PS -

It is so not 7:36AM! What are you thinking Blogger?

Happy Halloween!!!

So, I haven't been on Blogger in a while now, sorry, if there's anyone out there reading and checking anxiously for news of me. (Hahahahahahaaha) Ahem. I did get Skype and it is super fun. Makes it easier to continue talking to someone as I cook dinner (or whatever) as I frequently do. Umm, there were other things I was going to say . . . things are crazy as usual in the schoolwork department. Trying to read zillions of things. We read Carver: A life in poems last week, which I was surprised to find myself enjoying. This week it's Avi's Nothing but the Truth which I'm also so far enjoying. Reading Freud again (but of course different things) for my other class, which I am still not enjoying. What else. I'm listening to Endymion Spring which I'm on the fence about. The pace is sort of strange, really slow a lot. Maybe it's one I would have liked more actually reading. I'm trying to plan a trip to New York/New Jersey, which I'm not really good at. I really like traveling, I've done a fair amount, but mostly planned by other people. Oh, and I finally joined Facebook, which I like better than Myspace so far. So, library people, (if any of you read this) if you have it, come find me!

Skype

So, a friend of mine told me about Skype last night and it sounds really cool. This seemed like an appropriate place to talk about it, since this whole blog started with learning 2.0. Skype is apparently a free (with other members of Skype) chat/call/videocall service. So you can talk to someone over your computer for free, as long as they have a microphone and have downloaded Skype. Sounds really neat, I may have to try it. Also, they actually have it for macs, which I find quite a few web applications (like Google Chat) do not. Which seems odd, to me, since mac is a big thing right now. Anyway, anyone else heard of Skype? Good things, bad things, tried it your self? Anyone?

I'm delighted to present the award to . . .

So last night was the Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards. Very cool. The honor book award winners get a silver plate, and the award winners get a silver bowl. And they give little speeches - some of them couldn't be there, so editors or publishers or whoever gave the speeches for them. Those were some of the best speeches, but I guess that makes sense, since these are authors, not orators. :) Though M.T. Anderson is very articulate and Tim Wynne-Jones is very funny. To be honest, I haven't had time to read either of those two, but I will! I have to read Octavian Nothing for class later this semester, but I think Rex Zero will have to wait for break. I checked them out, just didn't get to them. Although I highly recommend Sarah Pennypacker's Clementine. I also liked The Strongest Man in the World: Louis Cyr. Not normally something I would pick up, but its very interesting, a biography that is in graphic novel format. And the pictures are good. Nicolas Debon was all cute and French. The author and illustrator, Jean-Luc Fromental and Joelle Jolivet, of 365 Penguins are also French, but they couldn't be there - though they did send along a note for us all. Penguins unite! After the presentations and speeches, they were selling books and the authors were signing. I really wanted to get some things, but I resisted. It's a slippery slope. Once you buy one, you want more . . . Presumably there will be other opportunities to have people sign things, perhaps when I have some disposable income. What an odd phrase. Anyway, I meant to go to bed early, so that will have to be all for now.

It's October, when did that happen?

Interesting. I made a title and then went to type in the box and it said 'Congratulations, you posted!' Or whatever it says. So I had to come back to add the actual post. Silly blogger. Yay for Columus Day! My mom was here for the weekend and we found some great stores. A yarn store, a bead store, a quilt shop, a toy store, and a children's book store. And we made chicken soup. Because it actually got somewhat chilly here, unlike the 90 degree weather I hear VA had this weekend. No class today was fun, I'm trying to get extra stuff done with the extra time, though that extra is sort of theoretical since mom was here and I have a lot of time to begin with. But we'll see. I need to pick a paper topic for my folk and fairy tale class. It has to have something to do with folk and fairy tales. Specific, no? I want to do something with Japanese folktales because I've interested in them for a while, but I don't know what. Any thoughts? Stupid that being the only grade for that class . . . Anyway, I need to go to sleep so I can be awake to read tomorrow morning!