Libraryland Update

I am on a couple of committees at work, now. One of them is the blog committee. We have a teen blog called "Push to Talk" named after a strange button in one of the Central Library's elevators. So far, being on the committee has entailed writing blog posts and monitoring comments. The focus of the blog at the moment are teen reviews from the Summer Reading Program. We are featuring reviews from some of our most enthusiastic participants.


Being on this committee has gotten me a little closer to the adult blog, Shelf Talk. Even though I am an avid blog reader, it took me a while to get over there--sometimes I am just full to the point of bursting with all the writing out there on the web. I have been reading through all the posts the last couple of days and I have to say I am impressed. The most recent post might read a little dry, as it is talking about geneology and some great additions to our french-canadian geneology collection, but the one before that has some great dialog about gearing up for NaNoWriMo.


My other committee is the Instruction Committee and we develop tools and guidelines for staff when they teach technology classes. I have had 3 or 4 meetings so far and the workload isn't too bad. Mostly reading over items to make sure they make sense.

Life

Tired has been my caption lately.  I sleep plenty, what is wrong with me?

I think it is only going to get worse as Dr. T spends the next month in Salt Lake City doing a rotation in Orthopedics.   Luckily I have a trip in the middle which will at least distract me, if not actually make things better.  I am spending 10 days on vacation, 5 with my sister and her boyfriend at her new place in Carson City, NV, then 5 more with Dr. T in Salt Lake City.  The trip will be right after our 1 year anniversary.  In some ways it feels like it has been longer than that, in others it feels less time has passed.  He is the one I was waiting for, looking for and when I finally decided I wasn't going to find him, I did.

I have been to Salt Lake City once before, with The Boy and my sis who used to live in Elko.  This time I plan to visit the library, Temple Square and Utah State University campus.  Last time we ate at a great pub, did some walking around and found a place to go shopping.  We really only had a day though, before our flight left.  I got a room at a Red Lion, which is pretty centrally located and has an airport shuttle, so I won't rent a car.

The point I was going to make is that I don't think the sleepiness will get any better until the end of November some time.  :P

Other: The Boy is done with football.  The season sort of fell apart on them at the end, with several team members and the main coach quitting.  I am not 100% sure what caused the blow up, but the rest of the boys got to play out the last 2 games as an 8 man team.  The Boy missed one because they moved the game to be during the Step Out to Fight Diabetes walk.  We had a great time and quite a few of our friends and family came.  Here's a pic:

Thank Goodness, Captain Hammer is Here!

Best new web based time wastage: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog



I know that I am a little behind on finding this one, which is sad because it written by Joss Whedan. Guess I am a bad fan--is there a rating scale for being a fan? I would probably get a 2/10.

In Libraryland: The writing workshops have not been horribly successful. Brandon Jerwa is leading my comics writing workshop on November 6, 6:15-7:45. Hopefully I will get some attendance for that.

I am going to kidnap the attendee's of the local YMCA's after school program for my next event. I think it will be a holiday party. I was just going to do crafts, but it keeps expanding/changing. So now I will have the Wii, the chance to make some holiday gifts (whatever holiday you celebrate) and have pizza or something. I still have some programming funds left.

It's Coraline, not Caroline!

I am reading Coraline now. It is a very freaky para-fairy tale, along the lines of Grimm. I think the ending will come out ok though, unlike those depressing tales. Written for the 9-12 age group, but definitely for the strong of heart. I think teen and adult readers would find it just as captivating.

I also just finished Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, after I saw the movie with The Boy and his friend on Thursday last week. It was an excellent movie, although the plot was all twisted around from the book. The book was also excellent, if somewhat heavy on the swearing.

Without giving away too much...

In common: music, music scene in NYC, Nick, Norah, Tris, music executive, Thom and Dev, Caroline, Tal, Jessie the Yugo

Not the same: the search for Where's Fluffy, losing Caroline, the make out scene in the Marriott, Scott/Luthario, people thinking the Yugo is a cab, gum (can I just say "ewwww!" ?)

In the book, you get so much from both Nick and Norah's internal dialog. You see their thought process, their insecurities, how cool they really are instead of how cool they seem. You can't really get that from a movie without it getting really convoluted, confusing and irritating. So I recommend experiencing both.

A Little Bit of Neil In My Life

Neil Gaiman was an absolutely fabulous reader. You can view each chapter over on his blog. He has been reading one chapter of The Graveyard Book at each of his appearances (I got to see chapter 4, it was awesome and long--about 50 pages!), has recorded them and has them available to watch.

I am not much of a fan. I don't drool over any celebrities or follow bands around hoping to get a body part signed. There is no actor that I would die to meet. Not saying I would say no to meeting one, it just seems like too much work. That said, I admire Joss Whedon from afar. And now Neil Gaiman.

Part of what I like about these two men is that they give a little of themselves to their fans. They don't act thankful, they act like a friend. They want to give us what we want, and it happens to be what they want as well. I was thinking this about Joss Whedon after watching the series Firefly and the movie Serenity, then watching some special features. I just got the warm fuzzies.

I got the same feeling during the two and a half hours that Neil Gaiman spent with his Seattle audience on Friday. As I said, he read 50 pages of his book to us, with feeling. The story itself made me want to jump into the book and experience the adventure myself. I have loved a storyteller that could do that ever since I was a little girl and had things I wanted to get away from. He showed us some clips from the new movie coming out, Coraline--based on the book. It looks like it is going to be great--I hope they add a picture to the IMDB page soon, because the imagry is fabulous. Stop Action Animation! (Done by the director Henry Selick, who also did Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach.) Then he answered questions from the audience for the last 30 or 40 minutes.

He did not sign books, or rather, he did not sign them individually. Everyone that ordered a book got a signed one, so there were no personalized messages--but really, does that mean anything? I have some totally weird signings from Terry Brooks (like: "Brew a Little Magic of your Own."), very personal... And I guess that last time he did a signing in Seattle he was at the table until 2:30 am. Now that is dedication.

Life limped along at subsonic speeds

As the title suggests, everything and nothing is happening right now. I am very busy with program planning, school visits and meetings, but nothing of note has happened in the last couple of weeks.

I am going to see Neil Gaiman tomorrow night! That is super cool. I have always enjoyed his books, although he isn't one of those authors where I have read everything he has written, the imagry in his books is something that stands fast in my mind. When I think of Neil Gaiman, I think of bright colors and dark streets.

The Boy has been playing football. He is having an awesome time, but it is frustrating to watch. Those poor kids--there are only 12 of them, so they only have one sub. The other teams have more players, have been playing longer and seem to have better direction. The Boy's coach is very nice, very dedicated, but doesn't seem to know exactly what he is doing. Maybe he is learning too. The first quarter of the game was one big mess, although it got better after that. The other team had 40 players and pulled their first string after the first quarter, then they just rotated players in so that after every play they were playing a whole new team. The Boy hurt his back pretty bad at the end of the third quarter and had to stay out the fourth. I am not notorious for my football knowledge, so thankfully Dr. T has been there to guide me through the games.