I Got My New Kindle!

The Paperwhite! I'm so excited...

Two of My Favorite Things Together

The Daily Show and Patrick Stewart:

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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The Best Picture of the Obamas

I know this has made the rounds, but I just wanted to put it here to crack myself up.  You go, Wild Things.

Hoot

This is part of the TBR Double Dare!  Hoot is a book I’ve been meaning to read for a while.  I went through a period in the 90s where I read all the Carl Hiaasen that was out there.  Light, funny, insightful and just pure pleasure.  Especially if you recognize the craziness from living in Florida.

I’m happy he’s writing books for kids now too.  I could totally picture them him subtracting the sex, toning down the violence and keeping the crazy bullies and wacko animals and knew the eco-friendly message would go over well with the kids.

This is pretty much what I imagined.  Completely irrational bully: check.  Minor eco-terrorism (more like eco-pranks, including a port-a-potty full of baby gators): check.  Wacko animal on a rampage: nope!  There are the aforementioned gators and some cottonmouths (with glitter paint on their tails--don’t ask; it’s Carl Hiaasen and that’s how he rolls.)

It’s about a middle school boy named Roy who has recently moved to some fictional town in Florida (why can’t I ever remember the names of fictional towns) and notices an intriguing barefoot boy running through people’s lawns on a day when the rest of the kids are on the bus headed to school.  He notices this because the previously mentioned bully is strangling Roy and shoving him into the glass window of the bus.  It turns out the mysterious running boy believes saving a family of endangered owls from a new pancake house construction site is more important than school.  He reluctantly lets Roy in on the scheme which builds to a satisfying, hilarious and relatively unrealistic conclusion.  Just like the Hiaasen books written for grown ups!

I understand this was made into a movie but it kind of came and went.  You really have to “get” Hiaasen’s sense of humor to make the right kind of film.  In the wrong hands this could be a generic happy-go-lucky, aw-shucks family feature, missing the requisite amount of satire, fear, and absurdity.

He’s got another one for the kids called Flush which I’ll definitely be adding to my ever-growing list.

Under the Christmas Tree

So one day a couple weeks ago my daughter had an overnight friend.  I was here at my desk and noticed it was quiet.  Maybe too quiet.  So I thought I better check on these girls.  I poked around and didn’t find them until I noticed these under the Christmas tree:

See them?  Those are their feet.  I leaned over the couch in the living room to get this next shot:

Yup.  That’s them.  They had tucked themselves under the tree and even gotten pillows so they could be down there reading for a while.  I think Harper had instigated this activity because she wants her friend to catch up with her on the Sister’s Grimm series.  One day when I picked her up from her friends house I asked her what they’d been playing.  “Sister’s Grimm,” she said.  “But we can only play from the first book because that’s the one she’s on.  I don’t want to give anything away.”

They’re nuts, but lovable and mostly harmless.

The Object of Debate

We are having the staff holiday luncheon in the school library today (don't get me started).  There's a table set up for people to set some desserts on.  This lovely and crafty item showed up and my clerk asked me who brought it in.  I didn't know.  She said, "Well, whoever it was, they're white because we [black people] don't do that kind of thing."

True or not true?

I've asked most people that have come through today and so far most people agree with her.

Honestly I'd never thought about it before but it's definitely sparking hilarious conversations.

Cabin Fever Release Day Means...

THE CABIN FEVER

HOLD REQUESTS 

ARE COMING

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever

What. The. Frak.

6 Beloved 80s Toys With Bizarrely Horrifying Origin Stories from your friends at Cracked. (language NSFW)

Some students at my school asked a teacher about this whole Rapture nonsense...

...the teacher told them they'd talk about it on Monday.

Heh.

I'm 4

Happy belated blog birthday to me.  The guy who is supposed to be posting this started me on 5/14/07.  I notice he hasn't been posting much so I don't know if I'll make it to Kindergarten, but it's been lots of fun.

Lately he's been busy winding down the school year, reading a western for some book challenge, and re-arranging and piling books around the house muttering something about tackling his "TBR" list whatever the heck that is.

Anyway, if Blogger doesn't unplug me today, I'm going to go find me some online cupcakes...

Overnight Zoo Field Trip

So yeah, I spent the night at the Altanta Zoo Tuesday night as a chaperone for my daughter's 2nd grade class field trip.  But it's a big school.  There are nine 2nd grade classes.  Three of them went Tuesday night and the rest were doing it Wednesday.

It was wonderful and crazy.  So you get there, dump you stuff in this big room, then head into an auditorium where they lay out the rules for the kiddos.  The kid I'm sitting next to?  Lost his tooth right there.

Then we split up and our class went into tis room where our guide brought us different creatures to talk about and touch including a six foot python that used it's tail to try and pickpocket her radio.

After some other activities we hiked out at night and saw the Komono dragon, then up to the Reptile house.  Each of the kids were given little squeeze lights of different colors, the lights were left off and they were let loose inside.  It was wonderfully controlled mayhem with these kids seeing all these freaky snakes and snapping turtles being much more active (and creepier) by the glow of little quivering lights.

Then the highlight of the evening, off to the kitchen where the "food" is prepared for the animals.  I'm not going to go into detail on this.  It was awesome.  You should go.

Then we crashed in that huge room with sleeping bags.  I had a little camping pad under mine and smirked at the adults who had gone all out and brought air mattresses. How bourgeois, I thought to myself.  Next morning?  Wished I had one of those dang things!  But it wasn't like I was getting much sleep with the adults snoring and the little kid away-from home nightmares.

How good is my daughter's 2nd grade teacher?  My little friend was freaked to find the tooth fairy had left him a dollar.  At the zoo!  Wow.

Wednesday was the best.  That's the reason to do this trip. You get to run around the zoo with a knowledgeable guide and no massive hoards.  They answer all your questions and, even better, the animals are being fed and very awake and active (except for that lion who was up roaring at night, he was crashed out).

Some hilarious bits:  That lion was spreadeagled with his, um, boy parts getting happily aired out.  One of the kids said, "That's a boy lion!"  The guide smirked, "Clearly."  The kid: "Ya know how I can tell?  Because of his mane!"  Oh. Yeah. That too.

The rhino backed up to a large flat rock and let go an impressive jet of urine.  Guide: "That's how they mark their territory.  That's his rock."  Me: "He can have it!"

A gorilla decided to vigorously scratch his ass. Kids: "Ewww!  Why is he doing that?"  Guide: "It itches."

Guide at the Kangaroo pen: "These are all females with our one intact male." Me: "Intact?"  Guide: "I'm just going to leave it at that."

Fun times!

It's a great program, our guide couldn't have been better and the kids reportedly remember it forever.  Totally worth it.

Atlanta Zoo NightCrawler Program

(Oh, and that picture is one of my many from the trip. It's of the Red Panda which isn't really red or a panda.)

A Smaller Wireless Device...

(via lookatthisfrakkinggeekster)

Irony

Ayn Rand Center: "Social Security Is Immoral"

VS

Ayn Rand: "My Social Security and Medicare payments, please."

Video Sunday

I know this is Ms. Bird's schtick, but I just wanted to make sure these got out as well and I rarely have this many good ones to share all at once!

Oooh, numbers can be pretty. I need to share this with our Math Coach:



This isn't an official NASA video, just something from a great fan:



A Wrinkle in Time in 90 seconds? It's been a while since I read it and this is about all I could remember from the plot anyway. Hilarious. I hope we see more of this kind of thing soon:


"A Wrinkle In Time" In 90 Seconds from James Kennedy on Vimeo.

I have no defense for this last one, but it weirdly makes sense...



Have a great extended weekend!

Critical Thinking: "Nigger" Edition

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Mark Twain Controversy
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Thank you, Larry Wilmore!  Best defense of Huckleberry Finn, ever!  Whenever I hear about this controversy my mind flashes to that scene in "The Hobart Shakespearians" where the class is reading the scene in Huckleberry Finn, in which Huck decides he will go to hell to save his friend Jim.  Every fifth grader in that class in openly weeping.  And there are people that think kids can't handle it?  Whatever.  It's essential.

The Hobart Shakespearians

President Al Gore

Today is the day, back in the year double aught that then Vice-President Al Gore conceded the presidency to a failed Texas businessman.

But during all the kerfluffle of the election controversy, one of us (my wife and I are both educators) had a Scholastic  Book Clubs order come in and there was an order for Mr. President: A Book of U.S. Presidents which they update and add the newest president on the cover and a short bio at the end.  Since they didn't know who it would be yet, Scholastic went ahead and made one for both possible candidates!

This is not a screen grab from a bookseller, this is a photo I just took here in my office.

Included is a letter from a customer service person which reads:

Dear Student,

Because the winner of the Presidential election was not finalized when our January orders started shipping, we have included books about both Presidential candidates.  You will now have information about whoever becomes our 43rd President.

We hope you enjoy both these books and thank you for your understanding.

Crazy, huh?  I wonder how many of these were put into circulation.  I'll hang on to it just for laughs but who knows, maybe it'll be worth something someday...

I Get Email

Funny ones from other school librarians like this:

"Does anyone know this book? I have a teacher who is trying to remember  a book about a girl who is copying a duck, turns into a duck, turns back into herself."

Cracks me up every time.

My Little Mythbuster

Home with a streppy seven-year-old and enjoying our jammies day.  We were just having a Head Rush (an incarnation of Mythbusters for kids) marathon and I remembered something that happened last week.

A friend of ours was telling a hilarious story of her getting stuck in a new building's elevator (don't worry, it was only two stories and the story ends well).  She contemplated various scenarios of how this could play out and wondered what would happen if the elevator car plummeted to the bottom of the shaft.  Should she jump at the last minute?  She'd heard that would save her from injury but doubted she was co-ordinated enough to pull this off, so figured she was doomed.

"That myth was busted!" piped up my daughter.  It was awesome!

She went on to relate how Adam and Jamie of Mythbusters had tested this by dropping an elevator car in an abandoned building.  Jumping or not jumping wouldn't help you, it turned out.  You're still just falling really fast and would probably get squashed.

Although, this outcome would have been doubtful for our friend since she was stuck only one or two stories up and modern elevators have way more safety features.  They don't just dangle on a cable anymore, so you're unlikely to ever have to deal with this eventuality.

My little mythbuster!

Okay, back to making home-made popsicles and lounging in our jammies...


Head Rush

Image Linkage

Literary mash-ups gone bad

Great haiku!

Both of the above images were blatantly re-posted from Baby Got Books.

Labyrinth jokes crack me up.

No comment.

Both of these images blatantly re-posted from lookatthisfrakkinggeekster.

I obviously have no shame.

Never Did Get "The Giving Tree"

But it would indeed be better if said giving tree had a gay sassy friend.  And I need one of those T-Shirts!

See bookshelves of doom for the goods!




















(image via lookatthisfrakkinggeekster)