I bet your mom would let me

It's no secret that I'm in love with Super Punch. It's probably my favorite blog ever. But this post has out done itself. Please go ahead and apply the slow clap, the standing o and the hamster dance for old time's sake in honor of alerting me to the brilliance that is Children's Book Cinema.

Waiting on Wednesday

I saw Abby (the) Librarian's WoW post in my reader and thought this was finally a kidlit blog meme I could get behind. Breaking the Spine hosts the event, so check it out if you want to add even more books to your ever growing To Be Read pile.

Freefall (January 18, 2010)

Ariela Anhalt

(Description pulled from Amazon)

Luke was not eager to accompany his best friend, Hayden, and the cocky new kid, Russell, up to the cliff that night. The plan was to watch Russell jump off the cliff into the lake--his initiation to the Briar Academy fencing team. But instead, after an angry confrontation with Hayden, Russell falls to his death.

Now Hayden is in jail and the pressure is on Luke to report what he saw. But what did he see? An accident--or a murder? Luke has always followed Hayden's lead, but this is one decision he'll be forced to make on his own. And to do it, he must face the truth about his friendship with Hayden and his own painful past.

This suspenseful and scandalous tale of rivalry, peer pressure, and finding the courage to take responsibility will have an impact on readers long after the last page.

---

I'm most excited about the fact that this author is a 19 year old sophomore at Dartmouth College. I love when actual young adults write and publish young adult novels. What an achievement!

I received the ARC just last Friday and it is burning a hole in my bag, begging for me to read it. Anticipate a review sometime before 2009 has its final say.

Amanda Palmer signed your mom's toilet last night

To: the world
From: Kristi(e)
Date: 11/14/09
Re: Your Jealousy

I'm aware of the fact that not everyone could be lucky enough to have been in attendance of one of the most awesome performances ever that it was as if you (performances, mind you--not simply "one of the best concerts" but the broader act of staging an entertaining presentation of any sort) but there is no need to shout at me and send Batman up and down my street to honk all day. You and your jealousy can simmer down now.

What's that? You're also upset that I got not only Amanda Palmer's autograph, but Neil Gaiman's? Tough noogies. The exquisite Ms. Sara of Librarian Boredom was in attendance and received autographs as well so go bother her.

Fine, I will show you a photographic representation of the library catalog card for Blacks in the Military: Essential Documents signed by Mr. Gaiman to prove to you that ridiculous happening happened. Yes I'm sad the catalog card was too small for both Amanda and Neil to sign on the same side, no need to rub it in.

... Are you done yet? Fine I will rub it in YOUR face that I had a fantastic time last night. In fact, I will pontificate upon it in a bulleted list in no particular order (because how else will you knew precisely how much fun was really had?):

• Amanda Fucking Palmer told me that I was a good librarian for wearing my glasses to her show. 8)
  
• I have a new favorite song thanks to a random twitter user that may or may not have been at the concert. Amanda may end up telling you that it was not her best performance of the song, but don't listen to her world. I think her charm and humor made her rendition of Pirate Jenny the best I've heard so far (and I've listened to about 4 different versions today [including Bea Arthur's so let's just be real here for a second]). Just shy of 4 minutes of this youtube video you can see the Dresdon Dolls performing Pirate Jenny. DO IT!!!
  
• Amanda read a short story from Who Killed Amanda Palmer and was quite stupendous at storytelling.
  
• Sara's question was read during Ask Amanda! What were the odds?!
  
• Amanda had two artists create fabulous works of art during the duration of the concert that were then auctioned off. There were all kinds of unexpected surprises!
  
• Pretty much every single space in the venue allowed you to have full view of the stage. WIN!
• Nervous Cabaret was a fantastic surprise. Most indubitably for how amazing they were, but most notably for the fabulous facial hair.
• Amanda Fucking Palmer covered the Ting Tings That's Not My Name and made it a jolly affair. That's right, I said it.
  
• Just when I gave up all hope of hearing Coin Operated Boy everyone on stage rallied for a mind blowing performance to close the show!

I think I've rambled enough now. Long story short, you're silly for not going to an Amanda Palmer show. Fix that yesterday.

Free books!

...over on Craft. They're giving away Scorpia and Ark Angel to promote a contest over on their technological counterpart, Make. Head on over to the giveaway post and leave a message in the comments as to why you/your kids/teens need these books!

New Blog!

I am delighted to present you with Curious Pages: Recommended inappropriate books for kids. Not that kind of inappropriate from what I've seen thus far, but a very fun look at random books intended for kids. Whoever knew that John Cage helped pen an awesome book about mud pies? Thanks to this new blogorino by illustrator Lane Smith (and some Bob fellow), I know that. And now you do, too!

Check it out!

Digital Towns

Move over John Green, Google is getting in on the paper town action! Paper towns are getting 2.0 with their bad selves in the form of Argleton. Google may or may not have created this town so that rival mapmakers cannot steal the fruit of their cartographic labors.

My question is does the terminology change because it's an online map or can we still call it a paper town?

NaNoWriMo is my nemesis

November is my favorite month, hands down. First of all, if not for this month I would have a birthday in some less fortunate month that is not November. Secondly, excessive amounts of pumpkin are everywhere. Everywhere. Plus there is something to be said about fabulous shopping deals around every corner. Ahhh November.

But there is one aspect of November that fills my stomach with dread and occasionally puts a scowl on my face. If the post title didn't give it away, this is brought about by the fact that November is National Novel Writing Month. NaNoWriMo mocks me with it's overly productive participants:

"Haaaai Kristi(e), how you doin' gurrl? Me and thousands of mah BFFLs are hangin' out gettin' 2gether writin' up some 50,000 word novels and junk. How's your novel doin'? Oh you got 2 flashcards with character names and whatever written down? That's fine gurl that's fyne. Maybe we can all get some coffee next year or sommen. Take kare of urself!"

I'm aware that if NaNoWriMo were to actually become anthropomorphized it would speak properly, but you must realize that my nemeses always have poor grammar when we get together for tea in my head so that no matter what they say I always speak more eloquently. Duh.

Anyway, I bring all this up because John Green makes a fabulous point in one of his more recent Vlog Brother posts: Anything produced during NaNoWriMo is complete and utter garbage. You hear that NaNoWriMo?! You and your BFFLs are GARBAGE! Even John Green won't be able to come up with some gold in a month. You can stop making me feel bad about the non-existent novel I'm writing, tyvm.

That said, anyone actually participating I wish you the best of luck! Because while the novel you write may end up smelling worse than a city dumpster, it is the foundation for a fabulous novel once you put in all the time and effort revising. Don't take my word for it, either. Try on what Editorial Anonymous has to say about revisions and rejections for size.

Whoopi's Wizarding Foot-in-mouth spell

Whoops. Apparently reading her index cards with info on the guests she's interviewing on The View is not on Whoopi's agenda before she carelessly tosses them aside. Check out the wizarding faux pax below:

VH1 TV Shows | Music Videos | Celebrity Photos | News & Gossip

(via Best Week Ever)

TAG! You're it.

My teens are super cool and wanted nothing to do with the traditional "Teen Advisory Board" name and went for the funkier Teen Action Group. It makes me feel like we shouldn't be meeting in the Bicentennial Room of the library, but instead an underground command post with a drop down plasma screen TV the mayor uses for his urgent communications. ... Or not. But still!

Anyway, the only program that regularly gets attendance is TAG. For the life of me, I don't know why. During the summer I got people, but now that it's the school year I only occasionally get people to roll up to Teen Cafe. This absence is despite the fact that the teens show interest in programs like the creative writing group when talking about them in TAG. I spent 4 potential writing programs doing other work.

Well I'm sick of that. I've decided to take action myself. If the teens are only interested in TAG, well they'll only get TAG (actually not true, but whatever). Instead of having a monthly writing program, I am going to have writing exercises at the original Monday night TAG meetings. Instead of a craft program, there will be a craft activity at the new Tuesday night TAG: The Echo meetings. BAM. I'll keep you posted on the progress.

I already tried out the writing exercise this month and it went swimmingly! We ran the meeting for about 45 minutes with little to no tangents and then started an exercise I like to call Judging a Book by its Cover. The teens each got a book they most likely had not read before taken from either the juvenile, YA or adult fiction sections with nondescript or weird covers. Without turning to the back or inside jacket flap they had to create a 4 sentence synopsis. After they were all done we took turns reading first our synopsis and then the official blurb. One girl was mostly spot on and she had the weirdest cover! It was a great time and I look forward to pulling this back out in a few months. :)

Apparently I'm an Inferi

Man I've come back from the dead on this old Blogorino more times than I can count in just 2009. I'm sorry. At this point I feel like I'm probably apologizing to the air because I haven't posted in so long the one reader I had most likely abandoned me. Oh well, such is life.

Instead of blaming computer issues and moving twice in the same month, I'm going to own up and admit it: I'm a bad blogger. But I want to do better. Instead of waiting for January to start a new year, how about I just kick it off now? I've got me one of them there birthdays in two weeks, why not try living up to an older, more responsible (blogwise, anyway) Kristi(e) now?

It will be hard--not gonna lie. I've taken a very silly path to get to where I am now. Bored of reading the same damn blog every. single. URL I clicked on I decided to share silly things, fandom and other non book reviews. In an attempt to stand out I feel like I've just boxed myself in a corner and made it so that when I come across things I want to post about, I can't. Well that's just dumb. So please bear with me as I figure out exactly what type of blog this is.