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I have this post in draft form that I keep there and jot down reminders to myself of things I want to post, but which I have neither time nor energy to do right away.

Unfortunately, sometimes my statements are too cryptic to jog my memory if I leave them for too long.

For instance, there’s two in there right now that’ve been there for a while:
J2/J1 asshat in restaurant, mom ‘calm down’
funny conversation or story? Not dad backing into van… clifton park pizza?

…honestly, no clue. They sound like they would’ve been cool posts though.

I like kids.

I do not like obnoxious kids.

If your kid is obnoxious, do not expect the world to laugh it off and bend rules for you. The world understands that children are not always rational beings, but it is your job as a parent to see that that irrationality does not impact everyone else. Period.

So I applaud ATA’s decison to remove a bratty three year old and her parents from this flight. And I’m very sorry that the airline felt obligated to try and make nice with her irresponsible parents after the fact. If your child’s tantruming delayed the flight, how arrogant and self-centered are you to expect them to keep waiting until she calms down? Your selfishness doesn’t just affect the people on the flight, either, but everyone else who ends up delayed because their gate wasn’t ready, their plane wasn’t there, their family member didn’t arrive on time. GET OVER YOURSELVES.

So, the winner of this year’s Newbery medal is “The Higher Power of Lucky”

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Yeah, I never heard of it either.

According to Amazon, it was published in November 2006. What the heck? Are the Newbery Awards now the Oscars, with books packing in the last few months of the year so they remain fresh in the minds of the voting committee?

But just in case you thought the Newbery Committee had gone out on a limb and picked a book that hashed out new and interesting themes, let me reassure you: based on this review from School Library Journal, it’s the same drivel they love to choose year in and year out.

When Lucky’s mother is electrocuted and dies after a storm, Lucky’s absentee father calls his ex-wife, Brigitte, to fly over from France to take care of the child. Two years later, the 10-year-old worries that Brigitte is tired of being her guardian and of their life in Hard Pan (pop. 42) in the middle of the California desert. While Lucky’s best friend ties intricate knots and the little boy down the road cries for attention, she tries to get some control over her life by restocking her survival kit backpack and searching for her Higher Power. This character-driven novel has an unusually complicated backstory, and a fair amount of exposition. Yet, its quirky cast and local color help to balance this fact, and the desert setting is fascinating. Lucky’s tendency to jump to conclusions is frustrating, but her struggle to come to terms with her mother’s death and with her new life ring true. Phelan’s cover and line drawings are simple and evocative, a perfect complement to the text. Fans of novels by Deborah Wiles and Katherine Hannigan will be happy to meet Lucky.

As I noted a while back, the Bobbsey twins books were recently republished in a newly revised edition more agreeable to modern sensibilities.

At the time, I never really wondered about the older version of the book I had, which, upon reflection, is a bit odd: I’m well aware of the fact that Nancy Drew, published by the same syndicate, was revised and re-released in the 50s and 60s. The Bobbsey Twins, as it so happens, were also victims(?) of this.

Nowhere is this so clear as in the first book, now known as The Bobbsey Twins of Lakeport but originally published as The Bobbsey Twins: Or, Merry Days Indoors and Out. Happily, the Bobbseys are even older than Nancy, and as their first book came out in 1904, there are quite a few of the original texts now available through Project Gutenberg. I’ve been reading through some of them, and they are incredibly amusing.

I leave everyone with this dire warning courtesy of Mr. Bobbsey, particularly E, who I know recently purchased a jump rope.

“She was–was jumping rope, and couldn’t jump any more,” sobbed Nan. “Oh, papa, she–isn’t de–dead, is she?”

Mr. Bobbsey was startled and with good reason, for he had heard of more than one little girl dying from too much jumping. He took the limp form up in his arms and hurried to the Lavine house with it. “Run and tell Doctor Briskett,” he called back to Nan.

[...]

“Grace is not dead,” he announced. “She had a fainting spell, that is all. But I think after this she had better leave rope skipping alone.”

Finally, after 7 years and 3 tries, I have finished Final Fantasy 8.

I have this incredibly stupid habit of getting 2/3rds (or further!) in video games and then… stopping. I don’t know why. Or well, I do know why: I get invested in the characters and I feel that I’m coming to the end, so something in me forces me to stop playing so the story won’t be over. I do this with books, too, where I’ll wander away from a series before the final book or halfway through the final chapter. Video games I have done this with: Kingdom Hearts, Xenogears, Final Fantasy 7, Final Fantasy 6, Final Fantasy 9, Star Ocean, Harvest Moon, Angelic Layer, Okage, Adventure of Link (yes, it started that early!!)… I’m sure I could think of more if I gave it more time. Some of these I’ve gone back and replayed and finished, but others I haven’t. Wasted, wasted time.

In any case, Final Fantasy 8, you are done. The end. Kaput.

(But I must recommend, if you ever do have to play this game, it multiplies the amusement factor a hundred-fold to give Squall and Rinoa better names. Myself, I called them Fuckwit and Dumbass. [And, of course, the dog -- Mickey.] And so I am able to leave everyone with this final quote:

Edea: You’re the only Fuckwit allowed to be here!

Ha.)

I haven’t read a single book yet in 2007. That’s pretty pathetic, for me, though I am in the middle of 4 books, of which at least one should be finished soon.

2006 was a mediocre year in reading. 160 books total.

That’s more than 2004, though not all that many more, and significantly less than 2005.

non-fiction: 28 (17.5%) — success! the goal was 24.

new: 109 (68%) — success! though not a rousing one. Last year I read 100 new books. The percentage is only greater because I didn’t read as many overall.

manga: 29 (18%) — mainly because I had no money to buy them… the decrease in the overall number read can be completely attributed to less manga reading.

children’s/YA: 40 (25%) — pretty much unchanged in that number. Last year was 41.

This year my reading goal is to keep the non-fiction at that level (I anticipate this being relatively easy being at the library so constantly and seeing the new books come in), but raise the overall number. Given that I haven’t finished anything yet this year, 200 books may well be out of reach without going manga-crazy, but that’s the tentative new goal to aim for.

The Newbery Project hasn’t had much of an update recently, mainly because I slacked off on reviewing several of the books from the project which I’d read and found completely uninspiring. And in an effort to not get backlogged with unwritten reviews, I simply stopped reading new entries from the list altogether. So a tertiary goal is to move forward with that.

Stolen from E

(read more…)

Back in February, we had non-sucking Garfield.

And now another craptastic comic gets some improvement. Not that the explanations can actually make the comic funny; that would be impossible. But they can allow one to gape in astonishment that anyone could possibly think they were amusing or poignant or somehow relevant social commentary.