Last week I shared our family’s challenges figuring out how to make the lights work on our pre-lit Christmas tree.  Turns out we’re not the only ones who must resort to jerry-rigging, as evidenced by the hilarious inventive photos on There, I Fixed It.

But, in case any of you were concerned that this Wise Family would suffer through a light-less holiday, let me present ….. Ta-Dah! Our lit tree!

Sorry about the blurriness; this was the only shot that showed conclusively that the lights are, without a doubt, on!

Upon closer inspection, you will see ours is a makeshift solution. But, it’s nothing that a strategic placement of an ottoman and turning of the tree can’t hide.

P.S. Thank you to Wise Hubby for his patience and sense of humor about all this.

As some of you know, I’ve had a couple of brush-ups with wayward emails in the past. One embarrassing incident involved inadvertently sending an email meant for my husband to my boss.  Another time, a group email I sent out to plan a family birthday celebration included a client’s email address instead of my sister-in-law’s. They both are named Amy, and I didn’t catch the fact that Gmail’s auto-complete function had supplied the “wrong” Amy from my address book.

Now the Internet behemoth Google promises that it can save me from my errant ways by activating the new Gmail add-on “Got the Wrong Bob?”. If an email address in a group email looks out-of-place, Gmail will flag it for me.

I don’t know if I’m gratified or creeped out.

I remember the first time Google’s awesome technology reminded me of Big Brother. When I started using Gmail, I noticed that if I dashed off an innocent email to plan a Girls Night Out, the sidebar on my screen would show ads for entertainment options. If the next email complained about a poor night’s sleep, the ads would change to entice me with a new mattress or other sleep aids. Initially, I had a twisted fascination with the ads Google decided I needed to see. Now I simply ignore  them.

If you’re interested in the latest and greatest email tricks from Gmail, check out the official Gmail Blog. Learn how Gmail can prevent you from sending ill-advised emails to old loves or former bosses after a night of drinking. Gmail Goggles makes you solve a few math problems to prove you’re in the “right stage of mind” (i.e., not too drunk) before you’re allowed to hit “send” after a certain hour.

How do the Google geniuses come up with these things?!?!? Thoughts?

And thanks to Wise Woman Maya for looking out for me and bringing “Got the Wrong Bob?” to my attention!

I saw the play “Jersey Boys” last weekend. (Fabulous musical, BTW!)

Before the lights went down, I shut off my cell phone and then rechecked to make sure it was off four times!! I was paranoid after seeing this clip of Hugh Jackman losing his cool when an audience member’s cell phone went off while he was on stage. I cringed with sympathy embarrassment, thinking how easy it is to forget to shut off one’s cell phone (or believe you shut it off, but not hold the button down long enough to ensure it’s off). Ugh!

I wonder if this theater patron ever admitted to friends that it was his/her cell phone that caused this infamous “Can you hear me now?” moment.

Did you know that the top 10 in-demand jobs for 2010

Sobering perspective, huh? It’s from the 2008 version of the Did You Know? (Shift Happens) video. Over several minutes, the video hits you with statistic after statistic illustrating how quickly our world is changing and leaves you wondering how on earth we can keep up with it all. (It’s also set to music – perhaps so that the head-shaking onslaught of info can sink in a bit easier.)

The video started off as a Power Point presentation created in 2006 by educators Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod; it struck a nerve, went viral, and has gone through several iterations since. Karl Fisch writes about a recent remix version produced by The Economist Magazine on his blog The Fischbowl.

Thanks to Wise Woman Sherrie for passing along the link to this very thought-provoking clip. The video was shown at a meeting for parents at her daughter’s school and served as a jumping-off point about preparing students for a rapidly changing world. What a Wise School!

What does the video stir up for you?

I may end up in the doghouse with the teenage set (in particular, my teens) by writing this post. I can already hear the howls of protest “You don’t trust me!” But I just have to share the results of a recent study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety on the effectiveness of in-car monitoring devices to thwart reckless driving by young drivers. The study concluded:

Electronic monitoring of teenage drivers can reduce the incidence of risky behavior, especially seat belt nonuse, which declined in all treatment groups. No consistent effects were achieved for sudden braking/acceleration for any treatment group. Consistent reductions in speeding were achieved only when teenagers received alerts about their speeding behavior, believed their speeding behavior would not be reported to parents if corrected, and when parents were notified of such behavior by report cards. Parent participation in the monitoring process is key to successful behavioral modification, but it is yet to be determined how best to encourage such participation.

If you’re intrigued by this idea and curious about what types of gadgets are available, check out the article The Latest Tech to Keep Tabs on Your Kids at the online car site Edmonds.com. Some devices rely on GPS technology, while others have a dashboard camera. There’s even a device, Speed Demon, developed by a young man when he was 16, after another teen from his town died in a car crash.

While my teen has had her license for a month, we’ve yet to let her drive solo in the car. But that day is coming. Soon. And, while she does not appear to have a “need for speed,” I can see how this technology could help educate any young, inexperienced driver. I can also see the Big Brother-ish aspects to it. (Although, for the record, I am NOT one of those people who oppose red light cameras. I’m a big fan of them, even though my picture has been snapped once or twice.)

I’m not sure where I come out on this issue of electronic monitoring of young drivers. However, we’re buying a third car for the family in the coming months, so the time to install a gadget, if we go that way, is quickly approaching. Thoughts, Wise Women?

A few months ago I wrote about the allure of the Apple.  This was about at the time that i-Phones were being introduced, and thousands were lining up outside Apple stores.  Apple never ceases to amaze me – I can be in the mall on the slowest day of the week, and the Apple store is still bustling.  Any day, any hour – it’s busy and vibrant.  My husband wanted to buy Apple stock last fall when it was way down (around $80).  Of course, he didn’t, and it’s now in the $140s.

Well in the past couple of weeks, my husband has become an i-Phone owner, myself an i-Touch owner.  I received it for my 21st anniversary (21 years must be the technology year, since I received an i-Touch and he received a Kindle).  We both are totally impressed by our new gadgets.  Luckily his is a company benefit, as the monthly fees are quite high ($100+/month).  Benefit-wise, the only real difference between the two is that fact that the i-Touch is not a phone, and only has internet access in wireless areas.  

I was fortunate to be traveling with my sister last weekend, so I was able to turn over my new aquisition to her, who got it up and running for me.  What she said about the i-Touch would be a brilliant ad campaign.  ”I call it my heart , she said.  ”Everything that I love in life is on here.”  Pictures, family videos, her favorite music, all the key contact information of family and friends, her calendar, pod casts, the ability to manage email and access the internet … and of course those ever-enterprising apps.  I’ve realized that you can spend a lot of time browsing the app store.  Many are free downloads – so I’ve downloaded pandora, facebook and dictionary.com (yes, I’m a walking dictionary now).  So far I’ve purchased a grocery list manager, and a to do list manager.  I haven’t started using them yet, but I know one day they’ll make me super organized.  Anyone who has any favorite apps, please let me know.  I can see how buying these very inexpensive applications can become quite addictive.

One of the best things is that I am no longer a bad mom who doesn’t carry pictures of my family in my wallet – now I literally carry thousands. That first person who asks to see, will be sorry.

After recently sitting through a day and a half meeting as the designated note taker, it reminded me that note taking is truly an art – capturing all the salient points, ensuring how you capture them are understandable to the broader audience at large (or at least to you!), synthesizing all similar information into one point, and providing an executive summary to ensure that everyone focuses on the most important issues.

My husband and I have had several discussions with our teen children about their overall lack of note taking in school, especially when we were both schooled to fill notebooks with every word that came out of our teacher’s mouth during school.  In doing so, we were assured of having an excellent resource for studying for tests. Sometimes they’ve responded that their teachers don’t want them to take notes – but to pay attention.  So this leaves me wondering…

1. Is it the overall failing of our school system that is not consistently promoting proper study skills and note taking?

2.  Is it the fact that today’s youth generation, who are so drawn into the online world and typing on a computer, really aren’t accustomed to “writing” anymore, and aren’t really comfortable or skilled at doing so?

3. Or, perhaps, are they just plain lazy?

My sense is that it is probably some combination of all of these points.  For any of you that have middle or high school children, I’d be interested in your thoughts on this point….and if you feel like your children are being taught to be good note takers or not.

The computer, of course, represents a double edged sword.  I truly believe my kids are now more comfortable sitting down and typing than writing.  This makes you think that when or if they had the ability to use their computers during school – this might improve their ability to record teacher’s thoughts.  BUT, I also hear that professors at the college level are now asking their students NOT to bring their computers to class, as they are being used for surfing, IMing, and other things during the class.  Students realize (as do their professors) that it is easy to hide behind an open computer under the guise of “note taking.”

Hmmm, an interesting dilemma.

We’ve all passed those missing pet posters taped to street signs, faded and fluttering in the wind. Some of us have felt a momentary stab of empathy, imagining our despair if it was OUR pet’s image greeting morning commuters. Others made mental notes to be on the look out for “gray cat with white paws named Mittens.” But, the reality is most of us glanced at the signs while clearing traffic without registering any of the details.

Up until this past week, I was one of those blissfully unaware people. That is, until our dog Toby went missing. Then I joined the fellowship of frantic pet owners who post signs, pass out fliers, send out emails, drive slowly calling out “Here, boy!”, and pray that someone, somewhere will see my dog and care enough to do something.

During this ordeal, I discovered there are legions of people who do care. We received a call from Toby’s former dog sitter (”I saw the sign and hoped it wasn’t YOUR Toby.”) We had a message from a random person who had not seen Toby, but wanted to let us know she felt our pain having lost a pet in recent years. A few others called to say they THOUGHT they saw our dog racing the woods, but could not catch him. Two complete strangers volunteered to join an organized search of the woods, if needed.

In the end, it was the kindness of strangers combined with 21st century technology that brought Toby back to us in less than a day.

My boss was the one who told me about FindToto.com; it’s an emergency phone alert system that notifies anywhere from 500 to 1,500 of your neighbors about your missing pet. Living in a semi-rural area, we chose the $100 option of sending messages to 500 people in our community. In less than an hour, we received THE call that led us to Toby. (He was trapped in a nearby garden that had an electric fence designed to keep critters out. Somehow Toby made his way in, but was zapped trying to get out. We found him still cowering in the middle of the garden almost 18 hours after he had wandered in.)

Fortunately, our tail tale of woe was relatively short-lived. Hopefully, if more people know about sites like FindToto.com, there can be more happy endings.

Did you know God is on Twitter?

His words of wisdom range from the sublime – I have a very simple request. I want everyone who is following me to call a friend that they haven’t spoken to in 6 or more months (March 14th) – to the ridiculous – God just did 11 shots. A little drunk. Glad I am god and have a killer tolerance (also on March 14th; it seems God needed to relieve a little stress and visited New Orleans).

Our Tweeting God is even up on current events – N.D. River Now Expected To Hit 43′ – CBS News. To be clear, this is not one of my floods! (March 26th)

For those of us over age 35 and struggling to grasp Facebook, Twitter threatens to expose our love-hate relationship with technology.

Twitter describes itself as “a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?”

What am I doing?!?! Why on earth would anyone else care what the hell heck (sorry, God) I am doing throughout the day? In 140 characters or less.

Now some, like professional athletes, have legions of fans who do care what their hero is doing. Pro basketball player Charlie Villanueva gave the inside scoop to his Milwaukee Buck followers by tweeting during half-time of a key game against the Boston Celtics. “In da locker room, snuck to post my twitt. We’re playing the Celtics, tie ball game at da half. Coach wants more toughness. I gotta step up.” Unfortunately, his coach was none too pleased when he learned of the Twitter distraction, although Villanueva did go on to score a team-high 19 points that night.

Even God is not a big fan of inappropriate tweeting – Has there been a murder on twitter yet? Just wondering as I sit around a table of people tweeting between courses. (March 27th)

Any of you Wise Women following the Twitter updates of someone interesting? Anyone learn a timely and sought-after morsel of information from another’s tweet, such as which Girl Scout cookie tables in town actually have Thin Mints in stock? Please enlighten me.

BTW, I just discovered that God is the frontman for cliKball.com, yet another site for sharing information with thousands of your closest friends.

Sigh. Is nothing sacred …

In today’s post, Barb explains one way the Internet can serve as a useful tool for parents vs. “Public Enemy #1.”

As a parent, I try to give my kids the tools and understanding to cope with what they will face in the world. I know my best long-term strategy is to enable them to make smart choices for themselves. However, I have a natural parental instinct to want to shield them from content that is too mature for them to understand.

One area that is a challenge for me is movies.

G, PG, PG-13, R, etc. are guideline ratings provided by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) to help parents decide which movies are suitable for their children. What challenges me most is that all PGs and PG-13s are not created equal.

Kids in Mind is a really useful website that provides detailed information about the specific content of movies. On their website, Kids in Mind give the standard MPAA rating as well as their own rating. Each movie is given a 1-10 rating along each of these three criteria: Sex/Nudity; Violence/Gore; Profanity. In addition, they provide summaries of potentially problematic scenes. All the movies on the site are easily found in alphabetical order, and the site is usually pretty prompt at getting new releases reviewed.

At (almost) 12 and (almost) 10, my boys are at pivotal ages. They can generally handle PG movies, and think they can handle PG-13s. To be fair, I have no problem with some PG-13s. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, for example, has a rating of PG13 and is given a 3.6.3 from Kids in Mind. However, other PG-13s, like Seven Pounds (PG-13; 6.6.4), are totally beyond my boys. And Bridge to Terabithia at PG and 1.4.1 was an incredibly deep and sad movie for children.

So, rather than rely solely on the Motion Picture Association ratings, I routinely consult Kids in Mind as well. It’s been a good resource for me. I know I can’t protect my kids from everything, and I’m lucky that they do ask lots of questions. It’s just nice to be better prepared for the questions sometimes.

How about other Wise Women? Any other good resources out there? Or any advice on Marley & Me – only a PG but 5.4.4 from Kids in Mind, and I hear it’s really sad.