Laughing Out Loud: Maurice Sendak on Colbert Report

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Thanks to Tiffany for mentioning this on Twitter.  I am not sure why the Washington Post says that Sendak is having a bad day. Because to me, he seems in very good spirits. Is it because of the comment about Newt Gingrich? Maybe because I'm kind of a curmudgeon my self. 

I love Wyatt Cenac

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This has nothing to do with libraries but I love Wyatt Cenac. 

Book Drops: Will Grayson, Will Grayson by Green and Levithan

Will Grayson, Will Grayson
Originally uploaded by Miss Martini (AnnaLynn M.)

This is the first book I read for the new year! Let the new list begin!

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green (Paper Towns and The Abundance of Katherines) and David Levithan.
New York: Dutton Books, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-525-42158-0

Why I Picked It Up:
I like John Green's writing. Also, I love the cover. It actually looks like the wall paper on my Droid. After reading the jacket, I wanted to read more. What would you do if you met someone with your same name? And actually ended up being connected in some way...

Why I Didn't Put It Down:
At the church I went to growing up, there was a man named Vicente Martino who was always mentioned in the church bulletin. The first time I saw his name in the bulletin I would think "why are they mentioning my dad in the bulletin?" My dad is named Vicente Martino too!!! I remember, being a kid and wanting to go up to the Italian Vicente Martino to go "Hey. My dad's named Vicente Martino too!" But, being the shy kid I was, I never did it. Plus, he sat at the very front and we always sat in the middle and my dad didn't go to church. This is what I thought about as I started reading this book. Will Grayson and Will Grayson are two completely different people. One is personable, talkative and straight. The other is angry, introverted and gay. One day, they meet in an unexpected place and things come crashing down in both of their lives. I could not put this book down. I love all the characters even the unappealing ones. It is such a compelling story about relationships, love, hate, secrets, lies and life that you just do not want to put it down. I laughed out loud at quite a few parts and some passages just stuck with me.

Who Would I Recommend This To:
Everyone. This is truly one of the books on my short list of books that I LOVE! It is up there with my love of 13 Blue Envelopes and Going Bovine. It's kind of like Glee in print format. Just a feel good story that anyone can relate to.

LOL - I <3 McSweeney's

Have you seen this yet? It is so funny! Will RIchardson tweeted it and it's making the end of my school much more enjoyable. I think I need to take this course.

clipped from www.mcsweeneys.net INTERNET-AGE WRITING SYLLABUS AND COURSE OVERVIEW. ENG 371WR: Writing for Nonreaders in the Postprint Era M-W-F: 11:00 a.m.–12:15 p.m. Instructor: Robert Lanham Instant messaging. Twittering. Facebook updates. These 21st-century literary genres are defining a new "Lost Generation" of minimalists who would much rather watch Lost on their iPhones than toil over long-winded articles and short stories. Students will acquire the tools needed to make their tweets glimmer with a complete lack of forethought, their Facebook updates ring with self-importance, and their blog entries shimmer with literary pithiness. All without the restraints of writing in complete sentences. w00t! w00t! Throughout the course, a further paring down of the Hemingway/Stein school of minimalism will be emphasized, limiting the superfluous use of nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, conjunctions, gerunds, and other literary pitfalls.

Web 2.0 lessons - Networking and Kids

For the past couple of classes, we have been having our students explore various web 2.0 tools. One of them happens to be networking (I'm dropping the "social" and the "educational" because that is a whole other post) tools available online. A few of my students are comparing Myspace, Facebook and Imbee. One of them came up with the an amusing analogy after I asked them to describe the difference between the three tools and how the privacy tools work. This student is really energetic so just picture someone talking very excitedly about the topic.

Student: "Ok. Ok. so Myspace is like a kid jumping off a cliff. right?" He then proceeds to "jump off a cliff)

"and Facebook is like, you know, a normal kid." (then he points to himself)

and all the while his partner is agreeing with him and then throws in

"and Imbee is like a kid wrapped in bubble wrap!!!"

Eureka!

I cannot wait to see how they demonstrate and talk about these tools and am steering them towards the educational value of these sites but sometimes it's just fun to hear them talk.