JediMom Blog

I am smack in the middle of a big move — from St. Louis to Dallas. In fact, I’m presently in Dallas at a new job and my husband and kids are packing and will be making their way down south in about a week and a half. If there is ever a time to have dependable technology, it’s when you’re moving.

I have always considered Dallas home. I grew up here but I have lived elsewhere for the past 20 years. Don’t people say, “the more things change the more they stay the same”? I’m not buying it. It looks like a whole new city to me.

Here’s a list of mobile and web tools that I’m currently finding indispensable to navigate my new home:

• Google Maps — Overall the Google Maps app on my Palm Pre has been able to get me from point A to point B. It’s my safety net. I’m not afraid to explore a little farther every day because I know I’ll be able to get directions back.
• Yelp! — One post to the Dallas Yelp community that I was new and needed some guidance resulted in a flood of responses to my questions about finding a hair stylist, pediatrician and a violin teacher for my daughter.
• Facebook — helpful for keeping up with my somewhat scattered family and allows me to cybermom my teen from a distance.
• My Palm Pre — indespensible for keeping up with my family, connecting with real estate agents, taking pictures of potential real estate and the absolutely freaky Texas snow this weekend.
• Where – This app for the Palm Pre has provided tips on the cheapest gas, nearby restaurants and the closest Starbucks.

If you have some tools to share, please drop me a note.

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‘Twas the night before BlogHer, when all through my house,
Not a thing had been packed, not even a flip flop.
Two bloggers were each crafting a new post with care,
In hopes that new BlogHer friends would soon be there.

The WordPress install was current, the plugins too,
While visions of AdSense checks danced in our heads.
And my daughter in her sweats, and I in my jeans,
Were parked on the couch typing on our laptops.

When from my youngest there arose such a cry,
Snuggle me mommy and tuck me in too!
Away to my son’s room I flew like a flash,
Saw to PJs, teeth brushing and gave a big kiss.

The light from the monitor of my MacBook
Gave the luster of mid-day to my face in the dark.
When what to my bleary eyes should appear,
But a blog post idea from Christmas lore.

With a title, some tags and a blog badge in place,
I knew without a doubt it was really time to pack.
More rapid than eagles the morning would come,
Time to round up the power cords, and bags for swag!

Now Moms! Now Bloggers! Now Daughter of Mine!
By Plane! By Car and Minivan Too!
To Chicago’s Sheraton! Near the Magnificient Mile!
Let’s Get Away! Let’s Socialize! Let’s Meet IRL!

Looking forward to meeting many of you in person and introducing my daughter.

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This weekend while helping my daughter with her Club Penguin blog, I got an inside look at one of the more popular online virtual worlds for kids.

We found Sensei

Immediately, I noticed the must-have Club Penguin blog bling is a tracker. After some tutoring by my daughter, I discovered that the trackers are designed to help you find celebrity penguins. This weekend’s hot celebrity was “Sensei” who my daughter describes as a wise old penguin and the leader of the penguin ninjas. How cute is that? It’s totally cute until you spend three hours hopping from server to server looking for Sensei!

From what I observed, the trackers merely act as a way to broadcast rumors of sightings that are shared online. I found chatter about Club Penguin on Twitter so my contribution was to create a widget out of the RSS feed from an advanced Twitter search. I was incredibly impressed with myself for this web trick until I started to test the accuracy of my Sensei Tracker.  I then realized a there were more than a few issues with my tracker. Namely, sightings of Sensei do not generate as many tweets as you might think, kids don’t use hashtags and the accuracy of these sightings is highly questionable.

My quest to help my daughter find Sensei convinced me there are at least three modern skills that Club Penguin is teaching our kids:

1. Patience is required
2. Some crowds lack wisdom
3. Online sources are not always reliable

Read the rest of this entry »

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From my favorite Michael Jackson video, Thriller

Michael Jackson died yesterday. It’s no surprise that news of Michael Jackson’s cardiac arrest and subsequent death raced worldwide across every form of media.

The controversies … the showmanship … the moonwalk … the iconic glove. Clearly Michael Jackson’s music and presence was larger than life. His death has taken the world’s breath away for a moment. Indeed, the collective chatter about Michael Jackson on the Internet brought many social sites to a standstill.

Today in the midst of allegation of Demerol abuse it is perhaps too soon to put this artist’s legacy into perspective. My hope is that his death is not followed by a circus of legal battles and fresh controversies.  I prefer to remember the King of Pop in his prime in the Thriller years. I’m grateful that there is such a rich library of video to remind us of his talent, our youth and to share with our children.

For myself, the death of someone at age 50 is a shock. A reminder of our mortality. While the 80s seem like yesterday, clearly the children of the 80s are now middle age. My hope is that it will send a message to my generation to take care and take pause to evaluate lifestyles, choices and priorities.

RIP Michael Jackson.

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Friend Finder quizzes teens about social networking friend invites and cyberbullying

My tween daughter is gradually becoming more immersed in online technology and social networking. But before I’ll be comfortable letting her on Facebook or MySpace, I want to know that she’s got cybersmarts. Today, I came across OnGuardOnline.gov and was surprised and pleased at this effort to promote Internet safety. With the tagline of “Stop * Think * Click ™” the site offers a rich array of games, video, info and tools. They cover a wide range of cyber safety topics for both parents and their children such as: combating identify theft, phishing, spam, peer to peer networks, laptop theft, cyberbullying and more.

On of my favorite things about the site is that they have completely embraced sharing. They have made it super easy to share, bookmark, email and even offer embed code for the games. Unfortunately, the game autostarts with music (a serious pet peeve of mine), so just click for their game menu. One to check out for tweens and teens is the Friend Finder. This game quizzes teams about friend invites and actions on social networking sites. I scored high on Mission: Laptop Security which should make my IT admin happy.

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