My Space as a Mom

I knew something was up when a teen boy walked by the computer and commented to my daughter, who was having a get together, "Hey, Dayna, your mom is on My Space!"

So what would be peculiar about that, I wondered?

Well, it is peculiar for a parent to have a My Space because teens want to have freedom and do not want their parents spying on them - as told to me by my 15 year old. It's a free way for them to express themselves whether in an appropriate manner or not.

Why did I sign up for a My Space? Well, of course, to spy on my kids' sites! It's about the only way to keep up with their lives outside of my home. We have many talks about being appropriate - including all those crazy pics - and to always be accountable for what you post.

Now I've used My Space to keep up with music groups and where they're performing. Do I spy much - no! So, K & D, behave yourselves on My Space, why can't I be in your top friend list and, when you block me, no more computer for you!

My MP3 Player!

Hi all! I'm looking forward to having an MP3 player for several reasons. One, because I've spent many hundreds of dollars so that my two teen daughters may have the lastest and greatest Ipods and they use them constantly. Secondly, I would like to listen to music while walking and this will be great - less bulky than the portable CD player. Finally, as a teacher I have many students who ask me how to use them, how to upload music, etc. and now I'll be able to offer first-hand experience! :)

Introducing Live Plasma!

http://liveplasma.com/

Liveplasma is a wonderful site for searching music and films. Introduced to me by Learn 2.0, I've explored briefly and am impressed.

This site gives the information as a visual map - data is grouped according to interests, style, epoch and other criteria which suggest that someone will like it - as it relates to their search. The closer a film or band is to your favorite artist/film, the greater chances are that you will also enjoy that particular artist/film. Liveplasma can become your personal directory search tool for movies and bands/artists.

Just as an example, I did a search for Joe Nichols, a country-western artist. The map which gives related artists is quite colorful and informative. The 3 closests artists returned for this search were Darryl Worley (I checked out at OCLS his latest CD - not real impressed but can hear similarities), Alan Jackson and George Strait.

Also to the left is the Discography pane which lists the works of the artists. In this case, it gave about 5 CD's of Nichols which is linked to Amazon.com. (Awesome place to shop for 'used' CD's, etc.)

Log on and you can do searches by Artist/Band, Movie, Director and Actor. Have fun discovering new, related artists/movies!