discoveries

My son woke us up in the middle of the night last night to tell us he was worried about ghosts. We all got back to sleep after a bit of reassurance. Turns out he was actually scared for a reason. He told me this morning that he saw some lights under his blanket last night. He had never noticed static electricity sparks before.


I love Handipoints -- my son loves to play computer games, I like giving him rewards for good behavior. My grading of his off-line behavior gives him points toward fun things inside the game. Today I watched him play Handipoints. (I don't often watch him; I trust their kid safety controls.) I saw him start a conversation with another kid via their avatars and invite her to his room to play. The first thing he did when they got there was to excuse himself to the decorating section to fix up his room. Great impulse, but while he was busy with that his friend wandered away. He didn't take it hard; at four, friendships are easily fluid.

twitter

I don't get twitter, at least not professionally. I prefer to use it as a mind meld, geotracking device with people who care that I just caught a cold, or took my kids to the park, or have had the same song running through my head all day.

I deeply understand that the personal is political, but is the personal professional? Up to a point, and that point stops at twitter for me. Character is important but not where someone is having dinner. What do you think? Would you and how do you use twitter professionally?

Gen-X employee retention

The vanishing corporate necessity: 7 strategies to retain Gen-X women so your company thrives
By Deanne DeMarco

There are a couple of typos in this article, but its overall analysis of Gen-X's attitudes toward work is right on. While so far missing the worst of sexual harassment, I share my generation's frustrations over unmet expectations for pay equality, exciting work, and the desire to have a family as well as a work life.

It's especially frustrating that many of the Gen-X friendly workplace policies suggested by DeMarco have only been partially realized in the past couple decades. Advocates for women's employment have been calling for "[f]amily leave polices, job sharing, telecommuting, on-site child care, mentoring and flexible work schedules" since at least the 1990's. For larger companies, family leave is now federally mandated. But the other policies vary widely by company.

Due to the lack of part-time opportunities for women with my education level and skill-set, I am considering full-time employment. Telecommuting and flexible work schedules are assumed to be possibilities here in Silicon Valley, but often aren't advertised in advance for full-time positions. If I am lucky enough to land a full-time job, my young children would have to spend 11 hours a day in childcare.

In job ads I have yet to run across language that would suggest that an employer would consider reorganizing a full-time job into two part-time jobs for the right candidates. Restructuring a position as part-time could save an employer money by eliminating benefits and would guarantee that all my hours at work are productive. But having been out of the labor market for four years and with the economy on a downturn, I don't feel like I am in a position of strength to ask for a job to be reorganized for me.

web 2.0 is played out

Go-to-market strategies for vertical social products

Futuristic Play by @Andrew_Chen

Posted using ShareThis

It appears every possible social network idea has been or is being developed. What's going to be the next big thing?

better be careful what I wish for

My husband gave me a book about Python yesterday.

amusements

My son describes a goal in which the ball passes between the opponent's legs as a Wikipedia Goal. (Yes, I am that bad at soccer; it's happened multiple times.)

His babysitter constructed a blow gun for him. He spends his days now shooting Risk soldiers out of a paper hanger tube.

I think I want to code

Well, baby code -- html. Designing front-end user interface seems like so much more fun than merely mocking up pages in Photoshop. Making the buttons functional seems like it would be so satisfying.

This is coming from someone who has been adamant about not coding. "I'm not a programmer. I don't want to code," I regularly protest. I just want to focus on whether or not a page "pops" or what the flow is like. But I can't resist the noobie thrill of "ooo, the button works!"