Growing up is Over-Rated

Is growing up scarier than it used to be?....Or are parents more protective?

Whatever the deal is, kids are staying kids longer. We know resistance is futile, but it may be that the messages that are getting through is that being young, irresponsible, footloose and fancy free, is cool .... and growing up and being overworked, dry and boring is lame...

go figure.

It's clearly a US and Canada 'thing' ... I wonder if the statistics bear out around the globe... maybe I'll look into it later... I'm too overworked and lame to do it right now.

links:

• The Network on Transitions to Adulthood- Are Young Adults Taking Longer to Grow Up?
• ... in Canada
• Gatehouse News Service - Bryan Roth

I like the sand goby method... If your children won't leave Eat them!

The average age of significant life events have changed since the 1970s as extended adolescence became more common:

First marriage
1970 — Men: 23.2 years old; Women: 20.8 years old
2003 — Men: 27.1 years old; Women: 25.3 years old

Percentage of 18- to 24-year-olds that live with parents
1970 — 47.3 percent
2003 — 50.3 percent

Living together, but not married
1970 — 523,000
2003 — 5.1 million

First child for women
1970 — 22.1 years old
2003 — 24.8 years old

The number of people 25 to 34 who have had four or more years of college -- a place where psychologists say young people can go to extend adolescence -- has grown dramatically since the ’60s:

1960 — 2,499,000
1970 — 3,926,000
1980 — 8,836,000
1990 — 10,326,000
2000 — 11,040,000
2006 — 11,806,000

Source: U.S. Census

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Universities Going Gadgety? High Tech Handouts for Freshman...

Clipped from MacRumours.com :

"Abilene Christian University (ACU) announced

yesterday that they would be issuing iPhones or iPod Touches to incoming freshman for use in their college courses and day to day lives."

...It seems brilliant for Apple to be creating addicts, and enthusiasts,and early adopters! How could they lose with this approach?


StudyTXT and mLearning in place at Auckland University of Tech (NZ), Most schools are not encouragining any form of texting in the classroom, but SMS communication has found a place in education. (And the video is less cheesy than Abilene's!).

Give a kid an iPhone and expect him to get his work done? I dunno, seems cruel and unusual to me. It might take a couple semesters just for the novelty to wear off! ...Makes me want to go back to school.

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Live Net Video Getting Legs

Yahoo Live, Qik Video, Seesmic, and others are bringing live web video to new levels of ease and sociability.

Web video is not new, commenting is not new, but live streaming along with user chat with a side of convenience seems to be bringing the experience up a notch.

Yahoo live seems to be attracting some musically inclined folks, and some other weirdness. I love the idea for live, informal music shows. It seems to dump you right into a chat session, whether you want to be or not. I prefer the option to have lurker invisibility. I'm not much into 'live chat'.

Seesmic is still in alpha, and is more of a video message board format....but the level of community seems tighter. I haven't done any video entries on any of these sites, I'm just intrigued by the technology. (and I haven't a camera on this laptop that I'm usually staring at) I'm amazed at how much time some folks spend on these sites. I'm sure they're addicting. The last thing I need is one more thing to keep me from painting the trim in the bathroom, or from doing something any of the things I keep rewriting on a new task list!

Qik is currently supports Nokia phones, and does live streaming. Very cool (but, no good for me without a Nokia)

With all this new socializing to do, and blogs and news to read up on, how will I ever get anything non-virtual accomplished?

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The Lights are on and Nobody's Home

I am the dad that grumbles room to room switching off lights, exasperated with teenagers.

I'm not the only 'Seth' that wonders why hotels burn lights and heat or AC for hours on end in vacant rooms. I do appreciate that some let you put a flag on the bed IF you want them to change the sheets...

The off switch isn't that complicated. Can you imagine what the electric bill is for a hotel? Tom Bodette says he'll leave a light on for ya', but I wonder how many eco-conscious customers would appreciate him turning it off for them!

I also stayed in a nice resort recently (in the desert), with 2 showers, and was struck by how much water came out of the shower head.... It was like a fire hose. Nice shower, but I think I lowered a lake by 2 feet by the time I was done.

In modern terminology.... that's a big "footprint".

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Blog-O-Rithm ... Informative thought...and other random stuff

INBOX REJOICING

I have cleared my in-box! (my personal one....Still working on the "work" one, but it's getting closer). This is big deal. I give the credit to one of Gina Trapani's "Lifehacker" secrets... As I read through the book I realized....I've got many of these hacks in place, to some degree, but when I stumbled upon the brilliance of these 3 folders, I got excited:

ACTION - HOLD and ARCHIVE

Action is pretty self explanatory right? Anything you need to DO... review this regularly.
Hold is for items that are pending: a PO number, a flight or tracking number. File when done.
Archive for all the mail that you are too paranoid to delete.... I took the liberty to pack this one with subfolders, but I think that still qualifies.

Oh, I numbered them because I prefer Archive on the bottom. Otherwise your mail program may stack them in alphabetical order for you...(Thanks Microsoft).

A clean in-box is a great feeling. I highly recommend it. I see she has a second edition out.... I might have to have it! The Lifehacker.com website keeps a steady stream of thought provoking tips coming, too.

Next I tweaked a setting I knew about, but never thought I'd use... In outlook Express: Tools-- Message Rules-- Mail--, and I set any incoming mail with a keyword "Order" in the subject line, to dump directly into the Order folder........ Duh!

Blog-O-Rithm ... Informative thought...and other random stuff

How Deceived are You?

How deceived are you?

• Do you really think you are doing the right thing? ...Making the right choices?

• Do you have it fully justified.... Did you ask for a "sign" and then interpret the next random event as confirmation of the answer you wanted to hear, so you could do what you were dead set on doing anyway?

• What are you so busy doing that is keeping you from the most important things?

• Do you really think you are a victim? (check this out, it's more subtle than it sounds).

• Have you made assumptions about your situation that it "cannot" change, or you have "no control" over? (challenge this lie).

There is a deceiver, and sometimes he's in our own head, or whispering in our ears.
But, you are not without choice, you are not without power to take action on your own behalf. The point is that most of us are fooling ourselves in some area or another.

How severe is this in your case? Or how subtle? Fooling yourself about your health? (that's me).... Fooling yourself about finances? (that's me too).

Fooling yourself about a relationship, a work situation, a deadline, a goal, ...yeah, sometimes.

Look,... everyone's got a little denial... it's how we cope... but, if it's about an addiction, or something destructive to ourselves or loved ones then we need to be on the offensive.
Do not let it destroy the dream.

I've heard about more men cheating on their wives this week than I can stand.
All with kids involved.
Cut it out! You're making men look like cheating, unfaithful, self absorbed pigs.
.....Those names should offend you. Do not wear them or claim them as your own.

If you think that because everyone does it, that makes it ok, you're wrong. It's about as low as it gets, to take a promise for life, the covenant of marriage, and dash it on the rocks.

Hollywood is not the role model. Click the off button.

Take control over your eyes.... and your hands... and your actions. You are not a victim, don't be deceived.

-end rant-

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