alicebot's Profile

I'm a smug up-myself dreamer, you're a mindless touchy conformist. There, we're done here. l'm going outside to play.

For god's sake, they don't REALLY hunt foxes. Amazing how far people's panties get bunched up when someone says they don't watch and don't like TV. Like you have to be "smug" and slightly insane and probably morally confused in other regards ("oh, the poor foxes!" "don't they realize sword fighting is violent??") to think it is mostly crap and a waste of time. Which it is!

When you look at the national levels of "screen time" for children, it's a damned tragedy to think of so much of their little lives spent in this passive, spoon-fed fashion, marinating in so much recycled, marketing driven narrative.

I reckon practically anyone who bucks the trend for the sake of more imaginary play is on the right track. If they want to be a bit recreationally snarky about it, that's fine, since clearly plenty of people are going to be OUTRAGED by the very fact that they've decided not to "plug in".

@rural and rueful. Really? "Some of my favorite childhood memories involve Disney films"? I hope you're exaggerating to make a point. If not, that's one of the saddest things I've read today. Some of my favorite childhood memories involve DOING THINGS, like camping, making stuff, playing music, being at the beach, building forts, playing imagination games with my friends in the back yard for hours.

Yeah, "Fantasia" has some neat scenes, and Pixar comes up with some fun storylines for sure, but it doesn't require an "extremely narrow worldview" to think that having kids' imaginations completely colonized by big business franchises is maybe a bit of a problem. And if you take a look around you in the early 21st century childhood scene, you will see this is happening.

And "hate and nastiness"? Seriously? Read more carefully.

Here's to imaginative, creative play, good times, and fun dads. Enjoy!

But seriously - an iPad can be great for a long flight, but jeez, but I fear the gadgets are starting to crowd out spacing out and daydreaming while looking out the window on car-trips, etc. A friend of mine recently got back from a road trip with her 11 year old through the Cascades and the wild coast of Oregon, and he had played iPad games all the way. It rather broke my heart to think of all he missed, and he'll never get to have that particular experience again. Instead he got really good at a couple apps.

Fun, funky, full of character. I love the reading nook! Also, the fact that it looks like actual humans live here, and I can't name-check every other bit of furniture from the DWR catalog. Very nice!

Oy! Yet another of those "First: be a multimillionaire" posts of the new Apartment Therapy. I can read any old dwelling mag and find out what these rich-as-anything people are up to. From Apartment Therapy, I want to keep having a chance to see what fabulous things people with actual budget constraints are managing to do with their spaces >_<

Now _that_ is fun!

What a gorgeous place. I can't believe a 4-bedder in Silverlake is less expensive than a 2 bedroom worker's cottage here in inner Sydney. Agh! Her real-estate agent's profile photo is hilariously L.A., btw.

Wow! Fantastic design collection here. And they ship to Australia. Oh no! ;-)

Fine suggestions all. My "time-saver" is a bit different, which is to... not hate it. Cleaning house can be meditative and satisfying labor if you approach it with an open mind. I find that looking for a bit of pleasure in it "saves time" by making the time spent doing it not feel like time lost.