GADGETS

  • GET DAD A RETRO MINI THIS FATHER’S DAY

    AUTHOR: // CATEGORY: Gadgets, Sponsored Posts

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    Put Some Retro Style Back Into Your Music

    As a child of the 80’s, music was a major part of my existence. That, and big hair (yes, at one stage in my life, I actually had it). I worked part-time as a mobile disco and nightclub DJ and beat-mixed my fantastic black plastic to the likes of ACDC, Dexy’s Midnight Runners, Billy Joel and New Kids On The Block. I’d strap on my tinny Walkman cassette headphones, crank up Hewey Lewis And The News and hitch my skateboard to the tailgate of a passing 4×4 truck. Wait a minute, wasn’t that Marty McFly? Sure he made it popular but I was the true originator, at least, in my street. (more…)

  • CO-SLEEPER CLONES

    AUTHOR: // CATEGORY: 0-6 months, Gadgets, The Baby Years

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    Back in December, I posted about My DIY Co-Sleeper, which I built for Mumma to get easy access to our gal after she was born so she didn’t have to get up, lean over and lift her in and out in the middle of the night.

    It continues to get quite a response and I’ve been contacted several times requesting a copy of my plans so they can build their own.

    One such request came from expectant father, Adam Harrison, whose first child is due any moment. Adam is a DIY hobbyist with a list of impressive projects including a large wooden linen cabinet, a rustic covered litter box and a tall space-saving shelving unit all in preparation for their new baby.

    And the crowning glory was of course, a beautiful baby co-sleeper based on my original designs, with a few tweaks for their own particular house and the materials he had on hand. The finished product looks magnificent and Adam was generous enough to send me some pics to share with you all. (more…)

  • SUPER FLYING INDY

    AUTHOR: // CATEGORY: 2-3 years, D-scoveries, Gadgets, Toddler Years, Videos

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    It’s no secret that our little bloke and I are both into Super Heroes. He’s also currently obsessed with ‘Dusty’ from the Disney movie, PLANES, and basically anything that flies.

    I guess it’s every boy’s dream to actually be able to fly and after several days of pestering persistent enquiries, I did what any Dad with a fondness for Super Heroes would do…

    I told Indy I would find a way to help make him fly.

    The result is this…

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  • MY DIY CO-SLEEPER

    AUTHOR: // CATEGORY: 0-6 months, 3rd Trimester, Gadgets, The Baby Years

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    After Mumma’s Caesarian with little Alice, it’s six weeks of recovery with no driving, no lifting anything heavier than the baby (lucky it wasn’t me or I’d have a hard time going to the bathroom, if I wasn’t allowed to lift anything heavier than a baby) 😉, and definitely no hanky-panky.

    Which is why my eyebrows flew off my head when Mumma mentioned a threesome. What she actually meant was three of us sharing the bed, due to the fact that Alice is a brilliant sleeper during the day, but at night, just wants to be held. Kind of like my lonely single years during the late 90’s.

    But co-sleeping with the baby in the bed can lead to all kinds of issues such as overheating or a risk of waking up with a baby pancake in between you (ie: my personal greatest fear), not to mention being a highly effective cock-blocker, and is somewhat frowned upon by the SIDS people.

    So we decided to put the baby basinet beside the bed instead. Problem with that is it’s a good Danny Devito size taller than our bed, meaning Mumma has to use her tummy muscles to get up out of bed and reach up and over into the basinet to pick Alice up, which is against all the rules for a healthy recovery. (more…)

  • SPHERO 2.0 GIVEAWAY WINNER!!

    AUTHOR: // CATEGORY: Events, Gadgets, Giveaways, Sponsored Posts

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    Thank you to everyone who entered the 40YrOldDad Sphero 2.0 Dad’s Day Giveaway. A lucky winner has been selected at random and a brand spanking new Sphero 2.0 will be sent out directly to you, just in time for Father’s Day!

    There’s absolutely no pressure on the winner to name their new Sphero 2.0 after me, but, my head does somewhat resemble a similar sort of roundness. 😉

    Without further ado…

    Emma Murray our Sphero 2.0 Dad's Day Giveaway Winner

    Congratulations, Emma Murray!!

  • SPHERO 2.0 DAD’S DAY GIVEAWAY

    AUTHOR: // CATEGORY: D-scoveries, Gadgets, Giveaways, Sponsored Posts

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    Speaking primarily as a man and as a 43 year old ‘man-child’, there’s two things I’ve always enjoyed playing with, (but we’ll leave Mumma out of this for now). Two ‘other’ things I’ve always been fond of playing with, are balls and technology. And until now, these two things have always been utilised completely separate from each other, (discounting the DIY robot hand debacle of ’87; still wincing after that one). But thanks to some very clever folks at GoSphero.com, they’ve melded them together to make the coolest frickin’ thing ever!

    Sphero 2.0

    Check out this video as Indy and I put our Sphero to the test.

    So…What Is Sphero?

    Sphero is the app-controlled ball that does it all. (more…)

  • MELMO!

    AUTHOR: // CATEGORY: 1-2 years, D-scoveries, Gadgets, The Baby Years

    3 Comments

    As a kid, I spent a lot of time with my hands down my pants. Way, way down at the sock end, that is. Countless hours rummaging through my socks, deftly infusing them with life and colour that would afford me legendary status on The Muppet Show. Not so good for Mum’s purse, though, (Stop cutting up your school socks! We’re not made of money!).

    I made a few marionettes, (which is actually a puppet on a string, not Maid Marion’s natural hair colour), and I fantasised for years (in my head, not my pants), about becoming a Muppeteer. A dream that would come to fruition some 30 odd years later…sort of?

    Our little man is a huge fan of Seseme Street, with Cookie Monster and Super Grover as particular favourites. We actually met Cookie Monster in an earlier post, The Great Cookie Caper. But his all time favourite is Elmo. (more…)

  • INDY’S BIG FINISH

    AUTHOR: // CATEGORY: 1-2 years, D-scoveries, Gadgets, Sponsored Posts, The Baby Years, Tips

    8 Comments

    If there’s one thing I hate more than washing dishes, is having to wash them again after they’ve already been washed! That goes double for the dishwasher.

    Back in the day, it was my Papa’s job to wash the dishes and his philosophy was, ‘What you don’t get off in the sink, you get off with the tea towel when you dry it.’ Which is fine if you don’t mind drying your hands on a towel caked in dry bits of food that could tear through your flesh like a jagged tin can.

    But dishwashers have made our lives easier…when they’re loaded properly and have the right stuff in them, that is. Just for the record, a dishwasher is NOT a magic hole in the wall that mysteriously cleans everything you put into it. (That’s a washing machine or possibly a black-hole vortex).

    There’s a precision, art and order to it that allows an even distribution of water jettage and arm spinny-thingy that if left to spin its twirly haymaker arm spinny action unencumbered (in the same way an angry wife might come at you after being told for the umpteenth time, that’s not how you pack the dishwasher), and provided you haven’t loaded it with dishwasher tablets that look like they were chipped from Moses’ stone tablets just to save a few pennies, then the result should be satisfactory (but not brilliant) unless…

    You load it with Finish Quantum with Power Gel tablets. Then you’ll end up with a dishwasher that sparkles more than Liberace in a mirror-ball shop and end up with dishes so clean, you could eat off them! When it comes to easy detergent, these are the goods I tells ya! (more…)

  • THE SHOCKING TRUTH

    AUTHOR: // CATEGORY: 1-2 years, Dad Mishaps, Events, Gadgets, Sponsored Posts, The Baby Years, Uncategorized

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    It’s the call you never want to get while holidaying in Bali. Life is high, you’re on top of the world and suddenly it hits. That apprehensive voice on the other end of the line calling from home in Australia. Right from the get go, you detect a slight tremor in the voice and a stunted hesitance which can only mean one thing…

    What do you mean, dead?

    “There was a thunder storm. An enormous power surge. It was very quick, there was nothing I could do…”

    Don’t say it. Don’t tell me, I don’t want to hear it!

    “I’m really, really sorry, but…your modem got fried. Your internet…is dead.”

    Nooooooooooooooo!

    “It also blew up your microwave and the central heating has stopped working as well. And it’s totally freezing!”

    Not quite the news you want to hear while you’re away on holiday. The trip was costing us enough as it is, but our niece was doing us a favour by house-sitting for us while we were away. So we felt we owed it to her to at least make sure we didn’t come home to a frozen Popsicle gnawing on the leg of a sofa, and sprung for a new microwave, heating and most importantly…a new modem, so she wasn’t completely cut off from the outside world. (Okay, so I didn’t have to go a day without internet access once we got home…stop twisting my arm, you got what you needed).

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  • COMBAT CREATURES STRYDER IS HERE!

    AUTHOR: // CATEGORY: 1-2 years, D-scoveries, Events, Gadgets, Sponsored Posts, The Baby Years, Videos

    4 Comments

    When asked to trial and review “The Greatest Toy in the Universe”, how could I possibly say no? And short of owning my own combat ready Ironman suit or life-size Dalek, this boy’s toy satisfies both my inner nerd and sci-fi geek. Plus, we wanted to make it a momentous occasion by putting together our very own short film with our little bloke in his first ever short film debut, where he gets to exercise his acting chops and see if he qualifies as a fully fledged member of our ‘Funsters’ (trademark pending) family.

    So, without further adieu.

    The long awaited most anticipated release of the year (so far).

    Please enjoy…

    ‘STRYDER’ – The movie

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