Shattered Sun

Okay, some time ago I joined up with Myspace and created a profile. I was encouraged by everything I had read about the site (even though it has some horrific coding/profiles). Heck, some of my favorite bands are on myspace. And for a while, I was thinking that Myspace management was making a great effort in protecting its younger users but after watching what my sister does on it, I’m not so sure. Sure, she’s 16 years old and not 13, but at what point do we stop protecting them? She has something like 10 different profiles. Her mother and grandmother have no earthly idea what she’s put up there. I know they know she uses myspace, but I don’t get why they don’t watch her like a hawk on it. Figure it this way, how much good can be coming from letting a 16 year old use myspace without supervision? Add in the fact that she’s creating multiple profiles and the mind starts to wonder exactly what she’s up to. And worse, her reasoning is that she can chat with people as a different identity depending on who she wants to talk to. Doesn’t she realize that unscrupulous people are doing the very same thing to her?

I don’t know, maybe I’m just being too harsh, but that worries me. I know my own children (one of which is quickly heading to the teen years) will not be allowed to be on the computers without me watching them. And most likely, I’ll use a program like Spector Pro, which can record myspace chat and keep me in the loop. That program looks amazing! It pretty much covers everything that I’d want to use it for. Actually, it covers things I’m not certain I’ll ever really need, like it’s Keystrokes capturing. I can only really see that being handy if I ever really needed a child’s password. I know that programs like this feel like a terrible invasion of a child’s privacy but I’d rather have the tools to help monitor when I’m not physically able to than to wonder what trouble my child is getting into. I don’t want a child that’s creating eight million profiles on myspace and then chatting under false identities. Maybe I’ll give this to my sister’s mother as a present for Christmas this year. Think she’ll get the idea?

I have an addiction to Pogo badges. I love them. There’s no real reason to them. I just love collecting them. And right now, the weekly ones end tomorrow and I still have three to get. That is so not good! Darn real life taking me away from games!! What was it thinking!?

And I’m so sleepy. Ugh. I think I’ll make one more venting post and then head off to take a nap. I shouldn’t nap this late in the day but I think that if I don’t get one in soon, I’m going to fall over anyway. Might as well fall over into a nice soft bed.

In the whole holiday shopping spirit, I present, Holiday Gift Ideas for the partiers in your life. Okay, some of them aren’t just for partiers, after all, they do offer a nice Distilling Machine and a nice selection of wine for those so inclined. Personally, I’m hoping that someone buys me the Shot Glass Checkers. Not that I’d use it every weekend but wouldn’t that be a great party piece? So would most anything on this list actually. Hehe…