Big Mother is Watching You

There are so many wonderful things the internet tubing brings into our lives.  Videos of cats; erectile dysfunction e-mails; news stories; the increasingly agitated rants of people about the news stories; personal attacks on  the increasingly agitated people doing the rants; counter-personal attacks on the attackers of the increasingly agitated people ranting; pornography (so I've heard); videos of talking dogs; twits (or is that tweets?); connections with people you worked hard to dis-connect from... the list goes on.

One thing we have found particularly useful is the "monitoring" one can do on our children.  Not on Kaileigh, mind you, she is way too technologically advanced (and too smart) for us, not to mention that at 21, I don't need to be on-line checking her quiz scores or lunchroom purchases.  The twins, on the other hand, are relatively new to technology.  They don't necessarily understand that if you buy ice cream at lunchtime three days a week for three months (even when that is expressly not allowed from the parents), we will be able to access purchase histories on-line delineating days of purchase, amount, and even flavor of said ice cream.  Well, she does now.  One of them, who shall remain nameless (but her name starts with "A"), was so totally busted that all she could give Jill was her best "I really think I need my lawyer now" look.

It's not just that she was breaking a rule, or that all that ice cream is not good for you.  As an employer who increasingly goes to the internet to look up people who are applying for a job, I know that you don't want to get "serial ice cream eater" on your permanent record.