Today, Consumerist has an entry on why public libraries are great things in these recessive times, but can I just say to this person, "You need to learn some library laws?"

It is not, is NOT illegal to look at porn in a public library, assuming that said porn would still be legal if you were looking at it in your own home.  Patrons may not like it.  Librarians may not like it.  But it's not illegal. 

Okay, back to the review pile.

Tags: libraries

Thank you, r_becca! I missed the first minutes but I've set the DVR for the rerun at 1:30 a.m. You rock.

Seven years after packing away my xylophone mallets, I can still remember how to play the opening of "Porgy and Bess" (and I can play it alternating OR doubled, thank you very much). Once a music major, always a music major, I think.

Because I still drum along with "Scheherazade" and my hands twitch every time I hear "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," I link you to Band Geek Hero, t-shirts for the band geek in all of us.

(No one gets to make fun of the Tambourine Hero t-shirt until your slightly crazy percussion professor in college says to you, "Hey, you know that snare drum etude you learned as a freshman? Now that you're a sophomore you're going to play it on the tambourine and triangle.")

126: amused
780: long live rock, be it dead or alive

I've reached THAT DAY today.

THAT DAY is the day every year when I look around my apartment, and then around my office, and in my car, and think to myself, "I cannot read another dogdamn young adult book." And you know, the books have been really good this year. I think I just need a week off. Even better? This is a good week to take off. ALA is over and new booklist nominations are in, but I still have plenty of time to read them.

But for those looking for a rec, keep an eye out for The Hunger Games. It lives up to all the hype and then some.

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I am one of those crazy people that stood in line for the iPhone 3G. And dear deity in Heaven, it was worth every second of the wait. Love, love technology. I was NOT the crazy guy that lined up at the AT&T store at 8 p.m. the night before opening, but I was there around 5 a.m. with my copy of Madapple (So. Amazing.) and a beach chair. I was about #30 in line, so I wasn't worried too much. By 7:30, there were 250 people in line, easily. Needless to say, they didn't all get phones. Ooooh, and there was almost a riot! Before the store opened, the employees counted their phones and then surveyed all the people in line to see what phone they wanted, so they would know where to cut the line off. Makes sense, right? The rule was one phone per person in line. However, about six people in front of me, a guy had brought a friend who had no intention of buying a phone. Said friend sold his spot in line to some sucker down around #150. The sucker wanted to buy a phone, which meant that the count done by the employees would have been off by one item, thus screwing the last guy in line.

This is New Jersey. You can imagine what happened when the last guy in line got wind of this. I was imagining the next day's Star-Ledger to have a headline like "Dumbass in iPhone line rouses mob of pasty Apple geeks." There were no beatings, but there was a lot of angry shouting. Thankfully, the manager did not let Sucker into the store to buy a phone.

Mine is the 16GB white. Now I need a case for it. I'm thinking purple, to go with my laptop bag.

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Thanks to dettiot, I think my spn_summergen fic just made a major turnaround in the direction of Viable, Maybe Even Good. Her best piece of advice: Stop wibbling over the fic for a few hours and go play Guitar Hero. It's amazing what a good practice session on "Stricken" (medium level) will do for your creativity.

Now: Going through my mail, getting the cat hair off my pants because I'm meeting an author at one of my libraries tonight and I don't want her to think I'm a total slob.

126: hungry
780: the king will kneel and let his kingdom rise

1. John Green is a lot taller than I remember him being. But he's my age and 30 is awfully late for a growth spurt, so maybe I was just wearing higher heels when I first met him in 2005.

2. If a publisher is not going to send you an author for your panel, they will not tell you this.

3. When at a publisher's cocktail party where they're giving away stuffed Pigeon (yes, kittengirly, that Pigeon) and Knuffle Bunny plushies, you'd better be prepared for a stampede.

4. Before heading to the Little, Brown booth to get your Twilight Saga tote bag because you are a good sister and you KNOW Michele would love one, make sure you're wearing comfortable, well-fitting shoes so you can beat out all the other librarians who are running to the booth to get their bags because those bags are in quite limited supply.

5. Never, never, never turn down meal invitations if publishers are hosting. I almost didn't go to the Scholastic Brunch on Sunday and I would have missed Suzanne Collins reading from The Hunger Games, which was truly the highlight of my entire conference.

6. If you're supposed to have a meeting with someone you've never met before, and you're meeting in a high-traffic area of a convention hotel, make sure at least one of you has the other's cell phone number.

7. Hearing an author speak will always make you want to read his or her book. Except for the one author who gave a bad speech.

8. Lifting weights is not just good for your general health, but it's the absolute best thing you can do for yourself if you plan to hit the exhibits. Galleys galore! (and are the ones I shipped from the exhibit floor post office EVER going to get here?)

9. You will not have time to work on your spn_summergen submission, regardless of the amount of scheduling you do.

10. Google Calendars might be the best invention ever.

11. The Blue Bayou is every bit as good as I remember it being.

12. California is a nice place to visit, but I never want to move back there.

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In other news, my spn_summergen fic is not going well at all, and I'm panicking. I look at all my things to do and think, "Why is it that I don't have the time to get everything done that I need to get done, yet I keep taking on new projects and never feel like I'm doing enough?"

126: exhausted
780: so let's bungle in the jungle, well that's all right by me

Here is a post dedicated to things I love, because any other post would basically read, "No time, no fanfic, apartment is a mess, ALA in 3 days, panicpanicpanic."


1. I've found the best hair salon ever. Too bad it's 250 miles from where I live. But it's a reason to visit dettiot. Um, not that I needed one, really, but hey.

2. As lauriegilbert and lizzb are well aware of, I am extremely good at dressing other people. Take me shopping with you and I will pull clothes from racks that will most likely look good on you. I know what makeup colors you should own. I can pick out the shoes that will go with most of the clothes you bought. What I can't do is dress myself. I buy clothes I like and then I get them home and they don't seem to go with anything else I own. I hate everything in my closet. It all looks terrible on me and nothing goes with anything else. So the discovery of the year for me might be Omiru, which I read about in Time. WHOA. They put together entire outfit ideas! All I have to do is put those outfits together with what I already own. They have work clothing suggestions! Ways to wear denim to the office! Best of all, they have a mix of designer and ready-to-wear clothes. Their style suggestions include everything from Old Navy to Nanette Lepore. It's pure genius and without it I'd probably end up going naked to ALA.

3. Sephora never hassles me when I have to exchange 3 bottles of perfume that all smelled good in the store but terrible on me an hour later. I think the winner might be CLEAN-Fresh Laundry. It sure as hell wasn't Thierry Mugler Angel.

4. I love you!

5. Finally got around to reading Sunshine by Robin McKinley. I do not understand how something so good could come out of the same writer who wrote The Blue Sword. Nevertheless, I am having so much fun with it. Great worldbuilding.

6. The July 4 edition of EW is one all librarians should read. It includes their picks of modern classics in movies, TV, and books. I was so impressed by the books list, you have no idea. Did I agree with every single one of the titles or their blurbs? No. For example, I think PoA was just as dark as GoF. But! That aside, this list is incredibly wide in scope, recognizing the diverse interests of readers. There were FOUR graphic novels on the 50-item list (Maus, Persepolis, Watchmen, Sandman). There was literary fiction, genre fiction, and nonfiction. It wasn't all, "Here are some boring books we think you should read because it will make you ever so smart and literary." It was books that have gained a place in the hearts and minds of a wide readership.

7. I do not love not having my iPhone (Mr. Cedar sold it to a coworker's friend...looooong story), but I will love the upgraded one, I'm sure. I'd better, considering I'm getting up at 5 a.m. to acquire it on the 11th.

Eep, people wanting things from me. Time to go!

cedarlibrarian: Oooh, the Twilight essay collection came in today's mail.
dettiot: [snort] Why are you oooing over that?
cedarlibrarian: Because I'm hoping the essays will be witty and fun* and take the book to task for being crappy.
dettiot: Ummm . . . and what color is the sky in your world?
cedarlibrarian: SPARKLY

*As much as I disliked the Twilight books, this essay collection looks really cool. Any book that raises the question of whether Edward Cullen is a good boyfriend or a sociopath (I vote sociopath) cannot be all bad. I recognize a lot of the contributors as authors whose works I enjoy, like Robin Brande and Janette Rallison. So the Twilight books? Disastrous. This essay collection? Unlikely to be so.

Tags: books, ya lit