X-Mas Gifts your little rugrats will love.

12.05.2006

Before that a few plugs.
As promised we have a new fiction writer, Fred VanDoo. We are hosting Fred's stuff under the Killing All That Holds You directory. The first is City of Evil, a 12 part novella, in a comic bookish, RPG, dark heroic fantasy style. I have added a nav key to the top for ease of navigation, and becuase the story is longish; you can read it in chapters (Malach is up to chapter 5). Fred also has a sequel, Evil Empire which will get up in the next few days. Fred is young, so don't be over critical.

Ever wanted to know the typical day at the Wand of Wonder? Dr. Murk explains all. Very funny.

I don't know how many of you follow 81/2 by Eleven. But it is taking a very interesting turn. I am also interested in seeing if the tension between Leyla and Nillian from their summer seperation eventually plays out.

You are listening too . . .
Always got to get my Heeb friends in. Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel by Kyle Broflovski. Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics is very funny. Also, this is interesting. At left is a realistic drawing of the South Park kids, done by the South Park Studios. From left to right: Stan, Kyle, Cartman, Kenny. This song also happens to be a Murk Favorite.

OK, you need some Ideas for the rugrats for X-Mas.
Whether they are yours, or someone elses, Malach has some answers for you. What makes Malach an expert? Well 2 kids; a boy (age 5) and a girl (age 3). Malach also works with kids, and Malach himself in pretty much a kid. So, here's some ideas.

Imaginext T-Rex Mountain: If your kids like Dinosaurs, they will love this. Tons of fun. A large playset, that comes apart and creates more playsets. Overall the Imaginext Dinosaurs (for that matter all the Imaginext stuff rocks. My son has had this set for a year now, and constantly plays with it. the daughter too. The big issues with it? Very small parts, and the pieces come apart kind of like large legos, the 5 year old has trouble putting it back together, but I do it for him rather easily.

Heroscape: Now what I like about Heroscape, is the ease in which you can create grandiose adventures, yes, my 5 year old plays with a lot of help, but many of the older kids (8 +) I play this with at work. They love it. Heroscape is basically a build a battle strategy game. No two games are a alike as players create each battlefield from scratch using various sized hexigonial tiles. Game play is mutatable. You can add and discard rules pretty easily, and create unique scenarios. Lots of fun. If you are a WarHammer or Dungeons and Dragons buff, you will love this game. And because every thing comes apart, it fits real easily into a nice sized rubbermaid tote. Battlefield creation is almost as much fun as battles. Easy rules to learn, not so easy to master the strategies. Issues, small pieces, need a good sized area for a very large games, plastic figures could get damaged.

Leapster L-Max: Not ready to buy the kids a Game System? Too young. Both mine love my sons L-Max. Very similar to a Nintendo DS in design, the L-Max caters to the pre-schoolers to age 8 crowd. Fun and educational games. Both kids love them all. And comes with a AV cable to play on the TV. Issues: Expense, $80 for the system, $30 a game, and tons of batteries. You can hook up to a DC outlet, and there is also a charger. Hell of a lot cheaper than a PlayStation though.

Polly Pocket: My three year old loves her Polly Pockets. Unlike the crapppy ones we had as kids, Polly has changed. Most of her clothes are soft vinyl (Mrs. RubberSuitman?). And unlike Barbie, or the dreaded Bratz, Polly doesn't seem to promote this "girls just want to have fun to teen age whore" vibe. Issues: Small Part, A lot of parts. Some clothing is hard for younger kids to manipulate.

Littlest Pet Shop: Son and Daughter love these things (yeah Malach tries not to promote the 'that's a "girl's/boy's" toy' stereotype, he can learn that at school). Cute figures, awesome fun playset (yeah I play with them). Also has nothing to do with the typical direction girl's toys tend to go (a bit asexual, probably why the boy likes them too). Issues: the dreaded small parts.

Fisher Price Little People: The Little People have been around in some form or another since 1950 (when my parents were kids, heck Daddy Malach was born in '49). They never go out of style, are tons of fun to play with, and every 5 years or so, get a slight update. My 5 year old still plays with them. Issues: I find them addictive. DON'T EVER BUY ONE OF THEIR ALBUMS IF YOU VALUE YOUR SANITY.

Piranha Panic : Finding games to play with your kids, that won't bore you out of your skull can be hard. There are of course the old standbys, Candyland, Mousetrap and others. Piranha Panic is one of those. Fun, can be played repeatedly, easy to learn, but has some good critical thinking. Plus its got piranha. Issues? Small pieces.

I hope this helps some of you in your persuit of the perfect gift.

The Mood of Red Sox Nation . . .
Welcome Boston JD Drew, I hope you don't regret it. We don't want another Rentanerror here. In addtion, I would like to congratulate John Lester for beating Cancer, We all here in Red Sox Nation hope to see you back on the mound soon. Godspeed.

Malach's Quote of the Day.


I am Malach and I love J*sse D*b*c from *ttleb*r*