Hey, I forgot to mention...

Okay, so is anyone else in the "bloggosphere" laughing over the current furor about "My Space?" (Wired News Article Link) I mean... Seriously!

Okay, so... Parents are now discovering that their children talk about sex... Post suggestive pictures of themselves... Make up shite about their peers and their teachers... Threaten to kill people... Drink... Drugs... Sex... Blah, blah... man. Folks with children... Teens do LOTS of stuff. My Space doesn't MAKE them do it... Okay, they DO this stuff. Don't be so silly. The only thing that "My Space" is doing, is allowing YOU the parent to actually CATCH THEM AT IT! That's it. Nothing more. Man... I mean... I taught high school for three years, okay. And I was one of the "cool" teachers, meaning the kids actually would TALK to me. Not about everything, obviously... The kids knew that I was a teacher, and although I was "cool" that if I found out something REALLY problematic, I'd be the first one to talk to their parents. Kids aren't dumb. But they're also not as innocent as parents would like to believe. I had kids tell me about drug use, oh... NOT THEM, but some "nameless" teen that they'd then use as an example. I would like to think I threw the fear of God into them, but who knows... I had a student (young lady) make extremely suggestive photos of her friend, and then bring them to me to ask me to rate their "artistic merit." JAY-SUS! That one had me sweating... I was imagining parent's lawsuits, and my ass getting fired... man... I'd like to think I handled THAT one well too... By using the experience as a "teachable moment" to explain the difference between "sexy" photos and "artistic nude" photography. Who knows if that worked either... But I digress...

Kids DO shite like this... And instead of "shooting the messenger" that honestly has alerted the parents to this issue... The parents should get off their asses.... Pull their heads OUT of said asses... And talk with their children. Parents... Start to USE things like My Space... It's really easy, which is why more kids are using it, then Blogger or Livejournal, or the other blogging sites. Get your OWN profile... Put up your OWN thoughts, and then ask to be a "friend" of your child. Who knows... Perhaps it could become a new way to communicate to the youth of today in their OWN language.

Hey... We have a really gifted editorialist/cartoon guy in the Twin Cities... His name is Steve Sack! Check him out. He makes me laugh... Cry... And occasionally bite the furniture.

I love this... The author of the "Da Vinci Code" Dan Brown, is getting sued by two of the authors of "Holy Blood, Holy Grail." For copyright infringement. (BBC Article) Wow... I was wondering when they'd get along to doing that... I read the "Da Vinci Code" and was like... "Wow, that's right from 'Holy Blood'..." or... "They've proved that a fake idea back since 'Holy Blood'" or... You get the idea. Dan Brown seemed/allegedly to get MOST of his ideas from "Holy Blood, Holy Grail." The problem though... For those "authors" is that they marketed their book as "non-fiction" so... If you use things that are supposedly "historical fact" to write a book of fiction... I really don't get the problem. Okay... Dan... Write an apology, and admit that you "gleaned ideas" from their "history" and give 'em a few bucks... Man.

Final fun thing... When I learned to drive in Britain, the one thing that took me the longest to get to grips with, was the damn roundabouts. And what is happening? (StarTrib Article.) I'm just imagining the headaches that are going to be caused by this "foreign" idea trying to get it's start in the Midwest... Should be cute. I think, once these are built, I'm going to go up there with my camera, and just make about a thousand photos of confused motorists... Should be fun.

That's it for today, folks...

Smiles and puppies.

-- Tucker