Friday Fun Link – What's the Dumbest Thing You've Ever Heard Somebody Say? (January 22, 2010)

Another very entertaining Ask.Reddit thread.  I heard a good one myself recently – one woman was talking to another woman and said “We're not Catholic, we're Christians.”  

Friday Fun Link – "Why Don't You Read?" (January 22, 2010)

The Globe & Mail recently featured this catchy a capella cover of the song “Crazy” rewritten to discuss the woes of the print media world in the Internet age.  (H/T to Heather M.)

20 Best Books of the Decade

Yay – finally a best books list where I've actually read most of them!

The Seven Main Plots in All of Literature

An oldie but a goodie from libraryland's own Jessamyn West, here's a list of the seven core plots in literature I found via a recent Reddit post. 

I remember learning a version of this list in grade nine English that only had four items (which I've put in bold below) but always trying to prove what a genius I was, I came up with “Man vs. Time” as something that wasn't covered by the four on the teacher's list. 

The teacher said that was the same as “Time vs. Nature” but I argued that there was a difference between a character trying to do something before a time bomb went off and a character trying to escape a hurricane. 

According to this list, I wasn't right (or I've come up with the eighth plot – maybe I am a genius after all? ) but I was definitely on the right track in thinking that four wasn't enough to sum up all the permutations. 

1 - [wo]man vs. nature 

2 - [wo]man vs. man

3 - [wo]man vs. the environment

4 - [wo]man vs. machines/technology

5 - [wo]man vs. the supernatural

6 - [wo]man vs. self

7 - [wo]man vs. god/religion

People in Order by Age

People In Order: 1. Age from James Price on Vimeo.

(via Reddit)

[Edit: this video is apparently part of a series commissioned by the BBC with the intention of arranging people by various criteria – income, length of partnership, stage of pregnancy – to humanize things we often think of only in statistical terms.] 

Music Monday – "You were the first girl at school to get breasts/And Martin said you were the best/Oh, the boys all loved ya but I was a mess/I had to work to try to get you undressed."

Pulp's “Different Class” album is a classic, topping many UK “Best of” polls for 1995 in a year when Oasis and Blur were stealing all the headlines.  (Linked clip is in French but the description sums up that rivalry.)

Common People” was the defining song on the album (and the Shatner cover is all kinds of awesomeness) but my own personal favourite from the album was this one:

Random Pace Cuteness – Hockey Bug Edition

I mentioned yesterday that after taking Pace to his first Pat's game,
it seemed like he may have gotten bitten by the hockey bug.  Today has
already confirmed it.  From demanding his “hockey shirt” (jersey) the
moment he woke up to playing ball hockey in the living room non-stop
throughout the day, I think we've got a fan/player in the making! 




Some highlights:

– after he takes a shot, he thinks he needs to run and tackle me (maybe confusing hockey and football a bit?)

– he also likes to do a full 360 after shooting (maybe confusing hockey and figure skating a bit? )

– he says he
prefers to score goals to stopping them but it's still fun to get him
to try to fall down in front the nerf fall we're using (usually about
five seconds after the ball has slowly rolled past him)


– Shea was
playing net at one point and goes “Why do I feel like this is the first
of many, many times I'll be doing this.”  (Because it is.)


– he's got a pretty good shot for a little guy.  Lucky we're using a nerf ball as he even managed to raise it a couple times!

– when I try to
sneak onto the couch and get on the computer, he commands “On the ice,
daddy!” and points to the carpeted floor with his stick (maybe he'll be
a coach instead of a player?)


– Shea's not happy about this but somewhere in there, I also taught him how to throw a punch. 

Saturday Snap – Pace's First Hockey Game

I was offered tickets to tonight's Pats game so ended up taking Shea, Pace as well as my parents to what was Pace's first live hockey game.  It was a pretty good one – early Pats lead with a couple goals by Jordan Eberle followed by a Broncos comeback then scoreless OT and a shootout loss. 

I was explaining different things about the game to Pace, trying to use terminology and references he would understand.  Bodychecks were “crashes”, the Broncos were “the bad guys” (although since their logo is a horse, Pace initially wanted to cheer for them!)  and the penalty box was “time out”.  (To use the same joke when I uploaded the following photo to Facebook from the game – “time out being a reference that I think Pace understood only too well!”)

Fun times – I think we may look back on this as the day that Pace officially got bitten by the hockey bug.  When we got home, he grabbed a couple mini-sticks I had and ran around the living room swatting a ball and diving all over the place.  Lord (Stanley) help us!  

 

Friday Fun Link – Conversation with an Anonymous Facebook Employee (January 15, 2010)

Very revealing conversation
with lots of info about the behind-the-scenes workings of Facebook as
well as the site's future plans.  Obviously, it's important to keep in
mind this is an anonymous interview on the Internet.  So who knows how
true it is? 

AllofFacebook.com, a site dedicated to all things Facebook has an analysis
but won't side one way or the other, only stating that it rings for
them (as it did for me…but I freely admit how gullible I can be
sometimes.)

(via MetaFilter)

Using (Used?) Books For Political Statements: A Bookstore in Li'l London Protests the Proroguing Parliament

I really miss the used bookstore scene of London, ON.  For all the abuse the city takes for its Ugg-centered social scene and lack of cultural amenities, I always thought Li'l London featured lots of great, quirky bookstores.  Attic Books on Dundas was one of my faves…and though I didn't need it, here's another reason to like them.