DC Metro Moms

Finally Joining the Video Chat Age

At some point over the past few years we fell behind the technology curve, and we fell far, far behind it. In college and in our 20's we were so up on everything cutting edge, but it seems that we continue to fall behind. But over the past week we took one big step - we video chatted with someone in another state. Not a big deal to most, but remember that we are somewhat technologically impaired. About a year ago we tried to connect online to family in Texas, but we still had to use the phone to hear the voices on the other end. Something failed along the way at some point and instead or pursuing it and fixing the problem we just let it slide (now you see why we fall behind the tech curve).

Then last week my in-laws called and asked if we had the setup to talk to them via the Internet, and that feeling of breathing in technology's dust as it whipped past us came rushing back. It is somewhat painful when the generation above you knows more about this than you do. But this wasn't the case. We did have the bits and pieces needed, and realized after a brief conversation with technical support (real technical support not just my husband - he had the conversation with the computer manufacturer due to some weird glitch) that we were up and running. And what did our kids do when they got on the video chat with the grandparents you ask?

Computer Time Versus Play Time

As a new contributor to DC Metro Moms, I feel that all of my posts so far have to deal with the conflicts I face as a parent- summer camp versus the freedom of an unplanned summer and what to do about an ailing rabbit. 

My daughter’s hand-me-down computer arrived this week.  The Future Home of the Computer is located in our home’s main hub, a high traffic area near the kitchen and living room.  Little Miss Techie and Captain Computer spend lots of time playing in these areas.  I worry that putting the computer near the living room where a majority of play occurs will negatively impact the amount of imaginative play that occurs.

Dear Washington Post

The Washington Post has run three articles recently that give me hope for changes in the daily paper.  The first was a short mention stating that readership among women 18 to 49 has plummeted.  The second was a blurb at the bottom of an inside page telling us "a Post readership committee is soliciting ideas from women ages 18 to 49 with children younger than 18 at home."  The third is the promotion of Katharine Weymouth to CEO of Washington Post Media.  (Congratulations, Katharine!)  As a mom with three young children at home, I'm hoping that she understands.

I happen to love the Post.  I have always loved it.  As a young girl growing up in Mississippi, I envied the thick sheafs of newsprint, the carefully researched editorials, the features that depended on sending the writer to farflung countries over time.  I loved the rare opportunity to sink in and read it on the rare occasion, and I was more than delighted to discover that the Post delivered to my college dorm when I went away to school.  I read every word, catching up on the politics, the current affairs, the world events that my local paper had only skimmed over.  It was my entry into a different world.

But now I'm living in a world far different than the one depicted in the Post.  Instead of cannons, I have whispers.  Instead of opera, I have rhythm sticks.  Instead of fashion, I have two little boys who grow out of their clothes almost as fast as I can buy them new ones.

Prologue vs. Twitter

Wordpress.com introduced Prologue, a suspiciously-Twitterlike platform for group mini-blogs.  It's an interesting idea for groups working cross-country, or anywhere they are not co-located.  Prologue is like a virtual water cooler for individuals to post their ideas, comment on others, and start conversations that may no longer arise spontaneously when so many telecommute.  Privacy settings are the same as for other Wordpress.com blogs -- password-protected, public, or public but not available to search engines.

It sounds like a great solution for project-based communications, and I may even use it for future projects, but one thing that I think it will NOT do is replace Twitter.

I've only been using twitter for a little over a few weeks, and already I've found it indispensible.

One Laptop Per Child

My husband returned from ApacheCon , a conference about the latest developments with Apache open source software, the Friday before Thanksgiving. He can sometimes be considered a cynic, but was excited by a presentation he saw on the One Laptop Per Child project.

Besides love, children need two things to develop into contributing citizens of the world: health and education. There are many organizations who help children's health and rightly so. Now, a new organization is helping with children's education and it's not even a month old, although people have been developing it for years.