While touring in China, my travel group went to the Great Wall of China. We'd been walking for awhile and had paused for a rest. I slung my backpack over a shoulder ready to tackle another incline, unaware that my backpack wasn't zipped. I trotted up to the top and stopped. I heard a commotion. A Chinese woman approached me gesturing and talking excitedly. She pointed back down the incline, and there were all of my underwear and spare bras littering the Great Wall (don't ask why I carry all of my underwear in my backpack... I am an enigma wrapped in a mystery). Some very helpful people quickly gathered up my big old granny panties/spare bras and brought them to me. I received each garment bowing and saying, “Namaste.” I know that isn't even Chinese, but it was the best I could do.

This story illustrates the type of things that have happened to me all of my life. All of the many, and I mean many, embarrassing moments I have endured in my life have taught me some valuable lessons that I think it is especially important for kids to hear:

1. Everyone has embarrassing moments. The captain of the cheer-leading squad can have a booger hanging out of her nose. The high school football star can accidentally fart while exhaling into the tube during the lung capacity experiment in science class. I'm positive that even President Obama has had his share of “less than awesome” moments. You aren't in this alone!
2. The embarrassing moment that you had today won't be your last. You will have other embarrassing moments in your life... we all will! It's just part of life. You need to learn to cope with these things when they happen.
3. Learn to see the humor in the embarrassing events that happen to you. While no one wants embarrassing things to happen, you need to be able to laugh about it. Trust me, it takes the sting out of the humiliation.
4. When someone around you has an embarrassing event, try to have some compassion. Either help, or give some comforting words, because tomorrow it could be you!
5. Some people try to insulate or protect themselves from embarrassment by deliberately picking on others. They embarrass others to keep everyone laughing at someone else, so no one will laugh at them. Kids with good self-esteem and confidence have no need to bring someone else down.

A little bit of anxiety is normal, but some people suffer from a condition called “social phobia”. They can become so self-conscious and fearful of being embarrassed that they withdraw from normal life. Here are some resources that can help you to understand this disorder:

• NIMH's Social Phobia identifies symptoms and how to find help.
• FDA shares the story of a famous performer who suffered from social phobia.
• Medlineplus.gov discusses treatments and possible complications.
• Womenshealth.gov has a list of publications about the disorder.
• Anxieties Disorders Association of America presents true stories of people with social phobia.

Kids, don't let your fear of being embarrassed stop you from living a bold life. Have a good day and watch out for the falling bird poop!

As I sit here writing this entry, my cousin is giving birth to her first child. (Although, I hope she's not still in labor by the time you are reading this.)

My family is so excited to meet the newest addition to the clan. We're all sure she will be the perfect little baby. And I don't know about anyone else, but I'm more than happy to offer free babysitting services when I can.

Childcare can be a challenging subject for many new parents to deal with. They have to decide if they want to leave their child with family (if that's an option) or with a babysitter or in daycare if both parents work full time.

Childcare.gov is a great resource for parents who aren't sure about their options. They can find providers in their area as well as familiarize themselves with different laws and regulations to make sure their child gets the best care.

There's a whole checklist of things parents should consider when thinking about childcare. It includes things like child to supervisor ratio, first aid training and director qualifications.

If you have other great childcare resources feel free to share them in the comments section.

In a measly eight days I will be headed to glorious Las Vegas. My only other prior experience in Vegas was when I was 14, so I sense this trip will be somewhat different than the time I tagged along when my Dad attended a conference.

I plan on leaving my camera behind, to avoid the possibility of any remotely inappropriate photographs surfacing while I enjoy the splendors of Sin City.

However, one picture could be taken of me of which I have no control. In nineteen different airports around the country, new whole-body imaging machines are being used to detect both metallic and non-metallic threats on passengers.

In some airports these machines are the primary source of security. In others, passengers can opt to use them instead of a body pat-down from a TSA security officer.

The machine produces a robotic image, which some people find to be invasive, and bordering on the feeling of being naked- somewhat of a "virtual strip search."

To me, the pictures seem closer to that of a x-ray than anything I'd consider invasive or offensive. What do you think? Would you prefer the scanner over a physical pat-down?

The TSA blog is discussing this issue as well.

While at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in March, I was surprised by how often I heard that web developers are eager to get their hands on government data. Nobody ever told me what they want to do with it, but clearly they want to get their hands on it and get to work.

I bet a lot of them have business ideas.  It’s an old model – take information that the government collects, repackage it in a way that people find valuable, and then sell it.

Until recently the problem was that the data existed, but it was hard to get, and it was often formatted in ways that were hard for developers to work with. Things are changing rapidly. XML format (eXtensible Markup Language – it’s a format for structured documents and data on the web) made it a bit easier for the government to share data.

Last week the government launched the highly anticipated data.gov. Data.gov is a web site intended to increase public access to data collected by the government.  For most of us (myself included), the data.gov website isn’t going to be where we go when we’re looking for government information. Why? Because all this data is in machine-readable form – which means it’s not displayed in a way that’s usable for the average human.

But that’s where the fun begins. Web developers take the mountains of raw data, apply a spark of genius, and voila! They come up with a product that’s useful for you and me. There’s even a contest for web developers to use data from data.gov to create compelling applications. I can’t wait to see what they do.

Carl Chitwood has been Web Manager for the National Park Service since December of 2003 and has traveled to 124 of the 391 parks in that time.

Of all the weekend and day trips I make, none is more refreshing than a day in the mountains. Whether that day is spent at Catoctin Mountain or Shenandoah, just one or two days hiking in the crisp, fresh mountain air refreshes and recharges me for the inevitable energy drain of day-to-day work. On longer vacations, as a self described “mountain man stuck in urbania,” I always try to get to the mountains and spend time with nature. For me there is nothing better than a late spring day spent above 8,000 feet with my family. However, not everyone is a mountain person . . .

Almost everyone thinks of geysers or wildlife when they hear “National Park.” However, what you may not know is there are parks in almost every state covering everything from American cultural and societal history to beautiful natural landscapes and recreational activities. If you have an interest in something “American,” you can bet that there is a park for you.

This country is blessed to have such a vast and diverse National Park System. With 391 places to visit, it is almost guaranteed that you have one near you.

Get out there, enjoy your public lands, landmarks and places . . . you own them.