If you have been going to SIFF over the years, you know it starts around May. This year it opened on Thursday, and the first film you don’t want to miss is Sita sings the Blues by a NY based animator Nina Paley - as Seattle Weekly puts it, an “imaginative, giddily witty, visually delicious take on the Ramayana, the ancient Sanskrit epic”. It shows tomorrow, Sunday, at 1:30pm and Monday at 6:45 pm at the Uptown theater. I am going with my almost 5-year old, and will try covering as many great finds for kids at this year’s SIFF as possible. Enjoy!

I have recently met with a wonderful woman and an Internet Safety Expert, Linda Criddle. She teaches the most difficult crowd of high school students - the most difficult topic you can teach - Internet Safety. The great part is, they actually listen to her. Especially after finding out what really MySpace’s privacy policy means. We need more of you, Linda!

I have been waiting for this one for a long time. Finally, you can download entire movies to your cell phone, albeit only after registering with Cinema Now online for a free 3 day trial (3 days only? c’mon, I am busy during the week - how am I supposed to try at - at work?) giving away your name, e-mail, year of birth and gender. I wasn’t able to register for whatever reason - it just won’t accept any password that I type in. If you are successful, let me know. (Back to pain - why don’t they make it easy for me?). If you managed to register, you can then download movies after typing in this link on your browser-enabled cell phone. I was only able to browse titles - unfortunately, only big blockbuster titles for kids like Cars or Enchanted. While both movies are fine, and we watched them and my son liked them, it is impossible to watch a 2-hour movie on the go with a toddler (or, if it is possible, it would be impossible for me to get my phone back if somebody called!). Sorry, Cinema Now, looks like I am not coming back…

Check out Nokia’s Open Studio initiative - participants could draw and submit ideas of their dream phones. I particularly like the Peace Cell - it emits a peaceful sound to stop any argument… I wonder if it can stop a toddler tantrum?

I have been following the tale of OLPC - One Laptop Per Child - an amazing solution for kids in the third world to be able to learn with the use of a personal laptop that costs only $100, and on top of that creates a network by the virtue of laptops themselves - the more laptops, the wider the net. So, finally, Peru has announced it is purchasing them to deliver to the poorest schools on the country - AND it will cost less than distributing books. Now, that is revolutionary. 

If you are using Dove products, consider watching this video - the palm oil Dove uses in their products is bought from suppliers that destroy Indonesia’s rain forests. I am looking forward to an era when BigCo’s will be describing not only ingredients on their packaging, but also the entire path of how the product was made.

If you haven’t noticed, we are slowly moving away from the $0.99 per pipclip model to the free model, with “good” ads, or sponsorships - so you can see the entire clip for free (not just the preview). Every pipclip will be “brought to you by” a company that we believe serves kids and families in the best, socially-responsible, and green way - so no ads from “McDonaldses” of this world. Guess what, we are not alone - Qubo, as reported by Cynopsis, “has created a set of nutritional guidelines designed to “dictate advertising decisions” (on-air and online) for the qubo channel and its like named programming blocks on NBC, Ion Television and Telemundo.  This effort builds off of Ion Media Network’s advertising and media initiative to fight childhood obesity unveiled last summer for both qubo and Ion Life.  Developed with an expert in childhood obesity, qubo will now only accept ads from those company’s that meet the acceptable nutritional intake criteria set out in its new guidelines, which includes limits for meals and snacks broken down by calories, grams of fat, as well as saturated and trans fat, sugar, protein, fiber and sodium.  Last week qubo introduced a new series of kid-aimed healthy eating and exercise Public Service Announcements with partners US Dept. of Health & Human Resources, the Ad Council and the US Olympic Committee.”Bravo, Qubo! Power to parents. Finally, we are getting there. 

Finally, after seeing that violent cartoon on a supposedly safe kids TV program, there is a vehicle for you to complain about it, or at least attempt at having your voice heard - go to TV Show Complaints and fill out a form, and it will be sent to FCC. Voila!  As it was pointed out to me by one of the readers, it is NOT the website to send your complains about the TV shows, but rather a collection of complaints others have written - you simply are gaining access to them. In my haste to believe that I have finally found the “magic solution”, I have overlooked the very bold text in front of my eyes. My apologies - I will keep searching for this one for you, and will let you know if I find one. 

I haven’t been at a Toys’R'Us store for about a year, and have no plans at going there soon. Reason - every single toy in there is screaming at kids - buy me, buy me - using every possible marketing technique. For the customer to buy - anything goes. Dolls in fish-stocking and on high heels for 3 year old girls? You got it. Huge muscled up gruesome fight figures for boys? Check. Pink, neon yellow, blue, green colors? Yes, evidently other colors don’t exist. Guess what kind of generation these types of toys will raise? Right, this is the reason I am going to stores like Izilla Toys with my son. 

It has been a while since I blogged - being in the middle of fundraising and blogging at the same time proved to be difficult. I will try to get back gradually. Here is one great article for the starters: Decline of American lawn. Why do we buy things we don’t need and our children don’t need? I have been thinking about getting one of those plastic slides as well, until I dropped the idea for good after getting a horrendous plastic kitchen through Freecycle for my son who only played with it once. Less is more.