Buzz Review Blog

An interview with Steve Case about Revolution Health

What better way to start a review blog than to brag gloat jump up and down with glee announce that I was able to have an incredible phone interview with Steve Case.  (You know Steve Case?  The co-founder of AOL, who led the charge to make the Internet an essential part of everyday life.  Yes, that Steve Case!) I was honored to be one of the women on this call with Steve Case.    The call was set up by the amazing and always supportive Cynthia.  She arranged this call with Steve for me and a few other Moms. ( Sarah from Sarah and the Goon Squad, Kelly of Mocha Mama, and Jenny of Three Kid Circus-- and of course here!.  Sadly, we missed our good friends and fellow Mommy bloggers Mary Tsao and Grace Davis who were supposed to be on the call but had schedule conflicts. They would have added even more to this amazing phone call.) So how do these things tie in?  Yesterday Steve launched RevolutionHealth.com™ which is a free online service which will help families take action to manage their health care and achieve their healthy living goals.  In addition Revolution Health™ membership gives members "access to premium health services now only enjoyed by a few."  You can read all about it in the press release here.

World of Warcraft

Don't they make a beautiful couple? Is it wrong that I slept with this: I even licked it a little. And whispered words of love and devotion to it. ~~~~~ So, all those times I made fun of geeks for getting in line early for a midnight release of something and all of those times I rolled my eyes and all of those times I said, "You wouldn't see ME out at midnight for some stupid game!"...well, I owe you an apology. I won't actually give you one, but I do owe you one. Monday night around 11:00pm I found myself in the electronics department at Wal-Mart with 2 other geeks WoW players. I met up with Jordan, a saxophonist who has been playing WoW since back in the day of 2004ish. (The cult got him early.) He, too, was hoping to score a copy of the Collector's Edition since he scored one of the originals. (I hear you, Jordan! I was a bit freaked thinking I would have to play without knowing I had that big box announcing my cult membership.) He knew way more about this game than I could ever hope to know. And then there was Doug who writes for Beckett Gaming. Leave it to me to end up with strangers and the writer in me strikes up a conversation with an editorial director of a magazine. And I didn't even hit him up to write for him or for him to write up this whole momblogger turned gamer experience. But it was late and I was obsessing about getting a copy of the CE. I learned a lot more about gaming and WoW just from this time spent talking. Jordan and Doug were great companions to keep me entertained and educated while we waited. As we waited for midnight, David--a store employee-- came by and told us and three other people that the store received six copies of Burning Crusade CE. Since there was six of us waiting patiently and rather well behaved that we would each be able to purchase the game. (I was number 3 thankyouverymuch!) We were told to go wait by the register and we would get our copy at midnight. (There was much rejoicing--in our well mannered way.) Meanwhile, at a WalMart miles away sat my unsocial husband who didn't actually "meet" anyone but rather spoke briefly with others in his line. (Have I taught him nothing??) Which leads us to the question: Who gets the Collector's Edition? The teen boy who brought WoW into the house in the first place? The tween who really wants to have something cool that his friends don't have? The husband who really knows more about this game than God Himself? Or me? Because Blizzard loves me? What do you think? tags: gaming, Burning Crusade, world of warcraft, Blizzard

Disney Mobile cell phones and plans--Great buzz!

Most of you know I have a teenage boy and a tween boy (along with my almost 6 year old girl).   The boys are at a stage where they want more independence.  And let's face it, they want cell phones.  When I was contacted by Disney Mobile to try out their new service I thought it would be  a great way to simply "introduce" my tween to having a cell phone.  Both boys were excited, but Zarek was really anticipating getting his own cell phone.  Their only worry was that they would get a phone that had cartoons or Disney pictures covering the phone. 

When the phones arrived, much to their relief the phones were "cool" and they received the "official cool seal of approval."  No Mickey or Minney Mouse covered their phones.  In fact, they looked just as awesome as any other flip phone they might purchase elsewhere.   They received cool silver flip phones.  I have to admit, I liked the way looked as well.  But the purpose of the cell phone was not to look cool.  For me to set it apart from the rest of the pack it had to offer something that other cell services did not.  Disney does that.  And they do that well.   This is truly a family friendly plan.  We have had the VIP service which has allowed us to try out all of the amazing features they provide.  They have amazing features. I think one of my favorite service is the Family Locater.  This service has the ability for the parent's to use their phones to track the location of the cell phone of their child using GPS technology.  It is extremely accurate.   (And truth be told, I have used it more than once to find my kiddos.  Not because they were not where they said they would be but because they were going several different places and this way, I knew where they were.  Especially if they were not answering their phone.)    I love knowing that as long as the cell phone is on my tween, I know where he is.  Big Brother watching?  Nah.  Just a concerned parent.  Of course, the kids wished that they could track their parents, but it isn't a two way thing.  (Do my kids really need to know if I am at the mall when I should be at home working?  I think not!) In addition, they have a Family Alert feature.  This allows any member of the family to send out a message that will be sent to everyone else's phone.  You know, for those times when you need to let your tween or teen know about a different after school plan or that dinner times have changed etc.  Some days I would just get a message from one of the boys saying, "Hi!" to everyone.  It is nice to be able to keep in touch with the entire family with just one message that gets sent out to everyone. Family Monitor feature helps you stay in control of your family’s wireless spending. Check usage, and as the Family Manager, set voice minutes, text and picture messaging allowances, and receive an alert when an allowance is reached. Also, Family Managers can set spending limits on downloadable entertainment content that both you and your kids can enjoy.  Online I can use the Family Control Center.  I keep tabs on my kids phone usage, their whereabouts, and even set the hours when they can use the phone.  Yes, that last one is a bonus.  Just in case one of the boys forget to turn off their phone in school, I can set it to where they cannot receive or make phone calls during certain hours.  But, seeing as that could be rather restrictive if I needed to reach the boys or send one of our awesome Family Alerts they have added the option that they are able to receive or make calls to certain phone numbers even during restricted hours.  That means they can still reach me and I can still reach them when it is necessary.  In school the rule is that they cannot have their cell phones on.  However, the cell phones have ring features that range from ring and vibrate down to no sound or vibration at all.  Which comes in handy when they are not allowed to have their phones.  They can lock it in their locker yet still be able to get to it if they need me or have the ability to check the messages after school to see if their Dad or I have sent any family messages.