word!

The vacation was a whirlwind, but fun. Everyone says we packed in quite a bunch of things for the full week we were gone. Flew into San Fran Sunday night, and drove north through the city and Golden Gate up towards Wine Country. Next day toured Budweiser Beer & Jelly Belly factories and Wine country that afternoon. Wine country was hot and after a bit, it got boring with all the places that wanted to take your money for anything wine-related. That night headed south and met with my friend Nicole (she was the one I visited out in MI last summer). Headed to Yosemite for the next full day. Communed with nature, hoards of tourists and sickening mountain roads. Next day toured gold mining history, a current gold mine and a awesome cave. After that drove into Silicon Valley, where we saw Yahoo, Google and Apple to varying degrees. All were in office/industrial parks, with no real touristy type stores, save for Apple. We actually walked into Google’s campus and checked out their front office. Elyssa was scared about security, but we didn’t meet any until after we walked off the property! My highlight for sure.

Next two days were spent in SanFran. Did self-guided walking tour that Friday, walking a few miles from downtown/Chinatown to Fisherman’s Wharf. Good lot to see that day. Went on Bus tour the next day and out to Alcatraz that afternoon.

Was a very good trip, one I’m glad we took, even if we planned a good chuck of it on the fly!

I find it endlessly fascinating that a toddler nowadays knows more about computers than most people over 30 years of age. But in some ways, it’s fascinating to watch what draws a toddlers attention on the internet.

Of course, kids are enamored by all the cartoon characters they see on TV. They want to then play games online with these characters in them. So Nick and Cartoon Network are often top destinations.

I wonder who makes the decisions for these websites. They have so very many options that the smallest child is often at a loss for what they really want to do ~ play games. I think it idiotic to try and signup a toddler for email updates or sell them some toy or memorabilia, all from the same webpage. Toddlers and young kids don’t hardly know how to read, let alone comprehend the marketing that these companies are trying to shove down their throats.

They are kids for pete’s sake. They like the pictures they see. They want to interact. They don’t buy online, they don’t know how or even care for that matter. They don’t care about all that other jazz you’re trying to push them the same way you would for adults. That’s grownup material. Get their parents involved a different way, don’t force them to navigate your site because you can’t effectively design the sites for your target audience. Add to your image by letting kids interact with your characters in fun,educational games, but don’t market to them in the same screen.

They don’t understand and you just piss off people by having them navigate around the garbage in order to find the stuff of some value.

Be there for the kids, not the greed!