BAM: Getting it off my chest

This what my e-mail inbox looks like too many mornings:

It's a bit hard to decipher, but basically my total new mail consists of two catalog sales messages, one listserv digest, and eight BAMs - Blog spAMs. Despite my blog host Squarespace having a spam filter, the  spam is growing. And my whack-a-mole efforts to keep it off my site are not always sufficiently timely to keep readers from seeing this crap (as a couple readers have pointed out.) What I find interesting is that the spam comes, it seems, most often from companies hawking knock-off fashions. Obviously, the senders have never seen how I dress - they got the knock-off part right but fashion is never associated with my name.

Thanks for letting me get that off my chest. Spending the rest of the Thanksgiving holiday going through the final page-proofs of my book that will be coming out in February and silently giving thanks that none of the 26 relatives that came for dinner on Thursday has called to report food poisoning from the turkey, cranberry sauce, salads or dressing I prepared.

Whew.

BFTP: Learning from the grandsons

A weekend (and holiday) Blue Skunk "feature" will be a revision of an old post. I'm calling this BFTP Blast From the Past. Original post November 30, 2008. The LWW and I had a chance to spend last weekend with the older grandsons and those older people they live with. This week the 18-month-old is with us for a couple days. So grandchildren are much on my mind. And although this post is a few years old, Paul, Miles and Theo continue to teach me each time I spend time with them.

The red hat with earflaps - the fashion acorn doesn't fall far from the tree.

I am always somewhat astounded by the degree to which my grandsons, ages seven and three, are little mass-media tech-heads*. This despite their parents being genuinely cautious about how much access the boys have to the computer, video games, and television. They can't seem to NOT be Net Genners from whom I always learn a good deal...

• Part of the appeal of coming to this grandpa and grandma's house (beside the sugared cereal) is permission to play the Captain Underpants games on the Dave Pilkey website. Who knew?
• One distinction between Boba Fett and Jango Fett from Star Wars is that one has two pistols and the other only has one. This is but a scintilla of the encyclopedic information that both the seven-year-old and three-year-old have about the Star Wars mythos.I hope some day they will learn their world history so well.
• There are 414 different products** that appear in the Amazon toy section when the term "lego star wars" is searched. The boys are still missing one or two sets, it seems. And I thought reviewing these offerings would be an easy way to get Christmas gift ideas.
• Grandpa's iPod*** was a hit. The battery doesn't last as long in the hands of kids. As the LWW observed, this, the iPod, is the computer that today's kids will always want.
• Not having a DVR (like Tivo) makes me an pitiable antique. "We have to watch commercials on TV?"
• Despite being raised in an aggressively non-violent household (is that an oxymoron?), both boys delight in hand-held weaponry. Their uncle's old Nerf shooters are particularly prized. So many computer games involve blasting something, it isn't all that surprising, I suppose. That along with the that Y-chromosome.
• The movie Bolt was a much better movie than I expected and great fun in 3-D. Well, it was fun for five of us - the three-year-old refused to wear the glasses and watched it in fuzzy-D. Depite the ready availablity of DVDs of lots of movies at home, it seems going to the theater is still special and desired. Must be the popcorn.****
• Even my small computer-loving grandsons still delight bookstores. And Grandpa is usually good for a couple of additions to the home library. The boys still delight in reading.***** Thank goodness.
• The movie Wall-E is even better the second viewing. And I felt the picture was better watching it in Blu-ray here at home than in the theater.
• Why does McDonalds put video games in its playland areas? I don't mind the kids being too excited to eat wanting to go on the slides and such, but too excited wanting to play a Ronald McDonald video game? Uh, super-size that chance at childhood obesity, please.
• Kids won't eat beets even when Grandpa makes them.
• When Dad announced it was time to go home, the little grandson started to cry. Kind of how I felt too. ******

A recent MacArthur sponsored report, Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project, argues for youth access to online resources:

Many adults worry that children are wasting time online, texting, or playing video games. The researchers explain why youth find these activities compelling and important. The digital world is creating new opportunities for youth to grapple with social norms, explore interests, develop technical skills, and experiment with new forms of self-expression. These activities have captured teens’ attention because they provide avenues for extending social worlds, self-directed learning, and independence.

I believe balance is needed. I am very glad my grandsons are still involved in Cub Scouts, swimming lessons, and other non-computerized activities. Very glad.

Raising children to be well-rounded, hard-working adults with a good value system has never been an easy job. Quite honestly, I don't envy my daughter and son-in-law this challenging task that seems more difficult today than ever. But my grandsons are delightful young men - smart, funny and beautiful - so their parents must be doing something right.

Objectively speaking.

Updates:

* Despite his technical sophistication, Miles still liked making a costume for his a kindergarten Thanksgiving. Very nice to know some things don't change.

 ** Today's Amazon search in 2011 showed 1,036 results for "Lego Star Wars".

*** Each boy now has his own iPod Touch and Nintendo DS game. There is still a little thrill in using Grandpa's iPad. The computer is completely ignored. The 10-year-old uses his iPod to send text messages and do a little Facetime with Grandpa.

**** It was the movie Puss in Boots this year. And going to the movies is still a treat.

****** The six-year-old is big into graphic novels written just for his age. The 10-year-old is working through all the Riordan novels and the 39 Clues among other things.

****** And leaving still chokes me up.

Why the Nook should have a Kindle app and vice versa

I get a great deal of pleasure teasing the clerks at our local Barnes & Noble about whether there is a Kindle app for their new Nook Color. I explain patiently that I would be happy to buy their new device and start buying e-books from B&N, but if I did I would be abandoning the 122 books I have already purchased from Amazon over the past five years. I add that had I started buying e-books from B&N five years ago, I'd now be asking the same question about the new Fire tablet from Amazon - "Does it have a Nook app?"

Happily my iPhone and iPad read both formats (and stuff from Overdrive, ePub, pdf, etc.) To me, it sets the bar for e-book cross platform compatibility. I am guessing the Android tablets and phones work this way as well.

As I understand it from the reviews, the Nook Color 2 and Amazon Fire do allow the use of downloadable Android apps. Both organizations need to remove their heads from their respective ... uh ... holes in the sand and give readers the ability to buy and read from any source.

Am I the only one to whom this makes sense? (And yes, anti-DRM purists, I understand I shouldn't be buying e-books so encoded in the first place.)