infrared Rays are capable of penetrating deep into the human body where they elevate surface temperature and activate healthy body functions. I chose the ValueRays® Warm Mouse Pad.







When this arrived at my door, I opened it quickly and set it up right away. Two usb plugs are needed to use it. One for the four additional usb hubs on the mouse pad to work and one to activate the heat. The instructions noted to plug the red marked usb cable in to activate the infrared rays to heat the mouse pad, but mine weren't marked. It isn't rocket science though, so it was easy to figure out which cable did what. I am fortunate to have two usb outlets on my keyboard so I didn't even have to get under my desk and behind my computer tower to plug anything in.





This mouse pad really has kept my hand warm while using it. It has a wrist rest on it is as well to ergonomically help you keep a healthy position for your wrist while using your mouse. I've tried using a wrist rest in the past and honestly never felt comfortable using one. The same went for this one. However, I like the heating of the pad so much and it has helped soothe the pain in my hand, so I simply turned the mouse pad 90 degrees to its side and I use it like that. Works great for me that way!



The pad heats up within a few minutes and then stays at a temperature between 99 and 104 degrees after that point. It can get rather hot to the touch so make sure if you have young children around to keep it away from them when it is plugged in.



The four extra USB hubs on this mouse pad are a great bonus and make it easy to connect devices when needed right on your desktop.



This is the perfect device (think gifts here!) for anyone who suffers from conditions like mine (Raynaud's), Arthritis, and Carpal Tunnel to just name a few. Perhaps you are someone who just gets a "cold mouse hand" in winter, again perfect to resolve that issue. Free Shipping and No Sales Tax sweetens the deal!



Speaking of cold hands and computer mice, Warm Mouse Heated Keyboard also sells a ValueRays® Mouse Hand Warmer. This product is a heated mouse cover - an USB mini electric blanket for the mouse hand. It is a low, steady heat with a carbon fiber infrared heating element sewn inside the double layer of fleece.

Please read **About Reviews at the bottom of this page.



Warm Mouse Heated Keyboard has generously offered one my readers to win a ValueRays® Mouse Hand Warmer ($24.95 value)



To enter this giveaway visit Warm Mouse Heated Keyboard and tell me one unique piece of information you learned on their site.

This must be completed first in order to qualify for extra entries.



Extra Entries (leave a new comment for each one you are eligible for)

1. Subscribe to my RSS feed either by e-mail or reader.

2. Place my button on your blog.

3. Follow me on twitter and tweet about this giveaway (this can be done daily)

4. Blog about this giveaway with a link back to me and to Warm Mouse Heated Keyboard

5. Visit the Partners Page - Become a ValueRays Fan on Facebook & Follow "Warm_Mouse" on Twitter

6. Visit the Products Page - Which do you like best?

This giveaway will end on July 8, 2009 at 11:59 pm cst and is open to residents of the US ages 18+ only.

Pirate or Ninjas in a Dodgeball Game? You Decide!

There is a new arcade-style videogame for the Wii, Pirates vs. Ninjas Dodgeball, featuring those iconic characters in that quantifying playground game of dodgeball. Using a ball to tag opponents out of the game, Pirates vs. Ninjas Dodgeball changes that "innocent" (I don't know about you, but I never found that game innocent at all!) childhood game of dodgeball into an action packed, mind-blowing battle between Pirates, Ninjas and other eccentric groups of characters. Teams include Robots, Aliens, Monsters and more!

Pirates vs. Ninjas Dodgeball is rated E 10+ and is available at major retailers nationwide. For more, visit www.SouthPeakGames.com.

Check out the video trailer for it! My bets are on the ninjas (I just think they're quicker on their feet), but I'll get back to you on that!

Zenses Rainforest Review - Nintendo DS

I'm coming out of the closet. The gaming closet that is. I'm admitting to you all that I am a gamer. I've denied it (even to myself) for a long time, but honestly when I'm raiding WoW four nights a week, it's time to admit the addiction. (For those of you who did not understand the previous sentence, breathe a sigh of relief ☺).

In any case there are times I want something, shall we say stress free to play. Zenses Rainforest (for Nintendo DS) from The Game Factory, was sent to me to play and review, and I have to say for a casual gamer this fits the bill.

First off, although I am now a self proclaimed gamer, I cannot use a joystick or control pad well. It's true, I fail at that. A mouse and keyboard or a touch screen are preferable to me. That's where the Zenses Rainforest game shines in my opinion, no keypad controls needed, the games (there are six of them) are all touch screen based.

While these games are designed in a relaxing theme of rainforest pictures and sounds, you are not mindlessly wasting time, as many of them require you to think abstractly to accomplish the level. This isn't brain surgery though, so you aren't under any pressure! There is a particular game I was drawn to in this set, where you have to match up flowers in a certain combination in a grid for maximum points.

The games are visually appealing and the music that accompanies them is very soothing. I like how you can go to the Zenses microsite and download the mp3 soundtrack from this game.

Zenses Rainforest and its counterpart Zenses Ocean are available at retailers for an arv of $29.99.

I'm sensing that on our long flight home from Barcelona next year, this game is going to get a lot of play time, providing of course that the battery on our DS holds out ☺.

Please read **About Reviews at the bottom of the page.