Amy's Free Library of Rock!

It's that time of year again: time to realize that you probably should have been giving thanks all year long, but since you forgot to, you might as well hurry up and do it all now.

So let me say Thank you to all my readers, for taking time out of your busy Internet browsing addictions to slog through all my ramblings here. I offer particular thanks to: elouise82, vovat, iamdamanda, Mark Flowers, riki_kiki_taco, ozma914, Charlotte from her Library, easyqueenie, punterschlagen, katecoombs, DawnStarlight, magnolia___, grrlpup, and rockonliz127, who have all left comments in the past month, which is awesome a) because that means I know you READ this stuff!, and b) I love continuing the discussion-- so THANKS for discussing! It means a lot to me to have this connection, that other people are reading this stuff that comes out of my head and thinking about it long enough to even RESPOND. THANK YOU.

So let me give thanks to other stuff now. Thank you to Shop and Save and BIC for supplying me with my wonderful ergonomic journaling pens which I have stocked up on just because I am afraid they might disappear and I will be stuck using pens MUCH INFERIOR FOR JOURNALING, and thank you also to my journaling pens, who are sentient and reading this, for being so awesome to begin with.

Thanks to my lovely dream last night, which was about me going to Fairyland and becoming a proper denizen thereof and being assigned to a Legacy which turned out to be about the Legacy of my grandfather who died a year ago today, so apparently I'm under a geas from Fairyland to carry on the Blankenship Legacy of being a Good Person who Speaks for the Trees, so thanks also to the fates of heredity for allowing me to be born into a family of Good People Who Speak for the Trees in the first place. And thanks for Trees for being Awesome and making oxygen and creating shade and slowing erosion and smelling nice and looking really pretty against a blue sky and eerie against a gray one, and for climbing and for wood and fruit and paper, and also just being Awesome.

Thanks to my parents and inlaws, who, speaking of grandparents, have been so Awesome at providing lots of childcare. And in my parents' case, also have done much to help keep my house from turning into a complete and utter disaster area. Now it stays pretty safely in the realm of minor disaster area instead.

Thank you Velma Jeffries, RIP: I have no idea who you were, but you left a bunch of money to the Children of this town, which they used to build a playground, which sometimes I think is my children's own personal playground, and WHAT kind of kids get a personal playground that is QUITE THAT AWESOME, all to themselves, although when other kids show up, that is also fun. Thank you other kids for showing up to play with my kids. And thank you Ms. Jones for being my son's teacher and helping him to have made GREAT STRIDES SOCIALLY in the past few months. It always makes me slightly giddy to see him so enthusiastically making friends with other kids at the playground.

And speaking of dead people who've given things to the community, thank you, Frank Sarris, for that lovely big new library, even though you probably should have sprung for us to get an ejection button for the teen room, where whenever someone's being too obnoxious you just push the button and the trap door opens and they slide right down out the side of the building into the dumpster, but perhaps we would have just spent that money on getting the back lot paved anyway, so we'll forgive you for that; and anyway thank you for having made your fortune on chocolate and ice cream in the first place, because I LIKE being able to say my benefactors made their fortune on chocolate and ice cream (and possibly pipeweed, though only punterschlagen would know about that), and I like that our library can claim, beyond all the other awesome things all libraries claim, SELLING HIGH-QUALITY CHOCOLATE BARS at the desk, because DOESN'T EVERY AWESOME PLACE NEED TO DO SO?

Thank you, songwriters who aren't satisfied with Good Enough, who take the time and thought and artistry to take your music and lyrics just that LITTLE BIT FARTHER into Completely Awesome, because when such a song comes on the radio amid the jumble of Good Enough, Rather Dull, and Outright Annoying songs, it JUMPS OUT and makes one want to shout with joy, or whatever that Rock and Roll feeling is, which is possibly more anti-authoritarian than joy is, but positive shouting has taken place whatever you call it. Thank you particularly to the Beatles (who are HALF-dead), for doing this ALL THE FREAKIN' TIME, AND INSPIRING OTHERS TO DO IT; I had Abbey Road on the other day and was SO STRUCK with this feeling that I HAD to go grab my paper journal and awesome ergonomic journaling pen and write about it (possibly also the pen may have been whispering seductively "WRITE WITH ME!" at the same time, so I was being pushed into it from two directions), although I had to keep stopping writing so as to zone out into the Awesomeness completely for awhile; and let me send out a special thank you to Mr. Richard "Ringo Starr" Starkey, because you totally don't get enough credit as a musician, because every drum lick of that album is so EMBEDDED IN MY MUSCLE MEMORY that I can't even listen without playing air drums the whole time, and I decided that Playing Drums In a Beatles Tribute Band need NOT necessarily be one of my UNATTAINABLE Life Goals, because who SAYS all Beatles Tribute Bands have to be impersonators, and I'm totally going to start an All-Girl Beatles Tribute Band, Lovely Rita and the Meter Maids, once I, you know, actually learn to play the drums.

Thank you to whoever invented the word "awesome," because I don't know how I could possibly express my love and admiration for most of the world without it. Am I overusing it? NO! Because if you think that, then you DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT AWESOME IS!

I'm sure there are lots of other people I can thank, but I'd be going on forever, and I still need to make deviled eggs for tonight. Thank you to my aunt for assigning me deviled eggs, which I totally can make, and not turkey, although that would be dumb anyway because I don't have enough ovens to make turkey for 45 people, nor enough room in my house anyhow, so also thank you to my aunt for inviting everyone to her much larger house on days like this.

It's an odd day because the public school is closed because downtown has been taken over by Oktoberfest.

People still insist on thinking it's weird that we have Oktoberfest in September. FOR GOSH SAKES ALREADY THAT'S NOT WEIRD, THAT'S JUST WHEN OKTOBERFEST IS. See, Wikipedia explains it, which makes everything right. What IS sort of weird is that this town has such a huge Oktoberfest in the first place. It's not like we have an overwhelming German/Bavarian population in the town, no more than usual for Western Pennsylvania (which, I'll grant you, is still fairly large), not like the Italian and Greek populations we boast. But we have THE hugest Oktoberfest in at least this half of the state, kind of like how we also have THE hugest July 4th parade in this half of the state, and I'm not ENTIRELY sure why my community has taken to these two events as ...HUGELY as it has.

But it has, which means starting from the library and going up three blocks or so there is a FULL-BLOWN CARNIVAL BEING CONSTRUCTED, and all the kids have off school...

...which means they ARE hanging out at the library... but they're also not, because there's a HUGE CARNIVAL out there to go hang around instead, even though it's not technically open until later this afternoon.

So... odd day. I'm not even sure where I was going with those paragraphs. I actually thought I had more to write about this when I started this entry. Actually, I thought I had more to write about, period. Didn't I post three times last week? Why don't I suddenly have loads of brilliant things to post THIS week?

Has anything of interest happened to me lately? ...No, probably not. Have I read, watched, or listened to something of which I have an opinion I can force upon you all? ...probably, when you include "listened to," because I can't listen to the radio without having an opinion on it, but I don't have much to TYPE about it, either. Oh, except that I've recently decided I hate radio commercials even more than I used to.

I KNOW. How is that POSSIBLE, you are saying, at least if you are among the people who has ever ridden in a car with me while I have access to the stereo controls? The difference is, in the past I didn't want to MISS ANY OF THE MUSIC that was happening on the other stations. Now, THE COMMERCIALS ARE ACTUALLY PAINFUL IN AND OF THEMSELVES. The jingles are annoying, the voices grating, the humor appealing to the lowest common denominator, and the serious ones-- well, also appealing to the lowest common denominator. AND THEY REPEAT OVER AND OVER AGAIN.

Of course the easy solution to this is Don't Listen to the Radio, but the radio's all I've got in the kitchen usually, and definitely it's all I've got on my clock radio. Well, the other option there is a buzzer alarm. I'll stick with the occasionally infuriating radio.

When I wake up in the morning and do my morning journaling, most of it usually ends up being what I was just dreaming (selection from last night: I'm sitting looking at these historical books with my dad and some other girl and this lady who looks like the lady with the annoying voice on Will and Grace, but with less of an annoying voice, and we're discussing the sorry state of society today or something of that nature when the other girl says, rhetorically, "Well, you know what they say...." And the other lady replies, " 'Living is fatal'?" And the first girl does a double-take and says, "Um, I guess." And I thought the whole thing was very funny, but then again I was sleeping at the time), anyway, so most of it ends up being what I was dreaming, but entirely too much of it also ends up being a running commentary of whatever is happening on the radio.

...okay, again the solution here appears to be Don't Listen to the Radio, at least when you're trying to write; but even when I'm NOT listening to the radio, my morning journaling will go into great detail about whatever song is in my head at the time, and then about whatever song that reminds me of, and then I may feel compelled to turn the radio on just to get a song OUT of my head.

At the moment I don't have any songs in my head, oddly enough. I am hearing nothing but the swelling rumble of a large industrial HVAC system and the clicking of my own computer keys. I don't even hear any teenagers. They've appeared to have gone out to stalk the Oktoberfest setup again.

But as I wasn't actually saying about the morning writing, because I hadn't gotten this far when I felt compelled to inform you that I didn't have any songs in my head, my original Grand Goals for Morning Writing-- you know, how I was going to write productively and write to prompts and so on and so forth? Have definitely taken a hit lately. Part of this is because the days are getting shorter, which means it's staying darker longer, which makes me less inclined to wake up at a decent hour. That or I'm exceedingly lazy lately, I'm not sure which. But ANOTHER part of this is because, three days a week, I've got to get Sam off to school. I look like much less of the lazybum in comparison to Sam. I've got to get moving early, which means skipping out on a lot of my former Morning Writing time, just so I can more conveniently get HIM moving, which is EXCEEDINGLY DIFFICULT, and he tends to be eating his breakfast on the way most days. He is DEFINITELY NOT a morning person. I've always thought of myself as a morning person, but I'm not really, I'm just DEFINITELY NOT a night person. I'm a ten o'clock in the morning person. Actually, that's probably my only alert and productive hour of the day, except that most days I'm using that hour to toddler-wrangle.

...so as I was saying. You know how I was moaning recently about how I don't read as much as I used to? And I was thinking about how somehow this has made me even pickier about what I WANT to read, and how therefore there are lots of titles I may have gladly picked up in the past that I WON'T now because I JUST DON'T CARE enough to make the time to read them. Anyway, I started to wonder if maybe (now that my ability to CONCENTRATE has returned. Not that you can tell from this post) I'm actually SHIFTING MODES. That maybe I've been on Input Mode for the past few years, wanting just to read and read and read, but NOW maybe I'm shifting to OUTPUT MODE! MAYBE I HAVE HUGE PILES OF STUFF I'M GOING TO WRITE NOW!

...except, um, I see very little evidence of that happening. Possibly I've stalled out between modes.

CAN there be a stalled-out mode? What exactly is the POINT of a person who is neither inputting or outputting?

Honestly, I'm not sure WHAT'S happening in my life. I feel like I am mediocre-ly involved in various realities, fully and completely present and active NOWHERE. And I'm including my imagination in this. Even my imagination is mediocre lately. I'M NOT EVEN DAYDREAMING WELL LATELY!

I HAVE been puttering ahead on One Book. I include it in the list of things I am accomplishing only mediocre-ly, but I nonetheless am progressing slowly but... slowly at it. It's pretty much the only thing I can point to tangible evidence of me MAKING progress at, so at least there's that. Mediocre progress though it may be.

So anyway, probably I should stop typing this now and attempt to be marginally productive in some less mediocre way.

And this post is so mediocre I can't even find a userpic that feels appropriate for it. There's always the default of course. Which is an utterly mediocre choice. Although it's so dang FRIENDLY, it still doesn't seem right....

*I'm not just saying this in some effort to appear squeaky-clean for the Internet's benefit. I don't. It's disgusting. I don't like wine either. I prefer a sweet mixed drink that tempers the alcohol with nicer-tasting ingredients such as ice cream.

I realized something was up when I went scrolling down the first page of my LiveJournal looking for a post (any post) that had been tagged "books," AND THERE WEREN'T ANY. Not on the first page. That's over ten entries that have gone by, with me posting an average of once a week, without a single entry in which I so much as MENTION a book. Well, a book AS a book, and not movies or TV shows based on books.

Strange, says I. When for awhile there that was pretty much ALL I posted about.

Granted, I've never been a true Book Blogger. I don't post regular reviews, I don't gobble up ARCs, I don't participate in Nonfiction Monday or Poetry Friday or anything of the sort. But ramble on about books? THAT I have done many a time. As clicking on the tag that says "books" will show you. Lists of Favorites. Tributes to particular authors. The Yearly Roundup of Best Books Read That Year. Just random raves about books I've read recently stuck into posts about other things, even.

But where have these posts been lately?

I still can't tell. I usually started a book-related post because I was inspired by something I read on the many book-related blogs I follow. Is it that they've all been posting about things I haven't read yet recently? Or things I've already posted about? Or things that have been posted about by so many people already that I don't feel I have anything more to add to the discussion? It could be any of these reasons, but none of them is jumping out at me as being THE reason.

Or is it that I haven't been reading all too many really memorable books lately?

I think this is the answer. Last year my end-of-the-year Best Books List was so extensive I had to make several separate lists, and STILL left plenty of excellent books off. Now we're over halfway through the year, and I think I've got 5 books, total, that feel memorable enough to make a Best of list. Is this me or the books? Am I just picking the wrong books, or am I just not getting sucked in as well as I used to? Or am I not reading ENOUGH? That's a side-effect of me writing more, I think, which ought to be a good thing. Granted, most of that writing has been letter writing, journaling, and writing to ridiculous prompts. But still. Maybe I'm actually more BALANCED now.

So let's see. What books DO I feel like mentioning to make it up to you? Right now I am reading, and totally enjoying more than I even thought I would, Five Flavors of Dumb by Antony John. Because I am a sucker for rock history, and if you work rock history appreciation into a book, I will love that book ALL THAT MUCH MORE. This is why Almost Famous is one of my favorite movies, too (and we'll throw in That Thing You Do and This Is Spinal Tap and the Beatles movies for the same basic reason). BECAUSE I GEEK OUT ON THAT STUFF. The other day I found this book in our J nonfiction collection (which I might have mentioned hasn't been weeded in decades because Miss Annie is convinced of the historical significance of Old Nonfiction Books) called something like What Rock Is All About, copyright 1979. It was pretty awesomely hilarious. I was impressed that the author managed to highlight pretty much only acts that DID become classics (all the artists pictured in the photo sections-- this is one of those books from back when all the photographs were relegated to separate several-page Photo Sections in nonfiction-- remain The Biggies of Rock History today-- although some of the pictures were awfully strange), but you have to wonder how many predictions/generalizations/etc were just dead wrong. Actually, I WILL say that I found several blatant errors in the Beatles chapter, such as getting the year John and Paul met wrong, and saying "Tomorrow Never Knows" was sung by George, so I wouldn't likely trust the rest of the book's fact-checking, either. BUT this has nothing to do with Five Flavors of Dumb, which is a really fun book that explores What Rock is REALLY All About from the point of view of a deaf girl, and appears to be fact-checked quite sufficiently, so you'll probably enjoy reading this one, at least if you are a rock geek like me.

Another recent favorite is Beauty Queens by Libba Bray. Oh, to be inside Libba Bray's brain for a day. Or an hour. She of the absurdly brilliant Going Bovine continues her off-the-wall bombardment of literature with a book that satirizes... EVERYTHING. Beauty pageants, television, marketing, corporations, society in general. There is desert island survival, spies and assassins, evil dictators, pirates, and Things Exploding. It is Just Whacked. And yet the characters are all surprisingly well-developed. I would say that the only downside (if you LIKE completely off-the-wall absurdity) is that the messages often feel a bit didactic, but since EVERYTHING in the book is over-the-top, I'm not sure this isn't entirely intentional....

Before that the only book that's really sticking out for me is The Lost Conspiracy by Frances Hardinge, which I read back in... April, I think. It's still the best book I've read this year, and it's a couple years old already! It's a really unique and captivating fantasy of which I say: "Whatever is making you think you won't like this, You're Wrong. Read it anyway." It's just that kind of book. Not a very good description, I know, but I don't feel like writing a better one. Just trust me.

As for what my KIDS have been enjoying lately, besides Thomas and Friends books (and seriously, what have I got to say about THAT?), we've had Mo Willem's Pigeon books in heavy rotation lately. I think Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late! is currently my favorite. But everyone ought to know about those books already. If you don't, SERIOUSLY, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? GO FIX THAT!

And for what I've been reading the SRC kids? Eh, nothing they've been particularly into. SRC storytimes have rather been washes this year. Although a really old version of "Baba Yaga" went over surprisingly well the other week. I wasn't even expecting that to work so well. But next week I'm foisting Adam Gidwitz's Tale Dark and Grimm on the older kids, so maybe there will be Much Excitement Yet.

And that's it. That's me giving you the update of my book-related life. I still don't know why it isn't more exciting, but at least the Books tag hasn't been lost back in time anymore.

DUDES! They remade "Ladybugs' Picnic" in Claymation! Finally my kids will know what I'm talking about when I sing that song! I love you, Sesame Street.

I was going through a box of files and found a tablet-- well, actually a large chunk of former Far Side Daily Calendar-- in which I'd written a long stream-of-consciousness list of Christmas Memories. I must have written it a few years ago-- post-wedding, but not recently enough that I have any memories about my kids in it. Reading it I'm left with a sense of "YES. This is what Christmas is." I don't know how much of it is just that these ARE my own memories, and each little bit of moment brings all sorts of thoughts and emotions to my mind; or if, somehow distilled here in one person's memories, I HAVE opened a door onto a glimpse of the Platonic Form of Christmas, like the scene in The Giver where the Giver gives Jonah Christmas which is my favorite book scene EVER, at least my favorite book scene involving Christmas that is not out of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever which is the best Christmas BOOK ever take that A Christmas Carol but anyway...

As anyone who's been here for at least a year already knows, I LOVE Christmas. I love the December Holidays in general, this entire month of lighting the darkness literally and figuratively. And so I'm sad when people DON'T GET Christmas, whether this is because they don't celebrate it and resent when people do, they DO celebrate it but resent what they "have" to do to do so, or they DO celebrate it but they insist on everyone else celebrating it just the way they do.

So I thought I'd transcribe this list for you, just to put out there what I mean when I think about Christmas...

Christmas Thoughts
( Read more... )

Hey, remember memes? At least of the survey variety? I haven't seen one in a very long time. Except that vovat did the old "Name five songs starting with a letter I give you" one the other day, and guess what? Now he's charged me with giving you five songs I love that start with S.

Do you know how many songs I love start with S? I didn't either, until I opened up Media Player and saw how many songs I had rated highly starting with S just on my computer! So, picking just five...

"Scenes from an Italian Restaurant," Billy Joel. Completely showing off the brilliance that is Billy Joel from both a musical and a lyrical standpoint, it paints pictures and tells stories. You can SMELL the garlic toast and wine and candles and basil-laden dishes. It's a three-part epic of Life! I'm a sucker enough for piano as it is, but this one even has a CLARINET SOLO! Absolutely one of the greatest songs ever recorded that more people ought to know.

"See Emily Play," Pink Floyd. The song that made me realize that Pink Floyd had indeed gone from A Band I Can't Stand At All to My Second Favorite Band Ever. I mean, sure it sounds nothing like their later more famous stuff, but KNOWING that they also made kooky sweet little psychedelic numbers like this was like giving myself permission to claim them as favorites. Because I am all about kooky sweet little psychedelic numbers.

"Smoke on the Water," Deep Purple. There's this joke in my family that this is "the wedding song," because it came out just as my parents and all their friends were getting married, so it seemed to be played at everyone's reception, at which point everyone completely Rocked Out. So, when all my parents' friends' KIDS were getting married, each of US made sure the deejays played it, too. I know my deejay was like, "...are you SURE?" and then was totally shocked when the crowd went wild.

"Something," the Beatles. This is the Greatest Love Song Ever Recorded, which is not a matter of opinion. What makes that even more amazing is that this is not even my favorite song on its album (everyone ought to know what IS), and BOTH those songs are not even written by the primary songwriters of the group, so does THAT say anything about how Completely Awesome a band (and, to a lesser extent, this album) they were? I mean no one else comes close to that kind of quality.

"Southern Cross," Crosby Stills and Nash. I often think that I must have been some kind of sailor in a past life, because something about boating, riding the waves, whatever, just GETS to me. I like songs that evoke that feeling, and CSN-and-sometimes-Y had quite a few of them. This is one of them, and one of the best.

I'm in the middle of writing you a book review post (and when I say "writing you a book review post," I mean writing YOU. It's very specific that way), which I will finish sometime this week, maybe. Summer Reading Club is going strong, One Book started back up, and yes I'm still the mom of two toddlers, so, yep, not a very regular poster anymore. Don't be offended! It's just a good answer to whether or not I should try to be a Proper Blogger right now or not. Obviously not.

I like to pretend to myself, sometimes, that I'm a Foodie. Except that I'm not. I just like eating. I'm far too cheap to be a true Foodie. I am too stuck on Pantry-Principle grocery shopping to think beyond the serviceable ingredients I have. I don't have a problem using plain olive oil if the recipe calls for extra virgin; I use my plain yellow onions because I haven't got red ones or Vidalias on hand; potatoes is potatoes and tomatoes is tomatoes.

It's sad, really. I enjoy trying new foods, I have opinions about foods, and I really really love eating food, but I haven't got that REFINED TASTE to put me up in the ranks of Foodie-ness.

I was thinking that maybe this is like being a book-lover who only reads bestsellers, or a music lover who only listens to pop. But maybe not. Because, like I said, I do enjoy tasting new things. So maybe I'm like the music lover who listens to ANYTHING, loves it, thinks it's exciting, but just doesn't have the terminology to TALK about it, to discuss the effect of the instrumentation and the countermelody on the overall mood of the piece. I just know I like it.

As my username suggests, I am definitely a Foodie when it comes to books or music, though perhaps there are even Foodier Foodies above me who insist they only have taste for Fine Literature or Classical Music. But I most certainly will tell you the difference between paranormal and horror, between folk rock and country-western, between third-person omniscient and third-person limited and a capella and acoustic. I will immerse myself in those things and go on and on in detail about what works and WHY it works and why the faults it has don't detract from the positives (and when and why they DO), and I will further defend the best of the lowbrow and poke holes in the worst of the highbrow.

But I just can't bring myself to get that way about food. I'm pretty sure this is because I am cheap. But then again, it could mean that I have no taste. OR, maybe that I JUST LOVE FOOD TOO MUCH to be picky! Maybe I just don't CARE when something could be better, or if one thing is subtly different from another, because it's ALL TOO AWESOME!

So it's altogether possible that people that geek out less about books and music than me ACTUALLY LOVE THESE THINGS MORE THAN ME. That I am just a jargon-saddled SNOB in comparison!

Yes, this is altogether possible. But not likely.

My job and the changes therein, of course, as those of you who can read my friends-locked entries are aware. But still haven't gotten things completely nailed down yet and in print, so I'm still not posting it publicly. Because yes, I still have no idea what it is.

A musing about where the "rockin" part of my username went, because only the "librarian" part has been getting any posted attention lately ("lately" meaning "like for the past two years"). It really hasn't abandoned my personality, I just seem to only have anything to say about it while listening to the radio, in the kitchen, while doing Important Kitchen-Related Things Rather Than Being Computer-handy. And even then, all I really have to say are random comments to the effect of "Why do people honestly find Taylor Swift's songs appealing?" or the like. Whereas, if I'm on the computer, I've probably just been reading something librarian and/or bookishly related, or am even, in fact, At Work IN a library, so that's what comes out. Sorry, all you poor sods who don't care about such things.

Buying vs. Borrowing books, and how ebooks fit into all that, and all the Deep Social and Class Issues involved, although whatever I write is not likely to be deep OR heavily researched, just off the top of my head.

How I got tagged in Facebook to name my Top 10 favorite authors. I'm still trying to figure that one out. At least it's easier than trying to name my top 10 favorite books. Speaking of which...

...possibly tomorrow Fuse #8, ie my favorite librarian blog I stalk, is beginning the countdown of reader-voted Top 100 Children's Novels, and last year's Top 100 Picture Books countdown was awesome beyond belief, and I'm not nearly as excited by picture books as I am by middle grade fiction, so I am REALLY EXCITED. It's like how you normal people get really excited when your favorite TV show's new season is starting. So I thought I might share here what I emailed in as my votes, except that picking just ten turned out to be really painful (and that was JUST Middlepgrade-to-young-YA fiction, mind you, no older YA, no adult... no picture books or easy readers for that matter), so then I thought I ought to try making a list of ALL my favorite books however many that may be, but I honestly have no idea HOW many that would be, and if you would in fact no longer take me seriously when I call something One of My Favorite Books if you actually saw such a list. Also, another blogger (which I don't have a link to offhand) decided to do a countdown for Teen books then, so I voted in that one, sneaking in a few of the older-leaning titles that got cut from the first list. That's twenty books and I'm STILL NOT DONE NAMING FAVORITE BOOKS.

I was going to tell you about how Sam managed to lose the lightswitch to a lamp today, and exactly the interesting communication challenge it is to convince a 2 3/4 year old that he IS the only person who has any idea where it's gone and it really MUST be found before his sister tries to eat it (also so we can turn off the lamp), and how he nonetheless merely looks everywhere you just looked, and creatively decides to look with his toy binoculars, and repeat after you... but I did finally find it after moving some furniture around, and anyway enough time has passed that I now forget what was so interesting about this event to begin with.

I may have in fact had more ideas to write about, but I forget them now.

Do any of these ideas sound interesting to you? Hello? Audience out there?

Also, there's a cake in the break room. I want some cake.

Well, I guess I can safely say now that my babies are good night sleepers (don't ask about naps). Sam figured it out fairly early and so has Maddie. But last night I put her down at 8 and I woke up at 4 with her still not up. I can also safely say that I have absolutely no milk undersupply issues. So when Maddie kind of peeped awake upon hearing me apparently, she got fed and promptly dozed off again, but I still had all this extra, so that's why I'm here early in the morning pumping.

This way I can do this Fandom survey vovat gave me relatively on time!

It's one of those where the person you get it from assigns you topics, in this case Three Fandoms you ...are a fan in. You may not be a fan OF the fandom, and apparently, judging by question 4, you don't even have to "participate in the fandom," but anyhoo. Then, for each of those topics, you answer these questions:

1. What got you into this fandom in the first place?
2. Do you think that you'll stay in this fandom or eventually move on?
3. Favorite episodes/books/movies/etc.?
4. Do you participate in this fandom (fan fiction, graphics, discussions)?
5. Do you think that more people should get into this fandom?

Here's my topics:
The Beatles
1. Much as my dad tried for fifteen years to make himself the answer to this question, I didn't really get his fascination with this dorky old band until the night the immortal Sir Paul (not yet a Sir at the time) broadcast a concert live on TV and I watched it because I was bored and my parents wanted to tape it (so I ended up watching it twice), and BAM! I was so beyond impressed with the guy, I suddenly couldn't get enough of that stuff.
2. That depends on your definition of "move on." Will I ever stop loving the Beatles? Highly unlikely. No matter how often I listen I still feel at least comfortably happy (and occasionally Moved by the Awesomeness) whenever I hear them. But they were totally my gateway drug, first into just classic rock and then into rock as a whole (no, radio music does not count as "rock." Radio music is "pop" with occasional rock songs thrown in). I have loads of bands I love now.
3. Abbey Road and Revolver, my favorite albums. My favorite songs PLURAL are too many to count, but you know the main one already. My favorite movie is Help because I'm a dork. And my favorite Beatle? I refuse to answer that question on the basis that I can't decide anymore, though I sometimes default to Paul since I owe it all to him.
4. Does this fandom still exist? I mean, decades ago there were insane people about. I often wonder how much I would have hated the Beatles if I'd actually been a child of the 60s, just on the principle of not being like the insane people. But seriously, I can always discuss them, and they are pretty much the only fandom I have ever created fanart for in adulthood (don't ask me about my Ducktales fanfiction), being more than a few inspired drawings (from a glorious sunburst painting the day George Harrison died to, well, this icon, which was pretty much just the obvious thing to do with that picture) and, in the realm of fanfiction, giving George an amazing fictional nephew and all. ;)
5. I'm pretty sure everyone who will get into them WILL, if you know what I mean. They really don't need advertising.

2. Harry Potter
1. I CREATED this fandom. Okay, not really, but I was definitely in the first wave of fans here in the States. It just so happens that upper-middle-grade fantasies with some humor are my favorite books ever to read, so I grabbed Sorcerers Stone and enjoyed it, though I wasn't blown away (still isn't my favorite-- still think she should have started with Chapter 2). Wasn't until I read Chamber of Secrets that I became ADDICTED, and started making everyone I know read, too. And back then? None of them had heard of it until I told them. Heh.
2. A question directed at those poor kids who never read anything else I suppose. I love the books still. But I also have a lot of other favorite books. But I always DID, so it's not like I abandoned Harry or anything.
3. Order of the Phoenix (favorite book AND movie-so-far). I know it's not EVERYBODY'S favorite because Harry's so cranky (come on, he's 15 AND he's just had an extremely traumatic experience! I'd like to see YOU not be cranky after being forced into an evil occult ritual to bring your parents' murderer back to life and not get any counseling afterward!) and the book is so dang LONG, but DUMBLEDORE'S ARMY!!!! NEVILLE BEING AWESOME!!!! LUNA LOVEGOOD IE ME IF I WAS AT HOGWARTS!!!! DOLORES UMBRIDGE AND HER PERFECT HORRIBLENESS (AND TECHNICOLOR KITTY PLATES!)!!!! The coolest stuff happened in book 5, that's all I'm saying.
4. Well, not in the broader world, because at least on the Internet it was impossible to avoid idiots and "OMG Harry is so cute and he and Hermione are made for each other JK Rowling is stupid not to think so!" girls. Luckily I had made enough of my real-life friends addicted that I nevertheless always had somebody to rant and rave with after every book or movie release. Now if I can just get you all to pick up The Hunger Games....
5. No. I had fun making people read it when nobody else knew about it, but then it got Too Huge. And then you got people reading it who don't even like fantasy just because everyone else was reading it, and then they're like "Harry Potter sucks! I don't get why anyone likes it!" and I keep thinking WELL you don't like fantasy in the first place so who are you to judge? It was nicer when you could admit to being a fan because you were a FAN and not because you were a trend-follower.

3. The Muppets
1. Supposedly I was a fan when I was Sam's age, but by the time I was 3--or as far back as I actually REMEMBER-- I'd become terrified of them because they were far too zany and, yes, violent for a child who was afraid of everything. But in 11th grade I, in a flash of a-vision-of-Cookie-Monster-popping-across-my-brain-while-I-was-trying-to-think-of-a-topic, decided to write my research paper on Sesame Street. In the course of my research I read a bit about Jim Henson and thought he sounded really cool. Then on my own I read a bit more and decided he was The Most Awesome Person In the History of Show Business and Possibly Worthy of Worship. Plus, I discovered in my less-sensitive advanced age, the Muppets were hilarious.
2. I don't believe my son will LET me move on now even if I wanted to. the next generation has succumbed.
3. I believe I love the original Muppet Movie most of all. I can't think of any particular TV episodes off the top of my head. And my favorite Muppet, boring a choice as this may be, is Kermit. Because he's... Kermitty. He's just the best.
4. Well, I do belong to jimhensonfans on here, but that's as far as it goes. Oh, and in Teaching Art in the Elementary School in college this one girl and I made paper sculptures of Gonzo and Camilla. Jason just suggested that it may be time to throw Gonzo out, because he's just been collecting dust and taking up space on a shelf in the basement. This is sad but inevitable.
5. Yes. Yes yes yes. If more people joined the cult of Muppetdom, if more people were devoted to Singing and Dancing and Making People Happy, then there would be Peace on Earth.YES.

So, if you want to do this, tell me and I'll assign you your three. If you want ME to answer questions about some OThER topic, you can ask me that too. If you want to tell me something unrelated, go for it.

Hey, I am getting back to vovat on this one LESS than a week after he gave me these five things to write about!

Association Meme: Comment to this post and I will give you 5 subjects/things I associate you with. Then post this in your LJ and elaborate on the subjects given.
( on books and music mostly. I mean, whodathunk? )
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Okay, then the really great part. So you know all those have-you-read booklists? You know how I always wanted to do one about the kind of books I actually read most often? Yay, apparently other YA geeks had the same thought. A gal from my library school class whose blog I stalk because it and she are cool (and she's far more active in Being a Real YA Librarian than me-- she's even on this year's--next year's?--the-one-for-this-year's-books-that-will-be-awarded-next-year's?-- Printz committee) just passed on THIS LIST (the first paragraph is hers, the rest of the instructions, apparently what was on Facebook):

"A group of YA librarians on Facebook put together a list of 100 "top" teen novels. "Top" goes in quotes because they freely admit this is something wholly unscientific. It's just meant to see what you've read and have a little fun.

The following list of books teens love, books teens should read, and books adults who serve teens should know about was compiled IN ABSOLUTELY NO SCIENTIFIC MANNER and should be taken with a very large grain of salt.

Instructions:
Put an "X" next to the books you've read
Put a "+" next to the books you LOVE
Put a "#" next to the books you plan on reading
Tally your "X"s at the bottom
Share with your friends!"
( COOL LIST, in alphabetical order by author apparently )