Ungrateful little fuckwit

I am jacking materials directly from an email my friend Danielle sent because OMG this is amazing. You NEED to check this video out, whether or not you read Twilight, because this chick is ridic (though she does give some spoilers. Don't worry, she lets you know when they are coming).

Embed isn't liking me right now, so click here.

Also, this quote from Robert Pattinson:

“When you read the book, it’s like, ‘Edward Cullen was so beautiful I creamed myself.’ I mean, every line is like that. He’s the most ridiculous person who’s so amazing at everything. I think a lot of actors tried to play that aspect. I just couldn’t do that. And the more I read the script, the more I hated this guy, so that’s how I played him, as a manic-depressive who hates himself. Plus, he’s a 108 year-old virgin so he’s obviously got some issues there.”

As to why he decided to make this movie... idk--all I know is he is making the afformentioned creaming statement much easier than if some other actor played the same role. Thank you, Robert Pattinson, thank you.

Speaking of Zenon...

...check this video out.

Need a moment?

Forever a student, New Year's might as well start on Labor Day, as the beginning of the school year seems a better time than any to reflect on the previous year and all the changes that took place in my life. Said reflection led me to the following statement: last year was a suckfest major and I'm quite glad for it.

Crazy girl say what? Let me paint you a picture, and perhaps you'll see what I mean. Fresh from Rutgers undergraduate, I thought I'd experience something rather similar to any other year at Rutgers because I was living on the same campus and commuting to College Ave again. Wrong. I was not prepared for the adjustment period required for my brain to get used to all the work that stretched on forever, which ultimately led to the inability to concentrate for more than a paragraph of at a time. Not to mention the ridiculous amounts of reading assigned, that made my senior seminar on 18th century travel narratives seem like a cakewalk. It took far too long to get all my homework done, and even then, I opted to shove everything off for the last minute and read all the books for Materials for Children instead because it didn't rupture my brain.

Above all, I wasn't in a place to conceive how alone I would feel. I moved into a house filled with cliquey and pretentious people that preferred to reminisce on the good times of 2007 than experience the here and now (or what was the here and now). That is not to say that I didn't become friends with some of those housemates, but it sure as hell didn't happen for at least two months. In fact, I think that outside of Johanna, it didn't happen until Jim and I broke up for a hot second (an event which brought about even more loneliness, of a different variety). At school it seemed like everyone around me was branching off into tightly knit little groups; groups that if I attempted to penetrate I was met with cold stares and awkward pauses. And don't even get me started on the public library's social politics.

I know what you're thinking. I said I was glad last year sucked. Well, I am. If not for the months of coming home and crying at the evilness of library school and the weeks before I made friends, I wouldn't appreciate the wonderful people that seem to think I'm as awesome as I find them. I wouldn't be able to breeze through subjects like cataloging with an A, if not for that first semester of crap. Not to get all TV movie on you, but my brain and compassion have expanded immensely as a result of all that crud. Every single person that lives on the first and second floors of my house now are brand new students to Rutgers. After remembering how desolate my first months in the OG house were, how could I sequester myself off from these new people? I have instantly bonded with many of them and am very optomistic for the upcoming year. Thank you last year for draining my soul. Apparently I wouldn't have room for all this good stuff if not for that.

P.s. Yes, there is a Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century reference in this post. You didn't dream it due to missing quality Disney Channel original movies of yesteryear. Oh Zenon, how I miss you so...

Graphic Novel Knowledge

I joined a whole slew of listserves a while back and soon they devoured my inbox. I have since quit all but one and still have thousands of backlogged emails from that short stint. I stayed on GNLIB, because I know nothing about graphic novels and I'm realizing more and more I need to. Usually, I have to weed through endless arguments that don't seem to matter to me personally or make much sense, but today I stumbled across a gem. Someone posted the article, Drawing Power, by Bob Thompson which features everything I could have wanted to know about graphic novels and more, detailing what they are, what they represent and what they can become. It is lengthy, but definitely worth checking out. Here is a brief list summing up what you can find on each of the five pages:

1. Introductions/expectations
2. Scott McCloud's quotation on what makes a graphic novel
3. Mouly Spiegelman and the early days of graphic novels
4. Discussion of up-and-coming ToonBooks
5. A whole bunch of other gloriousness I won't summarize because I'm evil and making you check it out if you're interested!
   

One of my favorite quotes comes from Scott McCloud, on page two of the article:

"What they are is a publishing shorthand that says: big fat comic with a spine -- and people get that." --Scott McCloud on the term graphic novel

Five pages of an online article may be a bit much for your time budget, so you can check out the highlights in comic form. Some of the text is a verbatim quote from the article. You can access three out of the four strips without registration, but it requires registration to view the first for some unknown and probably idiotic reason. However, if you can, I highly recommend reading both, the prose and comic versions of this article as they are equally enjoyable!

• Strip One: The Medium is Booming
  
• Strip Two: Raw Beginnings
  
• Strip Three: Gaining Steam
  
• Strip Four: Picture the Possibilites

Home Run Strikes Out

Home Run claims to be a story about Babe Ruth, but it is more Babe Ruth than story. This is on the summer reading list for 3rd graders, and I am struggling to find a reason why. The illustrations are great and imaginative and all that, but that is all this book has going for it. Yesterday, two kids tried to fill out their story map graphic organizers for this tale and were unable to figure out a problem, and in turn, the solution section. I took the book and read through it, then had the children's librarian read through it and neither of us could find a problem either. The book literally might as well say:

Babe Ruth was awesome (turn the page)
Babe Ruth was awesome (turn the page)
Babe Ruth was awesome...

I'm sorry, but I need a little something more with my summer reading, I don't know about you.

Man in the Ceiling

Alright kids, it's that time again. This time, I went way back in the day to 1993 for a gem called The Man in the Ceiling by Jules Feiffer. This middle grade novel integrated graphics into the narrative before Hugo even dreamed of inventing anything. Young Jimmy wants nothing more from the world than to be a great cartoonist one day and have his father admire his brilliant comic strips. However, his father has no time for artistic types and Jimmy is challenged in the hand-drawing department. Schoolyard faux-friendships, sibling squabbles and a wayward uncle, amongst other various aspects of Jimmy's life, are introduced separately as the chapters progress. During the first handful of chapters, it seemed like each was a window into different vignettes of childhood for Jimmy, but they weave together into a cohesive storyline, one topic relating and referring back to the other.

The narration is delightful and often reminds you that the author is telling the story about Jimmy without being obvious or too demanding of the reader. My favorite example is on page 31, where the author comments on his own writing by saying,

"Now, I could take up the next five pages telling you what Lisi said, and it would be printed in capital letters to show how loud she said it, but you'd get bored reading the same lines over and over, so what's the point? However, I'll give you some examples: 'I ASKED YOU FOR ONE SIMPLE FAVOR...'"

Other great examples are on pages 35, 140, and 120, just to name a few. I only had qualms with one sentence out of the whole book, which, if you ask me, is pretty good considering most of the rubbish out there. That sentence is on page 63 and despite Art Spiegelman's reassurance on the back that this is "a book for kids without an ounce of condescension in it," this particular sentence insults the memory of the reader with a reminder of something they learned in the previous chapter. Perhaps it isn't that big of a deal, but all the same, I felt it was extra.

For reals?

Now, I am all about turning popular movies and children's shows into picture books/early readers and the like, but come on. According to the Slate.com slide-show I snagged from Mo Willem's blog, movies such as The Incredible Hulk, Ironman and The Dark Knight are being turned into early readers. Early readers!!!?!?! In case you haven't heard of these movies because of that huge rock on top of your body that you call home, please feel free to visit the IMDB pages I supplied on each of those movies up there. As you can see, these movies are PG-13. In fact, The Dark Knight traumatized me so much, I refuse to accept that it is rated anything below NC-17. How are you going to turn around and make a children's book about these movies?! An EARLY READER at that. I beg you! Kids are not so oblivious that they don't see the television commercials for these movies. Even if they do not have TV, the posters, action figures and various other advertisements are going to entice them to go further than reading these "kid friendly" books.

In a slightly less incredulous note, the slide-show is both educational (boo, hiss) and enjoyable and totally worth checking out.