I was studying the package of Chips Ahoy! Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies at the table today (because god knows, I can’t eat without reading), and one of the ingredients listed is raisin paste. I had just been feeling snarky and superior about the chemicals in commercial cookies, and they hit me with raisin paste.
Weirdout.
You may or not know this, but I’m a Pez collector.
This site is via BoingBoing, via my mom. (You know you are one-upped when your mom emails you cool sites she finds on BoingBoing.)
Sweet World is a site with a bunch of Pez modifications. Some of them are very clever and awesome, some of them you might not notice much of a difference… unless you’re a Pezhead.
I’m still glowing over yesterday’s storytime. I’ve vowed to buy a personal copy of The Lorax, so I can have it at the ready.
As I was biking to work this morning, I was remembering how awesome it was to throw together an opportunity, a solid story, and a really important lesson and make librarical magic. I was thinking about how great it would be if I could perform stories like this at a moment’s notice, maybe with a few finger puppets I keep in my bag, or a series of tattoos.
Then I remembered Richard’s idea of StoryMob. During our storytelling class in grad school, we had just finished a round of really stellar stories (and we were kind of high, like the children’s high I’m still on) and Richard had the idea of going out to the quad (open area at the University of Illinois) and running up to a group of lounging undergrads and telling them a story or two. The idea morphed into a guerrilla story performance crew.
I think at that point we went out for beers, and the idea was made into a Facebook group. It lingers there, and I know the UIllinois crew is working on it, but I’m wondering what I can do from here. Perhaps we need a site where we can submit stories, be they written, audio, or video. I’d totally record video of me accosting a group of children and making them happy. Maybe old people too.
My general perception of the current state of primary education was that we were teaching to tests and encouraging bullies. A month ago I was asked to come to a local elementary school to participate in a program they’re doing where each month a different grade takes on a different moral characteristic, learns about it, and presents it to the rest of the school. Wow.
So talk about intimidating, I was asked to present a little something to second graders on responsibility. And come back each month to do another trait. Right. No worries. Just … you know … responsibility.
First off, I had a lot of trouble defining responsibility, as far as how to choose a story to tell. There are so many ways to apply that principle, and second graders are going to want a bit of an analogy to make it work.
Finally, I realized that I could narrow the connotation of the word down to something that fit. I decided to go with eco-terrorism.
Kidding! I decided that I wanted to show them the responsibility we have for our communities. I chose the book The Lorax (read it here), and as we read the story, we talked about the Once-ler’s actions, and if he should maybe have been taking more responsibility for the flora and fauna that had been flourishing.
At the end, the Once-ler gives John Everyman the last truffula tree seed. I didn’t even have to prompt them. They were all like “he needs to plant that seed aaaaand then put a basket under the tree and collect more seeds aaaaaand then plant a bunch more trees”.
I asked them what kind of responsibility the Once-ler had for his community there, and they decided that the whole debacle would have been avoided if the Once-ler would have planted new truffula trees as he cut others down.
They totally and completely got it. They got the eco theme, they got the responsibility theme, and they were still with me at the end, when I told them that I think we all have a responsibility to our community and my favorite way to be responsible is to pick up a piece of trash at the park. If everyone in the class did that, 19 pieces of trash would be in the trash can. I followed that up by saying that we can’t be responsible for everyone, but if we do a small part along with everyone else, we are all responsible together.
I’m totally blissed out. I can’t wait to find out what next month’s theme is.
Yesterday was supposed to be our whale watching adventure. We had signed up for a clambake cruise and whale watch for the Saturday after Jason’s birthday, and it got postponed until Thursday. Then, on Thursday, it was postponed again. I’m just a little bit mad at whatever force or nature or boat is keeping me from seeing whales, and maybe even touching whales.
Or maybe nibbling whales. (I don’t really want to hurt a whale, I just want to know what they taste like.)
Anyway, we were all signed up at this whale watcher cruise (ok, you should note that the website URL is whales.net. Isn’t that kind of cruel and funny?) and after two postponements, we decided to cancel. Whale season is almost over anyway.
Jason suggested we take our money earmarked for whales (band name!) and go to Dave and Busters in Providence instead.
Tuesday night, Jason and I settled in for a long bout of writing thank you notes (finishing up our wedding tx). We armed ourselves with a bottle of wine given to us by the justice of the peace who married us.
One might consider said bottle of wine to be our ‘wedding wine’, but it’s Sutter Home*, a remarkably ubiquitous liquid**.
So we wrote, and we thanked, and we stuffed, and we licked (envelopes, silly), and when we were done we turned on the PBS. The documentary 49 Up was on, and I had the most wonderful feeling, half-drunk and discussing this very intimate show with Jason. It was a very cozy feeling.
*Oddly, I feel like I wrote the wine descriptions on their website. Mostly due to the short sentences.
**A phrase stolen directly from MC Paul Barman.
I was thinking about dinosaurs today, and kept saying the word ‘tyrannosaurus’ over and over in my head. It mutated into tranny-saurus, which I thought was hilarious. I IM’d Jason, demanding that he draw me a tranny-saurus. In a box (like in The Little Prince).
I’ve been feeling lost and confused ever since I successfully finished knitting a Rogue hoodie that fit me.
Until Keem suggested I knit her a Skull Illusion Scarf.
I said “Mokay, but are you sure you don’t want a Dark Mark illusion scarf?”
She said, “No thanks, I’m in Ravenclaw anyway.”
Skull and crossbones it is. Much more ladylike and nonthreatening.
So off I go, on a new knitting adventure, with an illusion scarf. I plan on plotting my progress with my brand new membership to Ravelry. (For those of you who aren’t aware yet, it’s only THE knitting and crocheting community site. It’s still in beta testing, and just today I got my long-awaited invitation.)
From one of my favorite comics, The Perry Bible Fellowship:
I was always weirded out by the original. I understand the analogy to be that of a caring adult – ready to give the shirt off their back to make the next generation happier. I think that paradigm is outdated.
Kids are assholes with cell phones. With all the baby boomers, you’d think the we could rewrite the story. You come to the tree, it talks to you, it gives you some apples, you leave with the apples, then you come back and mulch it, then spray for tent worms.
Jason and I were addressing thank-you notes last week, and I wrote “I hope you enjoy the fall!” on a note to a very old lady. I hope she understands my sentence to mean that I would like for her to have a happy autumn, and not that I’m clairvoyant.
