NaNoWriMo

Well, I'm new Municipal Liaison for a new municipal forum on NaNoWriMo. I've spent the last two days going to coffeehouses, bookstores, and libraries around town putting up fliers about upcoming events. It's a nice excuse to compare all the coffeehouses around here -- so many more than when I first came to town.

Last year, I did NaNoWriMo without a local region, but did go to many of the events on the Second Life NaNoWriMo group. That really helped motivate me. But this year I'm hoping it will be good to be around other writers who are pounding out so many words. It's hard to comprehend how all those words get written. I would really like to start writing now, but that's not allowed. I am putting together my ideas.

I'm glad the Presidential elections come at the beginning of the month. Otherwise, I might let that consume too much psychic energy. Maybe I will have my characters participate in some kind of political event while I'm watching TV Nov. 4.

How mean will people become as they loose in the financial crisis?

One of the reasons that I don't want a Republican in the White House is that the current President has modeled behavior that encourages meanness and inflexibility. His arrogance at telling people "It's My Way or the Highway" has created a culture that celebrates this style of behavior. It is not the kind of behavior that is allowed in almost any elementary school. Children are taught respect and responsibility.

But children must see the discrepancy between what they are being taught and how leaders are behaving. Greed is Good! Spending Money is Good! My Way is Best!

For example, last week my family went out to the local PUBLIC tennis courts that are nearest to our home. We wanted to show DH how much DS has progressed from tennis lessons. We had been practicing on the courts during the week. On a Friday at around 5 p.m., we thought we'd show Dad. The courts, in fact the park, had been empty during the week. Well, the high school cross-country team had been practicing on the tiny park hills. But kids were not playing on the playground equipment and no one had been on the courts. In fact, the courts seemed to have been empty for a long time because we had to spend five minutes on each visit clearing away the green, decaying black walnuts, looking like shriveled tennis balls, that littered the courts.

Unfortunately, the Friday we went was at the end of the first week of Congress debates about the financial bailout. The stock market was beginning to plummet. The depth of despair over bad times was beginning to sink in everywhere, even in our little city.

The couple -- late 50s -- were hitting balls back-and-forth, not serving. We watched them play and I noted how nicely they were at keeping the ball going. We carefully walked over to the other court.

When the guy was collecting his balls, I mentioned that we were still learning, as a way to warn him of DS's skills. The guy then launched into a tirade, very angry, about how we should not have walked behind him while he was playing. He said something about how we would not walk into his living room, so we shouldn't walk near him when he was playing. This was on a public court.

Maybe the guy had a point, that we should've been more careful. But I was watching carefully and did walk in the back of the court.

But the guy spoke to us in such an obnoxious, angry manner, never really looking at us, just yelling, that whatever his message might have been was obscured by his emotions. His wife seemed embarrassed. She was also the better player.

We decided to leave. I yelled at him about how he obviously wasn't good at sportsmanship.

The guy made us all mad. He took away some of the fun we were having with tennis and instead showed the part that I hate about sports: the anger, the one-up-manship, the ugliness.

I think the guy was also coming off a bad week. He had probably lost a lot of money in his stock portfolio. He was not in as good a shape as he might have been when he was younger and his wife was obviously playing better. The world didn't seem as good as it might have a few Septembers ago.

This guy is just the tip of the iceberg. There's going to be a lot of testosterone (of both males and females) blowing up in many more nastier and evil ways over how the world has changed, the financial markets are a mess, and certainty is gone. I wish that civility would come back, but I think they're a long time gone.

SL talk for AWC

Today I'm presenting a talk about Second Life for the local chapter for Association for Women in Communication.

Second Life is great, but wow, rather time consuming I'm always reminded while putting this presentation together with so many different programs open at once.

The one thing that struck me the most while putting this together is that there are now 150 virtual reality places for children, tweens, and teens that are either live, being tested, or in development. And it's still hard for me to convince adults to inhabit SL.

Rollercoaster rider

Did you notice that Sarah Palin's teenage daughter was always holding onto her boyfriend in every photo shot at the RNC on Wednesday night? She looked like she was on a roller coaster rider and didn't want to let go.

Here's more observations from my post on urbanmama.com -- what a cool site!As I heard Palin's speech, I was struck by the meanness of her tone. What began as spunk turned into "snarky attacks," to quote the Blogher woman on CNN. My husband was particularly turned off by her attack mode with jabs we felt were below the belt punches.

Does anyone really think that Palin's husband is going to move to Washington, D.C. full time? He's a champion snowmobiler, racing since the early 1990s. He needs snow and lots of it. Will he keep his jobs, too, as he has while she's governor of Alaska, because "they need the money"?

Also, to the above commentator, parents are frequently held responsible for their teen children actions. For example, many laws send parents to jail, or fine them, for having under-age drinking at their house, even if the parents are away. Parents of pregnant teens can strongly urge their children to marry, whereas it's harder to do that for those over 18. (Unfortunately, most of the early marriages don't work. Ask Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, etc.) Parents are often legally held accountable... for a variety of kids' actions.

Here's an interesting discussion by self-described "politically incorrect rights" on pregnant teens. I can only imagine how many other red state of minds are debating this. And here's a post from the Guttmacher Institute: Family planning clinics would prevent 1.4 million unplanned pregnancy including reduce teen pregnancies 20 percent.

Coming together

Are all socially conservative Evangelicals thrilled about the Sarah Palin choice for VP? That's the impressions that's being pushed through the media, but it's hard for me to believe. Are they really against abortion but support teen pregnancy? Is this the positive role model that they're looking for? Are family values advocates jumping up and down for father with five children who has one job that require him to be away from home one week on/one week off and two others that also require him to be away for long stretches. (It would be different if he was around his kids while working.)

I hope the Obama-Biden campaign keeps chugging away. The photo that I took at rally for them seemed indicative of the broad support the ticket has and why it may succeed.

I posted on the urbanmamas.com site about my problems with Palin as a mother of five with one special needs child running. I just don't see it as a positive for all the reasons people note there. I want to add, too, that I wondered from the beginning about Barack Obama running with his children so young. School started today in Chicago, so they didn't miss the first days of school for the DNC convention, but I did wonder about what will happen to them with school in the fall. Michelle Obama seemed confident as a mother and I feel pretty good that the children will be ok. But it is fair to hope that both Obamas can balance family and work life effectively.

Also, I saw that Susie Bright posted on urbanmamas.com. She has a short post about Joe Biden's link to the R.A.V.E. Act, a drug law. When I first read about this somewhere else, especially about an interesting documentary on the law, I wasn't even sure this was real. But it is. Biden did tuck in a very tough law that allows law enforcement to go after organizers of raves as well as a few other actions. Can't say these laws endear me to Biden. Maybe he will cool off with influence from Obama.

The documentary, "Generation E," explains on its website: On April 30, 2003, President Bush signed the R.A.V.E. Act, a federal law making it a felony to organize an event or operate any type of space where illicit drug activities would take place. The bill was originally written to punish rave and nightclub promoters who threw parties where young people took ecstasy and other "club drugs." Generation E traces the government's fight against rave and ecstasy culture during the past decade..

People shouldn't be doing illegal drugs, but raves, are also gathering places for people to dance and exchange ideas ... which usually is a good thing. I guess it's not so good if you're a protester at the RNC this week.

In other news, Democracy Now!'s Amy Goodman was arrested while trying to do her job interviewing protestors in St. Paul at the RNC. Her perspective on the news is so different than anyone else's. Listen to her podcasts if your local radios stations are too wimpy to air her show.

School's In!

Back to school means that I'm back to finding supplements that work. Yesterday, while visiting with a friend's mother who's also a professor of education, I told her about the many ways that I had found workbooks and online programs to help the education process. In retrospect, it probably sounded like bragging. But I was just so excited to share what I had found that works.

She said that it sounds like I could be homeschooling. Yeah. Maybe I should have.

But that's the point. Parents really do have to supplement more than ever before. Our education system has evolved into a more pressure cooker situation where we're asking schools, parents and children to do more, even as everything costs more, too. Is it too much?

I've been talking to parents of high school seniors about how much they really have to be involved, not just their kids. There are a multitude of deadlines for seniors. Missing one could be fatal. And we all miss deadlines, so it's good to have parents as back-ups.

Or there's the dad who's helping to coach his 10-year-old son's football team. Four nights a week for two hours plus games on the weekends. What kind of time commitment is that?

It's routine around here for kids to practice soccer 2 to 3 night a week and games on Saturday.

And then there are parents, like me, who drag our family to see Obama and Biden because I think seeing the political process in action and watching the media do their job is just as an important educational lesson as anything they'll get in school.

Singing toothbrushes

Getting kids to brush their teeth can be a difficult job. They just don't want to take the time. So I'm always buying new toothbrushes that have some sort of gimmick. The one that's working the best in our house right now is Tooth Tunes by Hasbro.

We had tried this last fall, but did not have success. Then my sister said her kids loved it and added that anything to get tweens to brush their teeth is worth it, even if the toothbrushes costs a little more. So Grandma got all the grandchildren a Tooth Tunes.

Grandma also got an education in popular songs with kids. A 10-year-old boy at the Wal-Mart where grandma shopped explained to her the popularity of High School Musical, and suggested that Corbin Bleu's tunes were okay. Weirdly, my mom knew about the song "YMCA" because she had done aerobics to it. Okay.

The music only works when you are physically brushing your teeth. It stops if you stop brushing. The songs play for 2 minutes.

My sister has a pretty good idea for an updated version. She would like to be able to sync the toothbrush up to her computer (maybe via a USB connection) so she could download new songs. The concept of a computerized tooth brush is almost bizarre at first. But I think this could be viable.

In other parenting tech news, we have signed onto the new Build-A-Bearville. So far it is not as elegant as we had hoped. I will write more later.

Valentine's Day crafts

Ah, Valentine's Day! Another opportunity for crafting. We are making Valentines that look like cell phones, from an idea in this month's Family Fun magazine. I decided to do the text on the computer using clear and white mailing labels. This saved us time writing in names and signatures and made the card look more authentic.

The best part is that the buttons are actually those candy dots. I think the kids will figure that out. Maybe they look a little homemade, but at least they will be different and interesting to hold. Perhaps they will spark some imaginations.

We all liked the idea that we are giving kids cell phones for Valentine's Day.

I also wanted to make a link to these 1950s Valentines that were originally linked at boingboing.net I think I am going to use the images for something. They bring back a time that's sweeter, perhaps. But then, as one poster noted, the guns on the pirates and cowboys would probably not be appreciated on cards sent among schoolchildren today. Was it a more innocent time then? I never quite thought so. But there is something perhaps a little more imaginative in these cards than the plethora of cartoon-linked cards that are basically all I can find in stores today. That's kind of why we are making our own.

We're also supposed to make a box to put the cards in. Sort of forgot about that until one of the other schoolmates explained that she had already completed hers. And that last year her brother made one that floated around the room, as it was attached to a balloon. Here are some of the most clever Valentine box ideas I've found so far. These boxes were made by second and third graders, supposedly, altho I think that lots of parents helped.

This year I'm putting my creative juices into helping out on Valentine's instead of a Pinewood Derby car. I've attempted too many of those cars and find it absolutely frustrating. The whole thing becomes much too competitive, even among the kindest groups. I am not a NASCAR fan. I don't know enough about woodworking to even want to show off any miniscule amount of talent I may have in that area. Why anyone thinks Pinewood Derby cars are fun year after year is beyond me...? Why not every other year?

Valentine's Day still has that wonderful goofiness for elementary school children. Before you have those heart-wrenching crushes, the holiday is about getting a small gift, eating candy, and celebrating in the middle of a freezing cold winter.

Sleep-over party materials

Last summer, when we purchased a Nintendo DS very few other children in our neighborhood seemed to own one. A cousin had one, and another cousin had a Sony PSP, but that seemed to be geared to older children. We had been lusting over the DS at the local, independent video game, CD, DVD, magazine store. The owner had been as fascinated as we were at the popularity of the DS games over the PSPs.

But now, not even a year later, many of the boys at the latest slumber party or camp-in events that our family has been involved in have brought their DS players and games. They didn't seem to have planned this. It's just that it happened. They played each other's games, helped some get over difficult hurdles that others could finessed, and text messaged every one in the room. The limited range of the wi-fi-style text messaging baffles me, but it must serve some kind of need.

At school last week, the kids could bring in special items if they donated a $1 a day to the local children's hospital fund. Last Friday was bring a video game or CD player. One girl brought her iDog extreme attached to a CD player. Most of the kids seemed to have DS players. Two of the most unlikeliest kids (a boy and a girl) had PSP players. I label them unlikely because the PSP players are more expensive and the games are more sophisticated. I didn't think the two children quite fit into the typical PSP demographic. But who knows?

Still, the taking over the DS world is fascinating and has been swift.

Even more breathtakingly fast has been the kids' involvement with Webkinz. A typical girl seems to have 10. The latest thing to buy on Webkinz is a bathtub to give your animals a bath. So many online webkinz got baths that I finally decided it was time for a child's Real World shower. Because it would make him "cleaner, happier and healthier, too!"

It's nicer to be on the winning side

After we vote here, we get a small oval sticker that says "I Voted" with a flag underneath. I noticed that many people were wearing them as we shopped the bargains early Tuesday morning. They are a kind of badge of honor.

Yet, they look a lot like those stickers that say "I Gave Blood." During the last several years, voting has seemed somewhat like giving blood, putting your hopes and principles into a small black circle with all the pain and dismal frustration that goes into such a decision. Especially when you realize that you'll probably loose. I got queasy every time I looked at the sticker, as I faint around blood easily. (obviously I never had a future in medicine)

But yesterday the voters in my school district passed both a referendum and a .1 tax increase to improve the schools, build new ones, and improve security. I worked a little on promoting a Yes vote. So I feel pretty good that both parts passed. My son is in one of the test classrooms and is thrilled about the Smart Board connected to a computer. The kids seem to respond to it extremely well. The complete overhaul of the classroom has contributed tremendously to a better learning environment.

I hate that taxes have to go up, but I think that investing in the future through children and schools is necessary.

Barack Obama also won my state. Yeah! I worked on helping get on the vote for him, too.

I am thrilled that for once my hopes and beliefs aligned with the greater community.

Child-Safe Web Browsers on the Mac

The time has come in our house to find a good child-friendly web browser for the Macintosh. Our choice, so far, is Bumper Car. Is this the best brower for us? Perhaps.

A year ago or so, we tried out "Kid Browser." The idea of it seemed good, but it seemed more limiting than what we were looking for. We had difficulty with just working through all the website we wanted to turn into bookmarks. I notice that there's a new version out, so probably will download it again and see how it works. It also includes an area for math flashcards, Lite Brite-type art, and pixel drawing. I noticed that there are only 988 registered users in the parental chat area. The creators are thinking of adding a kids' social area. This review has good screen shots, and as the writer notes, it's just available for the Macintosh. As this review notes, once Kid Browser is loaded it takes over the entire screen. We found that somewhat limit, altho I'm sure lots of parents would like this aspect.

Looking at the several child oriented browsers listed at Tech Republic, it's clear that there are a lot more options for Windows users. Half way down this article from "The X Lab" is a list of some Mac browsers for kids.

I did try the Parental Controls on Safari. From what I can figure out, the main thing that it does is allow a user only to get onto the sites put on the Bookmark Bar. Since I usually just use the Bar for the sites I visit most frequently, I had to rethink my approach to the Bar. Essentially this limits a user to just a few sites. I just think this is too limiting. It requires a lot of work on the parents' part to put on all the sites in the Bar. After awhile, the Bar gets full. Parental Controls also takes away the Google window.

This leads us to Free Verse software's Bumper Car [BC], which is an overlay on Safari. The name comes from the design in some of its options that looks like a bumper car moving around to different categories. It looks best under Young Child for Home. BC comes with many websites pre-approved on Whitelists. Parents can add to the Whitelists, or add to the Favorites in the Bookmark Menu. Parents can also pre-determine information that a child can put into forms or type in online (I think). This would prevent children from giving out their name, phone number, email, or address.

Another control that can be customized is blocking words on a website. The list of x-rated possible words is rather long. Unfortunately, when we tried to practice this week's spelling list on Wizard Spell, Bumper Car blocked it. I am not sure what was happening because, as you can imagine, the words on a third grade spelling list are not x-rated. But somehow Bumper Car thought there were different words.

Bumper Car can be downloaded for $29.94, or the CD with the same written descriptions as available on the website can be purchased. This seems a fair charge.

Bumper Car only works with OS 10.4 or higher. Bumper Car also recommends and shows how to create a child's account using OS 10.4

I have spent more than an hour customizing Bumper Car so that it includes the popular kid programs in our household. I forsee more time putting in sites, but that is okay.

Another nice aspect is that you can control how far afield child users can link some the original website. You can specify two pages or up to 8. You can also control how long a user can be on Bumper Car and what hours during the day. This works.

I haven't upgraded to the new Mac OS, which has more parental controls. So I'm not quite sure what more I'll be able to do.

So far Bumper Car I seem to be able to customize it more than Kid Browser and seems more geared to older children. I'll be interested how long we use it

Snow Day

A huge snowstorm has blasted into the Midwest covering every blemish of mud with a soft, sandy snow. It's like someone went overboard and dumped 7 inches of granulated sugar everywhere. Sometimes it seems rather sad to shovel the snow when it's so beautiful. But responsibility takes over. We know we have to get out of the driveway sooner or later, even though right now the whole town is hunkered down because no one can go anywhere, except for the snow plows and those with all-wheel drive who are desperate to get out.

I haven't been posting a lot lately. During December, the exuberant madness of holiday events always seems to be overwhelming. And then my mother came for a visit at Christmas, the first time in years. So I had to clean up years worth of dust. I bought new furniture over the internet, at homedecorators.com and homedecoratorsoutlet.com. Then I had to put it together, which was more fun than I thought. I still have two pieces for my office I have yet to put together. So far I have been happy with the quality. It's better than anything I could buy around here. Also everything was delivered by the UPS guy, who got to know us pretty well. Consequently, we didn't have to rent a truck. Buying furniture this way has turned out great.

Another reason I haven't posted is that the primary elections have just been too much. ( I know GDAEman is probably upset that I haven't posted about the elections.) I keep thinking I should start a separate blog with my political ideas, as that doesn't seem what this blog is totally about.

Anyway, my main problem is that I cannot understand how so many people can be supporting Hillary Clinton. The more I think about it, the less I can comprehend it. I have read about too many women who are supporting Hillary because they want to see a woman elected president in their lifetime. They feel that their generation of women (i.e. Baby Boomers who believe they are entitled to everything) has conquered everything else, so it's time to climb the mountain and do the presidency, too. They completely neglect that she is running for president because she has gotten this far with help from her husband. I don't see how living in the White House qualifies anyone for 'experience.' How many women out there can jump into their husband's job on 'Day One'? I feel like I am watching a puzzling conundrum.

I think Barack Obama has some kind of sensibility that makes him a motivating leader that can really help lead the U.S. into a better future.

And yet, what will happen if Obama doesn't win the nomination?

But, I continue to remain hopeful that the U.S. can emerge better than it is now, no matter who leads.

50,000 words & more!!!!

Yeah! I did it. I wrote a novel at least 50,000 words in one month. I am doing a virtual dance. Ooo-wee! I finished NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month).

Actually, my word count is at least 53,000 words. But the frustrating part is that I didn't actually finish the novel. I got a little obsessed with the word count and my characters and their motivation so I didn't quite realize how to control my plot. I definitely knew where the plot was going. That wasn't the problem. But I still have the concluding chapters to write. Yet, having written 6000 words in one sitting, I realize that I can finish the novel.

Then there's the issue of re-writing and trying to get it published.

Well, tomorrow is another day. For awhile I'm going to savor the success. Oooo-weee!

Nanowrimo in Second Life

Second Life intersects with real life again. There's a great Nanowrimo group in SL. Check it out.

Also I checked out the website from the commenter on my last post. His site, rezyourmind.com, has several good essays about Second Life. This is an insightful point from the site:

I do believe we have the potential to find validity in our relationships and experiences online, but when do we allow it to become distorted in our perception? When does it become us being too easily pleased or deceived into thinking people are disposable? Can our real life experiences and relationships become distorted and disposable as well? How much of our life do we put on a disposable memory stick?

Then, of course, the thing that's on my mind is shopping for Christmas. Apple has a big sale on Friday, online it seems. The sales for Black Friday look interesting, but do you think the sales will be even more next week? What I find incredibly frustrating is that if you don't buy some of the high tech stuff before Christmas, it either disappears or the price goes up for awhile. I find the whole pricing structure of electronics, and toys as well, a tad frustrating.

Have you checked out the Black Friday/CyberMonday websites? bargainshare.com cybermonday.com
Here's a good article from Marketwatch.com about how to deal with the upcoming deals.

The photo is of the next Macbook accessory I have to buy, to connect it to a new, larger screen we have purchased. Thankfully, I found cables to link an iPod video to a television on red discount at Target. These cable things add up.

Being neutral on virtual realities

Children hanging out in virtual reality would sound like science fiction only a few years ago, and yet today it's becoming a hot topic. The way that academics and media watchers are discussing the topic seems, in a way, to only be scratching the surface. My sense is that there's a sense of more optimism than pessimism among those grabbing the spotlight on discussing this emerging world. Check out Doug Thomas' statement in relation to the MacArthur Foundation's forum last week "What are Kids Learning in Virtual Worlds: The Wonders and the Worries."

Within virtual worlds, kids are learning what it means to be members of a community, a community they are building and in many ways defining. The values they create and the rules and norms they develop are teaching them lessons in citizenship and community. In many cases that is a good thing, one which helps kids understand what makes for a healthy community and what makes for a dysfunctional one. At the same time, however, we need to be mindful of spaces which conflate citizenship with consumption or community with collection.

...Virtual worlds teach the skills to navigate the new information economy by allowing kids to learn how to find information, often times in an environment that changes rapidly. Taken together, virtual worlds can prepare our kids for the next generation of learning. If only our schools could move as quickly.

In the cnet.com article covering the forum, Thomas acknowledges the inherent problems with commercialism (meaning mainly collecting stuff
and exposure to ads) in today's virtual realities for children. But then, the article quotes him say:

"Knowledge is changing. It (used to be that it) was a set of facts, now it's not so much a 'what' but a 'where,' in which kids learn how to find information," Thomas said. "That's going to be the single most important skill--the ability to adapt to change."

He added: "I wouldn't be worried if they're engaged and playing these games, I'd be more worried if they're not."

But most kids are not playing virtual reality games and many are not precisely because of capitalism, commercialism -- or in other words because most parents aren't rich enough to get their kids high speed internet connections and their own dedicated computer to go along with it. If you remember that 50% or more of children in the southern U.S. live in families at or below the poverty line, then you know what I'm talking about. The digital divide is becoming a digital chasm.

Even if your parents have money, it is still difficult to convince them to spend money on something intangible -- virtual pets and their related clothes. Most adults aren't even spending money for their own intangibles. True, there's a large group of people that play Warcraft, but those people also have dedicated an enormous amount of time to that world. The new virtual realities are going to have to be more fluid, allowing adults and children to enter easily.

In a recent New York Times article, "Pay Up Kid, or Your Igloo Melts," even parents who have the money to spend (burn?) are somewhat confused about why they're paying for some things in virtual reality. Paying $6 a month isn't too bad, but $19.95 for a virtual dragon is too much.

In essence, I'm trying to say that being more neutral on virtual realities might be better. I've been through this before when academic consultants jump up and down about how great the new technology is. But they don't always think out all of the ramifications. And one of the ramifications here is: Who's going to pay, how much, and why?

well, more later.

Analyzing Virtual Worlds for Kids

Through CommonSenseMedia.org, I learned about yesterday's conference (Nov. 15) about the experiences of online virtual networks for children, specifically focusing on Club Penguin and Webkinz, it seems. Here's a link to Cnet's article "What kids learn in virtual reality." This is a fascinating quote from Doug Thomas, associate professor at USC's Annenberg School of Communication:

"I wouldn't be worried if they're engaged and playing these games, I'd be more worried if they're not."

Well, that doesn't seem to be the reaction of most parents I know. They're terrified of their kids playing on the computer beyond 15 minutes. Maybe I'm just hanging around with conservative parents in Illinois' heartland. But these parents are well educated and most have a high speed internet connection at home. Many use computers as an important part of their job. So why are they reluctant to let their kids online, communicate with their friends online, or even have online 'jobs' to earn money to 'buy' things?

If they're worried about commercialism, as the cnet article indicates, isn't what they're describing more like 'why it's important to have a job so you can buy things you need: food, shelter, clothing?' True, the kids are buying fun things, but they are learning about the connection between earning money/points to buy something that you want and then using it. Or they find out that maybe they didn't want what they bought, like a boy getting a pink tutu for his penguin. Webkinz, in particular, doesn't let you earn points unless you can pass certain tests, some of which are difficult for me to pass on the first time. So the 'jobs' are not easy-peasy, but require some skill and effort.

Other parents are reluctant to pay the cost of Club Penguin. But it's $5 to $6 a month, depending on the plan. That's less than two McDonald's happy meals. Or less than most Lego sets. Or about the same as seeing one movie in a theater a month, without popcorn. More parents seem to be allowing their kids to have a Webkinz, which cost from $8 to $15 (I think that's right) because that's the only entry fee. Well, at first that's the only cost. But there's more! Kids are begging parents in stores to buy them another Webkinz. I met a mother whose children each had 10. And then there are clothes, trading cards, etc., with special codes to unlock more stuff online. This may cost me more than $6 a month if I keep going to the stores that are easily noted on the web by our Webkinz fan.

Or, is it the obsessiveness that these virtual worlds generate? Okay, this is troubling. Adults get obsessed about being online, so it's not surprising that kids do too. I wish that the academics had responded to this problem.

What about the weirdness of making friends online, and then not being able to make friends, and then being shunned by friends? I sometimes think this is rather overblown by parents. Kids' friendships are often fluid, especially on playgrounds, which is what I think is a good analogy for Club Penguin, in particular. Maybe it's okay to learn how to be friends quickly, to learn how to let go, to not get too jealous of friends. That might be a good life lesson.

For an added perspective, here's a link to a recent poll that says "Parents and Video Games don't mix." The following quote from a parent, who here is talking more about fantasy and violent games not really Club Penguin and Webkinz, still seems to present another position of parents

"It's just such a waste of time," said Lackman, 47, a power plant operator from Center, North Dakota, "I tell him, 'Do something that has some lasting value."'

But maybe learning how to negotiate in virtual worlds is going to continue to be an important skill for this new generation. My mom always wanted me to 'go outside.' I ended up bringing a typewriter outside and learning how to type in a tree with fingers that were freezing because I had to be outside during spring break in March. I was using my mom's old Royal typewriter with the hard-to-hit keys.

Perhaps that's why I particularly like that kids have to type to communicate. That's why I'm okay with Club Penguin in our house. I like that we have lots of excitement for Thursday's newspaper on Club Penguin, as I've mentioned before here.

The one parent that I know that regularly lets her daughter on Club Penguin does so because her best friend moved to Texas. This way they can talk to each other for a long time without tying up the home phone.

But the panelists in California seemed less concerned than many of the parents that I know. Yasmin Kafai, associate professor of the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, suggested that

parents become a member in the virtual world that their kids belong to and play with them. "Go into the world with them," she said.

So, looks like there's a big divide between many parents, kids who like virtual reality and will be involved in it probably for the rest of their lives, and academics on the west coast.

Abstinence Ed doesn't work but Hip-Hop Ed might

I thought this article from the NY Times about using the language of hip-hop to reduce teen sexuality and increase empowerment of girls might be interesting to my friend who's an expert in studying teen sexuality. Then I thought it might be interesting to post on this blog as well. Only some of the hip-hip songs lead to risky sexual behavior. The study indicates that it's not the lyrics necessarily but the milleau surrounding listening to the music in groups that's the problem. To quote the article:

Most of the teenagers in the study were sexually experienced. But the researchers found that the overt sexuality of the music and dancing was not the main influence on sexual behavior. Rather it was the old standbys of alcohol, drugs and peer pressure that typically led them into sexual encounters.

When I was talking to my friend, she politely pointed out that studies show that abstinence education doesn't really work with teenagers. They are still going to have sex.

In Amanda Robb's NYT Op-Ed piece Oct. 18, 2007, she points out the tragedy of abstinence education:

In addition to provoking shame about a nearly universal activity, abstinence-only sex education is ineffective and dangerous. Last April, a 10-year study found that students who took abstinence-only courses were no more likely to abstain from sex than other students. Previous studies revealed that abstinence-only students avoid using contraception.

Here's a link to the AP article about the major study released in April 2007 about how teenage abstinence programs don't work. Here's a link to the Mathematica Policy Research report, which you can the download as a pdf, on which the news article is based on.

I think that the study noted in this Nov. 7 2007 Time article ("Abstienence not curbing teen sex") is what I was thinking about when I was talking with my friend. It's by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. I found the images there from the group's new ad campaign. They are a tad odd, I think. Not sure if telling someone to 'stay self-centered' or 'stay a slacker' is such a good idea. But I'm sure they've been extensively market researched.

Just to be balanced, here's a study by the Heritage Foundation that teenagers who have sex are more likely to be depressed ad commit suicide. This sounds a lot like all those 1950s thinly veiled sex ed movies about kids who were 'fast' and then died in car crashes.

In the end, I have to agree with the Media Project's web site on teens and sex. It notes: "Young people have the right to sexual health information & services." As much as parents don't want to admit that their kids have sex, I think it's better to be informed all around. Perhaps good information can reduce problems.

And I have trouble spelling abstinence, so glad that my smart friend is doing the research -- she also knows more spelling rules than I do.

50,000 words in a month...with notes on the Hillary problem

I decided to try out the National Novel Writing Month program in which you try to write a 50,000 word novel in a month. So far I am nearly 10,000 words into it. The best part is being part of a group of writers. I sometimes have found the blogging world rather disconnected unless you work hard at connecting.

I have also been spending some time on Gather, which I got on through the website splendidtable.org. I got onto that by listening to the podcast of the APR radio show Splendid Table. I love listening to podcasts about food while cooking. Something inspirational about it. Unfortunately, the one recipe I have tried from Splendid Table, a pumpkin curry soup, was only partly successful. In general, I am struggling with how much curry to put into anything.

Ok, I am just going to tuck this in -- What if I wrote a website that was about pros and the obvious cons related to Hillary Clinton? Would anyone be interested? How many of those websites are there out there? I guess I will have to count. Well, just typing in "Hillary Clinton" and "critique" on Technorati leads to more than 470 posts.

I particularly liked Alison Owing's piece on Nov. 12 in the Huffington Post on her problems with Hillary. Here's a good clip:

Even after years in office, Hillary's wide-eyed oh-it's-you!-here-at-my-rally look seems, to me, practiced. So, for a wider check, I called another old friend in New York to ask how she likes Hillary these days. She said she could not bear her. Personality, huh? I asked. No, she said, she doesn't care about that. It's her votes. For the war in Iraq. For confirming Alberto Gonzales. For building the wall along Mexico. And now the vote that may lead us to war in Iran.

Ah, yes, the votes. They are part of my Hillary problem, too. So is the maneuvering of positions, the being maybe not so pro-choice after all-ing. And there is the cattle-futures trading. The Whitewatering. The Walmarting. The stand by your man anyway-ing.

That is how I am feeling. Like older feminist women are forcing me to like Hillary, and really, I just don't want to. I don't trust her. She betrayed many of her liberal friends, I particularly think about Marion Wright Edelman, and seemed untroubled by that. Maybe that's how politicians work. But it seems she could try harder to get people to work together, instead of just her way.

Designer clothes for girls

When I was in junior high, I remember what is was like to not having the right sweater. Somehow I always connected that with not being friends with what seemed liked the 'in' crowd. They were the girls whose parents bought them the right sweaters from Marshall Field's. A Wall Street Journal article Fashion Bullies Attack - In middle school suggests that the right sweater is even more desirable now.

But it's nice to see a few programs trying to address the extreme meanness that many girls exhibit, and which I think are allowed by the school. After all, these girls then keep everyone quiet in the classroom, set an example to do homework, wash their hands, speak softly, etc. Teachers love the good girls.

But to any middle school girl caught in this vicious circle, I can only say that often those popular girls don't always turn out to be the best friends to have. They were the ones who had the big drinking parties early on and drove drunk home from the city. Well, some of them. I know those girls can be mean, but they're often lacking something in their life and compensating for it, too.

October makes us all think of sweaters. And it's probably time for me to get back to blogging, too.

Disney buys Club Penguin

Yesterday, Disney announced that it was purchasing Club Penguin. This was a great newspaper article to get our young CP fan reading the New York Times. Which leads me to my continuing amazement how the old-style media complains bitterly about how young readers don't read their newspapers and yet really don't seem to comprehend how to connect with younger readers. The CP newspapepr is a must read in our household every Thursday morning. Why? Because it contains information that a younger audience wants to read. Most newspapers I read these days are geared for white management-types who are over 40 and are only excited by albums, oops CD's released by old hippie types or promoted at Starbucks. They barely get what anyone under 30 is interested in reading in the newspaper anymore. I have lots of ideas.

Disney gets it by purchasing Club Penguin, but I hope that they don't mess it up. Good things could come out of this.

The avatar worlds are just starting to increase in popularity. This Globe and Mail article points the way to where things may be headed. Here are a few other selected opinions about Club Penguin, which seems to be a puzzlement to many writers without kids. Motley Fool points out how this is a good deal for Disney. The Washington Post has a photo of the founders and includes negative authorities on kids on the internet. Tech guru John Dvorak writes that he's never heard of Club Penguin, which suggests to me that the world is changing a lot faster than he understands.

I want to sound bemused here because I sense there's lots of money to be made. But the guys who tried to sell us 'synergies' a few years ago are unaware as they count the exorbitant sums of money they made through speculations while others got burned. Let's just hope Disney figures out how that too much synergy is a bad thing.