For the record, I did not send my son a HD Greetings Valentine's Day e-card featuring Nick Jonas & The Administration's video "Who I Am." I did consider it, though, especially when I saw that you can personalize it with your own photos and messages.

I'm not suggesting that parents send out the videos. I humored my daughter's fascination with the Nick and his brothers to the point where she refuses to admit she likes them (victory!). That experience leads me to suspect that your kids do not want a Nick Jonas video from you.

But they might have fun putting one together for someone cooler than you.

At first glance, the ebook seems innocent enough and the graphics are cute. Luckily I decided to give it a listen, which was the only reason why I ended up taking a look at the text. It only took a couple sentences for me to decide it was irredeemably awful. I didn't mind so much that the English is accented (the application has a Chinese option), but I did mind that all the inflections were off. Read this in a singsong voice: "Pig mother takes care of the three little pigs laboriously everyday. However, the little pigs can do nothing but playing [sic]."

I was ready to delete the application after the second page, but my 6-year-old wasn't bothered by bad grammar and odd translations. I handed her the iPod so she could listen to the rest of the story, only to grab it back a minute or two later to see if I'd misheard it. "What did it just say?" I asked my daughter, then shushed her before she repeated it.

Kids who make it to the final screen will discover: "The evil wolf falls down into the stove after he jumps from the chimney. His a-- is burned completely. It hurts so much the the evil wolf jumps up and rushes out, covering his a-- with his hands and howling."

Except that "a--" isn't censored in the story.

I just checked the Apple Store to see if the ebook is still available and it is, even though a scan of the comments confirmed that I'm not the only person who thinks the text is flawed. Of 107 ratings, 52 are bad (several  Unfortunately, stellar reviews come before the negative critiques. Of 107 ratings, 52 are bad but 33 give it five stars, like this reviewer:

"I really think it's a very good idea. Adorable graphics,great animations!And the story is very classisc.Although the accent sound werid.But i think the whole thing are good.especially the idea .Will you  make much more stories?I look forward to!!But why should I search for stepworks? yyy? I really think this app worth 4 rates.ENCOURAGED!!!I do think only praise let them make a more dynamic progress.STOP JEALOUS!!!!!I have got " little red riding woods",i think appletreebooks is doing a great efforts to make the books better !!!

— venessa studour006

My 6-year-old daughter, in particular, thinks the cure for boredom is always available at a local toystore.

But every once in a while, I'm reminded that even a 13-year-old boy can be distracted with a creative task — as long as he's in the right mood, at any rate. A couple weeks ago, I discovered a magical formula when I realized I forgot to buy a greeting card and asked the kids to make one instead. My son grabbed some Popsicle sticks that were leftover from another project, my daughter supplied the glue and they happily glued stuff together for well over an hour. I ended up with not only a card, but a gift holder and some abstract sculpture, too.

I also had a very peaceful evening, which made me much more receptive to the tips in the "Great Ideas For Crafts With Kids" article on the Watthamai Crafts site mentioned on Twitter yesterday (RT  @HobbyHouse Great Ideas For Crafts For Kids: Crafts for kids are very popular with parents. It helps them educate their ... http://bit.ly/ds68XJ #Hobby). Usually, I prefer ideas I wouldn't have thought of myself, but looking at the list I wondered why I don't think of these things at times when I desperately need to distract the kids. There's nothing new on the list — it includes macaroni necklaces and paper chains — but seeing everything consolidated into one list reminded me of how simple things like a pack of pipe cleaners can keep kids entertained for a surprisingly long time. Since most of these ideas call for items that don't require a trip to the store, they're good to keep in mind for the next time the kids are looking for something to do.

I had to take a look to see what a Posh Tots sale looks like. This is the place that sells playhouses that range from $2,449 for a "Topsy-Turvy Playhouse" to $122,730 for the "Tumble Outpost." I was trying to figure out what beds they had on sale and noticed that they carry a $47,000 hybrid princess bed/playhouse. As far as I could tell, only the "Fish Tales" bed was actually on sale.

I'm not really the target market for children's fantasy beds, but I should point out that in addition to the really upscale stuff, the children's store does sell things at regular prices. The sale area might not have included a large selection of furniture but there were some decent sales that put some toys, clothes and dish sets under $30.

And now the blog entry:

I spent my Friday night with the kids watching Jeannette McCurdy (Sam) as a beauty pageant contestant on "iCarly."

I love watching "iCarly" with the kids. "Jonas," "Wizards of Waverly Place" and even "Sonny with a Chance" are fun to watch as a family, too.

But when I asked my son and daughter if they wanted to come with me to see the season six premiere of "Lost," they decided it would be better to hang out with their dad. I didn't mind. The kids' have always considered "Lost" their mom's weird obsession, so they just leave me alone when there's a new episode and refuse to get sucked in.

Their absence made it a bit easier for me to play paparazzi. I took 168 photos and, as I imported them to my computer, realized that this is probably the first time I've filled up a memory card without taking a single pic of one of my children.

Here are some of the my favorite red carpet shots:

How happy does this guy look posing with Evangeline Lilly?

Nestor Carbonell doesn't look like he's aged a day since his first appearance on the show.

I've never met Jorge Garcia, but I love his Dispatches from the Island blog at http://dispatchesfromtheisland.blogspot.com.

Michael Emerson's shirt really challenged my camera, but I admire him so much that I kept trying. That's Daniel Dae Kim blocking the shirt. Too bad he didn't turn around. If you think this shot is blurry, it's nothing compared to all my shots of Kim, Yunjin Kim and Henry Ian Cusick. I'll have to check their photos out in tomorrow's Honolulu Advertiser.

I don't know why I like this photo of Evangeline Lilly...

Here's a shot from the front.

Rewatching the season five finale and the first hour of the preview, I'm so impressed by Terry O'Quinn's acting.

Not the clearest shot of Naveen Andrews, but it was the best I had because...

... by this point, I wasn't as worried about taking photos as I was about making sure I'd be able to see the screen, but as with Andrews, I felt compelled to try to get photos of Josh Holloway (right) and Matthew Fox (left). Who wouldn't?

I've been downloading all sorts of miscellaneous apps for my iPod Touch lately, much to my kids' delight. It took my 6-year-old a while to discover that I'd installed Sam's Remote from iCarly, but once she did, she was instantly hooked. Never mind that she has a big blue plastic remote that actually looks like the one from the TV show. I'm not sure what the fascination is, but it's entertaining enough to run out the battery on my iPod.

My 13-year-old, who can't keep track of his own stuff but takes note of everything I acquire, noticed a new button on the iPod Wednesday and was playing Colosseum before I even remembered to tell him it was there.

Today, thanks to AppAdvice.com, I've added a game that I'm not sure I want the kids to play, but since it's free today only, I figured I should give it a try. FreeAppADay.com is offering Battle Bears, a 3D shooter where you're a teddy bear shooting at cotton candy-colored zombie bears who are trying to hug you to death. If you shoot a zombie bear, its head flies off and a rainbow shoots out. If the horde overwhelms you, you're HUGGED! and the game is over.

I dunno. It might be amusing to see a teenage boy playing a teddy bear game, but I think I'd just as soon keep my daughter away from shooting games, particularly the ones that make violence so cute.

It was nothing out of the ordinary. I'll probably get another one from a group that has diametrically opposed priorities and more from political groups whose interests might affect families but aren't focused on them. I'm not a joiner, but if citizen groups want their voices to be heard, I want to listen (or read) what they have to say.

With a few exceptions, though, these solicitations come from national organizations. Right now, I'm more curious about what local parents want from their government. Isn't this the time to speak up — to the Hawaii State Legislature, just back in session, and to all the candidates jockeying for seats vacated by incumbents who have resigned to run for seats that have been opened up because of term-limits (and other reasons)?

I know parents care about things care intensely about things that directly affect their families. You see their passion over furlough Fridays, not only because of public school closures but because of the economic impact the furloughs have on public workers and their families. Education and the economy will always be big issues. But what other things do parents (or contemporary families) want from the government? What do they want for their children and grandchildren?

Or we can turn it around. What do you think parents should be impassioned about? What decisions are they not paying attention to?  What should parents be thinking about? What questions should they be asking? How can we make it easier for busy parents to be informed?

Here's the brief version, Animoto-style:

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While other kids were collecting baseball cards in the 1970s, I apparently preferred snapping up “Grease” trading cards.

I bought enough packs to secure all the prized pieces I needed to complete a Danny Zuko puzzle, glued them together on a piece of paper and labeled the whole thing with creative spelling so my Grandma Shapiro would know I was giving her a treasure that featured my favorite actor.

I wouldn’t have remembered the “Grease” card obsession, but my grandmother saved the cards, along with every drawing, photograph and piece of writing I’d ever given her, all carefully tucked away to remind her (and me) of the girl I had been.

On our recent trip to the Mainland, I couldn’t help but think about my grandmother frequently as we passed places she’d lived, worked, spent time with her family and, just over a year ago, been laid to rest next to my grandfather. It was the first time I’d been to Los Angeles when she wasn’t there to greet us, but I could feel her presence everywhere, even after we left L.A. and drove to Las Vegas. For no reason other than nostalgia, the kids and I wandered through the hotel on the Las Vegas Strip where four generations of Shapiros had gathered a few years ago to celebrate my grandmother’s 80th birthday.

We were supposed to end our vacation with a few days in a posh Las Vegas suite with a gourmet kitchen stocked with groceries from Trader Joe’s. All was going according to plan until my son stuck a quiche into a microwave. The smell of the quiche triggered happy memories of the mini quiches my grandmother used to serve when the family gathered at her house, along with conversations I’d had with my grandmother over the little frozen appetizers.

The kids were still eating when I informed them we were checking out early to drive more than 200 miles back to Los Angeles so I could honor my grandmother in a way that only she and I could appreciate. The kids were mildly baffled, but accepted we weren’t returning home until I’d visited a mechanical shark. We were back L.A. in enough time to get a decent night’s rest before heading to Universal Studios for our last vacation day.

My memories of my first trip to Universal Studios in the ’70s have always been vague, but my grandmother loved reminding me about the time she and I left everyone behind to watch a holiday football game while the two of us went to the nearly deserted theme park. My only clear memories are of my grandmother and Jaws, the shark who terrified me so much that I think my panic traumatized my grandmother, who had to convince me that the mechanical shark wasn’t really going to attack me.

She eventually managed to comfort me and this time it was Jaws’ turn. I snapped a photo when he emerged from the water, but the only memory I really needed was that of my grandmother wrapping her arms around me to protect me from that same shark decades before.