Monthly Archives: May 2008

Dippity, Parenting, School, Youtube

Are laptops for school children a good idea?

Homework

I’m sitting here with my daughter’s school laptop in bed (feeling crapola with a cold) as I write this so I’m aware that I’m being a bit hypocritical…

Here’s the thing. My daughter has gone to a new school this year. A school that insists that every child should use a laptop from Grade 5. Their argument is that we live in an age where computers and digital devices are a part of our lives and that we should make use of every tool we can to educate our children. And yes, I get that.

But since we’ve had this third computer in the house we barely see our 11 year old. It’s Youtube 24/7 – or until Groover goes mental because we’ve been shaped again. She doesn’t seem to read books anymore – it’s chapter after chapter of fan fiction.

We insist that she uses the computer in public and we’ve learned that you take the laptop away from her at bedtime – what I’m not seeing is a whole lot of homework done on the computer and given that, I wonder why the school doesn’t store the wretched things in the classroom. Do they really need to take them home?

The only good thing is that at least she’s not fighting with my son now over the second computer.

So here I am enjoying her MacBook interface on our wireless system (which doesn’t seem to work for my work laptop) and whinging.

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And part of it is my old fashioned sense of media. I want my child to enjoy books as books! Not fan fiction. Although, having said that if she was writing her own stories… well now, that would be different. And maybe endless reading of it will lead to writing her own…

In the meantime my darling Dipp has earned a merit award at school. So maybe the laptop isn’t the monster I make it out to be.

Oh, you ask, why do I have precious time on the new toy? Ah, she’s out on her brother’s bike getting some fresh air.

I asked her first!

Some parenting tips please! How do you manage computer time in your home?

Creative Commons License photo credit: Apollo-Jack

Youtube

Why I’ve cancelled my facebook account

12 Comments

Well… deactivated it… it’s VERY difficult to pull out of it completely… I just got sick of all the poking, vampire biting… yes even hugs…

In fact, no words today… I’m going to let BBC3 do the work for me:

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Health, Introspection

I’m FINE, thank you

11 Comments

SavannahOne of the speakers at a recent forum I attended was psychotherapist Jackie Furey. An entertaining speaker, I found her words touched me in ways I can’t explain… or maybe I can… what time of the month is it?

She talked about it being fine… in the way that when someone says “how are you?” You say: “Fine.”

Jackie says in psychotherapist-speak, fine means:

Fucked up
Insecure
Neurotic and
Emotional

Is she right?

Her message was that if you don’t do your feelings, they’ll do you. And I guess that’s what touched a nerve with me. I don’t think I have been doing my feelings and once a month – bang – they do me.

I’m teary, emotional, paranoid, despairing.

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Yesterday I noticed that my big toe on my left foot was numb… that weird feeling numb just before you get pins and needles – you know what I mean? I can feel the fuzziness go up the back of my leg and I think it ends in my neck. My toe has now been weirdly numb for two days.

Maybe it’s unconnected but somehow I wonder if my feelings are doing me. I’m off to the doctor tomorrow to check it out and maybe a chiropractor or osteopath as well.

Of course, Groover has been completely supportive… “Maybe you’ve got MS”, he says not helpfully, “…or Motor Neuron Disease… you never know it might be some sort of stroke…”

Thanks darling, just remember, you said “In sickness and in health”.

That should shut him up.

🙂

UPDATE: I’m fine. Hehe. Well, I probably have some swelling in the lower sacral part of my spine which is encroaching on a nerve so I’m going to try some antinflammatories and see if that works, do some physio or chiro, and if it’s not fixed in a couple of weeks do a cat scan to see if that gives us more clues as to what is going on. As well I’ve had full bloods taken in preparation for a general check up. The first for years. Am I a bloke?

In the meantime it’s just me and my fuzzy toe.

TV

Television ratings and Gordon Ramsey

I love him, you may not... the question is should his show be on tv at 8.30?I love him. You may not. The question is given the level of “coarse language” should Gordon Ramsey’s restaurant programs – eg Kitchen Nightmares – be shown on free-to-air television as early as 8.30pm?

Today the radio was filled with talkback… yes still talking about Troy Buswell but also about the amount of swearing on Gordon Ramsey’s popular program “Kitchen Nightmares”. This show is on at 8.30pm on Tuesday and Thursday nights and is rated M for coarse language.

Ramsey’s feedback style is… direct. If you haven’t caught his show before he is more likely than not to say to some hapless chef ” What the f*&k is this? It’s f*^king sh!t. Call yourself a f$#king chef?!”

I haven’t counted how many swear words he might say but put it this way – he doesn’t hold back.

One night, albeit when it was on a later timeslot, I even heard the C-word dropped. My jaw hit my chest in disbelief… did I really hear that word on FTA telly?
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I love his show though. I tune in every night, record it to miss the ads, and settle in with my cuppa to watch him take apart a restaurant and make a success of it and he obviously rates otherwise the TV execs wouldn’t schedule his show three nights a week…

There’s no doubt though that he is a bully in the way he gives his feedback. It might make good telly but I would hate to have anyone treat me as he treats these restaurant owners who presumably sign up for some Sado-Masochism – Gordon Ramsey style.

But that is all by-the-by… should his show, given the level of coarse language (very high) be allowed to be screened at 8.30?

What say you, my friend?

Memes

Useful, random and untrue

Dunsborough Sunrise

I really love this photo – straight out of the camera – the morning light is so buttery.

Guera tagged me for the eight random things meme with a twist. Now I’ve done the 8 random things meme before but not with a twist… but then, the next day, my new found blogging buddy Mrs M from New York Renovator tagged me with the 7 useful things about me meme and so I thought – randomly – that I would combine the two and do the:

7 Useful Things About Me Meme – with a twist!

And here’s the twist – one of these useful things about me is a lie. Guess in comments which one…

  1. I can’t sleep if my feet are cold. This is useful if you want me to go to sleep.
  2. I have made two teddy bears in my life. Just in case you need one made anytime.
  3. I am a fast reader, especially when I like the book. Need something read? Call me.
  4. I’m a very good navigator specialising in clear directions. Who needs TomTom? I can even do a BIM accent.
  5. I can make an excellent sponge. Afternoon tea anyone? I’m your girl.
  6. When it comes to Belbin’s personalities at work – I’m more your resource investigator.
  7. Having said that, I love me a good spreadsheet. Excel is my friend.

Okay there you go. Seven useful facts about me… well six facts and one fiction.

Which one is the fiction?

Who is tagged?

And I tag for those of you who are interested…

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  1. Niki at her new version of Hot Water
  2. Hugamuga – my son… very interested in his useful facts!
  3. Hazelblackberrry at A Bex and a Good Lie Down
  4. Ken Armstrong from Ken Armstrong Writing Stuff
  5. M from EasternMax
  6. Simone from Simone Van Hattem
  7. Karen Cheng from Karen Cheng’s Snippets of Life

Now just to make life a little more interesting one of these blogs is not like the others… can you pick the odd one out?

Current Affairs

And now for some real reality tv

Growing up in India would have its challenges I suspect. Especially if you have the misfortune of being dubbed a “good luck baby”.

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Blogging, TV

BB08 – could it get any worse?

4 Comments

Last week the most popular search terms which ended up at my blog were “Rima” and “Rima bb08”. Now that of course was because last Friday night on BB08, Rima broke her leg during FNL and so I imagine there were a few worried viewers wondering what had happened to their favourite – now what was the term Ben used? Ah that’s right – height challenged housemate.

It was probably also due to the fact that there were a number of “tasteful” photographs, that her husband claims Rima is “quite happy with” circulating the net.

Excellent.

Now BB has sunk to the level of “dwarf porn” – not that Rima is in fact a dwarf, she says she has a very rare condition, so rare in fact that the condition was named after her.

Any normal reality television program might have stopped there, but BB doesn’t know where the line is, so they got together with another fellow who doesn’t know where the line is and asked him if he’d like to enter the house as a guest.

Corey - Aussie Party Boy

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Recently described in a seminar I attended as the “Sum of all our fears”, enter Corey Worthington, a minor, aged just 17, now a guest in the freak show that is Big Brother 08.

To supervise him, they’ve challenged the recently evicted nanna, Terri, who cites her influences as Pauline Hanson and so you know, is the modicum of tolerance, with the task of guiding Corey in the house.

Her entry caused a full two minutes of continuous bleeping as the housemates expressed their joy at seeing the oldest ever housemate back again, a housemate they themselves chose to evict.

Channel 10, I can handle the f-word, but call me squeamish, references to dwarf porn after my Sunday roast do disturb me.

Excuse me. I need to shower. I feel a little dirty.

Books

Extras by Scott Westerfeld

The four Uglies booksExtras is the fourth book in the Uglies trilogy. Well, strictly speaking the trilogy – Uglies, Pretties and Specials – stands alone. Lets just say this is another book set in the Uglies world. You can read my review of that series here.

Extras is set around a new heroine in another city – this time in Japan. This city is based on a “reputation economy” where the most famous get the most resources. Sound familiar? To get famous you either need to be clever at something or you need to report or “kick” the story.

Fame is everything.

Your fame buys you luxury apartments, beautiful clothes, invitations to the most exclusive of parties. It’s kind of how our celebrities live now!

(You can also get merits by being a doctor or scientist… the merit system runs alongside the reputation economy.)

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The kickers in his story are our “Naturals” of today. They don’t travel anywhere without their cameras, they are completely at home with hi-tech equipment and then they “kick” their stories onto the internet. Just like on social networking sites of today – but of course far more integrated into their society. 🙂

Stories are then “kicked” on by others – just like you Stumble and Digg stories today.

I think that’s why I’ve found this series so engaging. Scott manages to pick up on contemporary themes and spin them out to see where they go.

A good series for teens, late tweens and young minded adults. 🙂

Extracurricular, NSW, Work

Why you shouldn’t criticise Fashion Week

5 Comments

my little black dressA couple of days ago I was in Sydney for a work shin-dig while Australian Fashion Week was on and I posted a slightly sarcastic post about what a fashionista I was… not.

I waved a trendy vermilion scarf at the fashion gods my friend, and the gods turned to look at me in my LBD and sighed.

That one is tempting fate, they said. And poof! They flicked a finger in my general direction.

The fashion gods give

Oblivious I sashayed downstairs to meet my fellow part-tay goers, enjoy a little pre-dinner drinkie, and hop on the bus.

I love your dress, some cooed and I felt pretty good about my outfit. The ultra-cute Lisa Ho number (okay from last season but I just love it), my S&M boots. I felt hot.

We had the canapes, the entree and a few beverages and I wandered upstairs to the ladies.

The fashion gods take away

Now I should point out that the dress is a little – tight – and despite my best efforts – control tops – it had been a bit of a struggle to zip up.

So I sit down and breathe out and as I do, I feel something give.

A certain tightness across the torso had lessened.
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I bring my hand behind my back and realise the horrible truth:

The zip had split. Completely.

A wardrobe malfunction of mammoth proportions and most of the evening to go.

How I survived

Luckily that vermilion scarf I’d waved earlier in the evening was draped, shawl-like, around my shoulders. I pulled it down to cover the zip and walked carefully back to my table. Luckily our table was against the wall and I was able to slip my leather jacket over my dress without exposing my back to an audience. But dancing later? No. I don’t think so.

The Lesson

And that is why I say, my friends, you must never diss the fashion gods or any festival they might choose to support. They have the power to use fashion against you!

Fashion week? A brilliant event for all. That’s what I say… now.

Sydney Harbour

The confident smile of someone who doesn’t realise her zip is about to leave the party without her.

Blogging, Health

Thinner is better

Airbook

I know, I know, you were thinking I was about to post about Fashion Week again… you were weren’t you? But no.

Today I’m just drooling over the keyboard at the Mac Book Air. Noice.

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btw if you are thinking of starting a blog – there are some useful tips on this site.

In other thin news, today I signed up (but haven’t paid a deposit yet) for a kickstart fitness program. Two weeks of hell starting May 12. So at the end of May I should be thinner, fitter and companion to a new computer. And that will be noice.