kevinr@tandem.UUCP (Kevin J. Rowett) (06/11/88)
I am the proud father of two fine young girls, ages 3 and 7. Pursuing an interesting career in Silicon Valley does not leave one with an overabundance of time to play with one's children, let alone watch TV. However, at around 7:00PM here, we get the pleasure of watching Dr. Who, which I foolishly put at a priority at least as high as playing with my kids. And I think Dr. Who is one of the better shows for children. So, I like to have my children watch it with me. However, after walking in the door at 6:45, eating a quick supper and sitting down to Dr. Who, my kids want my attention. They will go to many lengths, like reading a book loudly, singing, standing in front of the TV. You as parents know the routine. Now as a Dr. Who fan, I am pretty staunch, and as I said, I think this is a good show for kids. At first, I would yell and spank, but you know what I found is the best technique...ignore them. More specifically, do not react to their efforts at distraction. Pretty soon my youngest is sitting next to me watching Tom Clark do something silly, and she is asking questions about the activity going on. Everyone wins. The kids are quite, the house is quite, the kids are doing something I consider of value to them, AND I get to watch Dr. Who. By now, you are thinking of how you are going to flame me for posting this piece to this news group. The relavance is to the recent episode with JJ. Does anyone believe JJ is LESS likely to do what he did again, for all the hate mail posted and e-mailed to him? I bet JJ is still feeling proud of himself for the knee-jerk reaction he caused. In fact, I wouldn't be a bit surprised he is now busy plotting his next endeavor. One posting noted JJ had done the same thing to several BBS's. I bet the reaction he evoked there motivated him to try what he did with USENET. Further, network bandwidth was even more consumed by all the discussion, which I am sure JJ never got a chance to see. It seems we would have all been much better off, as a community, had we just ignored JJ, or maybe even one of our more experienced wizards called him on the telephone, discussed the value of netnews, explained what the total impact very well could be (seen the posting from ihnp4/H. Jackson yet?), and inquired what kind of computer he has. From there, someone might have volunteered to hook him up and how to use netnews in a benefical way. Besides, I've been to Lincoln, NE, there isn't all that much to do there! Kevin J. Rowett ....!pacbell!tandem!kevinr