Pearls Before Swine Library Tribute

When I was younger, I was addicted to Calvin and Hobbes. We had practically every book Watterson ever put out, and I was devastated when his comic stopped being run by my local Daily Progress. However, they have finally redeemed themselves.

They finally removed Cathy-- the most annoying, and as SNL points out, the least sexy cartoon in the history of cartoons.

In turn, they finally added Pearls Before Swine, by Stephen Pastis, who is hilarious in comic form, and in blog form.  (AMAZING)

Below is the relevant, and superbly done Pearls Before Swine comic that is now posted on the refrigerator at work. Enjoy!

by Stephen Pastis

23 Things to do for Professional Development Project: THING 1 & 2

Alright, so the 23 Things to do for Professional Development Project I found through Michael Stephens' Tame the Web site (www.tametheweb.com), and it's all about librarians (or information professionals, but I'll get back to that naming detail in a minute**) staying updated in the field of librarianship and technology through the use of blogging and social networking. I like the idea about this, and so I've decided to give it the old college try (although, because of classes-- this project may be slower due to the nature of my schedule this summer).

This is the blog that all the "Things" will be posted on-- social media assignments, you might call them: http://cpd23.blogspot.com/ . There are two Things posted now--

Thing 1: Start a blog. Done! Whew... what next?

Thing 2: Investigate some other blogs. Also do-able. Here are my findings:

Adventures of a Red Headed Traveler-- http://traveltalesfromtheredheadedtraveler.blogspot.com/
  A lot of fun from a traveler and fellow foodie. Lots of fun recipes, and she posts so regularly. I aspire to have that kind of posting dedication (and time, can I mention time?).

Wee Hermione-- http://weehermione.blogspot.com
  She's not part of the cdp23 project, but a fellow classmate of mine, who I find hilarious, quirky, artistic. Love it.

Alice in LibraryLand -- http://inlibraryland.blogspot.com/
   This person is hilarious, and I love her take on customer service. Plus, I enjoy reading her blog out loud in a British accent dripping with sarcasm. This makes it ridiculously enjoyable.

Addicted to Story : http://mockturtle.wordpress.com/
I like this blog because the reviews are simple, short, and to the point. They aren't full out reviews, but I don't really like reading full-out reviews most of the time. Who wants to read that?


That's all I'll do for now. I am le tired.

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** ALSO. On the note of "information professional" -- I'd like to know what the general public thinks of this job title. Does this mean anything to anyone outside of people getting a Master in Library Science? Would you laugh at me if I called myself and information professional instead of a librarian? I personally like the connotation of librarian because a librarian always seems capable of catching people off guard somehow. Note the following scenario:

Soccer player 1 (male): What do you do for a living?
Me: Oh, I'm a librarian.  [jogs away]
Soccer player 2 (male): Oh! [to Soccer Player 1] Guess we might wanna take it easy on her, huh?

On the field, Soccer player 1 approaches Hayley the Librarian confidently, and watches in horror as she slide tackles him, steals the ball, shoulders past Burly Player 2, and passes it up to her own player, who then barrels the ball into the back of the net. Hayley jogs back, smiles at dumbfounded  Players 1 and 2, and the ball restarts. 

Librarians are tricky like that. You really never know what we've got hiding up our sweatered sleeves.

 

Conan the Librarian: A force against the meek librarian stereotype

Conan the Librarian: A force against the meek and mild librarian stereotype everyone has come to love and adore. In addition to being a Dewey Decimal badass, he also is a great punisher of overdue books.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZHoHaAYHq8

You'll never return your books late again. :) Enjoy!

This clip is from the movie UHF (1989) with Weird Al Yankovic and directed by Jay Levey. You can find full information from it at IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098546/

The Comprehensive Peter Pan

Just finished watching Peter Pan (2003) starring Jason Isaacs (Capt. Hook/Mr. Darling), Jeremy Sumpter (Peter Pan) and Rachel Hurd-Wood (Wendy).

Can I just say that I had previously decided not to watch this because there was no way this could compare to the versions I watched growing up-- Mary Martin's musical Peter Pan (1960), Disney's Peter Pan (1953), and Hook (1991). But I guess the artistic nature of the cover and all of the pictures from the film sorta drew me in. And this is still one of the best things about the movie to me-- it was truly beautiful, and magical, just the way you might dream up Neverland in your own mind.

On top of it all, it blows my mind that this play is never given the same weight as other traditional plays like The Crucible, A Streetcar Named Desire, or anything of that nature. It's done as a primary school play. But why aren't the themes discussed, why aren't the characters dissected, why isn't this digested in 10th grade English class? Wouldn't high school kids better relate to this play than they would to the Crucible? The Scarlet Letter? (I know this isn't a play, but think about it...) Give kids something they can get into. Something they are interested in. Go over the classics, sure. But this is a classic too-- give it some weight.

It's interesting too, to consider the story line which revolves around growing up, in all different stages of growing up. As a kid, it's an adventure story, a creative way to escape the boring life of going to school, etc. As a teenager, you can almost see why Peter has no intention of ever growing up-- school is more demanding, and other realities of the world become more pressing, and sometimes you wish you could go back to the freedoms of being a kid, but you're also in that stage where you want to grow up, drive a car, be independent.  Then when you're an "adult" (but you're still growing up-- I maintain you're never really "grown up" until you're dead), you can see the sadness of Peter too, who is in a way left behind, left out of the loop, and lonely. The Darlings as well as the Lost Boys opt to grow up, while he stays behind. He never really knew a mother, and so he seeks Wendy out in his own way to play his mother and companion. That's the true beauty of this story-- that it can be both a way to live vicariously as a child forever, but you understand the importance of growing up--- almost like the life cycle makes more sense this way. But at the end, it doesn't take itself too seriously.  Unlike all those stuffy stories from which teachers squeeze meaning from each and every line (sometimes each syllable if you happen to get a particularly tiresome one), this story can be dealt with quickly, painlessly. But at the end, still leaves you thinking, and without a sour taste in the back of your mouth.

So I just wanted to give kudos to this movie, which I deem to be well worth watching. It's fun, fantastical, and really brings the story to life.