moriath

If anyone's curious about what happened at ALA last week regarding BBYA, I did a follow up post on my book blog. (Short version: proposal to sunset BBYA was changed to a discussion item, lots of discussion happened with no decision made as to BBYA's final fate - that's for another board meeting another time)

I know there are some people on my flist who are working in libraries/studying to be librarians, so I thought this might be of interest to some of you.

This weekend at the ALA conference, the YALSA board is going to discuss the possibility of eliminating the Best Books for Young Adults list. I wrote up a long and somewhat emotional response my book blog over here that explains a bit about what's going on (and provides links to people who are actually involved with ALA/BBYA/YALSA/other-abbreviations who can give more logical insight) and how BBYA has affected me as one small bit of argument for why the list should continue to exist in something akin to its current format.

GM cutting jobs, getting rid of Pontiac

When I first read the headline I almost had a heart attack, thinking they were getting rid of a whole plant in Pontiac, Michigan. But rather they're getting rid of the Pontiac brand of cars. Sad face. I've owned two cars in my life, and both were Pontiac Sunfires. The first one was a tough little car that lasted forever and hardly gave me any trouble until it unceremoniously DIED on the side of I-75 at three in the morning (with a baby Gopher as my co-pilot). I also felt like a badass for being one of the few people I knew (and the only woman at the time) who could drive a stick shift.

The second one was a piece of shit, but I still have an affinity for the Sunfires. If I ever had to buy another car, I'd definitely start by looking at Sunfires.

Hopefully, however, that won't come to pass. I <3 NY.

Con or Bust is a fundraising auction on LJ to fund trips to Wiscon. There are all sorts of crazy cool things being auctioned, from beta reading to professional research to books to cake (mmm...cake...). All the money goes to an excellent cause, and you get some darn nifty stuff out of the equation as well!!!

A RaceFail post at Shakesville

I have decided today is Link!Day. I'm feeling like crap, it's snowing outside when it's supposed to be spring (okay, not a lot, but after a week of wearing my spring jacket I wasn't happy to have to bust out the winter coat again), and I'm anxiously awaiting the e-mail that says my wedding pictures are up online. So I'm finding lots of random stuff in between checking my e-mail and working. And so...you get links.

Somehow I managed to marry my way into a family of athletes. Oy vey.

But it leads to cool things, like seeing my sister-in-law in her own vlog on the golf channel website. And I'm 99% sure that a lot of it was filmed by my husband...the interviews with my father-in-law definitely were.

Carling is hoping for me to make it big with my writing so she can cash in off of my fame. I'm hoping for her to make it big with golf so Billy and I can cash in on her ;-)

So they've (there's always a "they") confirmed that a portrait exists of Shakespeare that was painted while he was alive.

In the comments, Tom in Hawaii leaves this gem:
This article completely misses the point. The author of the Shakespears plays WAS NOT William Shakespeare, theatre owner, it was Edward De Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. Perhaps Mr. Mackey could educate himself on this point. Perhaps even look it up on wikipedia. For the “paper of record” to omit this in an aticle of this type is absurd.

Naturally, this is full of fail for multiple reasons. RM, NYT Ed picks up on one of them and responds to Tom:
[Tom, If you think it has been established that William Shakespeare was not the author of these plays, based on what Wikipedia says, we can't help you. -- RM, NYT Ed.]

RM (who, after I scroll back up to the top of the article, I am going to assume is Robert Mackey, the author of the article) is full of snarky win.

ABORTION DONUTS

I don't even like Krispy Kreme, but I may have to see if they're out here in NY (land of Dunkin' Donuts. I really think we have more DD than Starbucks out here)

Face shaving is such a masculine act that it can be psychologically confusing to do as a woman.

So.......am I psychologically confused because when I was little I used to pretend to shave my face while my dad shaved his? (He'd put the cap on a disposable razor and I'd put waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much shaving cream on my face, and then I would "shave" just like Dad!)

I mean, I'm not advocating that women should shave their faces (simply because I bet that would lead to a lot more upkeep than using any of the other methods mentioned in the article. Plus that nagging feminist belief I have that we really shouldn't advocate that people change their appearance for any reason other than personal satisfaction), but damn that's a dumb-ass reason.

Bush lectures Arab world on political reform, women's rights

Because George W. Bush is really the world's foremost expert on political reform and women's rights.

One of my favorite authors (I know,I have several) wants my mom's salsa recipe.

For some reason this is amazingly awesome to me.

I am such a geek.

I think my work on the diseases for GTP impressed the guys; they keep handing me new and increasingly complex jobs to do. Right now I'm doing a fucking statistical analysis of a bunch of abilities. Or at least a pseudo-statistical analysis. Can someone who failed algebra twice do a real analysis?

Going home for a few days tomorrow. Making the aforementioned salsa with my mother, visiting the doctor for gynocological stuff (renewing birth control FTW) and having my follow up appointment with the eye doctor (god I hope that my eyes aren't mushy anymore. I really want my contacts back!). Also want to go to the farmer's market back in Holland. I don't know why I never go to the one here in Ypsi...I think I need the safety blanket of my mom there to tell me what's good and what isn't, lol.

Also? Ian McKellan is crazy!awesome

Pirates of the Caribbean Online

I am soooooooooooooo joining. Anyone with me?

Finished watching At World's End last night. Sobbed, of course. God I'm a wuss. What the hell? Does anyone else cry at this movie? I'm clearly lame.

It's really funny, I've been taking notes on all of the movies for my paper. The first movie has three pages in my notebook, the second two, and this final one just one and a half. The fewer notes on the second one make sense; I'm focusing on Jack and Elizabeth and at least a third of that movie focuses on just Will. However I started out taking very diligent notes for three and by the time they got to Davy Jones' locker I pretty much stopped until the Pearl was about to fight the Dutchman. Then I stopped again because I was CRYING MY EYES OUT.

So I have my movie notes together. I have my research notes together. Now I just need to put all of this into a coherent paper!