Stop iTunes Song Pop-up
Starting with some version of Apple‘s iTunes software, the song title will pop-up over whatever you are doing. If you’re like me and can be distracted by, well, everything, this is annoying.
This is one of those features that was never necessary, or at least shouldn’t be turned on by default.
Luckily there is a simple way to turn it off. From Apple’s Support website:
Click iTunes -> preferences -> General -> Under “Notifications”, uncheck “when song changes”
What a relief!
Here’s some screenshots for ya:
BEFORE (GRRRR):
AFTER (YAYYYY!):
Thank you carpetfiber101 for the tip.
new song pop up window in iTunes | Apple Support Communities.
The Black Widow and Daredevil TV Show We Could Have Gotten
Ah, the 70s. Rich with history. Bell bottoms. Missed opportunities.
This is not one of them.
This photo is from Comic Book Resources (aka CBR), via The Mary Sue, both excellent websites for all things nerdy. Maybe I should say “all things formerly considered nerdy”, since when The Avengers movie makes $1.5 billion, it’s an Avengers world now, which kind of means there are a lot more nerds out there, and therefore how nerdy is it really to be into this stuff?
Answering my own question, caring at all about the fact that David Bowie’s ex-wife Angela Bowie (about whom The Rolling Stones’ song “Angie” may or may not be about, although that’s what most people think, including me until I just Googled it — trivia!) at one time “owned the TV rights to Daredevil and Black Widow”, according to CBR, is pretty nerdy.
This is a picture of the costumes. It is very 70s.
Considering how good the Netflix Daredevil series is, it’s probably for the best that this show never happened. Then again, there was 1988’s The Incredible Hulk Returns, which featured Hulk, Thor and Daredevil. That wasn’t particularly good (although of course I watched it), but it didn’t ruin the current incarnation. (Which really is quite good. You should check it out. Not with your kids, though, unless you have older kids. I’ll write more about it at some point.)
Perhaps it would have been interesting to see what Angela Bowie would have done with the role of Black Widow, since as a CBR commenter points out, “Bowie’s not really the problem in those DD/BW shots, though. That Daredevil costume is ridiculous.”
Indeed it is. But… the 70s. Even the entertainment that never happened was fun.
via The Mary Sue
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Great Deals on Memory Cards and Flash Drives
DaddyDeal of the day – great deals on memory cards and flash drives from Amazon.com.
Amazon.com: Deal Of The Day: Crucial & Lexar Memory.
Ah, Spring Break
Backpacking Dad understands Spring Break:
How much work will I get done while the kids are home with me all week for Spring Break? Negative 20 hours.
— Backpacking Dad (@BackpackingDad) April 6, 2015
Ah. It’s funny cuz it’s true.
Watching Great Movies With Your Kids
One of the pleasures of having kids is watching your favorite movies with them. Some are obvious — the original Star Wars trilogy, Superman, Terminator/Terminator II. Less obvious, but still a good choice, is Aliens. Matt Zoller Seitz sums up the experience of watching great movies with your kids nicely on RogerEbert.com:
as we watched, I realized again that while unfortunately you can’t see a great movie again for the first time, the next-best thing is to show it to people who’ve never seen it.
Star Wars aliens (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
(Note: the photo above has nothing to do with this article or the article on RogerEbert.com. I just thought it was a fun pic of characters from Star Wars.)
Well put. I’m not sure what the right age is to watch Aliens, since it’s a bit scarier than Star Wars and Superman. As always, we at DaddyTips advise using your own judgment when it comes to deciding when your children are ready to see certain movies. It’s definitely something that varies from kid to kid, and of course also from parent to parent. A lot of the movies I saw when I was as a kid I saw in theaters when I was younger than I might want my own kids to see said movie. The Jerk, for example. Or a number of R-rated films that I saw because it was a different time. Movies have changed, ratings have changed, kids have changed.
Sometimes it’s not even about the rating. For example, Star Trek: The Motion Picture is rated G. But without a background in the Trek characters, it’s impossible to appreciate the movie. And I personally feel it’s good parenting to make sure your children have seen Space Seed (the first appearance of the late, great Ricardo Montalbán as Khan Noonien Singh) before they see Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
To be honest, Aliens wasn’t even on my list of flicks I wanted to watch with my kids, but there’s no reason it shouldn’t be. When they’re the right age, of course.
via Notes on watching “Aliens” for the first time again, with a bunch of kids | MZS | Roger Ebert.
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Robert Downey Jr. Brings Georgia Boy Bionic Arm (DaddyTube)
The line between Robert Downey Jr. and Iron Man is growing slimmer every day. Here is a video of the actor bringing a Georgia boy named Alex Pring a real bionic arm.
It’s OK if you get a little misty-eyed. We’ll wait.
The important bit here is that a group called The Collective Project made a bionic arm for a child, Alex, who was “born with a partially developed right arm,” according to the video. The arm was made by Albert Manero, “a college student who builds and donates low-cost, 3D-printed bionic limbs to kids around the world,” according to the YouTube video. Here’s a quote from the Fox 5 DC story where we found this:
“The arm doesn’t have a lot of supernatural powers, but it makes life easier on Alex both physically and mentally.”
The two then compare arms, with Downey pulling his out of a case with the Stark Industries logo.
Which brings us to what we were talking about when we said the line between Robert Downey Jr. and Iron Man is getting slimmer every day.
Remember in 2012 when we posted that Robert Downey Jr surprised kids at Comic Con? (Heck, remember 2012? I’m not sure I do.) Here’s what we had to say back then:
…Marvel could easily drop this footage into ‘Iron Man 3‘ if they want to. … Have the kids shouting out “IRON MAN!”, people cheering when Downey Tony Stark shows up… Free idea from me to you, ‘Iron Man 3? filmmakers. I’ll take a special thanks and perhaps a repulsor ray if you’ve got an extra one lying around.
(They didn’t take my idea. Maybe for Iron Man 4, or a future Avengers movie.)
The second best thing about this new video (the first, of course, is the kid getting the arm, because that’s actually real-life awesome) is the moment when someone off-camera asks Alex, “Do you know who that is?” “Iron Man,” Alex replies, to the delight of everyone in the room (and us home viewers). But then comes the follow-up:
“What’s his name?”
“Robert.”
Downey does nothing to correct Alex, nor does anyone else. In Alex’s 7-year-old mind, Robert Downey Jr. is Iron Man. To Downey’s credit, he’s a good enough actor that playing the super-rich Avenger has not hampered his film career; he can play other roles just as convincingly as he always has. But if he keeps this up, he might have to change his name to Tony Stark. Or maybe Marvel will just change Iron Man’s name to Robert Downey Jr. Both are about as likely to happen as me turning into Thor. But this particular blurring of fact and fiction is fun to watch.
On a more serious note, huge, massive, supremely large shout-outs to Albert Manero, who is apparently making bionic arms for kids who need them (it’s OK if that makes your head explode a little bit), and to Mr. Downey Jr., whom we like both on and off screen. And best of luck to Alex, a young man growing up in very interesting times.
‘Iron Man’ surprises boy in Georgia – DC News FOX 5 DC WTTG.
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Brett Singer TV Appearance Tomorrow on Fox 5 DC
I will be appearing on TV tomorrow, via Skype, on Fox 5 DC. Those not in DC can stream it live on MyFoxDC.com. My segment is scheduled for 9:15am.
Logo of the Fox Broadcasting Company (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The topic? Apps for paranoid parents, which I wrote about for Parents.com here.
Again, to watch me, Brett Singer, in all my DaddyTips glory, visit MyFoxDC.com tomorrow, Friday March 13, around 9:15am and click on the “Watch Live” link.
