10
Mar, 2007

hooray for animated shorts!

no, not clothing you wear on your legs that moves of its own accord, short animated films. i get such a kick out of them. when we watched the oscars (the first time i’ve ever watched them in their entirety) i was intrigued by the nominations for animated short and wanted to know where i might be able to watch the nominated films. i found out this week that they were being shown at a local indie movie theatre here in town, so i took mr. h-s to see them this evening. i loved the winner, “the danish poet”.

mr. happy stuff’s theory is that i liked it because it was basically an animated children’s book. that may be true, but would that surprise anyone? i love the storyline of this movie, i loved the animation style and i love the hyperbole (one of the main characters grows really long hair that wraps around the room, whenever anyone boards a ship to cross the ocean, the top corner of the ship swings open like the door of a delorian…). if you can find a way to watch it, i think you’ll like it. [alkelda, parts of the opening and closing sequence reminded me of bede’s artwork. the little bit of it i’ve seen.]

i liked some of the other nominated and qualifying shorts as well. there was an amusing (and slightly terrifying) one titled “the passenger” that includes a goldfish in a bag sitting alone in an otherwise empty bus (other than the one passenger whose point of view we’re watching the movie from).

and a slapstick (but very funny and well-animated) piece entitled “the gentleman’s duel”

Posted in fun stuff, stuff that sparks a glow in my soul | Comments Off on hooray for animated shorts!
09
Mar, 2007

librarian’s log 3/07

airball: my life in briefs by l.d. harkrader
fun sports book with lots of basketball play. the 7th grade boys b-ball coach decides to motivate his players by making them play in their underwear. in today’s sensitive society, this book could be seen to have some elements of sexual sketchiness. it’s not sexual abuse and it’s not sexual harrassment, but…. if you can get past the premise, it’s a pretty good book with lots of solid basketball content.

american chillers: #7–wisconsin werewolves by johnathan rand
you might say “oh, abcgirl, this doesn’t look like your regular reading!” and you’d be right. this was a book recommended to me by a young patron when i asked for nominations for this year’s favoreads. ok, really he recommended the entire series, but this is the one i chose to read. geez. it’s really, really quite bad. every chapter has at least one sentence all in italics to heighten the suspense level and everything suspenseful turns out to be a false alarm except for one instance–where the librarian turns into a werewolf. um, yeah. i hate to be snooty about favoreads, but there’s got to be better horror writing for this age group out there … somewhere!

the radioactive boy scout: the true story of a boy and his backyard nuclear reactor by ken silverstein
another book in the running for favoreads–this time in the non-fiction/high interest category. but this book is not really appropriate for the age group i’m aiming at. plus, i’m not sure i’d blanket-recommend this book ever. it seems like if it fell into the wrong hands it might be … a little too inspiring. it’s all about this misfit guy who has a fascination with chemistry and power and blowing things up who develops an avid interest in radioactive materials after reading a kids book from the 60’s about how great nuclear energy is. of course, the book from the 60’s doesn’t really emphasize the extreme dangers of radioactive materials, so he does most of his experiments in a wooden shed in the backyard of his inattentive mother and step-father’s house. until the fbi comes to visit in haz-mat suits and dismantles the whole shed and hauls it away to a toxic dump site. and the kid isn’t really ever punished. i mean, his dad makes him enlist in the military, but the book doesn’t really focus strongly enough on the negative impact that his dangerous activities could have had. don’t get me wrong–the author spends a lot of time talking about chernobyl and three mile island and how dangerous and unhealthy radioactive materials are but…. there was a bit too much glamorization of what the “boy scout” actually was able to acheive using pretty much household ingredients to make me comfortable. although it was fascinating reading.

american born chinese by gene luen yang
this graphic novel won the printz award this year (an award for teen books in general, not specifically for graphic novels). it’s really well written. and i’m not sure it would have been as powerful in any other format. there are three storylines that intertwine and come together at the end to make a powerful statement about growing up chinese-american and the prejudices that surround that. because it’s a graphic novel, it’s a quick read, but it’s got a lot of depth.

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07
Mar, 2007

homemade granola

granola
have i ever told you about my homemade granola? my mom used to make it when we were kids and i loved it. as an adult, i kept trying to find good granola in grocery stores and specialty shops and it was always too hard to chew and too heavy in my stomach, so i finally asked mom to send me the recipe. she said she’d gotten the recipe from her sister and that the secret was the puffed wheat. it keeps it light and not too hard on your teeth. i’ve had a jar of this stuff around almost all the time since then. it’s pretty quick to whip up a batch and it lasts awhile. i play around with the recipe each time i make it–adding less brown sugar or oil sometimes, substituting maple syrup for the honey if i’m out of honey, adding ground flaxseed for extra omega 13s (whatever those are), putting in different nuts and fruits….. yesterday, i made a batch of dried cherry and almond granola. isn’t it beautiful? here’s the recipe:

aunt jan’s (and my mom’s) granola
6 cups quick oats
½ cup brown sugar
¾ cup wheat germ
¼ cup sesame seeds
½ cup nonfat dry milk
½ cup flaked coconut
1 cup chopped nuts and/or ½ cup sunflower seeds
3-6 oz puffed wheat
â…” cup honey
â…” cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons water
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
1 cup raisins or other dried fruit (add during last 10 minutes of baking to prevent burning)

combine dry ingredients. combine wet ingredients in another bowl (or the measuring cup), then mix the two, coating thoroughly. turn into 2 cake pans (9×13) or a roasting pan. bake in preheated oven at 300-325 degrees, stirring every 10 min until golden brown, about 30 min.

Posted in yum | 5 Comments
06
Mar, 2007

one more post for today

ahhhh….. i feel so caught up! i’m up to date (at least for today) on my 365things blog and i’ve posted all of the pictures here that i’ve had sitting on my camera for awhile now. one last happy thing from yesterday. as i was sitting in class yesterday, gazing out of the large picture windows that look out onto the frozen lake, i noticed a small black spot moving across the ice rather rapidly. i kept glimpsing other movement throughout class, but wasn’t able to see it very well. after class, several of us went closer to the windows to see what was going on and there were two guys out on the ice on skis with big parachute/sail things. they were whizzing around at top speed and at least one of the guys kept leaping or getting pulled up off the ice. it looked incredibly exhilarating, but arm-wrenching as well. as i watched, i could almost imagine myself in their position, but i probably only thought of the good parts (“hey, look at me! i’m flying!”) and didn’t realize the bad parts (“ow! my arm!”). maybe someday….

Posted in sporty stuff, winter | 1 Comment
06
Mar, 2007

forcing forsythia

forsythia
here are the blooms from the forsythia branches i cut off my hedge in late january. aren’t they spring-y and cheerful?

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06
Mar, 2007

round is a mooncake

mooncake
the title of this post comes from the title of a picture book that i like. one of my storytime moms gave me a mooncake a little while back. it was in a beautiful tin and when i opened the plastic wrap inside, i discovered that the cake had chinese characters formed on the top of the cake. i have no idea what they say (or even whether i have them upside down in this photo) but i think it’s a very elegant creation. i had to take a picture before i dug in. in case you’re curious, i think that perhaps mooncake is a taste you need to grow up with to fully appreciate.

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06
Mar, 2007

farm fresh eggs

eggs
one of the sad things about living so far away from my parents is that i can’t enjoy their farm fresh eggs. i think i’ve mentioned before that my mom has chickens that lay blue/green/beautiful colored eggs and occasionally she’ll send me photos and i’ll be jealous. well, one of the kids at my church recently began raising laying hens and has begun selling the eggs on sunday evenings. i bought this beautiful dozen last week and am so thrilled with the variety of color and size!

Posted in stuff that makes me smile, yum | 2 Comments
01
Mar, 2007

running

yesterday, i finally got to go for a run! the weather here has been less than conducive to running for a long time and i was too busy the week that it was nice weather (very frustrating!) and so i finally got out for a two mile run and it felt so good! when i got back home, i had so much more energy. i cleaned out the cabinets below our kitchen and bathroom sinks (whew!) and successfully procrastinated doing my homework and editing the church newsletter (which i am still currently doing. procrastinating, i mean.). anyway, the weather was crisp but not bitterly cold and the roads were almost completely clear. i’m glad i did it yesterday because today we got “wintry mix” and the roads are a little sketchy once again. one of the nice things about living in this climate is that it forces you to seize the moment whenever you can. if the weather is nice, people just drop everything to spend time outdoors because next week (or tomorrow) you may not be able to. hooray for mindfulness weather!

Posted in sporty stuff, winter | 1 Comment
26
Feb, 2007

snow sculptures

today, i was walking around downtown near the campus and had to smile when i saw three charming snowducks in a row–all painted yellow and very cute!

i was later amused (in a completely different way) by the giant snow phallus *ahem* erected on the front lawn of what, one must hope, was the residence of some college boys.

i tried to take pictures of the ducks (i’ll spare you photos of the other one…. it really was rather realistic looking–but thankfully, not painted) but my camera phone didn’t have enough memory. oh well.

Posted in winter | 3 Comments
26
Feb, 2007

teaching newbies

last week i taught my second monthly sewing class at the library. the first month, i had three teens show up, each of whom had at least a little sewing experience. this month, i had two twelve year olds with no experience, a forty year-old with some experience but who needed some advice on a project she was working on, and an older woman with her mother who brought their own machine and their own projects and who knew quite well how to sew. my teaching partner and i spent most of our time with the twelve year olds. when the class got started, one of the girls had brought along her mother who seemed quite concerned that we didn’t have patterns to follow and whether the girls were picking fabric that was the right weight for the tote bags they were making, but eventually, she decided to go out into the library to work on her own projects. the other librarian who runs the class with me has the same “sewing by the seat of your pants” ethic as i do, so we work really well together. i mocked up a quick pattern for the girls to use and was thrilled and amazed when, three hours later as we wrapped up the class, each of the the twelve year olds had a completed bag that was reversible, had pockets and decorations and a big grin from ear-to-ear. their bags weren’t perfect, but we had been able to share some basic hints and tips with them that will serve them well if they continue to do more sewing. our goal was to basically throw them in, head first, and teach them to not be afraid of the sewing machine and fabric and mistakes. if their comments about the bags they’d made (“cool!”) were anything to go on, i think we succeeded.

Posted in crafty stuff, library stuff | 1 Comment