time flies, part IV

Charlie asked for his own email account.

We put off the computer games, etc. as long as we felt we reasonably could. He got his first game from "santa" for Christmas in 2006, and this last fall he had saved up his money for a Nintendo DS. And then that darn Santa brought him an Xbox 360 for Christmas this year.

We limit his "screen time". There are still legos, and GI joes, and airplanes to play with. And puzzles to do, card games to play. Soccer and basketball to practice.

He is now helping develop a web page for his class in school. He really enjoys it, and it is right up his alley. And I discovered he was one of only two kids in the group that didn't already have their own email account. Well, we surely couldn't be behind in his technological development, could we? What are we, Amish? (Not to disparage the Amish, as I very much admire them.)

So I helped him set up a Gmail account. As I am a HUGE FAN of Gmail. And he spent about 30 minutes just trying to figure out a "really awesome" user name. And then another many minutes deciding on a password. Hey, it's an identity!

And then we had to have the "talk". Not about the birds and bees, we are so over that already. Nope, the conversation about rolex watches, low cost vicodin, and "unit enhancers". yikes. And how he should never respond to an email from someone he doesn't know.

Remember when you were little, and you got so excited when you got a letter in the mail, with your very own name on it? Whether it was a prize you had ordered from the back of a cereal box, or a birthday card from your aunt?

Now it's email. And I am guessing Charlie would be pretty excited to hear from you. His email is stingray014@gmail.com.