Kinzin - You Should Do It, too!

I’m a fairly private person, especially when it comes to exact details about my family, and especially about my son, The Kidlet.

I recently blogged, saying “I’m sure there are a lot of you out there must think I absolutely adore my chihuahua a lot more than my kid, because you’ll find dog pictures everywhere but a very sparse number of photos of anything else.”

I realized in the not-so-distant past that for the sake of my son’s safety, I had way too much TMI about him online.  Such a sad reality, isn’t it?  The fact of which, until I was offered the opportunity to review Kinzin for the Parent Bloggers Network, didn’t make me a very happy momma.

Now?  I’m totally in love with Kinzin - a secure mini blog for your child that includes all the bells and whistles that would make any Mommy blogger weep with joy!

Kinzin helps close friends and families create virtual private social networks for connecting, communicating, and sharing. It is an online gathering place for families that is safe and secure.

I can freely share stories, pictures, and information about The Kidlet on Kinzin and know exactly who is reading (because I can keep tight control over who has access to his page via the ‘by  invitation only’ feature.)  I can keep friends and family up to date with photos and status updates. I can even post of list of The Kidlet’s “wants” and “likes” so those who visit his Kinzin page will get to know him a little better!

In addition to all the Kinzin-specific features, the site also interfaces with Flickr and Facebook for even more opportunities to share your child’s life with those you trust.

The Kinzin interface for uploading, changing, naming and describing photos is so easy even the least ‘net savvy among us could do it with a quick click of the mouse.  Bonus!

I think my very favorite part of Kinzin is that they offer “Print Packs” of 10 photos per pack that can be automatically sent in the mail to each family member/friend you’ve invited to view your child’s page.  The Kinzin site is free, and the printed photo packs cost only $2.99 per pack to send - you just can’t get a better deal… especially for grandmas, etc. who always love receiving new photos of your little bug.

Kinzin is a remarkable and unique service that earns major kudos with this Mommy Blogger for security, ease of use/access, features and fun.  Kinzin - you get a gold star!

WP Plugin Kudos

Kudos to the Search Regex WP Plugin for helping me find/replace a few details I wanted to change in my blog (read: my son’s name). Seriously, the thought of doing all that work myself - post by post - was just… daunting. With the plugin I was able to replace his name with the initials ‘The Kidlet’ on all posts (content) , post titles, comments (content), etc.

The plugin page says it’s only compatible up to WP 2.3, however I’m running the latest version of WP and I had no problem installing/configuring/using it.

I’ve read on several blogs recently of other’s doing this to protect their kids (and for other reasons) so I thought I’d pass along the linky love.

Never Trust Tech Support

MyKidney.com Site off-line, 2008-04-22 @ 2030 EST

OK, here’s the deal - My Kidney Blog is currently under maintenance. Why?

… because the site admin (that would be me) purchased a simple Drupal theme from TemplateMonster.com that didn’t function as advertised…

In order to resolve my dissatisfaction, I politely asked for a refund (they have a 100% satisfaction guarantee) and was referred to ‘Paul’ in tech support who would ‘fix’ my problem, therefore resulting in my not wanting my guaranteed satisfaction in the form of a refund.

Paul instructed me to do four simple little steps to set-up the theme properly:

1. Download the most recent version of Drupal (already using it)
2. Install the most recent version Drupal (see #1)
3. Move the purchased theme to my themes folder (CHECK)
4. Add a MySQL dump file (which he emailed me, supposedly directly from the theme’s creator) to my database… (UH, CHECK… weird, but OK…)

The four simple steps resulted in a wipe of the entire MyKidney.com database (!!!!!!)

(…and, yes, I was the idiot who didn’t back-up my database first, but we’re talking about a theme, people!!)

Due to the fact that my most recent backup copy is from March 7th 2008, I’ve lost nearly two months of blog entries and customizations. What a mess!

In the meantime, (while I’m trying to get things back online - sans 2 months of data,) you’ll just be stuck seeing the blue “Site Offline” screen until things are resolved.

AND, please pardon my frustration. I never would’ve guessed that a theme would wreck my whole site. That’s what I get for spending money on a theme instead of leaving my free theme (that worked and looked just fine) alone :)

Wouldn’t it have just been easier (for everyone) to just give me my stupid fifty-bucks back???

Quick - Where’s my CleanWell hand sanitizer?!

K1 started coughing night before last. By last night he looked miserable… today he slept until 3 PM.

The Kidlet informed me after I picked him up from school today that he has a sore throat… “but I don’t have a cold, Mommy, I’m fine”.

Uh oh. Quick - Where’s my CleanWell hand sanitizer?

Continue reading…

Jump Start World Review

Has your child ever ruined your plans because they got themselves in a pickle? That’s exactly what happened to my son and it’s why our review of Jump Start World for PBN will be short and a little lacking in the age-appropriate input. Unfortunately, since he’s grounded, my son hasn’t had a chance to play with the new Jump Start World 2nd Grade edition, so you’ll just have to settle for my initial thoughts: which are based almost entirely on my previously awesome experiences with Knowledge Adventure’s Jump Start games.

I became familiar with the Jump Start games when my son was a toddler. I wanted him to play computer games that would be both fun and educational (even if he didn’t realize the “educational” part that got slipped in under his nose…) We started with one Jump Start program (Jump Start Advanced Preschool) and ended up owning/playing at least a half-dozen more. Score one for Mommy (and Jump Start!)

As my son gets older it seems to make sense (and be familiar, safe, effective, fun and a whole host of other applicable reasons) to go with what works, and offer him the opportunity to experience the new Jump Start World. I know that he’ll play it, just as sure as I am he’ll learn from it and that it’ll grow with him. How do I know this? Well, because that’s what the Jump Start games have always done - so I expect that this one will, too.

Here’s the part where I remind you that my son still hasn’t gotten to play Jump Start World, which is such a bummer (for both of us). But, wanna hear something cool, though? He’s been looking longingly at (and pointing out, talking about, and making plans to play) the Jump Start World CD/case since it first arrived. Yes, my son knows a good thing when he sees it. In fact, when he took his first glimpse at the Jump Start World game’s cover, and for at least a week solid thereafter, he bugged me nonstop to install it (and then, in desperation, he finally made me the post-it note that says “Remember to install my computer program,” exclamation point! and stuck it on my monitor) until I finally gave in and did - even though I had to tell him it didn’t matter that it was installed, he was still grounded.

DOH!

While it’s only a matter of time until I can quantify exactly how big of a hit (huge? colossal? gianormous?) the Jump Start World 2nd Grade edition will be in our house, I do know one thing for certain: it will be a success. I have no doubt!