The website miicharacters.com gives you step-by-step instructions on how to make Mii versions of famous people for your Nintendo Wii. And I thought that I was a genius for creating a Mii for Paul Newman and for our library director, Maxine Bleiweis! Shown above are Miis of Albert Einstein, Paris Hilton, and E.T.

Looks like we have some Mii celebrities to create for the library's Wii! Starting Monday, September 10th, we will be continuing Teen Gaming in the Afternoon from 4-6PM in the McManus Room! Check the calendar for details. And if you want to be included on my event listserv, please send your contact info to jlewis@westportlibrary.org

The new reality show Kid Nation is set to premier on CBS in a few weeks. The premise? Put 40 kids in an abandoned town for 40 days and see if they can build a functioning society with no adult supervision. It is kind of Frontier House meets Lord of the Flies.

These Kids, ages 8-15, will turn a ghost town into their new home. They will cook their own meals, clean their own outhouses, haul their own water and even run their own businesses including the old town saloon (root beer only). Through it all, they'll cope with regular childhood emotions and situations: homesickness, peer pressure and the urge to break every rule they've ever known.

Despite the fact that the show hasn't been broadcast yet, it already has stirred up some controversy. Some parents of kids on the show argued that the rigorous shooting schedule violated child labor laws, since the kids were often working 12-14 hours per day. The state of New Mexico is also launching an investigation into the legality of various permits obtained by CBS, including allegations that state inspectors were barred from performing inspections on the set.

Regardless, the show is supposed to air on Wednesday, September 19th, and I will definitely be watching.

Today's New York Times has an article about the challenge of regulating violence in video games. Although there are strict laws regarding minors' access to some materials, so far there has been no regulation of violent content.

Put simply, the United States Supreme Court has interpreted the Constitution as allowing states broad leeway in regulating minors’ access to sexually explicit material. That is why it is illegal around the country to sell pornography to children. Courts have not, however, said that states have a similar right to regulate media based on violence.

Since video games are a new medium, they haven't been regulated as strictly as films, which means that minors can purchase video games, regardless of violent content, without parental permission.

What do you think? Do you think that video games should be regulated, or do you think that minors should be able to make their own decisions about what they play? Does playing violent video games make you a more violent person?

The website Shelfari combines social networking with books. You can create a virtual bookshelf and share it with your friends. It is a great way to see what your friends are reading, and to find new books that you might enjoy. And unlike MySpace or Facebook, you don't have to feel obligated to give personal information, such as your age, location, or other interests. You can simply list the books you like to read!

And if music is more of your thing, check out MOG. Or, come visit me at the reference desk. I'm always game for a mix CD swap!

Pete Jordan turned the ordinary job of washing dishes into something much larger: a quest. After washing dishes in a few different restaurants, he realized that there was definitely a dishwashing culture. Since the jobs were easy to get and easy to quit, the types of people that were attracted to the jobs were usually drifters who went from one job to the next and one town to the next. This inspired Pete to make a goal of washing dishes in all 50 states. He purchased a rusty Volkswagen van and started cross country.

In the 90's, he started self-publishing a 'zine full of dishwashing stories compiled from his own experiences and the experiences of friends of his on the job. The 'zine became such a success, that he was asked to share his stories on NPR's This American Life, as well as appear on The Late Show with David Letterman. However, Pete had no interest in being on TV. So, he sat in the green room and ate free sandwiches while his friend Jess went on stage and pretended to be him. You can see the full clip here.

Pete only made it through 33 states, but all of his adventures are compiled in his first full-length book, entitled Dishwasher. He now lives in Amsterdam with his wife and son and is training to be a bicycle mechanic and working on building his writing career. Here he (really) is on Letterman, promoting the new book: