Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Limiting children's computer time
Apparently I have created a monster. It seems like all my children want to do is spend time on the computer. I also have to face facts though. For some reason I have been wanting to think of a computer as a business machine, a productivity machine, when I have a computer in the living room! That's not for business, that's strictly for entertainment. But my daughters spend a lot of time on it, and they get beastly if they're interrupted from their reverie. We don't have television per se, as you can't get any stations on our TV, but now the girls are watching television shows directly from web sites, so its the same thing.
All of a sudden it hit me, there's probably software out there to limit the amount of time that kids can be on the computer. This thought hit me immediately after the thought that I could probably write some kind of code to accomplish this. That shows how lazy I am. Anyway, I got online, and I found a website called Software Time, that markets a program called Computer Time. It seemed to do what I was interested in, so I plan to talk to Carolina about it. They also have a 14 day trial, which is good. We are currently using Glubble, but it leaves some things to be desired. This Computer Time program is supposed to do some Internet limiting too, so that's worth looking into. That's another reason why I thought about writing my own program, but that takes loads of time. Basically though, I'm thinking that a internet limiting program is basically just a firewall with some type of web interface. I also found a site with lots of different programs to choose from, but I don't have time to do through all of them.
Monday, August 04, 2008
The modesty question
Okay, I've looked into the modesty question, and for the most part, I confirmed my suspicions. I knew all along that the bible doesn't give you standards like, any skirt above the knee is immodest, but I was sure hoping...! Anyway, using my handy-dandy copy of eSword, I looked at 1 Timothy 2:9 and read the original greek for the words modest, shamefacedness, and sobriety. I also looked up the words modest and modesty at m-w.com, and learned that it means propriety, which basically means what is fitting and appropriate. But appropriate for whom? For society. So...we all know that is a continually shifting sand, so I wasn't too happy at that point.
So I decided to go to the web. I found an article on MInthegap.com which was really excellent. I think I'd seen MInthegap once before, and since its currently got some kinda database error as I'm typing this, I can't say more about it. One of the things that had been lingering in my mind about modesty was that it had to do with wanting to be noticed, to show off, which is the connection between modern day modesty and the scripture in 1 Timothy, and that was confirmed. The article made a connection between modesty, chastity and humility. There was more, but like I said, the site is down. The big thing, was the survey. There was a link to the Modesty Survey, a survey of over 1,600 Christian guys about what they consider to be modesty. Good stuff. I only went through a fraction of it before I decided to capture it here before my daughter's piano lesson was finished and the window of opportunity was closed.