On the bandwagon

One of my favourite books, The Golden Compass, is coming out this year as a movie. If you've read it, you know that everyone in Lyra's world has a daemon. Now you too can have one! Check out mine, and for the next twelve days you can have input as to what the final animal will be:

New Obsession

My sister got me hooked on Facebook the other day. Oh goodness, is it addictive! It's like Myspace, only much more aesthetically pleasing. It's not the place to go for new bands and celebrity pages and stuff, but it's amazing for reconnecting (or just connecting) with friends. I'm finding tons of old friends and acquiantances from junior high on up.

Of course, It's also making me have yet another angsty moment as I realize how many of them are still working in theatre, while I gave that all up for the bright lights and glamourous lifestyle of being a librarian. But on the other hand, I absolutely love my job and I can afford to eat regularly and well. But still - it makes me sigh and go "What if...?"

And on that note, here's something fun:

Random stuff

I was walking up to the bus stop this morning when I heard a guy yelling behind me. I couldn't see what was happening, but I assume it had something to do with a car that was blocking a lane, as the phrases "blocking three lanes" and "fucking asshole" were thrown about. As the annoyed person drove by me, he stuck his head out the window and said "Pardon me for disturbing your beautiful morning". Ah, Philly.

Also,last night marked a rare occasion where I put down a book with no intention of ever picking it up again. I started "The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters" by Gordon Dahlquist because of a positive review in Locus. I tried for days to get into it, but never made it past page 33. It's just too dense and Victorian for my taste. I have now switched over to "Ask a Mexican"

Sassy!!

Way back when I was but a wee young rebellious teenager, my mom bought me one of the first gifts I can remember her ever getting me: a subscription to Sassy magazine. I read that magazine religiously - it was a pop culture/counter culture somewhat alternative kind of smug us-vs-them teen girl magazine with models that were just slightly different from the typical (they had freckles!). I read it for years and then the magazine folded and I kind of forgot about it as I got older.
A little later on Jane came out with the same editor-in-chief as Sassy and I thought "Aha - Sassy for grownups! I must subscribe to this" I read it for a year trying to get into it, but the attitude that Sassy had just didn't translate as well into an adult format for me. It seemed more like a typical beauty mag with some "we must be smug and edgy" content thrown in. So I stopped reading it and forgot about both magazines.

Today I read about this book:



And I remembered how much I loved Sassy and how much it informed my teen years. So now I'm thinking wistfully of the halcyon days of Sassy, wishing I had some back-issues to browse through. Not much about my teen years makes my wistful, but evidently this is one of them.

Beyond the Spelling Bee

Clipped from Shelf Awareness on May 2, 2007:

"More than 200 people packed the Brattle Theater in Harvard Square, Cambridge, Mass., recently to watch a Define-a-Thon in which eventual champion Katherine Bryant, a science textbook editor, grappled with a definition for the word "usufruct.”

You've heard about spelling bees and crossword puzzle contests, but how does one Define-a-Thon? The New York Times recently offered the following definition: "Houghton Mifflin [publisher of the American Heritage Dictionary] created--and trademarked--the Define-a-Thon, which is modeled after a spelling bee but instead asks contestants to match words to definitions (and gives them a helpful list of words to choose from)."

It's Balderdash on a competitive level!

Sickies unite!

Since three people called in sick today at work, I figured now would be an appropriate time to post this, a webpage that shows who is sick in your neighborhood and with what:

Who is sick in your neighborhood?

Are you smarter than a spelling bee champ?

Odwalla has a new online game for everyone who loves spelling bees (I know you're out there). Hosted by a little animated Ken Jennings (of Jeopardy fame), it's surprisingly challenging once you get past the easy words. Check out the Soy Smart Spelling Bee.

Daisy update

Mike Daisey, the monologuist that I posted about the other day, got in touch with the guy who destroyed his notes. Here's what he has to say.

Theatrical Madness

On April 19, monologist Mike Daisey's performance was interrupted by 87 students and parents getting up and walking out - and one of the people poured water all over Daisey's notes. I read about this, and watched the video (below) and read Daisey's reaction on his blog.

I admire the grace that Daisey showed under the circumstances. I would have been devastated (okay, I would have laughed it off, and then gone home and been devastated) if that happened at one of my shows (and I have had people walk out of shows that I've been in or directed - no one ever sabotaged anything, though).

I don't understand how anyone could do that to a performer. If you don't like the subject matter, don't go to the show. If you don't like it midpoint in the show, wait for intermission and leave if you must. For god's sake, heckle if you feel especially compelled. But to do what these people did, and to deface and destroy as they did it without explanation or comment, that is incomprehensible to me as a performer and as a person.

Book of the day

I was just going through some new books and ran across this guidebook for micronations:



How wonderful is that?!

Book donation of the day

We get many donations at the library, but today one book stuck out (pun intended).

What if the Beatles were Irish?

Oh, BoingBoing, you bring me such joy. This week I found this video:

Passover Peeps

I know it's a bit belated, but I just ran across this at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, and I needed to share. Because the 10 plagues are always more enlightening (and funny) when they come in Peep form. Trust me, check it out!

I know I've had too many blood tests when...

...I can judge the skill level of all three phlebotomists at the lab. Sigh.

Supermarket 2.0

Bump!

Girl's night last night was at Bump, the lounge with pricey food and $3.00 martinis. Much fun was had by all and much drinking was done by most. Not that unusual occurrence, but what makes this night different than all other night (hee, Passover reference) is that sebethis was approached by the waiter and asked if she was from Kansas City. Turns out he lived there for six years and was on a radio station called "The Buzz" as Scoops, the morning guy. Holy coincidence, Batman! sebethis used to listen to him all the time - and they knew the same clubs, the same people. Here they are, reunited at last:



After some power martini drinking, some clumsiness from a participant who shall remain nameless, and much laughter and inappropriate conversation, Liz, sebethis, and I ended up at Capogiro for delicious gelato and conversation that skewed a bit more disturbing than I was expecting.

If you're one of my Flickr friends, you can see the photos online (Passover seder pictures coming soon, as well)

Sheer genius

I found this on Boing Boing today - a brilliant way to recycle those empty CD spindles lying around the house:



On another note completely, I've been told, yet again, that 300 is fabulous. I decided not to go last night with some friends because after a wonderful seder Tuesday night, and a week of having the amazing climbing_junkie visiting from Edmonton, I needed some quality me time watching the last few episodes of Project Catwalk Season 1 and going to bed early. Besides, my shoulder to bury my head in during the gory scenes couldn't come, so I'm going to wait for him.

It's raining 300 men

Thanks to bonemot, the following video caused much hilarity at the Chicken Soup cook-off (Jen won) and Coffee Cake bake-off (I won) last night:



I decided a while back that I wasn't going to see 300 because it looked way to violent for me. I have since reconsidered my opinion and might be easily convinced to go, even if it means having to hide my head on someone's shoulder for most of the fight scenes.

Present to myself

I've been coveting a stand mixer for a while now, as my little hand mixer was just too awkward to make cakes with. I was contemplating a kitchenaid, but the pricetag was really making me pause. And then I was inspired by human_loser and his new pet. He reminfded me that I love the mixer we had at home while I was growing up, an old Sunbeam Mixmaster. So I decided that since I have a cake to bake for this weekend, I was going to get one for my very own. Introducing my new kitchen toy:



Today I also used it for the first time to make the brownies that I loved growing up as well. And since I do not want to gain 500 pounds due to my new toy, you can see that they are already packaged up to take to work tomorrow so other people can gain weight instead:

My mallows are dreamy

I have the best friends in the world!

I was telling sebethis about Viva Puffs a while back, and about how much I love them. They are a graham cookie bottom, then a layer of jam, then a big puff of marshmallow on top, all covered in chocolate. They're delicious, and I've been unable to find them or anything like them in the States so far. I've been told that they sound like Mallomars, but Mallomars don't have the jam filling.

Anyway, on Monday sebethis walks up to me and hands me a box of Dreamy Mallows, which she found at Shop-Rite. Evidently she remembered me talking about Viva Puffs and realized that Dreamy Mallows might be pretty much the same.


Hopefully I'm going to get a Canadian care package from my sister soon, as she said that she would include Viva Puffs for me. Then I will have a side-by-side cookie taste test!