Teaching Our Children About Lying

As parents we have many aspirations, expectations, goals, hopes and dreams for our children. One of such is the hope that they will be an honest person. Along with that hope comes the responsibility of teaching them about honesty and lying. And, if we are honest with them we tell them that everyone lies at some point in their life, but if they do find themselves in a situation where they have lied they should fess up, apologise and make amends whenever possible. We teach them that lying is wrong and you should be honest. We teach them that lies can carry consequences such as hurt feelings, lost trust, damaged relationships, and possible legal trouble. Then we teach them that if they do lie it can lead to telling more lies to cover up the first lie, making up elaborate details to explain the lie, and maybe even asking others to lie for you. Inevitably we catch them in a lie and watch and hear them do all the things we told them not to. Then when we call them out on it, they see first hand how it all works and how wrapped up in it they can get. Then comes the consequences, apologies, and making up. Then (and here comes the good part) they catch us in a lie (uh oh) and we have to explain ourselves and hopefully apologise. And that leads me to my point.

While we're having all this teaching, learning and experiences with our children about lying, Christmas time rolls around and the first thing we tell them is that some guy named Santa is going to bring them gifts on Christmas Eve if they are good. We tell them elaborate details about his appearance, his reindeer and his workshop. This will suffice at first but then come the questions:
How do reindeer fly? Cover lie #1
How does he get down the chimney? Cover lie #2
How does he make all the toys? Cover lie #3
What about the people that don't have chimneys? Cover lie #4
Where is his workshop? How does he go all over the world in one night? How does he know when I'm awake/sleeping? And the list goes on. We even get our friends and family to join in on the deception with a few lies of their own. So ultimately we do all the things we teach them not to do and that are wrong and we do it year after year and the worst part is, we make it fun. Fun for us and fun for them. Now you may be thinking, but that's part of the "Magic" of Christmas. Let me ask you this. When was the last time you were lied to and found out and then thought "oh but that was magical".

What's the harm in it? The harm in it is that our children learn more by example than explanations, more by our actions than our words. So, what are we teaching them here. Lying is ok if we make it fun, cover it up as much as you can, bring in others to help you out, and stick it out till the very end and then don't apologise but laugh it off instead. Not a good example at all.

Another thing is that I've heard many children express their almost inexpressible love for Santa, their gratefulness, their appreciation for what he does and their admiration for him. Where does this come from? From the lies we've told them about him and the gifts that they have received from "him". This love and admiration is misplaced. They should be directing that love and admiration to you the parents and family. They should be placing their hope and trust in you for presents on their lists. They should want to be good for you because you are there to care for them and in turn do good things like Christmas gifts for them. Once the truth is found out it's usually too late or forgotten to redirect those important connections and emotions that they felt for someone who didn't even exist to the ones who really should be receiving it. Also the time that those connections should have been made would've been building stronger bonds and relationships and that is something that cannot be recaptured and there we have the most dire of the Christmas lies consequences. Lost love, hope, connection, and bonding at an important age. Instead they get lies and deception and a nonexistent Santa gets the love and respect that should be going to the parents.

If you tell your child that there is a Santa Clause I think you should stop now, tell them the truth, apologise and ask for forgiveness (the younger your child the better). Then have fun with your Christmas traditions in a new way with you getting the love and admiration of your children during this time of year instead of a fairy tale. You can treat Santa as just part of the Christmas fun like you would Mickey Mouse, Spider-Man, or Dora the Explorer but not a real person that brings them gifts. I have 2 girls and I love getting the hugs and love from them during Christmas. I would never want to differ that to some make believe Santa. I also believe it builds trust knowing that we didn't even lie to them about Santa and I believe that will stick with them as they get older.

Oh, and don't forget about the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy too.

Let me know your thoughts on telling your children about Santa.

Smoothie in a Package?

The other day I was at a store and I saw a rack with packets hanging on it. They were about twice the size of a Cool-Aid packet. As I glanced at them what was on it caught my eye. The packets said Smoothie on them. So I went over to check them out. Each one was a different flavor like "Orange Smoothie, Strawberry Smoothie or Banana Smoothie. I thought to myself "are you kidding me, a Smoothie in a packet?" I took the Orange Smoothie packet off the rack and under the main title it says "Just add Oranges, Water, and Ice. "Ha Ha" I actually did LOL and my wife wondered what I was laughing at. When I told her, she said exactly what I was thinking "Then what's in the packet?" So I turned it over and looked at the ingredients and the first one was Sugar, the second one was Corn Syrup, and there were about 4 more things but I don't remember what they were now but nothing good. So, in case you don't know, the way you make a Smoothie is by putting fruit, ice and water in a blender and blend away. You can also add some milk too for some more flavor. So basically if you get this Smoothie packet what you are doing is making a Smoothie then adding a packet of sugar to it. If you're going to go through the trouble of making a Smoothie why would you buy this pack of sugar to put in it. Smoothies are supposed to be a type of healthy drink with lots of vitamins and nutrients in them, but here you are putting sugar in it. Why? Fruits are naturally sweet anyway.

Then in the directions on the Orange Smoothie packet it says "you can also substitute Orange Juice for the Oranges and Water." Now what you have is a packet of sugar mixed with processed juice loaded with preservatives and other things. Sorry, but you have now gone out of the realm of a Smoothie and into the realm of a Smoothie Flavored Drink. The sad think is, I can see people unwittingly picking up some of these thinking "I'll have some healthy drinks." when in reality they are't that healthy after adding the packet.

If you're going to make a Smoothie please don't add this packet to it. If you're going to use the fruit, water and ice and blend it up just leave out the packet of sugar. If you want some more flavor try adding Almond Milk or you can always mix several different fruits and try mixing in some veggies too.

Have you ever found something disguised as being healthy?

Health Tip of the Week - Snack Time

Snacking between meals can be healthy but not if what we snack on is loaded with sugars, nitrates, sodium and other chemicals. Try switching out those chips and sweets for some easy to snack on fruits and veggies. Small fruits make great snacks. Most fruits are naturally sweet and are loaded with nutrients. Take grapes for example, there are several different kinds of grapes which also have different flavors. Grapes are loaded with polyphenols which fight free radicals in the body. Strawberries, Blueberries and Blackberries also make great snacks and have antioxidants as well and the darker the color the more they have. I like my berry snacks cold so when I get to work I put them in the fridge and by the time I get snacky, there's a nice cold sweet treat that's good for me. Celery and baby carrots make great veggie snacks that are easy to take along too.

I did a health tip video on my YouTube channel: Here's the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuwtPti4GQo

Some other great snacks can be apples, pears, bananas, plumbs, peaches, nectarines and oranges and many more. You can also cut up some cantaloupe, watermelon, honey dew, and things like that. I also like to make my own nut mix. I generally use some pecans, walnuts, almonds, and cashews. Then I throw in some dried cranberries to add a little sweetness to it.

Have you switched out any snacks for healthier ones? 

Let me know some of your favorites,

Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation - The YouTuber's Viral Fight

  Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation is a foundation that collects donations to help in the fight against childhood cancer. They use some of the donations for patient comfort and to help pay for travel expenses of patients and parents that need to travel for treatments. I was started by a little girl named Alexandra (Alex) Scott. During her own battle with cancer she held a lemonade stand to raise money to help children like her. Now the foundation continues in her stead and people all over hold lemonade stands and send in donations.

  My daughter and I decided to hold a lemonade stand of our own to help out but as I checked out the website I found out that you could host a Virtual Lemonade Stand where you can set up a donation page that people can go and make a donation and since I am a YouTuber I decided to do that. Here is a link to my video that started the Virtual event: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SatrFHnabhc&feature=youtu.be We are running the event from 8/25/13 - 12/31/13 but since videos and blogs are up indefinitely the donation page will be to so if you get this after the initial event date you can still go and donate. Here's the link to the donation page where you can go and make a donation: http://www.alexslemonade.org/mypage/115964

  To find out more about the foundation and to check out Alex's full story go to: http://www.alexslemonade.org/

  We also decided to go ahead and do the physical lemonade stand and send in the donations as well. I should be fun and I my daughter will enjoy the expirence.

If you can help out please go to the donation page and help in the fight against childhood cancer.
http://www.alexslemonade.org/mypage/115964

Star Wars Angry Birds Mystery Packs

Recently my daughters went to a birthday party. At the birthday party they received a Goodie bag to take home. Among candy and some other toys was a Star Wars Angry Birs mystery bag. My oldest daughter opened her's in the car on the way home. (my younger daughter was asleep) The pack contained the Darth Vader pig and the Han Solo bird. They feel like they are made of rubber and have a small hole in the bottom. (To me they look like pencil toppers) These little guys are based off of the popular Star Wars Angry Birds game which I just happen to have on my phone. They are really detailed and look just like the characters from the game.

I thought "wow these are pretty cool and she got some good ones right off the bat". Usually these Goodie bags don't have anything too exciting in them, which I understand. It would be too expensive to give every kid that comes to your child's party something expensive, besides, it's not their birthday anyway. (which is why we don't do Goodie bags) Anyway, she's looking at the bag and checking out the insert which shows some of the other figures that you can get. Then she notices that there are 2 exclusive characters to this mystery bag series which are Han Solo in Carbonite and Wedge Antilles. She says what if her sister has an exclusive in her bag. To which I replied that it would be pretty cool.

When we got home my younger daughter woke up and we opened her package. Lo and behold, her 2 characters were the Snowtrooper pig and the exclusive Wedge Antilles. My oldest daughter couldn't believe it and she was excited which made my younger daughter excited too and they both have been playing with them everyday since.

The other day I showed them to a friend who was over and we were talking about them and figured out something. If you stick with the Star Wars story line that would mean that the Darth Vader pig is in actuality a bird with a pig mask on. We thought that was kind of funny.

Since my daughters are having so much fun with the ones they got at the birthday party I decided to look into getting them a few more. These things are a little expensive in my opinion. They are $3.99 for a pack of 2. These things are little and you only get 2 in a pack. I was thinking of getting them 2 packs each so that would be over $16.00 including tax. However, it is 2 pretty popular things, Star Wars and Angry Birds combined together, which probably puts them in high demand. To me it's just not a great value but I will probably cave in and do it anyway and the funny thing is, is that they aren't even asking for more I just want them to have more for some reason. Probably because I like them too.

So let me know what you think. Do you have a child that plays with these? Or, do you collect them yourself? What do you think about the price point?

Ironman 3 Movie Review

Some friends and I went to see Ironman 3 this past weekend and I'm still really trying to figure out my feelings on it. I'll give you hear what I can form together into a good opinion.

So here we go. After the 1st and 2nd Ironman movies I think I may have come into this movie with too high expectations. I did enjoy it but I left feeling a little let down and I feel the marketing of it is to blame.

On the downside.

1. They built up the relationship between Tony and Pepper and made it look like there would be some intense drama between dealing with how much they care for each other and that Tony couldn't live without Pepper. Well, they did hit at that point some but it was like a 2yr old punching you in the stomach the hit was there and it connected but it didn't exactly floor you. The words that were spoken were not backed up with a show of action or emotion when the possibility of loss came.

2. They built up the Mandarin as the main villain. They showed his face, they showed his threats, and they showed his rings. They just do not deliver on this point at all. The Mandarin who is one of Tony/Ironman's archenemys is reduced to a laughable comic relief point.

3. They showed the Iron Patriot and built up that he is great protector. I can't give them any credit in this area either. They basically do nothing with his character at all.

4. They did not follow through well with the character build up and explanation of the villain. Now I'm all for giving clues and letting the viewer fill in the blanks with imagionation but the way they did it left me feeling more "what was that about?" then  "so this is why they were doing that? Ah ha!"

5. They made it out to be a real Action Drama but in reality it felt like it was more of a comedy.

6. There were also plot holes and the storyline in general was lacking something but I can put my finger on exactly what.

On the upside.

1. Tony Stark was back to being his arrogant, egotistical self and also showed his witty, sarcastic side, both of which Robert Downey Jr. played to perfection. This led to some great boneheaded moves that caused some action and drama. It also let to some great one-liners as well.

2. There were some good scenes of action, fighting and things blowing up.

3. We get to see a pretty cool concept for Tony's latest design of the Ironman armor.

4. The acting was good and I thing each person played their part very well.

5. The special effects again were fabulous and help the story more than hinder it.

6. We get to see a comic come to life on the big screen.

Like I said in the beginning overall I did like the move but I did come away a little disappointed, however, I think if I see it again I may like it a little bit better knowing certain things were not the way I was expecting them to be.

My rating for the movie out of 10 I would give it a 7.

Have you had a chance to see it let me know, what did you think of it?

Star Wars Galactic Battle

Last night a friend came in from out of town and stayed with us. When he got here he said the he had something for me that he got at a yard sale or swap meet and it was in his garage for a long time just waiting for me. So he pulled it out and it was the Star Wars Galactic Battle game which is basically Electronic Battleship with the Star Wars Motif.

It is from 1997 and all the pieces were there with the exception of 1 ship and 1 base which doesn't affect the game play since it comes with 20 ships and you basically play with 10 most of the time. The game is set up with one side as the Rebel Alliance and the other the Empire. The ships that are included in the set are: The A-Wing, X-Wing, Y-Wing, Rebel Transport, and Star Cruiser for the Rebel Alliance and the TIE Fighter, TIE Bomber, TIE Interceptor, Victory Star Destroyer, and Imperial Star Destroyer for the Empire. You get 5 extra ships and bases on each side because there is a game level that allows you to deploy new ships during the battle.

We set it up and began playing and some of the cool things about the game are: You get 10 miniature ships from the Star Wars movies for use with the game. There are actual quotes from the movies during game play. There are 3 levels of game play that you can choose from. There are laser blasts and explosion sounds for your shots. Some of the things that could be better are: The container spaces to put the hit and miss pegs in are not square and are small so it makes it very difficult to get the pegs out to put in the board during the game. The grid is set up with hexagon spaces and therefore you cannot place a ship horizontal, only vertical or diagonal. The ships are all small. They aren't even as long as the peg base that you place them on. The only ones that look correct are the 2-peg ships which are the TIE Fighter and the A-Wing Fighter.

So, we played 2 games with me as the Rebel Alliance and him as the Empire and I lost both games. I told him that I was being a gracious host and let him win so he could have a great time during his visit. Today I played with my 9yr old daughter and I lost to her as well. That makes me 0-3 and therefore I'm no longer allowed to be part of the Rebel Alliance. Overall I think its a pretty cool twist on the Battle Ship game and look forward to playing it many more times and hopefully winning some along the way. Aside from playing the game we had great time seeing our friend and look forward to seeing him and his family very soon

Have you played this game before? If so let me know what you think of it.
Also do you have any games that have added the Star Wars motif to them?

From the Dark Ages to How do I use this thing

Ok, in the last few days we got smart phones. We found a good deal and nabbed some Samsung Galaxy S III phones. Prior to this our cell phones were just that, phones. We didn't even have texting. We used our phones for calling and that's all, well and taking pictures. So we finally up graded and when we get home and unpack the phones other than the quick set-up guide there is no user guide in the box. Now here is a device with multiple applications, widgets, and uses and nothing to tell me how to begin using it? Although these phones may be user friendly they are giving me more credit than deserved on figuring this thing out. So after some time on fumbling through Bluetooth to transfer all my contacts and pictures then trying to figure out how set my ringtone, home background, locked background and time out settings I finally started somewhat getting comfortable with it. So I thought till it rang and it took me almost missing the call to try and answer it. Now after a day or so I find it fairly easy to use and it is indeed a pretty cool phone. I'm still trying to figure a few thing out but for the most part I got it down.

Do you have a smart phone? If so, did it come with a user guide? How long did it take you to use it like a pro?

Comic Movies I have to see

Here's a list of the comic movies coming up in 2013 that I want to see.

May 3rd Iron Man 3
   I can't wait to see this one. I've been waiting for the Mandrin to be in the Iron Man movies and from the trailer it looks like some good action and effects.

June 14th Man of Steel
   I'm interested in seeing how they do with the new Superman. I haven't seen a trailer for this one yet but I do want to see the new costume in action and it'll be interesting to see what villan they use. Hopefully it will be better than the last Superman movie they did.

July 26th The Wolverine
   Hugh Jackman reprised his role as The Wolverine and this storyline takes place in Japan. From the trailer it looks like some good action and effects as well as some suspense. I'm looking forward to it. Skint

November 8th Thor: The Dark World
   I haven't seen a trailer for this one yet but it should be good. I was suprised at how well I liked Thor and it ended up being my wife's favorite movie of the Avenger characters. I'm looking forward to some good action and effects from this one as well along with some good cheezy one liners.

Well that's my list of movies to hit at the theater I do have some others I want to see but they can wait for the Dollar Theater or DVD.

What movies are you looking forward to?

Iron Man Comics and Movies

  Since the next Iron Man movie is due to come out soon I decided to post the collection of Iron Man comics I have on my YouTube channel. Here's the link if you want to check it out. http://youtu.be/SuKzWcLbMvI
I didn't really collect Iron Man comics so there I don't have very many. I only have a couple from when I was a kid and the others came with other comics I either bought online or at a swap meet. My oldest Iron Man comic is #88 from 1976

It's definitely been read a few times but overall it's a great copy.

My 2nd oldest Iron Man comic is #118.



  Now this one is cool for a few reasons. (If you haven't seen the movies Iron Man 2 or Avengers then you may want to watch them first before reading on although there isn't plot information in what I'm going to say. ) The cover on this one ties in 2 scenes from those 2 movies. On the comic showing the armor in the briefcase and in Iron Man 2 the armor is the briefcase. On the comic showing him falling out of the Helicarrier trying to put on the armor and in Avengers falling out of the building and the armor putting itself on him. Also, in the story in this comic, he is thrown out of the Helicarrier and in the movie he is thrown out of the building and in both cases the armor is completely functional just before he hits the ground and he takes off just over a couple of pedestrians heads. 

  In all I have 21 Iron Man Issues. I've always thought Iron Man was cool but for some reason or another I just didn't collect it.

How about you did/do you collect Iron Man? Do you have either of these issues?

Girl Scout Cookie Fiasco Redeemed

Earlier in March we were with my daughter selling Girl Scout Cookies at a booth at our local Vons. A woman approached us and my daughter asked her if she would like to buy Girl Scout Cookies to which she said she would and asked me if we had change for a $100. Normally I would not want to give out that much change but we had been doing well, we did have several 20's and if we sold out of cookies this would be our last booth so I said yes. She along with a little boy selected 3 different boxes of cookies and I gave her the change.

The next day my wife went to deposit the money in the bank and they told her the bill was a fake. She was heartbroken and couldn't believe it. We had examined the bill and it had the magnetic strip and the watermark on it but we did not have one of those markers you use to check for fake bills. We were on the hook for $100.00. The next day my daughter shared the story in class and the kids started coming up with ideas for fundraisers but ultimately decided to have each person bring in $2.00 each. We were amazed and grateful. They actually collected $84.00 and gave it to us 2 days later. Amazing hearts of the kids and their parents to help us out. The cool thing about it was that for the month of March they were studying about compassion and because of this situation they got to feel and put into action the lesson at hand. The story about the kids made the local news paper, it hit the news stands today and by the late morning the local news station was at the school interviewing the kids from the class. Here's a link to article that was published in the paper and on their website. http://www.ocregister.com/news/isabella-501479-conger-class.html We are so grateful for everyone who pitched it. This sad event ended up as a feel good story.

Silver Surfer Suprise

  If I may fast forward about 30 something years from the last post. Several months ago I was looking through my Silver Surfer comics to get some items for a friend and I found that I have Silver Surfer V2 #1 which is actually a 1 shot. I have 2 of them so I pulled one out for a read. It recants his origin story and his banishment to Earth, which leads to a battle with Mephisto. Excellent story and I would say both are in VF condition. If you're a Sliver Surfer fan, no a bad comic to have.

I aslo found, The Silver Surfer (The Ultimate Cosmic Expirence) soft cover by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby from 1978. I would say this is in F/VF Condition. This was also published in Hard Cover as well.

Two excellet comics. Funny when you go back through your collection the things you find that you forget that you have.
Have you ever been looking through your stuff and found something cool that you had forgetten about?

Where it all began

   Hello, Welcome to The Gray Room Blog. Topics will cover Comics, Collectibles and Life in General.
My name is Travis Conger and I'm a collector. I collect Comics, Star Wars items mainly and other Exclusive Merchandise as well.
  For my first post I'd like to take a look at what got me started in collecting things. I would have to say it was my dad, big time, and my mom also had her own influence as well. As far back as I can remember he was collecting something and he collected a lot of different things. I remember growing up he had a lot of Iron things. There was an Iron Black Cat, an Iron Kettle, a Wood Burning Iron Stove and of all things an Iron. The Iron had a handle that bent down to a triangle piece of Iron. You used it by placing it on the stove and once it got hot you ironed with it. He also had strangely twisted glass bottles filled with colored liquid, soda cans with promotions on them like the Jackson 5 Tour and the Superbowl history, and many other things. Now I know this sounds like a lot of stuff but he didn't have a ton of each thing and the house wasn't cluttered up with all this stuff but he did have several of each kind of item and he kept them by the fireplace in our family room or in the garage. It wasn't until he got a passion for collecting sports cards that it actually took over a bedroom in our home.  My mom collected bells and refrigerator magnets.
  So, seeing this and now looking back it was in my blood to collect. I would have to say that the first thing I knowingly collected was Star Wars Figures. And by that I mean that I probably had several comics by this time but I wasn't necessarily collecting them, I just didn't throw them away when I was done reading them. One Christmas my parents got me a big collection of figures and accessories they were the original 12 figures that were available (Darth Vader, Obi Wan, Luke, Leia, C3PO, R2D2, Han, Stormtrooper, Death Squad Commander, Greedo, Jawa, and Tuskin Raider) along with the stand to display them on, the Death Star Play Station, a TIE Fighter and the Landspeeder. (I still have all of that today with exception of the TIE Fighter.) When they started coming out with other figures I had to have more and I didn't want to trade any away I wanted to keep them and collect them all. Now at that time I wanted to collect them all to play with them but I was knowingly collecting them. I then began collecting comics as well and then turned to GI Joes, Hot Wheels, Baseball Cards and some other things. Over the years though it would end up that I would stick with Comics and Star Wars as my two main collections. Currently I have a YouTube channel where I am showing my different collections. Here's the link http://www.youtube.com/user/RazielCage1 Check it out and see what you think. I don't have everything up but I'm working on it slowly. Here's a picture of me at the San Diego Comic-Con in 2010 pretending to be a Star Wars Figure. Now how do I add that to my collection?