Migration: Early Notice

I've been debating and contemplating moving my blog from here to a WordPress blog. The writing app for iPad and iPhone is really...not very good, and the writing in my new (!thanks Mom!) iPad on a browser doesn't work either. There are a host of minor, very first-world-problems, that cause draft posts to pile up on my phone or iPad until I can get time on our laptop to do all the laptop/browser only details which make each post flow, have pictures, etc.

I don't have a new web address yet, and I will be migrating my content as well as dual posting for a while after the Big Move. But I know I have some loyal readers out there and I wanted to you know, first thing, to keep your eye out for the new address. I promise I will try to keep this move as simple for everyone as possible.

Re-Thinking TV Turn-Off Week

Inspired by our local library, we committed to turning off our TV and video (computer) games for a week. We made it through with little complaining from the kids. We nixed movies and computer time and, since we don't do much of those anyway, we hardly noticed.

But the concept of TV-Turn-Off Week is outdated and needs to be re-invented for this brave new screen-happy world. Patents work from home - on computers, phones, & iPads - and accessing of videos for work and education is normal. We have iPhones and iPads that house our communications and music, as well as games and movies and all else. In our house there is a digital picture frame. Cameras are all screen based. Brother-Bug has a hand-me-down iPod that has games on it. We have a TV, but no cable or conventional TV access. We use Netflix and library DVDs for our viewing enjoyments. These kids have seen actual commercial television maybe 2-3 times. We have no video game console, though Papa-Bug does have some games on his computer that are video game-ish. I use the computer not only for writing and work, but to also access a lot of our educational materials.

Where does this leave TV-Turn Off Week? I love the idea, but obviously it's time to re-evaluate how it fits in a world so littered with screens. When I was little we hung a sign on the TV and that was it. The computer with games like pong(!) was in Dad's home office and we just couldn't use it for the week. It didn't bother us that Dad did keep using it for work - screens weren't in such heavy use that we really thought about it.

How to explain the difference between media use as mind-dulling entertainment, a photography project, a writing project...? Kids are on computers daily in schools - how does that relate?
Can we even begin to contemplate turning off the TV when the ease of screen entertainment assails us from so many other quarters? Or an alternate view - does turning off the TV really make a big difference, when there are so many other screens we access?

Over at Adbusters, they have renamed it Digital Detox Week, and I think they have some good ideas, but it's hard to figure out a good way to relate these ideas directly to kids. Ironically, one of their ideas is based on an online video....

I've been turning this over in my head for almost two weeks now, and I don't know what the answer or balance is. Going totally screen free is not practical or possible anymore. No solution or balance has jumped out at me. Thank goodness I have a year to think it though and prepare for next year!

Don't Apologize

One of the side consequences of always having our phones in our pockets is the inevitable apology when a call is missed. And, while it may be a trivial thing, it truly drives me a little nuts.


"Sorry I missed your call - I was helping my child _____ (learn to read, wash their hair, or ???)" 

Please don't apologize to me! You have called me back. You have voice mail. I am not more important that the job you are doing, the walk you are taking, the child you are parenting... And I wouldn't want to be. Instead, tell me how your day has been and what you have been up to. If I called you and you are my friend, I love you and your life and want to hear about how when I called you had just managed to sit down for the first time all day, with a good book, and nothing was getting you up... and I want to know how the book is. Or that your child was trying to swallow your house key. Or other details of your day and life...

But don't apologize for having a full, rich life that doesn't always get to the phone.

Do you apologize? Am I way off base here?

Mindful Monday: Re-Evaluating Screen Time

With the iPhone and the new desktop have come a loosening of the conscientious screen limits we have set for Brother-Bug. I'm not opposed to changing and shifting the limits, but I want to do so with intention and consideration.

There is so much available media for these little brains to navigate. There is so much wonderful and fun and useful media out there, and all of it is balanced by harmful, deleterious, and useless media that it causes me to quail as I contemplate letting more into our home.

But this is the world we live in, these are the tools and technologies we use and enjoy. It just calls for careful consideration of what and where and when and how.

Who: The Whole Family
What: Re-Evaluating Our Use of Screens
Why: To decide how we use these tools to connect, enjoy, learn, and grow.
How: Private parental discussion, followed byfamily discussion and brainstorming, and hopefully the creation of a plan.

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I still haven't re-initiated my evening walks. It might be something I do in a couple of weeks - after the grandparents leave for home and life slows down just a fraction.

Computer Update

My laptop came back from MicroDoc today. It's toast. Far too much water damage and corrosion to be fixed. Hopefully I can craigslist it as parts.

The good news is that we found a desktop Mac G5 for a deal. So now I have this lovely desktop.



I'm hopeful that a desktop computer here makes me less inclined to pile stuff on the desk and more intentional with my computer use.

I'll miss my laptop, but on the whole I think this is a good move for our family. And as soon as the stuff from my old hard drive is on the new hard drive, I will be up and computing again. I'm thankful for my phone and its talents... But I am really looking forward to getting my fingers on an actual keyboard!

Catastrophe!

Keep your fingers crossed for me. Apparently a sippy cup of water was behind my laptop last night. Apparently it also tipped over, leaking a puddle of water under and (hopefully not too far) into my computer.

All personal conflicts aside, I am very glad that I got this iPhone. At least I can keep up with the things I must do online, like banking and emails while we figure out what to do with the computer. Buying a new one, in the possibility that this one has visited Davy Jones' Locker is not financially feasible right now.

It's been one of those weeks. Sister-Bug has been dissatisfied for days - sweet and charming to everyone except me, but I am the only one she wants. We are gearing up for Faire as I have already noted. My Dad and his wife parked their RV in our yard for the summer - which is so great - but comes with more yard rearranging than I had planned. Plus I haven't seen them since winter solstice and I want to be hanging out, not doing chores.

But FINALLY it is sunny out. It is warm enough to put on a sundress without a sweater first thing in the morning. Strawberries are ripe all over the place. And I am bound for a couple of delightful hours working at the Eugene Farmers Market.

So I think it will be a good day and a full, rich weekend. And I hope my computer survives. Say a prayer to the gods of technical things and circuits, won't you?

This Phone is Smarter Than Me

In a fit of curiosity, I am blogging from our car using my husband's iPhone. I resist these smart phones and yet they seem to have many tools that could be useful. My least favorite part is the touch screen. It feels so... Un-real maybe. And I make so many errors, so frequently, that any iPhone use usually leaves me fuming and helping the kids learn exciting new vocabulary.

Anyway. I am thing of delving into this wacky world of smarter-than-me-phones. This post from the car is a way of dipping my toes into an iPhone, if you will. I hope my husband doesn't mind toe prints.

I contemplate either an iPhone or a Blackberry Torch. All my siblings have iPhones - do I join the pack or be an individual? How do I really feel about this touch screen? Do I really want a smart phone? These are definitely questions I need to answer before I delve - if I delve.

I would be most appreciative of comments and thoughts from iPhone and Blackberry Torch owners.