Kiss My Knits!

Mark it down, folks, it’s a red letter day.

My daughter entered her first chat room.

At http://www.GroovyGirls.com you can create an avatar of yourself that looks like a Groovy Girl, then do stuff like dance, change clothes, etc. You can also go into a room with other kids’ (I’m hoping kids’) Groovy Girl avatars. You can ask preset questions from a list, answer questions with a preset list, create sentences with individual preset words, and so forth. It’s pretty kid-friendly and I don’t see a way someone could inflict harm on the kids, since they can’t actually say anything that isn’t already in the computer in some form.

So far my daughter has said “Tell me about the boy you like” and “Do you like parties?” and told people that she likes to dance. She can also invite the other Groovy Girls to dance, and take photos with them (little screen captures of your Groovy Girl and theirs making funny faces). She has done both of these things, as well as answered another kid who asked “How ya doing?” with “I’m feeling okay.” (She picked ‘okay” over “awesome” and “really good” so she is choosing her own answers).

I’m right there beside her for all this, of course.

It’s a bold new age, and I didn’t think we’d be in it for another eight years, at least. Shows what I know.

Well, the Wearwithstyle Donors Choose yarn contest is over, which means you won’t have to hear me yammering about it anymore. It looks like we raised about $300. I picture a lot of happy kids with pencils, paper, scissors, and so forth. I picture a teacher excitedly opening UPS boxes, renewing her enthusiasm. I picture an entire Katrina classroom in Houston outfitted because of the generosity of knitters.

Believe it or not, every single person who donated won a prize, and some people won more than one. Right now, I’m debating whether to let people know in advance what they won, or just have a surprise package of yarny goodness show up on their doorstep. Opinions?