What made you go WTF today?

[littlelolligagged]

Yeah, I have the constant battle with getting my daughter to come home on time. It's loads of fun, has lead to her being grounded several times now. Making them check in once an hour has helped enormously with that problem, because she hates it when she is confined to her own yard. Harder to find someone to play with that way, since a lot of the neighborhood kids are the lazy types.

They aren't allowed to go inside anyone's house, and they have to tell me exactly where they will be. There are some pretty foul little monsters running around my neighborhood.

[GGT]

Hey, I have cans and jars under my kitchen sink, never taken out for recycling. We might need them for something like lightning bugs or praying mantises. (Mantii?)

I have a whole bunch of glass Skippy jars, too. (When's the last time you can recall peanut butter in glass jars? Why does jelly and jam still come in glass but not peanut butter?)

The big metal cans are great for lots of things. Coffee cans are my favorite because they come with large plastic lids that can be used as coasters under plant pots. Or Frisbees.

[GGT]

Yeah, I have the constant battle with getting my daughter to come home on time. It's loads of fun, has lead to her being grounded several times now. Making them check in once an hour has helped enormously with that problem, because she hates it when she is confined to her own yard. Harder to find someone to play with that way, since a lot of the neighborhood kids are the lazy types.

They aren't allowed to go inside anyone's house, and they have to tell me exactly where they will be. There are some pretty foul little monsters running around my neighborhood.

This made me very sad. The part about checking in every hour and being confined to her own yard.

[littlelolligagged]

This made me very sad. The part about checking in every hour and being confined to her own yard.

Well, when you don't make it inside until 20 minutes until bedtime on a schoolnight - having not had dinner, done homework, or taken a shower there have to be consequences. Or no, wait, I know - I should have an out-of-control ten-year-old. That would be awesome!

I have an enormous problem with any parent who doesn't expect their children to check in regularly.

[GGT]

Well, when you don't make it inside until 20 minutes until bedtime on a schoolnight - having not had dinner, done homework, or taken a shower there have to be consequences. Or no, wait, I know - I should have an out-of-control ten-year-old. That would be awesome!

I have an enormous problem with any parent who doesn't expect their children to check in regularly.

If you're going to turn this into a "parenting issue", then why is she allowed to play on a school night before her homework is completed? Bathtime isn't as important these days since we have water heaters and all that. Dinnertime isn't such a problem either, we can choose between an after-school snack and late dinner, or no snack and early supper. It's not like our kitchens shut down at dusk.

Coordinating school and sports (or play) and nutrition, with hygiene and sleep, is just a common 21st century thing for parents. If it's the safety thing you're worried about, I can empathize. That's political economics now.

[littlelolligagged]

Who wants to come straight home from school and then spend an hour doing homework? The school night rules are simple - home by 5,help me finish dinner and then eat, homework, chores, shower - bedtime at 8. They both do their "school reading" (20 minutes a day from one of the books off a quite decent list that there are tests for) while the other is showering. That only gives them a couple of hours of freetime, anyway. In the winter if I made them do their homework before playing outside they'd get even less.

I'm not a short-order cook. Mealtimes are not negotiable, and I don't find it acceptable for someone to come home late and eat leftovers. He actually needs everyone to stick to a schedule, anyway, when it comes to anything that he is involved in.

[GGT]

SO. You want this to be a parenting issue, about managing time. Okay, I can do that.

I found it worked much better to have kids come home, eat a snack, and complete their homework. An extended academic day that wasn't really that difficult to begin with. Then they had at least two hours (or more in the spring and early summer) to play outside or participate in an organized sport, before it was dark.

We squeezed dinnertime in between, or after dark. Meal TIME was negotiable. If the goal was nutrition, then we often couldn't sit down and eat together and talk. But Sundays (or Wednesdays) would be family meal time. Face to face, lingering and talking, as best we could.

As your children get older Lolli, it will get more complicated. Either shuttle driver or short order cook. Always the tutor. If one of your kids turns out to be an "athlete" then yes, they will eat your leftovers. You can make them nutritious, but you can't always control THE CLOCK.

[Illusions]

I logged into an old university email account to find hundreds of emails from a Facebook application called Speed Date, apparently it used to be My Aquarium...an app for a virtual fish aquarium...apparently going on for the past few years as I never check that Facebook account since its a joke account...

[GGT]

Seriously? A virtual fish account is full of hundreds of potential "dates"?

[Illusions]

Seriously? A virtual fish account is full of hundreds of potential "dates"?

I logged in to remove it and apparently Facebook already has due to "problems with the third party developer". I guess by that they mean switching their application from a virtual fishtank over to a completely unrelated speed dating application...

[GGT]

Well WTF? How many accounts are "you people" starting, letting go, lapsing, updating, canceling, or whatever?

Also, do they all have the same passwords?

[Loki]

Pedometer that came with two of the new(ly remade) Pokemon games. They get bonuses in the game for being active outside it. So my kids just load a pokemon into theirs when they go outside to play after school, change their pokemon for others out of their games during their regular check-in times.

I suppose for inactive kids it might be encouragement to get off the couch and do something.

It is, however, really low on my fun rainy day activities list.

The cats are napping. Stripes is on the cat tower, Timmy is on top of my son's laptop.

I know someone who uses a "pedo-meter", and apparently if you move your arm in the same motion as walking, you get credit for the steps.

[littlelolligagged]

I know someone who uses a "pedo-meter", and apparently if you move your arm in the same motion as walking, you get credit for the steps.

Well, that makes sense, doesn't it?

[GGT]

I know someone who uses a "pedo-meter", and apparently if you move your arm in the same motion as walking, you get credit for the steps.

Define "credit". Oh look guys, if I put the pedometer on my arm and swing it around, it's an armometer! My arm is walking, how cool is that?!

[Loki]

Well, that makes sense, doesn't it?

Just giving you a way to get someone to stop running around the house.

Define "credit". Oh look guys, if I put the pedometer on my arm and swing it around, it's an armometer! My arm is walking, how cool is that?!

You get whatever crap you'd get if you walked.

[littlelolligagged]

Just giving you a way to get someone to start running around the house.

Starting isn't the problem, stopping is. Easy to get the two confused, I know.

He's settled down now, anyway. Reading A Wrinkle in Time for his book project due Friday - he has to make a stage set for his favorite scene.

[GGT]

Just giving you a way to get someone to stop running around the house.

I already told her it's like herding cats.

You get whatever crap you'd get if you walked.

Citation needed.

[Ominous Gamer]

Found a copy of Pokemon Crystal on craigslist for $10. So I set up a meet, take Ocean with me (since its for her), and wait. This college kid drives up with a buddy in a POS car. I'm thinking, ok this kid is selling his old games from when he was younger, may need the money for more important things. Ocean hands him the money then asks why he is wearing his pokewalker on his sock. So much for growing up

[Young Mage]

Yeah, I have the constant battle with getting my daughter to come home on time. It's loads of fun, has lead to her being grounded several times now. Making them check in once an hour has helped enormously with that problem, because she hates it when she is confined to her own yard. Harder to find someone to play with that way, since a lot of the neighborhood kids are the lazy types.

They aren't allowed to go inside anyone's house, and they have to tell me exactly where they will be. There are some pretty foul little monsters running around my neighborhood.

White people...my parents don't have that problem with me. Maybe rough 'em up a little?

[GGT]

White people...my parents don't have that problem with me. Maybe rough 'em up a little?

That's a big WTF in the WTF thread. Reported for trolling.

[Young Mage]

You do realize I was joking?

[CitizenCain]

I know someone who uses a "pedo-meter",

Are those things at all like gaydar? I've never seen one myself, but the rest of you must be terrified of kiddy-diddling to waste money on a pedophile detection device.

Reported for trolling.

Seriously? I say so much worse than that all the time. Like how the KKK shouldn't go around lynching black people, because they make such great pets.

[Young Mage]

Seriously? I say so much worse than that all the time. Like how the KKK shouldn't go around lynching black people, because they make such great pets.

That's so fucked up.

[GGT]

Seriously? I say so much worse than that all the time. Like how the KKK shouldn't go around lynching black people, because they make such great pets.

Seriously. You say lots of gross crass things, but you also contribute with some very smart stuff. The pedo-arm-gay-sarcasm meter also has a bullshit troll brain meter, and that guy fails comprehensively. Just because he sucked your dick and asked you to be his mentor doesn't count.

*goes back to listening to Bach, specifically fugue in D minor. That's a "good grade" for music but a "bad grade" for young mages.*

[CitizenCain]

Seriously. You say lots of gross crass things, but you also contribute with some very smart stuff. The pedo-arm-gay-sarcasm meter also has a bullshit troll brain meter, and that guy fails comprehensively.

Point being that what's good for the goose is good for the gander, so maybe you should engage that "bullshit troll brain meter" with him as well. What's fair is fair.

Just because he sucked your dick and asked you to be his mentor doesn't count.

No, it doesn't. He gives really lousy head anyway... like he's never given a blowjob before. (What the hell are they teaching these kids in sex-ed anyway, if not that *exact* thing? )

Good thing that his lack of fellatio skills aren't the point, because I'd never stand up for him based on that half-assed act of oral sex.

[Young Mage]

What? Is there something wrong with having a gag-reflex? What has the world come to?

[GGT]

Point being that what's good for the goose is good for the gander, so maybe you should engage that "bullshit troll brain meter" with him as well. What's fair is fair.

No, it doesn't. He gives really lousy head anyway... like he's never given a blowjob before. (What the hell are they teaching these kids in sex-ed anyway, if not that *exact* thing? )

Good thing that his lack of fellatio skills aren't the point, because I'd never stand up for him based on that half-assed act of oral sex.

Maybe you are right and I was reactionary. I will let the mods decide. But that's why I reported the dick.

*still listening to Mozart. Not tired at all, I could keep going with the lacrimosa, but eventually will go for Figaro's marriage bed or the Magic Flute. This was all in his head you know, with no replay or digital memory or computer disc. All while he had tuberculosis brewing to boot.*

[Nessus]

the KKK shouldn't go around lynching black people, because they make such great pets.

Ugh, you're the kind of guy who loves a bulldog, aren't you. Negroes are dumb, ugly to a fault and they smell something fierce. They make a half-decent farm animal if you beat the spirit out of them, but a housepet? No fucking way.

[CitizenCain]

Ugh, you're the kind of guy who loves a bulldog, aren't you. Negroes are dumb, ugly to a fault and they smell something fierce. They make a half-decent farm animal if you beat the spirit out of them, but a housepet? No fucking way.

Oh, come on! They're just like monkeys, only they don't shed all over the place and can be trained to use the toilet. And everybody loves monkeys, right?

They're funny - they think they're people!

[Nessus]

I've never understood the love for monkeys, either. Ick.